Eek, I’m so very behind in publishing these diaries! May have to publish another one this week to get slightly caught up.
These diaries serve two purposes:
- They help keep me aware of my spending
- They’re great for those who, like me, are financial voyeurs
For reference, the goal is to live on $240 or less each week, though because of the cap, I don’t take amounts of more than $60 out of weekly funds.
So let’s see how I did this week.
Thursday
I was grateful that the week was coming to a close, since I was still reeling from the fact that, earlier that week, I’d found out that my doctor had been arrested.
Work was pretty quiet, which was great because I needed to lie down. I’d been up the night before, chatting/watching TV with my friend and wooing his adorable muppet of a dog. (The pup is wary of strangers.)
After work, I went and got a much-needed massage. She’s very affordable at $80 for 80 minutes, so the end total was $105.
Amounts of $60 or more don’t come out of my weekly funds.
I went home and made myself presentable for trivia. It was just Cute Trivia Guy (CTG) and myself, but we still got 3rd place. Yay!
We used a credit from having come in 1st the previous time. I had a small appetizer. CTG had a bit of food plus a couple of beers. So when the bill came and was over the amount of the gift card, CTG covered it. And yes, he tipped on the full amount.
After that, we came back and watched TV for a bit, then passed out.
Total spent: $105 ($0 out of weekly funds)
Friday
I stopped by Fry’s and got some groceries. I had to make some recipes to use up some Greek yogurt that was tiptoeing toward its “best by” date.
I’ve determined that adult cooking life is just spent buying a couple of ingredients so you can use up some of the “couple of ingredients” you bought for your last dish — which you made because you needed to use up the “couple of ingredients” before that, ad infinitum.
I also wanted to get some grapes, since the host of the party the next time loves them. The total was $33.71.
I made some tzatziki sauce to use the yogurt.
The rest when into a marinade, which I slathered it on some frozen chicken breasts, wrapped them in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge to cook the next morning.
The monthly bill for my iCloud storage hit for $1.08.
I placed an Amazon order for $6.72.
I rested until Pirate Party Guy (PPG) came over. But we’re always just stay home and chill out/chat, so it was still pretty restful.
Unfortunately, I stayed up way too late after he left.
Total spent: $41.54
Saturday
As a result, I woke up at 10:30 a.m.
I was supposed to bake the chicken, but I dislike oven baking. Guillain-Barre Syndrome is carried in undercooked chicken. So one of the vestiges of my PTSD from getting sick is hypervigilance around whether the chicken really is cooked all the way.
I worry that the meat thermometer isn’t accurate or that I didn’t use the right part of the meat. So I prefer to just put chicken in a slow cooker instead. I put the three marinated chicken breasts in for four hours on high.
I got everything ready for the Halloween party that night. It was too far away for me to drive on my own — driving can be pretty draining for me — so I would drive to CTG and he’d drive us to the party.
So I had to pack up my costume (didn’t want to drive home in that dress the next day), the booze, the food and some miscellaneous toiletries.
I put the chicken in a container so I could eat, and I brought a second piece with me for CTG.
I stopped to fill up my tank, which was $52.03.
I got there and helped him get his costume ready, since he needed help fastening part of his outfit. (He was Tarzan, and a loin cloth is apparently tricky.)
After getting him squared away, I went to eat the chicken and… it was pretty dry. In retrospect, I should’ve cooked it less because I was cooking with thawed chicken instead of frozen. Oops.
We went to the party and came back around six hours later. It was pretty quiet because so many other parties were going on that night.
Something CTG said on the drive home — a subject too in-depth to get into here — upset me. But I couldn’t drive myself home, since I was still tipsy. So I just sort of shut down.
I don’t have the best temper and can be pretty mean when I’m pissed. So nowadays, before I address something someone did that upset me, I try to stop and evaluate how much of it is about the present thing versus it reminding me of something in my past. It ensures I can talk calmly and be reasonable when I do need to discuss it.
And that type of analysis was beyond me when I was exhausted and still had alcohol in my system.
I fell asleep around 1:30.
Total spent: $52.03
Sunday
I took off shortly after waking up around 10 a.m.
On the way home, I stopped at the store to get the makings for gyros, since that dish would let me use up the overly dry chicken. The veggies and pita (plus a little candy) came to $16.12, plus $1.25 for some ginger snaps at the dollar store.
I came home and rested.
CTG texted, trying to apologize. But not about the right thing. I sent him a curt text back, since I still wasn’t ready to engage.
The rest of the night was spent just resting and relaxing with Josie. She made it very clear that we were dreadfully behind on snuggles.
Total spent: $17.37
Monday
I got caught up at work and filled a few people in on the situation from Saturday night. I was pretty up and down, and still trying to sort through my feelings.
So it was terrible timing that it was the week that I didn’t have therapy. Sigh.
CTG had sent a text “heya” type text, but I wasn’t ready to talk yet. Though in retrospect, I should’ve actually told him that rather than leaving him wondering what was going on. I’m a work in progress.
I rested and just tried to calm down and figure out what I was feeling.
Total spent: $0
Tuesday
I woke up and had a pretty quiet day at work, which was good because I needed a short nap.
It was the 1st of the month, so Netflix hit my account for $10.85.
CTG asked if we could talk, but I let him know that I was busy and weary and thus didn’t have the emotional bandwidth. So he said OK we’d talk tomorrow. (Glad it was decided for me? Sigh.)
I rested for a bit, then PPG came over. We talked a bit about what I was trying to sort through, but mainly we relaxed and chatted about more happy things.
He left around 9:30 p.m. but I once again ended up staying up late. Bad habit.
Total spent: $10.85
Wednesday
Work went by pretty quickly. Probably because I spent a lot of it fretting about trying to have the discussion with CTG.
CTG called in the early evening, and I explained what had set me off. In the end — as I told him — most of the problem came down to my own issues. Other than one or two badly-put statements, CTG really didn’t bear much blame.
That said, I told him that we needed to go back to being friends only. Anything more than that seems to be bad for my mental health.
He said he was relieved because my being so quiet made him think I was going to tell him I didn’t want to have him in my life at all, and he considers me an important friend. Which is nice to hear.
We didn’t talk too long since he was on his way to a date. After that, I went and spent time with the friend with the adorable dog. I got the friend hooked on Legion and further ingratiated myself with the dog. I even got some hand licks! (From the dog, to be clear.)
I left pretty late and thankfully was able to pass out right away.
Total spent: $0
Total spent: $226.79 ($121.79 out of weekly funds)
Wow, the first few days of the week had me thinking this was going to be a blowout spending total. But apparently not so much. Part of this is just because I’m not going out as much, as trivia events keep having to be cancelled. But the not-spending is pretty sweet.
How is everyone else’s spending going?