Small win: I transferred cash being held for large expenses throughout the year, and my small pile of accumulated rental property profits, over to Ally’s online savings earning 1.75% APY. Those accounts need to stay cash and liquid since they’re all going to pay bills this year, but at least the money can earn its keep in the meantime.
Still making slow progress with the weeding – I’m making it a point to get out there at least a few times during the week, and we’ve cleared a small patch that’s safe for Sera to do her zoom-zooms.
Small win: JB and I started venturing out to the garden-jungle this week to pull weeds. We hacked out a small but appreciable clearing free of weeds together and I yanked out an armload of weeds sprouting along the perimeter. Not so good for my hands (or back, hips, or knees) but I still feel mighty. I’m tempted to take photos every day as I do a small bit to create a little time lapse video.
I was awfully tempted to make my own flame weeder in the form of a tiny Bic lighter but I’m pretty sure that setting your yard on fire isn’t either frugal or ecologically sound.
Do you dress your age? I never did in my younger years and now I’m not sure where I land. It’s only rarely occurred to me to buy the whole outfit and honestly, I think it makes more sense to than not.
And that feeling of impending doom (not just in politics but on a personal level for friends in very tough personal and professional situations) is why I love Penny’s new series of Money Wins. Featuring yours truly in the first post, and Aitza in the second post.
I wasn’t familiar with Mitch Landrieu (former mayor of New Orleans) but some of the thoughts shared in this article were interesting. It feels a lot like no one’s thinking about the deep fissures cracking across our society right now and seeing those fissures addressed by someone who could pursue office again may or may not be a hopeful thing.
I had lots of male friends growing up but I’m grateful that I was not called on to fix them. Perhaps because I wasn’t the most well behaved kid in addition to being somewhat antagonistic. I do reach out to some of them from time to time sharing articles I think they need to know about though, and I know it’s not always gratefully received but such is the privilege of being my friend.
Small win: I’ve converted my Alaska card into a different BofA travel card without an annual fee for the moment to buy some thinking time on what we want to do next on our card churning.
What were your small wins this week?
Femme Frugality in Osaka. I’m dreaming of taking a really cool trip to Japan one of these days.
I’m very curious what made this particular individual’s Fiverr gigs take off to this extent because I’m guessing this is not the typical experience of other writers who take $5 per gig.
If you need a laugh, I always do, Sam Sykes trolling Myke Cole pretty much always makes me laugh. He’s dedicated to the cause. I can’t tell if he’s ever passed on an opportunity to troll Myke on Twitter and possibly also in person. From my observations, so far, no.
Do you do five year plans? I haven’t done one in a while, I’m in a season of rest for a little bit.
A friend found this site that solicits bids for services for you, no charge to the consumer and no commitment required. She crosschecked this with Yelp reviews and it seems pretty solid, at least on the East Coast.
OMG PUPPY
This is Nala. She discovered a new passion today. 13/10 would catch her at the bottom (IG: nala_thegoldie) pic.twitter.com/Yprl8EYexg
Small win: I made an amazing cottage pie with sour cream mashed potatoes for dinner. JB loved it and declared: mama, I am going to eat ALL MY FOOD!
Also, though I hate phone calls with a passion, I returned some calls about the LTC policy application that we’re considering. I’m really not ready to go through the fine print and make a decision so I scheduled the exam for late July to buy some time.
What were your small wins this week?
***
Ruth and I lost our mothers too young, she younger than I, and it’s left scars. I still remember the exact moment I got back to my desk at work and getting her message that her mom had passed; I remember it as clearly as when I got the call that Mom died suddenly. She’s written something you should read.
Small win: I found a new next size up bathing suit for JB for next to nothing!
What were your small wins this week?
***
If the separation of parents and children also breaks your heart, and you can donate to one of these causes linked in his tweet to help the kids, show Dr. Linus your receipt – he’ll match up to $10k, however long it takes. UPDATE June 21 10:53 am PST, he’s down to the last $150. Good job, y’all!
At least one very popular PF blogger is an asshat who think that it’s ok that migrant children are being separated from their families because they still have food and shelter because it’s far more concerning that children in Syria are living in dire circumstances. A) Read up on the lifelong consequences of familial separations, well known since after Operation Pied Piper in WWII. B) Both things are terrible and we should donate to help both horrible situations. C) Our government is materially contributing to the crappy situation in Syria just like it’s materially contributing to the separation and internment of babies and children. This all needs to stop. D) I don’t know about that blogger but I do have the capacity to care about more than one group of people and they don’t even have to look like or be like me to deserve it.
This is one of my nightmares: losing one of us when our child is young. We do have our life insurance and our wills, our trust, and I’m still working on pulling all the pertinent information into one handy Life and Death folder.
Small win: We had an extra long stretch on the social calendar in addition to my tripled workload. It was touch and go whether I’d make it through without blowing my top. I made it!! What were your wins this week?
I’m thrilled for Stacking Pennies, one of my original early days money blogging friends. She is expecting!
The Fuck-over-ability Index: As a manager, I definitely don’t pry into my people’s lives or encourage them to overcommit financially so we can overwork them. That’s messed up. I expect them to do a great job because that’s the job while I do my best to compensate them fairly and treat them well. And regardless, I expect that attrition will happen because that’s how it works.
The quiz was reasonably accurate for us though. I scored a 22: You can push back on your boss if they’re being totally unreasonable without fear of immediately going into financial ruin if you lose your job.
Waffles on Wednesday talks privilege. I like it when people are willing to speak on this, and when we practice gratitude for our many advantages and blessings.
A trustworthy immigration lawyer I know vouches for this group of lawyers fundraising to litigate against Jeff Sessions. If you can support them, that would be a tangible way to fight the ongoing horribleness with immigration in the US.
Sandy dug into the fine print of the Tulsa Real Estate Fund and points out some very valid concerns. It would be awesome for this fund to succeed, but as a mentor and I lamented, not on the backs of our own people (respectively). We see investing schemes and money advice that are about exploiting the community rather than building it up and it’s highly concerning because there are a lot of people trying to make their financial situations a little better, and a lot of people out there to take advantage of the shared connections, to take advantage of them. I truly hope they make some minor changes to ensure that doesn’t play out here.
Anthony Bourdain’s passing saddened me, he was such a creative thinker and I admired his risk taking and unique perspectives. One of the reasons I liked Anthony Bourdain (as much as you can like someone you’ve never met) is because I admired his ability to deal with his own pain and anger without projecting it on others, and instead trying to portray the humanity of cultures that were not his own without trying to look superior or like he’s the first to discover them. There was no appropriation or disrespect, it was entirely the opposite, and that was refreshing.
Scalzi on coolness vs not coolness. This is exactly how I’ve been thinking of the cool / not cool designations in our friend groups! But it does leave me I’m confused where I go because I’m definitely not cool (people don’t expend energy coming to me, by and large), am very ok with that not-coolness, but also don’t put energy out to draw people in, either.
Not due to racism, obviously, but JB doesn’t have much of a relationship with my Dad right now. It wasn’t due to lack of effort on our part at first but I’ve stopped trying. Ze doesn’t seem to notice that my parent isn’t in zir life. Ze has noticed that ze hasn’t met my mom and knows that she’s dead but perhaps due to age, or because I’ve supplied multiple surrogates. I am maintaining a policy of not lying but am working on giving zir more neutral and graspable answers suitable for a 3 year old.
