fbpx
:::: MENU ::::

Browsing posts in: Food

Inspiration Hitting – Road Trip Version

by

We drove through the night, made much better time than I expected and arrived in Houston at 9:45am. Thank God for wonderful hotel staff at the Hyatt Place. They let us check in immediately. We showered and crashed.

Hope and Princess crashed after an overnight roadtrip from GA to TX

I had ALOT of thinking time. And, of course, traveling is my happy place. I have been struggling since last fall with what is next for me. And a dream picture is starting to form…

I say dream picture because while it may be something I want, it is not something easily attainable. And it is an idea still forming.

Life After Kids Inspiration

Here’s what is inspiring it…

1. Travel – I love travel, I’ve always loved travel. And seeing all the people living in their cars and such. I really think I could do that and be very happy. At least part year.

2. Big City Exploring – there is just so much I still want to see and do. Getting into Houston and then hitting the streets was so fun. All the murals on the walls, restaurants and converted buildings. I just want to explore and document.

3. Freedom – my personal website that I’m playing with is IWantMoreFreedom.com because that is what I want and always have wanted, just free to go, see, do.

I don’t know how all of this works together. But some ideas are definitely percolating for what life could look like next. I guess the big thing would be to create a plan, focus on really getting debt free, and seeing if this dream life could possibly be some sort of reality.

We all realize I tend to do things a bit backwards. I would create a budget and then set my find to finding the work to make the budget work versus seeing my income and making a budget. This is kind of the same thing. I want to create a vision of my life and then create a plan to make it happen. It’s just how I work best.

Just ask or make the call

by

I order our milk from Amazon. We only drink 2 ingredient almond milk. And I know it’s expensive, but it makes a difference in our health and our options for healthy options in our tiny town are very limited. I’ve done it this way for several years now.

I get a case of 6 individual pints (I think that’s their size, about 1/2 a 1/2 gallon) or maybe it’s a quart. I don’t know. When I see we are down to the last two containers, I order more. (I used to have a subscription that came like clockwork, but we just don’t use it like that anymore.)

Elmhurst Almond Milk

When I went to eat some cereal a few weeks back, a brand new box, I had found on sale. A real treat for me. I spit out the first bite thinking my milk had gone back. It was terrible. Come to find out they had sent us Cashew milk instead of our normal Almond milk and I noticed too late after the return date. (In my defense the containers look exactly the same.)

2nd and 3rd milk order

Fast forward, I ordered a new case. And waited anxiously for it’s arrival. Because I wanted to eat my cereal! Then I got notice, on the day it was to be delivered, that it was undeliverable. Ugh!

So I ordered another case…third time has to be the charm, right?!?

It arrived. Packaged differently than any other case I’d ever gotten. I opened it to find at least one of the containers had busted. And not only that, but they knew that and just wrapped it in plastic and sent it. It smelled so disgusting.

So I immediately get on Amazon, well in my return window, and it says this item is not available for return. What!?!

The only me, would probably have sucked up the loss. And at this point stopped ordering almond milk from Amazon. But I’m broke and I don’t have anything to lose. I got on the phone expecting a fight to get my money back.

Nope, he returned my money immediately. And said that I didn’t need to repackage the contents to return them. Thank god, because it was gross.

But I got to thinking, I need this milk. I still wanted to eat my special cereal (special because I have stopped buying cereal because it’s not healthy and it’s so expensive.) I found this box on sale for $3. Which I know is still high and still unhealthy, but it was a treat.

I dug through the gross. Dealt with the sour smells. Washed each of the 5 containers that had not busted. And damn it, I have milk. I’m going to be cautious when I open them to use them, and make sure they haven’t soured per se. Does almond milk sour? I mean, the busted one was so gross, but in general?

The moral of the story is that sometimes you just need to pick up the phone and call. Even if at first, they say this “item is not eligible for return.”