March Goal Upate

 March was a pretty good month, all things considered. Here's how I did against my goals.

Financial:

• Continue to pay for both boys colleges expenses - yes
• Stay on top of food waste by using up 3 pantry or freezer items - yes, I made it a point to use up plenty from the freezer, including: bagels, shredded zucchini, leftover pizza, and baguette. 
• Be more intentional about saving & spending. - yes. It was an expensive month (see taxes, below), but I've been much more aware of our savings to finish off Nick's college (in a HYSA account, and eventually a CD). 
• Find one expense to optimize - Nick has a music subscription as a gift, and they have a student discount. He filled out the paperwork for that, and we will save $6/month.
• Finish taxes - yes, and federal is paid, state will be auto deducted on April 15th. 

Family:

• Continue to help the boys navigate college & life - yes
• A monthly date with M - we went on a few hikes
• Have a fabulous & on budget trip to Las Vegas/Zion with friends - yes
• Enjoy having Nick home for spring break & his birthday - had a great time, even though we barely saw him. ;-) 
• Help finalize summer plans for everyone. - still a bit of a work in progress
• Book summer travel - we are still working on this
• Figure out next big trip with M - we are discussing Iceland next June. 

Fitness:

• Start therapeutic massage appointments - yes, have had two
• Get hip dry needled at Stanford - yes, done
• Lose 3 lbs - I lost 4.4 lbs
• 10 positive days in a month - 9 days of strength training, 7 days of No S, 5 days of meditation
• Come up with a general workout template - no
• Positive eating - track protein & produce - I did "ok" at this, but plenty of room for improvement 
• Average 12,000 steps/day - 12,266/day

Personal:

• 10 days of language lessons - zero
• Declutter 50 items from the house - 56/50
• Get together with friends - a hike, a workout, dinner & a trip to Zion
• Try something new - several workout classes
• Say yes to adventure - yes, a girls hiking trip
• Get to know our neighbors - tried to hike with one neighbor & meet another for dinner, but schedules haven't worked out yet
• Try a new recipe - made a zucchini casserole

What about you? How did you do with your goals for March? 

April goals

 I'll be updating my March goals soon, but here's what I would like to accomplish in April.

Financial:

• Continue to pay for both boys colleges expenses
• Stay on top of food waste by using up 3 pantry or freezer items, and one item that's a true random item
• Continue to track net new savings for 2026
• Make $100 in side hustle
• Find one expense to optimize
• Build out exit work financial plan & lock in on timing

Family:

• Continue to help the boys navigate college & life, including summer jobs
• Monthly date with M
• Finalize summer travel/flights for beach trip
• Finalize family weekend flights
• Use M's United credit to book move out weekend travel
• Continue working on "next big trip" plans with M

Fitness:

• Continue with massage appointments
• Lose 3 lbs
• 10 positive days in a month (strength train, No S, meditate)
• Build out a workout template (strength, cardio, pilates/yoga)
• Track nutrition
• Average 12,000 steps/day

Personal:

• 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's on your goal list for April?

Frugal girls trip round up

Two of my friends met for the first time on the October Las Vegas girls trip, and they are both hikers. I worked with one in Seattle, and one in the bay area & they are both incredible women. We started talking about a future hiking trip together, and finally coordinated some dates for the end of March. I've been very excited about this trip, but knowing it was coming in between two expensive international trips (New Zealand & Greece), I needed to do it on a budget.

Here's how I minimized cost, and how much I spent, for a trip that went from Wednesday-Sunday.

Lodging: - $0

• I booked a free night (with a small hotel credit + $50 of free gambling money) through my hotel rewards. One of my friends flew in a night early to hang out in Las Vegas, so she shared the room with me, making it free for both of us. 
• Same friend who met me in Las Vegas has a vacation condo in St. George, and we stayed with her for the rest of the trip.

Flights: - $0

• I booked a round trip Southwest flight for just under the $500 credit I received from my Chase credit card. I think I have about $60 left on the credit that I can use for a future purchase.

Transportation - $57 for shuttle

• My friend with the condo rented a car to get us from Las Vegas to St. George & Zion, and she is staying in St. George for a week longer than we are. I bought groceries & parking (below) & offered to pay for part of the car rental, but she was happy with the free night in Las Vegas our first night.
• My second friend & I took a shuttle from St. George to the Las Vegas airport on Sunday, as my condo owning friend was planning to stay longer. 
• M dropped me off on Wednesday on the way to the airport, and picked me up on the way home. 

Food: - $299.41

• I used hotel credits & my loyalty offer to pay for dinner on Wednesday night for me + my condo friend + breakfast & coffee on Thursday morning. 
• The rest of the food totaled $299.41, and third friend & I shared the cost of groceries, coffee supplies, meals, etc for our friend with the condo, as a thank you for her sharing her place with us. 
• Packed a sandwich & protein bar for the flight home (as did my friend flying back with me), to avoid airport food. 

Activities:

• My friend & I gambled a bit & I used my "big" $50 of free gambling money that came with my room, and I also brought money from my January winning. ($500, which I've not included, as it comes from a previous slot win & I set aside in cash for this trip.) 
• The rest of the time included free activities - plenty of hiking, laughing & hanging out by the pool, drinking free wine (picked up in the casino as part of my friend's comps) on the patio. 

Other stuff: - $21.60

• I bought no gear for the trip, as I had all of the hiking stuff needed for our day trips. I used my Osprey day hiking bag that I got for free a few years ago as a work giveaway. It's fantastic for these trips. I also used my water bladder that I bought for Moab a few years ago. 
• I brought a few snacks & electrolytes from home. 
• I did, however, need to buy a hat at the park, when mine went missing. Turned out it was buried under another bag in the car. The good news is that a receipt from the gift shop covers parking at Zion, so all was well. I spent $21.60 on the hat. 

Overall, I came in at $378.01 against my total budget I set of $800. Would love to hear about any fun budget trips you've planned! 

Menu Plan Sunday

 It's a bit of a scramble this week, as I got back from a fabulous hiking trip today. Here's what I've been eating + what's on the menu for the rest of the week:

• Friday - we ate out at a restaurant in Zion after a long hiking day (almost 30k steps!) I had a delicious salad
• Saturday - we picked up a pizza & had that at the condo
• Sunday - M made barbecued chicken & rice 
• Monday - chicken satay over rice
• Tuesday - salmon
• Wednesday - leftover barbecued chicken
• Thursday - spaghetti & meatballs
• Friday - wings & gyozas (part of our freezer clean out!)

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

And, Zion photo, for fun.

Freezer challenge - part 1

 Oh, the exciting lives we lead. . . when you were just a young 20ish year old, fun loving & fancy free, did you ever think a fun project you would give yourself would be inventorying your freezer & then figuring out to do with all of the odds & ends?! ;-) 

I went through & made a digital list of both our inside & outside freezer. I then realized that M bought spanakopita at Costco again, even though last time we bought it, we ended up giving it away, because he can't eat carbs, & Sam & I didn't like it. Nick would also not be a fan. So, I gave away all of it (with the reminder to please never buy it again) & a bonus pack of frozen corn. Oddly, I really dislike frozen corn & have no good reason for this. I'll eat fresh corn all day long. But, nope on the frozen corn. My parents bought it for a recipe & didn't end up using it. So, some random items already out of the freezer.

Next up is a bag of zucchini from the garden last year, which is my project for this week. I'm going to make this shredded zucchini casserole as a side dish for tonight, which has the bonus of using up the last of the cottage cheese as well as some shredded cheese that we need to get through. I'll skip the bread crumbs. 

We have an absolutely embarrassing amount of overly ripe bananas, breads/buns of all kinds (mostly because we really don't eat much of it), a lot of pot stickers, so many chicken wings, two bags of chicken bones from a rotisserie that need to be made into broth, & other exciting items. 

Stay tuned for more of these exciting happenings. ;-) 

What about you? How do you stay on top of your freezer inventory? 

Fitness Monday

 The weekend went by way too quickly this week, but here we are... Monday again. ;-) 

Weight: 157, down 1.8 lbs since last week

Calories: 1,407/day

Steps: 14,655

Workouts: It was a particularly crazy work week, with lots of things coming together to in a way that made more creative/intense workouts difficult. But, I adapted & tried to do something.

• 4 elliptical workouts
• 1 yoga class
• 1 -5 mile hike with a friend
• 1 intense cardio/strength workout class

Goals for the week: keep the eating in check on my trip. Get in some sort of exercise on the days we are driving to/from St. George. 

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

Menu Plan Sunday

 Oh my, have we ever been flying by the seat of our pants, as it relates to meals.  It's been a big mystery who will join us each night.

Friday - I had an apple (late lunch) & M had a leftover grilled burger from the freezer. Nick ended up dropping in between activities, so he had a much more robust dinner of: two grilled cheese sandwiches, fruit, veggies & hummus & a few meatballs leftover from Thursday's dinner.

Saturday - chicken pad Thai

Sunday - grilled chicken & rice

Monday - chicken satay (freezer) & leftover rice

Tuesday - finish off leftovers, or spaghetti & meatballs

Wednesday - Saturday - I'll be on a girls trip

Sunday - I've requested that M cook dinner ;-) 

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

Saturday Happenings

I'm a bit on the struggle bus this morning, as I did not sleep well! Our bedroom was too warm, which feels like a strange complaint in March, but is true. Not a fan of the overly warm start to spring.

I had to book three work trips yesterday, and I was hoping to avoid two of them, but here we are. One to southern California (no big deal), one to London & one to Tokyo. All of them involve weekend traveling, which is so difficult, particularly because you miss a full weekend when you leave, & then you arrive back the following weekend so jetlagged that you don't get a weekend on the other end. Oh well. It's one of the responsibilities of my current job. 

I will be ready to be done when I hit my milestones for this role. They are mostly financial, but also time bound, as I receive several incentives at various points. One is in July (definitely staying for that, as it's the year mark) & the next one is at the end of the year. When I signed up for this job, I was optimistic to make it three years (July, 2028). Barring something happening, I think July 2027 is the absolute most optimistic timeline, but January 2027 is the most realistic. We shall see. Watch this space. :-) 

On a related note, I'm in the phase of doing a lot of financial planning, both short to mid term & of course, retirement planning. Going really deep into this makes me feel more secure & able to tackle decisions that lay ahead, as M & I get older & plan for the future. I don't know that I'm ready to "retire" when I quit this job, but I'm definitely ready to take some time, and then do something much more "casual" & not a "big career job". I really miss the flexibility I had last year before I went back to work. 

What am I up to today? It feels like a very "health & fitness" minded day, for sure!

• Yoga class
• There's a bit of a gap while I wait for another class, so I will do some lifting & cardio
• Pilates class
• Getting a deep tissue myofascial release massage
• I need to sort out Nick's cell phone activation, get all of his laundry washed, & figure out if he's checking a bag for tomorrow
• Sounds like some folks are coming over to swim, so I will likely make food for that
• Menu plan
• Pack for Las Vegas/Zion trip
• Figure out schedule for next week + workouts for the week
• Finish reading a Kindle book, as my subscription ends tomorrow!

What about you? What are you up to today? 

Frugal Friday

 A few frugal moves below, but can't imagine how much my youngest child is spending on gas this week. He is enjoying catching up with all of his friends, but it's a ton of driving & we all know how spendy gas is right now!

Saving on things we buy

• I drove to the airport & parked, picking up Nick. Parking set me back $4 (I like to go in & wait), which is still much cheaper than a ride share. I'm an early bird, so staying up late for his flight was the only wrinkle, but I did it!
• Allowed Nick to choose a gift from REI & used my rewards (plus some extra) to buy a birthday gift. Birkenstocks, for the curious. He is truly a Colorado boy now. ;-) Actually, all of his California friends wear them as well. 
• Used iBotta for a cash back CVS offer & saved a whopping $1.36 off of a prescription. 

Earning money

• Sold an old gift card we weren't going to use, and after fees, made $13. 
• Got a notice from Aetna that my last submission didn't go through. I get one $75 reimbursement for a standard medical appointment/wellness check (there's a long list), but the one I had that qualified was a mammogram. Resubmitted & already received my $75 back. 
• You might remember that I ordered a very light weight & very water resistant rain coat for our trip to New Zealand. It was quite pricey. I listed & sold my old rain jacket on eBay & made $17. Didn't come close to the cost of the new one, but made a little back & also don't have two rain coats sitting around. 

Avoiding spending

• I pre-ordered food for Nick on his flight home, knowing he would be quite hungry, and they didn't give it to him. I filled out a refund request& received a note that they would reimburse me the $15 I was charged. 
• Booked two nights stay at a hotel in Boulder using points for family weekend. The rooms cost $1200/night without points! Insane. It's crazy to book this early, but this is a great opportunity to use Hyatt points. 

Eating what we have

• Knowing we'd have hungry eaters around again, I remembered to defrost some of the leftover pizza I froze when my parents were in town. It was actually well timed since (see above), Nick didn't get the food I ordered on the flight. He came home & are quite a bit of the leftover pizza. I did this with two different bags of pizza on two different nights, so I'm clearing out the freezer!
• Pulled out baguette & goat cheese from the freezer to make crostini to go with the birthday steak Nick requested. I also used a lemon from our tree, and thyme from the garden, and the only other addition was garlic, which we already had on hand.
• Squirrels made a huge mess in our planters, even though they don't eat green onions. I pulled out a bunch that they uncovered, so I'll be using them this week & will replant the bottoms again. 
• Opted to make chicken salad for my contribution to our work potluck. There was an option to also donate money to food delivery. There was no one signed up for a main (isn't that how it always goes - mostly at our work because it's hard to keep things warm), so I opted for chicken salad, which is easy to put together. Not the most cost effective (I bought rotisserie chicken, grapes & celery at Costco), but definitely less than I would have contributed to food delivery. Also, we have about 1/3 of the rotisserie chicken meat leftovers, 3/4 of the grapes (boys will definitely eat them) & I'll use up the remaining celery as well. I mixed in 1/2 Greek yogurt & mayo from the fridge, a bit of garlic salt & topped with green onions from the garden. 

For others

• I've been on a huge decluttering spree, and giving away a bunch to our neighbors. 

What about you? Any frugal wins to share? 

Thursday Happenings

 In sort of miscellany format, here's what's happening at our house this week.

Nick:

It's been so much fun to have Nick home for spring break (& his birthday) this week! That said, he's been super busy catching up with friends. He's been to the beach twice (we are having crazy heat breaking warm weather), Napa, and UC Davis. He also went to the dentist, because Mom is fun like that, setting up appointments for him. He had a filling fall out, so needs to go back today. We all went out to dinner for his birthday, and it was just so much fun to have the time together. 

Work:

Manager is back, but things are still chaotic. Went to the office yesterday & caught up with a bunch of folks (we have a one day a month "required" in office day). My meeting schedule for today is particularly light due to some cancellations, so I'm planning to tackle a lot of carryover work from the past few weeks when I was covering for my manager. 

Finances:

I paid our federal taxes, and oooh, it hurt to pull that money out of savings. We've agreed on a different strategy moving forward. I had big goals for 2026 savings, so hopefully I can make up a bit of ground a bit later in the year by cutting costs elsewhere.

Fitness:

All is cruising along pretty well, although I've had a real mix of workouts this week & today I'm going t my challenging workout class. I hiked with a friend yesterday, and even at 5 pm, it was over 80 degrees. No thanks! It's only March. 

That's what's top of mind for me. What about you? What random things are on your mind? 

Fitness Monday

 Another week has gone by!

Weight: 158.8, a drop of 2.6 lbs, some of which is hormonal timing of weighing in

Calories: 1,163. I had one day where I was not hungry & ate about 1/2 of my normal calories. I did, however, keep my calories very in check this week in general. 

Steps: 10,275. Still tracking behind, as I didn't get a hike in yesterday & had a few low step days when I was in the office. 

Workouts:

• 2 - 45 minute elliptical workouts
• 1 workout cardio/strength class
• 1 strength body pump class
• 1 yoga class
• 3 walks

Goals for the week: Overall I'm pleased with the week and pretty much did the best I could given my schedule. I'd still like to increase my steps, and get in one more strength class & one more cardio class. I'm  not sure what's realistic, but I only have to drive to the office one week instead of two. From a calorie/nutrition perspective, all was well with the exception of needing more fiber. I'm tracking protein & fiber to ensure I'm getting in all of the correct nutrition. 

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

Menu Plan Sunday

 Another busy week, but excited to cook a few of Nick's favorites. Hopefully he will grace us with his presence. ;-) 

• Friday - grilled chicken Caesar salad
• Saturday - grilled chicken (freezer)
• Sunday - steak & crostini
• Monday - tacos
• Tuesday - birthday dinner out
• Wednesday - spaghetti & meatballs (in office day, need something fast)
• Thursday - leftover spaghetti & meatballs
• Friday - chicken pad Thai 

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

Saturday Happenings

 It's supposed to be a gorgeous day today, so I'm looking forward to getting outside a bit.

I picked up Nick at the airport last night, and had a few minutes to catch up on the ride home. I went to bed after pointing him in the direction of available food. He ate & then went out to meet with friends who are also home. 

I was overly tired this morning, so I skipped yoga, but went to a Body Pump class, which I really enjoyed & found challenging. Always a good sign of a class. 

Things for today:

• Get tax form from Nick & finish taxes
• Yard work
• Wash all bedding
• Work schedule for next week
• Workout schedule for next week
• Pick up the house
• List a few items on ebay
• List a few items on Buy Nothing
• Read in the sunshine

What about you? What are you up to today?