These weekly diaries are great for two things:
- Keeping me aware of my spending (my, but it adds up fast sometimes!)
- Providing content for folks who, like myself, are kind of financial voyeurs.
So let’s see how this week went!
Thursday
I woke up, got through emails, then sighed deeply and cancelled the Marriott reservation for San Diego. Neither Pirate Party Guy (PPG) nor I was going to be up to travel. And were both deeply bummed about it.
But we agreed to see each other that night. I let him know he’d need to come to me because my body was greatly missing the stimulants that ease my chronic fatigue. Once my blood pressure is back to normal levels, my doctor said we can try other stimulants.
Later in the day, I got a message from Cute Trivia Guy (CTG) saying he was taking me up on my offer to play trivia Friday.
We’d played a couple of weeks ago just the two of us. And since then, he’d been more chatty. But I couldn’t tell if he was flirting or just bored and chatting. (Eventally, I put it to a vote with a few people: two shrugged, two said bored/chatting.) And since he was in my MeetUp group, I didn’t want to flirt “back” and make things awkward if I’d misread the situation.
Thankfully, he eventually figured out I was clueless and ramped up the flirting. So I was looking forward to the event, but unsure if I was going on a pseudo-date.
Since I now have far less energy than usual but still want a social life (and am lucky enough to be in a position where I have options), I decided to suck it up and start paying the convenience tax. I’d rather have the energy for fun stuff and wince a bit at prices.
To wit, I ordered Instacart. It was a painful $38.89 after fees and tip. Then I took advantage one more time of the 60% off $20+ UberEATS offer. Two entrees plus fees/tip came to $22.61.
After work, I ate and watched TV and rested. PPG came over at 6:30 and left around 9.
Once he left, I started messaging and somehow got absorbed with my phone until after midnight. At which point, I couldn’t sleep. So I got up and answered the emails that had come in already overnight. This meant I could sleep in some in the morning without hurting the company’s response time.
I finally fell asleep around 1:30 a.m. Ugh.
Total spent: $61.50
Friday
I woke up feeling well-rested and with emails that hadn’t been waiting long. So that was a small victory.
The workday was pretty quiet, and before long it was over. Yay weekend!
My CVS Care Pass $10 credit had come in, and I used it, some Extrabux and a BOGO40 deal to get two Aveeno lotions for $3.39.
I also was out of Cetaphil, but Amazon had a larger container and a better deal; so I bought that for $18.48. It should last me at least 6 months, maybe longer.
I finished up the workday and then rested up for trivia, just messaging with folks and watching TV.
Trivia started at 7:30 p.m. and went more quickly than usual, so trivia was over by 9. But CTG wasn’t done with his rather large beer — the place serves either a pint or a stein –so we stuck around after trivia, enduring karaoke and trying to chat while far too close to the speakers.
Around 11:30 p.m. we called it a night.
I had ordered a soda, but we’d also placed 3rd. This particular venue will only apply the credit to your bill that night. So even though my soda was covered, it was somewhat of a win for the restaurant in that it “lost” $3 from trivia credit — but on ingredients that cost only a few cents.
CTG paid the remainder of the bill, and yes I made sure he had tipped on the original total (and tipped well).
Since it was late and he had to go rock climbing early the next morning, we agreed to have him come to my place on Sunday to watch a movie.
I came home, but I fell into messaging. One friend and I hadn’t really talked in-depth in a while, so I got caught up in that and other chatting. And suddenly it was 3:20 a.m. Eek!
I went to bed and fell asleep almost immediately.
Total spent: $21.87
Saturday
I woke up around 11:30 a.m., so not quite as much sleep as I needed, even if I had had the option of Adderall. I decided to just have a low-key day working on the blog and such.
That said, I was having CTG over the next day, so I did a small amount of tidying. Then I ran to the grocery store ($16.48) and picked up some reading glasses (and ginger snaps) at Dollar Tree for $3.97.
I came home pretty weary, so I spent the rest of the night just chilling with Josie and watching TV. And eating ginger snaps, of course.
I got into bed at a relatively reasonable hour, but still wasn’t asleep until about 11.
Total spent: $20.45
Sunday
Thankfully, I slept plenty and woke up feeling human.
So human, in fact, that I threw two chicken breasts in the slow cooker and made lime pepper chicken. First time I’ve cooked in… a very long time. I don’t know if this is something I can do routinely, but at least I did it this time.
I finished tidying up and just tried to rest. I saw a very pretty, very affordable ’20s style necklace on Amazon. (As an Amazon affiliate, I am compensated for orders placed through my links.) But as much as I liked it, I forced myself to wait at least a day before making the purchase.
The $1.08 Apple iCloud charge hit my card.
CTG texted to ask if I needed any side dishes. I said I was going to attempt to use the juices from the slow cooker on the rice. But a backup wouldn’t be the worst idea.
Aaaand he showed up with six different things. It was baffling because he didn’t strike me as the type to be nervous. But bringing mac ‘n cheese, herb popcorn, lowish-salt chip, some cheese bite things, macaroons and fruit bars would say otherwise, I think.
After food, we decided to rent Everything Everywhere All at Once ($5.99). And wow, it’s a mindbender of a movie. But very good.
He left around 10:30 p.m. And I passed out about an hour later.
Total spent: $5.99
Monday
I woke up and tried to get through emails. But it was one of those days where customers were being very rude — in that they were making me actually do my job and not work on other things. So in the end I had barely finished all of my duties by quitting time.
At least it went quickly, I guess.
After work, I placed an $9.10 order at Amazon for a couple personal care things.
While I was looking those up, I saw the necklace again. After a couple hours of hemming and hawing, I got up and looked at my closet to gauge whether I even had enough items I could wear it with. Because I knew I don’t have a lot of shirts with green in them.
Surprisingly, there were a fair number darker tops and a couple dresses I could make it work with. So I got it for $19.54 after tax.
After that, I rested up for the board game event that night. I hadn’t eaten much that day, so I’d only had about 350 mg of sodium. Which meant I could order a wrap at the venue. Hooray! But since it meant I didn’t eat enough most of the day, probably not something to purposefully repeat.
The wrap was $16.71` after tip, and I had a lot of fun playing a new game I bought and a game someone else brought. (As an Amazon affiliate, I’m compensated for purchases made through my links.)
My new game, which is called Concept, is tough at first, but just about everyone ends up really liking it.
There is a board full of images, and you get a sheet showing three different potential meanings for each one. One player picks a card with several options to choose from (things, literature, movies, sayings, etc.) and chooses one to convey to everyone else.
The player puts the green plastic question mark piece on the main concept, then use exclamation point pieces to show related concepts. Hard to picture, I’m sure, but for example:
- I put the question mark on the one for book/poem/play, then an exclamation point on the image for love and another on the image for death. People guess Romeo and Juliet pretty quickly.
- I put a question mark on the book/poem/play, then a piece on the symbol for water and one for animal. It only took two guesses for someone to figure out it was Moby Dick.
I left around 9 p.m. and tried to get ready for bed immediately. Unfortunately, I got caught up in a little messaging and then I got stuffed up out of the blue and had to wait for the decongestant and nose strip to fix that before I could fall asleep, which was around midnight. Wheee.
Total spent: $45.35
Tuesday
I also woke up early, so I just got an early start on work, hoping to nap afterward. Nope. Siiiigh.
I was seeing PPG that night, so I messaged to see what a good time would be. Given the bad sleep, normally I would’ve had him come to me, but he lives close to a Floor & Decor, which I needed to visit anyway.
We agreed on 4 p.m.
After I was caught up on work, I opened some mail and discovered a $159.85 bill from my gynecologist for the placement of the IUD. I guess I didn’t know what to expect, and really it’s pretty reasonable on the whole.
I paid that, but amounts of more than $60 don’t get taken out of weekly funds.
The lack of sleep made me extra hungry. Which I guess is better than the usual sugar or grease cravings. I ordered two entrees using an UberEATS deal for a total of $26.82.
The good news is that, since I can’t eat too much of the dish at any one time, the delivery should cover three to four meals.
I also had some ideas for slow cooker chicken, but cooking is hard on me mentally for some reason. So to avoid adding the annoyance of cleaning the thing every time, I bought some slow cooker liners. (As an Amazon affiliate, I am compensated for orders made through my links.) There was a deal that resulted in my getting four six-count boxes of liners for $13.12.
On my way to PPG’s place, I stopped at Walgreens for my blood pressure medicine. Thanks to GoodRx, it was $5 instead of $15.
I also stopped at Floor & Decor to pick up some pencil tile to cover the edges of the shower tile. For when I can finally get that going again. Siiigh. It looks like the one I’ll keep is going to be $7.59.
I got to PPG’s place at 4 and left around 8:30. But I stopped off at Fry’s for a little candy and some ingredients for when I try cooking next. I have an idea in mind, but I don’t know how it’ll turn out. So I’ll mention it once I know if it’s worth replicating.
The groceries came to $17.88
I got home around 9:15 p.m. and messaged a bit, then read for a little bit, but I was out by 11 p.m.
Total spent: $229.76 ($70.41 out of weekly funds)
Wednesday
I got up and got through customer emails and my other duties, then just tried to chill out. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of rest for both trivia and then — since he doesn’t live far from there — going back to CTG’s place.
My AMC Stubs membership renewed for another year at $16.29. I haven’t been seeing that many movies lately, but if I get back into the habit, it has some cost-saving advantages.
I got through the rest of the workday then rested up for the schlep to trivia out in Scottsdale. It wasn’t too bad — about 18 miles — but still took me the better part of half an hour to get there.
I ordered a soda and gazed longingly at other people’s delicious-looking nachos and bowls and such.
Unfortunately, the five of us were the only ones who showed up. The emcee insisted that last week they’d had 16 teams. But that was when it wasn’t 106 out, so people were probably holing up.
We decided to just do trivia individually, since were all out there anyway. And I don’t think the emcee would have gotten paid if trivia didn’t happen. It was fun, if tough. Had I been better acquainted with pop music, I might’ve come in first or second. But alas, I don’t listen to a ton of that genre. So I came in third. Which unfortunately didn’t win any prizes.
I told the two gals who did place that they should just keep the bar cash they won. Only team efforts or my own individual winnings would stay with me for future group use.
My soda was $5.74 after tax and tip.
After that, I went back to CTG’s where we watched some Archer and chilled out. He had to be up early, and I wasn’t looking forward to a late drive. So I just stayed over.
Total spent: $22.03
Total spent: $406.95 ($247.10 out of weekly funds)
In the end, the convenience tax only amounted to about $15. Well, assuming I would’ve gotten the takeout anyway. Which, with my cravings lately, I probably would’ve. So that’s comforting.
Obviously, a lot of money was spent on food this week, so let’s hope I can put together some recipes that stretch a bit more than just basic chicken breasts. So that I have less cause to eat takeout and don’t need to cook frequently.
How is everyone else’s spending going?
Related reading:
Bargain on those crockpot liners, but worth every penny even when you can’t get them on sale. Find some twist ties, and if you have any leftovers from the crockpot meals, use the twist tie on the remains still in the crockpot bag and put the package in the freezer. Let out as much air as possible before using the twist tie. Keep the bag upright until frozen, even if you have to put it into a bowl or something until frozen. Instant freezer meal, heat and serve.
Seems like I have missed reading a few of your entries…maybe I will catch up on Labor Day.
Smart! And yes I have a few tupperware containers left. So I could put the bag in one to keep it upright without then having to wash the container when I used the leftovers!