Any Which Way You Can...Have Chili

We love leftovers around here. I recently posted about our chili in a bread bowl, and not wanting to consume another half loaf of bread in one sitting, we had to change up how we ate the leftovers.

Bring on the chili fries! We baked some homemade fries, topped them with chili, cheese, and guacamole. It was a winning combination!

Emergency Cookies

Sometimes I get a craving for something full of sugar. I would love if this craving was satisfied by a strawberry yogurt, a fruit smoothie, or any sort of healthy sweet food. Unfortunately, this craving cannot be tricked! There are just times when I need to eat a baked good and that's that (cake, cookies, doughnuts, cinnamon buns, or any other sugar filled treat).

I love to bake, but the craving often happens when I'm super tired and in absolutely no mood to do so. If my craving wins, I usually end up at the grocery store where I buy a super tasty (but expensive) store-made baked good.

That was until I discovered emergency cookies.

Browsing the Dollar Tree I noticed some quick baking mixes. Cookies, cupcakes, muffins; all for $1 each. They had simple directions and required little prep time, so I bought a few for those times when I need 'Emergency Treats'. Now if I get that unstoppable urge for sweet, I make something from a mix (which takes about the same time as a trip to the store). It's a great solution! 

Emergency Cookie Mix

Add mix, 4 tbs butter or margarine, and 2 tbs water

Mix until it is cookie dough

Place onto cookie sheet (makes about 10)

Emergency cookies!

Are these the greatest cookies I've ever had? No. But they taste pretty good and satisfy my sweet craving. The quick mixes also don't make very much (about 10 cookies), which is great for having a few cookies in the moment but not a lot of leftovers.

We Love Leftovers

Leftovers are my favourite. They are great for a quick lunch or a just-reheat-it-and-it's-ready dinner. You might even find us eating them for lunch and dinner (Pesto Pasta is a good one for that). And why not? The flavours of some foods can intensify overnight, and with the simple effort of making one dinner, you get two. Or three. Or more. Love it! And if we know we can't use them within a few days, we pop them in the freezer to feed our future selves (future us loves presents from the past).

This week we were able to use our awesome taco leftovers in two different ways. Leftovers have to work in this house!

Taco salad looking pretty for the blog.

Taco leftovers made an appearance in my all time favourite leftover lunch: taco salad. I'm sure this salad has more taco shells, meat, and cheese than, say, a garden salad would, but that is why it is so awesome. It is in my top three salads for sure. This is also a great way to use up those two extra taco shells that we normally find stale a few weeks from now.

All mixed up and ready to eat!

This magic salad has green leaf lettuce, green olives, broken taco shells, taco meat, shredded cheese, and salsa for dressing. Always love adding chunks of avocado when I have them too. I love love love this salad.

We also turned the taco leftovers into a pizza topping. It was as tasty as it sounds. We often make over the top pizza, but this one was crazy delicious. And leftover bonus: I had leftover pizza for lunch the next day. LEFTOVER WIN!

Piles of toppings, starring taco meat.

Oh what the hell, let's add more cheese!

Finished pizza had all the win.

Taco Tray

While out shopping one evening we noticed something called a Taco Serving Tray. They were being sold for $10 and we seriously considered buying one. Our taco nights involve many toppings and we marveled at how convenient it would be to have them all on one tray. We didn't end up buying one, but when I got home I looked around to see if we had something that would do the same thing. Turns out we did!

A regular party tray works just perfectly. There is room for all the taco fixings and now we only have one topping dish at clean up. And dressing your taco is as easy as saying: "can you pass me the tray?"

Easily Filled Tacos

Getting Fancy With My First Wilton Decorating Tip

It's my brother's birthday today and the family is getting together tomorrow for a Mom-made turkey dinner to celebrate. I was tasked with dessert and at first I was going to make a cake, but then it turned into cupcakes, and now it's fancy cupcakes. I have been reading a tonne of new blogs lately and have been feeling really inspired to try new recipes and new techniques. Birthdays are a great excuse to learn some new baking skills.

After researching how fancy cupcakes are decorated at Wilton, I made a list and headed to the Bulk Barn so I could add some cake decorating tools to my collection.

I love Bulk barn when I'm trying something new. You can buy as much or as little as you want, which means you don't have spend a lot to try something out. I spent around $5 today and bought the bare minimum to decorate my cupcakes. I got one decorating tip, the 1M star shape, which the internet says is great for cupcakes. I also picked up a "large tip" coupler, which helps secure the decorating tip to the icing bag. Lastly I bought two disposable icing bags, which were sold in bulk. I loved that I was able to buy bulk icing bags! They also carried a box of 12 bags, but this is my first time fancy decorating, maybe I will hate doing it! Then I would have 11 useless bags lying around. I went with the safe option of 2/$0.99 (they are the faint triangles in the photo).

My cupcakes are already baked, but I'm holding off icing them until tomorrow. I hope it is fun!

Do you use cake decorating tips? What is the most fun or elaborate thing you have decorated?

St. Patrick's Day Stew

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day we made some stew and a loaf of bread that I dyed green. That sounds kinda Irish, right?

I grew up on a beef cattle farm, so stew is one of those meals that makes me feel comfy and warm with good memories of home. The recipe I use is pretty similar to the one Mom used to make, with the addition of a few more exotic vegetables (yams!) and spices.

For our stew we used a beef roast that we cut into chunks. The roast was crazy cheap and that made the stew beef we cut even cheaper. I love saving money by doing some of the prep work myself (plus I really like doing the prep work!).

Beef Roast

Beef roast cut into stew beef chunks

Jen and John's Simple Stew

Ingredients:

1 lb (or so) stewing beef
onion, finely diced
garlic, finely diced

2 medium carrots, chopped
1 yam, cut in chunks
2-3 potatoes, cut in chunks
1 can of diced mushrooms
1 cup frozen corn kernels
Broth packet (beef or what you have)
Various spices to taste: garlic salt, salt, pepper, basil, turmeric
Corn starch + water

Method:

1. Brown beef in pot you intend to use for your stew. Once browned, add water to pot, almost covering the beef. Add in finely diced onion and garlic (I use a small food processor) and simmer on low heat with lid on for 2 -3 hours. I recently learned that this is called braising the beef.

2. Add in chopped vegetables and enough water to cover them. Add a broth packet or two to add flavour (beef if you have it). Add various spices to taste. Soften the vegetables over medium-low heat for 1 hour.

3. Continue simmering as long as desired. The more it cooks the more it thickens. To thicken to desired consistency, add corn starch mixed with water until it looks right.

Serve with bread (dying it green for St. Patty's Day is optional).

Sometimes we make the stew the day before and let it sit in the fridge overnight to allow the flavours to intensify. It makes it super yummy.

Enjoy! And Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 

Reading What I Used To Eat

We are now on our third month of meal planning, and this month was by far the easiest to map out. As we created the newest plan we realized there are meals we want to eat more often (breakfast for dinner) and others we will no longer schedule every month (chili). Meal planning was once intimidating to me but now it is easy. I couldn't be happier with how it is going.

An awesome result of our meal plan is that we are saving money.  I have kept a budget for as long as I can remember and part of that is tracking my spending. I was curious how much money I used to spend eating take out/restaurant food in the months before I started meal planning, so I did some math. It turns out that I would spend about $75/month on take out. I realize $75/month isn't that much, but the majority of that spending was not planned. It wasn't special food or a treat. It was mostly "I need food and we don't have any" spending. With the meal plan in place we haven't had that desparate need for take out, so we saved money.

So what to do with the money I used to just blow on take out? I bought a book series I really wanted to own. I am a very frugal person so most of the books I read come from the library. I am happy to borrow a book and return it, as I don't really have the desire to own everything I read. But there are some books I want in my house permanently. 1984 is one such title. The Harry Potter series is another. And over the past two months, with the savings from meal planning, I picked up Jim Butcher's Dresden's files.

Now I can re-read them whenever I want, John can start reading them too, and they look really pretty on my shelf! 

Meal Planning Update

We are half way through the last week of our month long meal plan and it has gone amazingly well. It has been so wonderful to not only know what is for dinner but to also have all the necessary ingredients on hand. Who knew a little organization could feel so good?

We have stuck to the plan pretty well, only changing a few things around when we realized that Sunday is too lazy to cook vegetarian, and swapping different meals within the week just because we felt like it.  Also, when we made Chili, the leftovers lasted longer than expected and we replaced Taco night with Chili taco night.  We are being really flexible yet sticking to the essentials of the plan. The only time we ate off the plan was last Friday when my in-laws unexpectedly picked up dinner for us. It is hard to say no to free food, especially on a Friday night when we were feeling lazy.

With the organized menu, we have increased our vegetables intake which was one of my goals.  Lots of salads and steamed veggies with dinner, and I am getting super into sweet potatoes. I mashed one today and ate it with a sandwich at lunch time. It was amazing! We have also ramped up our use of the bread maker, as I've been making tonnes of buns, loaves of bread, and weekly pizza dough.  Home made bread and buns are cheap, easy to make, and taste delicious!

In terms of cost savings, we actually spent more on groceries this month than we normally do. I think it is a case of spending more on the front end and over time it will be cheaper for us.  We bought some staple items that we won't have to buy monthly (a 10kg bag of flour, 2 jars of yeast because they were on sale, etc.), and my freezer is currently a stockpile of meats that will last well into February.  Just based on the amount of food we still have, I am predicting that February we will spend less than we normally do.

The plan for next month is to repeat the meals we had in January, accommodating for the minor adjustments we made.  I think this is a plan that will stick for us!

Freezer Meals - Steel Cut Oats

I love the idea of Freezer meals; just pull something out and heat it up. It's home made fast food. Actually making the food takes time, but the time saved when I am hungry is totally worth it.

I eat steel cut oats everyday for breakfast, and if you've made them before you know they take about thirty minutes to prepare.  That doesn't work for me everyday.  According to the package directions, prepared steel cut oats last 5 days in the fridge, so I used to make them in 5 day intervals.  That didn't work for me either. I first thought about freezing them while watching my friend Betony freeze meals for her daughter using ice cube trays. I did some internet research and discovered that prepared steel cut oats can be kept for 30 days in the freezer and that adults get to freeze their foods in cupcake pans.

Start with Steel Cut Oats.  Have you tried them? I think they have so much flavour and I love the texture.

Cook oats as per package directions. I cook 5 cups at a time, in two different pots, so I end up with 25 portions for the freezer.

Scoop hot, cooked oats into freezer containers.  I use a cupcake pan and a mini loaf pan, each portion measuring about 2/3 cup.

 
Freeze for about 2 hours.  Remove from freezer for about 5 minutes to loosen edges. Remove portions from cup cake pan and put in a resealable Ziploc bag and return to the freezer.

Pop in microwave when ready to eat and enjoy quick steel cut oats.  I eat mine with cinnamon, 1 tbs dried cranberries, and 2 tbs chopped walnuts.

Meal Planning

John and I are starting a new 4-week meal plan today. We already cook most of our meals at home, but we aren't really organized about it. For example, if we bought a box of hamburgers to have hamburgers one night, we would often times end up eating them for multiple days in a row. We don't tend to keep the fridge/freezer regularly stocked, so we often default to what we have on hand.

                                             John: "What do you want for dinner?" 

                                             Me: "Uh...Well, we have hamburgers. So...hamburgers?"  

It is really easy for me to eat hamburgers three days in a row.

A burger on the third day still tastes pretty awesome.

A downfall of not having enough food on hand, is that we often only have half the ingredients for five different meals, so we can't make anything without going to the grocery store first.  Living out of town, those trips eat into our budget with not only the cost of food, but the needless expense of gas and putting extra KM on the car.  Also, when we go to the grocery store to pick up only one or two things, somehow multiple bags of chips, and/or candy, and/or chocolate end up in the cart too! Hopefully our new meal plan will equate to less trips to the grocery store and in turn less impulse buys in the snack aisle.  

Hey! Who put you yummy things in my cart!

Another bad habit of not having enough food on hand, is I tend to freak out if it is going to take to long to a) buy groceries and b) make dinner.  On those occasions, it is just easier to pick up take out.  So having a meal plan will hopefully curb our take out spending as well.

Our current plan is to:

Eat Healthier:

-Eat a variety of foods we already like, while eating more vegetables
-Eat vegetarian two times per week
-Eat less chips, chocolate, candy (treats)

Save Money:

-Only buy groceries we know we will need for the month
-No wasted gas/KM on impulse trips to the grocery store
-Home made whenever possible; use the bread maker to make buns, bread, pizza dough, etc.

With our freezer, fridge, and pantry FULL of food, we are going to try to stick to our plan for the next four weeks and see how it goes. I am so excited to not have to say: "What should we have for dinner?"  I already know what is for dinner for the next 28 days! January 10th? Shake and Bake chicken legs with steamed broccoli, carrots, corn and a side of mashed sweet potato. Jan 23rd? Tacos.  Mmmmmmm...... 

DIY Out of My Comfort Zone

I stopped at a red light and heard the person in the car next to me say "Excuse me".  Because I live in a constant state of partial anxiety my first thought was: "Oh great, what did I do?"  I looked over and it was an older man who said: "I just wanted to let you know your left brake light is out".  I thanked him for letting me know and my next thought was: "Oh great, how much does that cost to fix?"

I was on my way to my parents place and in conversation with my dad he told me replacing the brake light was an "easy fix".  He went so far as to say, "The longest part is going to Canadian Tire to get a new bulb".  Now it almost hurts me to put this in writing, but my dad was right.  The second longest part was figuring out how the brake light assembly came apart, but once we got at it, we quickly removed the burnt out bulb.  Conveniently, the bulb number (or bulb type?) is written right in the plastic beside where the bulb goes. It is also imprinted right on the bulb, so picking up a new bulb was easy as pie.  It turns out replacing a brake light is really just replacing a light bulb.  Like dad said, it's an easy fix.

The brake light assembly is accessed through the trunk of the car. 

We removed the paneling/covering and three screws.  I initially thought the wires and the metal panel dislodged into the trunk so we could access the bulbs that way.  After a few failed attempts to get it to do that, John realized the brake light itself detached away from the vehicle.

The brake lights!  Inside out!

 Light bulb goes here!

Burnt out bulb!

Two bulbs at Canadian Tire were $4.99.  I only needed one so this repair was pretty cheap!!

Bulb replaced! I hit the brake to ensure it worked! It worked! 
We did it!

As it should be!!

Namesake

We love nicknames in this family.  We have a thousand for Gary (the Bear, Gare-Bear, Squid, Squidly, Squiddle, Bearis, Lil' Boss, the Gerrorist, to name just a few).  We also have nicknames for each other. Sickly cute things like Baby, The Baby, Pants, The Pants, Baby-Pants, Bum, The Bum, and Bumble.

We were doing some pre-Christmas looking around the stores and found the following:

Cute right?  And then we noticed his name:

I've seen Rudolph a thousand times and didn't know his name was Bumble.  How adorable!  Before Christmas he was $5 and frugal me can't spend that much on something impractical just because it is cute.  But with 50% off boxing week sale, I now have my namesake sitting on my desk!  :)

A Slippery Slope

I'm not a crazy person, but I recently made the following:

It's a coupon binder!  I picked up a pack of hockey card sleeves at Dollarama (8 pages, with 9 pockets on each page for $1.00).  John gave me an old binder of his and then I was set.

I easily get obsessed with things, and my new thing is couponing.  I definitely won't use all these coupons, but now that they are organized, I can easily find a specific one if I want to use it.  For example, I wouldn't normally buy Dawn dish detergent (I'm a store brand or Sunlight-on-sale kinda girl), so I most likely wouldn't use the "buy two Dawn save $1.00" coupon that is in my coupon binder.  However this week, the fun people at Smart Canucks posted their Hot Coupon Flyer Deals, and it turns out that Dawn detergent is on sale at Giant Tiger for $0.99.  If I buy two bottles for $1.98, I can use my coupon and save $1.00, so the two bottles of dish detergent are actually only $0.49 each!  That is a deal I can go for!

Do you collect coupons?  How do you keep track of the ones in your collection?

Extreme Couponing

Did you happen to catch the TLC show about the extreme couponers?  It was a few weeks ago, but there are some clips online.  The show profiled people who are really good at using coupons to get free groceries/products.  Check out this clip of a woman saving a pile of money at the grocery store:

I love the idea of couponing but I haven't really gotten into it beyond checking the weekly grocery flyers.  I have clipped coupons, but only for products I already buy, and often coupons that come in the mail are for things I would never purchase.  The show was inspiring though, and it made me search around the internet to see what kinds of deals/coupons are out there.  The internet is FULL of couponers, and the following are some links to some Canadian couponing sites/deals.


BLOGS/FORUMS:

Red Flag Deals: I've known about this site for a while, but the Extreme Couponing show pushed me to take a closer look.  I noticed a section called Freebies and I clicked the link to check out what was currently available.  One of the available freebies was free photos from Walmart PhotoCentre.  By ordering online, I got 50 free photos just for signing up and I was also able to use a promo code to get another 50 free photos.  Grand total of 100 photos for $0.00.  They were ready for pick up the next day at my local store.  When I picked them up I felt like an extreme couponer because I got $19(+tax) worth of photos for free!

Smart Canucks: This is a deal blog/forum with links to coupons, shopping deals, and a forum where you can brag about the deal you just got!  I love that.  The only thing better than getting a deal is telling other people about the awesome deal you got!!

Grocery Alerts: This site will go through the weekly grocery store flyers and point out the best deals.  They will also show you how you can get some of the deals for even less by providing the appropriate coupon (they tell you where to get the coupons too!).


COUPONS:

There are tonnes of Canadian coupon sites on the internet.  I have surfed many of them, but have yet to order any coupons, as I don't often want the items that are being offered.  New coupons are added as they become available, so I'll keep checking the sites in case something of interest pops up.
Some coupon sites worth checking out:   Save.ca,   Gocoupons.ca,   Couponclick.ca,   Brandsaver.ca


DEALS:

Flyerland.ca:  If I ever miss a flyer or recycle one prematurely, I check out Flyerland to see what is on sale.  It is not just flyers, they also have links for featured deals, coupons, and contests.

Wag Jag: I haven't bought one yet, but there are deals to be had on this site.  Basically they post a deal of the week, and if a minimum number of people buy it (5 or 10, etc.), the deal becomes 'active' and everyone can get the deal for that low price.  I'm sure I'll try it at some point, I'm just waiting for the deal to be something I actually want to buy!

Are you a couponer? Do you chase after deals?  Have you gotten any awesome deals lately?

You Say You Want A Resolution

Happy New Year!!  New Years is that wonderful time when the calender changes and we tell ourselves it's a good time to start fresh and accomplish all those things we put off last year.  I think this someecard is pretty fitting:

www.someecards.com

So like everyone else this time of year, I am actively trying to eat better and exercise more.  Mostly I am just walking more and have made a clean break from all the junk food that had been a staple in my life since Halloween.  Things are going well so far.

One of my new habits is eating Oatmeal in the mornings.  Oatmeal is a regular breakfast for me, but until last week I was instant packaged all the way.  I had myself convinced that not only was cooking oatmeal way more work, it also tasted gross.  I discovered that I was wrong on both assumptions.  For the past eight days I have cooked the oatmeal and it takes about as long as boiling the kettle.  As for the taste, it tastes good for you - but not in a bad way.  It is also hearty, so it feels like I am eating a meal.  Plus 10 packages of instant oatmeal costs $2.00 for only 400g.  A bag of Quaker Quick Oats is $2.50 for 1000g.  It's an awesome deal too!

Here is how I have been preparing my morning oats:
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup quick oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 cup chopped walnuts

Bring water to boil and add oats.  Let simmer on low for 4 minutes, adding cinnamon and ginger while cooking.  Pour into a bowl and add walnuts.  Enjoy!

I am going to check out Bulk Barn sometime this week and see what other fun things I can add to my oatmeal.  Do you like oatmeal?  What do you add to yours?

Why Pay More?

Because sometimes you get more.  Or you save more over time.  Or both.

I'm really frugal so I'm always looking around for the best deal, and sometimes the best deal is more expensive on the front end.

Being the proud owner of a new used car, I want to do everything I can to take care of it and extend its life.  Now that it is winter time, that means rust proofing it from salt.  Rust proofing is new to me, so I called around to a few places to see who could do it and how much it cost.  Walmart and Canadian Tire were two places I knew of that did it, and I found out they both offer a treatment for $89.99 that covers the entire car, not just the undercarriage.  I made an appointment at Walmart (they had the earliest time available), but they told me the appointment could be conditional on the weather.  The technician let me know that if it was too snowy/slushy, they weren't able to remove the snow/slush from the car before they did the oil application.  It was a snow storm the day of my appointment, and they said I was welcome to still get it done, but they would have to spray the oil OVER the snow/mud/salt that was on the car, so they recommended I reschedule for a less snowy day.  I don't think there is going to be a less snowy day until March.  I called Canadian Tire and asked if they remove the snow from the car before application.  They told me that the heat of the garage melts the snow off and then they apply the oil.  The snow melts off on its own?  How long does that take?  Doesn't anyone have a hose and some warm water to rinse the car off?

Krown does.  I was complaining to my brother about getting rust proofing done in the snow, and he told me to "just go to Krown".  I'd never heard of them, but Bro said they are the best.  I called the Barrie location and they are indeed the best!  When I asked if they clean the snow from your car first, they said they spray it off with hot water.  No letting it melt away on its own?  No just putting the oil on over top of it?  Nope.  They clean the snow from your car before they apply the oil treatment.  That is all I wanted.  The price was higher - $119.95 - but that also included drilling into the car so they could put the oil deep into the vehicle.  They give your car a rinse after the application, and they guarantee the price you paid for the life of your car.  So even if their rate goes up, I'll always pay $119.95 on the Mazda.  The best part was the staff were super friendly and helpful and it only took 25 minutes.  I mentioned that my brother went there too and they gave me $10 off for a family rate.  Seriously?  It was a bonus that has me singing their praises and now my Dad is going to go there next year too.  I was really impressed with the whole Krown experience and it was only twenty dollars more than the other places.  For the professional service I received, I think it was well worth it in the long run.

Also this week I paid more up front for new Christmas lights.  My previous lights were regular bulbs and half the strand was dead when I plugged them in.  I only used them twice and I already had to replace them.  I went in to get a new strand last night, and I had to decide between the $5 regular strand and the $15 LED strand.  The LEDs use less power and are said to last ten times longer than the regular strands.  I gave them a try and I frickin' love them! They are so bright and festive.  From what I have been reading about LED lights, I am pretty sure when I plug them in next year they are still going to work.   And the year after that and the year after that.  I had to pay $10 more up front, but I'll save money on my hydro bill and by not having to replace them as frequently.

Pay more now, save more over time.  Sounds like a plan.

Double (Let) Down (All the Way)

I had suffient warning before I tried the KFC Double Down.  My brother didn't like it.  My friend James didn't like it.  I had a pretty good idea it was not going to be good or worthwhile.  However I am a craver of pretty disgusting foods from time to time and this had the potential to be a disgusting food that I would enjoy.

The Double Down experience was a let down from the start.  The staff didn't anticipate so many people ordering the sandwich and it took an incredibly long time to prepare.  Believe me, I want my food cooked, but it took over twenty minutes from the time we ordered it to when we were back in the car with our 'sandwich'.  Twenty minutes was too long of a wait for something that was probably going to be gross.  So this kind of doubled our disappointment.

Next was the price.  We got one Double Down sandwich to split, and it was $7.90.  No fries, no drink - just the sandwich for $7.90.  I think that is really expensive, and my frugal brain only let me buy it because it was a novelty and (most likely) a one time thing.  Plus John and I split it - so it was only a $4 extravagance.

So it cost too much and it took to long to make, and when we finally got home to eat it... it was mediocre.  It wasn't as awful as everyone said and it absolutely wasn't as good as it could have been.  It was just mediocre.  And it didn't do much to quash my hunger.  We split the sandwich, so each of us only got half of the 30g of fat and the 1700mg of salt, but even if I had eaten a whole one, it just didn't seem like a lot of food.  Maybe I am biased by the $8 I spent on it, but there are many other things we could have spent $8 on that would not have left me hungry.  And would not have been mediocre.  If I could do it over I would have gotten a rotisserie chicken from the Real Canadian Superstore deli - it's the same price and a hell of a lot more satisfying.

Our Double Let Down

Kitten Needs Her Shots

Recently we adopted a sweet little kitten for our Grandma.  We adopted her at about 8 weeks, so she still needed her shots and would eventually need spaying.  I have never had a kitten before where I was responsible for the veterinary care (that was always something adults had to do -- just another reminder that I am indeed a grown up).  I understood that Vet visits cost money, but I was really out of touch with how much money it actually costs to get a new baby kitten into optimal cat condition.

The first place I called seemed reasonable; $103 for the first check up/shot/deworming and then $17 each for two additional shots.  When I called back to confirm and set an appointment, I was informed that yes the additional two shots were $17 each, but there was also a mandatory exam that went along with them; the exam cost $63.  So instead of the second and third shot being only $17 each, in real life they were $80.  That is a big difference in my eyes, especially since altogether, the kitten shots were now going to be $263.  So the frugal shopper in me decided to shop around.  I called ten places and to my amazement, $263 for kitten shots was actually the second cheapest price I found.

I called ten Animal Hospitals located in Midland, Penetanguishene, Elmvale, Wasaga Beach, and Barrie.  Here is what I found out.

Kitten Shots/Check up/deworm
Lowest price: $164.48 (incl. complimentary nail trim).
Highest price: $484.77 (incl. complimentary microchip... I should hope so for that price!)
Average price: $300 (though the average may be inflated by the higher priced ones. Most were in the $270 range).

Spaying
Lowest price: $169.50 (with the option of getting IV fluids and blood work done for an additional charge).
Highest price: $488.16 (the IV fluids and blood work were mandatory).
Average price: $245 (all but one [the highest] gave the option for IV fluids and blood work as an add on).

What I find most interesting about the prices I was quoted, is that the extremes vary by hundreds of dollars.  I wonder what the services are like at the highest priced animal hospital vs. the lowest priced one?  Maybe they have giant HD tvs and massage chairs in the waiting room or something!

I'm taking the kitten in for her check-up/first shot this afternoon.  We're going to the lowest priced Animal Hospital from the ten I called.  Not only did they have the best price, but also the nicest person to talk to on the phone.  I actually called the office three times to double check the price and eventually book the appointment.  Each time the assistant was helpful, friendly, and never tried to pressure me into making an appointment (two of the people I called were trying to make a sale).  I look forward to meeting the veterinarian this afternoon.  I hope Cindy isn't too upset about getting her needles!

Good luck today, Cindy!

Light My Candle

We go through a lot of scented jar candles around here.  After they've burned down, it always feels like a shame to throw them out, as they make excellent candle holders.  I recently Googled 'how to get wax out of a jar candle' and discovered a super easy solution.

Step 1: Take the used jar candles and place them into the freezer for 1 hour or so.

Step 2: Remove candles from freezer. They will be frosty! Take a dull knife and poke at the wax until it loosens.

I did four candles at once, so I chipped away a nice pile of wax. It smelled great!

Step 3: Wash the empty jars in hot water to remove any remaining wax that couldn't be chipped away.

Step 4: Replace with other candles/tea lights.  One day we might try our hand at pouring hot wax and wicks back into the jar, but for now just using it as a candle holder works just fine.

Step 5: Enjoy!!!!

Heat That's Helpful

We're in the middle of a heat wave here and after oodles of complaining about it, I decided to take advantage of it by putting some clothes out on the line.

Our clothes line can be described simply as make shift.  During a winter ice storm a few years back, the actual line snapped when it was heavily coated with ice.  Since that time we've made a garden where the clothes line used to hang, so we needed not only a new line, but a new location. Reinstalling a proper line was more hassle than we wanted to deal with, so we picked up some utility cord at the dollar store and made an informal yet quite functional clothes line with the aid of an old swing set.  Make shift.

It's not perfect, but it works for my purposes.

Happy laundry.

The old swing set comes in quite handy, actually.

The laundry dried really quickly and when I brought it inside it was warm (like I had just taken it out of the dryer!).  I was only out in the heat/humidity for short spurts today, but even so I was sweaty and gross when I got back inside.  I will be happy when this heat wave breaks, that is for sure!