Freebies, Flowers and the Farm Market

Perennials in full bloom at the front of our house

Yesterday was a great freebie day.  I redeemed some of hubby's Avion points for two tickets to Alberta at Christmas (book now if you haven't already as Christmas space is already filling up - you will only pay more if you don't!).  We still had to pay $325 in air taxes and surcharges on the tickets but saved $821.  I also created an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of all mine and hubby's point programs.  

Some of them you have to use or redeem or the points just disappear so this way I can easily keep track of them.  By doing this I realized we had enough points at a hotel hubby used to stay at on business for a $25 Walmart GC so ordered that too.  He has no intention of going back due to a bad experience the last time so we might as well cash in.  Although he and I both have credit cards with annual fees (his $150 and mine $99) we more than make up for that annual fee in redemptions as charge 95% of our expenses that way, both business and personal.  I have already redeemed on three airline tickets this year using up my air miles to fly back to Edmonton for my Stepsons Graduation, for my Stepdaughter to come see us in August and for my eldest Stepson to fly up for Thanksgiving weekend this fall.  We may have moved away but we are in constant contact in one way or another with our family.  That makes five air tickets between Alberta and Comox this year - a total fare savings of approximately $1300.  

I also checked the supermarket that is two blocks away for their daily deal, they call it appy hour.  Every day they have an item at a ridiculously low rate to entice you in the door.  They always have enough stock so it never sells out.  Today they also had TOTALLY FREE box of a new brand of cereal if you loaded it online to your rewards card (Quality Foods if you live on the Island) - a freebie worth $5.50.  This new promotion is called Freebie Friday so I will be sure to go there on my way home from work every Friday while they run this promotion.  Hubby will eat almost anything so the cereal will definitely be consumed and I didn't go out of my way for it.

Annuals in the front yard - yes, we have an ugly Electrical box on the border of our yard

 The next freebie was radishes from our growing boxes.  We don't have a garden but we have planted 3 flower boxes of radishes at various stages of growth down the side of our house.  Although a little misshapen these are very yummy and hot and went into a salad the other night.

Although the next item was not a freebie, it was very cheap and completely tasty.  This head of lettuce has to be one of the largest I have ever seen.  To give you an idea of scale think 1.5 feet across and 1 feet high.  It was a whopping $1.25 at the farm market we just discovered.  They are only open summers and it took 2 years for us to find it as is very well known to locals but not advertised.  Very funny story.  When we were paying for our lettuce, peppers, cauliflower, blueberries, and new potatoes a girl at the till says to the other girl - "I will be right back, we are running low on lettuce".  We then see her wheeling a cart out into the field to cut some more lettuce to bring back.  You don't get any fresher than that.  We will be buying some corn from them once I use up what was purchased from the grocery store the other day as it looked amazing.  I have a feeling this will be our new haunt once or twice a week for the rest of the summer.  We are so happy to find a local farm market in very short driving distance after searching for one since we moved here.  We had the new potatoes in dill and cream sauce (a Ukrainian favorite - hubby made dinner) and salad with our farm-fresh veggies.  It was fabulous!

Massive head of lettuce - $1.25!