Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: October 30 ~ Nov 5, 2016

[ReneeT]

Well, looks like I let another week slip up on me - already two days into it before I remembered to sit down and start the thread!!

Haven't really studied the sale ads yet - yesterday was a very busy day at work. Took my 'lunch break' around 2:45 pm; eating my sandwich as I walked between two buildings on an errand. Made a quick stop for milk ($1.99; get a $1 Extra Care Buck back) at CVS; scanned my card while I was there; then ran for home once I finally go off work!

Up this morning and out the door to pick up the neighbor lady - we went to a nearby town's community center for aqua aerobics. I went to two classes there last week - first class was free since I hadn't been before. There are a LOT of positives:
*The people there were SO nice; such a major change from the staff and the people at the morning aqua aerobics class at the Y!! (The Y evening class there has great people, but the front desk staff - umm, NO!) *
*The water in the pool was warm
*The Cost: $2 per class or buy a 30 punch card for $20 = $1.50 per class; and no membership required
*At the new place, I can stick with just pay-as-I-go for aqua aerobics, or get a membership for $190/year - since they consider anyone over 55 to be a senior citizen (bless their hearts!) That's half the cost of the Y ( they make you wait until you're 65.)
*The membership would allow me to go in and do my own water workout any time they are open, which was not really an option at the Y due to heavy scheduling of the pool.
*Based on the number of days per month that my work schedule would allow me to go to the classes, a membership would cost me just $10/year over the cost of pay-as-you-go to be able to go anytime.
*They have open swim for the community - no membership required!! $3/adult, $2/child under 16; members free. At the Y, you had to either be a member, or come in with a member and the guest fee was between $5~$8. I'm going to pop in and see what it's like during open swim; then try to snag the grandkids and take them up to see what they think before I decide on the membership or not.

I stopped by the Y the day after my first class at the other place and cancelled my membership, and Hubby's as well since he's now going to a gym in his work town - one that offers a discount for law enforcement personnel. I'd already cancelled our grandson's membership as he wasn't using it, so that is a savings of $50/month.

The neighbor lady and I took a short walk through the park after the aqua aerobics class, then headed home. Hubby and I are going down to our little range so I can get in a little practice; might go to the gun club tomorrow so I can practice with the rifles a bit too. I'll admit that the election has me a bit spooked - so glad a co-worker asked me to trade days and I now have election day and the 3 days following it off work!

This evening, I am either going to help daughter take the 2 younger grandkids trick-or-treating while SIL goes to the basketball game where granddaughter is cheering, or I am going to sit on their porch and hand out candy. If daughter needs my help, I will split the candy I purchased between the church based food bank my friend manages and the American Legion, who will send it to the troops. I went a little overboard on my candy purchases as it was pretty cheap between sales/coupons/etc... so I will likely have some to donate in any case.

Hubby's got the range bags on the kitchen table, looks like it's time to head outside! Take care all; have a wonderful week!

 

[nomifyle]

Reorganizing my pantry, its exhausting, but needs to be done, may take awhile.

ETA good thing I decided to do this, 4 cans of tomatoes rusted out, probably caused by one can and spread and I only put them in there six months ago. May need to think about dehydrating some of those cans. Commodities decided to include cans of tomatoes several months in a row, and I just don't use them very often.

Judy

 

[SAPPHIRE]

Renee.......that aquasize offers are great.........our rec center charges $48 bucks for 12 punches...........and that's for seniors.......I'm still just under the Silver Sneakers free card........good bargain for family!

Will shop a bit tomorrow, but $$ hindering many purchases........will take what we can find.............take care ya'll..........

 

[prudentwatcher]

Finally got around to tossing all of the old canned potatoes. Better half had complained that they were rotten (from 2008), so they all hit the dumpster. A trip to Save-a-Lot today restocked the shelves with fresh canned potatoes.

I also hit Petsmart yesterday and got another 2 months worth of wet food. I will get a bag of dry on Thursday when I get to run errands again. Another 3 bags would be best, but at $25 a bag, that isn't going to happen.

 

[ReneeT]

Well, for not having shot for a while, I guess I did okay on the target practice - good enough that I won't shame myself too bad when I take my concealed carry test anyway All 35 of my shots hit the IDPA style target; 33 of them hit the 8.5x11" paper target that was pinned to the IDPA target at upper chest level, and 31 were inside the 7.5" diameter circle target on the paper - the two that hit off the paper were when I was doing a quick draw/fire trial, which Hubby informs me I won't be doing at the test. Looking downrange at the target, I figure I would have hit the it's right chest/arm with the two that were off the paper lol! I didn't vary too much off center left to right (more left than right), but did have have hits the almost the full 7.5" length of the circle - Hubby said "Well, I guess you shredded his aorta, at least." So fun to shoot with other people with a medical related background I'm pretty sure that what I need to work on is my trigger pull to fix that slight tendency to the left - both my open (hunting) and concealed carry revolvers have a long trigger pull; not sure Hubby can do anything mechanical about that, so it is most likely up to me!

After we did that, I had fun plinking at some of Hubby's plate targets; only one I had trouble with was one that was low to the ground; I got him on the third round of going through the targets though - so now I know something I need to work on. I didn't try shooting right handed as we ran out of the ammo Hubby loads for me, and I didn't want to build up the flinch factor that seems to happen with factory ammo before my test.

Handed out trick or treat candy last night - had my long black skirt and a black shirt on, topped by a witches hat that came complete with scraggly grey witches hair. I took off the hat as I came inside with the kids when trick or treat hours were over and older grandson said "You hat has hair on it; I though that your hair." "You better RUN!!" his Mama told him... Still have 15 bags of candy left, so will need to make a stop at the Legion soon.

Two mid-week sale ads in the mail today; nothing much in one of them other than 79 cent/can Campbells cream soups - I have coupons for 40 cents/4 so that price is okay - not fabulous, but okay. There will likely be better ones closer to Thanksgiving, but I may pick up a dozen cans; they come in handy for cassaroles and for the cheesy chicken veggie soup we like.

The other sale ad also had only one items that piqued my interest - store brand sugar, 4# bag for 99 cents. No limit noted in the sale but I won't know for sure until I go to the store. I will hit it both on my way to and from a meeting I have to go to at work tomorrow; then have 4 more days to work before the sale goes off that I can also stop on my way to/from work. I need to make sure the sugar buckets are clean, and wash out a few more of the 2 gallon buckets that I picked up as well just in case I am able to really stock up - I'd like at least 40 bags if not more.

Drug store ads didn't have much I was interested in - and nothing good enough to take the time to drive to the store unless I missed something as I glanced through them. Haven't seen the Aldi ad as yet; it will come out in tomorrow's paper; I will check it out when I go to my meeting at work since I plan to stop by for a couple of items anyway.

Minimal plans for the rest of the day - went to aqua aerobics with my friend and a neighbor lady this morning, stopped by McDonalds for breakfast, then had my friend drop me off at the bottom of my road and walked the .9 miles home - I've not been getting in enough walking lately. Got home, chatted with Hubby, started a load of laundry, then started feeling really bad - freezing cold, weak, light headed, etc... Ended up shivering under a heavy blanket on the couch, going in and out of sleep for about 4 hours until whatever it was mostly passed; now I just feel really weak/tired. I'm guessing it was something viral; and hoping I didn't shed anything on any trick-or-treaters last night!

I'm hoping I have enough energy to unload the tools out of my trailer and hitch it to the van tomorrow before I go in town for my meeting; I'd like to get a load of wood chip mulch while I'm in town - if I have what it takes to load it! I haven't gotten the area where I want to plant a new persimmon grove tilled and amended with composted manure from the sale barn yet either, but don't think I'd be able to get the mulch unloaded in time to get a load of manure as well, as they leave the sale barn pretty early on Wednesday. Hoping my co-worker Buddy doesn't talk me into going to another town with him after our meeting to pick up a pie for a co-worker's birthday at work on Thursday - I really need to get some work done at home.

Well, I think I'll see if I can make it down the stairs to finish up that laundry; then come back upstairs and see how much energy I have left before I start in on anything else!

Take care all; have a fabulous rest of the week!!

 

[Just a Nurse 2]

Picked up a couple bags to Halloween chocolates reduced to clear. They'll go in the freezer for when you need a chocolate fix but shouldn't eat the whole darn bar! Lol

Planting bare rooted fruit trees today.

Stacked a cord of wood yesterday for this coming winter.

 

[nomifyle]

The pantry clean out is going slow, my right shoulder has been giving me fits for the last couple of days.

I added another case of tuna in olive oil, thank goodness its keeps for a good long while. This was from Amazon's subscribe and save, added another case of sardines in mustard for DH. Although I think I'll stop adding that and replace with sardines in olive oil, he can always dip his sardines in mustard. Which by the way I think I'm low on. Need to add that to my monthly list. Also from S&S I bought two five gallon water bottles with handles. I may fill those from the machine at the store to refill water bottles, that water is probably better than my tap water. I need to get a pump for those bottles as we do not have a water machine.

Judy

 

[moldy]

Did some running around in town, had some things to mail. Went by the local hardware where I've had my eye on their seed rack. Seeds were marked down to 10c/pak. Mind you, there's not many seeds in the pack, but they were originally 99c/pak. DH talked to the store manager (I think he doesn't like dealing with women), and got the rest of the seeds for $20. Got home and counted them..... 1107 paks! That's just a bit under 2c a pak! Yay!!

 

[ReneeT]

Fabulous seed deal, Moldy!! That was a great idea to check in with them - maybe I'll see if my local hardware store has anything like that available...

It has been one heck of a week. The cold or whatever it was I picked up is still dragging me down some, and it seems like I've been on the run most of the week - my own fault, I know! So far I've managed to pick up 12 bags of sugar and 2 cases of diced tomatoes; need to bump that up the next two days while I am in town for work. I also picked up some pineapples that Sav-a-lot had on sale for 99 cents/each - had some fresh, sliced some to dehydrate; then whizzed the odd pieces in the food processor until fairly smooth - ended up with about 2 quarts so I added in a package of pineapple jello and just a bit of water, then spread it on the fruit leather sheets and ran them through the dehydrator; I thought it turned out pretty good.

Today I managed to sleep in until almost 8 am; then wandered aimlessly around the house slurping coffee for another half hour before I managed to harness enough brain cells together to get around and get ready to head to town to watch the basketball tournament that granddaughter was cheering at - both 7th and 8th grade teams played so watched them both; then went across the school grounds to watch our football team who has made it in to the playoffs. Had lunch at the concession stand - daughter's uncle had prepared smoked brisket for sandwiches and they were fabulous!! Snagged the grandsons and went to the Evil Empire to pick up a couple packages of underwear for the Giving Tree at work - the larger businesses in our area choose one or two of the most needed items for the holiday baskets for their employees to donate and our items are underwear and pjs; I always pick tags for the sizes my grandkids are wearing and let them pick out the items. EE had their pie pumpkins on sale for 50 cents each, so I picked up a half dozen of those - they are resting the basement stairwell where they will keep nicely until I get time to cook them. The big pumpkins were 50 cents each as well; sure was wishing I had chickens to feed them to!

After EE, the grandkids and I went to the Community Center pool for open swim and stayed nearly 2 hours - there were only about 30 people there so it wasn't crowded at all. The kids had a great time and were well behaved enough that I rewarded them with muffins at McDonalds (their choice); then a stop at the park playground. They both conked out on the drive back to daughters, and I have to admit that I'm having to pause my typing to yawn pretty often myself!

Back to work the next two days; I'm so tired I don't even think I'm going to set my alarm clock for 2am so I can call my buddies at work and play Cher's Turn Back Time to 'em, no matter how fun it is to listen to them yell at me heh heh heh.... I sure will enjoy that 'extra' hour of sleep though!

Well, I better go get those swimsuits in the washer before the chlorine has much more time to attack them - stay safe this weekend, folks!!

 

[anna43]

Grocery store ads and now full of baking supplies. I try to stock up for the year on flour, sugar and butter in November/December each year. Butter gets vacuum packed and put into the freezer. Flour and sugar go into plastic buckets still in the store packages. This week Fareway had butter for $1.48 (limit one), 4# sugar 97¢ (limit one), Cool Whip 58¢ (limit 2) and 14 oz. can of broth 48¢. Broth is also something I stock up on this time of year as prices are never lower. When I worked in town, I would stop each day and buy the limit on items I wanted. Now days with just me to buy for I don't need too much. I still have butter in the freezer from last year this time so adding only one was okay. I'm sure glad I shopped earlier this week (temps in upper 60's) because today it has turned cold and VERY VERY WINDY (40 to 50 mph).