Spend day and November goals

Today was my day off (the managers at work rotate Sunday shifts, so every 4 weeks we work an extra day in our shifts, and get a day off in lieu; as Oct 26 was my Sunday, I got today off) and I lazed in bed until almost 9a.m. I was reluctant to haul myself out of bed until it got light out, but I eventually had to - the sun officially rose today at 9:24 - and I had a few things I needed to do.

The number one item on my "To Do" list was grocery shopping. I've not done it since I got back - I really hate going right after work, because it gets crazy busy at Superstore, and I usually end up walking right back out. This morning I was there before 10:00, and spent my time poking around. I really do love to grocery shop, I just hate having to fight traffic to get to the cucumbers!

So I filled my cupboards and fridge today with the following:

fresh pineapple (sm) $3.19
1% cottage cheese (750 g) $3.98
Ground Round (the soy stuff, 1248 g) $8.69
10 lb bag of Gala apples $7.98
Bottle of Coke $1.75 (inc recycle fee)
Ice cream (splurge #1) $5.49
Red pepper #1 $2.13 (these cost $9.68 kg!)
Granny Smith apples $5.60 (1.215 kg @ $4.61 kg)
pasta sauce $4.39
Tikka Masala sauce $4.99
Pesto $2.89
Korma sauce $4.99
Red pepper #2 $2.37
Lemon #1 $1.29
Lemon #2 $1.09 (2 for $2.38)
Gr peppers $2.11 ($5.49 kg)
10 lb russet potatoes $4.29
red onion $.90
pasta sauce $2.89
2 x gr onions $1.00
bananas $1.99 ($1.72 kg)
2 x mandarins $5.96
4L skim milk $4.69
radishes $.85
yogurt (750 g) $3.99
tapioca pudding (splurge #2) $2.98
turkey breat (frozen) $16.99
eggs, free run lg $4.39
cucumber $1.99
soy cheese $4.98
turkey sausages $5.99
raspberries $3.29
veggie slices 2 @ $3.99 ea
organic spinach $3.29
tuna steak (frozen) 2 @ $7.99 ea
cat food $4.38 (6 @ 0.73)
cat litter $3.58

Scary total: $166.64
After superbucks: $163.03

Then I went to a second store:

turkey fillets $6.56
turkey sausages $3.28
chicken breasts $15.77 (this was the cheapest family pack I could find)
egg nog (splurge #3)
tomato soup $1.54 (2 @ 0.77 ea)
cr of chicken soup $3.18 (2 @ $1.59 ea)
half a ham $8.38 (I SWEAR it was the smallest one available!)

Grand total: $48.06

Total groceries: $211.09

I made a big quinoa salad when I got home, cut up the pineapple and have put some of the raspeberries and yogurt into a container for breakfast tomorrow. The salad should last me at least three days, and I'm hoping that I can stretch out the rest to last at least three weeks which will bring my total weekly grocery spending to $70.00 per week. Lots of pasta, rice, chicken, etc. in my future, and I'll most likely have to refresh the veggies at some point, but I think I'm good to go. I love having food in the house, and have hated paying for lunch every day the past couple of weeks. OUCH!

I also managed to finish off two more books this month, which brings my total to 5! That's quite a lot, but I keep taking them out of the library for some reason...And I DID return that book I was reconsidering as well.

I've made my list of November goals as well. There are kind of a lot, but I think I can manage most of them without too much trouble.

1) Poke through my closets again and donate more stuff to charity now that I have so much NEW stuff
2) Take the old pots & pans to charity; I bought a new set on sale
3) 10 No Spend days
4) Send overseas Christmas cards
5) No more credit card spending
6) Start Christmas shopping
7) Look into satellite vs. cable costs
8) Pay the car insurance in full $496.12 is what remains after the Oct payment
9) Create a 6-mth & a 5-yr plan
10) Finish my 101 Things & 50x50 list...ongoing (it's hard)

I'm also going to continue putting 18% of my pay into my RRSP, which I started doing in September. It's growing very well with the added 8%, and I have to decide if I want to put it into ING or into Scotiabank once it reaches $3500. I think ING is more stable at this point, as I'd put it into the mutual fund option with Scotiabank, however, it's such a little amount (comparatively) that I don't think the fluctuations of the market at the moment would affect it too badly.

I signed up for Savings Bonds before I left on holiday as well - I've chosen $10 per pay at this point, but can always adjust it, depending on what happens with my job. I also opened one of the new Tax Free Savings Accounts at ING. They give you a bonus at the moment if you open one (although they aren't "official" until Jan 1), so I thought that sounded like a good idea. I put $1000 from my EF into it, leaving me just over $500 in my EF, which at this point is fine. I've adjusted the amount I transfer into the EF each month as well, from $250 to $100 (split equally between my EF and my new Tax Free Svgs). After reading Frugal Dreamer's concerns about her debt and savings, I decided to cut back on what I was saving, too, and I'm not willing or comfortable to cut it entirely at this point. But this does give me an extra $150 a month to put towards my debt!

And if anyone's interested, gas has fallen below $120.0! It's currently $117.9 p/L.