10 Things From Today

In no particular order...

1. I woke up this morning to a beautiful, slightly belated, Mother's Day bouquet from one of my step daughters.  It was a wonderful surprise! 
   
2. I voted!  For this election, they are doing vote-by-mail which is a great idea.  I will see if I can do this permanently because it is so much better to be able to research the candidates and fill out my ballot at home instead of trying to figure out who to vote for at a polling place (the voter's guide isn't very useful so sometimes I end up researching candidates who aren't even in our area).
3. I watched a crime drama last night where a girl was kidnapped and she was able to let the police know where she was by secretly hitting a couple of keys on her cell phone.  I didn't know that nearly all cell phones have this ability.  Info for Android and iOs here.
4. Hubby got a text message that all of the Goodwill stores will open tomorrow.  We will probably go next week and avoid the big crowds that may show up there tomorrow.
5. We went to Target today and I used a gift card I had to buy stuff like extra soap, a bottle of Tylenol etc.  We are slowly stocking up for the next possible wave of the pandemic (if we are shut down again I want to have everything we need to stay home for a few months if necessary!).
6. I've seen it mentioned in the news several times that the cost of food is increasing.  We haven't noticed this much yet at our grocery stores (except for chicken which is $10+ for a whole, raw chicken but if you wander over to the deli you can get a whole, cooked chicken for $5!?).
7. I checked my bank account and got my first refund from our car insurance company today.  I called a month ago and asked if they were doing any sort of refund because we have hardly been driving for the past couple months and they said yes.  I should get another refund for next month (we pay our car insurance once every six months so they will give us a 20% credit for at least two months, maybe more if the lockdown continues).
8. Apparently people who have started being more frugal are tanking the American economy.  I know our spending habits have changed and we plan to continue to be much more frugal as we go forward so while I feel sorry for the state of the economy, we also want to be more prepared with as little debt as possible and as much savings as possible.
9. I am slightly worried about our state budget.  I'm sure many states will be facing budget challenges because of the pandemic but our state gets a huge chunk of its funding from gaming and tourism-related activities as well as sales tax; ALL of these things are barely happening now and probably for several months into the future.  eeekkk
10. Finally, here are some ways to earn extra cash in the age of the coronavirus.