Frugal Friday

 I can usually find a few wins f I think hard enough, even if I don't feel like it's a frugal week.

Saving on things we buy

• I used a $5 grocery store reward when I picked up a few items I needed for chicken fettuccine. Also, I had no idea how much heavy cream cost, as I buy it very rarely. I also earned a $.25 off your next purchase game piece. This grocery store always has some sort of a game running. 
• I used my $10 CVS monthly Extra Bucks to pick up cold medicine & Advil. The Advil had a $3 iBotta offer, as well as a flat percent off of CVS purchases (saving another whopping $.26). I paid with my credit card that was also offering 5% cash back. 

Earning money

• The teens are in their last week of work, and Nick has been working extra hours this week. 

Avoiding spending

• A neighbor was cleaning out a work supply closet, and had an unopened case of Kraft Mac & Cheese to give away. I don't buy it often, but the teens love it. She even dropped it off at our house, which was an unexpected bonus - so thoughtful.
• I got stuck in a huge construction accident & missed my workout class. I called & let them know, so they could let someone off the wait list work out. They appreciated it & didn't charge me for the missed class. 
• Used United flight credits to book travel for Sam's move in at college. For M's flight, I called & connected our reservation, which means he can sit in the much more comfortable seats for no extra fee. This is a ~$65 value. 

Eating what we have

• I had two very small raviolis for lunch one day, and added a few meatballs & two large garden tomatoes. They really do make everything better. 
• Defrosted some Dutch Crunch sandwich rolls (from a huge Too Good To Go order a while back) & made Nick a grilled cheese for a lunch, and made Sam a sandwich to take to work another day. 
• Made salads out of garden lettuce & tomatoes for my lunch each day, topped with whatever protein was on hand from leftovers. 
• Ate lots & lots & lots of garden tomatoes.
• Defrosted ciabatta rolls when I ran out of the Dutch Crunch rolls, and used those for Sam's sandwiches.

For others

• Not me, but Nick won the Presidential Volunteer Service award, for his extensive volunteer hours for the organization he volunteers for. 

What about you? Any wins to share?

Housing assignments

Sam received his college housing assignment yesterday, which is a big milestone for finalizing our plans. For OSU, the move in days are spread over three days (ending before the Saturday football game, of course, to minimize craziness) & we couldn't lock in our travel plans until he got his dorm assignment. 

It actually wasn't the dorm or area (or, room type) that he requested, but I think he's going to love it. Rather than a traditional two person room with the long hallway & shared showers for the entire floor, he'll be in a "pod", which has three rooms (2 people in each room, for a total of 6) with a shared kitchenette & bathroom. The downside is that the boys will have to clean their own bathroom/kitchenette space, and the cost was significantly higher than the dorm we requested. We were okay with him choosing from any option other than a single (mostly because we want him to meet friends & have the necessary experience of living with a roommate), but the cost is also much higher. This room is about $3k more expensive than what he requested, which shocks me. But, here we are. The college is really struggling with housing this year, and they turned the dorm he requested into economy triples. The rooms are tiny to start with, and rather than 2 planned roommates, you have three. I've seen videos & we did a walk through of this dorm in April, and I seriously can't imagine three teenage boys (or girls) in those rooms. So, it will cost a bit more, but we're all grateful he's not in the economy triple. 

I was able to book our travel for the move in dates. I'll fly in, rent a car, grab all of the stuff I've been ordering to my sister's house, and do some shopping near her house. Then drive to Corvallis & meet M & Sam, who are driving Sam's car from our house. We'll stay in a hotel nearby, and then head to the school the following morning for move in day. We'll fly home that night, so we only need Nick to stay with friends for one night. It will be a quick in & out trip, but M has plans for that weekend, and Nick isn't excited about staying over with friends during the school week. 

I'm looking forward to seeing my family again on Friday, although the logistics of this trip are pretty chaotic. I'm in & out at various places (staying 3 different places), Sam is also staying three different places & Nick is staying two different places. It will all work out, and Sam & I had to Corvallis on Monday for orientation & registration. Fingers crossed that he gets most of the classes he wants.

Here's what's on my to do list for the rest of the day:

• Stretch
• Meditate
• Water the plants
• Freeze remaining leftovers
• Clean the fridge
• Laundry
• Make Sam's lunch for tomorrow
• Help Sam with the tasks for next week
• Get started on packing
• Prep for my interview (got moved to Friday)

What about you? What are you up to today? Did you know that different dorms varied in prices by almost $7k/year at the same school?! I went to a small college & all of the dorms cost the same, so this was craziness to me. 

Tuesday things

A couple of top of mind things for me on this lovely Tuesday.

1) I finally got into the doctor about my ongoing hip/glute pain, and I have gluteal tendinopathy, which is a really long recovery injury & can be very hard to treat. I'm going to drop the frequency of my runs, reduce my pace & hope for the best. If that doesn't work, I'll be looking for further alternative options, but it's frustrating, as I've enjoyed running so much lately. I'm hoping to still be able to do the relay in a month or so, but will have to go in much less trained than I would like, keep the pace much slower, and alternate running & walking during the event. Even then, fingers crossed, as I have to do three running legs over the course of ~36 hours or so.

2) We tried the chicken rice with buttered onions recipe & it was fabulous. Highly recommend. The only swap we made was to use chicken breast instead of thighs (we didn't have any chicken thighs on hand). M mentioned that his mom makes a very similar recipe with currants, so we may experiment with adding those next time.

What's everyone else up to today? Any fun recipes to share? 

Menu Plan Monday

 Another week, and another menu plan. Hopefully I have more success than last week, as I ended up pushing a bunch of stuff to this week, and M & the boys ordered pizza while I was gone. ;-) 

• Friday - ravioli & meatballs, topped with lots of fresh garden tomatoes
• Saturday - chicken alfredo (pushed from last week)
• Sunday - grilled burgers
• Monday - leftover chicken alfredo
• Tuesday - chicken & rice dish (pushed from last week
• Wednesday - leftover burgers
• Thursday - leftover chicken & rice dish
• Friday - heading to Portland for Sam's orientation, so something at the airport

What's on your menu this week? Any fun new additions? Favorite recipe for freshly grown tomatoes? We're having lots of caprese salads, but I'm open to other options!

Sunday things

 I'm late to post, but it was a good & productive day. I went to my workout class this morning, & got through the running portion with no pain. Hurrah! I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, and am hoping to get the all clear to finish training for my relay in four weeks. Fingers crossed.

I'm also teaching Sam how to do his own laundry. He's worked his way through sheets (and, bed making) & is now into clothing separation, emptying the dryer lint trap & clothes folding. It's a journey. ;-) Let's hope all of our clothing survives the process. 

Both teens washed their cars, while M washed our car. 

Sam took his college placement math test today, and scored 98, so he can register for Differential Calculus as his first math class, which means not repeating Trigonometry (he took it in high school), so he's pleased about that. 

Nick volunteered this morning, and we are preparing some sort of family night + gift for him, as he's receiving the President's Volunteer Service Award for completing 175+ hours of volunteering. Normally, volunteers get a banquet or celebration through their service organization, but Nick volunteers for an entirely teen run & led organization, so... organizing that type of thing isn't their jam. ;-) He's also working on college essays today, which is, shall we say, not his favorite way to spend a sunny Sunday.

I worked in the yard, read by the pool, listed a few things on By Nothing, cleaned out our incoming mail tray, iced my hip, ordered college supplies (to be shipped to my sister, so we don't have to move everything), & I'm getting ready to make a caprese salad to go with the burgers M is grilling.

I know our days of all four of us being around our fleeting, and I'm making the most of it! Happy Sunday, everyone. 

A last minute trip

 First up, it's been a lovely & very busy summer. I'm trying to take advantage of my very flexible schedule, and "say yes" to more things at the moment. Particularly things I can't do when I'm employed. 

My nephew & I were very intrigued by the Mirage closing (a Las Vegas casino) & their corresponding mandatory payout of all of their slot machines. We chatted about what a fun spectacle it would be to see on Friday, laughed about it on Saturday, & then booked flights that afternoon. I had two free room offers (paid $120 in resort fees for my nephew's room). My room was at the Encore, he was at the Cosmopolitan. He covered his flight, which I believe was just over $100 (he was coming from Phoenix). I used my never ending pile of United credits, and magically got upgraded to first class both ways - bonus!

We flew out on Monday & came back on Wednesday. We had an absolutely fabulous time. The execution at the Mirage of their slot payouts was...not what I would have done, had I been them. I've done plenty of slot tournaments, and typically you get entered after spending X, or playing for Y period of time. They had no requirements that you actually had to play at any point. Your players card just needed to be in the machine at the time of the drawings. As a result, their slot machines were all taken by early morning for a 3 pm drawing. Most of their machines were already offline, and the limited ones available were taken by people who were working on laptops, ordering DoorDash, and saving machines. I didn't see a single person playing slots at any time while we were there. It was madness. We got there hours early & decided we would watch some of the craziness, & then headed over to play a bit of blackjack & pick up some commemorative $1 chips. The Mirage was the first hotel I stayed at when I went to Las Vegas many, many years ago.

I suppose you can say that the Mirage truly was a spectacle, just not in the way we were expecting. We had the best time. Great meals, so much laughing, plenty of free champagne at the hotel I was staying at, and just all of that unexpected bonus time together. It's so fun to have an adult nephew who is up for last minute trips. 

The NBA was also hosting their summer league, so there was also some celebrity spotting available. In a truly, "I feel old" moment, I got into an elevator at the same time as another young man. When we got in, another guest in the elevator asked how tall my "son" was. My "son" snorted & explained that he was 7' tall. The guest asked if he played in the NBA (he does) & then we all chatted for a few moments. I looked up the NBA player, and he's 25, so I suppose it's totally possible he could be my child. I can't imagine having a son who is 7' tall! I've never seen so many incredibly tall people all at one time. They were pretty easy to spot, even discounting their team shirts. That height is hard to miss!

10/10, would definitely do it again! What was the last impromptu decision you made that led to something really fun? 

Frugal Friday - a quick one

I was out of town unexpectedly for part of the week (more on that in another post), so I didn't do my normal process of tracking things throughout the week. Meaning, I'm having a hard time coming up with any wins this week! A few that are top of mind.

Saving on things we buy:

• I used a $5 grocery store rewards to pick up some Gatorade. My stomach felt terrible yesterday, and Gatorade sounded fantastic.
• Similarly, I had soup delivered, which is a huge indulgence, but luckily I had credit card rewards to cover all of it but $1. I ate the last of my chicken soup a few weeks ago, in a freezer clean out. Because it's been so warm, I haven't made more, but maybe I should remedy that & avoid future splurges. 

Earning money:

• The teens are working at their summer job, and Nick picked up some after camp hours, which pays extra. College money!

Avoiding spending:

• The teens made a cake for a friend's birthday, vs buying. Of course, they "cleaned up" the kitchen, but it required just a bit more work to get it back into shape. ;-) 

Eating what we have:

• We have A LOT of tomatoes from the garden. We are all doing our part eating as much as we can. They are incredible, as garden tomatoes tend to be.
• A friend dropped off two giant bags of plums from their tree. I shared some with another neighbor, and we are still working our way through the last of those.
• I made Sam a sandwich for lunch to take to work. 
• We had a combo of items for dinner last night: teens had chicken sandwiches, M had shrimp & I had leftover soup.

For others:

• Did some research for my student I'm mentoring, & got that sent off to her.

What about you? Any wins to share this week?

Menu Plan Monday

 

I took requests from each of the teens for the menu this week. Normally, no one has any ideas, but this week, everyone had a suggestion. Hurrah for crowd sourcing part of the planning!

• Friday - grilled chicken salads
• Saturday - chicken with rice & buttered onions
• Sunday - ravioli/pasta & meatballs + garlic bread
• Monday - ground beef tacos
• Tuesday - chicken alfredo
• Wednesday - leftover chicken with rice
• Thursday - leftover ravioli & meatballs
• Friday - leftover chicken alfredo

What about you? What's on your menu this week? Do you poll your diners for suggestions? Does anyone actually give you ideas? :-) 

Saturday Things

It's supposed to be a bit cooler today, and then head back into the 70s next week. I'm thrilled about this. High 70s is perfect summer weather for me - cool enough to be able to work in the yard, be outside for any number of activities, & no need for AC. Plus, still feels like summer, garden still grows, you can wear dresses or shorts, but are not sticky hot. Woohoo! The bay area has had 2 weeks of a heat wave, so I'm definitely ready to move on from that!

Sam & I made quite a bit of college progress yesterday. We reviewed some of his to dos, talked about what we still need to buy for the dorms, and we had a couple of our "talks". I have a list of topics to talk about with both boys before they move out. He is a wonderful & patient kid, and even though he is 100% opposed to drugs & alcohol (and, requested the substance free dorm), he listened to my talk about fetanyl, and also how to be on the lookout to take care of other friends, should they choose to drink. He's decided to re-take the math placement test, as he needs to score a couple of points higher to enter at the math level he'd like to be at. He did no studying for the first test, so should be able to improve his score slightly.

I had a recruiting call for a job I applied to yesterday. I wasn't sure about the job, but after the discussion, I'm definitely interested. I give it a 10% chance of panning out into an actual job offer, but I'm happy to have had the chance to learn more about the role, and also to have the opportunity to think more about what I would want from future roles. 

As for today:

• Meeting a friend for a walk. Still trying to rest my hip, so this should be low impact. I'm excited to catch up with this friend, as she moved to Boulder, and is just in town for a short period of time.
• Help Nick with essays.
• Continue working on college stuff with Sam.
• Daily chores: meditate, Farsi, journal
• Work in the yard, and help M figure out how to keep the squirrels & rabbits out of our garden. Yesterday they somehow managed to pull an enormous butternut squash off of the vine! I need to set up a video, because I'm fascinated to know how they did it. They must have worked as a team!
• Pickle jalapenos. The critters do not like the spicy things, so I have a huge abundance of peppers, who have been loving this heat wave.
• If no one will be home for dinner, date with M. It's always a mystery to know if any teens will be home. Often none. Sometimes one or both, sometimes they bring a friend. Planning meals here is an adventure. ;-) 
• Apply to a couple of jobs.
• Stretch & ice my hip

What about you? What are you up to today?

Frugal Friday

Recapping the second half of our Lake Tahoe trip, as well as the rest of the week. 

Saving on things we buy

• We'd planned on a nicer dinner on the way to Lake Tahoe, but Nick got off of work late, and the traffic was a hot mess (emphasis on hot, as it was 110 for a lot of the drive). We stopped for gas at Costco, and the boys decided a Costco food court dinner would be fine. Unfortunately, this was one of the rare Costco's near us with an outdoor food court. Very much not fun given the heat, but we all ate quickly & got back into the car. Also, dinner for five (including 3 teens) for under $25. 
• I used a couple of free offers at the grocery store (free avocado & some sort of free soda), as well as two iBotta offers on Tyson chicken. I bought four packages of chicken tenders (great to have on hand when we have unexpected teens over for dinner). Two of the packages were the largest/family sized portions, and two were the smaller sized. I saved $22 from iBotta, on a purchase of $64. Other things I purchased: two Gatorades for Nick this week (still supposed to be 90+, and he's working outside), brioche hamburger & hot dog buns, two containers of juice to make smoothies, a bunch of parsley, & green onions. 

Earning money

• Completed a few survey screens, and qualified for two health care surveys. Once paid, they will pay out $80.
• Completed a financial plan through my broker, for a $25 reward. 

Avoiding spending

• Used Starbucks rewards to buy myself a free coffee at the hotel. 
• The boys each passed various AP exams, which for Sam translates into 12 credits as OSU. Nick isn't sure where he will be next year, but is also likely to earn 12 credits from the school he attends. This also means that Sam isn't registering as a freshman with no credit, so will have a slight priority over other freshman (with no credits) when he registers for classes in a few weeks. Graduating in 4 years would be extremely frugal. 

Eating what we have

• Brought snacks for Nick & his friends to have in the hotel room, which is always cheaper than buying at the hotel shop or going out. 
• We've been eating plenty of our garden produce, and I'm thrilled to finally have strawberries! And tomatoes. Both of those are incredible fresh, and so much less so when purchased from a store. 
• Used up the rest of the bag of frozen cranberries in muffins.
• Inspired by my cranberry muffins & freezer progress, I defrosted all of the overly ripe bananas & made a double batch of banana muffins.
• Remembered that I bought a bag of buffalo chicken flavored meatballs way back, & haven't used them. Added them as the protein to my lunch salad.
• I'm making good progress on my goal of avoiding bagged salad kits, and making my own salads at home. The nicer dressing & sunflower seeds definitely help with this. I've been adding tomatoes & peppers from the garden. 

For others 

• Had another call with the student I'm mentoring for the college counseling program, and wrote up my monthly progress reports for the same program. 

What about you? Any wins to share?

What is your most common grocery splurge

Just for fun, as I was thinking about this myself yesterday. I'd say our two most commonly purchased grocery items that are not part of a menu plan are.... Persian cucumbers from Trader Joes, and sparkling water. 

Nick eats cucumber every day, if we have it. He loves it with salt, or hummus. He can go through a package of the TJ's cucumbers in one sitting, so it can add up. There is a TJs in the same complex as my workout studio, so I pick him up fresh cucumbers regularly. Sometimes 2x/week. We've had mixed success growing cucumbers in our garden, as a temporary replacement... I'd say we spend $10/week on cucumbers, which is nuts. We would cut that out if we needed to, and some weeks the cucumbers don't look good, and/or I forget to run out & restock. But, I like that his favorite food is a healthy snack, so I do keep them on hand often. Whenever he visits family, they always have a to of cucumber for him. ;-)

Our second splurge is sparkling flavored water (bubly, La Croix, etc). We buy it on sale & stock up when it's at a good discount, but it's still quite pricey. I treat myself to one every day after my workout. I got into this type of drink at work (they were free), so it's my treat to myself to keep them at home. Unfortunately, the teens also love them, so they will definitely go through them frequently, especially in the hot weather. I tend to spend about $6/week on the sparkling water, and again, would/could cut it out if we needed to.

What about you? What's your most frequent "splurge" or regular purchase at the grocery store? 

Wednesday happenings

Sam is off of work this week, so we are trying to get some college stuff done. Yesterday he wrote all of his thank you notes for graduation, and then uploaded his ID & photos to the college, got his AP scores sent in & verified that his high school sent his transcript. He needs to take his math placement test today. He's opting out of the language placement test, and will be taking Spanish. He's had three years of Spanish, but some of that was middle school, and a lot of it during COVID on Zoom calls, so I do think a refresher will be valuable, and he'd be very unlikely to place out of the college classes. I also ordered him some dorm supplies (mattress topper, sheet set, comforter & towel set). Those are all being sent to my sister, to make logistics easier. 

In exciting news, Sam & Nick both did really well on their AP tests, so Sam will earn 12 credits from OSU for those tests. That will help a lot with registration timing (he gets to register ahead of a freshman with no credits), as well as saving some money. We don't know where Nick will end up, but I estimated using OSU's AP information and Nick would earn 12 credits if he attended OSU. All colleges handle the tests slightly different but passing the AP calculus test will save him a year of math for sure. 

I've got either a strain or a tear in my hip flexor, and need to avoid running for at least a week (combined with lots of icing & rest). I'm not great at mandatory workout breaks, but I also know that my relay is coming up in six weeks, and I need to take this seriously to avoid further problems. I had to stop in the middle of a run yesterday, because the pain was really intense. 

I made this baked zucchini dish twice this week, and it's delicious. Highly recommend, if you have surplus garden zucchini. 

Here's what's on the list today:

• Walk (hopefully that won't bother my hip, but I'm not planning to go very far). Drop off thank you notes at the mail box.
• Ice my hip
• Prep for volunteer call
• Prep for recruiting call on Friday
• Get Sam to take his math placement test
• Laundry
• Daily chores (Farsi, journal, meditate)
• Work in the yard before it gets too hot
• Pay a bill for special needs aunt & get reimbursed (this is an ongoing problem that we are trying to resolve, unsuccessfully, as we set everything up for auto bill pay, and it keeps getting rejected)
• Read by the pool
• Dust

What about you? What are you up to today? 

Menu Plan Monday

 

• Friday - We were super late getting the teens picked up from a golfing event, so we didn't end up having dinner. M & I had a cocktail & snack earlier in the day, and the teens ended up grabbing Subway. 
• Saturday - everyone was really hungry for lunch on Saturday (skipped dinner on Friday), so we stopped on the drive & ate at Old Spaghetti Factory. It was the perfect place to serve teens. We had those leftovers for dinner. I served M's & Nick's with leftover meatballs that needed to be used up. 
• Sunday - steak with chimichurri sauce & zucchini fritters (using up garden items, minus the steak ;-)
• Monday - hot dogs (freezer) & fruit salad
• Tuesday - carnitas (freezer) tacos/taco salads
• Wednesday - chicken fajitas (freezer). I think this might be the last of the fajitas we froze. We made a triple batch when my parents were in town (we were feeding seven people & expected their to be leftovers, but.... it's been a ton!) 
• Thursday - leftover carnitas
• Friday - wings & potstickers. Or, any remaining leftovers

What's on your menu for the week?