We're home, and a few frugal wins

We drove from the Oregon coast home yesterday, and made great time. It took around 12 hours of driving time, plus about 30 minutes of stops (gas, lunch, and bathrooms). It was by far our best timing on the trip, and we were home in time to unpack the car & eat dinner at home.

The kids are thrilled to be back, after being gone for three weeks. They can't wait to see friends. As soon as he helped unpack, Nick was on his bike, cruising the neighborhood.

Now that I'm back home for the next few months with only short weekenders in there, I need to get productive on my sabbatical goals! I'll be posting an updated list of sabbatical goals soon.


Here's our planned menu for the week:

• Sunday - Nick will make pizza for the kids, & M & I will have sausages on the grill + salad.
• Monday - leftover burgers
• Tuesday - Leftover sausages + salad
• Wednesday - Tacos (a taco salad for me)
• Thursday - Leftover burgers (if any remain) + hot dogs
• Friday - Carnitas 
• Saturday - TriTip + salad

We had a really crazy day on Friday, with a furniture delivery that went very wrong (a story for another day, but they did quite a bit of damage to our floors & walls). I did manage to get us packed & the house cleaned, the car loaded, so we could take off bright & early on Saturday morning. 

We had a few frugal wins along the way. Here's how we did:

• I packed breakfast for everyone for the car yesterday, out of things we had at the beach house.
• We ate lunch at Costco, while getting gas. Lunch for four was $16. A steal.
• We bought gas 2x at Costco, which is by far the cheapest place.
• I packed all of the groceries & pantry items from the beach, so we have a more streamlined shopping list for today, and reduced waste.
• I also sent my sister & parents with their own bags of food. They will both get a couple of meals out of the leftovers. 
• We used our snacks leftover from the drive to my parents for the drive home. I hid them during our trip, so they didn't get consumed during the vacation.
• I used a Starbucks gift card to buy everyone a cool drink yesterday. During part of the drive, it was 100 degrees. Our car has air conditioning, but it still was warm in parts. The boys loved the iced tea, and it was a refreshing change.
• Before we left, I cleaned the house from top to bottom, and did all of the laundry myself, saving on the cost of cleaners turning over the house. 
• Driving vs flying saved about $2000, when you factor in gas & meals, against the cost of flights & a rental car for such an extended period of time. 

I hope you are having a fabulous Sunday. I'm happy to be home, & have a long list of projects to tackle. I need to go be productive!