Of electricians, masks & time with friends: A spending diary

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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

I had to wake up early so that I could take care of the overnight emails before taking Josie to the vet.

I got decently caught up, then I had to find Josie, get the gabapentin squirted into her mouth and then put her in the carrier. She was unenthused.

I dropped her off, then came home and caught up on emails that had come in. Despite getting enough sleep, waking up early had made me tired. So I took a short nap.

I got up, answered yet more emails and then picked Josie up around 1 p.m. Her checkup is covered in the Banfield plan, so I didn’t pay anything for the visit.

I came home and let a very pouty Josie out of the carrier. She scampered off, and I finished the rest of my workday.

After work, I went to my massage ($65 after tip thanks to very reasonable pricing on her part). Amounts of $60 or more don’t come out of weekly funds.

After the massage, I then stopped off at Fry’s to pick up a prescription ($25.23) and groceries ($25.49).

I came home a bit weary, so I just ate, watched TV and called it a night around 9:30. I was asleep around 10:30.

Total spent: $115.72 ($50.75 out of weekly funds)

Friday

I woke up and got through emails, then messaged with friends a bit. Overall, the workday passed pretty quickly.

After work, I went to the gym, which is slowly getting less miserable — but nowhere near pleasant.

I came home and got ready for a friend’s birthday trivia. It was 22 miles away in south Scottsdale. Sigh. I got there a little late, so someone else had already decided to cover her food and drink. Drat!

I didn’t eat anything because I had game night the next day and wanted that to be my free day.* Because: pizza. So I stuck to my diet, which meant there was nothing on the menu for me.

I did tip the waitress $2 in cash because she still kept an eye on my water and such. The cash was accounted for in a previous spending diary when I withdrew it from the ATM, so it doesn’t get counted in weekly funds.

After that, I met up with my friend Andre, who was trying a Facebook group for people who liked to explore local bars. The group was huge, so by the time I got there at 10 p.m. the attendees had kind of dispersed all over the bar. Meaning Andre and I didn’t really talk to anyone new but instead just drank and chatted about life and my dating mishaps and how happy we are that I started the trivia group/he and his wife joined.

Suddenly, it was closing time. No idea how that happened. I’d bought three well drinks, so my bill was $31.07 after tip.

Andre had also bought me a drink, which is probably why I was still pretty tipsy at 2 a.m. I had assumed I would be, so the plan was to Uber home and pick up the car in the morning.

Since it was closing time, it took the better part of 20 minutes for my ride to get there, though Andre was waiting for his ride for about 10 of those. But it was 44 degrees and Arizona has made me a wimp, so I texted Mom that I was probably going to freeze to death and to please miss me.

The Uber driver was super nice and chatty, so I tipped well for an end total of $15.16.

It was 3 a.m. by the time I got in bed, and I was exhausted.

Total spent: $48.23 ($46.23 out of weekly funds)

*I’m trying to avoid the usual shame-imbued diet terms like “cheat day”

Saturday

Unfortunately, I woke up before too long dizzy and stuffed up/dried out. Guess I should’ve stopped at three drinks, especially given how easily I dehydrate down here.

I stumbled out to the kitchen and had a Liquid IV then grabbed an electrolyte water I’d gotten as a Friday Freebie at Fry’s ages ago. I took that back to bed, had a few sips (along with a decongestant) and went back to sleep.

Buuuut I kept waking up either dizzy and needing to sip more of the water or having to pee from all the liquid. So when I woke up for good around 9:30 a.m., I’d gotten up at least six times. Probably more.

I was supposed to drive out to Scottsdale for a haircut, but I called and cancelled. I was going to need all of my energy to make it to game night.

I Ubered back to my car ($13.96), and I ended up sitting there for several minutes because my friend Jen called to vent a little about a stressful situation. She hung up, and I headed over to my favorite takeout place, which I hadn’t had in more than a month.

I had a gift card, so the $10.75 cost of the meal went into Saved Savings. I tipped $1 out of my cash.

I came home, ate, watched TV and tried to rest up. I headed out for game night at 5:30 p.m.

I had planned on drinking a bit more, so I was going to crash at Andre and Olga’s. But apparently my body isn’t keen on drinking much a second night in a row anymore. So I was sober and pretty alert around 11, and I said I was going to go ahead and drive home while that was still true.

I got home around 11:30 p.m. and was conked out by midnight.

Total spent: $25.71 ($24.71 out of weekly funds)

Sunday

I woke up after 10 hours of almost completely solid sleep, so I felt much better. Whicih unfortunately meant there was no getting around a workout later that day.

I did a little tidying up, which helped my state of mind. The place is a bit of a wreck right now.

I got ready to go to the gym but got sidetracked messaging with my friend from OKCupid. Even though I don’t have Friends as an option in my OKCupid profile, it still came across in her feed of potential matches. So she messaged seeing if I was looking for friends, and we started chatting.

We’ve been talking since June, but for a variety of reasons (schedule being the main one) we still hadn’t met in person. But that day we finally set a date to meet: that Wednesday.

Thankfully, she’ll have a set schedule in the new year so we should be able to do some things together more regularly.

The New Year’s Eve party I’m going to is having everyone wear masquerade masks. The plan had been for me to borrow one from her — she has a really lovely bird one. But from what Andre is saying, masks may come off at some point, and I kept worrying that something might happen to hers. Which it wouldn’t but… yay anxiety. So I did a quick search on Amazon and found a three-pack of really pretty masks for $9.99. (As an Amazon affiliate, I’m compensated for purchases through my links.)

There were some mixed reviews, but I decided to give those a try. And I told the friend — who is goth — that she could have the black one if I liked how the silver one looked/fit.

I finally got off my butt and worked out. I increased my time on the elliptical to 24 minutes. I started at 20 and am working my way toward increasing in two-minute increments til I hit 30.

I had to get gas for $42.53. Ouch.

Once home, I did a load of laundry ($3.50 to the Washer/Dryer fund) and chatted off and on with a couple dating app guys who seemed promising.

I called it a night around 9:30, but I got sucked into my phone and suddenly it was midnight. Eek!

Total spent: $56.88

Monday

I woke up still tired, having not gotten enough sleep.

Work kept me decently busy until about a noon, at which point I finally managed a short nap and woke up feeling human. Hooray!

I finished up the workday and went to the gym. Where I got through my workout without dying — as evidenced by my typing this — but I feel like it was a close call in some spots.

After the gym, I came home, ate and relaxed and watched TV. I went through more profiles.

My masks came, and they were very pretty. But there was no silver one, just a gold and two black. I tried one on (one of the reviews said the eyeholes were too small) and it fit well, but I’d bought it specifically for the silver. So I started a chat to make sure it had been a mistake and silver ones were still available.

But I hadn’t taken off the mask yet, and as I studied it more closely in the mirror, I saw that it had silver glints that I really liked. In the end, I decided that I’d order another set to see how the silver looked comparatively, but I was pretty sure I was sticking with the black/silver.

I took the mask off and put it on the counter. Aaaaand that’s when I saw that the side facing up was silver.

. Somehow — while taking it out of a clear pouch, no less — I completely missed the silver side and only saw the black. That was an impressive bit of cluelessness even by my standards.

But bright side: I was able to compare and yup, I liked my way better. Especially since there will be silver glints coming from my shirt.

I made sure to get in bed and away from my phone at a reasonable hour this time and was asleep by 10 p.m.

Total spent: $0

Tuesday

I woke up rested if still groggy, and got to work. It’s nice that it actually kind of keeps me busy these days. But I was able to get my monthly update written out in the early afternoon.

Then I had to schedule it and take off for the gym.

I got back from the gym running low on time before trivia. So I was rushing around a bit, but I made it there.

I was very excited because we had nine RSVPs. Unfortunately three people ended up not being able to make it. Which I didn’t know until after the bartender helped me drag three tables together. I gave him a $3 tip on my $5.42 cider to say thank you/make sure he wants to be that helpful again if necessary.

The six of us who were there did pretty well and won second. If I’d listened to half the group and bet more in the final round, we would’ve gotten first. But we weren’t sure the answer was right, and I wanted to make sure we placed in the top three.

Anyway, much fun was had.

I got home at 8:30 p.m. and putzed around a little before bed. I was out by 10 p.m.

Total spent: $8.42

Wednesday

I actually felt vaguely awake and un-groggy, which was a pleasant change of pace.

When I had a lull in emails at work, I ordered my wall calendar for the year — plus the Twitter account @thoughtsofdog put out a daily calendar. So I got one of those as well because the account is very funny. The total was $29.31.

The electrician showed up to troubleshoot my flickering lights.

On the previous Wednesday, someone showed up to give me a second opinion on a panel that a first guy pronounced dead and told me it and one other necessary repair would be $7,300. The second opinion guy turned out to be the owner. He said he didn’t see any corrosion and wanted me to pay for a troubleshooting visit from his residential guy in case the panel didn’t really need replacing.

That was the guy who showed up and… When he went to the panel he found some loose stuff he had to tighten up. He said they were very loose — he had to do a lot of tightening. After that, he came in and turned on the bathroom light — where I was seeing the most flickering — and waited.

It blinked once when the A/C came on, but he said that was normal. It wasn’t stuttering the way it had. (Though the stuttering was intermittent, so he stayed in there for 10 minutes and then kept an eye on it while explaining all this to me another 10 minutes. No flickering.) He said honestly he thought that — and this being an older house — was the only real issue.

So he charged me $186 and told me to call back in if the flickering got noticeable again.

Thank god my friend Andre pushed me to get a second opinion. Normally, that’s my default — but the flickering was getting worse, and my electric company books visits (it has to okay the work before the electrician can redo a panel) six to 10 weeks out. So I was panicked and just said okay and put down a deposit.

Speaking of which, once he left, I called the original company and explained that a second opinion found a bunch of things that needed to be tightened and the issue was now fixed so I would very much like my 50% deposit back. The receptionist said the person who needed to talk to me/authorize that was not available and she’d have him call me.

I tried not to see that as foreboding.

Work kept me intermittently busy for the rest of the day. And soon enough it was time to work out.

After my workout, I came home and rested so I’d be ready to finally meet my OKCupid friend. For reasons neither of us can fathom — since I don’t have Friends as an option on my profile, and I only chose men for profiles to be shown — I popped up on her feed of potential matches. She messaged me to see if I had any interest in a new friend, which always sounds good to me. So we started chatting and eventually moved to Facebook Messenger. But that was back in June.

Her schedule has been crazy, rarely getting two days off in a row, and she’s an introvert so she needs at least a day to recharge before socializing. So it had taken us six months to finally be ready to meet.

We met at 7 p.m. at a Halal Guys, where I got a chicken sandwich ($9 plus $1 cash tip which isn’t counted in weekly funds). We chatted for a while, but the place closed at 8, apparently, so we got shooed out before too long. So we wound up back at her place and chatted for another hour before I had to go.

It was really nice to talk face to face, and she’ll have a set schedule in 2022; so it’ll be easier to socialize. She already has big plans of things she wants to try and has asked if I have interest in. I said I’d definitely give rock climbing another go. It’s a great work out! And, uh, yes of course I’ll try a swordfighting class!

So that’s something to look forward to.

Meanwhile, she loves musicals and was excited to see Singing in the Rain, which is in town February through April. (I find this love of Singing in the Rain highly amusing, given that she’s goth and into cyberpunk type music. But I guess all the best people have a range of interests.) I’ve never seen the movie and she was looking for someone to go with, so I said I’d give it a shot.

I got home around 9:45, and after some back and forth we settled on a date for the show. So I sent her $43.25 by Venmo. I conked out around 11:30 p.m.

Total spent: $268.56 ($81.56 out of weekly funds)

Total spent: $523.52 ($268.55 out of weekly funds)

Okay, not the lowest spending week by any stretch of the imagination. But more than 1/3 of all funds spent was for the electrician, so that skews things. And the weekly funds spent aren’t too bad considering they included gassing up the car, a theater ticket and a night out that included Ubering two ways.

How is everyone else’s spending going?

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