Of gifts, ballots and a new bedspread: A spending diary

Dear Mom: Please skip Wednesday’s spending since your birthday gift’s price is discussed.

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These spending diaries are a way for me to be more cognizant of my spending. They’re also a peek into my daily life for those who care.

For those who are new, my style of “spending” is a little convoluted. I have two checking accounts. I keep the majority of my money in the secondary account, transferring $280 a week into the main account. But I charge everything to the card to maximize rewards. As charges accrue, I transfer money out of the main account into the secondary one. Then I make a weekly payment on my credit card.

A tad confusing, perhaps, but it works for me. Anyway, here’s how spending went this week.

Thursday

I woke up to a decent number of emails, but I got through them relatively quickly. Aaron texted to apologize for not replying to my evening texts the previous night. I told him no worries, I figured he went to bed before I sent them, and I knew he had a flight (he’s going for his pilot’s license) first thing.

I told him to let me know what time he wanted to come by, and he said he’d keep me posted.

My paycheck had cleared, so I set up all the various account transfers, paid my credit cards and started a new financial week.

At 10 a.m. I had a doctor appointment. I have to see him once a month to get my energy medication refilled. There was no copay, but on the way home I was starving and it was 11 a.m. So I got an early lunch at Dairy Queen ($11.71).

Then I came home, kept up on emails and chatted with friends. At 1 p.m. I still hadn’t heard from Aaron with a time, so I texted him and then lay down for a nap. When I woke up, he’d responded that he was in a meeting and would let me know once it was over.

I said okay and sorry for interrupting. He replied a bit later that it was no problem. It’s nice to have a guy I can text (a reasonable amount) without feeling like I’m going to spook him.

At any rate, I was surprised when 5:30 p.m. rolled around and I still hadn’t heard from him. I texted saying I guessed the meeting/work in general had run late. Then I watched TV and grew increasingly irritated at the lack of response. We’d had issues of his texts not coming through before, so I figured maybe that was the problem and that I’d try again if I didn’t hear back by the following afternoon.

The Hulu charge hit my account for $6.46.

I called it a night at 8:30 p.m. and was in bed by 9 p.m. But I didn’t fall asleep until after 10.

Total spent: $18.17

Friday

I woke up and checked texts. Nothing. And he gets up significantly earlier than I do. So I was irritated/confused/worried that yet another thing was falling through.

There were very few emails, so I got through them quite quickly. Then I did a little blog work, editing and scheduling the spending diary for the following day.

At 9 a.m. the dentist called. His hygienist had called in sick, so he was asking if I could come in at noon. I said sure.

At 9:30 a.m. I sent Aaron a text: “Hey just checking in. Everything okay?” I hoped I’d get a text back quickly saying the issue had once again been my not getting his texts. I did not. Ugggggghhhhh. Not again. Please no.

I messaged with friends and generally killed time. Then I left for my dental cleaning. Afterward, I was right by the dollar store, so I stopped in for a few things, including a new pair of reading glasses, since mine inexplicably cracked. I spent $5.17. After that, got a moisturizer at CVS ($6.83 after Extrabux and a coupon, so $10.10 went into Saved Savings) and stopped at the pet store to get Josie more cat food ($40.66).

Still no text from Aaron. I honestly just wanted to cry in frustration and bewilderment. The morning before he was enthusiastic about me and seeing me that night, and now silence. Ugh.

I bemoaned things to a friend and wrestled with very bad pizza cravings. Which I eventually gave into in the throes of self-pity. (Hey, remember when I thought I was going to stop eating my emotions? That was cute.) Ten minutes later, Aaron called.

Apparently, once again neither of our texts were getting through. So each of us was relieved that the other wasn’t ghosting. His meetings had run until past even my bedtime (and he normally goes to sleep earlier than I do), so he hadn’t been able to get back to me. He worried that the silence was my being mad at him.

He said he could come by at 4:30 or 5 p.m. Unfortunately, it was too late to cancel the (thankfully only personal-sized) pizza, so I went and picked it up ($11.32 after tip).

I munched for a bit, then got ready; and Aaron showed up at 5 p.m. He left at 8:30 so that I could have a video chat with my trivia group. That ended around 10:30 p.m., but I felt snack-y. So I watched some Archer episodes and munched. I went to bed around midnight and fell asleep around 1 p.m.

Total spent: $74.08

Saturday

I woke up at 10 a.m. and texted Aaron to say that I hoped he enjoyed his hike with friends. Apparently, an old coworker was in town and wanted to see Aaron and a mutual friend. Both the coworker and the mutual friend had gotten tested for COVID shortly before the guy got here, so Aaron had agreed to spend time with them.

He replied that the location of the hike had been moved from Tucson (about an hour away) to the Sonoran Desert (about 2.5 hours away). So we agreed he probably wouldn’t be able to see me that night as originally planned.

I FaceTimed with Mom, and we chatted for quite a while. She hung up a little before noon. Then I finally sat down and filled out my ballot. It wasn’t too bad, but I was paging back and forth between three different booklets and still had to look up a few things online. Still, at least it was done.

I was out of contact lens solution, so I ran to Walgreens and picked up that and a few other things ($21.32). I used a coupon for the lens solution, so $2 went into Saved Savings.

My bad-foods cravings have been awful lately — not sure what’s going on there. But Groupon had a deal for Dairy Queen ($10 of food for $5.06). So I bought one of those (through Mr. Rebates, of course). I still owed $1.05 on top of the Groupon.

I came home, turned on Fargo’s latest season and chilled out.

I had signed up for Raise texts for a $10 off $100 coupon, so I bought Target gift cards for my protein bars for a total of $90. Amounts larger than $75 don’t come out of my weekly funds, so I didn’t transfer anything from my account.

After a little more TV, I went back to looking at duvet covers I’d bookmarked. And decided it was time to take the plunge.

See, just under two years ago, I got a gorgeous comforter set when I finally had the house to myself. I absolutely love it. Alas, it attracts stains like crazy. I spent $65 on the comforter, and have thus far spent $100 on dry cleaning. So I needed to get a duvet cover, so that I could deal with stains by just throwing it in the washing machine.

It had taken a while to find one I liked enough to commit — did I mention I really love my current comforter? — but I finally did. (As an Amazon affiliate, I receive commissions for purchases made through my links.)

Unfortunately, after finally settling on a cover, I found out that it’s not wide enough for my current comforter. So I had to buy a duvet insert too, though at least that was only $29 for a king. (Again, as an Amazon affiliate, I receive commissions for purchases through my Amazon links.)

The result was a painful $136.04. But I comfort myself with the reminder that I won’t be paying any more dry cleaning.

I messaged with a friend and, once I was caught up on the thus-far released Fargo episodes, I switched to the final season of Schitt’s Creek. Yay! But also noooo don’t end!

While I was messaging with the friend, we somehow got on the subject of a) hilarious Amazon sex toy reviews and b) a certain sexual accessory that comes in ring form. So I naturally started looking those up. Because what else are you gonna do on a Saturday in a pandemic?

The names/descriptions were utterly hilarious, so I started sending her links and commentary. It was so funny that I ended up making a Twitter thread. (Caution: Obviously NSFW.) I couldn’t decide which was my favorite description: the one mentioning “rooster delay” or the one that referred to the product’s “innovative o-shaped design” — or the description whose first three bullet points in the list were “waterproof.”

I called it a night around 10:15 and was in bed around half an hour later but didn’t fall asleep until around midnight.

Total spent: $255.47 ($29.43 out of weekly funds)

Sunday

I woke up around 9:30 a.m. and did a quick cleaning of my bathroom’s shower stall, sink and mirror, then poured some bleach in the main bathroom’s toilet and wiped down the sink and counter there, then changed my sheets and started the Roomba.

I’d texted Aaron to say good morning and I hoped his hike yesterday was fun. He confirmed that yes, they had done another one this morning, and now his friends had decided to drive to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon (about a 3.5-hour drive).

So I said I guessed I’d see him Monday or Tuesday. It was a bit of a bummer, since it meant I had a lot of hours to fill that day.

I settled into getting the next day’s post ready. Thankfully, it took less than an hour, since it was mostly written already. Then for lack of anything better to do, I started a laundry ($3.50 into the Washer/Dryer fund).

When the Roomba was done, it wouldn’t charge on the base. I tried cleaning the nodes for both the machine itself and the charging base. No dice. So I concluded it was a battery issue. I bought a new one on Amazon for $20.84 after tax.

I chatted with a friend a little and otherwise tried to ignore how very many hours I had to fill before the day was over.

I rested up and mid-afternoon dyed my hair to get rid of my gray roots. Then I sat around and finished the final season of Schitt’s Creek. Really nicely wrapped up, but I’m sad the show is over.

Around 6 p.m. I started wanting to eat something but didn’t know what — except that it definitely wasn’t in my house and that I wasn’t actually super hungry. At 8 p.m. I finally had a real appetite and settled on Jack in the Box, so I ran out and got that for $13.77.

I called it a night around 9:30 p.m. and was asleep around 10:30 p.m.

Total spent: $38.11

Monday

I woke up to a slew of emails — none of which I could answer. There was a glitch in the system, and the boss hadn’t been able to get a hold of his contact at the company whose email system we use. So nothing had been answered since mid-Saturday. It was maddening to see the emails all piled up.

I texted Aaron that I hoped he’d had fun at the Grand Canyon. He said they had, but he hadn’t gotten back until 11 p.m. and that he’d driven 12 hours the day before. I told him maybe he needed a rest day before he came to hang out. But he insisted he wanted to come over and would let me know the time later.

I spent a couple of hours watching more emails pile up with no word from my boss. Then I gave into frustration and ordered a French toast breakfast and biscuits with apple butter from Cracker Barrel ($15.01 after tip). I need to work on stopping emotional eating. But admittedly it was damn good food. And between the breakfast and the several biscuits, I didn’t actually eat anything else all day. So at least I got good bang for my buck.

I came home and ate and… waited some more. I watched TV and kept an eye on the computer to see if anything came through. A little before 1 p.m. I confirmed with Aaron that he’d come around 4:30 or 5.

The email issue still wasn’t resolved when I clocked out at 3 p.m.

Aaron showed up at 4:30 p.m. and suddenly it was 9:30 p.m. He wast still weary from the previous two days, so he was half asleep and very obviously not safe to drive. Which means that now he’s not only spent the night but — since my mom keeps me stocked in toiletries via stocking stuffers so I had extra and therefore felt compelled to offer one — he also now has a toothbrush here.

So that happened. And is definitely not at all terrifying. Ahem.

Total spent: $15.01

Tuesday

Aaron left around 4:30 a.m. (ye gods that man gets up early), so I got up to lock the door after him and then passed back out until my alarm.

When I woke up for good, I found out that the email issue still hadn’t be resolved. The boss had set up a workaround, so we were currently answering emails in Outlook, which is a bit of a pain compared to the normal system.

The good news was that the other gal and the boss had tackled the backlog, so I just had the normal number of emails waiting for me.

I caught up around 9:30 a.m. and texted Aaron good morning. Then messaged with a friend a bit off and on throughout the morning in between emails.

I tried using the new battery on the Roomba but it didn’t work. I was bummed that the machine was apparently dead.

Around noon, I texted Aaron to let him know that my trivia group was definitely going to do virtual trivia on Wednesday, so I wouldn’t be available. Meanwhile, he was busy with work all night, so we agreed we’d see each other Thursday.

I texted my tenant to see if she’d filled out her ballot since I was dropping mine off. After dropping off the ballots, I went across the street to the grocery store for my weekly trip. Unfortunately, they were out of any of the frozen meals I like, so I’ll probably have to go back to the store in a few more days. I spent $12.94 and $1.81 went into Saved Savings.

I finished the day and had therapy. Telesessions have no copay, so I put the normal $25 into Saved Savings.

I watched TV and chatted with my friend for a while. Around 7 p.m. a friend called and we ended up talking for nearly two hours.

I sent a message to Aaron, who turned out to be very frustrated with the out-of-town friend. I guess the guy went a little crazy. Despite being super cautious initially — even refusing to visit a friend in California since she hadn’t gotten around to getting a COVID test — he apparently got increasingly lax as his visit progressed.

He had started taking his mask off and getting too close to people in public, etc. Aaron had apparently kicked him out on Sunday out of frustration/concern. The guy went to stay with the other friend, but she kicked him out Monday. According to Aaron, the guy was now planning a trip to Florida. I guess burnout is hitting hard.

We said goodnight, and I was in bed around 10 p.m. I fell asleep around 10:30 p.m.

Total spent: $38.06

Wednesday

My body did not want to get up, but I forced myself out of bed. There weren’t many emails, so once I was caught up, I did some blog work.

I started a return for the Roomba battery (-$20.84) and chose to drop it off at Kohl’s. But before I left, I decided to give the Roomba one more chance. I hadn’t been able to get one screw to tighten and wondered if that were keeping the battery too loose to connect.

The screw was small, so there was much cursing and fumbling, but I did finally fix it. I went to try plugging Roomba in and noticed the base was sitting on top of the cord. I picked it up to move it, and the plug connecting the base to the charging cord fell off.

Yep, a loose plug had been the issue the whole time. D’oh! But in positive news, this meant I was able to keep the old battery, saving myself $20.84, and also wouldn’t need to get a new Roomba, thereby saving me hundreds.

I got an email from Harry & David. I get Mom some Royal Riviera pears every year for her birthday in December. During cold, dark months, it’s a huge treat to get fresh fruit. The company was offering them for $10 off plus free shipping (for Alaska, that alone is nearly $20 in savings). So I paid $29.98 total.

I opened up and put together the duvet and cover. It’s very pretty, but we’ll see how long that lasts, since it turns out the cover’s design is embroidered rather than a print. Josie sometimes randomly launches herself off the bed, which means her claws snag on the thread.

We were doing virtual trivia that night, so I sent my friend $6 to cover my signup fee.

After work, I got a few things from Walgreens ($2.98 plus $5 in Saved Savings) plus takeout ($9.34 plus a $1 tip in cash).

When I got home, I munched and chilled out. The monthly charge for my massage (if I let them auto-charge me, my massage is only $50 a month instead of $70) hit my account.

At 6 p.m. I tuned into virtual trivia. The format is a smidge clunky, but it was nice to be back to doing group trivia. Even if we came in 13th. (There were 28 groups, so even though we didn’t actually miss all that many questions, the ones we got wrong hit hard.)

Aaron texted during that time to see how I was doing, since we hadn’t talked that day. After trivia I messaged with him a bit. It looked like he might have to work into the night again the following day, so we agreed I’d check in around noon.

I started getting ready for bed at 9 p.m. and was asleep by 10:30 p.m.

Total spent: $83.46 net after refund ($82.46 net out of weekly after refund)

Total spent: $522.36 ($295.32 out of weekly funds)

Eek that’s a lot of money! Even ignoring the $226 for the duvet and gift cards, that’s a helluva lot of money. In fact, this is the first time since the divorce (nearly two years ago) that weekly spending has lasted me only a week. I was going to blame takeout — which was definitely hefty — but it was only about 1/6 of the money spent. Which is still a lot, but I think mainly it was just a confluence of expenses piling up ($50 massage, $40 cat food, etc.)

How was everyone else’s spending this week?

Related reading:

Of medication, heavenly pizza and a new guy: A spending diary

Of makeup, car repairs and (sigh) a return to the dating app: A spending diary