Frugal Friday File 2019, week 48...

Successes:
1.  I volunteered to decorate the office for Christmas, and I spent not one penny.  I found everything I needed in my stash of decorations.  Two wreaths, 2 over-the-door wreath hangers, a grouping of 3 trees (about 4ft, 3 ft, and 2 ft), 3 strings of LED battery-operated lights, a huge glass cylinder vase, river rocks for the bottom of vase, a realistic battery-operated candle for vase, yards of burlap to wrap all the office planters, white tulle to make bows for all that burlap, white cardstock and 3 sizes of snowflake punches to make a blizzard worth of flakes, fishing line to string all the snowflakes on to hang in front of the windows, a tall wooden angel, a large wooden 'J' and 'Y' with a small wreath in between them to make the word 'JoY', and a Norfolk pine.  This sounds like a lot, but really it is pretty understated divided among the separate rooms.  I do need some AA batteries, but I have a 'source' that can give me enough to keep my battery-operated light strands powered through the holidays.  

2.  Kasey & Beau brought over Thanksgiving dinner for Carey & I on Monday.  We were supposed to have our Thanksgiving with them last Sunday.  However, Carey had to go to the ER...TWICE(!)...on Sunday.  (Definitely not frugal, but when my extremely healthy, no-med husband says he needs to go to the ER, I took him without question.)  He is much better, and back at work.  And we enjoyed the dinner delivery!  

3.  Two ebooks, that I've been on the library wait list for, got delivered.  

4.  Completing surveys for free fountain drinks at Sonic.

5.  No need to fill up the car.  How often and fervently can I say how much I love my incredibly short work commute?!

Saturday:  Jambalaya
Sunday:  breakfast for dinner
Monday:  leftovers
Tuesday:  meatloaf, baked potato, broccoli, green beans
Wednesday:  *burger
Thursday:  leftovers
Friday: baked potato

Number of individual servings made and frozen for work lunches this week:  6

(*not-frugal takeout or dinner out)

Frugal Friday File 2019, week 47...

I haven't felt very frugal lately, hence the lack of Frugal Friday posts.  But I'm transitioning, so I'm cutting myself some slack.

I took the new job with four goals in mind.  

1. Having group medical insurance available to me if Carey decides to retire now that he is of an age that he could.
2. Having a higher salary so that my Social Security income will be increased when I am able to start claiming it.
3. Putting as much money into retirement savings as possible before we have to start taking it out.
4. Saving funds for two large home improvement projects that will enhance the sale of our home when we decide to downsize: new roof and new floors.  (And doing them well ahead of planned sale--years down the road--so that we will get to enjoy them while we are still here!)

We are making a start on the objectives we can.

Successes:
1.  I've been putting money in savings for awhile now, knowing that our roof needs replacing.  Though we are looking at having it done in a year or so, Carey decided to get a bid on it so we have an idea of what we will be facing.  For a metal roof, they quoted a price of $75,000!  That is over two times what our first house cost...the whole house, not just the roof!  They said it was because with all the dormers/gables on our house, there would be a lot of forced waste of the metal roofing material.  For a standard roof, I believe the quote was for $45,000...still staggering.

Yeah.  I don't have anywhere near that much saved.  So I will continue saving from Carey's income as I have been...add a hefty percentage of my own income...and not rely on the first quote we got, but have a few other companies look at it and give us estimates!

2.  I set my 401k contribution at 25% of my salary (making sure that wouldn't put me over the annual maximum contribution for someone my age).  

3.  I found a free Kindle book that interested me.  Usually the free ones are not to my interest, but this one is an actual diary of a holocaust survivor.  I almost clicked buy on another, but passed on it, as the topic sounded appealing, but the reviews weren't great...and it was $1.99...so kept those 2 bucks in my pocket.
  

4.  Scraping the bottom of the pan with all of my makeup lately.  I believe I will use a pointy object to scrape the edges loose to make it more easily reached by my brushes.  I have replacements at the ready, but want to use up every bit first.

5.  Almost two weeks, and still on the same tank of gas.  I use more out for fun after work than I do getting to/from, but I've been running the grandgirls around a bit.  Loving the quick trip to work...especially when I look back on the days I used to have to fill up twice a week!

Saturday:  breakfast for dinner
Sunday:  Sunday family supper at Kasey & Beau's
Monday:  15 bean soup w/ Cheddar bay biscuits
Tuesday:  *chicken
Wednesday:  *Hot and Sour Soup
Thursday:  *Tex-Mex
Friday: leftovers

Number of individual servings made and frozen for work lunches this week:  2

(*not-frugal takeout or dinner out)

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker

Terra from Terra Garden, a self-described bookaholic, recently described Miss Hargreaves as "so amazing and original" that it made her list of 20 top favorite all time novels she's read.  So of course I had to promptly go track down a used copy.  :)

Weekending...

Yippee!  Finally all the books are read and all the states are filled in!

The laundry is done and work clothes for the week are ready.

A free program at the library was attended, which was very exciting, because I had been on the waiting list, and only realized at the very last moment that a cancellation had made room for me.

Dessert was made and taken to the family supper, where three games of Yahtzee were won by me (that hasn't happened in a long time!)

The weekly to-do list has been made, and a few things are already marked 'done'.

Now for a good night's sleep to start the week off right. 😴

Thankful, grateful, blessed...

Blessed to have the husband I do.  Tuesday was cold and icy.  I woke up late, and rushed to get ready for work.  When I went outside, my car was running, warm, and the windshield was ice free.  

While he was warming up my car, he noticed that it was low on gasoline.  So mid morning he came to my office, took my car, and brought it back filled with fuel.  

This is not to say that every day goes like this.  But on those other kind of days one must try to Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.  (Philippians 4:8)  In other words, on days like today.

I am spoiled blessed, and I know it.

What I'm reading Wednesday...

One would never guess that I actually like this book by the pace I am setting.  Working is taking a severe toll on my reading time.

Thankful, grateful, blessed...

We are blessed with laughter!  Our kids, grandkids, coworkers, siblings, friends...bring so much laughter into our lives.   Rudy, in particular, is our own little clown.  As soon as I walk in the door after work, he starts performing.  Silly.  Goofy.  Daredevil stunts.  And he loves being laughed at, and will repeat what he knows get the biggest laughs over and over.

What I'm reading Wednesday...

I'm halfway through my Utah book!  Note I didn't say I'm only halfway through my Utah book.  That's the optimist in me.  :)  To be precise, I'm on page 243 of 469

 And I am adoring using this old postcard (that I recently found tucked away for safe keeping) as my bookmark.  My funny friend, Mary, sent it to me years ago after an unfortunate incident that she will not let me live down.

We both have a sometimes inappropriate sense of humor.  I read recently that a new study shows that people who enjoy dark-humor jokes are generally more intelligent and less aggressive than people who take offense to them.  Yeah.  We'll go with that, because Mary is pretty darn brilliant.  And now she has moved across the country, and I miss her. 

Frugal Friday File 2019, week 44...

Successes:
1.  I worked 5 days this week.  Next Monday (11/4) is my official start day in the new job, so I guess I will stop counting how many days a week I work from here on out...it will average five.  :)

2.  I did better at cooking at home this week.  Even got nine meals into the freezer for Carey to take to work.

3.  I haven't been going to Sonic as much lately, because 1) it is way out of my traveled path for my days now, and 2) they no longer have their all-day special on large drinks (which irritates me).

4.  I've been thinking about work clothes.  When I left full-time work, I really downsized my work wardrobe, and have not replaced.  So now I am I am thinking of a uniform of sorts.  I want to make laundering as simple as possible, and not have to think about multiple loads, etc.  I am hoping that I can order 5 identical tops through my company, to be worn with black slacks, and then just change up cardigans/jackets for winter, or scarves and or jewelry the rest of the year.  I haven't rushed into any spending, as I'm trying to think this through to keep things simple and frugal for the long run.  So far I have purchased only a pair of black shoes.

5.  I've been spending some time and focus on menu planning and grocery lists as well.  Keeping prep time as part of the planning has been a major consideration, and the time I am putting in now should really simplify things in the long run, as well as keep food expenses down.  It may even spark its own blog post. 

Saturday:  Sunday family supper at Kasey & Beau's (on Saturday)
Sunday:  *Schlotzsky's
Monday:  Spanish Rice, refried beans, tortillas
Tuesday:  Pork Chops, Yellow Squash Casserole, green beans
Wednesday:  Virginia's Taco Soup, Mexican Cornbread
Thursday:  *McRib
Friday: Potato Chowder

Number of individual servings made and frozen for work lunches this week:  9

(*not-frugal takeout or dinner out)