My Tireless Retirement – Week 115

 

Oh my goodness you guys, what a busy week I just had.  I began with a three day weekend and NO plans, which was very nice.  I haven’t had one of those in quite a while and I thoroughly enjoyed just doing whatever happened to strike my fancy at the time.  I stayed home all three days except for a quick trip to the store for ice cream on Saturday.  Sometimes a girl just needs some ice cream, especially on a hot summer day.

 

Naughty kitty!

On Saturday the weatherman threatened us with a 100° day so I went ahead and installed the A/C unit in my bedroom window three weeks ahead of schedule.  I just can’t sleep well in a hot room.  It didn’t end up getting quite that hot that day, but I’m ready now for when it does.  I’m fortunate in that as long as I keep the upstairs cool the downstairs of my home stays nice and comfortable all summer long.

 

I have been doing quite a bit of planning lately.  I was inspired to do some financial planning after my Social Security statement arrived the week before.  Even though I retired a year earlier than my original plan I am staying right on track, in fact I may be a little bit ahead.  As well as the financial end of things I am making plans for some fun too and I can hardly wait to get started on that.

 

I went through my pantry, restocked a few staple items I was low on using LTFS stock, went through the refrigerator and freezer and came up with a meal plan for the next couple of weeks using up some stuff that has been hanging around a little too long as well as some stuff I don’t want to end up “hanging around”.

 

After discovering I was low on freezer containers (did you know if you drop them out of the freezer onto your foot they will crack?  It’s true.) I went out to the motorhome and stole all of the ones that I had put in there since I obviously wasn’t using them.  Now I am all stocked back up.

 

I downloaded some free digitals for paper crafting

Ways I Saved $$: 

I washed out two gallon sized Ziploc bags to reuse and I stole all the plastic food containers out of the motorhome as a no cost replacement for restocking the house with freezer containers. 

I downloaded FREE digitals for paper crafting and printed them off.  I also downloaded some digital coupons for items I use on a regular basis to my store rewards card.  One of those coupons includes a FREE jar of mayonnaise which just so happens to be an item on my grocery list to add to my LTFS.  I will definitely be using that coupon. 

I took advantage of some sales and promotions on Chewy.com and placed an order for kitty food, both dry kibble and canned pate.  They are picky and will only eat pate style canned food, but pretty much in any flavor so I got them a nice variety.  Now that they are both getting older I got them some better kibble for senior kitties and I am feeding them the canned food more often too.  By choosing the auto ship method I was able to save an additional $10 on this order.  I also got free shipping.  Whoo hoo!

 

Burritos for the freezer - Yum!

Meals I Prepared: 

I made beef and bean burritos using my homemade refried beans and a small package of ground beef from the freezer.  I put away three burritos into the freezer to eat later.  I thawed a package of angus beef hotdogs I purchased last summer and made macaroni & cheese to use up a package of cheese sauce I had in the pantry along with some of my stockpiled macaroni.  I also added a handful of grated cheddar cheese. It was pretty tasty.

 

A mini lasagna

I had a very small lasagna in the freezer that I thawed and “baked” in the microwave. It was enough for three meals last week.  I also made fresh green salads and steamed some asparagus as side dishes.  I had planned to make one more meal, however I ended up with more leftovers than I thought I would.

 

My best day of work so far since I began my little part time job was this past Tuesday when I got to take a group of twelve ladies miniature golfing and then out for lunch afterward.  I was also the bus driver.  We all had so much fun.  I was substituting for a co-worker that was on vacation.  On the way back to the senior center one of the ladies asked me when I learned to drive a bus and I told her “this morning”.  Then I told her I also drive an RV so a mini bus isn’t much different.  In fact, to me, the bus drives exactly the same as Laverne.  I just had to learn how to operate the doors and some of the buttons and I was good to go.  The lady told me I was doing a good job, which I appreciated.  When I got back I told my boss about that, it was pretty funny.  I also told her I’d be willing to do that again anytime she needs me.  It was so awesome.

 

We had a great time!

It was another great week in retirement!  How was your week?

 

FYI - My retirement week runs from Friday through Thursday.