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 tired and groggy, but I got up and got as much done as I could before I had to take Josie to the vet.
While I was waiting for her intake, I had her in the carrier on the bench. Every time I went to pet her through the mesh sides, she moved to the center. I think she was sulking. She may have been mad because when I grabbed at her to get her in the carrier, she tried to run so I ended up yanking her tail a little.
I came back and worked pretty steadily until about 1 p.m. when the vet called. Apparently, Josie was so uncooperative — she’s usually not happy, but not hostile — they couldn’t do much. She growled while they tried to listen to her heart and belly. So they said they were going to give me plastic litter to use so I could get a urine sample and come back. They were also giving me a mild sedative that I needed to give her the next time I took her in. Oops.
I finished the workday and left to go pick her up. I picked up a few things at Walgreens and CVS ($7.99) and then paid $19.63 at Banfield for the light sedative and the plastic litter. They forgot to give me the latter. I tried calling and someone said she’d go check but after 17 minutes on hold I decided to just call back in the morning.
Josie skittered away for a bit after eating. But surprisingly she didn’t hide under a bed and even came and sat on me for a while. I guess I’m forgiven?
I ate and then lay down in bed and video chatted with Aaron for a bit. Shortly after I hung up, Jen messaged to see whether I could watch the last Bridgerton episode.
After that, it was 8 p.m. Jen had been having bad sleep, so she was going to try to rest. Since I’d been inexplicably exhausted all day, I decided an earlier bedtime was a good idea.
Total spent: $27.62
Friday
I got up and had an okay, if not great, number of emails. I don’t love extra work, but at least when I have more emails, I feel like I have more job security.
Banfield called at 7:30 to check on Josie. They confirmed that the plastic litter was out of stock, so I could either have a refund or they could call the next week when it was supposed to come in. I said we should just do the latter.
Between work and messaging with my friend about relationship stuff (but mostly the former), I worked straight through til quitting time. Eesh.
After work, I kept messaging with my friend and started working on a greeting card design on Zazzle. I had wanted to send my friend a funny Valentine’s Day card — well, two of them, actually — but to my astonishment, no one had made the inside message I wanted. So I had decided to DIY.
I got pretty close to being happy with it, but the spacing was still slightly off. And then I realized I’d chosen a small greeting card. So I’d have to redo it on the larger card size. Argh. But since I’d already chosen the font and colors, it wasn’t that big a deal, really.
Around 6 p.m. Aaron video called to say hi. We groused about waiting for the test result and otherwise chatted. Then his meal got delivered and I was hungry too, so we said bye. But before I hung up he said to call him later.
I ate and watched TV and generally chilled out until about 8:30 p.m. Then I called Aaron again and we chatted for quite a while.
Suddenly it was 11:30 p.m. My friend had sent me some messages, so we traded a few and I climbed into bed but didn’t fall asleep for probably another hour.
Total spent: $0
Saturday
I woke up briefly at 8 a.m. and fed the cat. Then I crawled back into bed and slept for another two and a half hours. Ahhhh.
I came out to the living room and goofed off a little. Then FaceTimed with my mom for a while. Suddenly, it was 2:30 p.m. and I needed to start working on my post for Monday.
Instead, I went back to Zazzle and did the new greeting card. I improved it somewhat — changing the color of the text, adding a little wording, etc. — and finally around 5 p.m. I made the purchase. PayPal had sent me a deal where I’d automatically get $5 off using PayPal. And I signed up for a free trial for shipping. So in the end two greeting cards cost $1.02.
I also bought some chocolate for my friend because I suspected her partner wouldn’t do anything for the day, especially while they’re having issues. The stuff I wanted was hard to get locally, though not terribly expensive, so I spent $18.86 including shipping on seven chocolate bars of assorted flavors.
Aaron messaged confirming that his test results hadn’t come in. I didn’t really expect them to have a two-day turnaround but… darn. So I watched TV and ate something.
Around 9 p.m. my friend who was supposed to have A Talk with her partner messaged with an update. Not much got resolved and she was very confused and hurt. So we messaged quite a while, to the point that we messaged as I got ready for bed, but it was still after 11 p.m. when I actually finally lay down. I fell asleep around midnight.
Total spent: $19.88
Sunday
I once again woke up bleary-eyed to feed the cat, then crawled back into bed. When I finally got up, it was still a fight for consciousness. And 10 a.m. I guess I really needed sleep.
The charge for my dental add-on hit the card for $32.
I found out a makeup product I like (and which I’ll be out of in a few months) may be getting discontinued. So I spent $25.60 for that.
I worked on a post for a few hours. Then I had an idea for a more apt card for my friend. Guess I shouldn’t have bought so hastily but oh well, it was only another $3.01 for the second version.
My friend with relationship issues messaged and we kept it light for a bit. Then it came out that she’d finally called off the relationship. While I was relieved — he was terrible for her — I was sad for her. So we talked a bit about what the second talk had yielded and why she felt that was the next step and how upset she was.
I hadn’t heard from Aaron, so I assumed no test results had been forthcoming. So I watched TV, messaged with my friend and generally chilled out.
I tried video calling him, but he didn’t pick up. Later, he messaged for apologizing for missing it and said he was running errands and would call me soon.
He called a bit late and we chatted for a while. He’d had a bunch of things to do that day. He’d recently accepted that his love for Josie and his friend Blythe’s cats meant he needed some of his own. So the day before, he’d applied for a bonded pair of kittens. So one of the errands that day had been meeting and being interviewed.
Unfortunately the specific kittens had a pending adoption, but they said he would be the back-up if the current one fell through. Then the lady called him later and asked if he wanted to meet another pair. They’re apparently adorable and named Nimbus and Stratus. As some of you will recall, he recently got his pilot’s license, so we agreed it felt meant to be.
The cats were getting fixed and vaccinated in the coming week, so he was supposed to see them again the next Saturday.
We hung up around 9:30 p.m. I hung up with him but I couldn’t fall asleep until after 11 p.m.
Total spent:$35.01
Monday
I woke up around 4:30 a.m. with a foot itch. Thanks to what I suspect is nerve damage, once it starts itching it takes forever to calm down, despite multiple applications of lotion. In this case, even that didn’t fix it. So around 5 a.m. I got up and figured at least work would distract me.
At 9 a.m. I lay back down, but I couldn’t go back to sleep. Instead I brainstormed some ideas for more funny sayings I could put on items in a Zazzle store. Sigh.
I came back out and sat down, did a little work and then went to get up. And yelped. Somehow my back had freaked out while I was in the chair, and my lower back was incredibly stiff. Like, “I can’t straighten up all of the way and getting out of a sitting position is painful” stiff. I lay down and it still sort of twanged, although admittedly I was rounding my lower back to stretch.
I got up very minimally and with great difficulty — seriously, when I went from lying down to sitting on the bed (rather than getting up as normal), I whimpered and when I the stood up, I tried to stand too straight and almost faceplanted into the bed as I instinctively swung back down to stop the pain — and… a package had arrived. And I couldn’t see whose it was. So I took out my camera, took a picture, zoomed in, determined it was the tenant’s and explained she had to pick it up because I literally couldn’t.
I was low on groceries, so I finally had a reason to use my $20 off $50 Instacart coupon. After tip and service fee, the total was $39.71.
I gathered the food I wanted and lay down in bed (slightly propped up) eating and watching TV and heating my back. I talked to my friend Jen for about an hour starting around 7:30 p.m. I started getting ready for bed and then realized I wasn’t completely sure I could get my pants off.
Somehow I managed, though I couldn’t grab them so they fell to the floor and were thus lost to me forever. I took a hot shower and let the water run on my back on the pulse setting. It helped some.
I heated up the rice sock one more time and put that under me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get comfortable — I was trying to sleep with pillows under my knees to keep my lower back flatter — and didn’t fall asleep until nearly 1 a.m.
Total spent: $39.71
Tuesday
I woke up to my back feeling a bit better, if still stiff. So I came out and sat in the chair and… within an hour it had randomly tweaked twice. I swear I don’t even think I moved. Until the pain made me jolt.
So I took the computer to the bedroom, propped myself up a bit on some pillows and worked from there.
I chatted with my friend going through the breakup. Her now-ex called and tried to chat about life (his, of course) as though things were fine. It ended up in an argument. Then he called her at work and they argued more until she hung up on him. She now only responds to texts with, essentially, “My feelings are not up for debate. Please only contact me about the logistics for your move out.” And didn’t even engage when he tried to pick a fight.
So proud of her, sniff sniff.
The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. My back calmed down quite a bit. Aaron messaged and video called some when he got breaks during his (ugh) 8 to 6 training.
He offered to come over, but my lower back was tender to the touch from my trying to work on the muscles. So there wasn’t much he could do to help. We agreed to just wait a day or two.
In the evening, my friend dropped off her heating pad, so I wouldn’t have to keep heating up the rice sock (and could keep my back flatter). She put some candy in the bag too, god love her.
Aaron called for a bit around 8, but after half an hour I said I wanted to try to get more sleep, since I’d slept too little the past two nights. I fell asleep around 9:30 p.m.
Total spent: $0
Wednesday
I woke up with my back feeling better, if not perfect. I set up again in bed and kept the heating pad on and got through my workday chatting off and on with some people online.
Email volume wasn’t huge, but as soon as I’d finish one and start on my secondary duties, another one would come in. So it was 12:30 p.m. before I caught up.
I realized that I still hadn’t gone and gotten a contacts fitting. I had to cancel the first one when Aaron’s friend had a COVID scare. Then I was so exhausted from bad sleep that I just forgot. And since then I kept forgetting to make a new appointment. Eesh. So I made one for that Friday.
I also realized I hadn’t written the next day’s post yet but I was weary and semi-uninspired.
Instead, I just finished work and watched TV. I called it a night around 9 p.m. and was asleep around 10.
Total spent: $0
Total spent: $122.22
Another low spend week. But not for a good reason, given that I was too laid up to spend on anything more than Instacart. I know some people actually find it easier to spend when they’re bored because they go online and scroll Amazon or similar sites. But I just watch TV and message friends and scroll Twitter.
Related reading:
Of healthy communication, too much pizza and not much else: A spending diary
Of painful delivery fees, groceries and playing it safe: A spending diary
My husband sometimes gets an itchy spot on his leg which can spread to his whole lower leg and last 2-3 weeks. Sometimes using Vicks will help stop it. I read that on People’s Pharmacy and thought it was worth a try.
Okay I’ll remember that one thanks!
As I began reading this post, I’d planned to comment that I looked forward to the day when you announced your friend had finally gotten out of that relationship. A couple of paragraphs later, I got my wish! Hooray! Time for her to stop wasting time on someone who apparently isn’t worth the effort.
Unfortunately, now she’s debating. I’m not thrilled but they are spending time apart and she is trying to take a very balanced view from the sound of it and ask the tough questions. So I’m hoping that will give her more clarity. I told her I’d support her in any path she chooses that she genuinely believes will lead to happiness. But I stressed “genuinely” haha
Well, shucks! I suppose a random internet stranger telling her relationships aren’t supposed to be this hard and no, he’s never going to change isn’t going to make a difference.