Of fillings, clothes and hungry pups: A spending diary

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 $250 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 and I woke up at 7 a.m. but I didn’t get going for about 40 minutes. I got home, caught up on emails quickly, corresponded with some people following up from my emails the previous day and then lay down for a bit to rest. I hadn’t gotten quite enough sleep.

I didn’t really sleep but felt a bit better.

I’d hoped to go try the Aqua Zumba class at the gym, but I was still sore from the workout my trainer Elston had put me through on Tuesday. The fallout had been so bad that on Wednesday both the masseuse and Aaron had worked on my glutes and hamstrings — not hard to convince a guy to rub your butt and I was still too sore Thursday. Stupid lunges.

I messaged with a friend because I’d been very up and down emotionally about the fact that Aaron was getting more busy and we already were only seeing each other once a week and what that meant. So I screwed up the courage (I hate anything resembling confrontation or, really, just laying out my feelings) to have a video call with him.

I said that I knew he has a lot of important goals that he strongly feels he needs to achieve, and I respect that. But I told him I’ve been open about not being okay with once-a-week visits long-term.

So I said I need to know if he realistically thought he could get back to multiple visits per week. He thought about it and said yeah he thought so and if he missed a second visit one week, he’d try to make it up the next week. I think the last bit is overly optimistic. But at least he seemed convinced it was feasible.

There’s still the uncertainty of whether it’ll happen — and my brain hates uncertainty — but it answered part of the question. So we’ll see how things go in the near future.

If it doesn’t work out, it’ll suck a bit, but at least I’m not taking it personally the way I probably would’ve in the past. Sometimes two people just have different priorities.

I finished up my workday, then got some takeout with a gift card ($9.83 into Saved Savings) plus a $1 tip from cash in my wallet.

I watched a little TV then got ready and left for trivia. I get off work earlier than the rest of the group, so I went a little early to snag a table.

We all agreed it was a really cute spot, and the food was good. I had a fresh squeezed blackberry lemonade and a brownie (which was entirely too big to be $3.50) for a total of $10.83 after tax and tip.

We came in second, which we considered pretty darn good for our first outing. But it was 9 p.m. by the time we were done, so I didn’t get home until 9:30 p.m. and had a tough time settling down to get ready for bed for some reason. I got in bed around 10:30 p.m. but didn’t fall asleep for at least an hour.

Total spent: $21.66 ($20.66 out of weekly funds)

Friday

I got up begrudgingly but got caught up on emails in a reasonable amount of time.

I left for my 10 a.m. dentist appointment where I had to get three small fillings. Whee. Thanks to my dental add-on benefit, I only paid $89.76 for all three. So that’s a small relief. I don’t take amounts that large out of my weekly spending.

On the way home, I picked up a prescription that was ready ($30.13 thanks to GoodRx) and some cheese and crackers for later ($6.49).

I came home, got caught up on emails and then lay down for a bit because I was weary and had a video session with my personal trainer at 1 p.m.

I felt a bit better and after resting even though I didn’t sleep, and Elston worked my upper body mostly since I was only just barely recovered from Tuesday’s lunges and squats.

After work I chilled out, just eating and watching some TV. Aaron video called at 7 p.m. because I told him I wanted to say hi before he left. He was taking off very early Saturday for a 12-mile hike in Sedona. He’d be gone all weekend (on Sunday they were either going to wander Sedona itself or go on another hike), so I wanted to tell him bye and to have fun.

He had to go to bed early since he had to leave the house at 6 a.m., so we hung up around 7:30.

I was hungry again, and nothing in the house appealed to me nor did takeout. So I went to a different Fry’s so I could pick up some hummus and a few other noshes ($14.98).

I called it a night around 10:30 p.m. and was asleep around 11:30.

Total spent: $161.58 ($71.82 out of weekly funds)

Saturday

I woke up around 9 a.m. and cleaned a bunch of things that had been neglected, including dusting the ceiling fans. I love my Swiffer extender because it lets me avoid dragging the stepstool around the the house for that chore. (As an Amazon affiliate, I am compensated for purchases through my links.)

I also started a laundry ($3.50 to the Washer/Dryer fund).

I had agreed to dogsit, which was easy since the friend lived very nearby. Besides, petsitters are expensive for even one dog, and multiple ones were involved.

But I belatedly got a message from her — she’d been having issues with her data — that she hadn’t had time to feed them that morning before she left. It was 10 a.m. by then — three hours after their usual time — so I zoomed over.

My legs were thoroughly pummeled/I was semi-deafened by jumping, excitedly barking small dogs. But they quickly settled into eat, I kept an eye on them so no one stole food from a slower eater, and then I sat down and petted everyone for a few minutes before taking off.

My CarePass $10 Extrabucks had come in, and I had just used my last Swiffer Duster. So I got some with a BOGO50 deal plus some vinegar, which I use for cleaning. The total after the CarePass rewards was $2.58. Since I pay the equivalent of $4/month for the CarePass and get a $10 reward, I put $6 into Saved Savings.

I also bought some more sports bras at Target. Now that I’m working out more — thus the sports bras are actually getting sweaty when I wear them — I needed a couple more.

I found some $16 ones, so the end total was $33.78, but I have a Target gift card balance from discounted GCs that I buy. So nothing came out of the weekly funds for that.

Also, khaki shorts. My current pair probably don’t really fit and have developed a small hole anyway. So I went to the Old Navy site only to find out that both styles I’d wanted to try were completely sold out — in both my current size and my usual one.

At this point, it wasn’t even May yet! Argh.

So I had to resign myself to hitting the outlet mall the next day in the hopes they had something similar still in stock.

I rested until I left for the gym at 3:30 p.m. I was worried about going on a weekend, but at that time of day there weren’t many more people than usual.

This time, I wised up and just started with manual mode on the elliptical — I had kept trying to do a weight loss one (which involved intervals of higher resistance/incline) and having to switch to manual partway through) — and I was able to do 25 minutes instead of 20. Progress!

I stopped off at the grocery store again thanks to cravings, spending $9.69. I then chilled out the rest of the night, running over briefly to feed the dogs dinner but otherwise just watching TV and reading some more of Evicted. (Again, as an Amazon affiliate, I’m compensated for purchases through my links.) It’s tough to read about but really interesting.

I got in bed around 10:30 p.m. and fell asleep about an hour later.

Total spent: $52.05 ($18.27 out of weekly funds)

Sunday

At about 4:30 a.m. I woke up with a very sore left arm. The area around the crook my elbow hurt — a lot. This has happened one other time. Best I can figure, I slept on it. But whatever had happened… Ow.

I got up put the long rice sock in the microwave, applied some muscle rub to the area and lay back down with the arm over a pillow (to stretch it) and the rice sock draped over it.

I woke up again about 90 minutes later with the arm still aching, so I repeated the process. I woke up for good around 8 a.m. The arm was a bit better but I still had to massage it — especially some knots in my forearm — a bunch before I could even partially extend/bend it without wincing.

Once I could, I went over to feed and pet the dogs. Then I came home and wrote up the next day’s post.

At 11 a.m., I headed to the outlet mall for shorts. Partway there I realized I was pretty thirsty but had forgotten my water bottle. So I stopped at QT and got a slushie for $1.31.

The mall was surprisingly busy. At least it’s an outdoor mall, I guess. But when I got to the Old Navy factory store, I didn’t find any khaki shorts, only linen ones. I already have linen pants, so that would be redundant. Also, the prices there were ridiculous. Old Navy outlet jean shorts should not be $34.99.

I went over to Gap Factory and had a bit more luck, getting a size 10 and a size 12 for $38.20 after tax.

Driving home, I realized I was ravenous. My usual small meal wasn’t going to cut it. So I stopped at DQ and got a chicken strips meal and a Blizzard for $11.38. Guess the size 10 shorts will have to wait a little bit.

I came home, ate, rested and then headed out to the gym to try to do another workout. Unfortunately, apparently my gym closes at 4 p.m. on Sundays. And I got there at 3:37 p.m. So I fit in 18.5 minutes before I had to stop, wipe down the machine and leave. But at least it was something.

I came home, stretched and then chilled out until it was time to feed/scratch the heads and butts of the pups.

Then I came home and just watched TV and played online for the rest of the night.

I called it a night around 10 p.m. but it was pretty warm in the bedroom. So at 11 p.m. I had to get up, open the window and get out my standing fan to blow cooler air in. Then I was finally able to sleep.

Total spent: $50.89

Monday

I woke up 15 minutes before my alarm, panicked and convinced it hadn’t gone off and I was late working/feeding the dogs. A great start to the day. Sigh.

I fed the cat, put in my contacts, put on sunscreen and waited for it to sink in (yay desert life — I put on sunscreen any time I leave the house to do more than take out the trash) and fed the dogs.

I came home and started my workday, which was pretty quiet overall. So I tried to lie down but couldn’t fall asleep. So I just lay down off and on throughout the day. If nothing else, it preserved energy for my afternoon session with Elston.

I made it through the workday and even through my training session. Then I tried to rest until it was time to go feed the pups. I was pretty exhausted by then, so I lay down for most of the rest of the night.

Total spent: $0

Tuesday

I woke up feeling semi-refreshed, which was a nice change of pace. I went over and fed the dogs, then got started on my day.

There wasn’t a huge amount to do work-wise. but unfortunately I had plenty of follow-ups I could do on open cases.

It was only going to be 72 degrees that day, so I opened the front and back doors and my bedroom window to let the cool air in. I’ve been doing this most mornings to stave off turning on the A/C.

Aaron messaged around noon to say hi, but didn’t respond too much after the first couple of replies. The day before he’d said both Monday and Tuesday would be busy, so I figured he was stuck in a bunch of meetings.

I got tired but once again wasn’t able to nap. Throughout the day my abs had gotten increasingly sore from Monday’s workout, and my hamstrings were starting to complain a bit too.

Still, when the workday was over I decided to at least attempt a workout.

I only managed just over 20 minutes, but that’s still enough to qualify as fat-burning activity. So I tried to focus on that.

I had wanted to do trivia that night, but only two of us were going to be free. But while I was stretching after my cardio ordeal, a third person announced he was free and did we still want to go?

So after my relaxing hydromassage chair session, I fed the dogs and came home to get ready for the 7 p.m. trivia. I had only had about 800 calories about 12 hours into my day, so at the restaurant, I basically inhaled an entree.

A fourth person ended up being free too, so we had a decent-sized group and once again managed to win second place.

As I was signing the tab, I was tired and glanced at the receipt calculations for tip. Unfortunately, I misread 35% as 25%, so I ended up paying $21.49. Ouch. But a fun time was had.

I got home and was in bed by 10 p.m. Surprisingly, I fell asleep pretty quickly.

Total spent: $21.49

Wednesday

I woke up an hour before my alarm with my stomach rumbling. I grabbed a protein bar and then lay back down, but apparently I was awake for good. Sigh.

I used the time to finally put away some laundry, run the Roomba and a couple other small things. Then I ran over and fed the dogs before coming home and starting work.

I tried to lie down around 11 a.m. but I couldn’t sleep.

At 12:30 p.m. I ran out and got gas for $29.94. Then I went to Fry’s to get strawberries which were once again on sale for 4/$5. Yum! I spent $19.29.

Aaron got in touch around 2 p.m. to say he had to do a short video call from 4 to 5 p.m. but wanted to come over before that, then we could hang out until we had to pick up a friend at the airport.

I chilled out in the bedroom while he did his work thing. At 6:30 p.m. we went and fed the dogs. They’re sweet, but I was relieved to be done.

Aaron and I were both hungry, so we headed to an area not far from the airport and got some takeout ($31.98 — ouch, food is expensive these days). Then we headed over and picked the friend up. I paid $2 out of my cash for parking because I very much hate circling a terminal. Though I guess now that I have a cell phone, the cell phone lot wouldn’t be so bad of an option.

We got back to my place at 9:30 p.m. and got ready for bed but didn’t fall asleep for about an hour.

Total spent: $83.21 ($81.61 out of weekly funds)

Total spent: $390.88 ($264.74 out of weekly funds)

Not a fun week, money-wise. Obviously, almost $90 was the dentist bill, plus $38 for the shorts, $34 for sports bras and $30 for gas. So those are not quite half the general spending. But yeah, still not great for miscellaneous spending either.

How did everyone else’s weekly spending go?

Related reading:

Of Costco items, amazing ice cream and a truly painful bar bill: My 100th (!) spending diary

Of earbuds, doctor visits and a surprisingly boring BDSM display: A spending diary