Frugality this week

May is the first month that I will be living on my new income. It will be hard getting used to, but fortunately I have a little wiggle room because of money in my savings account. I also received a statement from Ontario Hydro that shows me that my electricity usage is slightly up from my most efficient neighbours since the start of February. How can that be??? I thought I was doing very well. As a result of this news, I have been checking around the house looking for other ways of cutting down my expenses.  First off, I will have my son pack up and move his growing cabinet to his apartment. I discovered that he has a grow light inside the cabinet that is on, because he is presently growing cactus from seed. I thought the cabinet was just holding petri dishes, pots and growing medium in storage. I bought a second power bar with a surge protector from the Thrift Store this week. I have all the computer components on one bar so that I can turn everything off at night. I have also put all the TV components on a power bar and  I am also turning off the aquarium light when I go to bed.  I am trying to hang all of my laundry outside now that the weather is improving. Tomorrow, on the first of May, we start our summer hours with Hydro One. This means I also have to reschedule some of my daily tasks so that electricity is being used less between 11 AM and 5 PM (the direct opposite of winter hours) so that I am being charged  less. Between 7 PM and  7 AM still remains the lowest hydro rates, as well as the weekends. 

So these are my frugal tasks this week.....

I fed the outdoor compost bin my kitchen scraps. 

I called a friend on Thursday who I have not seen since my husband's funeral and we went shopping together. I first went into the Hardware Store to buy an 8 piece painter's set and 2 packages of electric outlet covers.

10 covers for $2.97  I have several to replace.

 Tray and liner, 9 1/2" and 4" roller frames,  and two rollers for each. At 45% off, it only cost me $5.97

 I bought some more plastic clothespins and a sheet of coloured rhinestones for card-making from Dollarama. Besides the power bar I bought at the thrift store, I also bought a set of brand new drapery holders for a bar I was given. I used a 30% off discount card on those purchases. I can now hang two sets of white cotton draperies in the upstairs windows in the front of the house, that my SIL gave me. I spent $41.80 on groceries, including two gallons of white vinegar for my weed control. 

I made soup from veggie stock I made.

I used my yoghurt maker for the first time yesterday to make all this yoghurt. It turned out beautifully. I will sweeten and flavour it with my failed "strawberry jam" that I made last summer but it didn't set up.

 Made with whole milk I bought on  Thursday that was 50% off the regular price. 

I made a Mother's Day card, Father's Day card,  four masculine birthday cards, and a couple of birthday cards with butterfly cuts from my new Cricut cartridge. 

 I made more laundry powder, washed a few loads of laundry, used vinegar in the rinse water, and hung on the clothesline to dry. 

I turned off the furnace for a couple of days when the weather was nice. 

I did a few hours this week pulling weeds and pruning shrubbery. 

The lawn mower is not working. I looked for and found the business card of the small engines repairman that Rick used. I also have the repair manual, so I will call him tomorrow morning to see if he can fix the machine and give it a proper tuneup and blade sharpening. 

A dear friend is coming one day this week to give me a much needed boot in the rear-end to help me get some lingering  issues cleared up. I have let my anxiety take control lately, which has resulted in my putting my head in the sand and hoping things will resolve on their own. I have run out of steam and she will stoke the fires to get me back on the track. She has been making a list of what needs to be done, and together we will tackle it. 

Tonight I have made a cabbage roll casserole which makes a lot of food using only one lb of ground meat. I will be able to freeze some for future meals.

Daybook: Monday, April 24/17

Outside my window.....the day is sunny, the grass in the front lawn is growing quite long, and I have more daffodils in bloom.

I am thinking.....I may need to bring out the lawnmower this week. And I am also chastising myself for not having gone out this weekend to pull weeds like I had planned to do.

I am thankful for.....the past week of non-committal. I still got lots of emails and phone calls from friends and family wanting to know how I am doing, but I did not feel any obligations to go anywhere or do anything.  It truly felt like my alone time that I have been craving recently. It was lovely.

From the kitchen.....I baked  a turkey pot pie with some of the frozen leftover turkey from three weeks ago, and a biscuit topping. I made coleslaw to go with it for Saturday's dinner with my son and his GF. Yesterday I baked some more doggie biscuits for Satchel. One batch generally lasts only two weeks.

I am wearing.....my skinny jeans, socks, and my favourite pink printed 3/4 sleeved T-shirt that has so many tiny holes in the fabric now, that I may only be able to wear it while working in the garden and not in public.

I am creating.....more cards. I need to make 5 masculine birthday cards in the next four weeks, and a Mother's Day card.

I am going.....nowhere today. I had to pick up a prescription yesterday; and while I was at it, I bought a loaf of bread, some margarine, canned soup  and a box of cereal that was on sale. This will probably be a no-drive, no-spend day.

I am hoping.....that my executor duties will finally quiet down this week and that I have no more stressful days having to deal with legal issues of my husband's passing.

I am hearing......some traffic noise and birds chirping. Robins and starlings have built nests under the eaves of my house.

Around the house.....the same work remains to be done as I reported last week.

One of my favourite things.....is my newly acquired  Cricut cartridge. I made lots of butterflies yesterday, inspired by a Youtube video by Hero Arts using vellum layering.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....don't include planning. Maybe it will be another "fly by the seat of my pants" week. I will do what inspires me.

Here's the picture I am sharing.....a pansy that my son and GF brought me on Saturday.

Oatmeal and Raisins

While the sun was trying to come out yesterday, in the end it lost the battle. It didn't rain but it remained mostly cloud, wet and gray all day. In a moment of optimism, I hung a load of wash outside on the clothesline. I brought it in around dinner time still slightly damp. So I did not get outside yesterday afternoon to do some yard work like I had hoped.  I baked instead.

Oatmeal raisin muffins with a strudel top and oatmeal raisin cookies

Unfortunately, in my efforts to stay out of the Stax potato chips, I ate two muffins and far too many cookies last night. I guess I should go back to knitting dishcloths again in the evenings while watching Netflix. I am currently alternating between the Mindy Project (a comedy) and Midsomer Murders (a British detective drama). These are both television series.

All of last weekend and this week I have experienced lower back pain.....I am thinking arthritis in my hips. My knees haven't been hurting me unless I need to bend them. Haha. Last summer they barely bothered me at all, but maybe because of the damp weather we have been having lately, they are giving me some discomfort. It was suggested that I try a combination of Tylenol for Arthritis and Tylenol extra strength, and it has been helping a great deal. But I don't like taking pain medication long term and so I haven't been taking them every day. I've not felt like doing any housework....partly because of the discomfort, but mostly because I'm feeling lazy. So I have been doing mostly sitting down jobs, like whiling my time away on the computer and making cards.

Thursday update

I spent the $20 cash I had in my purse last week. I told you I would report how much went for food and non-food items. I spent $9.50 on Easter gift items last Saturday, and the other $10.50 went to supplement my lasagna dinner....Caesar salad, french bread loaf, and Heavenly Hash ice-cream.

I spent another $50 on gas Sunday, but that comes from a different budget. And because I don't know yet how much I will budget for gas and vehicle maintenance, I am keeping track of all those expenses and will report at the end of April.

Monday and Tuesday were both no-drive, no-spend days.

Wednesday was my Doctor's appointment and on the way into town, I stopped at my bank to buy up a roll of loonies ( $25 worth of $1 coins) so I have parking money for the meters. As I have mentioned before, the medical office building is beside Giant Tiger, so I went in  to buy up some of the weekly specials after my appointment.

Non-food items cost $23.00

 I am calling the Lays potato chips non-food because they are snacks I didn't need to buy. They were only $1 a piece, so I will hold onto them for entertaining. I vow to keep my hands off of them and not devour them in the evenings while watching Netflix. It will be hard.

Proteins (including plastic cheese slices) cost $15.41

Two large tomatoes and spring mix salad greens totaled $4.00 even.

Pantry items cost $7.92

 The bill after tax came to $53.30.  Food cost $27.33 and my non-food expenditures were almost as much. I am officially over my household budget of $300 for the month, but have only spent $157.63 on food so far. I have to get a better hold of my miscellaneous spending. 

When I checked the mail, I found this FREE sample pack of Temptations cat treats that I asked for.  Brucie and Hannah no longer live here, but I will pass it on the my son and his GF when they come for dinner on Saturday. 

I washed laundry Monday in cold water, homemade laundry detergent, and hung outside to dry. 

I received Dahlia bulbs and flower seeds on Easter Sunday. I planted them in potting soil inside to give them a head start. I still have marigold and Shasta daisy seeds left to plant. 

The package was supposed to hold one Dahlia bulb, but there were 7 tubers which I planted in peat pots. I hope they all grow. The egg cartons hold zinnia seeds. I don't have great luck with growing seeds, but it doesn't hurt to try again. The pink watering can holds a lovely plant arrangement that my daughter and two grand kids brought to me on one of their trips here. I will have to divide the four plants one day. The large glass trifle bowl had a chip out of the rim, and I hated to throw it away. So I filled the bottom with smooth polished rocks from the Dollar store, some potting soil, and planted some succulents in it. I have to thank my SIL for that idea. She was here to help me purge the dining room. Because the glass was chipped, I couldn't give it away to the Thrift store, so we were able to save it from the Landfill. The two rocks on my window ledge are amethyst crystals and my dog is intently watching high school students walking past the house. 


I worked outside for a little while cutting back dead growth from the winter and pulling grass and weeds from one of my front yard flower beds. It is still very wet and chilly outside, but if I start now, I may build up some stamina from not having worked outside in months.  I have also pruned the red-twigged dogwood tree in the back yard. 

More colour is starting to show in the garden beds. 

My rhubarb is just starting to show through the ground. From here on in, it will grow very quickly.

Daybook: Easter Monday, April 17/17

Outside my window.....it is mainly cloudy with a few sunny breaks. It is cooler today than it has been this weekend. The grass is really taking off, the trees are budding and the daffodils are just starting to open up.

I am thinking.....that I need to start working outdoors soon to pull some weeds and dead underbrush from the garden. I have started to prune back some of my bushes before the leaves start coming out.

I am thankful for.....the trustee who phoned me this morning to discuss my responsibilities of being an executor of my husband's estate. He was able to answer my questions and advise me. Although he stressed the fact that he is not a lawyer, he was able to explain a lot of legalities I was not aware of. He has lifted a lot of uncertainty from my shoulders and I feel much better for having talked to him.

From the kitchen.....I baked chocolate chip cookies this week. As well, I baked a lasagna for Saturday supper with my son and his GF and I made a crock pot of vegetable broth from vegetable peelings from the freezer.

I am wearing.....the same thing I wore yesterday....blue jeans and a cotton royal blue Egyptian top with embroidery done with gold thread.

I am creating.....birthday cards for my stash, when the mood strikes me.

I am going.....nowhere outside the house today.

I am hoping.....I will find some motivation this week to tackle some housework or yard work.

I am hearing.....some traffic noise outside my window, and the blower on the furnace coming on every so often. It still isn't warm enough to turn off the furnace just yet. I usually try to keep it off the first of May.

Around the house.....there is still purging and organizing to get done, but I am going to try and do that on my own. I also want to start washing surfaces and doing a deep Spring cleaning.

One of my favourite things.....lately has been the warmer, sunnier days of Spring we have been having. It helps to lift my mood, and draws me out of the house.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include only one scheduled appointment and the rest of the time is my own. I haven't made any plans.

Here's the picture I am sharing.....first daffodils.

Mid-week

I had another Doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon, so I dropped into Giant Tiger next door to pick up a bag of carrots and a few grocery specials.

Total came to $29.07, as I asked for $20 cash. I will count it as $29 however, because the $20 will be used in all likelihood for the purchase of household items. I will break it down in my records as food or non-food when I spend it. The 2 lbs of carrots cost $1.47. I paid 88 cents each for two tins of flaked tuna, $1.44 each for two boxes of Breton crackers and $1.48 for each of two loaves of w.w. bread. 

So far this month, I have spent $270.30 from my household budget. Food was $119.80 and non-food items cost me more at $150.50  Food expenses have not been bad, but I cannot keep spending my household budget on miscellaneous. The culprits this month so far have been my Cricut purchase of a new cartridge, Value Village purchases, meter parking, my two purchases at the Women's show in Ottawa, non-food grocery items and dog food. I will have to learn to stay home and to stop shopping on  the internet, or rein in my impulse shopping. I should have taken a closer look after the first week and maybe I wouldn't have spent so much last week. I will report again next Friday.

I have been working on my new budget but I still don't have all the information I need; so I will continue to keep track of every penny. I am still not receiving  a survivor's benefit from the Federal government. It seems that every day I am still dealing with the stress of frustrating and irritating bureaucracy since my husband's passing. Yesterday I finally received the money from his bank account into mine. Also yesterday, I was able to talk to someone from the Canada Revenue Agency about my husband's account, and now that is finally looked after. Today I am waiting for a trustee to call me back, although I would love to be outside on this beautiful Spring day. I am still waiting for a document from the mortgage company showing me as the sole mortgage holder for my home insurance. I have requested it twice now.

Tuesday: I vacuumed through the downstairs and baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies. It was a no-spend, no-drive day. Dinner was mashed turnip, baked potato with sour cream and ham.

Wednesday: A drive to a Doctor's appointment, some grocery shopping, signed some papers at the bank to create the Estate account and move funds from there into my own bank account. Dinner was roasted potatoes and carrots with chicken fingers.

Thursday: Another trip to the bank to sign a paper that was missed yesterday; otherwise, a no spend day.

The mauve flowers are called "Glory in the Snow" The white flowers in the foreground are crocuses.

Catch-up Monday

It is Domestic Monday but I am not feeling it today. It is a gorgeous Spring Day and although I should be outdoors, I am just going to veg indoors and read through some blogs and emails I have missed since last Wednesday. I was out earlier to hang some laundry for the first time this season. I removed everything red, gold and Christmassy from my planters and just left the twigs and juniper branches to give an illusion of growing things. And I took a walkabout to photograph the first spring flowers. The kids are walking home from school right now. Their jackets are off and they are only in their T-shirt sleeves. Spring has sprung. It was icy cold in Ottawa this past Saturday morning with a few snow flurries if you can believe it, and today we have temps in the low 20s Celsius.

Thursday: no spend, no drive day. My SIL arrived early to begin purging and organizing.

I used the last of the sliced turkey breast to make turkey salad with celery and mayonnaise and made sandwiches for lunch. Dinner was a chicken stir fry over basmati rice.

Friday: My SIL and I worked until lunchtime (ham and cheddar wraps) and then off we went to take the purged items to Value Village. We went inside after the drop-off. My SIL lo-o-o-oves our Value Village because she thinks it is the cleanest and most organized Thrift Store she's ever been in. The turnaround is very good, so she finds new items every time she goes in. We both had 30% off cards to apply to our purchases. I bought a new pair of rubber boots (I had already thrown the old ones out), a new pair of black slip on shoes, a new long sleeved t-shirt and a tan bed skirt for my bed. My total came to $26.45 with tax. I was alarmed to see my brake light flicker on and off as I was driving into town so I drove into Canadian Tire and they looked at it immediately. They topped up my brake fluid. The diagnostic and the fluid top up cost me NOTHING. Free!! I love Canadian Tire. I put $50 of gas in my van. I stopped at WalMart on the way home to pick up a 20 kg bag of Pedigree dog food for $35.57 after tax. We drove back to Odessa to pack up our cars (I hadn't packed a weekender bag yet) and then we headed to Smith Falls in time for supper.

Boots were $4.89; Shoes were $9.44

Knit T was $5.59 and bed skirt ( not shown) was $3.49

Saturday: We drove to Ottawa for 9 AM to attend the Women's show. There were over 250  exhibits of brands and products to buy, to taste, or to experience. I bought 2 items....one was a hair accessory to keep my long hair comfortably and easily pulled up; the other was a package of 5 plastic discs with 75 wicks to burn vegetable oil off the surface of water. I remember having these in the late 60s, and they keep coming into fashion about every 20 years. I love them, so I bought a package to share with the other 3 women I went with (my SIL, my niece and her friend) I also had my skin analyzed with a spa computer. Apparently, these computer analyses normally cost $50 in the spa, but I got one for free. Guess what? My skin is younger than I am. That made my day. There were so many freebies to be had. It was a great day, but exhausting.

Remember these?

I love mine.

Some full size product, some samples, lots of high value coupons (not included here)

 Chocolate soy milk drink box, French's ketchup, V-8 energy drink, Amope foot cream, Marcelle facial cream, family sized Orville popcorn white cheddar and caramel, Finish dishwasher tabs, large 70 count women's multi vitamin gummies, Catelli ancient grains spaghetti, goat's milk soap bar, Kellog's cereal bar, Aero cherry truffle chocolate bar, two different manufacturers gave tea samples, a reusable cleaning cloth for your cell phone screen, baby lotion, Nivea cleansing cream and facial lotion, and Dr. Scholl's invisible corn pads and callus pads. There were samples of food and drink, reusable tote bags (not shown) and pens. I am showing my favourite which was a ball point at one end and a highlighter at the other end. On stage there were Spring fashion shows and a seminar on Spring trends in decorating, but we just visited the booths. There was lots of walking and we were exhausted by the end of the day.

Sunday: We returned the following day to Ottawa to see an original crafters' exhibit. There were over 180 original artists displaying their works from all over Canada. We met artists from BC to the Maritimes. Beautiful work. I am proud to say that I did not buy anything, although I was mightily tempted; but I came home last night with lots of ideas.

So today I am only doing up laundry as my domestic arts. The wind has picked up and the sun has disappeared and we are expecting more rain. This will be a no spend, no drive day.