A female primary care physician opines on money, travel, fitness, and other topics to be determined
I have been keeping track of my exercise every Friday for over 2 years, and plan to continue doing so.
I started the Friday Firsts sections as a way of keeping track of some of my “firsts” as I dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. Things seem to be settling down, but I will keep it for now–more as a way to be aware and thankful of what is happening in my life.
Continue reading “Fitness Log #145 And Friday Firsts”A few weeks ago, the PiN household returned from our first trip out of town since COVID hit. I had previously written:
I didn’t have much of a budget for this vacation–after over a year at home, I sort of didn’t care what it cost. Sometimes it is time to loosen the purse strings, and for the PiN household, this was that time; though I still like to get a good deal if that is possible.
It isn’t quite true that we didn’t have a budget: I gave Mr. PiN a rather high number as a limit to our hotel spending, thinking that our food budget couldn’t possibly be a big issue. (I haven’t seen all the credit card bills; I am not sure that assumption was correct!)
Nevertheless, even though we had a very high budget (for us) for our vacation, we both like to get a bit of a deal.
Below are some ways we saved money on our trip, and some thoughts on ways to make future trips affordable. As well as things that, to us, are worth spending more on.
I hope you may find some of these tips helpful in your own travel planning in the future.
Continue reading “First Vacation After COVID: Making Travel More Affordable”I have been keeping track of my exercise every Friday for over 2 years, and plan to continue doing so.
I started the Friday Firsts sections as a way of keeping track of some of my “firsts” as I dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. Things seem to be settling down, but I will keep it for now–more as a way to be aware and thankful of what is happening in my life.
Continue reading “Fitness Log #144 And Friday Firsts”I frequently refer to my “secret” savings account, but realize I haven’t really written about it explicitly. Since I consider it one of my key tools to managing my finances over the past 10-12 years, I think it is time to review how it works and how important it has been.
Just to be clear, I am not advocating hiding money from your spouse; that is not cool in the least.
Instead this is an extra account to “hide” money from myself–which is sort of silly, because for sure I know I where these savings are. But the account is in a separate institution from my checking account, and it’s difficult to check the balance, so I don’t think about it very often. This means money accumulates without any effort on my part, growing steadily month by month.
Today I will finally describe all the ways this account has helped me since I started my “grown up” job, and encourage you to try this as well. Especially those of you just starting in a new position this summer, with a new (hopefully bigger) salary.
Continue reading “My Killer Financial Tool: The “Secret” Savings Account”I have been keeping track of my exercise every Friday for over 2 years, and plan to continue doing so.
I started the Friday Firsts sections as a way of keeping track of some of my “firsts” as I dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. Things seem to be settling down, but I will keep it for now–more as a way to be aware and thankful of what is happening in my life.
Continue reading “Fitness Log #143 And Friday Firsts”Before I leave on a vacation, I always try to tidy up the house: clear the desk, put everything away, empty the fridge of food that won’t be good by the time we return. This makes coming back to regular life slightly less painful. This time, I also put together a round up post, to share some blog posts that spoke to me over the past few months.
I didn’t have much of a budget for this vacation–after over a year at home, I sort of didn’t care what it cost. Sometimes it is time to loosen the purse strings, and for the PiN household, this was that time; though I still like to get a good deal if that is possible. A number of the posts below reflect that mindset.
Continue reading “Monday Melange. Money Is For Spending, Too”I have been keeping track of my exercise every Friday for over 2 years, and plan to continue doing so.
I started the Friday Firsts sections as a way of keeping track of some of my “firsts” as I dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. Things seem to be settling down, but I will keep it for now–more as a way to be aware and thankful of what is happening in my life.
Being on vacation–my first travel in over a year–I paid much more attention to my firsts. I exercised a bunch, I think, but didn’t measure it carefully.
Continue reading “Fitness Log #142 And Friday Firsts”I have been keeping track of my exercise every Friday for over 2 years, and plan to continue doing so.
I started the Friday Firsts sections as a way of keeping track of some of my “firsts” as I dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. Things seem to be settling down, but I will keep it for now–more as a way to be aware and thankful of what is happening in my life.
Continue reading “Fitness Log #141 And Friday Firsts”