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.
January 31 (Sunday)
Grocery pickup at 10 am this week. I need to reconsider these morning pickups - I like having my groceries early in the day, but I didn't even get a chance to sip my coffee before I had to go to the store. (I don't like to take it with me because I don't want to try to juggle it with my groceries on the way back in.) Luckily my first cup was still hot when I got back (roughly 30 min round-trip for grocery pickup - possibly not as time-saving as I thought, but I also don't have to go into the store, which saves me from potential impulse purchases and potential 'rona exposure). $62.25
Sundays are usually my chores day, so everything will be ready for the week ahead. Two loads of laundry (sheets/towels and clothes) cost me $4.50 in our community laundry. ($1.50 to wash each load, $1.50 to dry the sheets/towels - I line-dry my clothing.) My neighbors were rude and hogging the machines. I ended up removing someone’s nearly cool clothes from the dryer and putting them in the basket they left on top of the machine. The clothes were still there when I went back for my dry sheets/towels. $4.50
Meal prep time! As I mentioned last week, I have loaded burger bowls and chicken pot pie soup in the queue for this week. I made the soup first, and I’m interested to see how it turned out - I didn’t use celery (the stuff I had was limp and gross), and I used homemade chicken broth. The burger bowls took a surprisingly long time to prep/cook everything for, but damn are they good!
Day 1 total: $66.75
February 1 (Monday)
February already? This’ll be a heavy spending day, as several monthly charges hit today. Mortgage ($579.13), Patreon ($32.45), WF credit card ($82), Ipsy ($12.99), NYTimes Cooking ($5.32), and Wikimedia Foundation ($3.10). My annual Pandora subscription renewed, too ($51.83, which will come out of my annual expense sinking fund). Patreon is on the spendy side, for sure, but the four artists I’m supporting bring me a lot of joy, so I don’t regret that expense, and the most expensive one at $19/month has some amazing rewards. Ipsy is new for me in the last couple of months - I want to get better at makeup without buying full-size stuff! My January bag was lost in the mail and as soon as I reported it, they told me they would send me another - A+ customer service! I love to cook, so the NYT Cooking app is worth it to me - I am considering canceling my monthly subscription to the Times proper, though. And finally, I love Wikipedia and am happy to support it! Patreon, Ipsy, and Wikimedia are all charged to the card I'm currently working on paying off - not a great idea, I know! I did manage to put $53 towards that card. $819.82
Work was good and productive - support from the client finally started coming in! I also had a moment of realizing that I am the “adultier adult” in some conversations.
Food was meal prepped stuff - chorizo/potato/spinach frittata, loaded burger bowl, and chicken pot pie soup, with a Chomps stick (“clean” Slim Jim-type meat stick) for a snack. I got a $100 DoorDash credit from work that I’m excited to use soon!
Day 2 total: $819.82
February 2 (Tuesday)
Lost track of time a bit with work, but got a lot done. I’m exhausted, so I took a much-needed nap in the middle of the day. I was still tired when I woke up but I didn’t feel like immediately crashing, which was all I could hope for.
The only scheduled expense for today was my Gympass membership, which I get heavily discounted from work (I’m at the $25/month tier, discounted from $100). I’ve been waffling about canceling this the last several months - I haven’t been to the gym in almost a year because of the pandemic - but they offer workout apps, live classes, and one-on-one virtual training sessions, so I haven’t canceled yet (the apps in particular are my fave!). I also stopped at Walgreens for toothpaste and NyQuil. (The toothpaste was shockingly expensive, especially compared to the grocery store I usually get it at [they didn’t have it for last week’s order], and I bought two NyQuil to get a discount - I know I’ll use them eventually.) $51.48
Same meals as yesterday - my snack today was plantain chips, finishing the bag I bought on Sunday.
Day 3 total: $51.48
February 3 (Wednesday)
Zero interest in getting out of bed today. I finally convinced myself to, got in the shower, and logged on a couple minutes late (no one notices and I worked til 11:15 pm, so I think I made up for it!). Did some work, then at lunchtime, I went on a half-hour walk. I fell off my walking habit in December after I finished my last StepBet (I didn’t want to try to meet my step goal during my busiest time of the year) and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite pissed me off during an event (where the hell were we supposed to find the wit-sharpening gifts??). HPWU and StepBet were apparently in combo the two things that would get me out the door consistently. Now I’m just walking and listening to audiobooks, which is nice too. (Okay I did play HPWU today, trying to recapture the magic. It was... fine, I guess.)
Meals were all the same as the last two days (are you sensing a theme yet?). For a snack, I cut up two russet potatoes and made French fries in my air fryer - they were dang good but two potatoes was a little excessive.
One of my coworkers and I have started doing mini power hours (well, power half-hours) where we set goals for the next 30 min and then focus like crazy. They’ve been really helpful little sessions, so we’re going to keep them up!
HOA dues today ($259.89). They seem crazy expensive, but I was on the board a while back and the money’s being used correctly - they’ve also managed not to raise them for several years, which has been very nice not to worry about. Three of my savings accounts’ contributions were withdrawn ($300 total - $100 for car insurance, $80 for car repairs, $120 for what I call “short-term” but actually functions more as my emergency fund). Oh, and I bought another 5 squares in one of the Super Bowl squares games I’m in ($15). I also ordered groceries for pickup on Saturday afternoon (instead of Sunday morning!), but that charge doesn't post til the order's picked up, so I'm not counting it here. $574.89
Day 4 total: $574.89
February 4 (Thursday)
Another busy workday. My coworker and I continued our power half hours and were really productive.
Today I reintroduced beans! I had scrambled eggs with black beans and salsa for breakfast, then for lunch I had a side of faux-refried black beans with my loaded burger bowl. The beans filled me up so much I wasn’t interested in my snack (which would have been roasted chickpeas) so I skipped it. At dinner I was supposed to have a side of lentils with my soup but I just plain forgot - and didn't really have time to make lentils anyway.
Money-wise, no active spending. The interest on one of my credit cards posted ($31.96), but that's it. I'm not going to count that towards my active spending because it will get double-counted when the card payment is made.
Day 5 total: $0
February 5 (Friday)
TGIF! Where I work, we're pretty committed to 5 o'clock Fridays, even during busy periods. I ended up working a little later trying to get some communications out, but I succeeded shortly before 6 and finally called it a day. Normally I love 5 o'clock Fridays and stick to them as much as humanly possible, but this week I just didn't really care because all I had planned for Friday evening was sitting in my living room and watching TV - big whoop.
My last meal-prepped breakfast-in-a-bowl for breakfast today. I had the chicken pot pie soup for lunch today so that I could make air fryer fries to go with my last loaded burger bowl for dinner - such a good idea! I couldn't really settle on what to watch on TV, so I watched the latest episode of Mr. Mayor, three episodes of Schitt's Creek while I was cooking/eating, and then I started watching Flack, which I really enjoyed! I got about three episodes in before calling it a night.
No cash outflows today, yay!
Day 6 total: $0
February 6 (Saturday)
I was surprised when I woke up after 9 am. I had gone to bed by 11 at the latest last night, but I guess I've been working so much (and sleeping badly) that I needed the sleep. That cut into my start time for work, since I needed to cook myself breakfast (bacon and eggs - was supposed to eat a banana also but never got around to it) and make coffee.
Work was moderately productive, although I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I called it a day a little earlier than I would have liked, too, because I needed to go pick up my grocery order (it was scheduled for 4, I got to the store about 5:10 pm) and get ready for a virtual murder mystery party with some friends!
When I unpacked my groceries, I was a little shocked that they had cost as much as they did. I got corn tortillas (reintroducing non-gluten grains tomorrow), shredded cheese (dairy in a few days), half & half, sprouted wheat bread (next weekend), pre-chopped butternut squash (I just don't have time to wrestle with a whole one these days, and I only needed two cups, which this package conveniently contained), fresh organic thyme (okay this wasn't exactly necessary), spring mix, bananas, fresh parsnips (weirdly expensive given that it's winter), carrots, garlic, pork loin roast, a whole chicken, a package of bacon, Triscuits (for next weekend), plantain chips (should not have ordered two bags!), onion powder, coconut aminos, cat litter, and canned cat food (the latter two were paid out of the cats' sinking fund). $94.39 (only $68.21 without the cats' stuff - much more reasonable)
After putting away the groceries, I made the Instant Pot rich and saucy tacos from the Whole30 Slow Cooker cookbook. I served them on lettuce leaves that I bought last Sunday that were still good! (Tomorrow I'll have the tacos on corn tortillas and Monday lunch will be on lettuce again - fingers crossed it's still good then!) While the IP was doing its thing, I was hustling to get ready for the virtual murder mystery party - it was Valentine's Day dinner cruise-themed. I was kind of tired and not super-stoked to be socializing, but I'm very glad I did, it was a lot of fun (plus I had the second-most votes for the murderer, although it was not me!)
Day 7 total: $94.39
Total spending: $1,658.81
Ouch, another high-spend week. But it was mostly my usual first-of-the-month bills: mortgage, HOA, savings.
- Groceries: 156.64 (two weeks' worth!)
- Laundry: 4.50
- Credit cards: 135
- Mortgage: 579.13
- HOA: 259.89
- Savings: 300
- Entertainment: 172.17
- Pharmacy: 51.48
No comments:
Post a Comment