Money for nothin' and beans for free

Except the "money for nothin" part is completely false. Yesterday someone on my local Buy Nothing group offered up two big bags of food they didn't want, and I got picked for it!! Yay! Some of the food I got were things I planned on buying in the very near future too. Here's what I got:

4 lbs of whole wheat spaghetti
4 lbs dried pinto
3 lbs brown lentils
1 canned ham
3 cups or so of quick cook oats
1 lb egg noodles
1 lb corn rotini
2 5oz cans of tuna
2 cans of pork and beans
1 can cranberry sauce
1 can mixed veggies
2 cans tomato sauce
2 cans corn
1 can sweetened applesauce
1 can condensed clam chowder
1 can roast beef hash
1 can garbanzo beans
7 7oz cans and 2 14oz cans of wild Alaskan salmon

I gave 4 of the 3oz cans and 1 of the 14oz cans of salmon to a coworker since I am the only one in my house that likes it. This still must be over $50 worth of food. Score!

Friday night I used a gift certificate from my boss to get a sandwich, brownie, and hot spiced cider from a coffee shop near my job while I waited for Winter to finish at art class. I used $14.25 and have $5.75 left. I also gave the barista a $1 tip for the drink. No money spent yesterday (aside from the tip) but lots of food acquired.

Breakfast: honey peach flavored Greek yogurt
Lunch: leftover pasta with spaghetti sauce, clementine, apple
Dinner: herbed chicken sandwich with roasted red peppers and spinach on sourdough
Snacks/desserts: frosted brownie
Beverages: water, hot spiced cider

What I ate on Thursday

I am updating the monthly total spent in the sidebar with a rough estimate  based on what I can remember since I have completely lost track at this point.

Breakfast: protein bar
Lunch: salad: lettuce, quinoa and rice blend, salad shrimp (free from mystery shop), cilantro (free from mystery shop), hot pepper jack, and roasted red pepper dressing
Dinner: sandwich with buttermilk bread, turkey, gruyere (free from mystery shop) and Dijon
Snacks/desserts: scoop of coffee and donut ice cream, two holiday cookies that somehow survived until now, protein bar, a few pieces of turkey and a slice of gruyere
Beverages: water

Bad news, good news

So yesterday I had a blood draw. The kidney donor team was checking my blood type as a possible donor for Jeremy. They also checked my fasting glucose and A1C levels, since I had had a few abnormal levels last year. The good news is that all my levels are fine. The bad news is that Jeremy's  blood type is O, and mine is A. The donor coordinator said that this makes a paired exchange unlikely, as anyone who has a type O donor will usually just donate to their recipient directly (O types can donate to A, B, and AB). What we really need is a type O donor.

The good news is that at least one of the people who has submitted their paperwork so far is an O, one more who requested but hasn't submitted it yet is an O, and two more people who are type O asked me for the donor forms today.

Been very busy, and some good news

First the good news. Last Saturday Jeremy's  mom called him. They didn't speak for very long, but he found out she never had any other kids, and she remarried 34 years ago. She seemed happy to be talking to him. I'm really glad he got to talk to her. Hopefully they will continue contact.

I have had a horrible time with trying to keep up on my posts, and I'm trying to decide now what I want to do with this blog. I may try to simplify it some, or I may just stop posting. I'm not sure.

I decided to start doing occasional mystery shops again. I used to do them 6-7 years ago, and then stopped when I moved. I used to build routes and travel to do several in one area on the same day, but I don't think I want to get that much back into it. It takes a huge amount of organization. I am planning to just take shops that are walking distance or a really easy bus ride if it's something worthwhile. So far I have done a shoe store shop (purchase and return), a restaurant shop, a grocery store shop, and a coffee chain shop. I have another grocery store shop this weekend. Pay and reimbursements for these seem to have really increased since I last did them.

I have also decided to quit working at the airport. Instead I will be picking up a half shift at my regular job on Wednesday mornings. I don't remember if I said so or not  but the acupuncture clinic I was going to volunteer at doesn't need me right now after all, as their usual person is not going to be leaving, it turns out. This was somewhat of a blessing in disguise since the shift that was available at work was for the same day and time.

I had a blood draw this morning for donor testing. They only work up one person at a time, so they are doing my work up first.

Breakfast: two hardboiled eggs, strawberry raspberry and walnut Orchard bar
Lunch: (work meeting paid for at a restaurant) warm spinach, pear, and bacon salad with blue cheese, vinaigrette and quinoa
Dinner: sauteed rainbow potatoes and red bell pepper with olive oil, and cayenne pepper, topped with sour cream, jack cheese, and cilantro
Snacks/desserts: 1/2 croissant (shared with Winter and free as part of a mystery shop), coffee and donut ice cream
Beverages: water, decaf white chocolate mocha (free with mystery shop)