Menu Plan Sunday

 We all might be out (minus Sam) later in the week, as we wait for M's schedule to stabilize a bit more. Nick is also going to Lake Tahoe with friends, so we will take that opportunity to have meals he doesn't prefer. ;-) 

Friday - baked salmon + cauliflower rice Unexpected guests again, so we turned to hot dogs (always on stand by, some buns I found in the freezer + potato salad. And, fruit. 

Saturday - Philly cheese steaks

Sunday - Sesame chicken + rice

Monday - chicken wings & gyozas

Tuesday - leftover sesame chicken & rice

Wednesday - possibly out of town for dinner. If not, something haphazard from the freezer. 

Thursday - possibly out of town for dinner. If not, something haphazard from the freezer. 

Friday - grilled chicken (freezer) + caprese salad

What about you? What's on your menu for the week ahead? 

Travel planning + dreaming

 The next year is going to be big for travel, as we have a lot of milestones. We've planned this into our budget, but we still want to maximize points, miles, etc as much as possible. I've really enjoyed playing around with dates & hotels & flights to find the best deals.  

We are currently thinking of the following trips:

• Trip to Las Vegas with three friends + my sister to see a concert (50th birthday) in November
• New Zealand hiking trip with M, for our 20th anniversary in February
• Trip to Greece in June with sister + BFF to celebrate our joint 50th birthdays (yes, a double celebration). 

I've used United miles to cover one flight to New Zealand, as well as Hyatt points for our hotel before we fly back from Christchurch. The rest of the trip will still be pretty pricey, as we are doing a hiking tour, and staying at another hotel after the hiking trip, doing winery visits, etc. There's not much we can do about offsetting the rest of those costs, so we've just budgeted accordingly.

For the trip to Greece, we're having a lot of fun discussing & planning. My BFF works at a school, so days off are very specific, and there's no flex to move things to lower cost dates. That makes planning tricky. We think we've come up with a plan that might work, and maximizes fun, while minimizing cost. We're doing a call this afternoon to further discuss, which is always a good time.

• Flights - you remember M's expiring British airways points from last summer? I bought a pair of workout pants through their shopping portal, & thus extended their expiration date. I didn't pay close attention to how much they were worth, short of going through & verifying they were worth keeping. I was price checking United (all of my miles were used for NZ trip) & flights were insanely expensive. As I was flipping through my spreadsheet where I track all points, miles, credits, etc, I happened to see the British Airways points & decided to go plug them in & see what we could do. We have enough points for two economy plus tickets to Athens from SFO! This is huge, and a savings of about $7k, vs paying through United. I'm so thrilled. We need to lock in the dates soon ish, as one of the dates we are thinking of leaving on only has two seats left. 
• Hotels - we want to minimize logistics & transit, but maximize what we see & do. Here's what we're thinking on the transit side, and corresponding hotels.
• Athens - We will stay at the Grand Hyatt Athens 1-2 nights when we arrive, and I'll use Hyatt free night awards for that. It is a category 3 hotel, so I should have plenty of Hyatt awards I can use. BFF also may have awards to use, so that will be covered.
• Santorini - we will then fly or take the ferry to Santorini. We do want the white building/Santorini type experience, but we also don't need a lot of night life, and are not exactly going to be club kids out there. The Hyatt has a property on the other side of the island that is supposed to be fantastic, and much quieter. I will likely have enough Hyatt points to cover this stay, and/or will combine points with BFF to sort it out. There are three of us, which always makes room booking outside of the US tricky, as you typically need 2 rooms, or a suite. 
• Paxos - from there, we will take the ferry to Paxos. There are no Hyatt properties on the island, but Marriott has a hotel that looks like a good fit. Between myself & BFF, we will transfer points from our other travel cards & can hopefully cover most of the Paxos stay with points. 
• Athens - we will stay the last night in Athens again, ahead of our flights home. We will use free night awards to cover this as well. 

I've always been so stingy with my time off, needing to use it for the kids spring breaks, ski week, and between Christmas & New Years. A few things have changed: no more ski week, & I'm not delusional enough to think the boys will want to spend their spring breaks with me. ;-) Also, they have different spring breaks, so a family trip isn't an option at the moment. The company I work for closes during Christmas & New Years, and I won't need to use vacation days. And finally, I'm going to be 50, M is close to 60. . . why not enjoy the time we have & travel? It feels a little strange to plan to use all of my vacation days, but I also remind myself that I have a huge bucket list of places I want to visit, and should make the most of this time in our lives. 

M says travel planning is my hobby, which I somewhat agree with. I love: thinking about fun adventures, playing around with rewards to minimize cost, and having fun things to look forward to.

What about you? Do you enjoy travel planning, and hacking to keep costs low? 

Frugal Friday

It's been another busy work week, but a wonderful weekend with my sister & BFF, which was really fun. We also hosted: Nick's GF, Sam's GFx2, Nick's x2 friends for dinner, so plenty of food was made & consumed!

Saving on things we buy

• Our car insurance switched hands (on the back end, I can't really take credit for this, as our policy was transferred to another provider), and the cost dropped by $391/year, which is fantastic. It costs a lot to insure two male teen drivers, so any drop is exciting. 

Earning money

• Just the regular stuff here. Nothing too exciting.
• My office is closing Wednesday-Friday next week, which means I get three "free" vacation days, as I don't have to use time off, but also don't have to work. This is particularly precious time, as I don't have many vacation hours accrued yet, of course. 

Avoiding spending

• We decided to have Nick try first semester without a car in Boulder, which saves the cost of parking permits. It also means that I needed to buy flights to move in weekend for M & Nick. I used a credit for M, and Nick's flight was very inexpensive. Given we are saving on gas + one night of a hotel on the drive, we definitely are still coming out ahead. 
• My schedule has been all over the shop lately, given that I'm normally a morning workout person, but my coworkers are all primarily in London. I'm one of the first California based hires, with a goal of building out the team. That means that my days skew VERY early. But, haphazard later in the day meetings crop up with the US team as well. The spoiler of that is I am trying to find a good workout slot, but meetings often drop in last minute, even when I plan well ahead. My workout studio charges you if you don't show up or cancel before 8 hrs. I couldn't make my lunch class on Thursday, but was able to move it to later in the day. While I don't prefer a late afternoon workout, it saved me $15, and still allowed me to get my workout in. 

Eating what we have

• We worked our way through the snacks leftover from our weekend entertaining. Crackers, cheese, fruit, chicken salad, etc. 
• I pulled together two quick meals of spaghetti & meatballs + garlic bread, on nights we had unexpected guests, but not enough other leftovers. 
• We worked our way through the buns, burgers, kebabs, almost all of the rice, & the chicken shawarma. Oh, and the tzatziki sauce. 

For others

• Can't really think of anything here, other than plenty of hosting & feeding friends & family, but that is always our treat & we are so happy the teens & their friends want to spend time with us. 

What about you? Any wins to share?

Fitness Monday

 The week went pretty much as I expected, with the first half being pretty good & the second half being much higher calories. 

Weight: I didn't weigh in the back half of the week, but my weight has been holding steady & the scale is really trying hard to stay in place. No progress again this week. 

Calories: 1,732/day, thanks to plenty of indulgences in the second half of the week during the mini girls trip at my house. 

Steps: average daily steps was 14,012! Yay for a big hike on Saturday, plus we went for mini walks around the block 3 nights last week. 

Workouts:

• One combo strength/cardio workout class
• One treadmill class
• 2+ hour hike with friends
• 30 minute elliptical
• 45 minute walk
• 30 minute walk around the neighborhood
• One day without a workout

Overall nutrition: the first half of the week was really good. The back half was filled with more indulgences, treats & alcohol due to entertaining. 

Goals for the week: I want to get in a few more harder core workouts, and improve my nutrition/decrease my calories. Pretty much the basics for the week.

What about you? How did you do with your health & fitness goals for the week?

Menu Plan Sunday

 I'd assumed we would have lots of leftovers going into the week, but I'm a fool! Sam had his girlfriend over for dinner on Thursday, Nick had two friends for dinner on Friday, and Sam's girlfriend was back for dinner last night. Plus our two house guests. We love hosting, and it was so nice for my sister & BFF to meet the boys friends, but it also means that my menu plan is... not going so well. ;-) 

• Sunday - M is going to bake a piece of fish that a friend brought back from an Alaska fishing trip. He's jazzed for the coho salmon. Sam & I will have the last two burgers. 
• Monday -  We have enough chicken shawarma & kebab leftovers, if everyone has a variety of food. A smorgasbord, if you will.
• Tuesday - spaghetti & meatballs
• Wednesday - tacos? I need to see if there is any prepped meat in the freezer. If not, I will make some
• Thursday - leftover spaghetti & meatballs 
• Friday - Oh my, who knows at this point. So much for my well laid plan. ;-) I do, however, have an absolute ton of cheese & snacks, so maybe we will have more of an appetizer meal, with some sort of protein.

What about you? What's on your menu for the week?

Frugal Friday

 It's been a very busy week, but I'm looking forward to spending time with my sister & BFF, who are in town for the weekend. 

Saving on things we buy

• Can't think of anything in this category for the week. 

Earning money:

• I got paid $1200 for the last of the class I taught (I missed two classes due to senior events for Nick, so smaller than the previous paycheck). They have asked me to teach again in September, but I'm leaning towards not doing it, and just being available as a sub. My work schedule has me traveling a lot for the first few months, and I'm also pretty tuckered out by the end of the day. Running a class from 6-8 pm is not particularly appealing after a long day of work. But, on the flip side, the huge time investment was the first class, and after that, it takes so much less time for each subsequent class. We'll see.
• I also received my first paycheck, & my sign on bonus. The paycheck was quite small, as it was for just one week of work, and I have an extra $500/check withheld for taxes, particularly because of DH's severance, which isn't taxed nearly high enough to avoid a large bill. I'm also trying to max my 401k, and I'm about 1/2 way there, after the sign on bonus & first check. I'll need to run the math, but I think I'm on track to max at this level of withholding. 
• Received $200 back as a credit card bonus, plus another $10 in rewards for the spending required to earn the bonus (Chase Freedom Unlimited card). The $150 earned through Rakuten is still pending, but will also be credited. (Insert standard disclaimer that you should never open a credit card for rewards unless you are capable of paying it in full each month, & will not be tempted to spend more than normal.)

Avoiding spending

• The big win was cashing in probably six years worth of accumulated United miles (600k) for a business class flight to New Zealand. The actual value is around $10k. I took a LOT of international work trips for that, and can't think of a better way to redeem it than the planned 50th birthday/20th anniversary trip. :-) That said, we started looking at these flights a few months ago, and it was 1/2 the redemption value. We waited to see what would happen with my job, and the price doubled, which was unfortunate. 
• I also redeemed points for two nights at a lovely hotel in Napa in a few weeks. My work has the Wednesday-Friday off, so M & I are going to go enjoy wine country for a few nights. 

Eating what we have

• M made delicious grilled chicken & rice on Sunday, which always generates lots of delicious extras.
• I made a broccoli/beef dish on Saturday, which used up some elderly broccoli. There was enough leftover for Sam to have it as lunch one day, which he enjoyed. He's definitely a leftovers for lunch person, whenever possible.
• We all ate a lot of fresh summer fruit, because it's so delicious right now. Pluots, nectarines, melons, berries... So many delicious options!
• On Friday, we had kind of a smorgasbord of appetizers. I made a caprese, using tomatoes & basil from the garden. I baked up a tray of Sam's favorite samosas, and served that with a few coconut shrimp (end of the bag). It was just the right amount (samosas leftover for Sam's lunch the next day) & it was delicious. 
• Defrosted the last of the fajitas for dinner, and chopped up some sliced cheese to serve with it, as we were out of shredded. Also served with our garden tomatoes & green onions .

For others:

• As part of a work event, I volunteered with my new coworkers at a non-profit. They do multiple things (focusing on preventing homelessness), but we helped with the food pantry section. I packaged & loaded food into cars for people picking up. They happened to have flowers to give away (so cool that a store donated those before they were beyond use) & people were so thrilled to receive fresh flowers. 
• Gave away Nick's old BMX bike on Buy Nothing. Another mom was absolutely thrilled to have it. 

That's it from my side. What about you? Any wins to share?

Interview prep

I'm late to answer this anonymous reader comment, but wanted to get to it.

7/11 Any particular podcasts to listen to for my own interview prep?? I have researched the company and taken one of their community outreach classes. I am a SAHM/contractor who Kent back to FT work several years ago. They sent the benefits package to me as soon as they set up the interview. Very good insurance and a continuation of the plan we have always had at a fraction of the rate. How to convey my interest appropriately. I am way overqualified.

I'm not a podcast listener (I wish I was - I have so many great recommendations), but here are a few things I would do in your shoes. 

• Run your resume + the job description through an AI service (I prefer Gemini, but Chat GPT should also work). They are both free. Add something in the prompt around, "How could I update this resume to better match the job description?" There will likely be plenty of recommendations about how you can best tailor your resume to suit the role.
• Also use AI for research on the company. It helps aggregate all of the disparate sources of information about companies, and does a good job summarizing.
• Reach out to anyone you know who works there, or in a similar field. Get their take on the company, any priorities that would be helpful to know ahead of the interview. 
• Research the interview panel on LinkedIn. Get the recruiter to send you the names of anyone you will be interviewing with.
• Similarly, many companies (when asked), will send you the focus areas ahead of each interview. That is incredibly helpful, and you can then use your own brainstorming to think of situational based questions, "tell me about a time when you...". I usually also add those questions to AI to ensure that my prepared answers hit the mark. 
• In terms of conveying interest appropriately, be prepared to answer why you are legitimately interested in the role. If you are overqualified, this can get tricky, but a few things I would do:
• Be honest, but discrete. You don't need to share your life story, but be prepared to explain why this role is a great fit for you at this moment in time.
• Share why you are interested in the role & the company. Have specific examples of what interest you.
• Highlight all of your transferable skills. 
• If it's accurate, make sure you emphasize that you are looking for a long term fit. One of the hesitancy companies have about hiring someone who is overqualified, is a concern that they will jump ship as soon as they come across something better. Reassuring them that's not the case (assuming it's true), would be very helpful. 

I hope that's useful, and if anyone else has questions about the current job market, happy to share my thoughts & experience!

Fitness Monday

Despite the scale not moving, I felt pretty good about last week. My calories were pretty close to target, and I was really close to my step goal (thanks to the 7 mile hike on Saturday). I am still experimenting with finding consistent workout times, and at this point, I think I need to give up on a consistent time, and be comfortable with ever shifting workouts, depending on my meeting schedule. 

Weight: my weight has stayed the same again, which is disappointing, as I had a pretty good week. 

Calories: 1,521

Steps: 11,942

Workouts:

• 7 mile hike
• 3 workout classes (one strength focused, one treadmill class, and one mix of strength & cardio)
• 45 minute elliptical workout
• 30 minute slow walk (using the treadmill desk, so not sure this really "counts" for anything other than getting in extra steps

Overall nutrition: Overall nutrition was much better this week. Hormonally, there are a few days a month where I really crave sweets & chocolate, and that wasn't this week, so I was able to keep my eating focused largely on healthy options. I ate a lot of protein, minimized carbs & ate plenty of fruit & veggies, which is always the goal.

Goals for the week: continue the first part of the week as is, and balance what I'm sure will be extra calories when I have guests later in the week with much harder/longer workouts. Keep the calories in check, even over the weekend.

What about you? How did you do with your health & fitness this week? 

Menu Plan Sunday

 I'm excited to have my sister & BFF join us for a mini girls trip on Thursday. They will stay until Sunday, which will be fun. We are all planning to work remotely from my house on Friday, so as soon as that wraps up, we will likely hang out by the pool & have a glass of wine. Should be great!

• Friday - shrimp + caprese salad
• Saturday - grilled chicken & rice
• Sunday - garlic noodles with beef and broccoli
• Monday - leftover grilled chicken and rice
• Tuesday - leftover garlic noodles with beef & broccoli
• Wednesday - spaghetti & meatballs
• Thursday - likely takeout Greek food, as we are having guests
• Friday - chicken shawarma 

What's on the menu at your house this week?

Saturday things

 I'm meeting a friend for a hike this morning, and am excited to catch up with her. We were "funemployed" together, and have spent a lot of time hiking, and she's the friend I went to Moab with. She's a lot of fun. We both went back to work at a similar ish time (a month or so earlier for her), so we haven't been able to catch up much. 

Other things I'm up to today:

• Menu planning, particularly for the tail end of the week, when my sister + BFF will be here
• Travel planning for my 50th birthday. Can't remember if I've mentioned it, but we are likely to cancel our anniversary trip to Hawaii, as that would likely come at a time when M will just be onboarding to a new job (he's still interviewing, but fingers crossed) & I likely have to go to London for work. Instead, we are thinking of pulling the trigger on a joint celebration trip, and doing one of my bucket list items - an 8 day hiking trip in New Zealand, followed by a couple of nights at a winery. Lots of logistics to figure out for this.
• I'm also going to do a light clean on the house. I did find someone to clean the house, and she is going to start coming every other week, on Thursday (perfectly timed ahead of our guests arriving), but the house needs a cleaning ahead of that.
• Budget updates. I got my first paycheck (although, just one week, given how the pay periods fall) & need to do some budget tracking & overall planning.
• If it cools off, I need to get some gardening done, and deadhead our potted flowers.
• Shopping list for Costco + the grocery store. M will go to Costco (he loves it?!), and I'll go to the grocery store.
• Plan my schedule for the week. This involves looking at my work schedule, trying to slot in workouts, & looking at any other personal commitments.
• I might try to get ahead & finish up two work trainings, so I can flex my time a bit more on Friday.

From previous posts, you might remember that M has been buying 2lb packages of green onions at Costco for $5. He loves green onions, but we definitely can't get through that much, so I've been planting the extra. However, given he keeps buying them, we are also struggling to eat the planted ones. It's quite a vicious green onion cycle. ;-) I finally pulled out one that we'd planted, and the thing was a beast. It was actually delicious.

What about you? What are you up to today? 

Frugal Friday

 It was a pretty quiet week on the frugal front, minus Nick's AP credits, which were the big winner. 

Saving on things we buy:

• Uploaded receipts to Fetch, & earned more grocery store rewards. This time one of the coupons was for a free Kind (protein) bar, which I'll redeem next time I'm there.

Earning money:

• Still working through my benefits & perks at work, but hoping to find a spot to charge the car for free at the office when I go in. 

Avoiding spending:

• Nick earned 20 credits through AP testing, which saves about $20k in college costs. Most of his credits will satisfy classes towards his current major, and a few will give him general Ed credit. This is super helpful to give him a boost towards graduating in four years, while also keeping the number of credits he needs to take each semester more reasonable. His classes will be hard!
• Nick & I also went through the items we brought back from Sam's dorm room, and he will be able to reuse the vast majority of it, which is awesome. This not only saves costs, but avoids waste, which I love. Our list of what Nick needs to buy is pretty minimal. I also love that the school provides a mini fridge/microwave, to keep the kids from having to buy new ones & then figure out what to do with them when they move out. 
• M dropped Nick & a friend off at the airport for their flight to Hawaii (senior trip, take 2). 
• Drove to the town our office is in, and met a few people from my new team for a picnic (free lunch) + a volunteering event. It was nice to meet some of the folks in real life. 

Eating what we have:

• I made a chicken skillet dish on Saturday, and ran out of shredded cheddar cheese, but I was able to dice up some pepper jack cheese & that worked out great. It was all melted anyway, & I liked the additional flavor the pepper jack provided. 
• Used up lots of garden goodies in our meals, including making a caprese salad with garden tomatoes & basil.
• Bought healthy snacks & meal items, and did a good job of working our way through those.
• Used up the rest of the burger patties, and chicken skillet, with nothing going to waste.
• Nick & his GF joined us unexpectedly for dinner one night, so I pivoted & baked up a tray of the Costco breaded chicken tenders, made a pound of pasta, and cut up a ton of fruit & veggies. It was enough for everyone, with leftovers for me for a few days, which is always a win. 

For others:

• When M went to the Boulder orientation, one of Nick's classmate's family also joined. They will be flying their daughter to Boulder for move in, so we've offered to take some of her extra items in Nick's car, when he & M drive to Boulder. It will save them the cost of mailing things. 
• My sister put together a medicine kit for Sam, and he didn't end up needing it last year. Nick & I went through it, and pulled out a few duplicate items. We gave those away on Buy Nothing, and he will add a few of his preferred options. Fingers crossed that he also doesn't get sick, but best to be prepared. 

What about you? Any wins to share?

Healthy eating

 I've been really working on healthy eating, because I know it has such an impact on my energy, not to mention weight & overall health. It's not easy some days, and grabbing easy snacks can be tempting. We stocked up on fast & healthy options over the weekend, and that's definitely helping.

What I'm eating lately:

• Sourdough toast with natural peanut butter + a banana
• A salad (bagged mix) with a sprinkle of feta cheese + 2 diced boiled eggs 
• Avocado toast. I like to mash my avocado with some lime juice, spread over sourdough bread & top with a little feta + tomatoes
• Lots of fruit as a snack: cherries, strawberries, & melon. We tend to have a lot of cut fruit ready & available for a grab & go option
• Sourdough toast (it's a theme, I love sourdough bread) + fresh mozzarella & tomatoes, sprinkled with salt & pepper
• Protein bars. Barebells are most certainly not the cheapest option, but they taste like an actual treat. If you ever find these on sale, they are worth it (IMO). Trader Joes sells them.
• Dinner leftovers

I need to make more hummus, because that is delicious to add as an option with veggies, or on a salad.

And, we are also enjoying all of the produce from our garden (a small sample), but the very clear winners are the tomatoes. Tomatoes on everything!

I warned M that those jalapenos are *spicy*, but he didn't believe me & cut up too much for his salad. He had some regrets. ;-) 

What are your easy grab & go meal options? Bonus points for healthy + plenty of protein! 

Fitness Monday

 The week went about how I expected, with fewer planned workouts & much more impromptu, "fit in what I can, when I can" things. I did manage to go to Orange Theory 3x, thanks to the 4th of July holiday. 

Weight: same as last week

Calories: 1,830/day, which is WAY over my target of 1,500

Steps: 12,446. A lot of intentionality went into this, between meetings, etc. 

Workouts:

• 2 workout classes (combo of running, rowing & strength training)
• 1 -45 minute strength training only class
• 3 elliptical workouts
• A few short walks

Overall nutrition: I did much more "grab & go" food than usual, as I was quite busy with meetings, and didn't do a great job of tracking my calories until the end of the day, which is clearly reflected in my calories. We also had margaritas on the 4th of July, which I love, but pack quite the calorie punch. And finally, we had mini ice cream cones (Hold the Cone - Trader Joes) in the house, which we almost always have on hand & I successfully resist. This week, not so much. 

Goals for the week:

• 3 no s days
• Calories below 1500
• 4 Orange Theory workouts
• Lose 1 lb

What about you? How are you doing with your health & fitness goals?