food prices

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

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

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

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

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

The litter pellets were my usual purchase.

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

And disappeared.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I still had to chase one off the hood!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyhow.

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

The Re-Farmer

Change of plans; This is what $240 looks like

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

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

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

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

They are such adorable, tiny little flowers!

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

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

*sigh*

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

*sigh*

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

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

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

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

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

Then it was off to the Walmart.

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

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

Then there was the stuff for us.

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

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

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

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

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

The Re-Farmer

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

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

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

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

*sigh*

I hate shopping.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*sigh*

Then there was the stuff for us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ouch.

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

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

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

Ouch.

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

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

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

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

The Re-Farmer

Costco shopping: this is what a total of $550 looks like

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Today has turned out to be a gorgeous day! We’re supposed to reach a high above freezing, though I don’t think we have. No matter. The “feels like” temperature is much warmer, and things are melting all over the place!

First, an update.

We are still having troubles with our plumbing. Every time we think we finally got the toilet clear, it doesn’t last. So we’re keeping the honeypot set up, for those in between times when we have to let it sit with the bio maintenance stuff – which still does a much better job than the typical drain cleaners. I don’t want to do that hot water thing if we don’t have to, since toilets are not made for hot water, so we’re just going to have to be patient until we can get the plumber in.

On a completely different topic, my husband had a phone appointment with his doctor to go over his medications. He has one painkiller comes in two forms – fast acting and slow release – and one of those is simply not available. The supplier has no idea when they’ll get more. It seems almost as if my husband is the only person on it, in the country! Or at least the province. So he’s going to be going off that, cold turkey (his choice), and they’ll try him with another painkiller that’s just one step below morphine, when he gets his next bubble pack refills. Hopefully, it will do the job. With his pain levels, that’s just no way to live. He also asked about switching from a CPAP to a BiPAP. His CPAP is getting old and, for some reason, he’s having trouble getting his replacement hoses, etc. Some issue with his prescription. The machine itself is overdue for replacement. BiPAPs, however, are covered in this province, and would be better than a CPAP, anyhow. To get a prescription for one of those, though, he’ll have to get another sleep test done. His new doctor is going to arrange that.

In other things, when I did the morning rounds, I found the cat with the messed up eye, all curled up in a cat bed under the heat lamp! I was happy to see him. Judging from how he’s moving around, he may not have full vision in either eye. Or he might be sick. Not in any obvious way, other than the slow movement. Hopefully, he’ll stay close to the safety of the sun room. In total, I counted 30 yard cats this morning, including Sad Face.

Once all the morning stuff was done, I was off to Costco. My first stop was actually a gas station along the way, as the tank was just below half, and I try to never let the tank go below half. I put in only $30, as the price is $1.409/L there. In the city, most places are $1.399/L When I filled at Costco, it was $1.339/L, and cost me $62.75 to fill the tank, so total for gas today was $92.75

Then there was the Costco total.

This is a total $550.91

And we’re going to need to do another shopping trip, because I didn’t get everything on my list! That will be after we get the plumbing problems fixed.

I remembered to have the cat supplies on a separate bill.

Since I got 6 bags of kibble a couple of days ago, I got only 4 of the 9kg bags today. I also got two cases of canned cat food, plus another box of puppy pads.

I just got distracted while writing this, by a ruckus. Susan is on the cat shelf at the window, frantically chasing her own tail.

She caught it, too. Repeatedly!

But I digress!

Cat supplies alone totaled $232.66 for this trip. The dry kibble is probably a couple of bags short to last us the month, but at least we’re set for a few weeks.

Then it was stuff for us.

We got the big Kirkland brand package of toilet paper, and I got two double flats of eggs – 10 dozen in total. We’ll be boiling some for Easter, to go with the ones that are pickling in the fridge right now, but mostly these are just for normal eating. I got 5 pounds of butter – they had salted butter in stock this time! – canned chicken, their big Kirkland brand jar of mayonnaise, frozen perogies, basmati rice, and salad mixes. The salad mixes come in two packs, and I got two of those in two varieties, because they’re about half the price as at regular grocery stores! I got a larger container of whole peppercorns, a block of Old cheddar cheese, cream cheese, a couple of 2 packs of rye bread, 4 packages of tortilla wraps and a large jug of laundry detergent. Oh, and two hot rotisserie chickens, one of which is for supper today.

And there we have it. Our second stock up shopping trip for April. Add in the gas, and the grand total for today was $643.66 A couple of days ago, we spent $623.68, plus $30 in gas. Between the two trips, it’s a total of $1297.34 in supplies and gas for April, and we still didn’t get everything we’ll need for stocking up. That doesn’t even count the fresh stuff we’ll be getting as we need them, locally throughout the month!

Ouch.

Thank God for my husband’s private health insurance! If he had only his CPP Disability, there’d be barely over $100 left for the rest of the month. If you’re fortunate enough to have a job with a good health plan, please make sure you’ve got the best possible option for disability coverage! Hopefully, you’d never need it, but things can change in a heartbeat.

Once again, I digress!

We are not getting a lot for our money, that’s for sure.

Meanwhile, on April 1, the new carbon tax kicks in, so we can expect prices for everything to be quite a bit higher, by the time we do our next trip.

The only thing we have left that we need for our Easter basket is a special loaf of bread. I could have picked up some babka, which would be traditional, and they did have some. Huge ones in two packs. Too big and too much for our needs. So instead, I’ll be baking bread for the basket, tomorrow.

I’m quite looking forward to putting our basket together. It’s always been one of my favourite traditions. 😊

The Re-Farmer

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

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

Stocking up: this is what $181 looks like

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But first, the cuteness!

The cats just love this busted up bin with the garden netting in it.

When we first put the netting in it, we had a hard time stuffing it in enough to close the lid. The cats kept knocking it off the shelf, with both lid and bin, then used the netting as a bed. Now the netting is packed down so much, you’d never know it once filled the bin!

Also, I counted 37 cats outside this morning. Three times.

Which means that not only did the “missing” cats come back, but we seem to have gained another one. !!!

After the morning rounds were done, I was off to the city to do our second stock up shopping trip. This trip had three stops, all in the same general area, which is part of why we don’t do it at the same time as our Costco stock up trip. Another reason is because the Costco is in a different part of the city, and I just don’t want to drive around that much. I dislike shopping, and find it very draining, and one Costco trip on its own is as draining as the three stops I made today. Four, if you count getting gas.

My first stop was at Canadian Tire to get more hardwood pellets for the litters. That was just under $16, after taxes. We now have enough pellets to last us at least a couple of months.

My next stop was the international grocery store, where I finally had breakfast, at lunch time. I quite enjoy their dim sum. That, plus a drink, cost pennies over $20.

I completely forgot to get a picture of what I got there. I also can’t find the receipt; I think it’s still in the truck. 😄

It was a small trip. I hoped to get more fresh produce, but ended up just getting some bananas that will need to be eaten quickly, and mandarins. I did get an applewood maple smoked slab of bacon, which is one of the things we go to this store for. They also had a good sale on pork loin, but that was all I got for meat. Their sugar shelves in the baking aisle were empty, as they carry the Rogers brand of granulated sugar. There was cane sugar available in the international section, but it’s not granulated, and I’m not sure how it will do for baking. As I was still planning to hit the Walmart, I didn’t get any sugar here. I found some drinks, including the Beaver Buzz energy drinks we can no longer get locally – and they only had one flavour in stock. I got two boxes of Earl Grey Bergamot tea that was on sale, plus a spray bottle of cleaning vinegar of a type my daughters prefer. I even found a large block of Old Cheddar cheese for almost $25.

I can’t remember what else I got there right now, other than grabbing one of their food bank bags for the hamper. One bag includes pasta and pasta sauce, canned fruit, and a few other shelf stable items to make a complete meal for at least 2 people, with extras. The bag was only $9, which brought my total bill up to $108 and change.

My next stop was Walmart, and I did remember to put that receipt into my pocket.

I made a donation to the Children’s Hospital as well, so minus that, the final bill after taxes was $181.21

Yeah. This cost almost $200.

The food items:
It’s cheap turkey season, so I got a medium turkey for $24
The creamers were on sale at 2 for $9
The crackers were on sale at 3 for $7
Large jar of olives: $8.97
pecan halves: $7.00
walnut pieces: $5.00
Dark sugar: $1.97 They were, of course, out of the Rogers brand of sugar. With that shortage, they were also sold out of the Redpath white granulated sugar, but there was still some Redpath brown sugar left. We still have enough granulated sugar at home to last us, as long as we don’t do any serious baking, but we were almost out of brown sugar.
house brand popcorn, 2 bags at $2.47 each. I normally buy popcorn at Costco, but I never found it. Also, the popcorn we grew won’t pop, and I don’t know what we’ve done wrong!
vegetable bouillon cubes, 4 packs at $1.47 each
sour cream: $5.98
coffee: $9.97

The non-food items:
I got toilet paper for the pantry, as we currently don’t have extra. That was on sale for $13,97
Paper towel: $16.97
Facial tissues: $8.97
All purpose cleaner: $9.97
One “extra” item I got was a new cutting board, to replace one of our plastic ones that needs to be tossed. Because of how our counter is, I got one with a grippy bottom. It cost $11.47
Another “extra” item I got was examination gloves. We’ve finally worked our way through the boxes we brought with us in the move, plus the ones that were here that the homecare aids used before my dad went into the nursing home. My daughters like to use them when doing deep cleaning. Especially in the basement. One box of 100 gloves: $15.97

Then, for the road, I got an energy drink for $3.27, plus a water bottle for $1.47

Before heading for home, I remembered to fill the tank again. On the way out, I normally stop in the town my mother lives in for gas, but I skipped it this time. The price for regular was 150.9¢/L When I got to the city, I saw 143.9¢/L all over the place. Domo, however, has 5¢ off per L on Mondays and Thursdays. Today is Thursday, so I filled up at 138.9¢/L About a quarter tank still cost me $43.45.

With all three stops together, including donations, I spent almost $300 today. I had intended to check out the Fresh Co that’s along the same strip, but just didn’t have the spoons for it. I was okay for most of it, but after driving for over an hour, my feet, knees and hips stiffen up, so I’m limping for the first while until my joints are “greased”. By the end of it, it’s my lower back and hips that’s starting to go. Then it’s another hour + drive, leaving me with stiffened joints again when it’s time to unload the truck. At least then, I’ve got the girls to help me!

That’s basically it for our stock up shopping. We will do one more city shopping trip for my daughters, probably next week. They have their own list and budget. That can be a time for me to check out the Fresh Co, finally. Other than that, anything else we need, mostly fresh produce, will be purchased locally.

With December having so many stat holidays around weekends at the end of the month, my husband’s disability payments are always on different dates. Normally, he gets his main payment on the last business day of the month, and the CPP Disability on the third last business day of the month. In December, the CPP Disability comes in several days before Christmas, so that will likely be when I will do our first January stock up shopping trip, as well as anything we want to get special for Christmas dinner. The last few years, we relied on our stocking up supplies for January, as we often didn’t manage to get to the city at all until February or even March, either because of the weather and being snowed in, or both vehicles being too frozen. This year, between the mild winter we’re expecting and having the truck instead of the van, we should actually be able to do another stock up trip in January. I sure as heck don’t plan to go to the city to shop between Christmas and New Year’s, if I can avoid it!!

I would like to crawl into my cave and hibernate, now.

The Re-Farmer

First stock up shop: a triple whammy for $544

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Today was our first trip into the city to stock up for next month. I’ll be doing the Costco trip in a couple of days. This time, I went to three different places.

The first was a Walmart. This is what $249 looks like.

For this stop, I didn’t go to the grocery section at all, but while waiting in line, I saw the display of canned bean cases (9 cans). The price was about what Costco’s price for used to be. $9.97 instead of almost $13. So I grabbed one.

Aside from that one grocery item, I got:

Paper towels: $22.97
Wet cat food (shredded): $28.77
Dry cat food, 7kg size, cheap house brand: $19.97 each. I got 3 for the outside cats, plus one anti-hairball bag for the indoor cats to try.
Puppy pads, 50pk of 30″x30″: $26.97 The kittens are getting better and I’m not changing those as often, but ever now and then, a kitten just decides to pee right next to the litter box. They seem to wait until I’m not in the room to do it!
Men’s t-shirts: one for my husband, one for me, at $8 each
Shampoo and conditioner: $15.47 each Those have sure gone up in price – if I can even find bottles in that size at all!
bright orange acrylic yarn: $5.27 I plan to make baseball cap ear warmers and see if our grocery store/post office will let me sell them there. It took me forever to find yarn in that orange, for the hunters. I also have grey, which I will use together with reflective thread I have.
Dawn Platinum: $2.47 I got a tiny bottle of this to test out in the laundry. I got a couple of new t-shirts for myself not long ago, and both already have stains on them! Unfortunately, I didn’t see the stains until I put the shirts on after washing them. Which is why I ended up buying more t-shirts. From what I’ve been able to find, this stuff will actually get out stains, even after they’ve gone through the dryer. If not… well, I’ve got myself a couple more work shirts. 😕

The total was $223.24, plus $10.66 GST and $14.93 PST, bringing the grand total to $248.83 Plus, I added $100 cash back, which was their maximum.

So that was stop number one.

The next two stops were right next to each other, so it was just one trip. The first was a Dollarama. I was specifically looking for new food dishes for the kittens in my room. We’ve been using old take out containers, which is great for temporary use, or for adult cats, but they’re too big. Since we’re using my room as an isolation ward, it’s time to get proper food bowls. Unfortunately, they tend to be quite expensive, so I tried here. They did have some nice, stainless steel bowls with non-slip rings on their bases that I picked up.

Of course, that’s not all I got. This is what $75 looks like.

Pet food bowls, 8 in total: $2 each
Pet bed (for the kittens): $5
Cat tunnel (for the rest of the cats): $4
Cat toy (for the rest of the cats): $4.75
Cooling rack: $4.75 I’ll be slowly getting more of these. This style, with the squares, will be much better for dehydrating in the oven than the ones I’m using now, which have the wires running in one direction, with only a single support wire down the middle.
Odour remover, 2 of them: $1.50 each
Towel holder: $4 – to replace the wonky one we’re using now, that I made when I was in Junior high, so… about 1980 or so!

I don’t usually get food at the dollar store, but this store has a decent selection, and the prices are a lot better than the grocery stores. Especially the tinned meats. So I got a selection to try out and see if this is something we like enough to be worth stocking in our pantry for the winter, when we are likely to get snowed in for a while.

Chicken flakes, 4 cans: $1.75 each
Light Tuna, 4 cans: $1.00 each
Pink Salmon, 4 cans: $2.25 each
Black olives: $1.75
Artichoke hearts: $2.50
Chestnuts: $1.25 These are cooked chestnuts that I got as a snack for the drive home. 😊
Ice pack: $3.50 We’ve had to throw away some of our smaller gel ice packs, so I got a hard sided type to replace them.

This all came out to $69.25, plus $2.19 in GST and $3.06 in PST for a grand total of $74.50

After that was loaded into the car, it was a walk across the parking lot to my next stop, the international grocery store.

This is a store where we get a few treats or items that we don’t find in any of the other stores we normally go to, plus were we often find new things to try. This is also where I stop for some dim sum for lunch which, together with my drink, cost just over $20.

This is what $206 looks like.

Cleaning vinegar: $5.99 There’s a thing being passed around on social media about how companies have sneakily reduced the acidity of vinegar from 5% to 4%. For people who can, vinegar must be 5% for safety reasons. Well, I’ve looked around, and I’ve yet to see any vinegar at 4% Maybe it’s a US thing. What I did see was 7%. In this store, they have three kinds of white vinegar. Regular vinegar at 5%, canning vinegar at 7% and cleaning vinegar, what I picked up, at 10%. I got their large jug

Bananas: $4.27 for 2 bunches.
Beaver Buzz, 3 Saskatoon berry and 3 Citrus: on sale at 2 for $4.50, or $2.25 each, instead of $2.69 each, plus one cent per can for the enviro fee
Coke Zero: $7.29 plus 12¢ enviro fee
Blade roast: $20.50
Two frying chickens, locally produced and free range: $15.36 (usually, that’s about the price of just one whole chicken)
Smoked applewood bacon (unsliced): $11.24
Smoked bacon (unsliced): $8.17 Both bacons are a locally produced item that we get as a treat.
Raw white prawns, frozen: $9.99, on sale. Regular price, $14.99 These are a treat for the girls.
Truffle olive oil: $15.99 – another treat!
Old Cheddar: $13.99
Mozzarella: $13.99 Normally, we get these cheeses we use mostly for cooking at Costco, but we’re out of cheese, so I got smaller packages for now.
Truffle Gouda cheese: $12.52 This is something we don’t usually see in stock, so I made sure to grab some. Yes, another treat!
Mild goat Gouda: $10.06 Cheese like Gouda are something we get as an “eating cheese” that we enjoy as snacks, rather than in cooking.
Eggs, 1 flat of 30: $9.79
Soy sauce: two at $4.59 each. This is a Philippine brand my husband likes, so I like to stock up on it for the pantry.
fresh green peppercorns: $2.02 We’ve never used these before! We’ll have to look up what to do with them.
Stash Tea, three different flavours: on sale for $3.99 each (regular price, $4.49 each)
Coke Zero: $7.29 plus 12¢ enviro fee
bottled caramel frapp, cold, for the drive home: $3.99 plus 3¢ enviro fee
Jarritos Grapefruit soft drink, cold, for the drive home: $1.99 plus 3¢ enviro fee. At least it was supposed to be for the drive home. I made the mistake of drinking the dairy drink, first. I forgot the caps aren’t a twist off, and I wasn’t going to pull over to the side of the road to dig out a bottle opener! I think I do have one. I’ve returned a multi-tool knife to keep in the car, and I’m pretty sure it has a bottle opener in it.

The total for all this was $202.04, plus $1.65 in GST and $2.29 in PST, for a grand total of $205.98 Plus, I was able to take out another $100 in cash back. We now have enough to get the septic guy in to clean our tank for the winter. He’s really fast about getting to us, so I wanted to make sure I had more than enough cash on hand, before we made the call! Otherwise, I’d have to rush to my mother’s town, where there is a branch of my bank, to take money out before he arrives.

As I was loading up the car, I checked my phone and found my daughter had transferred funds over. I messaged her, asking if there was anything in particular it was for, but it was mostly to just help with the groceries – but it did remind me of a couple of things I meant to pick up for them that I forgot! So, once everything was loaded (with most of the frozen ice packs I brought from home), I went back in and got:

Coffee creamer, largest size bottle: $7.99
soya drink, 1 gallon size: $6.39 This is one of those specific items we don’t find anywhere else. I do wish the girls weren’t drinking soy, though. That stuff’s pretty nasty. Especially since they both have PCOS.

Anyhow. That totalled another $14.38

So that was the damage for today, plus gas, which was just over $20 to fill the tank. Prices have dropped to 163.9¢/L recently, though in the city, I saw places at 162.9 and 161.9 With an energy drink and a snack for breakfast, plus some lotto tickets, the gas station purchases totalled a little over $40.

Not counting my lunch and gas station purchases, the total for today was $543.69 in total.

The international grocery store printed out entry forms with every receipt for a contest to win free groceries for a year. Since I came back for stuff I’d forgotten, I ended up with two entries. Today is the last day for the contest, so I’m glad I made it today. Plus, the receipts for the grocery store, and the Walmart, both have entries to win $1000 gift cards after filling out a “how did we do” survey. Normally, I don’t bother with those, but with the prices of groceries these days, I think I’ll be entering those!

After this will be the Costco and Canadian Tire shop. Canadian Tire is for the litter pellets and another few fire bricks for our outdoor kitchen, if they have them in stock. Since we don’t have a replacement van yet, we will likely have to make a second trip to Costco, just for more bags of dry cat food, now that I know that twelve 9kg bags will not last us a month. In that size, we would need 16 bags for 1 month! If we don’t get anything else that’s large or heavy (like the litter pellets), I can fit eight 9kg bags in my mother’s car, though it really doesn’t like it.

That reminds me. I should book it to get checked. I mentioned how the mileage seems to be getting worse, and he has some suggestions for me to get looked at.

That would be a good time to talk to our mechanic about how things are looking for finding us a vehicle within the financing budget.

I keep saying to myself, as long as we have it before winter, I’m good. In truth, I feel dread, every time I drive my mother’s car. It has had so many problems since my mother bought it, and since we took over keeping it registered so we have a vehicle she can get in and out of, it has had more problems then our van did! The faster we can get a replacement vehicle, the better.

The Re-Farmer

Stock up shop: this is what $800 looks like

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

Well, the Costco shop was $800.10. I forgot to get a picture of the Walmart shop, which was done first. That one was $161.28

So I’ll do the Costco list first.

Yeah. That’s $800.10 right there.

*sigh*

There were a few things we don’t normally get, though. Like my husband’s birthday cake! He has a birthday coming up soon, and he asked for cake and lots of ice cream bars. 😄

So, this is the list, in the order that’s on the receipt.

Butter: 5 pounds at $5.49 each – way cheaper than anywhere else – for a total of $27.45
Flour, 10kg size: $9.99
KS Drawstring garbage bags: $21.99
Canned cat food: $38.99
Kirkland brand dry cat food (best price per kg); four 9kg bags: $26.99 each
Kirkland brand toilet paper: $22.99
Coke Zero: $14.69, plus 32¢ enviro fee
Birthday cake: $24.99
Lean ground beef: $30.85
Stewing beef: $32.89
Eye of Round: $29.40 (the price of beef is insane, even at Costco!)
Pork tenderloins: $18.77
Ice cream bars, variety pack: $19.99
Ice cream, almond bars: $15.99
Ice cream, Mega Sandwich pack: $16.99
Cheese; Mozza: $14.99
Cheese; Old Cheddar: $14.99
Cheese; cream, 4pk: $9.49
Iced tea mix: $9.99 (elsewhere, it costs anywhere from $12.99 to $15.99 that I’ve seen)
Bucket of Ghee: $41.99 (this is going to replace most of our cooking oils; we just can’t afford them, and Costco’s restaurant sized bucket of Ghee is an excellent price)
Hazelnuts: $11.49
Deodorant, 5pk: $14.99
Active dry yeast: $7.99 (with the new bread machine, we’re using it pretty much every day, so we need to stock up on yeast and flour now! 😊)
Toothbrushes: $16.99
AA batteries: regular price $25.99, but on sale for $19.99, + eco fee of $1.60
AAA batteries: same sale price of $19.99, + eco fee of 80¢
Arthritis acetaminophen pain killers: $19.99
24 hour allergy meds: $10.99
Ibuprofen, extra strength: $15.99
Butter chicken sauce, 2pk: $9.99
Spaghetti box: regular price, $13.49, on sale for $9.99
Tortillas, two 2pks: $9.99 each
Basmati rice: $15.99
Rotisserie chicken: 2 at $7.99 each

The subtotal for all that was $752.43, and the taxes came to $47.67 for the total of $800.10

That was really painful.

Then there was the stuff I got at Walmart. I went specifically for the puppy pads and carpet powder, but I also keep an eye out for other things, as needed. This time I got quite a few extras.

KD, 12pk: $9.47 That was an excellent sale price. KD is something the girls like for a quick cooking meal.
Ramen noodles, 24pk: $6.48 They were on sale for 27¢ each, which is almost pre-pandemic insanity price.
Clumping cat litter: $8.47 I really hope it works with TTT. The dust, just from opening the container, was insane. I so prefer the stove pellets as litter!
Argan oil: $7.97
Carpet powder, odor eliminator: $4.47
Carpet powder, deodorizing: $3.97
Soaker pad: $17.97 – to protect the new mattress cover!
Waterproof mattress cover, king size: $49.97
Puppy pads, 30″x30″: $26.97 With the bigger size, I need only one to cover the space under the desk
litter pan: $9.97 Since I took the one from the cat cage in the sun room to use under my desk, I needed to replace it, for when we have to keep cats before they go for spays and neuters.

Subtotal: $145.71
GST: $6.49
PST: $9.08
Total: $161.28

With having to get all the extra stuff to protect my bed, this was almost all “extra” purchases. Which is really frustrating that we have to do this.

TTT is now back in my room and tucked into her napping cave in my closet. I would be really, really happy if she started using the new litter! She always waits until I’m asleep before she goes, though, so I won’t know until morning.

And that’s our first stock up shopping trip for the month.

After I take the cats in to the vet clinic tomorrow morning, I’m heading into the city to meet a guy selling some small scaffolding. I might take advantage of that and swing by Costco to pick up 4 more bags of kibble. Then we’ll have to make another trip into the city to get the rest of our stocking up, including more litter pellets, and maybe even some more *gasp* groceries for ourselves!

These price increases are getting harder and harder to keep up with. With a fixed income, we’re running out of wiggle room. Especially since we expect to have car payments before winter. We so need a van. Having to make multiple trips, because we can only fit so much into my mother’s car, is a killer on the gas budget. Her car has horrible mileage, too!

Well, time to do my outside rounds before I have to tuck away any food that’s left in the kibble bowls in my room, for the overnight fasting.

It’s been a very long day.

The Re-Farmer