Wednesday, September 30, 2015

End of Harvest and Squirreling for Winter



What a week - so much has been happening:

-We celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary on Thursday with a Greek meal at our favorite restaurant.  We don't go out to dinner very often so when we do we try and frequent places that we know are consistently great.  We received the best service that we have had in a restaurant in the last 10 years from a waitress who was holding down a busy restaurant all by herself.  She was so calm and professional - we left her a very good tip as she definitely deserved it.  The food was amazing as always.

-Hubby's laptop is near death as the battery swelled due to having it plugged in too much.  I wish we would have known not to do that but it is too late now as it seems a common problem among all laptop manufacturers and this laptop was only 2.5 years old.  It just makes you wonder how they make things these days, definitely not made to last as that simply should not happen.  We bought a new one yesterday as it is an integral part of our work and we will see if it is possible to salvage the old one for personal use later with a new battery which has to be ordered from Hong Kong for $200 CAD(*laptop is expensive model, $1100 originally so worth it).  He delivers presentations and does web conferencing via computer so time was of the essence.  Fortunately we got one on sale and ended up paying less than the last one.  We had planned to buy a new laptop in a few months but the process had to be sped up. We lost no data as it continues to work and we transferred all important documents to memory sticks immediately.  The offending model was the Samsung Ultrabook but we have now gone back to tried and true HP which all our other laptops and printers have been. I like Apple products but it is not great for our business uses.

-We dropped off our old vent covers and heat registers to Habitat for Humanity Restore that they can either use in a new home or sell in their thrift store.  Hubby found a small piece of furniture that fits perfectly in his office to give him additional storage for $25.  I had never been in a Restore shop but was shocked to see how much brand new tile, paint and decent used furniture they had and extremely cheap prices.  If you haven't been to one, check out your local Restore.

-It is September 30th and I have just plucked off 8 more small tomatoes from my plants.  I had removed all but the smallest dime size ones two weeks ago hoping they might get big enough to eat and they have.  I sure got my money's worth out of two tomato plants.  I definitely want to buy zebra plum tomato and beefsteak plants again next year.  I have grown them from seed in the past but this year I spent $6 on two plants and they did better than any home seed grown plants have done.  There are two inch long jalapenos still on the vine which I will leave for a couple more days then harvest the end of those as well.  My chives and rosemary are massive plants now.  The rosemary will be left in year round as well as the chives. I planted some more cilantro two weeks ago but not sure if it is going to come up or not with a bit of slightly colder weather now.

-I ordered some Christmas gifts off amazon using gift certificates received from Swagbucks (affiliate link if interested).  My Mom loves reading and couldn't find a couple of books from her favorite author.  She couldn't order them into her library and they weren't available on the second hand market/thrift stores.  She has no interest in reading books digitally so Kindle wasn't an option.  I was able to find them both at reasonable prices with free shipping.  I try and buy local but it is not always the cheapest option and sometimes things are just not available here.  I don't think it should be necessary to overspend simply to buy local and locals need to understand that and be more competitive/make different products available - as business owners we understand that.  I am sure some of you reading this will not agree but that is how we feel.  I have seen so many business owners go out of business simply because they refused to change with the times or didn't try to differentiate themselves from the competition.  Successful small business owners get it.  There are ways to do business in today's global economy while at the same time serving small towns and remaining in business.

-Six months from tomorrow we will be flying off to Spain for our 9 night trip.  It seems crazy to plan so far in advance but with our business we have to.  It turns out the deal I got on our flights was $100 cheaper per person than the seat sale that went on right after that so I am happy with the price we paid.  I have booked our hotels and we are able to cancel them if something better comes along.  I will check again within two months of departure to see if there are any better deals there.

-September's grocery tally ended at $606.61 and used $18.77 worth of coupons.  The normal food/grocery budget (includes all non-food items such as toilet paper, soaps, and over the counter meds) is $550 per month but due to overage last month I had hoped to be under $500.   I went over that on purpose as there were loads of deals that I scurried to get this month, much like a squirrel stocking up for winter.  Deals:  toilet paper, 40 pounds of rice, 20 pounds of Vancouver Island grown potatoes, 10 kg of chicken legs, 4 packs of chicken sausages that are normally $6.99 marked on for $2 per pack, and loads of other small deals including lots of non-food items.  Next year I shall remember September is a great deal month and forget about trying to stick to a lower budget.  This month I have to buy a turkey for our early Canadian Thanksgiving but Mom wants to pay for that this year as we always do so I will buy it and let her repay me.  We always buy .99 cents or less per pound young turkeys, sometimes Grade A and sometimes Grade B for that price.  This month I am hoping to be on budget at $550.

I am hoping to get it together to post more than once a week here but we have just embarked on a really big work project so my personal time is a bit limited.  Have a great week everyone!

16 comments:

  1. I always go in to the Restore in Courtenay when we come over to the island. A terrific place. We got some beautiful designer chairs, sell for $500 in the states-we paid $15 for each! The Restore in Selchet is good too. They have a room devoted to art-some really lovely work. Of course you have to be going that way or it would be an expensive trip.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't see much art in courtenay but they did have some vases that were nice.

      Delete
    2. Of course I meant Sechelt. I also meant to ask the name of the restaurant-I love Greek food.

      Delete
    3. Yiama's Greek Taverna in downtown Courtenay: http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaurant_Review-g181789-d2720757-Reviews-Yiama_s_Greek_Taverna-Courtenay_Comox_Valley_Vancouver_Island_British_Columbia.html. It is #5 but not everyone loves Greek food. I have had lunch there once and dinner twice. The food is always excellent!

      Delete
  2. Your trip to Spain sounds amazing! I'm super excited - we leave for Hawaii on Saturday! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Make sure to take lots of pictures and have fun!

      Delete
  3. We donated new paint to Restore when we were selling our last house. The color we chose to paint our sofffit was all wrong and we didn't have the inclination to try to return it.

    I stocked up on manager's special (clearance) chia seeds this week. Stuff like that adds extra on to the food bill but we are set with them for probably six months. When you know something has a good shelf-life expectancy and you can find the deal (and have the room to store it), it makes more sense to spend extra to buy it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My whole plan now is to stock up stock up stock up, even if we go a tiny bit over the budget. That is the only way to stay anywhere near the budget with our low dollar and rising prices

      Delete
  4. I picked a lot of tomatoes before we left for the States ten days ago. I put the ripest in the fridge and the green ones in a dark place, hoping they would hold until our return. We get back home tomorrow. I may have to do some more tomato sauce to freeze. I put in three plants, two cherry and one early girl. I also let one volunteer grape tomato plant live. It's more than we can use, but by making sauce and freezing it I save money later on. I could can it, but that's a lot more work. - Margy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will have to chop some more tomatoes tonight as they are ripening fast on the counter. I am only willing to can jam at this point :)

      Delete
  5. Happy anniversary! Our monthly grocery budget is $600. For the first time in a long time we came in just under budget. I guess now that I'm working full time, I'm not running to the store every couple of days.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! $600 USD for 3 is very reasonable. It likely is because you are working fulltime now.

      Delete
  6. Happy Belated Anniversary.

    Are you saying that it is wrong to leave your laptop plugged in? That you should wear the battery down, recharge and repear?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, apparently leaving it plugged in all the time weakens the battery sooner and some swell/could explode. Better to unplug most of the day until it tells you the batter is low. If you google swelled computer batteries tons of stories come up. I wish I had heard of this sooner. :(

      Delete
  7. I too, feel like squirreling things away this time of year.
    Happy 10th Anniversary!!!
    I need to get cracking on Christmas gifts. It is just such an overwhelming chore! And don't even get me started on the cookies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Welcome back Sonya Ann! I hope you won lots in Vegas.

      Delete