Monthly Archives: April 2024

Thankful Thursday and Frugal Friday

Posted in budgets, California, camping, Gratitude, home stuff, swimming, travel, Uncategorized, Walking by

I’m certainly thankful we had an uneventful and safe trip down here to Capitola. Overall traffic wasn’t too bad even through San Jose. We arrived to find traffic though completely backed up going into Capitola. So from Santa Cruz to New Brighton, it took forever to go 2 miles due to construction.

We made it still a little after one only to be told the new regulations were no checking in before 2pm. I told the guy( park worker) that we had always been able to check in early. His response was so rude, he turned to get our plate # and said” Why are people always lying to me”. I was pretty shocked. So we drove down to the beach parking and waited till 2pm. Then we, along with 6 other RVs, checked in and then we still had to wait for RVs to back into spots. Terrible system and not efficient.

Regardless, I’m thankful it was a beautiful day and we got set up and relaxed.

We love our little ‘Rubi’. And I’m so grateful trailering has gone easy and we have a bathroom.

We headed out on Tuesday to go to Gayle’s for a croissant and coffee. I also bought a loaf of their Jewish rye bread which is one of my favorite. Then we went to the local Anytime gym for a workout. I’m grateful it is free to us and gives us a chance to strengthen our muscles. From there we headed to Trader Joe’s in Capitola, not Santa Cruz. We were surprised there was one on this side of Santa Cruz and boy, was it nice. A really beautiful store, big and well laid out as most Trader Joe’s are. We loaded up on food, a plant for outside Rubi, and some candles I’ve been wanting. Not too frugal but not much more than a regular weekly shop. Overall, a fun morning. Then we came back to camp and just relaxed.

Wednesday we discovered the Simpkins Swim Center. Oh my, it was wonderful. I was really ecstatic to swim. It’s a huge outdoor pool heated. What a find. I’m so grateful for cities that provide these amazing places. We paid $5.00 to swim.

Overall, we have been frugal where we can. We decided to do a day trip up to Half Moon Bay which is about an hour from here. We’ve actually never seen that part of Hwy 1. It’s quite beautiful with loads of State Beaches along the way. We had a nice lunch at the very well-known fish place, Sam’s. It was good but not as good as Fishetarian in Bodega Bay. From there we just took our time getting back to Capitola and once again hit the traffic snarl in Capitola.

We’ve kept our meals simple. Last night we had scrambled Mexican tofu on tortillas with salad. I’m not sure what we’ll do tonight but I’d like to get a pizza night in.

Sadly, on the home front, we had raccoons get 2 chickens because no one was home. They were in their yard but it wasn’t closed so there it is. Raccoons are always looking for opportunities and there it was. I feel really bad for the girls because we have been so careful and here it is just one night and this happens. My daughter who was working late just missed getting them in. She got home right after and I’m sure felt awful. Well, we know we don’t want chickens again but still it makes me sad.

This is Half Moon Bay. You can see that rock barrier if you look carefully. There were numerous ones on each side of the Bay.

Today, we’re going to walk and then go over to Gayles for a bit. The weather has been picture perfect. Today though, we’re in for a 20 degree drop in temperature and some rain overnight.

I don’t think we’ll go back to the pool as we’re both a little tired, so a day to rest sounds good.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, camping, swimming, travel by

I went to the pool yesterday and was surprised that it was not crazy busy. Saturdays are definitely hit or miss with being busy. I didn’t do anything afterward, just came home.

This morning I went to the Auburn gym and it was somewhat busy but I just did my thing and left. Then I went to Safeway to get wine, deli sandwich stuff, bread, and some snacks to leave at home. I don’t have anything I need to do around the house so I will get my clothes ready for tomorrow and organize the food a little more.

Capitola is a good 4 1/2 hours trailering so we’ll probably leave around 9am. We also stop at the 2-hour mark for gas and to stretch.

The week ahead looks just great weather-wise. Temperatures are in the 70’s and sunny!! Spring has sprung!!

Frugal Friday and it looks like it’ll be a snow day!!

Posted in budgets, California, camping, frugalism, swimming, travel, Uncategorized by

I was planning on going down to the pool but right now at 7;06 it’s snowing. I usually leave till 8 so I’ll wait and see how it is. Of course, in Roseville, it’s always different. But it’s the crazies up here that don’t know how to drive in snow. So I may just skip it. I had a good workout at the gym yesterday and then picked up 14 books to read/take with me to Capitola.

Frugal wise, I didn’t stop and get a coffee after the gym and came home and had some with a piece toast.

B only spent $100 for the Costco stock up which was mostly because we forgot dishwasher pods last time. He also picked up 2 cases of water for the truck( traveling and camping).

I had gone to WinCo on Monday after my swim. That ended up @$100 as well, I think.

We had our coffee date and that was $17. And our pizza lunch was $27.

The only extra thing we need for camping is the bag of Starbucks coffee that we always get ground so we can just use as needed. Since Capitola does not have hook ups( where our spot is), we don’t want to rely on grinding coffee.

I’m also not planning on bringing lots of food, just basics. The rest we’ll get at TJ’s in Santa Cruz or Nob Hill. I’m sure we’ll go to Gayles a few times too. Their take out food is expensive so it may only be a croissant or something like that. They do have great premade sandwiches so we’ll probably do that once.

Update: 7:36 a.m , still snowing, so I guess I’m not heading to the pool.

Tonight is a freezer meal night. Probably the Costco pizza and salad.

Overall, I’m pleased with the finances this week.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in books, budgeting, budgets, cash envelopes, Gratitude, Lake tahoe, library, swimming by

I am very thankful this was a week with NO appts and no Dex. Boy, did that do me in last week. I guess I’ll go back to taking dex after I get home and not in the evening. maybe that’s the difference or the BP spike has been there all along and I just didn’t take my BP and notice. We’ll see.

I’m thankful we had a beautiful day in Tahoe with picture-perfect weather.

I’m thankful that all the month’s bills are accounted for and are in the budget. Slowly, I’m getting more envelopes set up for the annual bills. Even though I didn’t have the full amount, I did have something and that helped. As I think of different line items for our budget I add an envelope. I also bought on Amazon a binder that is for the 100 envelope challenge. Lots of cash envelope budgeters on You Tube have this as a way to do an extra savings. It’s not a quick thing as each envelope is numbered 1-100 and you put that amount in each one. I do like having these little challenges to keep me focused.

I’m thankful I got to swim on Monday but it was one of the few times it wasn’t pleasant. First, the pool was packed which I thought odd but then realized that it was a holiday. Second, I don’t circle swim( when there are more than 2 in a lane), but some woman plopped into the lane I was sharing with 1 person and proceeded to circle swim. I was not a happy swimmer. I go too slow and at some point, she cut in front of me and almost kicked my face. Anyway, at least I got my 30 minutes in.

I finished all the books I got from the library (8 books) so today after the gym I’ll go in and see if I can get a few things off the shelves to take to Capitola. The new Kellerman book ” Ghost Orchid’ is okay. I like his writing and the 2 main characters are well developed. So far all the Craig Johnston Longmire books have been great. Definitely worth reading the series although I haven’t read them in any order.

Lake Tahoe in early April

Posted in Lake tahoe, travel by

We decided if we wanted to see Tahoe before all the snow melted we’d better get a move on. So off we went and it was really great.

We were not disappointed. Tahoe has a.lot.of .snow. still. It was very encouraging for the snowpack. We decided to head to Tahoe City to go to Tahoe House Bakery. They have the best coffee in the area. The pastries are delicious plus their breads and bagels and ready-made meals are quite nice. Pricey, but worth it. It was pretty empty as were the main roads. Tahoe, off-season is really a lovely place to be. I-80 was also pretty empty of traffic except for lots of semis. ( going too fast).

From there, we decided to go around the lake by way of Tahoe City, Carnelian Bay and basically, it’s the north side of the lake.

The story behind me standing with my Louie is many years ago we took this exact same picture with my old Louie. That’s the one that was stolen in the smash and grab. So for the insurance company to pay me for the loss, I had to have a picture of me with my LV and that was the one. So that’s why we were taking this picture.

From the lakeside, which is in Kings Beach, we headed down to Incline so B could go to Nuleaf for some gummy things. He picked up a tin of that. Again, hardly any traffic at all through Incline, which was pretty f*cking amazing. We thought of going down to Sand Harbor and then walking on the new lake trail but decided not to. Maybe next time.

I wanted to get a light lunch out so we headed back to Kings Beach to White Cap Pizza. It was busy with locals and a few tourists but not many. I had high hopes for the pizza and it fit some of my expectations. It was very thin crusted and the ratio of cheese to sauce was good. But the dough had no flavor as it seemed the cook had forgotten to add salt. A big no-no if you’re making pizza dough or even bread. Then the sauce was pretty flavorless too. The crust had been cooked a little too long and was slightly burnt , not charred which is totally acceptable, but more like burnt. So I’d only give it a 2 out 5. Still, we had a nice time there and I’m glad we went.

This was looking out at the patio seating.

We headed for home and unfortunately, a big rig had gone over one of the embankments so traffic was backed up. Trucks go too fast down these big inclines and lose control. We were not in a hurry so for us it was fine. After that traffic again was very light and at times, we had no one behind us or ahead. So amazing.

All in all a fun date day and well worth it.