August Goals

 Let's hope August is a bit more stable than July, because I'd really like to make progress on a few things, and work on my overall fitness. Here's what I would like to accomplish this month.

Financial:

• Stay on top of food waste by using up 3 pantry or freezer items
• Continue to track net new savings for 2026
• Finalize part time adjustment & exit date
• Make $100 in side hustle
• Find one expense to optimize
• Adjust post work budget & plan, depending on exit date/benefits
• Determine whether it makes sense to switch spending to a different credit card through EOY (evaluate ROI)

Family:

• Continue to help the boys navigate college & life
• Get Nick moved in & have fun with my mom. Minimize cost
• Monthly date with M
• Continue planning for our next big trip (M's 60th)

Fitness:

• Lose 3 lbs
• Research & finalize medicine selection
• 10 strength workouts
• Track nutrition
• Average 13,000 steps/day
• Sort out any medical appointments before EOY

Personal:

• Make list for part-time schedule (to dos, fun, etc)
• Declutter 50 items
• 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 August? 

July Goals Recap

Buckle up, because July was a wild ride! I was in Lake Tahoe for the 4th, work trip to Tokyo, got cellulitis (a foot infection) & couldn't work out & was sick. Then I was at the Oregon coast. I also started a new drug for lupus that had quite an impact on my energy level.

Financial:

• Stay on top of food waste by using up 3 pantry or freezer items - we had our very hungry house guest & used up some stuff, but I didn't track it at all.  
• Continue to track net new savings for 2026 - yes, this has continued
• Give notice at work & set an exit date - YES!!!! This is done
• Make $100 in side hustle - I made $0 in July, as I had eBay largely shut down due to being in & out of the house & not consistently in town. 
• Find one expense to optimize - yes, our car insurance. Filled out some low mileage forms & got that submitted. We are saving over $500 this year (take that with a grain of salt, because insuring the boys is extremely pricey). Some of the discount is due to the low mileage, but likely more of it is due to Nick turning 19. 
• Finalize post work budget & plan - yes, more details on this to come. 

Family:

• Continue to help the boys navigate college & life - yes. As always, plenty to do here. 
• Finalize Nick's move back plans - this is sorted, and my mom asked if she could join last week, so I've added her to the trip. Should be fun. She wants to spend as much time with the grandkids and kids as she can while she's still able to comfortably travel. 
• Monthly date with M - we had several in Lake Tahoe
• Reschedule family dinner - we've had a few more impromptu dinners lately, which has been really nice.
• Continue planning for our next big trip (M's 60th) - lots of discussions, but nothing booked. Depending on another friend's 50th birthday trip, we may do the Dolomites in September. 

Fitness:

• Lose 3 lbs - I'm exactly the same. Not exactly shocked, as I was unable to work out for much of the month & super low energy due to my new medicine. 
• 10 strength workouts - 3/10, and I'm definitely feeling out of shape.
• Track nutrition - yes, I've continued to do this. 
• Average 13,000 step/day - 12,638, which is not too shabby given for almost a week I couldn't wear shoes.

Personal:

• Do well at Japan external event- session went extremely well. Getting a foot infection was a lot less fun. 
• Declutter 50 items - 21/50
• Get together with friends - went for a hike with a friend
• Try something new - Rented a house for the family & planned out Oregon trip + some work excitement in Japan
• Say yes to adventures - pretty much same as above. Added my mom to Nick's move out trip, which will be a bit of an adventure
• Get to know our neighbors - we tried hard to find a date to get together with our neighbors before our kids both go back to college, but couldn't find options that worked. We are getting together for dinner after school starts. 
• Try a new recipe - I honestly can't remember? 

How did you do with your July goals? 

Cost for a family trip to the Oregon coast

We've been trying to get back to the Oregon coast with my family since we sold our place. It's taken a while, and it was definitely hard to get all of the cousins together. We ended up with a great group, and finished it off with a family party at my parents house over the weekend. We were there for 5 nights & 6 days, total. 

As we left the airport yesterday, Sam said it was one of his favorite family trips, which was so nice to hear. My dad said something similar. All of the boys/cousins are at an age where they are adults & very enjoyable to spend time with, plus they all get along great. 

The Oregon coast, on a stunner of a day (Wednesday, I think)

Flights: $301.72, for four flights

All of the flights were broken up a bit, to use some United credits. Why were they all different costs? No idea. Mine is slightly lower likely due to a company discount I can use for personal travel.

• My flight ($556), completely covered by a United credit, from the time United stranded me overnight in London, and then dropped me from business class to a middle economy seat. Good times. ;-) Bonus, I got upgraded to first class on the flight from SFO to Portland, which was an unexpected treat!
• Sam's flight ($566), completely covered by a United credit, because Sam had originally planned to go to family weekend in Boulder last year & then couldn't make it due to work.
• M's flight  ($611), completely covered by a United credit, leftover from my London debacle. 
• Nick's flight to Seattle ($264), used Alaska miles. Paid $5.60 for taxes. Nick flew to Seattle on Friday, hung out with friends & then his friend drove him to my parents house. 
• Nick's flight home ($353), covered partially by a United credit. Outstanding amount we paid = $296.12 

Transit: $434.88

• Pre-paid parking at SFO airport - $96. Unfortunately, we had to fly in & out of SFO to use our United credits (United doesn't fly that route from our closer/preferred airport), and the cost to get to & from the airport is higher. I did research, and this is the cheapest option, by quite a stretch. This is also the "far away" parking, that requires 20-30 minutes of transit. Our flights were at reasonable times of the day vs late at night or super early, which made the less convenient parking more appealing. 
• Car rental in Oregon - $228
• Gas - $38.91 + $71.97

Food: $362.60

• Groceries = $102.59 + 97.01+ 1.50 + 4.29 
• Pizza = $120
• Airport meal for the boys - $16.51
• Beer - $13.05
• Ice cream - $7.65

Lodging: $2443.32

I paid for a very large house on the Oregon coast, & covered the cost for everyone (family, plus my BFF + her daughter). This was much cheaper than finding hotels, which are in limited supplies on the Oregon coast, or finding several smaller, separate houses. We had a total of 11 people & spent 3 nights at the beach. 

Activities:

• Walks on the beach
• Meals out (largely covered by other folks)
• Family party
• Poker games
• Happy hour on the back patio

Total spent for the trip = $3,542.52

Considering how many people we had, I think it was a pretty great deal! Of course, not captured here are the food costs everyone else spent, lest you think anyone went hungry. ;-) 

Fitness Monday

I started feeling more like myself on Thursday, which makes sense, as I was just coming off of the antibiotics. I was also able to wear shoes by Thursday (hurrah), which meant walks, and getting back into my workout class. 

Weight: 150.9, up about a pound from the last time I posted. 

Calories: 1,378

Steps: 13,884

Workouts:

• 2 - 30 minute elliptical workouts
• 1 - 45 minute elliptical workout
• 1 three mile walk
• Two hard workout classes (yay for getting in strength training again!)
• 1 seven mile hike with a friend

Goals for the week:

• Keep the calories in check
• Take advantage of the vacation & family time & get in lots of family walks

Another health & fitness win: Going to the dermatologist today for my annual skin check up, which is important for everyone, but particularly me as I'm quite pale & take a medicine that makes me more sensitive to the sun.

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

Menu Plan Sunday

 We will be on the Oregon coast with family for most of the week, so this represents a bit of a hybrid menu plan. We did plan out our meals when together, and have rented a house with a kitchen.

• Friday - M & I had leftovers - fried rice, meatballs in teriyaki sauce, topped with a peanut slaw
• Saturday - easy chicken curry + rice
• Sunday - Philly cheese steaks
• Monday - leftover curry & rice
• Tuesday - My parents are making & bringing lasagna & bread to the rental house
• Wednesday - M is grilling burgers. My mom is making potato salad
• Thursday - My is grilling hot dogs & my mom is making macaroni salad
• Friday - we are heading to my parents & having additional folks join, celebrating my BFF's daughter's engagement. We are having pizza, cake & champagne
• Saturday - family party. M is grilling chicken, and we are doing a make your own pita wrap buffet, with pita, feta, tomatoes, onions, cucumber & tzatziki. There will also be fruit salad, green salad, maybe a few more sides (definitely appetizers before hand, & dessert afterward)

What's on your menu plan for the week ahead? 

Frugal Friday

 Future travel planning

• I booked a hotel in Palm Springs for M's upcoming 2027 days off in March. He prefers to line up his time off for the freebie vacation days, which is fine. We had originally discussed Sedona (booked with Hyatt points), but landed on Palm Springs instead, so we can also go to Joshua Tree. I've never been to Palm Springs, so I'm looking forward to it, and it sounds like March will be a great time to visit. I used Chase travel rewards to book a Hyatt hotel, and after the rewards, it came out to $540. I also received a $250 statement credit back for the type of hotel I booked, dropping the price to $290 total, for three nights. The reservation also came with a $100 resort credit, which I'm sure we will use for a drink by the pool, or something like that. 

Saving on things we buy

• Used my $10 CVS rewards, plus a few cash back offers to restock some of my travel toiletries, while I was waiting to pick up a prescription. 
• Went to the store to pick up a few things, and noticed Ben & Jerry's on sale for $2.99. I also had a $2 off coupon when you buy two, so I bought two containers for a total of $3.99, which is a pretty great deal. Since I was at the store, went ahead & picked up the weekend freebie, which was some sort of gummy candy.
• Uploaded all of my receipts to Fetch. 
• Earned a $2 cash back reward on my credit card for gas.

Earning money

• Just the usual around here, but also met with both HR & benefits to understand timing of leaving & impact to end of year type things. 

Avoiding spending

• Used a BOGO free entree to buy lunch for myself and Sam at Chipotle, and paid with a gift card. It's been rough coming back with jet lag, and not feeling good. Cooking has been low on the priority list.  
• I ordered a new Kindle when mine stopped working. I read A LOT, and it's a daily activity at my house. Luckily, M was able to repair it through a variety of technical workarounds. We were both pretty surprised, as my older edition is no longer supported. I returned the newly purchased Kindle, but it appears I've received a temporary free subscription to Kindle Unlimited, so I will definitely take advantage of that and ensure I cancel again. I really enjoy Kindle Unlimited, as the library doesn't have a tremendous selection of Kindle formatted ebooks. I will binge read in the mean time!

Eating what we have

• My appetite has been a bit low, thanks to the infection, antibiotics + jet lag. As a result, the Chipotle bowl above served as three meals (two lunches, one dinner) for me. Definitely not bad. 
• I also made the most of the Costco grain salad + rotisserie chicken, and that was multiple meals as well.
• One night, we had bonus diners, so I added a bag of Trader Joes fried rice to the dinner, which easily stretches things out, even if it wasn't very "on theme" for the rest of the meal. 

For others

• Provided meals & a place to shower for one of DS19's friends who is in a bit of a family transition. 

What about you? Any wins to share? 

The road to recovery

 I find myself quite impatient at the moment, even knowing that this is part of the process, and recovering & getting back to "myself" is a bit of a journey. 

I finally updated my fitness tracker. I've been in a bit of denial, and tracking it made it feel a little too "real". Rather than my typical every day some kind of workout, it's been much more hit or miss - many weeks where I've had 1-2 lighter workouts. I had a one week work trip to LA, a week trip to Tokyo, and two weeks in Greece. Greece included plenty of walking, but I didn't go to the gym once while there. And now recovering from the foot infection.

I really enjoy hard workouts, and they (typically) give me energy. Without them, I feel a little blah & lower energy. That said, the lower energy is also related to the new medicine I've started, so there are lots of physical adjustments happening, at the same time my schedule has been absolutely wild. 

Unsurprisingly, I've lost no weight over the last couple of months, and I feel like I've lost muscle mass. As an impatient person (always, always impatient), I keep reminding myself that my body is going through things, and I've also had life. But, I am committed to getting back into shape & feeling more like myself. 

For visual interest, here's a photo of someone (Nick) who is very active & adventurous at the moment, preparing for a camping, climbing & backpacking trip to Yosemite. This is ultimate boy style packing. ;-) No list, just chaos. 

As my health has evolved & changed, I mentioned that I'll be "retiring" soon, and by retiring, I mean no longer having a "big career" job, but taking some time off, and then perhaps working part time, or volunteering, etc. We are lucky that we have saved a lot to prepare for this time period, and I want to make my health a top priority. That's very difficult to do with my current role (I traveled 8 times in less than a year!) & the expectations, hours, etc. I'm still finalizing details & timing of leaving, but it is in motion & conversations have begun. 

I'm looking forward to the next adventure, and taking care of my health & frequent workouts will be a core part of that "new" life. 

Would love to hear how you weave health & fitness into your life, whether you are working or retired!

Minimal Fitness Monday

 Let's just say that workouts have been hard to achieve lately, as well as few & far between. I did work out on the Saturday I flew to Tokyo, and then got in two elliptical workouts at the hotel gym before I realized I had an infection & felt unwell. 

Today was my first mini workout since I got home. I did a 30 minute slow workout on the elliptical, with shoes but no socks, to reduce friction with a shoe. I've been dying to get in some sort of a workout, so this was a little mini something.

Otherwise, I've been focused on sleeping & eating well, and have done a decent job with both. I'll be back with an actual proper fitness update next week, so fingers crossed I can get in a few more workouts, some walking, & strength training - which I'm really missing.

Hope you are all doing well with your health & fitness goals! 

Menu Plan Sunday

I have jury duty this week, although I'm already off for Monday. I'll call in each evening to find out if I need to report the following morning. It makes planning a bit challenging, thus an easy to prep & heat menu plan for the week ahead. 

• Friday - leftover Chipotle bowl (me) + shrimp (DH)
• Saturday - rotisserie chicken + grain salad
• Sunday - grilled hot dogs
• Monday - leftover rotisserie chicken + grain salad
• Tuesday - leftover hot dogs
• Wednesday -Southwest chicken skillet
• Thursday - other leftovers, or TBD
• Friday -  leftover Southwest chicken skillet

What's on your menu plan for the week? 

No Frugal Friday this week

I got home yesterday & went straight to urgent care. My left foot got infected & I have cellulitis, which isn't a huge deal, but requires antibiotics. I spent most of yesterday hanging out at urgent care, the pharmacy (a whole fiasco ensued there) & then resting with my foot elevated. 0/10, do not recommend any of this with jet lag & overall being exhausted. 

I chatted with the family yesterday & then headed to bed at 6 pm. I slept for 11.5 hours last night, so I was apparently very tuckered out. ;-) Will be back with more updates, but if you have any wins to share, please comment! I will live vicariously through all of you.

Mission accomplished, & other Tokyo things

I was able to secure a bra! One of the commenters suggested it, but Uniqlo was also recommended by a local, so I made my way there on Monday. Sam also sent a few requests, and I found some things for him. And yes, the sizing is... not even remotely close. Local helped me figure out how to translate & figure out something that would work. It's actually quite a nice bra, so maybe it will become a staple! 

I wore my very regular flats to walk to the stores, and because it was so hot & humid, my feet swelled up ... A LOT. As a result, I have two huge blisters, and it's very uncomfortable to wear any shoe. I need to find more band-aids today, but it's a busy day & I'm not super jazzed to get outside in the heat & humidity with my work clothes, makeup & presentation look to try & track down some band-aids. I am also absolutely wrecked tired. 

Practice presentation was a challenge, as the setup wasn't working & the tech support folks only spoke Japanese. We used a lot of translation apps to try & help us communicate. But, all of the practice worked, because first round of the presentations went well yesterday. Second & final round is today.

On deck for today:

• No workout, because my feet are toast with the blisters
• Morning meetings x2
• A few work projects
• Presentation
• Meeting with the skip boss
• Source band-aids
• Pack & check in for flight

Also, breakfast this morning. Fruit is again delicious. 

Tokyo time

Trip recap to far...

I slept for about an hour on the flight, but the JAL business class was better than I remembered. I didn't eat much on the flight, and by the time I was hungry, they were done with meal service. My mistake. Immigration was an absolute fiasco. Taxi line outside was hot & sweaty & also surprisingly long. I'm shocked by how many tourists there are in July - July is not a month I'd recommend to visit Japan, with the heat, rain & humidity. 

Got to the hotel & was put on a high floor (yay!), which definitely helps with sleeping, as you can hear street noise (ambulances, in particular) if you are on the lower floors. Ordered room service, unpacked & took a bath. Went to bed at 7 pm. Woke up at 3:30 am, because #jetlag.

Went to the gym, then stopped by the club lounge to get breakfast. Club access is available with my Hyatt Globalist benefits, and is super valuable. It saves me from having to do a bunch of expense reports (and, saves the company money, I suppose). The fruit was delicious. 

On the less great side, I wear a sports bra (with additional clothes over it!) when I travel on international flights, to make it more comfortable for potential naps. I've now come to realize that I forgot my bra. Folks, I have all dressy business wear & they definitely need a bra. I'm also in a place where I don't wear, shall we say, a standard Japanese bra size. Oh good lord. How is this going to go?! I need to move some meetings & find a shop that will work. Sweet mercy, wish me luck!

Saturday Happenings

 I slept well (hurrah) & got up & had a bit of time to enjoy my coffee & then get in a workout. I've just finished packing & checking over my "last minute packing" list, and am heading to the airport in 30 minutes or so. 

When I arrive in Tokyo, it will be about 3 pm local time. This is actually pretty ideal from an arrival standpoint, as I will attempt to follow my standard plan: check in, work out, unpack, eat a light dinner & head to bed. My goal will be to stay awake until 8 pm, but that will be heavily dependent upon how/if I sleep at all on a flight. I'm flying Japan Airlines, and their business class (at least on the route I'm taking) is quite a bit smaller than United, for example. They also still have the business class where someone has to climb over you to access the aisle, if you are asleep. I believe this is also the kind with an ottoman vs full lie flat, but it's been awhile since I've flown on JAL, so I can't recall all of the details. It will definitely be an improvement over the ~9ish years I had to take economy at my former job! I was able to book business only if it fit within a certain budget, so it was much more rare. I often upgraded myself, using points or personal cash.

Enough procrastinating - time to get this show on the road.

Hope everyone has a great week ahead!