For anyone who noticed, yes, I skipped my regular Frugal Five last week. After returning from our Italy trip, we had one “normal” week home as we readjusted to our jet lag and caught up on normal life. That following Thursday, my husband started to get sick, and by Sunday, the rest of us were.

A whole bunch of COVID tests said we were negative, but it’s the sickest I’ve been since the virus that stole my hearing five years ago. As far as I can tell, we got the regular old flu, which was plenty miserable. I kept testing myself for COVID, because it felt wrong to be so dang sick and have it not be COVID.

We’re finally feeling better now, but still taking it slow and easy, because we aren’t 100% yet. Here’s to hoping by the end of the weekend we’re fully back to normal and can enjoy the sunshine when it peaks out from behind the clouds.

Friday’s Frugal Five

1. Since we were down and out for a while, we accepted help from friends, which was so wonderful when we were feeling awful. Our neighbors brought us dinner one night and went grocery shopping for us a couple of times. In trade, we also sent down a couple dozen eggs to them, because none of us have had much of an appetite the last couple of weeks.

Another friend offered to drop off dinner another night. Usually I’m the one doing the caring and delivering of food and care, but I sure appreciated being the recipient of it this time around. I have to admit though, I almost turned them down because I’m so used to being the one caring for others versus being cared for. Now that I’m feeling better though, I’m feeling really loved for having folks nearby take care of us.

2. The day before I got sick, the kiddo and I brought home four new baby chicks to add to our flock. If I’d realized we were about to get so sick, we would have held off, but as it was, the only time I hauled myself out of bed for a couple of days was to check on the babies.

This time around, we got one Cinnamon Queen, one Speckled Sussex, and two Cochins (different colors, and I’m looking forward to seeing what colors they end up as adults). They’re adorable, but they definitely require more day to day care than the big girls. Zero stars, don’t get new baby chicks right before coming down with the flu.

3. The upside of being sick is that none of us were very hungry, so we definitely saved money on groceries this month. Same is true for lunches and coffees out, because we haven’t gone anywhere.

Gas, too. With gas so expensive right now (about $5/gallon here still), not driving hardly at all for two weeks has definitely saved us some money on that front.

4. I filed our taxes riiiiight before getting sick thankfully, so I didn’t have to try and power through when all I wanted to be doing was laying in bed. For the first time in years, I did our taxes by ourselves with an online software. TurboTax has definitely come a long way since the last time I used an online tax filer option, and it was way easier than I expected.

We owed a tiny bit, but that was thanks to Women’s Personal Finance being a successful business, so I won’t complain. In 2022, I plan to open a SEP IRA or Solo 401k to hopefully reduce our tax liability and to put some more dollars away for the long term.

5. We published our April blog post on Women’s Personal Finance, this one by Emilie Cleaver – 30 Things Red (Taylor’s Version) Taught Us About Money. I just gotta say – getting to pay someone to write a blog post that’s a mashup between Taylor Swift and money advice is pretty darn great. I mean really, how fun is that?

If you’re not in love with Taylor Swift’s music like Emilie and I are (there seems to be quite an overlap in the WPF Facebook group though), you might know someone who does like her music but you haven’t been able to talk money with. This post is for that person, too. Come for the Taylor lyrics, stay for the money and life advice.

No exercise update this week. I did just about nothing and it was weird. My body definitely needed it, though.