Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Grocery Shopping Week 2

Another very hot day, here, today (Tuesday). 

In the morning, I did some office work before going for my radiation treatment.  Today was treatment no. 28 and the last of the whole breast radiation.  Tomorrow, I will be seen by the radiation oncologist who will mark out the area to receive the booster treatments.  I will have Thursday off and the booster sessions will start on Friday.  There will be seven such booster treatments.

On the way home from radiation, I put gas to the car, at $2.29 per gallon.  Spent $24.85 for gas.

Then, I went to the ethnic grocery store where strawberries were on sale for $.99/lb. on Tuesday, only.  I figured this would be the last time strawberries went on sale for that price, this year.  I took advantage of the sale and bought 6 containers!  One for me to eat now and the rest to freeze to make jam for holiday gifts.  I also went ahead and bought a few other groceries.  Broccoli was on sale for $.25/lb., which is the lowest price I've seen in years.

August Week 2 Groceries


I bought:

1 loaf of bread = $1.99
1 8-oz. package chicken cold cuts = $1.49
6 lb. strawberries @$.99/lb = $5.94
1.13 lb. broccoli @$.25/lb = $0.28
Shrimp @$4.99/lb = $5.76
2 bottles mango drink @1.09 = $2.18
1 cucumber = $0.50
1.65 lb. bananas @$.49/lb = $0.81
Grapes @$.79/lb = $1.28
1 packet cookies = $1.39
2 packets crackers, @$.50 = $1.00

Total = $22.62


August grocery shopping spending to date:  $15.65 + $5.37 + $10.72 + $22.62 = $54.36

Amount left in the August grocery budget:  $88.21 - $54.36 = $33.85


After I came home from doing grocery shopping, I had lunch (chicken cold cuts sandwich) and did office work.  Later, put back the sofa covers, watered the back garden, did a load of laundry (bath mats, etc.) and video chatted with daughter.  Dinner was a bowl of my beef and vegetables soup, with a slice of bread.  Snacks were a banana, some grapes, some strawberries, and one cookie, which I didn't like the taste of, after all.


My to do list for today:

- Go to my radiation appointment- DONE
- Put back the washed sofa covers - DONE
- Bring back the trash cans - DONE
- Water the back garden - DONE
- Dust my bedroom - NOT DONE!
- Wash bath mats, etc. - DONE
- Buy strawberries, on sale Tuesday only, for $.99/lb. - DONE
- Put gas to the car- DONE

Well, I did everything on my list except dust my bedroom!

Wednesday's To Do List:

- Go to radiation appointment
- Office work
- Wash dishes
- Wash daughter's bed sheets and remake her bed
- Do one other load of laundry
- Cook the shrimp
- Prepare strawberries for freezing
- Dust my bedroom
- Call to reschedule eye appointment
- Tidy family room

Today, I am grateful for:

- Finishing the first 28 radiation treatments
- Safe drives to the clinic and back
- Grocery bargains
- Water for the garden
- Cool evenings

How is your grocery spending coming along?  Are you more or less on track?

13 comments:

  1. Hi Bless. I'm curious what ethnic store you go too? I live in Ontario and I go to Cardenas. They have great prices on fruits and veggies and a lot of times meat too.

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    1. Hi Mia, it is a store catering mostly to the Armenian community. It is not part of a chain of stores. There is just this one store.

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  2. That is an amazing deal on the strawberries and the broccoli! I saw strawberries for the same price yesterday and now I wish I had bought some and found room in the freezer for them. :)

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    1. Debbie, hope they'll go on sale for a similar price again so you can buy some. As for finding room in the freezer, well, that's often a challenge, isn't it? :)

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  3. https://www.google.ca/search?q=Armenia+ethnic+foods?&espv=2&biw=871&bih=379&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiNxrbNosnOAhXKGx4KHXq4CEYQ7AkIew&dpr=1.5

    sorry very off topic...
    I've always enjoyed trying to replicate various ethnic foods so your mention of an Armenian Grocery peaked curiosity. Oh my... were my unfiltered, non researched ideas wrong, wrong wrong. Instead of doing the work on today's list, I fell for the lure of historical research. I had a vague understanding of their historical warrior image from biblical times but so surprised to learn their early acceptance of Christian practices played such a large part of their underlaying problems.

    We don't have a store here that caters to the Armenian community that I can uncover. It seems very Greek-like, yogurt, lamb BBQ and vegetables. The culture talks about the importance of bread. Do you see that emphasis? Have your tried any of their bread types?

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    1. Ethnic grocery stores are very interesting places. Especially when half the items don't have English writing on them! :)

      I have tried some of their breads. They have an aisle devoted to bread, more or less the same amount of space as in a regular grocery store. Only, instead of the usual loaves of bread, hamburger buns and hotdog buns, one finds pita, lavash (a flat, unleavened bread), another type of leavened bread which is rolled out rather thin before being baked - the end product is oblong, about a foot wide, one and a half to two feet long and about an inch thick. Then, they have something called fingerling bread - regular loaves of bread, either white or whole wheat, usually pre-sliced, but with a different texture than the regular sliced bread one finds in the supermarkets. The texture and taste tend to be reminiscent of the bread we used to get from the bakery when we were in Sri Lanka.

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    2. Sorry, that should be "finger bread", not fingerling bread!

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  4. Wow ..you found some good grocery prices this week..
    Proud you are at treatment number 28.. Praying for you.
    Proud you got your to do list done.. Great job.

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    1. Thank you, Judy. Hope you are feeling better after your recent asthma flare up.

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  5. I'm impressed that you'll be able to freeze the strawberries. But it makes sense when they are on sale. x

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    1. It's a good way to take advantage of a sale on them. Once frozen, they can be used in smoothies, in muffins, stewed in a little sugar syrup to pour over pancakes and cakes, etc., as well as be made into jam (too hot, right now, to stand stirring a pot of jam!)

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  6. Thanks Bless, appreciate learning more about Armenian bread.

    I wish you well on Friday's booster program. Take super care of your skin. Hope you're continuing to usie RX products and giving it your full attention.
    I'm trying to get through my task list and getting beat back with the old radiation induced, reduction of energy. aarrgh Happy to confirm we've finally got the carpeting out, new laminate flooring installed and new carpet on all the stair cases. The condo feels so much bigger! How did that happen?

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    Replies
    1. Glad to hear the carpets are out and new flooring is installed. I was so happy when I removed the carpeting and refinished the hardwood floors.

      Thank you for the well wishes. Yes, I'm continuing to use the prescribed ointment. The whole area is very heavily pigmented, but the doctor assured me it will eventually fade.

      Thank you, too, for mentioning the radiation induced reduction of energy! I keep wondering why I am getting so tired and unable to be as productive as I think I should be! I am not as fatigued as I was when having chemo, but I am not very energetic, either.

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