Wow! That's a steep increase.

There were plenty of eggs in stock, and the price was fairly reasonable, too -- $3.29 for a dozen large HT brand eggs.

This is very interesting. Thanks for posting it. I have never seen it before.

Why are they eliminating tomato crops? I'm glad that's one thing that grows well for me here! But it will still be at least 5 months before I harvest another tomato!

One thing that is really hard to find around here is half & half. Now we just buy it when we see it. I'm noticing lots of empty shelves at the stores, but more with processed foods than fresh foods (other than the aforementioned half and half). My Food Lion was just about cleared out of frozen raw fish a few days ago. I'm heading to a Harris Teeter in Chapel Hill today because I'm having lunch with my mom, so I'll see if things are better over there. I live in a small town with limited grocery options (Food Lion and Walmart). We're supposed to get an Aldi, but I'll believe it when I see it. We really need one, too because the Food Lions are so poorly managed. Plus Walmart and Food Lion need some competition! Milk costs at least $1 more a gallon (3.69) in my small town than it does in generally pricey Chapel Hill.

I've also noticed that skinless boneless thighs are now more expensive than breasts. This week Food Lion has both skinless boneless breasts and thighs on sale, and the thighs are 50 cents more a pound.

It's good to know this. I was eyeing this plant, and maybe I will rethink.

Not much survived the 7 degree F freeze we had, and then it stayed below freezing for over 36 hours, I think. I thought initially some of my chard and kale survived, but every day that looks less and less likely. I'm still hoping though. The one clear winner for outdoor vegetables is mache (also known as feldsalat, lamb's lettuce, rapunzel, and corn salad.) This is a very popular winter lettuce in Germany, but I've only seen it for purchase in the US at Trader Joe, and that was year's ago during the spinach crisis. They never brought it back. So I decided to grow some since I read it can go down to 5 degrees F. I can pretty much vouch for that now, as mine looks hale and hearty after the 7 degree freeze. My plants are still very small though, as I didn't seed them until late October. Outdoors I still have thyme and rosemary, and maybe some mint is still viable. The garlic and onions look OK, too. Inside we have a couple of pepper plants and some mini eggplants. I didn't intend to overwinter the eggplants indoors, but my DH wanted to attempt it since he brought them indoors for a fall frost, and then never brought them out again. So I am the person who has eggplants next to her Christmas tree. I'm getting lots of seed catalogs and salivating over them!

This is something that drives me nuts! I think many companies like to dump leftover seeds into mesclun, and so they never label them. From here on forward, I'm trying to only buy mesclun packets that identify all the seeds.

I'm setting myself a goal of not spending more than $500 the rest of the month. Mostly what I need to pay for is groceries, gas, and other household necessities. (This does not count money my husband spends on the monthly bills and his needs) We have one birthday this month, but most of the gifts have already been purchased. We will have two meals out this month that DH will pay for. One is a promised college graduation meal/celebration because we weren't actually able to go out on graduation day, and the other is the birthday meal out to an inexpensive local Italian place which will cap off an outing to a free local movie.

I'd like to join in on this thread. We are trying to recover after 5 years of underemployment, which means paying back debt and re-funding our retirement account. We also still have one kid in college. Ugh. The first payment for spring came out yesterday. One tip I have is to check in your area for salvage food stores -- it sounds worse than it is! You have to be OK with foods past their sell-by dates, which I know is a no-go for some people, but we do it all the time. Some salvage foods stores have fresh and frozen things, but most are just grocery items. Alas for me, we don't really have any in my area -- I used to stop at one in Asheville and in Waynesville, NC taking my son to and from college. That son has graduated, so I won't be able to do this anymore.

I don't normally participate in this thread, but I saw this on preview as I was skimming the posts. Good luck to your son! This is a big day.

We wrap most of the stocking stuffers. We use all the scraps from wrapping other gifts, so sometimes stocking stuffers are wrapped with multiple papers, and the wrapping can be patched together anyway. They do not need to be perfect and beautiful! That's half the fun.

I think my younger son would like this book. I've put it in my Amazon cart, but I'm done with Christmas shopping for this year, but maybe next year. Or maybe Amazon will do another book special. One can always hope!

I'm glad you posted that you like The Puma Years. I got it as a free monthly read once, but I haven't read it yet. Now I want to move it up on the list! Also, I read The Girl Who Drank the Moon, and I enjoyed it. It's very creative and definitely not any sort of copycat book!

I think my husband would like that as well. Maybe next year!

For my husband, Best. State. Ever. A Florida Man Defends His Homeland by Dave Barry. For my older son, The Fruit and Fruit Trees of Monticello by Peter Hatch and Truffle Hound by Rowan Jacobson. My older son is really into interesting plants. He's graduating next weekend with a degree in Bio and a minor in Chem. My younger son was supposed to get Math with Bad Drawings by Ben Orlin but Amazon canceled my order, so now he's not. I could order it again, but I have since bought him other things. If someone sees an Amazon coupon for $5, please post. They often run that promotion shortly before Christmas, but I haven't seen it yet. My original purchase of this book was part of the Three for the Price of Two special, and I am really miffed that they canceled my order without reason. I think the package must have gotten lost or damaged. Between my husband and I, we had several canceled orders in the same time period. I've asked for this book for Christmas: Medicine Men: Extreme Appalachian Doctoring. I also asked for it last year, and nobody bought me a book at all. I've made a point this year that I'd really like a book, and I put it on my Christmas list to all three of my menfolk. I'll probably give in and buy it for myself if I don't get it this year. I just saw that the Kindle Price is $3.91, and I have Kindle credits. I'd buy it right now because it wouldn't cost me anything on the Kindle, but I've already put it on my list, so I will wait.

1) Some Bombas socks 2) Best. State. Ever. A Florida Man Defends His Homeland by Dave Barry. 3) Magnetic Tray Holder set 4) Some pajama pants 5) This Have a Guinness When You're Tired sweatshirt, but in navy blue

Wow, what a nifty trick! Thanks for sharing.

How do you do this?

I did, too. I have a really hard time finding Amazon's special promotions like this. I used to get e-mails, but I didn't get one for this.

I guess it's a combination of all of these things. I usually try to share a few ideas for things I might like, and sometimes the fam gets me things from the list, and sometimes they do their own thing.

It's not a meet-up unless there's a picture, right?

We have a squirrelinator. It really works. We have caught multiple squirrels at one time. But we never get them all. There is always another. https://www.amazon.com/Rugged-Ranch-Products-100063928-Squirrelinator/dp/B0046VJ8RU/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3IOG986BRQLNZ&keywords=squirrelinator&qid=1665108297&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjQ4IiwicXNhIjoiMS44MCIsInFzcCI6IjEuNjgifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=catchmor+squirrelinator%2Caps%2C170&sr=8-2&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc

I love this squirrel story! We have such trouble with them, too. They even eat Swiss chard!! I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it myself.