I had a good holiday weekend. I took today off (it’s a floating holiday where I work) and scheduled lots of free time at home to relax, think and organize and arranged a few outings with friends to enjoy the last remnants of summer. Yesterday, a scheduled three-hour trip to a local lakefront state park with a close friend whom I haven’t seen for some time turned into a 10-hour hang out, catch up, laugh fest that ended at my house with dinner around 11:30p! It was great visit. Financially I was bummed - I have a state park punch card that I bought in June for $20 (10 entries for $2 rather than the usual $3), that I forgot to bring since it’s in my car and my friend drove. She paid my $3 entrance fee because I only had some loose change. On the way home, we stopped for soft serve at a fabulous local stand that posts a “password of the day” on Facebook that wins you a free cone if you are the first to say it at their window. I checked FB on my friend’s smartphone (I have a low-tech pay-as-you-go cell), found the word and got the free cone – yay! I paid $2 for my friend’s ice cream and we were even. I wanted the outing to be totally free, but it was $2 since I forgot the punch card…but I guess that’s not too bad!
Today I hiked up to another lake with a different friend and her four-year old daughter. This was a free excursion. We swam, enjoyed the sun, walked back down and stopped for ice cream on the way home. My friend treated me to a .99 ice cream sandwich. I found 10 pennies at a pay phone, but gave them to my friend’s daughter, since she was so excited about them. They are a frugal family, so the pennies will be put to good use! I love that I can write about picking up pennies on this blog and other readers understand the excitement.
I’ve decided that I need to set some goals to get myself back on track financially and organizationally. Inspired by an early retirement blog I saw on Lucky Robin’s page, I’ve made a list of personal goals for September:
*track spending for the month in order to create a budget
*pack a healthy lunch every day (for financial and health reasons)
*$20/week on food (this is dependent upon how many free garden goodies I get from friends and using up what I have on hand)
*arrive at work by 9a each day (I’ve been a total slacker, getting in as late as 10a some days! My boss is often a no-show and “works at home” a lot and so the incentive to be diligent about timeliness doesn’t exist. But, for my own peace of mind and professionalism, I think I should make more of an effort to arrive at a respectable time.)
*exercise 4 times/week followed by 15 mins yoga (I will create a schedule so that I am prepared each day I choose to exercise)
*sign up for beginner’s french class (I can take this for free at work if there is room in the class)
*play piano - 15 mins/day
*floss each night (I’m out of the groove and my gums are suffering because of it)
That’s a lot, so not sure how I will do, but I’ve got to start somewhere.
Happy Labor Day everyone!
holiday weekend
September 4th, 2012 at 01:54 am
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Thanks for sharing your photo.