Well, it looks like I got home just in time! Things were clear and sunny while I was in the city, but I drove home to a dark cloud. As we unloaded, there was thunder all around us, and just touches of rain. From the radar, it looks like a series of small, severe storms are being blown in from the West, all across the Prairies.

Meanwhile, our weather apps are pinging with tornado warnings.

No, not for us. For the south end of our province, near the US border. We’re getting the warnings because the whole province is included in the warnings. Which is a bit like if you lived in Spokane, Washington, but were getting weather warnings intended for Boise, Idaho.

What’s hilarious is looking at a closer view of the weather radar, and it shows a storm system is expected to split in two, with one part passing to the north of us, and the other to the south of us. We might not even get rain.

No matter. We are now pretty stocked up and won’t need to go out again to do the rest of the stocking up for a few days.

Today was just a Costco shop, and this is what $736.36 looks like.

There were a few unplanned purchases this time. One was a linen summer dress for my younger daughter, who really, really loves linen fabric, for $23.99 I’m happy to say, it did fit her. The problem with sizing is, they aren’t standardized, so you never really know if a size on the label of one brand will be the same at the same label size on another. Plus, there’s no stretch to linen, so if the arm holes are cut differently, for example, even if it’s the right size, you might not be able to even put it on.

Another unexpected purchase was a 2 pack of down spout extensions, for $18.99. As soon as everything was unloaded, I got those on right away! There is a downspout near the main entry, facing the kibble house, that drains way too close to the house. I’ve never added to it, because it’s also a fairly high traffic area. These flexible extensions will solve that problem. The other downspout was off the corner of the old kitchen, near the septic tank. The end had a short length of downspout on it that was starting to split, and that was extended by another length of PVC pipe. Those have both been replaced by a single extender, and I am quite happy with the change!

One more unexpected purchase was a package of work gloves, at $14.99. Our garden gloves are getting worn out and falling apart, so we really needed new ones. A package of garden gloves, however cost more than $20, and the quality is not as good.

Of course, the bulk of the purchase was cat food. I got a case of wet cat food at $38.99. With the dry cat food, I got four Kirkland brand, 9kg bags at $26.99 each. I also got a couple of 11.6kg Whiskas brand. Regular price, $37.99, but they were $8 off, so that was a good deal.

For the rest:

Regular mayo, two jars: 10.99 each, minus $2.50 each at the till
Pork rinds: 10.99 (I plan to use them as a bread crumb substitute)
Two rotisserie chickens: 7.99 each
Ground pork chub: 19.99
Ground beef chub: 45.76, minus $5 at the till
Pork loin: 28.28
Two backs strawberries: 5.99 each
Family size sushi pack: 21.99 (for supper at home)
Shepherd Pie: 21.91 (for my husband who doesn’t eat sushi)
Triple berry jam: 7.99
5 pounds of butter: 5.49 each
4 packages of tortilla wraps: 9.99 each
Four 2pks of rye bread: 5.99 each, minus $2 each at the till
Two 1L cartons of whipping cream: 4.79 each
Double cream brie: 10.99
4pk cream cheese: 9,49
Sour cream: 5.49
Old Cheddar cheese: 14.99
Mozzarella cheese: 14.99
Iced tea mix: 9.99
Peanut butter: 10.49
10kg bag of sugar: 13.69
2pk fabric softener: 16.49 (I’ve been looking for these for months! This will last us for a couple of years.)
Dish detergent: 8.59
Toilet paper: 22.99

That made for a grand total of $692.92, plus $43.44 in taxes, for 49 items.

*sigh*

We didn’t get a lot of meat this time, as we will be ordering a couple of BBQ freezer packs from our beef supplier. Which I need to do after I finish this, or I’ll forget again.

By this point in the shopping, I didn’t even finish going through the store, as I was really pushing the limit on how much my mother’s car can handle. Another thing I need to remember: get the van to the garage! At least this month, we don’t have extra bills, or things like needing to empty the septic tank.

I got gas at Costco at 145.9 cents per liter. Everywhere else in the city is 157.9 With the new carbon tax kicking in on July 1, gas prices are going to go up, so a lot of people were filling jerry cans. Which reminds me: I need to refill our 20L can for Premium gas that we keep for the lawnmowers and wood chipper. To make it easier to fill the tanks, we transfer fuel from the 20L can to a pair of 5L cans. Right now, I’m down to maybe half of one of those 5L cans. We will probably do another city trip on Friday, so that would be a good time to swing by Costco again, just for gas, to fill the 20L container. That should last us for the rest of the summer, and possibly into next year.

Now it’s time to go over the list to see what got missed this trip, and make sure we get them on our next city trip, when the rest of my husband’s disability pay comes in.

After I place an order for that beef! I’m already forgetting!

The Re-Farmer