Thursday, June 4, 2020

Thrifty Thursday-My Escape Edition

     I am back to my regular blogging, my daily escape and mental outlet for capturing little snippets of my life. Every day it seems i have more and more reason to watch all the ways I use the time, resources, and money in my life. More people need help this week than last. More exposure has been brought to light as to the harm that unchecked spending on fast fashion, fast food, fast furniture and other newly determined disposables have on our world. With that, I'll capture a couple weeks worth of thrift from my perspective. business opened up a bit in my part of the country on May 18th, though I didn't change my actions too significantly. 



Time 

  • My older daughter and I had 22 hours at the lake with no one else except my mother-in-law who came mid-Saturday monring. We had dinner together, went for a walk, and sat by the fire. In the morning, we sat by the lake and just  were there. 
  • For some variety to our activities, I spurged a bit and bought a couple more inexpensive tennis rackets. The rackets we have are quite old and warped, plus we only had two. None of us are master players, but it will add a bit of variety to some entertainment within our family, and with a few friends that play.
  • Last Thursday the girls even convinced their dad to join us for the river walk. The dog just loves these wlaks, and you can see his big wind swept smile! 
 

  • Today I am workign from my daughters as she has a shoot all day, and has a packaged scheduledfor delivery. It feels good to be working away from my own house! My sister mentioned that sitting at peoples houses waiting for packages woull be a reall good gig for a retiree. I think there might be a service like that. does anyone know?
  • Yesterday was my youngest sisters birthday. We had a small gathering outside at her house. I think we were socially distanced enough,but sure nice to be with family. 
Resources

  • My hostas are flourishing and the ones are doing well in the pot. They might just stay that way. I got a whole lot of addiitonal plants from a friend, though I am less sure they will survive. 
  • I've really hit a rut with cooking. Waste though is moslty under control. I cobbled a make shift spinach and tomato dish for DD2 with greens past their salad prime. One of her jobs is in a restuarant, and while she gets a free meal each shift, it's the same type of food and she thought the dish was a nice change. 
  • I saved several large cardboard boxes that I will use for short term vegetable garden raised beds. I watched a YouTube Video on what looked like an easy way to try a starter garden. I have been lazy about getting them in the ground but that is the plan for Saturday. 

Money

  • I didn't make my end of month $100 challenge, but I also didn't buy stuff we didn't need and use. I'll call that a fiscal win. 
  • I like to look over the deal on FreebieShark for items I might want to try before buying. Last week i ordered a sample of a new kind of muscle pain cream and Lara bars. We ordered for my daughters address as well. It's a nice way to try before buying. I need my cream and the girls are always grabbing bars for their back packs.
  • I hinted at it above, but DD2 got a second job! She was hopng to be called back to work with the summer child care, but with so much up in the air until health guidelines could be met, programs didn't know what they could plan. She roughly will be working 25 hours a week , consistent schedule. The first job had said when she was hired, they would work with her schedule if she got called back for the now second job. My guess is she will work about 20 hours there, with a couple days a week overlapping. Her plans are to bank almost all, and put towards study abroud, if and when those opportunities come back. 
  • Surprisingly, we actually banked a bit of money. Family members so far are doing OK, and with some of our expenses lower we were more than in the black. We did make several on-line donations over the weekend, which will show-up in the credit card  after June 10th.
     There will be things I continue to spend more on than I did four months ago. Groceries will keep being a large part of our spending as there are no deals and I like how my local grocer has handled health and safety measures. We're throwing a small for our family baby shower on June 13th for my niece. It will be outdoors and for food we ordered individual lunches and indiviudal deserts to be on the safe side so no serving, no food prep, no multiple hands on the same utensils. We'll likley double what it normally would cost, but worth it. Both the lunches and the desert are coming from local small businesses. I like to think I'm spending my time well with people I want to be with, looking at increasing my families sustainability, and using my money for both necessary and important purposes, even if not the lowest cost option. That's my thrift goal. 



    

12 comments:

  1. Your time up at the lake sounds like heaven - well it would be to me! And congratulations to your daughter for getting that second job. She sounds very resourceful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We'll see how she manages two schedules. She is not always the most organized. But with no school, not being able to do so many things she normally might do in the summer, its a constructive way to stay busy.

      Delete
  2. Great idea on upgrading your tennis rackets, if there was ever a year this is the one to do so. I guess all of us are just trying to keep our heads above the water this year, we take what little thrift victories we can and we try and support the causes and businesses we like. Sounds like you have a very solid smart plan for the shower. Perhaps it will be less work for you too (added side bonus :))

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These are inexpensive ones, but will serve our purpose/ I agree the shower should be minimal work, now, we just need a nice day as I don't really want to host in the garage and will be hard to spread out in the cabin. It's got a lot of square footage, but because there are so man bedrooms, the shared space is all really quite small.

      Delete
  3. I am not feeling like cooking either, which is very odd for me. The kids don't quite know what to make of it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My today's post is my attempt to at least share a couple non-recipes I banged up this week. Maybe collectively if we share ideas we can get out of our slump.

      Delete
  4. We bought tennis rackets as well, because the kids have been playing so much tennis & we only had two rackets. We've played doubles twice, and it's been a lot of fun. A great way to spend time together, given super limited options right now.

    Love the idea of the shower with individual meals & supporting small businesses is a double win

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As CheapChick said, less work which is a bonus since I am just not motivated to host.

      Delete
  5. Hosta love to live in a pot. I had some 12" pots that huge Hosta lived in quite well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They really are lovely. I am happy how they took to the side of my garage.

      Delete
  6. What a lovely upbeat post. I'm glad you spent time at the lake.
    Your little dog is adorable.
    I think we're all reassesssing how we spend our money in these strange times, the rackets sound like a good investment.
    Raised beds are a really good idea, there was a tutorial on the BBC the other night and they looked really straightforward and doable even for a woman as lethal as I am with a hammer and nails! xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When my baby is happy and not grumpy old man dog, he is quite cute! I'll see how this card board box thing goes. I have to get the sprouts in or they will die.

      Delete

Join the conversation. Your comments are welcome. Dissenting and different opinions are welcome as makes for good conversation. I moderate comments to be sure I read them all and stay ahead of the spam. Advertising products or services without permission will be deleted, as will anything that may be harmful to others-read promotion of debunked "experts" and conspiracies. If you're a blogger, feel free to include your blog URL.