Author Topic: Cheap Things That Make You Happy  (Read 939106 times)

living small

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #800 on: May 01, 2018, 04:41:40 PM »
Rediscovering a $50 home depot card which allowed DH and I to gather supplies for a small pathway project for around $20 out of pocket. That, and a beautiful day to do it on!

OtherJen

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #801 on: May 01, 2018, 08:10:13 PM »
It's finally spring! For dinner, I made refried beans, pico de gallo, and corn tortillas from scratch, along with fresh chorizo from the local Mexican grocer. We ate the meal outside on our patio and enjoyed the sunshine and warm breeze.

HappierAtHome

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #802 on: May 01, 2018, 08:29:22 PM »
Time with my Dad. I will likely outlive him by many decades; best to soak up all his awesomeness and love right now while we're both around to enjoy it.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #803 on: May 02, 2018, 04:38:05 AM »
Yesterday I picked a whole basket full of wild garlic leaves. I have been chopping it in the kitchen machine and put a whole bunch in the freezer to be frozen en cut into useful size blocks. Another bunch has been made into pure. I put the flowers in vinegar/sugar, as an experience, to be used in salads.

TheWifeHalf

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #804 on: May 05, 2018, 08:11:06 PM »
Star Magnolias and daffodils

mspym

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #805 on: May 05, 2018, 08:35:55 PM »
Coming back home after being away and realising how great your life (and your own bed) is.

Serendip

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #806 on: May 05, 2018, 11:22:44 PM »
Coming back home after being away and realising how great your life (and your own bed) is.
this is it.

plus..lake-swimming

mspym

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #807 on: May 05, 2018, 11:56:39 PM »
Coming back home after being away and realising how great your life (and your own bed) is.
this is it.

plus..lake-swimming

+1 for lake swimming.

Freedomin5

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #808 on: May 06, 2018, 06:00:46 AM »
The updated version of Your Money or Your Life is available as an eBook, and I’m second in line on the library waitlist. (The first version was only available as a hard copy, and I couldnt borrow it because I live overseas.)

Trifle

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #809 on: May 06, 2018, 06:03:14 AM »
Waking up this morning to the sound of the wood thrush singing.  My favorite bird song -- so ethereal, so beautiful

Hula Hoop

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #810 on: May 06, 2018, 06:04:00 AM »
Sorry this is OT but Freedomin5 how do you join a library when you live overseas?  I'd love to get free library books on my device from my home town library but I assumed I couldn't since I'm in a different country. 

Linea_Norway

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #811 on: May 06, 2018, 12:34:28 PM »
I am currently doung a course of eating wild plants. Had my first course evening on Thursday. Yesterday and today I picked quite a lot of edible species that we are now trying out to eat, not too many at the time.

Downside about the course: the course book we got for free is the small book that I purchased last year. So now I have 2 similar books. I might put one at our cabin.

Other positiv thing: reading nice books from the library.

DH tried out his homebuilt packraft for the first time today and it worked well.

Going on a 4 day padling teip to Sweden on Thurday to Sunday. It is about 2 hours driving. We bring our own canoe and own dried trip food and sleep in our tent in the free nature. A reasonably priced trip.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #812 on: May 06, 2018, 12:56:32 PM »
Learning to recognize trees. I have learned two new ones this weekend. I am using an app on my phone.

Rural

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #813 on: May 06, 2018, 08:08:33 PM »
Sitting on the porch and hearing nothing but birdsong, bugs, and the wind in the trees. We sometimes get a little road sound in the distance in winter, but nothing once the trees leaf out. The leaves muffle sound at a distance, I guess,

Hirondelle

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #814 on: May 08, 2018, 12:46:12 AM »
Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk <3

jengod

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #815 on: May 08, 2018, 09:43:11 PM »
Watching the honeybees forage on our borage flowers

Lemon-creme nasturtiums

Scrolling Twitter


Linea_Norway

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #816 on: May 09, 2018, 12:44:59 AM »
Taking up a sick day (which does not cost me anything at all). Yesterday morning I felt lousy and called in sick. Spent my day picking up a library book, studying several library books and taking notes of them, packing trip gear for a trip on Thursday, looking for mushrooms around my house, baking a pie of wild plants.

If was pretty tempting this morning to call in for a second sick day, despite for feeling fine. But as usual I have too much of a conscience to do that.

Steve Ainslie

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #817 on: May 09, 2018, 03:17:47 AM »
Walking around the lake in the park with my wife and dog.

10dollarsatatime

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #818 on: May 09, 2018, 10:05:25 AM »
Sprouting seeds in the window.

Playing in the dirt... I'm headed out to till the garden this morning. :)

Just Joe

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #819 on: May 09, 2018, 02:08:52 PM »
Sent a history article to a nearby friend. He said "oh yes, I have a signed copy of the book the article referenced." Want to read it?

"Why yes, thank you."

Gerard

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #820 on: May 09, 2018, 05:04:38 PM »
Came back from 12 days' of travelling to find that all of our seeds have come up. I love those little ragged lines of different shades of green at this time of year.

Mezzie

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #821 on: May 09, 2018, 06:31:39 PM »
I love that because of Overdrive, a friend can recommend a good book and I can be reading it within minutes (for free! Or at least fir the small percentage of my taxes that funds libraries. :p).

Mezzie

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #822 on: May 09, 2018, 06:33:01 PM »
Learning to recognize trees. I have learned two new ones this weekend. I am using an app on my phone.
What app, @Linda_Norway ? I'd like to grt better at recognizing plants.

lemanfan

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #823 on: May 10, 2018, 02:06:21 AM »
Early morning, public holiday - black coffee and a coursera lecture on buddism and psychology.

Hirondelle

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #824 on: May 10, 2018, 03:54:33 AM »
Early morning, public holiday - black coffee with milk and a coursera lecture on buddism and psychology. good book

Sounds like we have similar desires today :)

Freedomin5

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #825 on: May 12, 2018, 08:53:33 AM »
Sorry this is OT but Freedomin5 how do you join a library when you live overseas?  I'd love to get free library books on my device from my home town library but I assumed I couldn't since I'm in a different country.

@Hula Hoop   I have property (and hence property related bills) in my home country (Canada). Next time you’re in your home town, bring your bill with your home address to the library and request a card. If you have an old library card from when you used to live in your home town, you can just ask the librarian how to activate eBooks on your library account. In my case I had to link my card on OverDrive to the library.

Friar

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #826 on: May 12, 2018, 09:26:21 AM »
Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk <3

Oh yes. A delightful luxury!

Hula Hoop

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #827 on: May 12, 2018, 09:42:36 AM »
Sorry this is OT but Freedomin5 how do you join a library when you live overseas?  I'd love to get free library books on my device from my home town library but I assumed I couldn't since I'm in a different country.

@Hula Hoop   I have property (and hence property related bills) in my home country (Canada). Next time you’re in your home town, bring your bill with your home address to the library and request a card. If you have an old library card from when you used to live in your home town, you can just ask the librarian how to activate eBooks on your library account. In my case I had to link my card on OverDrive to the library.

Thanks - I don't own any property in my home town but I do have a couple of bills with my dad's address on them..  When I'm back visiting this summer, I'll visit the library and see what I can do.

jengod

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #828 on: May 12, 2018, 01:05:26 PM »
I am currently doung a course of eating wild plants.

Purslane!!!

Linea_Norway

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #829 on: May 13, 2018, 11:37:20 AM »
Learning to recognize trees. I have learned two new ones this weekend. I am using an app on my phone.
What app, @Linda_Norway ? I'd like to grt better at recognizing plants.

@Mezzie A Norwegian app, called "Treslag i Norge". I recommand you to find something with English text.

I have another one called "picture this". I am not all friends with it yet. But worth trying out.

CheapScholar

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #830 on: May 13, 2018, 03:38:20 PM »
Old Navy flip flops.

Aegishjalmur

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #831 on: May 15, 2018, 11:10:11 AM »
Hummingbirds- we were at a camp in Gunnison CO and we had a hummingbird come check us out for a good 5 minutes, it investigated everything red in our campsite (including the car emblems) and we got some really nice views of him hovering within a couple feet of us. In general hummingbirds are fun, the sounds they make flying around we jokingly refer to as fighter planes on crack.

Birds in general, one of our campsites in NM had a tree where the vultures liked to nest so we had about 20 of them roaming around.  We also had northern cardinals and a desert cardinal(Pyrrhuloxia), Sand Piper's, cranes and several duck species. The Gunnison CO camp also had a Stellar's Jay that came and checked us out.

Scavenged items- walking the dirt road by our last camp netted us a few goodies 1) a small locking carabineer, 2) a working rear led taillight for a bike and 3) a brand new(no dirt or scuff marks) ratcheting tie down straps with 2 hooks that it looks like they overloaded and snapped the nylon webbing.






Linea_Norway

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #832 on: May 15, 2018, 01:34:37 PM »
Finding out that we have Garlic Mustard and Gound Ivy in our garden. I learned those yesterday at my course in edible weeds. Lovely to have a facebook group for edible plants where the admin very soon confirmed my pictures and termination.

I am currently drinking tea made from fresh ground ivy and it tastes nice.

I hope I can pick some more when we are back from our 5 day trip. Then I will dry some for tea. And try out fermentation of leaves for tea.

Unfortunately I am still working and I do not have the time to do everything I want with the plants.

The coming days we prioritize to go to the west coast, trying to see and photograph puffins in the breeding season. Camping cheaply, of course. And combining it with DH free diving for shells and fish. And foraging seaweed en kelp. We are still in a learning process about the seaweed.

I am bringing along a pile of library books about edible plants and how to recognize trees.

Rural

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #833 on: May 15, 2018, 05:56:05 PM »
Free workshop at the library today.

pkygola

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #834 on: May 16, 2018, 03:53:30 AM »
Hello,

I'm from India so my reply may not contribute as expected but I felt I should say something here....

The cheap thing, I am getting benefit from is my radio!

It entertains me, educates me and updates me........ I love the traditional radio more than today's FM radio and those radios are fixed with mobile phones.

Trifle

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #835 on: May 16, 2018, 05:07:51 AM »
Good one, Pkygola.  We listen to our radio daily as well.

What's making me happy right now is listening to the rain falling.  It's falling slowly, but in drops not mist.  So it's making that lovely pitter-patter sound on the roof.

Raenia

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #836 on: May 17, 2018, 06:19:24 AM »
That state when it's wet outside and all the greenery looks extra verdant and lush against the dullness.

expatartist

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #837 on: May 17, 2018, 10:56:37 PM »
Wow @Linda_Norway what does ivy tea taste like? Are the leaves fresh or dried? Sounds wonderful.

I'm enjoying a fresh crop of sprouts every couple of weeks. Gratifying and tasty treats from the sun.

PNW Lady

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #838 on: May 18, 2018, 12:36:22 AM »
Hearing my 10 year old DD squeal with delight when she gets home from school and smells fresh muffins that I baked (just to hear her squeal with delight!).

All the free content on YouTube (or the internet in general). As of late I am enjoying some 20 minute kettle bell workouts from an awesome trainer, as well as a math channel I found that does an amazing job of breaking down various match concepts (DD just started decimals).

Afternoon smoothie: almond milk, banana, date, cacao powder, almond butter, cacao nibs, spinach, cherries. Yum!!!!!

Currently sipping a delicious glass of red wine that I bought at a 20% discount for buying 6 bottles ($5.60 per bottle).

Library books.

   

HappierAtHome

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #839 on: May 18, 2018, 02:06:58 AM »
A cup of tea made for me just when I need one.

frooglepoodle

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #840 on: May 18, 2018, 04:37:24 AM »
Toast on homemade bread and iced coffee while I listen to the rain.

HappierAtHome

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #841 on: May 18, 2018, 04:43:31 AM »
Toast on homemade bread and iced coffee while I listen to the rain.

Ooooh good one.

spookytaffy

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #842 on: May 18, 2018, 10:49:06 AM »
Fresh clean sheets after a long hot shower!

bcbaseballman

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #843 on: May 18, 2018, 02:52:40 PM »
Going on walks in the evening with my wife and two young sons. Normally go on about a 3 mile walk!

boy_bye

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #844 on: May 18, 2018, 03:35:32 PM »
Fresh clean sheets after a long hot shower!

That’s gonna be me tonight! 😊

Lately my favorite is walking through my neighborhood looking at everyone’s beautiful gardens.
The lilacs have peaked and the peonies are about to appear ❤️

Astreja

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #845 on: May 18, 2018, 11:56:24 PM »
Walking to the bus stop in the morning and hearing chickadees, robins and crows, and getting a friendly greeting from a neighbour's dogs.

zolotiyeruki

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #846 on: May 19, 2018, 07:38:32 AM »
That magical time of year when we can sleep with the windows open, and wake up to the singing of birds and a cool breeze.  Especially if it's a Saturday and we can snuggle back under the covers.

Mezzie

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #847 on: May 19, 2018, 09:41:25 AM »
Spending time with my tiny niece.

HappierAtHome

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #848 on: May 21, 2018, 01:11:59 AM »
Finally seeing rain in the forecast after a very dry month.

mspym

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Re: Cheap Things That Make You Happy
« Reply #849 on: May 21, 2018, 02:54:31 AM »
The glorious sunsets we have been having lately.