Ugh. Was like “I will look through Craigslist for thrifted furniture in case I can find cheaper and/or nicer nightstands than Ikea.”
Sigh. Not so far.
10 Likes
Any luck with Facebook marketplace? I find that’s better in our area and less serial killer-y.
6 Likes
Good luck. I said the same thing and then spent all morning on Ikea…
3 Likes
Toronto has lots of produce stores and some of them say they are convenience stores…but I feel like I’ve never seen one anywhere else in Ontario. My best and cheapest produce in suburbs is ethnic stores. Otherwise farms, CSA or ethnic store.
I’m going to keep my insane expensive produce delivery but switch to a smaller cheaper option.
2 Likes
I like avoiding serial killers.
We may have some other options pop up – nightstands aren’t an immediate NEED, they’re just handy, and we won’t die without them. 
I can keep hunting, and think about other strategies as well for creating/obtaining “thing I can put lamp and a glass of water on safely” items.
2 Likes
Boxes work well in the interim, I hear you have some? 
My mom took 2 large boxes, put contact paper over them, put rarely used stuff inside, and used that as a storage headboard/nightstand substitute for many years. Not for the aesthetic snob like me but worked well enough!
1 Like
lololol like one or two 
It’s definitely an interim solution. I, er, would definitely like to have something more long term at some point.
My old town had one of these! It was only open on Saturday and Sunday and they didn’t advertise at all. You just had to “know.” Someone I knew told me about it and that’s just how people found out. You had to bring your own bags (before that was a thing everywhere), and they checked you out super fast and without talking to you and you were expected not to really loiter much. It was a very weird experience in which I felt like a number but mannnn they had the good stuff. By the time I left it had gotten a lot softer and they did a lot of delivery to the elderly for Covid. I’d love to find something like that here.
3 Likes
Also I’m sorry I left you hanging! I think I have too many constraints to take you up on this BUT it prompted me to make a “weekly food prep” and “monthly food prep” sheets so that I can reduce effort I put into cooking. I also would out my copy of https://www.amazon.com.au/Your-Grocery-Americas-Cheapest-Family-ebook/dp/B0044XV62K
To check if any of their ideas that didn’t work for us before, might work now.
5 Likes
If it helps with this discussion, I did my weekly shop at sprouts today. (Also posted on the grocery hauls thread)
6 Likes
Managed to spend ~$170 at the grocery store this week instead of $200 like last time. It’s a pain to do while I’m shopping but typing in everything to the calculator and seeing the running total helps me stay focused on the budget.
9 Likes
Let me know how the planning goes!Instead of ordering out I made food. Macaroni and cheese with hotdogs and sauteed spinach. A balanced meal.
Praise me.
20 Likes
Praise be.
3 Likes
Praise!
1 Like
instead of getting the BOGO chicken & waffle picnic boxes I made salmon corn cakes and a homemade tartar sauce with cornichons and cilantro. (there was also supposed to be zucchini in the salmon cakes, but it turned out we didn’t have any zucchini in the house)
10 Likes
So I know this is a little bit of a stretch in terms of money saving mindset but I can’t recommend this enough! I was so excited to see a modern series made about her and I think it ties in well enough because of the entrepreneurship, empowerment, and badass not giving up no matter what vibes. It’s on Netflix in the USA not sure for other countries.
11 Likes
Meals
Monday - leftovers
Tuesday - lunch: eggs, dinner noodles (curry stir fry or peanut sauce, make enough for Wednesday lunch
Wednesday - grandparents
Thursday - lunch Kraft dinner, dinner: rice, fish, veggies
Friday - pizza (homemade)
Saturday- out or biryani
I think that I’m too late to customize my veggie box for Thursday, so after this one I’m going down a size and then skipping customization unless I get a really unappetizing box
Breakfasts are oatmeal, yogurt, Cheerios, toast, and I might make muffins. My oven is split in two, and I used the top to bake a cake this morning and we didn’t notice it heating up the house at all
8 Likes
We got takeout for lunch today, but it filled us up enough to cover lunch, dinner and there’s enough for both our lunches tomorrow. Comes out to about $5 a meal which is pretty great for food someone else cooked. Plus we got a nice walk out of going to pick it up!
6 Likes
Score! We went out for Korean food this weekend and it came to like $8 a person. Totally worth it.
4 Likes