The Perks of Being a Swinging Single Gal

When I did a call out for questions back in April (and yes, I will get to them all soon!) Nicole asked me how old I was, and if I was always a "swinging single gal." Recently Coco asked me if I had any kids. I thought I would answer all of these questions at the same time and also give you one of my favorite things...a list! Stay tuned! 

I was born in 1978; in this year Jimmy Carter was the president of the US, homebrewing became legal in the US, sparking the craft beer movement, the movie Grease was released, the first baby was born using in vitro fertilization and the Jonestown Massacre happened. 

I have not always been a swinging single gal! I have had a series of wonderful men in my life, including everyone's favorite, Mr. Lovely, who was with me during my last Round The World trip! However, nobody has stuck, much to Moogie's disappointment (that is my Mom), as she would have loved to have grandkids. So Coco, I guess that answers your question too. No kids, that I know of. Also my brother has no kids, and there are only the two of us. Sorry Mom. 

However, just like I mentioned in my post about traveling solo, there are some perks to living solo too! Here are a few of my favorites. 

* I can eat yogurt, cottage cheese and ice cream straight from the container. Who needs to wash another a bowl? Not me. This is something that I would not do if there were other people around. First of all, I would be dipping my spoon into a shared item, which I don't think is kosher. Secondly, I would kind of feel like a piggy, eating ice cream right out of the container. Third, and Elisabeth would hate this because she hates crumbs, I often eat yogurt with granola and I just dump it in and go for it and I MAY leave a crumb or two in there, which is also not nice when you are sharing. Side note, I did eat ice cream out of the container in front of Phil and Lisa, which is probably because Phil was doing it too and we each had our own container. I can get on board with that! Sorry Lisa! 

Mine, all mine!! (insert evil laugh here)

* Easy dinner planning. If I want to have a bowl of corn and a bowl of ice cream for dinner, I do. There is absolutely zero stress in my life about what to make for dinner, or any meals for that matter. I am happy to have chicken and rice all week and don't have to worry about someone being unhappy. 

Dinner: ham and cheese roll ups

* Things are exactly where I left them. You may think this means that I want to leave stuff everywhere without being judged, but it is actually the opposite. I want to tidy up and come back to the same tidiness. I want to have a place for the scissors and find them there when I open the drawer. I do not want to waste time searching for things that were misplaced. 

* I am nobody's mother. I once had a partner who would leave empty beer bottles in the living room, even though he had to go into the kitchen right past the recycling bin in order to get another beer. I know I should have just let him do his thing but I couldn't wrap my mind around it, and it often annoyed the crap out of me. I mean, they would pile up, and then he would go to bed. Any time I asked him, he would say that he was going to get to it "later", but later never came. 

Our OG local brewery.
They've been around since before craft beer was cool!

* I don't have to deal with family drama. I have enough of my own thanks. Having to figure out where to go for Thanksgiving every year gets to be old. I mean, it's the same day every year; can't we just made a plan now for the next 40 years and save having to discuss it over and over and over again, and people still getting their feelings hurt when its not at their family's house? 

Hello dinner!

Also, one guy I dated was such a Mama's boy. He used to get drunk and then he would either talk endlessly about his mother and how great she was or he would call her so that she could stroke his ego and he could complain about all the ways the world was doing him wrong. I love my mother, but a certain amount of independence is warranted. 

* Planning. If I see a cheap flight to Timbuktu and I want to go there, I do it. This is not about being selfish, but if I ask a person in a couple to come with me, they inevitably have to ask the partner, then they may have to negotiate with the partner, or maybe the partner doesn't want to come, or maybe they do, and either one can be a pain, and by the time they decide the cheap flight is gone. I remember one time K and I were going to go to Honduras, but all of a sudden her boyfriend decided that it was "too dangerous" (based on whatever he had seen in the news) and he did not want her to go there. We had to rejigger our plans, and (funny enough) ended up going to Panama, which apparently in his mind was okay. 

Panama Canal

* Mornings. I love my quiet mornings, and when they are over, I like hanging out with the world. I once dated a guy who would get up with me, before work, at 3 am, so he could talk to me while I got ready. This did not work for me, as he would literally follow me around, and I was missing out on my morning routine. I need it. I finally talked to him, but it was stressing me out to choose between no morning time and having to have a conversation about it and/or hurting his feelings. 

My favorite time of day.

As a bonus, here are three things that are not always great about being solo. 

* Paying twice as much for everything. It is definitely more economical to share costs for certain things. Did you know that if you want to take a cruise for example, you still have to pay for the whole room, basically two times as much per person! 

* Lacking a second opinion. This can go both ways, but sometimes it is nice to have someone to suggest things to do so you don't have to plan everything. 

* Games. I love playing games and it is nice to have a buddy to play with. Thank goodness for the Rummikub app! Want to play? If so, drop me a line!

Okay people, your turn! Whether you are single or partnered, tell me what your favorite and least favorite parts about your current status are. Have you ever dated a Mama's boy (or Daddy's girl) and if so, how did you (or how do you still) handle it? 

If you haven't already, you can fill out this form with any questions you want answered for my upcoming ask me anything post!!

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here.

Bikepacking Route Planning

NGS asked me to really break down (into the nitty gritty, I think she said) the logistics for my trip. Since route planning is one of the things that takes the most time, I will start with that. Route planning is kind of a three step process: (1) prior to leaving, (2) weekly check ins/general routes (3) daily/last minute updates. 

(1) Prior to leaving. Before I left on my trip, I started by figuring out a general idea of how I wanted to do this. You would think it would be very calculated, but really for me, it went something like this. First, I knew that I wanted to do the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, which goes from Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, NM (the Mexico border). However, instead of going "straight" there, which may have taken me through Nevada and Idaho before getting to Canada, I decided to visit some friends along the way. I also had winter to contend with so knew that I could not really go anywhere where it was still quite high in elevation or high in latitude. For this reason, I decided to stay near the west coast for a while, where it would hopefully be warmer. I also knew that when possible, I wanted to go on dirt instead of highways. 

To find routes, I used a combination of Bikepacking.com, other bikepacking websites and blogs, Komoot and Google Maps. Bikepacking.com has prearranged routes, with descriptions and maps that you can download. I chose to do the Oregon Outback through Oregon and the BC Epic 1000 from Hope, BC to Fernie, BC. To connect the two, I chose to use some of the BC portion of the Great Northern Bikepacking Route and then the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route from there. Then I used Komoot and Google Maps to fill in the gaps. 

For both of the above, they have maps that are usually made with the Ride With GPS site, and can be downloaded and/or exported to your navigation device. I have a Garmin Edge and so I then export the route to the Garmin for use on the road. You can also edit the routes on Ride With GPS, but I normally do my editing in Komoot. 

The Garmin Edge is like any other GPS navigation tool; it will tell you when to turn, how far you have gone, how fast you are going and what your elevation is etc. It also has a hill feature, where it will tell you data on each hill: how far it is from you, how long it is, and when you are on the actual hill, it will show an elevation profile. This is probably my least favorite aspect as it generally means I am struggling, but it is handy. 

Regular mileage/data screen

Turn by turn

Hills! Dark red is my enemy!

Komoot is like Google Maps, but it has options for dirt, gravel or road, and can also be used for hiking for the same reason. With this, you put in your start and end and then choose your method (road biking, mountain biking, gravel, touring) and it will figure out the best route for you. This needs to be taken with a grain of salt, as it often will take you on private or closed roads, or will go off the main route to get a more scenic route, which often results in more hills or more turns. However, it is a good start. Once the route is complete, you can save it offline into your phone, and/or you can export it to a navigation device. Note, this will also tell you your elevation gain and loss, total miles, time it will take, surfaces and way types along with an elevation profile. 

Google Maps was mostly used to look at city routes and to compare with the route that Komoot came up with to see if they or where they differ. However, I cannot export the Google Map to my Garmin, so before leaving, it was used more as a fact checker than anything else. So basically, before I left, I had the maps for my trip all the way to Antelope Wells, NM and I figured I would sort the rest out later. 

(2) Weekly check ins. As you already know, right from the get go, the snow caused me to have to change my route from California, as I had planned on going up and over some 6,500 foot mountains, but ended up having to take the lower, more flat, more road heavy route. This happened later a few times as well. What do I do in this case? I edit my existing Komoot maps, by doing a "save as" and I resave the existing route with a different name and then edit that accordingly. For example, my first iteration was Grass Valley to Klamath Falls via mountain, then the next was GV to KF via road, then the next one was GV to Redding via road! Every time I get into service and have a room, I double check the routes and the weather and update the route accordingly and re-export it to my Garmin.

Sometimes I can find a route someone else has already made on Ride With GPS and then I just use their map. For example, in BC I was going to do the BC Epic 1000 route, which goes over Gray Creek Pass. When I was in Vancouver, I posted on the BC Epic1000 FB group to see if people thought I would be able to get through and/or to get any intel on snow conditions, and I was told that I likely would not get through, so I searched on RWGPS for Gray Creek alternate, and found a map going around on a lower route. I downloaded that, exported it to my Garmin and I was ready to go. 

(3) Daily/Last Minute Updates. This does not happen a lot, but sometimes there is construction, or snow where I did not know there would be snow, or a road is closed and/or private. In this case, if I have service, I can make a new map and it will sync with my Garmin. If I am out of service, I just have to keep looking at the map, which is saved offline on my phone, in order to figure out where I may be able to go. I also always download all of my Google Maps to be offline in case this happens and even though I cannot use the biking directions when I am offline, I can at least see which route a car would take and how many miles/km it is to my destination. 

I also have to check the route every few days depending on what the accommodation options are. If I am in a national forest, this is easy, as I can generally camp wherever I want. If I am in civilization, often my daily mileage is decided by where the next place to stay is. I try to figure this out every few days so I am not doing back to back long days with no services in between. I also like to have a room at least once per week; otherwise I get cranky and hungry and stinky, so I may prepare my route to do a long day today so that I can have a short day of riding and a long day in town tomorrow. 

I know that is a lot, so here is the TLDR (at the end!) 

Bikepacking.com: tried and true pre-made routes (usually multi-day & more off road)
Ride with GPS: GPS routes that anyone can put online (may need verification) / can make own route 

Komoot: GPS routes that anyone can put online (may need verification) / can make own route

Google Maps: best for towns/roads/use offline for general area

Alternative tried and true sites: Great Northern Bikepacking, Bikepacking Roots, Adventure Cycling Association (fee required). 

Alternative mapping tool: Gaia GPS

What route planning tools do you use for your hikes/runs/bike rides/road trips? If you are going for multiple days, do you always plan out every day beforehand or do you have some days that are ad hoc? 

If you haven't already, you can fill out this form with any questions you want answered for my upcoming ask me anything post!!

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. P.S. This is a draft I started in September 2024! I am clearing off the dust here! 

What I Learned

I know I talked about technology last week, but I have recently been shopping for a new laptop and I went down the rabbit hole trying to decide which one to buy so I have some things to share so that you don't have to do the same thing. I have only ever purchased one laptop in my life. It is the one I am using now, and I bought it in 2015 and I spent what I considered too much on it. The reason for this is that my boss, who is very impetuous about some things and liked to treat his family to nice things, told me that he was not going to give me a bonus unless I spent it on something "frivolous." I think he meant a fun trip or a nice hotel room or something, because when I showed him the receipt, he told me that my purchase was too practical. I am practical, but I spent nearly double on it than what I would have spent otherwise, so it was a splurge! Anyway, this has worked out, as I am still using this computer 10 years later, and it is still going strong. (PS many of the computers I looked at are well over what I paid 10 years ago! Sigh, inflation sucks). I cacluated that based on the amount of time that I have used it, it has cost me $0.27/day, well under the $1 per use rule!!

So why am I buying a new laptop? My current one is good for using the internet and word documents and things, but last year I bought a GoPro so that I could take some videos of my cycling and hiking adventures. This was great and the photo quality is excellent. However, it is so excellent that my poor old laptop does not have enough oomph to watch the videos. I will get into the details now. 

What does "oomph" mean? It means several things, and I will tell you now. There are three important things to look at, CPU, GPU and RAM. An honorable mention is disk space, but this is not as important as the first three. 

CPU (Central Processing Unit). Example: 14th Gen Intel Core i9-14900HX You have probably heard of Intel or AMD, and you probably have a little sticker on your new laptop that looks like this (or if you have a Mac, it may be ARM). 

What does this do, why is it important and what do all the numbers and letters mean? This processes data, and is often referred to as the CPU and is measured in GHz. If you are just using the internet, you only need like 2.5 GHz; if you are gaming or editing videos, you may need more like 4 GHz. 

The i9 (i7 etc.) is the model number and the higher the number after the i, the newer it is, so if you have a choice between i5 and i9, you may want to go with i9 (same thing for AMD, but it is Ryzen 5, 7, 9 etc.) The 14900HZ is a SKU, but the letter(s) at the end do matter, as it is power efficiency and goes in this order from least to most efficient: Y, U, P, H, HK, HZ (you can see them all or read more here). 

GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) Example: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060. This processes graphics and other visual data on a computer, so if you need fast moving graphics, you need a better GPU. NVIDIA GeForce is known to be one of the best, but also Intel and AMD have options. The numbers at the end are higher quality or newer as the number goes up, so 4050 would be older than 4060. The least expensive NVIDIA which would still be good for games/video editing would be the 3050. 

RAM (Random Access Memory) Example: 16GB RAM. This stores data that the processor needs to access quickly to run applications and open files. It allows for both reading and writing data. The higher the number, the better the performance. My current laptop only has 8GB of RAM, but it is pretty standard for most new ones to have at least 16GB and if you want to do games/videos, you may want at least 32GB. This is my current computer. You can see from the "memory" section that I am using 5.6/7.9 GB of RAM, and what I have open is only a few Chrome tabs and Excel sheets. If I want to do anything more complicated, I will soon run into issues. 

So let's talk about the honorable mention, disk space! Most computers now have SSD (Solid State Drives) which store data for you. What does this mean? If you have ever bought an external HD in the past, you will note that they whir a lot and make noises and sometimes sound like they are spinning and spinning. Those are probably HHD, which have a lot of moving parts. SSDs don't have moving parts (hence the "solid") and so not only are they faster and quieter, but I can travel with one without worrying about banging it on something and one of the parts breaking (and then ALL of your data is gone!) I have carried both my computer, which has an internal SSD, and an additional external SSD with me on my bike trip with no issues. 

Most computers now have at least 512GB of SSD disk space, which is probably enough for most people who just have documents and some photos stored on their computer. If you need more space, you can either buy a computer with 1TB, or you can buy a 1TB external SSD drive for under $100 (I like this one by SanDisk) and I just bought a 2TB for $129. So if you are buying a computer and it is an extra $300 for a 1TB vs a 512GB, just buy the 512GB and you can buy an external SSD when/if you need more. 

In case you are wondering, my current computer is a Lenovo Yoga Pro. Since it lasted me 10 years without any issues, I decided to go with another Lenovo and ended up getting the Legion 5i 16" Laptop 14th Gen Intel Core i9-14900HX - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 -  32GB RAM. And now you know what all of that means! The only downside to getting better components is that they make the laptop a lot heavier than I would like. But you have to pick your poison! 

Oh! One last thing; I ended up getting mine at Costco because they have a 90 day return policy (vs. 30 days for most of the others) and the price includes a two year warranty (plus one of the perks of the credit card I used is an extended one year warranty), McAfee for one year and technical support. They also ship in 4 days vs. 9-14 days for many of the others. I have had great success with Costco electronics and my family has bought three other computers and a television from them in the past! 

To summarize, in case you fell asleep, do you just want to blog, save some photos in a file, watch YouTube videos and read the internet? If yes, just get whatever, but maybe be sure it has at least the highest "i" number you can find within your budget and 16GB of RAM. Probably GPU won't really matter as much. 

If you want to do any games or video editing, get an CPU SKU with H or HZ at the end, an NVIDIA GPU, and at least 32GB of RAM. (PS You can also buy a Mac, which do not use any of these, as Apple is making their own versions of all these things as a combined unit now, but information about that is beyond my pay grade). 

If you haven't already, you can fill out this form with any questions you want answered for my upcoming ask me anything post!!

Have you ever bought a new laptop? What aspects did you consider? What did you end up going with in the end and why? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here.

This Ain't Slow Travel!

Slowed down. 2007. Hanging with grandma at Little Sandy Bottom Pond, MA. 

One thing that I wanted to do once I quit my job was to slow down a little and spend some time really getting to know a location before moving onto the next. I have found over the years that I do love seeing a lot of places, but often when we travel quickly, we end up seeing a lot of the touristy or busy places and really missing some of the hidden gems. My favorite trip to Paris was after I had already been once and I had seen the Eifel Tower and the Louvre and all of the other things. I went back and spent a month there and I had the best time ever just walking along the Sienne, reading my book in the park and getting groceries (and a baguette, let's be real here) every day and eating regular meals. I also liked to spend time in a café with a café au lait and my journal, whiling away hours watching people walk by. 

2004 vs. 2019: I look exactly the same! 👵 Right?

I actually went back again with a friend and had a great time with him, as he had never been, but was more into food than attractions, so we ate a lot and it was all delicious. I went back again in November and it was rainy, but I was with a running friend and we just ran from place to place, even the Eifel Tower and Arch de Triumph and we covered a ton of ground on foot, much of which I hadn't seen before, which was also nice. He also had no expectations of food, so I took us to four different places that had duck confit so we could do a confit-off and see which one was best (PS I love duck confit). I could easily go back again and explore a different neighborhood and be totally happy. I could probably go back ten times and be totally happy and see new things each time. Speaking of, I just read Melissa's post about Monet's Garden and of course now I want to go there next time! 

I want to see all of the places, but I am not really a fan of very touristy places, and I hate waiting in line, especially when it's hot and humid (Italy-cough-Sistine Chapel) and the woman behind you keeps saying in the loudest obnoxious voice that she is from CALIFORNIA (cringe!). Gag me. The good thing about my new existence is that I can take the time to find either less touristy places, or to go to the more touristy places in the off season, and hopefully have the city or the beach to myself. Do I care about swimming every day? Not really. But I do like it if there will be things to do, so I will plan accordingly. I also want to do some hiking, and of course, there is a limited time for that due to weather, so it may take a little jiggering to get it right. 

For the last year, I have been lucky mostly. Even thought I was definitely not slow traveling, I got lucky with the seasons, and I arrived in Canada when many of the provincial parks were still closed. However, the cool thing about BC, which is where I was, is that if you can go around the closed and locked gate, you can stay in some of them! There is no running water or facilities (I had to pack out my trash) but you can use the camping pad and picnic table, which was a blessing. Also, there are sites called recreation sites that are first come first served where you can camp either for free or for a nominal fee, like $8 or $13 in some cases. The great thing is that I was there in April and May and so I always got a spot! 

Camping near Banff, Alberta

In June I went to Banff and it was not yet the high season, although by the end of my week there, it was getting more busy for sure. However, when I first arrived, some of the lakes on the Icefields Parkway were still frozen and many of the park campgrounds were still closed. I figured it out though and got to have some nice nights there. Then it was the Tour Divide, when I camped a lot or just took what I could get! I was really worried about Fourth of July weekend but I ended up being in a place where it was not an issue! 

Crowsnest Highway, Alberta

Then I got to the Midwest and it got a little harder. Not that I could not get a room somewhere but the prices were a lot steeper and there was a lot less camping. The same applied in Ontario, where a campsite was often $80 or $90!! For one night! For a tent and a bike and no services! What the H-E-double hockeysticks Ontario! In Quebec there was some camping, but it was not really on my route, so I opted to take the lazy way out and get a room, but they were not cheap! 

The Toaster House, NM

I have seen a lot of great places and met up with people and done some fun things this year. However, this is not the slow travel that I had planned. I knew this going in of course, but still, I have definitely experienced waves of decision fatigue, especially over the last couple of months, where camping was more sparse, motels were more expensive, and biking infrastructure was not always great. I am really looking forward to cutting down on costs and mental power by being able to plan things a little more ahead and also to not have each day be in a completely different place. 

Bob likes colorful art. WI

However, I am trying to hold on to the last part of THIS journey, and to remind myself  that I have done a lot and learned a lot over the past several months. I remember my first day like it was yesterday, riding away from my parents' house in the drizzle (fitting, eh?), not having a clue what I was going to see or do aside from ride my bike each day. That in itself does have a sort of freedom, and I did develop a routine of sorts. I have honed down my packing system and dialed in my grocery store hauls. I have gotten used to (but still don't love!) wearing lycra. I am more comfortable riding on the side of the highway or on a single track trail than I was six month ago. It has been a lot of fun. I am not done yet, but this part of my journey is coming to an end soon. It's kind of bittersweet, but also kind of exciting! 

Next week I will talk about what I have planned for the next leg of the journey and will talk a bit more about my travel plans for 2025. 

When you travel, how long do you stay in each place? Do you like going to the mainstream attractions or are you more of a hole-in-the-wall kind of person? Do you ever get decision fatigue? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

Money Monday: Credit Card Hacking

Let's talk about getting to travel for free! 

But first, I realized in last week's post that I kind of jumped into the middle of the saving topic without covering the basics! However, for those of you who have not seen some of my prior posts, I do think that if you are just going to do one thing, it should be to pay into your 401k (403b/RRSP etc.) at least up to whatever your employer will match. If you don't have an employer who offers this, there are other ways to save, but I will cover them in a future post! You can find posts about a lot of these subjects on my Tips and Hacks page, but also here are a few of my favorites.

Every Quarter Counts: Three Tips for Growing Your Wealth Early 
Saving My Latte For a Rainy Day: Saving for Retirement
Make a Dollar Out of Fifteen Cents: What I Splurge and Save On 
My Last To Do List: Trusts and Other Documents 

The second thing that I think is important is to pay off all of your credit card debt. I did a review of a friend's finances once and the two things that really stood out to me were that (a) he had multiple charges for some subscriptions that he hadn't even realized because he was not looking at his statements and (b) he was not paying off his credit card in full every month! This can really add up! 

For example, if you have a balance of $5,000 with 25% interest rate and you pay it down $100 a month ($1,200 total), by the end of the year, your balance will be unchanged, at about $5,056, and you would have paid about $1,256 in interest that year. If you pay it down $200 a month ($2,400 total), your balance would be about $3,700 and you would have paid about $1,100 in interest. You would have to pay $475 per month to get it down to $0 by the end of a year, and you would still pay about $700 in interest. That is a lot of money to pay to the credit card companies! Obviously there are emergencies, but I think putting money aside for them in advance is much more prudent. 

So before I begin this post, I have to throw out the disclaimer that you should not do this if you can't pay off your card in full every month. Now let's talk about credit card hacking! If you are unfamiliar with this, it involves opening a credit card to get the welcome bonus, using the points for free stuff and possibly closing or downgrading the card later. Personally I like travel related cards, and Chase has one of the best values for that, so let's talk about that first. Side note: to my foreign friends, I am sorry, but these are US centric cards. However, please feel free to go to the bottom and let us know what card you use or any tricks you have to get the best value for your money!! 

Travel card ($600 - $1,500 bonus value) / $95 annual fee. The Chase Sapphire Preferred is currently offering $300 Chase Travel Credit + 60,000 bonus points (please verify by going to their site). What does this mean? Basically this can be worth anywhere from $600 - $1,500, depending on how you use it. Once you spend $4,000 in the first three months, you will get 60,000 points, and when you purchase any travel related items through their portal you will get up to a $300 credit. This includes the obvious things like flights, hotels and car rentals, but also has activities and cruises. 

For the points, at the very least, they can either be used to get cash back or buy gift cards at around 0.01 per point (value of $600) or you can use them to purchase travel through the portal, which is usually about $0.015 (value of $900) or you can transfer them to airline or hotel partners, which is where you can get the best bang for your buck. For example, if you transfer these points to Hyatt and use them to book a hotel room with points, the value will be about 0.02 per point ($1,200). This card does have a $95 annual fee, but it also gives you a $50 annual statement credit for hotels booked through their travel portal, so if you use this, it is only $45/year. This card also gives higher points per dollar in categories like travel and dining out and has no foreign transaction fees. 

In conclusion, if you travel at least once a year, this card may be a great fit for you! And if you don't love it after a year, you can cancel or downgrade to a no fee card. Basically with the current welcome bonus, you could stop using it after you get the bonus and still get value out of it for approximately six years (or more). If you travel a lot, you may want to go with the Chase Sapphire Reserve which gives you extra perks like lounge access and TSA Pre/Global Entry, but comes with a higher annual fee. 

Cash back card ($200 bonus value) / $0 annual fee. If you don't really travel a lot or you don't spend a lot on travel related items, you can get the Freedom Flex card, which currently has a welcome bonus of $200 after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months. It gives you 5% cash back for a quarterly rotating bonus category, which includes groceries, gas, Amazon and pet services, which if you max this out, could equate to $300 per year. It has no annual fee and a 0% introductory APR. There are tons of different cash back cards with different % for different categories, so a combo of best bonus + best % for what you spend on is the way to go! 

Hotel card ($500 - $1,000 bonus value) / $99 annual fee. If you travel at least once a year and stay in at least one hotel/motel per year, I highly suggest getting a hotel credit card. I think the current best bang for your buck is either the IHG Premier or the Hyatt card. Let's talk about the IHG card. This is good for hotels like the Holiday Inn, Intercontinental and Staybridge Suites (list here). The good thing about IHG is that they are literally everywhere, versus places like Hyatt and Marriott which are sometimes pretty few and far between (or very expensive). 

It currently has a 140,000 point bonus (please verify by going to their site), which they state is up to 4 nights free, but I just booked a Holiday Inn Express in Strasbourg for ~24,000 points per night, plus with this card you get the fourth night free, so my four nights cost me 71,000 points, so this could possibly be more like eight hotel nights (or more in places like SE Asia or South America). If I would have paid for this room, it would have cost me about $500, which means that if I can book another at the same price, the welcome bonus would be worth about $1,000. In addition, you get an annual free night's certificate, which is good for up to 40,000 point hotel, which could equate to a value of about $200. This card does cost $99 per year, but if you use your certificate for a $200 hotel, it still "saves" you money! Last but not least, you get automatic Premier Elite status, which can give you perks like upgrades, early check in, late check out, and possibly a snack or a drink. Once again, if you decide this is not for you after a year or two, you can downgrade to a no fee card with no ding on your credit, or you can cancel if you choose. 

One last thing I want to talk about is a card that does not currently offer a bonus so is not really one for "hacking," but could be a great option for people who pay rent and that is the Bilt Rewards card. Please note that I have not used this myself, so you will have to do your own research. However, my understanding is that you can use it to pay your rent with no credit card transaction fees, even if you normally pay by check (they will issue the check for you) and you will get one point per dollar spent on rent plus extra points for other categories on rent day (the first of the month). You also get points for travel and other categories and it has no annual fee. You can then use the points for free travel, to pay part of your rent or for gym memberships etc. FYI currently a RT flight to Europe in Feb would cost about 40,000 points. 

Have you fallen asleep yet? No? Great, because one other thing I want to add is that if you do travel, many of these credit cards also come with added perks like rental car collision (LDW) insurance (normally $10 - $30 per day), travel trip delay or lost luggage protection, purchase protection, roadside assistance (~ $99/year value), TSA-Pre (~$100 value every four years), cell phone protection (~$75/year value) and more. These extras may cover the cost of your fee in some cases! 

Have you ever done any credit card hacking? Do you already have any of these cards? What is your favorite credit card and why? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

Purging 101: What Do I Do With This? And is it Worth it? (Part Two)

This is a continuation of yesterday's post about getting rid of all of my stuff! As many of you know, at the beginning of 2024, I decluttered my house and got rid of everything except for a few mementos, photos and some camping gear. I decided to do all the work myself and now am looking back to analyze whether or not it was worth it. After much research I ended up doing the following with the items listed below. 

Kitchen stuff. I sold some of the larger items on FBMP, but mostly I donated it to a local rummage sale, or gave it to Salvation Army. I did have some success posting some things in groups, like all baking items. Also bigger ticket items like my Ninja or Magic Bullet seemed to do better or sell faster in the long run.

$10 each or you can have the whole set for $40!!

Books. Unfortunately my local library is very picky about what they take and all of the Little Free Libraries were full, so most of my books went to Salvation Army. I also sold a few on eBay but they were not really hot ticket items. 

Random. It is interesting what people will buy. I sold unused printer cartridges and photo paper. I sold random assortments of photo frames and crafting supplies. I sold an antique radio to a woman who was going to use it in a play. I sold plants! Also, when I put out the free stuff, people took storage containers, even the ones without lids (I had set them out in groups), a roll of fabric, and a roll of Reflectex. I also gave a ton of stuff to friends and family, which really was my favorite way to get rid of things. I am sure they groaned every time they got a text from me saying, "Hey, do you want XXX?" but I felt a lot better knowing that some of the things went to a good home. 

Here are a few other places you can take things (for free): 
*these ones were especially difficult since none of them can be thrown in the trash. 

Household cleaners, paint, batteries, light bulbs, propane containers, aerosol cans, e-waste etc.: If the paint is unused and unopened (which seems silly), you can take it to Habitat For Humanity (Restore). You may also be able to return it to the place you bought it. If it has been opened, it has to go to the Hazardous Waste drop off with the other items in the illustration below. *for my local county. Please check your local location for confirmation of what they will or will not take. The cool thing about this is that you put the items in your trunk and you pull up, they take everything out, and you drive off. You never have to get out of the car! 

Take these* to Hazardous Waste drop off. 

Used motor oil: In my area, you actually can leave this on the curb for your regular pick up. Also many retailers who sell oil (like Walmart) or do oil changes (like Jiffy Lube) will take your used oil. Luckily I had graduated to paying someone to do this for me, so I did not have to worry about this. However, as a kid, my Dad used to make me change my oil, so I am familiar with the process! 

Used printer cartridges: Staples or Office Depot will usually take these. 

Used batteries: In my area, you could put them in a Ziploc and tape that to your recycling bin and Waste Management will take it on trash day. Otherwise you may be able to take them to Office Depot, or to the hazardous waste drop off. 

Electronics - Goodwill, if the item is still working (they are sometimes picky about this), and they may refurbish it and sell it, but check your local one, as some do not take them, or local e-waste pickup company, or if it is dead, you can take it to the same place that you take hazardous waste.

Now the summary that you have been waiting for. What was my time really worth? Ha. In the end, I estimate that I "made" about $45/hour for eBay, $25/hour for ThredUp and $47/hour for FBMP (*these are very ballpark numbers). However, if you add in the hundreds (or thousands?) of items I gave away, and the time it took to research that and sort them and pile them up and move them from place to place, it would significantly lower my per hour rate (remember the saga of the suitcase? Well I ended up putting in my driveway for free, and I probably spent a few hours going back and forth with people on that) and am guessing it would be closer to the $15/hour range, or maybe even less! 

Moral of the story? Some of the big ticket items may be worth selling, but the little guys may not be worth your time. Also FBMP takes more effort, but doesn't pay a whole lot more for the extra time. ThredUp was very little work and was things I would have given away for free anyway, so I feel like that was probably the least amount of brain power (which is a win for sure!) even though it consisted of the most items and paid nearly half as much. Also as an aside, if you are just sitting at home and have the time anyway, it's not a bad side gig! However, I think unless you want to have to be face to face with people and deal with a lot of flakes, I would pick eBay over FBMP for the ease of it. 

Also, as a last side note, if you are ever buying on eBay or FBMP (or Poshmark etc.), even if it is a Buy Now item, it never hurts to offer a lower price! Unless you absolutely NEED it now. However, as a seller, I would happily take an offer, as I was motivated to sell! 

Have you ever sold on eBay, FBMP or any other online retailer and if so, how did it go? What do you think your time is worth for these kinds of things (aka, would you pay someone just to not have the hassle)?? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. P.S. This is a draft I started in June 2023! Speaking of purging! 

Purging 101: What Do I Do With This? And is it Worth it? (Part One)

As many of you know, at the beginning of 2024, I decluttered my house and got rid of everything except for a few mementos, photos and some camping gear. While doing this, two things took me a lot of time. First, it took a long time to figure out where everything should go. I know, I could have just called a company to come and take everything and get rid of it for me, but that is not my way. I wanted to try to get some money for some of my items, and I did not want to PAY money to have someone else do what I could easily (HA. HAHA. HA!) do myself. 

Things to keep

If you don't mind paying to have this done, you can call a junk removal company. My friend in the Bay Area used this local one, who actually promises to recycle, sell or donate at least 80% of the items, which I find important. In fact, that is one of the reasons that I was so particular about finding where to take things; I did not want it to all just go in a landfill! However, in the end, it took me much longer than I had hoped. 

The second thing that took me forever was selling things. I had this entrepreneurial dream that I would sell all of my crap and make millions of dollars. This is why I am not an entrepreneur. The time it took to take photos, figure out prices, list and monitor (and sometimes haggle) probably netted me about $2.00 per hour. I will give a short summary about this at the end of this post. 

First let's talk about furniture. This is probably where I thought I could do the least amount of work to get the most amount of money. These things are large, I did not have too many of them and the price point is a lot higher than a pair of jeans or shoes. I had some good pieces, not in bad condition, no pet wear or chips or stains or cracks. I started by putting them on Facebook Marketplace. Ideally, I wanted to try to get a little bit back for this, but the work that is involved can be massive. Luckily, I was working from home two days a week at this point, as you really do have to have a certain amount of availability. However, I did leave quite a few items on my porch for people to pick up and I figured if they stiffed me, I didn't really care that much. P.S. None of them stiffed me. I ended up selling about 25% of my furniture. 

But what to do with the other 75%??? The places in my local area where you can donate furniture are VERY PICKY! Also, I would prefer to have someone pick it up, so I don't have to load it twice into a car. However, that was easier said than done. 

First, I scheduled a pick up with Restore (Habitat for Humanity). However, they basically rejected 75% of my things, even though when I filled out the form for the appointment, it said that they would take the items that I had. They will take new building supplies and like new household items, but "like new" means basically new. Also, I didn't have any of these, but if I did, I would have returned them to Home Depot for cash. They don't take anything that has patterns, has been painted, or has ANY tiny cracks or dirt spots (my couch had one tiny water stain on one arm). However, they did take my push mower (no motor, like the old fashioned kind) and my corded power tools (as long as they worked and were in a case etc.). They also would not take a kitchen table unless it had six matching chairs.

I ended up trying to get another company to pick up the rest but the wait times were horrible (pro tip: plan early, even if that means eating in camp chairs in the living room) and in the end I had to get Broski and his truck involved. We started by going to Salvation Army, but lo and behold, even though the website said that they took furniture, they would not take it, and so we ended up going to Out of The Closet, who is also picky, but not as picky as Habitat luckily! In the end, they took the rest of the large things, but Broski and I had to (a) make two trips (b) load and unload everything ourselves. 

Broski helping me give away furniture

Here is what I would do differently. I would start by taking what I could get for the furniture. I often would haggle and then the buyer would back out. I don't know what I was trying to prove, but I should have prioritized getting rid of it over making money. In the end, I gave it away for nothing so the $50 I was offered would have been better! Second, after I sold what I could sell, I would have put the rest on the curb with a "free" sign! I ended up doing this for a few left over items at the end and they went fast!! Even people driving by would stop and pick through stuff, which was surprising to me. I also don't really love having all of my goods out on display for the whole world to see, but believe you me, by the end, I could not give two flying trucks who saw my stuff; I just wanted it gone! I would definitely tell past me to get over myself and just put it on the curb. Then I would have donated (or trashed) what did not get taken, and saved myself the work. 

Free stuff! Going, going, gone!

Bulky trash. Speaking of trash, our garbage carrier (WM) let's you do one free bulky pickup a year, and they will take things like tires, mattresses, some electronics and furniture. I would have done this earlier, although I wanted to have everything sorted so I didn't end up with a bunch of trash at the end, so the timing was tricky. However, I think going through the garage and making a big pile early would have been better. Or if I wanted to do it at the end, I should have scheduled it sooner. I wanted to wait until the last minute, but only then did I learn that they schedule these a few weeks in advance, so I could not get it when I wanted it. I ended up going to the WM facility with a load in my car, which actually was not too bad. However, you do have to have a local address in order to do the disposal for free (you can dump for a fee otherwise), and I also had to schedule this (but could do that a couple of days in advance). 

Taking a load to the dump in my huge car.

Clothing and Shoes. Like the furniture, I did not want to just give it away, especially since I had some pretty high end pieces (I used to work in the fancy shoe department at Nordstrom, and some of my shoes were >$600 retail. I got them on sale though! I swear!). Why is it that if you spent a lot on it, you are more loathe to give it away? Or is that just me? Anyway, I put a bunch of them on eBay and FBMP, and same story as above, sold maybe 25% of them. We do not have a good consignment shop in my area (they want current styles, certain brands etc.) However, the good thing is that you can send a box to ThredUp, and they will try to sell your items and if they sell you will get a (measly) commission. I sent about six boxes to them in the end, and then gave the rest of the things to Salvation Army. 

Typical week's worth of donations

What I would have done differently. I was afraid to list things in multiple locations, but I should have tried to do that. I found that some things sold really well on FBMP and others were better to list on eBay so you can get a broader audience. Also eBay was way easier, as you just box it up and put it in the mail rather than having a person come over, or flake on you, or having a huge back and forth before they decide to buy. However, they do take a larger cut from you, but maybe it is worth it! 

Electronics. This one hurt a lot. I used to be big into photography, and still am, but I no longer use my DSLR or the four different lenses I had for it (and lights and flashes and diffusers etc.) But they all cost a lot and once again, I did not want to give them away for a pittance. So I tried FBMP and did not have a lot of luck, and finally got desperate and put them on Ebay and did not get a lot for them but I did end up selling everything camera related. I also disposed of many an old cell phone and laptop by taking them to the Hazardous Waste drop off. 

Sigh...tear...😢

...to be continued!!! In the interest of time (this got to be too long!), stay tuned for tomorrow, when I will go over a few more examples of where to take things and will also do the big reveal...what was my time worth?? 

Have you ever done serious decluttering at your house? What tricks did you use to get rid of stuff?  What's the weirdest thing you have ever sold? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. P.S. This is a draft I started in June 2023! Speaking of purging! 

Take Only What You Need to Survive

Have you seen Spaceballs? If not, let me tell you a quick story. The characters' flying Winnebago crashes in the desert and they have to walk to try to get help and the main guy (Bill Paxton) tells the princess that she should only bring "what she needs to survive." Later as he is trudging through the desert with a heavy box, he looks inside and it is a huge hair dryer. He admonishes her and she states that it is her "industrial strength hair dryer" and she, "can't live without it!" 

I stole this photo from my own blog, circa mid 2000s. 

The first time I traveled abroad, I carried two huge suitcases. Granted, I was going to live in France for three months, but looking back, I now know that I did not need a fraction of the things I brought. Oh well; you live and you learn, right? 

In early 2024, when I decided to get rid of everything, I made a list of the things that I "can't live without." Obviously these are different for everyone, but my list was actually not as long as I thought it would be. Of course, I then had to whittle everything down from a 1,200 SF house with a backyard and a garage to...just a bike, which I explain a little in this post. When I created this post, I had two funny comments. One was from NGS, who asked me to break down all of the clothing items that I had in my bag, and then after I answered, Jenny piped up to ask me to confirm that I only had one extra outfit aside from my riding outfit. So I decided to break it down even more and go over all of the clothes that I've had in my clothing bag for the last several months. 

First let's talk about base layer tops! 

From the top, L to R: (1) a tank top I just recently stole from my friend's outgoing Goodwill bag, because I was tired of wearing active tops! It will be going back into the Goodwill back soon. (2) a Smartwool mountain biking shirt, well used! Also I have a story about this! 

Bottom row, L to R: (1) I started this trip with just this one salmon Smartwool tank top! (2) Along the way I picked up the green Icebreakers top. 

A quick note about these tops; all three (except for the top L) are made from merino wool. This stuff is NOT cheap. However, I got all three on sale and they do live up to the hype in that they (a) don't smell, even after days (weeks?) of wearing them, (b) are lightweight and (c) wick moisture and/or dry easily! This was so nice to be able to rinse them out at the end of the day and have them be dry by morning. The only negative I have found is that the thinner ones don't hold up too well to daily outdoor use, but I will talk more about this at the end of this post! So, I may be a convert...but I still don't know if I can stomach paying full price (around $100+) for a t-shirt. 

Now let's talk about jacket layers. 

Top row, L to R: (1) Patagonia Houdini windbreaker. I talked about this in last year's gifts for active people post. I love this windbreaker. LOVE IT. It is a great extra layer when needed, or can be worn over a t-shirt to block the sun. (2) Mountain Hardware Ghost Whisperer. This is so light and warm, but actually have not worn it a lot on this trip (thankfully!!) I often wear it when I am doing laundry, as it is my only clean item! 

Bottom row, L to R: (1) Outdoor Research Aspire. Not really the color I would have picked, but this jacket keeps you dry! There is nothing worse than riding or hiking in the rain, and this actually made it bearable! (2) Uniqlo zip up sunscreen hoodie. This is basically my "nice" outfit at the moment! Pair it with black leggings and I am practically ready for prom! 

Last but not least, accessories and pants. 

Left panel, top to bottom, L to R: all of the accessories! Arm sleeves, cycling gloves, buff, socks, bra, waterproof gloves, neoprene socks, beanie, lightweight gloves. And yes Jenny, I only have one pair of socks and no underwear! :) 

Right panel, top to bottom: (1) cycling shorts, (2) capri pants. 

What have I used the least? (1) neoprene socks, (2) waterproof gloves, (3) arm sleeves. I am happy about this, as it means that it has not been horribly cold! What have I used the most? I wore the Smartwool mountain biking shirt pretty much every day for about 40 days, then the Icebreaker shirt after that for about two and a half months. Unfortunately, the Smartwool top faded a lot, so I emailed them and they gave me a refund! So now I have a credit to get something else, which I am very glad about, as that shirt is not really fit for going out in public! 

And there you have it; that is literally what I need to survive. You can of course find the rest of the list of items I carry here. 

If you could only bring an under the seat backpack on a weekend trip, what are your essential items? Do you own any merino wool items? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. P.S. This is a draft I started in August 2023! Better late than never! 

Sweet As! Let Me Have a Quick Squizz!

My work colleague, G-Money, is a Kiwi, and in the office, he was lucky to have me, because nobody spoke his language. Luckily, I speak fluent Kiwi. Who here has seen the movie Airplane? I speak Jive! 

So he would talk, or ask someone to do something, and they would give him this blank look, and I would have to step in and say, "that means XYZ."  I finally created a G-Money translator and when we would hire a new person, I would include it in their welcome packet. You think I am joking? I am not. We even distributed it around the office from time to time when someone was having a lot of trouble. Here are a few things that used to get a lot of questionable looks when he said them, along with their translations. Some of these are also used in other countries such as the UK or Australia, but the US folks were stumped. Disclaimer: he also grew up in Malaysia and went to British school, so some of these may be more British that Kiwi. 

* Sweet as. No, not sweet ass, although it sounds similar. This means great, awesome, perfect, sounds good. 

* Rubbers. Obviously in the US, these are condoms, or maybe a pair of boots you wear in the rain. In NZ, they are erasers (as in pencil). 

* Diarize. No, not write in your journal. This is "to schedule" or "put on the calendar." 

* Umming and awing. What we would call hemming and hawing. 

* Rub it out. This one got the 20-somethings giggling, but it just means to erase the board. 

* Crikey-dick! Something you say when surprised, like "oh my goodness!"

* Made redundant. You may know this one, but in the US, we would usually say "laid off." 

* Chocka. Otherwise known as chockablock or full. 
* Bugger. Dang it, usually preceded by "oh" or followed by "that" or sometimes by "that for a dollar," as in bugger that for a dollar. 

* Two shakes of a duck's tail. That's right; despite having a lot of sheep, no lambs for the Kiwis! 

* Happy as Larry. The same thing as, "happy as a clam." 

* The wops. The sticks, the middle of nowhere. "They live in the wops." 

* Have a squizz. Take a look. Like, once you are done, I will have a squizz at it before we give it to the boss. 

* Keen. Interested. He would say, "are you keen to go out for a drink tomorrow?"

* Heaps. A lot. This was usually used when we ordered food and he would exclaim that someone else got heaps!

These are not even all of them! He would also say Kia Ora every morning, which is hello in Maori. Last but not least, my favorite one, and one that he said A LOT, was...sucking eggs! Before I explain, does anyone else use this phrase? It is basically the equivalent of "you probably already know this/did this, but just in case you didn't....." and is used when you basically want to double check that someone did not forget to do something obvious. Like you may say, "sucking eggs, but did you turn off the oven?" or something like that. It's almost like a little bit Capitan Obvious though, and is usually a bit insulting to the person being addressed, as if they are too dumb to have done the obvious thing without being asked. So we used to laugh about it, as you knew you were going to basically be insulted as soon as you heard the phrase get started. 

Another thing that is interesting is when you have people from different countries, states or areas, and we don't realize that the other places do things differently. Like when Elisabeth did not know that we in the US have to pay to have our garbage picked up (do you pay for garbage removal where you are from?). Or when Melissa talked about her streaming services in Australia, such as Stan and Binge, which I have never heard about (do you have these where you are from?). The thing is, if you have lived in the same place for a while, you do not know that other people have something different. Yet another reason why I think traveling can really broaden your horizons! 

For example, I remember going to Japan in the early 2000s and the place we stayed (with a friend) recycled EVERYTHING. I mean, they had like 8 different boxes for each different kind of thing. I was amazed! I think at the time we may have had a separate can for recycling, but to be honest, I am not really sure (and I was living in San Francisco where you would think they would be environmentally conscious). Even if we did, it all went into the same bin! Mind blown! 

Or when I lived in France, and saw that everyone eats with their fork in their left hand and their knife in their right and they would cut one piece and put it in their mouth, then cut another and eat it, and cut another, and so on, and never put the two utensils down. Where I came from we would have our fork in our right, and our left hand in our lap. If we needed to cut something we would put our fork in our left, pick up the knife with the right, cut everything, then swap back and spear the smaller bits with our fork (held in the right hand), putting our left hand back in our lap. I was told before leaving for France that if I did this there they would think I was playing with myself under the table! 

Or did you know that in China their lucky number (because it sounds like the word "wealth") is eight and the number four is unlucky because it sounds like the word death. So when you turn 44, you better watch out. Also the number 14 sounds like "must die" and the number 24 sounds like "easy to die." Also in India, I ate my nan bread with both hands until I realized I was being looked at, and found out that they wipe with their left hand. Faux pas indeed! 

Anyway, it is interesting to see how things are done differently and I love learning what the differences are. 

So tell me, in your culture or area or family, what things do you find normal that you have later learned are not done the same way by everyone? In your travels, what new thing or way of doing things has intrigued or amazed you? Which of the Kiwi phrases have you heard before, or used yourself, and which ones did I miss? 

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here.