cost of living increases

Stock up shopping: This is what $355.15 looks like

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I am so glad to have the stock up shopping done, and to be home. While it’s still light out, too!

I took advantage of the gorgeous morning temperatures (-7C/19F at the time; we ended up hitting 3C/37F by the afternoon) and shoveled the last paths to the compost pile, outhouse and back door to the garage while doing my morning rounds. Then I headed out early to go to my mother’s, so I would have time to shovel away the plow ridge at the end of the driveway, plus have time to fill the tank before going to her place. I still ended up earlier than we talked about, so I called her from the gas station to make sure she was ready for me to show up.

She almost was! 😄

She really did not want to go out, and would rather have just given me her list, but she needed to go to the bank – the one thing I can’t do for her.

Because I was there so early, I mentioned that after I was done helping her, I still had time to go to the city. Of course, she immediately tried to guilt trip me, saying things like “can’t you at least give me one day?” Obviously forgetting that I normally do exactly that. She also seemed to completely forget that she was planning to go to Stations of the Cross in church this afternoon, so I wasn’t going to be able to stay long, anyhow. Then I got the spiel about how I go to the city sooooo often! So many trips to the city! Why do I need to go to the city so often? I told her, I go two days a month so I can save money by stocking up. It basically comes down to, she doesn’t need to go to the city to do her shopping, therefore no one else needs to go to the city to do her shopping, and she hasn’t gone to the city in 10 years!

Which isn’t true, of course. I went with her at least once for a medical appointment, and I know my brother took her for other appointments as well, just in the 6 years since we’ve moved here.

I reminded her that when she was still driving, she would spontaneously go exploring all over the place, and no one gave her a hard time, so why is she giving me a hard time now? I think that finally seemed to make sense to her, because she stopped after that.

So we did her errands, and she’s now well stocked up, including her prescription refills – that, at least, I can go in and get for her without her having to get out of the truck! By the time everything was put away, I think she was tired enough to be glad for me to go! 😄 She did really well, though. Considering how sick she said she was feeling yesterday, it was good to see.

As for my city shopping, I hadn’t really had breakfast yet (does a bag of beef jerky eaten while driving count? 😄), even though it was already past noon by the time I was back on the highway, so my first stop was at the international grocery store, where I got myself some dim sum before doing my shopping there.

This store was a smaller shop, but it’s things we don’t find at any of our other usual places we go to. This is what $148.36, after taxes, looks like.

I even remembered to take a picture of the receipt this time.

The Beaver Buzz is for myself and my older daughter, and this store is one of the few places that still carries it. Our local grocery store used to carry it, but stopped a year or two ago. 😔

There’s a gallon jug of soy beverage we don’t see anywhere else, plus some soy milk and oat milk for my lactose intolerant daughters. There is a half chunk of caciocavallo cheese my husband requested; no one else seems to carry that cheese, and he loves it as a treat (in spite of the fact that he is also lactose intolerant!). It’s quite expensive, though. The little flavoured goat cheeses are another thing we don’t find anywhere else, plus, they were on sale. My husband also asked for mustard, which is odd, since he doesn’t usually eat mustard. We rarely buy it, so I made sure to get a good one, choosing a more expensive, locally make, herb and white wine mustard. The applewood smokes slab of bacon is also locally made. The coho salmon was on sale; that’s another one for my daughters, but they’ll have to share the shrimp with me. 😁 Another purchase for my husband is a Filipino brand of soy sauce he likes. I even found some sushi seasoning for the girls that was out of stock, the last time I was here. Bananas were the only fruit fruit that I picked up because, even with the sales, everything else was really expensive. The coconut milk was a last moment thing, when I saw the display while waiting in line. My daughters like to use coconut milk in their cooking. I don’t. I was feeling dehydrated, so I got a couple of water bottles for the truck. They were only a dollar each, if bought in pairs. I also remembered to grab some septic tank treatment stuff. We’ve been out for a while, but I keep forgetting to get more.

Almost $150, and it split between one insulated and one non-insulated hard sided grocery bag, with the gallon jug on the side, with room to spare.

*sigh*

My next stop was the Walmart, and whether or not I would go to Canadian Tire depended on whether they were in stock of the stove pellets we use for litter.

I did not have to go to Canadian Tire. The only thing on my list that I couldn’t find was vermiculite, and I didn’t feel like going to Cdn Tire to look for it, when there was nothing else on my list that I needed to get there.

This is what $206.79, after taxes, looks like.

Yup. More cat food! I got four different flavours of kibble, to change things up for the cats. They were all the same price, but two were 7.5kg and two were 7.21kg

I remembered to get a picture of the receipt for this, too, though I forgot to have the cat food on a separate receipt.

With four more bags of kibble, plus another case of wet cat food, we should have enough for the month. With the warmer temperatures, the outside cats aren’t eating as much, so we should be going through less of that now. With the inside cats, we’re trying to increase how much wet cat food they get while reducing the amount of dry cat food. Mostly because of Leyendecker; wet cat food is cheaper than vet bills!

I only got one bag of pellets because, with the cat food, I didn’t have room for two.

I had a request for nacho fixings, and we already have plenty of cheese, so there’s nacho chips plus a big jar of olives in there. My daughters were running low on coffee, so there’s that, plus a couple of flavoured creamers. I grabbed a couple of boxes of cereal that were on sale; with non-dairy milk, the girls actually enjoy eating cereal and not getting sick. There’s a big case of facial tissues under the cart. My last moment spontaneous purchase was the strawberries. The display was near the line for the cashiers, and they were over half off, so I got one clamshell for each of us.

Thinking about the kibble prices, while shopping with my mother, I was stunned to see 11.6kg bags selling for $55.99 each – and that was on special!! Yeah, it’s most definitely worth it to make the trip to the city for kibble.

So that’s it; our second stop up shopping trip, for a grand total of $355.15.

I look forward to not having to do this again for another month!!

Ah, who am I kidding. I’m sure something is going to happen, and I’ll have to make another trip. 😄

Between yesterday and today, we spent $1313.33 in total – and that doesn’t include the cost of gas or meals while I was out.

Ouch.

One positive thing I can say right now is that I’m glad my husband’s disability payments come in monthly. It’s a lot easier to budget that way, and a lot easier to do these monthly stock up trips. His payments – both his private insurance and CPP Disability – do actually go up a little bit every year, but the cost of everything is going up so much more! We are very fortunate, in that my husband’s private insurance is as good as it is. We are making ends meet, even with the new monthly payments on the truck. We have much to be thankful for.

The Re-Farmer

Costco stock up shop: this is what $960 looks like – sort of! And family dynamics… *sigh*

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I finally made it into the city today, for our first stock up shopping trip!

I am so, so tired.

But not because of the shopping. More on that, later!

Today was expected to be a much nicer day than yesterday, except for a quick system blowing through this morning – heavy in the “blowing” part! I was going to meet my SIL for a late lunch, so I didn’t start leaving until shortly before 11am – about an hour later than I originally planned. The wind was so wicked cold, it was painful just to unlock and open the gate! I’d brought along my down filled parka, just in case, and ended up wearing it over my light coat, and was still feeling that wind!

By the time I reached the city, though, things had cleared up quite a bit. I got to the restaurant I was going to meet my SIL at about half an hour early, which turned out to be a good thing. There was a message from my husband waiting for me. My mother had phoned, and wanted me to call her back. I had time then, so I called her from the waiting area in the restaurant.

When I asked her how she was, she launched into how she was feeling soooo terrible, and was wondering if she needed to go to the hospital…

I know my mother well enough by now to recognize the tone. She was wanting attention.

I told her I was calling from the city, and she started back tracking immediately, saying she’d been in bed all morning, and was feeling well enough to get up and make herself some food. After talking about her symptoms, I suggested she call the public health nurse and they could better say if she should call an ambulance or not (I knew they wouldn’t, based on what my mother was telling me). Then she told me that the exterminators were supposed to show up today. I only knew about that already, because my sister told me yesterday! My mother didn’t say a thing about it to me, even after telling me about the last time they came by, and how they checked but didn’t spray. Since she wasn’t feeling well, though, she hadn’t done anything to prepare for them.

Anyhow; she told me she would call the public health nurse after she had something to eat, and I asked her to call us at the farm number and let us know how things went, even if it was just to say something on the answering machine.

Then I got a table, and my SIL came soon after, and we had a fantastic visit. Of course, we talked about my mother’s situation. Unfortunately, she has done this to my brother several times, calling for him to take her to the hospital, only for her to actually turn out to be fine – except for the one time she got food poisoning. She still insisted my brother and his wife drive the 1 1/2 hours out to her place, then drive her another 20 minutes to the emergency room, where she was told she should have called 911! She doesn’t want 911. She wants us to take her to the emergency, and spend the hours with her in the waiting room while she complains about how terrible the staff is because it’s taking so long, or makes nasty comments about the other people in the waiting area, etc.

Since we’ve moved out here, at least I’m handier to be able to take her, but she still manages to get my brother to do it every now and then, too.

My SIL was totally understanding about what was really going on with my mother. They’ve been through this a lot more often then I have!

Anyhow.

Oh, I just have to share something. When we meet up, it’s been almost always at this Smitty’s location, and there’s a waitress there that even recognizes us by now. Which is impressive, considering we’ve been here once very month or three!

Since I have given up sugar and simple carbs for Lent, I ordered a meat lovers breakfast skillet, and said to skip the toast and skip the hashbrowns, because I wasn’t doing sugars or starches. She started asking what I might want to replace them with, and I told her I was basically doing carnivore, so she was… so, no fruit, then… I did say yes to mushrooms, though.

When the food arrived, she actually sat down next to my SIL to face me to tell me about what I got! The kitchen staff “felt sorry” for me, so they added extra bacon and ham and sausage to my dish! Then she realized the mushrooms were forgotten, which I said I was okay with, but when my SIL asked for a side of Hollandaise for hers, she brought me a bowl of mushrooms! She was just fantastic, and it was so sweet of the kitchen staff to add extra meat to my meal!

After we had our most excellent food and a fantastic visit, it was off to Costco to do my shopping.

First stop was to fill the tank. Costco regular gas was 123.9 cents/litre. When I drove through my mother’s town, regular gas was 134.9/L, while all the stations I saw in the city were 133.9. Well worth it to wait to fill the tank at Costco! A half tank cost me about $50

Here is my Costco shop.

When I going through the cash desk, I had all sorts of people asking if I needed help loading my vehicle, and one of the supervisors even came over to ask if I had an Executive memberhip.

Which I do, and I’m glad she asked, because I had a rebate check I’d forgotten about! I also needed to renew our membership. I’d already paid for the cat food, so it was applied to the rest of our purchases.

With cat food, I got eight of the 9kg Kirkland brand kibble; the name brand has gone up in price, but the Kirkland is still $26.99 so far. I also got 2 cases of canned cat food, at $38.99 each. The grand total for the cat food was $329.17, after taxes.

Then there was the rest of the stuff.

The “bottom of the basket” stuff included a huge Kirkland package of paper towels; with cleaning up after the cats, I finally broke down and got a Costco size package, instead of a smaller one at Walmart or something! I also got a big Kirkland brand package of toilet paper, clear “leaf” bags that we use for our recycling and burn barrel garbage, a big bucket of ghee, dish detergent, four 2 packs of flour tortillas, three rotisserie chickens, a double flat of eggs (60 eggs), a flat of Coke Zero, a sack of basmati rice, and a 9pack of mixed pasta.

Along with that, in the order they’re on my reciept, I got two big jars of mayo, a large container of popping corn, a double package of parchment paper, a large jug of olive oil, a 2 pk of lemon juice, a 6 pack of canned chicken, coconut oil, peanut butter, a package each of AA and AAA batteries, more of that amazing parmesan, black garlic and truffle seasoning powder, a panini pack of sliced meats (three types), two 2 pks of Asian Cashew salad mixes, 1L of whipping cream, a package of smoke ham slices, a wheel or brie, a 2 pk of goat cheese, a 4 pack of cream cheese, a block of Old Cheddar, a block of Mozzarella, a 4pk of bacon, a package of pork breakfast sausages, a package of 4 whole mackerel for my daughters (I’m not a fan of fish!) , two 2pks of rye bread, and a package of walnuts.

I also got 5 pounds of butter, but the cashier noticed they were unsalted, and he double checked if that was what I wanted. I hadn’t noticed, but I was going to just take the unsalted. He insisted that they could get me salted butter instead, so I agreed. So 5 pounds of salted butter was rung in, and a guy left to get them for me while I paid for the whole thing. Since I was waiting for the butter anyhow, I got the other guy to part my flat cart aside while I dashed to the bathroom before heading out.

The guy wasn’t back with the butter when I was done. In fact, it was quite a while before he returned – with 5 pounds of unsalted butter! It turned out the reason I didn’t grabbed the unsalted butter without realizing it was because there was no salted butter left in the fridge room! He’d gone looking for salted butter and did find a pallet of some, but it would require a forklift to get it. He was very apologetic and said they could get me the salted butter, but it would take a while.

I just laughed it off and said I’d take the unsalted butter!

Having worked at a grocery store before, I knew to ask if they needed to fix my receipt. The other guy had to double check with a supervisor, and yes, he did have to. He took me over to the supervisor’s cash desk, where he had to charge me for the unsalted butter, then refund me for the salted butter I’d already paid for.

I appreciate computer inventory systems, so I didn’t mind going through this at all.

As for the actual main purchase… The sub total came to $672.52. I then had the Executive Rebate, which took off $169.51, while my membership renewal cost $120. After taxes, my grand total was $629.01

That, together with the cat food, came to a total of $958.18

Ouch.

And I still need to go the rest of our stock up shopping, tomorrow!

Maybe.

I was much appreciating our longer days, as it was still light out when I got home, well past 5pm. After everything was unloaded, assembly line fashion, the girls put away the groceries while I fed the outside cats to get them away from the truck, so I could park it!

Once everything was settled, I called my mother to check up on her.

When I asked how she was feeling, she said much better – and what are you doing tomorrow?

…

I told her I’d planned to go to the city for my second shop, but if she needed groceries, I could help her with that, instead.

It turns out she’s apparently out of everything, and started listing all the things she was out of.

*sigh*

I keep asking my mother to get me to do her shopping before she runs out of stuff, but she says she likes to have things “fresh”, plus if she has food in the house, it’s “temptation” so she eats it.

…

Which is kinda what food is there for, but she has decided that eating is bad, because she’s fat.

*sigh*

Then she asked if I could come over early, because the church was doing Stations of the Cross tomorrow afternoon, which is just fine by me. That way, I can still go to the city and finish my own shopping. If she feels up to it, she wants to go out and go to the bank, as she skipped that last month entirely. That’s one thing I can’t do for her! If she’s not up to it, she’ll just give me her list and I’ll do her shopping for her.

That was the easy part of the conversation.

She was clearly feeling much better, because my goodness, she got herself wound up!

Long story short:

The exterminators showed up today to check/spray for bed bugs, but when he arrived and said she had to leave her apartment, she told him she had a cold (from how she described things, I think she’s got hay fever) and didn’t want to leave. So he never came in. She’d already tried to tell them not to come at all, because they steal things from her (she is convinced the exterminator stole a jar of change and her father’s old passports from deep among her papers – a year ago!). I tried to explain to her that they HAVE to come in. It’s a requirement.

That didn’t go over well.

I ended up having to cut that conversation off and bring it back to my coming over tomorrow. Then I mentioned I needed to do a few things, then have supper, as a wind down to the conversation, to which she told me to have a good evening, and don’t eat too much. Because I need to lose weight. Which she managed to repeat several times, and I called her out on it, before I finally ended the conversation because she was winding herself up again.

For someone who was ready to go to the hospital this morning, she sure bounced back to her usual self quickly… 🫤

*sigh*

That phone call with her was more exhausting than the entire shopping trip, and I find shopping incredibly draining.

Tomorrow could get very interesting. Hopefully, my mother will be on better behaviour, but there’s just no way of knowing, from one day to the next! Or even one minute to the next.

Ah, well. Such is life! Tomorrow will bring what it brings. Until then, I’m not going to worry about it!

The Re-Farmer

An unplanned shop: this is “not” what $147 looks like

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My daughters requested a trip to the city for some of their own shopping. My younger daughter found a yarn shop in the city and ordered yarn for a sweater she wants to knit for herself. The yarn was ready for pick up today, so today it was! From there, they had a shopping list for the international grocery store.

There was one surreal thing that happened during the drive in I still shake my head over.

Part of the route to the city is a divided highway, with a shallow ditch in between. The highway is two lanes in each direction, and the ditch in between is roughly as wide as another two lanes. Every few miles, there are cross roads and the occasional access lane for vehicles to turn around.

We were coming up to one of these cross roads when I saw what I at first thought was a large black dog running on the cross road towards our side of the highway. Then it rolled across both lanes and I realized it was a tire! Thankfully, there were no cars in that section of the highway at the time, and the tire rolled harmlessly into the ditch on the far side.

According to my daughter, who could look more closely as we passed it, it was smoking!

Of course, we were looking for where the tire came from. We could see a semi pulled over onto the shoulder in the opposite side of the highway. As we drove by, we could see it was resting on the rim on the front driver’s side tire!

Thankfully, the driver never lost control of his vehicle, and there were no other vehicles near it when it’s tire somehow blew itself off the rim and launched itself across a total of 4 lanes and a ditch!

That could have been so much worse!

It still feels so weird, remembering seeing a tire crossing the highway on its own!

Once in the city, my daughter and I hit a drive through for breakfast, then ate in the parking lot. Neither of us wanted to people while we were eating. 😆

Then, it was off to the downtown area and the yarn shop.

Finding the yarn shop was not too difficult.

Getting to it and parking was another story!

This area of the city is old residential, with many very narrow streets, all of which were in terrible condition. They were all 2 way streets, but most had parking on one side, leaving barely more than a car’s width to drive through.

Then we found ourselves coming up to repair crews, with three huge trucks, and no way to turn around or go around. Thankfully, one of the trucks was able to move, we squeezed through and made what should have been our last turn.

I ended up having to drive past the yarn shop, taking the next turn and drop my daughter off in the street! I was then able to drive around the block and come back to the store from the other direction and even *gasp* find a parking spot.

It was worth it, though. We haven’t been to a proper yarn shop since we moved to the farm. I haven’t even been to a Michael’s in years.

It was absolute heaven! So many gorgeous yarns! It took some major self control not to throw the budget out the window and go nuts. Not so much with the yarns that cost over $40 a hank, but there were those clearance bins…

*melt*

I know we could buy all sorts of yarn online, but nothing can beat being in the store and able to handle the yarns and see those glorious shades in person!

My daughter got her yarn and some knitting needles in the sizes she needed, and we finally tore ourselves away.

From there, we went to the international grocery store. My daughter had her and her sister’s list, but when we walked in, I saw they were having a case lot sale.

I got my own cart!

This is what I ended up getting.

The dim sum tray was a treat for supper. Delicious!

Some of the items, such as the Kraft Dinner, were both part of the case lot sale and featured items on their app that I could load onto my loyalty card.

What I like about their receipt is that they list the regular price, then the amount discounted is right under the item. Not all places do that.

So while the total was $140.18 before taxes, that was after $55.77 was taken off for the sales.

I actually didn’t realize until I was looking at the receipt at home, that my 2L of milk was only 99 cents! I had not seen any signs for the milk being on sale. I even grabbed from the back of the display, for one with a later “best before” date.

While I use the app on my phone to scan my loyalty card, my physical card being worn out years ago, my daughter has a spare physical card. I had enough points that she could get some of her stuff for free.

So that was a fortunate unplanned shopping trip. Normally, we miss these big sales, simply because we make as few trips into the city as we can get away with!

When we do go in, though, we try to make as much use of the trip as possible, so we made one more stop at Walmart to get more wet cat food. We are trying to increase how much wet cat food vs dry kibble we give the inside cats. Leyendecker should really be getting wet cat good only, since he has blocked twice now. The wet cat food is more expensive, but not as expensive as vet bills!

Speaking of cats…

I counted 31 this morning, but I did not see Sad Face.

You’d think they would stay out of the moat, but nope. They will cross through the water, rather than go around through the snow! They also seem to prefer drinking from puddles of melted snow over the water bowls. The water bowls have been very full still, when I come out in the mornings.

We are supposed to get colder, soon. The driveway is going to be insane, once all this water freezes!

Ah, well. At least we aren’t snowed in, like the East coast is right now. My friend in Halifax posted photos. They’ve managed to dig a path to the road, and have hopefully dug out their van by now. Her husband was in one of the pictures, standing in the narrow path to the road, with walls of snow reaching well above his head!

I’ll take what we’ve got now, that’s for sure!

The Re-Farmer

Stocking up at Costco: this is what $535 looks like

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This morning, I did remember to grab some meat out of the freezer to drop off at my mother’s on the way to the city. I called her ahead of time, but only left a message, as she would have gone to bed again, after taking her morning meds. 

I was supposed to just drop things off and go, but of course, it never quite works out that way! 😁 

As I put the meat in her freezer, I showed her what I’d brought for her. Her response was to say, too bad I didn’t bring her any milk.

*sigh*

Then she started talking about my being on the way home, which confused me. It was shortly after 10 when I got to her place. For me to be on the way home, I would have had to leave early enough to get to Costco just as they opened, rushed through my shopping, and done nothing else at all. Plus, I’d even told her several times already, I was on my way to the city. I think because our vandal has stopped at her place on the way home from Costco in the past, she got it in her mind that that’s the only time anyone would stop by at her place. Personally, I’m not into having my frozen stuff thawing out in the vehicle any longer than I have to! 

I did offer to go get some milk for her right away, but she insisted that no, she didn’t want to trouble me. I’ve got so much to do, so much trouble to deal with… ???

It was literally the most convenient time to do it, but nope. 

Looks like I’ll be popping over to her place in the next day or two, do help her with her grocery shopping.

Before I left, my mother mentioned getting confusing messages on her answering machine, so of course I checked that right away! 

I was just as confused as she was with two of them.

One was a very brief and cheerful greeting – at least I think it was a greeting, it was spoken so quickly – followed by a hang up. Male voice. Strong Middle Eastern type accent. No name left, and clue who it could have been. The other was a female voice leaving a much longer message. Strong European accent, fast talking, neither of us could follow what she was saying. My mother didn’t recognize the voice (she gets phone calls from Poland, and this was not from one of her relatives).

So I left those messages to listen to again later, when I had more time to try and figure them out.

Curious, I decided to check the caller ID to see if the numbers could tell me anything.

They didn’t, but there was a familiar number, right after mine from when I called this morning.

I double checked to be sure.

It was our vandal’s number. 

My mother’s phone gives the time a call came in, but not the date, which is frustrating, but my mother was surprised it was there. I explained to her that our vandal’s number has been blocked, to stop his abusive calls. Clearly, the call blocking device worked, but I did not expect his number to still show up on caller ID. Knowing this, I warned her that, after not getting through to her, he might simply show up at her door. She started going on about what a great visit she had with him and his wife that last time he did that. I told her, that’s because his wife was there. If he brings a witness, he’s going to be on his best behaviour, putting on a performance. That way, later on, his witnesses can say how well they get along, etc. As if that would somehow make up for more than a decade of abusive phone calls, messages and visits! My mother actually seemed to get it, right away, which is encouraging.

Then it was time for me to continue to the city. My first stop was at a Canadian Tire to get the litter pellets. I noticed the oil pressure gauge was dropping a lot, so when I got there, I asked how much an oil change would cost, juggled some numbers, and was able to get the truck in right away.

I got a package deal that included 5L of oil, tire rotation, inspection of the brake, cooling, exhaust and suspensions systems, a lights check, lubrication of the door locks and hinges, battery test, and a fluids top up – washer, brake, power steering and coolant. The truck is a 5.6L, so I did get charged for an extra litre of oil, but they had a weekly special going on that gave me 15% off, so in the end, the whole thing cost me just under $80.

I did make sure to let them know that there are a number of codes coming up that I am aware of, and am taking care of little by little.

They were able to take the truck in right away, but I still had more than enough time to do the shopping I needed. Along with 2 bags of litter pellets, I ended up getting another bag of seed starting mix, and some seed starting trays with larger, deeper cells in them. I only got two to try out. One of things I think was an issue last year was trying to start some of our seeds in the smaller Jiffy pellets. I considered getting a seed starting set with the big Jiffy pellets, but decided against it when I saw the other trays. We will be starting some eggplants and peppers soon. 

After getting all that, I still had a while to wait. Shortly before it was done, I was called over to talk about some of the things found in the inspection. One was a burnt out license plate light, which I knew about. There’s two of them, and one is still working. It turns out that having just one burnt out bulb can get me a ticket. That’s something we can do ourselves. Another thing was a recommendation to do a power steering fluid flush in the near future. The last one was one I’ll definitely talk to our mechanic about, first. It seems one of the bearings on the front driver’s side tire is starting to show a little play.

If I were to get all the recommended work done right away, the final bill would be over $600.

Uhm… no.

I told him, I don’t live in the city, and I’ll talk to our regular mechanic about this.

Here’s the thing.

While I don’t mind going to Canadian Tire for something as basic as an oil change, I won’t go there for any other work. We’ve been burned badly by them in the past, even in other provinces, before we knew how notorious they are for “finding” extra work. It would be a very long story to tell how badly we got screwed over in the past. It was a long time ago, but their reputation has not improved over the years. Unless I know exactly what is going to be done, in every detail, I will not go to them again for mechanical work. 

I did remember to ask how the tires were rotated, though. I explained that one tire needed to have its valve replaced, so I needed to know if they did a front to back rotation, or an X rotation. So he checked that for me, and it was front to back. 

That done, my next stop was gas at Costco. Their price for regular is 113.9/L right now (122.9 or 123.9/L everywhere else). Half a tank cost me just under $55.

From there, I finally got into Costco to do the shopping.

I got a separate bill for the cat supplies, but altogether, this is what $532.56 looks like.

The pet supplies cost almost as much as the stuff we got for ourselves.

We got more pee pads – those have been coming in remarkably handy – a case of canned cat food and six 9kg bags of dry cat food, for a grand total of $245.08

Then there was the stuff for us.

Gosh, some of those item names are hard to figure out at times!

We got a case of Coke Zero for my husband, the big Kirkland package of toilet paper, 5 pounds of butter, a 6 pack of pasta, a bag of Basmati rice, two flats of eggs, a big bag of walnuts, 3 packages of tortilla wraps, a big box of Ramen noodles, two 2 packs of Asian Cashew salad mixes, a round of Brie, a 2pk of goat cheese, mini portabella mushrooms, a block of Old cheddar, a big jar of mayonnaise and another of peanut butter, and finally a couple of bottles of painkillers; ibuprofen for the girls, and acetaminophen for me. This time, not Tylenol Arthritis, which does absolutely nothing for my arthritis. Just generic extra strength acetaminophen.

Oh, I almost forgot. I got a fresh, heat and eat lasagna for supper.

Which the girls have heated up and is waiting for me right now! I didn’t realize it, but my older daughter and my husband don’t eat lasagna anymore. All that cheese does nasty things to their insides, and we’re out of lactase. So they made something else, and my younger daughter and I get to enjoy the lasagna all to ourselves! 😁😁

I have to remember to call my mother later on, though, and figure out when I’m coming over to help her with her shopping.

But first… food! 

The Re-Farmer

First stock up shopping: This is what $ouch$ looks like, plus I have a computer again!

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Last night, the fog rolled in. It was weird to see it rolling in on the garage cam live feed. The road and field beyond the gate was glowing! Really amazing to see.

It was still quite heavy this morning. The trees were covered in hoarfrost and looking gorgeous. Even Driver’s long black fur had hoarfrost on it!

I was 99% sure that my husband’s CPP Disability would come in today. It would normally come in on the third last business day of the month, but if that falls on a Monday, the funds get deposited on Saturday, which is what happened today. His private insurance disability payments, which comes in on the last business day of the month, also gets deposited on the Saturday, if that last business day falls on a Monday. It wasn’t always like this, but I’m not entirely sure when it changed!

No complaints, though. It meant I could go into the city and do the first stock up shopping trip – and finally pick up my desktop computer from the repair shop!

Yes, I am finally typing this post out on my computer, using my ergonomic keyboard and my nice big monitor! 

This is soooo much better than using my phone!!!!

Getting my computer was not my first stop off the day, though.

I left pretty much as soon as I was done my morning rounds, so things were still quite densely foggy out. It got denser the closer I got to my mother’s town, where I stopped briefly at the gas station. Her town was so thickly covered in fog, it was hard to see the turn off to the gas station! I didn’t actually want to get gas, as the prices there have gone up to 123.9/L (122.9 in the city), and I was planning to fill the tank at Costco, but I had someone tailgating me in the fog, and I wanted to get him off my a$$!

For this trip, we decided not to do the Costco shopping, but the “little” shopping, and save the Costco trip for when main pay comes in next week. My first stop was at the international grocery store. There were a few things we wanted to get there that we don’t find anywhere else, plus I was planning to have breakfast there.

Sadly, I was a bit too early for dim sum or the Chinese buffet. There was none set up, yet. The self serve chicken wing and pierogi bars were open, though, so I picked up some hot food there. I was just going to get a variety of wings at first, but all but one type were spicy hot, which I can’t tolerate😭so I got some pierogi and sausage.

It was disappointing. None of it was out there long enough to be fully hot, yet. It was just barely warm.

Note for future reference. Don’t leave home before 9am, if I plan to get breakfast at the international grocery store!

With a variety of these buffet items, sold by weight, plus a drink, my breakfast cost about $15. Not too bad. Dim sum would have cost more, but would have been worth it!

It turned out to be a good day to shop in this store, as they had some really good sales on, so I got more of what was on my list than what was specifically for this store.

I realized I forgot to take a picture of my cart only after I left for the computer store, so… this is what bagged up $187.37 looks like.

Normally, I would have picked up the paper products at Walmart or Superstore (I ended up not going to Superstore), but the toilet paper, paper towels and facial tissue were all on sale. I’ll still get more TP at Costco, but extra toilet paper is never a bad thing!

That gallon jug had been on the other side of the red bag, but I had to brake harder than usual as I drove to the computer shop, and it went flying to the front of the truck box! It’s a good thing I keep that garden cultivator tool in the stuck, as I had to use it to retrieve it! 

The gallon jug is a soy beverage my daughters requested. One of those items we don’t find anywhere else. In the hard sided bags, we have: avocados (bag of 4), bananas, 2 clamshell packages of blueberries, 3 Saskatoon and 3 Citrus Beaver Buzz, blocks of marble, Old cheddar, Extra Old and Old White cheddar (they were 50% off), two different flavours of coffee creamers, rice vinegar, seasoned rice vinegar, two different flavours of frozen dumplings, smoke bacon (slab, not sliced), Sockeye salmon fillets (package of 2 big fillets for $20, which is an unusually low price for salmon), frozen cooked prawns, Bergamot Earl Grey tea, powdered milk and dental floss picks.

All of which fit into those two bags and cost almost $200 – and that’s with almost $30 off for the various sales. *sigh*

Then it was time to get my computer.

The computer did not get repaired. He got it running again, but for the cost of replacing everything that needs to be replaced, it would be better to get a new machine. So I was charged for the diagnosis, not any repair. That was about $60. He was able to do a “premium” data save, which was almost $80, plus I got at 2T external hard drive to put the data on. That was just over $110. After taxes, the bill came to $280 and change.

Ouch.

I’ll get to how things are with the computer, later.

Costco is pretty much across the street, so gas at Costco was my next stop. I was at just over half a tank. Costco’s price was 114.9/L, and a fill cost me $56.89 Much better than if I’d filled anywhere else!

From there, I went to Walmart. This is what $264.90 looks like.

*sigh*

Those three bags of cat food are 10kg bags, and they cost $32.97 each. The canned cat food cost $28.77 each.

Besides food for the cats, I got a family pack of breakfast sausages and a family pack of pork chops. There’s 2 loaves of rye bread, a 2L of soy milk for the girls, a large jar of olives, 2 bottles of hydrogen peroxide for shocking the hot water tank, and a new toilet roll holder, because the cats knocked over and broke the one we had before. Plus a bottle of water for the drive home.

That’s 17 items for almost $260.

*sigh*

So the groceries cost $452.27 altogether, plus the computer, lunch and gas, which means I spent over $800 in total just today. I decided I didn’t want to go to the Superstore and spend more money! The rest of the stuff on my list can wait until the Costco trip.

And to think, by doing these stock up trips to the city, then buying mostly fresh stuff locally, we’re saving at least a couple hundred dollars a month. The big difference in cost is with the cat food. Those 10kg bags – if we can find bags that size in the first place – cost about $45 each locally. A 7kg bag will cost about $32 locally – and that’s going with the cheap brands (not too cheap, as the quality is so bad with those). 

We’re also going to be increasing the amount of wet cat food we’re giving the inside cats. The outside cats can supplement with hunting (no mouse problems here!), but the inside cats can’t. I think the ratio of dry:wet cat food is causing problems with some of the cats. Our vet budget is going to spays and neuters right now, so we can’t afford any sick cats! 

Speaking of which…

I’ve been chatting with the Cat Lady. She has some donated items for us that will be passed on when we meet up on Feb. 10 for the cheap spay/neuter day. She has us booked for 5 cats. We have three inside cats to do, plus we should be able to grab the fluffy tortie from outside, plus one outside male. Hopefully, Shop Towel. The Cat Lady will be paying for two of them. She was talking to the lady who is donating the cat supplies, having just lost her cat of many years, that will be passed on to us. After being told about how we’re taking care of so many cats, she donated enough funds to cover another spay! That was so sweet of her! 

Okay, back to the topic at hand!

Once at home with the shopping and everything was brought in, we let the computer warm up to room temperature before turning it on. 

The first time, it wouldn’t boot. I had to do a hard shut down and tried again. After letting it spin for almost half an hour, I had to do another hard shut down. After talking to my husband about it, he asked if I’d tried his power cord, which he’d leant me to try before we took my tower into the stop. It turned out, that’s the one I was using. I found my original power cord and tried again.

This time, it actually booted up!

It took almost half an hour to finish booting up, but it did finally happen!

Everything is sooooo slow to open right now. At this point, I’m not sure I dare shut if off anymore, given the crunchy noises I was hearing from the hard drive the first time I tried turning it on. 

The main thing is that it’s running right now. I don’t know how much time I’ll get out of it before it finally dies, but hopefully not before we are able to set some funds aside and find a refurbished computer! Or maybe find somewhere with a payment plan. 

This machine is on borrowed time, but there are so many other things pulling at the budget – a much tighter budget, not just because of increased costs of everything, but because we have truck payments that have taken up pretty much all our unallocated funds. 

Thank God my husband’s private insurance was such a good plan. Who ever thinks they’d ever need to go on disability? We can still get by.

Okay, we’d be getting by a lot better if we weren’t buying so much cat food! But that’s a choice we’ve made, so nothing we can complain about. 

All right now. Time to finish this off and really put this computer to the test. I’ve got trail cam files to upload!

With me luck!

The Re-Farmer

New Years shopping: this is what almost $360 looks like

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What a long, long day.

I headed into the city to pick up mostly stuff for our New Years fondue plans, though of course, I got other stuff, too. I ended up going to 3 different places in the city, then swinging by town to pick up my husband’s insulin, before heading home.

I’m totally drained.

My first stop was actually the post office, where I found a package I am quite excited about. I haven’t opened it, yet, but it’s a book I won.

My next stop was in the city. The international grocery store is part of a franchise, and there is a new location near the Costco we normally go to. It’s not an international store, but we used to shop this franchise all the time before we moved, so I decided to check it out. They had hot food available, too, so that was where I had breakfast.

Sadly, I was a bit disappointed. Not in the food. That was delicious. There just weren’t a lot of options. The store may be about the same size as the international one we normally go to, as far as I could tell, but all the departments seemed like they were half the size. I was particularly surprised by how small their meat section was. The beef section was not only small, but many of the choices were discounted “cook tonight” packs that were near the end of their shelf life. The Cat Lady often buys these to use as cat food! Even the regular cuts, though, were looking oxidized.

Still, this is where I got the bulk of my list.

This is what $229.84 looks like.

Yeah. Pretty sparse.

Here’s what I got.

For the meats, I was looking mostly for stir fry type cuts, but there weren’t any. So I just got trays of beef, pork and chicken breast that we could cut to size ourselves. Then I found a package of frozen hot pot combination meats – beef, pork and lamb. So I got one of those, too. I also got small frozen scallops. Together with the frozen prawns I got earlier, we have plenty of protein for our oil fondue. I got 2 bottles of peanut oil for that.

I found a basic recipe for the cheese fondue, and was looking for Swiss and Gruyere, but was really surprised by how small their fancy cheese section was. I got two cheeses there, but I wasn’t sure if they would be enough.

I got a tempura batter mix, plus a mixed vegetable tray and some pears, strawberries, and tiny crimini mushrooms. The pears and strawberries are for the cheese fondue, along with the French bread. The mushrooms are for the tempura batter and the oil fondue, while the vegetables can be for either.

I picked up various sauces for dipping, but could not find marinara sauce anywhere. That was unexpected.

Aside from other household stuff, I also got two tubs of seasonal ice cream- Eggnog flavour – that were on send of season clearance.

My next stop was Walmart. The main thing I was looking for there was fuel for the oil fondue burner. I’d seen the gel fuel we’ve used before at another location, so I figured I’d find it at this one.

This is what $74.43 looks like.

Also very sparse!

You’ll notice there is no fondue burner fuel in there.

I looked all over that store! I even asked for help. The employee I snagged looked up gel fondue fuel on her phone at the Walmart website, which said it was in stock, but she couldn’t find it. I went through the housewares section it should have been in, the camping fuel section, the grocery aisles, and even end cap and aisles displays. Nothing!

I did find stir fry beef, though, and grabbed a package as an extra. I also got another cheese for the fondue.

Still no marinara sauce!

Along with drinks and household items, there are mini cupcakes for dessert. While still looking for the burner fuel, I spotted an excellent sale price on Kraft Dinner, which my daughters like, so I snagged a case. By this time, I was also feeling really dehydrated, so I got some drinks for the road.

I still needed burner fuel, though. I can’t say I was too unhappy about not finding it at Walmart. The employee that tried to help me showed me her search results to confirm the item, and it cost almost $40! For one bottle, not a case. I was shocked, to say the least!

So, it was another trip up the road to a Canadian Tire.

I’m happy to say, I found what I needed, and more!

This is what $54.24 looks like.

It wasn’t the gel fuel we’d used before, but I confirmed it was for fondue burners.

They were $9.99 each, so I bought two.

I also got a little strainer to scoop out anything that might fall off the fondue forks. Plus, an extra burner. That way, if we used up the fuel in the burner, we can just switch and not have to wait for it to cool down.

And yes. That is a second vegetable peeler you are seeing in there. We need to replace the ones we have, and are forever losing track of them.

Since I was there anyhow, I picked up a tri-light bulb for my bedside lamp, which has a normal incandescent bulb right now. I also picked up no-mortise door hinges. The girls took measurements of where they need to hang a door. It may be possible we have an interior door in one of the sheds they can use. If so, these hinges can be used. We shall see. If they can’t be used, it won’t hurt to have them for the future.

That done, my next stop was for gas at Coscto. Prices around the city have dropped to 129.9 cents/L, but Costco was 117.9!

From there, it was time to drive the hour or so to pick up my husband’s prescription. By then, it was getting quite dark.

It was also a long time since breakfast, so after I got the prescription, I went to the Dairy Queen and got us burgers for supper.

That and I really needed to use a bathroom, and the one in the pharmacy was out of order!

Yeah. That’s my excuse!

As of now, the only thing we are missing is dry white wine for the cheese fondue sauce. I will pick that up tomorrow!

Somehow, I didn’t expect that doing a fondue for New Years would make it more expensive than having all finger food for Christmas!

Ouch.

The Re-Farmer

Costco shopping: this is what $719 looks like

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With all the running around I did, I was happy to get the Costco shopping over and done with!

We’ll still need to make another trip, though.

When I got to the city, I noticed gas prices were 132.9 cents per litter, so I figured Costco would be the usual 5-10 cents lower. They turned out to be 119.9 cents per litter! It’s been ages since I’ve seen a price like that.

As you can imagine, the lineups were insane. They went by fast, though.

Once tanked up, it was time to get all this.

Not my biggest shop, by any means, but it still totalled $719.81

I got the pet supplies on a separate bill. Eight bags of Kirkland 9kg dry kibble ($215.92), 1 case wet cat food ($24.99) and one case of puppy pads ($38.99). After taxes, it totalled $313.49

While we no longer have the problem of Toni peeing on my bed, or kittens not using the litter boxes, we still use the puppy pads. There are spots where other cats have been making a mess, regularly, so we use them to help with clean up. For example, I keep one under the litter box under my desk, with another in front, were my feet and chair got. I would leave the room and come back to find a pee spot next to the litter box. Always in the same spot. Only this morning did I catch Leyendecker doing it! Which is frustrating, because he will go from litter box to litter box and use them. I was afraid he might be getting blocked again, but given the size of the puddle on the puppy pad, I know think he’s marking territory!

The puppy pads may be an expense, but they do save out carpets and make cleaning the lino easier.

So that’s the cats stuff.

Then there was the shopping for us.

I won’t list the prices this time because it’s such a pain to tap out on the phone, but this is what I got today.

Two 1L of whipping cream, a pack of 60 eggs, hazelnuts, walnuts, stewing beef, 2 packages of wraps, three 2pks of rye bread, 1 brick Old Cheddar, 1 brick mozzarella, a wheel of brie, 5 pounds of butter, 6 pk of canned chicken, peanut butter, truffle parmasan seasoning mix, mayonnaise, a case of mixed fruit packs (with cherry!), kitchen garbage bags, and toilet paper. Oh, and a 20kg bag of sugar!

We are doing a finger food Christmas dinner, so for that, I found mini quiches – we like those a lot, so I got 2 boxes – bacon wrapped scallops, fried pickle chips (!!), and garlic stuffed olives. I also got raw frozen shrimp, but that will likely be for our New Years fondue.

All of this, after taxes, totaled $406.32

Meat is getting insanely expensive. Especially beef. Thankfully, we still have meat in the freezer, and we are getting our quarter beef next month.

We still have other things we need to get for both Christmas and New Years, but that will be for other stores. I’m sure I have the gel fuel for our oil fondue burner, but I can’t remember where it was hidden, so I will get more. I also need to get peanut oil or some other high smoke point cooking oil. The final things for the dinners will be picked up fresh, closer to when we need them.

I rather look forward to a Christmas dinner that will involve so little cooking, and so few dirty dishes! 😆😄

The Re-Farmer

Stock up shopping at Costco: this is $956

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What a change a day makes! Yesterday, we had a high of -9C/16F, and an overnight low of -14C/7F (that I saw; it might have gone lower). That doesn’t count the windchill, and we had high winds yesterday. Today, we’ve reached a high of 2C/36F and our overnight low is expected to be only -3C/27F

[Edit: while I was still working on this post, we reached a high of 3C/37F, which is higher than was forecast for the day, by as much as 3°, depending on which app I got by.]

Which will make life much easier on the kitties.

I did a head count this morning, and again when I fed them after unloading the truck, so I could safely drive it out of the yard to park it. I counted 33, each time. Which means, taking into account the one I know we’ve lost, we’re “missing” three cats. Just as I couldn’t tell which ones were “new”, I can’t tell which ones are missing. There are some cats that are distinctive and we see regularly, but others look so much alike, and won’t let us near them, we just can’t keep track.

I did get a good action shot this morning, though!

I so want to be able to get Brussel and the other calicos socialized!!! They just won’t let it happen, though.

Today was my day for the Costco stock up shopping. This is what $956.06 looks like.

I did not get everything on my list. Some just wasn’t there. No sugar, for example, except for things like super expensive raw cane sugar or fake sugar. Rogers is on strike right now, so I wasn’t expecting to see that brand, but I was sure Costco also carried other brands. Ah, well. Our next stock up trip will include a Walmart, and they carry Redpath sugar, and they’re not on strike.

I asked to have all the cat food on a separate bill. When they were doing the rest, the cashier motioned to the flat cart, which still had the other heavy stuff on it the other staff member was scanning. I couldn’t make out what he said, but was able to figure out that he was asking about the separate bill, so I repeated that I wanted all the cat food on a separate bill.

Apparently, canned cat food is not cat food, because he included that in the main bill with the groceries! 😄😄

I usually get the 9kg Kirkland brand of kibble, which is cheaper per kg, but there was none. Not even an empty space where they would have been. So instead of a dozen 9kg bags, I got ten 11.6kg bags of Whiskas. They were $37.99 each and, after taxes, came to $425.49

Ouch.

As for the rest, first the non-food items:

Canned cat food: $38.99
LED light bulbs, 8pk: $19.99
AAA batteries: $25.99 plus 80¢ eco fee
Laundry detergent: $18.79
Dish detergent: $9.99
Toilet paper, Kirkland brand: $22.49

Finally, some actual food! 😄

pork blade roast: regular $20.44, -$5 at the till
pork chops: $24.05
chicken 3pk: $28.59
bacon, 5pk: $23.99
rotisserie chickens, two at $7.99 each
double cream Brie: regular $10.99, -$2.50 at the till
cream cheese, 4pk: $9.49
goat cheese, 2pk: $10.99
Old Cheddar: $14.99
mozzarella: $14.99
butter, 5 at $5.45 each: $27.25
whipping cream, two 1L at $4.79 each
10kg bag of flour: $9.99
pasta, 9pk: $13.99
flat of ramen noodles: $13.99
raspberry jam: $8.99
Kirkland brand mayo, 2 at $8.99 each (usually we get Hellman’s, but I couldn’t find any)
avocado oil: $16.99
Kirkland brand EVOO: $23.99
lemon juice, 2pk: 4.99
5 dozen pack eggs: $16.49
rye bread, two 2 pks: $5.99 each
tortilla wraps, 4 packs at $9.99 each for $39.96, – $8 at the till

Subtotal: $512.21
taxes: $18.39
Total: $530.57

Some of the things on my list were more paper products, like facial tissues and paper towels, but the packages are so big, I would have run out of room on my flat cart. As it is, the packages of bread and wraps kept vibrating off as I tried to maneuver the flat cart. 🤨

Also, it blows me away how many people don’t think twice about cutting off a loaded flat cart. Do they really think I can stop on a dime?? Then there are the people that stop to look at products, parking their carts right where there’s a pillar or something, leaving no room for anyone to get through. I get the need to park your cart. Heck, with my flat cart, I often have to park it and walk over to various displays to get something, simply because it’s not worth the effort to wrestle the flat cart through the aisles. Especially for cold rooms, like the dairy and eggs room, or where the soft fruits, salad kits and mushrooms are kept. However, I also make sure people can still get around the cart when I do!

Costco has changed brands of butter since I was last there, but the price is still under $6, making it the best price for butter I’ve seen, still. The whipping cream, at under $5 for 1L is also the best price I’ve seen. Since a 1L carton can make about a pound of butter, it’s the only place where it would be economical to make our own butter. Everywhere else I’ve seen, a 1L carton of whipping cream costs more than the house brand butters. Not that we’ll use the cream for that. If that were the plan, I’d buy a lot more than 2 cartons!

For this trip, adding the canned cat food to the kibble bill (about $43.66 after taxes), we spent about $469.15 on just cat food.

Taking the canned cat food off the rest of the bill, we spent $473.22 on stuff for us. Of that, we spent $375.17 on food. The rest was non-food items and taxes.

We are literally spending more money to feed the cats, than to feed ourselves.

Yes, we still have other stock up shopping trip to do, which will include more food items for ourselves, but those 10 bags of kibble won’t last the month. Last month, we bought 12 bags of Kirkland 9kg kibble, or 108kg. I’ve lost track, but we ended up buying another 7 or 8 bags, ranging in size from 7kg to 11kg, depending on what was in stock. If we use an average range of 9kg for 7 bags, that brings it up to 171kg. Right now, we have 116kg on hand, which means we might need to buy another 55kg in kibble before the end of the month.

And this is why we have to seriously consider starting to euthanize some of the yard cats. We just can’t keep this up. Not when we now have a car payment, even with the girls helping out when they can.

At least the inside kittens will go up for adoption again, once the Cat Lady’s housing situation settles, so the number of indoor cats will drop. We are also hoping to adopt out Toni and Ginger. We adore Ginger, but some of the other cats are starting to really bully him, and he deserves a better home situation than ours. But who would be willing to adopt three legged cats? Even if they don’t have other health issues?

I suppose this is a good time to point out the donation button at the top right, but I know things are tight for everyone right now.

*sigh*

Oh, I almost forgot. There was also the cost of gas and meals, spent today.

On the way out, I stopped to put $30 of regular gas into the truck, at 150.9¢/L I filled the tank once I reached Costco. The price for regular gas there was 135.9¢/L It cost me $66.41 to fill the tank. So, in total, it cost $96.41 to fill the tank from just below half. I also bought breakfast and lunch, for maybe another $20-$25 in total.

Also, the truck has a trip counter that I reset before heading home from Costco. With a short side trip to pick up the mail, it read just over 108km, so about double that for the entire trip.

I must say, I’m going to be very happy in January, when we get our quarter beef order in! With the hung weight being the highest we’ve had yet, I’ve doubled the last two monthly payments, which means in January, we’ll have only about $40 left to cover the balance. I don’t know that we’ll be able to do this again, though. It’s been great to be able to make monthly payments towards a quarter beef at the end of the year (or, in this case, beginning of the year), but with having truck payments now, we need to put some wiggle room back into our budget.

Well, it is what it is. We’ll deal. Somehow, we always manage to make it through.

The Re-Farmer

Stocking up at Costco: this is what $1062, plus a few donations, looks like

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I have to keep reminding myself: I did in one trip what I used to have to do in two or three trips while using my mother’s car.

Still, this is the most we’ve ever spent at Costco in one trip, and… ouch.

I did things a bit differently this time, in that I had all the cat supplies put on one bill, then our own stuff was rung in separately. The total for both together came to $1061.97

*choke*

First, though, was the trip in with the new-to-us truck.

Road conditions were not very good. From our place to the town my mother lives in was packed snow and ice. There was blowing snow, but the visibility was still okay. I was quite okay with being behind vehicles doing only 80 or 90kph in a 100kph zone (100kph = about 62mph). Things started getting messier as I reached my mother’s town. I timed it so I could stop at the gas station to grab some fried chicken for brunch first. That gave me time to respond to some messages from the Cat Lady. She had a cat carrier and some kibble donations for us and we were trying to figure out when and where we could meet. She needed to go into the same area of the city as the Costco we go to, so we would be able to meet up today.

Once back on the road, the further south I went, the more the highway went from slush to water until about halfway to the city, when it all started going to ice and slush again. The truck handled it like it was nothing! In fact, I had to watch myself, because it was just too easy to start speeding before I even realized it. Normally, I’d have just set the cruise control, but with the conditions, I expected to be slowing down more often. I did, but it was usually because I found myself behind vehicles hauling trailers, or heavy equipment.

As I was leaving the city, I stopped at a gas station convenience store to pick up something to drink for the drive. At this point, conditions were deteriorating again, and visibility was getting poor. The further north I went, though, the better it got. I drove out of the snow, and the roads that had been slushy or icy before were now just a bit wet. It’ll be a problem once things freeze during the night, but at the time, it was good. It wasn’t until about 5 minutes from home that I started driving into falling snow again, but it wasn’t an issue at all.

As for the shopping, I forgot to get a photo of the flat cart before I started unloading into the truck, but that’s okay. I got pictures of how it fit into the truck, instead.

The Cat Lady caught up with me as I was starting to pack things into my reusable bags, and was able to pass on the cat carrier and some bags of kibble she had for us. She couldn’t stay long, though. I don’t know how she keeps up with everything she’s got going in her life! She’s amazing.

She is able to do couponing, so those bags of kibble probably cost next to nothing. The new carrier is a perfect kitten size! She’s told me she’s had to turn down donations of cat carriers in the past, because she had no space for them, but now she plans to accept them to pass on to us. We have 1 hard sized and 2 soft carriers, and the soft carriers can potentially be torn out of, so hard carriers are preferable. The wet cat food was part of our own purchase.

I’d remembered to grab a snow brush to keep in the truck and ended up using it to push the filled hard sided bags further in, so I could fit the kibble bags. The TP and puppy pads sitting on the tailgate went on top of the kibble. I didn’t even need to open the cover. In the cab, I had an insulated bag for the hot rotisserie chickens, and a bag for the rye bread. The only thing that didn’t go into the back of the cab were the eggs, which I put on the front seat, instead.

This is what we got for our money today.

Cat supplies:
12 bags, 9kg size, dry kibble @ $26.99 each, for a total of $323.88
canned cat food: $38.99
puppy pads: $24.99
Tax added another $46.54 to the bill, for a total of $434.40

We have got to get that bill down somehow. We’d have no problem at all with having a car payment right now, if we weren’t feeding so many cats! But we’re not going to let them go hungry, either. Hopefully, we’ll be able to adopt more out soon.

Also, I was intending to buy 14 bags of kibble, but the stack on the flat cart was getting a bit tall and less stable, and I still had lots of other things to fit on there.

Human supplies:
Toilet paper, Kirkland brand: $22.99
4pk Pronamel toothpaste: $19.79
Coke Zero: $14.69, plus 32¢ enviro fee
double flat of eggs (60 eggs): $18.89
AP flour, 10kg size: $9.99 (most places have bags this size at about $15 – on sale!)
family size pack of fresh sausages, mild Italian: $20.11
whole chicken, 3 pack: $28.64
2 chubs of ground beef: $28.49 each
1 chub of ground pork: $19.99, minus $5 at the till
pork blade roast: $20.87
4pk bacon: $24.99
pork loin: $29.15
Old Cheddar: $14.99
Mozzarella: $14.99
Whipping cream, two 1L cartons, $4.70 each
double cream brie: $10.99
4pk Kirkland cream cheese: $9.49
5 pounds of butter: $5.49 each
Two 2pks of rye bread: $5.99 each
Two 2pks tortilla wraps: $9.99 each
9pk pasta, 3 varieties: $13.99
Mayo: $10.99
dehydrated mushrooms: $19.99 – I haven’t seen these in years!! We used to love getting these before we moved!
Kirkland Olive Oil: $32.99
Avocado Oil: $16.99
popcorn: $10.79
hazelnuts: $11.49
Kirkland Basmati rice: $15.99
2kg size Peanut Butter: $10.39
2pk Butter chicken sauce: $9.99, minus $2 at the till
6pk Kirkland canned chicken: $18.99
2 rotisserie chickens, $7.99 each
pork rinds: $10.99 (meant to be used in place of bread crumbs)
Kirkland chocolate chips: $17.99

plus tax: $10.17
Total: $627.57

The alarming part was paying for this second bill. I’d already paid for the cat supplies, but when I tried to pay for the rest, it failed. Payment not authorized. ??? We tried again, and got the same response. I was asking her to suspend the order so I could check my bank account to see what the problem was when someone came by. Someone that turned out to be a supervisor.

It was the debit machine going down.

My order did get suspended and the receipt printed out. The supervisor took it and tried to process it on another till, but that one was down, too. She ended up taking me to their supervisor station over by the bathrooms, where they have a different type of debit machine.

I was not the only one trailing along! There were at least four other people gathering around, waiting their turn.

Thankfully, fourth time was the charm, and I was able to pay for our stuff!

I really ought to use cash, but I just don’t like carrying around that much cash. Especially when I’m not quite sure what the total will be, given how much the prices change.

On top of this, I did fill the gas tank before I even went in to shop. I was at half a tank by the time I got there, but the Costco gas price for regular was 141.9¢/L, instead of the 153.9/L at my mother’s town, or the 152.9/L in the town we usually go to. So it cost “only” $68 and change to fill the tank.

As painful as it was to spend so much in one day, the fact that we won’t have to go to Costco again just saved us another $50 – $60 or so, just in fuel. We do plan to go to the city again next week, but I’m wondering if we even need to make that trip. This would be the trip where we go to the international grocery store, a Walmart and a Canadian Tire, all in one trip. However, the only reason to go to Canadian Tire is for litter pellets, and we still have plenty of those, and to get a few more fire bricks for our outdoor kitchen build, which can wait a month or two. The Walmart is where I get the shredded wet cat food I use for the kittens (the Costco wet cat food is all paté), and maybe a couple more bags of cat food, which we don’t need to do right now. The only other thing we’d be getting is the fresh produce and non-bulk stuff, and we can do that at the closer Walmart or the local grocery store.

We’ll decide on that later. I’m just so happy that I was able to get all this in one trip, with zero issues with the drive!

A few days ago, we finally got a copy of an email confirming our financing FINALLY was approved, and our mechanic was finally going to get paid for the truck. Getting my husband’s full name added to the electric bill was finally good enough for the lender! After I got back from the city and everything was unloaded and put away (and the outside cats fed, to get them away from the truck so I could park it in the garage!), I made sure to send a thank you email to our mechanic and the lady at the finance company. They bent over backwards to get us this truck, and it’s made all the difference in the world.

Best of all, we can work on plans to get my husband into the city to see his family. He hasn’t seen his dad since late 2018, and hasn’t seen his sister at all since she moved back from out of province, a couple of years ago. We had to turn down a planned family gathering, but the seats in this truck support his back so well, he feels he can actually handle the trip!

Which makes having car payments again, completely worthwhile.

The Re-Farmer

A little grocery top up: this is $142, plus an interesting conversation with an American.

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I managed to get a dump run today, then kept on going to town to pick up a few things at the grocery store. Particularly recycling bags, having just run out. Of course, I’m not going to drive all that way for just one thing.

This is what $142.86 looks like.

Okay, so I did splurge a little.

The clear recycling bags, XL size, were $12.99
I got a 4pk of energy drinks for $10.99 – saving a whole 30¢ by buying a case. The enviro fee was 4¢ I also got a case of Coke Zero for $7.49, plus 12¢ enviro fee.
Tea – Early Grey Creme: $5.49
Butterscotch chips, 2 packages on sale for $4.99 each (which also earned me extra loyalty points)
Ketchup: $3.99 (house brands; I just realized I accidentally bought low sodium. Ah, well.)
Popcorn seasoning, White Cheddar flavour, on sale: $3.99
Popping corn, two 1kg size packages, $3.79 each (I need to do a test pop of our own popcorn again, so see if the kernels have dried enough)
Whipping cream: $6.79
Ice cream, house brand, on sale: $3.99 – we have all those little melons, and my daughters want to make melon bowls with ice cream 😊
Whoops. I really should read the labels better. The receipt says ice milk, not ice cream. 😕
mandarin oranges, sale price: $8.99
bananas: $2.01
Marble rye bread, 2 loaves, plus multi-grain, 2 loaves, all on sale for $2.49 each.
Vitamins, all half price. The receipt lists them differently from other sales. B12, regular price $19.49, minus $9.75, Zinc, regular price $16.28, minus $8.14 and D3, regular price $9.99, minus $5.

Last of all was my “big” splurge, while I was waiting in line near the floral department.

I got a coffee plant. A “premium” coffee plant, no less. 😄 On sale for $16.99 That’s for the girls. It would be cool if we actually got coffee beans, eventually, but at least it’ll be a pretty house plant!

I also got a $10 lotto Classic pack (1 Lotto 6/49, 1 Lotto Max, 1 Extra), using a $10 win I got from a ticket I got from a free play win. So the win from a free ticket paid for the new tickets. 😄

Sub total: $134.27, plus $3.58 GST and $5.01 PST

As I was slowly going through the aisles, looking for things I might have forgotten to include on my list, I went past a woman looking at the pasta. I’d given the section a quick look myself, and even the ones that were on sale were ridiculously expensive. Walking past her I leaned over and asked, “remember when pasta used to be cheap?”

Oh, boy, did that get a reaction! She looked at me with a slightly stunned expression and said, “I’m an American!”

Yeah. I got it. Instantly. Food prices in the US are so much cheaper than here! When I commented on that, she told me about shopping in this store for the first time after moving here, and how shocked she was by the prices. Even taking into account the exchange rate. Yeah, that would have been quite the culture shock. She wasn’t just seeing higher Canadian prices. She was seeing small town prices. She showed me a package of spaghetti that was over $3. That same package where she was from sells for under a dollar. Our KD (Kraft Dinner) is getting close to $2 a box. They’re 75¢ where she’s from (I didn’t think to ask where that was). Boxed cereal was another one she saw a really big difference.

We had an interesting chat about it, and how it really doesn’t make any sense for our prices to be so much higher. A lot of the current increases are directly related to our federal government adding tax after tax to things like fuel, making the cost of just getting food to people so much higher but, even before our current dictatorship went nuts, Canadian food prices were a lot higher than in the US. There isn’t much reason for that, overall. Lord knows, the farmers sure aren’t’ getting much of it. It’s all in those layers between farm and store. That’s without even touching on specifics, like government price controls on things like dairy and eggs.

I think she really, really appreciated being able to actually talk about it with someone, even if for just a few minutes! She was really nice, and I quite enjoyed talking to her, too.

Anyhow.

This is was my small, but expensive, grocery top up.

Hopefully, one of those tickets I got will be a winner of something substantial!

The Re-Farmer