Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Hawaii

When Parker got the chance to interview for a residency position in Hawaii last year and it happened to be over Thanksgiving break, we knew we had to jump at the chance to go. Neither of us had been and it was at the top of our bucket list of places to visit. Being the beach-and-sunshine-loving girl that I am, I wasn't about to let him go to Hawaii without me so we made an entire week trip out of it and it was AMAZING!

Pro traveling tip: If you live within driving distance from an airport in Canada, US Thanksgiving is a great time to travel because you likely have time off and can fly out of Canada for way less $$ since it's not a holiday there. We've flown both to Hawaii and Cancun out of Toronto over American Thanksgiving and it's saved us significant moolah.

We stayed in an Airbnb in Honolulu that was about a 10-minute walk to Waikiki Beach and rented a car through Turo. Having a car on the island was so helpful but finding parking was probably our biggest stressor the entire trip. Other than that, everything else was super smooth and so much fun!

In my element!

Monday, October 14, 2019

Happy Thanksgiving 2019

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! If you have no idea why I am celebrating Thanksgiving today, then you must be American... Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada and since I am a born and raised Canadian girl, I get to celebrate both Canadian and American Thanksgiving. Who wouldn't want two Thanksgiving holidays a year?!

Unfortunately, Parker and I are both working today and his shift starts just before mine ends so aside from about 20 minutes this morning, we won't see each other today. I wish we were able to have the day off and if we did, I would have attempted a small scale Thanksgiving dinner for us. But being apart today just makes me a bit more grateful for the time we have together.

One of the things I get asked a lot around this time of year by Americans is what is Canadian Thanksgiving all about? Well, let me share with you what good old Wikipedia has to say on the subject:

Monday, October 7, 2019

How I Cut My Grocery Spending in Half in September

At the beginning of September, I was inspired by multiple sources to take a look at our spending, create a realistic budget, and stick to it! Some of these sources of inspiration were as follows:

+ The Cultivate a Good Life podcast episodes 48 & 49 where Becky & Becky interview Miranda Anderson (author of the book titled More Than Enough) and then the Beckys discuss their own personal application of what they learned from this book.

+ Hearing about how my friends budget and about how they recently reached some monetary goals.

+ Conversations with friends about @funcheaporfree's "shelftember challenge."

girl sitting with grocery order from Aldi