November goals

 I'll be back with an October goal recap soon. For now, here are my November goals! 

Financial:

• Achieve savings goal. If we sell a car, that will get added on top of the savings goal.
• Mini freezer clean out:
• Eat 1/2 of the pizza in the freezer
• Use up the cranberries
• Sell the white car
• Sell fitness watch

Family:

• Help Nick with final college application & scholarship essay
• Sort out plans for winter break
• Finalize all travel plans for Sam
• One fun activity with the boys, while Sam is in town for Thanksgiving
• 2 dates with M

Fitness:

• 15 strength workouts
• Follow the No S diet 15 days & track calories daily
• Schedule MRI
• Lose 2 lbs

Personal:

• Complete daily tasks 20 times (meditate, language lesson, journal)
• Get together with friends
• Declutter 25 items
• Network 2x
• Continue exploring jobs. 
• Spend time on volunteer role
• Come up with more structure in my daily routine

What about you? What are you hoping to accomplish in November? 

Costa Rica Trip Cost

 I like to add up the cost of trips, and track them for myself. I also share here, in case it's of interest. 

Photo of the beach at our hotel, for visual interest. 

Expenses for the trip:

• Two business class tickets from San Francisco to Costa Rica - covered using credits from previously cancelled Turkey trip & travel credits. One of the reasons we planned this trip was to use these credits before they expired. 
• Six nights at an all inclusive hotel - free with Hyatt points
• Tips during the trip - $200
• Cash left for my parents to spend on food, etc - $500
• Cost of my parents flights from Portland to San Jose - $60 (the rest was covered with miles)
• Hotel charges (this was a massage for me, and two nicer bottles of wine) - $374
• Airport purchases: local treats for the boys + rum for my dad & a drink for myself - $22.50
• Excursion for two to the rain forest, waterfalls & hot springs - $290
• Cost for parking at the SFO airport during our trip (priced out, and cheaper than Uber) - $126
• Transportation to & from the airport in Costa Rica to our hotel - $134

Total spent = $1706.50. My original estimate was $1260. Transportation was a bit more than expected, and we hadn't factored in tipping, which was a miss. The massage & wine were also unplanned (but enjoyed!)

How do you track your travel planning expenses? 

I'm back

Costa Rica was absolutely fabulous. We had such a great time together, and really enjoyed all of the adventures. 

Photo of a sunset hike we took near our hotel.

We got back late on Friday, and my parents & uncle were staying with us for a few nights. My dad & uncle drove a car to Washington, so left yesterday, with a stop to see Sam at college. My mom will stay with us until Wednesday, as she was looking for a bit of a break from some care giving at home. She's been enjoying the time, hanging out with me, M & Nick. 

In terms of a menu plan, we've been flying by the seat of our pants. M grilled chicken & made rice on Saturday, and then grilled absolutely delicious burgers yesterday. I think we will defrost chicken fajitas to have for dinner tonight, and then have leftover burgers tomorrow. 

Hope you are all doing well!

Frugal Friday

 It's been a relatively quiet week around here, but a few wins to share.

Saving on things we buy

• Ordered a few things Sam needs for college. Debated having it sent to us, and having my dad take it to him (they are visiting), but remembered that anything delivered in Oregon is tax free, so went that route. 

Earning money

• Nothing much happening here. I completed a survey for $50. 

Avoiding spending

• Ate at the lounge on Friday for free, vs buying food at the airport. 
• Used Southwest credits for our flights home for Christmas. I had a combination of gift cards (purchased at a discount at Costco) & a flight credit we had for Nick for something I can't recall at the moment. 

Eating what we have

• I planned two dinners at my sister's house (at her request, she's been really busy), and made sure they had coordinating sides. (Mexican chicken skillet one night, nachos the next). 
• Had Sunday brunch leftovers for brunch on Monday, ahead of our flights.
• Made dinner ahead of a few appointments & picking up my parents, so we didn't have to do takeout. 

For others

• Fed all of the random teens who showed up at my house this week for impromptu study sessions. ;-) 

What about you? Any frugal wins to share at your house?

Menu Plan Tuesday

 I flew back from Portland yesterday, so I'm a little late to the party. Here's what's on the menu at our house.

• Friday - I ate at the airport lounge, and then had a glass of wine when I got to my sister's house
• Saturday - my sister's partner made us Mexican chicken rice skillet, which was delicious.
• Sunday - we celebrated our 10k run with nachos, which I try to only have on special occasions, because they are a true indulgence. These were delicious, with carne asada on top. Yum!
• Monday - I got home from the airport & scrambled a bit to figure out dinner. M grilled salmon & I made a spinach salad to go with it.
• Tuesday - tonight will be grilled chicken over salads
• Wednesday - likely pasta & meatballs, if Nick is going to be home. It's his favorite.
• Thursday - I'm making chicken fajitas, after we pick up my parents at the airport
• Friday - tacos, so we can use up the rest of the chicken fajita fixings

What about you? What's on your menu this week? 

Frugal Friday

Sometimes it feels like my frugal "wins" are drops in the bucket compared to expenses, but I keep on keeping on. Because, what's the point of spending more than you have to, and all of the savings adds up. That's what I keep telling myself, anyway. ;-)  

Saving on things we buy

• Saved $134 by paying upfront for Nick's orthodontia
• Saved $6 on a cash back offer I'd forgotten about (on our credit card) for the pizza we ordered for Nick's VP debate watching party last week. 
• Uploaded grocery receipts to Fetch
• Used CVS rewards to pick up Nick's preferred brand of deodorant, and used an iBotta/CVS offer to save another couple of bucks. 

Earning money

• Sold Sam's old bike, & made $300
• Sold a pair of sunglasses & made ~$90

Avoiding spending

• Arranged for a friend to drive Nick to a far away soccer game (Nick drives him to all of the practices), so we both share on gas costs

Eating what we have

• Picked out first few pomegranates and have had those for a snack in the evening (largely Nick)
• Continued eating basil, peppers & tomatoes from the garden, but the heat has killed everything else. 
• Brought home leftovers from date night, and had that for two lunches (veggie risotto, which was so delicious)
• Made Nick & his friend snacks while they were studying at our house, saving them the cost of eating out or grabbing snacks
• I'm working on eating a huge container of spinach, so I've been trying to incorporate it into all of my meals. Had the last of the veggie risotto over a bed of spinach. I just heated it in the microwave, which helped the spinach soften a bit. It was delicious & just the right amount of spinach to risotto ratio to be healthy while not overwhelming tasting like warm spinach. ;-) 

For others

• This is a busy time for seniors applying to colleges, so I've been spending quite a bit of time helping my volunteer students with their tasks, answering questions & generally providing guidance. 
• Stayed after a soccer game to collect the goals, flags & shade/bench to put away in the shed with another parent. There is no assigned roster of people to help, so unfortunately, one parent does most of the heavy lifting on this. I was able to help & streamline it all, which was great since it was unbearably hot. 

What about you? Any wins to share?

Thursday Happenings

I've had lots of medical appointments over the past few weeks, so that's been keeping me busier than usual. I'm having a lupus flare, and trying to figure out the best way to manage that. It's no fun, I do not recommend. 

That said, I have a bunch of fun things lined up for the upcoming few weeks, including my trip to Portland tomorrow (running, or more likely walking + a little running a 10k with my sister & BFF). I'll also get a chance to see my parents for brunch. My parents are flying here in a week, and then we're heading to Costa Rica. The weather looks pretty terrible for our trip, and we've gone back & forth between going & just enjoying what we can between rain storms, or going somewhere else. I think we've decided to just make the best of Costa Rica. 

The final college application has opened up (this is the complicated international one, that has to be hand mailed in), so Nick & I need to get started on that, as it will take the longest. That will be it! Otherwise, he has scholarship essays to work on, and a few other small tasks, but nothing quite like the bigger application process, which he will have finished. We will both be thrilled once we're done. ;-)

As for today:

• Attend workout class
• Stop by Trader Joes on my way home
• Laundry
• PT exercises
• Check in for tomorrow's flight
• Pack
• Daily chores (language, meditate, journal)
• Work in the yard (I'm especially loving this, as the weather has cooled way off)
• Clean the shower. We have very hard water, so this is my most dreaded chore of all.
• Call with Nick's orthodontist. I don't really understand what it's for, but it's required ahead of kicking off treatment.
• Work on job search stuff for ~1 hour

That's it on my side. Hope all of you in Florida are staying safe & escaped the storm(s) with minimal damage. Thinking of you all. 

Menu Plan Monday

I'll be eating more red meat in the upcoming month or so, as I try get my iron level higher. So, if you see a lot less chicken on the menu, that's why!

• Friday - grilled chicken salads
• Saturday - spaghetti & meatballs + garlic bread
• Sunday - grilled burgers
• Monday - leftover spaghetti & meatballs
• Tuesday - tacos
• Wednesday - leftover burgers
• Thursday - leftover tacos
• Friday - I'm out of town, so the boys are on their own

What about you? What's on your menu this week?

Sunday things

Yesterday was a good day, as I finally got Sam's old bike sold! Woohoo. I find that the bike buyers on FB marketplace are sooooo in to haggling. My approach to all items I list are to price very low & not negotiate. Most people don't bother when you've underpriced, but on bikes... there are still hagglers. ;-) Anyway, got the bike sold yesterday, and I'm feeling happy about that.

I also went to yoga, which was nice & very peaceful. I really like the class. I'm so not flexible, but I suppose maybe that will come with lots of time & practice. Or, maybe I'll forever be not so good at it, but it's still good for my body. Who knows?

M & I went to dinner & tried out a new Greek restaurant in our town. We had a great time, and it was such a lovely location. We chatted about career pivots (me) & bucket list items (both of us). I brought home about 2/3 of my dinner (vegetarian risotto), as we shared a feta/pepper dip appetizer & I had a few bites of M's dinner as well. 

I'm so excited for pomegranate season! We picked our first pomegranate on Friday, and have maybe 15-20 on the tree. We had probably 3-4x that earlier, but the squirrels knocked off the majority of the blossoms. 

I'm off to head to Nick's soccer game. There are maybe 3 left in the season that I will be able to attend, and this will be his last season of club soccer (after 10+ years), so I want to make sure I attend as many matches as possible. 

Finally, hoping it cools down, as I'm so, so ready for a break in the heat. Hope you are all enjoying your Sunday!

Saturday Grocery Shopping

 It's been a while since I've reported what we purchased at the grocery store (I had an entire year there where I tracked every single item grocery purchased & categorized it). That was a useful exercise, but I don't do that these days. I do still track all of our expenses, but just under the bucket of "groceries".  A typical week for us looks like:

• One trip to Costco
• 1-2 trips to Trader Joes (primarily for cucumber for Nick)
• sometimes a trip to the grocery store, if we are out of anything, or need recipe ingredients. 

Our monthly average grocery spend has been right around $800/month. Given we fed two teens for most of this year (and, additional teens most nights of the summer), I'm feeling pretty good about our budget, even though we are over goal of $550/month. I have no idea what I was thinking when I set that budget. Obviously, I wasn't thinking too hard. ;-) 

M went to Costco today, and here's what we bought & the cost:

• Organic bananas - $2.49 (Nick & I both eat these)
• Sparkling water - $10.99+$1.75 redemption deposit (we all have 1 or so a day)
• 2 lbs of organic broccoli - $5.99 (M's salads)
• Organic balsamic - $12.99 (M's salads)
• Olive oil - $29.99 (M's salads, plus regular cooking)
• Organic pears - $8.99 (fruit for me + Nick)
• Sliced cheddar - $10.69 (for cheeseburgers this weekend, and snacking after that)
• Cauliflower - $6.99 (M's salads)
• Organic spinach - $4.59 (for me, as I'm trying to eat a lot more iron)

Total spent = $95.46

How are you doing with your grocery budget for the year? 

Frugal Friday

 Nick needs braces, so once again, it was not a particularly frugal week on the major expenses front, and we are trying to keep the rest of our spending in check. 

Saving on things we buy

• I was really craving a turkey sandwich on sourdough, and was tempted to go out. Instead, I went to the store & picked up ingredients to make the sandwich. The local grocery isn't cheap & nothing was on sale, but it was still less than a sandwich out, and I can make plenty of sandwiches out of the ingredients. 
• Used $40 of rewards for pizza delivery for the debate party we hosted on Tuesday. 

Earning money

• Sold an old tablet on eBay, as well as an alarm clock, and a shirt I bought that I didn't notice was a final sale. 
• Made $2100 selling some old jewelry. Gold is super valuable these days. 

Avoiding spending

• We ate leftover cold pizza at home (and apples) on the day the power was out, vs going out to dinner. 

Eating what we have

• Continuing to eat the lettuce, tomatoes, peppers & herbs from our gardens. And, our pomegranates are almost ripe!
• Used some very old carrots in a crockpot chicken dumplings recipe.
• M finished off the last of a bag of panko shrimp for dinner last Friday, and I ate more of the buffalo chicken style meatballs that no one else seems to like. We served with Trader Joes cauliflower gnocchi. I thought that was very *okay*. It's hard to replicate a regular gnocchi. 
• Made Nick a grilled cheese (using the above bread & cheese) on a night he was just home briefly between events. 
• Made banana bread for the debate party, out of overly ripe bananas. 

For others

• Continuing to mentor my students who are applying to college. 

What about you? Any wins to share? 

Thursday Things

 Oof, last night was not a good night of sleep. It was 100 here yesterday, which is, btw, insane in its own right, and our power went off around 6 pm. I'd just caved & decided to start using the AC, so we could sleep, as I didn't sleep well the night before due to the heat. 

No power means no fans, and we have a large ceiling fan that we run probably 9 months out of the year to keep our bedroom cool. Ooooh, it was so hot in the house. I slept with a wet towel on my chest. The power finally came back on around 2 am, but when I went to turn off all of the lights, a smoke alarm started going off. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from, so I tried to sleep with two pillows over my head. M dealt with it this morning, bless him. 

Today is going to be a very sleepy day! 

On the positive front, I got to hold my friend's baby yesterday at lunch. She is adorable, five months old, and very squishy & smiley. Baby snuggles! On the way back from lunch, I dropped off my old jewelry at a shop that buys gold. This is very old jewelry that I haven't ever worn or don't want in general. It's been on my to do list to get rid of it forever, and it's finally gone. I also got way more money for it than expected, which is a lovely bonus! That money will help to offset Nick's orthodontia care. ;-) 

Nick & I finished the two Cal State applications that opened on 10/1. WOOP! We have just one to go, and it's for a college that hasn't opened their applications yet. We are in really good shape, and can now work on scholarship applications, etc. 

On to today:

• Workout class
• Finally got a doctor's appointment to establish care with a new primary doctor. I've been waiting for months.
• Package & mail an eBay sale
• Drop off a check for the orthodontist. There is a 2% discount by paying in full
• Work on job profile for consulting role
• Laundry
• Clean the fridge
• Daily chores (language lesson, journal, meditate)

What are you up to? Hope the weather is cool & lovely, wherever you all are!

September Goals Recap

September was a great month, with a hiking trip to Moab, dropping Sam off at college & that experience all going really well. There is still time for him to get homesick, of course, but for now, he seems to be doing fantastic, so we are thrilled about that.

Here's how I did with the rest of my goals for September.

Financial:

• Achieve September savings goal - We were about $800 short of our savings goal, although if I add in the October interest, we achieved our goals. Not sure where to count the interest we earn on our CDs/accounts at the beginning of each month. It doesn't really matter, but I want to be sure I'm tracking consistently month on month. For now, I'll count it was a win, and start including those at the end of each month.
• Confirm that M's BA miles were extended - done
• Freezer challenge: get rid of a minimum of six items - crushed this! Used up:
• Chicken Alfredo, chicken fajitas, chicken marsala, honey chicken
• Edamame
• Two chunks of French bread
• A breakfast sandwich
• 6 bananas
• White bean soup
• 2 burger patties
• Panko shrimp
• Get car sold - no, but M got it listed a couple of days ago & has shown it to a few people already
• Update CDs that are renewing - yes, done
• List 5 items on eBay - I listed at least 10, & I made $330 in September

Family:

• Help Nick with college essays/applications & achieve all school deadlines - yes! We got all schools that were open for applications completed in September! We are crushing it.
• Get Sam successfully moved into college & transitioned - yes, and he's doing great
• Adjust menu plan for 3 vs 4 diners - eh, we've been kind of winging it so far. And, is further complicated by Nick's practice schedule. We'll need to experiment a bit. 

Fitness:

• Continue PT - I really didn't do well with my PT this month. As my hip has felt better, and I do many similar exercises at my workout class. I need to remember to focus on the few that I don't get in at my class. 
• 15 strength workouts - I got in 13, with traveling
• Follow the No S diet 15 days & track calories daily - I tracked calories daily, and followed the No S diet 9 times
• Have a successful hiking trip to Moab - done, and it was fabulous!

Personal:

• Complete daily tasks 20 times (meditate, language lesson, journal) - yes, 22 times
• Get together with friends - tons of meet ups this month, plus hiking trip
• Declutter 25 items - got rid of 49 items
• Continue exploring jobs - had a few interviews, applied for additional jobs
• Spend time on volunteer role - I'm mentoring 3 students, and continue to really enjoy it
• Play pickleball 3x - we tried once and the courts were taken, and the rest of the time our schedule didn't work out, it was too hot, or we just plain forgot

What about you? How did you do on your goals for the month? 

October Goals

 I will post my September goal progress soon, but wanted to get my October goals posted. I like the motivation of a new month, even if the months are going by way too quickly!

Financial:

• Achieve new savings goal (~$2500). 
• Get car sold
• Update CD that is renewing
• I don't need a big freezer challenge this month, as I did such a good job last month eating down a lot of what was in there. Instead, I can keep my list pretty targeted.
• Eat 1/2 of the pizza in the freezer
• Use up the cranberries in muffins

Family:

• Help Nick with college essays/applications & achieve all deadlines
• Still working on adjusting menu plan for 3 vs 4 diners
• Have a great trip to Costa Rica

Fitness:

• Work on back & hip exercises
• 15 strength workouts
• Follow the No S diet 15 days & track calories
• Successfully run the 10k with my sister & friend
• See the doctor about lack of energy, overall health
• Lose 2 lbs

Personal:

• Complete daily tasks 20 times (meditate, language lesson, journal)
• Get together with friends
• Network a bit (2x)
• Declutter 25 items
• Continue exploring jobs. Apply for two jobs in a "pivot" field (e.g. not something I've done before)
• Spend time on volunteer role
• Play pickleball 3x

What about you? Do you have any goals for the month? Let us know so we can cheer you on!