Author Topic: What made your day?  (Read 263939 times)

HappierAtHome

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #250 on: June 24, 2015, 07:05:10 AM »
Bought my dream house :D


Woo! Is that the reason for your screen name?

It does make it even more accurate!

Jon_Snow

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #251 on: June 24, 2015, 02:58:05 PM »
Thanks to some recent minor surgery (getting old sucks!) I was unable to do my usual gym-thing today so I decided to do a walkabout my neighbourhood - I DO NOT sit-on-the-couch-all-day in my version of FIRE, as readers of my Journal probably already know. ;) I turned down a side street and encountered a construction crew working in the middle of the road...they were lowering some big safety cages into a deep excavation - then I caught the unmistakeable whiff of human sewage and knew immediately that they were doing some sanitary pipe work. I used to do this stuff from time to time. Not fun. And the realization that I will NEVER do it again produced a big smile on my face as I strolled by. There was one miserable looking dude (with some suspicious looking smears on his overalls) that could have been myself over a year ago...I was tempted to say "I've been there man"...but I kept my mouth and walked to library where I spent an hour perusing the stacks, people watching. Then I wandered over to the market to grab a few things I needed to make a tasty dinner for DW and I...it will be ready when she walks in the door...as usual. :)

I have to be honest, being FIRE'd makes my day....EVERYDAY.


Zaga

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #252 on: June 24, 2015, 03:17:19 PM »
Raspberries are ripe!  Berry tart for dessert tonight!

KMMK

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #253 on: June 24, 2015, 05:48:14 PM »
Almost everything. It was a great day.

1967mama

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #254 on: June 25, 2015, 01:47:27 AM »

I have to be honest, being FIRE'd makes my day....EVERYDAY.

Thanks for this, Jon_Snow!

My son won an Athlete of the Year trophy today .. made me so proud!

cdttmm

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #255 on: June 25, 2015, 05:26:09 AM »
Walking out of the airport in Rapid City, South Dakota after many hours of traveling (something I find quite stressful) and seeing the Black Hills in the distance. In that moment, I knew that whatever happens this weekend, it will all be worth it.

midweststache

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #256 on: June 25, 2015, 05:46:26 AM »
I left my wallet in a class I was teaching (I had it out to print some things for my students), but it was returned ($200+ in wedding gift cards and all!) to campus safety.

This was the last "faith in humanity restored" event in a day filled with many, and I went home for dinner with DH and simply started crying because I was overwhelmed by the world (in a good way).

It was a very strange but beautiful day...

Nancy

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #257 on: June 25, 2015, 06:33:02 AM »
That's wonderful, midwestache!

For me, listening to a toddler sing while in her bike seat. I almost didn't want to pass them it was so enjoyable. 

Noodle

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #258 on: June 25, 2015, 07:35:44 PM »
I got permission to make changes in a staff member's job assignment in a way that made two people happy. The staff member will get to do work she likes better and be kept busier, and her colleague will get extra help that she really needs. The two have worked together in the past and seem to have a good working relationship.

Shinplaster

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #259 on: June 25, 2015, 08:00:01 PM »
This is a few days late, because we were out of town.  Our son got married on Sunday.   It was supposed to rain, and instead the sun shone and the breeze was cool.   Their wedding was pretty mustachian too.  Perfect!

Gretamom

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #260 on: June 25, 2015, 10:25:04 PM »
Found a new dryer today on craigslist. Our 13 year old dryer needed about $300 worth of repairs. This guy on craigslist fixes washers and dryers and delivers and takes your old one away. So we got one delivered, set up, and had our old one taken away for $150 and I'm happy to report it works better than my old one. Also, we have 8 rentals so now we have a new resource for replacing washers and dryers inexpensively when one goes out at the rentals! Bonus!

Cookie78

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #261 on: July 08, 2015, 11:30:43 AM »
Made an extra payment to my RRSP today of $3400 because there was suddenly way too much money in my bank account. Back before I knew anything about anything I would pay $2400 PER YEAR into my RRSP. Thankful to have seen the light!

HappierAtHome

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #262 on: July 08, 2015, 07:35:16 PM »
Chatting with a co-worker and learning a bit more about her and her motivations. It's easy to label people, or feel as though you can put them in a box, when you barely know them. Once you start finding out all their complexities... then you have give up on those labels. That's the bit of getting to know people I really like :-)

Adventine

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #263 on: July 14, 2015, 06:36:29 AM »
Chatting with a co-worker and learning a bit more about her and her motivations. It's easy to label people, or feel as though you can put them in a box, when you barely know them. Once you start finding out all their complexities... then you have give up on those labels. That's the bit of getting to know people I really like :-)

Those are the best kind of conversations!

PARedbeard

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #264 on: July 14, 2015, 07:14:33 AM »
I woke up in a foul mood today and trudged out to walk my dog. She was having a ball, and my mood rose appreciably in a few, short minutes. What really made my day, though, was that during our walk, we passed by one of my neighbors who works nights. She was just getting home with some groceries, and she looked worn out. When she saw my dog, her entire face lit up. I don't know her very well--she is practically a stranger-- yet her smile made me smile, and I haven't stopped yet!

G-dog

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #265 on: July 14, 2015, 08:22:18 AM »
I woke up in a foul mood today and trudged out to walk my dog. She was having a ball, and my mood rose appreciably in a few, short minutes. What really made my day, though, was that during our walk, we passed by one of my neighbors who works nights. She was just getting home with some groceries, and she looked worn out. When she saw my dog, her entire face lit up. I don't know her very well--she is practically a stranger-- yet her smile made me smile, and I haven't stopped yet!

Very cool - I love my dogs, they almost always lift my mood*. They are happiness generators for some of us.

*sometimes they are naughty...

Bracken_Joy

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #266 on: July 14, 2015, 08:25:20 AM »
This was yesterday- I got some happiness as a reward for frugality! We moved, and so now I'm bathing the dog at home (I know, face punches that I wasn't before... but there was no tub and she got out of the shower once and shook water all over DH's work papers... completely my fault, but still miserable!). After her bath yesterday, she tore around the house and flopped and rolled dramatically in a packing box. Perfectly timed to techno music.

Somehow I doubt she'll be this cheerful when I do her nails though!

Thegoblinchief

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #267 on: July 14, 2015, 08:44:37 AM »
My oldest two helped me process quite a few pounds of green beans. My youngest asked to help. He's too young to use a knife, but I was also laying out zucchini slices for the dehydrator. He helped me do that and said "This is fun!"

Jon_Snow

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #268 on: July 14, 2015, 08:49:27 AM »
Well, it was actually yesterday...a wonderful encounter with my cetacean friends. Posted a video of it on another forum I frequent - predictably, I got a wonderful response from the folks there.

At midnight tonight, 80% of my dividends get paid - despite being FIRE'd, it still feels like I'm drawing a nice salary. Life is just plain wonderful right now. :)

Zaga

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #269 on: July 14, 2015, 10:57:16 AM »
I had a biopsy yesterday, and now I have a diagnosis for my chronic pain.  And it's something that can be fixed!  I'm just so happy that the pain will be gone soon :)

Thegoblinchief

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #270 on: July 14, 2015, 11:04:44 AM »
I had a biopsy yesterday, and now I have a diagnosis for my chronic pain.  And it's something that can be fixed!  I'm just so happy that the pain will be gone soon :)

Awesome! Chronic pain is so exhausting, and the worst is when you have no idea what the root cause is.

Kitsunegari

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #271 on: July 16, 2015, 07:04:38 AM »
I stopped by a thrift store and I bought 4 sweaters in merino/cashmire/cashmire+silk for a grand total of 24$.
Even the check out clerk was impressed by my hunt :D

1967mama

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #272 on: July 18, 2015, 01:38:07 AM »
My eight year old boy still holding my hand when we are out.  He is my last child so I know this won't last much longer .... Bring on the grandchildren!!

HappierAtHome

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #273 on: July 18, 2015, 01:53:04 AM »
Green olives stuffed with fetta.

KMMK

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #274 on: July 18, 2015, 03:49:38 AM »
Skyped with a fellow minimalist I met online accidentally. Went very well.

C. K.

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #275 on: July 20, 2015, 11:45:39 PM »
This documentary of Bill Cunningham, an 80-something New York fashion photographer  who rides a bike and has somewhat frugal ideas. Some might say he delves into the cheap side rather than the frugal side, but he seems happy with his studio apartment and his rolls of film.

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi1187356185

1967mama

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #276 on: July 21, 2015, 12:54:08 AM »
Everyone (including our 2 house guest we are billeting) loved the chicken Caesar salad with homemade dressing that I made for dinner. The magic cookie bars for dessert were the proverbial icing on the cake. Its so rewarding to hear this when you've worked hard to make a good home cooked meal.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #277 on: July 21, 2015, 10:05:51 AM »
I was watching "Rehab addict" with Nicole Curtis and randomly in a scene she drives along back alleys looking for furniture! She said, "Judge me if you want, but I've only bought 2 pieces of furniture in my house. Everything else was being thrown out or is out of a flip I did. This saves money but also gives me pieces of character and history". Then she picked up an old scrapwood work bench to put in her garage, and it ended up looking great in there.

HappierAtHome

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #278 on: July 21, 2015, 07:00:25 PM »
Green olives stuffed with fetta.

Figured I should clarify that this was definitely what made my day that day, NOT a mis-post meant for one of the eating threads :-)

HappierAtHome

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #279 on: July 21, 2015, 07:02:14 PM »
Day off today! I love my four day working week. Just getting a mid-week break to relax, do some chores and take a long walk to an appointment is enough to make my day.

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #280 on: July 22, 2015, 12:43:29 AM »
Talked to my nephew on the phone. He's only a toddler so his language is better and better every time I speak to him.

1967mama

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #281 on: July 22, 2015, 01:08:54 AM »
Made it through Day 1 of Primal eating -- http://www.marksdailyapple.com

Bracken_Joy

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #282 on: July 22, 2015, 09:19:45 AM »
Made it through Day 1 of Primal eating -- http://www.marksdailyapple.com

Wow, that's going to be quite a change for you! I just saw you post a roll recipe recently. Well done and good luck! (I'm going on 5 years... it can be done!)

horsepoor

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #283 on: July 22, 2015, 09:55:56 AM »
Made it through Day 1 of Primal eating -- http://www.marksdailyapple.com

How funny!  I just came here to say that I posted a question in the comments on MDA and Mark featured it in his blog on Monday.  Nice to know he reads the comments and even uses them for material!

This morning - getting a great ride in first  thing,  coming home to a delicious omelette and  working at home in my shorts and bare feet the rest of the day.

Jon_Snow

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #284 on: July 22, 2015, 10:06:34 AM »
I'm about an hour away from launching my kayak and paddling about an hour and a half to one of my favourite beaches...where I will spend much of the day lying on the sand, eating some fresh veggies from my garden, reading my Kindle...and checking in from time to time on these forums.

Just luxuriating in my FIRE-status, bascially.... :)

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #285 on: July 22, 2015, 08:06:10 PM »
Calculated that our expenses as a percentage of income is now 41 per cent, compared with 83 per cent in 2009. Getting there slowly!

HappierAtHome

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #286 on: July 22, 2015, 08:29:32 PM »
Calculated that our expenses as a percentage of income is now 41 per cent, compared with 83 per cent in 2009. Getting there slowly!

That's awesome! You've DOUBLED your savings rate. This is not a small achievement at all.

1967mama

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #287 on: July 22, 2015, 08:53:49 PM »
Thanks for the encouragement, @brackenjoy! I have weight to lose and nothing else is working for me. I will still need to cook for my family (like the roll recipe I posted) but won't be partaking of grains for myself for the time being. Day 2 has also been a success. I just made the flax crackers on the website.

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #288 on: July 22, 2015, 10:38:04 PM »
Calculated that our expenses as a percentage of income is now 41 per cent, compared with 83 per cent in 2009. Getting there slowly!

That's awesome! You've DOUBLED your savings rate. This is not a small achievement at all.

Thank you. I can't really tell anyone else, they wouldn't understand. I've worked hard to cut our set expenses (phones, car/health/contents insurance, etc), and lower our consumption (fuel, food, power), and we've both had pay rises in that time. Still some discretionary spending to get under control (I have a weakness for buying gifts), but things could be a lot worse.

(I'm focusing on this while ignoring the fact that the annual growth rate for Sydney real estate is, according to reports today, 22.9 per cent, and some buyers made $1.1 million on property in less than two years. http://news.domain.com.au/domain/real-estate-news/the-winners-and-losers-of-the-sydney-property-boom-20150722-giidt8.html)

HappierAtHome

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #289 on: July 22, 2015, 10:41:42 PM »
The BF negotiated our new internet contract so that we'll be paying $20/month less than we currently are, and the transfer fees and cost of a new modem have been waived.

More excited by this display of badassity on his part, than I am by the actual savings. That's why it's made my day :-) so lovely to be undertaking this journey with a partner joining in on the savings wholeheartedly.

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #290 on: July 22, 2015, 11:21:49 PM »
The BF negotiated our new internet contract so that we'll be paying $20/month less than we currently are, and the transfer fees and cost of a new modem have been waived.

More excited by this display of badassity on his part, than I am by the actual savings. That's why it's made my day :-) so lovely to be undertaking this journey with a partner joining in on the savings wholeheartedly.

Can I ask who you're with? We're with iiNet, $60/month, because neither Optus nor Telstra services our building.

WerKater

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #291 on: July 22, 2015, 11:27:57 PM »
Calculated that our expenses as a percentage of income is now 41 per cent, compared with 83 per cent in 2009. Getting there slowly!

That's awesome! You've DOUBLED your savings rate. This is not a small achievement at all.
Actually, he more than tripled it. It used to be 17%, now it is 59%.

KMMK

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #292 on: July 23, 2015, 03:57:51 AM »
I did my first actual billable work today, as an independent contractor, after quitting my corporate job 4 months ago.

HappierAtHome

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #293 on: August 12, 2015, 07:04:28 PM »
Slept at my new house for the first time last night. (Yeah, this house is going to be what's made my day for quite a while yet).

FLA

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #294 on: August 12, 2015, 07:57:35 PM »
This documentary of Bill Cunningham, an 80-something New York fashion photographer  who rides a bike and has somewhat frugal ideas. Some might say he delves into the cheap side rather than the frugal side, but he seems happy with his studio apartment and his rolls of film.

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi1187356185

saw this a while ago, loved it, love him

Meowkins

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #295 on: August 12, 2015, 08:06:25 PM »
Really long, hard day at work on 5 hours sleep and a lot of really sad family drama. Dad sent me a bizarre, almost incoherent email that was confusing and hurtful.

When I got home, my husband took one look at me, told me to go lie down, made me dinner, cleaned the dishes, and watched goofy shows on netflix with me. He's still lying here next to me chuckling at imgur and just staying close by. Feeling really blessed.

FLA

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #296 on: August 12, 2015, 08:18:37 PM »
I have two dogs I love like my kids, more on some days, lol. I have this mutt who came up to the shelter from the south, she had clearly been horribly abused (I was at the shelter to drop off dog food, had zero intention of going to the puppy room, thank God I did).  She cowered in a corner of her cage, shaking, would not make eye contact, she was sick, skinny.  I grabbed my work lap top and sat outside her cage, working and periodically saying her name and looking at her.  After hours (shhhh, not a productive work day), she finally sat as close to me as she could and I could pet her a little.  Then they let her out, she climbed into my lap, shaking like a leaf and normally, you have to bring in your kids and your dogs to get vetted to have one of their dogs, they said, "carry her to your car, we'll bring the papers out to you."

the journey I've had with Bernice changed my life and the way I want to live it.  She fills me with joy every time I see her face. And now that I got ill and I'm home, she never, ever leaves my side.  There can be steak cooking in the kitchen, still will not move. 

oh, this is stupid, everyone's had a great dog.  Anyway, while I was out, my mom opened the front door and she slipped out.  She never does this, the other constantly does it.  And no one was home to go find her.  My mother called me, I sobbed all the way home.  We've only been in our house two years, she would be lost.  Just as my dad and I drove by our house to start looking for her, UPS pulls in.  And there was Bernice, who hates men, sitting on the truck steps.  I love that man, he has no idea what he has done for me.  Refused to take any money.  She was gone close to an hour, I am so freaking lucky. 

mom22boys

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #297 on: August 12, 2015, 08:38:40 PM »
I just found out that my employer will match 50% of contributions to my 401k starting next year.... up to the full $18k contribution. Their current match only gets me around 4k, so I'm pumped.....an extra 5k per year in my race to FIRE. Great day!

Bracken_Joy

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #298 on: August 12, 2015, 09:12:53 PM »
My tire has been losing air steadily the past couple days. Took it into the tire center I got them from a few years ago (yay mustachian driving habits) and they repaired it for free. Also checked all the other tires and rotated them while they were at it. And of course coffee while I waited. There are far worse ways to spend 2 hours.

Alchemilla

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Re: What made your day?
« Reply #299 on: August 12, 2015, 11:37:28 PM »
FLA blubbing at your lovely story. How beautiful.