Thursday, November 12, 2020

Thrifty Thursday-Making the Most of Time Edition

     One thing for sure, I sure have more time on my hands than I've ever had before in my life. Yes, I work long days, partially of my own choosing, but also to keep up to date and  ahead of potential problems. Every half day there seems to be some  curveball thrown in, but for the most part, I haven't succumbed to work stress. On the home front, I've got no young children nor elderly relatives that need care, though I wish my MIL would use us for a bit more for help. While she feels strong and before the bad weather truly starts, I'm sure she wants to keep all her independence so I cant say I blame her. While I track, or reflect is a better term, on where I am thrifty in my expenditures of time, resource, and money, I do have a lot of time that could be better spent. I tried this week to add more productive activities, productive to me meaning not just mindless hours of television. In review, here's my results for the week in all three categories. 

      Time 

  • I'm very excited to start a book club again and meeting number one was a start to winter that will push me to read for pleasure, and books I might not  select. My first Fridays are filled for a while. 
  • I'm not sure I'm a Blogmas kind of blogger, but want to get more organized and provide better content. I read and made notes for myself when I had day time free time yesterday from this blog post, at Life with Ktkinnes Do you Blogmas? Do you like to read Blogmas type posts?
  • Used my day off to catch-up with a few work things as no one would expect an e-mail since I had my Out of Office on, but overall, used the day for things I might otherwise do on Saturday. I also avoided CNN or other news stations that I have been watching way too much.  
  • I baked yesterday! Pumpkin bread and  homemade pizza  and took care of my sweet tooth I had the night before. 
  • My daughter came over late afternoon and we made the food and had dinner together, then watched an older movie, Notting Hill. 
  • I also spent about an hour helping my other daughter refine her resume and write a cover letter for an on-line internship that would start in January. It is a great opportunity of about 10 hours per week for four months of the MN legislative session. She did OK overall on her resume on her own, but I looked at it from the perspective of someone choosing who to interview and suggested a bit of rearranging. 
Resources
  • Once again  little bits of things were used to make some good pizzas. I had three kinds of olives, zucchini, and my daughter brought some spinach and tomatoes over. We made two large-one vegan, one with pepperoni and mozzarella and used 1/2 can of leftover tomato paste to make the sauce plus used a jar of bruschetta I had in the pantry. Now I have scores of leftovers for lunch today and tomorrow. 
  • I froze two portions of soup plus two  cheddar brats left from meals. With the leftover crock pot pasta and pizza, it was clear I wouldn't get to these items for lunches and I also wanted the soup for DD2 as it is one of her favorites. I plan to use the sausages with either a boxed dirty rice or red beans and rice-which ends up being a really tasty meal. 
  • I shredded the remainder of the BBQ pork roast, which had an odd flavor, without saving all the juices since they were drenched in the sauce we didn't like too well. Instead, I used the last of the Sweet Ray's we had from cabin week, then added some water to get the last of the flavor from the bottle, mixed it all together, and put in a smaller container to pull out for future sandwiches. 
  • I cooked the whole package of  chicken used for the soup, and froze two meals worth again. It is already for a future hotdish, on skewers, or to thaw, toss in bread crumbs, and reheat in the air fryer for crispy chicken tenders or nuggets.
     I just realized almost everything in resources is about food. Next week I'll try and think about the broader context of our resources. I guess I have gas savings since I have not driven since October 31 other than to go to the polling place and drop of my Covid test at the UPS box. 

    Money

    • The book for book club is not available through the library now, but while I'm trying to use Amazon less, I did find for under $10 and had a $5 voucher to use towards it from taking a survey. 
    • I did another $2 opinion poll. I will miss those little perks-the only good thing about election years!
    • When DH picked up the odd grocery items last Saturday for me, several items provided cents off per gallon of gas. He filled his car using a cumulative  35 cents per gallon and saved over $4 on his fill up. 
    • I was bored one night and did some shopping on line. Loaded up a cart with cool looking wrought iron signs, outdoor doo dads, and ice scrapers. I ended up just letting it all sit in the cart, then later deleted. Shopping therapy, of which I need very little, was taken care of without spending. 

         I had some splurges too like the two shirts for the Thanksgiving run, all proceeds going to our local family service. DH bought the premium bakery style buns from the local stores bakery  area, but he really enjoys the for sandwiches, plus they made the  oddly flavored BBQ pork roast better. In the future, I won't recommend the already seasoned Aldi BBQ roast-a bit too mesquite for our liking. Even though my test was negative, I decided I should stay home for the full two weeks of when I thought I might have been exposed, through this coming Monday. This means DH will likely stop for any items we need and that likely will  increase spending as he  adds things. I'm less concerned with that than the extra time he will take recreational shopping, longer exposure to people that might balk at masks in public places. Hopefully though, we won't need too much if anything. Where did you save or spurge this week? Did you make any particularly good use of time?

    18 comments:

    1. I've been learning to crochet in my free time, which has been fun. And, Nick & I are working on a puzzle together. Otherwise, we're up to many of the same stuff around here! :-)

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      1. I still have the puzzle up we started last spring-probably a bit dusty under there, but I think it would be a good thing to have up over thanks giving. I'd love to see your crochet creations. Remember the misshapen dish rags are well liked!

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    2. Wow, what a busy week for you, Sam. I'm going to check out the Blogmas and see what it's about.

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      1. I think it is a young persons type of blogging-lots of energy and stuff going on but I might make my own twist on it.

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    3. Sounds like you did well once again this week. I doubt I'll do Blogmas since I'm doing NaBloPoMo this month but you never know. No spending at all yet for me this week :)

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      1. Well done with a no spend week. I've never once been successful on trying no spend weeks, but have by happenstance a time or two.

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    4. Sounds like a busy week. I hadn't heard of Blogmas either
      I'm sure you will enjoy the book club this winter. Hope you have a good weekend.

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      1. Having something to look forward to socially with other women will be a breath of fresh air.

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    5. I took a quick look at Blogmas and it certainly wouldn't work for me. I can no more predict what I will write about at Christmas than what I will write about tomorrow. Personally, it would just seem like just another chore to be accomplished but I'm willing to believe it works better for others. I wish your daughter good luck in her internship bid, it could be really interesting!

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      1. blogging is never supposed to be a chore if it is for fun. I thought it might give me good ideas for things to write. But with not much going on, not much to schedule either.

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    6. I love fantasy online shopping, putting loads of expensive homewares in my basket and then deleting them all, it makes me feel so virtuous! xxx

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      1. Homeware is where I can really go mad in the on-line shops. Leave it a while, then off it goes. I did that with cheap clothes yesterday. Things looked good, but I'm not going anywhere, plus, it was too much fast fashion. Delete.

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    7. Well I did get my Thanksgiving Turkey. I fill my cart at Talbots all the time and then wait until it is 80% off until I buy, but often the items are gone. As I need nothing I am not upset about this.

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      1. This was more shopping for kitschy outdoor things and gifts that looked nice, but would the recipient really want them? Some might be maybes.

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    8. I looked at Blogmas to see what it was all about. I just don't think it fits my personality or lack of organizational skills.
      I do fake shopping all the time, in fact I have carts on 3 different sites filled, knowing I will not buy a thing.

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      1. The organizing is what appealed to me. I also saw it the day my 2021 planner for work came in the mail, so I was thinking all those new year thoughts on organization.

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    9. I bought 50 lbs. sweet potatoes for $20 and got a turkey for $0.58/lb. I have spent time shopping online at Amazon for things I need instead of going into stores. Still, some things are not available for love nor money.

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      1. Where does one store 50#'s of sweet potatoes? I have trouble fining room for the 10# bags of potatoes I buy. Must have a good cools basement or storage pantry I suppose. Those are good prices.

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