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 $240 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 gone to sleep incredibly late, so I woke up very bleary.
I saw that the dating app guy who’d been extremely interested in/heavily flirting with me and wanting to meet… hadn’t opened my message from the night before. Not a good sign.
I sent another message to say I hoped he was feeling better and to let me know if he was well enough to see each other that night.
Once I was caught up at work, I took an Uber to pick up my car from the bar ($10.61). On the way home, I stopped at Fry’s and got a couple things for $5.94. Then I stopped for some takeout for $14.02.
I came home and caught up on work, then dealt with the monthly finances.
I rested the rest of the night, since I didn’t have any plans. Which was probably for the best.
I’d found out that I could get Disney+ for $2.99 through Hulu, and there were some shows I wanted to watch. So I signed up and was charged $1.82 for the partial month.
I checked around 9 p.m. and the dating app guy hadn’t opened my messages yet. Not again — he’d seemed so promising! Ugh.
I managed to fall asleep at a vaguely reasonable time, but it was still well past my normal 10 p.m.-at-the-latest bedtime.
Total spent: $32.39
Friday
I woke up still pretty beat, but I got through work and lay down to rest. I had to be peppy because I had trivia that night.
I got through the workday and then just watched TV and rested up. The dating app guy still hadn’t even opened my messages. So once I was all cute for trivia, I took a pic and said I was sending him one last message in case he was genuinely busy and this wasn’t yet another case of the dreaded dating app immediacy.
Trivia was frustrating because we could barely hear the emcee half the time, depending on how many people were chatting. And since it took them a while to even get the sound on, they were running half an hour behind. Meaning the last half hour of trivia, tons of people had trickled in for karaoke and we really couldn’t make out what the emcee was saying. Ugh.
I had ordered some food for $17.12 after tip. We didn’t place in the top three, unfortunately, so no discount there.
A guy I’d talked to a little on OKCupid messaged to see what I was up to. I was still feeling was relatively alert. So I ended up going on a date that started exceedingly late.
He paid for my first drink, but I decided to get a second one. I’d have gotten him one too, but he was nursing the one so that he could drive. Which I respect a lot.
He gave me a lift home, and I dawdled before finally lying down so it was past 3 a.m. when I finally fell asleep. My sleep schedule is so off.
Total spent: $23.12
Saturday
I had to be up around 10 a.m. to let the electrician in. Once he was settled in, I ran some errands. First, I took an Uber to my car ($11.39). I was on fumes, so I filled up the car for $47.74. Owwwww.
After that, I stopped at CVS and picked up the prescription that was finally transferred and ready. There’s a $0 copay on that medication.
My next stop was Kohl’s to return the plethora of things I’d ordered from Amazon. Then I picked up some cookies from Safeway (I’m intermittently unable to resist their chocolate chunk cookies) for $6.49. Then stopped to get a prescription at Fry’s ($47) and some snacks ($17.53).
Then I went home and collapsed and rested. Since the power (and thus my modem) was off, I actually sat down and read for a while. Lovely change of pace!
I didn’t have any date offers for the night, but the guy who’d come to my trivia group event on Tuesday (let’s call him Trivia Friend, or TF) who’d said he’d love to have a second for the improv show he was going to. (I’d cleared with him that I don’t date from the group, and he’d agreed that all he was looking for was platonic.)
He’d asked if I wanted to meet up for food ahead of time, and I said yes. Since what followed ended up being quite a night on the town, I’m counting this as a lump sum of Going Out money, and it doesn’t come out of weekly funds.
Dinner was $21.30 after tip. Then we headed to the improv show ($10). Which was, as improv is wont to be, highly uneven. I was relieved it was only an hour long.
Afterward, I said we should go to a nearby bar I knew with cool specialty drinks, so we could properly toast his divorce. He’d signed the papers mere days before. After tip, my drink was $17.31.
He said he wanted to try other cool bars, and I don’t know many in that area. So I said we should go downtown. At this point, it was almost 10, and taking the light rail would have gotten us downtown at11. So I just ordered us an Uber for $14.30.
When we got to the bar, the guy insisted on buying me a drink since I’d paid for the Uber. Incidentally, I was not dressed for a downtown bar. I was in a shoulderless maxi dress that was cute, but not Saturday-night-downtown-drinking cute. So I was a little self-conscious.
Also, I had stupidly not broken in the flats I’d bought. And then even more stupidly said we should just walk to the other bars I knew of. Which was a mile. So I was partially limping by the time we got there.
I ordered another drink for $14.34. We finished our drinks and chatted more about single life and my dating app adventures and things from dating app guys that I’d heard other women complain about (so he could avoid those).
Around 1 a.m. I said we should get going because a) I was exhausted and b) Uber rates would skyrocket before too long as everyone left the bars. He covered the cost, and I said I’d buy him a drink or something next time.
I got back home at 2 a.m. and realized the electrician was coming back at 8:30 the next day. I unlatched the back gate and texted that he could just let himself in. I needed to rest.
Total spent: $207.40 ($130.15 out of weekly funds)
Sunday
I woke up with the power already off, and settled in to read again and nosh for a while.
He ended up finishing around 4 p.m., so I turned on more Disney+ and rested.
Other than messaging, that’s about all I did. It was lovely, though it would’ve been more enjoyable if I hadn’t been so tired. And my feet had some raw spots. One day I’ll remember to break in shoes before I wear them for an extended period of time.
Total spent: $0 (about freakin’ time!)
Monday
I woke up well-rested for a change. It felt very luxurious.
Even with the rest, I didn’t feel like leaving to get food, but I didn’t want anything at home. So I ordered two meals from DoorDash for $30.93
The workday passed quickly, and pretty soon it was time for my 80-minute massage. That’s $105 with tip, and amounts of more than $60 don’t come out of weekly funds.
I came home and paid my quarterly taxes. There was an $8.81 charge to pay my state taxes with my credit card.
After that, I chilled out a bit before getting ready for that night’s date.
But when I got to the bar, I checked with the guy and… he’d been called into an unexpected work meeting. And hadn’t thought to text me, because he assumed it’d be over in time.
Unfortunately, he was just then getting out. I asked how long it would be if he left now. Turns out, he was in Mesa. So getting home to freshen up and then to the bar would be about an hour.
I messaged a few dating app guys to see if anyone was available last minute. Nope. Sigh.
I ended up getting chatted up by a guy from the bar. I bought a few drinks, so I paid $16 after tip. The guy’s friends gave us a lift to my place. Unfortunately, it was pretty late by then. So I didn’t really get to sleep until about 2 a.m.
Total spent: $160.74 ($55.74 out of weekly funds)
Tuesday
At 7 a.m., I was woken up by voices. I thought the guy had invited someone over to my place, but when I came out, I found he’d just turned on the TV. Without adjusting the volume. While I was in the bedroom with an open door.
What the hell?!
I told him he needed to turn it off. So he turned it way down. I said, no, off. I can’t sleep if I hear people talking. He complied, and I asked if he was waiting for his friends to wake up or something. He nodded. Ugh.
I said something on my way back to bed about him needing to go. But I woke back up an hour later to find him on my loveseat. Snoring.
I did my best to work, but the sound was aggravating. At 9 a.m. I finally woke him back up and said he needed to go. I couldn’t work with the snoring going on, and his friends had to be awake by now. Or at least it was a decent enough hour to wake them up.
He mumbled something about how he should’ve told them to pick him back up last night. I agreed. But not my problem.
I was thoroughly pissed off by his behavior — he was 34 for crying out loud, he should know not to turn on the TV (and certainly not to keep it on at a regular volume) at 7 a.m. in someone else’s house — and wanted him gone. And wasn’t about to pay for an Uber.
Lesson learned: Don’t let guys from dive bars pick you up. Grrrr.
Since I hadn’t slept much and definitely not well — even when he’d been in asleep in the bed, I’d had trouble adjusting to someone next to me. Especially someone who splayed his limbs out — I felt like hell. No one had RSVPed to the trivia that night, so I cancelled it. I didn’t even bother going to get my car because I felt so weary.
After work, I was famished, but I didn’t want anything in the house. So I ordered from Barros, getting a large pizza (plus cinnamon sticks) to help make the per-meal cost a bit better (and save me from worrying about food for a bit). It was $38.66, but I get about 7 meals out of it.
I meant to call it a night early, but instead got to bed around 10:30 p.m. somehow.
Total spent: $38.66
Wednesday
I woke up still pretty tired, so I got caught up on emails and then lay back down for a bit. I woke up feeling moderately human, but not great.
Unfortunately, I had to drive to Tempe that night. And my car was still at the bar.
After work, I went and got it ($14.30 Uber trip after tip). Then I came home, rested briefly and then started getting ready for trivia.
I’d been talking with a Tinder guy who’d said he was jealous to hear I’d been doing trivia. I said that if he was that jealous, we’d be at a place near him that night.
And he called my bluff and took me up on it. Eek!
We did decently at trivia, but not well enough to place. I spent $9.07 after tip on a happy hour item.
The guy was nice (if extremely baby-faced) and it turned out he liked electronica just like my new friend Andrew. I said we had been talking about going to a downtown bar that played electronica on the roof. He expressed interest in that (and the board game MeetUp event we’d be starting at).
I got home around 10 p.m. but didn’t fall asleep until almost midnight.
Total spent: $23.37
Total spent: $468.08 ($303.43 out of weekly funds)
Yikes! Convenience food had a lot to do with the costs here, though I’m glad so much of it involved getting out and about with people. Even so, I’m looking forward to maybe some slightly calmer spending in the near future. I figure since I’m starting my diet tomorrow, May 1st, that should help trim takeout spending.
How has everyone else’s spending been going?