This post may contain affiliate links, for more information see DISCLOSURES

I’m glad we have a paid off mortgage.

I am so glad I have a paid off mortgage, I decided to say it nearly three times.

Since I’m not working, I don’t have any money coming in (except unemployment for a while). I don’t have money going to retirement savings. I don’t have money going to my health savings account or my son’s 529 education savings plan.

We’re as focused on frugality as ever, because unemployment just covers our expenses.

Wow, I am glad for our paid off mortgage right now. When I had money coming in from multiple jobs and the markets were doing better, there were definitely times that I had second thoughts.

Is a paid off mortgage “worth it”?

Was the amount of money that we saved by paying off our mortgage in about 2 years worth it compared to the gains I could have had?

The numbers say… I have no idea.

Let me backup- I say “about 2 years” because, honestly, I can’t remember if we paid it off in one and a half years or two and a half years. This really shows how focused we were on goals vs. tracking. I wanted to get it done.

At that point I wasn’t logging things with hope of sharing it with blog readers and I wasn’t competing with anyone. All that mattered was getting it done.

Heck, I just started tracking the growth of my net worth this year!

I’m a bit surprised I didn’t keep better track!

Had I paid it off as the 15 year mortgage loan how much money could I have made by putting that into taxable investment accounts (hello VTSAX) during recent up years? I’m not going to run any numbers right now for two reasons:

1. I can’t remember what our mortgage rate was. Yes, I could go look it up in old paperwork. It was pretty low, in part because it was a 15 year loan. I also diligently shopped around. We even made the mortgage just in my name and dropped my husband because my credit score was so much better. But, since I can’t remember what the rate was, it’s hard to run comparisons on money savings.
2. I’m not so great at running these numbers and comparing how the market performed historically. Maybe one of my cool twitter friends would like to run some numbers for me if I can collect all the data.

I am curious…

How much money we could have made had I invested it. It begs the question, had I done that, and been in the same situation I am now, with a market downturn and no job, would I have had enough gains to pull the money out and pay off the mortgage now? We’ve been in the house about 5 years. So, that would be about 10 years early payment.

Also, and of course this would all factor in, I paid more on my down payment than I took as a loan for the mortgage.

Some real numbers:

I’ve never went into these numbers, but, I’ll go ahead and do it now. We paid $220,000 for our 20 acre property. I put $120,000 down and we mortgaged $100,000. This is surely not any kind of norm. The price or the down payments.

I don’t do anything the normal way, it would seem.

So, if I had done things more traditionally, how could I have done in the market up until now?

But here’s the problem with comparing then and now:

At that point, I wasn’t really even investing!

I had been investing into my 401k, but that was it. The rest I had been diligently saving to use as a down payment on a house.

I was saving in a high yield savings account at Ally Bank. At the time though, I don’t think their high yield accounts we’re even making 1%. It was 0.9% or something like that.

It’s not like I would have been putting the money into VTSAX or something at that point. Hell, I only discovered that THIS year!

Hindsight is 20/20

I have some idea on what the better way to do things might have been.

But, I need to be very honest with myself that I didn’t know then what I know now. How well my money might have done, is not as well as my money likely would have done.

I’m not going to beat myself up for, maybe, not making the best choice.

What I accomplished and the choices I made on my own are nothing to laugh at.

I hope to remind everyone, we’re not perfect!

Just consider, the fact that you’re learning and trying. Wherever you’re at on your journey, that sets you above average (well, I assume for the readership that is actually here, reading this post).

Some of us have great mentors. Others have family support to start off ahead. Some of us have geography or other factors in our favor.

Some of us are just bumbling along the best we can, trying to learn as much as we can along the way.

There are a lot of ideas out there. Each “expert” says they have the best strategy and you might try many along the way.

I’m still learning and I’ll make more decisions I’m not sure were right.

I’m sure I’ll look back on choices I made at this point in my life and think, “wow, probably should have done that differently.” And that’s probably a good thing! It will mean I’ve grown and learned even more.

I figure, if I’m sure I’ve made all the right choices, it probably means I haven’t learned anything as time goes on.

I’m still ecstatic we paid off our mortgage!

It is such a load of weight of my shoulders to not have to worry about that.

A rent or a mortgage is one of the biggest stressors when times get tight. Outside of food (and we can control costs on that, to an extent) it’s a HUGE fixed cost for most households.

While I’m on a very limited income from unemployment, or if I do have to start tapping my investment accounts for living expenses, that’s one huge line item I’m not concerned about.

What if I hadn’t paid it off?

Oh sure, I probably could have done some fumbling around and cashed out taxable accounts to pay our mortgage while I’m not working.

But I might have lost money, and there are extra taxes involved.

I’m a bit obsessive so I probably would have worried a lot and fixated on how much further it would set us back to cash out now, when the markets aren’t doing great, just to pay our mortgage.

Since I made the choice over 5 years ago to take the route I did, I can wonder, but I don’t obsess. That’s really important for my mental health in an already stressful period of my life.

Paying off our mortgage has given me freedom.

While I’m working to find a new job (that I want) instead of feeling super stressed, I do feel some freedom.

I have the freedom to work on my personal development. It’s bought me some time to work on developing freelance incomes streams and passive income streams.

Really, I can’t quite explain how glad I am that I don’t have to worry about my mortgage payment.

That doesn’t mean I’m stress free. Far from it. But at least I’m not having to consider a job delivering pizzas just to pay the bills… yet.

So, should you pay off your mortgage?

It’s still a personal choice, and I really can’t answer that for you.

I can say, things can change really quick. Be it a major health problem, job loss, something many of us don’t think about, such as underemployment, things can change really quick.

For a take on how quickly things can change, check out a few of these posts from Chief Mom Officer. Her Husband almost died! They had to enact their emergency plan.

Having a paid off mortgage could make things much less stressful if you’re in full on crisis mode. You might even think of paying of your mortgage as part of your emergency action plan.

I suppose much if it depends on your risk tolerance. If I was younger, not married, and didn’t have a child, I might be less concerned about it.

What do you think? What are your plans? Do they account for the situations out of your control?

Originally published at www.thatfrugalpharmacist.com on December 16, 2018.

This post may contain affiliate links, for more information see DISCLOSURES

Ok, I’m not sure I can really call myself a freelance writer or freelancer yet, but I do have a sick kid at the moment.

I’m on a sabbatical of sorts after demanding improvement at a job I was unhappy with. Having the financial security to make those demands has left me without a job.

Luckily, as I said, though I’m not financially independent, I am financially secure with a good emergency fund and a paid off mortgage. That has allowed me to take some extra time to focus on blogging and developing some freelance income streams while I take the time to look for the next right job.

I just got back from a 3+ week trip to Hawaii (on which I got nothing done). Sincerely, I planned to go full attack mode on the freelance front when I returned… except, my kid is sick.

Related:

FIRE Principles Let me Vacation On Unemployment

Hawaii on the Cheap with Kids- Part 1

Hawaii on the Cheap with Kids- Part 2

Priorities with Children

As a parent, nothing brings you to your knees quite like a sick child.

As an educated pharmacist, I turn into a pathetic, paranoid obsessed mom. Even though I know better.

I can’t help but make almost all activities stop when my baby wants nothing other than me.

And, let me tell you, there is nothing he wants other than me. Suddenly it’s like his dad doesn’t exist. Now, that’s saying something, because my husband is a stay at home dad. Three months after birth I went back to work, and until recently, that meant he spent his days with dad. But when your sick, I guess, there’s just nothing like Mama.

Being Mama, that new(ish) part of my identity that, for me, has taken precedence over all others, means I drop whatever I have to answer to my sick child’s calls.

Given that I’m on this sabbatical of sorts, I don’t feel like my attention is pulled in so many directions and there just isn’t enough time in the day. But, do still need to be mindful of how I choose to spend my time.

Women Who Money just did a post on the drawbacks of freelance work. While they offer solutions to many of the potential problems they run into, I think it can be really hard to contend with a sick child.

One of the benefits of freelance is that flexible schedule and ability to be there when your family needs you. You may have childcare options lined up (and indeed, my husband IS here, but my son wants nothing to do with him), but, can you focus and not feel guilty getting away when you know your sick kid is in the next room?

Sick Kids During Travel

My son started to get sick during our trip to Hawaii. It started with a week of stomach ache complaints. He would wake up multiple times per night crying that his tummy hurt and he had to go poo. Tired and frustrated as I was, I would diligently, and as patiently as I was able to muster, carry him in the dark and sit with him in the bathroom… and he wouldn’t poop.

I don’t know if he really had to go, or if his stomach was just hurting. Who am I to argue with a sick kid?

I figured he was constipated as he wasn’t near as regular as usual and our diets were a bit off and gave him some Miralax and apple juice. That fixed the lack of poo problem, but he continued to complain about stomach upset.

Along with the nighttime complaints, there was general malaise, whining and being a bit mopey during the day. Kiddo clearly wasn’t enjoying himself as much as he had been before he got sick.

We took things slower, with more time in our vacation rentals and only a couple hours of activities a day. I did a whole lot of cuddling too.

This lasted about a week and then appeared to get better.

Sick Kid Round Two

A week later and he developed a fever. He was still waking at night saying he had to go poo, but not going. At this point, I wasn’t sure what was going on and if he really had a stomach ache at all or not.

|Aside: after this recent trip I upgraded to a temporal scanner thermometer. It’s slightly less bulking than my ear thermometer, and I’ll be throwing it in to my travel kit. It was a little rough with my cheap travel digital thermometer on this trip!

Often, he’d have a good bout of gas after saying this and go back to sleep. But he was still sleeping very fitfully, and with mild fever. It wasn’t constipation.

Two weeks into our trip at this point, I thought maybe it was just “being over it.” Increased neediness, whiny, clinginess… reflecting the novelty of travel had worn off and kid was a bit homesick.

It was hard to tease out what was “sick” versus the above. And, kid was milking it a bit too. He figured out he could get the foods he wanted and not eat what we were serving when we served it. He would refuse to eat at meal times and then demand “snacks” as soon as we got in the car.

And what am I to do or say when the kid has a fever? So, for the most part we worked to keep him as happy, fed and hydrated as possible while he was sick.

What do you do while your kid is sick?

Needless to say, I didn’t get a damn thing done on the freelance front on vacation. We had a lot more downtime than I had planned for on the trip due to the sick child. Downtime was spent tending to the sick child (who insisted to be touching me at nearly all times), or, resting up myself from sleepless nights.

And, most vacation activities came to a halt. I made a goal of getting out of the house daily. That usually meant 1–2 hours of activity at about 4pm and the rest of the day spent in the vacation rental.

Ok, We’ll take Him in to the Dr.

Frustrating (and scary) as it was having a sick kid while traveling, I knew there was nothing they would do if I took him in.

He was eating (though less than normal). But was drinking enough. Other than that, he had no other symptoms than the fever and malaise. They would tell me to watch and wait. So wait we did. There’s nothing like feeling helpless as a parent, let me tell you.

I wish there were actually some symptoms. At least with a cold, you know they are going to get over it in a few days to a week. No symptoms and your just left there twiddling your thumbs thinking “WTF?!” The stomach complaints had mostly gone away, but the fever was still there.

I made an appointment for the day we returned from our trip to take him in. Of course, as these things go, the fever settled down the day before and the day that we returned, so I cancelled the appointment.

Three Days of “Normalcy”

The last day of our trip he was acting pretty normal and never clocked over 99.9. The next day, same thing, though as we we’re doing so much travel I didn’t check the temp, but I don’t think I saw it over 99. But the biggest thing was, he was acting pretty normal.

Our first full day home and he seemed happy relatively normal and no fever. I have to take “normal” with a grain of salt here, because coming off a 3 week trip with a toddler, it’s going to take a while for them to get back into a routine at home.

Plus, in 3 weeks, a lot can change in the behavior of a toddler. What was normal when we left home isn’t necessarily normal now, plus whatever intellectual advancements have been made related to travel. But, overall, he seemed pretty normal and had a bit of an appetite back.

I’m Home, and Ready to Get Back to Work!

Except, now I’m not again.

Because the fever is back.

We had a 3 day reprieve, and now it’s back. My hope is, that because my son has never really been sick, he’s just getting hit with multiple bugs back to back.

But, the lack of other symptoms has me a bit worried. If this is all the same thing, that means we’re on day 12.

Thing is, the practical pharmacist part of me knows that they’re still not going to do anything at this point. But the Mama part of me can’t put off a Dr. visit (and the full price charge that will come with it, thank goodness for my HSA) any longer.

And as for the freelance efforts and blogging-

Well, I’m doing what I can, but it’s not much.

It can be extremely frustrating because my laptop is right there! I’ve got my phone in my hand! But, at least for my kid, when he’s sick, he needs to be physically touching me.

He wants to be sleeping on my lap. He wants to be cuddled in and tucked into one arm.

That means, even when I’m stuck for hours with a sleeping kid on me, I’ve often only got the use of one arm. Consequently, if we chat on Twitter, this is also why I “like” a whole lot of posts but don’t always comment a lot. You can like with one hand available, commenting is harder.

If it was just a cold, I’d probably more inclined to extricate myself and get some work done. But, my baby is sick. It’s lasting longer than it should. And, he only wants me.

So, for now, even though I want to shoot for the moon in my freelance efforts, the job of Mama takes priority over anything else.

Originally published at www.thatfrugalpharmacist.com on December 9, 2018.

This post may contain affiliate links, for more information see DISCLOSURES

As a pharmacist or student pharmacist are you prepared for the possibility of a lay off? How about underemployment or a reduction in work hours? Or, worst case, you get fired.

Are you in another profession? This may be a window into the future as automation increases. Automation may eliminate less jobs than previously predicted, but what might things look like with increasing populations and more automation? That is, with more workers than needed to complete all the human work tasks?

This article has some very pharmacist specific details, but the principles apply for any career. Are you prepared? Keep reading.

No one wants to think about these things, but, sadly, they are happening more often in the pharmacy profession. Especially reduced work hours, which I fear may be becoming a new industry norm.

And, really, it shouldn’t be that surprising. It’s been commonplace for years that newly hired technicians in many pharmacies are only ever hired on as part time employees. Many of them “get lucky” and end up with full time work, but, it’s not a promise.

I’ve never felt this is the way to treat another skilled, licensed professional. But they’ve got an out. The fact is, there are many jobs available to technicians who should wish to transition out of the profession.

That isn’t really the case for pharmacists.

“According to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy’s 2017 Graduating Student National Summary Report, the average student loan debt for PharmD graduates amounted to $163,496 in 2017, a 9.5% increase from 2015.”

That’s a HUGE average loan debt. Consider what the outliers at the higher end of the curve look like.

The Pharmacist Demand Index or PDI currently estimates that supply about equals demand for pharmacists in the job market, despite the amount of annual graduating pharmacists nearly doubling from 2000 to 2018.

The PDI may say there is not a glut, but, ask pharmacists out there and you will hear that it’s getting significantly harder to find a job.

With the amount of focused education involved, both undergrad and postgraduate doctoral studies, you’d think it wouldn’t be a problem to find work.

A Pharm.D. coming out of an average of 8 years+ of education with $163,000 of student loan debt is not expecting to be faced with a situation of unemployment or underemployment. Sadly though, this is becoming more common.

Would you invest that amount of effort and money into the education for a career with an unsure job market?

By the time many realize how difficult it can be to find the right job, they are so far along and invested in the educational path that it can be hard to imagine a shift. I would guess that many decide underemployment is preferable to starting over in education or pursuing a lower paying but more in demand field.

Of course, there ARE options. If you are willing to move wherever they need someone, whenever in your career, you can find a job. Many pharmacists are willing to do this when they first graduate. But what about those further along in their careers?

So, some are willing to move. But consider, with the investment involved in gaining a pharmacy education, many graduates plan to be able to find work in their choice of locations. I think that is fair given the education and the fact that there is an accessible pharmacy near almost every community.

A worrying trend:

A new trend has developed over the last few years and seems to be spreading: “full time flex.” In this model, or whatever name it may happen to go by, the employee is considered full time at somewhere around 30 to 32 hours a week.

Does the PDI consider underemployment of pharmacists when calculating their market demand ratios?

I really don’t know the answer to that, but I would suspect not.

For a good deal of time I have heard, in areas with more of a pharmacist surplus, that new graduates in retail are having trouble finding full time work. The only position available are part time, or perhaps, the full time “flex” described above.

But the problem isn’t just for new pharmacists anymore. From what I have become aware of, multiple retailers have reclassified what it means to be “full time” so even long time employees can now be faced with a reduction in hours.

What does this mean in practice?

Being “full time” at less than 40 hours might not mean anything. Plenty of these pharmacists are still getting the 40 hours a week that they expect. But the corporations have signaled to employees that 40 hours is by no means a guarantee.

For others, it has meant abrupt changes in the amount of take home pay that they are receiving, and that could either mean big life changes or the hunt for a new job.

But is a new job out there? Is it worth it to make the shift with the loss of benefits that can come with a job change?

Remember, most positions are not offering the ability to negotiate at sign on anymore. With a near equal supply and demand, employers do not need to offer benefits above the baseline. Unless you are signing on to a particularly hard to staff area, jobs know there is someone hungry out there. They might wait a little longer to fill a position, but they seem inclined to do so versus offer an extra week of vacation a year.

Why the change?

It’s not like I have a crystal ball or a lead with corporate retail executives, so these are just my educated opinions.

For a number of years pharmacy retailers have been trying to get away from the use of staffing companies.

The progression I have seen is that retailers were willing to offer overtime to their pharmacists rather than pay a staffing agency.

That makes sense to me; why pay someone 1.5x normal pay or more, if they’re not even your employee. I don’t know how much staffing agencies demand directly from the retailers, but, I’m pretty sure it’s at least as much as someone on overtime. The staffing agencies then typically pay the employees less than what a standard retail pharmacist makes (by a little bit).

So retailers had seemed inclined to pay their own employees overtime rather than contract out with a staffing company. This makes sense for a variety of reasons. Your own employees already know your workflows and processes. If they are staff from the same store, they already have relationships with the customers. Why would you want to pay an outside agent to come in and do the same job for the same price as your own employee?

That seemed to work for the last decade.

As the bottom line becomes more important and there seems to be plenty of pharmacists knocking on doors for work, the “reduced hours but still full time” has allowed employers to increase their flexibility even further.

This is an ideal situation, from the employer perspective. They can now increase the size of their workforce while reducing their likelihood of overtime payouts.

Instead of THREE pharmacists who work 40 hours a week, they can take on FOUR pharmacists who work 30 hours a week. Should the need for more work hours arise due to sick calls or vacations, there are now an additional 40 hours that can be pulled from without generating overtime. Couple that with the fact that a good portion of these people have mortgage payments and student loans to repay… they’ll be hungry to accept any “extra” shifts offered.

This is a small scale example, but consider this scaled across a corporate retail pharmacist labor pool. That is SIGNIFICANT cost savings to the employer.

This may also allow retailers to “make room” for the new graduates, many of which are willing to take any job offered, often at significant pay cuts over what a veteran pharmacist would take.

Making room for the new grads sure makes them look like the good guys doesn’t it? Plus, they can cut a few hours from the old timers check and hire on more lower benefitted and paid employees.

Does that make it right?

The trend over the last decade, not just in pharmacy, of heavily restricting “full time positions” and only offering what most would call part time work (with perhaps the possibility of more hours if they need you) was often blamed on “Obamacare.”

The fact is, “America’s Part Time Workforce Is Huge… and at it’s highest level in in about 30 years.” Maybe it was because of Obamacare, maybe it wasn’t, but the big shift has signaled to employers that they can get away with these labor arrangements. The employers certainly haven’t suffered for it. The article I link to describe this possibility as being “the new norm” and calls this trend “hidden unemployment.” Hidden unemployment being a situation where people want to work more hours than they can get.

Hidden unemployment has hit professionals too. It’s not just the new norm for lower income workers. It may be the new norm for everyone.

ALL workers should take notice. As I said above, I’ve watched this trend develop in the hiring of pharmacy technicians for many years. I, as well as every other pharmacist I talked to thought that it was no way to treat the backbone of pharmacy operations.

And it’s created problems. The best technicians who can’t get the full time hours they need or want… they just move on. They take the skills they learned in pharmacy and transfer it to something else, which isn’t that hard to do when you’re making an average of $32,000 a year.

But where are the pharmacists going to turn? What’s a pharmacist with a family, a mortgage and staggering student loan debt to do when they become chronically underemployed? It’s not easy to transition out of a niche career with a median salary of $122,000 a year, especially when, compared to other high paying and healthcare positions, pharmacists are almost entirely tied to working in a pharmacy setting. There isn’t the potential for piecemeal remote or telecommuting opportunities as there are with many other healthcare professions.

And what about non compete clauses?

Oh! You forgot about these?! Well if it doesn’t just keep getting better and better!

Any pharmacist working in a corporate retail position is going to be faced with non competition or conflict of interest clauses. That means you can’t work for another retail competitor.

So when they cut your hours or you can only get a part time job, you can’t work for another retailer to make up the difference. How’s that to kick you while you’re down?

It’s actually comical. You may have two retailers each looking for a part time employee, and a pharmacist looking for two part time jobs to make up the equivalent of a full time job… but you can only work for one of them.

What’s your plan?

I would suggest you be highly aware of the potential that underemployment of pharmacists is indeed the new norm.

Be smart with your money. When you are planning for the early stages of your career, I would factor yourself making a salary that makes no more than what you would expect to make at 30 hours a week. If you want to be really smart about it, plan for 20 hours.

Be aware that this may not change. Sure, you’ll probably get 40 hours a week here and there, but, don’t count on it. Predictions are that more pharmacist positions will appear as pharmacists transition into clinics and primary care teams. But, they’ve been saying that for 20 years and I haven’t seen it happen at any level that I would call it “industry changing.”

If you’re still in school, see if you can keep at it. Maybe plan to graduate and take on a part time job as a pharmacist while pursuing further education in something that couples well with a pharmacy degree, such as business or public health administration. If you’ve got a knack for IT, that may be a further niche for yourself.

Work to generate income streams that are independent of your pharmacy career. There are plenty of resources online for exploring this.

Perhaps, educate yourself about the growing number of people who are pursuing financial independence. Check out some sites like RockStarFinance, Dave Ramsey or Mr. Money Moustache, or read my website, ThatFrugalPharmacist.com

Why do I feel so passionate about this topic?

I’m one of those underemployed pharmacists right now. I had a less than ideal work situation which ended recently (you’ll find more leading up to this in other blog posts, if interested). That was fine and planned for, because I had a back up per diem job.

My per diem job was one of those that recently changed their staffing structure so that full timers are getting less than full time, and part timers are getting even less. With the full timers and part timers fighting for the available hours (it’s gotten very political!), per diem people like me, even though I was previously working 12–20 hours a week aren’t getting anything!

Pharmacists I know personally are having to reconsider their entire financial structure. Some are looking for other employment, but so far, all they’ve been able to find is more “full time” at reduced hours jobs. Others are looking to relocate if possible. Others are trying to speed up their retirement plans.

I’m very happy to say that I’ve planned well and am currently riding this out fairly comfortably. Using free software like Personal Capital I’ve been paying close attention to my finances and have a good idea of how long I can afford to be off work. Between the two jobs that I had before I was able to save enough that my family doesn’t have major stresses while I look for a new position. And, lucky for me, I don’t need and am not even sure that I want full time work!

I was already planning to achieve early financial independence and pursue some version of early retirement, or at least, not full time pharmacist work. Just not quite yet. I’m on the hunt for the right job but also investigating other options and opportunities.

Who would have thought I’d be a pharmacist, on unemployment? Are you prepared?

Like what you read? Did it make you think? Check out my blog and leave a comment.

I’m open to opportunities and freelance writing. For more details check my Contact Page.

Want to know more about me?

Originally published at www.thatfrugalpharmacist.com on October 29, 2018.

This post may contain affiliate links, for more information see DISCLOSURES

I’ve had a number of questions and Twitter interactions when I talk about making traditional fermented sauerkraut or pickles and people have asked to see how I do it.

What, not a money thing?! There’s more to my life than finance! And there is more to yours too!

I’m hoping I can make this post really simple and easy to follow with step by step directions and photos.

Why fermented foods:

Probiotics are all the rage right? We know that there is something to be said about getting some good bacteria into our guts. Most of the probiotic supplements that you find in stores (and traditional foods like yogurt and kefir) rely and various lactobacillus sp.

Lactobacillus is the main player in producing fermented foods. Instead of pickling in acetic acid, aka vinegar, for regular store pickles we rely on lactic acid. There are some complex interactions going on where the lactic acid producing bacteria out compete the bad stuff leading to a relatively shelf (or fridge) stable product that keeps for a long time.

There are also some other organisms involved here, mostly yeasts. They aren’t what we’re looking for but they’re part of the equation. When a product turns out funky looking, it’s often due to a yeast growth issue. It can effect the flavor in a negative way, but it’s safe. The bacteria also produce some unique vitamins in the process, such as B-12.

I’ll say, that, as a a pharmacist the verdict is out on how helpful probiotics are. More and more evidence points to benefit, but it may come down to very specific bacteria and some may help more in certain situations.

But, it probably doesn’t hurt anything! I look at this from more of a “get more friendly bugs in your system” perspective than as a specific health seeking habit. We like to eat the stuff and it might be extra good for us, so that’s a bonus. But some people are really serious about how they think fermented foods have increased their health.

I’m also a big believer in the “hygiene hypothesis” in regards to many of our health issues. Week seek to sterilize our world, and, it’s doing more harm than good. Expose yourself to some wee beasties now and then! It’ll make you big and strong!

Most quick info you’ll find on hygiene hypothesis speaks to allergies, but, there is more and more evidence for the role of microbiome in inflammatory and immune modulated conditions, which, is basically like everything that goes wrong aside from physical trauma.

It’s not necessarily that “frugal”…

If you are comparing these to the “regular” items on the shelf at the grocery store, that is. But, if you’re comparing to one of the popularly available fermented sauerkraut brands, like Bubbies, IT’S WAY CHEAPER.

I tend to take a broader perspective when it comes to foods I make at home. Reduced packaging, reduced shipping, ability to buy locally grown produce are some things I think of. Taking in the whole picture, it IS frugal.

I also like the idea that I am relearning and hopefully passing on to my family a skill set that had been common knowledge for thousands of years as well as the ability to preserve the harvest. These are things we are losing and you never know when these skills will come in handy. Did I just drop my #prepper card a bit? When it comes to educating yourself and building new skills, well, that’s just priceless.

Background on fermented foods:

People have been doing this for THOUSANDS of years. The principles applied here work for most fermented foods. The difference in something like fermented sauerkraut vs. say, pickles, is that the cabbage makes it’s own brine (mostly) and with cucumber pickles you have to create the brine. Other than that, pretty similar.

A couple of take homes

• It’s not that hard
• Your extremely unlikely to do something to make yourself sick if you put just a little bit of care and attention into it (botulism is a risk for CANNED foods, not living, breathing, fermented foods).
• Recipes are quite flexible… it’s as much art as science.
• DON’T LET HUGE POSTS ONLINE INTIMIDATE YOU, JUST START!

CAVEATS

• Be thoughtful of what foods you start with… Items higher in sugar (RED cabbage, carrots, beets, for example) ferment faster and can have a bit more tendency to go “bad” or mushy.
• You may want to start with something like an “italian mix” of carrots/peppers/cauliflower if you are concerned with “heaving” (read on for more info) that can occur with shredded packed vegetables like cabbage.

On To The Fermented Sauerkraut Making!

Get your materials together. Pay attention to optional accessories. You really don’t need much. I have:

• A relatively fresh cabbage. This one weighed 5 pounds whole.

The fresher the cabbage, the less likely you will be to need to make extra brine. Older store bought cabbages tend to be kind of dry. I try to buy mine from the farmers market in the fall and my produce guy even refers to these big ones as “kraut cabbages.” You’ll be ok with store bought, but you will have to make brine.

• Sea Salt:

I use Celtic Sea Salt, a natural grey colored sea salt with lots of trace minerals. I ordered a 5 pound bag off Amazon and it’s lasted forever. I like it for eating too.. good flavor, nice punch of salt and sometimes a little crunch. I’ve also use the “REAL SALT” brand, which is ancient mined sea salt from the middle of the USA.

I suggest a natural sea salt of some kind, as do many people who ferment. The organisms seems to do a bit better with the boost of trace minerals. Additionally, they don’t contain the anti-caking agents that can give a cloudy appearance. I’ve just found mine works better with “unprocessed” sea salt of some kind

• A large bowl to put your shredded cabbage in

I picked my lodge dutch oven because I should have made kraut two weeks earlier and it was a little dry. The dutch oven gave me plenty of surface area to “smash” the cabbage and has a lid so I don’t lose brine to evaporation.

• A large cutting board
• A large sharp knife (that can quarter a cabbage)
• OPTIONAL ACCESSORY: Kraut Pounder

Ok, I don’t know what these things are really called. This is my first time using this tool, I usually just use my fist. Mine is from the thrift store, but you can find similar items online. You use it to both bruise and breakdown the kraut to soften and create the brine. Then you can use it to help pack it in to your fermenting vessel tightly. You can also use a wide dowel like kitchen roller… or pound with your fist and make this a stress reducing exercise too!

• OPTIONAL ACCESSORY: Box Grater/Mandolin/Food Processor

I’ve never had good luck getting the long shreds I want with any of the above. Sometimes I use the grater (and the mandolin cutting side) if I’ve got a lot of cabbage to do. I recently bought new blades for our food processor but haven’t used it yet for this because I kind of hate to clean it. All the serious kraut makers use fancy, sharp, dangerous mandolins. ME: I USUALLY JUST FINELY CUT WITH MY KITCHEN KNIFE.

• Fermenting Vessels: In my case a 1/2 gallon “canning” jar with airlock lids.

As LOVELY and Instagram worthy as those beautiful pottery crocks are (in all their various styles, I really find the ease of using a glass jar with an airlock to be hard to ignore. I make ceramic pottery and even made myself a small waterlock vessel, but I still use my glass jars. I really recommend them to newbies so you can keep an eye on things, plus THEY’RE CHEAP compared to investing in crockery!

Fermenting IN THE JAR means NO PRODUCT TRANSFER WHEN FERMENTING COMPLETE! You just switch to a regular lid and pop in the fridge. Easy!

You can buy the airlock systems online or create your own. It’s a plastic lid meant to fit a canning jar with a plastic ring underneath to help the seal plus a hole with an o-ring in it. You fit any variety of airlock easily available at brewing supply stores or online in the hole. There are much cooler tools available online that solve some problems, but, get acquainted with fermenting before you invest in a bunch of stuff. *read further to find out why I recommend airlock systems vs. open air systems.

• DON’T WANT TO BUY AN AIRLOCK? You can also just use a standard canning lid tightened, but loosely enough to allow it to push up a bit and vent. You WILL have overflow if you do this. But it’s do-able and saves you buying anything special.
• Small metal condiment cups: read on for how these are used

Step 2: Shred that cabbage!

Peel off the gross looking outer leaves… PUT THEM TO THE SIDE, we will use them later! Remember, we’re relying on bacteria to produce the kraut. So you don’t want to use parts that are obviously decaying or damaged. I remove the out leaves and cut out bad spots on inner leaves.

I was stupid and started grating the cabbage instead of using the mandolin side of the grater. I figured I’d save it to show the difference in cutting with the knife. You can do ok with the mandolin side, but, I feel I have more control over the length and width of shreds if I use the knife.

I don’t get too picky about it. There are some chunks and I just rotate the cabbage trying to get the longest sections I can for those shreds. You can finely shred some of the core. BUT do keep a few pieces of the core to use at the end step when we pack into the jars (and when it’s all fermented you can eat these big core pieces if you want).

*Tip: Use two bowls. Pre-weigh a bowl or tare your scale, then place all the shreds in it, weight when done. Then transfer to a second bowl in portions for salting.

Step 3: Ready for some salt!

Once you’ve got about half a bowl full of cabbage shredded, it’s time to begin addings some salt.

This step is easier if you have a kitchen scale:

3 tablespoons of sea salt per 5 pounds of vegetable

(This is for “shredded” packed type ferments like kraut or kimchi)

The above ratio works well for something like fermented sauerkraut and should make about 3 quarts. Alternatively you can use 1 tablespoon per 1 and 3/4 pound of veg.

This is really one of the most important steps as salt is both helps to create your brine by drawing water out of the cabbage and make the “safe” environment to ferment in.

Too much salt, and your ferment won’t proceed quickly enough, or will just taste bad. Salt is a preservative, so too much, and.. not much happens!

Too little salt, the environment will allow the bad bacteria and mold that cause spoilage to grow faster than the lactobacillus can to outcompete them, and you’re more likely to have a soft or mushy product.

Confession: I weighed my cabbage whole and calculated how much salt to add that way. It was 5 pounds even.

I SHOULD have weighed it all once it was shredded but I was being lazy. I would say, cut out the core and then weigh it, but, I like to keep the core on when shredding the cabbage to keep it all together. I’m not sure what my final weight was, but I did NOT end up with the 3 quarts I should have.. more like two. Whoops.

Sprinkle salt 1 tablespoon at a time on your shredded cabbage

I try to do this when I have about half shredded and then again at the end depending on how much salt I need.

Step 4: Massage and pound your cabbage!

Once you’ve got some salt in, you want to evenly mix it in. Give it a nice massage while you’re doing this. Add some twisting action, kind of like wringing out a rag. The goal is to break down the cabbage and get it to release some juices to start forming a brine.

Again, you can do this with your fist or with a pounder of some kind. It just helps to further breakdown the cell walls of the plant letting more juices out to form brine. After this, give it a good massage again.

Add the rest of you cabbage shreds, repeat salting until all salt needed has been added.

Repeating massaging and pounding.

Step 5: Cover with lid and let rest

How long? It’s pretty flexible and depends on how dry your cabbage is. Anywhere from 15 minutes to 24 hours!

Throw your cores and extra outer leaves in the covered bowl while you let it sit.

How long really?

I’ve never waited more than about an hour. That’s typically enough time for my fresher cabbage to produce plenty of brine.

One of my books says to let it sit like this overnight, or up to 24 hours! This is sure to get your maximum natural brine, but, it’s also more time to get exposed to molds, bacteria and yeasts in the air. I wonder if this may also have to do with reducing the amount of heaving on the first day?

A word on HEAVING!

Heaving is a normal part of fermented sauerkraut making. Part of the natural fermenting produces gases. When the veggies are tightly packed it can be harder for those gases to escape. It’s normal while it’s fermenting to notice bubbles developing and things looking less tightly packed together. Eventually, enough pressure will develop that the mound of veggies kind of “burps” and heaves up. This often results in some overflow and spillage of brine.

Your airlock helps to prevent this but does not eliminate it. Heaving is typically a problem in the first week when the most active fermentation is going on. You also reduce this risk by allowing enough headspace in your jar. I’ll address this more later!

Step 6: Pack into jar(s)

Once the salted cabbage has rested for “a while” and formed a brine, it’s time to pack it into the jar!

If you have one, I suggest a canning funnel to help you get more of the product into the jar vs. on to the table. I was lazy and didn’t pull mine out, so I put the jar IN the bowl and just scoop it in with my hand.

I try to reserve most of the liquid until the very end in case I need to add to a second jar, and then I can spread out the brine evenly.

When you’ve got a fair amount packed in, you can use your pounder or your fist to pack it down evenly and create room for more.

Try to not go more than about 4/5th’s full. You want to leave some space in the jar neck for the heaving I described above.

Alternatively, don’t “underpack” the jar. Don’t go less than 3/4 full. As this process is meant to take place ANAEROBICALLY, or, in the absence of oxygen, you’re going to have better results if you leave less space for oxygen in the jar. More on this in the last section!

Once you’ve evenly distributed the kraut between jar(s), add the brine from your bowl.

I have had times where I plan to use the half-gallon jar and go over by a pint or a quart. No big deal, I have those jar sizes available too and I just make a smaller batch this way.

You’ll note I didn’t add any spices! This is a personal preference. We like ours simple and versatile. BUT, if you need to make a second smaller jar, that’s a GREAT place to experiment with some flavor options. They are plenty if you do an internet search, though a small amount of caraway seed is quite common.

Step 7: Final packing prep before lidding

Remember we saved those outer leaves and the core? We’re going to use those to help create a barrier on top if the shreds.

This barrier has two purposes:

1. If any yucky scum does form, hopefully it will just be on this top layer and you can just peel it off. Sometimes this happens if your brine level drops (perhaps due to heaving) and you end up with some product that was above the level of the brine.

2. When heaving does occur, you made a nice little blanket that keeps everything contained below this barrier. Makes it a bit easier to deal with the heave.

Use one of your lids to estimate how much leaf to cut. Use one of those outer leaves (not too yucky) and cut roughly around the shape of the lid, trying to center one of the main leaf veins under the middle.

I said cut roughly- so leave a half inch or so excess around the shape of the lid.

I usually like to have FOUR of these pieces. Once you have them, arrange them in quarters and try to tuck down over the edge of the cabbage in the jar. Like a little pastry topping. Leave the spine edge of the leaf as the top/middle in the jar.

You can now also place a piece of the cabbage core we saved on TOP of all this to further help keep it pushed down and in place when the lid is on (if you put it on top of the “leaf blanket” you’re not going to want to eat the core). If you want to eat the core, pack it in to the shreds below to allow to ferment with the rest.

Step 8: Assembling and using airlock lid

I described the airlock above, but we will review again here.

There are:

• Plastic jar lid with hole and o-ring in hole
• Plastic jar seal underside of lid
• Standard airlock plastic piece (that come in various styles)

You also see a metal condiment cup… This goes UNDER the lid, under the o-ring.

In the setup above, I placed this on top of the cabbage core, and used enough cabbage core to get that little condiment cup to sit fairly stable without falling over.

If and when heaving occurs, some of that liquid first flows into the condiment cup. It can help to reduce the amount of liquid that forces up through your airlock assembly out out of the 0-ring/airlock attachment.

Here’s what the final assembly looks like:

Step 9: WAIT!

Oh yes, now is the hard part!

Ideal fermentation temperature is 65–70 degrees. Much cooler than that, and fermentation will proceed very slowly. Much warmer than that, and it can proceed too quickly, which tends to invite more of the bugs we don’t want, especially yeasts, and it’s more likely to go soft or mushy.

That being said, it’s pretty flexible. Don’t stress it too much. If your house is warm, look for a cooler spot, maybe in a dark cupboard? If your house is cold, stick it near somewhere warmer, like right next to the fridge?

Again, your kraut IS going to heave. The question is simply, how much?

So be smart, and place a container of some type under your jar to contain any spillage.

How long?

Typically, at least two weeks! I let mine ferment for 4 to 6 weeks before I move it to the fridge to develop further!

You should not need to open that jar lid for TWO WEEKS. LEAVE IT ALONE. Some sources will say to check it at a week. If you like sour coleslaw.. go ahead, but I want real fermented sauerkraut.

The waiting is the hardest part when you are learning to ferment.

But, fear not, we used a clear glass jar! You can keep an eye on things without having to open it up.

Expect to see the color change, expect to see air pockets and bubbles forming.

After about 2 weeks, feel free to open it up and sample it. Make sure you have clean hands. Peel back the blanket layer and sample the veg underneath. If you like the flavor, go ahead and eat it. At this stage, it may still have some “effervescence.”

IT’S GOING TO STINK. That’s just part of ferments. They’re stinky. Fermented sauerkraut particularly so at times. My husband says it smells like sewer gas (and I bet there’s a lot of fermentation going on down there, so that’s probably accurate).

I will typically leave mine out on the counter for 4–6 weeks until it starts to get a little soft. In my opinion, it still usually doesn’t taste like “real” fermented sauerkraut just yet.

At that point I transfer it to the fridge and let it rest for a COUPLE OF MONTHS.

You read that right! WAIT A COUPLE OF MONTHS.

Something happens when the fermentation process slows down and the more complex flavors start to develop.

How long can you use it for?

If you keep it in the fridge, easily a year! I typically make kraut once a year in the fall and we eat it until the next season. We do have a spare fridge, so this works for us.

You will notice that once it goes into the fridge it will appear that brine disappears. I’m not sure what happens, but if you let it come to room temperature much of it “reappears” so it must be being absorbed into the plant material or something.

Is it safe?

Trust your instincts. If it looks “bad” throughout or smells rancid, “when in doubt throw it out”

That being said, I can find almost no documentation of food poisoning from fermented foods. Eat too much of it with the active bacteria might give you a little diarrhea if you’re not accustomed to eating it. So, start low and go slow.

Remember, people have been fermenting for thousands of years. And in many cultures, the stinkiest, most disgusting looking fermented products are considered extreme delicacies!

A word on yeast:

I’ve mentioned a few things about yeast. It is super common to get yeast growth in ferments. It’s commonly called “kahm yeast” and looks like a pale colored velvety or “soft” layer that forms on the top of some ferments. It’s harmless, but can effect the taste.

We’ve done two things here to help prevent it:

1. Used an airlock lid. As yeasts (and other nasties) are going to get into your ferment by exposure from the air (though, there are some naturally settled on and colonized on the plant surfaces), reducing the air exposure reduces contaminants.
2. Made our “leaf blanket” so if we do get a contaminant, we can just remove the outer layer!

Airlock lids vs. traditional crocks

I think I’ve went over pretty well the benefits of using jars with airlock lids.

Lactic acid fermentation is an anaerobic process that occurs in the lack of oxygen. We help to speed up this process and get the most USEABLE product by putting the airlock on it.

As fermentation gases build up and produce, they will force the oxygen out through the airlock. This maintains the anaerobic environment. This is one of the reasons you want to leave that lid on for two weeks or so!

Traditional open mouth vessels are usually covered with cheesecloth. I think what was also traditional was to use something like a round of wood cut to shape as both a lid “of sorts” and as a weight to keep everything down. This did work to produce an anaerobic environment, but, not completely so.

If you’re interested in these set ups, there are plenty of education resources how to do it. Fermentation being an art as well as a science means lots of ideas and opinions!

My understanding is that in these older ferment setups, the top inch or two is often removed to get to the “better” layers underneath. That’s fine when you are doing BARRELS of fermented sauerkraut, but we’re doing much smaller batches. We would like to keep as much of our product useable as possible. So, I’ll stick to the sealed jars.

There is a third variety of fermentation vessel that I will call a “water lock crock.” These work well and can be very beautiful and expensive! Not for the novice fermenter.

Water lock crocks have a lip-well , or like a double edged lip the the lid sits in. This lip is deep enough to put water into, thereby forming a seal. Here are some beautiful handmade examples. The idea here being, a seal is formed that doesn’t allow air in. When the product needs to “burp” the lid just pops up a bit and then settles back down into the water seal, maintaining your air free environment.

Stoneware is also good at maintaining temperatures. It can both help to insulate from cold temps and keep cooler in warm temps. Likely, keeping out of light is a good thing too as some microorganisms (especially those that like air free environments) may be impacted by sunlight. I just try to keep my kraut in the pantry or a cupboard to keep it out of direct sunlight.

Final Thoughts

Well, I tried to make this short and simple! I mean it, I tried!

There is so much that I feel like I didn’t even get into here! Obviously, I’m interested and passionate about this topic.

I’m hoping I gave you enough information here to feel like you can safely (and cheaply) try your hand at making traditionally fermented sauerkraut.

Feel free to inquire with questions and I’d love to know if you make fermented sauerkraut and how it goes!

Remember, there is a WEALTH of information online. I would hardly consider myself an expert. If you think something went wrong, do a google search, I bet your answer is out there.

Happy Fermenting!

Originally published at www.thatfrugalpharmacist.com on October 24, 2018.

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Sometimes life and job pivot in a snap.

Even when you feel you know a change is coming, when it finally happens, it can feel like a smack in the face.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I’ve been working quite a bit lately, 40–50 hours most weeks since the spring (and sadly summer is the best time to be outside at home in my climate).

I’ve alluded to it a bit as well, but, I really wasn’t happy with my main employment. I was ready for that job pivot.

That’s part of the reason this blog started! I was beginning to feel the effects of burnout. I was tired of getting emails and calls when I was supposed to be off work (and thinking about work all the time). I felt like as a working mom, there just wasn’t enough time in my days.

I’ve weighed a lot of non-monetary costs in deciding if I should stay on working my main job, or call it quits. So far, it was barely on the side of stay on.

I’ve been obsessively tracking net worth and running early retirement simulations these last few months using Personal Capital (a sure sign I’m not happy at work).

There’s been some serious thought on this almost monthly for the last year.

As of this spring, it seemed to me that things were unlikely to change, and I decided it was time to beef up the emergency fund and savings. I hadn’t really put my mind to ending my main employment, but the thought was there. My plan had really been something like, hold out for a few more years, and then be totally set to go down to per diem only employment (ditching the main job).

Professional circles are small, so though I really wish I could go into all the details, I feel it’s best not to do so.

I had made my dissatisfaction with management clear shortly after taking over the position. There really wasn’t much choice- I was the newest hire and part time, and if I didn’t do it, there may not have been hours for me if they had to hire externally to fill the position.

They told me they were looking for someone who they could take on without displacing anyone, but due to locale etc., they were simply not finding anyone.

Suffice it to say by early summer, I gave my employer an ultimatum.

Things must improve or I will leave.

In my line of work, and the position, as a manager, I am personally and legally responsible for most anything that goes on, even when I am not there. I was no longer willing to assume that risk and stress when it was clear that the level of change that I needed to see happen was not going to take place.

Then, things were quiet for a few months. Suddenly, higher management informed me that they had finally found someone to work my location (at even fewer hours than I was working), but that meant there wasn’t a spot for me there anymore. And, there wasn’t currently a stable spot for me anywhere within a few hours distance either. So effectively, I was out of a job.

They’d finally found a way to fulfill my request after my … thorough… communication and subtle ultimatum. They told me I had scared them and they couldn’t afford to have someone quit. I’m still employed (if I want), technically, if and when hours become available.

So, they called my bluff.

I let them know I wasn’t happy and wasn’t willing to continue assuming the risk. Luckily, I had the foresight to predict that something would be happening. For that reason, I had been working extra and inquiring with my back up job about a more stable situation for months. (Read more on this guest post about how I leverage and have backup plans in place).

The frustrating part of this is that it wasn’t completely on my terms. I would have preferred to make the decision and given notice… but, when?

My flaw is being too transparent.

I should not have been so clear to them that I had a backup plan and I was willing to use it. I consider my integrity to be a strong suit. And even this this didn’t play out exactly how I planned, they still told me they would recommend me for any job. They just couldn’t stand for me to quit without them having a backup plan.

Is this good or bad?

In the end, good, I think. Someone finally pulled the trigger and made a decision I had been mulling over for months. Who knows how long it would have taken for me finally decide.

I’m not one to give up, so even though it was quite clear to me that things were not improving it felt like a failure on my end if I were to quit, even if it wasn’t under my control.

I’ve got my backup plans in place. I’ve got money saved. I already have enough work to meet the minimum needs of my family. Life is good.

The stress of that job has rolled of me amazingly quick. I’m sleeping better. I’ve been getting more things done around the house.

I’m excited to have time to pursue interests and passions… and try to make some money doing it. And get back on that accelerated path to financial independence.

Originally published at www.thatfrugalpharmacist.com on August 9, 2018.

The summer morning routine…

Wake slowly when the small person wakes next to me.

Mosey our way out to the living room where my husband is probably at his laptop, pour myself some coffee.

Sit around for an hour or so. Cuddle with the small person some, or not.

Husband makes breakfast; eggs from our chickens, blueberries and raspberries from the garden, small additions depending on the mood for that morning.

Dad heads outside to do whatever he does. Tractor work maybe. Gardening maybe. Outdoor maintenance of some kind, likely, while the weather is good.

The sun is shining on the back deck now. We let the dog and the small person out to enjoy “the nice warm sun.” Dog soaks it up for the few months he can, moving from the shaded side of the deck to the sunny side and then back again for hours throughout the day.

Child harrasses the dog like most children harrass their older siblings. Climbs on him. Lays on him. Tries to run his cars into, on and over him. Dog runs inside in an effort to find cover and protection from me.

I decide the dew has dried enough and the poor dog needs a break from his human brother. We head out into the garden and yard. Check the cucumbers in the greenhouse. Is there enough for another batch of pickles yet?

If it we felt like a bath today, we’d use the outside shower. We still might, maybe later. Depends on how the day unfolds.

Small Person is a “blueberry monster,” so before it gets too hot, and while the sun is shining in one direction, we take our first sweep through the blueberry patch.

It’s a great time of day. Warm and not too breezy. I soak up these few months of the year just like the dog. I pretend I’m getting my exercise and try to do some squats and straight, not curved, back bending while I scour the bushes top to bottom.

The ever present conversation of the hens is the only noise at the moment.

The small person picks two blueberries to eat then puts one in my basket. “Is this one ready?” repeated every 12 seconds. I tell him “don’t pick the ones with the green belly button, only the blue ones.” He’s successful about 60% of the time. The nearly ripe will ripen in a few days. The green ones he gets tasked with feeding to the chickens.

I’ve picked most of what I can see of the blueberries. It’s a nice half hour while the morning is still quiet. I’ll have to wait until the afternoon when the sun has shifted to see what I might have missed.

We move on to the raspberries. These are the small person’s favorite. I think the dog has gotten a nose for them as well. I’ve seen him sniffing around the vines growing outside my berry cage on more than one occasion. And in all the other seasons where my strawberries have done well, Dog has been guilty of learning to delicately pick more than his fair share.

Most of the raspberries go straight from hand to mouth. Maybe one cup per day? It doesn’t seem like enough to save. Plus, fresh and fully ripe raspberries don’t save well if I wanted to, so we indulge daily.

I’m hoping an overly ripe sweet raspberry is a taste that will remind the small person, forever, of warm summer mornings with Mama.

Husband pokes his head in from around any number of corners. It’s sunny today he notes, and suggest that we drive 15 miles upriver, where it’s a little bit hotter, and visit the swimming hole in the river for the first time of the season. This might be where the small person eventually learns how to swim. Our afternoon plans are settled.

It’s getting a little warm now. Or at least, I’ve been in the sun long enough to head back inside for a bit. I get some more coffee. The dog follows me inside and tries to take a place next to me on the couch.

It’s about noon. Our morning has been slow. The small person is already dirty. He’s been shoveling pebbles and pushing his little wooden wheelbarrow in between helping outside to pick the blueberries. Small person had a nice pretend session with a dandelion in the berry cage: “I am the monster, I will eat your leaves” the dandelion told the blueberries, in his special “monster” voice.

All the lights are off inside. The east facing door to the back, sunny deck is open. The north and south windows of the house are open also, letting a gentle breeze run through the house. There is no music or television on. Most days, TV time is after 8 o’clock.

I like these slow quiet mornings. I take time to look around my home and appreciate what I have. Appreciate that I am happy to be here. Appreciate that my child can find all the enrichment he needs out his own back door.

I appreciate that I have come to a point where I can quietly appreciate the simplicity of it.

I appreciate that there is nowhere I’d rather be at the moment than home.

Originally published at www.thatfrugalpharmacist.com on July 25, 2018.

Apparently, the ability to do deep work is highly correlated with job satisfaction for those of us being paid for our cognitive services.

I’ve been doing a lot of work over the past two months

Whereas I usually average about 35 hours a week of work, I’ve been doing closer to 50 lately. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining here! I’m taking the opportunity while it’s available.

I wish I could get overtime for those extra hours I’m putting in. However, working two jobs to get it means I miss out on that feature. That’s ok though, because, being per diem affords me a lot of other perks.

Anyway, with the extra hours I’ve been putting in a lot more drive time than usual. Which means I actually have time for podcasts (my normal 10 minute commute is great, but, no podcast time). I’ve been binging the Hidden Brain podcast for the last two weeks.

Topic of today was “deep work“

My best summary for what deep work is, is, the ability to do highly focused work with no distractions. This is opposed to “shallow work” or things that require little real attention.

Points that were touched on:

• The thing of real value these days is in human cognitive capital. Our ability to think.
• This is going to be even more valuable in the future as automation replaces our “shallow work.”

It got me thinking… do I ever get to achieve deep work in my job?

Based on the general concept of what was presented, I would have to offer a BIG FAT NOPE in response.

My primary practice setting is retail pharmacy. I honestly can’t think of many other professions that require the amount of focus and attention to detail that are juxtaposed with the inordinate amount of interruptions and requirement to multitask.

Retail pharmacy is by its very nature completely at odds with the concept of deep work.

And we wonder why so many retail pharmacists aren’t exactly excited about their JOB

My observations here are built on informal personal polls and anecdotal evidence such as Facebook forums and sites like “The Angry Pharmacist.”

There are many retail pharmacists that love their profession and some of the work. BUT, I can’t name one in a traditional retail setting that I know that loves their JOB.

Of course, as is the case with many professions, what we learn in school has little to do with what we actually do when we get to work. Pharmacy is no different here (at least in the retail setting).

In a hospital setting and some of the evolving clinic based roles, I could argue that many pharmacists are actually doing what we learned in school an in a somewhat similar fashion as we were trained.

I think I achieved deep work states while in school

I would focus on my studies. Go to a quiet room with no cell phone or computer. Just me and the material. Ok, actually, I was more of a coffee shop with headphones kind of person, but, if I had to study at home, I did do what I describe above.

Real life in the real retail world

I can tell you, that, in no way, shape or form did I intend to enter a “customer service field.” But, that’s what it is. In customer service, especially when people can see you, customers do not expect to wait for you to finish your thoughts. And deep thoughts? Ha!

Deep work isn’t really possible when you’ve got someone staring you down from 15 feet away. There are six phones are ringing. A drive through alarm is buzzing. Someone is yelling “Dr. call on line 3” while another staff member is yelling “consult at window 2!” All while you’re desperately trying to finish (safely) checking the prescriptions of someone who was promised that they would be ready in 20 minutes… 47.36 minutes ago.

Oh yeah, and the prescriber dosed something wrong, but, because they get time to do their deep work in their office, they’re unavailable right now to take a call to clarify what they were trying to do.

In retail pharmacy, we’re largely herding cats

It wasn’t until I actually started working that I realized how little time there was going to be for my brain to process any information. In a retail pharmacy you’ve scarcely put out one fire, haven’t even had the time to document an occurrence or a note, before your attention is pulled in 4 more directions. Usually, your attention is already being pulled elsewhere in the midst of trying to put out said fire.

Mindless is not the correct way to describe it. Far from it in fact.

We are expected to catch the mistakes of all those working around us at 100% accuracy. Pharmacists are expected to assess the whole patient and their medication file as well. We are expected to be super focused.

The work certainly isn’t easy either. Most nights, except for a particularly “interesting” interaction with a customer (more likely bad than good), I can’t really say what I did all day. There’s not much memorable about it.

It’s just not an environment that facilitates deep work. Honestly, it’s not an environment that encourages much higher cognitive processes.

And, it’s not near as as safe as it should be, if people really wanted to think about the likelihood of mistakes when attention is pulled in so many directions.

Most root cause analysis of mistakes in pharmacy identifies distractions as a cause in roughly 50% of drug related errors. Yet, apparently it is common (and measured) for pharmacists and technicians to be interrupted as much as once every two minutes.

Unfortunately, many of the suggestions given for reducing distractions (see the link above) are frankly, impossible to implement in a retail pharmacy. Timing of interruptions? Yeah, we’ll let the customers know we’re only available for 10 out of every 60 minutes. A “no interruption zone” for the order entry staff? Order entry staff? One person does order entry, fills the prescription, then sells it to the customer in 20 minutes or less!

A waste of a good education

Given the level of training that we receive, our education and cognitive skills are largely lost in an this environment where there is hardly a moment to pause and collect our own thoughts. There is no time for it. And we wonder why there is so much burnout among pharmacists (and other healthcare professionals).

I would say my scenarios are somewhat exaggerated. In my case it is, to a point, because I’ve sought better conditions (which are actually getting worse again, on trend with the industry). But the truth is, this is how the days of many retail pharmacists look. We might get lucky and have a slower day here and there where we actually have some time to reply one email without being interrupted 8 times.

That’s kind of sad. A good day is a day where you can complete one 5 minute task without being interrupted.

But here’s the saddest part:

Deep work is correlated with feeling a sense of purpose and meaning in one’s work. That purpose and meaning foster a profound sense of job satisfaction and inspire individuals to achieve more than the basics of their job description.

If we can’t achieve deep work in our environments are we missing out on this?

Use it or lose it

The people who don’t practice deep work lose their skill in doing so. If all you engage in is “shallow,” highly distracted work, you lose your ability for deep focused work.

I would have to say that I have noticed this in myself. On the rare occasion where I do really need to focus and learn something (or produce something), I have an incredibly hard time focusing for a given period of time. Is my work environment largely to blame for this? I spend nearly all of my working days attending to multiple things at once. Keeping a running checklist of things that I still need to get done.

From the podcast, this isn’t a problem unique to my job setting. It’s a problem in most jobs. But I wonder, is the very nature of retail pharmacy opposed to allowing for deep work? The way it stands right now, I would say very much, yes, it is.

Without some groundbreaking changes in how retail pharmacy is conducted, without a complete shift in the business model, it will only get worse.

I’m hopeful though

I’m hopeful that with the advent of things like Amazon’s purchase of Pillpack Pharmacy along with shrinking pharmacy reimbursement, a work environment more in line with the training pharmacists have received is coming. Of course, I’m equally terrified, because change is never easy and it’s bound to be a bumpy road. But something’s got to give.

Check out this article that "predicted" the Amazon and Pillpack marriage and some ideas for what the future of pharmacy might look like: Amazon's Pharmacy.

I would argue that among healthcare professionals, who all suffer from having to do very focused, safe, attentive cognitive work with shifting priorities, retail pharmacists have it the worst.

Originally published at www.thatfrugalpharmacist.com on July 16, 2018.

In this case, I’d like to talk about the professional value of per diem employment.

Here’s my current work situation. I’m a pharmacy manager, working less than 40 hours a week. I work per diem for a large chain as well. Between these two jobs, I probably average about 35 hours a week over a year.

At the moment, since I’ve been wanting to re-acquaint myself with my hospital skills, I’m looking into a per diem opportunity at a small hospital too (the first I have seen in about 3 years since I’ve been watching).

Personally, I’ve maintained at least one side job for almost all of my professional career. And if I didn’t have one, I was actively looking.

When most people think about per diem employment, what comes to mind is:

1. People looking for full-time work but trying to get their foot in the door
2. Retired pharmacists who just want to pick up a few hours.
3. Working parents who just want to pick up a few days here and there.

I can understand the reasons for this. Typically, as a per diem employee you may not be eligible for benefits, or if you are, it is minimal benefits. But, there are ways you can make it work and be the answer to an employer’s problem.

Way to “make it” per diem

If you are in the position to have your health insurance paid for, perhaps by a spouse, this makes the decision a lot easier. But, you can make it work if you still need insurance.

For me, at my main job, I work just enough hours to qualify for benefits. The company is happy because they are looking to cut labor hours (who isn’t these days!) and I’m happy because I can work less (or more, at my other jobs). Being that I’m a salaried employee, I’m not eligible for overtime, so, it’s not like I’m missing out on anything there.

I work part-time at my main job, by choice.

For many, with shrinking labor budgets, part-time work may not really be a choice, but you can still make it work. And while you’re making it work, you can expand your professional skills and professional network.

I offer up all my days off to my second per diem job. I don’t work each day I’m off, but I give them full availability on my days off and schedule anything else in my life around that. This typically means I work a day every week or two. If I was willing to do more travel, I could probably be working 2–3 days a week much of the time. This company doesn’t owe me any benefits. They are happy to have someone with a flexible schedule or who they can call in on short notice who also doesn’t work enough to get overtime.

I’m solving a problem for them.

• I don’t work enough hours to qualify for overtime.
• My schedule is open/flexible for my days off.
• I’m available on short notice.
• I don’t qualify for benefits.

Location Considerations

This situation works really well for me, personally, because I’m in a fairly rural area. Even companies with float staff are going to have to pay large amounts of drive time, hotel costs, etc., (often resulting in overtime) to send one of their staff out. So, it may be a little easier for me to find these opportunities.

You can still make this work in larger areas. Maybe you reach out to small chains or independent pharmacies. No one wants to pay a staffing company pharmacist wages, and sometimes independent pharmacists (and their staff) get sick or need a vacation. Offer your services. Let them know you aren’t seeking anything more than per diem. Check out the market you’re in, I’m sure there is an opportunity somewhere, though you may have to inquire. Maybe the business never considered looking for someone per diem.

Professional and Personal Benefits

Some of these are applicable to everyone, some are just my personal opinion.

• Grow your professional network by meeting with and working with a variety of people.
• Grow and maintain your professional skills by working in a variety of settings.
• It may be a way to build a new skill if they are willing to train you, an opportunity that may not be available if they are looking for a full time, already trained, employee (I’m especially looking at people looking to transition into say, hospital work from retail here).
• Set yourself up for opportunities to transition into full-time work if it becomes available and you like the place because you’ve already tried it out.
• Be known as the problem solver! It’s great to be the person people know they can call when they need help.
• Keep things exciting and fun! It can be really refreshing and relaxing in a way, to work somewhere that you’re not at e-v-e-r-y-day. The day to day annoyances don’t get to you the same way.
• The opportunity to make more money if you want to, perhaps over the number of hours that would be available to you at your regular job.
• Often, this means you’ve always got a backup plan. If your main job isn’t your main job anymore, you may be able to talk to your per diem employer and transition to something more stable.

I really can’t say enough about the first three points. It can be really easy to become stuck in a rut with your particular work setting or company. Per diem work lets you interact with others. It shows you what else is going on in the world of pharmacy. After working with one company for a long time it can sometimes be hard to seperate what is company rule from legal rule. Per diem work helps you keep an open mind to the various ways of doing things, keeps you on your toes and always learning.

Potential Problems with Per Diem Work

As I’ve said above, if you don’t have a way to cover your basic benefit needs (like insurance) or don’t have any access to 401k (which you really should be contributing to) it can be harder to make this work.

Also, if you are relying solely on per diem employment, there may be times when there is simply no work available. It does happen. For this reason, this work setup can be a really good option for people who want to work full time, but don’t have to work full time.

It can be hard to get out of your comfort zone. You will have to be more flexible and willing to adapt, but, building the adaptability skill does benefit you in the long run.

Keep your mind open!

If you’re looking to make a change or trying to start your career as a pharmacist, do consider taking on those per diem opportunities. Explain the reasons you are the answer to a problem!

Originally published at www.thehappypharmd.com on July 5, 2018.

I’m a procrastinator. I have no excuses.

Actually I do, but, still, there’s just no excuse for that. So I wanted to let you know why I put it off so long and how easy it actually was.

Moral, don’t be a stupid procrastinator when money is involved. I probably lost about $6,950 I could have made.

Start from the beginning

This was the first traditional IRA that I opened up when my income really started to go up and my accountant suggested I do that to lower my tax burden. She suggested it like the day before taxes were due, and said “GO TO A BANK TOMORROW AND OPEN UP AN IRA.” Cool, sounds good, open an IRA and less taxes.

Well, what I didn’t really understand at the time, as I hadn’t put much thought into investing (I don’t think I was even eligible for 401k yet at my job… that’s probably why I got the panicky call from accountant) was that there would be MUCH better options online. I’m not sure I would have even had the time to do it online, which is why she told me to go to a bank and get it done ASAP.

So I stuck the money there and kind of forgot about it. I don’t think I even inquired about what the interest rate was etc. I had opened CDs before, and I just figured it worked kind of like that. I don’t know that I even thought of it as a retirement savings account, I just knew I needed something to bring my taxes down.

I kind of forgot about it for a while

After that I was eligible for 401k, and, probably making too much money to be eligible for a tIRA. Plus we were saving for a house down payment, I was working a ton, thinking about an out of state move, etc. That $5000 IRA was kind of the last thing on my mind.

When I got my first annual statement I thought it hadn’t made much at all. And that’s what I thought the next year. And the year after that. At some point I’m sure I realized I should look into it and that there had to be something better to do with the money.

A little banking PTSD

In 2014(?) (this is an aside here) I had a TERRIBLE months long, like 7 months if I remember right, issue getting my HSA (more here on HSAs) from an old job rolled over after they moved my plan to a new administrator.

The old plan had cut me a check, after mailing something to my OLD address in another state asking me what I wanted to do with it. Even though I didn’t confirm knowing this or do anything, they STILL cut the check to this address. They did not roll it over for me automatically as you would have guessed. My mail forwarding period had ended, so I never got the notice of closed account OR the check.

I found out when I went to use my HSA card and it didn’t work. What followed was round ands rounds of phone calls, that ultimately involved me getting the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau involved to get my $15,000–20,000 of HSA funds back in my hands.

After this utterly ridiculous fiasco, I think I had had my fill of dealing with banks for a while.

My robo advisor started nagging me

I had already started investing with Betterment when this happened. All my accounts were linked and I was getting messages from time to time suggesting I roll over the account and how much extra money I could make over a lifetime if I did.

So I DID try. And here’s where my next excuse comes in: I thought it would be as simple as a few button clicks like transferring money between online bank accounts. It wasn’t. I assumed that bank did not want to lose my money and wasn’t going to make it easy on me.

Let’s face it. I’m a little lazy sometimes

There were forms to fill out. Things to mail. I printed them out and did nothing with them. And I repeated this process 2 or 3 more times.

The last time that I did not follow through all the way (but intended to), I got confused because the paperwork instructed me to call the bank and have them liquidate my account to make the transfer easier. For this question I contacted Betterment support because I was concerned with the tax implications of this. The paperwork was also confusing because it said the transferring bank would transfer the funds to Betterment on my behalf, so I didn’t understand how I would be involved if I got my account liquidated.

Betterment support assured my I could just fill out the paperwork and send it along and that I didn’t need to do anything involving asking my accounts to be liquidated. I think I was afraid that I had taken too long to do it that time and it was close to the end of the calendar year. I wasn’t sure if there would be any odd tax implications so I put it off again.

I finally signed and mailed a few simple forms

Finally in a the beginning of May 2018, this year, I filled out the paperwork and actually sent it in. It wasn’t hard at all. Literally like 2 pages. Just as I was beginning to wonder if I should contact one of the companies involved and check if something was going in process, I got that oh so welcome email notification that my transfer was complete. What big sigh of relief to have an item that had been nagging at my to do list for years completed.

Bonus points, Betterment happened to be running a promotion that if you roll over and IRA or 401k you get free management fees on the amount of the roll over for a year. Sweet.

I’m not totally done yet

I actually plan to roll it over to Vanguard eventually. With the way I procrastinate, and the time it will probably take me to get comfortable with Vanguard and how the website works, a year is probably a fair guess as to when I will get around to rolling it over to them.

I probably SHOULD have just rolled the IRA over to Vanguard to begin with, but, I know myself, and I just wanted to get it out of the original bank. I did not want to procrastinate anymore while I was trying to learn the Vanguard platform.

So there it is. One of my most stupid procrastinations finally dealt with. And I want to kick myself because it was so easy!

I shudder to think how well that money would have done over the last seven or so years, but I’m guessing it would have made about $7,000 based on average market returns 2011–2017. It makes me cry inside a little bit. Hopefully this lesson keeps me from procrastinating so much on future financial decisions. Live and learn they say.

Originally published at www.thatfrugalpharmacist.com on May 25, 2018.

I’ve taken a pretty big break from Instagram.

Between finding more interesting and meaningful interactions on Twitter and getting the blog going, I just hadn’t had much drive to go on and look (or post) on Instagram. Which is probably a good thing for me.

I used to really like Instagram, but, it’s gotten a bit ridiculous

Instagram had been my preferred social media platform from about 2011–2017. I’ve watched it grow from a lot of arty photos to what feels like one giant advertisement and a spin off of Youtube. People I follow who used to just post real life photos of them in some cool vintage clothes now have carefully curated feeds that make them look like they are living on the set of Madmen.

People who I followed because they were raising chickens and doing some gardening now have photos with the perfect sunny sunshine lighting and a little bit of “fuzzyness.” Their barefoot children are wearing hand dyed with avocado and turmeric organic cotton t-shirts and wearing mini Birkenstocks and Dr. Martens. They seem to have time to be “homesteaders” complete with farm animals like goats and said chickens, dogs and maybe even honeybees… but they also have the time and funds to travel to Europe and India and Thailand.

And despite spending tons of time curating a life for Instagram, they have tons of happy friends and family. And all the friends and family cook (well), and only in cast iron. Their houses are a perfect mixture of whimsy. Not too dirty, not too clean, with plants thriving indoors. Their homes have perfect lighting throughout, especially in the kitchen, so everything always looks beautiful.

Their babies, nearly all born through perfect, beautiful home births with candles and doulas, or maybe at birthing centers. They have only the perfect neutral natural tones in all organic supplies. They sleep in handwoven ($300) moses baskets. They wear cloth diapers. When those babies get older, they are homeschooled in beautiful home school rooms with dedicated libraries by stay at home parents.

Ok- maybe this is just an odd section of Instagram that I’ve followed my way in to

But it wasn’t always this way. The people were more real and normal (though with their own unique aspects). And there are other types that I follow. Such as the shoe collectors who have these crazy extensive wardrobes, but they live in like 400 sf apartments. Where does all that stuff go? I have a hard enough time with my not so special wardrobe and making it all fit. What do their lives look like off camera? Is their apartment such a mess of stuff that they have an anxiety attack looking at it and have to spend all their time out of the house?

Clearly, I can see why Instagram has become the place for “brand influencers” and “brand ambassadors.”

Reality Check

My husband says it just a streak of jealous envy and I need to get over it. There may be some truth to that. But I think it’s more just a recognition that a lot of it is fake, setup, and even knowing that it still effects me.

Having taken a bit of a break from Instagram and going back to check it out a bit, it was clear to me that my contentedness was reduced after a session of scrolling.

Day to day, I am pretty content with my life. I am often taken aback with how good things really are. I amazed at what we’ve been able to build in a relatively short time and with a relatively small budget. My child is happy and healthy and pretty amazing with a great stay at home dad. We have a pretty low stress homelife.

Realistically- now let me say that again, realistically- there’s not much more I could or should ask for.

Yet, after an hour on Instagram I feel myself wanting to get out and travel more (ok, ANY, since we aren’t right now). I want a hipper wardrobe. I really want that tattoo I still haven’t quite settled on the idea for, but I want the tattoo! I feel like I need to start cooking more exciting things. I wonder what kind of vintage clothes I can find for my kid on Ebay. And the list goes on.

These are all kind of background thoughts. I just realize they are there as I go about my day. Instagram has both subtley increased my desire to consume and made me less content with what I have.

I even noticed, after just talking about how happy I was with my low key Mother’s Day, that I thought, maybe my family could have celebrated me a little bit more (even while being frugal).

Are the connections real?

I suppose it would be one thing if I had ever actually made a “friend” off Instagram as some say they have. What’s funny is, the people who seem to be making friends are making friends with other heavy users, dare I call them “influencers.” I wonder how many non-sponsored users are making lifelong friends through Instagram.

After years of being on Instagram and seeing that the real connection part never really came to fruition I have backed off posting. Add to that a child who has no choice in what image of himself is presented, and I’ve really, really slowed down.

Being a mother is the biggest aspect of my life right now and they greatest source of pride I want to share. But, I don’t think that’s really fair to my child. Between my desire to not impact myself professionally as well as the want of privacy for my family, I’ve always chosen to stay relatively anonymous and not focus on my “whole life” on my Instagram feed. I’m sure that’s what others do too and why, in part, things end up so oddly focused without being a representation of real life.

Are my real relationships any better for it?

What about REAL friends? I do follow a few on Instagram (and them me). But even with those I know and care about, I’ve realized I find that it decreases my level of contentment with my real relationships. I have found myself somewhat annoyed at times to find out about something going on in a friends life via Instagram.

Call me crazy, but, I guess in this case I don’t want to be part of an “audience” to the lives of my friends. There is some abnormal psychology at work here, but, I want to find out about things from them, not at the same time as however many other hundreds or thousands who follow and don’t know them. Like my “real friend” status should get me early access information before the rest of the internet or something.

In all seriousness, I don’t know what it is that bothers me about watching my friends lives unfold online, but I do think it diminishes the quality of the relationships. It can be really hard to keep up with demands of your own adult life and stay in touch with friends. I know that if I only talked to someone every 3 or 6 months and then found out about whatever cool thing they had been doing I would be excited for them and I would want to know more.

But when I already know about something that happened because I saw it online, it leads to this odd place. Do they assume I already know so they don’t mention it? Do I assume they assume I know so I don’t mention it either? Do we both feel weird for talking about something we both already know about? What if I missed it altogether and they never mention it because it was posted online? It really makes things confusing.

At this point, I would rather just not know what is going on in the lives of my friends unless I am going to hear about it from their own mouth (or fingers, in a text or email). That might mean that some friendships fade. But that is how things are supposed to be isn’t it? We’re not supposed to stay friends with everyone forever.

I’ve already limited my Facebook use

The same factors apply to why I have largely tried to remove myself from Facebook. I felt it diminished the quality of relationships with friends and family. It made it feel like a relationship was there when it wasn’t. It kept me in touch with people who I otherwise would have lost contact with. Sometimes that is a bad thing. There are some people I do want to stay in touch with. But as life goes on and I’m busy being a parent I’m really trying to pare down to relationships that matter.

In a really pathetic story, I’ don’t even speak to a group of family anymore over something on Facebook. Story goes, I was annoyed that I never spoke to said family in person but they got to see everything I was doing on Facebook. I thought, maybe they don’t feel the need to get in touch because they can see it all already. So I “unfriended” them. Months later we moved away to a new state. They were well aware we were moving through other family. My take on it during a move was, I’M BUSY, if you want to get in touch with me please do, but I’m not going to track down every last person to say goodbye (especially since we don’t really talk). Fast forward to maybe 9 months after we moved. I became aware somehow that they were vacationing very close to us, so I sent a text inquiring about visiting, and got told “well you unfriended us on facebook, so we thought you didn’t want anything to do with us.” Since I’ve long decided that you can’t reason with unreasonable people, I haven’t talked to them since.

I’ve got plenty else to say about Facebook (which I AM still on, but I try to keep it minimal), but this post is too long already!

Quality over quantity

That’s what it boils down to regarding real life relationships and social media, quality. There are only a handful of my personal relationships that have really been improved in any way because of Facebook. For the most part, it was just added mental energy thinking about people I wouldn’t have otherwise. And like the Black Mirror (Netflix) episode “Nosedive” I just can’t/won’t keep up with the “strokes” (units of attention that provide stimulation to an individual) necessary to keep some people I know happy with me on social media.

What’s the take home message here?

Ultimately, it’s to practice self awareness. For one, take breaks from whatever social media you use from time to time. Hopefully these can be breaks that just kind of come up, not ones you have to force on yourself. You can find tons of articles if you go searching about the benefits of social media and tech hiatuses.

Like any habit, the longer you do it (or don’t) the easier it gets. When you do go back to it, think about how you feel while involved/after. Do you feel any better? Are you more stressed? Were the things you were missing out on really that important? What were you doing with the time while you were on a break? Practice that self awareness. It’s much easier to do if you can take a break and contrast yourself with/without the stimuli.

Then, decide what’s best for you. That’s really the point isn’t it? Less stress. More contentment. Better relationships with those who matter to you.

Originally published at www.thatfrugalpharmacist.com on May 16, 2018.