I originally planned to do these like Refinery29's Money Diaries, but my life is not interesting enough to be broken down by times! Also, these days I don't do much more than sleep, work, and obsess about my finances.
February 7 (Sunday)
Woke up around 7:30 - I will admit, I was wearing a sleep mask but it was slightly askew, so when I opened my eyes and could see light, I panic-jerked awake only to discover it was 7:30. Got up around 8 so I could get started on my day!
Reintroducing non-gluten grains today, so I made oatmeal with an egg in it for breakfast (and coffee, of course). I also started a load of laundry around 8:15, given how annoying the facility usage has been the last couple of weeks. Just clothes this week, so I was in and out in about half an hour. $1.50
I spent the morning working on classwork for a certificate I'm getting through work (our first real assignment was due today and I had done very little of it). I finished earlier than I had planned, so I switched gears to get dinner into the crockpot. After that was started, I went for my daily walk. I forgot eggs in my grocery order, but it turns out Walgreens sells them, so I popped in there at the tail end of my walk to grab a carton. (I am slightly annoyed that every carton had a use by date of Feb 9, but that's not going to stop me from using them after that date. Eggs tend to be last much longer than the use by dates indicated, and I'll check the freshness by floating them in a cup of water before I use them.) $1.99
After lunch (the taco filling from last night on corn tortillas), I did a couple hours' work. Around 4, I realized I couldn't focus anymore, so I switched gears to my living room and watched an episode and a half of Flack before putting on the Super Bowl. (I don't really care about pro football, but I've put enough money on the two squares games I'm in that I'm invested in the scores, at least.)
Browsing recipes during the game instead of really paying attention, I finally decided to buy some dried porcini mushrooms from Amazon to make Nom Nom Paleo’s magic mushroom powder. The charge goes to my Amazon credit card (another one I’m in the process of paying off) so I transfer the purchase price from my entertainment budget to the debt payment envelope for that card. $21.42
The Bucs win, and so did I! I had the winning set of numbers for one game for the last two quarters, so I won $275! I use the money to restock my entertainment envelope with the amount I spent on both squares games, and I put the remaining $225 in my Marriott Amex debt payment envelope.
Day 1 total: $24.91
February 8 (Monday)
Why did I meal plan to have to make breakfast every day this week? Such a bad idea in busy season, even if bacon and eggs is delicious. I didn’t wake up til 8 or get out of bed til 8:45, so I was late to work. I wonder if 9 am meetings would do the trick.
My productivity pod and I didn’t have very successful days. I spent a lot of time coaching new team members and planning with my boss.
Lunch was my last serving of the weekend’s Instant Pot tacos (on lettuce leaves again) and it was just as good as the first time - and as messy! I didn’t get out for a walk at lunch, but an afternoon meeting that was supposed to go for an hour ended after only 30 minutes, so I snuck out for my walk then. I also did some chores (taking out trash/recycling, cleaning the cats’ water fountain) during downtime.
Dinner was a serving of the hearty herbed pork stew I made yesterday. I had to add salt to get it as tasty as I wanted, but it wasn’t bad. Unfortunately we had an emergency water shutoff, I think to deal with a leak, right as I finished dinner, so I wasn’t able to do my dishes. Luckily I was warned by an HOA board member on my way in from my walk about the possibility of the shutoff, so I have several containers of tap water on my counter.
I spent $30 on annual fees for an online trivia league I’m in. I could dip into my annual expense fund but I’m going to cash flow it this time since I’m in a good spot with my Super Bowl winnings! $30
Day 2 total: $30
February 9 (Tuesday)
The water was shut off again this morning. Luckily it was after I had dealt with yesterday’s dishes and taken a shower, and I still had bottles I’d filled up with tap water the night before. Trés annoying, nonetheless.
Breakfast was scrambled eggs and bacon again. For lunch, I was supposed to cook something in my Instant Pot, but the water was still out and I guessed (correctly, as it turned out) that it would be a recipe I’d need to wash my hands for a lot. (A whole raw chicken was involved.) So instead I ate pork stew for lunch and ignored my dishes until the water came back on. Dinner was Instant Pot Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic from the Whole30 Slow Cooker cookbook. I made a number of mistakes from the outset (I bought a whole chicken to piece out myself, I didn’t buy pre-peeled garlic, etc.) but despite the prep work taking forever, it turned out really good - and I know what not to do next time! (Like, I think searing the chicken before pressure cooking may have been unnecessary.) It also only made 4 servings instead of my planned 6 (because I’m bad at breaking down a chicken), so I’ll be ordering something for lunch this weekend. (I can extend one of my planned reintro meals to cover another meal that day, so I’m only out one day of lunch.)
Work was busy, I stayed up til midnight chugging away. I’ll be really glad when this project is over!
The only money thing that happened was I paid off the credit card I used in December while waiting for a replacement for my daily use card (I thought someone had placed a fraudulent charge, but I realized like a month later that my local newspaper had been sold and the charge was my monthly subscription - which, by the way, had doubled without warning. Apparently when Chase rejected the charge because I thought it was fraud, the new owners canceled my subscription, but honestly, I don’t care. I love supporting local journalism but the new owners are based in the Northeast and are not doing a good job of communicating with customers.)
Day 3 total: $0
February 10 (Wednesday)
Dairy reintroduction today! I made a cheese omelet for breakfast and put half-and-half on my coffee. The other two meals were pork stew and garlic chicken, with plantain chips for a snack.
Busy workday again! I ended up closing everything on my computer except what I was working on so I could focus, which helped a ton.
Money-wise, my car payment posted (I owe less than $1,000 now!) and my Squares winnings posted to my Amex. For the third month in a row, Amazon has charged me for someone else’s fraudulent charge. Last month I asked Amazon to not allow charges on that card number any more (because I had it changed in December, but recurring charges can apparently keep happening) and they said they did, and I asked Amex to not allow any recurring charges to that old number any more, and they said they did, but here we are again, month 3 of some scammers getting cheapo Amazon Prime Video on my dime (although not literally because I’ve disputed the charge every month so far). I have to wait for my credit card statement to post so I can go back to Amazon with the full transaction reference number (it’s annoyingly cut off in the online view) and get them to take responsibility for not cutting off the scammer’s access to my card. I may talk to Amex tomorrow about why recurring charges are still being allowed, though. $441.78 (NOT including the scammers’ use of my card)
I also bought a VIP ticket for the Austin Mac N Cheese festival February edition. They’re doing a take-and-bake version this year that I think will be so fun! $54.14
Day 4 total: $495.92
February 11 (Thursday)
Not a very productive workday, sadly. I kept getting distracted. It’s very cold in central Texas right now (I don’t think it got out of the 30s today - last week I went on a walk in a t-shirt), and for some reason I was really affected by it today. I think it’s because I didn’t get to do either of my two usual cold weather acclimating activities - a trip to Chicago in the fall, and camping over New Year’s Eve (it rained on NYD, otherwise I would have braved the cold).
Scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, garlic chicken for lunch, plantain chips for a snack, and pork stew and air fried French fries for dinner! I almost broke the reintro protocol to order a burrito from my favorite food truck, but apparently I’m now too far away for delivery (although I wasn’t in December). Since I didn’t want to leave my house to pick it up, either, because it's EXTREMELY cold here in Texas at the moment, I stuck to my meal plan.
During lunch, I discovered that you can deduct up to $300 in charitable giving from 2020 on your tax return. I updated my return with H&R Block and my refund went up by $66! I haven't filed yet because I'm missing ONE document from E*Trade, which I've been checking obsessively. (I've logged in more in the last two weeks looking for that document than I had in the entire year before.)
The only monetary transaction today was my NYTimes subscription. I swear they keep increasing the price and decreasing the payment interval... $18.09
I’m tired, and I’m ready to be done with this work project. Less than a month to go!
Day 5 total: $18.09
February 12 (Friday)
A much more productive workday! Some of my coworkers and I were discussing the concept of Parkinson's Law, that work expands to fill the time allotted. Since it's Friday and we usually knock off at 5 pm even during busy times, I was much more motivated to get stuff done as quickly as possible.
I forgot that Monday is Presidents' Day, so I got paid today! My 401(k) decrease must have gone through, because my paycheck was about $120 higher than usual (I had calculated about $115). That extra money got put into my Marriott Amex debt payment envelope. The Amex balance is sitting below $2k finally, so the end is in sight!
It's still extremely cold in Texas. I didn't get out of my PJs to do work because they were warm, and when I finished work, I went straight upstairs to snuggle in my bed with a heating pad and extra blanket (and two cats, eventually). I battled cravings for pepperoni rolls and tried to remind myself that this reintro protocol is only for a few more days, but I failed. Something about the cold and being exhausted from working so much just got to me. $10
Breakfast was scrambled eggs and bacon, lunch was garlic chicken, and dinner was pepperoni rolls. I savored the hell out of them, since I hadn't had any in six weeks. I spent the evening watching old episodes of Black-ish on Hulu, and went to bed early.
Day 6 total: $10
February 13 (Saturday)
Woke up to cat puke noises. One of the cats (I assume the big one with lots of fur) yakked up a hairball on the floor in the bedroom. I laid in bed snuggling with the little cat for about an hour and reading on my phone. I checked E-Trade again to see if my last tax document was available, and it was! So I eventually got up and filed my taxes finally. (I am moderately annoyed I had to pay taxes in another state since I worked there for five weeks this time last year. I owed them an extra $25 on top of what they had withheld, and I had to pay an extra $32 to H&R Block for the privilege of filing that state return.) $67.14 (tax software fees) + $25 (other state tax owed)
Breakfast was scrambled eggs with sprouted wheat toast, lunch was tuna salad sandwich on more sprouted wheat toast (I have missed bread!), and dinner was my last serving of pork stew. I also ate four more slices of toast after dinner, plus for an afternoon snack I had a mini dark chocolate Kind bar and some Trader Joe's truffle chips that were highly recommended by a coworker (I didn't think they were that good). Oh, and I finally got into the Girl Scout cookies - I started with the S'Mores, which are delicious. (I really don't do moderation well...)
I did my laundry this morning ahead of the extremely cold weather that's due tomorrow and Monday - just clothes today. I'll do sheets/towels in a few days after the weather clears. $1.50
After I worked a few hours, I stopped to pick up Snap Kitchen (almond-crusted salmon and a brownie = 12.16) and my grocery order. I have ranch pork loin from the freezer, and I'll have lemon chicken thighs with green beans from the Whole30 Slow Cooker cookbook. My grocery list consisted of four 8-packs of sparkling water (there was a coupon and I didn't know about the bad weather so didn't know I would have to bring them all in the same day), a 4-pack of sparkling juice, a dozen eggs, freezer bags, yellow onions, a white onion, broccoli, green beans, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, russet potatoes (ya girl wants to get crazy with the air fryer), bananas, chicken thighs, chorizo, plantain chips, and pecans. $70.89
Oh, and my Google Internet payment posted. $70
Day 7 total: $234.53
Weekly total: $813.45
Not too bad a week!
- Groceries: 82.14
- Laundry: 3
- Credit cards: 287.63
- Internet: 70
- Car payment: 154.15
- Taxes: 92.14
- Dining out: 22.16
- Entertainment: 102.23
No comments:
Post a Comment