It’s funny how fast time seems to be going these days after the drag of how long March lasted. While things are definitely still quite difficult, the days are moving by at a much more rapid clip. Have you noticed this as well? Strange, for sure. Thought it still is hard to believe it’s been ten weeks since we started this COVID quarantine thing. Seems like forever, and yet.
Work has been so busy lately, and I haven’t had as much time for blogging as normal. I do plan on writing a post for Ecofrugals in the near future, so if there is something you’d like me to write about there, please let me know! In the meantime, I’ve collected a few guest posts that have been shared there, and Kristine is doing a great job pulling up the slack while life is full of day job work for me right now.
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Friday’s Frugal Five
1. The husband cut his hair this past week for the first time since we’ve been home/quarantined. Granted, he’s been cutting his own hair for more than a decade now, so he doesn’t have a “quarantine cut” because of it.
When he was in the Marines, he had to get a haircut every single week to stay within regulations, so he bought himself a trimmer to do the cuts himself to save both the money and time that required. He’s on his second trimmer since then, so it has paid itself back many times over, as well as the time saved.
2. I redeemed a $10 Amazon gift card from Bing rewards. While it isn’t a huge amount by any stretch, it’s nice to get paid for doing regular internet searching.
Between Bing and things like Rakuten (and a few Personal Capital and Amazon affiliate links through this blog), we get a bit of credit most months for our regular Amazon shopping. Especially lately, I’ve been attempting to buy local as much as possible, but there are still some things we end up on Amazon for each month.
If you haven’t signed up for Rakuten (Ebates) yet, here is $10 to get started. As always, know yourself, and sign up for this kind of program if you will be disciplined to use it only when you are making a purchase anyway – not because of the online shopping coupons that encourage you to spend more.
3. Besides cutting hair, the husband also cut the lawn this past week. This is another one of those things he’s been doing for a long time, and we’ve definitely saved quite a bit of money on house maintenance costs over the years because of this and other things we do ourselves.
He cleans the roof and gutters, mows the lawn, and has replaced much of our back fence over the years. I’ve done quite a bit of painting, and a ton of work in the yard. While we do pay for some work to be done, much of it is done by us. Another big plus to a single story house is the ability to do much of it ourselves.
4. Another month ticked by on my clothes buying ban without me really even noticing it happen. While it had gotten more normal not to buy clothing over the past three years, it’s become even easier as of late considering we don’t go into any stores, ever.
I do, however, miss my ability to go into the thrift store, as the kiddo could use a few new pairs of shorts for the summer, but they aren’t open right now. Perhaps it’s another time for a Kids on 45th box to be ordered after all.
5. While, like the thrift store, we can’t go into the library these days, we still have the ability to check out e-books. I may not be reading at quite the same speed as normal right now (my brain still isn’t fully up for long reading sessions), the books I’m reading are library copies. We do have a stack of physical books from before the library locations physically closed down, but I sure do appreciate the ability to check new ones out online.
Exercise Update
I’ve continued my daily yoga streak since April 18th. Even though most days I only do a twenty minute routine, I’ve already noticed a considerable return to my flexibility, stability, and strength, and that feels really good.
Saturday we took a four mile round trip walk (socially distanced, with masks on) with my mother in law and ate brunch under the eves of the strip mall across from the restaurant. It rained on us pretty hard on the way home, but it still felt like a great day. I also ran twenty minutes last Friday and then again yesterday (Thursday). I’ve been tempted to do more or longer runs, but I’m trying to pace myself so I don’t re-injure my heel.
How are things in your neck of the woods? Anything new going on?