Frugal Friday

It's definitely not going to be a frugal weekend, but here are a few things we've been doing! 

Saving on things we buy

• Booked our hotel in Greece to take advantage of a credit card offer. I received: a $250 statement credit & a few perks as well. A $100 hotel dining credit, as well as breakfast for two for our stay. I should be also receiving a $100 cash back statement from the credit card, so I will keep my eye on that. I chose a hotel that was also associated with Hyatt, where I have status, so we can get our third meal for free as well. 

Earning money

• Sold a set of Air Tags & made $62. 
• My insurance let me know that I was eligible for an incentive for a wellness visit/yearly check up. Sam & I have both had a yearly check up, so I filled that out & had no idea how much we would get. I received $75x2, which I will definitely take! 

Avoiding spending

• Met an acquaintance at Starbucks (more on that below) & used a Starbucks gift card to pay for my tea.
• We get Apple TV through our credit card, so we cancelled Netflix. 

Eating what we have

• We made a delicious sheet pan dinner, and ate that for two nights. 
• M made rice on Sunday, so I turned that into an opportunity to defrost two dishes that needed rice to round them out - the beef/tomato/garbanzo bean dish & chicken curry. This moved things out of our freezer, and saved us time on a busy week.

For others

• A friend of a friend has a daughter who was just diagnosed with lupus. She introduced us & asked if I would be willing to talk about what my experience has been like. Her daughter is much younger (12), but shared all of the information, and hope it helps as they navigate this. 

What about you? Any wins to share?

It's Wednesday

 Which means, I only have 1.5 days left until I'm on vacation! Woohoo. I'm very excited about seeing my friends & seeing how the group mingles. Luckily, it's a fabulous group of women who I adore. Two of them are hikers, so I can also imagine future hiking trips together. 

My sister works wayyyyy to much, so it's great for her to take a "forced" break from work. And, it's almost my BFFs 50th birthday, so this will be an advanced celebration for both of us. Plus, Alanis! Can't wait. I'm not much of a concert person, but think it will be fabulous. Let's hope I can stay awake long enough. I'm an early bird. ;-) 

I also expect that the Halloween costumes in Las Vegas will be...quite hilarious people watching.

What I need to do today:

• All of the meetings
• Work on team strategy stuff
• Catch up on a project
• Finalize packing
• Check in for flight
• Sort dinner
• Find 2 more items to give away
• Attend treadmill class (it's my 5th hard workout in a row, so that will be tricky!)
• Work in the yard for 15 minutes at lunch (the sunshine is a game changer mid-day)
• Laundry for Sam before I leave. Yes, he knows how to do his own laundry, but our washer is intermittently leaking, and I'd just prefer to monitor it & deal with it before we leave.
• Pick up the house

What are you up to today? Anything fun? 

Bucket list for the upcoming decade?

I hope I won't need an entire decade, but turning 50 has got me thinking about what I want to check off of my bucket list. I have a BUNCH of travel destinations & a few other things in mind. Mostly, I feel so incredibly grateful for everything in my life, and I want to keep pushing myself, trying new things, helping other people & just experiencing life. 

This is not at all complete, as I'm actively soliciting input, so please share what's on your bucket list! And, in no particular order.

1. Take an art class
2. Improve at Spanish
3. Another family trip to see M's mom (and, sister, cousins, etc.)
4. Another trip to Hawaii with my parents
5. Make an anonymous & very meaningful donation to someone in my community who needs it. (I have nothing in mind for this, but something in this general arena of giving. May ask a friend who is very connected in the community for suggestions.)
6. Get to know our neighbors more.
1. Invite our elderly neighbor for dinner
2. Make plans with our neighbors behind us who have a son at Boulder as well
3. Go for a walk or hike with our neighbor across the way
4. Learn the name of the neighbors & I occasionally chat with. (Embarrassing, but true!)
7. Travel bucket list:
1. Hiking trip to New Zealand
2. Italy with M
3. Greece girls trip
4. Take M to Japan
5. Hike the Camino de Santiago
6. Iceland
7. Patagonia
8. Maldives
9. 10+ national parks
10. Spain/Portugal
11. Banff/Lake Louise
12. Alaska
13. Ireland
14. Scotland
15. Lots of additional hiking trips 
8. Get comfortable with entertaining
9. Create a scholarship at the high school the boys attended
10. Figure out my "next act", after my current job
11. Master a complex cooking technique or at least 5 difficult recipes
12. Create at least 5 meaningful surprises for other people
13. Volunteer at a local school
14. Learn a new hobby with M
15. Offer to have a networking chat with 5 new grads

Hit me with ideas! Very interested in hearing from you on what you would put on a bucket list, or wish you had done at a different time in your life. 

Fitness Monday

Going through menopause & trying to lose weight is...daunting, shall we say. I'm certainly not a perfect eater, with a perfect workout routine, but I do put in a lot of effort & see minimal results on the weight side. It's easy to get frustrated, but I'm reminding myself that many women gain weight during menopause. I'm not only trying to avoid that, I'm working to lose weight during a time that my body is going through a lot of other changes, in addition to lifestyle changes (new job).  

Weight: Holding steady week on week, but up 4.3 lbs since my low of the year (which was in May). 

Calories: average of 1,695/day, as I had two splurges for our anniversary + an unexpected dinner out on Friday. I did have 3 No S days, which was a nice trend. 

Steps: I didn't do any long hikes/walks this week, which was a bit unusual & led to a lower daily step average - 10,943. This is also a good reminder to see where I am for 2025, and ensure I'm on track for my annual goal. 

Workouts:

• 4 workout classes (mix of cardio + strength)
• 3 walks
• 1 40 minute elliptical workout

Goals for the week: It's going to be a high calorie weekend Thursday-Sunday, so my goal is to really keep things in check the rest of the week, and ideally get 3 No S days, with lowered calories, to balance things out. 

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

Menu Plan Sunday

 It's a partial menu plan around here, as we are out of town for a very fun long weekend! My BFF has her 50th birthday in November, so we are meeting up in Las Vegas with my sister, and a few other friends & going to a concert & getting up to general shenanigans.

• Friday - grilled burgers (from the freezer)
• Saturday - grilled chicken & rice
• Sunday - fall sheet pan dinner (new to us) - update, we made this last night & loved it. Highly recommend! We subbed butternut squash in for the sweet potatoes. Delicious & super easy. 
• Monday - leftover rice + chicken curry from the freezer
• Tuesday - grilled chicken salads
• Wednesday - I want to try & recreate this roasted veggie salad we had recently. We shall see how I do. We will top it with some sort of protein & I'll probably go off of this recipe. 
• Thursday - We are eating at a seafood restaurant
• Friday - my favorite steak house!

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

Saturday Happenings

M & I ended up going out to dinner last night, and had a lovely evening walking around. The weather was perfect fall - crisp & cool, with lots of changing leaves.

My back was bothering me so much that I ended up taking an OTC medicine I got in Canada (it's for muscle & back pain). I use these very sparingly, but my back pain was reduced greatly. I also iced my back & added heat yesterday, and I do feel a lot better today. Sometimes it's about knocking down the inflammation & irritation, and allowing things to go back to (mostly) normal. At some point, I need to probably get another MRI & see if the bulging disc/nerve issue has gotten worse, or if this was just a short term thing. I like to be optimistic, but can't imagine it's getting any better.

Nick is hanging out with my BFF + her kids at Rocky Mountain National Park this weekend. I feel so lucky that we have (friends like) family there to spend time with him. He also loves hiking, rock climbing, etc, so it's a perfect opportunity for him & the friend he brought. I hope he brought enough warm clothes!

As for today, here's what I have going on:

• Workout class
• Packing list for our trip next weekend
• Menu planning
• Shopping list
• Stop by the store
• Make dinner
• Do some additional decluttering (inspired by Jackie!)
• Continue to clean up the hall closets
• Dead head some plants

What about you? What's on the agenda for today? 

Frugal Friday

 A few frugal wins this week. 

Saving on things we buy

• Noticed that iBotta had a $.10 reward for any grocery receipt, so got that uploaded. Also uploaded the receipt to Fetch. 

Earning money

• Sold a few things on eBay: luggage tags + an old art print. Made about $25 between the two.
• The Frugal Girl reminded me that I had a bunch of books (Sam's lit books from school) to list on eBay & got those posted. Sold 2 in 24 hours, so that was a nice win. Junk out, money in. Made about $20 between the two.
• Gave away a Hyatt free night award to a friend who could use it before it expired, and he thanked me with a $100 gift card.  
• On a related note, had another expiring Hyatt "Guest of Honor" award, and traded that with another friend for ~$100 of Marriott points. While I don't have a use for the points at the moment, they don't expire, unlike the Hyatt award I had. We will definitely use them at some point. 
• Finally had enough Swagbucks to cash out for a $25 Amazon gift card. 

Avoiding spending

• I had a crazy day, and planned my lunch in advance, defrosting soup & stashing my lunch in the fridge. When I went to open the container to heat it, it refused to budge. It was a glass container with the four closure "snap locks" & the vacuum seal was so strong it couldn't be opened. Anyway, I wrestled with that stupid container for the five minutes I had to heat & eat my lunch. I thought about ordering delivery & eating it between my next round of calls, but instead made a very haphazard lunch out of a protein bar I discovered in the back of the pantry (Sam must have missed it -because they are his favorites ;-)) & an overripe banana. M later was able to open the container with a lot of elbow grease & a knife, and Sam had the soup for dinner after work. 

Eating what we have

• We bought a rotisserie chicken at Costco, and used that for two dinners, plus froze half of the rest of the chicken. I then made a large double batch of chicken broth. I've already used one container in the beef & tomato dish we served over rice on Sunday.
• Speaking of that dish, we made a double batch, as we had Sam & his GF at dinner. I also only had one can of diced tomatoes, so subbed in tomato paste + water & some fresh tomatoes, to make up for the gap. 
• Made plenty of leftovers for the week, including this easy Southwest Chicken Skillet

For others

• A friend is leading a project to collect new shoes for kids & teens that are unhoused, so I picked up some on Amazon from her wish list, which felt nice.

What about you? Any wins to share? 

Thursday Happenings

It's been a reasonably productive week. My manager is out, which means I have fewer 6 am meetings, and who can say no to that? ;-) 

I handed off a huge project last Friday, so unblocking that has been such a relief. 

I've gotten a lot done personally, which has felt good.

• Listed a bunch of stuff on eBay
• Organized my shoes & really cleaned up closet
• Went through my 3 tiered tray & found a bunch of papers to shred & recycle
• Gave away 5 notebooks that I found in my tray. I prefer a spiral notebook for list making & note taking, so I'd rather just give away the ones I won't use.
• Gave away Nick's high school graduation party decorations (national park/camping themed)
• Cleaned out the fridge
• Planning our budget for 2026
• Reviewing our 2025 spending & thinking through the "least valuable" spending. Of course, not things out of our control, but areas where we can make adjustments if we are not getting the value we want out of the money we are spending. 

Today should be pretty similar. I have six meetings, and wrap by five, so I need to get in a workout at lunch. 

What about you? What have you been up to lately? 

Thinking ahead to the 2026 budget

 It's that time of year where we once again start looking at our budget from the current year, comparing it to our spend, determining which categories might need to be adjusted up or down, and evaluate our priorities. 

In terms of our major budget items, we have:

Boys:

• We will again have two kids in college, although Sam's college is costing us a lot less next year, and he is working enough to offset much of his expenses. Nick's college will remain very expensive until he graduates, so that expense continues. 
• The set up costs of moving kids is expensive, and we need to factor that in. We will thrift, buy used, etc but still comes with start up costs depending on the situation. 
• Nick is beginning to take more advanced math & science, so we've ear marked money for a tutor, in the event he needs one. So far, so good there.

Taxes:

• We will again owe a lot for M's severance, as the payout is not adjusted to correctly reflect our tax bracket. That money is set aside.
• Otherwise, our property & other income tax should largely remain stable.

Charity/Giving/Donations:

• We will continue our standard monthly donations, and will add in another charity that buys shoes for teens & kids in shelters. 
• We would like to give my nephew additional money for college, as he will be in his senior year next year. 

Travel:

• 2026 promises to be a pricey travel year. 
• We've got our combined 20th anniversary/50th birthday trip to New Zealand, which will definitely be expensive. The majority of the cost is included in 2025, however.
• I'm also going to Greece with my sister + BFF for a girls trip/50th combined celebration (apparently, it's a year long thing ;-)), and other than flights, we haven't paid for lodging yet & most of the expenses for this will hit in 2026.
• We are taking the boys + friends skiing at the end of December, and those costs may land in 2026 as well.
• Getting Nick to/from college is not cheap, and we've been to Boulder a few times & I expect that to continue next year.
• We are considering renting a house on the Oregon coast for a family vacation in July, & inviting my sister, nephews, parents, etc. 
• All of that to say, if anything, travel will go up in 2026. We will continue to offset the spending as much as possible by using credits, rewards, perks, etc, but there are still plenty of costs involved. 

That's where I'm at so far on the budget, although there are plenty of other categories that require a closer look with inflation. What about you? What changes are you planning for the year ahead? 

Fitness Monday

 This is a bit of a recap of how the month is going so far, since it's my first Fitness Monday for October. I was a little under the weather for a few days last week, and my work schedule was pretty crazy for another few days, which both impacted the intensity & volume of workouts.

Weight: remains the same, which is not great, as I'm not making progress on dropping the 3 pounds I've gained since I started this job

Calories: this is an estimate, as a few days I didn't accurately track, but I'd say around 1750 is the best average. 

Steps: 12,218 average calories per day

Workouts:

• Two 7 mile hikes
• I ran a 10k last weekend
• I've done 6 of my mixed cardio & strength workout classes
• Two strength training classes
• One elliptical workout
• 4 days with walks around ~3 miles or so

Goals for the rest of the month:

• I want to come as close as possible to my goal of 15 strength workouts. I'm currently at 8. 
• I also want to have 7 no S days
• And, get the calories dropped down to 1500/day, knowing the end of the month will have some splurges

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

Menu Plan Sunday

It's been a bit of a whirlwind, finishing up a big work project, but I'm thrilled it's done! Here's what's on the menu for the week ahead. 

• Friday - an easy dinner of gyozas, wings & salad
• Saturday - snacky leftovers, after our anniversary lunch out
• Sunday - beef & tomato rice bowl
• Monday - Southwest Chicken skillet
• Tuesday - leftover beef & tomato rice bowl
• Wednesday - leftover Southwest Chicken skillet
• Thursday - chicken curry (freezer) & rice (so much rice this week, apparently!)
• Friday - TBD, or leftovers

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

Saturday Happenings

M & I were supposed to be in Hawaii, celebrating our 20th anniversary for the next week or so. However, we were both starting new jobs (M starts his new full time job on Monday, after consulting for a few months), so we made a good bet, but it was still a little sad to see those flight reminders pop up on our calendar. 

We have plenty of fun things ahead, and decided to make our trip to New Zealand a combined 50th birthday/20th anniversary trip, so lots of opportunities to celebrate just the same. 

This weekend is our mini anniversary celebration, and we are getting a couples massage this morning (my surprise to M) at a lovely spa near us. Then we are heading to lunch out at a place we've been wanting to try. We may or may not go to dinner on our actual anniversary mid-week. M may actually have a work event that evening. 😂

Plans for today:

• Make a menu plan
• Early workout class
• Couples massage
• Lunch together
• Return a few things at the mall (all of the items I ordered to try on have come in, and those I'm not keeping are ready to be returned)
• Laundry
• Pick up the house
• Give away more on Buy Nothing
• List books on eBay

Anything that doesn't get done today can roll over to tomorrow. I handed off my big work project yesterday & feel so relieved to get that checked off. Still plenty of work to do, but removing that project from my plate feels absolutely fabulous. 

What about you? What are you up to today? 

Frugal Friday

 Not too much to report this week, but here goes. 

Saving on things we buy

• I adjusted our Christmas flights to leave a bit later due to work schedules, and received a $25 refund per person. So, $100 off the total price. 
• I bought my parents flights on Southwest a while ago, and had to change the flights. They each received credits. They do not like to fly Southwest & wanted to offer the credits to me. I was easily able to transfer my mom's credit ($45), but my dad's $120 credit is somehow impossible to transfer. Maybe I will figure it out next time we're together (holidays). 
• I bought wrapping supplies for the gifts I picked up for our 20th anniversary (a cool canvas photo collage, a hiking backpack & a bladder for our New Zealand trip) & used my $10 CVS monthly credit. I also saved a $3 off a $12 purchase coupon to my account. The out of pocket cost was $2.15, but I also earned a $3 reward for a future transaction, so it was a bit of a money maker for next time. 

Earning money

• Made a whopping $8 selling something on eBay. About once a month we receive an Amazon package for something we didn't order (made out to my husband, at our address). It's some sort of scam involving false user reviews. We've reported it to Amazon numerous times, but they don't want the items back. I have them listed on eBay and have sold a few along the way. 

Avoiding spending

• When I was out of town last weekend, Sam was able to drop me off for my flight, and M picked me up, avoiding needing to book a transit option. 

Eating what we have

• It's been chilly & rainy here, so the soups I made a week or so ago are coming in quite handy for lunches. 
• I also pulled some meatballs out of the freezer, and made an impromptu spaghetti & meatballs dish, when our dinner plans fell through. I didn't feel like doing a tomato sauce, so I did Nick's preferred version, which is pasta with olive oil & parmesan, meatballs on top, and then diced tomatoes, more parmesan & salt & pepper. Easy & quick. 

For others

• As I always do when we are together, I help my parents with tech troubleshooting. ;-) Got a bunch of stuff sorted for them. 

What about you? Any wins to share?