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.
Thursday
I woke up feeling better than I had the previous day. The fatigue had been pretty bad. Beyond my sleep schedule being somewhat off — though I still got plenty of sleep — there hadn’t been an explanation for it. And being stuck as inert as possible in bed the night before was aggravating.
The Banfield pet care plan’s premium hit my card for $41.95.
I got through work and got ready to make a grocery store run to start some new recipes and… my energy tanked again.
It wasn’t as bad as the previous night, but it was clear I wasn’t going to leave the house. I was frustrated because I needed to start at least one recipe to stay on top of this whole “feeding myself” thing.
I sucked it up and tried Fry’s delivery. Clearly the universe wanted me to take the convenient route because the Fry’s app accidentally applied both the $10 off $75+ first delivery order and the $15 off $75+ first delivery order.
So in the end, even with fee and tip, I paid the exact amount I would’ve in person: $58.50.
I had enough energy to do things around the house — just not to leave it — so I did some food prep. Chicken had been on sale, so I’d gotten more of that. I cut that up and put meal-sized portions into separate containers in the freezer. (This way, even when the breasts freeze together, I can just plop them in the slow cooker.)
I also pureed some tomatoes and a few other small things. Then I finished my workday and rested for the evening.
I even managed to make myself go to bed on time. Wonder of wonders!
Total spent: $100.45 (ouch)
Friday
I woke up and got through emails. My energy was finally back to normal — by my standards anyway — so I started some food cooking.
Customers actually kept me busy for a decent chunk of the day — rude! — but I was able to relax some after work but before Pirate Party Guy (PPG) got here.
It was fairly restorative, if boring, but having company in the evening helped.
This was my overtime weekend, so I tried to get to bed at a reasonable hour. I did not succeed — but at least I tried.
Total spent: $0
Saturday
I woke up to a decent, if not huge, number of emails, so that kept me busy for a couple of hours. After that, I rested. The fatigue was pretty bad, so I couldn’t run the errands I’d hoped to.
But the upshot of being too exhausted to leave the house is that I didn’t spend any money.
So yeah, the day was spent just resting, then checking emails every 30-ish minutes, then resting more. Until my workday was done at 7 p.m. at which point I relaxed completely until bedtime.
Total spent: $0
Sunday
Emails didn’t take long to catch up on that morning, so I mostly did the resting thing again because I still felt pretty terrible.
I worked up the energy to run to the store for $27.52 of food the shopper hadn’t been able to find. On the way there, I heard a song I’d been meaning to buy for a while, so I paid $1.29 to Apple for that.
I came home, put away the food, answered the emails that had come in and mostly sat around feeling horribly deflated.
Other than checking emails intermittently, I spent a lot of the day just trying to restore some of my energy.
Since I’ve been playing a game on my phone a lot — and since I’m impatient and don’t like to sit through full ads (most companies only get paid for ads if the whole commercial shows) — I paid $2.99 for the ads-free version to throw some money the developers’ way.
My vet friend came over after I was off work for the day. I hadn’t seen her in months, so we had some catching up to do.
She left around 8 p.m. and I got in bed around 9 p.m.
Total spent: $31.80
Monday
I woke up still feeling pretty awful — and quite frustrated that the fatigue had been so debilitating lately.
Which is when I finally realized that this bad spell started not long after my new blood pressure medication. I did some Googling and, yup, fatigue is a common side effect.
I left a message for my doctor asking to try a new med ASAP. I couldn’t wait until my appointment two and a half weeks later because I was barely functional.
I worked and rested as best I could.
After work, I had my televisit for therapy, which was helpful. But I was so weary that I did the whole thing lying in bed.
Then I spent the remainder of the night just resting and being bored/frustrated.
Total spent: $0
Tuesday
I once again woke up feeling pretty punk.
Work didn’t take long to catch up on, so I tried my best to relax and even nap. The nap didn’t happen, but lying down helped a bit.
My doctor finally called back, and she agreed to switch meds. She called in a new prescription. I had to rest for a while, but thankfully I was able to pick it up that evening. It was a whopping $5
I rested and tried to get to bed at a reasonable hour.
Chronic fatigue is so very boring, folks.
Total spent: $5
Wednesday
I woke up feeling a bit fatigued still, but definitely better than when I was on the previous medication.
I caught up on work and then went to a doctor appointment. The copay was $25.
I came back and dealt with emails. went home, dealt with the emails that had come in then rested up for a grocery store trip. Mom was coming the next day, and I had agreed to host a game night for Fellow Dating Warrior’s birthday. So I needed quite a few supplies.
The total was a painful $89.02, but I got quite a slew of food thanks to digital coupons and sales. So it could’ve been much worse.
I came home, put away the food, had some of the junk food and watched TV until my friend came over to hang out.
Total spent: $114.02 ($25 out of weekly funds)
Total spent: $251.27 ($162.25 out of weekly funds)
Well, the one good thing about debilitating fatigue: It makes it awfully hard to spend money. But thank goodness it’s been easing with the new medication.
How’s everyone else’s spending going?
Related reading:
Of reading glasses, rolling pins & really bad fatigue: A spending diary
Whew thank goodness for the new medication poor thing wiped you out!
It was good you connected starting your blood pressure drug with the onset of your extreme fatigue. Hope it keeps showing improvement with your fatigue.
I bet that logging how much you spend each day of the week helps you be much more aware of where your money is going so that then you can tweak your system and stay in your budget!