My rhododendrons are in partial bloom for the second time this year, the last being in April. I am not sure what that is about as this has not happened before. Perhaps it was due to the summer drought then lots and lots of rain. Not a great picture, but I wanted to document this for future reference that I actually had flowers blooming in the yard in November - amazing!
Buddy survived Halloween with a large amount of barking, but as many dogs would agree, little kids ringing the doorbell all night can drive anyone bananas. He barked at our first two little princesses and then I tried to take him for a walk to get him away from the house. He is fine seeing trick-or-treaters in costume on the street but if they cross onto our property that is another story. We ended up with 29 this year but it really started raining hard at 8:30pm so we shut things down at that time. Once again, I ended up with too much candy. Next year I will definitely try and buy less and if we run out we shut off the lights. Total spent on candy was $35.
I don't usually buy pumpkins as we have an electric pumpkin we use to decorate with but I happened to be at the grocery store at the right time and place on November 1st. The produce manager of an Island family-owned grocery chain (Quality Foods in case any locals read this) was just telling the cashiers to give away the rest of the pumpkins for free. In Canada we have our Thanksgiving in early October therefore there is not much call for pumpkins after October 31st. These had been priced at $2.99. I picked out one medium pumpkin and ended up cutting a third of it for my Mom as she enjoys baked pumpkin. I really dislike most cooked vegetables much preferring the raw version. I really don't like much squash at all except the occasional fried zucchini so I decided to roast up the seeds with olive oil and sea salt and boil the rest to mash up for muffins. Today I shall bake up one batch with two more containers to go into the freezer for future muffins. Hubby has already eaten most of the seeds. Who doesn't like freebies!
The October food budget was $550 and I ended up at $530.38 with $7.98 in coupons used. A little under for the first time in several months. As per Sluggy's suggestion I reviewed my annual food budget which for this year is $6700 which was $650 for January when my Stepdaughter was still living with us and $550 a month the rest of the year. That includes all over the counter medications, cleaning supplies and toiletries. I also include makeup/personal grooming products in that budget. Buddy's food is not included however as he has a separate category in our budget. So far as at the end of October $5733.21 has been spent. It seems like each month it is getting hard to stay on budget as costs keep going up. Most recently produce has seen the biggest increases due to our low Canadian dollar. I simply have to continue to change our diet to eat what is on sale and in season or I will have to go over the budget. I have $966.79 left for November and December. I have decided that $466.79 will be the November budget and $500 for December. Hopefully I will be able to achieve this as also have saved up points from two stores to use on a combination of groceries and gifts. The freezer is mostly full and right now I am only buying loss leaders/things at rock bottom prices. I did do a stock up at Costco on some over the counter meds on November 1 so hopefully will be good on most of those items until end of year.
As for freebies/extra money for 2015 Christmas gifts and groceries these are my totals:
$126.00 Amazon.ca gift certificates from using Swagbucks
$25.00 Itunes.ca gift certificate from using Swagbucks
$40.00 in PC plus points
$95.00 in Shoppers Drug Mart Points$25.00 Walmart Gift card from customer service issue(late order last year)
$19.19 from rebates
$21.51 from Checkout 51 grocery rebate for using online app
$77.46 from blog income (removed advertising afterwards as no longer want ads)
$429.16 - Woohoo!
A pretty nice total don't you think? It's like free money! As for the point programs just to clarify I refuse to buy things just to get points. I only end up with points when I buy something I was already going to and the low price justifies the purchase. It makes no sense to pay higher prices to end up with more points but I see so many people doing just that.
I have started to buy Christmas gifts but don't really have that many to buy as we do a combination of gift cards/cash for the kids(*technically all 4 are adults now) rather than useless items they won't use. The cash portion of Christmas is sitting at $1100 which will cover gifts and some travel expenses for our mid-December holiday trip to Alberta to visit family.
Are you prepared mentally/financially for Christmas?
You are doing great with your holiday earnings!! I'm trying to determine if I want to turn my United points (from work travel) into Amazon gift cards. I think I could get around $400. Given that United doesn't go to any of my domestic destinations easily, and I have no plans for a personal international trip, I think it would be a good tradeoff. Still deciding. . .
ReplyDeleteSometimes the giftcard way is the best way to use up points, I did the same thing a few years ago with some Air Canada points I wouldn't be able to use otherwise.
DeleteGood job on being ready for the Christmas spending bacchanalia. $426 is nothing to sneeze at! I confess I don't save all my extra "income" sources for the Holidays but I do cash out SavingsStar, and the change I save throughout the year and then cash in some cc points for gift cards to give as gifts or either us to buy gifts. Most rebates and blogging income are spent through the year(or saved) with blogging income covering the cost of mailing my giveaway boxes.
ReplyDeleteA thought--since when the CA$ is low against the US$ would it help to seek out food sources made/grown in CA vs. buying foods shipped in?
You might be in a different situation being so close to Vancouver, WA tho and isolated from much of the growing areas of CA.
And how difficult is it to find locally grown foods in your part of CA? I know the Pacific Northwest area has milder winter weather but it can't be conducive to a growing season there in the winter, right?
I buy all the produce that we get locally but growers here are seeing higher costs due to pest control (biological or chemical) so all costs are higher. All our canned food and cleaners are higher too. I just bought my first fresh tomato in months at $1.68/lb. I still have some frozen tomatoes though which will be good for stews and sauces from the huge amount I got this summer. Such is life. Luckily we have enough income that if I need to increase the budget I will, but like you I like to make a test out of it :)
DeleteI forgot to say - produce like oranges, bananas and melons all come from outside Canada so I am at the mercy of exchange rates. Island grown things like cucumbers are available year round but often more expensive than those imported from Mexico. I usually pay .99 cents in summer per cucumber and $1.99 in winter or more.
DeleteI find it insane that foods shipped from far away are often cheaper than foods grown nearby....even with the transportation costs it's cheaper to buy so you know those picking it aren't making anything like a living wage....
DeleteI agree - drives me bananas. We do have one family owned large farm about 3 miles away that opens a farm stand in May and runs until November. They are actually reasonable and you can buy seconds ie peppers that wouldn't make it in the supermarket. My favorite place!
DeleteYour freebies are extraordinary! My swag bucks are miniscule and my highest freebie on inbox dollars is 26.36. I can't cash out until $30.00 so there may be hope! Love the rhododendron. What a surprise!
ReplyDeleteMost of my swagbucks are from running videos when I do housework/cooking :)
DeleteI'm watching the prices rise with an anxious eye. We try to grow a lot of our own food but the long hot weather has devastated our cool weather crops-to hot to germinate so went in late and now dormant before anywhere near their usual size. I'm reviewing what we grow in the hope we can do better next year. I'm in a very Christmasey mood this year.
ReplyDeleteI am also thinking of growing more next year, wondering what does well in containers. Definitely more tomatoes going in after the bumper crop we had this year.
DeleteOur food budget is $600 and I have been going over it nearly every month! Thankfully I come in UNDER for another catagory or two so it NEARLY evens out. Everything just costs so much!
ReplyDeleteI recently spent $400 for wallpaper and will use a $381 'cash back' from my credit card to help pay for it. I asked Louis Dean about spending so much for paper - I am a much better paper hanger than I am a painter - even though I am an artist and can paint a canvas! Go figure! He said if I broke it down in years (my last paper had been up for 32 years!) it would not be so much. I intend to keep this paper up until I am gone so I actually feel frugal about it!! You really can't see my walls anyway.....
I think LD is right, that wallpaper is an investment in your home and you have a very cozy home and at this point in your life you will look at that wallpaper and love it every day. I am not a great painter but hubby is he does the complicated bits and I do the easy bits. I am good at paint taping though. We had a ceiling repair done a few days ago but no matter how hard the guy tried he couldn't match the colour of paint to the 7 year old roof so I am thinking in Spring we will give the entire ceiling (except in bedrooms) one coat of paint. With 10 foot ceilings it is a back killing job. We might have to do it a little bit at a time :)
DeleteKudos on all the "found" money! That is a great gift to yourself right now at Christmastime.
ReplyDeleteIt is, so glad I started right at the beginning of the year. It is hard to stay on track and not spend those points though on some months when I went way over grocery budget.
DeleteIf I can I will grow as much as I can on my balconies and in my Dad's yard.
ReplyDeleteWe have $120 in Air miles for the Xmas grocery and about the same amount in PC points.
I try to stick to a strict grocery list but sometimes....You know how it is. I still don't have an oven...so that will slow the Xmas process.
My Xmas shopping is well underway....Yay!
I love that you moved into an apartment adjacent to your Dad. My Mom only lives 2.5 blocks away and I love being so close - we regularly pop in when walking the dog. We use our air miles for flights due to family not living near us but I definitely am collecting SDM points and PC Plus points for next Christmas as well. It sure helps plus Superstore has so many items I could easily use them for gifts too.
DeletePoints really help out at this time of year. I'm going to use my PC points for Kazi's stocking this year; last year I used my Optimum points but haven't collected enough for this year. My Christmas $$ also comes from my property taxes!! I pay over 10 months so that I don't have to pay in November and December; instead that $$ gets diverted to Christmas. Very convenient!
ReplyDeleteThat is a good idea with your tax money. We pay ours in one shot but I set aside $600 per month for all our car/house insurance and tax bill so that when the bills come due I just take the money out (all insurance is first put on the credit card for points though). I signed up online for SDM personalized coupons and usually don't go to their big spend days but they send some pretty good ones out like spend $10 on food and get 2000 points or buy milk and get 800 points. Since Loblaws bought them they have better groceries so it is a bit easier.
DeleteWe shop at Quality Foods, but I still like to go to Overwaite (hard for me to call it Save-on-Foods) for the bulk items and their shelf brands. I'm still saving on salad greens with my lettuce, kale and chard in the garden, plus beets and carrots. Not enough to live on, but a bit of savings. Our best points program is at Canadian Tire. We use their credit card and the points build up fast for big savings. - Margy
ReplyDeleteOur Save-on Foods closed but in Alberta we used to buy decently priced meat there. Hubby has the Canadian Tire app on his phone for points and in the summer that is where I buy my plants/flowers. I can't wait until our new bigger one opens at the mall where Target left. I see they just finally broke ground on removing part of the parking lot for expansion.
DeleteMy Christmas savings is sad for this year. I think the biggest problems was that our gas rewards program went bye-bye and that was a huge chunk of it. I did hit a lot of the after Christmas clearance and I have a lot fo the shopping done. ALso we have agreed that we all really just want gift cards for Christmas so I won't be running all over to get them.
ReplyDeleteThat sucks about your gas reward program. It seems like this year we have more rewards than ever - but it is pretty darn hard to use coupons in Canada so we collect what we can.
DeleteWhoa! Make sure to unplug that electrical pumpkin before you carve it!
ReplyDeleteTee hee!
DeleteElectric Pumpkin sounds like a band from the late 1960s! x
ReplyDeleteIt does, now that you say that....I will have to look for that Album at the thrifts!
DeleteI'm really bad at using swag bucks and other little things to earn extra cash and/or perks on the side. Need to get on that!
ReplyDeleteI go in spurts, this year has been much better than most
Delete