Lazy Days and Thursdays-This Week in my (Frugal) Retirement

In case there's any doubt as to the accuracy of this title, I began this missive sitting up in bed, after taking my morning meds and having prayer time and attempting to journal. I am determined to  either start journaling every day and/or do my creative journal every day (I even have my sketchbook, colored pencils and pens in my little chair side basket) but struggle with when to fit it into my schedule. Sigh

In general, my life seems to go from one extreme to another on the activity level. This week was absolutely no exception, especially when fueled by the first few days of icky as opposed to Indian summer type fall weather.

Monday was probably the laziest day of all, since I never got out of those sweats. I didn't even cook as we had leftover minestrone and popovers (fresh, not leftover, but not made by me) for dinner and I had a lean cuisine for lunch. In order to challenge myself, I spent some time making a list of all the things that I could "create" and do at home with things on hand or with minor purchases needed, and did the same with all the things I could do locally for little or no money. With a few downtown exceptions, I do seem to have narrowed my geographic circle of activities lately-which is fine by me. I'm embracing the local extremely locally starting with a city pumpkin fest this weekend.

Tuesday I managed to get my lazy self out of the house for at least awhile. I met my lunch gals at a Japanese/Sushi restaurant where I had the lunch combo, and where we all agreed we needed to start lunching every other week at the  most, both for our budgets and our waistlines. We do hit restaurants with lots of $9.99 options, but even that adds up and we already meet weekly for happy hour (which is more flexible in the spending category as one can just sip a drink or eat). Then, joy of joys, I went and got my oil changed. Not expensive in and of itself, except that I found out I will need new tires and brake shoes on two sides. Normal expenses in a normal life except for the year I'm paying $600 bucks a month for kid tuition. Time to do some number crunching (and be thankful that since he lives with me I have a second car if needed). Worth it in the long term as I want my car to last another hundred thousand miles. The goal is to get the pads replaced before they wear down too much. 

 Rare, oh so rare is it that I miss my knitting group. Normally, unless I am ill or traveling I allow nothing to interfere. Wednesday  morning I woke up to freezing rain (farewell Indian summer) which later turned to non-sticking snow flurries. At least three of us decided on hibernation vs knitting, and I was one of them. I did knit at home and even did a one hour timed knitting period to see how far I could get on my new project-and ended up finishing the first repeat on this gift shawl. Refusing to leave the house and having taken nothing from the freezer to thaw, dinner was well...creative. I had a frozen package of broccoli cheese soup that served four (or four when you don't have a six foot bottomless pit living with you). I made herbed biscuits (from Schwan's they were fantastic) and we had two leftover chicken breasts, a single serving of casserole and one brat left to supplement for said bottomless pit if needed. We've been experimenting with various casseroles and frozen dinners in favor of occasional cooking avoidance. Shocking as it may sound, we've found some at "the mart" that we love and are fairly healthy including a chili casserole with spicy cornbread crust. Our vote was not to repeat the soup.

I got a chance to talk with a medical insurance broker who specialize in Medicare options this week, as well as my federal insurance benefit officer. It seems that I can suspend my federal retiree insurance benefits when I sign up for a Medicare Advantage plan. Federal retiree types who are reading this take note, as I did not know this was an option. In other words, if the government ever decides to stop funding Advantage plans, rather than go to a supplement, I can go back to my federal benefit. This was the final straw in convincing me to move, and in January I'll be on a no cost HMO type advantage plan. My first HMO vs PPO but I can make it work after looking at specialists available. I spent a good hour talking to the broker on Thursday afternoon and was glad I did-it was time well spent, as opposed to doing all my searching online or via phone calls.

After my medical business was taken care of,  I went to my trusty hair dresser and I know have white sides and brown top which I will picture soon. It 'll probably take three haircuts to grow out, and I have a feeling I may want a streak of something on top. After that, I took my half and half hair to happy hour, where I visited with friends, had an iced tea and fries and chilled for a couple hours before heading home. My knitting group and other crafty friends are working on scarves, lap blankets and such for the local Meals on Wheels chapter. They have 400 people, 400. We will never get that many made by Christmas so the director said they would probably take what we give them and use them as birthday gifts. Upon hearing that, one of my elderly lunch gals presented me with thirty or so handmade cards for men and women and said she will make more and also wants to make Christmas and Valentine cards, bless her!!

As soon as I bounded (err...slowly climbed) out of bed this morning,  I grabbed some waffles, mainly because I'm out of milk and eggs, eliminating both eggs and oatmeal as options this morning. I plan to spend the rest of the morning in my trusty corner chair with my blanket, with the dog sitting in the chair across from me. He may not care that the fleece blanket I got for him has dog prints on it, but he loves it any way. Between that and the fuzzy pillow, he is happy in his own space. At some point today I obviously need to get a few groceries, pick up some "real" library books up the road, and do some sewing or creativity in my sewing room  

This weekend, depending on my "leaving the house" level of energy, there is a pumpkin fest,  a church dinner, and a few neighborhood things going on. I'll save my trip to the movies for during the week, when the crowds are down, and the entrance fee is five dollars!! Also on the agenda: deciding on all the food gifts for the foodies in my life. I live with and near people who actually like getting things like homemade compound butters, flavoring salts and the like. I can't make them this early, but I can plan-and they are a chapter in my upcoming book!