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? 

Wednesday happenings

Oooh, today has been a work day, and it's still the morning. ;-) 

But, in exciting news, M got to speak to his mom. She is physically fine. As you can imagine, the last few months have been incredibly difficult. She is also alone, as M's father passed away not too long ago, and she's been understandably adjusting to life as a widower. Not having access to her family during this time has been incredibly challenging. I'm so very grateful that they got a chance to talk!!

Anyway, no time for further updates, but wanted to share the good news. 

Fitness Monday

 The weeks are whizzing by, but it was a good week all around. I was able to get in plenty of steps & I generally ate well. 

I also wanted to share that I started a micro dose of a GLP-1 a few weeks ago, with approval from my rheumatologist. While the primary usage of a GLP-1 is weight loss of course, it can also be used to reduce inflammation, which is a challenge for people with an autoimmune disease. I'm happy to share my experience along the way. The biggest difference for me is that I find it much easier to maintain the lower calories required at my age to lose weight. As someone with a low RMR (resting metabolism rate), it's challenging to hit lower calories numbers especially with working out. The goal would be to drop the weight, and then eliminate the micro dose, after my appetite has shrunk. Again, happy to share how things go for me. And, it's also worth noting that this is not a frugal solution! 

Weight: 151.9, down 2.1 lbs

Calories: 1,292

Steps: 15,020

Workouts: 

• 2 strength/cardio combo classes
• 2 hour long elliptical workouts
• 45 minutes walking on the treadmill
• 12 mile hike (split into two)
• 7.75 mile hike

Goals for the week:

• Continue to work on strength training focus
• Work on my steps
• Focus on my nutrition

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

Menu Plan Sunday

I don't have any in office days, which is always a treat! Prepping the menu helps me remember to use up pantry & freezer items, and also keeps me sane on busy days. Here's what's on our menu this week. 

• Friday - the last of the beef kebabs
• Saturday - picadillo
• Sunday - chicken & rice
• Monday - leftover picadillo
• Tuesday - leftover chicken & rice
• Wednesday - remaining leftovers
• Thursday - chicken sausage & white bean skillet
• Friday - leftover chicken sausage & white bean skillet

What about you? What are you making this week at your house? Have you pivoted to warmer weather dishes? 

Saturday Happenings

 I'm so happy it's Saturday! It's a gorgeous day, and M & I got up and went for a hike/walk at the nature preserve near our house. It was the perfect temperature & we walked 6 miles. We didn't do anything too strenuous, as I'm meeting a friend for a walk later this afternoon. I'll have to ask her to go slowly. ;-) 

I ran to the store to pick up cilantro for the Piccadillo I'm making tonight. I've made it once before, and I'm pretty sure I make enough substitutions to reduce any "authenticity" from the recipe. 

What else is on the agenda for today:

• Lots of laundry. Nick dropped in for a shower & clean clothes. He needed a shirt out of the wash, but was in such a hurry to drive to Davis & meet up with friends that he couldn't wait for one of his shirts to dry & wore it damp. 😐
• Hike with friend
• Ask M some questions about my Stanford homework. This assignment is way more in his wheelhouse than mine, and I need some advice on how to approach it.
• Homework
• Make dinner
• Read by the pool

Overall, it should be a pretty chill day, which is very nice considering the busy weeks ahead. What are you up to today? 

Frugal Friday

While it didn't actually save me money, I did research whether there were cheaper alternatives to the medicine I take for lupus. I'd heard a lot of autoimmune diseases medicine can be found with rebates or for cheaper, but mine is not included. But, I took the time to research options, so if I get switched to something else in the future, I know where to start. 

Saving on things we buy

• Uploaded our Costco receipt to Fetch & iBotta ($.05 back on any receipt). 
• I was looking for a fun option for M's birthday, and we have a crazy June (work travel + I'm going to Greece with my sister + BFF for a belated girls 50th birthday trip. My BFF is a school principal, so her days off are very fixed.) We considered Memorial Day & going to a national park, but that didn't work with the boys schedule. Instead, I booked a free night at a local resort on another weekend, using Hyatt points. It's a gorgeous property with hiking nearby, so it should be very fun. I'm sure we will spend money on meals, but the room itself will be free, and on that night the room goes for $1200/night!! It's a big savings to use points & still get a splurge. 
• Saved $4 on gas ($2 from each kiddo filling up their cars). Gas is absolutely outrageous here. 

Earning money

• Listed some freebie items on eBay & sold a pair of kids ice skates for $58, which was a huge win.
• I also sold a dress that I'd had listed for quite a while for $30. Junk out, money in. 
• Not earning, & not me, but Nick finally got a birthday check forwarded to him from Boulder, who somehow missed delivering it way back in March. The palpable excitement when I told him I was depositing a $150 check from my parents was priceless! He was so happy. :-) 

Avoiding spending

• This doesn't really fall into any specific category, but M went to use Home Depot gift cards that I'd purchased at the local grocery store (you earn free groceries), but they were already used. The scratch off part had been removed entirely. We photographed everything & the cashier vouched for us, as the gift cards were still in the "protective" sleeves when M went to use them. It's taken time & effort to track it down, but we now have replacement gift cards, totaling $100. Scammers are the worst!
• My workout class was free on Mother's Day!
• Sam had to work a double shift on Mother's Day (9am - 2am), so M made him a breakfast & I packed him a lunch, to help him avoid eating out. He works in a restaurant that only offers a side salad for meals, which isn't going to help if you are really hungry. 
• Bought M two athleisure shirts he loves using a gift card, saving $72. This is part of his birthday/Father's Day gift. 

Eating what we have

• Used up the last of a pepper in fajitas.
• Made 1/2 a sandwich out of the last of a package of turkey that needed to go.
• Used lemons from the tree, as well as green onions, basil & mint from the garden. 
• M made a really delicious dinner for Mother's Day, which was much cheaper than eating out. We had leftovers from that + the fajitas for the week, which made meal prep a breeze. 

For others

• Did a coaching call with an old coworker, to give some help as he's exploring a new career.

What about you? Any wins to share?

Wednesday things

I can't believe it's Wednesday! I finally heard back from Nick, and he is back from his Yosemite backpacking trip. They had no cell service, so of course, I worried while he was out of contact. In case you wonder why I worry about the guy, here's the proof of life photo he sent earlier in the trip. I absolutely adore his adventurous spirit, but.... he definitely gives me anxiety! 

He is now on a road trip to LA & Santa Barbara, to see other friends. Living his best life, for sure. He needs to get home & start earning money, because gas is expensive & road trips are very pricey right now.

I had a very productive day yesterday & turned the corner on a few big projects I have coming up. That felt great. I'm still very slammed with work & scheduling. I think I ended up putting in about 14 hours yesterday - not good & not healthy. I did manage to work out by setting up my desk attachment for my treadmill, and using that while I walked & caught up on a class I'm taking. 

I need another very productive day, so I can get caught up on work, after my in person activities last week. They also included a bunch of mandatory "social events" + drive time, which killed my normal amount of productivity. 

Hope everyone is having a great day!