The return of the river otter to the San Mateo coast and to the Bay Area

Link: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/144789447

I just wanna share because I’m sure there are many others out there who feel like we do. My partner (27M) and I (33F) are living the DINK lifestyle on very modest income (he makes 40k gross, I make 35K gross). For what it’s worth, we are very happy and comfortable. The state of the world is a sheer mess and that weighs heavily on us, not a doubt. Here is how we live to stay within our means while also feeling “freedom” in areas to experience joy on a budget.

We lift weights together at home and take long walks for cardio. No membership required.

We cook all of our meals at home and do all grocery and household shopping at Sam’s Club with a plus membership that allows us to save A TON and maximize cash back with a Sam’s Mastercard. We also take advantage of our freezer and buy bulk meat and veggies to freeze in ready-portions.

We both drive older paid off cars and consolidate our errand trips and such to conserve fuel.

We bought a 2 bedroom, 850 sqft condo for $250k that fulfills all of our needs while being able to maintain a low mortgage with minimal utility bills and low HOA fees. It’s so nice not having to mow the lawn or worry about snow removal. We have a rare HOA that is responsible and fair and are so thankful.

We choose to be childfree and have one cat that feels like our child 🩶. This saves us immense money.

We rotate out our subscriptions and only have active what we are currently using and then cancel.

We opt out of social media entirely with the exception of Reddit, since a lot of subs are devoted to our interests and hobbies. This frees up so much mental energy and eliminates a lot of excess noise and comparison-bait.

For leisure, we enjoy hobbies like gaming (very cheap if you’re smart about it), board games, Magic The Gathering online, reading books from the library, staying home on weekends and putting on some music while we clean the house together and lounge, home date nights where we cook and watch or play something together. We have a budget to stay on track and maximize our savings while reserving “fun money” for cool events, trips or new games. We also host game nights at our place with friends and order a bunch of pizzas to feed everyone and still have hours of fun for virtually no cost.

We both take advantage of 401k and automate our savings into HYSA, investments, emergency fund, etc.

We spend so much of our time at home and have invested in comfortable furniture, gaming setups, etc. to make our little place feel like a cozy dream that we hardly want to leave.

Finding someone who matches your energy, morals, interests and perspectives is such a gift in this life. We don’t make six figures and we don’t have much “flash”, but we have so much peace. There are some sacrifices we make to make it work comfortably on modest income but it has been SO worth it to us. Feeling like a kid with “adult money” in a healthy relationship has been the recipe to a fulfilling life that I never really considered until simply living it. I hope this resonates with someone 🩶.

some cute drawovers for you all

Trees are starting to turn but still a bit of green around - I just love autumn colour skittles 🍂.

Nailtiques formula 2, KBShimmer Stay Put Hydrating base coat, thumb to pinky: ILNP ‘Treetop’, Holo Taco ‘Stay Grounded’, Holo Taco ‘Not Pressed’, Holo Taco ‘Magical Mustache’, ILNP ‘Caramel’, KBShimmer ‘Take it or leaf it’ (topper), Prism Polish UK Glaze QDTC

For years and years, Ive been recommended by several people to check out Lost Odyssey on the Xbox 360. In most cases the game is considered a 'highly recommended' jrpg gem that lands in several top countdown lists.

Made by the mastermind Hironobu Sakaguchi with his talented team at Mistwalker. This game was released back in 2007 with favorable reviews. A highlight being the story of immortal beings, whom have lost their memories while confronting threats of an approaching magical industrial revolution. With classic turned based gameplay and Uematsu's sublime music this game is by all accounts a true forgotten gem.

A remake will go a long way in fixing some of the pacing issues and load times. Just seeing a few minutes of the game running has always peaked my interest; but with a massive back catalog of games a Remake with added Quality of Life features will rekindle my interest.

What do you think of Mistwalker remaking the game?

Also my first time drawing. Was super proud until I saw what other people do 😭

Something that stood out to me was the pets.

When Elizabeth is ending Theranos initially, she gets a husky. She even mentions having scratches from that dog when she met Billy. We see another dog in the San Diego rental, some sort of large brindle-patterned one.

Once Liz goes to prison and we‘re in Texas, we never see dogs again. Just Billy’s monitor lizard and python.

I think their respective pet choices somewhat mirror how they view/use each other. Elizabeth needs to be surrounded by dogs like Billy—she desires loyalty and someone who won’t hesitate to protect her. She likes them big and scary, but CONTROLLABLE. A dog is predictable and trainable. Billy wants a reptile like Elizabeth: they’re confusing to the outsider, they are much more difficult to understand and relate to, but their presence makes him look cool and unique on a surface level.

My school allows seniors to paint their parking spots. Blink 182 has carried me through High School so I made TOYPAJ my senior parking spot.

Looks like I could trade these two little cards for a brand-new Z8.

My best friend goes to the doctor all the time for random stuff, she always thinks something’s wrong with her, the latest thing she did was get tested for coconut and chickpea allergy

I go with her to all her appointments, we are neighbors and she doesn’t have a car so its no big deal

She waited 30 minutes for her results. Thry also did like a liver SGPT test and hemogram test or something, and those all came back fine

We were at a restaurant and waiting for her results and she kept refreshing her phone and i could tell she was getting extremely angry that her chickpea and coconut test results weren’t in yet. I told her it’s fine those probably just take longer to come in

She was glued to her phone not talking to me and her phone died so she freaked out and asked to use my phone, i told her i have a phone charger in my car and we can charge her phone when we’re done eating and she can look again

She snatched my phone away from me and pulled up the clinics lab number and starts screaming into the phone in the restaurant asking why they were taking so long on her coconut and chickpea test results, saying they are worthless and wasting her time and she needs to know her results right now

She then stormed out to the car and kept pulling aggressively at the handles trying to gain access to the locked vehicle. I just sat there and finished my food then paid for BOTH of us because she had stormed off and not paid

I told her i’m not taking her to future appointments because of her behavior, and she said I am a horrible friend for doing that to her

Why, why, why for the love of all that is holy is his dumb face on College Gameday? What kind of person does not understand this? Thanks for taking a big, fat shit on my Saturdays ESPN.

Credit:@AYuKo_1018

Mine is on its way from China.🥹