Life has been packed full the past few weeks for me, but I really do value having this space and this blog, so I’m doing my best to share updates here most Fridays. I may not write here as much these days, but I am nowhere near the place where I’d be ready to say goodbye to this little blog of mine. This space really has changed my life.

That said, January has been a particularly busy month, so I’ll keep this short again today. (And fingers crossed my 2022 Book List reviews post will be up soon as well)

Friday’s Frugal Five

1. Last Friday was a gloriously sunny day, and the kiddo and I stopped at the park on the way home from school with a few other classmates and their parents. I’d biked in that day, so we picked a park on the way home.

It may be winter time, with too much dark and wet, but on the sunny days, it’s obvious that we really do live somewhere special. Also felt that specialness the next day, when the kiddo spent two hours biking around the neighborhood with a bunch of his neighbor friends.

2. We had dinner with some school families after the park that evening, and we brought over freshly picked kale and carrots from the gardens (plus some eggs for one of the families to take home). While we’re far away from a lot of edible stuff in the yard right now, our trusty kale and carrots are something we can harvest year round.

The garlic is starting to poke out of the ground though, and the green onions are growing back, but the forecast is calling for lows in the twenties again next week, so the green onions will likely go dormant for a while longer yet. Is it spring yet? I’m ready.

3. Dry January continues, and is somehow almost “over.” Though, with the newly discovered non-alcoholic beers that don’t taste like watered down garbage, I think I’ll be doing very little drinking into February as well. I have to say though, replacing beer with NA beer isn’t the cost savings I’d like it to be.

Now, if someone could actually come up with a great NA red wine, I’m listening. I’ve now completed just about two Dry Januarys now (and Dry August last year as well). Here on out, I’ll probably doing a month dry from time to time because it really is a good reset from the habit of wanting a glass of wine to cap of the day.

4. Again, one of our weeknight dinners was “fancy ramen” with fava bean leaves, kale, and eggs from our garden/micro homestead. It’s not the most exciting meal, but it’s a quick, easy, and satisfying one.

When grocery prices are so high, it’s also nice to have a really cheap meal. Which is still cheap, even with the eggs, thanks to our girls. (Same with another weeknight dinner of fried rice, also with garden produce and backyard eggs)

5. My clothes buying ban is now almost six years old (as of March 1st). I did a short video on the topic on Woven this week, and we uploaded it to the WPF YouTube Channel. If you’re interested in some of the more common questions I get about stopping buying clothes, you can check it out here.

Am I done with my clothes buying ban? No, not yet. Maybe someday, but it really has become a lifestyle choice to be creative about the things I wear. And I do love the ability to opt out of the fashion industry, which as a whole is very damaging, but environmentally and socially.