I’m tired this week. I’m certain you all are as well, so I’ll be keeping this short. Things are definitely in turmoil right now, but I do have some hope that we may see real, lasting change for it. If that’s true, then it will be all worth it.
It’s been a rough time as of late, so I’m sending lots of love to you all. I would say and peace, but we aren’t in a peaceful time. But hopefully an impactful time.
Friday’s Frugal Five
1. My giving this week has been entirely to black organizations. There are so many good ones to choose from, and there is a long list of ideas in the Women’s Personal Finance group for who to support. I’ve been blown away by the generosity of the members.
Financial independence is great, but once you’re financially stable I believe it is our responsibility to share that wealth. Not only do I vote with my dollars to which companies I buy from, the same is true for the organizations I donate to.
2. I finally figured out how to listen to a library copy of an audiobook. Apparently, I needed to download OneDrive and listen to it from there, but it sure is a heck of a lot cheaper than a regular Audible membership or purchasing each audiobook I listen to (which is quite a few these days).
3. We picked and ate the first couple strawberries out of the garden this week! I am so ready. We also harvested the first round of rhubarb, but prior to the ripe strawberries, so I ended up making a vegan rhubarb crisp, which was awesome.
We’re still also harvesting spring garlic, asparagus a few young onions, broccoli leaves, celery, and herbs. This is the time of the year that things start to take off in the garden and almost every dinner includes something from the yard. This year, there will be even more of that with a yet again expanded garden.
4. Another month has ticked by of my clothes buying ban, which has now lasted for three years and three months. Thanks to a mostly quarantined lifestyle these days (which means very few days of work pants and shoes), I’ve had absolutely no need for more clothing.
5. I baked bread for the very first time this past week. I’ve been baking often for years now, but I’d never ventured into making a regular loaf of bread (naan, fry bread, and garlic breadsticks don’t count in my opinion).
I did just a simple french bread loaf, but it was awesome. I will be experimenting more now, but I’ve gotten past the initial nervousness of actually baking bread. Really, it’s easier than doughnuts.
Ps – I’m on The Stacking Benjamins Show podcast today.
Exercise Update
I actually ran an entire 5k distance on Tuesday for the first time since I hurt my heel back in January. I might have overdone it a tiny bit, but it was so worth it to actually run for longer than twenty minutes.
Daily yoga is definitely helping with my heel, and my mental state in general. Other than that, I did a leg workout in the front yard one day while the kiddo played and did a decent amount of walking.
How are you hanging in this week?
5k run Tuesday. Keeping up w yoga.
hi there ! Quite cool that you are growing your own food – how much do you think you save because of this ? Something I have wanted to do for awhile but it is quite difficult without a garden !
Not sure how much we save – building the beds aren’t super cheap, but once they’ve been built they are. Someday I really should measure the amount of produce we eat from the garden. Onehundreddollarsamonth.com used to do that.
Wow, pretty surreal clicking into the post and reading WEEK 14 of this insanity. This week has been so incredibly psychologically exhausting for all of us. We just feel stuck in a weird limbo of what to do and how to move forward. Our Santa Monica community is not in good shape (although things have started to quiet down.) Hoping you and your family remain safe <3
WEEK FOURTEEN. I keep going back and forth between omg so fast and omg how have we been doing this forever already.
buffalo has gone crazy just like some bigger cities. some of the vandalism is 5-6 blocks from our house so it’s a strange time. bread making is fun, but i’m going back to yeast recipes now that it’s available again.
Yeah, Buffalo has been making headlines lately. Ouch.
Your serene garden with doggies looks like the perfect antidote to the violence ravaging my city. I’m jealous. Home grown produce makes me jealous too, since I seem to produce little beyond herbs in my urban garden. Enjoy those strawberries – those homegrown ones are the best variety!
Waiting impatiently for more of them to ripen – getting a few a day now. A couple hot days and they will ripen up like crazy.
We just had some huge bills come in a couple weeks ago so I’ve been compiling my lists of places to give and support once we’ve gotten past the hump.
I am both saddened that it had to come to this when it didn’t have to, and heartened that this has gone nationwide and that even small towns are protesting for long overdue justice. I have to hope, though it’s hard to when seeing all the open police brutality, that we come out of this with real steps to true change.
Oof. Sorry about the extra bills. And yeah. I so so hope we see real change through all this.
It’s been a rough week here as well. I’ve also been finding solace in the garden…. made our first rhubarb crisp this afternoon (mixed with pears because not enough rhubarb yet). I didn’t know you could eat broccoli leaves – we’ll have to try that this week.
Yum! Do you grow pears, or buy them?
5 K In the House !!!
Keep it up
🙌🙌