Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: January 27 ~ February 2, 2019

[ReneeT]

Late start again - actually I had a post started and walked away to chop some veggies and get them cooking in order to make some cheesy chicken veggie soup to carry in our lunches this week; came back to find Hubby and the grandsons on the computer and by the time I got back to it there were 7 open tabs about motorcycles and my post was gone

Hubby is busy fixing lunch - burgers, waffle fries, homemade applesauce, and cottage cheese; meanwhile the boys have commandeered one end of the kitchen table and have 8 tubs of Play-doh, two rolling pins, and all the cookie cutters they could find - I'm thinking the boys can eat on their snack trays while Hubby & I settle for TV trays 'cause I'm not ready to clean up that mess just yet

I've been finishing washing up the jars of chicken, chicken broth, and beef that I canned this past week and getting them boxed and stored - the hardest part is moving boxes of previously canned stuff around in order to get these boxes behind them so the older stuff gets used first.

Perused the two grocery ads I have so far and wasn't much impressed with anything but one coffee sale - Maxwell House for $4.99/24-30 oz tubs; most everything else was junk food for Super Bowl parties. Had to laugh at one ad touting a 'sale' on 12 packs of soda - 3 for $12!! Umm, I don't recall buying soda at the usual retail price so don't know what it is, but 3 for $10 is usually my max price (and I've been known to wait for 3/$8 or 3/$9 since it isn't a neccessity); thinking an extra buck a 12 pk isn't much of a sale!

Haven't seen the drug store ads yet but will be doing a closer check of them as daughter stayed for a bit after she dropped the boys off yesterday to help me inventory the hygiene shelves and make out a list of items to pick up as they come on sale. I have two - $10 Extra Care Bucks to use if I find any decent deals at CVS as I did a Buy 4/Get $10 Boost deal twice in each of the past two weeks (using the $10 Bucks from the first deal to help pay for the second.)

I have an appointment with a cardiologist tomorrow to see about getting my blood pressure under better control; not looking forward to that because #1 - I think I need an endrocrinologist instead of a cardiologist. #2 - we are probably going to wrangle about meds - I'm not interested in taking the latest new med since I've been dealing with the results of doing that from a cancer med from 13 years ago - which is probably what led to the b/p issues in the first place (why I want to see an endocrinologist), and #3 - I'm also not interested in polypharmacy as I have no desire to be a medical experiment. (For the record, the only patients who are worse than nurses are doctors or borderlines )

Assuming I don't need to spend my spare cash on bail, plans for after my MD appointment are to stop by Aldi for a few items, then swing by the pool/gym to get in some exercise and stretching before I have to head back in to work on Tuesday and Wednesday - I may end up spending Tuesday night at co-worker's house in order to avoid driving back and forth in dangerous wind chill temps - Tuesday's low is predicted to be -7; the high on Wednesday is predicted to be -2 and wind chills are supposed to be in the -30's Thursday is supposed to warm up into the teens .... and snow. Bleah. Ah well, maybe the cold will kill off some of the bugs

Guess I'd better go clean up the lunch dishes... Take care all; stay safe and warm out there!

 

[prudentwatcher]

Decluttering continues slowly. Some more stuff out of the closet and a lot more stuff out of the dresser. Old clothes of mine will find new homes.

Finally found a good sale on toilet paper. Winn Dixie had White Cloud (my favorite) as a BOGO, so I stopped in and got six 6-packs. Decided to leave a couple on the shelf

The car got an oil change this week, in addition to some brake work and a fuel injection cleaning. It also has a full tank of gas right now. It need to be vacuumed and detailed on the inside, but it was pouring rain and cold outside today, so that did not get done.

That is about it. Nothing on sale really worth mentioning, few coupons worth using, and not much free time.

 

[anna43]

The way things are going in D.C. has my prepping gene on alert. However, when I checked my preps I couldn't see any holes that needed filled. Just the usual use and replace is all that's needed.

The government shut down and government workers needing to use food banks within one missed pay period and totally without emergency funds to pay one month's bills really highlighted for me the huge issues that we will face in a "real" SHTF situation. I cannot imagine not having at least a month's food in the house or money put back to cover mortgage and car payments for the next month.

I've always been low income so I know it can be done. You just have to prioritize and give up unnecessary spending to allow the extra funds to build an emergency fund. Food is even easier just buy a few extra items each time you shop to build an emergency pantry. Common sense seems to be in extremely short supply if not completely missing.

 

[Digger]

I checked and fed my remaining bee hive while it was warm over the weekend. They seem to be doing well. I hope I can catch at least one swarm this spring.

I planted the last of my ginseng seeds, a few snake root seeds, and scattered some mullin seed. Hopefully with an earlier start I can get more herbs dried to sell.

I am trying to buy 4 acres that joins what I have in another county. It would give me good access to the creek for water. I have access on the part I own now, but it is very steep. The title company is having a hard time finding how the father of the seller acquired the property. The owner before him died and old timers in the community did not know how the father ended up with it. The son that wants to sell it may have to hire a lawyer to fix it. The son's dad has been paying taxes on it over 30 years before he passed away. We will see how it turns out. There is a nice mature black walnut tree on it as another plus.

I have our taxes together. Just waiting on some paperwork to come in the mail. I hope we get some back this year. We had to pay in last year.

I have some seed from an old fashion sour cherry. I am going to plant them to add to our orchard. Do you think they are something I could sell? I don't see them at the farmers market.

 

[Marseydoats]

Took the dog to the vet for her annual visit and got a years supply of her medicine. Had some work done on the truck so hopefully it should be good for awhile. Re-filled all the kerosene cans in anticipation of the coming snow storm, which they are now saying is just going to be rain. Added another 6 weeks of dry cat food to the stash.
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but my Walmart has been out of a lot of things since well before Christmas, and they never restock their shelves. Yesterday they only had 3 jugs of distilled water, 2 cartons of store brand ginger ale, and 2 bottles of the store brand mouthwash, and I bought all of that.

 

[Old Gray Mare]

.... and 2 bottles of the store brand mouthwash, and I bought all of that.

FYI

Haven't tried it yet but, somewhere I read or heard Listerine or a equivalent generic work to repel ticks if sprayed on clothing before hiking in tick infested areas.

 

[Journey]

The WMs around here have lots of empty shelves, more than I’ve ever known them to have. They’re also converting over half of the cashier checkouts into self checkouts. I’ve used the smaller selfies but these are full size with conveyor belts. My husband hates the selfies but after yesterday’s 10 minute experience in a regular line behind a lady with coupon problems and three different managers he may have changed his mind.

 

[anna43]

I refuse to use the self check outs. I feel since I'm shopping in the store I should be entitled to at least that small service. Also, if I used a self checkout, it would mean helping Walmart to eliminate jobs.

Yesterday I had 3/4's pound of ground beef and was making pasta sauce. I decided to see how far I could stretch it and started by adding finely chopped carrots, celery, onions, then added dehydrated chard and mushrooms, then a quart of tomato juice and another quart of chopped tomatoes. When I tasted it was very acid so I added a tablespoon of sugar and lastly a can of mushroom soup. I put half of the sauce over macaroni and froze the other half. The macaroni dish is six servings so part of that will also be headed to the freezer. Who needs hamburger helper!!

 

[Illini Warrior]

The WMs around here have lots of empty shelves, more than I’ve ever known them to have. They’re also converting over half of the cashier checkouts into self checkouts. I’ve used the smaller selfies but these are full size with conveyor belts. My husband hates the selfies but after yesterday’s 10 minute experience in a regular line behind a lady with coupon problems and three different managers he may have changed his mind.

number of years ago when the self chek out was just beginning - woman with an overflowing cart ignored the limited items sign - couldn't use the system - attendant help after attendant help - thought we were finally going to get this stoppage plug gone >>>> starts yelling for the attendant again - "How do I do all these coupons???"

 

[ReneeT]

Digger, it sounds like you are getting your place well set up!

Anna, stretching that ground beef sounds familiar

Haven't noticed any empty shelves at WM - but when I've been there recently, I've mostly been scouting the clearance clothing section for next year's winter stuff for myself and the grandsons, with only occasional forays into the food area. My cousin works at a nearby WM and I have noticed her posting a lot of flash sales for bulk meat items like the 10# rolls of ground beef or bulk bags of frozen chicken on FB. Actually, I have noted several FB posts about clearance and other sales on WM employees home pages for our nearest WM.

Coupons - If I have a lot of coupons, I will use the self checkout to avoid holding up a regular check out line - I actually have less trouble with coupons there than at the regular checkout. I've found that doing separate transactions - particularly if you are buying mutliples of the same item with coupons actually speeds the process - if you use cash, that is; debit cards don't like multiple transactions at the same store. Scan 4 cans of soup, hit coupon, hit done, slip in cash, on to next set. I always have my items grouped by coupon use in the shopping buggy, paperclip my coupons in order of the items in the buggy, and snag an extra buggy on my way to the checkout so I can scan/pay/move to extra cart - and keep going.

 

[Journey]

Renee, honey, you are just way too organized for my brain to comprehend. Half the time I can’t even remember my coupon binder!

 

[Digger]

We got our antique mantel clock back from the repair shop. The chimes are very nice sounding, but now we have to get used to them at night again. I have long wanted a wind up clock. My in laws had this one. They gave it to us to have fixed. It had quit working. We brought it home and it worked good for months. One night as we sat in the livingroom it sounded like a gun shot. Startled us good! The mainspring broke in the clock. Our local clock repair lady did a good job fixing this old complex clock. It took her a while, as she was a bit reluctant to tackle it. But I would recommend her. And hubby is going to have her husband service his pocket watch. All wrist watches stop working if he wears them.

I plan to do some more pantry cleaning and maybe some in the attic.