Our New Island Home

Curious Vancouver Island Seal - Taken Fall 2010

Tommorrow we fly off to take possession of our new home on Vancouver Island. Unfortunately it won't be our main home for a few more months while we sort out selling our old home in Alberta. We are spending five days there setting up housekeeping.

All basic living necessities have been crammed in our suitcases (and no, I am not paying for extra luggage - it weights 49 lbs of the 50 allowed - I weighed it!) including bedding and pots, pans and dishes necessary to survive in our new home. It will be a bit like camping - with a blow up Coleman airbed. We hope to find the perfect patio set - and will use it in our kitchen until the furniture can be shipped out. Our intent is not to purchase any item we already own or will not use down the road. The airbed will be used for company after the move is complete. If the house has not sold by the end of May I will move out and continue this minimalist lifestyle until hubby can join when the Alberta house sells. One of the only things I had to buy a duplicate of is a can opener - a necessity in both homes - purchased at the dollar store.

Wish us luck. A lot of planning has taken place to pull this off - much harder when you are currently living a Province away. I hope to post at some point (if I can pry the Ipad out of hubbys hands) while we are there.

Two Weeks of Thrifting

I have found a few wonderful goodies lately - some to keep and some to resell.

Cooking For Two by Janet M. Hill - 1922 Version
Found at Goodwill $3.98

Check out the fabulous containers and dishes!

Miss Pickerell and the Geiger Counter
1959 Version
Miss Pickerell "saves the precious uranium". Yes, this was written in the 1950's - bit of brainwashing for the young ones on the virtues of atomic energy.
Found Salvation Army .99

Early One Morning - Rand McNally Childrens Book 1963
Goodwill .99. I think I bought it for the cute bunnies peeking from the bushes.

My first pieces of California Original Pottery
Likely 1970s brown with gold edging
Found at Goodwill $3.99 - these four can be used by themselves or together as a lazy susan. They are not perfect (a few small chips on underside corners) but I like them - they came with original appetizer food still on them so have been thoroughly scrubbed.

New oil lamp - I love these - already own a few.
Found at Goodwill .99

Linking up with Her Library Adventures Flea Market Finds and Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday.

Taking a Chance To Save Money

So, dear hubby was not always as thrifty as he is today. When I met him (9 years ago next month) he was charming, but a name brand man. Slowly I have chipped away at his name brand exterior and he realizes now that we can eat a nice, well balanced and tasty diet on a low grocery budget(approximately 30-40% of what we used to spend per month). This is done a variety of ways - primarily through scratch cooking, coupons, and stocking up on items that are one sale.

Today I was nearing the end of the grocery budget dollars with several days left to go in the month. We needed garbage bags (ran out last week but I was stretching things) so I picked up a box of 40 bags for $4.79 of an unknown brand versus name brand Glad 40 bags for $18.99. You cannot tell me Glad is four times better than these - hubby is skeptical but to save that kind of money it is worth a shot. Nine times out of ten they are just as good (or almost as good which also works in my books). I hope to prove Hubby wrong - I will post results in a few weeks after using them.

Yesterday hubby managed to sell a set of golf clubs purchased seven or eight years ago for the kids to learn on - but unused in the past two years - we unloaded them for $100. For that price he even delivered them as had to run an errand on the other end of the town and he was anxious to close the deal.

Tally for Vancouver Island Savings Account (aka household crap sold fund) $1765.

I gave a few items away to a friend: crock pot and large urn for flowers. This weekend I will try to freecycle some items and he hopes to sell our snow blower to a friend.

No offers on the house yet - we have had more snow in March than all winter so that has slowed viewings. I had originally intended to rake the lawn this weekend but a dump last night of 3 inches has killed that idea.

Cheers - happy bargain hunting. Sunday I will post all my treasures from thrift stores for the past two weeks!

Island Pad Purchase and Deals This Week

Art Courtesy The Graphics Fairy

This week has been filled with arranging utility hookups, insurance, transferring money to lawyers, signing legal documents, and prepping for key hand-over date on March 30th of our little pad on Vancouver Island. Comox suffered hurricane force winds last week and sustained lots of damage - here is hoping none of the small trees in the yard suffered any damage.

We fly out on the 28th which will give us two days to buy some bedding and furniture. Needless to say, there has not been much time for blogging.

Deals this week:
Blow up Coleman Airbed Queen size which will act as our temporary bedding until furniture is shipped and then it will become spare bed for family regular $120 on sale $70(Canadian Tire). This deal involved having my mother who lives on the island pick up the sale for me - lucky for us she got one of the last ones. Savings $50

20 lbs potatoes for $5.99 - same price as a 10 lb bag
Yes, we eat a lot of potatoes. Some have already been roasted to go with BBQ meat.
10 lbs onions for $2.99 - the last batch from the same store lasted three months and was still fresh down to the last onion.

I also picked up several thrift store goodies which I will share in a different post on the weekend. It does seem the Salvation Army here has nearly doubled their prices. Last weekend I walked in to drop off some clothing for donation and found nothing - can you believe NOTHING to purchase! I even had a conversation with another lady who was complaining about the retail prices ($10 for a non-collectible glass salad bowl). Unfortunately only charity will suffer from their doubling of prices. May is garage sale season and I cannot wait!

Busy Week: Funeral, Showing home, Selling Stuff!

Sold:

Two side tables and a chest of drawers. $50 (fibreboard hubby's post divorce used furniture bought 12 years ago-we have been married 5.5 yrs now - time to say goodbye). The TV hasn't sold - it is extremely difficult to unload old TVs - I asked all my friends if they wanted it free and no takers. I will likely have to freecycle it. We shall give it a little more time as I am trying to get as much money out of selling off our belongings as possible.

Mirror $20 - this was an 8 year old gift that no longer works with our downsize decor

Hoover shampooer $60. Purchased for about $200 eight years ago, used about 15 times-paid for itself many times over. We still need one but as I bought the exact same model for my mother five years ago to help her deal with aging pets we are sharing hers until a new one needs to be bought - we will then buy the replacement when hers dies(she also lives on Vancouver Island). Sharing rarely used items with family or friends saves money and space.

Total Household Crap Sold to Date: $1665

The only thing we have sold that requires replacing when we get to Vancouver Island is a patio set - our old one weighed too much (800 lbs or so) to consider shipping it.

Today we went to the funeral of hubby's 90 year old Uncle, a bit of a reclusive man but honored WWII veteran - a tank driver who joined the Canadian military voluntarily at age of 20. Hubby's family is Ukrainian Roman Catholic on his fathers side and Ukrainian Orthodox on his mothers side. This is the first time (other than a trip to Greece) where I have been inside an Orthodox Church. It was extremely beautiful - three gigantic glass chandeliers, gilt woodwork, red velvet, at least 50 religious iconic paintings and Priest robes of royal purple and gold. His cousin is an Orthodox Priest and he officiated for his Uncles funeral. We wanted to take a picture inside the church - with the sunshine streaming in the stained windows but unfortunately based on the circumstances it was not the right time. The ceremony was mostly singing both in Ukrainian and English - lots of holy water and incense. A very long day(2 hrs church, 1 hr graveside both religious and veteran service, then 1.5 hr lunch), but a nice way to remember someone.

We came back home to this little guy sunning himself and chewing on old grass in our backyard. Mr jackrabbit is starting to change from his winter white to his summer brown. A little splotchy right now but yet another sign of Spring.

We have a showing tommorrow evening of the house - wish us luck!

The First Goose Has Landed! It's Officially Spring!

I heard the first goose of the year a few minutes ago (thought I was hearing things) and yes, he was there, all by his lonesome on the ice, waiting for it to melt. For the next month they come, a few at a time, then by April in hundreds as the ponds at the back of my home play host to thousands of migratory birds. Geese, ducks, red winged blackbirds, herons and a few Northern pelicans.

I couldn't be happier to see him. THIS is what will help sell my house!

Update (10 minutes later) - another one landed so my little buddy is not too lonely - it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I love nature.

Goodwill Painting Bought for $3 Sells for $190,000

And this is why I shop at thrift stores! In case you haven't caught the story elsewhere (I saw on Yahoo)



If for any reason the above video does not work for you here is the link:

www.wistv.com

February Financials

We sold our last two items today that were listed on Kijiji for $60 (pictured above one of the items-abdominal excersizer)giving a grand total of $1535 household items sold. Ironically we had planned to relist these items this weekend (originally listed on February 10th) and list a bunch more - we will still do that but it is surprising weeks after your original listing people still call you up.

Now for grocery results for March:

Budget $426.59 - January overage of .29 = $428.28
Actual $502.80 - Way over by $74.60 which will come off March Budget.

Of the $502.80 Spent:
Coupons used $11.25
Nonfood items $74.12
Meat $139.67

I spent a lot more on meat this month. I also miscalculated as now that hubby is self employed he is home more and we are eating out far less due to tightened budget. I may have to increase our food budget a bit to account for this as soon I will be home more as well. I will give it another month to see.

I started keeping track of non-food items, most of this being over the counter pain medication for my fibro-mialgia. I refuse to go on prescriptions as tried several and they only screwed up my blood pressure and made me gain weight. So far this is one of my most pain free winters to date and the self-medication seems to be working. I only take medication as needed and seem to be healthier for it.

Hair Budget for year is $400

Haircut in February - used $52 of budget = $348 to go.
I am going to push the time between dyes to stretch my budget. We dyed my hair a slightly darker shade of blond this time so roots take much longer to show, and later when I move I may still try home dye but for now will stick with my faithful hairdresser. If I go over on the hair budget the clothing budget may be to make it up as I seem to be doing better in that area.


Clothing Budget for $200

Spent so far ZERO!!!! Yay!!
Apparently it is not that hard to go a few months without spending any money on clothes. I did buy some undergarments for $19.93 (socks and a bra) but used a Gift Certificate that I won last year at Winners so am still counting it as Zero out of pocket.

I am buying more in bulk, family packs of meat, and definitely stocking up on sales even with the move (a month or two's worth).

Funny story heard today: at work discussing the Box O Wine waiting for me in the fridge at home a co-worker told of her Grandpa who used to save the plastic bags from the inside of the boxes of wine, wash them out, fold them up and save them for camping. When someone needed a pillow at the beach he whipped out the wine bag and filled it with water - Wa La - a pillow for suntanning. I love that story. No, I am not saving the bag to do that - it will be recycled. Still, long before mass recycling people were finding ways to re-use items.

Have a thrifty weekend!

Green Themed Sunday Including Thrift Store Find

This entry is themed green in Honor of St. Patrick's Day which is just around the corner.

The photo above is some shamrock (possibly, really not sure what it is - could be clover) that grew in the moss on my little palm tree. The palm tree is slowly dying but the shamrock is taking off!

The little pepper plant that flowered last month now has a 1/2 inch pepper!

This is my only thrift store find this week - divided vegetable dish - not marked. Goodwill .99 cents - the colour just shouts Spring to me.

Finally, saving some Green - Free frozen yogurt with use of $5 off coupon from Chapmans - $4.99= .01 cent to go towards other groceries.

If you haven't tried Chapmans Icecream - you really should - the absolute best icecream and frozen yogurt ever. I already buy this brand as a treat about once every three months - free is even better!

Linking with Her Library Adventures Flea Market Findsflea Market Finds.

Keep Your Eye On The Prize

Vancouver Island near Parksville - taken March 2011 (edited with ipiccy)

This week was not a great week for me. I got depressed and turned into a mass of snivelling tears with hubby looking at me like I was losing my mind. He is in a different mindset of exciting self employment - in one short month he got his first payday from a client, incorporated, set up his website and got business cards, envelopes and letterhead printed. He does not dread getting up every day to go to a mindless job to take crap from jerks. That would be my life. I know I am quitting this job but it is sapping every bit of life out of me right now. So, last night we developed my exit strategy.

Our house has not sold yet. In just less than four weeks we take possession of our little pad by the sea in Comox. We don't really want to live apart, nor do we want to have either home be vacant. Hubby is in his glory setting up his company. He is also better at selling our house and it is not safe for me to be showing the house alone so we both agree this is the best plan.

My last day of work (at the very latest) will be June 22. If the house has still not sold by that time I will live in the Vancouver Island house and hubby will stay back to sell the house and furniture. He will fly out to see me every three weeks-we are constantly collecting points in preparation for this and it may cost us but we absolutely hate being apart for more than a few days. At least we have a plan now as showings have slowed (although there are more jobs than bodies now in Alberta) due to a couple of snowstorms. The second the snow melts, the grass grows and the birds come back our house will sell as we back onto a wetland - we are sure of this and have repriced the house in anticipation.

In the mean time we are flying out to our new home to get the keys and set up housekeeping on March 28. We will have very little furniture and be sleeping on an airbed but will have: small tv, dvd player, bed, side tables (several items will be borrowed from my mother as we own all of the above once the furniture is shipped after the house sells), a folding kitchen table and chairs. Anything we can't take in our suitcases or borrow from Mom we will buy from the thrift store.

I feel better now - we have a plan.