T minus twelve days until the days start getting longer again. Not that I’m counting or anything… Okay, fine. Totally counting. It is so dang dark this time of year and I’m over it.

But my birthday is on Monday and I’m taking the day off of work to be selfish with the day just for me. I’m pretty excited, and looking forward to ringing in thirty four doing whatever the heck I want.

Friday’s Frugal Five

1. With the kiddo vaccinated, we took him to his first theater movie ever. Pre-pandemic, he was still pretty young so it hadn’t seemed worth taking him, and then throughout the pandemic it hasn’t felt worth the risk. With his age finally being eligible for vaccinations, that feeling is starting to change (though we shall see where Omicron lands).

Within our county, vaccinations are required for going to the theater and you have to be masked if not eating, so the risk level is lower for those reasons, plus we wore N-95s for better protection. And we went to a 9:50am showing, so there were a total of four groups in the whole theater. We saw Encanto and brought our roommate along for the ride, making it a big deal event for the kiddo. The movie was great, and we all had a lot of fun. Life may not be *normal* but there are snippets now.

2. We had more dinners with garden veggies this week. Lamb soup one night with homegrown carrots, garlic, and leeks. Shepherd’s pie another night with carrots and garlic. And then a third night with kale for ramen (though no backyard chicken eggs since we aren’t extending their laying season with a light).

Maybe one of these weeks I should do another separate garden update post to share everything that’s growing and planted this time of year. If you’re interested in this, let me know.

3. The husband drove over a screw and got a flat tire on his truck. He was expecting to have to possibly pay for a new tire(s), but he went to the same place he’d gotten his past tires and rims, so they took care of the tire for free.

2021 has definitely been a pricey year, so not having to spend money on new tires right now felt like pretty good news.

4. I’ve been wearing my new glasses more often these days. I got a new pair a few months back, and my vision insurance discounts them quite a bit. I really do like them, so that’s part of wearing them, but I’m also almost out of contacts so I’m trying to hold out until January when my insurance ticks over to the new year and then I can get my contacts at a discount.

I realize that yes I can buy glasses and contacts online for less money, but I go to a small, local eye doctor who I’ve known for most of my life, and I purposely want to spend my money there. But I’m also good with letting my insurance cover the bulk of the cost.

5. Again I managed to have a Thursday without any daytime meetings, so I got to spend the day totally off with the kiddo. We did his schoolwork, headed to the co-op for chicken supplies, listened to our shared audiobook, and headed on a hike to the park with the dogs and a neighbor kiddo.

I’m thinking that I’d like to go back to my five day a week schedule with shorter hours rather than the four day, normal length day schedule I have right now because of our homeschooling situation. That said, weeks where I actually get the whole day off with the kiddo are pretty special, and I enjoy them a lot. I suppose we’ll just have to see what the future holds, but no matter what, I’m sticking with my 80% schedule.

Ps – a quick reminder that Regina and I are holding an Investing Basics class TODAY (Friday 12/10) at 5pm PT. Thanks to some very awesome women in our community, we have some free tickets to the event for those who otherwise don’t have the budget for the class ($6 live / $3 recording only). Live class is for women and non-binary folks only, but the recording is open to all!

Please reach out if you’re interested in one of the sponsored tickets – we would love to have you! Otherwise, Live tickets are available up until the class begins and the recording is available to sign up through next Friday (12/17).