cost of living increases

Stock up shopping: Canadian Tire, Walmart and Superstore total of $378

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Well, I’m really, really glad I pushed to get so much of the mowing done yesterday. All the usual areas are under water again! We’ve got a bit of a break in the rain right now, but in a few hours, it’s supposed to start up again.

We didn’t even get the worst of it. The further south I drove, the heavier the rain. I’m most definitely not complaining!

For today’s trip, I went to our usual Canadian Tire and Walmart locations, but instead of the international grocery store I like to go to, I ended up hitting a Superstore in the same area. There really wasn’t anything on my list for the international store I couldn’t get elsewhere – or so I figured at the time. Turns out I was wrong about one thing.

My first stop was Canadian Tire, which had a few extras I normally wouldn’t get.

The litter pellets were my usual purchase.

This trip, I also picked up a new headlight and license plate light bulb for the truck. I also got a new tire gauge. On the way out, I got a low tire warning, so I stopped at a gas station to pump up. (One of the gas jockeys was a sweetheart and pumped the tires for me. Less time in the rain!) I checked all the tires while I was at it. At one point, I had to turn the truck around, as the hose wouldn’t reach. I put the tire gauge down on the console between the front seats. As I turned, it rolled off and in between the console and the driver’s seat.

And disappeared.

Thankfully, I did have another in our emergency kit, but it’s a cheap one. After the tires were pumped, I went into the convenience store to get another gauge, but the only one they had was for the big rigs. I liked the idea of having a dial, but the cost was not worth it. I did find similar at Canadian Tire that were not dual valve and cheaper, but in the end, I got just another plain one of a higher quality than was in the emergency kit. I do hope we find and dig out the other one, though. We got it as a freebie from somewhere, years ago, and it’s one of the best tire gauges we’ve ever had!

Last of all, I got a can of bug spray, since we were running low and the mosquitoes are insane, with all the rain we’ve been having. I’m glad I remembered to get it while at the Canadian Tire, because when I looked at the display in the Walmart, they didn’t have the powerful stuff, and the cans they did have, which were smaller, cost just as much!

One thing on my list that I did not find: a new filter for our push mower. None in stock.

Total damage at Canadian Tire, after taxes, was $72.74

The main thing on my list for Walmart where those XXL puppy pads, as we were running out of that size.

I got more raw pumpkin seeds that will be ground into a powder for adding to the cat soup. The canned cat food was not on my list, but they’ve actually gone down in price! We were going to need more, eventually, so I picked them up now.

The personal products were on my list, but the air freshener was not. I got lavender scent, which is supposed to be calming, and some of the cats could really use some calm! The coffee was on sale, so I grabbed one for the pantry.

I also added a donation to the children’s hospital.

Grand total and Walmart, after taxes and including the donation: $119.57

The next stop was Superstore. For this one, I had some specific things on my list, but mostly, it was “see what’s good”, or “see what’s on sale”.

While at the Walmart, I completely forgot to look for toilet safe drain cleaner, so I looked for that at the Superstore. The only ones they had specified not for use on toilets. I was also going to get Beaver Buzz energy drinks – the one thing I would have gotten at the international grocery store. Since I found some at the Superstore I went to after my Costco shopping, while stopping for road food, I figured I’d just get it here.

Well, it seems this location doesn’t carry Beaver Buzz.

They did have cases of Monster with a regular price that was a cheaper than the sale price, locally, so I got that, instead.

One thing that was on my list was canola oil, requested by my daughters. I also got paper towels, a flat of Coke Zero, and a case of tomato soup, among the larger items.

I got some frozen fish for the girls, as well as frozen perogies and frozen pot stickers. For fresh meat, I got ground beef and ground pork, plus a bag of cheese hoagies that were on sale.

I decided, as I was shopping, that I will be making a chili, so I got some canned mixed beans and some crushed tomatoes. Which is silly, considering how many tomatoes we have in the freezer, but they are whole and we really need to process them! They got buried, though, so I keep forgetting about them!

For fruit, I got bananas and cherries. The cherries were really cheap; $2.99 a pound. Usually, they’re $8.99 a pound locally, or $4.99 a pound elsewhere in the city.

Let’s see… what else did I get. There’s a large jar of olives for the pantry – those are going up in price! I remembered to grab a small jug of apple cider vinegar, as we are out completely right now. There was a good sale on whole wheat bread. I got torpedo buns, plus a round sourdough loaf.

Last of all, I got myself some fresh sushi and a cold Monster to have for lunch in the truck, before heading home.

The grand total at Superstore, after taxes, was $185.87. I accidentally cut the total off in the above image!

For what I got at Superstore, I probably could have just done the grocery shopping at the Walmart. Walmart doesn’t have those torpedo buns, though. 😄

By the time I was done, the rain had almost completely stopped, but the wind picked up. While sitting in the truck in the parking lot, eating my lunch, the truck was actually being buffeted, hard!

On the way out, I filled the gas tank, which cost another $56.

So the shopping was a grand total of $378.18. Add in the gas, and I spent $434.18 today.

Considering we got extras like the headlight, I suppose that’s not too bad.

On the way home, I stopped at the post office to pick up a parcel that was supposed to arrive today. It wasn’t there. The website says “arriving by 10pm tonight”. Which means we’ll get it on Tuesday, since Monday is Canada Day.

I pulled the truck up to unload, as usual. Before driving it to the garage, I made sure to feed the outside cats to get them away from the vehicle.

I still had to chase one off the hood!

I made sure to put food out for the kittens by the back of the garage, the tarp covered wood pile, and the old garden shed, along with the usual places. Last of all, I put food in the sun room for the kittens in there – then had to chase out the crowd of adult cats that left the food outside, to come in and eat the kitten’s food! Adam’s kittens dive under the counter shelf as soon as I come in (I’m so glad we put that up on bricks!) so I make sure to scatter some on the floor under there a bit. That way, they don’t have to fight off the adults for food!

As I was walking back to the house from the garage, I spotted a little ball of fluff under the shrine, and was able to grab a picture.

The one kitten in the junk pile was enjoying some kibble under the shrine, with its mother.

So, from what we are seeing now, we have 8 kittens (2 litters) in the sun room, 4 behind the garage, 2 under the tarp covered pile and 2 in the old garden shed. The 4 white and greys that were the first to show up in the sun room are still gone, and I’m starting to think they were victims of the racoons, along with the newborns. There wasn’t enough… evidence… left behind for me to be able to say one way or the other. How many others there are, beyond the inner yard, we have no way of knowing until they start showing up at the kibble bowls. As for the adults, I haven’t even tried counting them lately. They come and go so much. I did see Sad Face this afternoon, though, and he’s got a wound of some kind under one cheek. He won’t stay still long enough for me to see it. Considering he’s been actively stalking and attacking other cats lately, it doesn’t surprise me. He’s getting on in years and looking more and more beat up. He tends to win those fights, though!

Which reminds me. Syndol’s limp is getting much better. Driver showed up yesterday, and he was limping, too, though not as bad. I haven’t seen the white and grey with the puncture wound on his front leg, so I can’t say how he’s doing.

A few more days, and we’re bring 4 males to the vet, courtesy of cheap spay/neuter day and the rescue. By next month, the kittens should all be weaned, so grabbing some females to be spayed is the goal. We should have a trap loaned to us by then.

Anyhow.

We are now stocked up for the month, except for the usual local purchases.

The Re-Farmer

Costco stock up shop: this is what $808 looks like

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It was a remarkably busy day at Costco, for the middle of the week. I didn’t get everything I had on my list, and still broke $800.

This is what $808.34 looks like.

It really doesn’t look like much at all. 😞

I put the cat food on a separate bill again.

It was just cat food, too. I didn’t get their puppy pads again, as we still have more than half a case, though I will be getting more of the larger size when we hit Walmart in a couple of days.

At first, I got eight 9kg bags of the Kirkland brand, because I didn’t see the 11.6kg Whiskas bags. Those turned out to be moved to the end of the aisle. When I saw they were on sale, I put back 4 of the Kirkland bags and replaced them with the Whiskas. At $8 off, I considered replacing all of them, but decided against it, so the cats would have a variety.

I got two cases of the wet cat food, which has gone up in price by a dollar since last month.

Then there was the stuff for us.

When the cashier confirmed my butters, it turned out I’d accidentally got both salted and unsalted. I took them out of the same box, so they should have been all the same! I’m glad he caught that.

For other dairy, we got marble and Old cheddar cheese, plus cream cheese and sour cream.

I didn’t get a double flat of eggs, like I usually do, since we still have lots of eggs we got from my homesteading friend.

We got our usual Kirkland brand of TP, plus a case of facial tissue that was on sale.

Among the things we don’t always get every month was a case of toothpaste, a case of toothbrushes, extra strength ibuprofen, lactase and Vit. B12. I also got a 6 pack of baking soda; we finally got near the end of the last 6 pack I got!

In breads, I just got four packs of tortilla wraps and a 2pk of rye bread.

For meats, I got a bit of a treat; a panini variety pack of sliced meats. I got a package of large breakfast sausages, pork belly, a 3 pack of whole chickens and a chub of ground beef. I also grabbed a 3 pk of Spam for the pantry.

Then there was the mayonnaise and peanut butter, and a bag of potatoes.

That’s it.

I didn’t even finish going through all the aisles, as my budget for this shop was about $800.

Aside from this, I picked up $30 of gas on the way into the city, at $1.389/L That put me back above half a tank. I filled the tank at Costco. At $1.299, it cost me $66.22 to fill the tank.

After the truck was loaded, I swung by a Superstore to get some sort of lunch I could eat while driving. I ended up getting a ham sandwich and a bottle of water, but while looking for something more interesting to drink, I found they had Beaver Buzz in stock, and Citrus – my favorite flavour – was on a “buy three” sale, so I got three of those. I’m not sure what happened to the receipt, but that totaled $17 and change.

Which means I spent over $900 in total today.

It feels like there isn’t much to show for it.

The Re-Farmer

Stock up Shopping: This is what a total of $444 looks like

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$444.11 to be exact. Well. Sort of.

My first stop was at Walmart, where the majority of what I needed to get was more cat food, which I paid for separately, plus a few other items.

The four, 9kg bags of dry kibble cost $29.97 each, and the case of canned cat food cost $28.77, for a grand total, after taxes, of $166.49

The other items, plus a donation, came to $46.73, but the girls will be paying me back for their stuff, so the out of budget cost will be for the argan oil at $8.17 and my Vit. D3, which was $9.48 – both were on sale – plus the donation. With taxes, it would be between $20-$25 out of budget. I don’t feel like doing the math for the exact amount. 😁

I completely forgot to look for the electric tape that was on my list, though. I didn’t remember that until I checked the list while I was at Superstore. Oops.

The Superstore run was a lot longer. It’s been a long time since we’ve done a Superstore run, and I went through most of the store, then doubled back a few times, looking for things.

What you can’t make out in the photo is the sushi I got for lunch, and the package pf paper towels under the cart.

For this trip, I got coffee and non-dairy milks for the girls, and an energy drink for me, to go with my sushi lunch. I also got paper towels, ground cinnamon and ground thyme, cocoa, brown (well, yellow, according to the receipt), a big jar of olives, a case of Coke Zero, two jars of mayo, a wheel of double cream brie (30% off) and a big block of Old Cheddar cheese. Costco no longer carries blocks in that size, unfortunately. They had a better price. I did find the brand of soy sauce my husband likes, though. I normally find that at the international grocery store.

For fresh fruits and vegetables, I only got bananas and crimini mushrooms. Most of what I saw either didn’t look very good, or was too expensive. I did get their $5 bag of torpedo buns – there’s just something about those buns that I love! – plus a couple of baguettes that were only $1 each. I got a big package of hot dogs, so I got a couple of packages of buns to go with them.

For proteins, I also got a pack of frozen ground chicken (four chubs in the pack that I think are 1lb each), some breakfast sausages and some pork and vegetable pot stickers. For the girls, I got a couple of packages of frozen fish filets.

I remembered to pick up some more no-name Pepto and, last of all, I got some Gorilla brand silicone sealant. The drainage hose on our washing machine has sprung a leak. That’s what the electric tape was supposed to be for; we find it is great for waterproof patching of small holes in hoses. Superstore had all kinds of other tape, but no electric tape. I don’t know if the sealant will work, but if it doesn’t, it will still come in handy for other things!

The grand total for this was $250.89, but I had enough points on my Optimum card to get $20 off, so I actually paid $230.89

So the total for the day, minus what the girls will reimburse me for, was more like $420 plus a bit, than the $444.11 total on the receipts.

When I filled the tank, I also got a couple more jugs of summer windshield washer fluid, which cost me $49.96 in total.

Adding in the cost of the tire ($55.97), my prescription refills (only $14.54 and change, thanks to my husband’s medical insurance) and breakfast ($10.62), today cost the budget just over $550.

Ouch.

Then my husband sprung for burgers, which I picked up in town on the way home, but that didn’t come out of budget. Still, getting two burgers for each of us – nothing else – came out to $85 and change!! Granted, they were all triple burgers, but still… Ouch!

They really hit the spot, though.

So that was my very long, rather expensive day.

The sad thing is, we only have about half of the cat food we’ll need for the month. We’ll pick more up later. Then there’s the fresh stuff we’ll be picking up locally, as needed, throughout the month.

Having the truck is great, but that many bags and cases of cat food, plus our own supplies, is a bit much. We’re already needing to use a garden claw to pull the bags forward so we can unload them. I make a point of laying them across the axle, but by the time I get home, there’s usually at least one bag, or some other item, that’s made it’s way as far as the cab. We could certainly fit everything in the box with just one shopping trip. It would just mean more stops and more driving around, plus having to roll up the cover on the box and climb in to load it, which would make for a much more exhausting trip. Better to split it into two trips.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you. It’s just the things we need to work around our physical limitations. We do what we can, and don’t stress over the things we can’t.

Well. Mostly. 😄😄😄

The Re-Farmer

Monthly stocking up: this is what $694 looks like

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With several things going on, today’s trip to the city was supposed to be for a small stock up trip, with the larger one happening when main pay comes in, on the last business day of the month. Our schedule has changed a bit, so I will be able to do that on the Friday, and we will be visiting our friend that’s back in Canada on the weekend, instead.

This really was a small shopping trip. This is the Costco portion.

I had the cat supplies put in a separate bill again.

Last month, I got only the 11.6kg Whiskas kibble, which have gone up in price by 10¢. The Kirkland brand, however, was $27.99 the last time I got it, so it’s actually down by 30¢ per 9kg bag. The puppy pads did not change in price since I last bought them. The case of wet cat food was $37.89 last month, so it’s gone up by $1.10.

Since I only got 4 bags of dry kibble, and 1 case of canned cat food, along with the puppy pads, the grand total for cat supplies at Costco was “only” $218.34

As for stuff for ourselves, there were quite a few things on my list that I skipped for this trip.

Today, we needed both AA and AAA batteries, as well as toilet paper. Other paper products got skipped on this trip. We got a double flat of eggs (5 dozen), 5 pounds of butter, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, cream cheese, frozen pierogi, ground beef (we’re out of ground beef from the quarter beef we got in January), ribs and a pork blade for meats. I was going to get a package of bacon, until I saw the price. We got a case of pasta, as well as a big pack of Raman type noodles. I got two packages of tortilla warps and two double packs of sliced French bread this time, instead of the usual rye, and a bag of Basmati rice. Extras included a box of Sweet and Salty granola bars – something we haven’t bought in a very long time, but it was on sale today – plus a tray of sushi and a lasagna for us to enjoy after we unloaded and put everything away. They had a fundraiser going on for the Children’s Hospital, and I added a donation as well, but only after making sure they weren’t going to do the stupid bell ringing and cheering thing. Good grief, that’s something that would actually stop me from donating! *shudder*

So the non-cat supply total at Costco was $424.04

The store was so busy, I never made it to the pharmacy section, so after I filled the tank (I’ll give the gas total, later), I went to a nearby Walmart. This one is a LOT bigger than the one I usually go to, and is a very different layout, so that took a bit longer than usual. I was in no hurry, though. This was the Walmart portion of the trip.

I’m not counting the stuff I picked up for the girls, since I will be paid back for that. While there, though, I did get more cat supplies.

Yes, I got more puppy pads. The Costco ones are 30″ x 23″ which, for some areas we use them in, is a bit small. The Walmart house brand ones are more expensive, but they are 30″ x 36″

I also got a box of pet odor eliminator powder for the carpet in my room, plus an odor and stain removing spray.

Yes, we have issues. Mostly, it’s Finnegan, spraying. We just can’t get him to stop!! Discovering he was spraying a corner of vintage dresser that was my father’s was the most disturbing. We almost lost a cat, at that point. I’ve actually had to put a barrier around that part of the shelf, on top of a puppy pad, then drape another puppy pad over the barrier, to protect it. Then there is the annoying habit of cats that will go right next to a litter box, instead of in it. Even when it’s freshly cleaned!

Last of all, I got a cold drink for the drive home, plus another donation to the Children’s Hospital, which put my total at Walmart at $51.72

Aside from that, I also got gas. I was under half a tank when I headed out, so I stopped at the town my mother lives in and put in $30. The price there was $1.449/L At Costco, however, it was at $1.299/L Filling cost a total of $57.61 As I was driving out, I passed one gas station where I could see a price, and it was at $1.399/L A considerable difference!

So the total for fuel was $87.61. Everything else was $694.10, for a grand total for the day of $781.71

For cat food, that might last us 2 weeks. The next trip, we’ll have to get a lot more, if we want it to last the month!

Once everything was put away and the lasagna was in the oven, I made Cat Soup, using the new Healthy Poops powder instead of the ground pumpkin seeds. The cats were very happy to be getting their cat soup again! It didn’t take them long to get used to getting it, instead of just straight up canned cat food.

As for whether the additives are helping the cats with their… consistency… in the litter box, I do believe it is helping. Peanut Butter Cup was the main concern, since she was Miss Leaky Butt, but that has stopped. She has still been… loud… in the litter box, but it’s getting better. It’ll be a few more days before we can really tell if it has made a difference for all of them, though.

We’ll have to start doubling up on our lysine orders, though, since we are dosing both the inside and outside cats. Or get that 4 pound box for horses I was looking at. Both are purse lysine, so the only difference should be the texture of the powder.

Ah, the things we do for the cats!

[Update: we did the math, and the savings by ordering bulk was significant enough that we just ordered the 4 pound bucket]

Anyhow.

That was our shopping for today. Smaller than our first shop usually is – at least when it includes Costco – yet it was still almost $700. That’s just over half our budget for the month, and we still need to make sure to keep part of the budget aside for when we need to top up with fresh stuff throughout the month.

It’s getting harder and harder, every month, to do that. We are fortunate that my husband’s private insurance disability income is as good as it is. Today’s pay was CPP Disability, and a lot of people have to somehow survive on just that!

As difficult as it is, I am thankful that we are able to do as well as we are, and especially thankful for when we get donations to help out with the kitties. We are in a much better position than so many others. Who would have thought that my husband being on disability, and moving out here, would actually give us better stability than when he was working full time, and we were in the city?? God sure has a way taking a bad thing, and making some good out of it.

The Re-Farmer

A quick Walmart run: this is what $104 looks like

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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

Change of plans; This is what $240 looks like

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I tried to take it easy yesterday. I really did!

By the end of the day, my right arm was giving me grief. Painkillers didn’t seem to help any, and it made for a difficult night. There just wasn’t any position I could get into that wasn’t making a joint somewhere more painful – and it was just the joints. No muscle pain, which is more what I would have expected. And why just my right arm? The wrist is the worst.

So that changed my plans for today. I didn’t want to push it by doing more manual labour outside. Instead, courtesy of my older daughter, I decided to do that cat food shop that was planned for later in the week, and my younger daughter is currently working on cleaning up and weeding the low raised beds in the main garden area, in preparation for amending with the sulfur granules and peat. She’s taking it slow and easy; it’s 20C/67F out there, and she handles heat even worse than I do!

I still did my morning rounds, though, and was happy to see more snow crocuses blooming.

They are such adorable, tiny little flowers!

I tried to do a head count of the outside cats this morning, and I think I counted 27. I saw Broccoli, which was good. Sad Face was there, which I’m not sure is good. Last night, there was a huge fight in the sun room – there’s tufts of fur all over the floor now. It was between Sad Face and Creamsicle III No sign of Creamsicle this morning.

Unfortunately, I also identified another of the white and greys as female. There’s one that I hear mewing every time I come out to feed them, but I never quite see which cat is making the noise. Well, which one was confirmed, as she was standing there, looking at me, as she mewed – and she was looking decidedly round.

*sigh*

So… Broccoli, Brussel, Sprout, Caramel, Slick (aka: Octomom) and Adam are all cats that had kittens last year, and now we have 2 white and greys that are looking round, and I’m pretty sure one of the tuxedos might be female, though I’m guessing only because I saw cats I know are male, showing extreme interest, about a month ago. So that makes for 8 mamas, with Broccoli already having her litter, possibly 9 if I’m right about that tuxedo.

*sigh*

I’m just assuming Brussel is pregnant. Her fur is so long and fluffy, we can’t actually tell if she’s getting round or not.

After what happened last year, though, it’s entirely possible we won’t actually have that many litters of kittens, though. It was such a bad year for losses. I suppose, in the end, that’s a good thing, as our colony would be much bigger if there hadn’t been, but it was still heartbreaking to find all those little bodies.

At least I can say, the outside cats are earning their keep. We have zero rodent problems!

The inside cats, on the other hand…. 😄😄

So my trip today was specifically for cat supplies, along with a few other things. I went to the Canadian Tire, first. I needed another bag of seed starting mix, so I could pot the pre-germinated melons. I also got three bags of stove pellets for the litters, with an extra bag because I sometimes use it to mulch garden beds.

Then it was off to the Walmart.

Of course, I got a few other things, too, for a grand total of $240.73 after taxes.

The canned cat food is for the inside cats, and the dry food mostly for both inside and outside cats.

Then there was the stuff for us.

The only thing we really needed was the house brand version of Pepto. I remembered we were low on popcorn seasonings, but couldn’t remember which ones (I hardly ever have popcorn, myself), so I got three different flavours. Then I spotted the rice crackers my husband likes, at only 97¢ each, so I got 2 each of 2 different flavours. Then I spotted the house brand teas at 97¢ each, too, so I got an Earl Grey and two Vanilla Rooibos. I was taking my time going through the store, as I didn’t want to leave until I knew the post office would be open on my way home, and found some compostable bags for our compost buckets. They keep moving where those are! Finally, I saw a good price on canned ham and decided to get one for us to try and see if we like it. If we do, then we can start getting more for the pantry, as part of our stock up supplies.

Oh, and I grabbed some bananas, too. We still have fruit at home, but we all like bananas. 😊

So that was my cat food re-stock trip that I would have done later in the week.

Hopefully, my right arm will be feeling better soon. I was going to wear a wrist brace, but the only one we could find was for the left. Somewhere, we have two more, one right handed and one left handed, but do you think anyone can remember what happened to them? I did look at wrist braces while at Walmart, but my wrist isn’t hurting enough to pay that much for one, when we have one somewhere at home!

The weather is finally good. I need to be working outside! I don’t have time for injuries. 🫤

The Re-Farmer

A visit and an unexpected $138 stock up shop

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Today, the plan was to meet my brother to help set up my mother’s air conditioner for the summer. Since I was going to be out anyhow, I planned to go to the grocery store after, and pick up some eggs.

Since I was out anyhow, my daughter asked if she could bribe me into picking up some stuff for her, at which point it was worth the gas to go to the town we usually shop at.

Of course, nothing quite goes to plan, does it? I like it when that turns out to be good, which is how it worked out, today.

My brother and I pre-arranged to meet at a gas station before going to my mother’s together, so I left early to tank up, first. Once we connected, we both headed over to our mother’s place. My SIL was a sweetheart and sent a lunch for us all, with enough extra to feed my mother for at least another day. She is such a saint. She no longer visits my mother, because my mother has been so incredibly cruel to her, but she still loves her and does stuff like this. Which makes her a much better person than me. My mother has literally thrown away food my SIL made for her – frozen in individual meal portions – so she wouldn’t have to cook while recovering from surgery, because she decided it wasn’t “fresh”. She actually gave it to me to give to the cats. It wasn’t until later that I found out where it was from. I’ve tried to bring my own cooking to my mother as well, but got nothing but complaints, so I’ve given up completely. Now, she complains because I spend money on food, which makes me bad with money in her eyes. We can’t win, no matter what we do, but my brother and his wife just keep being so sweet to her! Which is a big part of why I was happy to join him today. Not only do I get to see him, but my mother behaves differently when both of us there, compared to how she treats him when he’s there on his own.

Setting up the AC didn’t take long at all. It’s one of the portable AC’s, not a permanent window one. Basically, it just involved removing the Styrofoam insulation that’s set in the window for the winter, and hooking up the duct from the machine. He’d taken the original window out and replaced it with a board the exact same size, and the window part of the AC set up installed in the middle, then cut 4″ wide Styrofoam insulation to fit on the inside, taped in place, for the winter.

Of course, once it was set up and plugged in, we had to test it. The outlet it’s plugged into has its own switch on the wall, which he taped in the On position, and even wrote “AC” on it, so no one would flick the power off from that outlet.

And… someone did. The tape was still there, but the switch was off. He turned it on while I was next to the plug, which has a reset button on it that I heard beep… but the AC would not turn on. If the switch was pushed in further, it would beep again, but that was it. So there’s clearly a connection problem in there, but not something we could deal with. That’s something my mother should call for a maintenance request for, though she won’t do that, of course. My brother could fix it, another day – and knowing him, he probably will – but technically, he shouldn’t. At least not without getting special clearance from Public Housing.

What we found, however, is that once the tape was put back over the switch, it was enough to hold it in place and keep the power on, and the AC was working fine.

That done, we had lunch, which was way more difficult than it should have been. My mother had delayed her breakfast and made “extra” for us, so she kept trying to make us eat her toast and cheese chunks, while trying to not eat the food my brother brought, because she made breakfast… As we were setting up lunch, my brother went into the fridge and found it almost empty. Oh, yes, my mother says. I’m running out of things… but I’m good for a few more days.

*sigh*

It took both of us to convince her to take advantage of the fact that we were there and could do it right away, instead of having me come back later in the week. So once we finished lunch, I started making a list with her. That’s when she said she wanted bleach, for her bathroom sink.

???

The sink was draining very slowly, so she wanted to use bleach to clear it.

So we explained that bleach won’t fix something like that. She would need a drain cleaner – maybe. My brother went over to take a look, filling the sink to see how bad it was. It turned out to be pretty bad!

Then we took a closer look, and there was all sorts of gunk visible. So my brother got a wire coat hanger, turned it into a small hook, and started pulling stuff out.

While he did that, I did my mother’s grocery shopping.

By the time I got back, the sink was draining like a dream, and my brother was “fixing” her TV. She was complaining about how the picture was too small – she was seeing black borders around the images. The problem turned out to not be the TV or its settings at all. Her cable provider recently upgraded, but not all the channels she gets are HD, so some channels automatically fill her screen, while others don’t. There was nothing wrong with her TV.

Meanwhile, as I put away the groceries, my mother was checking out the receipt and suddenly said, I told you I didn’t want lettuce.

???

I took a look and sure enough, there was iceberg lettuce on there – and it was voided, then her cabbage was listed. The cashier had put in the wrong code, then fixed it. My mother, however, was convinced that she was charged for a head of lettuce because she once got charged for a watermelon she didn’t buy, some 10 years ago (which I’m not sure actually happened; I think she mistook a promotion on the receipt as a sale item, which she once did with shipping I helped her with). So once everything was put away, I got out my phone with its calculator and added it all up. The total I got, minus the lettuce, matched the subtotal on the receipt. When to told her this, she gave me a look we all know too well. She didn’t believe me. She then tried a different tactic and implied the change she got was wrong. Well, I’d given her her change with the receipt, and it was still on the table, so I added that up and it matched the receipt, too.

You’d think that would have made her happy.

It didn’t.

Instead, she now thinks that not only is the store cheating her, but I’m lying to her about it.

*sigh*

Still, we dropped that.

As always, my mother tried to bring up all sorts of things in the most negative way, even trying to twist things to make it so that her behaviour is not a problem, but that everyone else is – including a nasty dig at my brother’s wife in the process.

*sigh*

My brother was way more gracious than I would have been, by that point!

My brother had told her yesterday that he couldn’t stay long, as he had an event to get ready for later today, but as we were getting ready to go, my mother kept trying to make us have tea, or eat something, or… I had already told her I needed to run errands, too, and she started giving me a hard time about how I’m always running errands. I told her, if I’m going to be going out anyway, I want to do as many things as I can, so I’m not going out several times a week. Of course, we’d already been there for a couple of hours, so it’s not like we were rushing off. Then she tried to make me take a little jar of “keys” home. Why? Well, she doesn’t have room for them. I looked in the jar and didn’t see any keys. Instead, I saw a mix of all kinds of objects; the sort of stuff you’d find in a junk drawer. Any keys that might have been in there were completely buried. I asked her, why are you giving me your junk? Oh, there’s lots of room at the farm.

*sigh*

That’s the problem, I told her. There’s too much stuff at the farm, including stuff people gave to her and Dad 50 or 60 years ago!

So she tried to tell me that I could sell the metal to a scrap dealer.

…

At that point, my brother stepped in to end the conversation, because it just wasn’t worth trying to explain it to her.

I didn’t take her jar of junk.

Then we both had to leave.

Which just made my mother angry, saying we were leaving because we didn’t like what she was saying (at that point, she was into a completely different rant about a topic unrelated to any of us), and we were like, no, it’s time to go, that’s all!

Sadly, while that was true, we were both glad to be gone. I’ve tried to explain to her that her behavior towards people drives them away, and she just excuses it with “I just say what’s on my mind.”

*sigh*

While my brother had to rush off to get home, I was able to make a quick stop at the hardware store, where I finally picked up a bale of peat moss for the garden, first. Then it was off to town and for what was supposed to be just a few items.

Ha!

I didn’t get a picture of what my $137.99 looked like, though. Just the receipt.

My daughter had requested the energy drinks and coffee creamer. The cases of energy drinks were quite a bit cheaper than most of their sales, so I got two. Usually, it’s just maybe 50¢ off per case, but this time they were $1.30 off per case.

My husband requested the Coke, which was also on sale, so I got two 12 packs of those. Not much of a sale, but better than nothing. He requested the Sweet Chili chips and corn chips, which were not on sale… good grief, they are expensive these days! That came out of his budget, not the main budget, though. 😄

The flats of eggs were not on sale, but they are about 3 dollars per flat cheaper than at my mother’s grocery store – if they have any flats at all.

Pierogi were on sale as well, so I got a couple of bags.

One of the big savings was the butter. I haven’t seen butter for less than $5 each in four years! The other was the chicken, which was a buy one, get one free, deal. It was a mix and match option, but I chose two whole chickens instead of parts and pieces.

So while I ended up buying more than expected, we’ve got more butter and extra chickens in the freezer, and that’s always a good thing!

Once I got home and everything was put away, I really needed to just sit down and decompress for a while! Visits with my mother – even good ones like today (yes, this was a good visit!) – really take a lot out of me.

While I was out and about, we got hit with passing rain several times, so things are wetter out there now, then when I left this morning. The next two days should be cleared and warmer, so I’m hoping to finally get some work down outside – including working some of that peat into various prepped beds, and finally planting my potatoes! I’m hoping to get another bed of peas, spinach and carrots planted, too.

The rain has delayed getting other beds ready, but most things won’t be planted until after June 2, so we’ve got the rest of May to get those done, and build new ones.

If the weather holds out!

The Re-Farmer

Costco stock up trip: this is what $911 and change, in total, looks like

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Today, we woke up to rain. Not a little bit, either, but a wonderful steady and heavy rain. It’s expected to keep raining through to tomorrow morning, and I am quite happy to see it. Even in the hours it took me to go to the city and back, the leaf buds on the lilacs beside the house have gotten huge!

It wasn’t heavy enough to cause problems with the drive to and from the city, even with reduced visibility, so that was good, too.

Costco was really busy while I was there. Almost weekend level busy! I was in no hurry, though, which was a good thing. They must have just gotten a huge shipment in, because the wider aisles all had rows of pallets down the middle, with barely enough room for a flat cart to get through on either side. Then there were the abandoned carts, and all the people who would just block traffic. I spent a lot of time waiting for things to clear enough to be able to maneuver around with the flat cart. Of course, there are always those who seem to think I can stop on a dime, and cut me off.

*sigh*

I hate shopping.

But, the first stock up shopping trip for May is now done. This is what a total of $911.58 looks like.

The scary thing is, this is almost all our budget for the month, yet this will not last us the entire month, and there’s really nothing there that’s being added to the pantry. Some things, like the paper products, will last us the month, and I did manage to pick up some good deals on protein. Our next trip will be for the fresh stuff that I generally don’t get at Costco, though I did get more of those bagged salads that they have as much cheaper prices than others.

Once at the till, I had the cat food put on a separate bill again.

With the leaky butt issues with the cats, I did not get the Kirkland brand dry cat food at all, and instead got six 11.6kg bags of Whiskas. For dry cat food, those are pretty much the only two options. Kirkland has 2 options, with one being smaller, more expensive bags.

I also got two cases of wet cat food. Each has 48 cans, which puts the price at 78¢ per can.

Grand total for cat food this time: $340.17 after taxes.

Six bags of kibble will probably last us only 2 or 3 weeks.

*sigh*

Then there was the stuff for us.

Among the non-food items, we got facial tissue (on sale), paper towel (with cat clean ups, we go through quite a bit of that) and toilet paper. There’s ibuprofen for my daughters and acetaminophen for me. That, at least, is inexpensive.

For dairy products, I got our usual 5 pounds of butter; I used to get 10 pounds every month, but with the price of butter going up, while the Costco buckets of ghee are still such a good price, we use that instead for many things. Whipping cream is a much better price at Costco, so I got two of those. Then there were the block cheeses (mozza and old cheddar) and soft cheeses (cream cheese and goat cheese).

Among the fresh items were the double bags of salad mixes; each pair of bags is not much higher than the price of one bag, elsewhere. So I got two double bags in two flavour mixes. That’s the one down side. Not a lot of flavour options. I also got a container of cremini mushrooms (the “mini bellas” on the receipt).

I got only one double flat of eggs this time, plus 2 two-packs of rye bread and three packs of tortilla wraps.

Then there was the mayo, peanut butter, strawberry jam, butter chicken sauce, a bag of hazelnuts, a bag of flour and popcorn.

I did grab a decent amount of protein this time, including fish for the girls. Some, like the ribs and the trout fillet, were on sale. I got canned chicken and their 4 pk of bacon, mild Italian sausage, cod fillets, a really nice, big meaty slab of pork belly, and two hot rotisserie chickens.

There were some good deals in there but, with the cat food, it still broke $900.

Ouch.

Then there was the gas. On the way out, I put $30 in the tank, at $1.449/L That brought my tank to half full so, of course, it was below half by the time I got to Costco.

Filling the tank at $1.329/L totaled $75.96, so my total for gas for the day was $105.96

With $911.58 spent at Costco, that brought the total for the day to $1017.54

Ouch.

The scary thing is, due to a “price break” our provincial government extended on the gas taxes, we have probably the lowest gas prices in the country right now. Yup. I just double checked. Our provincial average price is the lowest in the country. The highest provincial average today is $1.978/L in BC. I just took a look at BC prices overall, and the highest price they’ve got today is $2.239!

If we had those prices here, we couldn’t afford to do the driving that we do.

Speaking of which, my husband had a follow up telephone appointment with his doctor about the new pain meds they are trying him on, to replace the ones that aren’t available anymore. He had only 2 weeks of meds for the trial. His dose has been increased, and the doctor sent the prescription to the pharmacy. I didn’t realize when my husband messaged me about it, that I was supposed to pick them up on the way home. So I’ll have to do that, tomorrow.

While making these trips to the city to stock up saves us a lot, they just suck the energy right out of me. It’s only 6pm as I write this, and I’m fighting the urge to just go to bed!

The Re-Farmer

Walmart top up: This is what $150 looks like

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More specifically, $148.41, after discounts and taxes.

After parting ways with the Cat Lady, I actually headed to Canadian Tire, first, and saved Walmart for last, since I would have refrigerated items.

There’s 4 loaves of rye bread, four 4L bottles of distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier, 4 blocks of cheese (mozza, old cheddar, Havarti and marble), a 2L of 3% milk, a 2L of soy milk, a 4L of 3% milk to make yogurt with, and a live bacteria culture container of Greek yogurt to use as a starter. The Kraft Dinner was really cheap, so I got a case for the girls, along with the feminine hygiene products. There’s also a large jar of olives, a jar of mayo, a 12pk of Fresca for my husband and another of Coke Zero for me. Last of all was a couple of packages of 50% off Easter chocolates, and a bottle of water for the drive home. Oh, I almost forgot. There’s 2 packages of rice crackers for my husband.

After I packed everything up in the truck, I actually went back in and bought a package of crew socks, which cost another $12 or so.

There’s a reason for that!

One of the things I went looking for at the Canadian Tire was a new pair of steel toed shoes. The ones I have now are splitting in the usual places on my right shoe. Because my feet are so wide, I’ve been buying men’s size 9 or 9.5, triple wide shoes. They are wide enough for my feet, but always too long. Of course, there’s about a half size difference between my feet (which is true of most people). Between the extra length and the different in foot size, when my shoes bend at the ball of my foot, it’s not the “right” area of the shoe, so they start splitting fairly quickly, with my right shoe always starting to split first.

Well, there wasn’t a lot of selection for steel toes shoes. Plenty for boots, but really just one for shoes. After trying a couple of pairs on, though, I was actually able to get my feet into some size 8’s!!! So I took a chance, and bought them. The shoes were about $80. Along with those, I got a couple more bags of stove pellets for the litters, so the total bill was just over $100 after taxes.

After loading the pellets into the truck, I promptly put on the new shoes, then went to Walmart.

As I was walking around at Walmart, though, my feet were starting to hurt. I injured my feet, many years ago, which is why they are so wide and totally flat. I’m actually under doctor’s order to wear supportive shoes all the time, including indoors. Which is so un-Canadian! 😄 I do have inside shoes, though, so I’m not wearing my work shoes indoors, at least! 😁 Anyhow, wearing shoes all the time has made a difference. It’s been ages since I’ve had a metatarsal suddenly dislocate on me.

But the more I walked around in them, the more I thought I might have made a mistake in going with the size 8s. They were really snug at the balls of my feet, where they are the widest.

Then I remembered something.

I was wearing my thick, thermal winter socks.

It’s getting warm enough out that I won’t need to wear those.

I clued into the problem as I was walking to back to the truck, so I returned to the Walmart once everything was loaded. I headed straight to the men’s section and managed to find some crew socks. I hate tall socks; they always fall down to my ankles, so I fold them down. For some reason, it’s hard to find crew socks. It’s either tall socks, or ankle socks, and ankle socks always end up getting pulled under my heel.

Problem solved!

So between everything, today cost me about $250, plus another $40 in gas. Gas prices here are mostly in the $1.439/L range (roughly $5.75/gallon), which is I believe the lowest in the country right now. Our province extended a fuel tax break, so when the carbon tax kicked in, the gas prices didn’t rise as much as in other places. I just took a look and the highest provincial average price right now is $1.937/L in BC (roughly $7.75/gallon) while the average across the country is $1.638/L (roughly $6.50/gallon).

*sigh*

In other things, I didn’t get a call back from the septic guy about replacing the pill switch in the septic tank, so I’ll call him again tomorrow. Between the cost of the switch, plus labour, I’m expecting it to be in the $300 range, but I want to know for sure before I take out the cash to pay him. With a tip, of course!

I really look forward to not having to activate the pump manually again!

All in good time.

The Re-Farmer

Critter count and April fools.

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First the cuteness!

We had visitors yesterday afternoon. Three of them!

They were very curious about that cat, too! They hung around for a while before coming into the yard and checking out the compost heap.

This morning I counted either 28 or 29 yard cats. I’m not quite sure.

It’s not actually the black cats I loose track with. It’s the “printer babies”. All the white and greys!

Here, you can see the one cat’s messed up eye. That inner eyelid is making it harder to tell, but the pupil has a cloudy spot on one side that seems to be clearing up, while the other side is still looking brown.

On the topic of messed up eyes.

We’re going to have to change focus for when my tax return comes in. We still have to get the pill switch replaced on our septic tank, but we’ll have to wait on the pipe clearing. We need to get the Wolfman to a vet. After talking with the Cat Lady and showing her pictures of his eye that looks like it got scratched by another cat, we treated him with the last of our Metacam and monitored him. The rescue’s donations had run out, so even though Wolfman is on the list for adopting out, there’s nothing for vet care. Any donations they do get are quickly used up with spays and neuters.

I have the hardest time seeing the condition of the Wolfman’s eye, but he was opening it more often and blinking, so I thought it was getting better. The inner lids are still pretty swollen, but we can’t get more Metacam without a prescription, we can’t get a prescription without an exam, and we can’t get an exam done until we have funds. The girls seem to have better luck with seeing the eye, and this morning, they told me it was looking deflated.

*sigh*

Which means when we go bring him in, most likely the eye will need to be removed. I have no idea how much that will cost. I don’t think it’ll be as much as an amputation, of course; those both cost in the $1300 range. Still, it is a surgery, and that’s always expensive.

Damn.

Today, I got a call from the tax preparer. They just had one question for me, and then our files were done. I’ve already made the drive over to pay the bill, brought my husband’s form home for signing, and got it back right away. I didn’t even look to see what the final numbers were until I got home. Mine was exactly as I expected. I have no income, so I’m getting my caregiver tax credit, and that’s it. My husband qualifies for the disability tax credit, but his private disability and his CPP Disability combined bumps him into a different tax bracket. Without the disability tax credit, he’d be owing. Instead, he typically gets less than $20 back. That changed this year, though, and he’s actually getting more. Not much more, but enough to be helpful.

What isn’t helpful is that as of today, appropriately on April Fool’s Day, yet another Trudeau carbon tax has kicked in, which will make the cost of everything go up. I’ll let Quick Dick McDick explain it, as only he can. Language warning.

Not only is the idea that taxing “carbon” is somehow going to make the weather gooder laughable (keep in mind that we are carbon based life forms on a carbon based planet, so taxing “carbon” is taxing life itself – oh, and if you take into account Canada’s vast Boreal forests, we are actually CO2 negative), but we keep getting told that we will somehow get back more than we paid in.

Our Prime Dictator has openly admitted that he can’t do math, but you’d think even a trust fund baby born with a silver spoon in his mouth would know better. Which I’m sure he does, but the psychologist in my recognizes a narcissistic psychopath when I see one.

We’re told that we are supposed to be getting these quarterly rebates to make up for the new tax. My daughters get them, along with the GST rebate. Paltry sums, really, considering how expensive everything has become because of these taxes. My husband and I don’t get either. Apparently, he makes too much money on disability, which is insane. Since we’re a married couple filing our tax returns together, that means neither of us get any federal rebates. Sometimes our province will throw out a bone, but even then, I get it but my husband doesn’t. No doubt there are plenty of other families in our position that will keep seeing our costs increase, but never see any of these “getting back more than you pay” rebates. Then the powers that be will and their propagandists blame the eeeeeevil capitalists and the Conservatives for everything, right on script.

For those of you who have been following Karlyn Borysenko, who has been deep diving into the “woke left” for years now, you know that this isn’t really a politically left or right thing, but the result of decades of neo-Marxism.

I don’t want to go too far into this sort of thing on my blog, though, but this is something that affects all of us directly. Even us, in our little corner in the boonies, and the choices we need to make, so I feel I have to talk about it at least a little bit.

Looking at just the past few years, on top of the carbon taxes, they’re also punishing the use of nitrogen (which makes up almost 80% of our atmosphere) to grow food, they’ve declared that home gardeners are actually causing more “climate change” damage than large scale agriculture, and cow farts are heating up the globe, so they’re trying to get rid of cows in favour of ultra processed “plant based meat”, even though they know this stuff is worse for both our health and the environment, and so on.

What it comes down to is that people like us – people who just want to be as self sufficient as possible, and produce as much of our own food as we can – are going to have a much harder time of it, unless there are massive changes in the next few years. Having homeschooled our daughters, we’re already used to autocrats either trying to make what we were doing illegal or, failing that, making it so they control what, when and how we did it. During our final homeschooling years, we came very close to losing so much in the province we lived in at the time, as the NDP and the teacher’s union tried to push legislation that would have literally controlled what parents could talk to their kids about at the dinner table. They tried twice, actually. They learned from the first time, so the second time, they framed it as a way to “fight hate” and “homophobia”. A remarkable number of homeschoolers fell right in line, and they succeeded in pitting homeschoolers against each other. I don’t think people realize just what a disaster it would have been, had the proposed legislation passed, it was so broad and ambiguous. It’s just another step to see the same thing being tried to control our ability to grow our own food and live self sufficiently. I mean, it’s already illegal for a lot of people to grow food in their yards or keep a few chickens in their back yard. Hell, the mayor of Toronto is pushing to tax rain, for crying out loud.

Of course, we’re already seeing the effect of this new tax, and it just kicked in today. When I was in town to see the tax preparer, I saw gas prices had gone up another 4 cents per litre. Honestly, I expected it to jump higher than that.

Meanwhile, the price of groceries is going to keep going up, tradespeople like plumbers and our septic guy are going to have to increase their prices again, and the value of our dollar is going to keep going down due to this artificially created inflation.

Which makes what we are trying to do here, just to feed ourselves, all the more important.

At least while growing and producing our own food is still legal.

The Re-Farmer