With vaccinations comes more normal life. My dear friend Felicity is now two weeks past her second shot, and got to spend a good deal of Thursday together.

She’s retired, and I don’t work Thursdays, so instead we had lunch, worked in the garden, walked downtown, and got ice cream. The kiddo adores her, so he capitalized on her time as well. Whenever I consider the money I’m giving up by working less than full time, these kinds of days remind me what I’m getting in return.

Friday’s Frugal Five

1. We spent a lot of time over the long weekend and the first half of Thursday working on the chicken coop, and we are closing in on the final pieces. We hung fiber cement siding, which was leftover scrap from a previous job at work.

The coop may have different materials than initially planned, but free is best. And not only free, but reused. Ecofrugal is my favorite thing, especially when it comes with big money savings, as it has with this coop build.

2. The kiddo has been growing like a weed these past few months and has outgrown a bunch of his clothes. Our neighbor has a five year old boy though, so when they were over the other day I was able to pass on some of those clothes to them.

Even better, I don’t think any of the clothes we passed on were new when we got them in the first place. Even as rough and tumble as the kiddo can be, he’s still growing fast enough that the majority of his clothes are still in great shape when he outgrows them.

Can you imagine how much less material we would go through if everyone passed around clothing instead of always buying new?

3. As I mentioned a little while back, I finally decided to open a 529 for the kiddo and fund it with a small amount of money. I still don’t want to put *all* the savings we have for him over time in that account due to limited flexibility, but I decided a good amount wouldn’t hurt to be tied up there.

I passed on that information to his grandparents, and this week they let me know they were sending funds as well. It is such a privilege to have parents who not only have their own retirement taken care of but have the means to support their grandchild’s college. I am so thankful for that support, and I won’t ever forget how lucky we are to be in this situation.

4. My best local friend started a new job this week! After working as a grocery store manager for too many years, she went to school, got a degree, and has now landed herself a new job.

I am so dang proud of her, and felt like that change deserved a shout out in the Frugal Five.

5. I went horseback riding with another friend over the weekend, and it was glorious. I haven’t been on a horse in far too long, and a few hours through wooded trails while chatting with a dear friend was simply magical.

It feels like we all got a year and a half stolen from our lives, but I’m hopeful that this summer will mean we get some of that back.

PS – thanks to generous donations from four women, including All Options Considered, we get to give away three more year memberships to the Women’s Personal Finance Insiders Club!

One membership is specifically for a woman of color and two are for the LGBT community – Happy Pride!! (Non-binary folx are welcome and encouraged to apply. If you qualify for both contests, feel free to enter for both). If you’re interested, head on over to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter for more details. We’ll be picking winners on Sunday.

Exercise Update

Friday was twenty minutes on the elliptical at the end of my work day. Saturday was horseback riding (yay!), and the rest of the long weekend was spending lots of hours on the chicken coop and the remainder in the garden.

Tuesday was another twenty minutes on the elliptical, and Wednesday was long walks and time in the garden. Thursday was hauling heavy pieces of fiber cement siding, gardening, and walks.

Has the weather turned to summer near you? What do your summer plans look like this year?