JoAnn’s

You might have seen the news that Joann’s has filed bankruptcy twice and is closing 500 stores. 

200 stores are not on the closure list currently, but are liquidating with exactly the same procedures as the 500 stores. So it seems likely these stores will eventually close too.

It is extremely sad.

The dogs will be very sad, they shop in Joann’s with me regularly.

We are stocking up a bit like the end of the world or another lock down. 

I made one trip to JoAnns for white fabric. I use a lot of white fabric. I was okay on this trip. 

The next day, Middle and I made a list, and went back to shop again. We bought wide backings and binding. I bought fabric for orange based charity quilts (future post). On this trip I was near tears. It is just so sad.

Youngest made a trip to the JoAnns in her town for wide flannel green back for oldest/DIL’s green Lottie quilt and more wide white bleached muslin and lots of gray, white, off white thread.

In many areas of the country, including mine, Joann’s is the last standing regular fabric store selling fabric and general sewing notions. 

There used to be lots of fabric stores. There also used to be lots of Cross Stitch Stores and lots of Knitting Stores.

There are still a few quilt shops, not was many as their used to be, but there are some. Quilt shops specialize in quilt supplies only. They do not sell things like clothing patterns and zippers and pillow forms. Quilt stores tend to be very expensive.

Tomorrow is National Gift Card Day

 

My annual Black Friday purchases

Four gift topics posted earlier on the week. This is the 5th.

I have a note on my calendar that repeats each year, a week or two before Black Friday.

It is a reminder to buy a new set of earbuds, Best Buy. So far they have been on sale each year around Black Friday shopping. 

This year, they were on sale a little early, I used curbside.

I put them in my closet and then on the day my old pair dies, I am all set. These ear buds are an absolute necessity for me. I use them cooking, sewing, walking the dogs, gardening, cleaning, etc.

Also the week of Black Friday - I check Amazon Prime to see what streaming platform package discounts are available. This year I got Britbox and Discovery+ for two months each. I have a note on my calendar to turn off the auto renew when the first month is finished and the second month is underway.  

Suddenly too small

I used to be able to buy tall kitchen garbage can bags/liners and they worked perfectly. 

Sometime in the last couple years, maybe Covid manufacturing related, the bags are too small. Or what my store stocked, changed and I did not realize it. 

I looked and most tall kitchen bags are 13 gallons. 

Trash bags are 30+ gallons, too big. 

I found 20 gallon x-large tall kitchen bags on Amazon -

They seem to be working perfectly. 

My old 13 gallon tall kitchen bags fit perfectly in a slightly smaller tall kitchen can in the garage. So they will not go to waste. 

Shutterfly policy change

 I received an email from Shutterfly, last week, warning me of an important policy change. 

This is very major for me. Shutterfly is one of my backup photo storage places. 

Instead of getting irritated, I did my photo holiday card from start to finish on that Friday. And my plan is to order from Shutterfly every year, so I have an automatic order every 12 months. 

I ordered 120 custom 5”x7” cards with envelopes with free shipping. They should arrive today.

I think, this is the least I have spent for the most amount of cards. 

I did not special order rounded corners. I did not special order photo/print on the back. I did not special order off white stock/envelopes.

Having a total of four photos and very limited text on the front was helpful. I had to edit my text very tightly to convey our year in about 105 total words, including greeting and signature. 

I embraced the editing challenge and am very pleased with the card order. 

Using the $5, not spending more, not adding clutter

We do our Amazon returns at Kohl’s. Each time we return something we get a $5 coupon. 

I know the Kohl’s marketing plan is give customers a $5 coupon and they will wander the store looking for something and end up spontaneously buying all kinds of things. 

I do not fall for that. 

But I take advantage of the $5. 

The gift wrap section is right next to Customer Service at my Kohl’s. It is also a store location that is very easy for me to use/close to my house, with a good/safe/not busy parking lot. 

This is what I buy with my coupon each time. 

It uses up most of the $5 without going over. I buy a generic print and color each time, not event specific. The girls and I use the tissue paper with gift bags. 

The transaction adds very little time to my trip, like under five minutes to grab two packages of tissue paper and check out. 

Someone not wanting tissue paper could use this same philosophy with socks or hair accessories or greeting cards. 

Isn’t it interesting, which things are difficult to find?

I had to drive quite a ways to get this.

We have had a traditional/one wheeled barrow for many years. Like maybe 30 years.

It caused me to fall twice last year. I thought it was me, but it nearly took middle down too. And my husband struggled with it. I sold it.

We got the above as a much needed replacement. Two front wheels keep it sure footed.. Super sturdy.  And the tires are hard/no air needed. It is a really great wheelbarrow.

It was expensive, but worth every penny.  I use it constantly. And at the rate I was going, one day a fall was going to cause an injury.

I had a heck of a time finding one in stock. We had to drive over a hour to get it. But it felt good to get out and Lowe’s has curbeside available.

I have started pulling all the dry goods and letting them “set”. They still get handled carefully/washed/repackaged. But another day.

That (below) is a large table in our garage. You can see all my “for sale” stuff (on other tables) behind the Grocery table.

After I pulled the dry goods, I still had this much (below)  left that had to be handled immediately. The paper sacks hold freezer goods. The rest is refrigerator and produce. All of that gets washed in a tub of soapy Dawn water in the sink.

I do curbside Groceries once a week. And it is tiring.

I order these wide mouthed, one piece lids, with inner seals to go on jars

Containers

I thought I mentioned this, but maybe not.

Luckily I still had all my Tupperware.

Two rectangular Tupperware containers hold all my raw eggs and another holds my hard boiled eggs in the refrigerators.

Four Tupperware containers hold my husband’s oatmeal.

Etc.

The outside containers from the store go in recycling immediately. We have been moving things from one to the other.

So the Tupperware has been very valuable.




In this new mindset and practice, our glass mason jars suddenly were prime real estate in the kitchen.

Particularly the big ones were in high demand.

The thing about mason jars is ONE is expensive. A case of them is not expensive.

I looked for you -

ONE 1/2 gallon wide mouth from Target -

SIX 1/2 gallon wide mouthed from Tractor store -

Now you might look at that and think it is because we are comparing Target prices to Tractor store prices, but no. A case of jars at Target is same price comparison. Half gallon wide mouthed mason jars are just not readily available.

My local tractor stores offer curbside. I have been back twice to buy these jars.

Yes, I realize tractor stores might not be close to you, but the point is the same. Look for cases if you need jars. And jars are very very handy in kitchen now.

Puzzles back in stock

This is my favorite company -

My first online grocery order

I ordered online thru Kroger.

I started my list on the weekend, I added, as I thought of things, up until Tuesday night at midnight.

I pulled into a order pick up parking spot at Kroger at my assigned time (Wednesday 1pm).

I called the number on the parking spot sign and gave them my name.

My order rolled out about 15 minutes later.

I opened my trunk, paperwork and groceries were placed in my trunk. I had put a $5 bill in trunk for delivery person tip.

I did not get out. I did not open my window.

I had ordered almost $200 worth of groceries. I was missing 17 items, my total was $120.  My paperwork included a list of what was missing. My neighbor has been averaging 2/3 of her orders. She suggested over order and diversify. I did not get peanuts, yeast, rice noodles, onions, asparagus, bell pepper, Mrs Grass soup, pizza crust.

I pulled in driveway and my husband helped me “wash” groceries. We worked directly out of the trunk of the car. We did not carry bags in the house.

He opened boxes and I pulled out clean liners full of food (cereal, crackers), he put the boxes straight in recycling, I took the food in the house and put it away.

He opened containers and I held clean bag/container for transfer (raisins, flour) and put it away while he put container in recycling.

He carried things in the house one at a time for washing. He washed all the produce and all plastic containers on a tub full of soapy water in the kitchen sink. I dried and put away. I also prepped produce as we went. I switched towels several times in the process. He emptied and refilled the tub several times. We used Dawn as our soap.

The plastic bags from the grocery never came in the house, they went in a bag for recycling.

I did not feel like the kitchen was contaminated. Nothing got set on a counter or the floor.

My husband is the “dirty hands” and I am the “clean”. We both washed our hands many times. We propped open the back screen door so we did not touch anything on the way in and out.




Everyone at my house was very excited by this whole shopping process. They were curious to see what we got and what we did not get.

I started my 2nd order for next Tuesday morning.




Every morning I send a text to my husband, Middle and youngest with food for that day. Today’s said - Spanish tortilla (eggs and red potato) for lunch; stir fry veggies, tofu, rice for dinner.

In the afternoon, I often send them a text that there is something in the kitchen for a snack. Yesterday everyone got 1/4 of a tiny watermelon. Today everyone had 1/4 of a package of strawberries.

We have switched to online grocery shopping.

The stores are just too scary.

In fact, rumor is the store will be going to order/pick up only. I think that will be really smart. Safer for everyone. Less contamination for everyone.

Pick up is today. I started clicking on Saturday or Sunday.

My neighbor warned me that I will probably get 2/3 of what I ordered.

If I get 100%, we are going to be disinfecting for a very long time.

Amazon must be a hopping and a bopping

The little things, that one is use to running out to grab, I assume nationwide, we now order from Amazon.

We have also been ordering from Best Buy.

To be honest, before seclusion, I use Amazon (and Best Buy) a lot, because most of the time I do not have a car. And if I go to a store, probably I buy more than the one thing I went to get. Ordering on Amazon, I just get the one thing. Yes, free Amazon shipping. And the cardboard boxes go to recycling. And I look carefully that I am buying from Amazon and not a third party.

Somethings, masks and wipes and tp, Amazon is OUT. (I had ordered masks, long ago, when I saw this coming, for youngest at college. Middle and I use masks regularly, crowds and planes. So we each  keep a supply.)

We now have two people working from home and one finishing a semester of college from home, so I ordered (Amazon) ink cartridges for the printer yesterday. I had one cartridge of each (4) color in my stash. I ordered two more black ones. That was my biggest concern. They should be here Wednesday.

We have 3 pleasant, spacious work stations set up in separate rooms with doors that close. No one is in the rooms that I use. Youngest’s bedroom and workstation are both upstairs. She does not have a separate kitchen, but it is like a little apartment. She has her own bathroom and “living room” with a TV and all the game systems are up there. So she is doing okay at home. Her friends are all going nuts at their homes.

It is very weird not to have any extra kids. One kid we normally would have had, possibly had been exposed (student teaching in a big town with cases). And the other kid had in person interviews and appointments scheduled, youngest told her if you leave, you can’t come back, and at the time, she wanted the interviews, so she is not here.

So all weekend, I barely saw the girls (or my husband) even though we are all under the same roof 24/7.

I hear from my brother via text every day. I hear from my mom via email on occasion.

Youngest has now been home for almost two weeks. Her college acted very fast. She was one of the first kids sent home, nationwide.

Walmart warning

This happened to me a couple weeks ago:

I ordered something online from Walmart and it was not available for shipping to store, it had to be shipped to my  house. It arrived in an Amazon bag. ???

It was not what I expected. I tried to return it at the store. They told me it was from a third party vendor and could not be returned to the store.

Customer service at Walmart directed me to Walmart's 800
 Number. I called from Walmart’s parking lot incase I needed to back in and find a manager.

The 800 number person was very kind. I was very nice but made it clear I was confused and not happy.

800 # person explained that Walmart now is a “marketplace” with third party venders. So like amazon, now have to look carefully to see if it is fulfilled by Walmart or is a third party.

This totally threw me. But it explained the Amazon shipping bag. It is a company that runs their business thru Amazon.

I like Amazon. I use their easy returns thru Kohl’s. But since I had not ordered my item thru Amazon directly, I could not return thru Kohl’s.

When I order from eBay or amazon, I expect to have to read carefully. I know to check about returns and who is actually fulfilling the order.

When I order from Lowe’s or Target or Kohl’s or Walmart - I expect to be able to return anything to their store.

I use ship to the store often, at Walmart and Target, my first clue that something was fishy with the Walmart product should have been that there was no option to have it shipped to the store.

The end of the story was Walmart immediately gave me a $25 certificate for my trouble. I heard from the third party vender by that same evening. They gave me a full refund and told me to keep the item.