Property virgins no more!

Bonjour Thrifties!

I am very pleased to report that my hubby and I have put in an accepted offer on a baby bungalow! This goes against our original plan of buying a mobile on a rented lot and paying it off in only 2 or 3 years and then selling for a forever home.

Our reasoning was this: There were no good deals on mobiles, may as well buy a house.

Now house prices here are not the great deal that can be found in other parts of the world. I watch my house shows on TV and pull out my hair as a couple of 18 year olds in Texas complain about the paint colours in a 3600 sq ft home that they can get for a cool $180,000. It makes me crazy. However we are blessed with a great economy up here and house prices are still not as expensive as the bigger cities nearby, so I should count our blessings. For $245,000 we have bought a small 1,000 sq ft bungalow with a finished and suited basement.

Now here's the kicker, the part I looove! The rent from our basement apartment will cover almost our entire mortgage. That's right, my goal was mortgage free living, and I had my plan as to how I was going to make that happen for us, but God is cheeky and he gave me what I asked for in a way I didn't expect!

Please prepare yourself for my blog to go very much the crafty renovator route. Suddenly, I like Pinterest. I see its usefulness as I never have before!

In thrifting news, I made it down to the Spring rummage sale in Hanna, AB. Myself and a friend stayed in "That Country Place" B&B on the outskirts of town. This rummage sale is a huge draw for locals and visitors. The trick is to volunteer to help your Grammy run her table. In this way you will be allowed access to shop the day before anyone else! Try this in your area with the larger garage sales that are hosted by clubs. Not only are you helping out, you don't need to fight the early birds for the good buys!

This weekend is the Sexsmith, AB community garage sale. This is a slightly different setup because it isn't all one big arena. This is just a day when over 90 different garage sales are held in Sexsmith. Its like a rummage car rally! My husband is worried for me because this stuff genuinely turns my crank. My blood gets pumping, my pulse pounds, MY PUPILS DILATE! (probably) 

Also the weather has been amazing lately. I am working on my tan. Previous years should have taught me, but this is my year!!

XOXO Thrifties

Roast Beef & Rain

Happy Wednesday Thrifties!

It isn't actually raining here, but it is quite dark & gloomy. 

My house is still mostly clean from yesterday's extravaganza! Tonight I will tackle the bedroom. Wish me luck! I also need to get a head start on packing for the weekend. We are heading south, back to the city, for my little sister's 18th birthday.

Today was a run around day. I attend a ladies group on Wednesday morning which is a great outlet! It is so nice to visit and encourage each other, even if I am the odd one out since I have no kids yet. I officially know all there is to know about childbirth and its complications. My poor mind will soon wish some of it was a surprise.

I have a yummy pot roast simmering away for this evening and 3/4 of a bottle of wine. Sounds like I will be having a great night with the laundry. 

Here are a few pictures of my beautiful clean house. I also have a picture of my repurposed paper towel holder. It is now housing my napkins. 




 

Also the fun zebra mat is actually the plastic-y table cloth that I purchased for $2 at Walmart yesterday. It looks super cute and should make for easy sweeping and wiping. I think I will buy another because the real mat I bought for the top of my stairs is a bit small for the space. You need to step off of it to even close the door, so it is a bit useless. Lesson learned, I will stick to my tablecloths and save that mat for when the outside scraper one wears out.

Sadly I have nothing else to report. My hubby and I are looking for a house to buy but it is a very confusing process. Waiting for the perfect place for now. :)

xoxo Thriftess

Squeaky Clean!

Good evening Thrifties!

I am pleased to announce that I actually cleaned my house today. Legit dragged out and scrubbed up clean. I noticed that our new roomie M had started to wear sandals in the house. Horrified, I set about cleaning my floors. One thing led to another and the whole main area of my house is clean. Shoes are away, coats are hung, electronics are dusted, and the floors are shining!

I am especially happy because I dealt with my clutter zones. You know the places that are just all too handy for setting things down on and never picking them back up? My clutter zones are the wide ledges both in my entry and the one that divides kitchen from living room. Also the shelf under my coffee table and a desk that I had in the living room. I have sorted and put away all of our crap and clutter and now my house looks delightfully bare. I also removed the offending desk to our spare bedroom because I never wanted it in the open to begin with.

My cleaning frenzy also counted as exercise. (Dispute it, I don't care)

I also didn't have to make dinner because we had a birthday party to go to tonight :) added bonus!

To maintain my cleaning I bought some much needed rugs for our entry. Sadly I paid retail at Walmart, but I did save a few bucks by buying a vinyl tablecloth for one of the spots. I am going to try it out as a frugal option ($2 vs. $15 and is much larger.) I will let you know how it goes!

And now.... I am seriously tired.

XOXO Thriftess

Monday again?!?

Blerg.

Good afternoon Thrifties!

Why oh why must Monday always come? And when it comes, why must it always find me in the dirty messy heap of my own humanity?

Cleaning

That's right, Monday morning has found me again in a house disaster! The extent of my cleaning lately has just been keeping head above water. In addition to our new boarder, we had my husband's siblings stay with us off and on during the week and then again for the weekend. They left yesterday, but not without leaving their mark. Not only in dishes, but also his sister "E" had pink eye. I am a hypochondriac at the best of times, and although I swear that my eyes are itchy, no one else seems to have been infected. I spent a lot of my time wiping and re-wiping door knobs and light switches.

So! Cleaning today:

Kitchen! Top to bottom: counters, dishes, sink, table, stovetop, & floors.

I also had to wash the sheets for the guest room and have yet to make up the bed. So add sheets to your list too :)

Weight Loss

My healthy challenge for this week was to start doing some exercise. Being that spring is pretty much here, it would be a great time to start walking again -- and then I opened my blinds and it was snowing this AM and I changed my mind. However I did record a yoga program that I saw on TV and I am going to try it out today!

I also have been experimenting with replacing pasta with spaghetti squash. Squash are low-cal and obviously healthier than the carb and calorie packed pasta alternative. They are also one of the only "veggies" that I find very filling. So far I have used it in two soups (chicken noodle included), with stroganoff style meat sauce, and as fettucine alfredo. It has worked so well and has such a mild flavour that I can see doing this on a regular basis. The problem with the squash is that for the right texture it works best to half or quarter the squash, bake for 30-45 minutes, allow to cool in the fridge and then tear into strings. For obvious reasons it is not as easy as cooking pasta! This week I plan to buy a few squash, bake all at once, string, and then freeze in portions. Hopefully this works well and combats the cook-time problem. I will keep you posted!

Saving

I bought my cloth napkins! They were on sale at Superstore so I ended up getting 12 napkins for $8, which was less than what it would have cost me to make them myself and I really hadn't found any at thrift stores. The moral of the story is that for the cost of a large pack of name-brand paper towel, I will NEVER buy it again! The only other barrier is mental, because it still feels wrong to wipe dirty fingers on my pretty cloth napkins!

In other news Gail Vaz-Oxlade's new show "Money Moron" is set to premiere on Slice very soon! I have already watched and re-watched every episode of her shows "Princess" and "Til Debt Do Us Part" and they really light me on fire to be good with my money. I have been stalking her for a whole year waiting for this show and it is finally here! My understanding of the show is that it will be similar to Princess but not just girls. Evidently there are men out there who are bad with money.... who knew.

I vow to be back soon! I need to get my life on a schedule here.

XOXO Thriftess :)

The Thriftess & Company

Hi all,

It has just been a flurry of activity at my little house! My spare room is clean finally, and a visitor has landed in our home for a few months. A cousin of my husband's, hereafter referred to as "M", needed a place to stay while going to school. He called on Thursday and arrived on Tuesday, so some frantic cleaning went on!

Also I am cooking a turkey this week. I love turkey and it has gone on sale after the Easter holidays. We also didn't get any at Easter this year, both of our hosts made other things. The scary part is that I have never made a turkey before, because I have a mother for those kinds of things. However the turkey I bought cost barely more than a frying chicken, so if ruined, I will not cry. (I still will, I hate wasted food more than just about anything)

I realized that I haven't actually talked about anything frugal for a while. So I'll sum up a few of my activities lately:

Grocery

I have started the "kitchen garden" on my windowsill! This is where you grow what you can just on your windowsill. I know that you can grow green onions for sure, this was my starting point. All you do is save the white bottoms from your green onion and put them in a glass of water on the windowsill. Change the water periodically (whenever it looks murky) and within a few days you should start to see the ends grow slightly from the middle. Before you know it you have green onions! Then you just trim what green sprouts you need for each meal.

Another item I have seen grown first hand is Romaine lettuce. Same thing as with the onions, just soak the butt end of a head of lettuce in a cup and it will start to sprout new leaves from the centre! 

At a ladies craft night I also won a kitchen herb garden. Three little pots with five different seed options. So I have that to start as well.

I am really excited about these projects. I looove saving money at the grocery store!

Hair
 
Next I got my hair coloured at 50% off this week. Getting my hair done is my one big frivolity. :( I try my best to find someone cheaper that I still like, but so far I have tried two different people on three separate occasions and I am not very happy with the results. 

The thing with hair is that it is so easy to get caught up in a false economy. If you find someone to do it for $80 instead of $150, the shock at payment time is easier to swallow. However if they don't do the colour right (I like my foils) and roots are obvious at 4 weeks instead of 8, no money was saved. 

I was lucky enough to read my flyers one week and colour appointments on Tuesdays in April were 1/2 off with a haircut, AND they were giving away a free product! While still expensive it was an amazing deal because the girl also gave me a protein treatment during the colouring and my hair looks way way better than the other ladies I have tried here. Sadly, I can't justify continuing to go to her unless my hair lasts 12 weeks. (which would be miraculous.) So after this I am back to perusing the online classifieds for another person who works at home.

But still, the moral of the story is "Read your flyers!"

Paper Towel

Finally, my next big saving project is to cut out paper towel. I ran out of paper towel about a month ago and forgetting to buy it when it was on sale (I always go store brand on the special Sunday-Monday only deals) I have refused to buy it since. To my surprise I haven't actually missed it! The only time I have remembered that we needed it was when we had company for dinner and I had to give them dish cloths for napkins -- embarrassing? Yes, but also stupid. Why wouldn't I just buy cloth re-usable napkins if that is the only thing that I need paper towel for? Napkins were kind of a tacky use of paper towel anyways.

 For cleaning the bathroom I have just been using two cloths. Mirror, faucet, toilet with a dry microfibre and some cleaning spray (in that order and then straight into the washing machine after) and then counters, sink, and tub with a wet rag and spray. 

Clearly for spills there is no reason that you couldn't just use a few rags, and the space they actually take up in the washing machine doesn't really count for anything. 

And voila! I will not buy paper towel again. Greenpeace thanks me.

What can you go without? 

xoxo Thriftess

I smell money!

Or at least I hope that I do....

Good Morning Afternoon Thrifties!

I am feeling mighty fine this sunny Tuesday. The weather has been taking a turn towards Spring and things are melting once more. Yay, hooray!

About the subject of this post, I finally made a call back to that prospect and it is sounding like I am hired! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Thank you for listening to the outburst....or skipping over it, whichever. I am going in for another meeting tomorrow to speak about terms etc with the GM. I am so so very excited! Many a night (okay, last Friday) were spent crying on my bathroom floor because I felt like I was making a very stupid career decision and may never surface again. I did re-surface of course, we only have one bathroom and my husband was bound to need it eventually. But hallelujah! I may actually make $10 this year.

The Tidy Thriftess

I do not feel like cleaning. Needless to say, I feel like dancing around in my squalor.

But..... Follow along:

~ Baseboards behind couches
~ Baseboards in hallway
~ 1 load of laundry

For anyone who thinks that my house must be very dirty -- because I think I have yet to mention actually sweeping the rest of my house or cleaning my bathroom -- my hubby did that on Sunday when I was cooking for the guests. No need to call bylaw enforcement.

I also have a disgusting used freezer in my spare bedroom that needs cleaning. I am leaving that for tomorrow. It doesn't actually look dirty, but I think it was left closed in its previous home, because it stinks! My friend who smelled it thinks that they may have been hiding a dead body in there. That makes me uncomfortable because having come from the online classifieds, they very well could have and I would be none the wiser. Good thing it was only $100! I've just been keeping the door closed and the window open. Yesterday I held my breath, ran in, and chugged some vinegar in it. So hopefully that has helped.

(I would like to take this time to advocate for the benefits of Kijiji, my freezer may stink but the sweet smell of savings can over come this. When first married my hubby and I furnished our entire house on used. Some were hand me downs but most was from Kijiji. We were able to buy everything for around $600)

The Healthy Thriftess 

.... had leftovers yesterday. Spaghetti squash in place of noodles with a beef, broccoli, and cauliflower sauce. I used my regular stroganoff recipe from before for the sauce (basically cream of mushroom, milk, and plain yogurt. Some grated onions and pepper) so it was not all that healthy, but I limited the amount of sauce and the squash is very good for you. 

I also made whole wheat brownies that were absolutely delish! I used the same soaking strategy as with the cookies and you would never guess that these were whole wheat. I think that is the last of my baking for a while because I had one last night and the last one today. My hubby and his cousin ate the rest of the pan while watching hockey last night. In my book its not worth baking to have it around for less than 24 hours.

XOXO - The Thriftess

Thriftess @ Home

Hello Thrifties!

I am sad to say that after a very busy weekend, our budget is a dim and distant dream. The joy of living so near family is that things tend to pop up without warning, and I am being serious, it is a joy... an expensive joy!

Wednesday: Jewellery party $120 (Eeek! far more than I had intended!)
Friday birthday lunch out for Aunt: $13
Friday night buy used freezer for the 1/2 beef that we're buying from a rancher relative: $100
Saturday afternoon: Child's birthday party at the pool. For lunch and gift: $32.10
Saturday evening fundraiser, free tickets but made a donation: $100
Needed more gas: $20
Sunday 7 people over for dinner, emergency extra groceries: $53

And so you see. Monday morning finds me in a very messy poor house.

Did I clean over the last few days? Need you ask?

Just the basics. Bathroom is clean and the kitchen isn't terrible, but no extra-curriculars were attempted.

 I smell a theme for today! How about for cleaning:

~ Get cleaned up from the weekend

I can't be the only one who needs that!

Today my hubby is back on day shift, so I will see more of him! This is the blue sky in my clouds.

Healthy eating with the Thriftess:

Back on a health kick! As you well know, I am very exericse-averse. But what's a girl to do when she starts getting chubby? My weight was never really a problem until the last two years. All of a sudden what I was eating caught up with me. Probably because I stopped having a physical job and moved to a desk. 

I managed to have lost about 20lbs in the fall of last year by simply eating better, then with moving and the holidays and leaving my job, I stopped bothering and we just ate whatever. Well I noticed that I have packed on 8 or 9 of those past pounds and I'm starting back up again!

The important thing to note about the way that I approach healthy eating, is that it is not a diet. You just have to want better for your body (and your digestive system). It isn't bat to keep calories in mind when you're approaching eating healthy, but healthy foods generally have less calories and are more filling. I was finding that I would be satisfied to the point of never going over my calories anyways, and I love my food!

I also firmly believe that all calories are not equal. This is obviously not just my school of though, but is starting to be proven. I really think that if you're body can actually use the food that you put into it, then you can eat almost anything you want and stay at a healthy weight. Maybe I'm crazy, but this is how I justify eating whole wheat chocolate chip cookies :)

This weekend we had a lasagna with my regular homemade veggie rich pasta sauce, whole wheat noodles, kale instead of spinach, and the bottom layer was strictly celery and meat sauce. My hubby and I really enjoyed. His two male cousins, not so much. However they like veggie-less lasagna, and that would never happen over here. Also to address the kale instead of spinach, both are superfoods, but kale stays firmer and I am quite particular about my textures.







I also made whole wheat chocolate chip cookies that turned out just like regular. It is hard to get them not heavy or dry.

Melt 1/2 C butter in the microwave. Mix with 3/4 C honey, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 Tbsp milk. Add 1 1/2 C whole wheat flour and mix well. The mixture will be runny. Allow to sit on the counter for at least an hour.
 [I left mine while I cooked the rest of my dinner and sampled periodically. You can taste the difference! The whole wheat flakes are firm at the beginning and soft by baking time after they have soaked up the honey, butter, and milk.]

As the mixture sits (I stir periodically) it will get firm up as the flour soaks and the butter hardens. When you are ready to bake crack open 1 egg and mix in to the firm dough with 1/2 tsp baking soda. 

Add as much more flour as you think it needs. [Until the dough is not overly sticky. Don't add until you can roll into balls, just enough to drop neatly from a couple of teaspoons. I added approx half cup more. I didn't find adding the little bit of non-soaked changed anything drastically.]

 Stir in 1 cup chocolate chips and bake at 350 approx 8-10 minutes. (I never time mine honestly, I just peek in) They turned out soft and delicious! I was a very proud cookie mama.

If you are more adventurous than I, you could add the egg at the beginning with the rest of the wet ingredients, but I was nervous to leave raw egg out to warm for that long.

All that is left this morning of yesterdays baking is a chocolate smeared plate. (which I had a picture of for you, but my email hates me)

XOXO

Thriftess

(PS forgot to mention that after only a few days of healthy eating, I already feel less bloated in my tummy. That's my body thanking me!)

Jewellery party day

Dear Thrifties,

I am not too sure how to approach the topic of home parties. I am as guilty as anyone because I have been selling Avon for a few months now, but I have been taking a very casual approach. 

How do people navigate the barrage of home parties that come their way? Passion parties, Tupperware, Party Lite, Scentsy, Jewellery by the droves, and now even shoe parties?

My problem is that I feel very much like supporting my friends and family in everything that they do. As a struggling entrepreneur myself, I totally understand the agony of trying to eek out a living all on your own. However....I will soon be in the poor house if I keep buying at these parties! 

The simple solution, I am aware, is not to attend. But doesn't that feel worse than attending but not buying anything? What's worse, having a party where only a few buy, or having a party with only a few guests?

The other thing that is hard to swallow is the inflated prices of these items. I 100% understand that the prices need to be high in order for their payment structures to work. (Believe me, Avon has rock bottom prices, but that's why I don't make any money) But these are prices that I wouldn't dream of paying on the items in store, and truth be told I don't need any of this stuff and wouldn't look twice at it in a store.

I have no solution to this dilemma. Just a party to attend tonight, and another on the 26th. As you well know my cash budget does not allow for me to buy anything right now, but since I want to be a good friend and they don't accept cash anyways, I know full well that I will be making a purchase on my card today. Sigh.

In other news, I need to cash my $11 cheque, because after filling the car and my hubby being invited for lunch by an elusive cousin, that's about all we had left in my cash budget. Don't worry, I'll let you know how far the quarters stretch because I'm not giving up yet!

The New Clean Thriftess:


~ clean fridge (and associated dishes)
~ tidy kitchen
~ clean up recycling (newspapers, boxes, etc.) and empty garbages 

Yesterday's cleaning done!

Follow along today:

~ Sort basket of laundry & 2 loads
~ Sweep & Mop bathroom

Today is definitely a bare-minimum kind of day. I am obviously also going to run my dishwasher and keep my kitchen and bathroom tidy, that part never ends!

XOXO ~ The Thriftess

Grocery day!

Hello Thrifties,

Today was grocery day! Unfortunately I have not gone on a big grocery shop for a while, and this week I had run out of a lot of basics like honey and flour. So needless to say, the better part of our months cash was decimated! Of the $102 that we had, I spent just over $90! My hubby had done our bottle return this AM however, so we got just over $20 back from that. I am still quite nervous because this does not leave us with very much gas money AT ALL! Never mind running out of milk or fruit.

Excuse me while I count up what's really left........

Okay! We have $30 in real cash, a stash of quarters for when we're really scraping the barrel, and a check for $11 that I can cash. I need to fill up the car tomorrow morning, so if I spend $20 we will have just over $20 left to last the 11 days until the end of the month. Phew! Looks like I will be spending a lot of time at home!

Now, about my piggy-ness...

Here was my cleaning list from yesterday:

~ Sorting one bin of laundry from bedroom ~ wash & dry 1 load. (2 if there's enough. My hubby has volunteered to fold as his "chore") {I did 2!) ~ empty dishwasher ~ sweep & mop hallway and kitchen 

You will note that it is all done! Yay me, pat pat. Today is going to be more of a general cleaning. I did some pre-cooking of fish and chicken for other meals and so the kitchen is a bit of a disaster. Also my hubby started our tax return, so there are empty envelopes and papers scattered everywhere! (Also in the kitchen thankfully, two birds with one stone) I was also forced to clean out the fridge today in order to plan my meals and put away groceries, so that is going on the list and yes, it totally counts.

Follow along! :

~ clean fridge (and associated dishes)
~ tidy kitchen
~ clean up recycling (newspapers, boxes, etc.) and empty garbages

I am hoping to include in future, for the new and improved version of myself, a similar 15 minute approach to exercising. I'm already back on the healthy eating bandwagon but I have never really stuck with an exercise routine. I did 15 minutes of youtube yoga yesterday....Can navigating the grocery store count for today? How about running through the house with smelly pots of food to the toilet when I was cleaning the fridge?

Counting it.

Until next time :)

Living with no money and also doing housework

Hi Thrifties!

It has been a while I know! But I'm done with feeling guilty about it.

So much the better because I had recently read some good advice: "Blog as though no one is reading....because most likely no one is." Refreshing and depressing all at the same time, don't you think? Hello? .... oh....right.

Anyways, life up in the north has gotten somewhat drearier. We had recently melted out of our snowbanks and some of the paved road was visible! But then we had a big snowstorm and we're back at about two feet of snow and lumpy ice roads. I'm like an "Ice Road Trucker" but with a compact Hyundai with no shocks. Glorious.

So, about the title of the post: My hubby and I have not been doing well with our money lately. We haven't been very committed to our budgeting and we really need to get back to our cash system. I was hesitant to return to this method because I know that my man really hates it, but it is undeniable how much it helped us before and we are living on far smaller an income since I am not working. Throw in a pregnancy scare last month and I could see the poorhouse not far off! That is a touch dramatic since we have money saved, but it is supposed to be SAVED, not spent at No Frills on milk and flour.

In an effort to jumpstart our saving I dug out all of our cash money from around the house. 

~ I was stashing my makeup consultant money in our bedroom and we have a change jar. Too bad we had already taken all the good coins out of the jar. Now there is mostly dimes and quarters mixed with a few useless foreign coins from vacations. ~

From this day until the last of the month, we are only going to spend $102 on groceries, gas, everything! This is what we have on hand in cash. By only using this money we will leave my husbands last pay untouched until he gets paid again on the last of the month, and by then it will be savings. After this I plan on working with a much more reasonable budget (although still in cash.)

Part 2 of the title of this post is about me being a piggy. I am a slob. I admit it. I have glossed over it for years thinking that I'm "a bit messy", but after a few surprise visits at other peoples "messy" houses, I have come to realize that I am genuinely the worst of the worst..... Not "Hoarders" level granted, but like a hoarders childhood maybe. 

The remedy? I have already made great progress by cleaning for only 15 minutes per day. I have always planned to clean but with big chunks of time, like an hour or 2, and then I get overwhelmed and don't start. I read online about 15 minutes of decluttering per day, but I have applied it to my general house cleaning. In reality, once started I usually clean for 20 minutes to an hour, but by only needing to do 15 minutes, if I'm not feeling it that day, I can allow myself to stop at the minimum if I want to. 

The real change is remembering to tidy up a few things when I make a mess, especially with dinner, and not letting it get out of hand. Obviously I don't count maintenance tidies like these in the 15 minutes. The other hard change for me was running my dishwasher every day. Being just the two of us, I usually wait a few days and then run it, but that really gets me behind in the kitchen. It may cost more to run every day, but I can probably cut down on the soap, the dishwasher is usually pretty full anyways, and the extra water costs are not worth as much as my psyche. I genuinely like a tidy house, that's not the issue, its my bad habits.

I will keep you posted as to how things go!

Follow along! :

Cleaning today ~ Sorting one bin of laundry from bedroom
~ wash & dry 1 load. (2 if there's enough. My hubby has volunteered to fold as his "chore")
~ empty dishwasher
~ sweep & mop hallway and kitchen

 

Its a Good Morning!

Happy AM Thrifties!

Its a beautiful day up here in the north! The sun is shining and it looks like spring. This is maybe a touch optimistic because usually spring here is mid-April, but I will take the thaw regardless. Also, winter here can be quite deceptive. I haven't actually gone outside or taken a really good look out of my sub-terranean windows for evidence of melting, so it may actually just be sunny and still -20 C.

But I am a newer positive me! So its basically SUMMER!

Ha ha. 

My first consultation went very well. I now have about a week to get some references together from my work experience projects and assemble a presentation for this new client. Hopefully I will return successful late next week.

The first offer on the mobile that we were looking for, did in fact fall through! My hubby and I are very excited at the prospect of finally owning a little something of our own. However we had to strengthen our offer and go in over asking because we found out we were competing.

-- Nevermind. I literally just found out that we didn't get it :(  I guess we can just hope that inspection #2 goes poorly as well. I'm heartbroken! --

Now off to get some work done.

Until next time!

My own private success :)

 Happy Monday Thrifties!

I have finally gotten my crap together and am now a licensed business! Yay! 

What an overblown big thing I made that process out to be! If I had been more dedicated and not so easily intimidated it would not have taken me from mid-December until now to get my paperwork in order.

Don't get me wrong, my actual paperwork is by no means in order! My file boxes are still securely in the plastic bag from the craft store (where I also got a planner for 25 cents! Sometimes it literally pays to procrastinate.... although that is arguable considering I haven't been getting anything done.) What I mean is, getting a license is actually - dare I say it - fairly easy.

I also had my first sudo-appointment with a prospective client today. I say sudo, because he told me to "pop by" anytime today. When I popped by at 10:30 he was in managers meetings, and when I came back at 1:15 (safely after lunch), he had left for lunch. So in reality it was a lot of me feeling physically ill with nerves, and no actual face-to-face contact with the man. However, the success story here is that I actually called someone, and eventually, I may meet with him.

My husband and I have also put an offer in on a mobile home. I severely hope that we get it, but we were behind an accepted offer which means that we will have to wait and see if they back out for any reason. I am trying NOT to wish doom and gloom on the other people, but.....

-- I just went and called that maybe client again, just because I was thinking about it. Check me out!--

I have to say the progress is due almost entirely to the speech that I heard from Barb Stegemann this week at the conference. She really pushed the point that as long as you know what you are doing and what your business is about, it doesn't matter if some people don't like it, because you can't change that. This is really the root of all my procrastinating, is that people won't like the idea or how I present myself, and I know its inevitable that this will be the case some of the time. It also reminded me of what someone else said (and I'm sorry, I don't remember who) which was that it takes 10 "no"s to get to every "yes", so even if you get a "no" just think of it as one down on the way to the "yes". Its just something that you need to progress past.

Now hopefully I will still be feeling as resilient a week or month from now.

XOXO Thrifties! 

P.S. I went live with my facebook page, which I had previously been hoarding unpublished, and you know what the great thing about facebook is? There is no "dislike" button for your page! So like me :) Gloss Creative Branding.

 

The $0 Grocery Week ~ Sunday!

Hello Thrifties!

Finally FINALLY! Here is the last meal of the $0 series :)

Yay hooray! I think I had obviously over-estimated my attention span.

Day 7 ~ Sunday ~ Perogies & Sauce

This meal was leftovers of leftovers in my freezer.

The sauce : A general idea!

This sauce was a basic cream sauce with onions and some leftover white wine, asparagus, and pot roast added.

The perogies, I confess, were instant. Shame shame. However (!) they did come from the farmers market a while ago, so once upon a time they were homemade. :p

This is not a very exciting recipe to go out on, but now its all over and I'm happy to go back to regular blogging! It is so much easier to ramble about my life organically, and whenever the mood strikes me. Feeling like I have to post clearly makes me rebellious!

In other news, I went to a conference here over the last two days and it was a great experience. The grand finale was Barb Stegemann. What a fantastic speaker! She really is a great lady and very inspirational. Check her out on Dragon's Den here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8px80B59tM

And check out her product here: http://www.the7virtues.com/canada.index.html

If you ever have a chance to go hear her speak, definitely take advantage. Her products are now available in many Bay stores across the country as well.

Love you!

The $0 Grocery Week ~ Saturday ~

Good evening Thrifties!

We bought milk again. Just throwing it out there for the sake of honesty!

~ Day 6 ~

Today was Shrimp & Lobster Bisque day! 

Yum yum! I had a craving for something Red Lobster-esque and thus the bisque was born.

Luckily for our budget we do not have a Red Lobster in our new city! 

~ On a side note for our budget, due to our recent extra tightening we are back on track to be almost one payday ahead. We of course have savings from when we were both working full time, but we had been tapping into them when we first moved here, which was definitely not something we wanted to do! Thanks in part to this last month of cheap eats we are back to super-saver mode, and shouldn't have a deficit every month. Budgeting and saving have become a passion of mine. I used to be a spender, but having realized that my husband (also a spender) was less likely to change, I have managed to transform my hobby into saving! ~

What I used:

Celery
Onion
Red Pepper
Butter
Tomato sauce
Milk
Pre-cooked Shrimp
Lobster (ahem... actually Lobster flavoured Pollock in chunks)
Red Pepper flakes
Paprika
S&P


Step 1.) Coarsely chop the celery, onion, and red pepper. (approx. 3 celery stalks, 1 yellow onion, and 1 red pepper.)

Step 2.) Saute in about 1/4 cup butter. 

Step 3.) Add 1 small portion of tomato sauce. (I just use my own frozen variety, but if you were to use canned, then about half a can)

Step 4.) Add about 2 cups of milk.

Step 5.) Blend everything in the blender. Add more milk until you get the desired consistency. This is also where I added a few red pepper flakes. When smooth and soupy, pour into a pot.

Step 6.) Return to heat. Add minced shrimp and minced lobster.

Step 7.) Add paprika, salt, and pepper to taste. Bring to a soft boil and enjoy!

Here are some pics of the process. For some reason the one of the finished product didn't save, so I can't share it with you, but that might be for the best because the colour didn't come out that great in the picture. The soup when done should be a lovely red-orange colour. :)



 (below is with the frozen tomato sauce, in case you were wondering)
 

 

I didn't include measurements for the seafood because I don't believe it really matters. I used a whole package of lobster chunks and approx. 20 shrimp. However the soup could easily be less meaty. Just use what you have. Alternatively you could add whatever fish you have, just shrimp, etc. 

I'd like to take a minute to advocate for seafood. I feel like thrifty people stay away from it because it seems expensive, but the opposite is actually true. $10 may seem expensive for a bag of shrimp, but they go a long way. Most meals only require 5-7 shrimp per person, be it pasta, pizza, soup, etc. Which ends up being less costly than a chicken breast or a whole piece of beef. Its also a lean protein and so is very good for those of you who are being diet conscious. This soup ended up being very affordable because the lobster flakes would have been $1.99 (on sale and I had a coupon) but they scanned wrong and I actually got them for free! My soup also served up 4 large portions, which keeps to the 5 shrimp per serving estimate.

Other seafood like mussels, calamari rings, and cod also go on sale quite regularly and the package goes deceptively far. So don't feel limited to shrimp. (We just love shrimp)

Until next time!

The $0 Grocery Week ~ Friday ~

I'm back bit Thrifties!

I had a great two weeks of thrifting and wine-ing with my family in the city, but it is good to be home! 

I know, I KNOW! My $0 Grocery week challenge has lagged out over the last month :( 
I apologize that the challenge hasn't really played out in "real time." However, I still have not gone for a full grocery shop beyond my disclosures in previous posts. When I don't post meals it is because I have not made them! I obviously don't count full leftovers from the freezer as "cooking."

Feel bad for my hubby! While I was gone he ate mostly freezer soup and cheese.

Onward! 

~ Day 5 ~ 

Seafood Pizza

What I used:

4 leftover frozen whole wheat pitas (Tortillas work too!)

Leftover sole bake: which was very saucy
(This was a variation of an allrecipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sole-supreme/
 a simple version of this would be sole layered with creamed spinach in any cream sauce)

Cheese (You can really use any for pizza)

Thawed pre-cooked shrimp

Step 1.) Defrost the pitas and cover with the fish bake sauce (alfredo sauce, tomato sauce, or other leftover sauces will also work)

Step 2.) Layer on shrimp. Roughly 6 or 7 per pizza.

Step 3.) Top with mozzarella and parmesan.

Step 4.) Bake for approx 10 minutes and enjoy!

This was one of my best efforts. Very tasty! The pita crust worked well and I will try this again when I have them leftover.

This also got the stamp of approval from my husband!

Until next time!

On holiday!

Hello dear Thrifties!

I'm just on to post a quick note about my absence in the blogosphere. I didn't get a chance to finish my $0 grocery series before I went to visit my parents for a couple of weeks where I do not have to buy groceries! I will be back on Monday to finish my 7 days of meals.

Rest assured I have been thrifting and coupon seeking while in the city! Lucky for me there are two circulars coming out while I am in town so I will be seeing my favourite coupon receptacle (read recycle centre dumpster) on the regular.

Mucho savings to all, and we will meet again soon!

The $0 Grocery Week! ~ Thursday ~

Confession time Thrifties!

I purchased fruit today and my husband bought milk yesterday. Had I been better prepared I would have bought lots of that sort of thing before the series, but I am not a well-prepared person, which makes this blog more organic, no?

Lesson learned for you though! Before your very own $0 grocery week, buy lots of fruit, veggies, and milk (not over and above your grocery money for that week though, or else it defeats the purpose). I don't believe that health should ever be sacrificed for the sake of frugality. Let Honey Boo Boo's family be a lesson to you! 

~ Day 4: Thursday ~

Easy Stroganoff day!  

This is one of my favourite easy meals for my $0 and regular weeks.

The basic Easy Stroganoff is based on just three ingredients:

(you may need to double or triple for larger families, but this recipe makes a decent amount)
 

1 can Cream of mushroom soup
1 cup Milk
1/2 cup Sour cream/ Plain yogurt (or a mix of both if you don't have much of either)

The measurement for the yogurt is approximate. I usually taste and add more. It all depends on your preference to taste the sharpness more, or the mushroom soup more. I probably use closer to a cup of the yogurt/sour cream because I like the sharp flavour)

In a pinch you could probably use water instead of milk too, since you can when making the soup, it just won't be as creamy.

Whisk these three together and from here it is all options!

You can: 

Put in a slow cooker for the day with raw chicken or beef (even ground beef is very good)

Cook stovetop for about 10 minutes with leftover meat. (Canned tuna or salmon will also work for a tuna helper style meal)

And as always, add any vegetables you want. At the bare minimum I usually add onion (green or regular) and celery. You can also add canned corn, peas, green beans, etc. It is also pretty good with lentils.

Traditionally you would serve over egg noodles, but since most people don't have these on the shelf, it is fine over any pasta and also good on rice or baked potatoes.

For myself I almost never use egg noodles because I try to stick to healthier carbs like whole wheat pasta or brown/wild rice.

In contradiction to my healthy noodles, I like to top with a sprinkle of cheese. :) mmm... cheese.

On this particular day, I had leftover stroganoff in my freezer already (made from leftover pot roast), along with leftover pasta. So I decided to try something new. I beat an egg and tossed the pasta in it. Then I pressed into a greased baking dish as a crust and baked for 5-10 minutes at 400. I reduced the heat to 350 and added the stroganoff to the middle. Then I baked for another 15-20 minutes.



  It turned out not bad. The noodles in the bottom were a little softer than I would have liked, but that is true of most casseroles. I am just particularly fussy in that department.

At any rate, enjoy your "custom" stroganoff! 

I would like to advocate at this time about the benefits of hoarding cream of mushroom soup. Whenever it goes on sale for $0.50 per can or less, I usually buy a flat of it. It can be a lifesaver when you don't know what to make. I have gotten it for as little as $0.06 per can when I combined a coupon with the sale price, and it keeps for a long long time.

I would also like to say hello to my German readers! I wasn't expecting to see you here, and I hope you do not cast me aside after my thrifty attempt at one of your favourite dishes! Stroganoff is Russian but I understand it is very popular in Germany as well. My apologies if I have butchered it! 

Get ready for Day 5!
 

The $0 Grocery Week ~ Lunch ~

Good afternoon Thrifties!

Welcome to days 3.5 of the frugal eating series.

Day 3.5 is so named because it is very similar to day 3, which was mystery soup day. 

Day 3.5 ~ a Lunch for any day

The soup I created on this day was actually leftovers of a previous mystery soup day - later named taco soup. It all began with an experiment with eggplant. I always like to try new veggies at the grocery store and on this particular occasion I came home with an eggplant.

For those who have never cooked with eggplant, it is the tasteless sponge of vegetables. I tried roasting it with olive oil but the eggplant just drank it all and stored it like a camel. Needless to say the result of my roasted eggplant was nothing like the zucchini style sticks that I thought it would be. It was just warm sogginess.

Next I decided to cube the eggplant and toss it into my taco soup. Mistake #2.
It became extremely swollen and disgusting. The soup itself was actually quite good, and my husband liked it. But I had serious texture issues that I just couldn't get past, and so the extra soup languished in my freezer. 

This leads us to Day 3.5! I am never one to waste food and I couldn't bring myself to call it a loss and just throw out the soup. I also have too healthy a conscience to send it to work with my hubby every day when I won't eat it myself.

Bring on the blender!

I tossed the offensive soup into the blender to make a taco flavoured puree.



Next I poured into the mini slow-cooker with some small bits of stewing beef (seen on Day 3 in my pile of leftovers.)

 










I also added half of the squash seen on Day 3 and some black beans. 

I forgot to take pictures of the finished product but after cooking overnight the beef was tender and the result was one of the better soups that I have made. I called it Taco Chowder and I would make it again on purpose!

For anyone wondering, the original soup was some leftover spaghetti meat sauce, beef stock, extra veggies and some chick peas (as far as I can remember.)

I forgot to mention on Day 3 as well, that I have never used leftover spaghetti squash in my soup before but I am a fan! In the first soup it separated nicely into pieces that resembled noodles, so there was no need to add pasta or rice to beef it up. Spaghetti squash is also fairly cheap and extremely filling. Fantastic for anyone avoiding carbs.

~ Disclaimer: I am not a professional photographer. The pictures taken are a sad representation of what my food looks like. I promise that in real life, these meals look more edible! ~

Bring on day 4!