Of superglue, pest control & indulgent pizza: A spending diary

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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 woke up and got through emails, which took a little longer than usual. At least it made the time go by a little more quickly.

The nausea had finally abated, but my appetite was still smaller than usual. Still, it was good that my body finally wanted food.

I was running out Strivectin face serum. Strivectin products are super pricey, but people swear by them. The jury’s still out for me. If by the end of this bottle I notice much result, I’ll stop. I bought from eCostmetics, which has lower-than-retail pricing and frequent 20% or 25% off coupons. So I got the serum for $53.25, I also got 5% cash back through Mr. Rebates.

The workday went by pretty quickly, and afterward I relaxed with TV and my phone until bedtime. Unfortunately, I lost track of time somewhat, so I didn’t get to bed/fall asleep until about midnight.

Total spent: $53.25

Friday

I woke up with a normal appetite. Phew!

Work was pretty light, so I worked on a blog post and caught up my spending diary too.

I quickly ran out to do an errand. I was working on a holder to carry my warrior woman costume’s battle axe. I found a metal water bottle, and the opening actually fit the rather thick axe handle.

I dug around and found an old, leather-looking bit of fabric. So I (clumsily) sewed a cover for that. But the top of the fabric needed to be secured on the inside. Meaning I need some superglue.

The stuff I found was two bottles for $6.74.

I came back and glued the fabric in. (Yes, I know it might not have lasted long, but I only needed it for a night.) Unfortunately, the bottle wasn’t large enough, so the axe handle still tipped toward the floor. I decided I’d just have to carry my axe around.

After work, I relaxed with TV and played on my phone until it was time to hop in the shower to be presentable for Pirate Party Guy (PPG). He came over around 6:30 p.m. and we relaxed and chatted.

He left around 9:30 p.m., but since it was the weekend, I stayed up for a while watching TV and messaging with friends.

I got into bed around 1 a.m. but didn’t fall asleep for the better part of an hour. Sigh.

Total spent: $6.74

Saturday

That’s probably why I didn’t wake up until 10:45 a.m. But at least I was well-rested!

Some of you may remember Movie Buff Guy (MBG) from early in the year. He and I saw each other for a couple months, but ultimately we weren’t a good match for a relationship.

That said, I really liked him, so we’ve decided to do the friend thing. I invited him to come with me to a MeetUp costume event. We hadn’t seen each other in months, so we wanted to chat ahead of time, since at the bar we’d have trouble hearing each other.

Unfortunately, going out to eat was a no-go. With my blood pressure issues, I can’t have even a moderate amount of sodium if I’m going to drink that day.

So I’d invited him to eat with me and chat.

I got the food cooking, tidied up the place a bit, then went to Walgreens. I needed to safety pin some of my costume, since I’d neglected to get it hemmed.

The safety pins and some eyeglasses cleaner were $8.99.

The pinning took way longer than expected, but at least it looked pretty inconspicuous — even where I’d had to pin the dress’s slits (already high before I took the dress up 3″) to open a little further down.

I then had to rush around to finish up the food, and MBG showed up at 4:30 p.m.

It was really great to catch up, and we did well on friends-only vibes. Hooray!

There was a $5 cover, which I’d paid in advance for both of us. But since I forgot to put it in last week’s spending diary, I’ll count the $10 here.

The event was lots of fun. We didn’t socialize with many new people, but I enjoyed seeing friends. And as it happened, a couple that MBG knew was also there.

My drinks were $23 after tip. A very good deal these days.

MBG brought me back home and we chatted a bit more until we were both yawning (around 12:30 a.m.), so he left and I got ready for bed immediately. And fell asleep quickly. Miracles do happen!

Total spent: $41.99

Sunday

I woke up late again, but that was probably good. I was going to another show by the local adult puppet troupe.

The troupe does their take on popular movies. Which tends to have a lot of jokes about some of the material* and some foul-mouthed, fourth wall-breaking dialogue.

This one was Friday the 13th. I’ve also seen Jurassic Park, Reservoir Dogs. and their annual Die Hard: A Christmas Story.

Fellow Dating Warrior (FDW) asked if I wanted to grab some food. We decided to invite anyone else coming with us, and somehow all seven of them wanted to come. So it was a nine-person group. At least people got to know each other.

Dinner was $19.80 after tip. Then we headed to the theater.

The play was great, and afterward Cute Trivia Guy (CTG) came back to my place. We watched some TV, then passed out.

Total spent: $19.80

Monday

I woke up and got through emails. It was a pretty quiet day, which was good because I was pretty tired.

The day passed pretty quickly, and I had a televisit for therapy after that.

Even though I’d gotten a nap in earlier that day, I was utterly wrecked energy-wise. Which sucked because it was the last day FDW would be at a game night before going up to Flagstaff for a few months.

But I just couldn’t go anywhere.

So I spent the night watching TV and resting.

Total spent: $0

Tuesday

I got up and got through emails, then left for my doctor appointment.

Which is when I learned my doc had been arrested, and it was just utterly surreal. I came home stressed out, and I decided to just get some junk food.

My blood pressure had been pretty stable for a while, so I did the math and found if I ate a bit less than usual per serving, I could get a small pizza and some cinnamon sticks without getting a headache.

I had to pick up a prescription at CVS, which had a $0 copay, so I got some candy there for $8.99. Then I went and picked up my order at the pizza place ($22.67).

After months without it, the pizza was heavenly. Definitely not something I can do very much, but worth it occasionally.

I spent the rest of the day updating people — and freaking out about whether I could find a new doctor willing to prescribe any sort of stimulant to help combat my chronic fatigue.

I basically just holed up for the rest of the day feeling worried and sorry for myself.

Total spent: $31.66

Wednesday

Work was pretty quiet, so I had time to go through my insurance’s website and look up all practitioners. I bookmarked the ones with smaller practices — larger ones are generally owned by networks, and the physicians there can’t prescribe almost anything for off-label use.

An Orkin guy came by and did my bimonthly spraying. I haven’t seen a cockroach or any other pests (more and more people I know have gotten a surprise scorpion or two) in the years since I’ve used Orkin. So it’s pretty worth the $92.63 every other month.

As mentioned previously, amounts of $60 or more don’t come out of my weekly funds.

Trivia was out in Tempe that night, and it was just going to be me and CTG. We were going to hang out the next day anyway, so he agreed I could just cancel trivia.

Since trivia wasn’t far from him, I was going to see a friend afterward. So we moved up the time to hang out. I asked what his blog name should be — since I didn’t think he’d appreciate being called Egyptian Guy — and he said Kinky Pharaoh. He the said I didn’t have to use that one. But uh, obviously I’m gonna use that one.

He and I hung out until pretty late. We were watching some TV and lost track of time. It was good to see him, and his adorable muppet of a dog is warming up to me. Yay!

I got home and passed out immediately.

Total spent: $92.63 ($0 out of weekly funds)

Total spent: $246.07 ($153.44 out of weekly funds)

Wow, well despite some notable spending earlyish in the week, I actually came in pretty low overall. Hopefully, the trend continues.

How has everyone else’s spending been going?

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