First Grocery Shop for September

I am starting the fiscal month of September today. I had been considering lowering the household budget down from $300 to $200 because I am no longer shopping for 3 people, but after spending $150 already today, I believe I will keep my budget the same. Besides, we are still providing bread, milk, condiments and the like for the whole household. I have not been shopping for groceries very much over the last month so my list was pretty long of items that we were low on or completely out of. I decided to visit one grocery store (Freshco) and the Bulk Barn. I still have not been to Shopper's Drug Mart to buy my $50 gift card for the month. 

Produce cost  $12.84

Potatoes cost me $3.99 which I hated to pay for, but we were completely out. That expense was made up by the celery  at  only 69 cents, the green onions at 49 cents and the English cucumber and iceberg  lettuce at 79 cents each.  I see some green salads in our future. I bought another 4 coloured peppers for $1.99  When they are cheap at that price, I will slice them up for the freezer. We needed yellow cooking onions for $1.99 and I bought 6 Tangelos Minneola oranges for $2.  The liter of apple juice was 97 cents. 

Pantry items cost $19.88

During the past month we used up all of our pantry stores of peanut butter, coffee and sugar. I need to find sales to build up my supplies again. The sugar was regular price of $1.97 each. The coffee was only $4 and the peanut butter was on sale for $3.99 a kg jar. The pasta was sale priced for 97 cents and the cereal was $2.99 (Rice Krispie squares anyone?)

Proteins cost $35.72

I have lots of beef and pork in the freezer, but I ran out of chicken. Because whole chicken was $1.97/lb. I bought two. I bought another huge pork loin because it was $1.44/lb. I cut it up into 6 thick chops and two smaller roasts. The Schneider steakettes and the Oktoberfest sausage were $2 a pkg.  I bought two of each. The steakettes make lovely large hamburgers. I bought two tins of  flaked tuna for 97 cents a tin. My price for meat is generally $2/lb., but it gets harder and harder to find those prices anymore. I splurged on the package of store sliced lunch meat (extra lean Montreal smoked meat) for $3/pkg. 

Dairy was  $10.88

Becel margarine was $1 off at $4.99 and milk costs us $4.27 for 4 liters.                                                                                                           

Bread cost  $6.61

The loaves were $1.94 each and whole wheat tortillas (10 pack) was $2.79                                                                                     

Sundries cost us  $23.94

The vinegar is a sundry because I will use it to make cleaners and weed killer and I will use in my washer as a fabric softener. This is not a food item. I don't need to buy kittie treats, but I like to. I can buy a generic litter, but this was on sale and I wanted to test it. And it goes without saying that I could wash my dishes by hand and save a LOT of money.  

I paid FULL price for vinegar, milk, sugar, potatoes, onions, apple juice and smoked meat. Everything else was sale priced.   My total receipt came to $114.31 with tax.  My total discounts and savings were $63.92  

We stopped at the Bulk Barn on the way home and I spent a further $40.15. Wednesday is Senior's Day, so that price includes a 10% off the original price.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

I am usually kind of surprised how "little" it looks for the price

until I empty it all into their respective containers. Then I always think that I got a bargain, which of course, I have.  In the back row from the left, I have oatmeal  (I bought too much for the container, but I will use it up quickly), dried red kidney beans, salt, whole wheat flour and Sultana raisins in front of that, brown sugar and sliced almonds.  In the smaller jars in front from the left, I have ground black pepper, minced dried onion, granulated garlic and garlic powder. This time when I was in the store, I made notes on each of the tags which included the unit price for 100 gms. Now I will be able to start a price book to see how these prices compare with grocery store prices when these items go on sale. Just because I buy them in bulk, does not necessarily mean they are the cheapest price. The black sticky substance in the container in the top picture is Blackstrap molasses, which my Sweetie wanted to buy to help him build up his hemoglobin. He also bought some Jujubes. I don't know what purpose they will serve. *laugh*

Daybook: Tuesday, Aug. 30/16

I wasn't home yesterday. We woke up at 5 A.M. and didn't get home until 5 P.M. yesterday, and the day was rather exhausting. My Sweetie had an appointment in Toronto to see his vascular surgeon. It has been one year since his aneurysm was repaired. Good news! It has shrunk even more since the 6 month check-up. Also,  we stopped in Cobourg on the way back to see my step-dad still in hospital. We got to wheel him outside into the courtyard for a little while. I don't think he has been outside in the fresh air since he left for the hospital by ambulance all those weeks ago. When we got home I just made a package of Kraft Dinner (boxed mac and cheese) for supper.

It is now Tuesday afternoon. I slept most of the night with a headache until 5 A.M., at which point I came downstairs to take two extra strength Tylenol and then slept on the couch until 9:30 this morning. I slept through everyone waking up and coming downstairs and walking through the living room. My tummy feels a little queasy, so I have not done much of anything except drink iced tea and read my email and pay bills on-line. I will NOT be working in the Craft Room today.

Outside my window.....It is a sunny day with no humidity. It is a perfect summer afternoon. The rains (about 3 of them) in the past two weeks have revived some of the grass. I could actually cut it this week I think.

I am thinking.....that it would be lovely to work outdoors if I were feeling better. There is so much outdoor work to do.

I am thankful for.....spell check. My fingers these days seem to have a "memory" of their own and they want to auto-correct everything I am thinking, with the result that I am misspelling so many words. How can this be?

From the kitchen......I have some bread pudding and banana muffins left over from baking on the weekend; but there won't be enough to last until the end of the week. Maybe I will bake cookies tomorrow morning before 11 A.M. We brought back half an egg salad sandwich yesterday that I ate for lunch today, with a little bread pudding. I didn't take anything out of the freezer this morning so supper may be breakfast for dinner, or leftover chili con carne from Sunday night. Right now I don't feel like cooking anything. Maybe I will eat some toast.

I am wearing..... a white T-shirt and the new denim capris with the rolled cuffs that I bought on the Girls' weekend in Watertown.

I am creating.....a new organized Crafting space with lots of storage (I hope)

I am going.....grocery shopping some time this week with September's food budget.

I am hoping.....everything goes well with the move out of my mom's Retirement Home this week. A truck has been arranged and a storage unit has been rented. My sister will post some of the larger items on Kijiji and plans to hold a yard sale sometime this Fall for the rest. As long as the warmer weather holds out, it shouldn't be a problem having a sale this late in the year.

I am hearing.....sounds of traffic on the highway outside our front door, and the barking of the dogs (three of them) in the back yard.  Our neighbours in the back are moving out today. All the activity of moving stuff out of the house into the moving truck has them all excited.

Around the house....work is calling out to me, but I feel too exhausted to care. I want to nap.

One of my favourite things.....today is the lovely breeze blowing through the house through the open windows. It is making me think of  my favourite season of the year, which is Fall.

A few plans for the rest of the week......includes a date with two of my friends to go to the Deseronto Tea House this coming Saturday. Also, my Sweetie and I were going to take a trailer load of yard scrap to the Transfer station this morning. But, I wasn't feeling up to it, and the back yard is being occupied by those people moving out. So we will be doing that later this week, and then we will take a load of branches and scrub to the composting centre. So outdoor work is in my future.

Here is a picture I am sharing.....our back yard with the truck stretched across. See how the grass is coming back to life. That was brown and dusty only two weeks ago.

Some of the items purged from the Craft Room for the donations box

 I did spend some time yesterday in my Craft Room  although I didn't get far. But I was able to toss a few things from one of my storage units. I cleared some of my drawers of felt pens, calligraphy inks, confetti and glitters, lots and lots of stencils and embossing pads. Today I took a break from that room to get some other work done.

Banana muffins

Bread pudding

Today's Harvest

This is what I managed from the garden today. I froze a quart of beans, a quart of cherry tomatoes, and four quarts of  large tomatoes, with some left fresh for eating in salads and sandwiches. Yes, there are still cucumbers growing at the end of August, and I am getting quite a collection of cayenne peppers. I also boiled 6 eggs to make egg salad sandwiches. I will take some sandwiches and banana muffins with us tomorrow when we go to Toronto. We will be leaving very early in the morning and travelling a lot. Although we will stop for coffee along the way, we will take water and snacks with us. 

Dinner tonight is chili con carne from the freezer. I didn't feel like cooking after baking in the heat this afternoon. How was your weekend? Was it productive or did you do some relaxing? 

Resisting the Crafting Urge

 I did my usual empty the dishwasher (yesterday, Friday), fill up the dishwasher, wash another load of dishes while cleaning off all the counters. But that led to vacuuming the kitchen floor, washing down a kitchen cabinet, then the window ledge, then washing the entire window (inside and out). It was the result of wanting to start the Fall Cleaning, or an attempt at stalling the inevitable  "resuming the purge and clean-up in the Craft Room". Whatever. It's all good. I still managed to get stuff done.

 Moving counter-clockwise around the room, my next project in the Craft Room was the tall standing cabinet beside my paper crafting cabinet. I removed everything, wiped down the surfaces, and only replaced my scrapbooks and photo boxes on the bottom two shelves.

Above the two shelves is a drop-down "desk top" that provides a small work surface and then folds up to hide any messes until the next time. 

Above that work area are two shelves behind glass doors which can house supplies. This is where I used to have my cricut cartridges and craft magazines. I have not replaced them yet because I am rethinking the use for this cabinet. The work surface did not work for scrap booking or card making because I need to spread out and use up a whole table. That is why I always ended up in the dining room. But this area would work for beading or painting, so I will consider that as an option before I return anything to these shelves. 

Slowly, but surely, by doing a little bit each day and spending some time rethinking how spaces are used. this HUGE job will eventually get done in time for me to make cards, homemade gifts, and wrap the Advent Calendar presents this Fall. I am constantly resisting the urge to sit down and craft something. That has happened in the past when I have tried to clean the space. As soon as space became available or I found some supplies that I had forgotten about, I would stop the clean up in order to craft something. Not this time. And I am trying very hard to purge supplies that I have not used in a while. That is more difficult.

So today I find myself back in that room. I don't know how much I will get done over the weekend. I have washing to do. I have to pick more tomatoes and maybe some more beans. Early Monday morning, my Sweetie and I have to be in Toronto for another appointment with the vascular surgeon. (We just found out about it. We were not expecting an appointment to be made). And Tuesday morning, we have another load of stuff to go to the Transfer Station, so we are loading up the trailer with more junk around the yard. (This is stuff that the dump won't take, eg. lumber and construction material) So a busy weekend ....also hot and muggy. Have a good weekend yourselves. Stay cool.   

Still in the Craft Room

I am still working on that Craft Room. You must be thinking, "Surely, she is almost finished in there." But no. I have a long ways to go, and I am also reorganizing it into a space where different crafts can be done besides paper crafts. I cleaned out the cabinet  and drawers yesterday. Today I had to clean off the top of my work surface so that I have an area to house my most often used supplies beside my Cricut die cutter. 

In the cabinet, I have my paper pads and my stamps and inks

What's this?? An empty drawer??

Not to worry! I have lots of supplies still that have to be dealt with. Stay tuned. 

Digging out the Craft Room

I wanted to do some more work in the Craft Room today. I have been doing little bits every day trying to make some headway; but, you might remember that I mentioned a while ago that I also wanted to incorporate all of my gift boxes and wrappings as well. That meant bringing in even more stuff to an already crowded space. I want this room to incorporate all of our crafting supplies and be able to provide space to everyone who does crafting, which includes my son and his GF. The first thing my Sweetie and I did this morning was to put this shelf up on the wall over one of the windows (There are four windows along this back wall, a patio door on one of the end walls, and another window on the other end wall) It is a lot of glass overlooking the back garden, so not a lot of wall space. I can fit three of these Rubbermaid tubs on the shelf. Two of them are empty right now, but they will hold the majority of my wrapping supplies. 

I also took everything out of my  cabinet, including two drawers, vacuumed and washed the shelves, and sorted everything before replacing the items. I found a few things to purge, but not as much as I thought I would. On one side of my cabinet were garden items that I need to find a new home for. Since I want this cabinet to just hold crafting supplies, I need to put my gardening "stuff" elsewhere. I bleached and washed several pots that can go outside behind the fence. They can't go to the shed. That is my Hubby's domain. 

The new shelf will get more stuff off the floor

More items purged

I have purged two packages of 8 1/2" X 11" scrap booking  paper, pink silk flower petals, wood working pattern for a Nativity scene and a labeller with four tapes. I will be back at it tomorrow. 

I picked part of a peck of peppers

I began the day by going out to the garden. I picked one more red pepper to bring my count up to five. I picked another handful of beans, about 12 small tomatoes, and 26 more cherry tomatoes. I sliced and seeded the peppers and froze them. I cored and packaged another quart of tomatoes for the freezer, and left three for slicing fresh. The cherry tomatoes will also be put in the freezer because we are getting tired of them already.

My red peppers harvested from the garden

The rest of today's harvest, showing produce destined for the freezer

I vacuumed and "Febreezed" my couch yesterday. I looked on-line for a homemade Febreeze recipe for when I eventually run out of this bottle. Of course, there were several recipes to choose from. I washed all of my couch blankets and a smaller second load of dark wash and hung them outside.

I washed both sides of my kitchen French door and part of my adjoining kitchen wall.  If you have ever owned a dog, then you know how often the glass has to be scrubbed. 

I vacuumed my carpeted staircase. 

I swept up part of the tiled floor in my craft room. The craft room is overwhelming to me, so I will break off tiny bites to chew until it gets done. 

Yesterday was actually the day that was cooler than seasonal, not today. It is supposed to go back up into the 30's this week. I will still try to do some outdoor work.

Daybook: Monday Aug 22/16

Outside my window.....the sun is shining. It feels so much cooler than it has been, and the lawn is greening up. (or should I say the weeds are getting taller)

I am thinking.....that it is the end of the summer. The busiest time of the year is starting up.

I am thankful for.....cooler temperatures and the good health to get things done.

From the kitchen.....I have been preparing vegetables from the garden for the freezer. I have done some baking over the weekend.

I am wearing.....denim Bermuda shorts and blue printed T-shirt.

I am creating.....nothing right now. I want to fix up my Craft room and keep a work space in there.

I am going.....nowhere!!  I mean, I have no plans this week to go anywhere special. I will take advantage of cooler temps to work outdoors.

I am hoping.....to find my Mojo this week. I want to be inspired and motivated to "get 'er done".

I am hearing.....the sound of cars driving by, crickets in the yard, and a small aircraft flying overhead.

Around the house.....purging needs to resume. I gave a quick vacuum last week, but I need to pull out furniture from the walls and do a proper cleaning. I still need to do some dusting. I need to do a Fall cleaning with washing windows and the whole nine yards.

One of my favourite things.....this week will be my vacuum cleaner. I couldn't survive all the dust and pet hair (and my own long hair) with only a broom or mop in hand.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include some yard work, some housework and maybe a little crafting thrown into the mix.

Here is a picture I am sharing......of zucchini muffins we have been enjoying this weekend.

 My Sweetie and I worked on a joint project yesterday. We dismantled the old marble fireplace and moved the electric fireplace we had in our dining room to its new home. It fits in better with the light oak cabinets that we have on this wall. We had hoped that someday we could put a gas insert in this old fireplace. But it is time to admit that that will never happen. My husband will try to sell the marble pieces on-line, but I don't know if anyone will want to buy. We'll see.

We traded out the old marble fireplace surround

for a light oak electric fireplace. It isn't as high or as wide as the old one, so my Sweetie will put up a tile fireplace surround to hide the area left by the old fireplace.

The Hip are playing tonight

My granddaughter sent a link to her facebook friends a couple of days ago. It was an article by Jeff Bishop entitled, "Canada is closed". His article will explain what I will be doing tonight. That is, I will be glued to the television singing my heart out and maybe shedding a few tears. The Tragically Hip may not be known to many of you outside of Canada, but here (especially in Kingston) they are quintessentially Canadian.

Happy Weekend

Yesterday was middle son's birthday. I had hoped to write another blog post yesterday afternoon, but we were busy instead preparing for last night's dinner. His GF wanted to cook dinner and birthday cupcakes for him, but also included his dad and I in the celebration. She had never made cake from scratch before and wanted my help. I am sure it would have turned out regardless, but I gave her a few instructions and tips. While the cupcakes were cooling, I vacuumed the main downstairs rooms (kitchen, dining room and living room) while my son's GF went out to pick up the ingredients for dinner and a few decorations. We threw up a few banners and balloons and for a little more silliness, we wore mustaches instead of birthday hats during dinner. THAT, actually was a LOT of fun. We put out the ingredients to make our own tacos with soft tortillas (using a few of our garden picked tomatoes). They left this morning for Toronto for the weekend. They weren't sure where they were going to go before they left, but mentioned Casa Loma, the ROM, and the Science Centre. We won't know which attractions they see until they come home on Sunday. 

The card I made for him and put cold, hard cash inside. It is well sealed behind those riveted metal plates. 

We wore mustaches at the dinner party. It was so fun.

Today's chores accomplished:   I unloaded the dishwasher first thing this morning and then filled it up and did a second load. 

 I will spare you yet another picture of the garden produce, but I did go out and pick 3 more red peppers, 10 more large tomatoes, a handful of beans and two handfuls of cherry tomatoes. I washed and prepared them for the freezer. 

I grated the remaining 3 zucchinis and  measured out nine cups. Tomorrow I will make muffins with 3 cups of grated zucchini that I have set aside in the fridge with raisins and walnuts.  With the remaining 6 cups,  I have measured 2 bags of  3 cups each for the freezer. 

I washed three large loads of laundry and hung almost all of it outside on the line. I will wait until after 7 PM to put the bed sheets and mattress cover in the dryer. 

I made my pitcher of iced tea this morning and have been enjoying it all afternoon. 

I wrote up two more get well cards and got them in the mail. 

I made up a jar of homemade taco seasoning for my son and his GF for their spice shelf. I want to make "Ten Things Farm" chicken seasoning that Nathalie makes. I also NEED to make another jar of homemade laundry detergent as I am almost out after all the wash I did today. 

It's Friday. Have a GREAT weekend. 

Wednesday's post on Thursday

This is the post I meant to send out yesterday; but as usual, I ran out of time. I was busy in the kitchen after I went out to pick the harvest from the garden. Our larger tomato plants are starting to produce red tomatoes now. I also found a red pepper that was almost completely turned red but was knocked down on the ground by the Monday rain. I brought it in so that it could finish ripening inside. I also brought in two more cucumbers and some more cayenne peppers.

Most of these tomatoes will be cored and put into quart sized freezer bags. When a recipe calls for a large tin of tomatoes, I will take a bag out, pour boiling water over these tomatoes, and the skins will slip right off. When the cayenne peppers have completely dried, I will grind them.

I picked another quart of burgundy beans. The plants that I thought were drying up and not going to produce much more, have more buds on them after the rain. I only planted one cherry tomato plant, but it is producing well. We can not use these up fast enough, so I have also been freezing these. They make a great addition to homemade soups. 

And speaking of soups, I put a whole turkey carcass from the freezer into the crock pot on Tuesday night and simmered into soup stock all night. After preparing the veggies from the garden, I picked all the meat from the bones and poured the stock into a container for the fridge. Today I will take the fat from the top and put the pure meat stock into the freezer to make soup later in the Fall. Because the bones were so meaty, I decided to wrap them in cheesecloth and boil them again on top of the stove. I got another lot of soup stock which I will mix with the first. I got quite a bit of turkey meat from this carcass, so I will divide it between the two containers of soup base. 

I got a call from my friend (who had abdominal surgery). She has been using another friend's car for the last two weeks and wanted to return it yesterday. The other friend lives on Amherst Island and has not been using it lately because she is needing surgery early in September. We each of us drove to the ferry. I parked my car on this side, rode over with her in the friend's car, had tea and a chat until the next ferry, and then we  walked on the ferry for the ride back. I was then able to use my car to drive her home. It sounds a little complicated, but was a nice respite from all the kitchen work I was doing. I knew I wouldn't be back until late, so I prepared a Big Salad for dinner with romaine lettuce, a cucumber and cherry tomatoes from the garden. I grilled a large chicken breast which I sliced thinly to go on top of the salad. 

I had planned to go into Kingston yesterday morning, but changed my mind. I will wait to go to the Bulk Barn until next month's food budget. (Remember I ran out of August's budget? I don't NEED to get anything this month) My Sweetie has pool therapy this morning, so he took in the recycling and the drop-off for Value Village. I also got to talk to my mother by phone yesterday. She is sounding very good. She didn't receive the get well card I sent her because she was moved last week, so I will have to send her another. My sister has found a place for them both. It isn't ideal, but they are on a waiting list for the first choice. 

So there you have it....yesterday's post. I hope to write something later today. 

Saturday afternoon in Fineview New York

Entrance to the Canada Duty Free store

First stop on our Girls' Weekend to Watertown, NY was the Duty Free at the Canadian border, where we bought our wine and spirits. I claimed a bottle of rye for one of the girls who picked up two bottles. We each of us picked up a bottle of wine of which we drank 3 bottles on Friday and Saturday evenings. 

Look at this sign. When travelling, you hope to find clean washrooms. Well, we found luxurious washrooms at the Canadian Duty Free shop. Look at all the marble and tile.

Next stop to Watertown was a stop in Fineview in Thousand Island Park.  This is a resort town where Americans still come to vacation during the summer in these old Victorian cottages built in the 1800s. 

   

The bandstand in the centre of the park

Down on the water's edge is a long pier where residents moor their boats or jump into the water for a cool swim or just do a little sun-bathing. 

The Library

Feast your eyes on the colours, the verandas, the gingerbread trim, and screened porches that make this Victorian community so unique. Our dinner reservations at the Wellesley Hotel were still a couple of hours away, so we took a walk around the town. By the time we arrived, most of the shops had closed down for the day, but we did manage a couple of them. This is a lovely place to visit. I highly recommend it. 

The Tabernacle held Roman Catholic masses, Protestant services and movie or theatre nights. 

Inside the open-aired tabernacle there were benches for sitting and sawdust on the floor.

The Wellesley Hotel. We ate dinner outside on the wrap-around verandah

Bus boy is setting up more tables around the side of the hotel.

It was very hot Friday afternoon, but there was a cooler breeze coming up off the water which made dining outside very enjoyable. After dinner we made our way to the Comfort Inn in Watertown. After checking in, we put on our swimsuits and used the indoor pool to cool down some before settling down for a night of wine, snacks and conversation before bed. We had a bedroom with two queen beds and a sitting room with kitchenette area. It was the perfect accommodation for the four of us.