Of electricians, Target gift cards and cozy PJs: A spending diary

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

Aaron left at 7 a.m. and I crawled back into bed for a bit before getting up for good. I got through emails, did a little blog work and then lay down for a nap.

I caught up on emails and kept up with them as they came in. In between I messaged with some friends and played on Twitter.

The second pair of jeans I got off Poshmark came in the mail and, unlike the first pair, fit correctly. Well, with the exception that some weight gain has caused a slight muffin top. Sigh.

I was going to work out (no, really, I swear) but I had sores on my toes. Best I can tell, thanks to nerve damage, dry skin itching on my feet is magnified mightily. It usually takes some scratching, two applications of lotion and more scratching before it’ll calm down. Thankfully, it doesn’t happen a ton but when it does… Well, sores can happen. Sigh.

Unfortunately, since I’ve been mentally repeating “Start working out again, cut back on junk food” my brain was convinced that if I can’t do the former, I didn’t have to do the latter. Aka it expected candy.

I ignored it and finished up my workday. I had leftovers for dinner and a chunk of Caramello bar, hoping that would satisfy the chocolate craving. It did not.

I needed more chicken breasts anyway — I rarely cook, but it’s nice to know I can if I want/need to — so I went to the store. I got that, some candy (which was mercifully only $1.75 with coupon) and some limes. I got limes in case I decide to make lime pepper chicken for Aaron and myself in the near future. Unlikely, but you never know. The total was $9.02.

My friend Jen called shortly after I got home. Her neighbor was in crisis, so we discussed that for a bit. She said she was going to make dinner, but then we could watch more of Designated Survivor, which we’re viewing together via Teleparty.

I said to let me know when she was ready and just watched TV myself. Unfortunately, she didn’t get back to me until 7:30 p.m. and I was bushed and had decided to get ready for bed at 8 p.m. I was in bed before 9 p.m. Still didn’t fall asleep til about 10, but even that meant I got a good night’s sleep.

Total spent: $9.02

Friday

I woke up to an Internet outage with no ETA on when it would be fixed. So I had to work off my phone’s hotspot, but that was a new IP address, which my boss had to approve. I texted him, but it often took him an hour or more to notice it.

In the meantime, I went through the emails that I didn’t need access to accounts for. Then I waited what turned out to be an hour before my boss let me in. But thankfully I got caught up on emails quickly.

Netflix hit my card for $14.11.

I realized Mom hadn’t said anything about her birthday present coming, and that was the last day of the delivery window. I checked my Harry & David account and… It hadn’t even shipped yet.

I called the company and apparently the type I had ordered were sold out. (Ordering six weeks in advance didn’t put me high enough on the list???) I never received any notification of this. Not an email, call or text.

The woman assured me they’d ship as soon as more were in stock. I explained that my mother’s birthday was the next day and, uh, I’d ordered these a month and a half ago. And I was rather annoyed that they hadn’t even given me the courtesy of a heads up. Could they do anything to make this right?

The woman put me on hold and came back with a different type of pear (the one I thought I’d actually ordered, in fact — oops) and said they’d overnight it. I thanked her and then went back to waiting for an Internet connection that didn’t drain my cell data.

That finally happened around 10 a.m. Yay!

I started a load of laundry, so $3.50 went into the Washer/Dryer fund. I slept plenty previous night and the one before, but I felt drained for some reason. So I just tried to rest.

The electrician came by around noon to check why an outlet had stopped working in the guest house. Turns out, it was just a breaker issue. That’s a $225 lesson learned. (In my defense, I thought the tenant was saying only half an outlet wasn’t working. And in her defense, she checked one of the breaker boxes but didn’t realize the other one does have some controls for the guest house.)

I was taking over new duties at work, so my boss called at the end of the day to train me on some new duties.

After work I chatted with Aaron on a video call. He got hit with a last-minute project but said he’d try to get it done ASAP so he could see me Saturday.

I paid $11.14 for my latest prescription refill. One of the reasons I like CVS CarePass is that members get free prescription delivery, so I didn’t have to go to the store to get the meds. Then I rested and watched TV.

The chocolate cravings won out again, so I ran to the store. I spent $3.25 and $1.50 went to Saved Savings.

I checked a Macy’s sale and ended up getting a great deal on a beauty product I’d been debating getting more of. I paid $16.16 after tax for two of them, and a friend was going to give me $8 to get the second one.

I watched TV and ate my chocolate for the rest of the night. I started getting ready for bed a bit before 9 p.m. and fell asleep around 10:30 or 11.

Total spent: $274.66 ($49.66 out of weekliy funds

Saturday

I tried to sleep in but started waking up around 7:45 a.m. then dozing a bit then waking back up. At 8:30 I gave up and got up. I was groggy, so I sat down and just caught up on some fund transfers for the previous day’s activities.

I got an email from Target offering 10% off gift cards (up to $500 GC value). I get my protein bars there and the orders are $76ish each time. So I got the full $500 of GCs for $450. I was gonna be sooooo overbudget this month in the Miscellaneous category

I FaceTimed with Mom for about an hour, wishing her a happy birthday, then then I let her go to get stuff done. I cleaned a little around the house and checked in with Aaron. Apparently, the servers had been down all night, so he couldn’t do any work. As a result, he’d gotten bored and had some tequila, and since he rarely drinks, felt a bit hungover. We agreed it’d be better to see each other Sunday.

I watched a little TV and left to pick up two orders I’d had shipped to store: vitamins from Walgreens and sheets from Kohl’s.

I got home and changed to the sheets. It’s such a small thing, but having sheets that match the new duvet set is so nice. Aaron checked in briefly. The servers were still down, so he was going to the gym. If they weren’t fixed after that, he said he was coming over. I watched a little TV, then went to Fry’s for a couple of munchies ($4.14).

Then I watched some TV. I messaged to see how Aaron’s workout was. He said his boss had intervened and allegedly the servers would be working again not too long after he was done at the gym. So I wished him good luck.

A bit more TV watching and then I finally got around to dyeing my hair. Then I started working on Monday’s post and watching TV on my own until Jen was ready to do Teleparty. She was ready around 8:30 p.m., so I stayed up a little late to watch two episodes with her.

I fell asleep around 11:30 p.m.

Total spent: $454.14 ($4.14 out of weekly funds)

Sunday

I woke up a little after 10 a.m. and saw that Aaron had sent me a message at 12:30 a.m. saying he’d gotten some of the work done but still had more. I sent a quick message saying I hoped he’d slept well. I hoped that would prompt an update on his progress.

I got to work on the next day’s blog. It took a while and I didn’t finish it (and scheduling the social media posts) until 2 p.m. Aaron still hadn’t messaged. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to see him that day.

I had texted Mom the night before to see whether the pears had arrived. They had not. Argh. I checked the tracking status. They were in Anchorage, so presumably they’d get there Monday. Which I guess isn’t too bad, considering they had shipped Friday. But I’d been promised they would arrive Saturday, so it was mildly aggravating.

Someone on the Buy Nothing Facebook group I’m on had asked whether anyone had king sheets, so I posted some of my extra ones (which clash horribly with the new bedding) plus my old comforter set. The person who had been looking for the sheets replied to both posts within 10 minutes and we agreed she could come by the next day.

I watched some TV and at 4ish, Aaron messaged to say he was 85% finished. I congratulated him, but then he went quiet again. So I went back to watching TV.

Later he messaged to say he was done but at that point it was around 6:30 p.m We both agreed that by the time he got here, it’d be too close to bedtime. So he said that Mondays were usually iffy work-wise, but he’d let me know by 1 p.m. whether he could come by.

At 7 p.m., Jen messaged, so we watched a bit more Designated Survivor on Teleparty. I called it a night a little before 9 p.m. and was asleep around 10 p.m.

Total spent: $0

Monday

I woke up and caught up on emails. Then I started my new duties at the job. There was a backlog, so I was pretty busy.

Aaron messaged around 12:30 p.m. to say he wanted to come see me. I said cool, I could be ready by 3:45 p.m. Then I went straight back to work. I spent all but the last 30 minutes of work going back and forth between incoming emails and the new duties.

By the last half hour of my shift, my head felt fuzzy. My boss asked if I could train me on more of the duties, but I begged off saying I wasn’t sure how much new information I could take in.

After I got off work, I hopped in the shower and got ready for Aaron’s visit. He got here around 4:15 p.m.

At 6:30 p.m., we were hungry, and I am trying to eat at least slightly better. So I suggested we go to the store rather than get takeout. I did my weekly shopping while I was there, so I spent $37.94 total, including some cold cuts, cheese and rolls for us, which we toasted in the oven.

We fell asleep around 9:30 p.m.

Total spent: $37.94

Tuesday

Aaron wakes up at 6 a.m., but given that we’d gotten to bed at a reasonable hour for a change, I didn’t feel the need to crawl back to bed and sleep more. So I got started on work a little early.

I caught up on emails and then got caught up on my new duties. (Well, the ones I’d been trained on, anyway).

I messaged with friends a bit, then hyperventilated briefly. Last week, we mainly had around 16,000 to 20,000 test results come in per days with about a 25% positive rate. Tuesday’s was 12,000 out of 20,000. I was sure it was one of those flukes where a ton of positives somehow end up in one batch. Still, I was glad I’d nixed haircuts and massages.

The day passed relatively quickly, which was nice. My stomach was protesting the new, reduced calories, but I ignored it. If I got genuinely hungry (rather than just wanting junk food) I’d eat a little more. But it was mainly just cravings.

After work, I just hung out, watched TV and tried not to snack after dinner. I did have a roll with some butter, but otherwise avoided munching.

Aaron called to say hi, so we chatted for a bit. I then went back to TV and called it a night around 9:30 p.m. I was asleep by 10 p.m.

Total spent: $0

Wednesday

I woke up slightly before the alarm and so felt vaguely alert for a change when I started my workday.

Between incoming emails and my new duties, I was busy pretty much straight through the first four hours. Thing slowed down a bit, letting me work on a post a little. When I finished that at 2 p.m., I messaged Aaron — who had video called earlier but I’d been too busy to talk to — and he called me back to chat a little.

I had two prescriptions ready for pickup. I had wanted to get them delivered, but they would’ve been delivered a day after I ran out of my current meds. Sigh.

I prepaid via the CVS app ($33.86) so at least I could do a quick pickup.

A blogger friend was in town, and there was a planned meet — outdoors — but I still decided against it with cases increasing (even when there weren’t blips like the day before). I didn’t know everyone’s exposure levels and no one had mentioned bringing chairs, so I wasn’t sure how we’d distance.

I talked briefly with Aaron via video call. (It’s like he doesn’t know that text exists! But he does make up for it by frequently being shirtless.) We agreed he’d come over the next day.

I watched TV for a while and found some PJs that matched the kind Aaron had said he would love to see me in (kinda Christmas-y?) that were only $20.

His last couple of massages have definitely helped my back some, and if a super comfy thermal-shirt-and-flannel-PJ-pants set is gonna do it for him… I figured I could indulge him a bit.

The stores closest to me didn’t have it in stock, so I set a pickup order for about 13 miles away and grumbled. I watched TV and messaged with friends and played on social media. Shortly before the two-hour window for order fulfillment was up, I got a notice that the store was actually out of the item. The next closest store with the item was in Scottsdale — freakin’ 26 miles away.

But I’d already shown Aaron the item (to get him to verify it was what he had in mind), so I was committed now. So I chose the Scottsdale store and decided it’s a very good thing he’s cute.

The lady who does my beauty service texted to say she had to cancel our appointment because she wasn’t well. (Yikes!) I told her that I’d actually meant to do that anyway, as I was cancelling all services until the spike dies down. But I told her that if business got too slow from COVID to please let me know, and I would be happy to prepay for some future waxes.

Thirty minutes later, Target emailed to say that the PJs were out of stock at the second store too. The order was officially cancelled.

I decided to go to the one other store that purportedly had it in stock (but didn’t have an order pickup option). Right before I left, I got a text from a guy who had ghosted me back in February. It was most of his torso and part of his erection. Sigh. Guys have been resurfacing a lot lately — and not in a good way.

This conversation ensued. (As always, you don’t need a Twitter account to view it.) Men are exhausting, but at least my followers loved it. And I got to use the word “tonsure” in the second tweet. So… all’s well that ends well, I suppose.

Alas, when I got to the store, the PJs were (surprise, surprise) sold out. So I gave up and ordered online. To get free shipping, I had to order two, but I wasn’t completely sure the medium size would fit anyway. So I ordered both it and the large and will just return whichever one doesn’t work. Assuming they don’t cancel that order as out of stock.

The item I’m keeping will be $21.72, so that’s all I’m taking out of weekly funds.

By the time I got home, it was 9 p.m. and I was bushed. I started getting ready for bed, fielded tweets and Mom’s amused texts about the resurfaced ghoster and finally got into bed a little after 10 p.m. I was asleep by 10:30 p.m.

Total spent: $55.58

Total spent: $831.34 ($156.34 out of weekly funds)

Talk about dichotomous results! The $675 from the Target gift card and the electrician’s visit definitely packed a wallop. But the GCs will definitely get used, so they were a smart buy. As for the rest, at least I’m doing somewhat better on takeout for now. Let’s hope that trend continues!

Related reading:

Of light shows, toothbrushes and a Hulu deal: A spending diary

Of bedsheets, drain flushes and a lack of Baby Yoda: A spending diary