10 Freebies

Here's a bunch of nifty free things you can get...

1. Free entrance to the National Parks on Saturday for National Public Lands Day.
2. Free entrance to state parks on Saturday (not sure if all states have this but examples here and here).
3. Free covid test kits (you can order them here starting Monday).
4. Free credit reports (I pull mine once a year just to make sure there is nothing happening with my credit that I don't know about).
5. Free money from class action rebates if you qualify.
6. Free National Park Passes if you qualify.
7. Free money from your state's unclaimed property office if you qualify.
8. Free local things (ie: in my area we have Freecycle, Craigslist freebies, free animals from the shelter on occasion, and lots of free tourist/locals activities).  YMMV
9. Birthday freebies (sign up now and by the time your birthday rolls around, your email box will be filled with free stuff!).
10. GoFundMe.  Of course I have heard of GoFundMe but never really looked into it until this week when a friend asked me to write the blurb for a campaign she wanted to create to help her friend who has cancer.  After checking it out, I found that you can ask for funds for just about anything not just emergencies and medical stuff but funds to travel, start a business, make a record and so much more.  

My Life With Cats

So this is me now...

...buying cat food in bulk (this is the cheapest way to buy cat food; at Sam's Club it is about $1 per pound for a big bag of cat food).  I looked at the price for canned cat food and it is expensive--we would probably go through $100 every few days if we were feeding the cats canned cat food!

...the cats sit outside on the back porch and sometimes stare at me for hours.  I have no idea what this means but it is a little freaky.  They look like they want attention but when I open the door they scatter so I have no idea what they want when they watch us for hours.

...they are very cute though...

A Weekend Mystery

Our mystery from this weekend...how did the several hundred pound boulder in our front yard get moved a few feet out of the place?  It has been in its usual place for nearly 20 years and weighs too much for anyone to pick up but it has definitely been moved.  Weird...

$50 of Groceries

So this is what $50 will buy for groceries in my area.  About five years ago, this grocery haul would have cost around $30 so prices really have gone up over the past several years.  Note that almost all of these items were bought on sale, via the store app, or with a store discount (I rarely buy anything that isn't on sale).  Here's what I bought for $49.44

• A loaf of French bread
• 5 lbs potatoes
• 2 lbs strawberries
• Ahead of cabbage
• A broccoli crown
• 10 pieces of breaded fish
• A can of coffee
• 2 cans of tomato paste
• 4 packets of gravy mix
• A half pound of sliced ham
• 2 dozen eggs
• A bundles of green onions
• A bundle of cilantro
• A cucumber
• 4 bottles of coffee creamer

I'm not sure how this compares to other parts of the country.  Do you think this was a good deal or not?

I'm Still Here

I can't believe it's been so many days since I posted but with so much working, the days are flying by in a blur!

• The feral cats are still here, although they are no more friendly towards me than they were before.  I have no idea why they will sit and stare at me for hours while I work...weird.
• Our sunrises are beautiful (see above)!
• The weather is finally cooling off (thank God!).
• Bowling season is in full swing.  Hubby bowls and I just bring my laptop and work while I watch him.
• We replaced our old mattress.  The new one is ultra firm because I would rather sleep on the floor than a squishy mattress.  Also, hubby and I both noticed we are less achy when we wake up with this new mattress compared to the old mattress.
• I gave away our old mattress for free on Craigslist and it was scooped up within an hour of posting.  I couldn't believe two elderly ladies showed up to get it so I had to help them load it on top of their van then I had to give them rope and tie it down because their plan was to just hold on to the mattress while they drove home which was on the other side of the city!?! ayayay
• Work is still great.  The Board voted on my salary and benefits package and during the meeting they gave me a bit higher salary than I asked for.  I was completely (but happily) surprised!
• The office politics are creeping in though.  Even though I work from home, I still have to deal with a lot of big (and sometimes cranky) personalities.  I am terrible at office politics.  My friend who had this job previously could maneuver around anyone in any situation (including bulldozing right over them if they were particularly problematic).  Hubby's advice as I am flailing about pointing at a cranky email from someone is to leave the email on read and not answer them back until tomorrow (which is sound advice and probably saved me from being fired this week!).
• Finally, here is an interesting way to send your name into space with NASA.

It's Too Early for Christmas!

Just a quick update but first I must say that it is way too early for Christmas stuff to be out!!!! 

• We were at Big Lots yesterday and I couldn't believe they were already hauling out Christmas stuff to sell.  That's crazy!
• Also at Big Lots, mixed in with the Christmas stuff, was the Halloween stuff with an earie version of 'Ring Around the Rosy' playing on repeat.  So it's barely September, I'm looking at fake Christmas trees, and listening to children sing about people dying from the plague. eeekkk
• We have six feral cats stopping by for breakfast now.  That is getting a bit out of hand.  We did name them though--Grouchy Cat (he doesn't purr or meow, he only hisses and slaps at the other cats), Scaredy Cat (he--she? we don't know which cats are hes and which cats are shes--this one is afraid of everything and tiptoes around, eating as far away from the other cats as possible), Turbo Cat (this one doesn't really walk, he zips, zigzags, bounces, and zooms. He is a very fast cat), Scruffy Cat (this would be a beautiful long haired cat but since I would lose an arm trying to bathe or brush him, he consistently looks scruffy), Whitey Cat (he is mostly white and the friendliest of all the cats but still won't get near enough so I can pet him), and Turbo Sr (this is a very big version of Whitey Cat--they look almost identical--but he is very fast and jumpy like Turbo Cat).  I have never wanted to be a cat lady...eeekkk
• Business is moving right along.  I am officially hired for the job I have been doing for the past five months and now I am just waiting for the board to vote on my salary and benefits (low six figures and more days off between holidays/annual leave/sick leave than I will ever use).  Working from home is AMAZING.  If they would have had this back when I was running my business (like literally running from meeting to meeting all across the state almost everyday), I wouldn't have been so keen on retiring early!
• The weather around here has been crazy.  A couple weeks ago we got repeated warnings about Tropical Storm Hilary which was supposed to dump a whole bunch of rain on Las Vegas but barely made an appearance here.  Then last week we got no warning about a massive amount of rainfall which caused flooding all over the place and power outages (hubby was bowling at the time so we sat in the dim emergency lit bowling center for an hour until the power came back on).  I'm just glad we didn't go to Burning Man this past weekend!
• The money I've made from work these past months has just been sitting in my bank account since we already have all of our bills taken care of (when I get enough saved I will pay off the rest of the mortgage in the next several months), we carry no debt, and we don't need anything, but I did make my first splurge this past week.  We bought a giant (!) 85" TV for $1100.  It looked smaller in the store so we were both kind of surprised when it was dropped off on our doorstep.  With the neighbor's help we were able to get it unboxed and set up and now, even without cable TV, we have way too many options for things to watch.  Our OTA antenna works with it, Roku provides so many stations as does the Samsung hub channels that are built into the TV, and our DVD player from the Goodwill also works great with it.  Also, this TV is so thin and light compared to our 10+ year old TVs that hubby and I can barely lift.  

I hope you are all having an enjoyable Labor Day weekend!

10 Things from This Week

In no particular order...

1. Obligatory cat picture above.  They are very photogenic yet very anti social.  I know nothing about cats (we've always had dogs) so I have no idea why they will sit outside the sliding door and stare at me working for hours yet the moment I open the door, they run away like their tails are on fire.  If I have the responsibilities of taking care of cats, I would at least like to pet them!
2. Here is a great post about anti-consumption stuff.  I particularly liked #12.
3. We watch cooking shows on TV which sometimes inspires me to try new things.  Earlier this week on 'You Gotta Eat Here' one of the restaurants featured made mashed potato waffles.  So I tried making them.  They were just OK even though the people on the show raved about them. 
   
   
   
4. I love Kipling bags but I don't buy them in the regular stores because there are expensive (usually $75+).  Sierra.com often has them on sale but I try not to shop online much so I was very surprised to see these Kipling backpacks which retail for around $125 each on sale for $40 each as Ross today.  I bought two because the price was so good so I will probably put one in the gift box to give to someone who needs it.  
   
   
   
5. Tomorrow when I get time I will pull my free annual credit reports.  Even though I have a credit freeze on each report provider, I suddenly have been inundated with spam email for credit and shopping stuff so I figured now is as good a time as any to make sure everything is good with my credit reports.
6. Bob Barker passed away today.  He was 99 and a cultural icon.  RIP Bob.
7. A pet peeve: I was getting my coffee drink at Baskin Robbins a few days ago and a mom was there with three girls aged about 4 to 10.  The mom had her face buried in her phone the entire time and the kids looked quiet and sad while they ate their ice cream.  I hate it when parents would rather interact with their phones than their kids.
8. A couple of good reddit subs for finding deals here and here.
9. This lady is super inspirational if you are thinking about growing a garden.
10. Finally, I have a feeling the upcoming presidential election is going to be an absolute nightmare.