Of more workout clothes, tons of strawberries and one unfortunate conclusion: 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’s phone went off around 5:45 a.m. (whee) and I couldn’t really get back to sleep. At 6:45 we were both awake, but I didn’t leave until about 7:30 a.m.

I got home and started working. It was frustrating because emails kept coming in while I was trying to answer the ones from overnight. But eventually I got caught up, dealt with some of my other duties and chatted with my friend Leila about potentially starting a MeetUp group.

The current in-person groups left much to be desired. I didn’t qualify age-wise (too old, mostly, but too young in some cases) or it was for singles or it was hiking (which I want to do more of but need more practice first to make sure I don’t slow down the group). So Leila and I agreed we should make a list of activities to see if it was worthwhile. Because it was $16.50 a month — and only if you paid for six months upfront. Otherwise, it was $23ish. Eek!

The rest of the workday passed pretty quietly, then my trainer Elston put me through my paces with upper body exercises.

I rested for a bit — the left side of my lower back had been a little achy since late morning, so I used the heating pad for a bit (always great fun in a 78-degree house) — and let Aaron know that he’d left a couple things at my place. Since I was going to be in Tempe the next day for a board game night anyway, we agreed I’d drop them off after that was done.

When I got to the party, I discovered that the other people in my trivia group had dropped out, so I knew just one person there. But eventually someone started a game that didn’t sound horribly intimidating — some of those board games are ridiculously involved — and so I got to know a few people playing King of Tokyo. Later we switched to Catchphrase.

Before I knew it, it was 10 p.m. and I had to go, since I’d told Aaron that was the latest I’d drop by.

When I got there, he was bleary-eyed. He said thanks for bringing the items and invited me to stay over. I wasn’t looking forward to a late drive back home, so I accepted. We were asleep by 10:45 p.m.

Total spent: $0

Friday

Aaron’s alarm went off at 6 a.m. but he turned it off and we both dozed for a while. I ended up leaving at 7:30 a.m. and came home to a very excited Josie. I think it was mainly about it being past her feeding time, but I pretended she was also just happy to see me.

I got through emails and other duties in about two hours. Then I lay down because I was still exhausted. But I was only able to lightly doze and after about 40 minutes, I gave up and got up.

My $32 dental insurance charge hit my card.

After I caught up on the couple emails that had come in, I ran out to pick up the sports bras I ordered from Target. After that, I stopped for a few groceries (okay, mostly more strawberries) for $8.25. Then on the way home I picked up a $37 prescription.

Speaking of workout clothes, I had recently realized that my much-beloved new workout tights are great but probably not tenable soon. Once the temperatures hit 100+, even a short car ride and the walk to/from the car will be nigh-unbearable. I had been mulling over some shorts for a few days and decided to bite the bullet. The total was $34.74, but I had a $25 Amazon gift card from a rewards program. So $9.74 went to Amazon and $25 went to Saved Savings.

The rest of the workday passed pretty quietly. At 3:30 p.m. I went to the gym and managed about 25 minutes on the elliptical. Progress!

Then I came home and just chilled out, watching TV and munching. I called it a night around 10 p.m. and fell asleep about an hour later.

Total spent: $111.99 – owwwwwww

Saturday

Okay, so I forgot to take notes this day and thus had to cobble together an account Sunday evening. So I honestly barely remember what the hell I did all day.

I know cleaned a bit in the morning. And talked to Mom for around 45 minutes. And… lounged, I guess?

At 3:30 p.m. I went and worked out. And made it 29 minutes on the elliptical! Woot!

Then I came home and… watched TV as far as I can remember?

Josie had a vet appointment in the morning, and the last time she went, she was so hostile, I was asked to give her some gabapentin the night before/day of. This meant coaxing her into my lap, wrestling her to get the plastic syringe in her mouth and then her running off betrayed. Fun times.

I called it a night around 10:30 and was asleep about half an hour later.

Total spent: $0

Sunday

I woke up at 7 a.m. from hunger. I had a protein bar and went back to sleep for an hour. Then I got up and petted Josie a bit. And then once again had to lure her into my lap for gabapentin. At that point, I felt downright guilty.

Then of course I had to wait for her to calm down from that before I could lure her into being calm again — so that I could betray her by sticking her in her carrier. At that point, I just felt like an awful person. And I think Josie agreed.

I got to the vet around 9:40 p.m. but they were backed up already. So she didn’t get taken to the back until 10:15ish.

I came home and tried to catch up on a few things and write the next day’s post. (Damn you, Saturday Abby, for procrastinating!) But I also had to go and pick up Josie and work out — and my gym closes at 4 p.m. on Sundays for some reason.

So I had to stop while the post was only mostly written. I did the workout, stopped and got more strawberries (four for $5? yes please!) and then picked up a now very unhappy cat.

I got home and started working on the post again, but I didn’t finish until past 7 p.m. I watched a little TV before bed.

I called it a night around 10 p.m. but didn’t sleep for at least an hour.

Total spent: $5

Monday

I woke up early with my stomach growling. I got a protein bar and went back to bed for a bit, even shutting off my alarm when it went off, but I still ended getting up more or less on time.

I had a fair amount of work to deal with and had some important messaging with a friend who was going through something. So it took me a bit to get caught up.

I lay down briefly, but I couldn’t fall asleep. So I got back up and just tended to emails as they came in.

After work, I had a session with Elston. He told me I’d need to get 15-lb dumbbells soon, since the 10-lb ones would be too light in the near future. But he told me to never pay retail for dumbbells and to look on secondary markets.

After work, I got ready for trivia and headed out there — only to find out it was actually the following Monday. I don’t know how I missed that.

I had planned on eating at the restaurant, but I didn’t want to eat by myself. (Also, the menu wasn’t super appetizing.) So I went to Fry’s and got some cheese ($3.60) to eat with the crackers I had at home. Then I just chilled out for the rest of the evening.

I was working my way toward calling it a night when a friend messaged to say that her maybe-breakup (an ongoing saga of non-clear answers from the maybe-ex) was officially a breakup. So we messaged about that for a bit.

As a result, I didn’t go to bed until around 10:30 p.m. Unfortunately, I couldn’t fall asleep til past 1. Probably because I’d taken one of my daily Adderall pills right before the trivia I thought was going to happen, so my brain would be alert. Ugh.

Total spent: $3.60

Tuesday

I woke up pretty tired, but I blearily got through work and messaging with the friend about how she was feeling. Which was, of course, mixed.

I tried lying down at 10 a.m. but got up after 50 minutes when my brain wouldn’t shut off. I got back up, caught up on the small amount of work that had come in and messaged with the friend some more.

The Netflix charge hit my account for $15.19.

Someone I’d messaged on Facebook Marketplace about a 15-lb dumbbell got back to me. She only had the one, but I figured at the very least, paying $15 instead of $25+ would lower the overall cost if I had to buy the second one retail.

We agreed I would get in touch that weekend about pickup.

I tried one more time to lie down, but I still couldn’t so much as doze. So I got up, finished up my workday and went to Fry’s. It was the last day to get $1.25/carton strawberries. I got a couple other things for dinner that night, so the total was $10.66.

I ate and then rested up because we had Star Wars trivia that night at 8 p.m. Which was far later than I like to start trivia but oh well.

At the bar — which was thankfully almost all outdoor seating and even an outdoor area to order, since I’m still intermittently jumpy about that.

I ordered a White Claw Black Cherry figuring it was an affordable way to support the bar. I was incorrect.

I thought the can seemed taller than usual. Turns out it was a 24 oz one — not something they say on the menu, nor does it show prices on the online menu — so I got saddled with an $11.51 tab for a single, not very good drink. Sigh. It was $13.51 after tip.

We did okay at the trivia for the first couple of rounds but started tanking after that. I’ve only seen two of the most recent trilogy and only once each, and since two tickets to Disneyland were on the line, the questions got pretty esoteric.

But we laughed a lot as we’d answer questions like “Who was so-and-so and what was the name of his ship?” with “Bob and Bob’s ship” because if we didn’t have the right answer, might as well make them laugh. A question about a pirate’s name was answered as Ahab. So we had a good, if slightly embarrassing time.

There were 10 rounds (!) so I got home at almost 11. Then got absorbed trying to find a YouTube video I’d said I would send a friend. So I didn’t get into bed until past 11:30 p.m. but fell asleep relatively quickly.

Total spent: $39.36

Wednesday

Multiple days of insufficient sleep were really catching up to me. So once I got caught up on work, I went and lay down. And of course, I couldn’t sleep. Ugh.

I got up and messaged with friends in between emails.

A friend mentioned being slightly intimidated by contouring for makeup, so I told her I’d try to find the YouTube video I’d watched a few years ago. And in that search, I discovered that people over 35 actually shouldn’t be using quite the same techniques. Oops.

The videos I watched both suggested a couple of products I didn’t have — a lighter contour color and setting powder — so I bought those and some extra beauty sponges for $19.13.

I finished the workday and tried once again to nap so that I could go work out, but nope.

So I watched TV for a little bit while I ate, then was so tired that I just lay in bed watching TV for a while.

Aaron videocalled for the first time in more than a week, and he’s been so busy at work — then at the Grand Canyon the past weekend — that we’d only been exchanging a few messages a day.

We talked and he didn’t bring up seeing me Thursday or Friday and was looking at a full-day hike on Saturday. He spends Sundays doing some fitness classes and seeing a friend, so I knew that would be out.

After we hung up, I decided my recent sense of things was right: He just had too many other priorities to see me often enough. A couple of weeks prior, I’d even asked him if he realistically thought he could do twice a week, and he said yes, he thought he could.

But the week before, the only reason I saw him twice was because I’d dropped off those items. Even with me spending the night, there was only about an hour of time together while conscious. And this week even one visit seemed unlikely. And if it were possible, he certainly didn’t think to suggest it, which also wouldn’t be great

So yeah, I knew that, while he cared about me, he just had too many other things going on between work and other pursuits to give me enough together time. Happily, I wasn’t taking it personally, which is a change from the norm. And I was very aware it wouldn’t be the end of the world or utter heartbreak. But it still kinda sucked a bit.

I decided to just go talk to him the next day, since I did need to grab the plethora of bobby pins I’d accidentally left there in my last visit. So two birds, one stone.

I messaged him to see if I could swing by at 5 p.m. But it was late by that point, so I didn’t hear back immediately. I got in bed around 9:30, and mercifully I fell asleep quickly.

Total spent: $19.13

Total spent: $179.08

Whew! That’s much better than most of the last several weeks, which have just been me spending left and right. So $179 looks pretty darn good for me — especially when $69 (38%) were from healthcare expenses. Still annoyed about that White Claw though.

Of fillings, clothes and hungry pups: A spending diary

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