How did I do with my 2017 goals?

It's been a crazy year! As you can see, we had a few huge wins, and then there were other areas (cough: weight loss) that took a back seat to my other priorities.

1) Financial - Figure out our housing situation, and get it all resolved (i.e. moved, job changes as needed) before school starts. - Bought a house, moved, & sold our other house!

• Decide what to do with our Seattle house. Contingent upon location.  - SOLD!
• Move! - DONE!
• Build/follow a 2017 "interim budget" (until I leave my job) & a 2017 "post-job budget", after. - Not applicable, given I stayed.
• Inventory & track our various stockpiles, so we reduce waste & minimize what we need to move. - Done, and greatly reduced what we needed to move. 
• Every month, come up with a new way to reduce what we need on an ongoing basis. - I did okay on this one. Bought reusable ziplocks, tried to reduce driving errands, etc. We still have more work we can do here. 

2) Family - Spend more time together as a family! - We mostly accomplished this, but had weeks that were better than others. The date night thing didn't happen consistently, but M & I had two vacations together, so I'll consider that a huge win instead.

• Do a minimum of one fun activity/month with the kids. This can be family puzzle night, cooking dinner together, board games, going out somewhere, etc. - we do a better job with this in the winter, when it's darker outside. 
• Be more present with the kids & M - play games, minimize computer time, exercise together, etc. - We did pretty well. 
• Have two dates with M per month (one lunch, one evening)  - nope, but we did have two vacations, which more than equals out!

3) Fitness/health - Lose 20 pounds, bringing my weight to 133. This may sound familiar, as it's also a carryover goal from last year! - Major fail on the weight side. 2018 is going to need an entirely different plan. I'm actually running 2 pounds over my weight from last year. Sigh. 

• Make running a consistent part of my life. Build & follow a training plan. - No. 
• Eat five servings of fruit & vegetables (combined) per day - averaged closer to 3, which is a fail. 
• Complete 10,000 minutes of cardio - I'm currently at 10,160 for the year, and plan to get in a walk today. 
• Complete 50 strength workouts. - finished with 86. Crushed this earlier in the year, and then got off track. Had I stuck with that focus on HIIT workouts, I think I would have sorted most of my overall weight loss.
• Complete 50 stretching workouts. Make yoga a consistent part of my life. - finished with 36, so still need to work on this. 

4) Work/career - Improve my work life balance. - I've done an okay job with this. But, international travel just really eliminates any balance the week of, plus the next 5 or so days for me. That's a lot of time out of my life. 

• Keep better perspective at work/reduce stress (until I leave) - did okay. Focused on working from home on Fridays, and trying to reduce my hours. 
• Determine an end date for my job. - Yes, but the date got shifted to 2018.
• Take time off from my job. - Nope. Delayed as we bought a house.

5) Personal/creative - Spend more time on myself/creative pursuits. - I've done okay with this one as well. No real new skill, but I did bake more, spend time with friends (hiking), & volunteered throughout the last school year. However, technology has replaced my old volunteer job ;-), so I need to find something new in 2018. 

• Learn a new skill. I'm thinking of learning a new language, but would be fine with anything: sewing, knitting, expanding my baking, etc.- I'd like to make yogurt!
• Make time for my friends. Do something social at least once per month. - I love this goal, and want to continue it in 2018. 
• Volunteer a minimum of 1x/month.

All in all, work & the move/house stuff dominated 2017, so it shouldn't be a big surprise that I did "okay" on the other goals. I'm hoping that 2018 will bring more house stability, enabling me to focus more on my health & solve my work situation.

I love setting goals, measuring progress, & this time of year in general! I had a bunch of posts planned, but have bronchitis & haven't been feeling great. Here's hoping 2018 brings all of us the time & ability to focus on achieving our most ambitious goals!

A few pictures from one of my favorite places

Sam & I have had a terrible cold/bronchitis for about a week now. It was really bad on Christmas, & I spent a few hours napping in bed. Not exactly the way I'd want to spend the holidays, but so grateful to have a wonderful family that jumps in & helps out with the kids.

Other than being sick, it's been a wonderful holiday. Relaxing, no family drama, and time together. We were feeling well enough to take the kids to fly kites on the beach yesterday.

The Oregon coast is a magical place.

Before the kite flying, we went to town to get groceries & stock up for the week. We also bought Sam a new pair of shoes at the Nike outlet. We ended up with 3 pair of shoes for $60, so feeling good that everyone now has shoes that fit properly.

Favorite Christmas gift this year . . . the pogo stick received by Nick. He's obsessed. :-)

And, menu for the week:

• Monday (12/25) - we had appetizers, soup, salad, etc
• Tuesday (12/26) - used leftover shrimp for a shrimp pasta dish
• Wednesday (12/27) - kebabs (freezer) + roasted potatoes
• Thursday (12/28) - my parents will be here. We'll use leftover charcuterie meat & cheese for a homemade risotto + salad
• Friday (12/29) - we will have a big crowd, so M will make homemade chicken strips, & stuff them in a bread. You then thinly slice & serve with salad + appetizers. 
• Saturday - (12/30) - leftovers
• Sunday (12/31) - New Year's Eve - we'll be making steak & potatoes. Serving with champagne. :-) 
• Monday (1/1) -  heading home. We'll eat something out of the freezer.

Wishing you all a healthy, peaceful, & relaxing new year! 

Frugal Friday + Bonus Plans

Another week is almost done! We leave tomorrow for the holidays, & while I'm on call four of the days, I'm hopeful nothing will crop up at work. *fingers crossed*

Here are a few frugal things for the week

• Bought a $20 Uber gift card for $9.50 using a promo offer from Uber + a Raise discount. Also logged through eBates, so hoping for a small additional discount. We'll use our Uber credit for trips to & from the airport this holiday.
• Called Alaska about a 2+ hour flight change for a flight I'm taking in March. Tried to get a flight that better matched my original itinerary, but nothing was available. Ended up with a $75 credit for a future flight for a 5 minute phone call. Their customer service is top notch! Even better, after rejigging a few plans, I think the flight change will actually be even better than my original flight.
• Made all dinners at home
• Maximized our child care options this week, while the kids were off of school. M took a day off, I took a day off, we did one day of camp, etc. 
• On M's day with the kids, he took them to the science museum in San Francisco. We used a company discount, so he was able to get in for free, and the kids tickers were 10% off. 

It's also that time of the year where I get my annual bonus, & make a plan for the total (paid out in January). This year will be a bit boring, given my upcoming change in employment, but here's what I'm thinking:

• Max out my 401K - $18,500
• Donate - $7,500. This is in addition to our standard monthly charitable deductions. We have a few special projects in mind. 
• Travel - $7,000 for the year
• The rest - save for our 2018 yearly expenses

And, that's it! Looking forward to wrapping up work & getting in some family time. What about you? any frugal wins for the week? 

2018 Goals

As I do every year, I'm setting a variety of goals that I'll reflect on & tackle over the course of the year. And, the "Big Goals" for 2018 are called out in appropriately bigger font. :-)

I like the five buckets I use, as they keep me reasonably in balance. As with everything in life, there are seasons where I spend more time on what bucket vs the other.

1) Financial:

• Build/follow a 2018 "interim budget" (until I leave my job) & a 2018 "post-job budget", after.
• Save another $125K before I quit
• Every month, come up with a new way to reduce what we need/spend on an ongoing basis.
• Model out a 3, 5 & 10 year financial plan

2) Family - Spend more time together as a family!

• Do a minimum of one fun activity/month with the kids. This can be family puzzle night, cooking dinner together, board games, going out somewhere, etc. 
• Be more present with the kids & M - play games, minimize computer time, exercise together, etc. 
• Have two dates with M per month (one lunch, one evening) 

3) Fitness/health - Lose 20 pounds, bringing my weight to 135. 

• Make running a consistent part of my life. Build & follow a training plan, & run a half marathon.
• Eat five servings of fruit & vegetables (combined) per day
• Get back to more actively tracking my calories, at least until I start to see a consistent weight drop
• Complete 10,000 minutes of cardio
• Complete 100 strength workouts.
• Complete 75 stretching workouts. Make yoga a consistent part of my life. 

4) Work/career - Improve my work life balance.

• Keep better perspective at work/reduce stress (until I leave)
• Determine an end date for my job. Tentatively scheduled for end of June. And then, quit my job. Really. Do. This. 

5) Personal/creative - Spend more time on myself/creative pursuits.

• Learn how to cut my own hair
• Learn how to make yogurt
• Make time for my friends. Do something social at least once per month.
• Volunteer a minimum of 1x/month.
• Complete a Dream Bio (stolen from Frugalwoods)

That's it for me. I'm SUPER excited for 2018. It's going to be a great year. I'm going to carve out time for my Dream Bio in early January, to set the stage for the year ahead. What about you? What are your goals for 2018? 

Gift card inventory

I try to take stock of my gift cards every quarter or so, to ensure we're making the most of our assets. Most of the gift cards were purchased as special promotional items, but a few were acquired as gifts. Here's what we have, going into 2018. As a result, I'll lower our budgets accordingly to account for these prepaid assets.

Dining out: (especially useful when I'm traveling, & M is on his own with the kids)

• Sweet Tomatoes - $251 in gift cards
• Sweet Tomatoes - 6 meal passes, valued around $60
• Subway - $25
• Starbucks - $70

Grocery stores:

• Safeway - $15
• Lucky - $30

Clothing:

• Gap - $110
• Nike - $50 (will be using in a week or so to buy Sam a new pair of shoes at the Nike outlet. He has outgrown his shoes, & has holes in them). 

Personal:

• Spa near my house - $500 
• Another spa - $15

Entertainment:

• Two movie passes - valued at $20
• AMC movie gift cards - $30

House:

• Lowe's - $50

Other:

• Visa gift card - $50

Based on starting the year with the above assets, I'll be reducing our 2018 budget as follows:

• Dining out - by $420, so our new monthly amount is $85/month.
• Groceries - by $60, so I could get a round number. Our new monthly amount is $620/month
• Clothing - by $100, bringing us to $900 (for the 4 of us) for the year. This will be TIGHT, with new shoes for the kids. 
• Personal - the majority of the personal budget goes towards the boys/M's haircuts, as I wouldn't spend $500 at a spa. ;-) As such, I left the $500/year budget.
• Entertainment - our budget is $100 for the year, so I'll leave the $50ish of gift cards in there. It will be tight as is. 
• House - reduced by $50. So, yearly amount is $3,950. 

I'm going to leave the Visa gift card as unassigned, but will probably use it for a gift or a donation.

What about you? Do you track your gift cards? What do you currently have on hand, and how do you plan to spend them in 2018? Do you review ahead of your 2018 budget setting, and adjust accordingly?

Three Big Goals in 2018

While I'll still be creating a full set of 2018 goals, I'm going to really be focusing on a small set of goals as a top priority for the year. Many of our bigger projects have been solved, including deciding on the following:

• Location - Seattle or San Francisco
• Housing - buy or keep renting
• Rental property - sell or keep 

which leaves us with a few big challenges that need more time and attention. I could spin this & say that I've knocked out a bunch of other goals (factually correct), but I remain disappointed that I couldn't multi task & at least tick off #1 and #3 over the past few years. But. . . what fun would a year be without some very challenging goals that I've tried & failed to accomplish previously?! :-) 

Without further ado, my three big goals in 2018 are:

1. Lose 20 lbs. I'll include details on the "how" of this within my longer list of goals, as it will include smaller action items. But, I've had this one on my to do list, and have made very little progress since I started my current job, with all of the international traveling. 
2. Quit my job. Again, this requires a full plan, with lots of savings, etc. But, I'm ready emotionally & financially. (Fingers crossed that both of those hold up).
3. Run a half marathon. Aside from #1, I enjoyed running so much when I was doing it consistently, and I really miss it in my life. Of course, you don't wake up & run a half marathon, so I'll have a full plan for this one as well.

When I look at these three holistically, it's pretty clear that my job is the big point of interference to both #1 and #3, as well as my overall stress level. It will be interesting how solving #2 will impact the other two. 

What about you? If you had to list just a few (less than a handful of goals) for 2018, what would they be?

Travel Freebies in 2017 - a year in review

Thanks to CheapChick at Living Rich on the Cheap for the inspiration to put this together. I did a better job this year in maximizing my travel rewards, and really staying on top of expiration dates, looking for point multiplying offers, etc. The majority of my freebies are from international business travel. Here's what I've accrued this year:

• Flight price matching via Alaska Airlines - $603.05 in Alaska credits. Details in the post I wrote, here. 
• Redeemed travel points (hotel & air miles) for $905 in gift cards. (Mostly Amazon)
• Earned a free night at the Marriott - worth about $250
• Have a companion fare to use on Alaska Air (this is from our credit card) - worth around $150
• Earned 24,000 Southwest miles by converting hotel points - estimating this to be worth around $300
• I've earned 110,000 Alaska Air miles by converting hotel points - worth around $1000
• Earned two round trip United (domestic) first class upgrades - not sure I will use these. United doesn't fly on our normal domestic travels, and these can't be used for international upgrades.
• And, a $40 visa credit for a recent Marriott stay

All told, this has yielded a total value of $3,248.05 in 2017. (I didn't include Alaska miles earned through standard monthly use of our credit card, or the United upgrades, as I'm not sure if we will use them.) This is obviously well worth my time to track & manage, but will mostly dry up once I stop traveling internationally. For now, I'll maximize it while I have the chance.

I didn't track my other freebies (grocery store or Rite Aid bonuses), and the travel ones are easy to look up via account activity. Maybe I'll track all of them in 2018. What about you? Have you tracked your "freebies" for the year? How are you doing? For us, these travel rewards help us greatly increase our travel budget for the year!

Menu plan + final happenings before Christmas

It's the last weekend before Christmas, and we are pretty much ready! I started my packing (trying to see how many bags we need to bring to Portland), & finished my cardamom bread. Yum! I bought fresh yeast again, and opted for two bigger loaves this year. My glaze wasn't quite as thick/white as I would have liked, but the bread baked up beautifully. For the first time ever, my pickiest eater asked for some. This is huge progress.

M tried out an experimental new recipe last night. We were supposed to be on a date night, but both kids felt sick, and I'd only had a few hours of sleep, so we opted to stay at home, split a nice bottle of wine, and have a family night instead. It was perfect! We worked on a puzzle, looked at Christmas lights, watched a holiday movie with a bowl of popcorn, & had a fabulous dinner. The experimental recipe involved making your own breaded chicken (cut into pieces), then stuffed into a hollowed out baguette, wrapped with mozzarella. Then brush the baguette with butter, garlic & fresh parsley & bake. It was heavenly. You can also serve the remainder of the breaded chicken with marinara dipping sauce. He's trying out a different version tonight with homemade meatballs subbing for the chicken. YUM!

Here's the menu for the week:

• Friday - I made chicken risotto with goat cheese
• Saturday - previously described "chicken stuffed baguette", as I'll now call it
• Sunday - meatball stuffed baguette. . . stromboli, maybe? Probably similar to that, minus a homemade pastry as the base
• Monday - chicken pesto pasta
• Tuesday - leftover chicken baguette
• Wednesday - leftover meatball baguette
• Thursday - Eat any remaining leftovers. If that fails, I'll defrost a chicken pilaf from the freezer
• Friday - clear out the fridge/freezer. If nothing remains, I'll whip up spaghetti & meatballs
• Saturday - we fly to Portland & will be eating out with my family after our flight

And, here's what's on the agenda for today:

1. Wash all of the sheets
2. Clean the house 
3. Laundry
4. Make a packing list
5. Get some exercise. I want to go for a run, but still have a bit of a burn on the top of my foot from my straightener incident. May opt for one of my strength workouts, which can be done without shoes in a pinch
6. Take holiday gift over to neighbor
7. Pick up M's lost coat at other neighbor's house
8. Take the boys & friends out to frozen yogurt. (This is one of their pre-Christmas gifts - they wanted to treat friends to frozen yogurt). The weather is a bit chilly, & we'd originally planned on the movies, but one friend had a conflict. 

Should be a pretty fun & mellow day. I'm also hoping that, maybe, possibly I'll get a chance to read my book. A girl can dream! What about you? What's on the agenda for today? 

December goals

Better late than never! I'm pretty sure this is the latest I've been with monthly goals, but still going for it!

1) Financial - 

• Finalize our 2018 travel plans (2nd half of the year)
• Find one alternative cost cutting option
• Sell another $100 of items on either eBay or my local Facebook swap site. If nothing sells, donate & get rid of the clutter.
• Get our gas bill down to $100 for the month. (Renting a car in Portland over the holidays, so won't be able to use the electric car.)
• Get all of our 2018 budgets in order

2) Family - Spend more time together as a family!

• Have a family game night. 
• Take the boys to see Christmas lights
• Watch a Christmas movie & have popcorn
• More decluttering & organizing 

3) Fitness/health - gain zero pounds in December

• Eat five servings of fruit & vegetables (combined) per day
• Complete 1000 minutes of cardio
• Complete 6 strength workouts.
• Complete 6 stretching workouts

4) Work/career - Improve my work life balance.

• Keep better perspective at work/reduce stress 
• Work from home 2x this month.
• Plan a spa day. I have a gift card from work that I received over a year ago. Find a day I can make this happen, & take the day off, & relax!
• Brainstorm how I would spend my time if I wasn't working. Really think creatively about what this would mean, what the challenges would be, etc.

5) Personal/creative - Spend more time on myself/creative pursuits.

• Try a new recipe using my new crockpot
• Do something social 
• Volunteer a minimum of 1x/month.
• Find one good deed per day. Can be tiny or big.

What about you? How are you doing with your goals for December? 

Frugal Friday

Another long week - almost complete! I'm working from home today, so I'll enjoy the more relaxing day.

Here are some of the frugal things we've been up to:

1. Redeemed miles from my recent business flights for $175 in Amazon gift cards
2. Discovered a hotel promotion before my last trip, and registered for it before I left. Earned a free night to use between now & June. M & I are discussing are options for a little getaway, perhaps. 
3. Charged our electric car exclusively at work (for free)
4. Made dinner every night this week. (I had a work dinner last night, but didn't pay. ;-))
5. Brought home leftover risotto from dinner last night. Good for my waistline not to eat the entire thing, but will also provide lunch today.
6. Passed on taking an Uber to the work dinner, even though I really wanted to avoid traffic & parking. Saved at least $60, but it was a giant PITA on the way there.
7. Sam's soccer bag has been found! (It was lost last weekend - another kid from a different team picked it up by accident). This is a $65 bag that's part of his uniform (name on it, special bag that holds a soccer ball, etc). We do have to drive about 20 minutes to pick it up tomorrow, but so happy we don't have to order another one!

What about you? Any frugal wins this week?

Thanks to the "old me"

for being organized, and prepping freezer meals. My typical schedule is to cook on Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays, and then we eat leftovers during the week. My flight schedule, combined with a holiday party at the neighbors on Saturday meant no cooking two of the three days. As such, I've been tapping my freezer meals to get by.

On Friday, we had a Persian rice, been & beef dish that needed just a salad + yogurt sauce to accompany it. For today, I defrosted a potato soup, and made crescent rolls. Even my son said, "these don't taste like homemade" :-), but they did the trick for a quick & easy meal.

It gets really creative later in the week, but with a combination of freezer meals, and a few "ready to eat" freezer options, we should be able to skate by until Friday.

Now, if only the "old me" would have also worked out more frequently, so I could be entering 2018 15 lbs lighter! :-)

Would love to hear from you. What's your tried & true easiest quick dinner option?

An updated menu plan + errands

I was up *almost* at a normal time this morning, and took the kids to futsal (indoor soccer) practice, & then hit up Costco, Rite Aid & the produce stand. I walked on the track with another mom while the kids were at practice, so I can check off my workout. I would have liked to run, but I have a large burn on my foot. (Hotel room in Seoul had zero counter space, so my hair straightener slipped off the sink & landed on my foot. OUCH!)

I wasn't as capable as I'd hoped with the meal planning this week (I normally cook on Friday, Saturday & Sunday, & then we eat leftovers during the work week). So, some modifications are required:

Friday - 12/8 (back from trip) - I will cobble together a chicken risotto Nope, defrosted a Persian rice & bean dish, and had that instead. 

Saturday - 12/9 - M & I are going to a holiday party at our neighbor's house. I'll make quesadillas for the kids. Yes although the party didn't have dinner, as I'd heard from another neighbor. Should have checked! We went to bed pretty hungry, but probably better for the waistline. 

Sunday - 12/10 - Sam has his end of the season soccer party, so the kids will eat there. I'll make chicken pesto pasta for the adults The boys have opted to do another soccer event this afternoon, so skipping this. I'm thrilled, because it's one less meal out, and at a place I don't really care for. Instead, M is making kebabs & rice, with a yogurt sauce. 

Monday - 12/11 - leftover chicken risotto I'll make chicken pesto pasta, as I didn't make the risotto

Tuesday - 12/12 - Soup (freezer) + rolls - Yes, still the plan

Wednesday - 12/13 - pasta & meatballs - Leftover kebabs & rice

Thursday - 12/14 - I have a work team dinner. M + the boys will have tacos - The boys will have pasta & meatballs -

Friday - 12/15 - Chicken pilaf - still the plan!

That's pretty much it for me. Here's hoping I get some of my energy back. I managed to clean the house yesterday, & catch up on most of the laundry. We're in the home stretch before the end of the year - the boys are out of school after this week!

What about you? What's on your menu this week? Any big holiday activities on the horizon?

I'm back

And, oh so jet lagged. I'm also incredibly happy to be home.

Tokyo:

Seoul:

As you can see, I don't get out much. Just the airport -> hotel -> office -> hotel -> airport. 

I am so very happy to be home! Now I just need to get over the epic jet lag. Always, so much jet lag. My last business trip of 2017 is now complete. Woohoo!

Frugal Friday

It's been the normal crazy week, but there have been some frugal victories. Here's what we have this week:

• Made turkey broth out of leftover Thanksgiving carcass
• Ate turkey leftovers all week (turkey enchiladas + turkey chowder)
• Found a great gift card deal at the grocery store, earning a $20 store gift card. Free groceries! The gift cards were for things we need in the next 6 weeks, so money we would have spent anyway
• Organized my freezer, so I can now see what we have, and not overbuy/waste food
• Sold a bike Sam had outgrown for $50
• Paid to have a dining room chairs re-upholstered vs buying new. Maybe some cost savings, but happy we kept them out of the landfill. They are 20+ years old, and very high quality. Happy to have them back, & they look great.
• Sold two more items on eBay
• Sent for the rebate of a pool pump. Even though we had a functioning pool pump, it was a very old school/non-energy efficient version. We bought a newer one that should pay for itself in a year, through reduced energy costs. Plus, there was a rebate of $100 through our power company ending shortly.
• Ate all meals at home (or, for free at work). Another week of zero dining out!
• Finished my Christmas shopping, and stuck to my budget.

That's it for us. I'm off to Tokyo tomorrow morning, so while I'll be spending no money, I need to make sure the boys have ample quick meal options. What about you? Any frugal wins for the week?

November Goals Check In

It's the home stretch of November, and I'm feeling pretty good about our progress. It's never perfect, but we've definitely accomplished a few things.

1) Financial - 

• Meet with a financial planner - Nope. We have a few more details to work out about our longer term plans before we meet with someone to get input. 
• Finalize our 2018 budget. Really! - Yes! We may need to tweak throughout the year, but we are ready to start with this budget. 
• Finalize our 2018 travel plans (2nd half of the year) - this is dependent on other people (my parents/sister), so I have open questions to them on a few dates. 
• Make progress on list of house projects (i.e. prioritize a couple that are not dependent on other projects, and work on budget & timeline for those) - we've prioritized the biggest projects that we want to immediately tackle (a deck for our vacation house, as the existing deck needs to be replaced & solar). 
• Find one alternative cost cutting option - I was pretty creative in my re-use of things like foil, plastic bags, etc. I'll continue to reduce our consumables as much as possible. 
• Sell another $100 of items on either eBay or my local Facebook swap site. If nothing sells, donate & get rid of the clutter. - I sold $122 worth of stuff between eBay & Craigslist. 
• Finalize our long term financial working doc, and share with M. Take a day off & have a financial review meeting, align, adjust the plan, etc. - Made some progress, but didn't achieve the day to review. 
• Get our gas bill down to $60 for the month. We have one trip that we're unsure if we can make with the electric car (soccer tournament), but other than that, we should be able to stick to just the electric car for the majority of our commuting.  - sadly, no. We refilled all of our tanks due to a variety of one time events. (Our car got rear-ended, had to drive to a shop 30 miles away multiple times, a soccer tournament, etc.) We did use the electric car whenever feasibly possible, so I'd estimate we cut 50% off of what our gas bill would have been. 

2) Family - Spend more time together as a family!

• Plan our Thanksgiving menu, and have the kids help with the planning, shopping, prep & cooking. - Done! It was a success!
• Have a family game night.  - We had a foosball tournament. :-) 
• Finish Christmas shopping & planning - all done!
• More decluttering & organizing in our new house (would like to get the boys closet shelving installed, so they can put away/organize all of their games & toys) - We organized all of the toys & games. We haven't bought the shelving yet, but made the best of the area we had & it looks so much better. 

3) Fitness/health - Lose 2 pounds in November

• Eat five servings of fruit & vegetables (combined) per day - Assuming I get 6 servings today, I'll close out November with 4/day. It's progress, & I'll take it! :-) 
• Complete 1000 minutes of cardio - I hit 775 minutes, which is okay. I'd like to have broken into the 800s, but it didn't happen. 
• Complete 6 strength workouts. - I completed 3 strength workouts. 
• Complete 6 stretching workouts - and, zero stretching workouts. No wonder my back is sore. 
• Register for & complete a Turkey Trot - yes!
• Run 20 miles in November. - I didn't actively track, but I'd put it at around 12 miles. 

4) Work/career - Improve my work life balance.

• Keep better perspective at work/reduce stress  - this is a really hard time of the year for my job. I'm doing "okay". At which I would define "okay" as, better than some years, but hard compared to the rest of the year. 
• Work from home 2x this month. - yes, done!
• Plan a spa day. I have a gift card from work that I received over a year ago. Find a day I can make this happen, & take the day off, & relax! - I have the day picked, & just need to call to book. 
• Brainstorm how I would spend my time if I wasn't working. Really think creatively about what this would mean, what the challenges would be, etc. - haven't made progress on this. 
• Spend no gas on my work commute. Electric car only!  - yes!

5) Personal/creative - Spend more time on myself/creative pursuits.

• Try a new recipe using my new crockpot - I did try a new recipe (three, actually), but no crockpot was involved. 
• Do something social at least once per month. - met a friend for a hike.
• Volunteer a minimum of 1x/month. - I've requested a volunteer opportunity for next month, through the school. 
• Write at least 6 blog posts. (Including one on mileage maximizing strategies, per request :-)).- Yes! I think it was 20 posts. Woohoo!

I think that's it from my side - what about you? How are you doing towards your 2017 goals?

This is what $86 will buy you at Costco

$86.75, to be precise. This is a pretty standard shopping trip for us.

Here's what we bought:

• 5 dozen eggs - $14.49
• Red grapes - $8.49
• Pears - $8.49
• Feta cheese - $7.39
• Sandwich rolls - $6.49 (would love to make these myself. We always make our sandwiches into paninis, and I haven't found a homemade roll that stands up to the grill. Any recommendations?)
• Apples - $6.49
• Plums - $5.99
• Milk - $4.89
• Tortilla chips - $4.59
• Power greens - $4.49
• Cucumber - $3.99 x2
• Pineapple - $2.99
• Honeydew - $2.59
• Bananas - $1.39

What does a standard shop look like for you? The eggs will last us a few weeks, but the rest of the food will be consumed this week. We are starting the shopping week with a pretty full fridge (lots of leftovers), but our produce intake remains pretty constant week over week. Love to hear the details of your weekly shop, so please share. :-) 

It's a bonus Saturday

It definitely feels like a bonus that we're only at the start of the weekend. Woohoo! I have a packed agenda of things I'd like to do today.

1. Menu for this week
2. Menu for the beach house
3. Budget update
4. Wash all sheets
5. Clean boys rooms (with them)
6. Freezer clean out & inventory, so I can make sure I have enough stuff stocked for the rest of the year.
7. Make soup for tomorrow
8. Make meatloaf 
9. Costco
10. We have an appointment for an estimate with a solar company this afternoon
11. Ride bike to produce stand, Rite Aid & grocery store (yeast, powdered sugar)
12. Work out
13. Decorate the house for Christmas
14. Wrap gift for M
15. Laundry
16. Sam & I still need socks for our family's sock exchange (so much fun - highly recommend!), so we will likely go to Target and/or Ross

And, here's my proposed menu for the rest of the year! I always like to plan the last few weeks, as there's so much going on.

Saturday - 11/25 - meatloaf & (leftover) mashed potatoes

Sunday - 11/26 - turkey potato chowder (new recipe) with homemade rolls

Monday - 11/27 - leftover turkey enchiladas

Tuesday - 11/28 - leftover meatloaf

Wednesday - 11/29 - leftover turkey potato chowder

Thursday - 11/30 - eat up any remaining leftovers. If none remain, spaghetti with meatballs

Friday - 12/1 - chicken fajita skillet

Saturday - 12/2 (I fly to Tokyo). M + the boys will have pizza

Sunday - 12/3 (Tokyo) - M + the boys will have leftover chicken fajita skillet

Monday - 12/4 (Tokyo) - M + the boys will have pasta & meatballs

Tuesday - 12/5 (Seoul) - M + the boys will have leftovers

Wednesday - 12/6 (Seoul) - M + the boys will likely go out

Thursday - 12/7 (Seoul) - M + the boys will have grilled chicken & pasta

Friday - 12/8 (back from trip) - I will cobble together a chicken risotto

Saturday - 12/9 - M & I are going to a holiday party at our neighbor's house. I'll make quesadillas for the kids.

Sunday - 12/10 - Sam has his end of the season soccer party, so the kids will eat there. I'll make chicken pesto pasta for the adults

Monday - 12/11 - leftover chicken risotto

Tuesday - 12/12 - Soup (freezer) + rolls

Wednesday - 12/13 - pasta & meatballs

Thursday - 12/14 - I have a work team dinner. M + the boys will have tacos

Friday - 12/15 - Chicken pilaf

Saturday - 12/16 - M & I have our holiday date night. I'll make something kid friendly for the boys. Probably hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls. :-) 

Sunday - 12/17 - M will make kebabs & rice

Monday - 12/18 - Leftover pilaf

Tuesday - 12/19 - Leftover kebabs & rice

Wednesday - 12/20 - Eat any remaining leftovers. If none remain, pesto (freezer) + pasta

Thursday - 12/21 - White bean chili (freezer) + rolls

Friday - 12/22 - Scramble together something from the freezer before we leave. 

Saturday - 12/23 - flying to Portland. We'll be eating out with my family. 

Sunday - 12/24 - Christmas Eve! We are having pizza & pomegranate martinis 

Monday - 12/25 - Christmas with the family. We have a microbrew tasting + appetizers, followed by soup & salad

Tuesday - 12/26 - We will be at our vacation house. I'll inventory the freezer, but we eat easy things while we're there. I'm going with pasta + meatballs for the first night. 

Wednesday - 12/27 - Beach

Thursday - 12/28 - At the beach, and my parents will likely arrive. I'll probably make some sort of risotto

Friday - 12/29 - At the beach. I'm thinking soup + appetizers

Saturday - 12/30 - Beach (we'll have 6 additional house guests)

Sunday - 12/31 - Beach, NYE. I'm thinking we'll have goat cheese crostini + champagne, followed by steak & mashed potatoes. 

Monday - 1/1 - fly back from the beach. We arrive at 5:30 pm, so I'll make sure there is pizza in the freezer for a quick meal. 

What about you? What's on your agenda for today? Is anyone else decorating? And, inspiration for New Year's Eve? What are you thinking of making? 

Frugal Friday

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a lovely day. We started off our day with a Turkey Trot. My 11 year old managed a 21 minute finish. So inspiring! Nick finished in just under 25 minutes, which is also incredible. I was a bit slower. ;-)

After that, we came home, & prepped all of the food. It was my first time making a turkey (breast) & it was delicious. My only fail was the stuffing. The mix was just too stale (should have tossed it!) & ended up wasting the entire batch. I love stuffing, so I was super sad that it didn't turn out.

We dressed up, had martinis (sparkling cider for the kids), made appetizers, and had a lot of laughs. It was very relaxing & fun. Such a lovely time with the family.

As for frugal moves:

• Used a gift card to buy two bras at Target. I only have one of each color, and when I travel & wear them for long days, I need other options. Found my preferred brand/cut in a 2 pack - for $10! Used the gift card to get them for zero out of pocket.
• Made my own cranberry sauce, and will use the leftover cranberries to make M's favorite muffins. The cranberry sauce was amazing!
• Made my own hummus, using lingering stuff around the house. 
• Found a few Black Friday deals on gifts I was already planning to buy. I'm now officially done with my holiday shopping! 
• Used eBates to earn a small amount back on each of my Black Friday purchases.
• Saved the turkey carcass & will make a broth this afternoon
• Will take the boys to a free "play the coaches" session with their soccer club this morning.
• Planning to pick up a few Rite Aid gift cards for things we use anyway. (Uber, which I use for work trips to the airport, & Home Depot). 

What about you? How was your Thanksgiving? Any big frugal wins this week?

2017 Goals Check In

I can't believe we're in the home stretch of 2017! And, wow. A lot has changed since I created our 2017 goals a year or so ago! With just over a month left, I wanted to check in on my progress:

1) Financial - Figure out our housing situation, and get it all resolved (i.e. moved, job changes as needed) before school starts. - Bought a house, moved, & sold our other house!

• Decide what to do with our Seattle house. Contingent upon location.
• Move!
• Build/follow a 2017 "interim budget" (until I leave my job) & a 2017 "post-job budget", after.
• Inventory & track our various stockpiles, so we reduce waste & minimize what we need to move.
• Every month, come up with a new way to reduce what we need on an ongoing basis. Examples I've kicked around: find an alternative to all of the ziplock bags/plastic wraps we use for kid lunches. Put a container in the shower to save water for the yard. Collect rain in buckets. Create a compost bucket for the kitchen, so it's easy to compost food scraps. All of these are meant to be permanent changes, so not focused on one time savings. 

2) Family - Spend more time together as a family! - We mostly accomplished this, but had weeks that were better than others. The date night thing didn't happen consistently, but M & I had two vacations together, so I'll consider that a huge win instead.

• Do a minimum of one fun activity/month with the kids. This can be family puzzle night, cooking dinner together, board games, going out somewhere, etc. 
• Be more present with the kids & M - play games, minimize computer time, exercise together, etc. 
• Have two dates with M per month (one lunch, one evening) 

3) Fitness/health - Lose 20 pounds, bringing my weight to 133. This may sound familiar, as it's also a carryover goal from last year! - Major fail on the weight side. 2018 is going to need an entirely different plan. I'm actually running 2 pounds over my weight from last year. Sigh. 

• Make running a consistent part of my life. Build & follow a training plan.
• Eat five servings of fruit & vegetables (combined) per day
• Complete 10,000 minutes of cardio
• Complete 50 strength workouts.
• Complete 50 stretching workouts. Make yoga a consistent part of my life. 

4) Work/career - Improve my work life balance. - I've done an okay job with this. But, international travel just really eliminates any balance the week of, plus the next 5 or so days for me. That's a lot of time out of my life. 

• Keep better perspective at work/reduce stress (until I leave)
• Determine an end date for my job.
• Take time off from my job.

5) Personal/creative - Spend more time on myself/creative pursuits. - I've done okay with this one as well. No real new skill, but I did bake more, spend time with friends (hiking), & volunteered throughout the last school year. However, technology has replaced my old volunteer job ;-), so I need to find something new in 2018. 

• Learn a new skill. I'm thinking of learning a new language, but would be fine with anything: sewing, knitting, expanding my baking, etc.
• Make time for my friends. Do something social at least once per month.
• Volunteer a minimum of 1x/month.

All in all, work & the move/house stuff dominated 2017, so it shouldn't be a big surprise that I did "okay" on the other goals. I'm hoping that 2018 will bring more house stability, enabling me to focus more on my health & solve my work situation.

I'm working on my 2018 goals now, and like to create a few drafts & then edit them over time. What about you? How have you done on your 2017 goals? Are you already thinking of 2018? 

Evaluating our "personal" spending category for 2017

As we prep for 2018, I review all of our spend for 2017 & look for categories where we're over, under, or right on target. Based on those numbers, I determine whether we need to buckle down in a specific category, or increase it, or whether we can cut it down in 2018.

I'll post about a few of the categories as it gets closer to the end of the year.

For our "personal" category, this is all hair cuts, pedicures, etc. In 2016, we spent $1139, and in 2017, we've spent (to date) $357. Woohoo! Another category where we're making great progress. :-) (There are categories where we blew our spending out of the water, so more to come on that side. The picture isn't so rosy on every category.)

Here's what's happened with our personal category:

• Pretty much nothing for the boys. They all got the same number of cuts.
• I had zero hair cuts in 2017. I really, really want to learn to trim it myself, so I wait. :-)
• I also had my hair colored zero times.
• And, got zero pedicures, minus one that I bid on for the school auction. It was a nice social event with other moms, food, drinks, etc. Other than that, I'm doing it myself. 

It feels really, really good to be able to in source (or skip) most of my personal expenditures. I do still need to figure out a hair cut solution for myself. I'm trying to build up to buying shears, watching videos to learn techniques, and starting off with something very tame with my own hair. Over time, I'd love to add in the boys as well, but I want to start slowly. Goal for 2018! :-) 

What about you? How do you spend your money in this category? Have you learned to in source anything that you previously paid for? When I look back at my spending on pedicures, it was mostly a chance to get pampered & get out of the house with young kids. Now that the boys are older, it's just much easier to make time for myself. 

2017 Small Goal Check In

The end of the year is nigh, so it's time to start checking in on my goals. For 2017, I have a long list of my "main goals", but I also came up with a list of smaller goals that I could more easily accomplish. Here's how I'm doing so far!

• A toiletry challenge! I consider toiletries any of the following: makeup, anything dental related, any product you'd use in the shower and/or to clean your face. I currently have $75 of Rite Aid plenti points, and I'm hoping to make these last for at least six months. Even better if I can make them last for all of 2017 by "rolling" the points. This may be tricky, as rolling your points means generating new points off of purchases made with points. It would take just the right combination of point offers & needs for this to work well. I'll be doing an inventory of our toiletries in the next few weeks, so I can see where we stand & determine what I need to look out for on sale. I've already raided my gym makeup bag when I ran out of eyeliner, because it's the rare day that I work out in the morning before I've showered at home. Using up what I have in various bags (travel, gym) may be my first way to reduce spending.  - I used up my $75 Rite Aid rewards, and have then go on to spend $178 of my $300 budget for the year. That's huge for me! I've definitely cut WAY back on my toiletries spending (spend $335 in 2016, as a comparison.) I'm feeling good about this progress, and rarely stock up anymore. Instead, we've been working through our stockpile of things we already have. 
• Tracking all of our clothing purchases. I did this with our groceries in 2016 & it was both fun (sometimes tedious), but also really helpful when it came to understanding patterns, areas to stock up on, and where to cut back. We have a reduced clothing budget this year, so I'm hoping this helps. - Our clothing & shoe budget for all of us for the year is $1600, and we're at $1648 for the year. So, pretty close to our budget. As context, we spent $1965 in 2016. And, for this year, $384 went to the boys soccer uniform + ski clothes, & $130 went to running shoes for me. Overall, I'm pleased with how we did, and think we can cut our budget slightly further in 2018. 
• Every month, look for one permanent way to cut costs. It's totally fine (and, likely) that these will be small cuts that will add up over time. This may be finding a ziplock alternative for one of our common usages (school lunches), reducing our water needs by building rain storage, etc. - I've done okay with this. I bought ziplock alternatives, we bought solar outdoor lights, we've cut our paper towel usage quite a bit. But, I wasn't as consistent as I would like. I think this was a fun goal, & one i want to repeat. 
• Come up with two date night suggestions that don't involve an expensive meal out. - M & I are planning to do two date nights that don't involve an expensive meal out. 1) we're going to have a spa day with a gift card I received as a gift. 2) We're going to go to a sporting event together. We've also done a good job of ensuring we bring wine for our dinners out (a couple of our local favorite places have no corkage fee), which has helped reduce costs even when we do go out. 
• Maximize my travel hacking. I'm not sure what 2017 will involve for work travel, but there are lots of opportunities to use points & credits for their best value & by keeping track of all of our rewards, it helps to ensure I'm using them well. - I'm super excited about this, as I just posted more details in this post. So far this year, I've earned $603 in flight credits for price matching, a $150 customer care voucher, $730 in gift cards (redeemed from points/miles from work trips) & earned 269K in miles on our preferred airline. I'm going to set another goal in 2018, because I really liked this one & feel like the goal helped me best utilize all of my points. 
• Make $100 selling things on Facebook. - Crushed this! I've made $2264 selling items on my local Facebook swap + eBay. Woohoo! Super happy about this. 

All in all, I'm really happy with my progress on my "mini goals", and will definitely be repeating this exercise in 2018. What about you? did you have any mini goals for the year? How did they go? 

It's Sunday, and the pantry clean out continues

Today was the end of season soccer, so we wrapped up two games, and then I spent the rest of the day getting stuff done. I cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed, and cleaned the bathrooms. Party animal. ;-)

After that, I made yeast rolls & white bean chili & then we went to a pool shop to pick up a replacement part for our pool filter, and then stopped by another grocery store to (finally) find a turkey breast for Thursday. 

I've been making big progress on our pantry clean out as well! Here's the latest:

• An enormous (25 oz) jar of green olives. Side note: what was I thinking? - Done! Made a giant batch of green olive tapenade, with basil from the garden. Kept some for the fridge, and froze the rest. 
• 1/3 or so of a package of chocolate breakfast cereal. This is nothing we would allow the boys for breakfast, but I'm open to using it in something a little more snack like. One of our house guests brought this. - used, in a batch of granola bars!
• The end of a bag of pretzel chips. Used these for these delicious granola bars. 
• Two 1/2 used boxes of lasagna noodles - Used one 1/2 box, so down to the other half
• A 1/2 bag of pine nuts. -  Made more homemade pesto. Down to 1/4 of a bag. Those pine nuts go a really long way!
• Most of a container of almonds - used all of it! In pilaf, plus almond butter. 
• Most of a container of cashews . . . Done! Used to make lots of yummy cashew butter
• A few bits & bobs of trail mix - used, in a batch of granola bars!
• Most of a large bag of sourdough stuffing. - haven't used it up, but planning to in Thanksgiving. 
• The last of a bottle of green chile sauce (from the fridge) - used up in chicken fiesta rice!
• An unopened jar of Nutella - turns out this was expired (& had a funky taste), so unfortunately, it was tossed. I have no idea why M bought this way back in the day, but it will never make it on another grocery list, so I feel like we can avoid this type of waste moving forward. 

I've also been using up other stuff that didn't make it onto the original list:

• Remnants of a bag of trail mix - used in granola bars
• White chocolate chips - used 1/2 in granola bars
• Heath bar chips - haven't used yet
• Walnut oil - used the last of a jar in my pesto recipe
• Another jar of olives. Yikes.
• 2 jars of green enchilada sauce - Used one in a white bean chili tonight. 

Looking forward to a more relaxing week ahead, with no school! What about you? Any big plans for this holiday week?