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The Frugal Living Thread


Gurn

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Been in a cooking mode and made my grocery store this week:

 

Chili paste

Black beans - 5 cans

Organic mushrooms

Shallots

Rice - 5 lbs

Organic bananas - 1lb

Brown sugar

Eggs - 12 count

All purpose flour - 5 lbs

Margarine - 1lb

Gum

Chocolate chips - 2 bags

Kombucha - 5 bottles

Frozen vegetables - 2 pack

Coffee - 2 bags

 

I get a thrill out of making my grocery list!  It's thrilling and I look forward to it every week.  I also look forward to preparing my monthly budget.  Something about that is just thrilling! 

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This week's grocery list is a little less.  I have all the dessert baked and a lot of beans and rice with vegetables to cook which worked out well freezing it for lunches/dinners for the week.  The first part of the week I ate rice and beans with vegetables for lunch and found it took longer to eat, and I like to walk at lunch, so I switched my lunch to eating banana-apple-chocolate chip bread, and the rice and beans with vegetables for dinner wrapped in two tortillas with cheese and organic kale.  

 

This week my grocery list consists of:

 

Organic kale

Organic parsley

Gum

Handi Snacks

Frozen vegetables

String cheese

Cheese

Oatmeal

Tortillas

Eggs

Potatoes

Salsa

 

Oh yeah, and kombucha. Almost forgot about that. 

Edited by brilac
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8 minutes ago, brilac said:

This week's grocery list is a little less.  I have all the dessert baked and a lot of beans and rice with vegetables to cook which worked out well freezing it for lunches/dinners for the week.  The first part of the week I ate rice and beans with vegetables for lunch and found it took longer to eat, and I like to walk at lunch, so I switched my lunch to eating banana-apple-chocolate chip bread, and the rice and beans with vegetables for dinner wrapped in two tortillas with cheese and organic kale.  

 

This week my grocery list consists of:

 

Organic kale

Organic parsley

Gum

Handi Snacks

Frozen vegetables

String cheese

Cheese

Oatmeal

Tortillas

Eggs

Potatoes

Salsa

 

Oh yeah, and kombucha. Almost forgot about that. 

Brilac is one healthy young person.  

Where is the junk food?  Chips, cookies, BOOZE! 

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8 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Brilac is one healthy young person.  

Where is the junk food?  Chips, cookies, BOOZE! 

When I sit around and drink champagne, I find I am less productive, and I usually drink the bottle.  It's so easy to drink champagne and all of it. 

 

I baked a lot last night - the banana-apple-chocolate chip bread with cinnamon.  So that should last me a week or two. 

 

I guess the list is healthy, I didn't even realize it. 

 

Oh yeah, and I am not that young. In 2023, I will be 40, but I still look sort of young. 

Edited by brilac
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  • 10 months later...

Went to the grocery store today.

 

 Bought two bottles of champagne, 3 packages of pasta, 2 jars of pasta sauce 5 packets of tuna fish, and a package of cheese - all for $23.67! The champagne was $5.99 each, pasta was $0.79 each, pasta sauce $1.49 each,  the tuna fish $0.99 a packet, and the cheese was free with a coupon. I still need to get cherries. The grocery store was out today. They are I think $1.98 a pound. I got home, poured myself a glass of champagne, and made myself dinner.  It was macaroni pasta mixed with tuna fish, pepper, cheese, and vegetables. It was yummy! 

 

Now I am baking brownies for dessert! 

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1 hour ago, brilac said:

Went to the grocery store today.

 

 Bought two bottles of champagne, 3 packages of pasta, 2 jars of pasta sauce 5 packets of tuna fish, and a package of cheese - all for $23.67! The champagne was $5.99 each, pasta was $0.79 each, pasta sauce $1.49 each,  the tuna fish $0.99 a packet, and the cheese was free with a coupon. I still need to get cherries. The grocery store was out today. They are I think $1.98 a pound. I got home, poured myself a glass of champagne, and made myself dinner.  It was macaroni pasta mixed with tuna fish, pepper, cheese, and vegetables. It was yummy! 

 

Now I am baking brownies for dessert! 

I wish food was that cheap here.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 1/23/2022 at 10:19 AM, hammertime said:

Step 1: Get a job you can do online.

Step 2: Move somewhere tropical and cheep with internet. 

Step 3: Save money buy a house in BC, charge and insane amount for rent. 

Step 4: Kick your feet up at at your villa in said tropical country paid for by the 12 college students living on the floor eating ichiban in your 4 bdr house in Van.  

That sounds about right, which the city of Vancouver loves because they tax off it and then the fees on everything get passed down the line too... And forcing everyday working people to live in RV's or whatever they can sleep in, go to a rec center, have a shower and then to work, and even the full amount of rent and damage deposit is a big amount to pay all at one time and if you have a bad credit rating from something happened years ago, another strike against, and the worst of all, the city has a lot of tax foreclosed properties just sitting there that could be fixed up and sold but that would bring down property tax or at least keep it level-ish if they kept supply away from the markets while demand keeps it going up and then they get raises etc.

 That's why they begrudgingly fork over some tiny amount on public affordable housing and pay themselves on the back in PUBLIC pretending they're doing their part but in the end it just makes city offices extremely well paid while it forces homelessness and those same people we need working in jobs in Vancouver are leaving for more affordable places to live. 

 Thing is, city and the bc government just don't care unless they get pushed.. you know the election promise gig... ummm more like b.s. but at the end of the day it's spread across the country. 

Unless the housing market crashes hard, I doubt it will ever change much.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/17/2023 at 7:25 PM, brilac said:

I buy frozen pizza when it is on sale for $2.99 / $3.99 at the grocery store, and chop it in half to bake, putting the other half back in the freezer. 

 

I have mad chopping skills when it comes to the frozen pizzas! 

Frozen Pizza is a great money saver nowadays I find. Ristorante, Guiseppe, and Casa di Mama are passable substitutes for the real thing. Add your own cheese and toppings (onion is a good add for me) if you're so inclined. Delissio never got it figured out and is leaving Canada with good reason, it's crust was like cardboard.  Restaurant pizza is so overpriced.

 

I'd say Guiseppe is the best.

Edited by Notwhereitsat
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I grow a lot of my own herbs, super easy to grow and cheap.

 

My recipes are becoming "less is more" and using fresh and quality ingredients. Pasta....toss it with sautéed garlic, grape tomatoes, basil, mushrooms, a little evoo and some fresh parm.  Quinoa with a cut up chicken breast (or not), fresh spinach, grape or cherry tomatoes and a bit of seasoning (I like the Clubhouse mixes...some good ones). You don't have to have meat, which is getting ridiculously expensive, to have a nice meal.

 

With that, I just buy cheap pasta when it's on for $0.99/box or bag. Fresh is becoming too $$ for me.

 

Lettuce is also a really good grow in the summer...pick it fresh all season long.

 

I was also given a nearly dead raspberry plant a few years ago...put it outside and not only has it taken off but it's spread into other pots. This year I had fresh wild raspberries...they were small but delicious. I grabbed a discount blueberry bush that was fading out too...we'll see how that goes.

 

It doesn't have to get all crazy and expensive. And having fresh tomatoes, parsley, basil, cilantro (used to have oregano, thyme, rosemary...will get going on those again) on hand is always helpful. I'm making the most of my little patio garden.

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I also look for deals when I'm eating out. I don't have to go to overpriced places to enjoy a quick meal out.

 

In Richmond, LA Grill is reasonable. 

 

Also...at Garry Point, the replacement for Pajo's offers some great summer eats. I like the veg taco salad....six bucks and it fills me up.  Also the tempura green beans. Serving sizes are huge. The scenery ain't too bad either.

 

I usually order food to go now .... just how it is since COVID as I've become accustomed to doing it that way. I tip a little less than I would if they had to serve me (usually 15-18%). Especially in summer, when you can hit up a park or beach.

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Seems there is some kind of points card merger going on with the 

Quality Foods card and the 

Save On Foods card.

 

Having a coffee with mom and overheard a customer and a teller discussing what was up.

Just caught bits of their convo- but did hear that some of the points were being devalued.

 

Will ask the next time I'm in, and get the whole story.

 

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1 hour ago, Gurn said:

Seems there is some kind of points card merger going on with the 

Quality Foods card and the 

Save On Foods card.

 

Having a coffee with mom and overheard a customer and a teller discussing what was up.

Just caught bits of their convo- but did hear that some of the points were being devalued.

 

Will ask the next time I'm in, and get the whole story.

 

I love points. Shoppers Optimum has provided many free things for me. Used to be AirMiles too but they were phased out.

 

The London Drugs card just gifted me $50 off my purchase recently. I'm also a Scene card member/user.

 

Why not? Free stuff or money off is always welcome, even if it means they want to track my habits. Go ahead. Good luck trying to figure me out (my ex tried for years). :towel:

 

Note: I'm mad at the Save On promos...they sent out $25 g/c's and I went to use it but they said I had to have the physical card (which broke in half) and not just the phone number. Boooo!

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