Sam Squared

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Staying Ahead on My Budget

April 12, 2026

Photo from pexel.com free photos. Love a good pen, paper, and calculator experience. I feel I'm back to using this blog as a personal finance/ thrifty living blog. Of course within that vein and in alignment with priorities there will be travel, retirement, and life updates/figuring things out as these all impact how I use money. I want to see money as a tool to support a good quality of life, not monetary acquisition as the goal. I've read too many blogs where keeping more money in hand, with very little joy reported as a reminder to this. Of course, I only read and see what they share and may well be completely satisfied and happy. I've an expensive life budget the next 9 months, much due to a significant negative variance between my HSA and health insurance premiums. I knew this for 2026 going into retirement, but that doesn't make seeing the impact less jarring each month especially when premiums went up...

Friday Fiscal Wellness Check April 10, 2026

April 10, 2026

For my Friday posts, I copy the previous week, delete the old and update as I go along the week. This helps me add as the week goes on. Here's my recap of Friday, April 3 to Thursday, April 9. I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing. Use it Up/Avoid Waste Ham bone from Easter for future soup, plus a meals worth of cut ham was put in the freezer After sending leftovers home with my sister and daughter, used remaining leftovers during the week Avoiding Spending/Saving on needs Easter dinner foods was pretty much all loss leader ingredients, plus, as mentioned above, yielded more meals. While at my daughters babysitting grandpup and pup to give kitten more time to explore without the big dog, I ran to the cheese store and scored multiple bags of seasoned chees...

Trying Cheryl's Challenge (In Theory)

April 08, 2026

A random unorganized pantry shelf. I'm on a roll blogging this week, pure avoidance of housework mode. I am caught up on laundry but thats the only thing I can claim I'm on top of. Cheryl posted a challenge the other day and as I'm a list maker anyway, it got my brain churning. I'm paraphrasing but it was how long could you go without need to go grocery shopping. I think I could easily go two weeks with nothing unique with basics on hand but beyond things will get interesting, as you start seeing below. Carbohydrates wouldn't be an issue but fruit, veg, and dairy would be lacking pretty quick. This is what I came up with as of Tuesday April 7th, the day of her post. For simplicity I'm repeating after the other if I'd make more than once. This doesn't include leftover nights though leftovers are mostly need for lunches. I've also not added breakfast items like oatmeal cereal and muffins I could make. Turkey m...

Positively Tuesday, April 7, 2026

April 07, 2026

It was a wet, cold, dreary Easter weekend, but Sunday had some spots of warmth and sun before sprinkles and gray skies returned. I think the weather is breaking nice again by weeks end, but yesterday was biting cold despite the sunshine. As I've never been a fan of Tuesday's, I've been using them to try and recap anything positive, joyful, or smile worthy to try and lighten up my Tuesday moods. First the big news I've been dropping hints about. Meet Little Mister, my son's new companion for Little Miss. He's a handsome young man of just over 5 months. She loves when my daughters cats are here, almost grieves when they go home. He felt she really needed a permanent partner in crime. Sigh! At some point all three will leave my house, but I get to love on him too in the meantime. It's been a bit of an adjustment for the older girl but he's very inquisitive and loving. I don't think pup has figured out there's two cats here. We'll get him...

Embracing Homelife: April Ahead

April 06, 2026

I should get some seeds started this month. You'd think I didn't have four trips in the last year the way I'm coming across as obsessing about no travel in the forseeable future. I just can't leave pup longer than an evening and only when my daughter is available. (Long story short, son cannot do needles). Really though, I know that FOMO feeling is going to hit when my sisters, friends, mere aquaintences take to the roads, sky, and seas. That's how I ended up booking my trip to Greece last July in the middle of the night- and pups meds for the year will cost more than that trip. To combat this, I'm going to intentionally outline my calendar and if there are bare weeks, find local fun to fill the gaps. I'm doing this under the overarching topic, Embracing Homelife. Here's how April looks right now. It's a bit light on weekends but that leaves room for flexibility or just downtime for home projects the last two weekends since the week between...

Friday Fiscal Wellness Check April 3, 2026

April 03, 2026

For my Friday posts, I copy the previous week, delete the old and update as I go along the week. This helps me add as the week goes on. Here's my recap of Friday, March 27 to Thursday, April 2. I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing. Use it Up/Avoid Waste I had an obscene amount of cleaning supply containers under the sink discovered when prepping for the water filtration install. I organized on a shelf in the garage to use up as the small amount that I'll store under the sink get used up. I lost 2/3rds the storage space. It was darn right chilly on Wednesday and I wasn't feeling coffee or tea in the afternoon. I scrounged the last packet in my miscellaneous hot beverage packet bowl (probably well beyond date on package) of a cinnamon hot chocolate. I'm happy to say t...

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