We headed down to Portland last weekend to visit with That Frugal Pharmacist and her family (namely, the kiddo and her son Uriah got to hang out). We hadn’t gotten a chance to go south and see them since Uriah’s birthday party in March, so we found time to squeeze in a short Saturday morning – Sunday afternoon trip down there.
Purple hitched a ride down with us, and then we set up a meet up with some other local Portland bloggers on Saturday while we were there. It was a short trip, but a super fun one, and I’m so glad we had a chance to get another weekend down there. Uriah was feeling a lot better than the last time we saw him, and both boys are a bit older, and they played together super well all weekend. They are buddies and totally heart melting together.
Friday’s Frugal Five
1. When we reached out to the Portland bloggers to plan a meetup for Saturday, Joe from Retire By 40 offered to host and cook us lunch. Which really is only fair since he shares some pretty delicious looking meals on social media, including this one, which is what he and his wife cooked for us. I can report back that indeed, the food he shares online is as good as it looks.
Bethany from His and Her FI also joined us for lunch, and then Mr Burrito Bowl showed up afterward with his wife and daughter. We had originally planned to go to an indoor kid play area that serves drinks after lunch, but the weather turned out to be pretty decent, so we changed plans last minute and just hung out at the house for longer (with the three boys playing together) and then walked over to a park nearby. It was just as fun, and it was free.
2. Frugal Pharm also brought a box of her clothes she was planning to donate for me to dig through first, and I headed home with a new shirt and a new sweater. I wore the shirt to work on Monday, and I felt pretty fabulous in it. It’s leopard print, and not something I necessarily would have picked out for myself, but I love it on me. I’m finding that I’m wearing – and loving – some hand me down pieces I would never have looked at twice otherwise.
We also brought down a box of hand me down clothes and shoes from the kiddo for Uriah, so we each left with some new things and a few things decluttered that were otherwise just sitting around our houses. So much of the stuff in our homes become useful things again once they go to a new one.
3. I had a late meeting on Tuesday, so I made the most of a break in between to get in a good workout. The gym I go to is a chain, but the only one somewhat in the direction of my last meeting is a Signature Club, which means I would have had to spend an extra $5 for a drop in fee to work out there.
Instead, I decided to run outside at work and then lift in the small gym there, even if it doesn’t have all the equipment of the big gym. I also saved the gas to drive to a separate location and the time it would have taken.
4. We’ve actually been – gasp – meal prepping a little bit around these parts. I know, I hardly believe it either. And not just buying things over the weekend with general ideas of what we might make with them, but pre prepping ingredients so they’re ready to go to throw together later in the week. And we’ve been double batching – and then eating – at least once a week.
You know, for as long as it’s taken us to get here, I think I’m sold. We will never have a pretty, super organized grocery list with exact meals planned out for each week with ways to use the same ingredient four different times, but the level we’ve at sure has made a difference. I think we’ll keep this new weekly routine.
5. I showed up at my parents’ house after work to the the kiddo getting a haircut trim with my mom. I hadn’t really noticed, but he had gotten a bit shaggy again since she cut his hair a while back.
She cuts his hair and mine, and my husband does his own at home, so we haven’t had to pay for a hair cut in a long time (ten years for my husband, at least three for me, and not once for the kiddo). We may spend a good deal on food, travel, and our pets, but the selective frugality of skipping things like fancy haircuts, new cars and regular tech upgrades means we can still save quite a bit overall.
Exercise Update
We walked around Portland on Saturday after hanging around at the park, and the three of us (me, Frugal Pharm, and Purple) traded off taking photos of help wanted signs for Jobspotter, with the husband pointing them out for us. The kiddo was pretty tired and I carried him around in a Tula, so I feel like this was an extra workout with forty pounds on my back.
Sunday was a walk to the park in the rain with the kiddo, pointing out how the droplets sounded on the trees. Monday was forty minutes on the elliptical because I didn’t plan ahead and bring running gear, and then squeezing in a forty minute YouTube yoga session while the kiddo stayed and hung out nearby (or on me).
Tuesday was a half hour run followed up with lifting and stretching. Wednesday was another half hour run first thing in the morning and then a good walk and long stretching session in the afternoon. It’s been a long time since I’ve stepped my exercise up to the level of this week, and it feels really, really good.
What does selective frugality look like in your life?
Y’all have a pretty tight knit community of FI folks out there, its very cool!
We do. It’s totally awesome.
So amazing that Joe was able to host all of you for lunch. Blogger meetups really are the best! I’m heading to one on Monday with a bunch of Vancouver FI bloggers… can’t wait!
That photo of your kiddo with Uriah is ADORABLE.
Will definitely let you know at the point we making it up north of the border!
i got a free haircut before we went to florida to freeze. i also hate buying outdoor furniture. most of our stuff is from the curb. a few winters ago i was carrying 4 wrought iron patio chairs home in the snow. a car full of old women offered this strange guy (me) a ride as they felt badly for me. i politely declined as i was almost home with my free chairs.
i don’t know about any other bloggers in western, ny. do you?
HA. I love that story of your free chairs.
And I think perhaps the closest blogger to you now is Financial Mechanic since she moved?
yeah, that’s 3 hours away near utica, but i’ll honk when we pass by on wednesday.
The two kiddos together 😍. Sounds like a perfect frugal and fun weekend to me!
Right? 😍😍😍
Frugality for me is realizing that what we buy or what we spend our money on does not define us and nobody really cares about it. They like us for who we are and are not worried about being impressed. Therefore we can focus on what matters, living mindfully on a path to happiness while spending as little as possible to meet that goal while of course considering our environmental footprint.
Very true. And if there are people who do care, perhaps they aren’t the ones you want to be spending time with anyway 🙂
That is great that your mother is handy with the shears and does haircuts at home. They must turn out well, otherwise you would not continue to have cut your hair. My husband is the family barber and stylist. My two boys get their haircuts every three to four weeks, depending on our schedule. I like their hair short, But not shaved bald, so it is a combination of the clippers and the shears to do their haircuts. It takes him about ten minutes per haircut. That is less time total for the two haircuts, than the time it would take to drive to the barbershop one way, let alone the wait for to have their turn. So I save time, transportation costs and the cost of the haircuts. It saves me several hundred dollars a year. Every couple months, I take a seat on the stool, get caped and get my tresses trimmed. It takes him about 20 minutes to do my hair, being he has to comb out, section, pin up and trim my thick elbow length hair in half inch increments. I figure given my hair length, they would charge me over a hundred dollars and I wouldn’t get the same great results, plus I enjoy the pampering as well as saving several hundred dollars a year. I am terrible at cutting hair, I tried one time to cut my boy’s hair and I got flustered and had to have my guy finish. My mother was not good with hair either. I have bad memories of short bangs. She was at the house watching hubby cut my boys’ hair and complimented on how handsome the boys looked with their fresh haircuts, but said the process hubby went through to get the results looked like too much work, she would just take the clippers and shave them bald if she had to cut their hair. My older son responded that he was not going to ever let grandma cut his hair. My mom thought it was great that hubby cut the boys hair, he did great work and it saves me money. However at first she thought it was terrible and a control thing that he cut my hair. I told her, yes it is a control thing, I am in control, he does what I tell him to do. I was surprised that after he finished giving my older son his haircut, she mentioned that she was not happy with the cost or the quality of her last salon haircut, and she really needed a haircut. I told her she could just take a seat and get a better quality haircut for free. Well she did! Hubby caped her and asked what she wanted and she said just a trim. She has a shoulder skimming bob, but was unsure of the amount she wanted off. Hubby put out his hand and asked her to show him on his fingers. She told him the pinkie and ring finger width. Hubby said ok, give her a trim and she was happy with the results, it saved her $50. She has me color her hair, she likes my work, but refuses to let me cut her hair. Mom is on social security, and not well off financially, so I like that we can help her save money for her food and utilities, rather than spend a lot of her money at the salon. Sadly she was not very good with putting away for her retirement and never managed her money very well, and now is dealing with the consequences of that.
Awesome that your husband has such good barber skills! I definitely don’t miss the time sink of having to get haircuts either.
My days off are always very busy with so many things to do, I could not imagine having to waste a whole morning having to go to the salon, let alone the cost and not being happy with the result. I have him trim my hair late on a Saturday afternoon after all of my running around is done. Then I can relax and sip the glass of wine that he puts out for me before he starts. My best friend said it sounded great, and asked when was she going to be invited over. Hubby said ok and she brought a bottle of wine when she came for her haircut. So she got her hair trimmed as we sipped wine together. I was a pal, I shared my stylist with her, it was cheap, it only cost her a bottle of wine. I was talking with her a few days ago and she asked me about next weekend and asked if she could bring her sister, I told her Sure but she would need a bigger bottle of wine.
Okay, now THAT is an awesome story. How great is that.