This Week...Beyond Money 1/18 - 1/24

For me, a life beyond money is making choices so that you can live the best possible life, regardless of your income level. Obviously, you have to make a living, but there are many ways to improve your quality of life without increasing your income levels and correspondingly your expenses. This regular post will be some of the ways that we improve our quality of life beyond just trying to make more money.

Gardening:
* I bought a 25 lb bag of feed for $8.99. This brings my total cost to $196 so far. I've gotten no meat yet, but loads of fertilizer.

Cooking/Groceries:
* Trucker got a huge tub of mixed greens for $2.50 (usually $5) on manager's special, Special K cereal for $1 box (4 boxes), milk for $1/half gallon (great for here). He also wanted to treat me, so he got a container of fancy hot chocolate($1.50, usually $4) and a container of cajun mix which is my current favorite snack ($1.99 marked down from $6.99).
* I hit the mother load one day at the grocery store. I stumbled upon the meat section right as they were marking down breakfast and lunch meats. I got: 4 packs of bacon at $1.50 (usually $6.19; $2/lb), 2 small packs of olive loaf for $1 (usually $1.99; $2/lb), 1 pack of maple sausage patties for $1.50 (usually $4.99; $2.50/lb), a pack of mesquite turkey for $1.09 (usually $3.49; $2.18/lb), honey roasted turkey breast for $1.39 (usually $3.99; $2.47/lb) and a 1 lb tub of chicken breast for $2.89. Quite a fantastic score!
* On day while Trucker was at work, I made colcannon with fried eggs for dinner. So good and so cheap.
* Sunday morning I made fried eggs, maple sausage and toast for breakfast.
* I made apple galettes one evening with maple syrup under the apples and a liberal sprinkling of cinnamon sugar before baking. I used the leftover dough to make rugelach.
* I made toffee nuts. I used Amy Dacyzn's English Toffee recipe and tossed in a container of peanuts at the last minute and tossed to coat before the candy seized. I sprinkled some chocolate chips on top and covered with a plate to melt the chocolate. I spread the chocolate roughly over the peanuts and after it had set I crumbled it up. Delicious.

Food Preservation:
* I filled the freezer with discount meat.

Fun:
* We went out for a couple $3 coffee dates.
* We went over to our friends house one day to visit. He had surgery and has to stay in for a bit. It was great getting to catch up with him.
* Trucker took me on a nice date. He bought a groupon for a German restaurant we had never been to. For $13, we were both able to eat their lunch buffet. They had two types of sausage, fried cabbage, two types of potato salad, two types of soup (including a lovely broccoli beir cheese soup that was simply to die for). So our date cost $23 total after cash tip. Not too shabby.
* We went out with our movie lovers group to see Bridge of Spies. We went to the discount theatre on their $1.25 day. We didn't buy snacks there, so our outing cost $2.50.

Nature:
* We went for a chilly walk at a multi-use trail on the site of an old railroad track. There were cardinals everywhere. So cool.

Frugality:
* One day that it was warm, I turned off the furnace, bundled up and opened windows throughout the house. The air gets to stagnant and polluted in winter, especially after weatherproofing. I loved having the chance to freshen the air.
* We payed extra on two debts. Two are very close to being paid off.

Waste Reduction:
* I composted lots of weird things. I am being better about composting non-glossy paper to get my greens and browns in better balance.

Work:
* I worked 2 extra days this week and 3 hours of overtime.
* Trucker packed my lunches and breakfasts each day I worked. He ate for free at his job.

Future:
* We freshened up the booth together one afternoon.
* We had a good sales week at the booth.
* I had a trunk sale for a friend who is starting a baking business and hooked her up with some great cake and cupcake pans.
* I sold my first article ever. I've been published in a variety of magazines and websites, but it has always been free work and I won some writing contests that paid, but this will be my first check for selling a piece. I'm beyond excited.

Health:
* We went on a couple walks together.
* I've been a lot more mindful of what and how much I eat and drink.
* I checked my blood pressure and it has dropped significantly over the last few months since I made some lifestyle changes and implemented some things to drop my stress levels. My levels are now closer to what they were when I was 17.

Community:
* My coworker gave me a dozen eggs to say thank you for picking him up something from the city (where I live, 45 minutes from him). He raises his own chickens in the backyard. The eggs were incredible.
* Trucker got me an unbelievably wonderful hat. It's a penguin. It is perfect.
* I surprised DH with flowers one day ($3 from the grocery). He liked them and has them on his nightstand.

How was your week?