Tag: Choosing Wealth

Home Sweet Home

By nature, I am a homebody. I prefer to sleep in my bed, eat my own cooking and putter in my garden. During the month of March, I was traveling away from home for 17 days. I spent time in Florida, Massachusetts and New York City. In Florida, I caught up with Mother Fran, Child #7, and Child # 5 and his honey. Mother Fran had plenty of “jobs” for me including digging out roots from old bushes, planting new grasses and driving her to appointments.  I enjoyed wearing shorts and flip-flops, kayaking and hanging at the pond.

I spent 5 nights in Massachusetts in 4 different towns catching up with old friends. I visited one of the nursing homes I used to work at and said hello to a few old patients and co-workers. I attended an Occupational Therapy Conference and earned 5 continuing education credits while catching up with even more friends.  I got to meet a friends 6 month old baby and had a little snuggle time which is good for the soul. 

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Planning For WHAT IF

The other morning,  I was heading out to walk the dog and stopped to check out the handy, dandy weather app on my iPhone. It had one of those red banners across the top warning me of icy conditions. Score 1 for being prepared. Instead of my hiking boots, I pulled on my winter boots for improved traction, leashed up the pup and headed out the front door. I stepped off the porch, onto the first step and proceeded to slide, feet first down the 4 steps onto the cement landing.

I laid on the ground for a minute cursing and trying to move all of my limbs to see what was hurt. My left wrist and shoulder seemed to haven taken the brunt of the fall and both felt sore. Other than that and my tuckus being wet from laying on the ground I seemed to be fine. My honey heard the fall and opened the door to check on me (I figured she really heard me cursing)! I got up and proceeded to take the poor dog for her walk. Everything was slippery and it was one of those really short walks where my sole focus was not to fall again.

I looked kind of like this…

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My Brown Bag Plan

I am getting ready to cat and house sit for my sister and her honey for 3 weeks while they go on vacation. I will swing by their house every day and feed the cats, scoop their litter, and give them some loving.  I will also shovel snow, feed the birds, get the mail and make sure everything is fine.

My sister and her honey get a lot of mail. I bet they get more mail in 1 day then I get in a month. I receive bills electronically and pay them on-line. I hate junk mail and un-subscribe from everything as soon as I receive it. By the time they return from their vacation the kitchen table will be piled high with bills, magazines, flyers, newspapers, credit card offers, all types of junk mail and catalogues.

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No, No Way, Hell No, Nope, Not Going To Do It

Those of us who call ourselves frugal have different ways of trying to reach our goal of not spending money foolishly. We have different ideas of what that means and different reasons for choosing to save vs spend money.

The definition of frugal according to Merriam Webster Dictionary is:  “careful about spending money or using things when you do not need to : using money or supplies in a very careful way”.   For me, being frugal means I don’t spend money foolishly. I plan my large expenditures carefully and save money in advance to pay for them in cash. If I do use credit, I always pay my bills in full each month. I hate to spend money on interest and late fees; it makes me feel squeamish to say the least.

This doesn’t make me squeamish!

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What Do You Hate to Spend Money On?

I had some friends visiting from Massachusetts last week and we had a wonderful time! These are the kind of friends who have been in my life for what seems like forever and no matter how mad we get at each other, all is forgiven over a glass of wine or a really good meal.

This friend of mine has a pet peeve bigger then Big Papi’s ability to score a home run in clinch situation. My friend refuses, absolutely refuses to pay for parking. He would rather walk across a bridge, 2 miles in the rain than fork over $5 bucks to park his car.

We jokingly talked about this while driving to go on a  hike last week. My honey and I were trying to figure out how to get to a hiking spot we have done many times but we wanted to park at the summit of the hike (where parking is free) vs at the base where parking cost  $7.00. Somehow I knew my friend would understand.

I hate shelling out good money on poopy bags for Fenway. It seems such a silly thing but why spend money on squirling away poop? I hit the jack pot over the winter when my honey and I were doing some clean up at her parents and we scored 2 boxes of unused bags that are the perfect size to take care of Fenway’s business. I think I even did a happy dance when I tucked them into the car. I should have plenty of bags on hand to get me through 2017. Yeah!

Then again, it beats buying cat litter!

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Traveling With Mother Fran

Winter is in full force here in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate, NY and that means it is time to make a plan to get the hell out of Dodge. I woke up at 3AM and the wind was blowing hard, as if Mother Nature herself was knocking at my window. The days have been cold and blowy and every time I turn around more of the white stuff seems to be flying around me.  I don’t mind snow but dealing with the ice is no fun.

So my honey and I are planning a trip to Florida  in February to visit Mother Fran and Child #7. It is nice to have something fun (and warm) to look forward to.

Can’t wait

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Retail Therapy in The Kayak

Life in My Little Blue Kayak is uniquely mine. I have chosen to live my life on my terms. I have chosen to pursue health, wealth and happiness my way. These are pretty broad terms so I had to give some thought as what they meant to me. See the About Me page if interested.

I am not one of those people who work 60+ hours per week and make mega bucks. I don’t belong to a gym or participate in extreme sports. I don’t jet away to exotic locations or have gourmet meals delivered to my home.

No my annual vacation destination!
Not my annual vacation destination!

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Family Fun with Mother Fran

Family Fun – Mother Fran Style

In previous posts I have written about being raised in a household with 8 siblings and amazing parents. My friend likes to joke that we were like the Brady Bunch. My parents were raised during the depression and nothing was wasted or squandered. There was never an excess of income in my house, but there was never a shortage of fun either. My parents were raising 9 kids on 1 income and making ends meet the best they could. We  didn’t have play dates, fancy vacations, summer camp or ski trips. Honestly I don’t even remember ever having a friend stay over night.

Not us...
Not us…

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My Little Blue Toolbox

The Toolbox

People talk about getting ahead financially as if it were a race or a game, but I don’t think that is accurate. A race implies that participants start at a set place and have to cover the same distance. A game has rules and instructions that all players agree to follow in order to reach the stated goal.  Financially speaking we clearly don’t all start with a set amount of money in life and we don’t have the same end result in mind to identify the winner. Some people are born with advantages that others can’t even fathom. Advantages that put them far ahead before the gun fires to signal the race has started.  If getting ahead financially were a game then some players received the rules in advance while other obtained the instructions in a language they do not understand.

race

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Mother Fran’s Tips to Stretch The Food Budget

A few weeks ago I posted Money Lessons From Mother Fran and that got me thinking how much of my personality and how I approach life is rooted in lessons I learned as a kid. My parents grew up during the depression and saving, scrimping, re-using, and repurposing are second nature to them. I know I inherited this mindset as did my siblings although we don’t all apply the lessons in the same way. Continue reading “Mother Fran’s Tips to Stretch The Food Budget”