6 Frugal Retirement Things-And a Recommendation

Many of  you who stop by fairly regularly know that I am a great believer in going to the movies-in the movie theater. I believe that there are certain movies that are simply worthy of theater viewing, no matter the size of your flat screen TV. I know that the reason the movies cost so much is because we as viewers require more expensive movies to attract our attention. And honestly, I simply enjoy the movie recliner, popcorn and drink experience.

While this may sound odd for some having a frugal retirement on a fixed income, I see at least a couple in theater movies a month-by taking advantage of movie rewards, discount gift cards and cards earned through passive means such as Swagbucks.(For those of you who also do the Swag thing, this is how I use mine, as apposed to for the holidays. On fun and travel).  

 All of which leads me to the movie Wind River.  Because I am who I am,  I am not a big fan of giving folks summaries, or watching extended previews. I believe both situations unwittingly give too much away. I'll just suggest you see it. In a theater.  You'll be glad you did. Trust me.

Off to the frugal and semi frugal:

1. I did NOT sign up for the aforementioned Movie Pass by Netflix. Although I adore Netflix, a quick perusal on my community word of mouth Facebook groups and such led to many disgruntled folks who had not received a card in three weeks, found the app difficult to use, and had difficulty speaking to a real person. I'll wait and see if they get the kinks out, because for someone like me who sees at least to real movies a month it could a great deal.
2. After seeing the movie above, I took my sister to a large yarn store.  Because I am a big believer in giving someone something they both like and can make use of. By allowing her to wander for a half an hour or so, feel the the yarn and look at the colors, have an excellent idea of the yarns she likes. Since the yarn store did not mind, I took some pictures of yarns and labels and have a good sense of what to do for the shawl she has requested for Christmas.  
   
3. We were eating down the freezer before my August vacay to daughter and son-in -law and were down to the bottom layer. So the protein larder was, basically, bare. I grabbed boneless chuck on sale for-wait for it- $2.00 a pound, and a whole pork sirloin roast on sale. While it is still summer in terms of temperature (and we will surely grill this holiday weekend), we were beginning to think about fall food. Cooking these two will be a start and leave frozen leftovers for another meal.
4. At Christmas, I had purchased a couple Toys R Us gift cards for my little niece and nephew in Seattle. I misplaced one, so I had purchased another. Then, of course, I found the original-which had been sitting in my wallet for awhile. I did a quick coupon search and am now prepared to buy a pile of diapers, which I will send to Houston on a truck leaving this week. I also had a few of those five and ten dollar gift cards with purchase that Target gives out and figure I'll buy as many travel sizes as that will cover. I'm working on quilts to donate, but this is more immediate assistance.
5. I went to Walmart (I live near one of those super-dee-duper Walmarts that actually looks almost like Target and at least as clean) and bought two pairs of pull on knit pants for ten bucks each. I'm at that in between place that a couple bloggers have been, and have two good pairs of long pants. While these are actually a little loose, they are yoga style pants and will work fine on the days I go from sewing to yoga class to errands and home.
6. And finally, I had been wanting some instruction in playing with the myriad of art materials I got from my daughter. She gave me an expensive set that included watercolors, good acrylics, oil paints and both regular and watercolor colored encils. Eventually I may want to take a class, but my first goal was simply to play until I decided which medium to take further. So I needed some inspiration. A quick search of art journal promts that were free, as well as a discounted class on Craftsy.com took care of that. I'll start with the free guidance and move onto the paid later-although I'm not likely to be sharing my artwork, anytime soon.
   

And now, off to enjoy the holiday weekend. At home. Because my natural laid back, doesn't take much to excite me personality goes off the deep end in traffic. Especially holiday traffic, when the majority of people need to go back to driving school or never learned how to drive the first time. So I'll enjoy my back yard, grill a bit, visit family in town and in a perfect world, get all the strips for that fancy quilt cut out!

Now, how about you?