Bits & Bobs

Hi everyone

I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since I've blogged. I've just been in a slump and had no desire to write. I'm in desperate need of a vacation. 

What's been happening at Casa Goose? Well, I'm trying to keep up with the never ending price increases. Things just keep going from bad to worse, so changes needed to be made. This past month I realised how much we were spending wasting on fast food again. Well, it's all fun & games until you crunch the numbers. We've been ordering Chick Fil A every single weekend. Now I have to admit that we haven't had CFA in our state until recently, so we took for advantage of finally having it on our doorstep. I love their sandwiches. But then I realised that it costs $38 p/w. That's $152 per month. That $152 can easily cover our grocery shopping for one week. So I decided to switch things up. 

I normally get DS Red Robin every weekend. Then I discovered their $10 Cheeseburgers on Tuesdays (at select locations only) and decided to switch to Tuesday RR instead. I still have the 20% off gcs, so this is a far better deal for us. On weekends he can get CFA every other week. I'm keeping my CFA consumption to once a month. The other weekends we can eat our own food. I did that this weekend and he was very happy. I made taco meat, beans and pico and we had nachos. I also made Italian sausage that was on sale at Meijer last week. We always keep rolls/buns and salad fixings, so it was easy to fix a sausage sandwich and added baked beans (also on sale). No junk food eaten, no extra money spent and we were happy with the food. 

On the other hand, I keep getting free money from retailers. I received $90 this month (that's like giving me $900 to shop 😂). I keep telling BF that I don't need anything, but I'm not going to throw away free money (especially when I get free shipping). I'm taking advantage of the freebies, because things are still going to continue getting worse. That's my gut feeling. A few weeks ago, I read about Goodwill closing 13 locations. That's a very bad sign. People are either not donating as much (I can't blame them, because it's actually better to use what you currently own, than pay overinflated prices for cheap junk that don't last) or people aren't shopping as much (because everyone's just trying to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table) or both. You know things are bad when thrift stores are struggling. 

I bought a clearance blazer at WHBM with a reward last month and was so disgusted with the poor quality. I could see that it was cheap fabric the minute I removed it from the box. I would've returned it if it wasn't a Final sale item. So I went through my Ebay inventory again and pulled a pile of items for us to use. Everything's still brand new and of great quality. I'm especially happy with some jeans for myself that were manufactured in 2015. I'm happy, because I know that older items have much better quality. The guys ended up with lots of designer shirts that will last for years. 

I also bought some fabric to make quilts for ourselves. Now, I'm definitely an amateur. I have a fancy quilting machine that I bought during the pandemic at 50% off. I figured it's better to make our own, because I know the quality of the fabric I'm purchasing (I'm a cotton girl). Hobby Lobby has 40% of their fabric every fortnite (every other week). No paying hundreds of dollars for polyester or microfiber junk. Jackie was definitely smart to make bedding and other crafts for her family. So here I go trying my hand at this sewing thing. As long as it's straight lines, I'm good 😂

Have a wonderful weekend peeps!