cost of living increases

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

Second Costco trip: this is what “only” $291 looks like

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One of the things I tend to do every time I drive my mother’s car is give it a walkaround and check the tires.

I’m paranoid about tires.

With reason.

The front driver’s side tire bothers me. When I drive, it feels like it shudders. I’ve had it checked, but they couldn’t find anything wrong with it. When I took my husband to his medical appointment about 3 weeks ago, it was looking low, so I checked the pressure. It was down to 15 psi, so we stopped at a gas station and I topped it up. For the past few days, I’ve been eyeballing it, and today I checked the pressure. It was just under 20 psi! I used a hand pump to top it up, because it has a pressure gauge on it, rather than the compressor, then brought it in.

While dropping off the keys, I told the mechanic about the tire and asked if they could check it, too. Then I went walking. There isn’t much to do around town. Especially if you don’t have a budget for casual shopping, but by the time I came back, they were done changing the spark plugs, and the tire was off.

The passenger side tire!

I talked to the guy that was working on it and told him it was the other tire that was leaking! Turns out they took the tire off and were checking it for leaks for about 20 minutes, while changing the spark plugs, and not finding anything.

So I waited in the office while he switched tires. After a while, I came out to talk to the guy. He had it on the machine they use to remove tires from their rims, to hold it steady and spin is as needed, while spraying it with their soap stuff.

No sign of a leak.

He flipped the tire over and tried again.

Still no sign of a leak.

He checked the pressure and it was what I’d pumped it to this morning still. Low for the tire, but I wasn’t sure what the pressure was supposed to be (32 psi is good, I have since been informed) and didn’t want to over fill if it there was, say, something stuck in the tire.

He filled the tire to the correct psi, in case that would help find the leak.

Still no leak.

They asked a number of questions about when I had to fill it last time, what kind of driving condition we have, etc. In the end, they just put the tire back on. I’ll have to keep an eye on it. At some point, wherever that leak it, until it gets big enough they can actually find it, there’s nothing that can be done.

So I paid for the spark plug work, then headed into the city.

Today was a small Costco trip. Mostly, I wanted to get more dry cat food. We’ve got Thanksgiving weekend coming up, so they were insanely busy for a Thursday afternoon! So I got what I absolutely had to, then left as soon as I could!

This is what $291.43 looks like.

I decided to go with the 11.6kg bags of kibble, instead of the usual 9kg bags. They are more expensive, but that extra 2.6 kg per bag can mean one less trip needed at the end of the month. We already got four 9kg bags, were gifted with four 9.1kg bags, and now we have four 11.6kg bags, for a total of 118.8kg. Last month, we got twelve 9kg bags, and had to buy two more 10kg bags, for a total of 128kg. Hhmm… We’ll need at least 10kg more for the month, which means anything more than that, just to be on the safe side. Well, we still need to do a Walmart and Canadian Tire trip before our stock up shopping is done, so we can do that.

Anyhow.

Here’s the price break down.

Dry cat food: $37.99 each
Butter: 5 pounds at $5.49 each
bar soap: $15.49
Red Lobster biscuit mix: regular $11.49, but on sale for $8.99 That’s a treat for our Thanksgiving dinner!
2 loaf bag of rye bread: $5.99
Pizza pops: case of 30 for $21.99
Mozza: $14.99
Old Cheddar: $14.99
cream cheese, 4pk: $9.49

Subtotal: $271.34, plus $20.09 in tax

We still don’t have hot water, so doing dishes is not an easy thing right now. I made a point of picking up things we could use to make food with as little dirtying of dishes as possible, so that’s what the bread (for sandwiches) and Pizza Pops are for. The girls also dug out the disposable plates we kept when we were clearing out the cupboards when we first moved here. Handy, those!

We didn’t get a call from the plumber while I was gone. Once everything was put away and settled, I called again and left another message. If we don’t hear from him soon, I’ll start calling other companies.

The predicted rain reached us by the time I was driving home, which made things interesting in places! I remembered to stop at the post office and found a package waiting for us. It included, among other things, some food grade desiccant packets, for our dry food storage. Especially if we’re going to do things like dehydrate tomatoes more often. I believe my husband ordered oxygen absorbers, too.

Once I got home and the car was unloaded, I made sure to put food out for the outside cats. Aside from being out of kibble, it ensures no cats are under the car, when I go to put it in the garage.

Driver is still here. He was very vocal in asking for food! I didn’t see him this morning, so he probably never got anything from the morning feed. When the girls and I came out to walk around later, they noticed Colin was back. I’ll admit, I never noticed he was gone. There is another cat that looks very similar to him; just not with the “receding hairline” pattern on his forehead. Nosencrantz was around, too. After I’d parked the car, I checked a few things and saw she was at the kibble under the shrine – with Shop Towel directly behind her! Clearly, she didn’t know he was there, or she would have gone up the willow again. He was just sitting there, waiting his turn, but I still went over to “chase” him away. Basically, as soon as he sees me coming, he leaves. We’ve gotten to the point that all I need to do, sometimes, is say “I see you!”, and off he goes!

The main thing is, Nosencrantz got a chance to eat. I saw Shop Towel back at the shrine kibble bowl again later, but no other cats were around there by then, so I let him be.

Oh, good grief.

Let’s see… we just had to get work done on my mother’s car.

We’re trying to come up with the funds for a better down payment on a replacement vehicle.

The hot water tank just died and we need to bring in a plumber…

And now my husband just informed us that his computer is fried. It refuses to boot.

*sigh*

I hope he can get it going! With his inability to do much, physically, he uses his computer a LOT.

His is the newest computer in the household, too. His computer died in the move and had to be replaced. Our other computers all predate our move, and are all more than 10 years old.

This would be a really good time to win the lottery or something.

The Re-Farmer

Stock up shopping: small Costco trip and vehicle update

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This is what $452.10 looks like.

This is a small shop, as I was too tired to do a large one. Plus, I wanted to focus on getting a few more cook out type things.

Before getting to Costco, I had a few other stops. A quick stop at the gas station, not to get gas, but an energy drink and a couple of small packages of nuts to tide me over until I could get breakfast in the city. While there, I checked messages and chatting with my brother and his wife briefly. The next stop was a side trip along the way, to the medical clinic. I needed to get my husband’s medical files to transfer to his new doctor. Turns out getting the physical copies would have cost more than $80, to cover the cost of printing. It would have been 221 pages.

It would have been a lot more, if his medical files from after he got out of the military hadn’t been lost! It was paper copies only, back then, and the clinic we went to destroyed files if they hadn’t seen the patient for more than 2 years. We have moved out of province again, by then.

So to get it loaded onto a thumb drive cost only $35. I brought one, but she ended up giving me a new one, when she saw my thumb drive had other files on it!

While waiting for that to be done (it took a while to transfer the files!), I chatted with my brother some more. They were going to be done their errands in the city fairly soon, and did I want to meet them for lunch? With another 45 minutes driving time after I got the files, it actually worked out really well.

We had a fantastic time together, of course. My brother had been able to visit my mother yesterday and help her with groceries, among other things. She was out of groceries, but never said a thing to me about needing a shopping trip! One odd thing, though. She’s been complaining to the social workers that come to her building about her glasses. It took a while for my husband to get the straight of it, but she is saying what when she got there, the staff member was behind plastic, eating her lunch (they no longer have those plastic shields), and that she got up right away, grabbed the bag with Mom’s glasses, gave them to her and then all but kicked her out.

Strangely, it sounds like I wasn’t even there, but that could be just the way my brother described what she was saying.

The social worker said that they should have tried the glasses on her and checked them, etc. My mother says they didn’t.

They did. They took really good care of her, even going out of their way to accommodate her mobility issues as much as possible!

Then she said something about the lady being Arabic.

The dentist she went to recently was Arabic. Not the people at the eye clinic.

So basically, my mother is just making things up, because she has suddenly decided she doesn’t like her glasses. And she doesn’t like her glasses, because the new prescription didn’t make her headaches go away. We even had the conversation about that; if her old prescription were the problem, the headaches would go away, but if her glasses were NOT the problem, that meant something else was causing them.

Not that we got that far in our conversation. Since I was the one who brought her there, helped her come in, spoke with the staff together with her, watched them make super sure her glasses were sitting right on her face and adjusting them for her, I could confirm that what she is saying now is pure BS.

I’d be tempted to say that this is a sign of cognitive decline in my mother but, to be honest, she’s always done stuff like this.

So that was interesting to find out!

While we were at the restaurant, I got a call from the garage about the truck we were looking into.

As expected, the payments were not in our budget. Even with his knocking the price down, and having the down payment that we could manage right now, it was still almost double what we can afford. Plus, the payments are calculated bi-weekly. We get paid monthly. I would hope they could change it to monthly, because with bi-weekly payments, there would be at least a couple of months out of the year where we would have three payments instead of two.

Ah, well. It was nice to think about, at least. Now that we’ve had a chance to talk about it directly, he knows that we’re good with something like a truck instead of a van, if that’s what he can find in our budget.

My brother and his wife have been trying to help by making various suggestions. One of them has been to try a dealership. They tend to offer no money down, 0% interest financing deals, etc. I finally had a chance to explain that we’ve had bad experiences going through dealerships before. As much as we loved the Grand Caravan, the dealership tried to screw us over. I remember I brought it back shortly after we got it for some warranty work we basically forced them to accept responsibility for. I was sitting in the waiting room, doing some crochet, when the guy who sold it to us came by. He came over with a big smile on his face and made a joke about whether or not I could knit him some socks or something (my fellow crocheters will understand the extra cringe on that), then he looked at my face, recognized me and practically ran away. It was that bad!

Then there was the Uplander. When getting a vehicle so cheap, I could use my debit card to pay for it, you don’t expect to have a perfect vehicle. Beggars can’t be choosers. But you do expect one that is at least safe. That one actually got reported to the regulatory organization, but nothing came of it. We had to put a lot of money into that thing. Once we did, it did really well by us for far longer than it should have, but still…

Then there were the other dealerships we tried. Nothing like talking to someone and saying, “we can afford X payments”, then get a call back saying, “we got a really good deal for you! Fantastic vehicle! Payments are only….” and the amount would be double what we said we could afford.

So… I really would rather not go through a dealership again. I have come to trust our mechanic. He’s taken good care of us.

Once I explained that, they understood.

After lunch, I finally made it to the Costco. With suddenly planning on a cookout tomorrow, that changed what I got a little bit. It was also going to be a smaller shop for now. I’ll do another Costco trip next week some time.

This is what we got. First, the “bottom of the basket” stuff.

case of Coke Zero: $14.69, plus 32¢ enviro fee
Kirkland brand puppy pads: $24.99 These are 30″x23″, rather than the 30″x30″ we’ve been getting at Walmart, but 100 of them cost less than the 50 pack at Walmart. Since I just got a Walmart pack recently, we should be good for puppy pads long enough to not need them anymore, I hope!
canned cat food: $38.99
9kg bags of dry cat food; four of them: $26.99 each
TP: $22.99

Then there was some actual food for humans. 😄

tube of ground beef: $31.49 I plan to partially freeze it, then simply cut rounds off for hamburgers.
fresh sausages: $18.18
eye of round roast: $45.19
three pack of jumbo all beef weiners: $21.99
canned chicken: $17.99 The price on that actually went down, so I got more for the pantry.
tortilla wraps, 2 packages: $9.99 each
ramen noodles, 30 pack: $13.99 I knew this size existed, but it’s the first time I saw them in stock, so I grabbed those for the pantry, too.
double trays of 60 eggs: $18.89
sausage buns, two bags with three packages of 6 buns in them: $6.49 each
hamburger buns, similar bag with three packages inside: $5.29

And that’s our Costco purchase this time. The sub-total was $426.90, plus $25.20 in taxes.

As my purchases were going through, I heard the cashier and the person reloading my flat cart say something about 8 items. I didn’t buy 8 of any one thing, so I asked, 8 what? It was the total number of items still on the cart being confirmed, to make sure they weren’t missing something. I told her, the only time that ever happened, they accidentally charged me for an extra bag of cat food, so I came back (not that I’m remembering this, I think I said the accidentally *under* charged me, by mistake!). So I just got another bag of cat food, instead, so it wasn’t a problem. She asked how many cats we have, so I told her, as best I could when it came to the outside cats. Her response?

Can I move in with you?

😂😂

Turns out, she has “only” six cats, and wants more, but her husband objects. She is also finding many strays that need help, so she tries to leave food out for them, at least. She wants to build shelters for them and stuff, but her husband objects, so I told her a bit about our set up. It’s different when we have access to at least old, scrap lumber to build things with, and it only costs us the paint.

It was nice to chat with a kindred soul. 😁

Once the shopping was done and loaded, I went to fill the gas tank. I was telling my brother, I left with a full tank of gas, and was down a quarter tank by the time I got to the restaurant we were meeting at. My brother, who knows my mother’s car really well, was quite surprised by that. He mused about whether there was a leak somewhere, but if there was, we’d be smelling gas when going into the garage, and we don’t. Hopefully, we’ll find the problem when I take the car in on Monday.

The gas station was really busy, and with good reason! While the rest of the city was at 161.9¢/L for regular gas, which has been getting slightly lower, Costco was at 144.9¢/L Even their premium gas was at 164.9¢/L That’s a huge difference! It ended up costing me just over $23 to fill the tank.

Then it was time to head home, though I did make one more stop at my mother’s town, to use the bank machine. Paying for my husband’s medical file transfer was by cash only, so I needed to replace it, since I used part of the cash I had for the septic guy.

Now that I’m home, I made sure to take the cash out and set it aside, and we can call the septic guy. He is sometimes really fast in responding, so I wanted to make sure I had enough to cover it, plus extra, just in case his rates had to go up again, on hand first!

I’m feeling pretty exhausted right now, but I want to get started on setting up the fire pit area. The picnic table that has to be moved still has tomatoes and onions on it!

Must. Not. Have. Another. Energy drink! 😅

The Re-Farmer

This is why…

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

… our monthly stock up shops are getting so expensive.

Yes. We really are being taxed on so many levels, then getting taxed on the taxes.

And our idiot Prime Dictator thinks adding a grocery tax on top of everything else is a solution.

This is why our goal of self sufficiency keeps getting more urgent.

The Re-Farmer

Monthly stock up: this is what $314 looks like

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Today, I headed back to Costco, pretty much just for cat food. That way, I could fit more bags into my mother’s car and not have to worry about the weight or space.

I am so looking forward to when we can finally get another van!!!

I did end up getting a couple more things, of course.

That is eight 9kg size bags of kibble on there. With what I got on my last trip, it makes for a total of 12 of these bags. Hopefully, that means we will finally not have to pick up more near the end of the month, and maybe even have enough to last beyond our next shopping trip! Especially with being able to adopt out 2 adult cats and a kitten, with one more adult to go, too.

Oh! There has been a change in plans with those.

Yesterday afternoon, I got a message from the Cat Lady, asking if it was okay if they hung on to the kitten. It’s so sweet and tiny, she wanted to try and adopt it out to an indoor only home. For the lady that wanted the cats, she is okay with taking Turmeric, instead.

I told her I would trust her judgement. The kitten had been indoors for only about a week, so it wouldn’t be bothered with being outside again, but… well, it is such a little thing, and very, very sweet!

So probably on Monday (3 days from now), the Cat Lady will come for Turmeric.

I think Turmeric is going to be much happier somewhere with fewer cats. She’s been a real beeeatch to some of the cats here. Sweet as honey with others, though!

Anyhow.

This was today’s shopping.

Kibble, 8 bags at $26.99 each: $215.92
5 dozen eggs: $18.89 (the price went up again)
Coke Zero: $14.69 plus 32¢ enviro fee
Socks, 12 pk: regular $17.99 with $4 off at the till. I broke down and got those for me. I prefer ankle socks, but I’m down to one pair, and just discovered a hole in one of them. LOL
Hoodie: regular $24.99 with $6 off at the till. At that price, I figured it was worth it. I got an XXL, so it’ll work for both myself and the girls as something any of us can just grab if we need to go outside on a chilly night. Which we aren’t having right now, but fall is coming.

Sub total, $282.80
Taxes: $31.62
Total: $314.47

*sigh*

Then, of course, I had to get gas. At least I could fill up at Costco, where the price was 154.9/L A couple of days ago, it was 155.9 Everywhere else in the city was 165.9

Between the difference in gas prices and the cat food prices, it is well worth the drive to the city to get this stuff. Locally, they have 7kg bags, not 9kg, but they cost $10 more. I could get the “economy” Walmart brand at a lower price, but they’re still only 7kg bags and… well, there’s a reason they are so cheap. The quality of kibble is poorer, and even the outside cats don’t like it as much. They’ll at least eat it, though. The Superstore no-name brand is so bad, the cats won’t eat it unless they’re super hungry. Costco does carry a brand in 11kg bags, but the price per kg is still higher than the 9kg bags.

So on cat food alone, driving to the city to stock up at Costco saves us at least $100. Then there’s the difference in gas prices. That leaves us with room in the budget to buy the fresh things we need to get more often, locally.

I will still need to make one more city trip, though it can be the smaller, nearer city this time. I will need to go to a Canadian Tire and get more litter pellets. We still have, but we need to stock up.

The last time I was at Walmart, just a couple of days ago, I noticed they had the softwood pellets in stock – but they are now the same price as Canadian Tire, which is $7.98. Previously, the Walmart price had been $5 a bag! The hardwood pellets, which Canadian Tire carries, but I’ve never seen in Walmart, is 50¢ less than the softwood. It used to be that the softwood pellets were the cheaper ones, though they rarely had them in stock.

Once I get the litter pellets, that should be it for city shopping trips. Anything we need after this can be done locally until the end of the month!

With the prices going up, it’s getting a lot harder to stock up extra for the winter, when we will inevitably find ourselves unable to get out. Usually for January and/or February. At least we’ll have the quarter beef for the freezer in November or December. I’ve been making monthly payments towards that, but once we have car payments again, we probably won’t be able to do that again. Maybe just a freezer pack, once in a while.

What’s really frustrating is that all these price increases are artificial, and the direct result of our idiotic government spending like a drunken sailor on everything but what they’re responsible for, while adding more and more taxes and destroying small businesses. Then they vote themselves pay increases. Meanwhile, I was just hearing today, the number of people – especially in the under 35 age category – living paycheck to paycheck has increased to something like 35%, with more than 50% of them afraid they will lose their jobs within the year. I never thought I’d be so thankful for my husband being disabled. It’s a fixed income, but he has excellent private insurance, putting us in a much better position than so many others. I can’t imagine how people living on just CPP Disability are managing. The highest amount for that doesn’t even cover rent in most places, even with subsidies. Ten years from now, that’s all my husband and I will be living on, as that’s when he ages out of his private insurance.

Maybe we’ll get lucky and die first.

The Re-Farmer

Stocking up: Costco, $682, Canadian Tire, $179

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I am so tired.

And sore.

Mostly tired.

My brother came out this morning to install a vent for the portable air conditioner they brought for us. It look longer than expected, of course, but we now have an AC in the living room! Yay!

Once that was done, it was almost lunch time, and we both left at the same time. I’d hoped to be able to at least buy him lunch as a thank you, but he had too much to do when he got home. His day was already a long one by then!

Once in the city, I had two places to go. The first was Canadian Tire.

I almost got a heavy duty hose on sale for the water tap project, but then I saw something else and put the hose back.

We needed this kit, more!

We’ve found all sorts of drill bits all over the place, but they’re all mixed up, many are worn out, and quite a few have broken as we tried to use them. What we don’t have is this range of sizes – or maybe we do. Somewhere. These can be used for metal, wood or plastic, and was 69% off. A much better deal than the hose, which would have cost more, even on sale! I had a budget for today for one, not both, so the hose went back.

Altogether, I got:

A 2 gallon watering can, to replace the one by the Crespo squash that is falling apart. $16.99
Plastic hardware cloth, 3′ x 25′ for the raised bed cover. I hope it works out. $34.99
Replacement spool for our weed trimmer. $12.99
A gallon of outdoor paint for the garden bench and “new” folding table. $54.99
The drill bit set, which would have been almost $150. Instead, it was $39.99

The total, after taxes, came out to $179.15

One thing I was looking for was more fire bricks for our eventual outdoor bread oven that I am slowly accumulating, but apparently this location didn’t even have a section for things like wood burning stoves, etc. The woman I asked while she was mixing my paint thought it was a seasonal thing.

Well, at least I got the paint and something to use on the third raised bed cover. If it works out, I’ll use it on the fourth frame, too.

Then it was off to Costco. I actually picked up gas, first. Driving through the town my mother lives in, one station was up to 160.9/L, while the other was still at 158.9/L Costco was 144.9/L !! I wanted to fill my tank but, unfortunately, the dust from driving on gravel roads tricks the gas pump into thinking it’s full, so it kept doing the auto shut off. I kept turning it back on until it was getting close to $25, then just hoped that was enough. When I started the car, the needle was just barely touching full!

Then it was time to do the shopping.

This being a Saturday, I was expecting it to be busy, but still, I find the crowds so draining! That, and so many people just park their carts willy nilly. Annoying enough at the best of times, but I’m using a flat cart!

When it was time to check out, though, the staff was absolutely fabulous, and I was through in no time.

This is what $682.30 looks like.

Ouch.

This trip was a big bigger with some things, as I’m also thinking ahead to our winter stockpile and pantry.

First, there was the “bottom of the basket” stuff that didn’t get unloaded.

Cat kibble; four 9kg bags at $29.99 each I would have gotten more, but not while using my mother’s car.
Wet cat food, $38.99
Two packs of Kirkland toilet paper; $22.99
A flat of Coke Zero; $14.69, plus 32¢ enviro fee
Box of spaghetti; $13.49
9 pack of mixed pasta; $13.99

Then there was the stuff that got unloaded onto the belt.

Pork chips: $20.10
lean ground beef, one package at $27.38, another at $26.29
ground turkey: $27.88, minus $5 at the till for a sale
ground pork chub: $19.99
4 pk of bacon: $19.99
Marble cheddar: $14.99
Old cheddar: $14.99
Extra Old cheddar (a white cheddar): $19.99
two 1L cartons of whipping cream at $4.79 each
4pk of cream cheese: $9.49
Large bottle of Coffee creamer for the girls: $7.49 – that is typically a good price for the smaller bottles anywhere else!
6pk canned chicken: $17.99 (it’s actually gone down in price! A bit.)
Walnuts for baking: $11.49
Butter, 5 pounds at $5.49 each
2pk of lemon juice: $4.89
Kirkland brand chocolate chips: $15.99
Glass cleaner; we keep losing our glass cleaner, so I got a set with one spray bottle and a huge refill jug: $17.99
Pork rinds (and this time I remembered to tell my husband it’s for cooking with!): $10.79
Iced tea mix: $9.99
Peanut butter, 2kg size: $10.49
Rotisserie chicken; two at $7.99 each
2pk rye bread: $4.49
two packages of tortilla wraps at $9.99 each
A double flat of eggs (60 eggs): $18.89

Sub total was $651.97, plus $30.33 in taxes, for a grand total of $682.30

Ouch.

The sad thing is, I didn’t get everything on my list. I was running out of space. I’ll have to go over the list – and the budget – and make another trip out. The price for dry cat food alone makes the drive worth it.

I was feeling dehydrated by the time I was done Tetrising everything into the car, so I stopped at a gas station just outside the city to pick up something to drink. There was a fruit stand just across the parking lot, so I checked it out. I ended up getting some plums (actually a plum hybrid; he told me what it was, but I can’t remember now), cherries and avocados. The avocados were only a dollar each, which is much cheaper that most places. Altogether, it was another $26 for fruit.

I am so glad to be home now.

I think I’ll make myself a supper using rotisserie chicken and enjoy it in an air conditioned room! We’re at “only” 22C/72F outside right now. It’s almost 7pm, but my weather app says we’re still supposed to go up to 23C/73F before things start cooling down for the night. Last night, we actually dropped to 7C/45F – I had my window open and almost felt cold! 😄 Today is a brief respite, though. Long range forecasts have us approaching, and reaching, for one day, 30C/86F. No rain in the forecast, though, so we’ll be watering the garden. I’ll get to use the nice new watering can, with a rose that doesn’t have a crack in it, nor chunks of plastic braking off the opening! 😄

It doesn’t take much to make me happy. 😊

The Re-Farmer

First city shop; the not-Costco trip: this is about $418, +

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So yesterday was an interesting one… thankfully, not too interesting!

We hit 30C/86F and the rain that was forecast for our area was suddenly not being forecasted anymore. It was still insanely humid, though. The garden was wilting from the heat, so I set up the sprinklers to water the beds.

Which is when my phone started screaming at me.

Several times.

We were getting tornado warnings. However, the alerts were for the “mobile coverage area”. Which is pretty darn big. Looking at the weather radar after the first alert, the system was right on top of the smaller, nearer city we sometimes go to. My sister lives near there. The system continued to move northward, passing to the east of us.

As far as I know, there were no funnel clouds sighted, but some of the downs got walloped by massive rain, winds and, in some places, softball sized hail! I later saw photos people were posting on some local weather watching groups I’m on, and the damage in places from the wind and hail was pretty bad in places.

We had some pretty clouds blow over our area, and the odd gust of wind.

I’m okay with that.

There was no respite from the heat and humidity, though. My poor daughters, upstairs! My older daughter was working, but my younger daughter tried, and failed, to get any sleep.

I fared somewhat better, at least. Aside from being tackled by kittens, repeatedly, my room was much cooler, and I’ve started to partly sleep through the kitten attacks. I do have to be increasingly careful moving around, though. Question has decided I am her human, so I often have her climbing my leg while I’m on the computer and either sitting on my knee, or forcing her way up into my arms so she can sleep on my chest. During the night, at one point, I woke to find her snuggled over one of my arms.

She wasn’t alone.

One of the grey tabbies was also draped over my bicep.

Something still seemed odd, though. Thankfully, I could reach my phone and use the camera and flash to try and see. Which is how I found Ghosty stretched out in front of my leg and belly. Which is imressive, for such a tiny kitten!

When I had to roll over, I carefully scooped up Question and moved with her. The other kittens took off, but Question just settled in wherever I happened to stop moving, which means she spent most of the night sleeping in the palm of my hand! Another time, I woke to find her draped across my neck, and another kitten curled up around my head.

When my older daughter came in to help do Leyendecker’s meds (letting her sister, who usually does it, to finally get some sleep!), Question had moved to my pillow, curled up next to my face, and slowly slid down until she was on my shoulder, instead. I’m told it was an adorable sight!

After doing Leyendecker’s medications, I did my morning rounds (I’m pretty sure I’m seeing new kittens, but at this point, it’s getting hard to tell!), then grabbed an insulated bag with ice packs in it and headed to the city.

I ended up stopping at a gas station in the town my mother lives in, after discovering I was out of washer fluid. For some reason, the light that’s supposed to turn on and tell me it’s empty, doesn’t. I had some in the car, but after filling the reservoir, I went in to replace the jug. As I was leaving, a woman outside started chatting with me, asking if we’d gotten the storm. I told her it passed us by, but I’d heard about other places that got hit really hard.

She was in one of those places!

They were in a trailer, attending the Treaty Days events when the storm hit. Thankfully, they did not get any damage, though the ground was white with hail after it passed. A nearby town, closer to the lake, got the softball sized hail. She said some of the trucks she saw looked like someone had gone at them with a sledgehammer! Absolutely wild!

I’m really thankful it missed us. There are people in my local gardening groups that already had their gardens smashed to bits from hail in the last set of storms. I’ve since seen other photos posted online from the aftermath, and there were thing like large trucks blown over, pieces of sheds in the middle of fields, downed trees, pieces of roof torn off, and sheds blown apart.

I’ve not been home long, so I haven’t had a chance to see what sort of response there has been. So far, I have not heard of any people injured.

I’m glad I ran into the lady at the gas station. She was really nice.

Once in the city, my first stop was at a Walmart. This shop was mostly stuff we don’t normally buy.

This is what $203.24, after taxes, looks like.

The main thing I was looking for was puppy pads. There are a couple of places the kitten keep making messes in, once of which we will have to do some serious rearranging to access. The other is under my desk, where I was able to put some old disposable diapers we’d hung onto over the years. That, at least, will be easier to clean up this time, but I didn’t have anything to replace the diapers with. I was quite happy to see the Walmart was well stocked in the puppy pads!

The facial tissue was on my list; I didn’t want to get a Costco sized package of those, so I got them at Walmart. The tinned cat food was also on the list. I got a replacement package pectin, which was not officially on the list, but I do try to pick some up as I’m able. I would have also picked up replacement wide mouth canning lids, but they only had regular mouth size. There’s some toothpaste and deodorant, which are also things that I try to pick up extras of, when I can.

Not at all on the list was the broom. It’s just a cheap one, but it has stiffer bristles. The carpet in my room is a strange, felted-looking surface. It attracts cat hair, dust and everything else like nobody’s business! With the kittens, I’m not able to vacuum as often as I should, but I try to at least sweep it. All the brooms we have are soft bristled, so they don’t work very well. I’ve already tried this one out, and it’s exactly what I wanted. It pulls up so much cat hair! That’s make life easier for the vacuum cleaner!

I also got a cheap little toy for the kittens. It’s meant for dogs, but it’s a little fox that crinkles when squeezed, and the kittens will have a blast with it.

Also not on the list, but I did remember we needed, are a couple of pairs of kitchen sheers. They were both quite affordable, but one was less than $3. We’ll see how long they last, compared to the one that cost just over $10. I also grabbed a wooden spatula. We’ve got lots or plastic ones for the non-stick pans, and most have heat damage. The one that doesn’t has a crack in it. I’ve looked at wooden ones before, but they were all oddly thick. This one seemed properly thin enough to actually get under things, rather than just push them around the pan. 😄 It was less than $5, so that was nice, too.

The one big purchase this time, though, was a new pair of shoes! I finally remembered to look for some.

A nice pair of steel toes work shoes! I love the boots I have now, but I’ve been wearing them so much, one of the heels is giving out, and the zipper and Velcro closure are starting to wear out. All the work shoes had security cables on them, so I had to find an employee to unlock a couple of pairs to try on. It was funny when the first thing she did was point out that they were men’s shoes, not women’s. I told her I knew – I can’t fit women’s shoes! What made it funnier is that there was another lady looking at shoes to try on, and she was only looking at men’s shoes, too!

The ones I ended up getting were slightly more expensive, but at $69.97, that’s still a good price for steel toed shoes.

I put them on as soon as I finished loading everything else in the car!

The one last thing not on the list that I got was an actual food item. There was a really good sale on large package of blueberries, so I got two. They were only $3.84 each!

That put me at a before-tax total of $182.68.

My next stop was at the international grocery store, where I was also able to pick up some dim sum for lunch. That really hit the spot!

This is wat $215.21, after taxes, looks like.

This time, it was the strawberries that were at a great price! The bananas weren’t on sale, but still pretty cheap. The Coke Zero wasn’t on sale, but still cheaper than the local prices. The raspberry drink was a cold one for the ride home.

This store is one of the few places I can get the Beaver Buzz brand of energy drinks, so I try to pick up quite a few for my older daughter and I. It’s also where we can find the Philippine soy sauce my husband likes, and a 4L size of soy milk my lactose intolerant daughters drink. There is an uncut piece of locally produced Applewood smoked bacon in there; they didn’t have the big chunks, or I would have gotten a much larger one! There’s regular 3% cows milk in there, and I found the wide mouth canning lids I wanted. There’s some truffle infused olive oil; a real treat that is often not in stock. I picked up some sweet potatoes, because I’m getting a hankering for a sweet potato and peanut soup from a recipe my SIL gave us.

The girls and I had recently been talking about liverwurst. We used to get it all the time. When my oldest daughter was a baby, I’d picked one up and, while continuing to shop, gave it to her to hold and play with. She was very happy with it. It took a while to realize why she was so quiet and content. She had bitten a hole in the package and was happily sucking the liverwurst out! After that, for a long time, we would start our grocery shopping by buying a small tube of liverwurst for her to enjoy while we shopped, then did the same thing again with her sister. The girls were remembering that we used to get it all the time, but we just… stopped. So when I saw large tubes of it in the grocery store, I grabbed one. The thing cost over $11, though!

I also picked up some cheeses from the “fancy cheese” counter. I got an Alexis de Portneuf and a Ceddar with Caramelized onion. I was also looking for some parmesan that was not grated, because I would really like to make …

… the original Fettuccine Alfredo.

The price of parmesan is insane! In the end, I only got a little chunk, and it still cost almost $8 – on sale! Hopefully it will be enough for one recipe of Fettuccine Alfredo.

Other things were better priced. I picked up a 2 pack of whole chicken that was only $13.35 These days, I’d be hard pressed to find a single whole chicken for that price.

The big indulgence, however, was a beef brisket. I’ve never bought a brisket before. I’m going to have to look up how to cook it properly. It cost $55.40, and I normally would never buy a single piece of meat at that price, but it was really a good deal. It was on sale for about $9.90/kg ($4.49/lb was on the signs, if I remember correctly). Looking at the other cuts of beef, they were generally $20+/kg. Even the ground beef wasn’t much cheaper! So that was my major splurge.

What I did not get today was any dry cat food. Normally, I would have picked some up at Walmart., but they didn’t have the large sized bags, and the smaller sized bags were more expensive than what I find at Costco for bigger bags. Plus, I no longer had room in my mother’s car.

I so look forward to getting a replacement van!!!

So after this, I headed towards home. My husband’s bubble packs were in and I was supposed to pick them up tomorrow, but I decided to take a different route and get those, too.

Since I remembered to bring the ice packs, I could do that! 😁

His bubble packs, plus a container of diabetic candies (the last one!!) and a gallon of distilled water for his CPAP, because I forgot to get it at Walmart, came out to $89 and change.

Ouch.

Thank God for his private insurance prescription coverage!

My last stop was to fill the gas tank. The last time I filled it, the prices were still at 149.9 ¢/L, but the next day, the prices went up. Now it’s the same price as in the city; 157.9/L

I did, however, make one more unexpected purchase.

This gas station was newly renovated. It closed down as a Husky and reopened as a Shell. Aside from the fancy new pumps and new signs, not a lot has changed, but there was a new display of books that caught my eye. I was torn between several that would be very useful but, in the end, decided that this one would be the most immediately useful. For all that I grew up in the prairies, I don’t actually know a lot about what native species we have that are edible.

Or maybe I know more than I think. Flipping through it in the store, I did recognise a lot of the photos. I think mostly it’s that there are some that I don’t know if they are safe to eat or not.

I’m going to enjoy going through it more thoroughly!

Filling the tank cost $32.26, and the book was another $24.95, though I did get a slight discount for using my CAA card. According to my receipt, I was also discounted 0.03/L on my fuel. I’ll take what I can get!

So that is our first city shopping trip for the month. There will at least be one Costco trip – maybe two, if the price of cat food is crazy enough to warrant a second trip.

I really miss having a van. I don’t like making so many trips to the city like this!

The Re-Farmer

Stock up shopping: Costco. This is $736

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

Meanwhile, our weather apps are pinging with tornado warnings.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For the rest:

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

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

*sigh*

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

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

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

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

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

The Re-Farmer

Costco top up: this is $260

/ Re-Farmer / 8 Comments

Good grief, it’s hot out there.

It’s 5:30pm as I start writing this, and I’ve just got back in from outside.

I’ve got one app telling me it’s 26C/79F out there, another saying it’s 23C/73F. The thermometer in the sun room is reading 30C/86F

The thermometer outside my husband’s south facing window is reading just under 50C/122F.

My feeling is that it’s more like 30C in the shade right now, but I’ve no doubt that anyone sitting in the sun right now would be feeling like it’s closer to that 50C/

We’ve got inconsistent predictions of thunderstorms. I really hope we get on, if only to reduce the humidity!

Anyhow.

I headed out late this morning and ran some errands before heading to the city. This included dropping off some extra tomato transplants – one of the Spoon tomatoes was starting to bloom! – and pick up a flat of eggs. The egg lady went to pick the last few to fill the flat but was still short 2, and promised to add extra the next time we get eggs! I will have to go back to pick up the baking tray I used to carry the pots of transplants, anyhow.

Before going to Costco, I met up with my SIL for lunch, and we had a fabulous time. Gosh, I love her so much! My brother really picked a good one. 😉 We talked about how things are going here on the farm, of course. They know we’ve been having a hard time keeping up with some things. Especially the lawn. They are thinking of loading their lawnmowers up on their trailer and coming to help out on the weekend. What day will depend on the weather. It would be fabulous if they could make it, just because we enjoy their company so much.

After that, it was off to Costco to get gas – prices there are 149.9 cents/litre for regular right now – then we parted ways.

I had a short list for Costco, but it still came out to $259.66 after taxes.

For that amount, I got four 9kg bags of kibble, at $28.99 each, 4 packages of wraps that I forgot last time, at $9.99 each (they got one bag to themselves), a bag of flour for $9.99, and the baking powder I forgot last time; a 2pk for $8.99. I had spaghetti on my list, but couldn’t find it, so I got a variety pack of pasta for $12.99. Things that weren’t on the list but that we get regularly included the 2pk of lemon juice, for $4.99 and a 2pk of butter chicken sauce for $9.99

There were a couple of things on my list that I did not expect to find at Costco, but find them I did. I picked up a 3pk of WD-40 for $19.99, plus a 30 cent eco fee. I was going to just get one can elsewhere, but decided to spring for this one. The larger cans have different spray options, and the tiny can will be handy to keep in the garage.

I also did not expect to find a new spray nozzle for the hose at Costco. I got a 2 pk set for $19.99 Much like the 2pc set I got last time (which started to break fairly quickly), on has a nozzle with multiple settings, while the other has a nozzle where the spray is kinda like the control on a spry bottle; turn the tip to go from jet to a wide cone, and everything in between.

Of course, once I got home, I had to test it out. At least the multi-setting one.

My first confusion was, how to turn it on. It doesn’t have a squeeze trigger. I could see that there was something to do with the thumb rest, but there was nothing on the packaging about it. At least not in writing. If I’d paid more attention, I’m sure I would have figure it out from the picture. The thumb rest pushes forward and back, which I discovered almost by accident. The feature I like best, though, is that it can turn 360º, without having to turn or twist the hose itself. I have high hopes for this set. It cost less than the Walmart set I got last time, but seems to be much stronger in construction.

So this top up is done. I’ll still need to make a Canadian Tire, possibly Walmart, trip but that will be to pick up just a few things, like the litter pellets, an air filter for the lawn mower, and more line for the weed trimmer. I might end up doing that tomorrow, since I’m going to help my mother with errands the day after.

And then, hopefully, I won’t have to go anywhere again for awhile!

The Re-Farmer