I Still Thrift!

Criticism of Tops aside, one reason I shop there is because you can get a $4 off coupon for the Amvets thrift store.  One reason I went to Tops last week is because I wanted to thrift.  My goal was to find a bathrobe. I've been sporting a tatty terry number with sheep on the back.  I suspect my husband has a vehement dislike for it and I was interested in a nice and lightweight alternative.  The thrifting Gods were smiling upon me as there was an Orvis robe for $6.98.  A little pricey for second hand, but I had a coupon and Orvis is a really good brand.

Super Market Wars

Tops Markets, a local grocery chain has filed for bankruptcy.  That is no surprise to me or anyone who lives in Western NY.  The service is horrible, the prices are high, the produce spoils too quickly and they don't take good care of their stores.  Competition is stiff here -- they have to compete with Wegmans, where I would prefer to shop --  but it's just not convenient.  The nearest Wegmans is three miles away, while there are two Tops under a mile.  That might not seem like much, but when you make small shopping trips, close wins out. In our old house, I shopped at Weggie's a lot!

I Keep Getting Younger

Today is my birthday and I am apparently getting younger.  Although I've reach the ripe age of 56, the bakery thought I was younger.  TBG didn't catch the cake fail because he sent his driver out to pick it up, since he was stuck back at work closing up shop when it was near closing time for the bakery.  He even promised the driver a slice.  I guess I can spare it, since this is my second cake of the day.  The architects got me a luscious chocolate cake with cheesecake filling.  That was in addition to the junk food breakfast I brought in.  Someone is not tracking her food intake today!

Eating the Rainbow

I consider myself very fortunate to be able to afford quality, healthy food.  I remember mostly eating canned and frozen veggies as a kid.  We ate fish sometimes -- always frozen, never salmon and rarely shellfish.  It's hard for me to recall if it was an issue that supermarkets didn't carry the same range of products as they do today, or if it was because of our economic situation (we were low income in a single parent household).  Maybe that is why I take food so seriously now -- but I am also undeniably frugal.  It would have been beyond me in my youth to even consider a regular weekday meal would consist of salmon, orange and yellow peppers, broccoli, fresh grated lemon, etc.  There was just no way our family would have managed that.

Working Girls

 It was a busy day for me and the girl.  We paid bills and organized receivables too.  The "Received" stamp leaks ink and my fingers got covered in it.  Teddy ended up with blue ink too.  She spends a lot of time by my side so she had to get in on the action!

Taking a Knee

My partial knee replacement was done on June 1, last year.  Only wanting to have the inner side of the knee removed, I was surprised to find I had the scar down the middle once I woke up.  The orthopedist told me he did it that way in case he got in and realized I needed a full replacement.  I stayed in the hospital over night and really wished I'd stayed at least another day.  The first 24 hours I was home were excruciating.

Credit Culture

 

There are constantly offers to entice me into debt, courtesy of my bank and other sources.  Everyone wants me to borrow money from them but I refuse to bite.  We are in a good place financially and unless things really went South for us, borrowing is just not a path we want to go down.  We've learned that lesson the hard way.  I'd rather scale back and do with less than go into debt to get something I wanted.

I am a Re-User

This strange "Spider Mon" baby t-shirt from Jamaica made it home with us because The Big Guy's BFF has a baby.  We don't care about gender and got it even though it's for a little girl. It is cool.  It didn't seem to make sense to me to wrap it or bag it in a cutesy pink baby theme either.  Our friend doesn't know other babies and what a waste of paper.  Instead, I used brown paper wrapping that came from a package we got at work.  I see sheets of brown paper packing material and I have to grab it, fold it up, and bring it home.  I've been using it for gifts for years.

Making Time for Happiness

One thing I really like about my new job, is that no one ever says to me "You are so weird."  I know I am not a cookie cutter person and have my own unique traits, but I am good-natured and have never insulted a colleague.  OK, if they were a good friend, I might do it as a joke.  So at my last job, I sometimes felt like an outsider or that I was looked down on if I suggested anything even remotely out of the ordinary.  Since no one ever wanted to try anything new, that was most of the time.  It was very hard to motivate people to do anything extra or remotely group-like.  Regardless, I always kept a stock of birthday and sympathy cards in my desk and never failed to miss a birthday or to provide a way for us to offer condolences for a colleague's loss.  I was the only person who on my team who participated in the office-wide birthday club or who signed up to attend or work at events.

Today Was a Good Day to...

... do laundry and clean!  My 401(k) and Roth IRA checks came in on Monday, so I had to drop them off to my financial advisor today in order to put the money into my own IRA.  Once home, I still had time to polish off a few chores.  I'd wanted to do a load of laundry yesterday, but got behind because pup and I took a long walk.  It was good to have 13K steps and ten flights of stairs!

Facelift

 I've given my blog a facelift, which I do every couple of years.  The main motivation was that I decided to update my profile picture and I also wanted to move to a format that had more white space.  I'm not sure if it's an improvement or not!

This effort took place in the middle of the night so I could try out different formats and "test drive" them.  It was pretty frustrating because I'm color-blind and blogger does not show any information when you hover over a color or color scheme.

My Mark-Down Mania

Today I had another unexpected bargain cross my path.  Five trays of turkey necks were marked down at Price Rite.  Since they are a staple of Teddy's diet, I could not pass up the 35% discount.  My normal method of shopping is to buy them every three days or so.  I will pick up two to three trays at a time.  However, if they are marked down, I will buy as many as I think we can fit in the freezer.

Get Your Irish Up

 A Happy St. Patrick's Day to all who celebrate.  We did not celebrate on the actual day, as we drove out to check on camp.  We do the Buffalo parade.  In our town, there are two to choose from.  The Old South Ward has their parade on Saturday the 17th.  The City of Buffalo always has a parade on the Sunday following the holiday (this year on the 18th).  I picked up all the green we need to wear.  I don't own much in the way of green clothing, because I am color-blind and green is a tough one for me.  The bow is for me, the big hat is for The Big Guy.

Getting Ready for Summer

I know, it's not even spring yet, so why am I thinking of summer?  Because I am cheap!  I found summer stuff on sale for 60% off at Joanne's and figured I might as well buy in advance.  We are going out to camp tomorrow for the day to check on the spot, so I guess I have summer on my mind.

Small Things

The best thing about my new part-time work life, is that I can get to the small tasks that just never got done.  Things like vacuuming the stairs.  Of course, now that I got to that, I realize I need to actually clean/shampoo the carpeting.  I did this task in ten minutes after work today.

Mop It Up

After having broken the floor attachment for my steamer, I decided to purchase a mop.  Being the TV shopping addict that I am, I bought one on-line.  I had purchased an "As Seen on TV" mop at Big Lots, which I promptly returned, and decided to try the real-thing it was trying to copy -- the Joy Mangano "Miracle Mop."  It was on sale and I got it for 13 bucks, along with an extra mop head.  I only purchased the mop, not the bucket. We don't have room for another bucket and I wasn't sure I wanted to spend on it in case I did not like the mop.  The Miracle Mop was cheaper than the "As Seen on TV" copy-cat version -- even with shipping and handling.

Older Dog Days

We had visitors at work today.  I am shopping benefits for our group in hopes of lining up better insurance options.  Two brokers who visited us were impressed with our "free range dogs."  We were actually down one dog today, since Maddie stayed home to have a "Daddy Day."  Our dog count was three.  People seem to really envy our dog-friendly atmosphere and it's nice for others to see that they add to the environment in such a positive way.

Carrot Crazy

 

I think of carrots as one of the best frugal food bargains.   They are cheap, healthy and versatile.  I use them in soups, stocks, salads, sauces and roast them as a side dish.  The LTSL refrigerator always has at least one carrot in the crisper drawer.  For 79 cents a pound, I am getting vitamins, fiber and a low calorie ingredient that tastes good.

Will Break for Bargains...

I am a crazy bargain hunter.  If I need something, unless it's absolutely critical, I will do without it unless I can find it on sale.  Then, there is the category of something I'd like to have but am not willing to buy unless I find it for really cheap.  Sometimes I purposely seek out an item -- I know it's on sale or clearance and I intentionally go out to  buy.  Then there's my (probably) psychotic habit of gleaning for bargains when I am out hunting and gathering for other purposes.  That's what I consider my "I Break for Bargains" shopping method.

My Salad Hack

We've been eating a lot more salad.  The problem is that making a salad can be time-intensive.  I admit that I use bagged/container mixes as my base.  When you want mixed greens, it doesn't seem worth it to try to hunt down individual heads of arugula, mescal, spinach leaves, etc.  I buy and organic mix in a plastic tub from Aldi.  As for topping, tomatoes are a no-go in winter -- plus I don't like them over greens.  I prefer a "toothier" and more fruit-like topping.  Last night, it was a mix of red and yellow peppers with strawberries, walnuts, mushrooms, and onions. I probably threw in a few dried cranberries.

Supermarket Dinner

 

Wegmans now sells pre-made entrees in a plastic bag that is safe to cook in.  This was developed as a team effort between the supermarket chain and the Rochester Institute of Technology and was a convenience food I wanted to sample -- it didn't hurt that they had a $4 coupon as enticement.  I was interested to see if this was something worth buying for camp.

Nutrition vs. Calorie Counting

I like my FitBit and am using it to track my activity, sleep, food intake, weight, etc.  However, I am becoming increasingly frustrated with food tracking.  I haven't the vaguest idea of how to track my dinner: salmon with a side of small potatoes that were baked with green pepper and onion.  Our salad had greens, strawberries, mushroom, onion and pecans.

Financial Follow-Through

I met with my financial advisor today to start the roll-over process for my 401(k).  This has not been easy as the plan has a very difficult website that requires me to log into two separate portals, and one of them never works.  They have reset my pin probably ten times, they send the notice to my old work email address, etc.  The form I got in the mail was hard to understand and they pre-filled a few fields incorrectly.  We called for support and got a person with an accent so thick she was hard to understand.  But I think we are ready to move forward and having someone to handle the bulk of it was wonderful.

Teddy is Ten!

I cannot believe my little girl is ten.  We have been through a lot with her!  I documented her bad-girl puppy days on her blog -- which I truthfully have not updated in years.  She just isn't as naughty these days.  Yes, she still can be a jerk (mostly just to mom and dad), however she does a good job of making friends and is quite a popular dog.

Aside from the trauma of hot-spots and major orthopedic surgery, she's been low maintenance.  Although she requires a lot of exercise, the amount has diminished with her age.  That's OK, my capacity has diminished with age too!

She was born on March 6th, 2008 and was part of a small litter of four.  There was only one boy -- and Teddy was bigger than he was.  I believe there might be a cow in her line (or possibly a pig if you go by her appetite).  Teddy is one of the dumbest dogs I know, but she is also one of the sweetest.  What she lack in brains, she makes up for in enthusiasm.  If Teddy had a slogan, it would be "I demand impunity!"

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Girls Morning

This morning I had a nice "girls morning," with just me and Teddy.  TBG went snow-shoeing with his GF Melissa.  We were intentionally separate!  There is no way I could treck five-plus miles, over hill and dale.  Plenty of snow was to be found at Chestnut Ridge park and I want my guy to  be able to take advantage of that.  I also wanted to spend the morning taking pictures of some of my favorite things in North Tonawanda, where I am now working.  I've been dying to share Cats Like Us with my readers.

Shorts

 I end up saving a lot of money by shopping for clothes off season.  TBG was the recipient of my latest find.  He does not like cargo shorts.  His legs are a bit on the short side, so longer lengths do not work for him.  It was a pleasant surprise to find two pairs in his size while I was at Fallah's looking for 100% cotton crew neck sweatshirts.  Every few weeks I go looking for sweatshirts there for him.  He doesn't like blends and he doesn't like hoods.  That can be tough to accommodate, and it means I need to keep my eyes open.  Alas, I did not find any sweat shirts, but I did find these shorts.

Financial Friday

A good portion of my day off was spent addressing financial matters.  There is a fee disclosure form I need (the 404-A5) which must signed in order to roll my former 401(k) into my IRA.  I had asked for the form to be sent to me.  It didn't come.  I got a reset for my PIN and the login still doesn't work.  Blah, blah, blah.  I called the provider and they told me the 2018 form didn't become available until Tuesday.  Believe it or not, they would only email it to my email record on file -- which was my old work email address.  I was able to get them to fax it to TBG at his work.  I should have it on hand for my meeting with the financial adviser on Tuesday.

Baubles and Beer

I accepted a happy hour invitation for this evening.  A vendor invited the boss lady and she forward the invite to me.  Since she was going and is eager for me to make new work connections, I accepted.  My challenge was to find something to find conversation starters since I am in a new industry.  Because my work day is over at 2:30, we would also be arriving separately, so I would not be able to hide  behind her.  I am not as comfortable making conversation and walking into events alone as people might think (even if I do have a big mouth).  It might seem that I am outgoing, but that is just a behavior developed out of necessity.  My personality type has been categorized as an extroverted introvert.  One of my ploys is to wear an interesting piece of jewelry so that if I have no one to talk to and there are women around, a conversation will generally ensue.  I chose the necklace above.