Think of all the things I would do if I won the lottery, and then look for ways to work towards them now, even without a multimillion dollar bank account

Frequent Flyer awards are definitely the key to this! I travel for work almost every month, so they add up fast.

Friend’s birthday ski trip to Tahoe & my vacation fund is tiny. No problem. I have 2 free round trips. Use one for me and one for the boyfriend. In exchange, boyfriend buys my lift ticket and my share of hotel room. Win Win and party.

I’d live in an awesome neighborhood in Portland
I’d go back to school and be constantly learning
I’d travel. A lot.
I’d live the healthy lifestyle that feels currently out of reach due to monetary issues: yoga classes, organic foods, a gym membership
I’d snowboard more
I’d support the planet in all my purchases
I’d invest in things I believe in

I used frequent flier points to fly to Vegas for a long weekend!

My cat lives like a freaking prince!

We’re adding a nutritional supplement to his regimen of prescription medications, prescription foods, special $30 air fresheners and visiting pet sitters. These are not the pet-care spending habits of anyone other than the excessively wealthy or the excessively gullible. I’m choosing to pretend I’m wealthy.

I FINALY signed up for rewards memberships with a couple hotel chains. Should have done that ages ago!

Sigh. I had this brilliant idea. Find a cheap international flight, and use my free domestic frequent flyer flights to get to wherever that international flight leaves from (not many cheap international flights from PDX). It was such a good idea, it’s still a good idea. But didn’t quite work. I hadn’t checked what kind of restrictions are on my free flights.

I found flights less than $450 round trip from New York to Iceland. But we couldn’t really swing the dates to match up with my free flights.

So we’re rethinking the whole thing and I’m severely disappointed. (And also so glad that I didn’t jump the gun and purchase the international tickets without checking on all the connections first.)

When my job is looking for volunteers to spend 2 weeks in another state, I jump on it! And this time make sure that the rental car has unlimited mileage, so my personal side trips don’t cost anything extra.

A few days ago I learned about an opportunity to do something so high on my list of not-likely-to-ever-happen dreams that I thought it was too absurd to even make a 43 things goal about. A guided hike into the Mount Saint Helens crater!

It’s not cheap. At all. But after only a brief conversation with the boyfriend, we decided to do it. We may not be able to take the vacation we’ve been talking about in September, but really, the Grand Canyon isn’t going anywhere. A chance to go into an active volcano, my favorite active volcano! is once in a lifetime.

I absolutely feel like I’ve spoiled myself beyond Power Ball levels.

Working in California, so I’m extending my trip through a weekend. Free mini-trip to the bay. Yay.

I bought a lotto ticket yesterday and have been fantasizing about what I’d do if it was a winner.

I think, if I won the lotto, I’d have to have my cat put down.