I headed into the city to pick up mostly stuff for our New Years fondue plans, though of course, I got other stuff, too. I ended up going to 3 different places in the city, then swinging by town to pick up my husband’s insulin, before heading home.
I’m totally drained.
My first stop was actually the post office, where I found a package I am quite excited about. I haven’t opened it, yet, but it’s a book I won.
My next stop was in the city. The international grocery store is part of a franchise, and there is a new location near the Costco we normally go to. It’s not an international store, but we used to shop this franchise all the time before we moved, so I decided to check it out. They had hot food available, too, so that was where I had breakfast.
Sadly, I was a bit disappointed. Not in the food. That was delicious. There just weren’t a lot of options. The store may be about the same size as the international one we normally go to, as far as I could tell, but all the departments seemed like they were half the size. I was particularly surprised by how small their meat section was. The beef section was not only small, but many of the choices were discounted “cook tonight” packs that were near the end of their shelf life. The Cat Lady often buys these to use as cat food! Even the regular cuts, though, were looking oxidized.
Still, this is where I got the bulk of my list.
This is what $229.84 looks like.
Yeah. Pretty sparse.
Here’s what I got.
For the meats, I was looking mostly for stir fry type cuts, but there weren’t any. So I just got trays of beef, pork and chicken breast that we could cut to size ourselves. Then I found a package of frozen hot pot combination meats – beef, pork and lamb. So I got one of those, too. I also got small frozen scallops. Together with the frozen prawns I got earlier, we have plenty of protein for our oil fondue. I got 2 bottles of peanut oil for that.
I found a basic recipe for the cheese fondue, and was looking for Swiss and Gruyere, but was really surprised by how small their fancy cheese section was. I got two cheeses there, but I wasn’t sure if they would be enough.
I got a tempura batter mix, plus a mixed vegetable tray and some pears, strawberries, and tiny crimini mushrooms. The pears and strawberries are for the cheese fondue, along with the French bread. The mushrooms are for the tempura batter and the oil fondue, while the vegetables can be for either.
I picked up various sauces for dipping, but could not find marinara sauce anywhere. That was unexpected.
Aside from other household stuff, I also got two tubs of seasonal ice cream- Eggnog flavour – that were on send of season clearance.
My next stop was Walmart. The main thing I was looking for there was fuel for the oil fondue burner. I’d seen the gel fuel we’ve used before at another location, so I figured I’d find it at this one.
This is what $74.43 looks like.
Also very sparse!
You’ll notice there is no fondue burner fuel in there.
I looked all over that store! I even asked for help. The employee I snagged looked up gel fondue fuel on her phone at the Walmart website, which said it was in stock, but she couldn’t find it. I went through the housewares section it should have been in, the camping fuel section, the grocery aisles, and even end cap and aisles displays. Nothing!
I did find stir fry beef, though, and grabbed a package as an extra. I also got another cheese for the fondue.
Still no marinara sauce!
Along with drinks and household items, there are mini cupcakes for dessert. While still looking for the burner fuel, I spotted an excellent sale price on Kraft Dinner, which my daughters like, so I snagged a case. By this time, I was also feeling really dehydrated, so I got some drinks for the road.
I still needed burner fuel, though. I can’t say I was too unhappy about not finding it at Walmart. The employee that tried to help me showed me her search results to confirm the item, and it cost almost $40! For one bottle, not a case. I was shocked, to say the least!
So, it was another trip up the road to a Canadian Tire.
I’m happy to say, I found what I needed, and more!
This is what $54.24 looks like.
It wasn’t the gel fuel we’d used before, but I confirmed it was for fondue burners.
They were $9.99 each, so I bought two.
I also got a little strainer to scoop out anything that might fall off the fondue forks. Plus, an extra burner. That way, if we used up the fuel in the burner, we can just switch and not have to wait for it to cool down.
And yes. That is a second vegetable peeler you are seeing in there. We need to replace the ones we have, and are forever losing track of them.
Since I was there anyhow, I picked up a tri-light bulb for my bedside lamp, which has a normal incandescent bulb right now. I also picked up no-mortise door hinges. The girls took measurements of where they need to hang a door. It may be possible we have an interior door in one of the sheds they can use. If so, these hinges can be used. We shall see. If they can’t be used, it won’t hurt to have them for the future.
That done, my next stop was for gas at Coscto. Prices around the city have dropped to 129.9 cents/L, but Costco was 117.9!
From there, it was time to drive the hour or so to pick up my husband’s prescription. By then, it was getting quite dark.
It was also a long time since breakfast, so after I got the prescription, I went to the Dairy Queen and got us burgers for supper.
That and I really needed to use a bathroom, and the one in the pharmacy was out of order!
Yeah. That’s my excuse!
As of now, the only thing we are missing is dry white wine for the cheese fondue sauce. I will pick that up tomorrow!
Somehow, I didn’t expect that doing a fondue for New Years would make it more expensive than having all finger food for Christmas!
With all the running around I did, I was happy to get the Costco shopping over and done with!
We’ll still need to make another trip, though.
When I got to the city, I noticed gas prices were 132.9 cents per litter, so I figured Costco would be the usual 5-10 cents lower. They turned out to be 119.9 cents per litter! It’s been ages since I’ve seen a price like that.
As you can imagine, the lineups were insane. They went by fast, though.
Once tanked up, it was time to get all this.
Not my biggest shop, by any means, but it still totalled $719.81
I got the pet supplies on a separate bill. Eight bags of Kirkland 9kg dry kibble ($215.92), 1 case wet cat food ($24.99) and one case of puppy pads ($38.99). After taxes, it totalled $313.49
While we no longer have the problem of Toni peeing on my bed, or kittens not using the litter boxes, we still use the puppy pads. There are spots where other cats have been making a mess, regularly, so we use them to help with clean up. For example, I keep one under the litter box under my desk, with another in front, were my feet and chair got. I would leave the room and come back to find a pee spot next to the litter box. Always in the same spot. Only this morning did I catch Leyendecker doing it! Which is frustrating, because he will go from litter box to litter box and use them. I was afraid he might be getting blocked again, but given the size of the puddle on the puppy pad, I know think he’s marking territory!
The puppy pads may be an expense, but they do save out carpets and make cleaning the lino easier.
So that’s the cats stuff.
Then there was the shopping for us.
I won’t list the prices this time because it’s such a pain to tap out on the phone, but this is what I got today.
Two 1L of whipping cream, a pack of 60 eggs, hazelnuts, walnuts, stewing beef, 2 packages of wraps, three 2pks of rye bread, 1 brick Old Cheddar, 1 brick mozzarella, a wheel of brie, 5 pounds of butter, 6 pk of canned chicken, peanut butter, truffle parmasan seasoning mix, mayonnaise, a case of mixed fruit packs (with cherry!), kitchen garbage bags, and toilet paper. Oh, and a 20kg bag of sugar!
We are doing a finger food Christmas dinner, so for that, I found mini quiches – we like those a lot, so I got 2 boxes – bacon wrapped scallops, fried pickle chips (!!), and garlic stuffed olives. I also got raw frozen shrimp, but that will likely be for our New Years fondue.
All of this, after taxes, totaled $406.32
Meat is getting insanely expensive. Especially beef. Thankfully, we still have meat in the freezer, and we are getting our quarter beef next month.
We still have other things we need to get for both Christmas and New Years, but that will be for other stores. I’m sure I have the gel fuel for our oil fondue burner, but I can’t remember where it was hidden, so I will get more. I also need to get peanut oil or some other high smoke point cooking oil. The final things for the dinners will be picked up fresh, closer to when we need them.
I rather look forward to a Christmas dinner that will involve so little cooking, and so few dirty dishes! 😆😄
The cats just love this busted up bin with the garden netting in it.
When we first put the netting in it, we had a hard time stuffing it in enough to close the lid. The cats kept knocking it off the shelf, with both lid and bin, then used the netting as a bed. Now the netting is packed down so much, you’d never know it once filled the bin!
Also, I counted 37 cats outside this morning. Three times.
Which means that not only did the “missing” cats come back, but we seem to have gained another one. !!!
After the morning rounds were done, I was off to the city to do our second stock up shopping trip. This trip had three stops, all in the same general area, which is part of why we don’t do it at the same time as our Costco stock up trip. Another reason is because the Costco is in a different part of the city, and I just don’t want to drive around that much. I dislike shopping, and find it very draining, and one Costco trip on its own is as draining as the three stops I made today. Four, if you count getting gas.
My first stop was at Canadian Tire to get more hardwood pellets for the litters. That was just under $16, after taxes. We now have enough pellets to last us at least a couple of months.
My next stop was the international grocery store, where I finally had breakfast, at lunch time. I quite enjoy their dim sum. That, plus a drink, cost pennies over $20.
I completely forgot to get a picture of what I got there. I also can’t find the receipt; I think it’s still in the truck. 😄
It was a small trip. I hoped to get more fresh produce, but ended up just getting some bananas that will need to be eaten quickly, and mandarins. I did get an applewood maple smoked slab of bacon, which is one of the things we go to this store for. They also had a good sale on pork loin, but that was all I got for meat. Their sugar shelves in the baking aisle were empty, as they carry the Rogers brand of granulated sugar. There was cane sugar available in the international section, but it’s not granulated, and I’m not sure how it will do for baking. As I was still planning to hit the Walmart, I didn’t get any sugar here. I found some drinks, including the Beaver Buzz energy drinks we can no longer get locally – and they only had one flavour in stock. I got two boxes of Earl Grey Bergamot tea that was on sale, plus a spray bottle of cleaning vinegar of a type my daughters prefer. I even found a large block of Old Cheddar cheese for almost $25.
I can’t remember what else I got there right now, other than grabbing one of their food bank bags for the hamper. One bag includes pasta and pasta sauce, canned fruit, and a few other shelf stable items to make a complete meal for at least 2 people, with extras. The bag was only $9, which brought my total bill up to $108 and change.
My next stop was Walmart, and I did remember to put that receipt into my pocket.
I made a donation to the Children’s Hospital as well, so minus that, the final bill after taxes was $181.21
Yeah. This cost almost $200.
The food items: It’s cheap turkey season, so I got a medium turkey for $24 The creamers were on sale at 2 for $9 The crackers were on sale at 3 for $7 Large jar of olives: $8.97 pecan halves: $7.00 walnut pieces: $5.00 Dark sugar: $1.97 They were, of course, out of the Rogers brand of sugar. With that shortage, they were also sold out of the Redpath white granulated sugar, but there was still some Redpath brown sugar left. We still have enough granulated sugar at home to last us, as long as we don’t do any serious baking, but we were almost out of brown sugar. house brand popcorn, 2 bags at $2.47 each. I normally buy popcorn at Costco, but I never found it. Also, the popcorn we grew won’t pop, and I don’t know what we’ve done wrong! vegetable bouillon cubes, 4 packs at $1.47 each sour cream: $5.98 coffee: $9.97
The non-food items: I got toilet paper for the pantry, as we currently don’t have extra. That was on sale for $13,97 Paper towel: $16.97 Facial tissues: $8.97 All purpose cleaner: $9.97 One “extra” item I got was a new cutting board, to replace one of our plastic ones that needs to be tossed. Because of how our counter is, I got one with a grippy bottom. It cost $11.47 Another “extra” item I got was examination gloves. We’ve finally worked our way through the boxes we brought with us in the move, plus the ones that were here that the homecare aids used before my dad went into the nursing home. My daughters like to use them when doing deep cleaning. Especially in the basement. One box of 100 gloves: $15.97
Then, for the road, I got an energy drink for $3.27, plus a water bottle for $1.47
Before heading for home, I remembered to fill the tank again. On the way out, I normally stop in the town my mother lives in for gas, but I skipped it this time. The price for regular was 150.9¢/L When I got to the city, I saw 143.9¢/L all over the place. Domo, however, has 5¢ off per L on Mondays and Thursdays. Today is Thursday, so I filled up at 138.9¢/L About a quarter tank still cost me $43.45.
With all three stops together, including donations, I spent almost $300 today. I had intended to check out the Fresh Co that’s along the same strip, but just didn’t have the spoons for it. I was okay for most of it, but after driving for over an hour, my feet, knees and hips stiffen up, so I’m limping for the first while until my joints are “greased”. By the end of it, it’s my lower back and hips that’s starting to go. Then it’s another hour + drive, leaving me with stiffened joints again when it’s time to unload the truck. At least then, I’ve got the girls to help me!
That’s basically it for our stock up shopping. We will do one more city shopping trip for my daughters, probably next week. They have their own list and budget. That can be a time for me to check out the Fresh Co, finally. Other than that, anything else we need, mostly fresh produce, will be purchased locally.
With December having so many stat holidays around weekends at the end of the month, my husband’s disability payments are always on different dates. Normally, he gets his main payment on the last business day of the month, and the CPP Disability on the third last business day of the month. In December, the CPP Disability comes in several days before Christmas, so that will likely be when I will do our first January stock up shopping trip, as well as anything we want to get special for Christmas dinner. The last few years, we relied on our stocking up supplies for January, as we often didn’t manage to get to the city at all until February or even March, either because of the weather and being snowed in, or both vehicles being too frozen. This year, between the mild winter we’re expecting and having the truck instead of the van, we should actually be able to do another stock up trip in January. I sure as heck don’t plan to go to the city to shop between Christmas and New Year’s, if I can avoid it!!
I would like to crawl into my cave and hibernate, now.
What a change a day makes! Yesterday, we had a high of -9C/16F, and an overnight low of -14C/7F (that I saw; it might have gone lower). That doesn’t count the windchill, and we had high winds yesterday. Today, we’ve reached a high of 2C/36F and our overnight low is expected to be only -3C/27F
[Edit: while I was still working on this post, we reached a high of 3C/37F, which is higher than was forecast for the day, by as much as 3°, depending on which app I got by.]
Which will make life much easier on the kitties.
I did a head count this morning, and again when I fed them after unloading the truck, so I could safely drive it out of the yard to park it. I counted 33, each time. Which means, taking into account the one I know we’ve lost, we’re “missing” three cats. Just as I couldn’t tell which ones were “new”, I can’t tell which ones are missing. There are some cats that are distinctive and we see regularly, but others look so much alike, and won’t let us near them, we just can’t keep track.
I did get a good action shot this morning, though!
I so want to be able to get Brussel and the other calicos socialized!!! They just won’t let it happen, though.
Today was my day for the Costco stock up shopping. This is what $956.06 looks like.
I did not get everything on my list. Some just wasn’t there. No sugar, for example, except for things like super expensive raw cane sugar or fake sugar. Rogers is on strike right now, so I wasn’t expecting to see that brand, but I was sure Costco also carried other brands. Ah, well. Our next stock up trip will include a Walmart, and they carry Redpath sugar, and they’re not on strike.
I asked to have all the cat food on a separate bill. When they were doing the rest, the cashier motioned to the flat cart, which still had the other heavy stuff on it the other staff member was scanning. I couldn’t make out what he said, but was able to figure out that he was asking about the separate bill, so I repeated that I wanted all the cat food on a separate bill.
Apparently, canned cat food is not cat food, because he included that in the main bill with the groceries! 😄😄
I usually get the 9kg Kirkland brand of kibble, which is cheaper per kg, but there was none. Not even an empty space where they would have been. So instead of a dozen 9kg bags, I got ten 11.6kg bags of Whiskas. They were $37.99 each and, after taxes, came to $425.49
pork blade roast: regular $20.44, -$5 at the till pork chops: $24.05 chicken 3pk: $28.59 bacon, 5pk: $23.99 rotisserie chickens, two at $7.99 each double cream Brie: regular $10.99, -$2.50 at the till cream cheese, 4pk: $9.49 goat cheese, 2pk: $10.99 Old Cheddar: $14.99 mozzarella: $14.99 butter, 5 at $5.45 each: $27.25 whipping cream, two 1L at $4.79 each 10kg bag of flour: $9.99 pasta, 9pk: $13.99 flat of ramen noodles: $13.99 raspberry jam: $8.99 Kirkland brand mayo, 2 at $8.99 each (usually we get Hellman’s, but I couldn’t find any) avocado oil: $16.99 Kirkland brand EVOO: $23.99 lemon juice, 2pk: 4.99 5 dozen pack eggs: $16.49 rye bread, two 2 pks: $5.99 each tortilla wraps, 4 packs at $9.99 each for $39.96, – $8 at the till
Subtotal: $512.21 taxes: $18.39 Total: $530.57
Some of the things on my list were more paper products, like facial tissues and paper towels, but the packages are so big, I would have run out of room on my flat cart. As it is, the packages of bread and wraps kept vibrating off as I tried to maneuver the flat cart. 🤨
Also, it blows me away how many people don’t think twice about cutting off a loaded flat cart. Do they really think I can stop on a dime?? Then there are the people that stop to look at products, parking their carts right where there’s a pillar or something, leaving no room for anyone to get through. I get the need to park your cart. Heck, with my flat cart, I often have to park it and walk over to various displays to get something, simply because it’s not worth the effort to wrestle the flat cart through the aisles. Especially for cold rooms, like the dairy and eggs room, or where the soft fruits, salad kits and mushrooms are kept. However, I also make sure people can still get around the cart when I do!
Costco has changed brands of butter since I was last there, but the price is still under $6, making it the best price for butter I’ve seen, still. The whipping cream, at under $5 for 1L is also the best price I’ve seen. Since a 1L carton can make about a pound of butter, it’s the only place where it would be economical to make our own butter. Everywhere else I’ve seen, a 1L carton of whipping cream costs more than the house brand butters. Not that we’ll use the cream for that. If that were the plan, I’d buy a lot more than 2 cartons!
For this trip, adding the canned cat food to the kibble bill (about $43.66 after taxes), we spent about $469.15 on just cat food.
Taking the canned cat food off the rest of the bill, we spent $473.22 on stuff for us. Of that, we spent $375.17 on food. The rest was non-food items and taxes.
We are literally spending more money to feed the cats, than to feed ourselves.
Yes, we still have other stock up shopping trip to do, which will include more food items for ourselves, but those 10 bags of kibble won’t last the month. Last month, we bought 12 bags of Kirkland 9kg kibble, or 108kg. I’ve lost track, but we ended up buying another 7 or 8 bags, ranging in size from 7kg to 11kg, depending on what was in stock. If we use an average range of 9kg for 7 bags, that brings it up to 171kg. Right now, we have 116kg on hand, which means we might need to buy another 55kg in kibble before the end of the month.
And this is why we have to seriously consider starting to euthanize some of the yard cats. We just can’t keep this up. Not when we now have a car payment, even with the girls helping out when they can.
At least the inside kittens will go up for adoption again, once the Cat Lady’s housing situation settles, so the number of indoor cats will drop. We are also hoping to adopt out Toni and Ginger. We adore Ginger, but some of the other cats are starting to really bully him, and he deserves a better home situation than ours. But who would be willing to adopt three legged cats? Even if they don’t have other health issues?
I suppose this is a good time to point out the donation button at the top right, but I know things are tight for everyone right now.
*sigh*
Oh, I almost forgot. There was also the cost of gas and meals, spent today.
On the way out, I stopped to put $30 of regular gas into the truck, at 150.9¢/L I filled the tank once I reached Costco. The price for regular gas there was 135.9¢/L It cost me $66.41 to fill the tank. So, in total, it cost $96.41 to fill the tank from just below half. I also bought breakfast and lunch, for maybe another $20-$25 in total.
Also, the truck has a trip counter that I reset before heading home from Costco. With a short side trip to pick up the mail, it read just over 108km, so about double that for the entire trip.
I must say, I’m going to be very happy in January, when we get our quarter beef order in! With the hung weight being the highest we’ve had yet, I’ve doubled the last two monthly payments, which means in January, we’ll have only about $40 left to cover the balance. I don’t know that we’ll be able to do this again, though. It’s been great to be able to make monthly payments towards a quarter beef at the end of the year (or, in this case, beginning of the year), but with having truck payments now, we need to put some wiggle room back into our budget.
Well, it is what it is. We’ll deal. Somehow, we always manage to make it through.
I have to keep reminding myself: I did in one trip what I used to have to do in two or three trips while using my mother’s car.
Still, this is the most we’ve ever spent at Costco in one trip, and… ouch.
I did things a bit differently this time, in that I had all the cat supplies put on one bill, then our own stuff was rung in separately. The total for both together came to $1061.97
*choke*
First, though, was the trip in with the new-to-us truck.
Road conditions were not very good. From our place to the town my mother lives in was packed snow and ice. There was blowing snow, but the visibility was still okay. I was quite okay with being behind vehicles doing only 80 or 90kph in a 100kph zone (100kph = about 62mph). Things started getting messier as I reached my mother’s town. I timed it so I could stop at the gas station to grab some fried chicken for brunch first. That gave me time to respond to some messages from the Cat Lady. She had a cat carrier and some kibble donations for us and we were trying to figure out when and where we could meet. She needed to go into the same area of the city as the Costco we go to, so we would be able to meet up today.
Once back on the road, the further south I went, the more the highway went from slush to water until about halfway to the city, when it all started going to ice and slush again. The truck handled it like it was nothing! In fact, I had to watch myself, because it was just too easy to start speeding before I even realized it. Normally, I’d have just set the cruise control, but with the conditions, I expected to be slowing down more often. I did, but it was usually because I found myself behind vehicles hauling trailers, or heavy equipment.
As I was leaving the city, I stopped at a gas station convenience store to pick up something to drink for the drive. At this point, conditions were deteriorating again, and visibility was getting poor. The further north I went, though, the better it got. I drove out of the snow, and the roads that had been slushy or icy before were now just a bit wet. It’ll be a problem once things freeze during the night, but at the time, it was good. It wasn’t until about 5 minutes from home that I started driving into falling snow again, but it wasn’t an issue at all.
As for the shopping, I forgot to get a photo of the flat cart before I started unloading into the truck, but that’s okay. I got pictures of how it fit into the truck, instead.
The Cat Lady caught up with me as I was starting to pack things into my reusable bags, and was able to pass on the cat carrier and some bags of kibble she had for us. She couldn’t stay long, though. I don’t know how she keeps up with everything she’s got going in her life! She’s amazing.
She is able to do couponing, so those bags of kibble probably cost next to nothing. The new carrier is a perfect kitten size! She’s told me she’s had to turn down donations of cat carriers in the past, because she had no space for them, but now she plans to accept them to pass on to us. We have 1 hard sized and 2 soft carriers, and the soft carriers can potentially be torn out of, so hard carriers are preferable. The wet cat food was part of our own purchase.
I’d remembered to grab a snow brush to keep in the truck and ended up using it to push the filled hard sided bags further in, so I could fit the kibble bags. The TP and puppy pads sitting on the tailgate went on top of the kibble. I didn’t even need to open the cover. In the cab, I had an insulated bag for the hot rotisserie chickens, and a bag for the rye bread. The only thing that didn’t go into the back of the cab were the eggs, which I put on the front seat, instead.
This is what we got for our money today.
Cat supplies: 12 bags, 9kg size, dry kibble @ $26.99 each, for a total of $323.88 canned cat food: $38.99 puppy pads: $24.99 Tax added another $46.54 to the bill, for a total of $434.40
We have got to get that bill down somehow. We’d have no problem at all with having a car payment right now, if we weren’t feeding so many cats! But we’re not going to let them go hungry, either. Hopefully, we’ll be able to adopt more out soon.
Also, I was intending to buy 14 bags of kibble, but the stack on the flat cart was getting a bit tall and less stable, and I still had lots of other things to fit on there.
Human supplies: Toilet paper, Kirkland brand: $22.99 4pk Pronamel toothpaste: $19.79 Coke Zero: $14.69, plus 32¢ enviro fee double flat of eggs (60 eggs): $18.89 AP flour, 10kg size: $9.99 (most places have bags this size at about $15 – on sale!) family size pack of fresh sausages, mild Italian: $20.11 whole chicken, 3 pack: $28.64 2 chubs of ground beef: $28.49 each 1 chub of ground pork: $19.99, minus $5 at the till pork blade roast: $20.87 4pk bacon: $24.99 pork loin: $29.15 Old Cheddar: $14.99 Mozzarella: $14.99 Whipping cream, two 1L cartons, $4.70 each double cream brie: $10.99 4pk Kirkland cream cheese: $9.49 5 pounds of butter: $5.49 each Two 2pks of rye bread: $5.99 each Two 2pks tortilla wraps: $9.99 each 9pk pasta, 3 varieties: $13.99 Mayo: $10.99 dehydrated mushrooms: $19.99 – I haven’t seen these in years!! We used to love getting these before we moved! Kirkland Olive Oil: $32.99 Avocado Oil: $16.99 popcorn: $10.79 hazelnuts: $11.49 Kirkland Basmati rice: $15.99 2kg size Peanut Butter: $10.39 2pk Butter chicken sauce: $9.99, minus $2 at the till 6pk Kirkland canned chicken: $18.99 2 rotisserie chickens, $7.99 each pork rinds: $10.99 (meant to be used in place of bread crumbs) Kirkland chocolate chips: $17.99
plus tax: $10.17 Total: $627.57
The alarming part was paying for this second bill. I’d already paid for the cat supplies, but when I tried to pay for the rest, it failed. Payment not authorized. ??? We tried again, and got the same response. I was asking her to suspend the order so I could check my bank account to see what the problem was when someone came by. Someone that turned out to be a supervisor.
It was the debit machine going down.
My order did get suspended and the receipt printed out. The supervisor took it and tried to process it on another till, but that one was down, too. She ended up taking me to their supervisor station over by the bathrooms, where they have a different type of debit machine.
I was not the only one trailing along! There were at least four other people gathering around, waiting their turn.
Thankfully, fourth time was the charm, and I was able to pay for our stuff!
I really ought to use cash, but I just don’t like carrying around that much cash. Especially when I’m not quite sure what the total will be, given how much the prices change.
On top of this, I did fill the gas tank before I even went in to shop. I was at half a tank by the time I got there, but the Costco gas price for regular was 141.9¢/L, instead of the 153.9/L at my mother’s town, or the 152.9/L in the town we usually go to. So it cost “only” $68 and change to fill the tank.
As painful as it was to spend so much in one day, the fact that we won’t have to go to Costco again just saved us another $50 – $60 or so, just in fuel. We do plan to go to the city again next week, but I’m wondering if we even need to make that trip. This would be the trip where we go to the international grocery store, a Walmart and a Canadian Tire, all in one trip. However, the only reason to go to Canadian Tire is for litter pellets, and we still have plenty of those, and to get a few more fire bricks for our outdoor kitchen build, which can wait a month or two. The Walmart is where I get the shredded wet cat food I use for the kittens (the Costco wet cat food is all paté), and maybe a couple more bags of cat food, which we don’t need to do right now. The only other thing we’d be getting is the fresh produce and non-bulk stuff, and we can do that at the closer Walmart or the local grocery store.
We’ll decide on that later. I’m just so happy that I was able to get all this in one trip, with zero issues with the drive!
A few days ago, we finally got a copy of an email confirming our financing FINALLY was approved, and our mechanic was finally going to get paid for the truck. Getting my husband’s full name added to the electric bill was finally good enough for the lender! After I got back from the city and everything was unloaded and put away (and the outside cats fed, to get them away from the truck so I could park it in the garage!), I made sure to send a thank you email to our mechanic and the lady at the finance company. They bent over backwards to get us this truck, and it’s made all the difference in the world.
Best of all, we can work on plans to get my husband into the city to see his family. He hasn’t seen his dad since late 2018, and hasn’t seen his sister at all since she moved back from out of province, a couple of years ago. We had to turn down a planned family gathering, but the seats in this truck support his back so well, he feels he can actually handle the trip!
Which makes having car payments again, completely worthwhile.
I managed to get a dump run today, then kept on going to town to pick up a few things at the grocery store. Particularly recycling bags, having just run out. Of course, I’m not going to drive all that way for just one thing.
This is what $142.86 looks like.
Okay, so I did splurge a little.
The clear recycling bags, XL size, were $12.99 I got a 4pk of energy drinks for $10.99 – saving a whole 30¢ by buying a case. The enviro fee was 4¢ I also got a case of Coke Zero for $7.49, plus 12¢ enviro fee. Tea – Early Grey Creme: $5.49 Butterscotch chips, 2 packages on sale for $4.99 each (which also earned me extra loyalty points) Ketchup: $3.99 (house brands; I just realized I accidentally bought low sodium. Ah, well.) Popcorn seasoning, White Cheddar flavour, on sale: $3.99 Popping corn, two 1kg size packages, $3.79 each (I need to do a test pop of our own popcorn again, so see if the kernels have dried enough) Whipping cream: $6.79 Ice cream, house brand, on sale: $3.99 – we have all those little melons, and my daughters want to make melon bowls with ice cream 😊 Whoops. I really should read the labels better. The receipt says ice milk, not ice cream. 😕 mandarin oranges, sale price: $8.99 bananas: $2.01 Marble rye bread, 2 loaves, plus multi-grain, 2 loaves, all on sale for $2.49 each. Vitamins, all half price. The receipt lists them differently from other sales. B12, regular price $19.49, minus $9.75, Zinc, regular price $16.28, minus $8.14 and D3, regular price $9.99, minus $5.
Last of all was my “big” splurge, while I was waiting in line near the floral department.
I got a coffee plant. A “premium” coffee plant, no less. 😄 On sale for $16.99 That’s for the girls. It would be cool if we actually got coffee beans, eventually, but at least it’ll be a pretty house plant!
I also got a $10 lotto Classic pack (1 Lotto 6/49, 1 Lotto Max, 1 Extra), using a $10 win I got from a ticket I got from a free play win. So the win from a free ticket paid for the new tickets. 😄
Sub total: $134.27, plus $3.58 GST and $5.01 PST
As I was slowly going through the aisles, looking for things I might have forgotten to include on my list, I went past a woman looking at the pasta. I’d given the section a quick look myself, and even the ones that were on sale were ridiculously expensive. Walking past her I leaned over and asked, “remember when pasta used to be cheap?”
Oh, boy, did that get a reaction! She looked at me with a slightly stunned expression and said, “I’m an American!”
Yeah. I got it. Instantly. Food prices in the US are so much cheaper than here! When I commented on that, she told me about shopping in this store for the first time after moving here, and how shocked she was by the prices. Even taking into account the exchange rate. Yeah, that would have been quite the culture shock. She wasn’t just seeing higher Canadian prices. She was seeing small town prices. She showed me a package of spaghetti that was over $3. That same package where she was from sells for under a dollar. Our KD (Kraft Dinner) is getting close to $2 a box. They’re 75¢ where she’s from (I didn’t think to ask where that was). Boxed cereal was another one she saw a really big difference.
We had an interesting chat about it, and how it really doesn’t make any sense for our prices to be so much higher. A lot of the current increases are directly related to our federal government adding tax after tax to things like fuel, making the cost of just getting food to people so much higher but, even before our current dictatorship went nuts, Canadian food prices were a lot higher than in the US. There isn’t much reason for that, overall. Lord knows, the farmers sure aren’t’ getting much of it. It’s all in those layers between farm and store. That’s without even touching on specifics, like government price controls on things like dairy and eggs.
I think she really, really appreciated being able to actually talk about it with someone, even if for just a few minutes! She was really nice, and I quite enjoyed talking to her, too.
Anyhow.
This is was my small, but expensive, grocery top up.
Hopefully, one of those tickets I got will be a winner of something substantial!
One of the things I tend to do every time I drive my mother’s car is give it a walkaround and check the tires.
I’m paranoid about tires.
With reason.
The front driver’s side tire bothers me. When I drive, it feels like it shudders. I’ve had it checked, but they couldn’t find anything wrong with it. When I took my husband to his medical appointment about 3 weeks ago, it was looking low, so I checked the pressure. It was down to 15 psi, so we stopped at a gas station and I topped it up. For the past few days, I’ve been eyeballing it, and today I checked the pressure. It was just under 20 psi! I used a hand pump to top it up, because it has a pressure gauge on it, rather than the compressor, then brought it in.
While dropping off the keys, I told the mechanic about the tire and asked if they could check it, too. Then I went walking. There isn’t much to do around town. Especially if you don’t have a budget for casual shopping, but by the time I came back, they were done changing the spark plugs, and the tire was off.
The passenger side tire!
I talked to the guy that was working on it and told him it was the other tire that was leaking! Turns out they took the tire off and were checking it for leaks for about 20 minutes, while changing the spark plugs, and not finding anything.
So I waited in the office while he switched tires. After a while, I came out to talk to the guy. He had it on the machine they use to remove tires from their rims, to hold it steady and spin is as needed, while spraying it with their soap stuff.
No sign of a leak.
He flipped the tire over and tried again.
Still no sign of a leak.
He checked the pressure and it was what I’d pumped it to this morning still. Low for the tire, but I wasn’t sure what the pressure was supposed to be (32 psi is good, I have since been informed) and didn’t want to over fill if it there was, say, something stuck in the tire.
He filled the tire to the correct psi, in case that would help find the leak.
Still no leak.
They asked a number of questions about when I had to fill it last time, what kind of driving condition we have, etc. In the end, they just put the tire back on. I’ll have to keep an eye on it. At some point, wherever that leak it, until it gets big enough they can actually find it, there’s nothing that can be done.
So I paid for the spark plug work, then headed into the city.
Today was a small Costco trip. Mostly, I wanted to get more dry cat food. We’ve got Thanksgiving weekend coming up, so they were insanely busy for a Thursday afternoon! So I got what I absolutely had to, then left as soon as I could!
This is what $291.43 looks like.
I decided to go with the 11.6kg bags of kibble, instead of the usual 9kg bags. They are more expensive, but that extra 2.6 kg per bag can mean one less trip needed at the end of the month. We already got four 9kg bags, were gifted with four 9.1kg bags, and now we have four 11.6kg bags, for a total of 118.8kg. Last month, we got twelve 9kg bags, and had to buy two more 10kg bags, for a total of 128kg. Hhmm… We’ll need at least 10kg more for the month, which means anything more than that, just to be on the safe side. Well, we still need to do a Walmart and Canadian Tire trip before our stock up shopping is done, so we can do that.
Anyhow.
Here’s the price break down.
Dry cat food: $37.99 each Butter: 5 pounds at $5.49 each bar soap: $15.49 Red Lobster biscuit mix: regular $11.49, but on sale for $8.99 That’s a treat for our Thanksgiving dinner! 2 loaf bag of rye bread: $5.99 Pizza pops: case of 30 for $21.99 Mozza: $14.99 Old Cheddar: $14.99 cream cheese, 4pk: $9.49
Subtotal: $271.34, plus $20.09 in tax
We still don’t have hot water, so doing dishes is not an easy thing right now. I made a point of picking up things we could use to make food with as little dirtying of dishes as possible, so that’s what the bread (for sandwiches) and Pizza Pops are for. The girls also dug out the disposable plates we kept when we were clearing out the cupboards when we first moved here. Handy, those!
We didn’t get a call from the plumber while I was gone. Once everything was put away and settled, I called again and left another message. If we don’t hear from him soon, I’ll start calling other companies.
The predicted rain reached us by the time I was driving home, which made things interesting in places! I remembered to stop at the post office and found a package waiting for us. It included, among other things, some food grade desiccant packets, for our dry food storage. Especially if we’re going to do things like dehydrate tomatoes more often. I believe my husband ordered oxygen absorbers, too.
Once I got home and the car was unloaded, I made sure to put food out for the outside cats. Aside from being out of kibble, it ensures no cats are under the car, when I go to put it in the garage.
Driver is still here. He was very vocal in asking for food! I didn’t see him this morning, so he probably never got anything from the morning feed. When the girls and I came out to walk around later, they noticed Colin was back. I’ll admit, I never noticed he was gone. There is another cat that looks very similar to him; just not with the “receding hairline” pattern on his forehead. Nosencrantz was around, too. After I’d parked the car, I checked a few things and saw she was at the kibble under the shrine – with Shop Towel directly behind her! Clearly, she didn’t know he was there, or she would have gone up the willow again. He was just sitting there, waiting his turn, but I still went over to “chase” him away. Basically, as soon as he sees me coming, he leaves. We’ve gotten to the point that all I need to do, sometimes, is say “I see you!”, and off he goes!
The main thing is, Nosencrantz got a chance to eat. I saw Shop Towel back at the shrine kibble bowl again later, but no other cats were around there by then, so I let him be.
Oh, good grief.
Let’s see… we just had to get work done on my mother’s car.
We’re trying to come up with the funds for a better down payment on a replacement vehicle.
The hot water tank just died and we need to bring in a plumber…
And now my husband just informed us that his computer is fried. It refuses to boot.
*sigh*
I hope he can get it going! With his inability to do much, physically, he uses his computer a LOT.
His is the newest computer in the household, too. His computer died in the move and had to be replaced. Our other computers all predate our move, and are all more than 10 years old.
This would be a really good time to win the lottery or something.
Today was our first trip into the city to stock up for next month. I’ll be doing the Costco trip in a couple of days. This time, I went to three different places.
The first was a Walmart. This is what $249 looks like.
For this stop, I didn’t go to the grocery section at all, but while waiting in line, I saw the display of canned bean cases (9 cans). The price was about what Costco’s price for used to be. $9.97 instead of almost $13. So I grabbed one.
Aside from that one grocery item, I got:
Paper towels: $22.97 Wet cat food (shredded): $28.77 Dry cat food, 7kg size, cheap house brand: $19.97 each. I got 3 for the outside cats, plus one anti-hairball bag for the indoor cats to try. Puppy pads, 50pk of 30″x30″: $26.97 The kittens are getting better and I’m not changing those as often, but ever now and then, a kitten just decides to pee right next to the litter box. They seem to wait until I’m not in the room to do it! Men’s t-shirts: one for my husband, one for me, at $8 each Shampoo and conditioner: $15.47 each Those have sure gone up in price – if I can even find bottles in that size at all! bright orange acrylic yarn: $5.27 I plan to make baseball cap ear warmers and see if our grocery store/post office will let me sell them there. It took me forever to find yarn in that orange, for the hunters. I also have grey, which I will use together with reflective thread I have. Dawn Platinum: $2.47 I got a tiny bottle of this to test out in the laundry. I got a couple of new t-shirts for myself not long ago, and both already have stains on them! Unfortunately, I didn’t see the stains until I put the shirts on after washing them. Which is why I ended up buying more t-shirts. From what I’ve been able to find, this stuff will actually get out stains, even after they’ve gone through the dryer. If not… well, I’ve got myself a couple more work shirts. 😕
The total was $223.24, plus $10.66 GST and $14.93 PST, bringing the grand total to $248.83 Plus, I added $100 cash back, which was their maximum.
So that was stop number one.
The next two stops were right next to each other, so it was just one trip. The first was a Dollarama. I was specifically looking for new food dishes for the kittens in my room. We’ve been using old take out containers, which is great for temporary use, or for adult cats, but they’re too big. Since we’re using my room as an isolation ward, it’s time to get proper food bowls. Unfortunately, they tend to be quite expensive, so I tried here. They did have some nice, stainless steel bowls with non-slip rings on their bases that I picked up.
Of course, that’s not all I got. This is what $75 looks like.
Pet food bowls, 8 in total: $2 each Pet bed (for the kittens): $5 Cat tunnel (for the rest of the cats): $4 Cat toy (for the rest of the cats): $4.75 Cooling rack: $4.75 I’ll be slowly getting more of these. This style, with the squares, will be much better for dehydrating in the oven than the ones I’m using now, which have the wires running in one direction, with only a single support wire down the middle. Odour remover, 2 of them: $1.50 each Towel holder: $4 – to replace the wonky one we’re using now, that I made when I was in Junior high, so… about 1980 or so!
I don’t usually get food at the dollar store, but this store has a decent selection, and the prices are a lot better than the grocery stores. Especially the tinned meats. So I got a selection to try out and see if this is something we like enough to be worth stocking in our pantry for the winter, when we are likely to get snowed in for a while.
Chicken flakes, 4 cans: $1.75 each Light Tuna, 4 cans: $1.00 each Pink Salmon, 4 cans: $2.25 each Black olives: $1.75 Artichoke hearts: $2.50 Chestnuts: $1.25 These are cooked chestnuts that I got as a snack for the drive home. 😊 Ice pack: $3.50 We’ve had to throw away some of our smaller gel ice packs, so I got a hard sided type to replace them.
This all came out to $69.25, plus $2.19 in GST and $3.06 in PST for a grand total of $74.50
After that was loaded into the car, it was a walk across the parking lot to my next stop, the international grocery store.
This is a store where we get a few treats or items that we don’t find in any of the other stores we normally go to, plus were we often find new things to try. This is also where I stop for some dim sum for lunch which, together with my drink, cost just over $20.
This is what $206 looks like.
Cleaning vinegar: $5.99 There’s a thing being passed around on social media about how companies have sneakily reduced the acidity of vinegar from 5% to 4%. For people who can, vinegar must be 5% for safety reasons. Well, I’ve looked around, and I’ve yet to see any vinegar at 4% Maybe it’s a US thing. What I did see was 7%. In this store, they have three kinds of white vinegar. Regular vinegar at 5%, canning vinegar at 7% and cleaning vinegar, what I picked up, at 10%. I got their large jug
Bananas: $4.27 for 2 bunches. Beaver Buzz, 3 Saskatoon berry and 3 Citrus: on sale at 2 for $4.50, or $2.25 each, instead of $2.69 each, plus one cent per can for the enviro fee Coke Zero: $7.29 plus 12¢ enviro fee Blade roast: $20.50 Two frying chickens, locally produced and free range: $15.36 (usually, that’s about the price of just one whole chicken) Smoked applewood bacon (unsliced): $11.24 Smoked bacon (unsliced): $8.17 Both bacons are a locally produced item that we get as a treat. Raw white prawns, frozen: $9.99, on sale. Regular price, $14.99 These are a treat for the girls. Truffle olive oil: $15.99 – another treat! Old Cheddar: $13.99 Mozzarella: $13.99 Normally, we get these cheeses we use mostly for cooking at Costco, but we’re out of cheese, so I got smaller packages for now. Truffle Gouda cheese: $12.52 This is something we don’t usually see in stock, so I made sure to grab some. Yes, another treat! Mild goat Gouda: $10.06 Cheese like Gouda are something we get as an “eating cheese” that we enjoy as snacks, rather than in cooking. Eggs, 1 flat of 30: $9.79 Soy sauce: two at $4.59 each. This is a Philippine brand my husband likes, so I like to stock up on it for the pantry. fresh green peppercorns: $2.02 We’ve never used these before! We’ll have to look up what to do with them. Stash Tea, three different flavours: on sale for $3.99 each (regular price, $4.49 each) Coke Zero: $7.29 plus 12¢ enviro fee bottled caramel frapp, cold, for the drive home: $3.99 plus 3¢ enviro fee Jarritos Grapefruit soft drink, cold, for the drive home: $1.99 plus 3¢ enviro fee. At least it was supposed to be for the drive home. I made the mistake of drinking the dairy drink, first. I forgot the caps aren’t a twist off, and I wasn’t going to pull over to the side of the road to dig out a bottle opener! I think I do have one. I’ve returned a multi-tool knife to keep in the car, and I’m pretty sure it has a bottle opener in it.
The total for all this was $202.04, plus $1.65 in GST and $2.29 in PST, for a grand total of $205.98 Plus, I was able to take out another $100 in cash back. We now have enough to get the septic guy in to clean our tank for the winter. He’s really fast about getting to us, so I wanted to make sure I had more than enough cash on hand, before we made the call! Otherwise, I’d have to rush to my mother’s town, where there is a branch of my bank, to take money out before he arrives.
As I was loading up the car, I checked my phone and found my daughter had transferred funds over. I messaged her, asking if there was anything in particular it was for, but it was mostly to just help with the groceries – but it did remind me of a couple of things I meant to pick up for them that I forgot! So, once everything was loaded (with most of the frozen ice packs I brought from home), I went back in and got:
Coffee creamer, largest size bottle: $7.99 soya drink, 1 gallon size: $6.39 This is one of those specific items we don’t find anywhere else. I do wish the girls weren’t drinking soy, though. That stuff’s pretty nasty. Especially since they both have PCOS.
Anyhow. That totalled another $14.38
So that was the damage for today, plus gas, which was just over $20 to fill the tank. Prices have dropped to 163.9¢/L recently, though in the city, I saw places at 162.9 and 161.9 With an energy drink and a snack for breakfast, plus some lotto tickets, the gas station purchases totalled a little over $40.
Not counting my lunch and gas station purchases, the total for today was $543.69 in total.
The international grocery store printed out entry forms with every receipt for a contest to win free groceries for a year. Since I came back for stuff I’d forgotten, I ended up with two entries. Today is the last day for the contest, so I’m glad I made it today. Plus, the receipts for the grocery store, and the Walmart, both have entries to win $1000 gift cards after filling out a “how did we do” survey. Normally, I don’t bother with those, but with the prices of groceries these days, I think I’ll be entering those!
After this will be the Costco and Canadian Tire shop. Canadian Tire is for the litter pellets and another few fire bricks for our outdoor kitchen, if they have them in stock. Since we don’t have a replacement van yet, we will likely have to make a second trip to Costco, just for more bags of dry cat food, now that I know that twelve 9kg bags will not last us a month. In that size, we would need 16 bags for 1 month! If we don’t get anything else that’s large or heavy (like the litter pellets), I can fit eight 9kg bags in my mother’s car, though it really doesn’t like it.
That reminds me. I should book it to get checked. I mentioned how the mileage seems to be getting worse, and he has some suggestions for me to get looked at.
That would be a good time to talk to our mechanic about how things are looking for finding us a vehicle within the financing budget.
I keep saying to myself, as long as we have it before winter, I’m good. In truth, I feel dread, every time I drive my mother’s car. It has had so many problems since my mother bought it, and since we took over keeping it registered so we have a vehicle she can get in and out of, it has had more problems then our van did! The faster we can get a replacement vehicle, the better.
Well, the Costco shop was $800.10. I forgot to get a picture of the Walmart shop, which was done first. That one was $161.28
So I’ll do the Costco list first.
Yeah. That’s $800.10 right there.
*sigh*
There were a few things we don’t normally get, though. Like my husband’s birthday cake! He has a birthday coming up soon, and he asked for cake and lots of ice cream bars. 😄
So, this is the list, in the order that’s on the receipt.
Butter: 5 pounds at $5.49 each – way cheaper than anywhere else – for a total of $27.45 Flour, 10kg size: $9.99 KS Drawstring garbage bags: $21.99 Canned cat food: $38.99 Kirkland brand dry cat food (best price per kg); four 9kg bags: $26.99 each Kirkland brand toilet paper: $22.99 Coke Zero: $14.69, plus 32¢ enviro fee Birthday cake: $24.99 Lean ground beef: $30.85 Stewing beef: $32.89 Eye of Round: $29.40 (the price of beef is insane, even at Costco!) Pork tenderloins: $18.77 Ice cream bars, variety pack: $19.99 Ice cream, almond bars: $15.99 Ice cream, Mega Sandwich pack: $16.99 Cheese; Mozza: $14.99 Cheese; Old Cheddar: $14.99 Cheese; cream, 4pk: $9.49 Iced tea mix: $9.99 (elsewhere, it costs anywhere from $12.99 to $15.99 that I’ve seen) Bucket of Ghee: $41.99 (this is going to replace most of our cooking oils; we just can’t afford them, and Costco’s restaurant sized bucket of Ghee is an excellent price) Hazelnuts: $11.49 Deodorant, 5pk: $14.99 Active dry yeast: $7.99 (with the new bread machine, we’re using it pretty much every day, so we need to stock up on yeast and flour now! 😊) Toothbrushes: $16.99 AA batteries: regular price $25.99, but on sale for $19.99, + eco fee of $1.60 AAA batteries: same sale price of $19.99, + eco fee of 80¢ Arthritis acetaminophen pain killers: $19.99 24 hour allergy meds: $10.99 Ibuprofen, extra strength: $15.99 Butter chicken sauce, 2pk: $9.99 Spaghetti box: regular price, $13.49, on sale for $9.99 Tortillas, two 2pks: $9.99 each Basmati rice: $15.99 Rotisserie chicken: 2 at $7.99 each
The subtotal for all that was $752.43, and the taxes came to $47.67 for the total of $800.10
That was really painful.
Then there was the stuff I got at Walmart. I went specifically for the puppy pads and carpet powder, but I also keep an eye out for other things, as needed. This time I got quite a few extras.
KD, 12pk: $9.47 That was an excellent sale price. KD is something the girls like for a quick cooking meal. Ramen noodles, 24pk: $6.48 They were on sale for 27¢ each, which is almost pre-pandemic insanity price. Clumping cat litter: $8.47 I really hope it works with TTT. The dust, just from opening the container, was insane. I so prefer the stove pellets as litter! Argan oil: $7.97 Carpet powder, odor eliminator: $4.47 Carpet powder, deodorizing: $3.97 Soaker pad: $17.97 – to protect the new mattress cover! Waterproof mattress cover, king size: $49.97 Puppy pads, 30″x30″: $26.97 With the bigger size, I need only one to cover the space under the desk litter pan: $9.97 Since I took the one from the cat cage in the sun room to use under my desk, I needed to replace it, for when we have to keep cats before they go for spays and neuters.
With having to get all the extra stuff to protect my bed, this was almost all “extra” purchases. Which is really frustrating that we have to do this.
TTT is now back in my room and tucked into her napping cave in my closet. I would be really, really happy if she started using the new litter! She always waits until I’m asleep before she goes, though, so I won’t know until morning.
And that’s our first stock up shopping trip for the month.
After I take the cats in to the vet clinic tomorrow morning, I’m heading into the city to meet a guy selling some small scaffolding. I might take advantage of that and swing by Costco to pick up 4 more bags of kibble. Then we’ll have to make another trip into the city to get the rest of our stocking up, including more litter pellets, and maybe even some more *gasp* groceries for ourselves!
These price increases are getting harder and harder to keep up with. With a fixed income, we’re running out of wiggle room. Especially since we expect to have car payments before winter. We so need a van. Having to make multiple trips, because we can only fit so much into my mother’s car, is a killer on the gas budget. Her car has horrible mileage, too!
Well, time to do my outside rounds before I have to tuck away any food that’s left in the kibble bowls in my room, for the overnight fasting.
So yesterday was an interesting one… thankfully, not too interesting!
We hit 30C/86F and the rain that was forecast for our area was suddenly not being forecasted anymore. It was still insanely humid, though. The garden was wilting from the heat, so I set up the sprinklers to water the beds.
Which is when my phone started screaming at me.
Several times.
We were getting tornado warnings. However, the alerts were for the “mobile coverage area”. Which is pretty darn big. Looking at the weather radar after the first alert, the system was right on top of the smaller, nearer city we sometimes go to. My sister lives near there. The system continued to move northward, passing to the east of us.
As far as I know, there were no funnel clouds sighted, but some of the downs got walloped by massive rain, winds and, in some places, softball sized hail! I later saw photos people were posting on some local weather watching groups I’m on, and the damage in places from the wind and hail was pretty bad in places.
We had some pretty clouds blow over our area, and the odd gust of wind.
I’m okay with that.
There was no respite from the heat and humidity, though. My poor daughters, upstairs! My older daughter was working, but my younger daughter tried, and failed, to get any sleep.
I fared somewhat better, at least. Aside from being tackled by kittens, repeatedly, my room was much cooler, and I’ve started to partly sleep through the kitten attacks. I do have to be increasingly careful moving around, though. Question has decided I am her human, so I often have her climbing my leg while I’m on the computer and either sitting on my knee, or forcing her way up into my arms so she can sleep on my chest. During the night, at one point, I woke to find her snuggled over one of my arms.
She wasn’t alone.
One of the grey tabbies was also draped over my bicep.
Something still seemed odd, though. Thankfully, I could reach my phone and use the camera and flash to try and see. Which is how I found Ghosty stretched out in front of my leg and belly. Which is imressive, for such a tiny kitten!
When I had to roll over, I carefully scooped up Question and moved with her. The other kittens took off, but Question just settled in wherever I happened to stop moving, which means she spent most of the night sleeping in the palm of my hand! Another time, I woke to find her draped across my neck, and another kitten curled up around my head.
When my older daughter came in to help do Leyendecker’s meds (letting her sister, who usually does it, to finally get some sleep!), Question had moved to my pillow, curled up next to my face, and slowly slid down until she was on my shoulder, instead. I’m told it was an adorable sight!
After doing Leyendecker’s medications, I did my morning rounds (I’m pretty sure I’m seeing new kittens, but at this point, it’s getting hard to tell!), then grabbed an insulated bag with ice packs in it and headed to the city.
I ended up stopping at a gas station in the town my mother lives in, after discovering I was out of washer fluid. For some reason, the light that’s supposed to turn on and tell me it’s empty, doesn’t. I had some in the car, but after filling the reservoir, I went in to replace the jug. As I was leaving, a woman outside started chatting with me, asking if we’d gotten the storm. I told her it passed us by, but I’d heard about other places that got hit really hard.
She was in one of those places!
They were in a trailer, attending the Treaty Days events when the storm hit. Thankfully, they did not get any damage, though the ground was white with hail after it passed. A nearby town, closer to the lake, got the softball sized hail. She said some of the trucks she saw looked like someone had gone at them with a sledgehammer! Absolutely wild!
I’m really thankful it missed us. There are people in my local gardening groups that already had their gardens smashed to bits from hail in the last set of storms. I’ve since seen other photos posted online from the aftermath, and there were thing like large trucks blown over, pieces of sheds in the middle of fields, downed trees, pieces of roof torn off, and sheds blown apart.
I’ve not been home long, so I haven’t had a chance to see what sort of response there has been. So far, I have not heard of any people injured.
I’m glad I ran into the lady at the gas station. She was really nice.
Once in the city, my first stop was at a Walmart. This shop was mostly stuff we don’t normally buy.
This is what $203.24, after taxes, looks like.
The main thing I was looking for was puppy pads. There are a couple of places the kitten keep making messes in, once of which we will have to do some serious rearranging to access. The other is under my desk, where I was able to put some old disposable diapers we’d hung onto over the years. That, at least, will be easier to clean up this time, but I didn’t have anything to replace the diapers with. I was quite happy to see the Walmart was well stocked in the puppy pads!
The facial tissue was on my list; I didn’t want to get a Costco sized package of those, so I got them at Walmart. The tinned cat food was also on the list. I got a replacement package pectin, which was not officially on the list, but I do try to pick some up as I’m able. I would have also picked up replacement wide mouth canning lids, but they only had regular mouth size. There’s some toothpaste and deodorant, which are also things that I try to pick up extras of, when I can.
Not at all on the list was the broom. It’s just a cheap one, but it has stiffer bristles. The carpet in my room is a strange, felted-looking surface. It attracts cat hair, dust and everything else like nobody’s business! With the kittens, I’m not able to vacuum as often as I should, but I try to at least sweep it. All the brooms we have are soft bristled, so they don’t work very well. I’ve already tried this one out, and it’s exactly what I wanted. It pulls up so much cat hair! That’s make life easier for the vacuum cleaner!
I also got a cheap little toy for the kittens. It’s meant for dogs, but it’s a little fox that crinkles when squeezed, and the kittens will have a blast with it.
Also not on the list, but I did remember we needed, are a couple of pairs of kitchen sheers. They were both quite affordable, but one was less than $3. We’ll see how long they last, compared to the one that cost just over $10. I also grabbed a wooden spatula. We’ve got lots or plastic ones for the non-stick pans, and most have heat damage. The one that doesn’t has a crack in it. I’ve looked at wooden ones before, but they were all oddly thick. This one seemed properly thin enough to actually get under things, rather than just push them around the pan. 😄 It was less than $5, so that was nice, too.
The one big purchase this time, though, was a new pair of shoes! I finally remembered to look for some.
A nice pair of steel toes work shoes! I love the boots I have now, but I’ve been wearing them so much, one of the heels is giving out, and the zipper and Velcro closure are starting to wear out. All the work shoes had security cables on them, so I had to find an employee to unlock a couple of pairs to try on. It was funny when the first thing she did was point out that they were men’s shoes, not women’s. I told her I knew – I can’t fit women’s shoes! What made it funnier is that there was another lady looking at shoes to try on, and she was only looking at men’s shoes, too!
The ones I ended up getting were slightly more expensive, but at $69.97, that’s still a good price for steel toed shoes.
I put them on as soon as I finished loading everything else in the car!
The one last thing not on the list that I got was an actual food item. There was a really good sale on large package of blueberries, so I got two. They were only $3.84 each!
That put me at a before-tax total of $182.68.
My next stop was at the international grocery store, where I was also able to pick up some dim sum for lunch. That really hit the spot!
This is wat $215.21, after taxes, looks like.
This time, it was the strawberries that were at a great price! The bananas weren’t on sale, but still pretty cheap. The Coke Zero wasn’t on sale, but still cheaper than the local prices. The raspberry drink was a cold one for the ride home.
This store is one of the few places I can get the Beaver Buzz brand of energy drinks, so I try to pick up quite a few for my older daughter and I. It’s also where we can find the Philippine soy sauce my husband likes, and a 4L size of soy milk my lactose intolerant daughters drink. There is an uncut piece of locally produced Applewood smoked bacon in there; they didn’t have the big chunks, or I would have gotten a much larger one! There’s regular 3% cows milk in there, and I found the wide mouth canning lids I wanted. There’s some truffle infused olive oil; a real treat that is often not in stock. I picked up some sweet potatoes, because I’m getting a hankering for a sweet potato and peanut soup from a recipe my SIL gave us.
The girls and I had recently been talking about liverwurst. We used to get it all the time. When my oldest daughter was a baby, I’d picked one up and, while continuing to shop, gave it to her to hold and play with. She was very happy with it. It took a while to realize why she was so quiet and content. She had bitten a hole in the package and was happily sucking the liverwurst out! After that, for a long time, we would start our grocery shopping by buying a small tube of liverwurst for her to enjoy while we shopped, then did the same thing again with her sister. The girls were remembering that we used to get it all the time, but we just… stopped. So when I saw large tubes of it in the grocery store, I grabbed one. The thing cost over $11, though!
I also picked up some cheeses from the “fancy cheese” counter. I got an Alexis de Portneuf and a Ceddar with Caramelized onion. I was also looking for some parmesan that was not grated, because I would really like to make …
… the original Fettuccine Alfredo.
The price of parmesan is insane! In the end, I only got a little chunk, and it still cost almost $8 – on sale! Hopefully it will be enough for one recipe of Fettuccine Alfredo.
Other things were better priced. I picked up a 2 pack of whole chicken that was only $13.35 These days, I’d be hard pressed to find a single whole chicken for that price.
The big indulgence, however, was a beef brisket. I’ve never bought a brisket before. I’m going to have to look up how to cook it properly. It cost $55.40, and I normally would never buy a single piece of meat at that price, but it was really a good deal. It was on sale for about $9.90/kg ($4.49/lb was on the signs, if I remember correctly). Looking at the other cuts of beef, they were generally $20+/kg. Even the ground beef wasn’t much cheaper! So that was my major splurge.
What I did not get today was any dry cat food. Normally, I would have picked some up at Walmart., but they didn’t have the large sized bags, and the smaller sized bags were more expensive than what I find at Costco for bigger bags. Plus, I no longer had room in my mother’s car.
I so look forward to getting a replacement van!!!
So after this, I headed towards home. My husband’s bubble packs were in and I was supposed to pick them up tomorrow, but I decided to take a different route and get those, too.
Since I remembered to bring the ice packs, I could do that! 😁
His bubble packs, plus a container of diabetic candies (the last one!!) and a gallon of distilled water for his CPAP, because I forgot to get it at Walmart, came out to $89 and change.
Ouch.
Thank God for his private insurance prescription coverage!
My last stop was to fill the gas tank. The last time I filled it, the prices were still at 149.9 ¢/L, but the next day, the prices went up. Now it’s the same price as in the city; 157.9/L
I did, however, make one more unexpected purchase.
This gas station was newly renovated. It closed down as a Husky and reopened as a Shell. Aside from the fancy new pumps and new signs, not a lot has changed, but there was a new display of books that caught my eye. I was torn between several that would be very useful but, in the end, decided that this one would be the most immediately useful. For all that I grew up in the prairies, I don’t actually know a lot about what native species we have that are edible.
Or maybe I know more than I think. Flipping through it in the store, I did recognise a lot of the photos. I think mostly it’s that there are some that I don’t know if they are safe to eat or not.
I’m going to enjoy going through it more thoroughly!
Filling the tank cost $32.26, and the book was another $24.95, though I did get a slight discount for using my CAA card. According to my receipt, I was also discounted 0.03/L on my fuel. I’ll take what I can get!
So that is our first city shopping trip for the month. There will at least be one Costco trip – maybe two, if the price of cat food is crazy enough to warrant a second trip.
I really miss having a van. I don’t like making so many trips to the city like this!
The Re-Farmer 