groceries

First stock up shop: this is what $513 in total looks like

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

Okay, so today turned out to be completely different then planned!

Today was supposed to be a day to catch up on things outside before I have to do things with my mother for the next couple of days. Then I noticed that my husband’s CPP Disability came in earlier than I expected. So it was either do the first stock up shopping trip today, or do it on the weekend.

Today, it was!

My daughter came along this time, so we could try a different place for the shoes she’s been trying to buy for herself. There was going to be a prescription delivery this morning, though, so we just needed to wait until that was done.

Then the phone started ringing…

One of the calls today was from the home care guy, about my mother.

The first thing he brought up was that one of the aides that comes in to help my mother with her medication found a notice slipped under my mother’s door. It was about the bed bug exterminator coming in to check/spray her apartment today, and did I know about that? I told him about the call my brother got, and that they will be coming in on Friday afternoon – a manager and a tech, just to do her place – and that I would be there.

They are really bending over backwards to try and not have to evict a 93 yr old!

So for that day, while my mother is supposed to be out of her apartment for at least 6 hours, he has cancelled the home care visits.

I also explained that she does not seem to actually have bed bugs, but it looks like her neighbour does. So until this is taken care of, the home care aids will be wearing shoe covers and gloves and the like when they visit her. Hopefully, that will help my mother to take things more seriously.

Probably not.

Then he told me that the home care aids have been coming in in the mornings, and found that my mother had already taken her morning medication. That would be her usual 5am time, which has never been a requirement, but it seems she’s always been doing that. We’ve told her, she can sleep in. Take them when the care aides arrive.

When it comes to her before bed pills, she now has two, but insists she only takes one, and the other one she will take before she goes to bed, some hours later. They come in at 9 for the nightly pills. She should be taking both. She has been told this, too.

Then there is a confusion of bubble packs, and they are finding blisters have already been opened. It looks like she’s been taking the pills out and deciding what to take and what not to take? Either way, it’s hard for them to keep track.

He’s asked us to talk to her about it. If she can’t stop messing with her medications, they will have to put the bubble packs somewhere she can’t reach.

This could be a real problem.

After we got that call, I got another one… from the same home care guy! This time, it was about my husband. They’re supposed to do annual checks on those getting services; in my husband’s case, it’s about the state of his hospital bed and if it’s still in good shape (he had to have one replaced a couple of years ago). They also need a couple of signatures for his file, which I can do, so I will be leaving for my mother’s early tomorrow, so I can stop at their office, first.

Then I tried calling my mother. I ended up leaving a message, telling her I got the call from home care, and saying she needs to not touch her bubble packs, and only take her medications when they are there to help her with them.

I tried to be quick about it, because we were expecting the pharmacy delivery driver to call. It turns out he’d tried to call while I was on the phone with home care. While I was leaving a message with my mother, my daughter heard the honking at the gate, and ran out to get the delivery.

I’m so glad she did, because I never heard a thing!

That done, we could finally get what we needed – particularly ice packs – and headed out.

Our first stop was for my daughter’s shoes. We went to a factory outlet place she had recommended to her.

I so need to go there for my next pair of steel toes.

It’ll take some saving up for it, though!

While looking around at their displays, we could hear noises from other parts of the building. Those were the sounds of boots being made! It truly was a “factory” outlet, and every pair of shoes and boots in there were hand made.

Other stores carry their brand, though. In fact, the last time my daughter had herself a really excellent brand of shoes, it was this factory’s brand. She wore them until she outgrew them, and cried when they didn’t fit anymore.

She found the same boots!

She is so incredibly happy now. She’s been needing good shoes for a long time; her feet are almost as messed up as mine! They cost about $300, which took her a while to save up for, but these should last her a lifetime.

The entire rest of the day, she was practically dancing beside me as we walked around! No more foot pain. No more back pain!

This outlet happened to be not far from our first stop, which was the international grocery store.

This is what $123.57 looks like.

That doesn’t look like much for $123!

The seafood, oat milk – regular and chocolate – and coffee creamers are for my daughters.

This is where we like to get some excellent cheeses to try as treats. This time, we got both a honey gouda and a beer gouda.

The herbal tea is nettle; something for us to try. We do have nettles and could probably make our own, but we don’t have a lot and I like to leave them for the butterflies whose caterpillars like them.

The other tea is Irish Breakfast; something we haven’t picked up for a long time.

There is also an instant milk tea on there. We’ve tried something like this before, but it was a different brand. It has individual packets to make 1 cup of milk tea, which can be very handy at times.

The soy sauce is the Filipino brand my husband likes.

The applewood smoked bacon is a locally made brand I’ve not seen anyone else carry. After much searching, we finally found ground sage – a strange thing to be out of stock all over for such a long time! Last of all, we picked up some sweet potatoes (yams, on the receipt). We have a lot of peppers right now, and I found a recipe for a bell pepper and sweet potato soup that my daughters might want to try. Something I will taste, but I’m not likely going to be able to eat!

We also had a lunch at this store, before we did the shopping. Dim sum and smoked salmon sushi, which was really delicious. I forget what that cost. It was out of a different budget.

Our next stop was a Superstore. There wasn’t much we wanted to get there, though. It’s probably the smallest shop I’ve done at Superstore in a very long time!

This is what $91.12 looks like.

The only things we were really after was torpedo buns, a giant block of cheese, and to check out their energy drinks section, in case they had Beaver Buzz in stock.

They did not.

We got the torpedo buns, as well as a sourdough loaf, and a giant block of mozzarella cheese. After that, we just took a quick look around and added a big bag of bacon and cheddar cheese perogies, a couple of bags of pot stickers, two 1L boxes of orange juice, some prosciutto and a large package of chicken breasts.

Next, it was time to hit the Walmart, for what turned out to be the biggest part of our shop. This is what $298.73 looks like.

Yes, that’s a canopy tent in there! It was on clearance, and we needed one.

The canopy tent was on clearance, at $39, so I really didn’t want to pass that up.

The planned purchases included a large bag of dry kibble and two cases of 32 cans of wet cat food, for the inside cats. I also found a package of the XXL (30’x30′) puppy pads that I wasn’t able to find last month.

We got some toilet paper and a couple of spray bottles of eco-cleaner.

There is a couple of packages of hot dog buns to go with the hot dog wieners we got. The roti was a last minute grab; I haven’t had roti in ages! It won’t be as good as fresh made, but I don’t care! 😄

There’s some lean ground beef in there, as well as a frozen turkey – Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up, so it’s cheap turkey season!

We got some coffee, some ice cream to have with our melons, and there was a good deal on the soy milk my daughters like so we got two 2L of those, too. At the request of my older daughter, we also got a bunch of energy drinks.

We also got a couple of cold drinks for the road, and a package of cookies and cream donuts, which I’ve never seen before, as a road munchie.

The donuts were… okay. I had no desire for a second one! 😄

There are a couple of items visible in the cart that aren’t on the bill, because my daughter bought those.

So that was our stock up shopping for today.

On top of that, we got $40 of gas on the way out, at 1.329/L In the city, though, we were able to get gas at $1.269/L, so I put in another $40. We’ll do a fill, and I’ll reset the trip meter, at Costco.

The gas is a different budget, but gas and groceries together totaled $593.42, plus our lunch.

I’m certainly glad we brought along all our ice packs. Our high for today, here at home, was 26C/79F, but it would have been at least a couple of degrees hotter in the city. Plus, the truck would have gotten even hotter inside. By the time we got home, even in insulated bags and with ice packs, things were starting to thaw out!

Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter, with a high of 28C/82F, and very windy. Since I’m going to be taking my mother to the eye specialist, I’ve asked my daughters to give the garden a deep watering for me. We’ve had some rain over the past few days, but nowhere near enough.

Meanwhile, I have not been able to get through to my mother today. I’m at a bit of a loss. My brother had called her about the exterminator coming out on Friday, and that I planned to be there, but if they showed up at her door today, she might have thought he meant today – and would be wondering why I wasn’t there! She may be staying out of her apartment for the required minimum 6 hours.

That’s just a guess, though. For all I know, she’s hanging out in the common room with some of her neighbours.

Well, if I don’t get through today, I’ll be finding out what happened, tomorrow!

I’m just glad we got this first stock up shopping trip done now. I really did not want to do all this running around on a weekend!

Now, we just need to do the Costco shop next.

*shudder*

The Re-Farmer

An unexpected shop: this is NOT what $60+ looks like

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Well, my upcoming stock up shopping schedule has changed again.

Normally, I would be heading into the city for our first stock up shop in a couple of days (Thursday), but I’ll be taking my mother to the eye specialist, instead. With that in mind, I’d already picked up a few things I knew we’d be running out of, yesterday, when I got more cat kibble in the town north of us. Grocery prices there are much higher, so I didn’t much at all.

Today, I wanted to refill our two empty 18.9L/5 gallon water jugs in the town nearest us. The only other thing we needed was more bread. Before I left, I asked my daughter to message me if she spotted anything else we were out of that couldn’t wait until Friday.

When I parked at the store and checked my message. Nothing from home to add to the shopping list.

There was, however, a message from my brother, asking if he could call me this afternoon about my mother.

Nothing he was in the office today, I figured it was urgent! So I let him know I’d just parked in town and that he could call me on my cell phone right away, if he was still able to.

He was.

Long story short, he got a call from the public housing department that owns the building my mother lives in. They don’t want to evict a 90+ year old woman, but if she doesn’t let them in to check/spray her apartment for bed bugs again, they have no choice.

They are going to be there on Friday. They even have an exact time (usually it’s between 9am an 5pm, and would have been done tomorrow, not Friday), and a manager will be there, due to her accusations of theft.

Right away, I assured my brother that I would be there. I had already been planning to go there tomorrow, as they usually come on the last Wednesday of the month.

The city shopping can wait.

As her Power of Attorney, my brother gave them permission to do in. I’ll shoot to be there earlier to move things away from the walls – they just need room for the wand to reach – and run interference with my mother. She has to stay out of her apartment for at least 6 hours. Given that she has respiratory issues, it should really be 12 hours, but that would mean spending the night somewhere. None of us have homes accessible for her, and she is no longer willing to rent a motel room. It was during a time she spent the night in a motel that she believes the exterminator stole stuff from her. Stuff that makes no sense for anyone to steal.

The guy my brother spoke to told him, they have to deal with this sort of thing all the time, unfortunately.

He also said they don’t think my mother has bedbugs, but they’ve been spraying her neighbour’s place for the past several months. If her neighbour has them, it would not take much for them to spread to her apartment. Plus, the eggs can stay dormant for up to a year. However, if the egg casings get sprayed, when the hatch, the hatchling will die as soon as it emerges. So even if she doesn’t have bed bugs, they still need to spray a certain number of times to ensure it stays that way, as far as the eggs go, at least.

So that pushes the city stock up shopping off to Saturday.

Ah, well. We’ll deal!

I still only intended to get just bread and water refills, but I still looked around.

It turns out they had some really good sales on. So good that some things were completely out of stock. The sale ends tomorrow, so that’s not surprising.

The store itself in in the process of being completely rearranged, too. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s going to be a lot more logical in organization – and it looks like they’re expanding their international section, too!

So I ended up getting more than intended, and not all things I would normally get.

This is what $61.89 before taxes would have looked like – not counting the 60¢ for the bottle caps that got paid for when I picked them up at customer service. I cashed in a winning lottery ticket that paid for them. 😄

My loyalty card, however, had $20 I could take off the purchase, so this actually cost $41.89 before taxes.

This is what I got:

Each item shows how much the sale prices took off. You can see on the bottom that the total discounts and savings was $39.11, or 39% of the sub-total. That would be the sub-total before the $20 was taken off, so that means I had $59.11 in taken off altogether, leaving me with having to pay only $43.33 after taxes.

The things I normally would not have picked up were the boxed cereals, the instant puddings and the granola bars.

With the whole chicken, I try to get those on sale whenever I can – especially with it being over $8 off, like today.

The fruit juices were something I was looking for specifically for my daughters. I find fruit juices way too sweet. They’re basically like mainlining sugar, but it gives my daughters something different to drink.

With the bread, I usually get rye bread, but at $2 a loaf, I got two regular loaves of whole wheat bread, one whole wheat Texas Toast and one white sandwich bread.

With the cereals and granola bars, I got four different types for our 4 very different tastes.

The instant puddings were only $1 each and, at first, I picked 4 different flavours. Then I noticed they were all “low fat”. Fat is flavour, so that means they had to replace the fat with something else to make them taste good; usually sugar. So I went for the regular kind, but there were only two flavours that weren’t sold out.

Funny. There were plenty of low fat versions in stock. 😄

So, not the shopping trip I planned, but a pretty good one, I think. We got some things that are very occasional treats that I only pick up when the prices are good. Sometimes I’ll get them at Costco, but there usually isn’t a lot of space on the flat cart for what are essentially frivolous purchases.

Not too shabby, I think. Especially with today’s food prices!

The Re-Farmer

Stock up Shopping: This is what $825 total looks like

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I am so, so tired.

I’m really not sure why. I got sleep. It could very well be just the accumulation of things. The end of the month always involves a lot of running around, but this month we had a few extra stressed thrown in – both positive and negative stresses, but stresses, nonetheless.

Still, that’s just a guess on my part.

The morning was pretty typical. I wasn’t in any rush to get to the city, and did my morning rounds as usual. Then I grabbed the bag of ice packs and headed out. I didn’t even need to stop for a bit of gas along the way, as I’d put a bit in while in town yesterday, before meeting up with the Cat Lady and bringing home the donated cat shelter. It did mean I was below half a tank when I got to the Costco gas station, and filling up was the first thing I did. Regular gas at Costco was $128.9/L Everywhere else was either $1.379 or $139.9 It still cost me $80.94 to fill the tank!

Before I went to Costco, though, I did make a stop for breakfast (it was well past 10 by the time I reached the city). I decided to stop at a mall and try the food court, since the last time I tried to have food at Costco, I couldn’t eat it. My complete intolerance for spice heat in food means I can’t even have the Costco chicken strips meal. I figured, the food court would have more choices.

I can’t remember how long it’s been since I’d gone into this mall, but it was long enough that the food court was completely different, with mostly different vendors. I ended up going for Chinese food. A 3 item meal was quite a bit more expensive than where I got Chinese food last time, in the international grocery store, a few days ago! I was, however, able to get a taro bubble tea with it. I don’t think I’ve had bubble tea since before we moved out here! If I have, it’s only been once, and years ago, but I don’t remember having even seen somewhere to get bubble tea since we’ve moved.

The total bill for my breakfast was $24.62. It was good, but I don’t know that is was worth the price, to be honest.

Since I was in the mall and the food court was right next to a Dollarama, I checked that out before leaving. I ended up getting two more table protector sheets – the ones I got earlier are meant to protect the eggplant bed, but these will be to actually use on our dining table. I got some hemp rope that will be used to make scratching posts inside the cat shelters, and a small paint roller that will be used to paint the donated cat shelter’s wire mesh. Last of all, I found a cat toy that I wanted to see if the cats would actually like. It’s got the captured jingle ball, but it’s quite small and on a rocker base that, for the most part, can right itself, plus some feathers on a string out the top. The question of whether they like it is mostly due to its small size.

They like it. If I find more like it, I definitely will pick up more.

The total bill at Dollarama was $19.32

Then, it was off to get gas and do the shopping.

Since I already got some kibble at the feed store, and will be getting more later, the only cat food I needed to get today was for the inside cats. So it was just a couple of bags of kibble, plus wet cat food and puppy pads. The rest was for us humans!

I did get the pet supplies on a separate bill. This is what both bills together, $735.23, looks like.

Well, kinda. Quite a few things are hidden in the image.

The pet supplies receipt is on the bottom. Two cases of wet cat food, two 9kg bags of kibble and one box of puppy pads. Grand total: $182.51

The stuff for ourselves totaled $552.72, but this did include some more expensive purchases that are not at all usual. One of those is something that’s hidden in the photo above. I got a shop light, which cost $39.99 Now that both basements are cat free zones, we’ll be setting the workshop up again, including the giant self healing cutting mat that is currently covering the dining table. My husband will be bringing some of his leatherworking supplies down there. The light will be hung above the work table.

We got a flat of Coke Zero, but the other unusual thing we picked up was a flat of Monster energy drinks, in three flavours. Both my daughters and I drink them, so I figured it would be worth trying a case. That was $44.99.

The other “bottom of the basket” stuff includes a bag of flour – we weren’t out, but at $9.99, I grabbed one, as flour is rarely such a good price, even at Costco. I got a bucket of ghee, as we were getting low – it’s not the same as what we got before but, for the amount, the price is still insanely better than elsewhere. There’s a 9 pack of pasta, two flats of eggs (60 eggs), frozen perogies and toilet paper.

Along with those, there are packages of pork chops, fresh sausages, a panini variety pack and – a treat for the girls – a package of fresh pink salmon! Salmon is usually extremely expensive, but there were three or four salmon in there, for only $24.09. Usually, we’d pay that much for a single frozen fillet, and not a very big one!

I got another 3 pack of Spam for the pantry, and a 3 pack of all beef wieners. There is a big jar of mayonnaise and another of peanut butter. I got a 2 pack of rye bread, and two 2 packs of tortilla wraps. I also got their last 2 pack of hot dog buns. Not enough for the amount of wieners I got, but the shelf was empty. The only reason I got the one package was because someone left it in with another type of bread.

There are also blocks of mozzarella and Old cheddar cheese, plus two 4 packs of cream cheese. My daughter wants to do some baking! There are 5 pounds of butter, a 1L of whipping cream and a 2L of lactose free milk. There are a couple of 2 packs of salad mixes, and finally there are containers of ibuprofen, acetaminophen and house brand lactase.

Both Costco bills together came to $735.23

There were a couple of things on my list that I couldn’t find, though, so I decided to hit a nearby Walmart before leaving the city. I chose to go to the Walmart only because it was physically easier to get to and from than my other options.

I ended up getting more!

Click on the images to see them full size.

One of the things I was looking for was zucchini, for my daughter’s baking. We don’t have enough summer squash in the garden for the amount she needs. The other thing was soy milk. I got the lactose free milk, but my daughters had requested soy milk, and I couldn’t find any at Costco.

The big winner were the bags of salad mix. They were only $3.77 each – normally, they’d be closer to $6, even at Walmart, and closer to $7 locally. I try to get one bagged salad for each of us – it’s just easier that way – but they only had three bags left of the Mexican Corn mix. My husband likes Caesar salads, so I got one of those for him. I also got four bags of Maple Bourbon mix.

I grabbed another 12 pack of mac and cheese, as it was only $8.97. Those usually cost closer to $13, or even $15. There’s a small wheel of brie, a couple of baguettes, and a small charcuterie mix of meats. I’d like to have another charcuterie and Columbo night, this time with both girls, now that my older daughter has hit her commissions deadlines. I got more hot dog buns, so we now have more than enough for the amount of wieners I got at Costco. Last of all, I got myself a cold energy drink for the drive home.

By the time I was ready to go through the checkout lane, I was pretty exhausted. I found a lane with just one cart ahead of me, being unloaded. It was two women, shopping together. One was talking to the cashier while the other was finishing emptying the cart.

As I started unloading my own cart, both women were starting to talk to the cashier, who was no longer scanning their items.

The cashier was trying to hard sell them a Walmart credit card.

And I do mean HARD selling!

Every time one of the women would say no, the cashier would be, Oh, but there’s this benefit, or this feature, or no fees… The women kept saying no, but also listening politely to the cashier, who just kept pushing them to get this credit card, waving around this printout she had with the details…

… and not scanning their purchases.

This went on for quite a while before I finally asked, “should I be going to another lane?” The woman looked at me, and I added, “I’m tired. If this is going to take a while, should I just go to another lane?”

The cashier tired to push the card in them again, the women said no again, and finally the cashier put away the sheet and started scanning their stuff again.

It took maybe a minute for them to finish after that.

When the cashier started scanning my stuff, I got no greeting at all. She basically ignored me until she was done…

… then tried to sell me on their credit card.

Funny. When I said no, she didn’t try to hard sell me on it.

Then, for some reason, when I tried to pay for my purchase by inserting my card into the machine, I got a message saying, customer canceled transaction. I hadn’t touched anything but the bottom of the machine as I pushed the card in. At least I don’t think I did. Given how tired I was, it’s entirely possible my hand slipped and I hit a button, but I don’t think so. She resent the total to the machine and I scanned the chip, instead, and it worked fine after that.

Grand total was $90.11

I was more than happy to be out of there.

So the grand total for stock up shopping, both Costco and Walmart, was $825.43

Add in the gas and the Dollarama purchase, and it totaled $925.60 Plus my breakfast, $950.22

Ouch.

I was very happy to be leaving the city after that. Thank God I won’t have to do this again until next month!

Unfortunately, that nice cold energy drink I got did not accomplish much.

It’s an hour’s drive to the city, plus the driving time inside the city itself. After about half an hour, my exhaustion was starting to catch up on me.

By about 45 minutes, I was looking all over for a place I could safely pull over. I was feeling so tired, I started to be afraid to blink, because my eyes did not want to stay open!

In the end, I wasn’t able to pull over until I reached the intersection outside of the town nearest us, with a gas station. I went in to use the washroom, bought a couple of small things to pay for the toilet paper I used 😉, then messaged my family to let them know where I was, and that I was going to close my eyes for a bit. I was only about 25 minutes from home, but I was just not safe to drive.

Once back in the truck, I cracked the windows open a bit, leaned my seat back and closed my eyes. I had the radio going which, with the engine off, turns itself off after 10 minutes. I turned it back on again once. I also had to close the windows on one side of the truck, as it started to rain and the wind was coming in from that side, blowing rain into the cab.

I didn’t think I’d slept much, but then my phone started to ring. It was my husband, giving me a wake up call.

An hour had gone by!

Before I got off the phone, I asked if someone could open the gate for me so I could drive straight in, and then set off for home.

When I got home, both girls were waiting for me by the house. Once I was backed up to the house, they ordered me to go inside and lie down, then started to unload the truck.

I went to the bathroom before going to lie down, which is when I first heard it.

Thunder.

By the time I got back to the entry, it was pouring rain. My younger daughter was outside, unloading the truck to my older daughter at the door. My older daughter asked if I could take over while she ran upstairs to close the window by their computer!

So I took over door duty, grabbing the remaining stuff my younger daughter was bringing over. She was laughing gleefully, while getting completely soaked!

Then, as quickly as it hit us, the rain was gone!

The girls took care of everything else while I tried to lie down, but sleep would not come.

Mostly because I had a very persistent Potato Beetle, demanding attention.

He does this by reaching out and grabbing and arm or hand or face, with a single, sharp claw!

One of my daughters rescued me but, by then, I needed to eat something, anyhow.

The rest of my evening has been one of recovery, while the girls take over things. As I write this, they just finished feeding the outside cats and tending to eye baby.

It’s almost 8pm right now, and I think as soon as I finish this, I’m going to try going to bed for real this time!

I am so, so tired.

The Re-Farmer

First stock up shop and more: this is what $527 looks like – sort of

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$527.84 in total, to be more exact.

Plus $80 in gas. As I headed out, I stopped in town to get $50 in gas, at $139.9/L, along with a sandwich (made by our one restaurant in our little hamlet) and a drink for breakfast while driving, but the food was out of a different budget, so I’m not counting that. I then got another $30 of gas at $137.9/L as I was leaving the city. I also got lunch later on but, again, different budget, so I’m not counting that, either.

I didn’t get pictures of everything. I ended up going to five different places – and still skipped Superstore.

My first stop was Home Depot, as it was basically across the street from the Canadian Tire I was going to. Mostly, I was wanting to see things I was looking up online, like the clear, transparent plastic I thought might be good for windows on the cat isolation shelter.

Good grief they are expensive!

Other stuff I wanted to see, they didn’t have in stock, but they were things I am thinking of for the permanent garden trellises, so that can wait.

What I did find was half inch hardware cloth. They were rolls only 5 feet long, so I got two. I also remembered we were pretty much out of CLR, so I got a bottle of that, too.

Grand total for the three items: $47.10

That done, I popped across to the Canadian Tire and got 4 bags of hardwood pellets for the litter boxes. On the way to the tills, I grabbed a couple of 6pc bungee kits that were on clearance, and a bottle brush. The cats kept stealing our bottle brushes and they had to be thrown away, so it was nice to see some on sale.

Hopefully, the cats won’t find these ones as delicious.

Grand total: $52.43

I was going to the Walmart next, but I forgot I’d already passed it, so I went to the international grocery store, instead. It shares a parking lot with a Dollarama, so I dashed in there to see if there was anything I wanted to pick up.

There were a few things.

I found a metal hanger that might be better for hanging my daughter’s bike than what I got last time. I also grabbed a pizza rocker knife. We don’t actually need it for pizza, but we do make quesadillas fairly regularly, and other flat things that will be much easier to cut with this type of knife. I’d seen it at Dollarama before, months ago, and didn’t get it, but when I wanted to buy one, they weren’t in stock, so I snagged it when I saw it today.

I also found clear, transparent shower curtain liners, and clear transparent table cloth protectors. I got two of each. They will be for the box frame on the bed with the eggplants and hot peppers, to create a sort of greenhouse protection around them. The nights are starting to get chilly, for heat lovers like eggplant. The plastic we tried before got absolutely shredded by the wind, so I am hoping these will be less likely to tear apart. I don’t know which will work best, but the ones that don’t get used will certainly not go to waste.

Grand total: $23.52

Then I finally made it to the international grocery store. By then, it was coming up on noon, and I was going to have lunch, first. I was originally going to have Dim Sum again, but the Chinese buffet lured me in. I was in line behind a pair of older women sharing a shopping cart. One just finished getting her 3 item meal (the largest size on their menu), and her companion started to order her 3 item meal.

Then another.

Then another.

A line started forming behind me, including a young man that was immediately after me. I noticed he was wearing the store uniform, so I asked him if he was on lunch break. He said yes, so I offered for him to go in front of me. He started to say no, he could wait – until the first of the two women in front of me said that her companion was “only” ordering 5 meals.

She was still choosing items for her third one.

At that point, the guy agreed to go in front of me!

The woman ordered two more dinners, and was just starting to order a 6th, when her friend pointed out to her that she already had her five. It was just that one of them hadn’t been placed on top of the buffet cover with the others, yet, so it looked like only four. So she stopped the guy behind the counter before he put anything in the new container.

The employee in front of me started ordering, while the two ladies were talking, and it turned out that no, the second woman really had needed six meals, not five! So they asked if she could order her last one ahead of me.

I said yes, but good grief! 😄 At least one more didn’t take very long. By then, a second employee was able to help me, so it wasn’t just one guy behind the counter anymore.

It was an excellent lunch, and worth the wait.

When I do my shopping, I prefer to put everything back into the cart, then bag things myself in the truck. Especially when there are things that I want to pack with ice packs. Today, though, I noticed they had hard sided insulated bags in stock, so I got one of those, too. It was also on sale, which was a nice bonus.

This is what $222.55 looks like – plus the hardwood pellets.

Most of what I got fit into that one insulated bag!

I got the Coke Zero for my husband and I, and the root beer for my daughters. Those were both on sale.

Hidden in the insulated bag are three $5 each packages of shaved sandwich meats – chicken breast, black forest ham and old fashioned ham. I actually got a package of top sirloin steaks – a treat! – that was on sale. For the girls, I got some frozen Coho salmon and frozen Basa fillets. From their cheese bar, I got some Austrian gruyere, forest mushroom gouda and beer gouda. I got a charcuterie trio to go with the chesses. A few more ingredients, and the girls and I will have another charcuterie and Columbo marathon. 😁

There’s also some thick sliced applewood bacon and unsliced smoked bacon, both locally made. The sliced was on sale, as was the package of pork tenderloins I grabbed. Last of all for the insulated bag was a couple of bottles of creamer for the girls’ coffee, which was on sale.

Among the other items, there’s a jar of dried rosemary – something I’ve been looking for for a while, but was been out of stock, all over! There’s a bottle of Polish raspberry syrup that the girls like to add to drinks, and the Philippine soy sauce my husband likes.

I also grabbed another box of pizza pops, even though I just grabbed one yesterday. This was on an even better sale – regular price $24.79, sale price $17.49. Having an extra for the freezer is a good thing!

As a treat, I bought a box of double yolk mooncakes. They were on sale. I don’t think I’ve had moon cakes since before we moved out here! I admit; as much as I like moon cakes, part of the reason I got them was for the tin. They are very handy, and very pretty. They had two different designs, and I had to resist getting one of each!

Last of all, I ended up grabbing four 4″x6″ ice packs to add to our collection. 😄 They were on clearance and only 90¢ each, instead of $2.99.

The down side of getting those pizza pops at such a great price is, the box is long and doesn’t fit in any of our insulated bags. I stuffed it into a soft sided bag with some ice packs, but couldn’t zip it closed.

My next stop would have been Superstore, but with things thawing out in the truck, even with ice packs around them, I went straight to the Walmart.

The main thing I needed there was enough kibble to tide us over, if we can’t get to Costco or the local feed store until after the long weekend. I ended up getting two 9kg bags of Whiskas and one 7kg of their house brand. I also got a 32 pack of wet cat food.

The KD was on an excellent sale, so I grabbed a box. I also grabbed more distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier. It wasn’t on sale, but their regular price is almost half what it costs, elsewhere, so I grabbed a pack of four bottles.

The other thing I was looking for was a mattress bag. We may not have a spare bedroom for my brother, but we can set up a bed for him in his van, as a surprise. Since it will be in a van, though, I want to make sure the spare mattress is in a bag, to help keep it protected. I had a couple of choices, and selected the one that was heavier duty.

Then there were some hygiene products for my daughters and a bottle of cold water for the drive home. It took a while, and asking several people, before I found a larger insulated bag that I hoped would be large enough for the pizza pop box, then picked up a couple of bags of ice to put in it. Last of all, I added a donation for a school lunch program.

Grand total: $182.24

The new insulated bag wasn’t quite large enough. The squareness of the box’s end made it tight to snap the bag closed, and as soon as it was moved, it started popping open again. Still, it was better than before. It had ice packs with it, and the bags of ice went into the soft sided insulated bag we keep the ice packs in – which had been set inside an insulated hard sided bag, to make extra sure they were still frozen when I needed them! – with the remaining ice packs. I just made sure the new insulated bag had its top folded over and push against another insulated bag, while the bag of ice went on top.

At that point, though, I needed to get stuff home. Just a quick stop at the gas station for a bit of a top up (I’ll fill when I get to Costco), and it was straight home to get things into the freezer!

While unloading, there were cats just everywhere, so I paused to put kibble out and get them away from the truck. They were quite hungry!

Also, eye baby’s eye is looking both absolutely horrible, and so much better, at the same time! She’s running around with the other kittens so much that it actually takes me a moment to identify her now. Gotta see that messed up eye, and her adorable ears with the turned back tips.

After the litter pellets were loaded into the house, I still had to deal with kittens, exploring under the truck. That was a good time to get the hose and rinse the dust off the truck, so I could move it under the trees in the yard.

Until I’m finished using the garage as a workshop, the truck is still parked in the shade of the yard. The major downside of this is, cats like to lie under it, and kittens like to explore the undercarriage! Every time I go to use the truck, I make sure to walk around it once or twice – three times, if I’m unsure – banging on the hood, the sides, and the box cover, to make sure no cats are under it – and especially not under the hood!

So there we have it.

Five places, and more than $500 later.

Between yesterday’s unexpected stock up trip, and today, there’s no hurry to do a Costco trip. My husband’s private insurance disability payment – the one that pays almost all the bills – comes in on Friday.

It’s Labour Day weekend coming up; the last long weekend before school starts.

Costco is going to be insane.

I have zero problems waiting until Tuesday to do a Costco trip!

The Re-Farmer

An unexpected stock up shop: this is what $140 instead of $210 looks like

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Tomorrow is my usual first trip to the city for stock up shopping, but we were completely out of a few things. I had a very short shopping list, but my daughter sent me some funds, so that allowed me to be on the lookout for some good deals.

Well, it turns out the local grocery store was having some Dollar Days sales, and I took advantage of it!

This is what $140.14 looks like.

Without the deals, this would have cost $214.43

The only things on my list were bread, eggs, butter and toilet paper. The TP deal was with using a Scene points card, giving $4 off per package, so I got two. The eggs were not on sale, nor was the butter, but the butter was the house brand and the price was not much higher than the price for butter at Costco.

We don’t normally buy boxed cereal, but these were $4 each, which was $1.99 off per box. Along with the Cinnamon Toast Crunch visible in the photo, I got Oatmeal Crisp Maple, which is buried under the bread.

I also got 6 different flavours of energy drinks. That was a 2 for $7 deal, and the savings was only 49¢ per can, but it also got me 100 points for every 2 cans. I could have gotten cases, instead, but the cases came in only 2 flavours, and we like variety.

I got a couple of packets of lemonade and strawberry powdered drink mixes. They were not on sale, but they were only 65¢ each, and sometimes we just want something not-water. It’s something to try and see if we like.

The whole milk (1L) and soy milk (2L) were not on sale, but if I was getting cereal, we were going to need more milk.

The box of pizza pops is an occasional treat that I usually get at Walmart, as they tend to have the best price, but these were $5 off, making them a better price than Walmart.

The bag of Mandarin oranges was $3 instead of $6.99, and the bananas were 59¢/pound ($1.29/kg), instead of the usual 79¢/pound.

The pork was an excellent deal. One package cost $4.76, with a savings of $6.16, and the other was $3.91 with a savings of $5.03

The hot dog wieners were $2 a package ($3.29 off), so I got three, to go with the three packages of hot dog buns that were also $2 each ($2.99 off). The whole wheat Texas Toast and sandwich bread was also $2 each ($1.99 off), so I got two of each.

So I got 35% off in savings, plus 300 points extra. I had enough point to get $10 off my bill, too, but chose to save it for another trip.

Most of the bread and 2 packages of wieners went straight into the freezer.

Meanwhile, CPP Disability comes in tomorrow, and I should be doing our non-Costco shopping trip in the city, which will mean going to at least three different stores. Four, if I have the energy to do Superstore, too. The international store that we got to has some good sales on right now, and tomorrow is the last day for them, so I don’t want to skip that. Plus, I’m looking forward to some Dim Sum for brunch!

The Re-Farmer

Unplanned stock up: this is what $144 looks like

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Today I needed to hit a Walmart and a Canadian Tire, and took advantage of a city trip to pick up a few more stock up items, while I was there.

This is what $144.48 looks like.

*sigh*

And I was picking up the cheap stuff, for the most part.

For my husband, I got some Coke Zero and distilled water for his CPAP humidifier. The girls were out of soy milk, but so was Walmart. I got two 2L cartons of lactose free milk instead, which was on a two-for sale, plus a 1L carton for my own use.

Wait a minute…

I got charged for three 2L of lactose free milk. I don’t see a 1L of regular milk in there.

Crud. I wish I’d noticed that before I drove all the way home! Not worth the cost of gas to go back and fix it.

The hot dog wieners were also on a two-for sale, but I got only one package of hot dog buns. My husband and I prefer to have them cut up and added to other foods.

I got two bags of kibble; a 9kg of Whiskas and a 7kg of the Walmart brand. I also got some wood glue for the isolation shelter that’s being worked on right now.

I spotted an Annie’s pasta and cheese sauce display, and they were 97¢ a box, so I got 4 of two different flavours for the pantry, plus a couple of loaves of rye bread for the freezer. I picked up a bottle of lemon scented cleaner – the girls have noticed that when they used it to clean up the cat messes, the cats seem to avoid the area for a while, and we’re thinking they don’t like the lemon scent. We’ve tried using citrus scent to repel the cats from places, but it never worked. I guess generic “citrus” isn’t as useful as lemon. They certainly don’t object to orange scent at all.

Last of all, I picked up a bottle of magnesium for myself.

That’s it. That’s all I got for $144 and change.

Next I crossed the street and went to the Canadian Tire. One of the things I was after there was a new power bar to replace one I have in my room. They had a clearance sale on a couple of bars that have the plugins turned sideways, with one type having USB ports. With the power bar I have now, I have two things plugged in that take up four spots. With the new bar’s design and the USB ports, I freed up three plug ins. I got a second non-household one that has the plug ins spaced out in two rows, and a built in cord storage, for the same clearance price.

I also found some inexpensive outdoor wheels for the isolation shelter’s pallet base. They rotate 360°, so that will make it easier to move the finished shelter. I didn’t find the right size hose clamps I was after, though. They had one size bigger and one size smaller, but not the size I needed! There wasn’t even a space on the shelf for them.

I just looked them up at a local hardware store. They have the size I need – and in stock!

Looks like I’ll be making a side trip after I go to the dump!

Which will be opening soon, so time to get things together and start heading out again.

The Re-Farmer

Unexpected stock up shop: this is what $115 looks like

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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!

The Re-Farmer

Costco stock up shopping: this is what $717 total looks like

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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!

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

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.

But first… the lawn needs to be mowed. 😄

The Re-Farmer

Small stock up shop: this is what $423, in total, looks like, plus extras.

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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!

The Re-Farmer

More running around, and… another loss!?!

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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.

Ah, well. It is what it is.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer