Category: Just me being me

End of School Reminders

With 8th grade winding down and a Farewell graduation ceremony on the calendar, it’s time to revisit a few quick and easy ‘end of the school year’ tips to help make our lives easier! I’ve shared these before, but a little reminder now is helpful so that you (aka me) don’t find a stinky PE shirt wadded up at the bottom of a backpack in a couple months…

Throw in a Load of Laundry

I don’t know why, but everything that comes home from school ends up with that funky, stinky school smell. And if you ignore it… it will just get worse and more potent!

Grab your kid’s backpack and their lunchbox, empty them completely (put it all on the kitchen table, we’ll get to that next) and throw them in the laundry washer. Then, hunt down and add in any PE clothes that might be residing in a nearby bag. Last, add in a few towels (this especially helps if your lunchbox has a plastic interior) and put everything through a normal washing load. Let the backpack and lunchbox air dry and they’re ready to go for next year!

Do a School Supplies Review, Purge and List

Remember that pile of stuff that you pulled out of your kid’s backpack. Now is the time to have your kid go through everything and separate it into trash and keep piles. Then, when they wander away, you go through it and re-separate it into trash and keep piles.

Each year I’m usually able to reclaim at least a few binders, some folders, scissors, pencil sharpeners, and an assortment of pens, pencils and markers. Those go into the ‘use next year’ pile that gets put away in the closet until August.

Then, the stuff that is okay but not trash, gets absorbed into the house stuff (like mostly used post it notes and notebooks that still have a little life left in them). Anything broken, empty or gross goes into the trashcan or recycle bin.

As you’re doing your sort, make a list of items that can’t be reused for school next year. Keep this list in your phone’s Notes. Over the summer as you are out and about and see things on sale, buy the things on your list that you need.

Happy End of School Year!

Everything is Expensive: Money Saving Tips

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?

Loving Right Now: Current TV Show Binge List

I haven’t done a Loving Right Now post in quite a while, but we’ve been binging an assortment of TV shows, so I thought I’d share what we’ve been enjoying.

Ted Lasso (on Apple TV)

Yes, I know we are late to the Lasso party, but we didn’t have Apple TV. There are 3 seasons of Ted Lasso on Apple TV so far with Season 4 expected to come out in the summer (I heard August). So, we spent the last couple months working through the first three seasons and WE LOVED IT SO MUCH.

It is that magical sort of show that makes you laugh and cry… sometimes in the same scene. You’ve got to love Ted and yes, I have a raging crush on Roy Kent. And kind of Jaime Tartt too (the season 3 version, obviously).

Shrinking (on Apple TV)

Another Apple TV show that we’ve been working our way through. We binged the first two seasons and then caught up to real time to finish out the third season. This one has also been renewed for a 4th season, but a release date hasn’t been announced yet.

While this show does deal with grief and the growth and moving forward through difficult portions of life, it is also hilarious. Harrison Ford is an absolute delight and each of the characters brings their own brand of fun to the ensemble. Also, I sobbed at the third season finale to the point where Travis asked if I was okay.

Severance (on Apple TV)

When we finished Ted Lasso, we needed to add another show to our rotation so we picked Severance. So far, we’ve watched all of season 1 and we are about halfway through season 2. It’s giving ‘what the helly’ Lost vibes and we are totally into it. It’s gotten to the point that Jack begs us to turn it on each evening because he can’t resist finding out what happens next.

If you have any other Apple TV shows that we should be sure to check out, please let me know!

The Rookie (on Hulu)

When we got Hulu on Black Friday in 2024, one of the shows we started binging from the beginning was The Rookie. It’s a police procedural with a fun main cast of characters and some ridiculousness in each episode’s adventures. Eventually, we caught up to real-time and are watching Season 8 as each episode comes out each week.

I am a big Bradford and Chen ‘shipper’, but I’ve been over Bailey and all her drama for a season now.

High Potential (on Hulu)

We started watching this last year when it came out, so this has been a weekly watch for us and we just completed season 2. Its another police procedural with a smart kooky lady lead character. However, while we really enjoyed the first season, the second season had gone a little off the rails with one of the ongoing mysteries. So we like it, but it’s not really a ‘must see’ situation like the Apple TV shows we’ve become addicted to!

Do you have a bingeable TV show that we should add to our watch list?