August goals check in

I cannot believe another month is wrapping up! This month was filled with lots of adventures! My parents were in town for a week, the kids went back to school, & completed my relay (woohoo!), and spent some time preparing for the craziness of back to school.

1) Financial - 

• Finalize investments & budget from post rental house sale - I have handled some of this. I've been waiting to get our tax stuff sorted, but have done a couple of investment transfers. 
• Finalize our budget list for our (new) house - Yes, this is done. I am also using this to work through our 2018 budget. 
• Find one alternative cost cutting option - I can't think of anything?
• Sell another $100 of items on either eBay or my local Facebook swap site. - Nope. Sold nothing. 

2) Family - Spend more time together as a family!

• Find a nanny!! I've interviewed 15+ people. We don't need that many hours (between 10-15/week), so this is a really hard role to fill, unfortunately. - Yes! And, she seems great so far. 
• Do a minimum of one fun activity/month with the kids. This can be family puzzle night, cooking dinner together, board games, going out somewhere, etc. - We hung out by the pool a few afternoons, and had a few Sorry tournaments. 
• Be more present with the kids & M - play games, minimize computer time, exercise together, etc. - Mostly, yes!
• More decluttering & organizing in our new house (would like to get the boys closet shelving installed, so they can put away/organize all of their games & toys) - Nope. This one remains. 

3) Fitness/health - Lose 4 pounds in August

• 30 miles of pace training for my relay - Yes!
• Stay focused on my fitness, despite all of the many trips - Not as much as I'd like, but I did okay. 
• Eat five servings of fruit & vegetables (combined) per day - I hit 4/day, which is a good improvement. I'd love to see 5!
• Complete 1000 minutes of cardio - Finishing the month with 830 minutes. 
• Complete 6 strength workouts. - 6 strength workouts complete!
• Complete 6 stretching workouts - I finished with 4 stretching workouts
• Successfully complete my relay at pace time (or below) - yes!!! 

4) Work/career - Improve my work life balance.

• Keep better perspective at work/reduce stress  - this is a particularly crazy work week, but overall I've done well with this. 
• Work from home 2x this month. - Yes
• Brainstorm how I would spend my time if I wasn't working. Really think creatively about what this would mean, what the challenges would be, etc. - Haven't done this, & I need to!

5) Personal/creative - Spend more time on myself/creative pursuits.

• Try a new recipe using my new crockpot - Nope, didn't get it it. Hoping to try a few things out this weekend. 
• Do something social at least once per month. - Yes! i had my relay, which involved spending 20+ hours in a van with friends & family. ;-) 
• Volunteer a minimum of 1x/month. - This didn't happen this month. I did increase my charitable giving, as a few things came up, but no actual volunteering. I need to get back into the rhythm of volunteering on Friday afternoons. 

That's it for me! Overall, I'm happy with my progress in August. What about you? How did you do with your goals? 

A relay complete, and a scrambled menu plan

Over the weekend, I completed our annual relay with my family. I do two legs - one 7 miler & one 8 miler. The 7 miler was in the late afternoon, but my 8 miler was at 3:00 am, in the pitch black, in the middle of the wilderness. It was a little freaky!

I managed to stick exactly to my pace time, which, given the distance, is pretty great. I was actually 6/10 of one second over my pace time, after 7 miles. I'll take it! About as precise as you can be.

I have some plans to amp up my training earlier in the year next year, as I hope to shave off 30 seconds/mile. We shall see. Our team placed in the top 6% of all teams. We have 4 people over 60, a 15 year old, and a variety of people in between. The fact that we all train hard & place high is my big motivator for taking it seriously & training. Who wants to let down their 62 year old uncle, who calls the relay his best weekend of the year? ;-)

Anyway, I'm back now &, as I didn't cook over the weekend, it will be a wild ride to get dinner on the table every night.

• Monday - tonight we had spaghetti & meatballs. The adults had homemade pesto on their pasta
• Tuesday - leftover kebabs, rice & Greek yogurt sauce
• Wednesday - Sam's first cross country meet, so we'll be home late. Baked chicken & gyozas (both from freezer)
• Thursday - back to school night at Nick's school. I'll defrost the quiche we have in the freezer. 
• Friday - homemade naan pizzas
• Saturday - My picky eater (Nick) will be out of town, so I think we'll go out to Vietnamese food with Sam. (I'll also pre-make a meal for midweek, to ensure we don't run out of food!)
• Sunday - I'm planning to make soup (crockpot) & homemade rolls. Recipes still TBD

I'm hoping to use the long weekend to get some additional freezer meals prepped, as we are all heading to Portland the following weekend for my aunt's wedding. My aunt is my mom's sister, and she's been mentally disabled since she was a child, and has the emotional maturity of a 10 year old or so. She's now in her early sixties, and is getting married (first time). Too say she is thrilled would be a giant under statement. It's actually quite a bit for flights for four, as our schedule is really fixed due to work. But, we're making it happen. It's really important for her that we attend, so we are flying in late on Friday, and returning on Sunday afternoon. It will be a bit of a whirlwind.

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

Turning back on commenting authentication

Sorry, all. I tried to allow for non authenticated users to comment on my blog, and I get about 15-20 spam comments each day for each real comment. I'm going back to the old way. Apologies, as I know it cuts down on authentic comments from real readers. :-(

Recipe pricing & price per serving

It's been a long time since I've priced out a recipe, but was I'm trying to expand our horizons & integrate the boys choices into the menu more, I thought it would be helpful to try out.

Per Sam's request, I made this lasagna recipe.

Menu costing:

• Sliced fresh mozzarella - $7.69 (1/2) = $3.85
• Cottage cheese - $4.99 (3/4) = $3.74
• Ground beef - $5.69 
• Pasta sauce (free - leftover from my parents)
• Lasagna noodles (free - leftover from my parents)
• 1/2 onion - $.40? Not sure, haven't priced them in a while. 

Total I spent on this recipe = $13.68

I made a few tweaks to the recipe, as follows:

• Added the onion to the ground beef when browning it
• Stretched the recipe to make 2 smaller pans (4x4s), one for immediate eating, and the second for the freezer
• Used the majority of a large tub of cottage cheese, as we already had it, and it helped expand the dish to 2 pans.
• Ditto on the mozzarella. I used a full loaf of fresh mozzarella, minus 2 small slices. 
• I didn't price out the things that were already in my pantry from my parents visit. However, for completeness when purchasing everything from scratch, let's say $2 for the noodles & $2.50 for the pasta sauce

I expect this will yield 10 individual servings with my changes, which puts it at a price per serving of $1.37 (rounded up). If I had bought all of the ingredients (adding $4.50 as noted above), brings the cost up to $1.81. Of course, one of the reasons I chose this recipe was to use up lasagna noodles left in my cupboard. :-)

Additionally, there are ways to bring the cost down pretty substantially:

-Find a cheaper source for ground beef (all of the ingredients really, but this one stands out as I had to buy it at the grocery store vs my way less expensive typical Costco purchase)

-Reduce the cheese & mozzarella

-Add extra veggies to the sauce to round it out

-Make my own pasta sauce

I didn't plan this recipe with any particular price per serving in mind, but it was super helpful to shop for all of the ingredients, and then price it out afterward. I'm going to have to continue to do this to determine the right price points for more of our dinners. What about you? Do you price out your recipes? What price per meal or serving do you aim for?  

Menu Plan

Here's what's on our menu for the week ahead. I typically cook a bigger meal on Friday, Saturday, & Sunday & then we have leftovers during the week, plus one quickly assembled freezer meal. Unfortunately, I didn't make enough naan pizza on Friday - every one disappeared! I need to adjust quantities a bit, now that the boys are eating more.

• Saturday: tacos + chips & guacamole
• Sunday: lasagna 
• Monday: homemade mac & cheese (if I can get it assembled this weekend) + grilled chicken
• Tuesday: leftover lasagna
• Wednesday: leftover mac & cheese + chicken
• Thursday: I'll be out of town (relay), so the boys will have spaghetti & meatballs
• Friday: I'll be out of town (relay), so the boys will have pizza (from the freezer)
• Saturday: I'll be out of town (relay), so the boys will have any leftovers, or may go out to Sweet Tomatoes. A wild Saturday night. ;-) 
• Sunday: I'll be flying in late afternoon, so I'm hoping M will grill kebabs.

In addition the dinners listed above, I pre-prepped some breakfasts for Sam. He needs to be out of the house earlier in the morning, so we're experimenting with different prep ahead breakfast options. This weekend I also made:

• Breakfast burritos
• Breakfast sandwiches
• Chicken stock (just with leftovers from the freezer/fridge). Finally got the time to make it happen, and I needed to clean out the freezer! I freeze it in 1.5c portions for our favorite risotto.
• These granola bars
• As well as these  granola bars. (I'm not sure what I did wrong, but they are too sticky/soft. Not great for a lunchbox.)

And, what we bought at Costco this week:

• 2% milk - $4.69
• Peaches - $8.99
• Pears - $5.99
• Honeydew - $2.99
• Two dozen eggs - $13.99
• Strawberries - $4.99
• Plums - $6.49
• Cucumbers (x2) - $3.49
• Sliced fresh mozzarella - $7.69
• Red seedless grapes - $7.49
• Pineapple - $2.99
• Canadian bacon - $9.99
• Cottage cheese - $4.99
• Butter - $11.99
• Bananas - $1.39
• Blueberries - $3.99
• English muffins - $6.99
• Baguette - $4.99
• Broccoli - $5.29
• Bananas (organic) - $1.99

Total for Costco  = $124.82. (All other ingredients we have in the freezer, pantry, fridge, etc). Most fruit/vegetables are for snacking & salads.

M did this shop, so a few takeaways. . . 

1. Eggs are insanely expensive. I'm going to need a new source, when we're prepping meals in batches. . .  $7/dozen?!!
2. The broccoli was also crazy expensive, and we should have picked it up at the produce stand.
3. The mozzarella wasn't a bad deal per oz, but we needed less & I could have gotten it at the store (in a smaller size). It would have been more per oz, but we would have used it all. Now I need to make sure I use all of this. 

After realization #1, and realizing we had no ground beef in the freezer (and, we *always* have ground beef in the freezer), I went to the local grocery store to pick up a few morethings:

• Unplanned - A box of tea (12 count) clearanced for - $.10 (caramel apple - not my favorite, but a super inexpensive treat)
• Also unplanned - Organic ranch dressing for $.57. I planned to make my own, but saw this & thought the price was good enough to try for an upcoming recipe
• Elbow macaroni - $.99
• Ground beef - $5.69 (the price was supposed to be $3.99, so I was not happy. The sign was very misleading)
• A dozen eggs - $1.79
• Neufchatel cheese - $1.99

Total spend at the grocery store = $11.13

I also needed avocados, and they didn't have any at the produce stand. Instead, I picked up a bag of 4 at Trader Joes for $4.99

And, my final stop was the produce stand:

• 5 tomatoes - $1.66 
• 2 lbs of mini cucumbers - $3.30
• A huge head of cauliflower - $.99
• An enormous green pepper (I used the rest of mine from the garden in my breakfast burritos) - $.72
• A container of organic strawberries -  $.99

Total spent at the produce stand = $7.66

All told, I spent $148.60 for a week's worth of groceries, plus some items to stock the freezer. I haven't done this kind of total in a while, & it's a good way to check out how I'm doing, areas to trim back, etc. What about you? How much do you typically spend in a week? Do you price out your recipes? That's another thing I haven't done in a long time & should start doing!

What I do when it all gets to be too much

You can fill in your own blanks about what "too much" is, but for me, right now, it's all of the anger/fighting/terrorism, as well as the way people treat each other "online", behind their anonymous names. I'm not going to talk about any of that (this is a safe space :)), but it has been getting me down, & making me feel helpless. So, here's my approach to how I handle situations like this.

1. I go outside. Sunshine is good for the soul.
2. I work out. The endorphins are also good for you. Bonus points if you can combine #1 & #2. Also, at least one day a week, I try to work out until exhaustion, vs just a quick go at it.
3. I talk to my friends. Either via text, email, or even better. . . in person.
4. I plan a fun event. Right now, I have two exciting things on the calendar. My family relay is next weekend, & then I have a trip to Hawaii in October with M. Sometimes I just need a few minutes to do some fun planning about my events, or just think about the activities.
5. I cook. Or bake. And get organized. A feeling of helplessness on world events pushes me to want to have more control over our family life. This week, that's translated into: making chicken broth, two batches of granola bars, & breakfast burritos. And, the day is young. :-) I'll report back on any big recipe wins.
6. I do yoga, or deep breathing.
7. Probably obvious, but I don't touch any social media or news. I take a media break. 
8. I try to eat well (lots for fresh fruit/vegetables). Combined with a glass or two of wine on weekend evenings.
9. I do something kind for others, as often as the opportunities present themselves. Small things are great! Not everything has to be a huge, meaningful thing. A few examples from the past few weeks: made a conscious effort to smile at strangers, visited a neighbor who lost her spouse, offered a ride to my friend's son when I knew her schedule was crazy, donated extra school supplies when I found bonus stuff in our house, brought in extra yard produce to my coworkers, and treated my nephew to concert tickets that he really wanted but couldn't afford for his birthday. Doing these things remind me of how it feels to help/give, and also hopefully gives someone else just a small positive boost in their day as well.
10. I hug my kids. And husband. Even when they are annoying me, frustrating me, and I feel stressed out by the world. I'm doing my best to raise kind & thoughtful kiddos. Hugs are never out of place, and remind them that we love them. Even when they've spilled all of their breakfast on the floor while I'm my way out the door. ;-) 

I'd love to hear how you deal with everything, and your methods for dealing with stressful situations. Please share!

Frugal Friday

It was a bit of a "slow" week for frugal things, as we are just getting our new routine sorted out with the start of school. But, we did have a few wins!

• Cancelled our Starwood Amex. Now that Costco no longer takes Amex, it's not worth the $95 membership fee. 
• Moved some of my savings to a higher yield account. It's not very accessible, but the interest rate is significantly better. This will generate a minimum of $600 in difference.
• Menu planned for the week, including a "freezer cleanup night" (Thursday), which included baked chicken, & various other items we'd purchased & not used for a pool party.
• Extended library books that we weren't done with, & returned the rest just in the nick of time before accruing a fine. 
• Ate all meals at home (exceptions for free meals provided at work for lunch). 

What about you? Any big frugal wins this week? 

The pantry challenge

Every few months or so, I try to inventory my pantry, determine what I have too much of, and make a concerted effort to use up those ingredients. Unfortunately, in our new house, the pantry is poorly laid out. We have plans to modify the shelving, which will help tremendously with the ability to view more of the pantry inventory. For now, things keep just getting overlooked & pushed to the back. Hence the pantry challenge!

I like the challenge of identifying a few ingredients that really need to go, and focusing on using up just those items. So, for this month's pantry challenge, I'd like to use up the following:

• An enormous (25 oz) jar of green olives. Side note: what was I thinking?
• 1/3 or so of a package of chocolate breakfast cereal. This is nothing we would allow the boys for breakfast, but I'm open to using it in something a little more snack like. One of our house guests brought this.
• The end of a bag of pretzel chips.
• Two 1/2 used boxes of lasagna noodles
• A 1/2 bag of pine nuts
• Most of a container of almonds
• Most of a container of cashews . . . see any themes?
• A few bits & bobs of trail mix
• Most of a large bag of sourdough stuffing. 
• An unopened jar of Nutella

A random mix of ingredients, for sure! I would definitely like to make granola, so the nuts will help with that. I have a great Nutella brownie recipe, and I'm thinking lasagna for the lasagna noodles. I know, super creative. I'll have to give some thought to the rest.

What about you? Do you have regular targeted pantry clean outs? Do you enjoy the challenge, or loathe the concept? I'm in the former camp, although usually start to drag after the first few "wins". 

How to stay motivated, & the $100K goal

As I've mentioned before, I've struggled a bit with my motivation to keep churning away at work, after the sale of our rental house. However, I've set a timeline that works best with our family finances, as well as my particular work situation. (Q4 is our craziest time of the year, and I'd prefer not to leave my team stranded at such a critical juncture. Despite really dreading another Q4. :-( )

I will try to limit travel as much as feasible, but it looks like I have a minimum of two international trips left before I wrap up.

With that, I'm trying to stay focused & motivated. By working these last few months (or, 162 days. . . but who's counting?), I can save up extra money that will cover some of our expenses, and help us transition from a very high income/dual earner family to just M working. (My longer term goals are fuzzy, but will likely involve working part-time, for substantially less). This last $100K will preserve more of our savings, and allow me more flexibility in my longer term work decisions, which definitely feels like a big win.

As such, to keep my eye on the prize & maintain motivated, my goal is to save $100K between now & the end of January, 2018. Why that amount? Three reasons -  1) it's a nice round number, 2) appears to be in scope assuming no other major financial outlays, and 3) allows me to cover a variety of upcoming expenses in the months ahead.

I won't get into the nitty gritty of where the money will come from (long story short - a combination of savings from my salary, my stock option vests, and my 2017 bonus - which is paid out in January of 2018). I did think it would be helpful to outline where that $100K will go:

• $5,000 will go into our travel fund to pay for the remainder of our trip to Hawaii in October. We've paid for our airfare, airfare for my parents to our house to watch the kiddos, & a hotel deposit so far. 
• $62,000 will go to state taxes, for the capital gains on the sale of our rental house. Sigh. By paying in 2017, it reduces our federal taxes owed in 2018. (Or, that's what our accountant said, so I'm just going with it).
• $33,000 will go towards our property taxes on our current home. It's unclear when we will get this bill (the assessor's office predicts 9 months from purchase, which would put us in November). And, this is an estimate, as they were unable to accurately predict our property taxes. Our county has a bizarre calculation, but it's anchored in the purchase price, so this feels accurate.

So, a bunch of money spent on taxes, and a tiny amount spent on a fun vacation. At least I'm building in a little fun in there. :-) 

I'll provide regular updates, and need to keep our money in check for the remaining few months in order to achieve this goal. I want to ensure I don't stray off of our budget in the upcoming months, as every dollar will count when I leave my job!

What about you? Any big goals you are currently using to motivate yourself to keep your eye on the prize? 

A time for new routines & recipes

It's going to be interesting this year, with the boys at two separate schools. One has an early dismissal day (Tuesdays) & the other has a late start day (Wednesdays). I did manage to arrange soccer carpools, so that should help. Sam also wants to try out some new clubs & activities (you know, as a new middle schooler! ;-), so that may add some extra wrinkles. Details on that still coming, as they haven't announced the schedule yet for after school activities.

As part of a new season, we try to review our routine (see above) to determine the hot spots, and coordinate rides, nannies, & work schedules. We also review the boys chores & determine if we need to make any adjustments. We know that Sam is taking an advanced math class, so we will likely need to free up more evening time for homework. That means he'll likely pick up a few additional weekend chores.

Speaking of chores, our boys are 10 & 11. Here's the current list of chores they currently manage. (They split them, for the most part, by day to account for sports practice).

• Setting the table
• Watering plants 
• Bringing in the mail
• Making lunches (we're about 1/2 way there)
• Cutting fruit for breakfast
• Putting away their laundry & keeping their rooms cleaned
• Taking the garbage & recycling out (as needed)
• Taking the garbage/recycling/yard waste to the curb on garbage day
• Making a salad (this is usually in the winter, when they don't have to water the plants & have more evening time)
• Shower (not technically a chore, but they feel like it is ;-))
• Homework (again, not a chore, but their top priority every day)
• Empty backpacks, bring any paperwork for us, bring their lunch bags to the counter & put all dirty containers in the dishwasher 
• On weekends, the boys help with ad hoc chores such as yard work, and pool maintenance.

I would like both boys to be more involved in meal planning & selection. I have one who eats almost anything, & one who is still exceptionally picky about food not being "mixed". This has been a challenge for meal planning & cooking in general, but we continue to get better, & he knows he can always heat up anything in the fridge, and/or make his own pasta if dinner isn't something he will eat. *I* don't make separate meals. I'd like for this to evolve as he gets older, but it's our current operating principle.

As for new recipes, I'd like to get Sam (the non-picky eater) more involved in selecting recipes, and potentially helping more with the prep & assembly. Mornings are getting crazier (middle school hours), so I'm considering making breakfast burritos & breakfast sandwiches with him this weekend for the freezer, and seeing if that helps us get out the door a bit faster. I'll report back on any successful breakfast freezer meals. 

What about you? Any great breakfast recipes you can recommend? Particularly those that can be prepped in advance/frozen? He likes to eat a full breakfast (eggs, starch, fruit), but would be open to anything particularly filling. How often do you review your routines & schedules at your house? 

The first day of school

It always represents a fresh start, fresh energy, new supplies, new friends, & a return to routine. Today we have a newly minted middle schooler (6th grade) & a 5th grader. They are both excited & nervous, but the middle schooler is particularly nervous. I'm nervous as well, as the school district does not provide transportation. This means biking across major roads to get to & from school every day. My dad took Sam on multiple practice rides last week, and we've discussed safety at great length, but . . . it's still hard to trust that everything will go well.

I finally found a great nanny, but am on my own this week (she starts next week). That means juggling the schedule to accommodate soccer & carpools, but I'm looking forward to getting the routine going, & ensuring everyone gets where they need to be every day.

We also dusted off our chore chart last night, and made adjustments to the list of responsibilities. The boys were very animated when discussing who would water our outside plants. Apparently, that is the chore that takes the longest, amongst the entire list. Who knew? ;-)

I have a variety of financial tasks to tackle this week, which should take up most of my free time. Here's what's on the list for the week:

• Finalize all schedule details (including soccer carpools)
• Test out our new crock pot!
• Determine final tax numbers for our rental house sale (working with an accountant)
• Call about a potential deck expansion at our vacation house
• Call our primary bank about a higher yield account option
• Investigate a back door IRA
• A few speed workouts for my relay (in less than 2 weeks)
• List a bunch of workout DVDs on my local Facebook sale site.

If I get those tasks done, I'll be happy! 

What about you? Do you have kids going back to school? What are you hoping to accomplish this week? 

Menu Plan Saturday

I'm taking my parents to the airport shortly, and trying to get prepped for the week ahead. I just received details of the boys practice schedules & field locations, as well as details for school next week. I'm trying hard to get prepared & ready for the craziness that awaits the start of a new school year. Particularly a new school year with the kids at different schools.

In amazing news, I found a nanny! She's great, and was just hired as a kindergarten assistant at our local school. She needs two weeks to give her notice at her other job, as well as do some training, but after that, I'll be back to having a nanny. I'm so relieved!

As for a menu for the week, here's what I'm thinking:

Saturday - Risotto
Sunday - kebabs & rice
Monday - leftover pizza
Tuesday - leftover risotto
Wednesday - leftover kebabs
Thursday - slow cooker baked ziti
Friday - leftover ziti

I bought a new crock pot, so I'm hoping to make at least one crock pot meal this week. If you have any great crock pot/slow cooker recipes to share, I'd love to hear about them!

Frugal Friday

It's been so fabulous to have my parents here this week. They've been so helpful (cooking, cleaning, laundry, & getting the boys around to their activities).

• Purchased Starbucks gift cards (I go to Starbucks only when traveling for work or on vacation) & earned $30 of credit for my local grocery store
• My parents will likely make several stops at the grocery store next week when they are staying (they typically cook), so I will leave the $30 credit for them to use while there here.
• Remembered to call our rental property insurance company & let them know our house is sold. Will be receiving a check for $108. Woohoo! Free money I wasn't expecting. :-) 
• Made all meals at home while I was solo this weekend. Included dusting off chicken from the freezer that no one really liked the first time I made it. I made some tweaks & it was totally fine. 
• When I was cleaning Sam's closet last weekend, I discovered that his Boy Scout uniform shirt was pretty much destroyed. I'm thinking a combination of sap & campfire. I washed it four times, & was planning to give up. (They are pretty persnickety about a clean uniform). I happened to be on our local neighborhood swap, and a neighbor was giving away a brand new shirt, same size as my son's. What are the odds?! This is about a $25 shirt. 
• Made six dozen muffins & a batch of protein balls, to stock the freezer & ensure everyone has easy snacks & breakfast items.
• Made dinner on Sunday, when we had guests in town. Kept it pretty simple (spaghetti & meatballs, garlic bread, & salad). The majority of the dinner was made with pantry/freezer items, and the salad I purchased.
• Used Rite Aid rewards to buy everyone ice cream (does your Rite Aid have a Thrifty ice cream shop inside? If not, you are missing out!)

Overall, I'm feeling pretty good about how we did with the week. How about you? Any frugal wins?