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Archive for February, 2018

February Frugality Fatigue

February 24th, 2018 at 09:03 pm

Although I think we could benefit from continued sort-of uber frugality, I'm a little weary of it. But March is coming, I have a weekend in Minneapolis planned with my BFF, and in midMarch my spring break will lighten the load a bit. I'd like to go to NYC with DD and perhaps DH, but her break never overlaps with mine, so we may try for a short summer trip using air miles. I also have five days in June planned with my Mpls friends in Northern California, renting an airbnb. I used Delta miles I forgot I had, so I came in under $100 for the flight.

Can you tell I'm a little cabin feverish? I seem to go to school, come home and grade and prep and cook, then go to school again, repeat, repat, repeat. Weekends seem to be devoted to running our DD everywhere and catching up on cooking,grading, and housework. But then there's this: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/02/pensions-safety-net-california/553970/


And I can't say I want to be at the food pantry or handing out supermarket samples in my mid-70s. Back to work.

Fat Tuesday

February 13th, 2018 at 10:17 pm

Yes, I bought my paczki (poonch-key) today--raspberry filled for us. Our daughter is busy with theatre stuff all week, so although I pack a lunch and sandwich for her, it's just DH and me for dinner.

All that theatre work means I have long quiet afternoons which seem to be consumed by quiz creation, homework grading, and lecture prep. Besides the paczki, I bought a few fill-in groceries and took the dog to the groomer. My closed savings account added $99 to my big goal. I'm almost at 4 percent. Yep, that seems pretty paltry to me too. But my adjunct class starts in a month which will help my cash flow.

I've started reading some of my Modern Library list of the top books of the 20th century. And Graham Greene is as good as I remember. The small joys of February.

Still Making Soup But Eating Paczki Tomorrow

February 12th, 2018 at 11:11 pm

Many of you will remember last year's discussion of paczki. I need to remember to buy some tonight or get up early to find some tomorrow morning.

But paczki aside, it's still cold, snowy February around here. Between last week's car bill and the gas bill, it's still cold, snowy, and frugal February too.

My DD had a snow day on Friday, we had a low-key weekend of library visits, Olympics viewing, and paper grading. All that was punctuated with soup making, crisp baking, quinoa salad prep, and brushing snow off the car every 15 minutes or so.

To increase motivation today, I closed out a small saving account with a teeny balance which will go to the UK House fund when it actually transfers. I seem to be in super-slow winter mode with lots of eating and lazing about. This needs to stop, and will, I vow, by Wednesday. After all, there's still some cranberry apple crisp left.

Drips In, Gushers Out

February 6th, 2018 at 03:02 am

We had a busy day as DH drove me to work, drove himself to work, then got the call that DD was coming home from school ill. And by then he had to pick me up. So it was a putzy day. Some good news as the folks who installed the garage door 15 years ago were able to fix it for $99 vs the $400 new one quoted. The major kick was, of course, the car repair. The car sounds great now and runs great, but man, they are pricey. The "recently returned from the Dominican Republic vacation" tan on the mechanic didn't make me feel better about it either. Needless to say, we're actively looking for a new mechanic. I cashed out $25 in SB which will go to the big goal. I'll update when it arrives. Actively NOT thinking about the stock market as we'r long-termers.

Lots of snow here, and lots of soup made over the weekend. Mondays in February.

Car Repairs and Class Complications

February 3rd, 2018 at 03:02 am

Three things on my mind today. The first is the car repair which, as always, turned out more expensive than I thought. Lots of potholes and a 10-year-old 143K mile car meant new bearings, suspension, struts, and all that. With a few additional things thrown in it will be $1700. Ugh, but it had to be done. Then there's the option to teach a whole set of new classes next fall which sounds wonderful. Except that four classes might mean four preps which is crazy-making. What to do? Then my sweet dog seems to have injured her leg a bit and we all fret about her. I've given her some Rimadyl and how that will help. I was going to hang out home all night, but university buddies pulled me out for happy hour drinks and apps. It was lots of fun for $15.