Christmas Budget Saver

Buy $10 get $10 off! Here's a fun Christmas saver from Mark's Work Warehouse. The ad from Red flag deals is as follows.

Mark’s Work Wearhouse: Coupon for $10 off $10+ (Hot!) Mark's Work Warehouse has a Super-Hot $10 Off $10+ Coupon up right now -- and it's good through December 24! There are a couple exclusions: the coupon cannot be used towards the purchase of socks, gloves, underwear, headwear, or gift cards. Other than that, it's open season, so hit print and head to the nearest Mark's Work Warehouse. Use the store locator here to find the closest one.

Enjoy!Sue

Good Deals

A quick update on the Citizens Bank deal. So far so good. It took all of a minute to fill in the online application. Then a few days later the bank called to give us our account numbers. They will send us a stamped envelope to send our cheques in. The cheques are for $100 written out to ourselves. They must have our names and correct addresses on the cheques.
The bank will then deposit them and in 90 days from the deposit they will put in another $50/account! They have a savings account giving 3% interest, or a chequing account with no fees.

Free Skate sharpening!


If you need some skates sharpened, Sport Chek will do it for free. Just go to www.redflagdeals.com and print off the coupon. Here's the ad as it appears on red flags.

Looking to get your hockey skates sharpened? Use this coupon (PDF) from Sport Chek and get your skates sharpened for free! It's valid now through June 30, 2009 at all Sport Chek locations (excluding Quebec). Use Sport Chek's store locator to find the store closest to you. Here's the fine print: one coupon per pair of skates per sharpening. Limit one per customer per visit. This promotion cannot be combined with any other skate sharpening offer.
Sue

Frugality

Cinnamon Buns baked in the toaster oven!

Frugality is about a lot of things, the hardest of which is patience. Often times getting things immediately means paying a lot more for it. I hesitated as to whether or not to share this as I want to encourage you in your frugality, not discourage you. After some thought I decided it would probably be more helpful than not.

In September my husband's aunt and uncle stopped in for a visit. The kids and I made cookies for our time with them. As the oven was preheating it made a very loud bang noise! I opened up the door and watched as the convection fan slowly stopped. Those of you who know me are probably wondering what's up with her and ovens?? In my other house I went through three in a very short period of time! Anyways, long story short it turned out it was the control panel. The stove is only 5 years old. It's a Kenmore and I had really felt I had received pretty much new appliances when we moved in here last year. When I called Sears it turned out the part new was $300 plus dollars. We had already explored fixing it ourselves, which wasn't an option as it needed an electronics person, so I started calling around for used. I found an appliance store in town that fixes things and they thought they could get one for me. Turned out the cheaper way to go was send mine away to be fixed. This would cost $163. So, I took it to them and they said 2-3 weeks. My sister-in-law was kind enough to lend me her toaster oven(she uses it in the summer on the deck to cut down on the heating of the house). It is a bit larger than your regular toaster oven, you can fit a regular size pizza in it, it just hangs over the edge a little, so you just have to turn it once and awhile. For burners I use my plug in hot plate that I use on the deck in the summer. I learned(the hard way) that it does not heat as well as the burners on my stove! We were making a dinner of fried fish and chips and it just couldn't get the oil to the right temperature. Long story short, I am compromising with my cooking. We use the crock pot often and think about whether or not the toaster oven will work for our planned meals.

It is now December. A few weeks ago I phoned to find out why my part was not in yet, it had been a month. They said they'd call the suppliers to see what was happening. Later, I got a call from a mortified, very honest woman, telling me she found it on their back bench of the shop, it had never left! She said they'd send it right away as a rush and make it up to me in the price....

So, that long story to say what? Yeah, sometimes it's a hassle to only making 6 cookies at a time. The compromise? I babysat for my sister-in-law one night and she let me bake my heart out! Yeah, it's a hassle using the hot plate that doesn't heat up. The compromise? We don't do things that need that kind of heat. What have we learned? Again, we see it's about patience and creativity. My kids, my husband and I learn about delayed gratification. We get a small glimpse(very small as we have back up) as to what it might be like to not have an oven. We become more grateful for things we'd normally take for granted. In the end it's a happy story.

Cherry turnovers in the toaster oven!

Flights!!!

Sunset tonight!

Do you need to get somewhere? I just found this fantastic flight sale as I was searching for a January flight. It's for West jet. Go to http://www.westjet.com/ on the book flights page enter this promo code 6L256R55. From Edmonton to Kelowna I found tickets for $49!!!! The code gets you $25 off one way or $50 return. To see all the details go to http://www.redflagdeals.com/ Combine it today with West jets sale on until midnight Dec 4.

Happy Flying!!!!Sue

Straight talk about Menu Planning

The sunrise this morning!

So today I thought I'd touch on menu planning. To be honest it's still one of the hardest discipline for me????The question marks are because I don't get me. A few minutes of planning feels like a week off. Therefore I did what others do when they are struggling with an issue...I found an accountability partner! Every Monday(mostly) we'd meet for a coffee and nobody leaves until menu planning is done. My friend didn't move when I did, and so I have spent the last year floundering in the planning department. Sometimes doing it and sometimes not. Recently during a phone conversation with this friend we came up with an idea....phone menu planning!!! You are probably wondering how this works. Well, on Monday I phone her and we arrange a time that day that works for both of us to be on the phone. At said time we pull out our cookbooks, having already done the dreaded fridge clean out, our schedules, and we are off. The conversation is one of each of us talking to ourselves about what we think will and won't work, with an occasional,"Oh, your having that?I could have that on Friday." Every so often we will ask for an easy recipe for something. I'll quickly check out http://www.allrecipes.com/ .They actually have an ingredient search where you type in what you have and they show you what you could make! I usually use a magnetic, erasable one week calendar, but just recently I found some very inexpensive paper calendars. I thought perhaps I could keep these menus so that in the future I could look back for ideas! I had hoped to put a picture here, but for some reason it only throws it at the top of the page? I will start a new blog with the calendar picture, sorry! Happy Planning ! Sue

Freebies

Costco has a picture deal right now.

Receive 5 free 5X7 photos. Follow this link www.costco.ca go the photo bar at the top. Click get started and then express. Upload your photos and use promo code CWAN1124, don't forget to push apply. Voila free photos! This promo can be read at http://www.getmoreofwhatyoulove.ca/offers/photooffers/ it is for Costco members. Enjoy!