Day 16 Update. At the 2016 Toronto Auto Show! Note: I meant to post this yesterday. So let’s pretend today is still Feb 16th… Yesterday was Family Day in Canada, so it’s a four day work-week (hurray!). To everyone that celebrated it hope you enjoyed it. Unfortunately, my family was busy but I had a wonderful day of lazing around my condo complete with using the condo’s gym for the first time in…

Superbowl Veggie & Pita dip tray (I regretted the use of food colouring later, oops).  We are on Day #8 of Frugal February and time to do update numero uno on how things have been progressing since beginning this challenge last Monday. I didn’t start off on a high note as I had two unexpected costs totaling around $360.00 bucks come up. It came to my attention that my passport expires next month…

Due to the overwhelming demand (aka one request from Kirin :) ) I’m bringing back Frugal February for 2016! It’s not exactly going to be the same as last year. It was so ridiculously cold here in Toronto last year that I was able to get away with being a bit of a hermit. Unfortunately for my wallet, but fortunately for my social life, I’ve got a lot planned events this February. Plus a few…

January 2016 is already off to a flying start and I’m getting back into the swing of things from the Holidays. I wanted to make January all about me, so as part of my “embracing change” New Year’s resolutions I want to see if I can start making some changes in my daily habits. Specifically the habits I’m not too fond of. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit so I’m trying to implement the…

Tonight’s the night we say farewell 2015 and hello 2016. Has time just flown by this year for anyone Happy New Years! else? It’s crazy. 2015 ended magically for me. It was the perfect holiday break and exactly what I needed after a stressful few weeks at work. Getting to see family, friends, eating maybe a little too much comfort food and getting to sleep in was just what the doctor ordered for…

As we say goodbye to Halloween, gain an extra hour of sleep with day light savings, and begin bracing myself for the longer and colder nights… we say hello to November! Spoiler: November is my second least favourite month of the year. Sorry November, but at least you’re not February. I’m using the month of November to get my life back on track. The past few months have been a whirlwind of…

I’m back with a vacation blog post! For the Victoria Day long weekend I decided to spend my extra day off and headed to Vancouver, British Columbia. I even was able to extend it into a business trip and was able to leave Wedensday. Needless to say it was an amazing trip filled with many firsts and as I sit typing this on my flight home I’m already sad that it has come to an end. I’m going to miss…

After a few weeks hiatus from cooking on Sunday’s I am back with my crock pot!  I was flipping through my cook book and I didn’t have enough ingredients to do anything and I’m sticking to Frugal February. So I simply decided to make a soup with whatever I had on hand and voila! My Turkey & Rice Soup.

Ingredients 

• 2 onions, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 2 green peppers, chopped
• 2 turkey drumsticks
• 3…

Week 3 Update

Thanks solely to my family this challenge has been going pretty easy for me so far. There’s been a number of temptations to purchase items, the biggest culprit being coins for my coin collection, but for the most part it’s been smooth sailing. I now actually prefer to make my own meals instead of going out to eat. When I do go out to eat my brain has started to estimate how much…

This week I feel I cheated (though my friend Kirin calls it “using my resources”) in terms of my food situation. I had to drop my Jeep off at my parent’s house after the wedding I attended so instead of grocery shopping this week at a store, I shopped at the fridge of my parents. My mom was even kind enough and had already made me one of my favourite stir-fry (pork & green pepper) dishes to take…

Every Friday I plan on updating the results of my Frugal February challenge! So, far so good on my end as I did not make any unnecessary purchases this week. Luckily for me I’ve been so busy I haven’t really faced any obstacles in wanting to purchase anything outside of my set limits.

Money spent from February 1st to February 6th  

Mandatory Expenses

• Portion of rent for February 15th – March 15th
• View On WordPress

Week number two for my slow cooking recipe is a Mango Chutney Pork… with a bit of a twist. Why? Simply because I didn’t have / couldn’t find a couple of ingredients, so I had to substitute. That’s the fun of cooking though right? Being able to mix and match recipes to make them work for you.

This recipe comes from Canadian Living’s cookbook: New Slow Cooker Favourties. 

Ingredients

• 1 red onion,…

Spring soon please?

Sorry February, but to me you’re the worst month of the year. Yes, you have Valentine’s Day and Family Dayto look forward to… but that’s about all you got going for yourself. It’s still winter, it’s still freezing cold, the nights are still long and I simply just don’t want to do anything but hibernate in my bed with loads of blankets waiting for spring. So, I wanted to do…

As per my resolutions for 2015 I wanted to learn to cook new healthy meals. Not only will it help me save money as I won’t be going out to eat for lunches and dinners, but it’ll help me maintain just an overall healthy lifestyle. Last week I went to Canadian Living’s 40th Anniversary party for work and they gave out cookbooks as a thank you for coming. I got the “New Slow Cooker Favourites” and…