Feeling a bit better

I do still have a bit of a runny nose in the morning, but otherwise feel like I've really turned the corner & am feeling much better. Hurrah! This is important, as I leave for Palm Springs tomorrow, to join my sister & parents.

It only rains an average of 1-2 weeks/year in Palm Springs, but it's supposed to rain two of the days we are there. Bummer! One of the reasons we chose this as a location is we hoped for good weather in late October. Oh well, we will still make the most of it.

I don't think we've done a trip with the four of us since my sister got married (which was, quite a long time ago!), and my parents are very excited for a trip with us. They of course also love spending time with the kids & our partners, but as a mom, I can see the fun of it feeling like a throwback trip. 

Things I've been up to:

• Researching flights for my dad's trip Tokyo. As someone who has purchased a lot of business class flights to Japan, the prices right now are staggering. Like, $2500 more than I've ever seen before. We may be looking at Premium Economy, or a combo, and even that is outlandish. 
• I've also been tracking various flight credits, expiration & miles. M has a bunch of old BA points that need to be used before they expire. 
• Booking travel for Nick for spring break. Again, flights are so insane right now. I've been juggling a few miles & rewards programs to find the absolute best deal.
• Working a lot. When you are only working 3 days/week, those days get pretty crazy. I like the dedicated 2 days off/week, but I'm not sure I'm working substantially less over the full week, but I am being paid less. So, that's not a great tradeoff. Sleeping in on Thursdays & Fridays & having more schedule flexibility on those days has been a great gift, however.
• Thinking about what comes in January/after I'm done with work. I'm tossing around a lot of ideas (classes, volunteering, etc) & enjoying the planning process. 

What about you? What are you up to today? And, this might be the day I cave & turn the heat on for the first time this season! Since I work from home, it's much more noticeable how cold it is in the house to me than M. It was 62 inside when I woke up! BRRRRRR.

Not Much Working Out Monday

 Ooof, it's no fun to be sick. M & I got (what I assume was) the same cold coming back from Boulder. He felt great after a couple of days. I'm taking an immunosuppressant, so I'm still on the struggle bus, and also not trying to push myself. I know I need to recover & time, rest, etc. I'll cover two weeks for this update, since I didn't post last Monday.

Here's a recap of workouts for the last two weeks:

• 5 mile walk in Boulder
• 50 minutes of an hour workout class. Kept it dialed way back, and left when I was tired.
• 3 hour hike in Rocky Mountain National Park
• 2 hard workout classes (before I got sick)
• 2 elliptical workouts (45 minutes & 1 hour)

Steps: 10,728/day. I've had some very low days & a few high days, thanks to lots of walking in Boulder + a hiking day

Weight = 144.1, down .1 lbs in two weeks. 

Average calories = 1,338/day

Goals for the week:

• Get in more steps
• Get plenty of rest & recover
• Make nutritious food choices - I've really just been eating a very basic diet (soup, crackers, toast, etc)

What about you? How have you been doing with your health & fitness lately? 

Menu Plan Sunday

 It's another short week for us, as I'll be in Palm Springs with my parents & sister, and M will be hanging out with friends in Las Vegas.

• Friday: sheet pan sausage bake
• Saturday: In an attempt to use up a lot of tomato paste in my pantry, I'm making Sloppy Joes, in a real throwback. 
• Sunday: creamy butternut squash orzo + grilled chicken
• Monday: leftover sheet pan sausage bake
• Tuesday: leftovers Sloppy joes
• Wednesday: you guessed it, leftover orzo + chicken
• Thursday-Sunday: traveling

What about you? What's on your menu for the week ahead? Are you moving to fall recipes? 

Saturday Happenings

 In a massive frugal fail, I signed up for two workout classes & didn't go over the last couple of days, due to being sick. I don't regret not going, and there was a wait list for the classes, so I didn't want to drop out. I was overly confident on how well I'd feel. I also find myself frustrated that I didn't do much of anything on my two days off of work, which is kind of silly, because I wasn't going to feel up to working, either. 

I'm going today & just taking it easy (with a mask, although no fever, of course) & I am feeling better. 

Things I'm up to today:

• Transferring some Hyatt awards to various folks. I'd much rather give them away vs letting them expire.
• Making banana muffins
• Cleaning the house
• Doing some laundry
• Menu planning
• Working on some cash flow planning for 2027
• Starting to think about a March trip, when M has a few days off at the end of the month. We are leaning towards Santa Barbara/Channel Islands, or Florida/Everglades. Florida has a lot more logistics, but the weather at that time of the year in Santa Barbara isn't as predictable.

What about you? What are you up to today? 

Frugal Friday

Going to Boulder was certainly an expensive adventure, but I did use points + free hotel night awards, so our entire hotel stay was free for three nights, including parking. The parking is $25/night, but free with my Hyatt status, which is a great perk. 

Saving on things we buy

• Brought the receipts from Nick's shopping trips (Costco & Target) home with me, and remembered to upload them to Fetch & iBotta. I earned $.40 on iBotta & somehow...3025 points on Fetch! Something he bought at Costco triggered a big bonus. It was a very expensive shopping trip, so that was a tiny win at least. ;-)
• I booked two rooms for two nights in Venice using Chase rewards for the Europe trip with my mom & sister at the end of May. Traveling with three people in a lot of places gets tricky, as the US staple of a room with two queen beds doesn't really exist, so we need two rooms. After the rewards, I spent $480.52, and the room comes with free breakfast for all of us + a $100 hotel credit, which we will probably use on drinks or something. 

Earning money

• I sold a pair of Nick's shoes for $14 on eBay. Junk out of the house. 

Avoiding spending

• It's hard to come back from a long weekend & avoid takeout or an airport meal, but I planned ahead by going to Trader Joes on Thursday & getting a few things. I picked up: veggie fried rice, turkey meatballs & the bagged crispy noodle salad kit. I already had the soyaki sauce at home. As soon as we got home on Sunday night, I made the fried rice while the meatballs were heating in the sauce, and topped the rice/meatballs/sauce with the salad kit, as a bowl style dinner. It came together in less than 10 minutes, and was tasty & not too terrible for us. There was also enough for one serving of leftover rice/meatballs, and about 1/3 of the salad for another meal. I like to consider this meal as "good enough", when the alternative is takeout. 
• I was also able to get our entire car full of people (5 folks) in to Rocky Mountain National Park for free, with my park pass. The pass has more than paid for itself so far this year, and I'm planning to visit Joshua Tree with my sister & parents next weekend, as an added bonus. 

Eating what we have

• We didn't go to the store over the weekend as we normally do (or, we did but stocked up Nick in Boulder vs our own fridge), so I made eggs for lunch, with a side of cheese & apple on Monday. Sam had a yogurt parfait, finishing off one of the yogurts & adding frozen berries & granola. 
• I made chicken teriyaki (again, thanks to Trader Joes freezer section) on Monday for dinner, knowing that it would be a crazy work day. More on that later. M made rice to go with it, and I made a double batch, so Sam could eat the leftovers during a busy work week on his end. 

For others

• Bought meals for college students who didn't have their parents in town for family weekend
• Doled out band-aids & hugs to a couple of girls who fell at the football game & made sure they had friends with them to get them back to their dorms. 

What about you? Any wins to share? 

Family weekend trip roundup

As you probably read in my earlier post, we had an incredible long weekend in Boulder with Nick & Sam. We were very excited that Sam was able to join, as he typically can't get off for a weekend with his work schedule. 

Nick regularly asks us to visit, and Sam had not been to Boulder yet to visit since Nick moved in. It meant a lot to Nick to have us all there. We also know that our time to show up for our kids in ways like this is limited & we enjoy it so much - we love getting to know his friends & seeing him in his college life. It really helps us have the right lens on parenting & feedback we give. That said, it's clearly a splurge trip, and one that we wouldn't take if money were tight. We try really hard to incorporate activities with his friends who have parents who weren't able to attend. It takes a village!

Here are the costs for the trip:

Flights: $485.10

• M & I had separate flights from Sam, because we wanted to be flexible in the event he needed to cancel. Paying cash for the flights was absolutely outlandishly expensive ($1500, given our timing restrictions), so we opted to use miles for this trip. We used 112,800 United miles + $22.40. I then opted to upgrade to first class, as part of M's anniversary gift. - $451.5
• Sam's flight was also booked with miles + $11.20

Hotel - $0

• We knew we wanted to fly in on Thursday vs Friday (last year they were out of rental cars when we arrived on Friday, despite having rented one!), so we took advantage of Hyatt free night awards. Knowing we will be staying Boulder & having access to these free night awards at a lower category hotel (easier to use free night awards) is the key reason we are currently keeping the Hyatt credit card. We stayed three nights at the Hyatt in Boulder, for $0 out of pocket, given the tax & parking are also covered with a free night award. Three nights over family weekend saved us approximately $3000. 

Rental car - $316.29

• It was actually supposed to snow when we were in Boulder, but the weather warmed up quite a bit. We upgraded from a Toyota Tercel to an SUV (we ended up with a Jeep). I'm not sure if that was necessary, but in the moment, we wanted a car with more traction. - $299.22
• Gas - $17.07

Activities: $690.24

• To participate in family weekend activities, you need to buy a package through the school. We chose the cheapest package that still provided discounted football tickets, because the entire reason we bought the package was to have access to discounted tickets. Let's just say that I didn't know it was a thing last year, and by the time I purchased family weekend tickets, the football promo codes were gone & we had to buy tickets on the open market. They were outlandishly expensive. Lesson learned for this year! Family weekend tickets = $185 ($75 for the adult tickets, Nick's ticket is $35).
• Football tickets for three = $441 (Me, M & Nick)
• I then needed to add a fourth ticket for Sam, and used my Stubhub credit (available from my credit card) for the majority of this purchase. Again, tickets were insanely priced. - $64.24
• We went to Rocky Mountain National Park, and my annual park pass covered admittance for all of us

Meals: $731.61

• Dinner on Thursday - included in first class flights for me + M, packed a sandwich for Sam
• Lunch on Friday - my BFF treated 
• Dinner on Friday - it was the four of us + my BFF & her daughter, after hiking - $322.91
• Lunch on Saturday - four of us + two of Nick's friends - $230.13
• Dinner on Saturday - four of us - $74.18
• Brunch on Sunday - four of us - $104.39

Total cost for family weekend = $2223.24

We also restocked Nick on groceries & bought him some additional climbing gear, including a helmet! The additional climbing gear was a bribe, because I most certainly want him to be wearing a helmet while climbing. Not included here, as that comes out of Nick's college budget. 

The limited plan menu

 It's always a bit crazy when we're not home on the weekend to meal prep, plan & get ready for the week ahead. No regrets with our trip out of town. Work is very crazy for me, particularly on Mondays, as not only am I catching up from the London team having worked an entire day before I log on, I'm also catching up from the missed work on Thursday/Friday. I only have 10 Mondays left, and it can't come soon enough! I typically spend most of Monday in "catch up" mode, which is no fun.

• Friday - we went out to eat & my BFF & her daughter joined us, after our hike. Meal was fine, company was great.
• Saturday - we were looking for a quick bite ahead of the game. The food was good, the wait was insane! I had a chicken sandwich
• Sunday - I heated up the Trader Joes veggie fried rice, marinated the turkey meatballs in some soy sauce, and then topped all of that with the crunchy noodle bagged salad kit, bowl style.
• Monday - M made rice, which I topped with Trader Joes teriyaki chicken (from the freezer) 
• Tuesday - I defrosted chicken fajita meat from a week or so ago
• Wednesday - I have an in office day, so I expect things to get a little crazy. I've defrosted grilled chicken (M's) + we will have leftover rice.
• Thursday - it's our anniversary, so TBD!
• Friday - sheet pan sausage bake, similar to this

What about you? What's on your menu for the week? I'm looking forward to the weekend, and doing more meal prep!

Back from a fabulous long weekend

 We had such a wonderful time in Boulder with Nick, and also got to see my BFF & her daughter. It's also a rarity to get the four of us all together in one place, and Sam & Nick hung out a lot as well. Sam stayed in Nick's apartment (way cooler than hanging with mom & dad), & it was just such a great time all around. Not every trip is like that, so soaking it all in. 

We went to two frat parties, the football game, took Nick shopping for his apartment items (no toilet bowl cleaner/brush - which I rectified!), groceries, and some additional climbing gear. We took a couple of his friends to lunch, and heard all about college life. 

We also met up with my BFF & her daughter for an absolutely stunning hike at Rocky Mountain National Park. The photos don't do it justice, but we hiked up to a few alpine lakes, and the water was a gorgeous turquoise color. So beautiful. I definitely need to go back for more time at RMNP, especially as M was back at the hotel working, and missed out on the hike.

Already missing my wild child, but he will be back soon enough for Thanksgiving.

Frugal Friday

It's been a busy week, trying to squeeze things into a very short work week, and now a trip to Boulder. But, we had a few wins along the way. 

Saving on things we buy

• M eats a lot of sardines (not my jam, but whatever) & our Costco is no longer carrying them. I found them on sale at our local store, and bought out the few remaining. I also picked up some avocado for our fajita dinner. I had a $5 off of a $15 purchase, dropping the charge to $12 for 9 packages of sardines + 2 avocados. 
• Pre-booked airport parking, which is the cheapest option for us on most trips. I also created an account, as apparently they are starting to build a loyalty program. 

Earning money

• (Insert caveat that chasing credit card perks never makes sense unless you are paying your bill in full every month & aren't carrying a balance.) Thanks to a variety of factors, mostly including work travel, I hit my spend reward goals on a couple of my other credit cards, and decided to shift the rest of the year spend to United. I earned a $100 travel credit for my efforts, which is basically zero effort at all. Next year will be different, as I won't be charging work travel. One of my goals is to build a credit card strategy, to ensure we are utilizing the best cards for our situation & ditching what doesn't work.

Avoiding spending

Eating what we have

• I'm continuing my fridge, freezer, pantry attempts for lunches, as well as dinners. I prefer berries on my yogurt, but saw we had some grapes that needed to be used up, so had those chopped instead on top, and they were quite good. My preferred yogurt combo is: Trader Joes Greek vanilla yogurt, some sort of fruit on top, with a light sprinkle of the TJs protein granola. Hits the cravings for something a little sweet, but isn't bad for you. 
• For the Korean beef dish I made last weekend, I sliced the pickles that go with it, and added them to the leftovers of a pickled onion jar, and shook them up for a few hours. That added great flavor to the recipe, for free. I did this 2x during the week.
• Used six overly ripe bananas from the freezer to make banana muffins (9 without chocolate chips for M, 3 with for Sam). Everyone was pleased. 
• I noticed that the shelf stable oat milk I keep on hand was going to expire in December. I don't prefer this kind at all, as it doesn't foam up for my morning latte, but I also don't want to waste it. I've started adding a bit to my regular oat milk every morning. Somehow, even a small amount means the milk doesn't foam, but that's a pretty small problem, all things considered. ;-) 
• Ate leftovers during the week, to ensure the fridge was cleaned out before we left for Boulder.

For others

• Shared a Guest of Honor Hyatt award (gives anyone the same status as a Globalist, which means free breakfast, potential for room upgrades, etc) with a friend. 
• Increased a tip on a delivery, when the person was extremely prompt. I'm not a huge fan of the tipping culture (wish everyone was paid a fair wage by their employer), but I also know that's not the current system & how hard some of those delivery people (and, other staff who is tipped) work, and while I tip a standard amount always, I like to remember to reward awesome service as well.
• Reached out to my family + my BFF, and have more folks lined up to contribute encouragement cards to the guardian scholars (students just coming out of the foster system & in college). I'm writing my own cards, as well as adding some gift cards.  

What about you? Any wins to share?

Starting to think about 2027 goals

2027 is going to be a big year for me! I'm officially leaving my job the first week of January. I don't have any plans to accept another job, but I won't rule out doing something very temporary or part time in the future. My goal was to save up enough money where I don't have to work, and that I can take care of my health & have enough to bridge the gap until I can tap into my 401k. I have approximately 10 years (just under) until I can access my retirement account without penalty. M is still currently working, and he will cover our health care, which is a vital step, especially given my health. 

I also expect that the first few years will be more expensive, as we have Nick in college, Sam will likely need additional support after he finishes his conservation training & schooling, and we will likely be traveling more in the earlier years rather than later, particularly with our families. 

I also expect that the pivot to permanent "retirement", for lack of a better term, may be a big adjustment for us. My health is my top priority, but I also want to continue to foster social connections, give back & support my family. 

I'm a planner, and I always like to know what comes next. But, for this particular next step, I think it's important for me to experiment - to try new things, discover what I enjoy, drop things that I don't, and not worry about getting everything right or knowing what comes next. That is a semi uncomfortable space for such a planner, so there will be a lot of growth required to keep experimenting!

I don't expect my goal categories to change, as I find it helpful to approach my goals across those buckets (financial, family, health, & personal). 

These are very initial drafts at this point, but here's where my head is currently at.

Financial

• Continue to pay for Nick's college
• Make $3000 in side hustle money
• Pressure test our budget & categories for the next few years, and make adjustments as needed. Included in that is optimization of our existing budget & plans. 
• Track & optimize travel related perks, savings, etc to best manage our travel budget, which is our largest flexible spending category (quite intentionally). 

Family

• Support both of our young adults
• Spend more time with my parents
• Continue to have regular date nights with M

Health

• Hit my goal weight, go off the micro dose of GLP-1, & maintain my weight
• Continue to manage my lupus
• Add another fitness activity to my days/weeks/months
• Track & manage my health overall

Personal

• Experiment with hobbies, activities, etc
• Host more 
• Volunteer
• Say yes to adventures
• Continue decluttering & organizing our house

Are you thinking about your goals for 2027? If so, what's top of mind for you? 

Fitness Monday

 It was nice to see a drop on the scale, but my steps are not on track. I missed one workout day, and it was a day with a lot of meetings. I need to find a way to more organically get in steps. Walk around the block between meetings? The weather has cooled off & it finally feels like fall, making it much more appealing to get outside here & there. 

Weight: 144.2, down 1.9 lbs from last week. This is an unusually big drop for me, but likely because I didn't have any notable loss for almost a month. 

Calories: 1,281/day

Steps: 9,446/day

Workouts

• 4 hard workout classes (combo of strength & cardio)
• 1 - 30 minute elliptical workout
• 1 - 45 minute elliptical workout
• 1 day without a workout

Goals for the week:

• Again setting the "no days without a workout" goal, since I missed that last week
• Keep the calories in check, while on our trip to Boulder
• Hit an average of 12k/steps, because it's been a while!

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

Menu Plan Sunday

 Another week, and we did well last week with eating a lot of leftovers. M ended up making a second batch of grilled chicken to bring to Boulder, which he then deemed "not good enough for Nick", so I guess we will be eating it. Our preferences are not worth as much as Nick, apparently. ;-) I thought the first batch was incredible & the second batch was still quite good, for the record.

As such, grilled chicken, round 3 is on the menu this week.

• Friday - chicken fajitas. I'd move away from the chicken, but already have the peppers & need to use those up.
• Saturday - Korean beef bowls & rice
• Sunday - grilled chicken, take 3
• Monday - leftover fajitas
• Tuesday - leftover Korean beef bowls
• Wednesday - leftover grilled chicken
• Thursday through Sunday - at Boulder for family weekend. Thursday will likely be an airport meal at the lounge, Friday we are meeting friends for Italian food. Saturday is a real mystery, and Sunday will be whatever we find in the freezer when we get back.

What about you? Has it cooled off at your house? Are you into fall meals yet? 

Saturday Happenings

I'm enjoying the much cooler weather today. It's going to be a high of 69, which feels much more appropriate for August than the very warm high 90s we've been having. Yay for fall! 

Meal prep gets a lot more appealing when the weather cools off! My goals for today in the kitchen are:

• Use up overly ripe bananas to make banana muffins
• Roast the potatoes that are going bad
• Make Korean beef dish for dinner, & quick pickle cucumbers

Other things I need to do today:

• Figure out timing for our Boulder activities. I'm either meeting my BFF for a hike, or another friend for lunch. I'm hoping to do both, but depends on the schedule.
• Sweep out front
• Wash bedding
• Go to my workout class
• Start packing for Boulder trip
• Confirm plans with both Nick & Sam
• Make a post to give some stuff away on Buy Nothing

That should do it! What about you? What are you hoping to get done today?