Inside Marcy's Mind
Having hosted the Aging aint for Sissie's podcast for two years, I wanted to expand what I could discuss. This podcast will touch on the fun of aging and whatever has crossed my mind! Please join me as I walk through life! #retirement #travel #fun #aginggracefully Link in my bio! Listen now!
#insidemarcysmind
#aginggracefully
#retired
#retirementpreperation
#aging
#retirementplanning
www.insidemarcysmind.com
Inside Marcy's Mind
From Costco Finds to Halloween Surprises
Ever stumbled upon a hidden gem that changed your routine? Imagine my excitement when I discovered a new Amazon Grocery store in Chicago, complete with a soda machine perfect for concocting my beloved fountain diet Coke. This Halloween edition of Inside Marci's Mind takes you through my thrilling adventures, including a nostalgic trip to Portland, Oregon, where a wedding and a Dodgers game left lasting memories. Discover how these experiences intertwine with my everyday life, bringing joy and fresh perspectives.
From the joys and challenges of bulk buying at Costco to the heartwarming reunion with my oldest child, Kyle, who is on the road to recovery, this episode is packed with personal anecdotes and practical advice. As we gear up for Thanksgiving, I share my thoughts on the warmth of family gatherings and the art of navigating recipe websites overloaded with ads. You'll hear about my love for Kirkland bagels and how the looming winter darkness affects my shopping strategies.
Inspired by my sister-in-law's culinary skills, I've embraced the Instapot for winter soup-making, especially while Craig is working out of town. I'll walk you through my tips for avoiding overspending at Costco during the holiday rush. And with Halloween in the air, indulge in some fun trivia about pumpkins and America's favorite candies. Whether you're looking for travel tales, holiday inspiration, or shopping wisdom, there's something here for everyone to enjoy.
Hello and welcome to Inside Marci's Mind. My name is Marci Backus and I am your host. Okay, so happy Halloween. I am recording this on Halloween. I should have recorded it yesterday, but you know what the beauty of having your own podcast is. You can do whatever the heck you want.
Speaker 1:Yesterday just was a busy day, with other things catching up. What the beauty of having your own podcast is. You can do whatever the heck you want. Yesterday just was a busy day, with other things catching up. We had just got back from our trip from Portland. So what are we going to talk about today? On today's episode, we're going to talk about Costco. So I got some Costco's do's don'ts tips. What have you my opinions? Because, again, this is Inside Marci's mind. And other than that, we're going to catch up on what I've been doing and then we'll dive into a little bit of Costco. So grab that coffee, iced tea, diet Coke I had two yesterday from the new. Um, well, I'll tell you about the new store. All right, so I'll tell you about the new store. So, um, right here, when we moved to Chicago, a brand new Whole Foods opened up in a brand new building a block away and it's beautiful Whole Foods and down below they had a coffee shop. There's a ton of coffee shops right here. That's right next to a Pete's there's, you know. We've got all kinds of stuff. So I noticed a couple of weeks ago that the coffee shop was closed down. The whole thing was boarded up. Well, it opened up to a.
Speaker 1:I guess what they're saying is it is a test store. It is called Amazon Grocery. No, it's not Amazon Fresh. It does not have. You cannot get delivery from it. Number one, number two it doesn't have produce or meats, things like that. It's also got more than a grab and go. So it's kind of like between a grab and go and a grocery. But like I don't shop at Whole Foods, first of all because I just like name brand things and it's, I want Oreos, I don't want, like whole foods, oreos. I don't want whole foods, doritos.
Speaker 1:So anyways, this little store downstairs has regular groceries but it's small and it's kind of like if you were staying close by in a hotel it would be a great place to go. They have cold medicine. They have regular toilet paper, not bamboo toilet paper. Like whole foods, they have the regular grocery items, but on a smaller scale but bigger than their grab and go. So, if that makes sense. But they also put in one of those soda machines where you can make any kind of soda you want. You know, the one diet this with a little vanilla. No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:Anyways, those of you that know me know I love myself a good fountain diet Coke. Well, long story longer. I used to go to my 7-Eleven until it made me sick and then I realized they don't clean their soda machine and I went there because it's cheaper. And so then I have been going to Chick-fil-A on my way home from the gym because they have a caffeine-free diet Coke, but it's $3.50 for a large diet Coke. $3.50 for a large diet Coke, $3.50. That's a lot of money. So this new and it's only a half a block further grocery Amazon grocery, it's called has that soda machine and for a 32 ounce it's only $1.25. So it's now my favorite place and so I go there. Anyway, that's exciting, that's new in my life.
Speaker 1:What else? I went on a fun trip this week. Between the last time I talked to you, my husband and I, craig, went to Oregon. We left last Friday and we came home Tuesday night. A long day of travel, but yeah, it was super fun. We used to live there, so we did a little bit of memory lane. We stayed downtown, we drove out to Multnomah Falls If you don't know what Multnomah Falls is, google it, it's beautiful had lunch out there the first day we landed, then the next day we did a little walk in the city. And I'll tell you after.
Speaker 1:You live in a big city. Other cities just are different, and Portland we all know Portland's different, but it's a very small city, number one but it's a very quiet city, unlike Chicago. Chicago doesn't have any quiet times. We were walking to breakfast at 830 Saturday morning and it was dead. That would not be the way Chicago is. So it was fun to stay downtown.
Speaker 1:We went to a wonderful wedding of our friend's daughter, gabby, and I got to see Jackson, who was Alex's best friend when we lived there. He lives in Japan and is married and has a baby, so that was all very exciting and to see people and friends. And then we drove the three and a half hours over to the Oregon coast to see my brother and his wife, jeff and Liz, in their beautiful new home overlooking the lake. Very beautiful, very fun. We drove through a lot of rain, had some rain, had some weather. We stopped along the coast and saw a couple of things on our way down to my brother's.
Speaker 1:Just had a great weekend at my brother's Good food, good talking. They love to travel, we love to travel, Lots to chat about. We got to watch a Dodger game, watch the Dodgers win, and then, of course, dodgers won the World Series last night. My brother has always been a Dodger fan since I was a kid, so it was fun to watch a game with him, something that he's done all his life and that I remember. So, for those of you that don't know, my siblings are 8, 10, and 12 years older than me, so it makes for a unique relationship and it was really nice to spend time with my brother, and I always enjoy spending time with Liz. She gave me some great cooking tips and we'll talk about that a little bit when we talk about. It's kind of what made me decide to talk about Costco, because Costco when you're a family is one thing, costco when you are a couple is another thing. So I'm going to kind of talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 1:We flew home on Tuesday and we had a connecting flight. Because of the times I needed the flights. There were no direct flights, because we only fly direct when we can, but this time we couldn't. We had to fly through Dallas and we only had like a 30 minute connection time in Dallas, which, if you know, dallas is not enough, and so I was very stressed about that. But before we took off, I saw that our flight from Dallas to Chicago was delayed, so all was good. We got to go to the American Lounge, have a little snacky and figure it out.
Speaker 1:There's some other things I wanted to talk to you about today. Oh, you know, one of my gym instructors gave me this suggestion, and I'm going to tell you before you get out of bed every morning, with your feet, spell out the alphabet. It keeps your ankles limber and strong, keeps your feet moving in all the directions you need it to move, keeps those stiff ankles from being stiff, and so I do that every day. I write the alphabet with my feet. There's my tip. I don't care how old you are, do it, because your ankles are important.
Speaker 1:Again, the wedding was fun, did some dancing, wore some high heels for the first time in a really long time, paid for that during the night, leg cramps galore and yeah, yeah, but they looked great, I looked great. So there you go. Uh, we went by and saw our old houses in Oregon. We lived in two different houses right in the same neighborhood, so that was fun, I really. You know, it just brings back memories. So it was a lot of memories this weekend, a lot of good memories.
Speaker 1:Our oldest child, kyle, is back in our lives in a big way and, thanks to Alec, everything there is good. I know that you guys who have followed me for a while know that there was some issues there. Kyle was in a very abusive relationship and is now out and safe and good and recuperating, and that's all we can ask for. So that's good news and becoming part of our lives. Flying back here with Alec and Sharon for early Thanksgiving. So I'm excited about that. Having them all together I honestly had given up on that. So, yay, those are some good things Makes me a happy mom.
Speaker 1:It's raining today. It's cool. Here We've been. Oh my gosh, the day we flew in it was so warm. That night it had been 80. That day it was 80 yesterday. Now, today we've kind of dived back off into the cool and rainy, which is what it should be, but I feel kind of bad for the Chicago trick-or-treaters, because yesterday would have been the perfect trick-or-treat day.
Speaker 1:I have a question for you all. I used to, and I have for a very long time, gotten recipes offline online. Whatever I Google my recipes, it is beginning to be so hard to look at a recipe between the advertisements you scroll. I can't do it anymore. Pinterest drives me crazy. Google drives me crazy with recipes. It's horrifying, and I don't know if any of you else have that, but I just I think I'm going to go back to cookbooks. It's ridiculous. At least a cookbook doesn't get stuff in my way and such. So, anyhow, those are the things that have been going on. Those are the things I've been thinking about this week. I hope you've had a good week.
Speaker 1:We've got the time change coming up this weekend. Yuck. Nobody likes the time change. It's going to plunge us into the winter of darkness, but it's the way it goes. It's the way the seasons are. So sit back, refill those drinks and we're going to talk a little bit about Costco.
Speaker 1:Okay so Costco. People have feelings about Costco, a lot of feelings. I just came across this article about what you shouldn't, shouldn't, or what you really shouldn't buy at Costco, and I thought I agreed with some of it. I disagreed with some of it and I thought, oh, this is kind of an interesting thing to talk about. So, buying in bulk when you're a house of two, let me tell you we don't shop nearly at Costco as much as we used to Um, that's for sure when we first moved here into Chicago. We have a. You know we live in a small condo. You have to. Really everything you do has got to have thought behind it and why you buy things and what you buy. I don't have a ton of storage space. I just created in a huge closet that's in our bathroom, the top shelf. I had blankets on because it was just like this top shelf that went all the way to the ceiling and I said to Craig, we never use those. So we cleared those out and we've created that to be our Costco shelf, which is good because we can put bulk things in there, like laundry detergent, cleaning supplies.
Speaker 1:I buy paper towels. I'm able to lean those up and have those kind of be a dispensary of paper towels. But I don't buy the toilet paper. I don't like Costco toilet paper and I like fancy toilet paper. So now, because I can, I do buy the fancy toilet paper. So Anyways, it kind of. There's things that I like to buy at Costco and things I don't like. But this list is kind of interesting. And this list starts off with organic long English cucumbers. For what reason I don't know, but it does state in here that they do cost more than if you're like at Trader Joe's, and the thing about cucumbers is they don't last long. So unless you're having a party, unless you're going to eat them, I get that, but I didn't realize that that was like so important that it should be number one on this list, which is kind of weird Soda cans.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of interesting because everybody thinks, you know, buying the soda cans at Costco is a good deal. But lately if you look at your grocery stores, those buy three packs can end up being a better deal and you get three different flavors of opposed to having just like a big flat of Coke or a big flat of diet Coke. I certainly cannot buy my soda that way anymore. Um, we, well, that's not true. We do buy the mineral water there because we have a full size fridge here in our house, so we stock the entire bottom shelf with mineral water. And Craig, we get his V8. Craig loves a V8. The man has never met a V8 he didn't love. So that's what we put in our bottom. And we do buy that at Costco. But you can. If you're looking at throwing a party and you want different types of sodas, sometimes your grocery store is going to be a better deal.
Speaker 1:Now here it says do not buy the Kirkland bagels because wrong, wrong, wrong. There's two of us and we buy the Kirkland bagels. What I do is we take out a couple, then I put them through my slicer I have like a bagel slicer and I put them in the freezer and let me tell you they are delicious. Throw them in the toaster Doesn't taste any different than the first day you brought them home. So I disagree with this. You may agree the bagels are not a good idea, but for us they are. You know, baked goods freeze. Well, if you do it right. Had to take a moment break there. You may not have noticed, but Craig came home from his run and then of course, he's just dilly dallying around, whatever. Ok, so back to baked goods and freezing. Yeah, so if you, if you are all about the bagels, get the bagels. If you're about any of that, get the pound cakes. Get whatever and freeze it. That Get the pound cakes. Get whatever and freeze it.
Speaker 1:The next thing in this list it says Costco has some of the best quality steak around, considering it's USDA prime. So we do buy our meat at Costco. Obviously we don't buy very much anymore, but I do get my pot roast there and when we come home Craig splits it into three. We have those bags that suck out the air and we freeze them. And that's great, because just last week I said you know kind of we do a Sunday pot roast every once in a while and it's just easy to get it out and have it and it's delicious and it was really good. So I think buying your steak there, if you have the ability to freeze it well and that means freeze it well, freeze it properly, so you don't get freezer burn and things like that so that you end up throwing it out Then it's it's no good. But I don't buy my chicken there anymore. I don't buy I. I buy things in small quantities here fresh, but certain things like the pot roast will do that way.
Speaker 1:Clothes Costco doesn't just have deals on groceries and household essentials. We know they stock loads of affordable clothing. Get your clothes at Costco. Who the heck cares? Craig is never prouder than when he's wearing head-to-toe Costco. I have my underpants, my pants and my shirt. Even my belt is from Costco. His socks and shoes are always from Costco.
Speaker 1:So I you know I look, I get a few things there. I'm going to be a hundred percent honest. Usually it's outerwear that I wear. Any of the clothes I've ever bought I still don't I don't have. So I don't buy clothes there anymore. But I do buy my jackets and winter wear. I got a pair of gloves there the last time I was there for this winter.
Speaker 1:So you know it's to each his own, but their clothes are not really my style. Every once in a while they'll get something. Pajamas are a good deal. I like pajamas there. I get my Mickey Mouse pajamas there. So I think you have to.
Speaker 1:You have to be very careful when you're looking at their clothes. Do you need it, do you? You know, it's those same questions that we need to always ask ourselves. Kikamon soy sauce. That's just way too much soy sauce for anyone. I'm sorry, unless you are eating soy sauce on the daily soy sauce is not a good deal. Just get your soy sauce at the grocery store and get it fresh. What else? Oh, you know what else? I heard that they are really cracking down on membership misuse. So know that.
Speaker 1:And another thing that I learned the other day in this part of the country the food courts or the food area of Costco's are inside. In California a lot of them are outside, so you can just walk up. You don't need a membership. Don't let them tell you at the door that you need a membership and try to sell you a membership. I read another article, funny enough, about a gal who had this problem trying to go in and get a piece of pizza. You can get pizza, you can eat at the food court, no membership needed.
Speaker 1:Milk, food like milk, and eggs and bread are staples, are staples, but they're also perishable. So make sure that if you buy that quantity, you can eat that quantity again. Bread can be frozen, eggs cannot. So make sure. And fresh eggs make a difference, especially when you're baking. And you know, don't kid yourself. So I I do not buy those things there.
Speaker 1:Craig gets his milk. I don't eat, drink milk. So Craig buys his own milk, he likes to buy his own milk. You know what I'm just going to say the older you get, things get weird. Like he buys his milk and his bread. I do all the grocery shopping, but I don't know. I guess it happened when we moved here and he can walk to Whole Foods or he can walk to Trader Joe's. So his favorite things he gets himself. I, you know, I didn't really think about it until I got here and I'm talking about it, but that's pretty funny.
Speaker 1:Fresh garlic Costco sells a two pound bag of fresh garlic which can last you up to six months if you store it properly. I don't go through enough garlic to buy that, so I think you can freeze garlic and that would probably be the answer to that one, because that is an insane amount of garlic. I do buy the jar cop, but I buy the small one. Now See, that's the thing. If you, they have all these things, they have a bag of whole garlic at the grocery store, is it? It's probably the same price for, you know, 20 cloves, as it is for this 700 cloves from Costco. But if you're not going to eat them, it's a waste, and wasting food is not good. Kirkland cream cheese the only time I ever buy cream cheese at Costco is when I'm going to make a cheesecake. Other than that, there is no way I ever even when the kids were at home we'd go through that much cream cheese. This is an interesting one.
Speaker 1:Windshield wipers you can get automobile basics at Costco tank of gas, new tires and windshield wipers. Now it says it's worth it to get gas and tires at the warehouse. I'm not necessarily buying that. I've gotten tires there a few times. They're freaking expensive and you know I like to go somewhere where I can get them rotated easily. I just I don't think Costco that's my opinion. It's worth it to get gas and tires at the work, but consider getting your windshield wipers elsewhere. Customers say they don't last long. So good, good to know, right, good to know I am here. I am doing the Lord's work for you. You do not want to get your windshield wipers at Costco.
Speaker 1:Fresh fruit that's a crazy thing. Unless you have a family that's going to go through that produce, do not buy it because again it's going to be wasteful. But I'll tell you this I don't know about when your kids were young. And if you're young and you're listening and you have kids one week they love strawberries. You buy a. You buy a little box of strawberries and they go through them. So next week you buy two. Nobody eats them. Avocados grapes the whole nine yards. It seemed like the week you buy it there's not enough. And then you buy twice as much the next week and nobody wants it. I think that is just in every household.
Speaker 1:So the last thing we're going to talk about on well, not the last, but one of the last things is pain relievers. Good Lord, people, if you're taking that much pain relievers you are going to have liver damage, you are going to have problems. That is a lot. A thousand tablets, thousand tablets. You know I buy the bigger one at CVS, but certainly Now you got to be careful, people with the pain relievers. So double think it. I do think that there's a lot of good deals in the pharmaceutical area. I've never gotten my prescriptions there. I've never needed to, because I've had pretty good insurance that covers it at a decent. Oh you know, the truth is, when the doctor prescribed some for our pets, that was where we got it, because obviously you have to pay out of pocket for pet medicine. So I was going to tell you.
Speaker 1:My sister-in-law gave me a couple of really good hints, and this one I really love. So she made this really delicious chicken lemon orzo soup oh, it was delicious, and she used a Instapot. So she has sold me on the love of an Instapot. I do not have one. I had to look in my kitchen and decide which appliance I'm going to put away in storage, which is going to be my ice cream maker, because I did make ice cream this summer, but it's so rich it just makes me sick. So so I think my ice cream maker could go out and that will make room for an Instapot. But she did make this beautiful chicken and how she does her chicken. I love this and I'm going to do this. This is the reason I'm telling you it's a Costco thing. So, liz, thank you, I'm sharing it with the world.
Speaker 1:She gets the pulled chicken at Costco. It comes in a big bag. They pull it off the rotisserie chickens and I've seen it and I've just thought, oh Lord in heaven, what would I use all that chicken for? But what a great idea. She breaks it up and freezes it and, like I told you, those little air sucking bags, and so I'm going to do that and then takes out what is needed for you know, kind of puts it in recipe size groupings and then uses it. What a fabulous idea you could do. You know, chicken quesadillas you can make anything you make with you put it in salads, you can put it in soups and not have to cook that extra chicken is a great time-saving step. And I have to be honest with you rotisserie chicken because it's cooked on the bone with that greasy skin on top of it, is super moist, super good. Your boneless, skinless breasts are never going to cut it after you have rotisserie chicken pulled off and you don't have to pull it off and you can freeze it and you can use it.
Speaker 1:The other big tip she gave me was the stock buying your stock at Costco. Now, I have never done that because I haven't never gone through a lot of stock, but this winter I've. I've decided that soups is going to be a mainstay. Craig is going to be working down in Georgia during the week starting next week, I think pretty regularly. So I was thinking, you know I love soup, so I'm going to make myself some soups. I'm getting that Instapot. I can make myself fresh soups. I can share it with my friends, but I will be getting some stock now that I have room to store it also, because I think you get six of the containers, but it's a really, really, really good stock, excuse me. So those are my Costco tips. I hope they're helpful.
Speaker 1:But then we're coming into that holiday season and that place is a pithole for your money, so really think about it. Create a list when you go. Don't be sucked in by all the fun things Like right now, craig and I have enough wrapping paper, honestly, to last us the rest of our life. We have, and I and I have a Christmas wrapping. You know, one of those things where you put the tubes that we have enough for the rest of our lives. Don't be taken in by those things. So, look, make a list, know what you're going to need. Don't let Costco suck your money. It can be a great place. It can also suck your money away.
Speaker 1:And think about all the clothes you've ever bought at Costco. Do you wear any? I know Craig does. I don't, like I said, I only wear my outerwear, so really think about it. I'm going to look for my Instapot there. I was looking at Amazon form but I thought, oh, maybe when I go. I'll look at the Instapot and then we're going to share. We're going to share about the Instapot. See what I think I just I love the idea of it. I've never talked to anybody that really loved theirs until I talked to Liz and she has convinced me that the Instapot is the way to go. So I'm kind of excited about that. And it happens so fast. You cook like soup, you can make soup and you know, under 30 minutes that tastes like it's been cooking all day. And then I was thinking I have a couple of my lady friends here in Chicago that are single. I could share my soup with them, so I can get some of those little soup containers and share with my friends. So I'm excited. I'm excited about that this winter.
Speaker 1:I hope you have a great Halloween. I hope you have trick or treat-treaters. I did not sign up at my building for them, I just didn't. We don't have very many kids, so I just figured it would be a whole night of me waiting for kids to come. So there's a lot to do here in the city for the kids. They can go down to the world's largest Starbucks and trick-or-treat there. So I know they won't be missing out if I don't hand out candy.
Speaker 1:Plus, I don't know about you. Having that candy in the house is dangerous. Although I have no desire for sweets today, I don't know why. They actually sound really disgusting. So that's a good thing, because my sweet tooth has been a little bit off the chart. Anyways, hang in there, stay with me and I'm going to give you a. Did you know?
Speaker 1:All right, for our fun little segment. Did you know? I figured, since it's Halloween, we'll do a few more Halloween ones. This is interesting. What state do you think grows the most pumpkins in the country? Okay, think about it. It's Illinois, and the pumpkin producing prize goes to Illinois. The Midwest state produces 630 million pounds of pumpkins, and that was in 2022. And that was in 2022. And let's do one more fun fact. What is the number one candy According to the government? I don't know. According to someone, it is. Well, I'll give you number two. Okay, number two is Reese's peanut butter cups. Who doesn't love a Reese's peanut butter cup? I love them. And the number one candy is good old M&M's Can't go wrong with an M&M Hard on the outside, chocolate on the inside, and it doesn't melt in your hand. All right, everybody, go out and do something positive, and happy Halloween.
