I've been posting a lot on my other blog and started writing about living like the rich on a small budget. This has been such a fun venture with all my research!

This idea all started when I took a trip to Ottawa (our nation's capital) a few weeks ago. I had a free coupon for an AVEDA Stimulus package and I printed out one for my friend who said he'd be happy to join me. So we went to the store and got our free hand massage, neck & shoulder massage, a sensory journey with chakra oils, a cup of herbal tea and a handful of samples. I got my make up touched up as well but my friend sat that one out :) All this for free!! So I walked out of there feeling relaxed and happy. I also ended up winning a pair of jeans from the Gap from their new 1969 collection (through a card I got in a magazine I also got for free!)!! This was the start of a good weekend. I also ended up at Sephora and grabbed one of their "favorites' boxes for $15 with 5 luxurious creams. With a start like this, I knew I had to look into acquiring luxurious things for free because I sure did feel like a million bucks! I was armed with fancy jeans, aveda samples and discounted fancy creams from sephora. I also walked out of there with a sample of yummy shower gel.

After sampling the fancy creams and aveda products I knew I wanted more, but my wallet wasn't exactly content with the pricetags on these full sized items. So what to do? It's all about research...

Ok, so I got HOOKED on this Korres Guava Cream but for $29US for less than 8oz...i dunno. It makes me smell like a goddess and my skin has never been softer but $29? It's vegan too and organic. What more could I want right? So I went on ebay and purchased the same cream for $12. Score.

I had also purchased a Sephora's Favourite kit that included mascaras and a few eyeliners for cheap. I've been testing all the stuff and decided on my favourites. Again, do I wanna pay $24US for a mascara even if it is vegan, organic and has recycled packaging? Well.....No. But I would love to have this. Ebay let me down, the prices weren't great and most people were selling mini sizes. I emailed the company and they don't give out free samples either. hmmmm.....so it was on to my next favourite mascara, still waiting for the company to get back to me on that one. Worst case scenario, I ask my mom for a Sephora gift card for the holidays :)

Clothes and shoes. I'm pretty good when it comes to this. I wait for sales and discounts from retailers by signing up for newsletters and I am subscribed to Loulou Magazine which I got free with points. Loulou is Canada's version of Lucky Magazine in the US. They post LOADS of contests, freebies and shopping deals. I try to get a lot of my clothes at thrift stores and if I go to the one that's 90mins away, I can get alot of H&M and Banana Republic, two of my faves. I also love Jacob and go there when the sales are on. I got a skirt half price because the zipper was broken and that was half the sale price!! So I got a $80 skirt for $20. I also scored a pair of Lucky Brand Jeans for my sweetie for $40 down from $140! They had a sale and then they asked me to pick a card from a deck to get more of a discount. I picked the highest card with 40% off! Like I said, lucky weekend.

People say I am lucky, but I think frugality is also skill that you just acquire or work on over the years. Your brain just automatically trains itself. For example, when I want to book a flight, it takes me at least an hour to figure out alll the combinations to get there, go to the various websites and look for sales. I always come out with the best deal. Being frugal takes time and determination and some patience. I know some of my friends think I'm nuts but find this skill rather amusing. Often times they are shocked at the things I get and they tell me they don't have the patience to do it. I am the LEAST patient person I know so that comment always makes me laugh.

I've even had friends say I'm made of money which I laugh at. Ok, we're not poor but that's because I've been working and my contract has been extended over and over again AND I always get stuff on sale so it appears as though I have more. I've been stocking up on stuff and collecting points for when I am unemployed. Life as a temp is always an uncertain one so I need to be prepared. Yes, I can buy discounted shoes for $150 right now but likely in a few months I won't be able to and the bottom line is, I get almost everything free or discounted, that's the key. If I had gotten everything I have at full price, I'd be bankrupt right now. So yes, I travel, I buy fancy creams and shoes, go to some nice places for dinner and get massages but all of it is done for a lot cheaper. People just don't always know that.

I also discovered something: when I have quality products, I use a lot less. I have this Kiehl's Facial Scrub which I bought for about $25 back in February. I use it weekly and still have enough for at least two-three months. I've bought the cheap stuff and used that up in a few months. So really, what is cheaper? I tend to use a lot less of the good brands and it lasts longer. And yes, when I am unemployed and don't have much disposable income, it's back to the generic creams but I've seen some fancy brands at the dollarstore too...so watch for that! 

There is nothing wrong with wanting the nicer things in life if they make you feel good and if they don't break your budget. It's also about moderation. I might have my fancy cream but tomorrow I am bringing in beans for lunch with homemade bread. I'm not ordering $30 sushi :) Balance is key.

So if you can afford a few extra dollars for tiny luxuries or are able to get nice freebies, appreciate them because you never know how long it'll last. :)

Till the next post, hope everyone finds a little frugal luxury in their lives!

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Well it's been a little over a week since I've been back from Europe. I came home to 4 paychecks that were waiting for me and decided to put most of the money on our credit cards. Since we had used the cards for a few things while travelling, I wanted to make sure we paid it off.  So we came back to hardly any debt apart from the usual mortgage & car payments. All our bills are paid and our credit cards are almost paid off!

The reason this happened, is that we saved and paid for most things before leaving. We just needed spending money for some food and a few purchases. I was telling my friend that I save $35 a week year round for vacation spending money. This can be used for anything from a weekend trip to a 2 week vacation. It's amazing how quickly it ads up.

Believe it or not, I am off to Florida in less than 2 weeks for a concert. Flight, concert tickets and hotel have already been arranged! My friend and I got a hotel right on the beach with a coffee maker and fridge, that way we can buy food from the grocery store and store it. I managed to save $180 in spending money as well which is more than what I'll need. Travel is my weakness and I am frugal with almost everything since I always crave getting on a plane, it's my luxury. I always travel on a budget and do extensive research before buying a flight or booking accommodations.  

It's finally starting to get a little cooler here, not cold but 20degrees Celcius as opposed to the 28-29C that we've been having. I am not fond of heat, so I am very much looking forward to fall! I purchased a really cool scarf in Holland that I am dying to wear! For fall fashion, all I need are some bangles (easy to find at thrift stores, unmatched ones are good, that's the style), a few belts (cinching dresses and tops at the waist or even on hips over a long top is also fashionable), and a grey pair of slouch boots which you can wear even into the spring.  I splurged and bought a pair of bootie/platform shoes from Fluevog called "Ashbury" (see photo). I got them on sale for 50% off. I've been eyeing them for over a year but just couldn't afford the pricetag. When i walked into the shoe store the other day, I saw them and saw the sale. I asked what sizes were left and there was my size and a larger size only. I took this as a sign. yay!

They are solid shoes, my arthritic toe is very happy in them and they are surprisingly comfortable despite the ginormous heal! It's amazing anyone can walk in these but surprisingly, they're insanely comfy. These are being worn now and will be able to right through to early November. yay! They go great with leggings, jeans or even skirts even though they are chunky. I'm really starting to become this fashionista and find it easy to do by mixing thrift pieces with retail.

I know Yule is months away, but this is the time when I start making things for gifts including soap, jams and other goodies. I have made a Blueberry Agave Jam which is perfect for diabetics. I was getting tired of the sugar in jams and decided to try making it without it. I will make another batch tonight as I still have a few pounds of berries left. I have also ordered some large sealable tea bags to make my own bath tea for gifts and will dry my 3 types of mint in the garden to make "Triple Mint Tea" for gifts as well. Since we had terrible weather this year, I will not be making the zucchini salsa (I know I will get in trouble for this), unless I can get a hold of some free zuchinnis. We also only have 4 tomatoes in our garden right now, sadly the weather hasn't been great for growing.

I heard that my brother is getting married in a month. My mom said it's a quick ceremony at city hall so I won't be going because my brother is like me, weddings aren't really that important to him, it's just a formality. He will be having a little party in the spring (when his friend gets back from Afghanistan) which I may go to. Now I am wondering if I should send a gift or wait till the party. I know he wont' care either way and isn't expecting a gift from me but I'm wondering what the etiquette is on these things. I've really only been to 3 weddings in my life (one was my own) so I am not seasoned. They have everything as she was married before and they are both over 40 now. I am considering sending a movie basket for the whole family as there are 4 older kids in the house as well.

My work contract has been extended again. This is the longest work contract I've had since I started temping 7 years ago. I've been here almost a year and looks like I'll be here till November. wow. Because the money is decent, I am stocking up on everything to prepare for my upcoming unemployment as I never know how long I will go between contracts, sometimes it's only a few days but it can be up to two months.

Just two more days of work, then a great weekend ahead. I am planning to make soap and go on a Thrift Store spree for a few fall fashion items. Will try to post some recipes soon, I am cleaning out my freezer!
 

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Wow it's been ages since I've written here. I am still blogging on Wordpress but miss the crowd here sometimes and thought I'd post a few things in case anyone was intereted :)

I've been really busy at work, holding the fort while my boss is gone this month. He did my paperwork for my pay last week and told me I had an extra 30 hours for two weeks! I am still on a healthy government salary till the end of the month till I go back to my temp wages so in terms of money this month and all the hours, I will technically get an extra paycheck! With this salary it really works out great so I'm pretty happy about this. This extra money comes right in time for my vacation in a few weeks.

Speaking of travel, I have booked 4 plane tickets in the past two weeks. Two for our upcoming trip (Belgium, Holland and Czech Rebublic) , seeing Depeche Mode in Florida in September and my 40th birthday trip to San Francisco in February. I got cheap tickets to all of these destinations and have become very good at finding them. The key is to sign up to all of those sites where they send you weekly travel deals, as well as airline websites. My 40th is in February and didn't plan on purchasing tickets so soon but then I found a deal that was impossible to pass up. If you are going overseas, there are dozens of no frills airlines which offer discounts. Our trip from Holland to Prague (about a 2 hour trip) is costing us 68euros return for two tickets! If you do your research, you can get such good deals. I also discovered that airport taxes here in Canada are ridiculous, so if I am flying somewhere in the US, I make sure I don't make a stopover in another Canadian city. If the stopover is in the US, the ticket will cost me less...sad but true. I know I travel alot but this is where I spend my money. Some people buy stuff, fancy foods, dinners, have a few cars but if I have extra money it goes towards a train/plane or bus ticket. I was often called a gypsy before I settled into one city for awhile. I just love to move around. :) If it's too expensive for you to fly somewhere, get a rideshare to a neighbouring town or perhaps a bus and look up some people to stay with on couchsurfing.com. Getting away doesn't have to mean getting on a plane, even just a change of scenery is good! Also try hostelworld.com for cheap accommodations worldwide. No one is ever too old to stay in hostels or fun budget hotels. :)

I also recently started making all my own facial products (toner, cleanser and anti wrinkle cream). I have been using them all for about 2 weeks ago (in the morning only) and am shocked as to how my skin looks. I have always had pretty good young looking skin but I no longer wanted to spend $28 on a jar of Avon cream. I was a little worried as to how things were going to go after I stopped with the Avon but am pleasantly surprised. I decided to sell a facial kit in my Etsy.com shop for $8.50 as I wanted to share and be able to offer this to those like me who want nice skin but not want to spend the money on it.

We had a month of rain/clouds which just ended two days ago. Unfortunately due to the bad wet weather, I didn't plant my garden which means no harvest this year. I am really sad about this. It's been a huge problem for some farmers as well. I still had my strawberries and rhubarb which I made jam from, and my raspberries which should be ready in two weeks. This will give me enough jam for presents!

I've also been hosting a bunch of couchsurfers which has been very rewarding, as usual. Some of you already know that I am on couchsurfing.com and have people stay free at my house year round. I met a wonderful med student from Taiwan who gave me some lovely treats from Taipei, a charm which is often used for the dragon boat festivals and somat as he is having the good chinese medicine advice! The beautiful thing about hosting travellers is being able to learn so many things from different countries and also enjoy some good company and of course a free place to stay if I visit their city/country.

Since we're going away for 2 weeks and no longer have friends in town who can house and cat sit, I had to figure out a way to get someone to do this. Since I can't really pay to have someone come in once a day, I decided to join a housesitting network. A lot of people form aorund the world do this when they retire, just go around the world and housesit for people for free. This gives them a place to travel and a free place to stay. I also didn't want to board my 14 year old cat as he has trouble walking and needs care. He is in good spirits but is physically a little challenged. Long story short, i will meet the couple who will housesit for us for free. They live in New Zealand but are here now visiting family for 3 months. I am very excited that my cats will be cared for and the house will have people in it which will prevent the house from being broken into. A win win situation. Try housecarers.com if you are looking for anyone

That's about it for now. Till the next post! Hope everyone is having a good summer. Below is a photo of one of the places I will be going in August. Looking forward to visiting the oldest Jewish Cemetary in the world, largest castle in the world and Kafka's gravesite. Very cool.

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I haven't written on here in awhile as I have been busy travelling and I've also been posting on my Wordpress.com blog (so check there for recipes and ideas). http://thefrugalvegan.wordpress.com

Looks like I'll be travelling more this summer, which wasn't my intention. A friend of mine is having a terrible crisis and I have to fly back to where he lives (I was there 3 weeks ago). Luckily I am on my friend's partner list to fly alone on his flight passes so I can get there and back for $150 (as opposed to $400!). I also found out one of my favourite bands of all time is playing in my home town on July 25th! My friend is moving on the 24th and is headed where I am going, so I will get a ride with him, then fly back on my friends flight passes. YAY :o)

Other than that, I must report that the guests I've had from Airbnb.com have been GREAT! I always get my payments from the website the day the guests actually leave which they deposit in my paypal. Two guests actually bought me a fancy bottle of wine on top of paying for accommodations! I only charge $20US for the room so perhaps they felt it was worth more? I always make muffins or leave out bread with homemade preserves. Last night I had a guest come around dinner and I had some leftover Pad Thai and Rhubarb Strawberry crisp. She was pleased :) I've made $100US in a month through Airbnb bookings so I'm pretty happy. I still host couchsurfers for free (www.couchsurfing.com) as well and the season is getting fairly busy. I make sure to put fresh wild flowers from my garden in the room and a small piece of handmade soap. I LOVE to host people and the fun part is that I get to meet folks from all over the world and have a place to stay when I go there. 

Yesterday was my day off and I spent the whole day making Ethiopian Dishes. If you do a search on Thrifty Fun for Ethiopian all the recipes are posted on this website. I froze everything and am in the midst of making a sour dough type mixture to make the special bread which is called Injera. I've never been successful at making it but am giving it another shot. *crossing fingers*

This year I am attempting to make my own teas, so I planted some Coleus Mint, Apple Mint, Pineapple Sage, Chamomile & Lemon Balm. I've purchased empty tea bags as well so let's hope this works! 

My goal is to save water this summer by making a rain barrel. A friend of mine can get a hold of an oil barrell to make one and he says buying a tap won't cost more than $10. They sell rain barrels at the store for about $100 and I really don't want to spend that when we can easily make it ourselves.

Other than that, things are coming along with the renovations. The painters are coming in 2 weeks to paint the trim. Right now the front of our house looks pretty terrible and the painter said the paint job might even be 10 years old and someone did it themselves. I wanted it to look professional and was happy with the price they quoted me. The installer for the kitchen also came in to measure so I'm pretty excited. It probably won't get done till September though.

My sweetie keeps getting job offers left right and centre from the company he works for. They are throwing money at him and all kinds of benefits, one guy even said that he can ask for anything he wants and he'll get it. wow. They do this every month or two, and I am getting tired of having the moving conversations with him. I'm glad he's not a corporate climber type or else we would have moved a long time ago (and I probably would have left him). He's a brilliant man but his personal life is more important than work, which is why I am with him :) We concluded that life where we are is better and that the corporate rate race is only going to make him miserable. My dad dug himself an early grave, he was a workaholic and ran companies and died at 66. My husband doesn't want that fate. Maybe we are not millionaires but we are healthy and happy. I think with all that money, he'd be working too much and there would be no quality life for us. So I'm happy..money isn't everything and I know this from experience.

Hope everyone has a nice frugal week! 

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I feel like winter has lasted way too long this year! Even in April, it's fairly cold where I live and we still have to wear spring jackets, sometimes even scarves. Yesterday we were blessed with 80 degree weather (definitely abnormal!) and it's now back to being cool again today. Typical atlantic weather :) 

Luckily, I had the day off yesterday so I was able to enjoy some of the beautiful weather. I planted 8 spider plants from all the cuttings I had and hung some laundry on the line for the second time this year!

I also hired the least expensive cleaners I could find and two of them spent 6 hours in my house spring cleaning and organizing! We couldn't believe the difference!! I wish I had been blessed with being able to clean well, but I suppose I was just blessed with other things. Their services put a small dent in my wallet but at the same time it was needed and since my mom is coming to visit, she won't say things like "How can you live like this?" :D When she visits I get stressed out because she inspects my house and makes comments....if she says anything, I'll tell her to call the cleaners instead and tell them :P

I also have a guest from airbnb.com coming in tomorrow so having a clean house is great! The extra income is nice and I am hoping to host at least a few nights a month. I have decided to have these cleaners come every two weeks now that I can afford it, and when my contract ends hopefully I can find someone who likes to barter.  The cleaners even brought me some homemade cookies to snack on! wow! During these times, customer service is really what will get people clients, they definitely won me over with their exceptional skills and friendliness. What surprised me is that their quality of work exceeded what other more expensive cleaners had done in my house. So if you are starting a cleaning business, bringing homemade goods to first time clients might be a way to get them hooked :)

On another note, I am back at doing yoga regularly and out of my hibernation! I was itching to do a teacher training course but upon doing research again, I realized that it would be a minimum of $3000 and that's if I wanted to take it in my city. I haven't connected much with the schools that offer it here and flying to India and Thailand for a month isn't an option at the moment. I could do it in September when my contract is over, but since I don't know if I'll have work lined up, spending that much money to go away for a month is too risky. I ended up finding a recognized correspondence course for $370US and I have a year to complete it! All exams and tutoring are included and there is an online community and forums as well as videos and podcasts to stay in contact. I had been looking at it for a few months and finally bit the bullet! I am really excited!!!  I have a year to do it but apparently depending on your level it can be done in 3-4 months. I'll see how it goes :)) To motivate myself, I have made a website with information and potential dates for holding free yoga classes on the full moon later this summer.
 

2 more weeks till my next trip. I have a feeling this is going to be a good one. I have $200 spending money saved up for it and already found a cheap yoga class while I am there. I love to get on a plane!

Hope everyone is enjoying their spring and watching the flowers grow. :)

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I havent really known what to write lately. My life has been pretty quiet. I had a hectic day Friday at work as I was holding the fort alone and one of the cabinet ministers and the mayor were in so I had to organize everything for all kinds of meetings. YIkes! I was happy to be done at the end of the day and met for coffee with a friend.

I finally got out to socialize last night. An ex took me to a party where I knew no one but recognized some people from around town. I made some new friends and was pleased to know there were more alternative people over 35 still around! yay! It restored my faith in this city. I really thought I was almost alone in the way I live. The ex provided the alcohol for the party which was nice. 4 various fruity coolers that were quite tasty! I am not much of a drinker so he knows I like those :) I didn't have dinner because I knew food would be supplied, ALL VEGAN! So i stuffed my face with all kinds of yummy appetizers and also made cookies for the party. The french in me always needs to bring food wherever I go, it's definitely a cultural thing!

I then went to another bar to see another ex who was in from out of town. He bought me two drinks so I only spent $5 on cover charge and that was it for the night! People should be so lucky to have exes like mine..i love them dearly as friends and they are incredible! I've never had a boyfriend treat me badly or be a jerk. For the most part, they are all great people even though the relationships ended. I am even still in contact with two exes from over 20 years ago! Ive been blessed with good people in my life :)

Today is the day to do groceries and laundry. It's finally nice enough outside so I can hang my laundry for the first time this season. I am so excited about that. One of the grocery stores is having a 2/1 sale on lots of items, including soymilk so I will stock up for the summer. I will also plant some seeds since the house is finally getting a bit warmer too without heat. I made some planters out of egg cartons and also toilet paper rolls. I bought luffa seeds which i've never grown before but heard they are easy. I am so excited as i'll be able to use them for gifts, and grated in soap for exfoliation.

That's about it for me! Hope everyone had a frugal weekend too!

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Ok, so lately I've been on a shopping kick (mostly online) trying to replace old bad shoes and replacing some clothes with more sustainable fabric ones. I'm happy that my money is going to good places for good things but am feeling a lot of guilt for spending. So here is where I need to justify it to myself:

I was telling my sweetie that now that I am working and making good money I should do these things now before my contract ends when I won't be able to. I am making sure to pay my credit card which is almost paid off, so I'm not doing too badly! I am also using paypal for purchases since I do sell things on Etsy.com and have some money in there at times from my sales.

Ive done a lot of spring purging and am in the midst of replacing a few things including cotton menstrual pads. My sweetie had sewn some for me years ago but they were ready to be thrown out and to get him to sew ones for me can take awhile. He's pretty busy and does do it when asked when they are small projects but sewing a bunch of menstrual pads is a lot of work and sadly I can't sew even though I've tried numerous times. I found someone on Etsy who was selling 3 for the price of two and since she lives close to me the shipping was inexpensive. I find I need at least 5-7 of them but will settle for 3 for now :) Maybe I can ask him to teach me again (after doing it 10 times already!) so I can download a good pattern and give it another shot! In the long run, these pads do save money. I use them with a sea sponge which can be used for months before being discarded. So I can justify this :)

My spring/summer wardrobe is now fairly complete,mostly from thrift purchases from last year and some new handmade items purchased this year. I just need to find a good big tote/purse and some funky chunky jewelry to make my looks complete. I've never been good at accessorizing and still working on it. :)

I''ve decided to make a list of things I need and keep it with me for when I go to thrift stores! Sure, I've seen tons of great purses online...for $150 but figured purses aren't one of those things to spend a ridiculous amount of money on. I'd love to find something that I can take with my on my travels next month, big enough to hold my mini laptop and other goods but not soooo big that it looks like a sloppy shopping bag. :) I have another month to find one!

On another note, my other blog is going well. I am holding an earth day contest so anyone who is interested can go check it out: Http://thefrugalvegan.wordpress.com

I'll try to post a pic of me sometime with a new spring look with all my finds! Could be fun!

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Lately I've been trying to make my home more "green", getting rid of regular facecloths and handwowels and replacing them with hemp, using all green cleaners and body products. Lucikily, green cleaners can be made at home or bought cheaply at the stores! 

I was left with my regular deodorant and shampoo/conditioner which I wanted to change but organic alum free deodorant is about $6. At the grocery store today, I found tons of organic deodorant for 50% off from Kiss my Face so I bought 4 of them, as well as some organic conditioner for $3! I was so excited! I also purchased a large natural lemon non-aerosol bathroom spray for $4! Normally 1/4 of the size of this spray is about $6 (I know because I bought it before). I was excited to see more people using eco-friendly products in the world which means prices are getting more reasonable.

I am on the lookout for natural hemp yarn so my mom can knit me some dish cloths to replace all my other ones. I just love that hemp is mold and mildew resistant! I still can't afford big hemp bath towels but will get to that eventually :) I also picked up a recycled cotton non bleached mattress pad for the queen bed in the other guestroom. We didn't have one on there and everytime someone stayed in that bed the sheets would come off. It's nice and fluffy and was $25 at a discount store.

I spent more money than usual today but we hadn't really been spending much at all the past 6 weeks or so. It just seemed like we needed so many things all of a sudden. We finally stocked up on groceries and won't need to go for at least another month, if not longer. We only spent about $50. Tomorrow we'll head out to another bargain store which is selling 2L orange juice for $1.29! Does anyone know if these can be frozen? Also picked up 50 twinings green tea bags for $3 (down from 7) and Colgate sensitive toothpaste 2/$3!!! They are normally $4 each so we bought 8 of them. My sweetie needs sensitive toothpaste, Colgate is his favourite but I always bought the Arm & Hammer as it is cheaper...though this was even cheaper than that, so we stocked up! Tomorrow I;lll pick up my Crest Pro Health Toothpaste 2/$4. Funny, ever since I started using that toothpaste I've had no dental issues! I go to the dentist twice a year and haven't had ANY cavities since using it...so I recommend it. Preventative healthcare :D

We'll also head out to the thrift store, haven't been there in ages. Can't wait to see what we'll find there.

Made some Granola using my cast iron skillet. Only takes 5 minutes or so as the pan gets hot so fast and stays hot so it cooks the granola even when I take it off the heat. It's wonderful. I don't understand why people buy it as it's so cheap and easy to make and tastes 100 times better than storebought.

The sun is finally shinning! Hoping it will stay this way for awhile. We still have the woodstove going but happy that the sun decided to make an appearance! Have a good weekend everyone!
 

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After waiting 6 weeks I finally got paid!! The good news is that I was being extra frugal since my money wasn't coming in for work...darn government can take forever sometimes. When my two cheques came in my boss and I realized that they still owe me about $250 in overtime but we emailed them. These overtime cheques usually come separately so let's hope it comes in soon. I was able to almost pay off my credit card with some of the money and a few bills too. When my overtime cheque comes in, we'll be paid off on all our bills entirely and all we'll have left is the usual mortgage/car payments to make....finally! 

I was so thrilled with my money that I treated myself to a few handmade goodies on Etsy and another pair of John Fluevog shoes on sale for $100 instead of $300! I am in the midst of replacing all my discount shoes because they are just bad for my feet and arthritis. My mom was thrilled to hear that, she harassed me about my bad shoes for years and thought she was just being a typical woman but she wasn't. She said I wore special orthopedic shoes as a kid. Maybe had she told me years ago, I would have invested in my footwear a lot sooner. I used to be very frugal with shoes but sadly I can't buy at Payless or other discount stores. I do look for designer shoes like Clarks at the thrift store but have never found any...sadly. It's good to be frugal with a lot of things but for me it just can't be footwear.

I also got some special gift tags made out of handmade paper with seeds in them. You give the tag with a gift and they can plant it right in the yard! I want to learn to make these myself this summer when I start collecting seeds from my garden. I've always wanted to learn how to make my own paper. This is definitely a summer project to come!

My frugal meal plan is almost done. Should be up on my new blog this weekend. I seem to have quite a few readers right now and I suspect the stats will go up once I post the meal plan. I'm excited and hope this will help a lot of people. I'll keep giving the cooked food I am testing to the soup kitchen, they seem to really appreciate it.

I'm so glad it's Friday tomorrow. It's been a long slow week at work so the days aren't going by very fast. I am hoping to make it to yoga tomorrow night for their cheap class. There is an independent film festival here in town which I wanted to attend as they have a handful of free events. It's still fairly cold out so I haven't been in the mood to venture out.

I made a list of all the Loss Leader items in the flyers I got today. Not much on sale right now for me. I haven't done a full grocery shopping in over a month since cleaning out my pantry/fridge/freezer and using what I have on hand. It's amazing. I have replenished a few things but haven't spent more than $20 in a week if even that. I usually just buy organic local tofu and some stuffed grapeleaves at the market and a few veggies at a discount fruit/veggie store. Other than that, I eat what I have stocked up through the weekly specials. I'm going to make some more granola in my iron skillet this weekend so I have breakfast for the week. I was getting tired of hot oatmeal and needed a change. I made some last week with carob chips and will do that again...mmmmm.

I am going to check out the thrift store this weekend! I just cleaned out my closet and realized I need more shirts, the ones I had were getting a bit grungy and used looking. I need something more clean cut looking and less bohemian for work. Most of my clothes are pretty artsy/bohemian/funky looking which makes it tough to dress for work. I don't enjoy conservative clothing so I usually pair up something conservative with funky jewelry to make it my own unique look. Lately I've been doing the bohemian look at work because no one important has been in the office lately, though I have to find more spring-y stuff. All the work clothes I currently have is more for fall/winter.

Hope everyone has a frugal weekend!

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The past 24 hours I've tested 5 of the recipes for the meal project I am doing and will be taking it to the local soup kitchen this afternoon. I found out on the weekend that they take any food including people's leftovers! So I made some Caribbean Rice & Beans, Moroccan Black Bean Stew, Split Pea Soup and Lentil Chili with cornmeal muffins. The meals serve 4-6 people each so I am hoping that will help them. I will make more food this week.

I've been lazy with yoga lately but should get there today. I have a gym pass left which would give me a free class. since it's my day off, i don't have any excuses..though we do have LOTS of snow now which fell last night, pretty sad as it's supposed to be spring! :(

I'm also ready to start planting my seeds indoors soon. I will use my hubby's empty egg cartons, empty yogurt containers I found at work and some toilet paper rolls to plant them. I just need to get some soil. I bought luffa seeds and will start that for the first time this year. I thought it would be a nice addition to give with my handmade soap.

I'm trying to Eco-Green my house now as budget minded as possible. It's tough. We now have our woodstove which will save us lots of $$ each year. Next is getting a special insulation blanket for the water tank and some foam insulation for the attic. The space could be usable if we could renovate it and lots of heat escapes from there, insulating is a good start! I've already replaced all my washcloths & handtowels with hemp ones as they are mold and mildew resistant. We'll be getting a hemp shower curtain as they will last years unlikes those awful plastic ones that we end up throwing out ever so often and end up in the landfill...yikes. I've unplugged almost everything we barely use, such as some radios and lights. I've also replaced all the soaps in the guestroom bathroom with handmade stuff and biodegradable versions. I just need to get some organic shampoo and conditioner which I am having a rough time finding cheap. I've come to the conclusion that sometimes it's best to get better quality stuff because then we won't have to replace them all the time.

I did a spring cleaning of my shoes and boots and ended up with a bag full which I will give to charity. The past 1 1/2 years or so I've been buying very good quality shoes on sale only and replacing all the bad shoes I have. I can't believe how much better my arthritis seems since I've been wearing good shoes. Sadly I have to rebuy all the stuff I had before though. I'm hooked on John Fluevogs right now and found a pair on the website for $100 (usually they are almost $300). The nice thing about fluevogs is that no matter what, you can sell them. Even after 10 years of usage, someone will buy them because there tends to be a lof of collectors out there. So worst case scenario if I am done with them in a few years, it won't be hard to sell them. So I never feel too bad about buying those :) I feel bad right after purchasing them but in the end I am always happy with my purchase.

I might and wait to do laundry for another few days as it might actually get warmer. I really wanted to hang my clothes outside! Oh well..darn snow.

Hope everyone is having a frugal weekend. Looks like apart from going to the gym and dropping off food at the soup kitchen, I'll be home most of the day as the weather is terrible.

Hope it is sunny wherever you are!

 

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As some of you might already be aware, I am VERY busy with my new blog. I am currently creating a project to feed Vegans (applicaple to vegetarians too) for one week on a low budget. It is similar to the Hillbilly Housewife one but  intented for those of you who prefer to avoid animal products. I've had some challenges with the project due to the high rising costs of food around here and have had to adapt some of my frugal recipes to make them even cheaper. I have the budget set to about $32US (40Cdn). (3 meals a day)

The plan will include Menu, Preparation, Grocery list and Recipes. The grocery list is intented for those who have nothing in their pantry aside from salt and pepper so likely this will be cheaper for a lot of you.

I also discovered that buying in bulk is always more economical so having to purchase small amounts of items was not only challenging but more expensive in the end. Some meals are fairly basic and include ramen noodles and others will be more exotic like Morroccan Stew. I am hoping to have the entire Plan posted within 1-2 weeks as I still have to test out some of my adapted recipes.

I have decided to reach out to my community and donate the tested cooked meals to a vegan/veggie family in need. Still waiting for some canditates right now as I just posted my offer on a few lists I am on locally.

The Menu will feed 4 adults and you might have some leftovers from some of the dishes, so in the end you are actually getting a bit more for your buck :) 

If you're interested in reading about it and other projects, feel free to check out my new blog:
Http://thefrugalvegan.wordpress.com

Topics:
Penny Jar Project, Meal Plan, Recipes, Budget & Finance, Bath & Beauty & more!

I will still post on here time to time, but I seem to have more readers there....sad but true! 
Hope everyone is having a frugal week!

peace.

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I finally sold the old sink yesterday, which gave me $25 this week for pocket money. My friend and I went to the market but I held back on buying too much, just some stuffed grapeleaves & a small treat for breakfast which was nice, organic cinnamon bun sweetened with apples & maple syrup! mmmmmmm

We were going to an Ostara (Spring Equinox) celebration all afternoon and since there was a potluck afterwards, I made some cherrio squares with some baking goods I had left in my pantry :) It was $5 to participate all day and included workshops and also a talk from a world-famous woman who organized this event: http://www.firethegrid.com/, She lives in my area so it was nice to meet her and know what she is doing! Her message is non-denominational which was quite nice too. Nothing worse than people giving these types of messages who are judgemental of others' beliefs right? So she got a lot of respect from me. We're all human. I guess I wish people saw our similarities more than our differences sometimes. :)

 I also attended the leather working workshop (not applicaple to me as a vegan but interesting nevertheless!) The potluck afterwards was really great so basically we got a free dinner out of it too.  Some man brough some free ready made Rooibos Chai tea in large bottles for us to take for free. He said they were a bit expired but were still good to drink, so we both took two bottles of it. I love free stuff!

Today I'll be baking some fresh bread, i have lots of flour and have found some breadmaker yeast in my pantry which I haven't used in awhile. I'll also be attending Food Not Bombs to see what kind of free produce I can get from there. I am really happy with all the food I've found and made this week, cleaning out the fridge and pantry was a great idea, though now it's getting a little bare! Let's hope I get my paycheck this week to finally be able to replenish properly.

I went grocery shopping with my friend and was price comparing for a project I am doing. I don't know about you guys, but seems like prices have been jacked up in the last month. I used to be able to buy coconut milk for 99cents and now it's up to $1.39!!! How did that happen?? There is a wholesale place that sells it too for 79cents if you buy more than 4 cans and will check if they still have some. I don't want to pay 1.39! Ouch. Small bags of pasta used to be 89cents and now they are $1.29. *sigh*. Today we'll head to the dollarstore as they usually have pasta there, and if I'm lucky maybe I'll find coconut milk, I tound some soymilk last week for $1 and bought 10 of them. I was thrilled. Now I'll be stocked for awhile. Price shopping just seems a lot more imperative these days,every cent counts.

I will also head out to the Lebanese bakery to try and get some free pita. I wanted to make hummus but the pita I had picked up there last week went mouldy beacause I forgot to put it in the fridge. Stupid me.

I love spring. I see the signs of it everywhere now and with all the decluttering we're doing, I feel more refreshed and happy. We're saving money heating the house with the woodstove which makes me feel good. I've noticed our waterbill is reduced because of our front loader washer/dryer and soon the electricty bill will reduce because we'll be drying clothes outside. Our shower heads are low flow too. I would love to make my house more "green". I've received the crochet face scrubbies  to apply my facial toner, so no more cotton ball waste. Now I'm just waiting for the hemp face cloths and hand towels I bought from some money I won. Hemp is great because it doesn't attract mold and mildew and will last longer. I will put my old facecoths and hand towels in a yard sale this summer.  The guest room has homemade "eco" hand, body & face soap now too. Things are finally coming together!

My breakfast this morning consisted of a smoothie made with frozen fruit I had on hand, a banana and orange juice I had gotten on sale for cheap, and a nice cup of Ethiopian Organic Coffee. That's one thing I never cheap-out on, is coffee. I cant. I'll buy no-name EVERYTHING but my coffee has to be fair trade organic. It's my guilty pleasure. That's what happens when you grow up French....coffee and chocolate really need to be quality for some reason. My whole family is like that :)

Off to run some errands, hope everyone had a frugal weekend!

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My sweetie and I finally bit the bullet and purchased a woodstove insert for our fireplace! We had gotten all the information last year, even went as far as have them come down and measure everything too. Problem was, when we looked at our finances at that time we decided not to do it. We could have bought it then but had other priorities. :(

Thank goodness the company still had all our information. All we had to do was walk in there and tell them we wanted it. They repriced it (sadly prices go up..argh) and we got it. Since they are not busy this time of year, they said they could install it next week! Not much winter left but March where we live is really unpredictable; one day it can be sunny and the snow is slowly melting, then the next day it's FREEZING cold and we have a storm. Not that I want more snow, but maybe just one really cold day to try out the stove. This will save TONS in heating costs and we'll get our money back in no time. We're very excited.

Speaking of warm things...my sweetie was out the other night at a bar after a concert he had gone to and found one of those coffee cards that you can put money on. Usually you can register them so if you lose them you can just cancel it online. He told me he had no idea if there was money on it, but said that most people never register those things. I do! Today I went online, punched in the numbers and to my surprise it was NOT registered and there was a little over $7 left on it! WOW! I was so excited. Not only do I love coffee, but I love free things. I kind of felt bad for the person who lost it, but I did register it even though there was only $7 on it. I am not a huge fan of this coffee chain but hey, it's free coffee. I will keep it for my next trip, as where I am going there is one of these coffee shops right around the corner from my friends place so it could be useful and cut down on spending money.

I seem to be very lucky with things these days! So if you have one of those cards, you might want to register it before you use it so if you lose it or it gets stolen, your money won't be lost. Hopefully this person will learn that, though frankly, most people probably don't even care :)

Hope everyone is having a frugal weekend!

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FINISHING UP A ZINE, ANYONE WANNA HELP AND MAKE $$?

I emailed a woman who runs another frugal site and got permission to reprint an article she wrote which I loved!  I offered a copy of the zine and a reference to her website. I had a hunch she would be ok with my zines for some reason. Lucky for me she accepted and I can print it for free! (some sites want $$$ or don't allow you to reprint because of copyright issues)

I write most of my content but do take some articles from various sources sometimes. The zine is almost completed but I am trying to find someone to write a Newbie Frugal Gardening Article for me, half a page. I posted a request on ThriftyFun but it is still pending at this time. An acquaintance was supposed to write it for me last fall, i waited all winter and never go it so now I am coming to you for help! :) I'm not a gardening guru and feel it's not my place to write such things and would rather leave it in the hands of gardening goddesses & gods who have a passion for it. :) So if any of you want $5US (which i am paying via paypal) and a copy of the new zine mailed to you in the spring, please send me a green/frugal/DIY/beginner gardening article (point form is good as it'll just be half a page). I'll pick a winner!! For the record, it IS an indie zine with some punk & hippy anarchist type content  sometimes that could offend some, so make sure you really want it. LOL. I'm known for my rants sometimes, so be forewarned, though this particular zine isn't too heavy on the rants! The article must be written from your own experience & written with some type of flair, very casual and fun as my readers are generally younger alternative type of people. It's up to you what tips you want to focus on, I will pick the right one. Email me at: goddessfreya@gmail.com with your submissions and write "Gardening Article" in the title. THANKS!

For more informaiton on my other zines, click here: http://www.thefrugalvegan.tk (all my zines are anti-copyright which means people can reproduce them for free & even resell them if they wish, this way the info gets out fast and around the world!)

TRAVELLING PLANS!

I know you won't believe this, but I am already planning another trip! Mid May if I can get everything worked out. Problem is, I just found a REALLY good seat sale with only a couple of seats left to where I am going. If I bought the tickets now, I'd be saving about $150 unless the competitor decides to do their own seat sale soon. Another option for me is to fly on my friends' passes which would cost save me about $300 believe it or not. The only issue with that, is travelling standby and I know how that worked out last time!! But I am flying within the country and the airline has more than one or two flights a day which ups my chances of getting on. Still debating...do i buy seat sale or do i just go standby?

Decisions, decisions.........

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MOVING MY BLOG!!

If anyone reads my blog on here, I wanted to let you know that I will be moving it to a new home soon. Still ironing out a few things and trying to figure the website out; the thriftyfun.com blog is much easier to create than the one I am currently trying to use. The reason for doing this, is that I'd like to write more but realize that I could offend some people with some of my content.  

I would like to incorporate my blog with my frugal zine website (www.thefrugalvegan.tk) (which sweetie is going to redesign as I don't have the patience) and be able to write freely without worrying about the "alternative" content of my writings.

Here is the new link in case anyone is interested but I won't be posting there right away. I will let everyone know when I will stop here and start there: http://thefrugalvegan.wordpress.com/

I just find that I leave things out on this blog sometimes,  fearing that it might not be appropriate for this website (even if they are saving tips!) but I'm now realizing I really want to write about my life more and how I save and what i save on :) Make sense?

Hope to see some of you at the new blog, it's more interactive too. Wordpress has some great blogs, as do blogger.com

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Looks like we're being flooded with spam blog posts in here again! How dare people? Sadly, most of us won't even read them so these people are truly wasting their time!

LOOFAH/LUFFA SEEDS

I decided to purchase some Loofah seeds this year. My florist friend suggested I grow them as they are easy and he knows I make my own bath/body stuff too. The loofahs would make a nice gift with a homemade shower gel or soap. I could even grate the loofahs and put them in my soaps to act as an exfoliator. I purchased them on ebay for $3 (140 seeds!). The man selling them has been growing them for 40 years so I'm assuming these are good ones :)

BAD WEATHER & LAZY COOKING

The weather has been quite nice lately, sunnier, a little warmer and lighter too. I was in a good mood in the morning as the sun was shining but when I left the office it was snowing hard and it got cold and dark all of a sudden. My mood just changed immediately. In the morning, i could have taken on the world but as soon as I saw that snow, I just wanted to go home and hibernate. I made myself some ramen noodles with two cups of veggies, a little soy sauce and fresh ginger. I just made it for myself as my sweetie wasn't home yet and I was starving. I RARELY cook in the microwave but told sweetie when he got home, that he'd be getting macaroni and cheese with a veggie dog which I did in the microwave in 10 minutes (I know, not that healthy but he was in the mood for it.) We had bought the mac and cheese on sale at 30 cents a box which is cheap here. He rarely eats that type of food so the food is there for emergencies, like last night when neither of us wanted to cook!

FOOD & FLYERS

For lunch I brought some Lentil Stew I had in the freezer, 2 apples (one for a snack in the morning and one for a snack in the afternoon) and some oatmeal with a banana to eat at work for breakfast since I did not have time this morning. I perused the flyers only to find stuff I never buy (meat, sugary and processed foods). Argh. So off to my fave fruit/veggie store this weekend and the bulk place to stock up on legumes, beans and grains. The only sale I found was for sugar (2kg for 99cents which is a good price here). I prefer not to use white sugar but I do buy it for making things like cakes.

EVENING PLANS

My sweetie is off to a concert tonight as his company got some free box VIP tickets. I could have gone but I really don't like this band, they play maritime type music, sort of that folky irish type stuff. Just not my style of music. He is just going because it's free and there will be free food and drinks. I'll have the house to myself and will make some Ethiopian Lentils & if I have the time, more muffins and some cocoa butter soap which I've been itching to make. If you guys are interested in making Ethiopian food that's really cheap, do a search on this website for Ethiopian, I posted tons of recipes on here with photos. EASY!

Will post more later....

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Yesterday I had a great frugal day off! I was looking through my cards and noticed I had enough stamps for a free sushi lunch, so off I went! Then I discovered another card with enough stamps for a free coffee down the street from the sushi place...so off I went for that! Refills were only 60cents and the coffee is fair trade! I had brought my small ASUS EEE laptop with me and caught up on some emails since that cafe has free internet. I sat there for a few hours till our bank apt at 4pm.

Because of low interest rates right now, we consolidated a few things and ended up getting money to buy our wood stove insert for the fireplace and redo our kitchen! YAY! Wood Stove will save us TONS of money in oil costs and I have a friend who can get us free wood! Since my mom has always wanted to be an interior designer but claimed she was "too old" to go do it by the time we were out of the house, I am going to ask her to fly down and help me with the kitchen. I am a terrible decorator and not good with any home design projects. That always surprises people since I am very creative, just not good at the decorating stuff at all. My mom has a great eye and good ideas. My only concern is that money was never an issue for her when she designed her home, so as long as I stress to her that I don't want a $1000 granite sink I think we'll be ok. I remember her telling me that the custom blinds in her condo kitchen which cover a small window were about $700! She's BIG on quality stuff, though at the same time she understands that I am not made of money and I'm sure she'll find more frugal ideas for my kitchen :)

On another note, I made some home facial products that I am really liking. I made them for a friends birthday but had some leftover which I tested. These items make for a really great frugal "organic type gift for friends and family! Here are the recipes:

HONEY LAVENDER CLEANSER

2 tbsp clear honey

1 1/2 tsp Dr. Bronners Organic Fair Trade Lavender Castille Soap (you can use unscented)

1/4 cup vegetable glycerine

Combine eveything in a bowl and stir. Store in a dark bottle. Use about 1 tsp to cleanse face. Remember to wet your face/hands before applying cleanser. 

GREEN TEA TONER

3 bags green tea (steeped in 2/3 cup boiling water)

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

4 drops ylany ylang essential oil

4 drops lemon essential oil

Combine cooled tea, cider vinegar and essential oils and store in a dark bottle. Use after cleansing your face. Then apply face moisturizer.

It was my friend's birthday and we ended up going to Boston Pizza as they have cheap pasta specials on Tuesdays! The dinner alone was under $20 for both of us, so definitely a good deal for a night out! We went back to his place to have dessert (the chocolate cake with peanut butter icing I made) and some coffee. This saved on dinner costs and he much prefers a homemade cake over getting something at a restaurant anyway.

Planning to make some cocoa butter soap tonight if I feel up for it. Stay tuned!

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Boy am I glad it's friday. Not that my job is stressful but I feel like I've been on the go now for 3 weeks.....Dominican Republic, then 1 week very ill and bed ridden then I had to gather enough energy to make it to Montreal for another 5 days..got back late from that trip and was back to work early the next morning. *Phew* I feel like three weeks have evaporated entirely and that I haven't had much time to myself. I don't know how people with children handle things sometimes, I need SO much time alone and can't imagine life without a lot of solitude. *sigh*

I've been holding the fort at work which means extra hours and being on call (though really no one ever calls). There are two other people in the office today which are apparently leaving at noon. That means I'll be alone from 12-5pm to finish up a few extra things. I brought a show I downloaded to work and will watch it on my computer later this afternoon.....yes, it's NOT busy at my job these days. Hurray for the government :)

When I got home last night, I discovered a box from Proctor & Gamble full of samples: Crest Advanced Whitenening Strip, Head & Shoulders Shampoo & Conditioner, Olay Night and Day wrinkle cream, Dental Floss, Fusion Men's Razor, Gillette Hair & Body Wash & Pantene Shampoo and conditioner packets..WOW! I was running out of samples to travel with so this came at a good time! The Fusion Razor will go in my friend's birthday gift bag, he loves those razors but apparently they are expensive so he'll be thrilled! YAY Free gift :)

I also discovered $200 in my travel savings account. I took money out before I left for the dominican and didn't think there would be anything there. Amazing how $25 every two weeks adds up! I am planning a May trip to Toronto so this money will come in handy.

Dinner last night was a big hit. The only setback was having to throw out 1lb of tofu. I had it in the freezer (I usually freeze tofu for a better texture), then when i defrosted it and unpacked it it smelled SO bad. I've rarely had tofu go bad on me but this was an asian kind i had picked up for cheap, the kind in lots of water. Lucky for me I had two more packages in the freezer of other types! My tofu scramble and sweet potato fries got made and we gobbled it  up. I have leftovers for lunch which is always nice.

I ordered some Protea seeds for my close friend who is a florist. His birthday is next week. I found a website in South Africa (that's where the flower comes from) which had TONS of varieties. http://www.finebushpeople.co.za . For about $6 I got him 3 types of seeds. The nice thing is that you can just order a couple of seeds instead of a package so I bought him 5 seeds of three different easy growing varieties & some type of smoke primer to help with growing. I thought that price was worth it, all including shipping and ALL the way from south africa! Sadly he'll get his presents late....this won't come in time and i have to send it along...good thing he's patient!

Last night I spent hours posting freebies on a website I contribute to: www.pricenetwork.ca. You get points for contributing and since joining I've received $75 worth of giftcards. I ordered tons of freebies I found (tourist maps, shampoo....) I go through phases where I sign up for tons of freebies, then i stop for awhile. So in 6 weeks my mailbox will probably be filled with goodies!

Tonight it's a home cooked dinner & watching a video with a friend. I suggested that to him since we're both trying to be frugal and he has a huge exam today and could be stressed. He'll need the relaxing evening. My dinner will resemble last nights: Tofu Burgers and sweet potato fries with broccoli. haah. I love tofu and sweet potatoes so i am not complaining.

Tomorrow I'll get to sleep in, go to the farmers market and FINALLY have time for a little yoga! Boy do I miss classes! My body needs a little rejuvenation.

Hope everyone has a frugal weekend, I know I will!

Images:

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I've been back from Puerto Plata almost 6 days and I am still sick with a  really bad flu. I was in bed Friday and all weekend but had to come back to work Monday even though I was a mess and not feeling great. Saldy, I can't afford to take off work. After work last night I took a nice hot bath, had dinner (pizza my hubby ordered, with extra sauce and no cheese for me!) and went to bed at 8pm.

Feeling a little better this morning at work but still coughing and tired. Unfortunately I have to get back on a plane Thursday for the weekend to spend some time with a friend, something that was planned almost 2 months ago. Not sure how I will do but I imagine if I get enough rest the next two days I might be alright. I wish I could postpone the trip but he's already purchased his tickets too and is leaving a day before me to meet up with another friend.

The plus side of being sick is that i haven't been shopping or even been much on the internet to buy things. We're living on groceries I purchased a few weeks ago which is good news, but sadly i'm not eating much. I've been off coffee for about a week now because I just can't stomach it for some reason, really funny for me as I am a coffee addict and love the taste so much! I'm surviving on gemai green tea and water right now which is better for me anyways.

I don't have much money saved up for my trip in a few days which means i'll have to do things very frugally. Luckily I have a ride to the airport and a confirmed seat (no more standby! yay!) so things should go smoothly. I spent two days there 1 1/2 weeks ago so I already have 2 bus tickets i can use to get downtown once I get there.

Not much else to report for now. Perhaps I'll have more once I am feeling better and after my second trip is completed :)

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I just spent 30mins writing my blog and it disappeared! mmmm. I've never had that happen before. darn...

Ok, one more day til I fly out to Montreal, then hopefully if we get on the mexico flight thursday i'll be sitting in the sun thursday afternoon! *crossing fingers*. My friend showed up last night to spend a few days here before we head out. I can't wait! Still having issues packing because I dug out my summer clothes and can't decide what I want to take. We're not checking luggage so I'll have to make some decisions and I also need a few cold weather outfits just in case we get stuck in Montreal for an extra day. We'll stay at my mom's tomorrow night and she'll drive us to the airport Thursday morning! My friend will purchase some pesos at the bank today...

I just received the skirt I bought on Etsy.com. Sometimes I kick myself for buying handmade clothes because it's a luxury, but then when I receive it, I'm always so pleased. I'd much prefer buying a few pieces here and there from indie clothing designers for a fair price, then to purchase the same item for the same price from a big corporation (ie: Esprit, Gap, Banana Republic...). I only buy designer stuff from big corporations when I find it at the thrift store. Otherwise, I like to give my money to people trying to make a living doing what they love. Choices right? I included a picture of my latest purchase which was taken from the listing of the seller. It's made of hemp muslin and silk screened & dyed with enviro friendly inks. She also included a lovely piece of obsidian stone with my order and it was wrapped so beautifully too. I wish I could sew! Perhaps this is why I appreciate handmade clothing so much as I realize how much work it is. I was thinking of taking a beginner sewing class, just to learn the basics because at this point I can't even sew a button on! :)

Tonight I'm off to get some sushi with the gift certificate I received for my birthday. I can't wait as I've had a craving for it for a few days now.

I'm tempted to get a mani-pedi after work. I used to get a pedicure every 6 weeks but haven't done that in 4 months now so I could save a little money. I've been trying to do it myself. I'm not very good at it (especially the polishing part!) There is a cheap place down the road from my office. Not sure if I will do it yet, will check finances first! :)

Still can't believe i'm 39 now. I still feel so young. I'm already planning my 40th celebration in San Francisco! (saving those pennies!). I think we're only as young as we feel. People never believe how old I am because of my free spirit (the bright red hair helps too!). I wonder why free spirited behaviour is associated with youth. I think if we were all TRULY happy and followed our hearts, we'd all look  young. I have a lot of freedom in my life and a lot of joy and abundant amount of love around me. No one stops me from doing what I love. I can travel alone or with friends.....my sweetie supports everything and anything I do. I am the luckiest woman in the world!

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Well, I must say my birthday turned out so much better than expected! My friend picked me up from work and drove me to my NMT apt which went well. He also gave me 2 AMAZING dark organic chocolate bars (my other obsession!).

My sweetie picked me up when I was done my apt but I was feeling a bit down (Not sure if the treatment brought out emotional stuff but it's possible!) - I was missing my dad too. So I told him I wanted to go straight home. When I got home, he had decorated the dining room with garlands and a happy birthday sign (he has not ever done this since I've known him!), then I see three presents on the table which had been set with candles, placemats, plates and cutlery. He had also purchased some blueberry squares from the bakery as he could not find a vegan cake :) I opened the present, only to find something I had been looking at for a few years! A Keurig coffee machine! You see, I collect coffee contraptions. I have a Saeco which is the main deluxe machine in my house: (http://www.everythingkitchens.com/saeco-RoyalProfessional.htm  (we got it free about 10 years ago), I also have one of the pod  machines:http://www.buyasseenontv.com/images/melita-pic.jpg ,a few french presses and various stovetop contraptions but I don't own a "regular" coffee machine because it doesn't make good coffee :) He bought the carousel to go with it to hold the k-cups and to address my frugal/environmental mind, he also purchase a separate filter so I can put my own grinds or tea! WOW! I put the Keurig in my room upstairs (I have my own separate room with all my crafty junk). Now I can hang out in my room and drink coffee and tea! I also got a few calls, emails....and my friend came from out of town (1 1/2 hrs away) to hang out the next day and take me for lunch. I had a blast! I didn't go out though, I was feeling rather relaxed and wasn't in the mood for any kind of bar scene, plus I'm leaving in a few days and need every cent I can get :)

Sunday I spent almost the entire day making soap and beeswax candles. I bought beeswax in bulk at the farmers market (the size of a 2L milk container) and used almost all of it. I also made Lavender Patchouli Soap and Carrot Orange Soap (I used some organic carrot juice from the market). Both turned out amazing! I did hot process soap so I was able to cut them and package them the same day. I used tiny paper bags and some leftover stickers I had. Looks really homemade! I also used craft paper to wrap around my beeswax pillars. These will be for birthday gifts throughout the year! Now I just have to make some bath salts :)

After shaving the two batches of soap to make the bars smooth, I used the shavings with a little water and let it soak for a few hours, then i melted it down for a few minutes and poured it into a container. This gave me another 6 bars of soap, just from scraps!I I will call this one "Mystery Soap"

I liked the way it turned out, so if anyone out there makes soap, here is my recipe for the carrot one: (this can be done cold process but I used the hot process method as I wanted it to be ready in a week)

Carrot Orange Soap

10oz Palm Oil

16oz Coconut Oil

8oz Olive Oil

1 oz Shea Butter

1 oz Cocoa Butter

10oz cold liquid (I used 8 oz organic carrot & 2 filtered water)

5.4oz lye (sodium hydroxide)

15ml orange essential oil

Hope everyone had a frugal weekend! My friend is showing up tonight for a few days then we'll go to Mexico! Will make a nice dinner tonight, possibly some veggie sheppard's pie. :)

 

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Well, today is my birthday and sadly it started off a bit shakey...woke up late, realized that "ms.monthly"  decided to make an appearance (gee thanks!), no time for breakfast, late for work, label machine broke at work (but was later fixed) and I almost fell on ice...but that was just the first hour this morning! I told myself not to get disgruntled about it and put out some positive energy hoping nothing else would go wrong.

You see, I have little expectations on my birthday even though I do love it. I've just had bad luck with it most years; people forgetting, not getting any calls or emails, no presents, having to make my own cake, the day going by without anything good happening.....but still each year I hope for a good one. Last year was good but my dad had died a few weeks earlier and I was in a sour mood. My friend had organized a surprise party with a few close friends that lived in town and i had a homecooked dinner. I just remember not feeling festive, even though the idea was wonderful. Needless to say, even though in the back of my mind I hope for greatness, usually that's not the case on this day. LOL

A few astrologers said 2009 would be a great year for Aquarians and a few intuitives told me the same thing at a personal level for myself....so why not believe in good news? When my boss showed up, he handed me a gift certificate to my fave sushi place. I know he paid this out of his own pocket and not "company" money so this meant so much more to me! I logged into my email at 8:30am and I already had about 10 messages on facebook of birthday wishes, increasing to about 20 a few hours later. Then my phone buzzed a few times....two friends and mom wishing me well on my birthday. It was before noon before all of this happened and to be honest, I was a little perplexed. Why ,all of a sudden is everyone remembering?

I know my friend is going to show up here anyime now after he writes his exam. Not sure what he's planned, but he's really good with things like birthdays so I'm excited to see what he has up his sleeve. My sweetie tries really hard, he knows how much this means to me, but he also knows that I don't like gestures that are unoriginal: let's just say I am very anti flowers/jewelry/perfume and I know he loves me that way (his mom is the same!). I am by no means a typical woman! I've actually been referred to as a "femi-nazi", my dad used to call me that and found my radical antics amusing and I could tell he was proud of himself for raising a strong woman with even stronger opinions. haha 

I like feeling special, but not by someone giving me expensive silly gifts. I don't know how women can be happy with a dozen roses as a gift...that's just too darn easy to do, just whip out your wallet and fork out some cash. The only people that are/were allowed to give me flowers are my parents...or my friend who is a florist because he designs the bouquets himself. I'm also not fond of chivalry, i just want to be treated normal :) So imagine knowing all this about me, then trying to figure out what to do for me? hahaha. It's a challenge, I know.

The only thing I REALLY like to have on my birthday is a cake, and i usually have to make it myself because I don't know anywhere that sells vegan cakes (sometimes I wish I lived out west or in a bigger city). My sweetie buys non-vegan ones and I usually have a small piece  because I know he means well. Knowing work has been overly busy and hellish lately for him, it's doubtful that he'll run home at 3pm and start baking. I'm actually curious if he's going to do anything, but I'm not counting on it. I have a doctors apt at 4pm and he said he'd pick me up afterwards. My guess is that he'll ask me where I want to eat (or what I wanna eat if we decide to do take out) and that's usually what happens. But I am determined to have a cake...like every year! So even if I have to bake it myself, that's ok :)

It's only 3pm here now and I'm getting ready to leave work soon! Will let you all know how the rest of the day/evening goes. Oh, and I treated myself to lunch out ($3 indian food!). Even on my birthday, I like to  be frugal.... :)

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I didn't make it to yoga last night as my friend wanted me to come to the SPCA to pick up his cat with him! I was delighted! While all the paperwork was being settled, i danced with the kitty to Ella Fitzgerald which was playing on the radio at the shelter. I conversed with the other kitties, making sure they were all getting a little attention :) It was nice to see how busy it was, i can't imagine why people would get an animal from a breeder or a petstore considering there are so many unwanted and abandoned animals out there and who wants to give money to the  puppy mills??  If I had money I'd run my own shelter for sure. I never wanted chilren as I've never had that instinct to have them or be drawn to them at all,  but I've always had a soft spot for animals, I will always have them in my life. As my friends know, i'll stop for every animal I see on the street and pet them or talk to them. LOL. I would love a few more cats but my sweetie cleans the litter and he said two is enough..darn :( I am hoping when I retire, I'll be living in the country and I'll have lots of animals then.

I didn't spend any money yesterday, not even a dime. woohoo. I get paid today and will put more money on my credit card, it's coming down fast! I also found out that I won't be a temp anymore as of the end of this month. My job is hiring me casually for a few months with a REAL salary ($10 more an hour than what I make now!). So my bills will be getting paid off a lot more quickly. :D So that's good news. I dont like getting used to extra money sometimes because this contract will most likely end in the spring. Let's hope I'll get a good contract in the summer. I finally feel like bills are coming down and we're making headway. I have two trips this month so I have to make sure not to overdo it financially. The good news is that the two friends I am taking these trips with need to be frugal too :)

I've read a little about soy lately, i suppose too much of it isn't good for you (seems like nothing is good for you these days!), so I decided to make my own nut/seed milks for my oatmeal in the morning instead of using soymilk. Right now I have cashew milk in the fridge, i just soaked 1/2 cup cashews for several hours then put them in a blender with 2 cups of filtered water. mmmmm. After tomorrows breakfast I'll have none left, so my next project is sunflower seed milk! Same idea, 1/2 cup soaked then two cups water. I don't sweeten it as I use mine for oatmeal but you can easily add a tsp of honey and a pinch of salt to it. I only make small batches as the milk won't last more than maybe 5 days.

Tonight we're having corn pasta (gluten,wheat free & so tasty!) with pesto that i made using organic basil, rice parmesan, olive oil, and walnuts. I can't wait. I'm going to throw in a chopped  up tomato in the pasta as well.

I still have my free birthday Boston Pizza pasta leftover which I will eat for lunch (might even be enough for two lunches!). mmmmm. Tomorrow is my actual birthday, so let's hope I can find some good freebies in town!

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The weather was so terrible here yesterday that i got to leave the office at noon! Only problem with that is that I don't get paid for hours don't work. My boss knows this so he put me on call to give me an extra hour of work. *thanks boss!!!*

I decided to make that casserole using the crescent roll package but apparently i messed it up. My sweetie got home late so I wasn't sure what to do and improvised. I failed to roll it out and just stuck the pieces in the casserole as a crust. I put in 4 cups of frozen veggies, a small package of soy ground and some pizza sauce I had leftover from pizza making night. I baked it for about 30mins at 350F. I didn't really like the taste so I only had a few bites of it, then decided to eat guacamole and a few carrots for dinner instead. My sweetie ate it but we both agreed not to make it again. LOL. I just think i could have spiced it up better or perhaps added a sauce. For dessert, I cut up one of the apple pies we purchased (3 for $2.39!!!!) in 4 pieces (this is a really small pie, maybe 6 inches around). We both just had a small piece and I took another piece with me to work. I think the pie is meant for two servings but 1/4 of the pie was enough for one serving I found.

I got my free coupon from Boston Pizza for a free  birthday meal. I got it several days ago and i have a week to  use it (last day I can use it is my birthday which is Friday). When I saw the food come, I couldn't believe the portion!! That's how much pasta i'd make for 4 people!! So I had about 1/4 of it and packed up the rest to take with me for lunches. So I got a $15 meal free which will also turn into a few free lunches! It was a nice liguini with sundried tomatoes, spinach and pomodoro sauce. I rarely eat pasta because it makes me feel really bloated. Thank goodness I have yoga tonight!

My NMT treatment seems to really be working even though you're not supposed to see too many changes after one session. My allergy cough that I always have really badly in the morning was maybe 70% less than it usually is and I am not clearing my throat as much either. My arthritis is acting up a bit but nothing out of the ordinary.  I go back friday for another treatment and will probably need 6 in total which will cost me about $400. Insurance won't cover it but she's giving me a discount. *phew*. If this works, i'll never have to take allergy stuff or get surgery for my arthritis. Well worth the money investment! I don't understand why people don't try alternative medicine first, it is much less invasive! I never let doctors give me pills or inhalers for anything. Usually our bodies are just not balanced because of trauma or emotional issues which bring on disease. I'll keep everyone posted on my healing process, wouldn't it be great if my arthritis and allergies were gone for good!? I could finally attempt to wear stiletto heals which i have never done! :)

I was going to make pesto pasta for dinner tonight as I made a nice organic pesto with rice parmesan "cheeze" and walnuts. Boy does it smell good!! But given the fact that I had pasta today already, I will opt for something lighter, maybe soup.

Hope everyone is having a good week, work is quiet so I am doing a lot of writing and research for my zine.

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Last night I made a wonderful Sweet & Sour dish with TVP chunks and rice. It was easy and took me about 30 minutes from beginning to end (as tvp needs to soak for 10 mins when you rehydrate it). I defrosted one of the mini apple pies we purchased at the fruit & veggie store but forgot to make it. It's now sitting in the fridge and have no idea how long I'm supposed to bake this thing. No instructions on it but it looks like it was baked and just needs to be warmed. Maybe tonight! :)

Tonights dinner is actually my honey's idea. I guess his dad used to make this back in Holland when he was a kid. We bought  a name brand crescent roll tube, I think it was about $1.50 (to make your own). He said all we have to do is carefully roll it out into a casserole pan, then stuff with veggies and whatever else we want to put in there, then fold the extra dough over and bake. This basically makes a gigantic croissant filled with yummy stuff! I suppose if you don't put spices in there, you could pour gravy on top of it. I will be using a mix of frozen veggies and some soy ground, as well as a few spices. Will try to post a recipe tomorrow.

My friend and I ventured over to Walmart, I had to purchase some holistic cat food. They have a cheaper brand there than at my grocery store and it's made in Canada so it's nice to to know I am supporting smaller companines :) I've been feeding my cats holistic food for a long time and they are never sick. One of my cats is almost 14 years old and apart from the fact that he moves a bit slower, he's very playful and full of life. My 7 year old cat still acts like a kitten and is full of energy. He's never been sick. I've heard that good pet food is imperative for animals, so even when money is tight we still buy it because it's like health insurance for our cats. Once we switched when I wasn't working a couple of years ago, and my older cat deleloped crystals which are very painful. The vet said that bad cat food can do this, and this is what happened. Boy did i feel guilty! So if you can, feed your animals holistic food and you'll avoid a lot of vet bills and will have a healthier animal. It's like humans, if we eat junk and bad food that is not nutritious and healthy, we will develop things like diabetes and other diseases. if we fuel our bodies properly, this highly reduces our chances of being ill. Of course we have to take care of our minds too, so taking some time to ourselves and being happy helps :) Here is a list of cruelty free pet food: http://www.iamscruelty.com/notTested.asp scroll down a bit to see it. You can also click to get the UK version of this list.

The weather is pretty bad today, so I might be able to go home from work earlier today *wish my luck*. If I get to go home, I'll start a batch of soap!

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I had a very good weekend and didn't spend much money at all. I took in the free yoga class yesterday morning and after the class had a nice piece of oatcake. I love it that they serve free snacks after the class. The teacher was great and I am really glad I went.

Spent the afternoon with a few people just sitting and talking, drank some tea and snacked on my garden zucchini salsa with tortilla chips. When they left, I ate a handful of broccoli with two stuffed grapeleaves for dinner as I wasn't too hungry. Also had a few bites of the tofu chocolate pie I took home from the organic restaurant the other night. It's so rich that it's taking me 4 days to eat the entire piece! :)

I brought some leftover curried broccoli soup for lunch that I had put in the freezer, and a few apples for dessert/snack and the two bites of tofu pie that was left. hmmm

Tonight I want to make a sweet & sour sauce with the tvp chunks I acquired but can't seem to find a good frugal easy sauce to make. I have on in one of my veggie cookbooks which I find a bit time consuming. I just want to throw a bunch of things in a blender and heat it up. 

Anyone have any good sweet & sour sauce recipes to share? 

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Wow, I haven't been this busy for a long time. I left the house at 9am this morning and apart from coming home twice to quickly change for a few things, I was out of the house for 12 hours....Market, Apt with my naturalpathic Dr, quick grocery shopping, yoga,  then a long dinner with a friend!

Yoga was $5 for 90mins so I always enjoy that. I had a tough time in class, not sure if it was because my body was tired or the NMT treatment I received at my apt but I still made it through feeling pretty good afterwards.

We discovered a cheap place for produce and a few other goodies about a 10min drive away! I wish we had discovered it sooner. Produce was so much cheaper than ANYWHERE! We also picked up cheap tofu, TVP chunks, a gigantic bag of frozen fries and 3 small apple pies for $2.39 for ALL THREE! We spent $40 and came away with tons of bags of fresh stuff. This will last us quite a while so we won't have to go back for at least another 2-3 weeks.

Went to dinner with my friend to an Organic Restaurant. It's expensive but I had a $25 gift certificate which covered part of the meal. I was hoping to not go over the $25 but given the fact that I shared it with my friend and both our entrees were almost $20 a piece, it was hard to do. I guess you get what you pay for. All organic food and ALL vegan for me! mmmmmmmm. We finished our meal with a piece of chocolate tofu pie which tasted exactly like cheesecake! We sat and talked for 3 1/2 hours at dinner so it was a nice night out for the $20 I spent......

Since I have people coming over tommorow afternoon I had to start my laundry and some chores when I got home. My house is a mess. I might make the free yoga class in the morning if I get most of my chores tackled. This free yoga place offers free snacks afterwards too so that's always a bonus.

Hope everyone is having a nice frugal weekend too!

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This week has been a GOOD frugal week for me (I didn't buy any expensive footwear! haha).

For one, I decided to cut back on my paid yoga classes and now just go 3 times a week; two classes at $5 each and one free class. I can go 4 times if I choose to go to hot yoga (yikes!) because they have a once a week $5 class too on Fridays. So my choices are good right now and I still get my exercise for $10 a week. tonight I head out for another class....

Last night I worked (basically sat still for an hour) while I posed for artists to sculpture me in my "birthday suit". I do this once a month at a local pottery studio and it pays $25 for an hour. I love seeing the art created! I am also working 5 days a week this week as opposed to 4, so it's a good week for my income!

I took a friend out for coffee after my modelling gig last night, it turned out that i had a free coffee on my coffee card, so I just had to pay for one! :) I also received a two for one printable coffee coupon from a gas station; one my friend goes to. I can print it as many times as I want and it expires June 2009. I'll print a few and put them in his birthday present bag which I am working on! :)

I finally finished the Frugal Zine for my friends' brithdays, emailed Dr. Bronners Soap to get more samples so that will be good! I will get large ziplock bags to store the zine and extra goodies that correspond to frugal living (dr. bronners sample, soapnuts, coupons...). I do think my friends will like this! I sure had fun putting it together!

I haven't gone out for lunch or dinner at all this week, not even cheap $3 takeout from the Indian place. What I've been doing is planning dinners and making enough to take to work. I have food in the freezer but I realized I stored it in containers that were a bit too large...will need to do something about that next time. We have free coffee at work but I was getting tired of the choices, so I asked the coffee rep for samples of other stuff. Sometimes I get so tired of what we have I run down to pay for a coffee elsewhere! After tasting the Organic Fair Trade Dark Roast Columbian sample, it might save me some money! Note to self: Ask boss to order that one...boy it's good!

My sweetie and I get paid tomorrow and I will have to put a good chunk on my credit card. I have two, one which i successfully put away for good and slowly paying off. I had called them in November to lower my interest rate which they did, 5% less!! So this will make paying it off much faster. Once that's paid off, I'm cancelling it and keeping my other one as it gives me rewards I use. I'm still bad with credit sometimes, though usually I get my senses back and take charge of it. It never truly gets out of control.

My vacation fund is up to $200, which should be MORE than enough for my 5 day mexican trip with my friend. Our budget accommodation is $90 each in total, and we won't be doing much but eating cheap local food and sitting on the beach reading. There is a communal kitchen where we are staying and knowing me, i might even cook! My friend said he was going to check out some sailing options, but I will probably stay put. I'll probably purchase something small for hubby too, as he can't come with us and will be stuck in the cold! :(

Crossing my fingers that I can keep up this no spending habit for the next little while!! So far so good........

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Last night was a quiet night, I listened to my favourite podcast and watched a tv show that I downloaded.

I made a carrot ginger soup which didn't really turn out as I ran out of cumin and i felt it left the soup tasting very bland. My sweetie and I said it tasted like baby food. So I now have about 12 cups of soup which I dont like, so I will freeze it in margarine containers and  bring it to Food Not Bombs next Sunday to give away. It's not BAD, it's just that i'm picky and I couldn't get this tasting quite right without the cumin. So my sweetie had grilled cheese and still managed to eat some of the soup with it, while I had a small portion of mashed potatoes, a cup of broccoli and a veggie dog without the bun..mmm. Tonight I'm making scrambled tofu with roasted sweet potatoes! I can't wait, I love scrambled tofu but never really make it.

From 8-9 tonight I venture off to do live modelling for a sculpting/drawing workshop. I just remembered last night that I had to go tonight, I usually get booked about a month in advance. This is very good timing as I am pretty broke and the $25 I get for an hour of sitting around will really come in handy. :)

I should really start thinking about writing down a dinner menu for the week. That way I can purchase groceries based on what I will make. This week is supposed to be the bigger grocery shopping trip but I might skip it altogether and see what I can create with what I already have on hand. I realized that i've collected a lot of canned goods this past month as a lot was on sale and i stocked up. I also have an ample amount of frozen veggies & tofu. Another idea is to make a list of the loss leader items at grocery stores and just purchase those and make something based on that. Flyers come out Thursday so I'll have a look!

Anyone ever write out weekly menus?

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My weekend was rather quiet, but in a good way :) My friend took me out to dinner for sushi Friday night,.Saturday my sweetie and I went to the farmers market and picked up a few fresh items and i FINALLY made it to yoga that afternoon after a few weeks of not going. It was free week at this studio so I didn't even have to pay for the class :) I felt bad for all the newbies in the class because this particular teacher has tough classes (Vinyasa Flow), only good for those like me who've been doign it awhile. Quite a few people had to stop or leave the class  because it was so vigorous, and these were kids 10-15 years younger than me. I woke up sore the next morning but I like that soreness that comes from exercise. I just took a hot bath that evening with the peony bubble bath I had acquired at the dollar store :)

Saturday night was a quiet one too. I spent a few hours reading zines in my room with Salem my cat. Also listened to my favourite podcast and surfed the internet. My room was cool so I sat on my heating pad. I love it that I have my own room because it feels like my own little sanctuary. I can go hide there, do crafts, read, burn my incense and candles and hang out with the cats. The cats tend to really love my room, it's cluttered but very cozy and bohemian looking.

Since my funds are practically non existant right now till I get paid, I used my $20 gift certificate to a grocery store that I got with airmiles to buy a few needed items. The store doesn't give change back so I had to make sure to get $20 and not much more, so I spent $20.50 on: Broccoli, 10lb bag of organic potatoes, ground cinnamon, 4 loaves of bread (on sale for $3.99), Bananas, two cans of beans ($1), two boxes of kleenex ($1), natural peanut butter, Fresh Ginger and a few other items. My friend is always impressed beacuse I can fill two large bags with $20 of groceries :)

I also cleaned out my fridge, trying to figure out what I needed to use up before next week's larger grocery shopping. I still had a lot of carrots from different sources that I wasn't using. I took them all out, cleaned them up and placed them in the fridge in a pot of water. Tonight I will make a nice carrot ginger soup, perfect for a very COLD day here. I'll make some grilled cheese for my sweetie, and since I don't each much bread and don't eat dairy, I will make myself a nice bowl of brown rice to eat with my soup! (recipe will be posted to the blog later)

Looks like work is going to be quiet today. Hope everyone had a good frugal weekend!

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Yesterday I had a long day at work. I couldn't leave the office until this one person was gone, so i was around for an extra 1/2 hour. I actually worked 1 1/2 hours more than normal which was ok. I was tired and hungry by the time I left :)

My hubby called as I was on my way out, he had had a really stressful day at work. Lots of people around the country are losing their jobs due to cutbacks and his company has been laying people off all week. So basically he was on edge. He picked me up downtown and we headed over to a nice fancy bistro which has specials every wednesday. Pizza and Pasta night for $10! And I'm not talking diner style pizza and pasta, but the gourmet stuff prepared with quality ingredients and a well known local chef! I picked the pad thai with tofu. And WOW was I stuffed afterwards. We agreed that anytime we want to go for a "nice" dinner, we should go there on Wednesdays. A fancy night out for under $25 :D

Today I am feeling a little under the weather but I had to open the office so I couldnt stay home. Because I am a temp, I don't get paid if I don't work, so taking time off to be sick isn't something I like to do. It's almost noon now and I might head home. I can barely write in this blog right now :) My head is heavy, let's hope I am not coming down with the flu.

Will write more later if I am well rested!

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Last night my friend and I went for a cheap dinner, I paid $10 for a large plate of lebanese food including coffee...thats a good price for where I live :)

Then we ventured over to Liquidation World. I discovered this place last month and LOVE it. There is different stuff there all the time so each time I go it's a surprise. I picked up 4 beautiful lotus metal candle holders for $1! I have a few birthdays coming up and one of my friends would love this. Also got a free book which we had to spend $10 or more to get. Got 3 very good quality candles which I would have spend at least $40 on all of them..Paid $3 each. Got some expensive salon hair & body shampoo which sells for about $20 for $3 made especially for when you're in the sun and I am going to Mexico next month so this is perfect!! Also bought 6 gift bags for 49cents and a pack of 100 hair elastics for $1. I am itching to go back today I don't need anything, I just like looking around at all the junk :)

Going to the market after I am finished my coffee, then heading to a coffee place where I have a card to get a free cofffee! :) I am attempting to make it to yoga this afternoon which is $5, then I am hoping a night in with a movie (it's COLD out!), or perhaps go out for a martini with my sweetie :)

Hope everyone has a frugally good weekend :)

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I can't believe it's already January 5th. To be honest I am glad the holidays are over though so everyone can get back to a sense of normalcy around town!

My sweetie and I decided to take advantage of boxing day sales this weekend to replace some things that we should have replaced a long time ago. He won $200 playing poker with friends (they have tournaments every so often) so we decided to use the money for useful things instead of wasting it. We replaced all our cutlery and dishes. Dishes for 8 people cost us $30 (set of 32 pieces) and cutlery was found at a bargain store (Cuisinart brand originally for $120 and we paid $55) for 8 settings. We were so excited!!! Finally good cutlery that wasn't going to bend or rust..these babies are SOLID :) We also replaced the old comforter & cheap pillows we had in the guest room. Paid $45 for a very fancy fluffy queen comforter made in Zurich with two lovely pillows that came with it! Now the guest room looks great, I just have to paint it a deep purple. I want the room to look kind of Zen/Buddha like. Now if I could get cheap paint! We also cleaned out our closets, put clothes we didnt want in large bags and the diabetes association will pick it all up (including dishes/cutlery). I love donating items to charities.

We also stocked up on staple foods and household items. I now have enough toilet paper & kleenex for at least 6 months! I have lots of food in the fridge/pantry too. If anyone were to see our pantry and fridge they'd think a family of 5 lives there but its just the two of us. We have the luxury of owning a large house with LOTS of room so if I can buy stuff cheap and store it, I will :)

The only time we spent money on things that weren't needed, was when we bought good Lebanese food. My dad passed away a year ago yesterday and it was imperative that we buy quality lebanese food because last year when I went home for the funeral, his best friend kept bringing it over and now it's total comfort food for me. I needed to remember him with that. I didn't want to cheap out and wanted the best Lebanese food i could find (dad is worth it!). The owner gave me a deal and threw in a few extras so that was nice! We spent $45 on prepared food which will give us a few meals this week.

I thought about sending my mother flowers to brighten her week. I can't imagine she's having a great time right now. I found a website online that sends bouquets for $20 and i have a 15% off coupon which i might use. I also got an email from Boston pizza to get a free individual pizza! If you sign up for their newsletters, you get free stuff on your birthday and one year anniversary of being a member. So i'll indulge this week as it expires soon.

Oh, I did have one slip-up...bought a handmade dress on Etsy.com. I am a firm believer in supporting fellow artisans and while most of my clothes are thrift, i splurge on the odd piece of handmade clothing. I paid a lot for it, but like the other handmade things I purchased in the past, it'll be worth it! And it's being custom made for my body!

Work is quiet, looks like I'll be writing in my zine all day...could be worse!  

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I must say I am MORE than pleased to see 2008 go. I've never been so excited to ring in a new year. Somehow this has been the worst year I've ever experienced, one event being my dad's death almost a year ago in January. Then the year just kept going downhill after that and most people I know have had a similar experience. My best girlfriend lost her mom a month after my father passed away.

Trying to keep things positive and in perspective, I decided to make the best of it regardless of all the things that have happened in 2008.

I am lucky to have one of my closest friends here with me for New Years Eve. He and I decided to buy tickets to a bar here which will host a dj from L.A. We paid $27 per ticket which isn't all bad considering my boss paid $75 for his tickets for the theater tonight! yikes! We will have a few drinks here then head out. They will doubtfully have happy hour at the bar because I find bars want to make as much money as possible at this time. This means maybe ONE drink purchase while I'm out. There is supposed to be 30cm of snow coming tonight, so let's hope we can get a taxi back (or I might have to pack my big boots and walk home which would take about 30mins).

I thought I might do something for dinner, perhaps make a special African Peanut Stew or something rich as it's so cold out, basically comfort food is what i'm after! Part of me wants to pick up sushi but that's another $20 I could probably save. Dilemmas! I made some Chex Mix snacks for this evening too, and will take out my famous zucchini salsa for all to feast on.

Thankfully I have the day off, which means I have lots of time to ponder my dinner choices for this evening. My sweetie will be home around lunchtime and I believe we'll be making the baklava. We were supposed to make it Christmas but neither of us wanted to then.

Have a happy 2009, I think it's going to be a GOOD year!

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I had such a relaxing time off work, believe it or not I was looking forward to coming back as I didn't have much to do during my time off!

My sweetie and I cleaned the house on Christmas Eve/Day, took us an entire two days to clean everything as we have a large house and only two of us and the cats live there. We also stepped out to see what was open on Christmas Day..sadly only a coffee chain so we decided to get a coffee there as we do every year. I also read an entire book in one afternoon (in between doing laundry). Since our bathroom now looks really hip and groovy, my sweetie organized it and threw a bunch of things out. I LOVE the new bathroom and low flow toilet! (gee, i never thought I could get excited over a new toilet!)

My sweetie surprised me with a bag of goodies in Sinterklaas (Dutch Saint-Nicholas) tradition. He handed me a stack of about a dozen papers, each with a special story and photo on it pertaining to each gift. Each gift in the bag was numbered, so as I read each page I would open the gift corresponding to it. It was sooooo sweet! He knows I love pedicures and I also take very good care of my skin so the entire bag of gifts were spa themed (like foot cream, electric foot file/buffer, machine that makes bubbles in the bath, bath gel...). He got named brand things but he could have purchased dollarstore items and the bag of gifts would have been cheaper. I also got some of the warming foot scrub that olay makes. NICE! :)

My close friend who is visiting from away came over Friday and handed me a  seed catalogue. He said to pick vegetables I wanted for my garden and that he would purchase the seeds for me!! YAY! He also is making me baked vegan goods for New Years Eve! Wow I love that i have thoughtful people around me who are creative! :D

Saturday night a bunch of us ended up going out to a bar, then disco. Fun night and I only bought drinks during their happy hours which is between 11pm-1am. After 1am I didn't buy anything :) Then my friend called his uncle who is a cab driver and we got a ride home for free. Considering how long I was out, I probably only spent about $35 which isn't bad considering I had a fancy martini (which my friend treated me to) a few drinks for me and friends and paid for cover at the disco, got a plate of fries and got home. At least for where I live, not bad for a night out! :)

Last night, I made a big batch of chick pea curry (I'll post the recipe in another posting!). This will make enough for lots of meals for work and home when I don't feel like cooking. Work is very quiet today so I'll just be writing and reading a lot! Yay for government jobs :)
 

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Yesterday I came into work even though the weather outside was terrible. There was no one on the roads or even in the bus, so what was I doing going to work? I am running the office on my own this week so I had to venture in. 15 mins after I get in the office, head office calls to tell me to shut down. So I was home within an hour of starting work! $4 spent on public transportation for nothing..argh.

I spent the day making some food and preparing my last minute parcel to ship off to a friend. My sweetie and i also went to RONA to pick up a few items to hook up our new sink. We bought a vessel sink for the bathroom which makes it look so much bigger. Sadly, our tap didn't fit the new sink as vessel sinks require very specific taps which usually cost over $100 (we had no idea until after we bought the vanity!). 95% of regular faucets dont fit vessel sinks. argh. And we also had to  buy a special drain for $20. So a $200 vanity with sink turned out to be a $350 project. yikes! Still, it looks amazing! I suppose this is our holiday gift to ourselves. We cringed at the cost of it all, but had to get one or else we wouldn't be able to use the sink. The pedestal sink we had in there stuck out too much and I felt as it was a little invasive. I also wanted a nice euro two button flush toilet (very enviro friendly!) and my mom decided to spring for it for us. Just saved $300! It's a more expensive toilet but is well worth the price. Combined with our new washer and dryer, we'll now be saving more power and water! yay! Now our bathroom looks really "euro"  and hip! (my hubby is from holland so he loves everything) A little investment that is well worth every penny. We spent more money this week than we have in a long time which i felt a little bad about but i've come to realize that it was worth the money. Our old toilet also had a crack in it so it was time for a new one.

We don't really celebrate Christmas but I did make a nice meal on Sunday for Winter Solstice. My hubby wasn't finished making my gift, but i gave him his which he loved. His own Lampe Berger for the lounge where he sometimes likes to work and hang out. He smokes and the lamp kills all smells. We have one in the living room and works wonders! It came in a kit for $37 which my mom bought because they don't sell them where i live. She told me not to pay her back which means my gift to my sweetie was technically free! I ended up going to The Gap to pick up 2 thermal type long sleeve shirts on sale half price for $15 each which i will give him tomorrow evening. Other than that, we'll be making Baklava on Christmas Eve like we do every year, light a fire and just chat. I love quiet holidays.

I work tomorrow from 8am-12pm, then time for a very long weekend. No plans so far except for possibly seeing a close friend who comes into town this week :)

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Yesterday I had the day off. I made my way over to the mall (which i only do a couple times a year as I don't like them much) to see if I could find boots. I have terrible rheumatoid arthritis on my right big toe (quite rare), and sadly i can not purchase inexpensive footwear. I had been looking for a few months, even when I was in Toronto visiting a friend. Most boots I saw that were suitable were at least $250.. I made the mistake of getting a $40 pair and a month later the heel broke off while i was at a club!! argh. i walked around with one heel for 2 hours. no dancing for me that night! Learn from my mistakes I suppose!

 Most of the time I get shoes and boots on sale, very fancy ones for half price so I get Clarks on sale as well as other ones. I wish I could just go to payless shoes and get a $40 pair but unfortunately i cant. I have boots (i have a boot problem! LOL) but none of the black ones i have were fancy enough for work or for my New Year's outfit. I like funky more alternative footwear and sadly those don't go with my more conservative outfits. After looking at half a dozen shoe stores in the mall, i found a $200 pair marked down to $140. Still steep but for good boots still not bad considering they will last me a long time. I asked the salesperson to set them aside for 30minutes. I walked around the mall again, looked at more boots and pondered buying the $140 ones. I bit the bullet, went back and got them. Not only are my feet not hurting today (have had them on 5hrs already) but I feel sexy and fashionable!

They finally delivered our front loader washer and dryer yesterday morning! Boy was i excited! I heard you have to buy special HE soap which i did, on sale. yay! I usually use vinegar as a softener but won't use that until i read more about my washer. I bought enviro friendly softener also made for front loaders. I can't believe how fancy these machines are! wow. Our other washer/dryer set is being picked up by a couple tomorrow. We wanted to get rid of it ASAP so sold it for $250. This set usually sells for over $1000 new.

In the evening i met my friend for coffee and to give him his holiday gift bag of goodies. He loved everything in it, and thought all the gifts were very thoughtful. Most were homemade things (spice & coffee mixes, caramels, chocolate covered pretzels, soy candle...) Apparently he's getting my gift where he's going (bigger city a few horus flight away).

3 more hours of work to go, then it's the weekend. No plans tonight, maybe some yoga if I can get to the studio on time and perhaps a downloaded movie and some yummy tofu veggie stir fry for dinner~

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It's snowing pretty hard out today, my boss might close the office which means I could go home early! Would be nice if I could, that way I would have time to make by sweetie some birthday muffins instead of having to go buy some :)

I left a box of After Eight chocolates near the coffee machine before leaving work. My sweetie loves them! He discovered them on his way to work this morning and was thrilled. Best part is that I paid $2 for them at the dollar instead of the usual $6 they sell them for in the store! He said he still wasn't sure what he wanted to do tonight, he is very low key and not big on birthdays anyway, so if he ends up liking his Dexter DVD I bought, i bet he'll be watching that! I have yoga tonight but if he wants to go to dinner i will cancel for sure. Somehow I don't think he'll want to go out though, he's very low key and doesn't like it when people make a big deal on his birthday. I also purchased him some nice underwear from mensunderwearstore.com . They had a sale on, he loves good quality underwear so I splurged :) They haven't arrived yet, hopefully today! If not, i'll need to run out and get a little extra something and save the underwear to give him at Yule this weekend!

I don't decorate for the holidays. If you walked into my house it looks like any other time of the year. No lights, no tree, no decorations. We tend not to get into the whole Christmas thing and neither of us have family here anyway. It just seems pointless to me. I have one friend that will visit after Christmas but that's all the company we'll have. It's my first holiday without my dad around too. I wanted to get home for my mom but since i am on call i am not allowed to leave the city. Luckily I have my parcels ready to ship to send home, my sweetie gets 75% off to ship it via the courier company too! So I'll ship them tomorrow and they will get the boxes on Monday...all for about $10 :)

My sweetie and i will celebrate Yule on Sunday (Winter Solstice). We'll exchange gifts, have some cider and a nice dinner, then back to work on Monday morning. Something tells me he hasn't bought anything though. I LOVE giving gifts but he never does. I've been with him 13 years and have never seen him send his parents anything for any birthday or holiday. That's just him. A phonecall is what they get. Good thing I am not materialistic, and to be honest he's the most devoted person i've ever met. I could never be with someone who showers me with gifts all the time but isn't the best partner. Mine is the best because he lets me be me and gives me all the freedom I want. Yay for true unconditional love! He can surprise me sometimes though...so who knows?

Friday I'll get together with my friend for dinner and a movie and to exchange gifts as he is leaving town the next day. We had a little altercation last night so hopefully things will settle down and the plans won't be cancelled. He's pretty upset with me right now..don't like fighting with friends. These things happen.

I get more pictures today from another photographer who took free shots of me. She sent me one via email which i liked and will get the others on disc. I'll have to run and get some printed before sending my boxes tomorrow! Can't wait to see them.

Here's hoping I can leave early today *crossing fingers*

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I realized this morning that I really need to get organized for my sweetie's birthday tomorrow! I am missing one present that hasn't come in the mail yet *crossing fingers it'll come today*! I also don't have time to make a cake, which means i'll have to resort to going somewhere. I thought about gettting a jumbo muffin somewhere (he loves muffins!) and put a candle in it. Could be frugal and he would probably like it! Work usually buys him a big cake and since he doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, i probably won't get one as he'll be tired of cake by the time he gets home..hehe.

I purchased a dvd of a tv series for him on sale online, $29.99 instead of $49.99! :) I also purchased a yankee candle car scent thingy for half price on sale, he likes them and we don't usually purchase them as they are expensive full price. There is a nice bistro in town which has a special pizza/pasta night Wednesdays for $10. It's a little upper scale so that's an idea for dinner! I'll let him decide, he's pretty low key anyways.

I forgot my lunch at home today as I was in a rush this morning. This means i have to spend money to eat...argh. Problem is, I have to go to yoga right after work and I usually bring a snack with me to eat an hour and a half beforehand for energy.  So I'll have to spring for lunch and a snack today. Looks like I'll be eating the $3 indian plate and grab an apple or banana at the corner store since there are no grocery stores around my workplace! If I'm lucky, my friend will come with me to yoga (which means a free ride there and back, saves me $4). I also had to grab a mid morning snack at the fancy coffee palce in my building. $2.50 for a cinnamon bun...eeek. i never forget my lunch, this is unusual. Good thing I am in a good mood today!

We put our washer/dryer for sale on kijiji.ca and got lots of responses. Likely it will be purchased sometime this week! :) We priced it low so we could get rid of it ASAP. It's a great unit so that's why we're getting responses.

6 more hours to go at work. Looking forward to the end of the day already!

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I had a fairly frugal weekend apart from buying a washer and dryer! :)

Friday night my friend and I went out to dinner. I ordered a veggie dragon sushi roll and ordered water. It costed me $11, not bad for a sushi dinner out! We also went to Linen's and Things which is going out of business so I bought a few fancy items 50% off that i needed for the house. I spent $45 but ended up bringing home a couple of gifts and some reed diffusers for the house..i love those!

Saturday we needed to go grocery shopping as I wanted some items to bring to my hubby's work holiday party. As I knew I wouldn't be able to eat most of the food there. I purchased some veggie kabobs for the bbq (as the host was only serving salmon & steak so I had to bring my own food), some chips for the salsa and non-dairy dip I was bringing and a few staple items for the week.

Saturday night was the party. We live in the city and the party was out in the middle of nowhere..thank goodness he could expense the $50 cab ride there! *phew*.  We received a $50 gift card for a fancy restaurant from his colleague. It's hubby's birthday Wednesday so perhaps we can use it then! :) As I suspected, I could only eat one of the salad's at the party and the grilled veggies, none of the desserts though. I brought my banana bread in case, but they forgot to bring it out which meant no dessert for me. Apparently the guy brought it into my hubby's work today to share. Party was a bust for me. I don't do well with small talk and no one seemed to want to get into intellectual discussions. I also have a rough time relating to most women so I was glad when that party was over! yikes! I told hubby I might not attend next year..i'm just too weird compared to most people. LOL No one ever understands the ecclectic artist types :)

Oh, my mom gave us money towards the purchase of a front loader washer/dryer. We had something picked out, but when we went to the store they had a set for the same price but MUCH higher quality. It was an in-store special. The set was normally $1800 and we got it for $999 with free delivery! We had been looking for years but always felt they were too pricey. This new set will be MUCH better than what we have now, will save water, soap, energy costs and won't ruin my clothes like that other one. YAY!

Yesterday I made homemade caramels, chocolate dipped pretzels and some french vanilla instant coffee mix for gifts. Since i'm not celebrating as no one will be around, I had to prepare all the boxes i need to send to Montreal for my family/friends there. This means I had to  be more organized as the boxes have to get there on Friday. I had a tough time, it's my first holiday without my dad (R.I.P.) and i found it strange not to be putting gifts in the box for him. Sadly I can not make it home beacuse of work commitments.

Last night  i was in a bad mood, so my sweetie drew me a bath and lit some candles in the bathroom. :) He's good like that!!

Brought lunch to work today, a $1 veggie microwave rice package i bought at the dollar store which will give me two meals! :)

Sold more e-zines on etsy!! 4 this week! YAY! I now have almost $60US in my paypal account.

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Yesterday I went for another free yoga class and there were only 3 of us there. The teacher and I had a really good connection and we ended up talking for an hour after the class, as I also want to become an instructor so I was asking alot of questions. She mentioned that I should come back but I told her my budget is limited so I would try to drop in every once and awhile. She then said not to worry about the cost, that I could just pay what I could or not at all! WOW! Next week is her last class till after the holidays, so I will go with a basket of small gifts in exchange for the free class. Amazing what happens when you tell people you're on a strict budget!

I intended on going to another open house for a spa which was offering free mini massages and hand paraffin wax as well as free food and drinks! I had attended their fall open house and it was amazing. My plans got changed when i ran into a close friend who had just arrived to town! Him and I planned on hanging out this evening but we ended up having a coffee, going to the fruit & veggie market where he purchased the red pepper and discounted broccoli I wanted for me! I then got a ride home from him, meaning I saved $5 in total including my saved bus fare, the veggies he bought for me! 

In the evening, I ventured over to the dollarstore and spent $20 on various last minute Yule items to fill up a few gift bags, also bought 4 mugs to put my hot chocolate mix in for acquaintances :)

Today I wasn't as frugal, but still good. I bought a $2 organic fair trade coffee this morning. I get free coffee at work but it's not fair trade and I really wanted some. Also bought lunch (something i never do) for $3. Indian Rice and veggies at the food court. Cheapest healthiest filling meal in the entire foodcourt! Had a sweet tooth and bought a mammoth $2 muffin. Not sure my body will like this, but....oh well! It's friday!

I have a busy night, out to dinner with my friend (cheap place of course!), going to squeeze in an hour yoga class after dinner, then have to meet another friend for a few drinks as this is his last night in town before he goes back home :(

So glad its the weekend!

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Yesterday I had the day off which I always love! I work 3 days a week right now which is giving me enough income on top of a few other things i do.

I decided to take in another hot yoga class, as they owed me a few free classes for the volunteer work I did there. Boy, I didn't think I was gonna make it out of there! Being in a 95degree room doing yoga isn't easy, you sweat in places you never though sweat could even come out! So as much as i felt rather detoxed afterwards, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Might leave that for hardcore A type personality athletes, not me :)

I ventured over to the grocery store with my friend, he likes it when we go together as he knows he'll spend a lot more if he's alone. I found whole coffee beans for $2 for 1lb! I normally buy organic coffee beans from a local roaster for $6 for half a pound which lasts us all week. I am very picky about my coffee and this is where I splurge. But who could pass up $2 coffee and whole beans at that? So I'm crossing my fingers that it won't be terrible! I spent $40 in total on groceries for my sweetie and I which will last us a few weeks. I replenish my produce & tofu at the farmers market on weekends but every two weeks I spend anywhere from $40-$60 on staple items. I also found Almond Milk on sale, 3/$5 which is the best price ive seen in ages. I use it in my oatmeal each morning. I do have a soymilk maker but only use that when I will be going through a lot more milk as the fresh stuff only lasts up to 5 days.

For dinner, I made some organic vegan-gluten free macaroni and "cheese" which I bought in a box for $3. To make it go further, I added 2 veggie dogs and a whole bunch of broccoli to make 4 meals. Since my mom eats gluten free and no dairy, I will find a recipe to make some packages like this for her so she can enjoy it too. I bought the box for convenience and realize I could probably reproduce this myself quite easily. :)

In the evening I went to my monthly one hour "figure modelling" gig at the local pottery place. I get paid $25 to sit for an hour and local artists draw or sculpt me. I drank Jasmine tea and talked to the illustrator who was drawing me. Usually there are a lot more people there and I get to see amazing art, but it was quiet last night! I also found out the local art school needs "figure" models for their art classes which pay a little less ($15/hr) but apparently there is a lot of work. So if I do this 4-5 hours a week, that's an extra $300 a month! The work is easy, I just sit there and pose. I imagine they pay well because most people are too shy to do this work :)

So I spent about $45 yesterday and made $25 so in the end I really only gave out $20. Not bad for coming home with lots of groceries and taking in a yoga class. I also sold two zine packages on Etsy for a total of $24! Good day overall!

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I had the day off yesterday and spent most of it just writing and doing research for my upcoming "zine". Tired of being inside all day, i ventured out to Sally Ann's to see if I could find any Holiday mugs to purchase so I can store small hot chocolate mixes in there for neighbours and my colleage. In the past I've seen these mugs for 20cents but when I got there, they were pricing USED mugs for 99cents! WHAT??? Some grungier ugly ones were 49cents but at that price I might as well buy a fancy one at the dollar store. I was so disappointed. Then I ventured over to where they have magazines. My friend collects national geographics from the decade he was born. I was lucky to find a box of 60 of them on Kijiji.com for $15 ranging from 1974-1997. Luckily most of the issues were of the decade he collects but not all of them were there. I was lucky to find 4 issues at 69cents each to add to his gift :) He'll be thrilled...over 65 issues for him and I spent less than $18!

I also discovered that this particular store has clothing for 50% off each wednesday. I arrived just before 5pm so I didn't have time to look around and the lineup at the cash was outrageous, but definitely worth going back for gifts next week.

I was in kind of a bad mood, so my sweetie suggested we go rent a movie. He wanted a pizza too, so we ventured over to the pizza place located near the video store (Their pizzas are really cheap if you pick them up instead of getting delivery), he ordered his pizza and they told him that night was 2for1!! Since I don't eat pizza (I'm vegan and try to stay away from bread products too), we weren't sure what to do with the second one. Since he eats pizza once a week as a treat, I decided to make packages in ziplock bags, wrapping two slices in plastic wrap first, then in a ziplock. Now he has 4 meals in the freezer when he is craving pizza!

I currently temp in a fancy government office, and we always throw out tons of  milk & creamers. We are obliged to have them on hand but every two weeks we throw out tons of them because they are rarely used. I asked if I could take a small baggie with me, which wasn't an issue at all! I have a friend who loves cream in his coffee but says when he buys the container it always goes bad. So I bring him a dozen creamers to use from my office. Everyone is happy and there is less waste.

It's my colleages birthday on Monday and since I haven't been here long and I don't really know him (it's just him and I in the office most of the time, no one else), I wanted to surprise him with something but didn't know what. I made some of my peanut brittle last week for a friend but kept a little bit and brought it in. He loved it! So I secretly discovered that he likes peanut brittle, I will make some of this and add some French Vanilla Coffee Mix with it too (He loves french vanilla coffee). woohoo!

Another long day at this office, looking forward to yoga tonight, boy I need it!

Peace.

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