The kiddo was home sick again at the start of the week, so I stayed and worked from home on Monday. He was feeling bad enough that he just laid in bed watching shows all day, so I actually got quite a bit of work done. While I hate seeing him sick, I sure do appreciate a flexible workplace that allows me to adjust when need be.
He still had a fever and a cough on Tuesday, so it was my husband’s turn to stay home. While I fully believe that both parents should be present and as equally involved with their children, too often it seems like it is the woman who stays at home when the kid is sick or takes off work early to get them to an appointment.
I DO often do more than 50% of these things since I work a reduced schedule and simply have more hours, especially in the early afternoons, my husband picks up the slack and fills in whenever he can, and I so appreciate that. Attempting to continue my career without that partnership, and without the support of our families on the non-daycare days would feel near on impossible some days (they watch him when he’s sick too because they’re amazing).
I certainly see why so many mothers in particular completely drop out of the workforce when their children are young because few have the support we do.
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Friday’s Frugal Five
1. My grandmother gave both of us Subway gift cards for Christmas, so we took advantage and went out for a mid-week lunch date. The gift cards more than covered the cost of our meals so we managed to log another no spend day as well.
My husband and I don’t often find ourselves with time just for the two of us, so even a quick meal together during the work day feels like a treat, and one we could really use more frequently.
2. I deposited my giant Amazon affiliate income of $13.10 thanks to this blog. It’s funny how such an insignificant amount feels so big when it’s something that’s been earned from something you’ve built entirely yourself.
I may not want to turn this blog into a businessman for a good number of reasons, but I so appreciate the very small bit of income that does happen thanks to some clicks over to Amazon (or occasionally Airbnb). Whoever you are doing so, thank you, I appreciate you. But also remind me again and again why I don’t want to go full out on turning this blog into a side hustle because the money can be tempting sometimes even for me.
3. Speaking of very small amounts that feel like a big deal, I transferred another $5 Amazon gift card to my account thanks to using Bing as my search engine. No referral link here, but I’m all for picking a search engine based on who will pay me a tiny bit to use theirs.
I put the money directly to the payment section of my account and then promptly forget about it so I’m not tempted to buy something extra thanks to the five dollar “discount.” Instead, that gift card is just applied to our next regular purchase and we get five dollars off that purchase, which feels way more exciting than five dollars probably should.
4. We made bibimbap bowls again over the weekend but way over made on the amount of meat and rice, so just like last week with the goulash, we ate it two nights in a row and it was just as tasty the first night. I added some of the picked carrots and cucumbers I made last month and they were an awesome add to the meal and are a super easy way to add some extra vegetables in my life (they’re great on fancy ramen as well).
It ended up that there were still leftovers after the second night, so I stuck them back in the fridge and ate them for lunch on Monday when I was home with the kiddo. We’d gotten out of practice with eating up ALL of our leftovers over the holidays, but I feel like I’m back in the swing of things now.
5. If you follow me on any social media, you know this already since I was VERY excited about it, but my advance copy of Work Optional by Tanja Hester (Our Next Life) arrived, and I’m already a good part of the way through the book.
I will be sharing my full opinions about the book in a separate blog post after I’m through it, but I have to say it has exceeded my expectations for the section I have finished so far. It will be released to the public on February 12th.
Exercise Update
I’m trying to make a habit of getting on the work elliptical for twenty minutes on Fridays any weekend we aren’t traveling, and I made that happen again this past Friday. Saturday we took a long walk to have lunch at a neighborhood restaurant that’s a half hour walk away, and the return trip is all uphill.
The kiddo wasn’t up for walking (looking back he was maybe starting to feel bad then), so I walked all the way home with him in the Ergo on my back. He’s almost four but only weighs thirty five pounds so it’s not unreasonable to carry him on longer trips, and it’s way easier than hauling a stroller around. Plus I get in a good workout.
Tuesday I took advantage of the good weather and went for a run outside in the sunshine and then headed to the gym for a weights workout and stretching. The kiddo was at home taking a long nap with my husband so it was nice to have some time to put in a good long workout. I did some deadlifts for the first time in a while and I definitely felt it the next day.
Wednesday was another twenty minutes on the elliptical. I’m now close to two weeks in to getting back on the wagon of fully tracking my food and exercise via Myfitnesspal, and I’m down 1.4 pounds.
Total January trips to the gym: 2 (plus 3 trips to the work gym)
How has your week gone? Any particular frugal wins you’d like to share? I love to hear them!