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enjoying some productivity

November 1st, 2015 at 11:45 pm

Now that I've recovered from my big work events and I'm not quite as worried about my mom's health, I have been a bit more productive. I was supposed to attend a conference in Minneapolis in late October, but I told my boss that I couldn't swing it energetically. I felt bad because she really wanted me to go and I felt disappointed because I don't travel much for work and it would have been a good experience. But, in the end, I am really glad that I opted out and gave myself the chance to regain my energy.

I've been able to get my house back into reasonable shape. The main rooms are neat and functional and I've cleaned out most of the old food from my fridge. I had serious food overload due to lots of free garden goodies and work event leftovers. I hated to waste some of it, but I just couldn't find the time to use it all when I was so busy.

Overall I've kept unnecessary spending to a minimum, was able to cash flow my property taxes and am now putting any excess new money in a winter heating bill account (since I did not prebuy oil this year) and a roof repair account. I FINALLY mailed back a roof repair proposal given to me by an extremely busy roofer who specializes in slate and I hope that he can fit me into his winter schedule. I have sat on this for four years now and while I'd like to spend a lot of time regretting that choice (it's what I do best!), I'm going to celebrate that I finally moved ahead. If I don't hear from him within a week, I'll call to check in.

I started exercising again - walking for at least an hour six times during the past ten days, plus I walked a lot last night while trick or treating with my friend M, her daughter J and some of their friends. I was feeling very lazy today and had a headache after one glass of wine last evening at a Halloween party (I'm a lightweight!), but somehow motivated to take a walk just after 4:00p. I had planned to go for 30 minutes just to get some air, but then encouraged myself to keep going and walked for an hour. Yay! I then did 20 minutes of yoga when I got home. I haven't been taking the time to stretch and can feel my muscles getting tight. I love weekends, especially those that contain an extra hour! It's supposed to be fairly warm tomorrow, so I will plan to walk for at least 30 minutes in the late afternoon or right after work. I hope I can stick to the goal in the face of early darkness.

October snowflakes included a $6 referral rebate (thanks CCF for using my referral code!) from YNAB, $125 from Sw@gbucks and $5.38 cash back rewards from a Chase card. I also found .36 over the past few weeks!

I'd like to keep my eating very simple this week - no or low spend by using up food that I already have. Today, I made some hardboiled eggs (.21 each) and I'll have one each day with rolled oats, steamed broccoli, olive oil, salt & pepper for breakfast. I also made some sauce from some apples I picked from my tree that have been sitting in a back room for quite a while. I thought they would have rotted by now, but most of them were still good, past the eating stage, but fine for sauce. I hope to scrape together bits of stuff to make a salad for lunch tomorrow and I will get a free lunch at an event I'm attending on Tuesday. I need to figure out what to have for the other three lunches this week. I found three Boca burgers in the freezer, so I think I'll have one of those with steamed beets and carrots for three dinners.

I have a bag of free tomatillos that I need to process ASAP. I'll have to buy onions, canola oil, garlic and cilantro to make salsa this week. I'd really prefer to stay out of the store - that's the best way for me to curb my spending! I guess I could chop and puree the tomatillos and then buy the salsa ingredients later this week. Maybe even freeze the puree, but I'm not good about using freezer items. I love tomatillo salsa and want to enjoy it!

Back to work tomorrow. I'd love to have one more day of weekend time.

4 Responses to “enjoying some productivity”

  1. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1446424010

    Wow - you did good with Swagbucks this month!

    I'm hoping to keep my eating really simple this month as well.

  2. creditcardfree Says:
    1446425915

    Sounds like you are in a great place...planning, cleaning and keeping spending low!

  3. snafu Says:
    1446436618

    Hope you find time to make salsa. It's so versatile, a go-to rescue for take-away from home lunch or a quickie on the table if late getting home causing dinner to be delayed. Bibimbap, Korean finger food, is a spoonful of filling on a small lettuce leaf, taken up like a bundle and popped into mouth appetizer-like, wonderful, healthy using salsa. Spread on a pita round or pita cracker and topped with any bit of cheese and anything you' like on pizza is fun. Salsa added to nearly any style of leftover potato [mashed, baked, roasted, hash browned] turns a leftover to delicious. Do you top salsa on grains like rice of quinoa or inexpensive Ramen noodles? It changes plain, green beans to an important meal. If you make any of the chowders adding salsa is a treat.

  4. MonkeyMama Says:
    1446472744

    I love tomatillo salsa!

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