I knew we would need to pick up some more kibble before the end of the month, so I took advantage of today being a rainy day to make the run to the nearest Walmart. It’s worth the gas to drive that far, if we need to get enough stuff.
Which is saying something, since it costs roughly $30 in gas to drive there and back – and this is the closer Walmart in the smaller city!
I got a whole 13 individual items, and it came out to over $100. *sigh*
The “extras” I got were a drink for the ride home, a couple of containers of gum to keep in the truck, and a mini garden claw to make life easier on my arthritic hands.
The two bags of kibble were the 9.1kg size; they didn’t have any of the 11kg bags in stock again. The distilled water my husband needs for his CPAP humidifier has gone down in price, and I got 4 of those, plus a couple of 2 for $11 blocks of cheese. I also got a 10lb bag of potatoes; the first we’ve bought since having our own potatoes.
That’s it. The whole shopping trip – and the grand total, after taxes, was $104.54.
The disturbing thing is, even with the cost of gas, I still saved money by driving further to get this stuff, and even then, that’s only because our province has temporarily held back a gas tax to keep prices lower for now, so we’ve got some of the lowest gas prices in the country. Once they stop doing that, the cost of gas for a trip like this would be higher than anything saved by making such a trip, except that once the gas prices go up again, so will the cost of everything else.
Very disheartening. Especially knowing that it’s all due to our federal government’s actions. Aside from the taxes on top of taxes, the value of our dollar keeps dropping. At least we can still afford to buy this stuff, for now. The local food banks are really struggling to meet the increased needs, and I’m starting to see ads asking for donations for what is basically a pet food bank, so people won’t be forced to surrender their pets.
Yes, we can grow our own food, to a certain extent, and we can work towards keeping small livestock. Our goals include being able to produce our own animal feed as much as possible, too, but of the stuff on this list, the only thing we can do ourselves right now is grow potatoes. Meanwhile, I’m already hearing proposals about how home gardeners should be registered with the government, or even prevented from gardening at all because, “climate change”, thanks to that laughable “study” that found home gardening was worse for the environment than large scale (government approved, of course) agriculture – along with wanting to end the beef industry and, eventually, all meat production, for the same reason. But hey, there’s a cricket farm for human consumption in the city, and it’s been ramping up production!
🙄🫤
I must say, I’m really glad to be living in the boonies in these times.
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 
I hate grocery shopping. I don’t have a space large enough and sunlit enough for a real garden. I have no luck growing from seeds and plants have gone outrageous. I gave my small spot to my nephew for this year. He plans on growing cantaloupe and watermelon there. I did have to go shopping yesterday though as I was almost out of food for the dogs and cats and since they out number me, I thought it best to go.
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