Sam Squared

      Good Thursday to you all. I have a new staff that's a bit exhuberant and sends me a gif on Thursday then adds Happy Friday Eve. I forgive him his corniness as he has a 14 month old and a second child on the way due next month.  Not having young children anymore, I'm in a different mindset but remember the days trying to keep any energy up. I use a borrowed thrift list from Hawaii Plan with an added a "Thrifty Bonus" category, to capture things that don't really fall anywhere, but to me add to my life and are a good value. To be honest, it was not a thrifty week and recapping is slim. Saving on things we buy I spent just $27 dollars total for groceries for the week on mainly a few loss leaders and a few items at the Dollar Tree that are less than grocery stores.  I'm using credit card points to cover a hotel room and brewery tour tickets for myself and three of my sisters. It's going to be a very mini get away, but one we all need. To quote my sister,

      Just a pretty photo from St Thomas - not a disappointment even through the clouds.        My boss is a unique, say what she thinks kind of person. At times, it's annoying because she may not know as much as she thinks about the subject at hand. ( Fortunately, she accepts when she was mistaken and corrects or apologizes.) Mostly, it's refreshing in a work environment that is guarded about every word choice, and anything said publicly has to be vetted by seven layers of communication approval. It didn't surprise me that she found the book, Disappointing Affirmations by David Tarnowski, who has an Instagram of the same name. She brought it to our leadership meeting to cut some of the tension, and later to a Happy Hour just because.  Disappointing Affirmations Instagram      I won't repost to take his ownership. But if you click the link above, it's to his account and you can fill your eyes with memes with some lovely photos, part of the humor. Now, warning, on c

      Planning for calm waters and smooth sailing ahead.       So many of you have interesting retirement post headers. Mines just boring, but descriptive. I've been learning things with my poking, emailing, and looking things up. I'm signing up for a two day retirement seminar through my work held in May. It's highly suggested to do this if you're within five years of retirement. Some information will be remedial as I've been in a planning to plan phase since before my husband died while figuring out his timing. I'm hoping that seminar closes the loop on any unanswered questions I still have. I'll start this summer working with financial planning guidance, the timing on drawing down my other retirement pots.       Based on what I learned, the best financial move (other than to keep working, but that's not the point) is to set July 8, 2025 as my official retirement date. There's a variety of reasons for this date.  I'll be past 59 1/2 so no penal

     I'm getting more variety since my son eats almost double what I do, then eats leftovers for lunch, so not a lot of repeats for me. He's neither picky nor a fan of ready made meals or convenience foods, where inflation has really hit, so I think we've had a reasonable budget with healthy meals. There's a few indulgences, but those are offset other meals or the next day.  Here's what we ate this past week. Sunday- Green lentil dal, palak paneer, basmati rice, naan Monday- Assorted leftovers, spinach salad Tuesday - Grilled turkey, cheese with tomato and avocado, with Tomato red pepper soup. (It was a cold wet day and hit the spot) Wednesday- Cavitapi with Alfredo sauce, mussels for my son Thursday -Hamburger rice hotdish ( which was a hit with my son as he thought it was risotto as it turned out so creamy and I used several cheese varieties and seasoned heavily with garlic and parsley). Definitely adding to a rotation. Friday-  Salmon (son), a sandwich ( me), he

      I am trying to think each day about things that currently or will add bits of joy to my life. I go in phases of optimism and a bit of fear that more shoe (not just the other one) may drop. Here maybe is a good place to focus on the hints and when there, good things.  Week of Sunday- Saturday, April 14-20, 2024. Sunday : We had sad news that my sister's FIL passed away late the night before. He was 92, and had outlived two wives. He was blessed with a large beautiful family. I had a successful Menards run and looking forward to getting my yard improved. I planted starter flower and veggie seeds. Had all three kids for dinner.  Monday : After the beautiful weekend, we got one more day of milder temperatures before the rain came in. We need the rain after the barely any snow winter. I had a break in my day so got the big dog to the dog park for a good mid-day play.  Tuesday : I was impressed with the knee specialist. He was up beat, but honest, and took the time to make sure I h

          I thought about taking down my haphazardly thrown together word purge, but then thought again.Every now and then I read a comment that makes me question how I come across, or lead to false assumptions, then I think about how I come across in real life. I don't want pity, but do want my own timeline and space to keep processing the day to day experiences I was not prepared for. Enough on that, but thank you for those that left kind words.       My thrift review covers an odd Thursday - Wednesday time period. I'm trying hard to keep living expenses as low as possible to hopefully put towards home and living improvements and saving towards an early retirement, while still enjoying time with family and friends. I'm follow The Hawaii Plan's format for tracking because it resonates with how I'm approaching thrift as well. Particular call out to her "For Others" category as it's so important when managing our budgets, we still give of ourselves in