August 11, 2023
1. Self pats on the back for having bought medium and large size pants for JB from Lands End when they were on sale, a couple years ago. I pulled them out of the storage bin today and figured out which ones fit better for this school year and organized the next size ups into another container. Easy peasy and hardly any shopping needed. I’m lucky they still generally like the same things two years on. Won’t be that easy in a few, I suspect.
August 4, 2023
1. We had long visits with a much missed friend this week (which kept me so busy, ironically, I didn’t get to add this item until they left).
Helping folks: This GoFundMe to help a family after a devastating fire has stalled. Perhaps we can help a bit?
July 28, 2023
2. I’d been waffling about on the idea of selling my old phone after I upgraded last year. It still works, the battery was just degraded to the point of requiring two or three charging sessions a day with my heavy use and shutting off at 33% power. But! I found a use for it! JB can use it to read books on Libby and play games on the PBS kids app.
Challenges this week:
July 21, 2023
1. My cough won’t budge but my pain has been lower than usual. I’ll take the win.
Helping folks: A dear friend who has helped me through therapy, mental health struggles, and more is in a really tough situation right now. She escaped an abusive parent / caretaking situation with a lot of help 2 years ago (old GFM here for reference). She was able to start over with a clean slate, but of course since then, her job has been steadily cutting her pay and her hours. She’s been actively job hunting, I’ve been helping, but things are rough out there and she’s not been able to find a safe landing pad. She didn’t want to ask for help, she didn’t actually ask me for help, but I know she needs it and I’ve been in that exact situation where I wasn’t sure it was worth continuing to fight, and been unwilling to ask for help myself. I won’t leave a friend like that.
Her current critical need is that her car needs work, estimated to cost $2000+, which she can’t afford with the steady drop in income. I’ve set aside a large chunk of cash for it, and am hoping friends will be able to help pitch in to help us get the rest of the way. You know I’d never ask for myself, but I will ask for a friend. We have $600 right now, so we’re almost halfway there. If you can, every bit would help so much.
Venmo: @RK-Tillman
PayPal: ruthtillman [at sign] gmail.com
Cashapp: $ruthkt
July 14, 2023
1. I finished my backpack repair!! The resurrection of a beloved backpack is deeply satisfying. It’s icing on the cake that it only cost an additional $3 in sewing needles on top of the other stuff I already had (thread, spare fabric, old lanyards, a sewing machine that works).
2. The ant bait recommendations worked wonderfully. I think it’s ok to draw a line under the kitchen invasion, that seems to be over. I baited our bathrooms that were still receiving several visitors a day. It’s odd though, they aren’t behaving as I’d grown to expect. Usually you see several scouts and then a full scale incursion hits the next couple of days. They sent scouts daily for weeks without ever fully committing so I don’t understand what’s happening. I wonder if they have a whole other strategy I don’t understand.
July 7, 2023
1. Gave PiC and Smol Acrobat their haircuts this weekend. Smol hates their haircuts so it took a ton of energy and Lucky Charms to get through. JB’s next. Savings: $50 Remembering that we shouldn’t do three haircuts on the same day: priceless.
2. I let us both off the dinner hook over the weekend. We were wiped out from the week, and we had cooked all week which makes me feel better when I do resort to takeout. We had a treat of burgers and fries and shared a mini shake between the four of us. That last wasn’t specifically to be frugal. The shared mini shake is exactly the right amount for everyone in addition to their own burgers and a big helping of fries. Still, not wasting money on a larger shake, some of which could go to waste, feels like the comfortably frugal thing to do.
Helping folks: FOGA‘s friend is trying to escape an abuser, can you help?
ZJ’s friend lost her sibling, leaving her the sole surviving member of her nuclear family, and is trying to raise funds to help their brother in law be with their niblings during this time of grief.
June 30, 2023
1. I am making real progress on my backpack repair. I made new zipper pulls! 😍
2. I bought three Kindle copies of Kate Elliott’s The Keeper’s Six to give away! Leave me a comment (include your email address in the comment, it won’t be visible publicly) and I’ll send it to you. Please claim in 24 hours.
If not redeemed, I’ll pass to the next person who wants it so they don’t linger, unloved forever.
Helping folks: Mari Copeny, also known as Little Miss Flint, has been fundraising for clean water filters for the past four years. She’s asking for donations for her 16th birthdays.
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