The Frugal Girl

I did a takeout date night (a main dish salad for me from one restaurant, and a cheesesteak for him from a restaurant across the street. We had gluten-free cornbread on the side, but I accidentally used the wrong size cast iron skillet which made the bread super flat. We had breakfast for dinner; gluten-free waffles for Sonia, regular waffles for everyone else, topped with homemade blueberry syrup. I made a chicken/sweet potato curry with red Thai curry sauce (recipe from Dinner Illustrated) which we ate over rice, topped with green onions, cilantro, and lime wedges.

Thankful Thursday is a weekly practice we’ve been doing to help us all pay attention to the good that is around us, even in the midst of really hard times. But there are upsides, like the fact that I can switch a load of laundry right before class, or that I can make a cup of coffee right before I sit down for a class. My brain may not be as young and quick as it was when I was 18, but on the other hand, I know myself way better now, and that means I have better ideas about how to study for and remember concepts. It has felt positively spring-like a few days this week and that’s making me happy.

I’m not super comfortable in talking about myself (one reason I still use my embarrassingly old screen name from college to post instead of something more recent) but I will say that I am from New England and I am married, in my late 30s (that is hard to type!) and have one daughter as of right now. One big one I can think of off the top of my head was instead of getting my first car repaired for $400, I sold it for $500 and bought (financed) Granted, I ended up keeping it for ten years but it sure did add a lot of unnecessary expenses when I could’ve been more aggressively paying off my student loans and saving to move out of my parents’ house. As I was editing this post, I noticed something funny; the thing Battra isn’t tempted to splurge on (eating out) is the exact thing reader Sarah G does love to splurge on.

I give him ribbing about how much he’s been going there lately, but in all honesty, this is an area where we are a good match; I hate running errands, and he’s getting cabin fever from working at home for months on end. The girls fended for themselves while Mr. FG and I had a takeout date night; Mod Pizza this time. The best thing about Mod Pizza is that I can get exactly what I want on my pizza, because my pizza toppings affect only me. Another installment in our efforts to support local restaurants; this time we got a pasta family meal from a local pasta place that we’d never tried before.