Frugal Friday

 Another busy week, which included M's mini birthday getaway, an office day & a ton of prep for a big work event next week. I'll be happy when next week is done. 

Saving on things we buy

• We had a fantastic time at M's mini birthday getaway, and saved a lot by using Hyatt points, and combining with my hotel status (earned through credit card spend), which was really lovely. 
• Used my monthly CVS reward + a $3 off a $10 purchase + a Hallmark coupon to save a bit on a purchase of: cards, travel sunblock, & a toothbrush. 

Earning money

• Sold a set of workout shirts that are too big for M, and made $15.
• Nick collected the money from the soccer tournament he worked at ($160 for all day, so not bad at all) & started training for his summer job. Sam continues to work quite a few hours at his restaurant job & was approached while at work for someone looking for daytime help at a bakery. They said his customer service skills were great, so he's looking into whether he can make that work. 
• I sold a new in package electronic item on eBay (from the woman I know who is cleaning her parents house & just wants everything gone). Made $12 and kept it out of the landfill. 

Avoiding spending

• Last year I successfully took advantage of a 100% cash back offer of a meditation app, through my credit card. I did the same this year, but was never credited the cash. I called once a few days after it was expected to clear, told to be patient. Called 8 weeks later, they were investigating. Called today & got it resolved. They ended up refunding me, but I didn't get the app, as the offer terms didn't work in my particular case. I'm sad not to have the app, but meditate rarely, so not worth $80 out of pocket. 
• Charged my car for free at work, and skipped buying breakfast & lunch by taking advantage of the snack/free options they provide. Breakfast was a yogurt with a sprinkle of granola & a banana. Lunch with string cheese, nuts & apple & a few chocolate covered almonds. 

Eating what we have

• We hosted a big pool party on Sunday for Nick's friends, so we had a lot of leftovers & have been eating through all of that. 
• A neighbor asked if we could use bananas and peaches, as they were going out of town. The peaches were fabulous! 
• Nick has been packing lunches for his summer camp job. He has really changed his eating to be healthy (awesome), and is packing lots of fruit, veggies & protein. 
• I made an easy dinner from Trader Joes ingredients (we've been watching some YouTube videos on this topic that are quite fun). It was a spicy rice bowl using: veggie fried rice, pineapple meatballs, soyaki sauce & a cabbage slaw. It was delicious & of course super easy to pull together, which this week required. I don't know that I would call it super frugal, but it was definitely cheaper than takeout, and provided 3 lunches from leftovers. 

For others:

• Did a couple of mock interviews for college students looking for internships or full time jobs. Getting practice at this is hard, and interviewing is a real skill. I've done hundreds of interviews in my time, so happy to share my knowledge. 

That's it for me. Any wins to share on your side? 

May Goals Recap

 May was a bit of a lull before the chaos of June & July, which was nice. Here's how things went with my goals.

Financial:

• Stay on top of food waste by using up 3 pantry or freezer items. This month, all from the freezer:
• Chicken noodle soup 
• Hamburger buns
• Last of a bag of chicken patties
• Cauliflower rice/rotisserie chicken leftover dish
• Last of a bag of pizza rolls
• Continue to track net new savings for 2026 - yes, and I've now maxed my 401k for the year, so my last few checks should be bigger than before
• Make $100 in side hustle - $243 in May
• Find one expense to optimize - nothing this month
• Finalize work exit plan - yes, and locked in on an exit date

Family:

• Continue to help the boys navigate college & life - helped Nick prep for, interview & successfully get a summer job. Also helped him move out. Sam is continuing with working towards a conservation program, as well as working. 
• Monthly date with M - a dinner out, several hikes & an overnight early birthday celebration
• Visit another national park - we pivoted to a local state park in Carmel
• Continue working on "next big trip" plans with M - we have just started to sketch out details for Iceland!

Fitness:

• Lose 3 lbs - lost 3.7 lbs
• 10 days of meditation, strength & No S - crushed the No S, only 6 strength workouts & no meditations
• Build out a workout template - will get to this when I'm done working
• Track nutrition - yes
• Average 12,000 steps/day - 11,831 - so close!

Personal:

• Declutter 50 items from the house - 12/50
• Get together with friends - a couple of hikes this month
• Try something new - I'm taking an AI for leaders class + went to a spin class at our overnight getaway
• Say yes to adventures - working on 2027 plans & lots of adventures
• Get to know our neighbors - we've been trying to plan something, but dates haven't lined up yet
• Try a new recipe - yes, I tried a new recipe with a variety of Trader Joes items, which turned out really well & will be a nice staple. While not super cheap, it's much less expensive than takeout. 

What about you? How did you do with your goals this month?

One night getaway to Carmel for M's birthday - budget round up

 I like to track our expenses for various trips, be they the expensive (and longer kind), or the quick & less expensive. The Greece summary will be quite the splurge, but as with everything, tracking helps you know what you spent & ensure your spending matches your priorities. 

M's birthday is coming up, but is sandwiched between a work trip (me) & my friends trip to Greece. I still wanted to celebrate him, but he wanted to keep it local. We decided on a very fancy hotel about 90 minutes away in Carmel. 

Hotel cost:

• Free, with Hyatt points earned through our Hyatt credit card. This is a pricey hotel ($1237 without taxes, activity fees, etc), but we paid $0. Even the activity fees are waived when paying with points. We were also upgraded to a larger suite with an outdoor bath tub that was fabulous.  

Transportation:

• We wanted to get to Point Lobos for hiking by 8, which the internet said would give us a good shot at parking inside the park. Unfortunately, we left about 15 minutes late, which meant parking along the road. On the plus side, that meant no parking fee inside Point Lobos, saving $10.
• We drove our electric car & charged at the hotel. Honestly, the charging fee was pretty outlandish, at $21.90. We should have paid more attention, as M can definitely charge for less at his work. Anyway, lesson learned & still cheaper than gas. - $21.90

Activities:

• We hiked at Point Lobos in Carmel ahead of checking in at the hotel, and the views were incredible. Neither of us had ever been there before, and really enjoyed it. (Photo below.) Cost =  $0
• We also took advantage of a free spin class offered through the hotel on Sunday morning. Always nice to try a new free workout. Cost = $0

Food:

• Because I'm a Hyatt Globalist, we get all food charges before 11 am for free. This included a latte for me + an Americano & GF muffin for M. We also had a fantastic breakfast buffet after our spin class.
• Our room came with two free drinks, which we enjoyed by the pool during lunch. (Free drinks also thanks to Hyatt status.) There was a big snafu of the pool service, because the hotel was clearly overrun by an impromptu pool party happening after a wedding. They comped us two more drinks, which we told them was unnecessary, because they were working extremely hard to serve everyone. They insisted. We did have a hummus plate, which was $29.75. 
• Lunch by the pool - $123.31
• Dinner in Carmel - $197.70. I thought this place was just pretty good, but I wouldn't go back for the price. 

Total cost for the mini birthday trip = $372.26

Do you have any local(ish) trips you are considering? 

June goals

 June is going to be a very busy month! I have a work trip to LA, and I have the girls Greece trip! Definitely looking forward to one, and a lot less so the other. 

Here are my goals for the month.

Financial:

• Stay on top of food waste by using up 3 pantry & freezer items
• Continue to track net new savings for 2026
• Make $100 in side hustle
• Find one expense to optimize
• Create post-work budget & plan (mostly track down increased insurance costs through M's plan)

Family:

• Continue to help the boys navigate college & life
• Sort out Nick's move back plans
• Monthly date with M
• Host family for dinner
• Make progress on Iceland planning (next year, M's 60th) 
• Have a fabulous trip to Greece!

Fitness:

• Lose 3 lbs
• 10 strength workouts
• Track nutrition
• Average 12,000 steps/day

Personal:

• Do well at external event presentations
• Declutter 50 items from the house
• Get together with friends
• Try something new
• Say yes to adventures
• Get to know our neighbors
• Try a new recipe

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

Fitness Monday

It's been really busy at work, and I had a commute day + had to be home two days during my normal workout for a pest control appointment.  Good times!

Weight: 150.6, down .7 lbs from last week

Calories: 1,274/day

Steps: 11,857/day

Workouts:

• One cardio/strength class
• One 60 minute elliptical workouts
• Two 30 minute elliptical workouts
• One  6.5 mile hike
• One spin class 

Goals for the week:

• Another really busy week, but I would really like to get in 3-4 strength training workouts, since I only managed one last week
• Go to the doctor (this is happening, but noting it, as a positive step for my health, even though it's no fun
• Increase steps/day
• Increase protein 

That's it from my side. What about you? How are you doing with your health & fitness goals? 

Menu Plan Sunday

 It's always tricky when we are gone for some or all of the week, as we heavily rely on Saturday/Sunday cooking for leftovers. But, having a plan helps tremendously!

• Friday - leftover tacos
• Saturday - out to dinner at the hotel we stayed at
• Sunday - grilled chicken (freezer)
• Monday - spaghetti & meatballs (freezer)
• Tuesday - leftover grilled chicken
• Wednesday - leftover spaghetti & meatballs
• Thursday - salmon
• Friday - TBD, based on any leftovers

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

Frugal Friday

 Another busy week, and I forgot that I needed to go to the office yesterday for a new hire lunch. Oh well, it was nice to welcome him to our team. 

Saving on things we buy

• Uploaded receipts to Fetch & bought two protein bars that generated a $1 iBotta cash back offer. 
• I used a $150 credit card cash back offer for a date night (there are a handful of restaurants that qualify near us), & we spent another $20 out of pocket, as it's a pretty fancy place. 
• There is a therapeutic massage place very close to our house. As with most places, they are expensive for a 60 minute deep tissue massage. I happened to see that they had an offer on Groupon, so I clicked through to Groupon from Rakuten (6% cash back) & then purchased a Groupon good for weekdays, at 40% off standard price. It's good through September, so I might even buy another. I have chronic back problems & massages help quite a bit. 
• I booked our flights to Utah & Las Vegas for our anniversary in September (it's a combo hiking/Las Vegas trip), and used a few minor flight credits & a small amount leftover on a gift card to offset the price. Ever so slightly, because flights are still insane! I will do a full cost roundup of the trip after it happens. 
• Costco had $5 off a package of chicken breasts, so we grabbed an extra. 
• As part of my attempts to extend travel credit, I needed a small Southwest gift card. I discovered that using Door Dash gave me 10% off of a digital gift card, so I went that route & saved a whopping $2.50 off of my $25 gift card. 
• Similar to the above, invested $11 additional dollars on a United ticket for Sam in an attempt to extend a $127 travel credit he has that's expiring before he uses it. I have around a 90% success rate in getting United credits extended, but it's not guaranteed, hence why you want to keep any additional outlay of money involved to as small as possible. 

Earning money

• Nick worked at a soccer tournament for his old club, and made some money. He started training for his summer job as well. 

Avoiding spending

• M picked up our Costco groceries for the week & our annual Costco reward covered the full price & we got six entire dollars back. ;) I must admit that I was hoping for more, but I'll take the free groceries just the same. 
• Charged my car for free for four hours at work. It's taken me almost a year to get the charging access sorted, combined with not having spots on days I come in, and finally approval through the system. Not sure what was the final magic that happened yesterday, but free charging! 

Eating what we have 

• Reminded Nick to eat the last of the pizza rolls (leftover from some teen party before he went to college), so those are now out of the freezer.
• Had a freezer dinner on Friday night (a cauliflower rice/black beans/rotisserie chicken dish) & topped that with leftover cilantro from the Piccadillo I made last week. 
• Bought a delicious salad at Costco (celery grain) & paired that with a rotisserie chicken, which made 2 dinners for two diners, as well as three lunches, putting the cost at about $2.50/pp. 
• Made the boys lunches several days in a row, in an attempt to use up the tortillas we have opened. 

For others

• Helping out a friend with a leadership summit he's running.

What about you? Any wins to share? 

Wednesday Happenings

 This week is whizzing by, given the short work week. I'm enjoying it, for sure. I do need to drive to the office tomorrow, as I'm having lunch with a new hire on the team. I don't mind going in for that, because it's truly the type of thing you can only do in person. I'm giving myself the gift of not trying to be in the office for my 7 am calls, and just going in when I have a break in my schedule later in the morning. 

I've decided on a date to give notice, and it's feeling pretty real! I will offer an extended transition, as I really like my manager & am hiring someone mid-July and want to train them & provide support as they join the team.

Nick started his summer class, and was busy studying yesterday. He starts training for his summer job this weekend. He & Sam have been going to the climbing gym a lot. It inspired me to get M a summer membership at the climbing gym. He doesn't have gym access, and has been interested in a gym membership for a while. He's also expressed interest in trying climbing with the boys, so this will give him a good way to explore whether he likes it, for a reasonable deal. We can assess whether he wants to keep the membership after the summer. Nick has offered to teach him how to use the climbing wall and there are multiple introductory classes offered for free. While not always possible, I do try to give experiences vs things. His birthday gift (Father's Day & his birthday are a week apart) is a replacement for a shirt he loves but snags, so things do get purchased some times!

I worked on a packing list for Greece yesterday, which made me feel a bit more ready. It's so close! We leave in 20 days! I'm getting very excited. 

That's pretty much it on my side. I have plenty to do today - lots of meetings, working out, finishing a deck for a partner event, etc. Let's hope I make solid progress.

Hope you all have a fabulous day!

Fitness Monday

Because health & fitness are all related, I'm also going to start to track things I've done for my health on any given week (non fitness related). Last week I prepped for my upcoming rheumatologist appointment & did my lab work, and also got a massage to help with some back pain. 

Weight: 151.3, down .6 lbs from last week

Calories: 1,248/day

Steps: 10,700/day

Workouts:

• Two strength/cardio combo class
• 2 30 minute elliptical workouts
• 1 9.2 mile hike

Goals for the week:

• Increase steps on work days
• Get in 3 strength workouts
• Ensure I'm getting enough fiber & protein

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

Menu Plan Sunday

 I love a long weekend Sunday!  The extra day is so important for relaxing & time to decompress.

Here's what's on the menu for the week at our house:

• Friday - freezer leftovers (cauliflower rice enchilada skillet)
• Saturday - out, date night
• Sunday - chicken sausage white bean skillet (carryover from last week)
• Monday - grilled burgers + watermelon
• Tuesday - leftover chicken sausage white bean skillet
• Wednesday - easy teriyaki chicken + rice
• Thursday - salmon
• Friday - leftover easy teriyaki chicken + rice

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

Saturday Happenings

 I'm very, very excited to have a long weekend! Monday is also a holiday in the UK, so I won't wake up to a ton of emails & work on Tuesday, as both main offices will be on holiday. Bonus!

It was a busy week, and I am pretty run down. It's a great chance to rest & recharge. 

On the list for day:

• Date night with M! We have a $150 credit card statement 2x a year that we can use at a handful of local restaurants. The restaurant we like is quite fancy, so we prefer to sit at the bar & have a more casual dinner service. The bar menu is also better, IMO. ;-) 
• The hard workout class (a few days a week they have a template that's even harder than usual, and the regular class is plenty hard enough. But, I like the smaller class format). 
• Menu planning
• Shopping list
• Work on schedule for next week
• Workout schedule for next week
• Sort birthday & Father's Day gifts for M (I will be in Greece for Father's Day, but I want to ensure the boys have something fun planned)
• Catch up on my Stanford class
• Clean the floor boards
• Kitchen
• Bathrooms
• Vacuum

As you can see, this is a little "optimistic", shall we say, so I will inevitably roll some things over to the rest of the weekend! Nick is working at a soccer tournament for his old club today, so he is thrilled to make some money. He also has a CPR class to attend tomorrow for his summer job, and has a summer class starting next week. Sam is busy with work as well, as weekends are his prime shifts.

What about you? What are you up to this weekend? Hope you have a mix of fun & relaxing plans. 

Frugal Friday

 Another busy week,but a few wins to share here & there. 

Saving on things we buy

• Remembered to use the last of a grocery store gift card (all $.52 of it) to buy cilantro. This dropped the price to $1.47, which is almost reasonable for something that grows well here, except for us. We can keep a lot alive, but cilantro is not our friend & dies easily at our house. 
• Saved 23,200 United miles by rebooking our flights for family weekend. I now have a United credit card, and there is a sizable discount for credit card holders when booking award travel. Given the United valuation of about $.012/mile, that's a $278.40 savings.
• We are potentially going to Lake Tahoe for a few days, and months ago I downloaded a credit card offer for a hotel there. I find that I forget about these offers, but if I think there's even a 1% chance I can use it, I save it. No harm, no foul. Received a $32.38 credit through my card. 

Earning money

• We've gotten a few misdirected items from Amazon (addressed to us, Amazon won't accept back), so I sell them on eBay. Sold another container of vitamins, as far as I can tell. Made $16. 
• Sold a white elephants gift I won at a work event, but was never going to use (a fancy pen), also made $16.
• Received a payout from Rakuten for $12. 
• I get $150 in StubHub ticket credits 2x a year through my credit card. I offered the credit to the boys to use for concerts or events, but no one had anything in mind. Instead, I bought tickets to the Giants game & listed them. They were actually just over the credit value at $159, but I must have chosen a poor event resale value, because they sold for $70. After the $9 overage, I made $60 for no effort. I track that money towards offsetting the cost of my credit card, which has a fee. 

Avoiding spending

• I gave up Kindle Unlimited a month or so back, and am continuing to use my library card. As someone who reads a lot, I need a lot of books, so I've also started checking out Amazon's free list to try & find new authors. I downloaded four free books this week.
• I had to go to the office on Wednesday, and need to leave at 6 to make it to my 7 am call. They have breakfast for purchase in the cafe, but I opted for the free yogurt + banana. 
• I had to go to the hospital & do lab work (lots of blood draws) & afterward I was craving a sandwich. I'm strangely attached to Subway, despite definitely not thinking they are the best. Regardless, used a $6.99 foot long sub coupon, plus $2 of rewards, and paid the rest + tip on a gift card. This makes two lunches for me, so not a terrible cost. 

Eating what we have

• Picked a green onion from the garden for M's salad, and then replanted the stem.
• Looked for a recipe to use up a few items we had on hand, including a red pepper. I chose Picadillo, which also used canned tomatoes, olives & a few other staples we had on hand. I added a jalapeno instead of the adobe & made my own spice mix. 
• Nick hosted multiple friend events. When he had a pool party earlier in the week, I took the opportunity to look at freezer items that all had a similar bake time & were purchased with teens in mind. We didn't have a ton of any one item, but I put together an appetizer platter that used up: the last of a box of mini Trader Joes pizzas, the end of a bag of chicken nuggets & about 1/2 of a bag of veggie spring rolls. I paired that with chips leftover from another teen event, and then in a nod to health, cut up 1/2 a melon, some apples & grapes & made a fruit tray. I'm hoping I eventually use up the pizza rolls & mozzarella sticks, also leftover from some sort of teen hosting. 
• Similarly, the boys were home when we were not expecting them for dinner, so I baked up chicken patties (finished off a bag) & pulled buns out of the freezer to make chicken patty sandwiches. A favorite of the boys. 

For others

• One of Nick's friends recently graduated from college & is looking for a place to stay. We've offered him a few nights in our spare bedroom while he looks for an inexpensive apartment. In the bay area, that will be quite a challenge! Happy to help him out as he transitions. 

What about you? Any wins to share?

Thursday Happenings

 Oh, work has been... let's just go with cementing my decision to be done soon. I really like my manager, which is why I will offer a reasonable notice period, but the organization is so dysfunctional. It makes me quite disappointed, as I took this job with 20+ years of experience in a niche field, so I could have added a lot of value. Unfortunately, the organization is unable to move & adapt and there are just a lot of blockers to progress. 

This is not a political post, please do not comment about politics. This is about our family. 

On M's mom, it's so hard to imagine being in a situation where you are grieving & missing your spouse, and unable to see anyone. Most people are staying very close to home due to risk and challenging infrastructure. She has asked if she can visit us for an extended period of time, should the opportunity present itself. For those of you not following along at home, inflation is estimated between 50-70% in Iran, year on year and buying groceries or paying for basic expenses is incredibly challenging. My MIL gave all of her jewelry to her granddaughter to help her out. 

Switching topics, I'm going to plan out the weekend. We were originally going to go to a national park and do some hiking with Nick & friends, but they've asked to go to Lake Tahoe for the 4th of July instead. It will be much easier to visit the national park when it's not a US holiday anyway, so we made that change. I have plenty to do this weekend, so I will enjoy the time, get in a lot of workouts, go out to dinner with M, and hopefully catch up on the class I'm taking. 

We will likely also do some travel planning. We are really trying to take advantage of this time where we have more life flexibility & our health. We have roughly decided on Iceland next June, to celebrate M's milestone birthday (60). Although, we definitely still dream of our incredible trip to New Zealand, and want to go back. Can't stop thinking of NZ!

What are you up to on this holiday weekend, for those of you in the US?