After receiving my Visa bill for this month (even though it looked like they took every Visa bill I’ve ever had, combined it, then doubled it and gave it to me), I have decided that I’m going to try REALLY HARD to not spend any money in January, and maybe February too.
Now, this is obviously going to be impossible, so I have to list some things that I most definitely will be buying that officially do not count (so don’t hassle me about them):
Food. I need food to live, and I’ve been looking everywhere for that bread dipper that I bought two bottles of last night, okay?!
Normal stuff I can’t get away from, ie: TTC pass, rent, phone bill, and so on and so on
Trips. Now, this might seem totally counteractive, but I just got married and I’m really tired and I 100% deserve a honeymoon. Plus, I planned on doing this in 2012, so it’s really just about committing.
Things I will not be allowed to spend money on:
Alcohol. We have about 39,000 bottles of white wine leftover from the wedding, as well as some vodka and tequila. And I work for a beer company, so really, there’s no excuse for me to buy alcohol
Clothes. There’s no getting around this one – this is where I spend my money, and yo, it is just not a good idea for me to go in any store right now (including online ones) because I have a bunch of stuff that I never even wear
Books. See above – too many books that I haven’t read yet sit at home. Therefore I shall not buy!
Now, this is in no way going to be easy, but considering I really do want to go on a vacation, and I just had a wedding that cost about a bajillion dollars, no spending shall be allowed!
Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…
The Long Neck Shiraz bottle doesn’t actually have a long neck. The bottle is of a standard size. Too bad. It’s a tasty shiraz if drinking alcoholic grape juice is your thing. Don’t mind it. The air miles deal could have been better. 4 for $9 is a bit weak, but oh well. I still bought it.
Give it a shot for the 4 bonus air miles. You’ve only got a bit of time before that offer is gone.
Here I am enoying this Citra Sangiovese on a comfortable April evening. Music in the background, dinner digesting in my tumtum and Her using a semi dangerous looking head massager. This is the life.
The sangiovese is a nicely priced red wine at $7.45 that comes with 3 bonus air miles. It’s not anything super special. Just a mild taste, but that’s probably a good thing for the price. Usually the result isn’t a good one when someone who is underqualified tries getting too fancy. So let’s just keep it simple, idiot.
I recommend having this wine with roasted whole chicken and then another glass with a foot massage.
That’s right – He’s not the only one who gets drunk on a weeknight! Kidding. I’m not drunk. But I’m pretty sleepy.
Tonight I was on my way home from work when I passed by the LCBO. Now, the fact that it was still light out, I felt actual warmth on my legs while waiting for a stoplight, and that I was home alone tonight since He’s working late, all contributed to me popping in.
So I bought some wine!
Cono Sur wine from Chile to be exact. I bought it because it was only $9.95 and came with 5 Air Miles. Nice! I find there are a lot more red wines that come with Air Miles than white, which is a bitch, since I only drink white most of the time. But this time, I lucked out.
I got home and was all set to have a glass and blog about it – but lo and behold, I couldn’t get the cap open. And where was He to help out? At work. I got a knife – problem solved! I butchered that bad boy, but the sweet nectar of the Gods was still avail.
I took a drink – it tasted a little vomity. I took another drink. Still a bit vomity, but not enough that you don’t want more.
The label says “viognier” – I’m pretty sure that means I was drinking pure vinegar. I should have put some on my salad. Heyo! I’m eating a salad.
The best part about writing an Alcoholic Airmiles entry is that you have to go get the bottle out of the fridge to write the name of it. And I mean, by then you’ve done half the work, so you might as well have another glass.
Now, I don’t have the fancy chart that He makes, and I don’t feel like copy and pasting it in here. So I’ll make my own rating system:
Taste: 3/10 for the first glass, 6/10 for the second glass
Cost to Air Miles ratio: 10:5
All in all – I would only buy this vinegar wine again if I knew I was going to have a second glass. Or if it was dirt cheap and came with a lot of Airmiles (anything over 5).
Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…
Hold onto your butts, because it’s time for another…
This edition is chronicling the life of a very palatable bottle of Trapiche Cab-Sauv. This is apparently a premium wine! This wine is full flavoured and has a rich taste to it. It does not taste like grape juice. The last wine I had did taste a little Welchy. This is grown up. For grownups.
It’s Argentinian and has an amazing picture of the country on the back of the label. Or is that a scared elephant in profile?
Regardless, good wine, good price, great bonus air mile amount (6 for a bottle that’s less than $8, that might be an alcoholic air miles record for air miles/$!) and good times. I started this bottle a few days ago and it’s still going strong. One glass more and it’s onto the next one!
Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…
Gato Negro Merlot tastes good. I like the taste of it. It goes well with chicken finger fajitas and soccer blogs.
Gato Negro has a twitter (@GatoNegroWines). They never use it though. I wonder why that is. They should hire Her PR firm to run it for them. There has to be a way to get the word out on this wine.
Gato Negro means black cat when Babelfished back to English. I know a black cat. He’s more like a whole box of wine than a little 750ml bottle though.
Gato Negro helped me have a good day. Canada played well enough to only lose 1-0 to 10th ranked Greece away in Greece. Work was good. And now I’m drinking some good wine. And I got 5 air miles. What a day.
Gato Negro gets a thumbs up for being a great value wine and allowing me a great value day.
Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…
This is a special edition of Alcoholic Air Miles as it’s the first one in which She helped me write/research! Exciting OMG!!1! Alcoholic Air Miles FTW!!!2!
We drank Grey Fox Chardonnay. It’s a sweet white wine that’s easy on the wallet. We actually ran into a friend at a party once who told us that it’s her “goto” wine. I guess if she’s running out of time at the LCBO and needs to pick something up to satisfy her thirst, this is it. In all honesty, it’s not that bad. And the air miles to $ ratio is off the charts at a whopping 0.63!* I know. Amazing.
*-He’s not actually certain whether there are actually 5 air miles that come with this wine. Maybe there are and maybe there aren’t. She is the one who picked up the bottle last night and claims that 5 is the right number though…
I’m just trying to get this post out there so that everyone knows they can go and grab this steal deal while it lasts. Which is only until the end of January. Happy drinking!
…
Whoa whoa whoa. Her here. I’m a little indignant that He is claiming it may have 5 Airmiles. I can’t come up with any logical reason why I would lie about that. It definitely comes with 5 Airmiles. So go at ‘er.
I also told Him to provide my thoughts on the taste, since He wanted my input. I specifically said it was “grape-y” and “sweet at first, then a little sour.” He has no respect for my opinions, I swear.
Anyways. Time is running out. This wine is actually not that bad, and for $8, you can’t really go wrong. So go buy a lot, and then invite us over!
This date had been in the mix for awhile. As mentioned awhile back, we had a gift card for the Old Spaghetti Factory, one of our favorite restaurants. I mean seriously, what’s not to love? Free bread, delicious pasta, and a $2 corking fee on Tuesday nights? We’re there!
Interjection – totally just realized that our only other Date Night post is also about the Old Spaghetti Factory. But seriously, free bread. I’m not embarrassed at all.
We’ve known about this $2 corking fee for some time now, but this was the first time we’ve been able to put it into action. So at 5 p.m. sharp, He went to buy our advance tickets to the movie we were seeing after TOSF, and I went to the LCBO by the Yonge/Bloor subway to grab a bottle of wine for us. After some seriously depressing searching (hardly any bottles of white with Air Miles), I finally found a bottle for $7.95 that had five airmiles. Sold. It will inevitably be received here later.
We met at the resto with the intention of pretending it was our first date. Aw, supercute! We kind of forgot about it though, until 20 minutes in my coworker texted me as my get-off-the-hook-pretend-it’s-a-car-crash phone call. It was pretty funny. We had our awesome pasta, free bread (two loaves) and our salads. BUT NOT OUR WINE.
They changed the corking fee! Apparently it wasn’t just on Tuesday’s, it was everyday, but no one was using it, so they turned it back into their old fee of $10 to uncork it! The guy, Joel, asked if we wanted to pay that fee, but seriously, do I look like the kind of girl who’s going to be late for dinner in order to find a cheap bottle of wine that costs $8 and comes with Air Miles, just to pay MORE to uncork it than the bottle of wine cost itself? I don’t think so brosef.
So we sucked it up and got the bucket of five beers for $15. Still not a bad deal, but not what we were expecting. Old Spaghetti Factory, you’ve let us down. You’re lucky we don’t have any more gift cards…
During dinner I received a phone call from Queen’s Alumni Relations a.k.a. Queen’s Alumni Please-Give-Us-Your-Money-You-Graduated-A-Year-Ago-What-Don’t-You-Have-Lots Relations. They almost get me because they’re so damn nice and inquiring as to details of my life that no one else cares about. But no, I will not give you my $20.09. Even if it is cute to ask for money in the year I graduated.
We went to the Rainbow Cinema, a neat little spot that He has been after me to go to for some time. It was a neat theatre, and we saw True Grit for only $5 each. Not terrible at all.
I know True Grit got a buttload of Oscar nom’s and all, but I don’t really care. It was a good movie though, although (spoiler), it would have been nice if SOMEthing nice happened at the end, you know? Plus, I don’t like when animals die in films. It’s not their fault. While the movie was good, I kind of like the trailer more. It’s funny, because the thing I told Him that I liked about the movie most was that they had funny parts in it. I mean, just because you’re on a quest to avenge your father’s death doesn’t mean someone can’t tell a decent joke on the way, am I right? The trailer has none of that funny stuff, but I still think it’s really good.
Good Date Night over all though. A friend of ours was even at the theatre, sitting next to us. We haven’t seen him since Queen’s, so it was nice to run into him. He’s really tall, and I forgot that until he stood up next to me.
Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…
Welcome back for more you Wino. Get ready for…
On Thursday of this week, I went to the new LCBO in the PATH at Bay and Front in Toronto. This is the new GO Bot LCBO, as it has replaced that tiny (and terrible) one that used to be in the lower level of Union Station. It’s actually a pretty decent booze store. Enough vintages to satisfy the executives who are on their way home to Oakville, yet enough of a selection to appease us common underlings who can’t justify spending more than $15 on a bottle of red. And usually that’s actually $15 for TWO bottles of red.
Anyways, I picked up a bottle of the Farnese Sangionevese Daunia Indicazione Geografica Tipica. Fuck. That’s actually what it’s called. It’s from Italy and it contains sulphites, that’s about all I can garner from the label. Seriously, what the hell am I drinking?? What is a sangiovese??
Actually, I don’t really care what kind of RED* wine it is, because I am certain that I like it. Despite it’s low price, this is a pretty decent wine. It’s got a subtle taste, maybe a bit too underwhelming, but nonetheless a very good value wine IMHO. And with 3 bonus Air Miles, that trip to Ortona (the origin of this wine) just got that much closer…
* – yes, I’m certain that it’s a red.
Anyways, good buy for wine and don’t forget to check out the new LCBO location that I mentioned above. It’s a beauty.
Alright you drunks. Get set for another edition of Alcoholic Air Miles!
This time He’s getting a little bit classier in his reviews. Honestly, I can’t believe I’m reviewing a Cabernet Sauvignon! It’s so suave. So debonair. Well, except for the fact that it was one of the cheapest bottles in the shop…Anyways! On to the review the the Gray Fox 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon!
California’s prodigal son, Gray Fox, really does it this time. Let’s be serious, $7.95* for a palatable cab-sauv and 5 bonus air miles? Eureka!** Palatable really is a subjective. I mean, just because I can drink this swill and somewhat enjoy it makes it palatable to me. To someone with a more refined palate***, this shit is probably nasty as hell. I’m not a fan of vinegar on my fish and chips, but this wine might go best with some of Deluxe’s(basically an east coast Canadian version of Long John Silvers) finest .
*-Aside: I just noticed that the winery is selling this bottle for twice as much on their Geocities site. Just ridiculous!
**-What is the state motto of California? I’ll take miscellaneous trivia for $400, Alex.
***-Using 3 derivations of “palate” in one paragraph? You’re crazy for this palate, Him!
All in all, it’s decent. And when you’re getting almost 1 air mile per dollar, I’d buy pretty much any wine that the LCBO sells. But for some reason, I really thought this wine was from Germany for the longest time. Not sure how that came to be in my knoggin’. Isn’t it weird that Germany produces wine? I’ve never been there, but it really doesn’t strike me as the type of climate in which grapes grow on trees… or vines. Regardless, those from the Black Forest probably think the same thing when they pick up a bottle of Southern Ontario red from their local liquor store. And they probably aren’t getting 5 bonus air miles with their purchase…
Anyways, I’m almost done the bottle, so tune in next time when I try use palate in a blog post more than five six times!
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