When I went into town, I just had a few things on my list for the grocery store. Once I got there, though, I found they had some really good sales going on and I ended up doing a bit of a stock up shop!
This is what $115.78 looks like.
Yeah. Even with the sales, it doesn’t look like much!
I did get some treats this time. The multipack of Coffee Crisp is for my husband. The Kit Kats multipack were for my daughters and I. The ketchup was actually on my list. So was the whipping cream, which is for some no-bake cheesecake we want to make.
I just noticed it says low sodium for the ketchup. I hadn’t noticed that on the label! Ah, well.
I got a couple of boxes of cookies on sale for us to try. I can’t remember if we’ve ever had them before.
There was a good deal on the red grapes, and large clamshells of blueberries. I think the blueberries would go very well on top of a no-bake cheesecake!
Hot dog buns were on sale, so I got a couple of bags, then picked up a large package of wieners to go with them. I got 300 grams of sliced Montreal Smoked Meat from the deli; it was on sale, though still expensive. When it comes to deli items, they don’t show the “you saved” line.
I got some French bread and marinated artichokes so the girls and I can do a charcuterie with the fancy cheeses and salami that I picked up during previous stock up trips. The marinated artichoke is for that, as well.
I was really happy with the sliced bread that was on sale. They were so fresh, the loaves were still warm when I picked them up off the shelves!
Last of all is a poppyseed roll. It’s been years since I’ve had some! My mother used to make then when I was a kid, using poppies we grew ourselves. I don’t see them regularly at the grocery store, so I made sure to grab one.
Looking through the receipt, it shows I got almost $35 in savings on this trip. Had these been regular prices, the final bill would have been a little over $150.
So… yea? I mean, I’m glad I got the sale prices, but I remember when, not too long ago, those would have been the regular prices!
Gotta take advantage of the sales and stock up when we can, though – and that includes a few treats. Those are always a good psychological boost when it’s near the end of the month but still a ways away from when pay comes in. I like to reserve something special for times like that, whether it’s a sweet treat, or some high end steaks. That’s something I learned to do back when we were way, way tighter, financially, than we are now. The morale boost of having something like that to enjoy when the fridge is otherwise empty, or the money ran out before the month did, is just as important as keeping to bellies full!
According to my weather app, it’s “only” 26C/79F out there, with no humidex change.
I’m pretty sure they’re lying. 😄
We barely cooled down last night at all. Usually, during the day, I have the box fan in the window facing the screen and blowing hot air out, then at night a reverse it to blow cool air in. I actually had to get up during the night and set the fan to blow the air out again, it was so hot!
The forecast for today had been a high of 31C/88F, but that’s now what we are expecting tomorrow, and today’s high is supposed to be 27C/81F, which we have not hit yet – at least not according to the weather app!
I was out early again to water the garden. I’d say, in the cool of the morning, but having never gone below 20C/68F during the night, it really wasn’t that cool. Still, it would help reduce the heat stress, at least.
Once the morning routine was done, I made sure to grab the ice packs out of the freezer, once again double insulating them, so they would last until I needed them, then headed out. Today is election day for our municipality, so I made a stop at the polling station first. That took longer than expected, as my name wasn’t on the list. My brother’s was, though, which explained why. My brother owns the property and pays the taxes on it, so even though he doesn’t live near here, they would have his name on the roster. Since we’ve been living here long enough, I was able to just sign a form the scrutineer filled out for me and vote.
I remembered to avoid the highway I normally take, since it’s still being resurfaced in sections, and crossed over to the next highway, stopping to put in $20 in gas along the way. Just enough to put me back above half a tank.
My only goal for today was Costco, so there were no side trips this time. I was going to fill the tank first, but the lines at the gas pumps were pretty long, so I decided to do it later. It was really busy, but was I able to find a parking spot near the gas pumps, and right next to a cart corral, so I was happy.
The shopping was… okay. As usually, I loaded up with the larger and heavier cat supplies, first, then did the rest of the shopping. With things as busy as they are, it was frustrating. What is it with people who don’t think twice about cutting off a flat cart? I can’t stop on a dime with that thing! I did have one person going past me pause to compliment me on how well I handled the flat cart, though! That was certainly appreciated. Lord knows, I was doing my best!
Anyhow, this is what $717.12 in total looks like.
*sigh*
As usual, I put the cat supplies on a separate bill.
I got four 9.1kg bags of Kirkland cat food, two 11.6kg bags of Whiskas, two cases of wet cat food and a box of puppy pads.
Nine items, and it came out to #325.60
I suppose this as good a time as any to post the Ko-fi donation button, if anyone is able to contribute!
As always, all donations go towards care and feeding of the cats. With my husband on disability payments, we have to be really, really careful about that!
Then there was the stuff we got for ourselves.
There’s a flat of Coke in there, that is 30 cans at about the same price as a flat of 24 cans, locally. I got a case of water bottles this time. We used buy these all the time and kept water bottles in a cooler in the van. With the truck, the cooler doesn’t really fit with the other stuff we keep in the cab. So we’ll just bring water bottles to the truck before heading out, as needed.
There’s a 15 pound bag of potatoes in there, since our larger potato varieties in the garden aren’t ready to harvest yet. I got a big case of ramen noodles, paper towels and toilet paper.
I didn’t get any sliced bread this time; just two packs of tortilla wraps. The chicken taco is a meal kit that I picked up for supper, so we don’t have to cook in this heat. There’s a package of fresh sausages, plus a 3pk assortment of cured sausages. There’s 5 pounds of butter, a 6pk of cream cheese, and a 2 pk of sour cream (they no longer carry the 500ml containers, but packs with two 250ml containers, instead). I got a block of mozzarella and a block of marble cheeses. I picked up two hot rotisserie chickens, frozen perogies (the box has 4 bags in it), a bag of basmati rice, and a 60 count of eggs.
I got a 2pk of baking powder, 3pk of Spam, a large jar of peanut butter, a 2pk of butter chicken sauce and 2 large jars of mayonnaise for the pantry. Normally, I get the Hellman’s mayo, but they’re getting more expansive, so I got the Kirkland brand this time.
And that’s it.
That’s all we got for $391.52
There’s hardly any meat in there at all, and meat is usually where I get the best prices at Costco, but the budget just wasn’t there for it, this time. That will change, later in the month, as my daughter pays us back for what we covered to get her new computer, which should arrive in a couple of days.
After I paid for this, I did grab a chicken and fries meal with a drink for the ride home, which was almost $9. I ended up not eating most of it, though. The seasoning on the chicken is a bit spicy for me; I have almost no tolerance for spicy heat in food, unfortunately. That’s okay, though. My husband got to enjoy it when I got home.
Once the truck was loaded up, I had some issues getting to the gas pumps to fill my tank. Someone decided to get in the line right behind me, and I didn’t have room to back out and turn. They would not move at all – even when other lanes cleared and they could have gotten to a pump faster!
Filling the tank cost me another $69 and change. Between the gas and the food, that made for a total of about $815 and change spent today.
*sigh*
After messaging my family to let me know I was on the way home, the girls made sure they were up and able to help me unload, then put everything away. While they took care of that, I made sure to put food out for the yard cats, to get them away from the truck, before parking!
Oh, that reminds me. I’ve had good news from the Cat Lady. Her son it already out of the hospital! In fact, he’s feeling well enough, he’s wanting to go to a local event this weekend. If that works out, she’ll let me know, so we can work out where and when to connect, and Button will finally be on his way to his new forever home!
All in all, I guess it has been a productive day, even though I wasn’t able to get everything that was on my shopping list this time. I’ll have to go out again, tomorrow, but this will be to make a dump run, then head into town to refill our 18.9L water jugs.
What I’d like to be doing right now is mowing the inner yard, but it’s way too hot and humid. It’s not supposed to cool down to a decent temperature until 6am. I think I’ll try to get to bed early tonight, so I can do the watering earlier, then get some mowing done before it gets too hot. Once I get the inner yard mowed, I want to park the truck in the shade of the inner yard, so we can use the garage to start building a cat isolation cage. I want to move the folding table we made into there, then set the miter saw up on it, then start gathering whatever materials I can find in the sheds and barn. I have a basic design in mind but, in the end, it’s just going to be cobbled together with what we have! It will be much better to work in the shade – and more level floor! – of the garage.
Oh, I also want to remove things from inside the outhouse, including the shelves we installed, so we can use them again. The yard is solid enough that we can use the truck to pull the tree off of it. I expect the outhouse will be destroyed in the process, but we might still be able to salvage parts of it. We shall see.
I really appreciate working air conditioning in our truck!
Today’s stock up shopping trip was a smaller one, and I even managed to be under budget, but not by choice in a couple of places.
The big stock up shop will be at Costco, in the middle of next week. This trip was going to be Canadian Tire, then Walmart, then the international grocery store.
I goofed and found myself in the wrong lane to go to Canadian tire, so I ended up going to the international grocery store first, rather than trying to find a way to turn around and go back.
The international grocery store shares a parking lot with a Dollarama, so I decided to go there, first. I didn’t bother taking a photo of that shop. I got a couple of cheap plastic table cloths for our dining table to protect it from the cats, some tomato twist ties, a square box of facial tissues for the truck and a couple of large ice packs for future stock up shopping trips, since we’ve had to get rid of a few older ones. That trip totaled $22.12
It was lunch time by then, so before I did my shopping at the grocery store, I got some dim sum and a drink for lunch. That totaled $19.94.
Then I finally got the shopping done. In this store, there are things we get that are more like special treats, things we don’t find elsewhere that we normally go to, and sometimes some unusually good sales.
This is what $120.32 looks like.
Yeah. Seriously. That’s it.
This place has a really good cheese counter. Not as good as what we used to have to choose from in the city we lived in before we moved out here, but still pretty decent. This trip, that included a coconut brie, goat gouda with honey and truffle gouda cheese. They also had a sale on big blocks of marble cheese of a size larger than what is now available at Costco.
Coconut milk was on sale, and the girls like to use that, so I got a couple of cans for them. Yes, I got more ice packs – an in between size, this time – which were also on sale. The Applewood smoked bacon is a locally produce product that we find only here, and we like to buy the slab bacon at times.
The cooked and raw prawns were both a reduced price. We normally get Basmati rice at Costco, but we were completely out, so when I saw the sale price, I grabbed a bag. Last of all was the raspberry syrup; a Polish product that isn’t usually in stock, so I made sure to grab a bottle.
That’s is. Eleven items. I fit most of it in a hard sided insulated back, with ice packs, and still had room to put the soft sided bag with the rest of the ice packs on top. The cans and the bottle of syrup went into another hard sided bag that got added to, later.
Usually, I’d be putting the bags in the box of the truck, but with just a couple of bags, I kept them in the cab, with the air conditioning.
My next stop was Canadian Tire. There were two things I was looking for there. Litter pellets and a new air filter for our lawn mower. It’s a Canadian Tire brand, so only Canadian Tire carries the air filter. I meant to get one last month, but they were out of stock in both Canadian Tires we normally shop at.
They were still out of stock!
So all I got there were 4 bags of stove pellets for the litter boxes, which totaled $33.56 after taxes. I didn’t bother getting a photo of those. 😁 I didn’t take the time to look for anything else, since I had stuff on ice in the truck, and I knew that cab would be heating up fast.
Last of all was the Walmart. The girls had a couple of things they asked me to pick up, but the rest was mostly just “pick up enough to last us until the Costco trip”.
This is what a total of $269.44 looks like.
*sigh*
I ended up with three receipts for this one.
I put the cat food on one bill. I got two packs of 32 cans of wet cat food. I intended to get 4 bags of dry cat food, but ended up getting only two that were at $29.97 still. The other bags – same weight but different flavours – had gone up $5 per bag. So the wet and dry cat food together came out to $131.57
Oh, crud. I just remembered. I intended to pick up more of their XXL puppy pads. I’ll have to make sure to do that on my next trip.
For the rest, I got some coffee for the girls because the price was better than anywhere else I’ve seen. I also got a couple of coffee creamers to go with it, which was actually on the shopping list. I got a 12 pack of Coke Zero for my husband and I, and of Ginger Ale for our daughters. An unplanned purchase was a new smoke detector; I kept forgetting to replace the one that broke a while back until now!
I got some canned luncheon meats for the pantry. They had rice crackers on sale that my husband really likes, so I got 4 packs of those.
I got a couple of soy milks for the girls as well. Normally, I get 2L cartons from the fridge, but they were completely sold out, and I grabbed the last two 1L self stable cartons when I found them.
There was a really good sale on bacon, so I grabbed two packages of thick cut bacon. The beef stew wasn’t on sale, but it was the only thing that both looked good and was affordable. I’m actually quite shocked by how much of the beef I saw today was turning colour! I grabbed a pound of butter – just one, as I’ll be stocking up on butter at Costco. There’s a couple of vegetable bouillon cube boxes in there, a bag of raw pumpkin seeds that will be ground up to include in the cat soup (though it’s something we can eat ourselves, too), and a bag of avocados. It’s been a long time since we’ve bought avocados, they’ve become so expensive! I got 2 bags of pasta for now; I’ll stock up on pasta more at Costco. Finally, I picked up and energy drink for the ride home. That totaled $127.43.
Yup. We spent more on cat food than on food for ourselves!
Then, as I was packing things back into the cart, I remembered I was supposed to get ice. I had even picked the cash register that was next to the freezer, so I could grab them at the last moment! Thankfully, the cashier allowed me to get 3 bags in between the customer she was ringing through, and the next one – and the next one in line was okay with it, too. We even joked around about it.
The three bags of ice came out two $10.44
So that was the shopping and lunch. I also got gas.
On the way to the city, I’d stopped to get $40 of gas, plus some perogies and a drink for breakfast. I also grabbed some beef jerky to keep in the truck for road munchies. That totaled $60.77 I was under half a tank when I left home. With gas at $1.539, that brought me a bit above half. By the time I was done shopping, I was at half a tank. So, on the way out, I decided to put in another $40 in. (I’ll do a fill, and reset my trip counter, at Costco) I decided to get myself an ice cream bar as a treat, which brought the total to $45.37
So, everything together, including gas (which comes out of a different line in the budget), meals and beverages, the grand total for the day came out to $571.52. Taking out the gas budget items, the groceries, etc. budget items totaled $465.38
We didn’t get a lot for that money, that’s for sure.
I’m not looking forward to seeing how much the Costco trip is going to cost!
This morning, while feeding the cats before doing my rounds, I made sure to be on the lookout for the newly snipped boys, and the kitten I found yesterday.
I’m happy to say the kitten is still hanging around the sun room, and I think I even saw one of the creche mothers – Adam – nursing it.
As for the newly snipped boys, I saw Syndol in the sun room a lot yesterday evening, but not this morning. I did see Stinky and Nosey, who were their usual selves. With Nosey, that means a combination of PET ME NOW and I’M GOING TO BITE YOU! Of course, I checked their nibs, and everything looks fine.
There has been no sign of Collin since he ran out of the carrier. It may be a while before we see him again!
I was scheduled to help my mother with her grocery shopping this afternoon, but I remembered that I still hadn’t picked up her bloodwork requisition at the clinic. I was supposed to do it while going to and from the city, since this town is on the way, depending on which highway I take. I completely forgot.
So, after I finished my rounds, I left early enough to pick up a couple of packages at the post office before they closed, then drove the 45 minutes to the clinic, got the requisition printed out, then drove to my mother’s place.
She didn’t quite understand what I was giving her when I handed her the printout. She thought it was test results of some kind, but she hasn’t had any tests done recently. She just remembered that they took 5 vials of blood last time, and thought this was the results. I had to repeat myself a few times, and read out what she is being tested for (she might be getting 6 vials taken, this time) and why. The call from the doctor telling her to stop taking her water pills for a month was based on her last bloodwork, and this is to see if anything has improved.
Once she understood, she said she would go to the local lab and get her bloodwork done, no appointment needed, on Monday. The town she lives in has a handi van available that, for a few dollars, will shuttle people with mobility requirements around town. It would be far easier for her to use that, than for me to drive her in the truck.
After getting that cleared up, we went over her shopping list, for both a pharmacy trip and the grocery store, talked about potential substitutions if things weren’t available or didn’t look good, and then I headed out.
I had a pleasant surprise while at the grocery store part of her shopping. I ran into an old friend/former co-worker and her kids that I haven’t seen in ages. They live on a farm in the area, and I pass their place fairly regularly, but we just don’t cross paths very often. So that was really nice.
After the shopping was done, I went through everything with my mother while I put things away. While talking about her blood tests, I’d asked her about drinking more water, and she remembered to add water bottles to the shopping list. I was happy to hear she found them very handy, though I got the impression she has not been drinking more water like she’s supposed to. Anyhow. The water turned out to be on sale, so I got her a bigger case this time. Water bottles will help her keep track, visually, of how much she is drinking, too.
She didn’t have protein of any kind on her list, as she apparently still had, but there was such a good sale on chicken legs and thighs, I got her a package. That one package could last her a week. She was quite happy with my additions and substitutions (all within her budget, of course), and even complimented me on how I’ve got so much “experience” with this sort of thing. I’m not entirely sure how she means it, but I’ll take the compliment.
In fact, the entire visit with her was good. She definitely was having one of her good days.
She had something going on in her building in the afternoon, so I wasn’t going to stay long. I did remember to ask her about the commode home care got for her. She told me, she doesn’t use it.
??
The problem was in emptying the reservoir. It’s light and easy to remove, but requires two hands to carry it. Since she would have one hand either using a cane, or using the walls and furniture to steady herself, she can’t carry it to the bathroom to empty it. So she has continued to use an ice cream bucket at night, rather than going to the washroom. How using the ice cream bucket is easier than walking to the bathroom in the first place, I can’t understand. I have no idea how she actually uses it, what with her messed up knees, but it has handle and she can carry it with one hand, so…
The solution turned out to be easy.
The ice cream bucket fits inside the commode reservoir, and the seat opening fits over it, almost exactly. She can use the commode, then easily carry the bucket away to empty it during the day.
Problem solved.
There was one other thing I remembered to ask my mother. When arranging for me to come out today, she mentioned having an appointment this morning – but it was a secret and she wouldn’t tell me what it was, and no one else was supposed to know.
Which means, of course, I had to warn my brother about it, because she has a terrible habit of causing problems he ends up having to fix.
So I jokingly asked her how her seeeecret meeting went this morning.
Well, it turned out, our vandal had somehow arranged with her to come over for a visit. Since his phone number is blocked, I don’t know how this was done.
The first thing I wanted to know was, was he alone? He has been behaving properly, when there is someone else there as a witness, but when it’s just him, that’s when he is verbally abusive towards her. It did turn out that he was alone.
I’m not sure what he was after, but whatever it was, I don’t think he got it. Apparently, he’s got cancer and is undergoing chemo, but she can’t even remember if it was his lungs or kidneys or whatever. But he’s taking lots of pills, and is getting surgery soon.
Whether this is true or not, I have no way to know, but I’m guessing he’s going to milk it for all he’s worth on her for… something. Usually, money, but who knows. Whatever it is, though, it’s going right over her head. After only a few hours, she was already forgetting most of what he talked about.
At least he didn’t start yelling at her in the doorway, like he usually does when he’s on his own.
After that, I headed home. Before settling in, inside, I made a point of doing some outside stuff first. Our high of the day was supposed to be 26C/79F, which I’m sure we did reach. As I write this, it’s past 4:30, and we’re at 25C/77F, with the humidex putting us at 30C/86F. It was definitely feeling hot out there, and the humidity isn’t helping. Especially when it comes to mosquitoes. We have SO many mosquitoes right now! They are just loving this weather.
I went to top up the cat kibble outside but, in this heat, they aren’t actually eating all that much. I still made sure to leave some spread out in spots around the house, where I know kittens are starting to come closer.
Then I was going to continue my evening rounds, when I saw a cat lying in the grass, in the shade of the storage house, looking like it was asleep.
Except, cats don’t sleep there. It’s too open and exposed.
It turned out to be Driver (Adam’s sibling), and he was dead.
There was no sign of injury of any kind on him. Since the snow melted, we had only been seeing him every once in a while. The few times I’ve seen him recently, he was very skittish and nervous around the other males; particularly Shop Towel. There was no evidence he’d been in a fight of any kind, though. He was just lying there, like he was taking a nap in the shade.
So bizarre!
I then had the problem of finding a place to bury him. We’re running out of places to bury cats and kittens. Too many big tree roots and rocks. In the end, I buried him where we were supposed to have a poppy bed this year, but it never got cleared out in time for sowing. We can build up the bed and plant flowers over him, next year.
*sigh*
This has been a pretty rough week or so for that. The litter of newborns, the baby raccoon, and now Driver…
Yeah, I know; this is to be expected when you live in the boonies, and we do have way too many cats, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
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.
It was a remarkably busy day at Costco, for the middle of the week. I didn’t get everything I had on my list, and still broke $800.
This is what $808.34 looks like.
It really doesn’t look like much at all. 😞
I put the cat food on a separate bill again.
It was just cat food, too. I didn’t get their puppy pads again, as we still have more than half a case, though I will be getting more of the larger size when we hit Walmart in a couple of days.
At first, I got eight 9kg bags of the Kirkland brand, because I didn’t see the 11.6kg Whiskas bags. Those turned out to be moved to the end of the aisle. When I saw they were on sale, I put back 4 of the Kirkland bags and replaced them with the Whiskas. At $8 off, I considered replacing all of them, but decided against it, so the cats would have a variety.
I got two cases of the wet cat food, which has gone up in price by a dollar since last month.
Then there was the stuff for us.
When the cashier confirmed my butters, it turned out I’d accidentally got both salted and unsalted. I took them out of the same box, so they should have been all the same! I’m glad he caught that.
For other dairy, we got marble and Old cheddar cheese, plus cream cheese and sour cream.
I didn’t get a double flat of eggs, like I usually do, since we still have lots of eggs we got from my homesteading friend.
We got our usual Kirkland brand of TP, plus a case of facial tissue that was on sale.
Among the things we don’t always get every month was a case of toothpaste, a case of toothbrushes, extra strength ibuprofen, lactase and Vit. B12. I also got a 6 pack of baking soda; we finally got near the end of the last 6 pack I got!
In breads, I just got four packs of tortilla wraps and a 2pk of rye bread.
For meats, I got a bit of a treat; a panini variety pack of sliced meats. I got a package of large breakfast sausages, pork belly, a 3 pack of whole chickens and a chub of ground beef. I also grabbed a 3 pk of Spam for the pantry.
Then there was the mayonnaise and peanut butter, and a bag of potatoes.
That’s it.
I didn’t even finish going through all the aisles, as my budget for this shop was about $800.
Aside from this, I picked up $30 of gas on the way into the city, at $1.389/L That put me back above half a tank. I filled the tank at Costco. At $1.299, it cost me $66.22 to fill the tank.
After the truck was loaded, I swung by a Superstore to get some sort of lunch I could eat while driving. I ended up getting a ham sandwich and a bottle of water, but while looking for something more interesting to drink, I found they had Beaver Buzz in stock, and Citrus – my favorite flavour – was on a “buy three” sale, so I got three of those. I’m not sure what happened to the receipt, but that totaled $17 and change.
My first stop was at Walmart, where the majority of what I needed to get was more cat food, which I paid for separately, plus a few other items.
The four, 9kg bags of dry kibble cost $29.97 each, and the case of canned cat food cost $28.77, for a grand total, after taxes, of $166.49
The other items, plus a donation, came to $46.73, but the girls will be paying me back for their stuff, so the out of budget cost will be for the argan oil at $8.17 and my Vit. D3, which was $9.48 – both were on sale – plus the donation. With taxes, it would be between $20-$25 out of budget. I don’t feel like doing the math for the exact amount. 😁
I completely forgot to look for the electric tape that was on my list, though. I didn’t remember that until I checked the list while I was at Superstore. Oops.
The Superstore run was a lot longer. It’s been a long time since we’ve done a Superstore run, and I went through most of the store, then doubled back a few times, looking for things.
What you can’t make out in the photo is the sushi I got for lunch, and the package pf paper towels under the cart.
For this trip, I got coffee and non-dairy milks for the girls, and an energy drink for me, to go with my sushi lunch. I also got paper towels, ground cinnamon and ground thyme, cocoa, brown (well, yellow, according to the receipt), a big jar of olives, a case of Coke Zero, two jars of mayo, a wheel of double cream brie (30% off) and a big block of Old Cheddar cheese. Costco no longer carries blocks in that size, unfortunately. They had a better price. I did find the brand of soy sauce my husband likes, though. I normally find that at the international grocery store.
For fresh fruits and vegetables, I only got bananas and crimini mushrooms. Most of what I saw either didn’t look very good, or was too expensive. I did get their $5 bag of torpedo buns – there’s just something about those buns that I love! – plus a couple of baguettes that were only $1 each. I got a big package of hot dogs, so I got a couple of packages of buns to go with them.
For proteins, I also got a pack of frozen ground chicken (four chubs in the pack that I think are 1lb each), some breakfast sausages and some pork and vegetable pot stickers. For the girls, I got a couple of packages of frozen fish filets.
I remembered to pick up some more no-name Pepto and, last of all, I got some Gorilla brand silicone sealant. The drainage hose on our washing machine has sprung a leak. That’s what the electric tape was supposed to be for; we find it is great for waterproof patching of small holes in hoses. Superstore had all kinds of other tape, but no electric tape. I don’t know if the sealant will work, but if it doesn’t, it will still come in handy for other things!
The grand total for this was $250.89, but I had enough points on my Optimum card to get $20 off, so I actually paid $230.89
So the total for the day, minus what the girls will reimburse me for, was more like $420 plus a bit, than the $444.11 total on the receipts.
When I filled the tank, I also got a couple more jugs of summer windshield washer fluid, which cost me $49.96 in total.
Adding in the cost of the tire ($55.97), my prescription refills (only $14.54 and change, thanks to my husband’s medical insurance) and breakfast ($10.62), today cost the budget just over $550.
Ouch.
Then my husband sprung for burgers, which I picked up in town on the way home, but that didn’t come out of budget. Still, getting two burgers for each of us – nothing else – came out to $85 and change!! Granted, they were all triple burgers, but still… Ouch!
They really hit the spot, though.
So that was my very long, rather expensive day.
The sad thing is, we only have about half of the cat food we’ll need for the month. We’ll pick more up later. Then there’s the fresh stuff we’ll be picking up locally, as needed, throughout the month.
Having the truck is great, but that many bags and cases of cat food, plus our own supplies, is a bit much. We’re already needing to use a garden claw to pull the bags forward so we can unload them. I make a point of laying them across the axle, but by the time I get home, there’s usually at least one bag, or some other item, that’s made it’s way as far as the cab. We could certainly fit everything in the box with just one shopping trip. It would just mean more stops and more driving around, plus having to roll up the cover on the box and climb in to load it, which would make for a much more exhausting trip. Better to split it into two trips.
Not that I’m complaining, mind you. It’s just the things we need to work around our physical limitations. We do what we can, and don’t stress over the things we can’t.
With several things going on, today’s trip to the city was supposed to be for a small stock up trip, with the larger one happening when main pay comes in, on the last business day of the month. Our schedule has changed a bit, so I will be able to do that on the Friday, and we will be visiting our friend that’s back in Canada on the weekend, instead.
This really was a small shopping trip. This is the Costco portion.
I had the cat supplies put in a separate bill again.
Last month, I got only the 11.6kg Whiskas kibble, which have gone up in price by 10¢. The Kirkland brand, however, was $27.99 the last time I got it, so it’s actually down by 30¢ per 9kg bag. The puppy pads did not change in price since I last bought them. The case of wet cat food was $37.89 last month, so it’s gone up by $1.10.
Since I only got 4 bags of dry kibble, and 1 case of canned cat food, along with the puppy pads, the grand total for cat supplies at Costco was “only” $218.34
As for stuff for ourselves, there were quite a few things on my list that I skipped for this trip.
Today, we needed both AA and AAA batteries, as well as toilet paper. Other paper products got skipped on this trip. We got a double flat of eggs (5 dozen), 5 pounds of butter, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, cream cheese, frozen pierogi, ground beef (we’re out of ground beef from the quarter beef we got in January), ribs and a pork blade for meats. I was going to get a package of bacon, until I saw the price. We got a case of pasta, as well as a big pack of Raman type noodles. I got two packages of tortilla warps and two double packs of sliced French bread this time, instead of the usual rye, and a bag of Basmati rice. Extras included a box of Sweet and Salty granola bars – something we haven’t bought in a very long time, but it was on sale today – plus a tray of sushi and a lasagna for us to enjoy after we unloaded and put everything away. They had a fundraiser going on for the Children’s Hospital, and I added a donation as well, but only after making sure they weren’t going to do the stupid bell ringing and cheering thing. Good grief, that’s something that would actually stop me from donating! *shudder*
So the non-cat supply total at Costco was $424.04
The store was so busy, I never made it to the pharmacy section, so after I filled the tank (I’ll give the gas total, later), I went to a nearby Walmart. This one is a LOT bigger than the one I usually go to, and is a very different layout, so that took a bit longer than usual. I was in no hurry, though. This was the Walmart portion of the trip.
I’m not counting the stuff I picked up for the girls, since I will be paid back for that. While there, though, I did get more cat supplies.
Yes, I got more puppy pads. The Costco ones are 30″ x 23″ which, for some areas we use them in, is a bit small. The Walmart house brand ones are more expensive, but they are 30″ x 36″
I also got a box of pet odor eliminator powder for the carpet in my room, plus an odor and stain removing spray.
Yes, we have issues. Mostly, it’s Finnegan, spraying. We just can’t get him to stop!! Discovering he was spraying a corner of vintage dresser that was my father’s was the most disturbing. We almost lost a cat, at that point. I’ve actually had to put a barrier around that part of the shelf, on top of a puppy pad, then drape another puppy pad over the barrier, to protect it. Then there is the annoying habit of cats that will go right next to a litter box, instead of in it. Even when it’s freshly cleaned!
Last of all, I got a cold drink for the drive home, plus another donation to the Children’s Hospital, which put my total at Walmart at $51.72
Aside from that, I also got gas. I was under half a tank when I headed out, so I stopped at the town my mother lives in and put in $30. The price there was $1.449/L At Costco, however, it was at $1.299/L Filling cost a total of $57.61 As I was driving out, I passed one gas station where I could see a price, and it was at $1.399/L A considerable difference!
So the total for fuel was $87.61. Everything else was $694.10, for a grand total for the day of $781.71
For cat food, that might last us 2 weeks. The next trip, we’ll have to get a lot more, if we want it to last the month!
Once everything was put away and the lasagna was in the oven, I made Cat Soup, using the new Healthy Poops powder instead of the ground pumpkin seeds. The cats were very happy to be getting their cat soup again! It didn’t take them long to get used to getting it, instead of just straight up canned cat food.
As for whether the additives are helping the cats with their… consistency… in the litter box, I do believe it is helping. Peanut Butter Cup was the main concern, since she was Miss Leaky Butt, but that has stopped. She has still been… loud… in the litter box, but it’s getting better. It’ll be a few more days before we can really tell if it has made a difference for all of them, though.
We’ll have to start doubling up on our lysine orders, though, since we are dosing both the inside and outside cats. Or get that 4 pound box for horses I was looking at. Both are purse lysine, so the only difference should be the texture of the powder.
Ah, the things we do for the cats!
[Update: we did the math, and the savings by ordering bulk was significant enough that we just ordered the 4 pound bucket]
Anyhow.
That was our shopping for today. Smaller than our first shop usually is – at least when it includes Costco – yet it was still almost $700. That’s just over half our budget for the month, and we still need to make sure to keep part of the budget aside for when we need to top up with fresh stuff throughout the month.
It’s getting harder and harder, every month, to do that. We are fortunate that my husband’s private insurance disability income is as good as it is. Today’s pay was CPP Disability, and a lot of people have to somehow survive on just that!
As difficult as it is, I am thankful that we are able to do as well as we are, and especially thankful for when we get donations to help out with the kitties. We are in a much better position than so many others. Who would have thought that my husband being on disability, and moving out here, would actually give us better stability than when he was working full time, and we were in the city?? God sure has a way taking a bad thing, and making some good out of it.
I knew we would need to pick up some more kibble before the end of the month, so I took advantage of today being a rainy day to make the run to the nearest Walmart. It’s worth the gas to drive that far, if we need to get enough stuff.
Which is saying something, since it costs roughly $30 in gas to drive there and back – and this is the closer Walmart in the smaller city!
I got a whole 13 individual items, and it came out to over $100. *sigh*
The “extras” I got were a drink for the ride home, a couple of containers of gum to keep in the truck, and a mini garden claw to make life easier on my arthritic hands.
The two bags of kibble were the 9.1kg size; they didn’t have any of the 11kg bags in stock again. The distilled water my husband needs for his CPAP humidifier has gone down in price, and I got 4 of those, plus a couple of 2 for $11 blocks of cheese. I also got a 10lb bag of potatoes; the first we’ve bought since having our own potatoes.
That’s it. The whole shopping trip – and the grand total, after taxes, was $104.54.
The disturbing thing is, even with the cost of gas, I still saved money by driving further to get this stuff, and even then, that’s only because our province has temporarily held back a gas tax to keep prices lower for now, so we’ve got some of the lowest gas prices in the country. Once they stop doing that, the cost of gas for a trip like this would be higher than anything saved by making such a trip, except that once the gas prices go up again, so will the cost of everything else.
Very disheartening. Especially knowing that it’s all due to our federal government’s actions. Aside from the taxes on top of taxes, the value of our dollar keeps dropping. At least we can still afford to buy this stuff, for now. The local food banks are really struggling to meet the increased needs, and I’m starting to see ads asking for donations for what is basically a pet food bank, so people won’t be forced to surrender their pets.
Yes, we can grow our own food, to a certain extent, and we can work towards keeping small livestock. Our goals include being able to produce our own animal feed as much as possible, too, but of the stuff on this list, the only thing we can do ourselves right now is grow potatoes. Meanwhile, I’m already hearing proposals about how home gardeners should be registered with the government, or even prevented from gardening at all because, “climate change”, thanks to that laughable “study” that found home gardening was worse for the environment than large scale (government approved, of course) agriculture – along with wanting to end the beef industry and, eventually, all meat production, for the same reason. But hey, there’s a cricket farm for human consumption in the city, and it’s been ramping up production!
🙄🫤
I must say, I’m really glad to be living in the boonies in these times.
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.
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 