Category: Just me being me

You guys. I’ve been writing here at Pocketful of Joules since 2011 and sometimes I run out of things to write about. I mean, I have plenty of things to say. But some things are just for me (and not for the blog).

Sometimes I wonder why I keep up with blogging at all, with all the changes that have come over the years. Bloggers previously lived for visit numbers and comments, only to have a different world now. People just don’t *follow* blogs the way they used to. AI search engines scrape our websites. People can be quite mean behind a computer screen. Often it feels like just yelling into a void. And on and on.

When it comes down to it, I blog because I enjoy it. I love looking back at life over the years, especially those adorable baby Jack photos and stories. It’s a great way for me to remember when and where we went on our adventures. And I love giving advice about things that might make someone else’s life a bit easier or better.

With all that being said, I just don’t know what I want to write about right now. In one way, my world feels content and settled. But in another way, it feels helpless.

So, here’s a mishmash of a few things inside my head that might make the blog at some point:

• Perimenopause. A lot of perimenopause.
• Jack has agreed to try out for a couple of the running teams when he starts high school. So, this has somehow turned into me helping him with a ‘couch to 5k’ program. Which I’m pretty sure is about to turn into me running again (even though I don’t want to).
• A lot of anxiety. About lots of different things.
• I’ve lost between 15 – 20 pounds over the last year due to some diet changes and workout changes. EOE issues are a big motivator… vomiting is no fun. While part of me wants to write about it, another part of me doesn’t want to jinx myself and/or invite any conversation about my body. I certainly didn’t want anyone to bring it up when I slowly gained weight over the years, so why bring it up when I slowly lost weight?
• Stained glass art projects – I finished another panel and I’m working on a suncatcher/mobile thing. Every step is a problem to solve and trying something new, which I feel is good for my brain.
• Retirement. Will I be able to retire at 65? What about 60? Should I be doing more now to make that happen? Or, should I make sure to give us little treats now because the future is not guaranteed?
• Loneliness.
• Do I want another tattoo? And if I do want another tattoo, am I just going to fall down a rabbit hole of trying to find the perfect artist to make the idea in my mind happen on my skin. And what if they look good online, but actually suck. And I think I’d want a female artist. Because men.
• Ollie, my little old man puppy dog, has been getting older and he’s now 14ish. He has moments where he’s not doing well and I am absolutely not ready to lose him. Which in honesty, I will probably never be ready to lose him.
• Parenting a 14 year old. Holy crap. I want to love him to death and I want to sit on him. And why do his feet smell bad? And why does he want to keep putting them on me? And how is he able to eat so much? And OHMYGOD the kid just grew 2 more inches in a month. But at some point, I think I need to stop writing about him because he’s like a fully formed human.
• I’m so tired.

I mean, the title says it all… right? Prices have been going up and up and up. I gasped a little at our latest electricity bill and filling up my vehicle’s tank with gas practically ruins my day. So, it seemed like a good time for me to compile and re-share my favorite tips for saving dollars.

I’ve shared a bunch of these tips over the years, so I’ll keep them pretty short and sweet to help remind you (and me) how we can shave a few dollars off of life.

Tip 1: Unfollow and Unsubscribe

There are certain accounts on social media that make me want to spend money – whether it be a store that I started following at some point, or an influencer who magically makes me NEED what she’s using, I’m hitting unfollow so I’m not tempted by stuff I really don’t need.

I’m also going to unsubscribe to those store emails that tempt me. And YES, I do feel like I’ve unfollowed a bunch of times, but some of these dang places just keep adding me back to their mailing lists.

Tip 2: Do a Subscription Review + Purge Where Needed

I made a list of our current subscriptions and then made some decisions. Here are a few and my thought process:

• Netflix – I’m going to keep this through the summer (so Jack can enjoy it for summer break), but then I think I’m going to cancel it once school starts up again.
• Hulu/Disney+ – We got a great deal for Black Friday, so these subscriptions stay.
• Amazon Prime – The annual cost has gone up to $139 per year and it just isn’t worth it anymore. Their previously quick delivery times have been slower and we don’t really watch anything on Amazon Prime TV. When this is up for renewal in August, we won’t be renewing. With that being said, I am an Amazon Associate, which means I earn money through their referral program. I will continue using my earnings on purchases.
• Kindle Unlimited – I did the math and a Kindle Unlimited subscription basically pays for itself if I read 3-4 books a month, so this is worth it to me.
• Home Chef – We have used Home Chef for YEARS and lately I’ve found myself pausing it more than ever. I think it’s time to just do a full subscription pause/end and save the dollars.
• Peloton – I pay for a monthly Peloton subscription and I use it regularly 3-5 days each week, so this one is an easy decision to keep.

Tip 3: Did You Forget About Any Money?

I have a few different accounts that earn money or rewards, so it’s easy to sometimes forget about them. So, I just did a little looksee around to see if there was any money I had forgotten about.

As it turns out, I had about $100 sitting in my Poshmark account, some credit card rewards, and most importantly… health plan rewards. Our company had UHC for our health plan this past year and I had signed up for UHC Rewards. Well, now we are in open season and switching to a different plan, so I got a reminder to cash out my rewards… and I had almost $200 waiting for me!

Tip 4: Renegotiate Your Monthly Contract Expenses

Just this month, our cellphone provider raised our plan costs (again), so I spent about an hour using their Chat feature to have them switch us to a different plan to save money and check for any additional discounts. Sometimes, it just takes a little time and persistence… and boom, I’m back to saving $25 a month or so. Here’s an old post that I wrote that still totally works for today: How I Saved $2,277.60… Just By Asking!

Tip 5: Shopping Around

Sometimes it makes sense to shop around a bit to see if there is a better deal around the corner. One thing on my ‘shop around’ list is to find a new vet office for annual check-ups and vaccines. I just feel like our current place keeps getting more and more expensive, so I think I need to get some quotes for better options for our fur babies.

Also, when it comes to shopping around, the more I can plan our meals around Sam’s Club and Aldi’s offerings, the better. In fact, we recently hit up Sam’s Club on a Friday an hour before closing and found some crazy deals… including rotisserie chickens for $3.91! So next time we need to do a Sam’s Club run, we’re going to make it another Friday night ‘date’.

Do you have any money savings tips to share?