Do do do it’s 2022. Set to whatever music you like. Welcome to year three of the 2020s, folks! Three more weeks, and I’ve been tracking these Covid Fridays for 100 weeks. Hard to believe. Feels like forever and no time at all since our pre-covid days. Hope you are all staying safe and pandemic fine.

A reminder too that it’s okay if you don’t have big plans or goals for 2022. It’s okay if your kids are “behind” in school right now. It’s okay if your house is a bit messier than normal. It’s okay. It’s okay. We are heading into the third year of this pandemic thing. The whole world. So we can’t be “behind” if this is a whole world thing. We can catch up when things settle down. Or not. That’s okay too.

Friday’s Frugal Five

1. My car sat parked for a good week and a half after Christmas, thanks to the heavy snow and ice that stuck around for an extended time. Our street still has some slush and ice on it, and my car slides around quite a bit driving up the hill, but I can get out and back now.

We then had a Covid exposure last weekend so I worked from home with the kiddo with me as an extra precaution to keep from exposing his grandparents and great grandmother. We’re all vaccinated and boosted, but now doesn’t seem like a good time to take chances. The hospitals are all full right now, after all.

2. Because of the snow and ice, our garbage pickup was skipped last week, the first one after Christmas. A lot of folks locally were getting pretty stressed out by the skipped week, but since we don’t usually fill our can (recycling or compost/yard waste either), skipping a week really isn’t a big deal for us.

The can is out at the street and full now, but our kitchen garbage is empty, so we could go another week if need be without too much trouble. A good reminder that our waste doesn’t ever go truly away – someone just takes care of it for us.

I also can’t remember a time where the trash in our area wasn’t picked up for a full week before. A day or two skipped, yes, but not all garbage days for all neighborhoods. The weather wasn’t great, but I honestly think it was more than that. Likely weather, folks out with Covid, and the realization from more people that they can simply say no when a job isn’t safe.

3. Along those same lines, now is a great time to re look at your stock of food and supplies at home (here’s a list of what we generally keep on hand). Like the garbage truck drivers – and now the number of teachers and school staff out – it looks like these next few weeks are going to be very interesting.

Grocery stores can’t stock food without employees, and there’s nothing to restock without the drivers who deliver the food. Same goes for pharmacies and gas stations etc. A lot of restaurants are shuttered for at least a week as well, even without any kind of government mandate. Being a “prepper” doesn’t make you an alarmist. It simply means you’re prepared to take a lot of different scenarios in stride.

4. Part of our longer term preparedness is our large garden and chickens. Preparedness, and they just make me darn happy. The first week of January after extended freezing temperatures? I was still able to make a dinner of fried rice with homegrown kale, garlic, and eggs.

Maybe we’re nowhere near self sufficient (pretty difficult/impossible on a quarter acre), but regularly supplementing our meals with homegrown produce and eggs is a great spot to be. Now for that greenhouse…

5. Thanks to the Plutus Foundation, we are hosting another giveaway for Women’s Personal Finance Insiders, this time for three annual memberships! If you or someone you know is interested and can’t afford the monthly cost, this giveaway is for you! There are no strings – please apply if the $20 a month would be a hardship. We’d love to have you, and one of our core tenants of WPF is to always be an accessible, inclusive community.

And thanks again to the Plutus Foundation for being an awesome sponsor and committing to sponsor folks. They’re the best.

Exercise Update

With the snow and then ice and then slush, I haven’t been able to run in almost two weeks, and I’m missing it again. Instead, I spent a lot of hours hiking snowy trails. Lovely, but still not the same as running for me.

How are you all hanging in?

Ps. It was nice to take a blogging break for a few weeks, but it’s good to be back!