Fredericksburg Parent

34 Fredericksburg Parent and Family • August 2020 family money WRITTEN BY NIKKI DUCAS How My How My Family Family Saved Saved Money During Money During COVID-19 COVID-19 VACATIONS Since we canceled our big vacations with family and friends, my little family took mini trips within Virginia for a change of scenery. We stayed at a cute river house on the Rappahannock with paddle- boats, canoes and a pool. We went camping at the beach and waded in the bay to cool off. We rented a condo three blocks from the ocean in Virginia Beach. Each of these stays cost less than $600, much less expensive than our three cancelled vacations. CLEANING Spring cleaning took on a whole new meaning this year. I cleaned out closets, my children's playroom and our shed. Using online yard sale sites, I sold a lot of things that were unused and wasting space. A little time and effort made us over $300 and, with the house more organized, we did a DIY project replacing the flooring throughout our house. HAIRCUTS I learned to cut my husband's hair. I hadn't tried since the first time I cut it 25 years ago! I did so well (enough) that I'm now his barber and he saves $25 every six weeks. BOOKS I swapped books on Paperbackswap.com and Bookmooch.com to give my family some new reading mate- rial. I got rid of old books and received new books for the price of media mail to send my books. A win-win. VIDEOCONFERENCING We connected weekly with family and friends we wouldn't see but two to three time per year using free video conferencing services. GARDENING Bonus: our garden and landscaping look better than ever. Since my husband has worked from home, he has put his commute time into the vegetable garden. We also took a break from doing a CSA this year, so we saved that cost. I'm happy to say my family's mental health survived COVID-19, and we learned we could do less and spent less too. I can't believe it's been nearly six months since COVID-19 moved into Fredericksburg. Thinking back to the first couple of weeks, it was a novel idea to be self-isolated, shuttered away from the rest of the world. But our entire community shut down except for essential businesses, and we all went a bit stir crazy. That's when I got imaginative to save my mental health. Even with a yard to work on and play in and enough space inside to spread out, I yearned to get in the car and get away. So, we bought the 2020 The America the Beautiful-The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass to enter the Shenan- doah National Park. We found obscure trails where we could socially distance from other groups and managed three visits before they closed because of COVID-19. I'm hopeful to use this $80 pass again to see the Fall foliage along Skyline Drive.

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