groceries

First stock up shop: this is what $598 total looks like

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I am so…

…so…

…tired.

We got the first shop done, though, were able to get some good deals today, and got home early enough to be here for when the door guy comes out.

The first issue was a very unfortunate awakening shortly after 3:30am. Two cats started fighting, basically on my head. As if that weren’t bad enough, while flinging whatever cat was there at the time, I found myself with a very wet hand.

It took a while to figure things out. Butterscotch was sleeping next to my head, as she usually does. In the wall shelf that is my headboard, right at pillow height, I have my “leaning sheep”. A large stuffed sheep my daughters got for me for a laugh that has turned out to be an incredibly comfortable back support while sitting in bed, so I keep is stuffed into the shelf near my head to keep it handy.

Leyendecker, for some reason, sprays. Yes, he’s neutered. We have not been able to stop him, and have resorted to setting puppy pads out at areas that are the most commonly targeted.

It seems that last night, he decided to spray my leaning sheep. After the altercation was done, I was looking all over for the wet spot I knew had to be somewhere, and it was only on the sheep, and the edge of the mattress that was directly in front of it.

My older daughter, sweetheart that she is, helped me change my bedding and got the laundry going during the night, as I went back to bed.

Not for long.

At about 5:30, I started hearing a commotion, and it was Ghosty at my computer desk. She was trying to dig into a container of small items she likes to steal, trying to get under the cover. She stopped and ran off when I brought out the spray bottle, but she was soon back, trying to steal the trail cam memory cards.

I have up trying to sleep and got up to do my morning rounds.

As usual, the first thing on the to-do list is feed the outside cats. This time, I just went ahead and put several kitten food bowls on the old kitchen floor before heading out with the dry kibble. I soon had all 7 of them enjoying their special cat soup, without having to fight off any big cats.

My morning rounds were typical, with no extra jobs added on, since we had to head out early. I immediately noticed that, aside from the scratches on my right wrist, the cat altercation caused issues with my injured left arm. Any healing was definitely set back.

We ended up leaving just before 7am. Along the way, we made a stop at a gas station convenience store in two to grab some drinks and snacks to tide us over until we got to the city. Which is when I realized I would need my daughter to let me out of the truck, due to the broken handle on this inside. There was no way I was going to twist my arm over and over, by opening the truck door through the window.

My daughter ended up doing all the even more moderate lifting and carrying for me, today!

Our first stop in the city was the Canadian Tire. We needed more stove pellets for the litter boxes, but we also did some looking around. I ended up getting a very sturdy 25′ tape measure on clearance. We keep either losing or breaking ours, and it was more than half price, so I snagged it. That, with the litter pellets, cost under $20, so I didn’t bother taking my usual picture. My daughter, sweetheart that she is, got the 40 pound bags into the box of the truck for me.

Our next stop was the Walmart, with a quick side trip to Domo gas station along the way, since today is Thursday, and that’s one of their 4¢ off per liter days. We just got $40 in gas. We’ll do a fill at Costco, when I’ll reset my trip meter.

The main things we needed to get at the Walmart was cat food to last us until we do the Costco shop. Aside from that, my older daughter requested some energy drinks, and we were thinking to grab things that were quick to cook, as we’ll be doing a lot of running around in the next while.

This is what $266.47 looks like.

We got some Fresca for my husband and energy drinks (2 for $6) for the girls and I. I decided to get paper towel here instead of Costco, for space reasons. They were on sale, but not as good a sale as the facial tissues. My daughter remembered that we were getting low on spray cleaner, so we grabbed one of those. There are also three 9.1kg backs of dry kibble and two 32pack boxes of wet cat food. My daughter chose some frozen popcorn chicken and pizza bites for the quick eats. There was also a really good price on Sea Bass steaks for my daughters, so I grabbed two of those. The bag of potatoes was also on sale.

The cat food is heavy enough to put in the back of the truck without risk of it being blown away, along with the canned drinks. My daughter just put a bag of cat food over the drink box to keep it from sliding around.

That packed up, we were off to our last stop of the day at the international grocery store. We ended up getting quite a bit more than expected today, as there were some really good sales on.

This is what $324.15 looks like.

There were some really good deals on cheeses today, so we ended up getting the makings of a charcuterie. We got a blue triple cream brie, plus a small regular brie, as my daughter isn’t a big fan of the blue version, a “Pure Perfection” (the brand, I think) gouda, as well as a small jar of clotted cream (we haven’t had that since before we moved out here!), a red wine salami, some Prosciutto and a charcuterie trio of meats, plus a couple of loaves of French bread.

I also found a container of 7 Layer Dip, which my husband has been craving but, for some reason, no one has had in stock for months. So we got one of those, plus a couple of bags of tortilla chips to go with it.

For non-charcuterie protein, there’s a frozen Coho salmon filet for my daughters, a smoked bacon piece and an applewood smoked bacon piece, and a large package of chicken drumsticks. The drumsticks were one of the best deals we saw today, at more than half off. We also picked up an 18 count of eggs to tide us over until we get our usual double flat at Costco. They had an unusually good sale on Pizza Pops, so we got a box of those, too.

In fresh produce, we took advantage of more sales. Black plums, nectarines and plumcots, plus four bags each of two different types of salad mixes.

We also got some plain vanilla ice cream, which my daughters like to add to their coffees. We got some Katsuo Furikaka seasoning, pearl couscous, red rooibos and instant milk tea. In the non-food stuff, we got some argan oil for my hair, and Dabur hair oil for my daughter.

Then, for lunch at home, my daughter picked a couple of sushi for herself and her sister, we got a giant Lumberjack sandwich for my husband, and a teriyaki bento box for me. For the drive home, I got a lime Jarritos soft drink, my daughter got a green tea for herself and a jasmine green tea for her sister.

With all the sales, we got $55.12 in loyalty card discounts, though that doesn’t include sales on items sold by weight. There were deals on loyalty points, too. Normally, it’s $1 gets 1 point. Today, that was double, plus I had an accumulative offer available for spending over $200, resulting in over 10,600 points for our purchase. Come Christmas time, I should be able to get at couple of free turkeys, at least.

So that was our first stock up shopping trip done, and I’m happy with how much we were able to get, with our still limited use of the box until the new cover is installed.

Meanwhile, I’ve had plenty of distractions while writing this!

The door guy has come and gone. He thinks they can save the storm door! That would be good. As for the new exterior door, they do have the style with the window that opens that I was wanting. The need to replace the frame, not just the door, was quite obvious. They will be able to put the arm bar back. There is a hand rail outside that will need to be removed, and that will be put back, too. The only thing that might be an issue is that the frame is partially under the stucco outside, and there’s no way to know what’s under there until the start taking things out. He figures there is a stucco on stucco situation.

Then I got a call from home care.

Not for tonight, thankfully.

Tomorrow morning. So I’ll be going to my mother’s to take care of that. When I called to let her know, though, she told me she had a shopping list for me… that way, I don’t have to come back next week.

I told her, you’re going to need another shopping trip next week, too! 😄

On the plus side, I’ve been chatting with my SIL. They are coming out to stay at their trailer this weekend, but she is coming out tonight. My brother will be able to meet me at my mother’s, tomorrow, and help me out with the med assist, and the shopping. That will be less stress on my arm, and greatly appreciated.

Oh, and on top of all that, I’ve been in contact with the large animal rescue about Poirot’s babies. They will have a cat cage set up for the kittens tonight, and we’re just working out whether we’re taking the kittens to them tomorrow, or if they’re coming to us to get the kittens. My daughter wants to meet them and chat with them about animal care, so I’ve suggested we go to them. Plus, we’ll need to go into town anyhow, to refill our water bottles.

I hope to be done with my mother’s shopping before her Meals on Wheels gets delivered, so we’ll be able to get the kittens delivered in the afternoon.

Tomorrow had started out as an open day, where I could focus on work outside again.

Ha! That didn’t last long!

Meanwhile, we will most likely be doing our Costco shopping in the city on Saturday. If all goes well, we’ll be able to do a proper shop, and not end up making so many extra runs to get things throughout the month. We’ve put in more than twice the usual mileage in June than is typical for us, and the extra cost in fuel is painful on the budget.

July is going to have a lot of driving, too, including for medical reasons.

At least all this extra driving is happening now, and not during the winter months!

I’d love to just crawl into bed right now and hopefully not be awakened by fighting cats landing on my head.

Butterscotch is still hiding under the armchair, poor thing.

The Re-Farmer

We got a bit of rain, plus this is what $586 looks like

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With another trip to the city planned for today, I got my older daughter to help we water the garden and trees this morning, while things were still cooler. Much to my surprise, things actually looked damper than with just the morning dew. Then I spotted the turnip leaves in the high raised bed. It looks like we got a touch of rain last night!

All of these larger leaves had drops of water around their edges. Nothing else. I guess these ones had just the right “pockets” for it!

My younger daughter and I headed out later in the morning, making a stop at a gas station just outside of town, about 15 minutes away, to pick up some energy drinks for the road. While there, we decided to get a car wash, too. I figured, it was a good time to do it, while there’s no box cover.

The car wash couldn’t quite get all the gravel dust out of the corners of the box. 😄

By the time we got to the city, it was lunch time, so our first stop was at a mall near the Costco for food, then a stop at the Dollarama. I was looking for more buckets or watering cans to replace the ones we’ve been using. The buckets with plastic handles I’ve been using to water the walnut tree/seeds all have broken handles now. I had one small bucket with a metal handle that I’ve been using in the food forest area, and the bucket itself is breaking apart. These are all buckets I found around the property, so they predate us living here, and are either so old, or so exposed to the elements, that the plastic has become brittle and is breaking up.

Both the buckets and watering cans we found were too small, but we did find some other things. For the garden, I picked up 10 wire tomato cages that will go over the pepper and eggplant transplants – I’ll need at least 8 more. My daughter found another sparkly baseball cap that she got for my collection. 😄 Then we ended up spending some time choosing artificial flowers and a heavy vase for my MIL’s grave. The last time we tried to visit her grave, we never found it. We did eventually find a sign saying that, due to the spring flooding, a number of stones were damaged and removed for repair, and that they would eventually be returned. We haven’t been able to make it back, since. We want to fix that!

Once we were done there, we headed to the Costco, filling the gas tank, first. Gas was at $1.219/L, while elsewhere was about $1.309 in the city. In town, it had dropped from $1.359 yesterday, to $1.329 today.

That done, we finally were able to grab a flat cart and start shopping.

We did a much smaller trip this time.

This is what $586.66 looks like.

*sigh*

This time, I got a picture of the receipt.

We got two 9kg and two 11.6kg bags of dry kibble and two cases of 48 cats of wet cat food. We got more puppy pads as well.

This trip, we got a large bag of flour for under $10, which is a really good price right now. Everywhere else, I’ve been seeing the same size bag with sale prices of about $12. I get the cheap stuff. Going with the brand name stuff, a big bag of flour is closer to $20.

There’s a case of Monster energy drinks, which I will be paid back for, and we ended up getting a bulk sized box of instant oatmeal.

We got a couple of Kirkland brand jars of mayonnaise, plus a couple of jars of Peanut Butter, some brown sugar, and a large cannister type container of peppercorns, and a large container of ground pink salt. I prefer course, to use in our salt drinker, but this is what they had. My husband prefers the pink salt over regular table salt.

We still have butter in the freezer, so I only got two more, a block of Old cheddar cheese, plus we got a 3 pack of orange juice for the girls. I would have gotten oat milk for them, but my daughter told me they still have. There’s a 3 pack of all beef wieners and a pack of Spam – the only meat we got today. There’s a 9 pack of pasta, and my husband requested some tortilla chips, olives and dip. They didn’t have the 7 layer dip he wanted, so we got him roasted red pepper hummus instead.

They had a fundraiser thing going on. I could tell by the sudden bell ringing and cheering. When my items were all scanned and the cashier asked if I wanted to donate, I first made sure: no bells and yells! She just laughed and said yes. I think they get that a lot! So I donated a bit, too. That brought the sub total to $549.34, and we paid another $37.32 in taxes, for a total of 31 items.

[Edit: I completely forgot about the Pizza Pops! Which is what we’re having for supper tonight.]

We got almost no meat, there’s no eggs, no milk or cream, no breads or wraps.

And it still came to almost $600! A little over $250 (after taxes) of that is all cat supplies.

Part of the reason we did a smaller trip is because we had to squeeze so much of it into the back of the truck cab. The other reason is, we need to empty out the chest freezer and defrost it, so I didn’t want to get anything that would need to go into the chest freezer, other than the ice packs we brought to put with the cold stuff.

By the time we got home, it was about 4pm, so once everything was unloaded and put away, I fed the outside cats. The ice packs around Poirot and her babies needed to be changed out, though when I picked up one water bottle, I found it was still cold, if no longer frozen, so I tucked it right into the cat bed. Before long, I came over and found the kittens all but hugging it! There’s a large ice pack under their bed that probably needs to be changed out, but I didn’t want to disturb the kittens too much. Instead, I changed out the ice pack that’s on the floor of the cube above the bed. The second level cubes have pieces of rigid insulation over the wire to create floors they can walk on, which I set on top of the ice pack. This way, the cook air will flow downwards, and the bit of insulation will slow down the thaw a little bit.

All their water bowls needed to be refilled, but the water in the hose was so hot, I used it to refill the garbage can “heat sink” in the portable greenhouse. I still haven’t found the leak in that thing, but at this time of day, filling it will actually help cool the greenhouse down. The only plants in there are the pots with luffa, and they seem to be quite liking the heat! The thermometer in there was reading about 55C/131F.

Filling the can in the greenhouse also gave me time to scrub the water bowls as best I could. With this heat, algae starts to grow very quickly. The plastic water bowls get pretty stained, too. When refilling the bowls in the sun room, I also wet down the floor mats, so the evaporation could help cool things down, too.

As I write this, at almost 6pm, we’ve cooled down to 26C/79F, with the humidex putting us at 29C/84F – which is the high we hit a couple of hours ago. Tomorrow is supposed to be at least as hot, and the day ever, we’re supposed to hit 32C/90F.

Heat or no heat, things need to get done. Tomorrow morning, I’m hoping to get some of the winter squash transplanted, as they are growing out of their pots, and my daughter is planning on mowing the lawn. With going to the city three days in a row, we’re pretty behind on things! It’ll be good to catch up.

Unless I end up doing grocery shopping for my mother tomorrow.

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

addendum: yes, I’m doing my mothers grocery shopping tomorrow!

Small stock up trip: this is what $209 looks like

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With yesterday’s stock up shopping getting cut short, with virtually no actual food purchased, my daughter and I headed in today to hit the international grocery store we had skipped yesterday.

We had a slight detour into town first, so by the time we got to the city, our first order of business was lunch, which we had in the dining area of the grocery store. Dim sum and sushi!

Driving to the city for our stock up shopping does have its perks!

My daughters had their own shopping list, so after lunch my daughter and I split up and met at the truck later. Without a cover on the box, we had to keep in mind that anything we got had to fit into the back of the cab. We already have a fair bit of stuff back there, from our supply of hard sided grocery bags to our emergency kit, etc. We did take out the bin of winter supplies, though, so that freed up a bit of space, but we are still limited. Basically, we used the space that’s kept open specifically to fit my husband’s walker.

We might have to split our Costco shopping up into two trips, because that’s where we get the most of our supplies for the month.

Anyhow.

This is what $209.20 after taxes looks like.

That’s… not a lot.

In the non-food category, I finally found a nail brush to replace the kitchen one that fell apart. We use it for scrubbing vegetables.

The only vegetable I got today was celery, which was on sale, and the only fruit, grapes, which was also on sale. I picked up some cheese wedges; Irish Whiskey cheddar, Porter Beer cheddar and Maasdam. The Maasdam is a new one for us. It looks much like a Swiss. There was a sale on antipasto sliced meats, so I got two packages of those, plus three garlic baguettes that were on sale. The girls and I might have a charcuterie movie night soon!

There was a good sale on New England Clam Chowder, which I usually get at Walmart, so I picked up a bunch for my daughters and I. My husband no longer likes it. I also got a couple of cans of clams. We like to add some to the chowder, but I haven’t seen any in ages. Not something I would have expected to be hard to find! That they were on sale, too, was bonus. Oh, and I got a bottle of my husband’s favourite Filipino soy sauce.

There was a sale on sirloin tip beef, plus I got an extra discount through my loyalty card, which was nice. There are also some locally produced smoked, and applewood smoked, slabs of bacon, both on sale. For the girls, I got some frozen cooked white shrimp, which was both on sale, plus extra off with my loyalty card, and basa fillets that were on sale.

Since no one is up to doing dishes and cooking in this heat, we picked up food for quick eating. For my husband, I got a huge Lumberjack sandwich; it’s big enough to be lunch for him tomorrow, too! I’m glad he likes those. It’s getting harder to find foods he can eat, these days! I picked a bento box for myself, and my daughter picked a couple of boxes of steak taquitos for herself and her sister. They’ve been looking for that flavour in that brand for years, but they just disappeared for some reason. Now they’re back, so she was really happy to find them. They are not fond of the other flavour options. There were some Verka cream rolls on sale, so I picked up a pack of 4 for desert.

That’s it. That’s all I got. All those sales, and it still cost over $200. Even my daughter’s purchases cost over $130, and their list was mostly jars of Asian seasonings we can’t get locally.

At least I got extra points on top of the extra sale prices, too. I’ve already got enough to get at least one free turkey when those promotions come up in the fall.

I’m dreading going to Costco tomorrow.

The Re-Farmer

Costco stock up shopping: this is what $782 looks like

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I am so glad to have this over and done with.

I made a point of heading out later than I would have, because I wanted to make sure I ate a lunch before I started shopping. The Costco cafeteria doesn’t have anything I enjoy eating anymore (I miss those Montreal Smoked Meat sandwiches they used to have!), so I was going to go to a nearby mall’s food court. Which doesn’t open until 11. I didn’t need to stop for gas along the way, so there was no point in leaving before 10.

Unfortunately, I had a heavily disturbed, and my mornings are early no matter what time I get to bed. The cats start going bonkers by about 5:30am, and by 6, I’m kicking most of them out of my room to feed them, so that Butterscotch has a change to use the litter undisturbed, and I can give her and Freya their extras, which currently includes the cat milk I picked up not long ago. I’ve taken to putting a container with cat milk or wet cat food right at Freya’s face, wherever she happens to be curled up, so she doesn’t have to jump down from my bed to to eat.

She really likes the cat milk.

Once that’s done, I do try to get a bit more sleep, leaving my door closed to give Butterscotch a break from the other cats. She has gotten used to the routine and now tends to run around and play like a kitten while the other cats are out. Unfortunately, the other cats know there is special food in my room, so they keep trying to scratch their way through my door, making sleep impossible! When I finally do open the door, there’s a stampede of cats dashing straight for the food bowls, as if they hadn’t just been fed, finishing off whatever is left of any wet cat food or cat milk there is.

Well, that’s what we get for rescuing so many cats.

Which is a long was of saying, I was really tired when I headed out. Tired to the point that, if my younger daughter had come with me, I would have traded driving duty with her. She stayed to keep an eye on the grublings and the transplants.

I hoped I would feel better after I had lunch. I chose Chinese food this time, with turned out to be rather disappointing. This mall doesn’t have a lot of options, though. Lunch was about $18.

After I had my lunch, I went through the nearby Dollarama. In the gardening section, I found the spike strips I was looking for at other locations. These are meant to lay down in the garden to deter critters. I intend to use them in certain areas of my room that the cats have been getting into, no matter how many barricades I’ve set up, and causing damage.

If these work out, it might be worth getting a whole bunch of them to cover the floor under my husband’s hospital bed, where some of them make messes, too.

The last time I was at a Dollarama, I picked up a giant glass mug as something to keep in the freezer in between uses, to help keep our drinks cold. We weren’t sure if it could handle the freeze, like the old A&W mugs we used to have that broke after many years of use. It seems to be working very well, though, so I grabbed another one. In total, I spent $15 and change there.

When I got back to the truck, though, I realized that I was still way too tired, so I set the timer on my phone for half and hour, leaned my seat back and took a nap.

I’m very glad I did that. I could have used another half hour, but it was enough to keep me going!

From there, it was across the street to the Costco. First stop was to fill the gas tank. I was just below half, and the Costco price for regular gas was $1.179 It cost $56.09 in total to fill my tank.

The parking lot was insanely full – this on a Wednesday afternoon! – but I happened to catch someone leaving and was able to park decently close to the store.

Then I grabbed a flat cart and took my time shopping. The nap helped, but I was still really low energy – and yes, I did have an energy drink during the drive out! I try to keep at least one among the drinks and snacks I keep in the console between the seats.

I took a picture of my shopping while waiting in line, while it was still pretty organized. It never gets repacked as well, after everything’s been scanned.

This is what $782.43 looks like – including a $5 donation, which I would only do after getting the cashier to NOT doing the loud dingdingding and cheering thing they do during fundraising drives, every time a donation is made. Gosh, I hate that.

I ended up taking a picture of both sides of the flat cart, since so many things could only be seen from one side.

This is what I got today, in the order it is on the receipt. I got a two pack of lemon juice and a jar of green olives (my husband requested nacho fixings, but I never found the corn chips). There’s a 3 pack of Spam for the pantry, Kirkland brand mayonnaise and some iced tea mix. For my daughters, there’s a 3 pack of oat milk. I got 5 pounds of butter (we still have plenty of oil and ghee), a case of Monster energy drinks (which my older daughter pays me back for) and a case of Coke Zero for my husband and I. I got some laundry detergent, plus two cases of 48 cans of wet cat food and four 9.1kg bags of cat kibble. There’s toilet paper, of course, and a case of water bottles. I haven’t picked up one of those in a while; we like to have them on hand when it gets warmer, so I can keep a bottle or two in the truck without it freezing. There’s also a double flat of eggs.

There’s a bag of basmati rice for my husband and a box of Pizza Pops as our supper heat and eat, because no one has the energy to cook on shopping day, and a box of frozen pierogi. I spotted a Peter Rabbit tin with English Breakfast tea in it; I remembered my younger daughter still likes Peter Rabbit stuff, and she will enjoy keeping the tin, after the tea is done – and we all like English Breakfast tea. There is a litre of whipping cream, a package of Old Cheddar and another of mozzarella cheese, and a 9 pack of variety pasta. I picked up a couple of panini packs and another variety pack of sliced meats for sandwiches, a 3 pack of all beef wieners, some pork chops, pork ribs, a pork loin and a 3 pack of whole chickens. I was planning to pick up some beef, but the prices are insane.

I picked up two 2 packs of rye bread, but did not get any wraps. They were out! At least of the type we normally get. There were other varieties, but we don’t like any of them.

While I was in line and passing the clothing section, I spotted a display of women’s pajama sets that were on sale. My older daughter is in need of new pajamas, so I grabbed a set for her. The last ones I tried to get for her didn’t work out, and they went to her sister. I’m hoping these ones will work out. If not… well, I’m sure either her sister or I could use them!

I had intended to get popcorn in this trip, but by the time the flat cart was full, I had no desire to wheel my way through the crowds in the section, trying to find it. I just got in line!

So that’s it. That’s our Costco trip for the month. Even with the things that got missed, it took more of our budget than I had hoped to spend on this trip. I’ll still need to pick up more kibble – 40 pound bags at the feed store, next time – before long. We might need to get more wet cat food, too, since we are currently giving Brussel and her brood wet cat food twice a day.

And now it’s time to snag a daughter and dodge kittens while we bring the transplants into the old kitchen for the night.

Then I plan to go to bed.

Hopefully, I’ll even be able to get some sleep.

The Re-Farmer

Stock up shopping, and future food forest! This is what $666 in total looks like.

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$666.59, to be exact!

Plus some extras not pictured.

It was a long day today, that’s for sure.

My daughter and I left rather early to take in a homesteading event near the city. We stopped for gas on the way out and picked up some sandwiches (made by the one restaurant in our little hamlet) and drinks for breakfast, and some pastries (from a very popular bakery in the town to the north of us) for later on. I picked up some lotto tickets, too, so that totaled about $76 and change.

I’m glad we gave ourselves extra time, because the entrance to the location was really hard to see! We drove right past it – then had to find someplace we could turn around!

It was held in a building that was on grounds that included a church and cemetery, and was surrounded by trees. The few parking spots were full, plus there were the vendor vehicles parked closer to the building, rushing to finish unloading. We found a spot to park, though I’m not entirely sure it was actually part of the parking area! We were early enough that we stayed in the truck for a while before going in. Things hadn’t started yet, but it was already full. The room was not particularly large, but it wasn’t small, either.

One vendor caught my attention very quickly; someone local had saplings for sale. He was talking to a customer while frantically trying to put labels and signs up before he had to dash away, so I heard him talking about a few things he had. His was the first talk of the day, though, and he soon had to disappear. I had to ask one of the other vendors where the talks were happening, as I thought it was in another room, but I couldn’t see any other rooms. It turned out to be behind a curtained off area at the far end of the room. When we got there, all the seating was full, and more people were crowded against the far wall, blocking off the canteen! Unfortunately, with all the people talking in the market area, I could hardly hear anything he was saying, though I could make out some of it. My daughter tried going to the opposite corner of the curtained off area to see if she could hear better. She couldn’t, but she did end up talking to the vendor that was there. She had a display of skin care products next to a display of honey products her husband was covering. It turned out they were the organizers for the event! With my daughter discovering she’s allergic to ingredients in a lot of shampoos, deodorants, etc., she was very interested in the skin care display. After I finally gave up trying to hear, I joined them. The vendor not only made all of the products, but grew all of the plants, berries and herbs used in them, plus honey from their own bees. We ended up getting a sample pack of their products, plus a tube of hand lotion made with sea buckthorn, among other things, for the scraggly skin on my hands. Both together cost about $45. I didn’t bother getting a receipt for it.

The vendor with the skin care products was also doing the next talk, which was on regenerative farming. My daughter and I snagged a couple of seats right in the front. It was a very enjoyable talk. It was a lot of stuff I was already familiar with (what is now called regenerative farming was what used to be called subsistence farming, when I was growing up here), but with her, it was all from the perspective of planting for their bees, so heavy on successive flowering plants to provide pollen and nectar from when the bees first emerge in the spring to when they settle in for the winter.

After each talk, there was 10 minutes scheduled for Q&A. I left my daughter to that while I went to hunt down the tree guy. He was busy with customers, so my daughter caught up to me before it was my turn. We ended up looking at another vendor nearby that had soaps, bath bombs and other related products. We ended up getting a bar of herbal soap there that cost about $12. I would normally never spend that much on a bar of soap, but I’m willing to do it once in a rare while!

Then it was my turn with the tree guy. Quite a few of the things he had, we already have, but what really caught my attention was the walnut. I’ve been looking at getting walnut for years, but while they will grow in our zone 3, our growing season isn’t long enough for the nuts to fully ripe.

Well, he not only had year old saplings, but walnut seeds, already cold stratified. He grows them himself, in a smaller city a few hours drive to the west of us. If he can grow walnut to the seed stage there, that means we can, too!

This is what I ended up getting from him.

Bundled together is a gooseberry and a zone 3 variety of eating apple; he showed me so many different ones, I forget the name of the variety I chose. I’ll be able to see the tag when it’s unwrapped. In the pot in a year old walnut, and the bag has 8 walnut seeds in it. He said the trees grow pretty fast, too, and can get up to 40 feet high. He recommended planting them about 20 feet apart. I already know where I intend to plant those. The gooseberry, which already have leaf buds, and the apple tree will go into our food forest area, where we already have highbush cranberry, silver buffaloberry, sea buckthorn and mulberry.

All of these together cost $73.50 after taxes – the total before taxes was actually higher, but he gave me a discount, simply because the mental math was easier! 😄

While there were many other talks my daughter and I were interested in, it was too busy and too noisy, and we were already reaching our limit. They definitely need a larger venue, and a separate room for the speakers. Which is a good problem to have! As we were trying to leave, I ended up having to exit through the entrance simply because parked cars were blocking my way to the exit. When we got to the highway, we found more cars parked on the shoulders!

From there, we headed to another area of the city to do our non-Costco stock up shopping. By then, it was almost noon, so we went to the international grocery store, first, where we could have some dim sum and sushi for lunch. I honestly can’t remember how much that cost, but it was under $30.

There wasn’t a lot that we needed at this store, this time. This is what $175.36 looks like.

We got the short grain rice my daughters prefer (and it does very well, cooked in the Instant Pot), plus some salmon, frozen cooked and frozen raw shrimp for them. I got a bunch of teas that were on sale, including something called Breakfast in Paris. There is also a bag of instant milk tea. We picked up a goat gouda with honey to try, regular milk plus oat milk for my lactose intolerant daughters. There’s the oyster sauce they prefer, plus the soy sauce my husband prefers. We two pieces of slab bacon, one applewood smokes, one regular smoked, a flat of eggs to tide us over until we get our usual double flat at Costco, plus I got myself a Cherry Coke Zero, since I neglected to get myself something to drink with our lunch. Our loyalty card savings came out to $23.54, which was nice.

After we were finished here, our next stop was the Walmart. That turned out to be a much larger trip. This is what $417.73 looks like.

The main things we needed to get was cat food to last us until Costco and feed store trips. There are three 7kg bags of kibble, plus two 32 packs of canned cat food buried in there. My husband requested some sours, but they didn’t have the kind he prefers in stock, so we got two packs of mixed sours that hopefully will still work. There’s a case of Coke Zero and a package of facial tissues under the basket, plus a small package of paper towel buried in the cart.

We went a bit nuts on the frozen heat and eats. These are all things that my husband can cook himself in the multifunction air frier/toaster oven we got to replace the broken microwave. With his medications, his hunger cues and appetite are pretty messed up, so having something he can cook for himself when he does feel able to eat comes in handy. So there are a whole bunch of $10 bags of different types of stuffed chicken, popcorn chicken, meatballs and even corn dogs. Plus, some Pizza Pops to be our heat and eat supper when we got home.

There is a bag of carrots in there, two clamshells of strawberries, four different types of cheese, frozen Basa fillets, three different flavour packs of bouillon cubes, a couple of loaves of bread that my daughter chose and, completely hidden in the cart, a dozen cans of Monster energy drinks, to be split three ways. Last of all is a cold Gatorade my daughter got for the drive home.

So, including the items not pictured, we spent around $830 in gas, groceries, etc., though the food forest items did come out of a completely separate budget.

By the time we got home, it was late enough to feed the outside cats for the evening, but our day wasn’t over yet! My brother and his wife had come here to the farm while we were gone. They had a few things to do around their trailers and stored items, but they also did a huge job that I was able to help out with – which I will cover in my next post!

The Re-Farmer

Stock up shop: this is what $719.89 in total looks like

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Today has turned out to be a gorgeous day. Nice and sunny and, while the temperatures hovered just below freezing, things were melting all over. Most importantly, the roads were clear and, for the most part, dry!

I went into the city today to do the Costco stock up trip, but I was also on the hunt for a heat mat for our newly potted up, pre-germinated winter squash seeds, down in the chilly basement dungeon. Now that they are potted up, I made sure to turn the grow light on for them before I left for the city.

Today being Sunday, Costco opened at 10am. I left after 9 and my first stop was actually a mall, where I hoped to get some breakfast. Most of the food court wasn’t opening until 11, though, which left me with about 15 minutes to burn, so I checked out a Dollarama. I wasn’t planning anything specific to get there, but I did find things we needed.

This is what $41.16 looks like.

I got three clear dining table protectors, though I still have one unopened package left from last year. I will likely use these to put over the raised bed cover that I plan to move into the old kitchen garden, and turn it into a mini-greenhouse/cat barrier. I also grabbed two shorter over-the-door hooks for our entry closet door. We have a lot of things that need to be hung out of cat range, and these will fit over each half of the folding closet door. I was running low on masking tape, so I grabbed a roll. There’s a spray bottle I grabbed as well. We have so many of them, both for using with plants and for training the cats, and they all keep disappearing! I had to steal a cat training one for the seed starting set up, so I got one to replace it.

My favourite giant mug I used for tea started to develop cracks, so I’ve been on the hunt for a very large mug for a while now. I ended up finding a novelty Canada mug that is the largest I’ve been able to find, so I grabbed it. It’s still not as large as the one it’s replacing – that one held almost a full liter – but it’ll do!

When I headed out this morning, I was wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up, and forgot to grab a hat. I felt naked without a hat, so when I found a white version of the blue sequin one my daughter bought for me a while back, I snagged it. Last of all, I got another hard sided re-useable bag to hold it all.

By the time I was done, it was past 11, and I was able to find somewhere to get “breakfast” that fit into my Lenten fast from sugar and simple carbs (which is remarkably hard to do! They’re in everything!). After that, my next stop was a nearby Canadian Tire.

I didn’t get a photo of it, but I got their last heat mat! That came out to $50.39 after taxes. It took me a while to find it!

That done, it was across the street to the Costco. Before going in, I filled my gas tank. The Costco price for regular gas was $1.339 Everywhere else was either $1.549 or $1559 What a difference! It still cost me over $60 to fill that tank, though.

From there, I could finally do the Costco shopping. This is what $678.73 after taxes looks like.

This is 37 items. My total discounts from specials was a whole $10.

Ouch.

The biggest expense in there was, as usual, the cat food. Four 9.1kg bags of kibble and two 48 count cased of wet cat food. And we’ll still need to get more kibble from the feed store for the outside cats! I always pick those up first, and was at almost $200 before getting a single thing for ourselves.

*sigh*

Along with the kibble, the stuff I left on the flat cart for them to scan, there’s 5 pounds of butter, two blocks of cooking cheeses, a liter of whipping cream, a double cream brie and a double flat of 60 eggs. Then there was a case of Coke Zero for my husband and I, plus a case of energy drinks for my daughters and I. My older daughter reimburses me for those. Plus, of course, the requisite package of toilet paper.

As for the stuff on the belt, there’s two cases of Sweet and Salty mix of granola bars that were on sale. One for my daughters, one for my husband and I, though I won’t be eating any of those until after Lent.

There’s a panini pack of sandwich meats, frozen pierogi, frozen pork buns and frozen Pizza Pops. I also picked up a couple of 3 packs of Spam for the pantry, and a large pork blade roast.

I was looking at the beef, but the prices were shockingly high. In the end, I did get a package of lean ground beef – normally, I get extra lean – that I will be splitting up into thirds and freezing. Even that cost most than double what it was, just a couple of years ago. We still have a bit of beef from the 1/8th beef share we got back in January, but it’s mostly steaks, and we’ve been saving those!

Let’s see… what else did I get.

There is some Lactase for my lactose intolerant family, a jar of pickled asparagus, two large jars of mayonnaise, two packs of tortilla warps and a case of baked beans. I also found a jug of the Platinum Dawn dish detergent. I usually buy the biggest, cheap dish detergent, and we do still have lots of that. Since we’ve had issues with stuff building up inside our drain pipe from the kitchen, and the plumber recommended using Dawn in a weekly treatment to keep the pipes clear, we’ve been using this stuff more. It’s more expensive, but it does actually clean better, and helps with the plumbing, too, so it’s worth the extra cost.

That’s it. That’s everything I got this time. I didn’t even go through all the grocery aisles, because I was getting close to my budget and hadn’t even picked up meats yet. Thankfully, I’ve been taking advantage of meat or bread sales when I could, so when we unloaded and put everything away, our fridge and chest freezers were both full.

Now that we’ve got that multi-function toaster oven, I’ve been on the look out for more heat-and-eat type stuff that will allow my husband to prepare things for himself, giving him at least a bit more independence, while also accommodating his pain levels and mobility issues. Most of the options are just too expensive, though. Even if I had the budget, I wouldn’t be willing to pay those prices! It does irk me that beef prices are so high. Especially knowing it’s directly because of the extra costs our own federal government has been putting on our farmers and ranchers. We’ve got an election coming up. Hopefully, it will be an honest one, and we’ll have a new federal government soon, but frankly, I don’t expect it. I’m pretty sure the results have already been bought an paid for, just like our media.

But let’s not go there, or I’m going to end up ranting about our ludicrously corrupt federal government.

Anyhow…

That is our stock up shopping for today. I did get a few extras for the house and the garden, but most of it was pretty standard stuff.

While I expect the cost to be high when we’re stocking up for an entire month, these trips are getting really painful on the budget.

I admit, though, it would be a lot easier if we weren’t taking care of so many cats!! There’s going to be another $200 or so spent on 40 pound bags of kibble at the feed store, still. That could buy a lot of groceries!

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

First stock up shop for April: this is what $770 in total looks like

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Wow! We got home just in time! My daughter and I headed into the city for our first stock up shopping trip. It took longer than usual, and by the time we were driving the last couple of miles to home, we were driving into the first signs of snow. As I write this, it’s starting to come down pretty heavily, though there’s little wind, so it’s a pretty pleasant looking snowfall. It’s supposed to keep falling through the night. We’re are looking at possibly 10-20cm/4-8inches by tomorrow evening.

I’m quite happy we got this trip done!

Today was our trip to multiple places all along one street in the city. Canadian Tire, Walmart and our favourite international grocery store.

As we headed out, we made a stop in town to get some gas ($40 worth, at $1.549/L). Since neither of us had had breakfast yet, we got some drinks and beef jerky for the hour’s drive in, where our first planned stop was somewhere for breakfast. We ended up going to a shopping mall right next to the Canadian Tire we go to, and went to the food court. I haven’t been in this mall in… I honestly can’t remember. Several decades, at least. My daughter had some A&W for “breakfast” (it was past 11 by then), while I hunted around for something I could eat. Giving up sugar and simple carbs for Lent makes it challenging. I was going to get Chinese food, and they were willing to do a meal and skip the standard rice or noodles, but all the options they had available were covered with sweet sauces. I ended up going to a Korean BBQ place. When I asked to skip rice or noodles, they gave me extra stir fry vegetables instead, which was quite appreciated.

After we finished eating, we decided to check out a Winners. This is a store we haven’t been to since before we moved out here, so more than 7 years. We didn’t find anything worth buying. On the way to the exit we were parked closest, to, we passed a Dollarama, so we went in. I wanted to see if they had those garden stakes I was looking for in stock, yet. They did! These are 6′ long plastic coated metal stakes that each some with a strong, reusable plant tie. They were only $3 each. I’ve seen similar at Cdn Tire, but those were much more expensive, didn’t come with the plant tie and are actually a lesser quality.

I bought 10.

Between these and the ones I already have, it should be enough for this year’s garden.

That done, we moved the truck to the Cdn Tire. The one thing on my shopping list was 3 bags of litter pellets but, of course, we looked at other stuff.

This is what $181.85 looks like.

The litter pellet bags are only $7.99 each. We have been looking for frying pans to replace some we have now that have warped bottoms and are no longer non-stick. After much searching, we finally broke down and bought a 2 pan set that was on clearance for $49.93

Then there were the three recycling bins. The set up we have right now is just large bags over wire frames that hold them open. They take up a lot of space, but the real problem is that the cats tear into them. Especially the one for aluminum, since it has most empty cat food cans in it.

After looking at our options, we settled on taller, narrower bins. They won’t hold as much as our current set up, but will save us a lot of space, and the cats won’t be able to tear into them. We do have smaller recycling bags that should fit them, too. This style of bin cost $29.99 each.

Our next stop was the Walmart. The main things on my list was wet and dry cat food, plus things like nail clippers and other things we don’t normally by every month. My older daughter had also sent funds to cover things like energy drinks, until we can pick up a case at Costco.

We got quite a bit more than usual this time!

This is what $361.47 looks like. Well… minus $10, which was a food bank donation, so you can’t actually see it.

We got three 9.1kg bags of kibble, at $34.97 each. The cases of canned cat food was $28.77. They also finally had the big 30″x36″ puppy pads, so a grabbed a package. Cats peeing/spraying in places other than one of the many litter boxes is still a problem, and I don’t know how to fix it! The puppy pads are saving us a lot of mess and potential damage.

Other things we got today include large bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Including extra ones, and selective bars of soap. Since discovering she is allergic to most deodorants, my daughter realized she was also allergic to shampoos and conditioners. She thought she was having fungal infections on her scalp. It got so bad, she basically just shaved her head, so she could apply anti-fungal cream. After doing some research, she tried a particular brand of shampoo and conditioner and, lo and behold, no more scalp issues. It turns out one of the common ingredients she is allergic to is coco butter – which is in the shampoo and conditioner I chose for myself and my husband. She still has the one she knows she doesn’t react to, but we got a different brand she researched for her to test out. It’s the same with soap. Shea butter, at least, is okay for her to use!

Let’s see… what else did we get.

The energy drinks are a lot cheaper at Walmart compared to other stores (except the cases at Costco), so we got a bunch for the three of us. For my husband and myself, we got a case of Coke Zero that was on sale. Then I spotted the Ginger Ale brand ginger beer, which is new. We got a case for my daughters to try. I’m not a fan of ginger beer myself, but they like it.

We also got two types of herbal teas and coffee creamer. Distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier. Oh, and a couple of boxes of bandages in various sizes and shapes.

After we loaded everything into the truck, we used the wet wipes I keep in the truck at all times to clean my hands. Then my daughter helped me put small bandages on my fingers where the skin was split and bleeding, because my hands are so dry! I do lotion them, regularly, but it doesn’t seem to help much.

There was one thing we got at the Walmart that didn’t get included in this. I needed straight edge toenail clippers and, while I was looking at other stuff, my daughter went looking for them. She found them locked up in the cosmetic section, so she had to get staff to get them out for her (the only option was a pack that included smaller nail clippers). The employee then took them straight to the till that was practically barricaded, and my daughter hat to pay for them right away. The employee then put them and the receipt into a little clear plastic bag that got tied off with a knot before my daughter was finally allowed to touch them!

Ya gotta wonder just how much theft there was for all this!

Once done there, our next stop was the international grocery store. By then, we were both getting hungry again, so we stopped in their restaurant section for some dim sum and, for my daughter, steamed pork buns.

Our list for here was pretty vague, and mostly we just go through the entire store and pick things. There were a lot of sales, plus I used my loyalty points for some things, so what we actually got would have cost a lot more.

After all the discounts, etc., this is what $227.24 looks like.

Some things are completely hidden.

There was an excellent sale on coconut milk, which my daughters like to cook with, so we got four cans. Asparagus was also on sale, so we got two bunches. One sale we really took advantage of was a big frozen block of Ahi tuna. At first, we were going to pick some fresh “steaks” of them, last thing, as the packages were on ice, but when we found the frozen chunk (top right corner in the photo), we went with that. My daughter found some frozen pork bao on sale that we got. We picked up some blue brie cheese we’ve been wanting to try, but it was always too expensive before, but they were almost half price today. We also got a regular brie on sale, and an Irish Whiskey Cheddar on sale to try. I even picked up a “snow man cheese” – some caiocavallo for my husband. He absolutely loves it, just to snack on, but it’s gotten very expensive over the years, so it was nice to finally get some for him.

Then, because we got the lovely cheeses, we got three loves of French bread, some charcutier meats, and a sausage (the meats were on sale) to go with it. We also picked up some prosciutto to make prosciutto wrapped asparagus.

The prosciutto was actually free, because I redeemed points for those. There’s also a frozen turkey I got for free with points.

Other things we got was a frozen fillet of salmon for the girls that was on sale, some regular smoked slab bacon, plus an applewood smoked slab bacon with a “enjoy tonight” coupon, so that’ll need to be used up tonight. We picked up some Wagh Bakri tea on sale to try (we’d had the ginger tea version in that brand before that was enjoyed), as well as some instant milk tea on sale. Even the toilet paper was on a massive sale, so I had to get at least one package.

Finally, we grabbed some food that we could quickly heat and eat when we got home. Almost. For my husband, we got half a Lumberjack sandwich (which is still huge), the girls got themselves taquitos in a flavour that they like that we almost never see in stock, and I got some cold dim sum that I’ll be steaming for my supper later on.

Then, when it was time to pay for it all, I was able to use more points for another $15 off the sub total.

Looking at my receipt, it tells me I saved $91.65, however that only reflects the loyalty card savings. Some of the items that were sold by weight rung up at the sale price rather than being discounted later, so our actual savings was higher than that. The savings on the Ahi tuna alone would have put that total to over $100.

All in all, we had an excellent haul for our money here!

Then, on the way home, we swung by a Domo to get gas again. Today is Thursday, which is one of their 4¢ off/liter days, so we put another $40 in, and it pretty much filled our tank.

Next stock up shop will be our Costco trip in a few days.

Which means we won’t need to be driving anywhere in the new snow that’s falling on top of all the ice from yesterday’s melt!

Bonus.

The Re-Farmer

Mid month shop: this is what $238 and $70 looks like

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This morning, once I was done my morning rounds, I headed out to the nearest Walmart to do a bit of shopping.

My list was short. I needed seed starting mix, cat food, and a bit of groceries.

The Walmart did not have any seed starting mix.

This is what $238.76 looks like, which includes a small donation.

I got three 9.1kg bags of dry cat food, and one 32 count case of wet cat food. Last month, the dry cat food in this size cost $29.97 This month, they were back up to $34.97

Well, crud. I was just looking at the receipt and realized I was charged for an extra bag. I went through self checkout, so it’s my own fault. I now realize what happened. I was trying to scan the case of Coke Zero through the bottom of the cart, but it didn’t work. I thought I heard a beep and went scrolling through the items on the screen, but there was no Coke Zero, so I pulled it out from under the cart and got it scanned. I now realize there must have been a bar code on the side of the kibble bag that got scanned instead of the case below. No wonder my mental tally was off the final total by so much!

Well, we got to this location often enough that I can get it fixed.

So… this is NOT was $238 really looks like. 🤣

Anyhow.

On my list was peppercorns and eggs. They did have flats of medium eggs for just over $10, but I wanted large eggs, so I got two 18’s, instead. Those were $7.07 each. The Coke was not on my list, but they had a sale price for the case of 24 that was lower than buying two 12 packs – $11.97 instead of $14.97. The toilet paper was also on sale, so I grabbed a package for our emergency stash. 😉

I still needed to get seed starting mix, so after I loaded the truck, I decided to try the nearby Dollarama, since I was also wanting to see if their summer stock included those 6′ stakes that have been working out so well. They didn’t have the stakes, but I did end up getting three packs of “tomato stakes”. Each pack had three 3′ stakes with rigid connectors that can be popped on and off the stakes. I am actually thinking of using them around my corn, to help hold them up when we get high winds. I’ll slowly get more of these kits over the next few months until I think there is enough to support the corn stalks. I also spotted more of the half-bowls in the pattern I like so much, so I picked up four more of them. In the next couple of months, I’ll pick up four more side places and four more dinner plates, so we’ll have an 8 place setting. We can then pack away some of the dishes we never use, because they’re just too heavy. Plus, some are starting to get chipped. All of this together cost $28 and change, and I didn’t bother getting a photo.

They didn’t have seed starting mix, though.

So I went across the street to the Canadian Tire.

That is a very dangerous place for me to be!

This is what $69.54 looks like.

The seed starting mix was on sale, so I got the larger bags at $14.99 each. There was only one brand choice; Miracle Gro.

Then I started looking around the store.

I same SO close to buying a new compound miter saw that was on clearance! I have enough Canadian Tire dollars saved up that I could have gotten it for free. I’m hanging on to the CT dollars, though, to save up for something big, but it was really, really hard for me to talk away from that! We do have a compound miter saw that I got for $10 at a garage sale. It got a lot of use while I was building the cat isolation shelter. If I’m going to upgrade, it’s going to be a dual bevel sliding miter saw.

Which they also had on clearance. The clearance price was more than the CT dollars I have, but…

Oh, was it hard to walk away from that!

What I did end up finding and getting were a couple of 5 gallon buckets to replace the ones we’re using for doing the litter, so we don’t have to make multiple trips to dump the litter onto the compost pile (for those new to this blog, we use stove pellets for litter, which breaks up into sawdust as it is used). They were under $5 each.

I also got another S shaped cat scratcher. We got one not long ago, and the cats really like it a lot. More than any other set up we’ve tried. This is going to replace the scratching post I have in my bedroom that was donated to us. The post itself is still in great shape, but the shag carpet used to cover it has been shedding bits like crazy.

Last of all was an energy drink for the drive home.

Once home, I set the new cat scratched up in my room. The cats were all over it, immediately. It has a little dangling feather toy under the upward curve. That got ripped off within minutes. 😄 The scratching post it replaced has been set aside for now. I plan to remove the crappy shag carpet and recover it with some hemp craft rope that I have. It’s the same stuff I used on the inside ramp of the isolation shelter, and it holds up really well.

So that is our mid month top up shop, most of which was stuff for the cats!

On top of this, I also put in $50 in gas. The price was $1.479, which is down quite a bit. Likely because our new Prime Dictator has deigned to bring a carbon tax down to 0% in a pathetic bait and switch. Marx Carnage made a big show of it, too. With Trump’s public signings of executive orders being so popular, they basically made a set where he sat at a table in front of the media and signed an ” executive order”, to bring the carbon tax down to 0%. The thing is, Canada doesn’t have executive orders. Our version is something called an Order of Council, like they have in the UK. Because the carbon tax is a law, it can’t be removed, so bringing it down to 0% doesn’t actually get rid of the tax. Like I said, a bait an switch. What he signed was basically a fake document for show. An Order of Council has to go through Parliament, which is still shut down. Not that our new Prime Dictator could even be part of any debates in Parliament. He is not an elected Member of Parliament. At best, he can attend on the sidelines as a guest, and watch the proceedings from the gallery. We continue to be a de facto first world dictatorship, and the new guy is even worse than the old guy.

Canada is so screwed right now. While you probably aren’t hearing about it in the mainstream news, most of use are angry with our own government for starting this mess and making it worse. What started out as a joke about Canada becoming the 51st state is looking more and more like a solution. Since we still aren’t getting the election we should be, and haven’t been able to oust our corrupt government, a lot of people actually want Canada to join the US, and Alberta has even sent a delegation to discuss it. If Alberta leaves Canada, the rest of the country will fall apart, since Alberta basically funds the rest of the country through “equalization payments”. Especially to Quebec and Ontario. They’d go bankrupt in a heartbeat.

We are definitely in for some… interesting… times.

The Re-Farmer

Costco stock up trip: this is what $841 looks like

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I am so tired.

As far as a shopping trip goes, this one went quite well. There weren’t that many people expecting me, with my loaded flat cart, to stop on a dime or give way to them, and the lines went fairly quickly.

I just hate shopping.

I’m so glad my daughter was able to come along this time. She helps keep me sane.

There were a few things outside of the Costco trip, though, so I’ll start with that.

As we headed out, we stopped at my mother’s to do her med assist for the morning. We remembered to bring the LED Jesus candle I got for her. My daughter took it out of the packaging before we went in. Which is when we discovered it didn’t come with batteries. I’m used to these coming with their own flat disc type battery (I never remember what they are called). Instead, it took two AAs. Ah, well. She still seemed to like it. Then got distracted by my daughter’s gauged earrings and told her she should have “pretty” earrings. She should wear gold earrings, because some people in her building were saying that wearing gold earrings helps to prevent headaches.

…

Okay…

Well, it could have been worse. It usually is.

She also wasn’t sure with of my daughters had come along, because it has been sooooo long since she’s seen them. She also didn’t have her glasses, but it couldn’t be that. 😁😉

We didn’t stay for long, though. I made sure to make my notes for the med assist to put into the lock box for the next home care aid, and we were soon off.

While I intended to fill the tank at Costco, we were below half, so we stopped at the gas station. I only put $30 of gas in, but we also got some pastries (locally made) to tide us over, and a couple of energy drinks. That came to a total of $49.78

The next planned stop was for in the city for food – breakfast for me, lunch for my daughter. We stopped at a mall next to the Costco and went to the food court. My daughter chose Subway, and we both got foot longs and drinks. That totaled $34.01

There is a Dollarama next to the food court, and there were a couple of things I wanted to pick up there. For sure, I wanted to get batteries in smaller packages for my mother, plus there were a few other things I want to look for. I didn’t find them, but we did end up getting some non-disposable cleaning gloves for my daughter – her hands crack and split like crazy after doing dishes – and several rolls of clear self-adhesive shelf liners. We put those on the floor under the litter boxes, and they are in need of replacing. We also picked up several bowls. I’ve been eyeballing these bowls with a particular pattern for months now. We’ve lost a few bowls to breakage in the past while, there were only 4 of this pattern left, and they were only $2.50 each, so we went ahead and go them. Total spent at Dollarama was $31.25

Then it was pretty much across the street to go to the Costco, and I filled the gas tank, first. When I got gas in my mother’s town, it was at $1.579/L At Costco, it was $1.429 Even with the $30 I put in earlier, it cost me $64.07 to fill the tank.

*sigh*

Finally, we got to do the shopping we’d gone to the city for! We took our time about it, and I was quite happy to have an assistant today. My daughter ran around to get a few things on the list for me, so I didn’t have to maneuver the cart more than I had to. By the end of it, I was most definitely using the cart as a walker! When we got to the counter, my daughter insisted on unloading, and would not allow me to touch anything. This when she is mostly one handed because of her write ganglion hurting so much! What a sweetie!

This is what $841.29 looks like.

Sort of.

What’s on the cart isn’t quite how the totals on the receipt worked out. My membership was up for renewal, so that got added on. I have the executive membership (every time the cashiers see my flat cart, they ask to confirm I have an executive membership!), and the renewal fee was $130. I also got my rebate, which took $171.52 off my bill, so I came out ahead on that. The actual total, with the membership renewal but before the rebate, plus taxes, was $1012.81

I rather choked when I saw that.

Then she processed the rebate, and the total was pretty much exactly what I was expecting.

*phew*

The receipt was so long, partly because it got pulled out so she could check items, so there were big blank spots. I ended up taking 2 pictures of it rather than trying to fold them all short.

Here is the top half.

For our pasta this trip, we just got one of the big flats of Ramen noodles, as I was able to pick up pasta in our last stock up trip. There’s a 3 pack of oat milk for my daughters.

The baby wipes are something we realized we needed, when we couldn’t use our plumbing for so long, recently. We need to wash our hands quite frequently, and having to wash into bowls or buckets, then dump them out, was a pain. We used to regularly buy cleaning wipes before. The ones we got before were sold as “flushable” toilet wipes, which we found laughable. With my husband’s mobility issues, he would sometimes use them in general. After a while, we just stopped buying them. Now, I think we will try to keep some in the pantry for the next time we have plumbing or septic issues!

The next item is the membership renewal fee. Then there’s some Basmati rice, two big jars of mayo, and some ice tea mix.

The cowhide gloves were something my daughter spotted. We are in need of better work gloves than just the gardening gloves we’ve been using. It comes in a two pack, so she and I now both have good, leather work gloves.

Next on the list is a 3 flavour mix of granola bars. Yes, we did just get one at our last shopping trip, but that turned out to be a 2 flavour mix, so we have another.

Then we get to the stuff that stayed on the flat cart instead of going on the belt. There’s a flat of Coke Zero for my husband and I, and another of energy drinks for my daughters and I. It was nice to see the energy drinks were on sale! We also got paper towels, toilet paper and facial tissues. For the cats, we got a case of wet cat food, puppy pads and kibble. The 11.6kg size kibble was only a dollar more than the Kirkland 9kg kibble, so I got three. I almost never see those on sale, so I got more than planned. We also got another case of puppy pads.

The big expenditure was not a planned one, but a needed one. For quite some time now, I’ve been looking up steam cleaners. With so many cats, it has become a necessity. The Shark brand one we found was on sale, too. After some debate, we decided to go for it. This will probably save us a couple of armchairs, at the very least!

Now we’re into some actual groceries!

There’s a package of crimini mushrooms (mini bellas, on the list), and two 2 packs of salad mixes in two different flavours. I told my daughter to pick a seafood for her and her sister, and she picked up a salmon filet. We also got a family size pack of pork chips. There’s a 4 pk of cream cheese and a wheel of double cream brie, 5 pounds of butter, two packages of panini sandwich meats and a 3 pack of chickens.

Next are two 2 packs of rye bread, a double flat of eggs, and two packs of tortilla warps. The California rolls and the lasagna were for our supper. In fact, mine is cooling down next to me, right now, served in one of the new bowls we got at the dollar store!

In total, we had 44 items on that cart and, aside from the rebate, we has $66 in discounts taken off.

The sad thing is, we got almost no meats in there. I was looking at the beef and was shocked by the prices. The stewing beef – one of the cheapest options – was $22.29/kg. I saw a package that weighted 2.260kg and cost $50.28

1kg = 2.2 pounds.

I used to regularly buy packages this size, when they were typically under $20.

Thankfully, we still have some of our beef pack in the freezer, but we’re basically down to steaks. 😄

So that was our stock up shop!

Once we were packed up, we headed for home, stopping at my mother’s to drop off the batteries I got her, and put some in the LED candle we’d dropped off earlier. We also remembered to stop at the post office, then finally home.

The sad thing is, there were still things we need to get, but not at Costco. We’re going to need to make another trip to a Walmart.

Which my daughter and I have decided we will do tomorrow, and get it over with!

*sigh*

I will be so glad when we are done our stock up shopping!

The Re-Farmer

First stock up shop: this is what $794 looks like

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Our first stock up shopping trip for the month is one where we go to three different stores that are all along one street. All three together came to $794.44 in total. This month was different, though, as we got quite a few things we normally would not have, on top of taking advantage of sales.

I did not try to take photos of the receipts this time. With all the extra printing of discounted amounts, they were pretty long. That and I haven’t been able to clear quite as much storage space in my WP account as I want to, yet. I will still take photos for my own personal records. Just not to post here, this time.

Our first stop was actually at my mother’s town. We didn’t need to get gas, as I filled the tank yesterday, but we did stop at the gas station to pick up a couple of much needed energy drinks. I also made sure to phone my mother before we left, to confirm she got her med assist visit from home care this morning. She did, so we were soon on our way.

Once in the city, our first stop was Walmart. Here, we wanted to make sure to not get anything that needed to be refrigerated or would be affected by the cold.

The only really usual thing I got was a couple of bags of kibble, to tide us over until I cat get to the feed store in the town north of us, tomorrow, and Costco, which will be the day after tomorrow. I got the 9.1kg size bags that now cost $29.97. These have actually gone down in price. The other usual thing was a 4 pack of energy drinks. There were also some personal hygiene items for my daughters.

I’m actually having a hard time reading what’s on the receipt, and figuring out what the item it, for some things. The shorthand names are sometimes just a bunch of consonants and numbers. I’ll try to remember what they were!

We got a new laundry basket for my daughters. We need to get two more, but have just one for now. I remembered to get an LED Jesus candle for my mother, so she can stop lighting a real candle when she says her prayers. Safter that way! My daughter remembered that we needed more bandages and found us a box.

We got two different types of mop head replacements, for our two different types of mops, including one that is used only in the basement. We also got a total of 6 boxes of chocolates, in three different flavour combinations, as they were at more than 50% off. We can store the extras in the freezer. I also found the Filipino soy sauce my husband likes; we usually get that at the international grocery store, but I actually found some in Walmart’s international aisle. Then we got a couple of cans of coconut milk for my daughters (I am not a fan of the stuff, myself).

We were running low on cleaners and were out of toilet bowl cleaner, so we got two spray bottles of cleaner and are trying a new “eco” brand of toilet bowl cleaner. We also stocked up on air fresheners. I got two that were specifically designed for pet odours, as some of our cats are particularly foul smelling when they use the litter boxes! We got a couple of others for more general use.

I think that was everything.

The total number of items sold was 26, and all but the kibble fit into the laundry basket. The total was $214.29

It would have been more, but two items we got – a new toilet brush, as our current one just lost is under the rim cleaner piece, and a new toilet roll holder – ended up not having their prices on them. We chose to leave them rather than try and find the prices. My daughter prefers to use self check out and offered to look it up, but I didn’t want to take the time. We figured we would look for them in Canadian Tire.

Which was our next stop.

There was only one thing I had on my list for Canadian Tire, but planned to look at other stuff.

Which I never got around to. We got distracted.

The two bags of litter pellets were what I wanted to get. We aren’t out, I wanted to get enough to last us the rest of the month. Plus, these had bonus Canadian Tire Dollars on them, right now.

My distraction was a portable mini greenhouse. I’d resisted getting it last month, but the sale was just too good; $89.93 instead of $189.99. We spent some time going over the display, debating its merits, then decided to go ahead and get it. It is basically a walk in version of the mini greenhouse we already have – which we can’t really use anymore, as it has become a very handy place for the outside cats, in the sunroom. We actually won’t really be able to use the sun room for transplants. I mean, we could, but having the portable greenhouse would just be better for our transplants and for hardening them off – and protect them from getting walked on and knocked about by the cats. It’s 4′ x 6′ and more then enough for our current needs.

When we decided to get it, I loaded it onto the bottom of the cart while my daughter kept the cart from rolling away. As we were doing it, there was an older gentleman with is cart, watching us. It looked like he wanted to look at the displays our cart was blocking, so as soon as we were done, we moved aside. Which is when he started to ask if we worked there, then realized that no, we obviously didn’t.

It turned out he wanted to get one of these greenhouses, too, and was looking for someone to help him load one into his cart. So we did it for him. He was quite happy, and we had ourselves a lovely chat – and we now have a recommendation for a type of geranium to grow. I am not a flower person, so I can’t remember the name, but my daughter is, and does.

Then, while walking around trying to find where the toilet brushes were, my daughter spotted a display of scoops. They’re meant for pet food, but we got it for our litter pellets, as the handle on the dollar store one we’ve been using broke off, so we’ve been using the remaining cracked scoop. I’ve been trying to find a good sized replacement for a while, so I’m really glad she spotted it.

We did find the toilet brushes, but I didn’t like any of the designs, so we didn’t get one. We never found the toilet roll holders.

We did find some amazing clearance prices for cat towers, but none were in stock. While trying to find them, we found ourselves looking at various scratching posts and scratch pads. I used to get the scratch pads made of corrugated cardboard. The cats love them but, unfortunately, we have a cat, or cats, that pees on them, and then they’re useless! What we did spot was an S shaped scratcher and lounger, that also has a dangling toy under part of it. The price was right, so we got that.

The cats love it!

While looking for the toilet brushes and holders, my daughter found something else that she’s been wanting for a while. One of those dust pans with a tall handle on it, so you don’t have to bend over to hold it in place while sweeping into it. It wasn’t very expensive, either.

Last of all, we remembered to pick up a cover for the truck’s steering wheel. It may be late in the season for it, but that steering wheel gets painfully cold. After looking at our options, we settled for the blingy-est cover we could find! The outer edge of it is all rhinestones. It was either that or fluffy fake fur.

All of this, in total, was $188.91 Less than what that greenhouse would have cost, if it were not on sale. So that wasn’t too bad.

By the time we were done there, it was past lunch time, so before we went to our next store, we stopped for food. After discussing our options, my daughter chose a DQ that was right next to the international grocery store. Our burger meals, upgraded to include a poutine for her, and onion rings for me, cost $36.92 in total.

Sharing the same parking lot is a Dollarama, and I wanted to go there to see if they got their garden stakes in stock, yet. I want to get more of the large ones, as they are really, really handy, a better quality than the ones I’ve found at Canadian Tire or Walmart, and a fraction of the price.

Alas, they did not have them in yet, though their garden supply section does have quite a lot already in. After going through the store to see about other things we were considering getting, I ended up getting myself a new, memory foam neck pillow. I prefer to use these instead of a regular pillow. I find my ears start to feel smashed on a regular pillow, and with the horseshoe shape of a neck pillow, that doesn’t happen. It only cost $5 before taxes.

Then, we finally went to the international grocery store; our last stop. I’d already been looking at the sales and special offers in their app and this was going to be a bigger shop than usual for here.


Again, I’m going to have to decipher some things on the receipt, which is in alphabetical order by brand name, so this list is going to be all over the place!

There is Oyster sauce (for the girls), a couple of Arizona Iced teas, on sale (for my daughter, one for the drive home), a large block of Old Cheddar cheese (excellent sale price!), an assorted Danish pack (for my daughters), some Black Garlic gouda cheese, Bubly sparkling water (for my daughters; I find the stuff disgusting!), a 3lb bag of carrots (on sale), a chicken Yakisoba bento box (my supper), two boxes of Coke Zero for my husband and I (all the canned drinks were on sale), and a small bottle of Coke Zero Orange cream (for the drive home, and a new thing to try – also on sale).

My daughter spotted something we haven’t seen in a very long time; packages of Polish cow fudge; a cream fudge with a cow logo. They were on sale, so I asked her to grab two. She also picked out a couple of packages of frozen dumplings, plus we got a couple of 2L cartons of oat milk for my lactose intolerant daughters.

The sales were good enough that I was able to stock up on frozen seafood for my daughters, too; Basa fillets and a couple of different cuts of salmon. I got a chub of ground beef that was on sale.

Baking chips were also on an excellent sale, so I got one bag each of mint, butterscotch and milk chocolate.

My daughter picked a bottle of coffee creamer. Also for the girls was a box of roasted seaweed and two shakers of Katsuo Furikake, which has Bonito flakes in it.

I got four loaves of rye bread, which were on sale, and a “lumber jack” sandwich (my husband’s supper – it’s big enough for two or three meals!). I found boxes of granola bars at a really good sale price, so I got two of them; one for my daughters to share and one for my husband and I to share.

We got a wedge of Porter Beer cheddar, and two bags of red potatoes. The red potatoes were more than half off. There was a sale on rice cakes, too, so we got four packages. We very rarely get rice cakes.

My daughter picked up some sesame oil and Shirakiku rice (I don’t cook with either), plus a couple of salmon roll sushi for her and her sister to have for supper.

I picked up some of the locally produced slab bacon; one regular smoked and one applewood smoked. All of that company’s products were 20% off. I got a couple of packages of thick cut bacon that were on sale. We also picked up a couple of boxes of frozen tempura pickle chips that were insanely discounted. Perhaps, after we try them, we’ll find out why! 😄

I forgot to get distilled water for my husband at the Walmart, so we got a couple of gallon jugs here.

Last on the receipt is some Bonito soy sauce my daughter chose.

These made for a grant total of $378.82 Our total savings is listed as $87.56 As our total was over $300, I also got 40x the loyalty points, plus they also had a double the points offer that did not have any purchase limit requirements. I am saving my points for around Christmas, when we can usually get free turkeys with points.

While this is a stock up shopping trip, this one was larger than usual, and had a lot of things we get rarely, or will probably never need to get again.

By the time we were done, both of us were in a lot of pain, and we were more than happy to be heading home!

We did have one last stop to make, though. We took our time with the shopping partly so that I wouldn’t be too early to stop at my mother’s for her evening med assist, since there was no one with home care available for her two evening visits. It was still earlier than she would usually have a home care worker arrive, but still within the time frame on the bubble pack for those meds. Still, I was early enough that I took the time to test her blood pressure and get a pulse oximeter reading first. Once that was done, I got her medications that she took right away, then got her later ones ready in the tiny bowl with a tagine cover on it that she likes so much. I made sure to record my visit details on the note that I left for the home care worker to read, tomorrow, and tuck that into the lock box with everything else.

While I was inside with my mother, my daughter got that new steering wheel cover on. While the bling is hilariously tacky and fun, it actually feels really good on the hands while driving!

I didn’t bring in the LED candle I got for her, though. It was too far back in the truck box to reach!

Once done at my mother’s, it was finally time to go home and unload. After unloading, my daughter waited until I started feeding the outside cats, and they were all lured away from the truck, before she parked it in the garage. My older daughter had already started to put things away, but she wasn’t feeling well and had to be careful not to move too fast. She was very happy to see those personal hygiene products! We were all happy to not have to cook supper!

The good thing is that, even if something happened and we couldn’t do our Costco shopping on Friday, we are stocked up enough to last us for quite a while. An Alberta Clipper is blowing through; we got a bit of snow today, and will be getting more over the next two days. Most of the system will be passing to the North of us, though, so it should not be an issue for travel.

In other things, I did not get a call from the home care coordinator. I’ll have to remember to call her tomorrow morning, before my daughter and I head out for her PCOS ultrasound.

I also got a message from our mechanic. That new oil sensor will cost $103.99, and he will not be charging us labour, since they cleaned, rather than replaced it, yesterday. To get the other things done that was noticed while they were working on the truck, will be another $648.65 for parts and labour. After much debating with myself, I have decided to go ahead and get it all done. It means using the credit card beyond our budget, but it’s either that or we drag it out over the next several months. Better to bite the bullet now and pay it off through the budget as if we had done it piecemeal, then to allow things to slowly worsen over time and potentially cost more, later. None of this includes replacing those wheel sensors with dead batteries, but all that means is we make sure to keep the tires properly inflated, which we do anyhow.

*sigh*

Having my husband’s disability payments come in once a month makes it easier to budget things. Going to the city to do our stock up shopping in bulk saves us hundreds of dollars per month, and leaves enough budget to buy things that need to be purchased more often, like eggs, milk, bread, fresh fruits, etc., locally. Especially when we happen to also be able to take advantage of sales that we would normally miss out on, because we live too far from the city to catch them. Still, it is awfully painful to see how much is being spent in just a couple of trips!

It is done, though, and for that I am glad.

The Re-Farmer