Week of Money: Back to reality

DAY ONE

??:?? — Squealing. He kicked the blanket off and is cold again.

??:?? — More squealing.

??:?? — More squealing.

??:?? — Even more squealing.

??:?? — He wakes up crying: Where is my clock? How can I see what time it is if I don’t have my clock!!?... (my partner took back his travel alarm clock).. and he crawls over to his father to check the alarm clock. He gasps: NINE O’CLOCK? HOW CAN I HAVE SLEPT THAT LONG? … I am wondering that myself, because it is pretty dark and I am really really tired…. and I try to just calm him down, as he is now panicking that he “overslept” past his 6 a.m. wakeup. I tell him he didn’t nap yesterday and he is making up for that sleep at night, it is a GOOD thing. He says: “But it is like NIGHT time out there not DAY time. How can this be?”

6:03 a.m. — We get up and I realize the alarm clock is wrong (I knew it, it is way too dark), and it is closer to 6. My baby was right. It was too dark to be 9 a.m. But I feel really tired.

6:09 a.m. — We cuddle on the floor every morning for him to “get used to the light” (going from dark to a lighted room). He usually wants me to wrap my cardigan or pull my sweater over his head and cuddle him close to my body like when he was in a baby carrier. He tells me he is a baby, and did this as a baby (he snuggles down and burrows his head into my chest), and we just hold each other until he is warmed up and his eyes are used to the light, then I release him gently from the cardigan wrap. I ask him if he is a kangaroo and he tells me: NO! I am not golden brown! I am not a kangaroo! I am BEIGE!

7:34 a.m. — My partner is up and unclogging the sink with hot water all morning because it gets all gunked up with my face exfoliation, etc. I make a note to dump hot water down the pipe every week to keep it clear. Also… my partner refilled the toilet paper, which for me, is absolute love.

8:49 a.m. — I MADE A SALE! I drop off the package at Canada Post. I was going to take Little Bun out with me (cabin fever – he hasn’t been out in weeks) but my partner insists he will get sick if he goes out. I secretly plan on taking him out tomorrow when my partner is gone the whole day to school and can’t get mad.

9:01 a.m. — I leave after Little Bun pleaded for me to stay in (he finally let me go once I promised to be back by 9:30), I drop off the package and pick up more lip balm – my lips are really dried and cracking from eczema and it looks like it won’t let up until the spring. $5.19

9:16 a.m. — The parking signs on this street in Montreal is typical of our city. You have one side that has all these rules, and another side with another set of rules. Each time I drive and park, I get out, grab my calendar, my clock, and check whether or not I am allowed to be there.

This side says: Only parking 9h – 23h with parking permit 151. And NO parking at ALL between 8h – 9h on Monday and Thursday, between 1st April to 1st December

Immediately to the other side, bike lanes are available, and you cannot park between 8h – 9h on TUESDAY and FRIDAY between 1st April to 1st December, and parking ONLY allowed for 2 hours between 9h – 18h Monday to Saturday. O_o I factor in 15 minutes to read signs when I am going out in a car and parking.

9:32 a.m. — Home. Little Bun tells me he has gifts for me. Basically he just takes his toys and packages them up, then hands me gifts to open, watching for my reaction.

9:47 a.m. — He plays with his new Peter Rabbit books – using them like toys because they’re numbered and colourful.

10:00 a.m. — He tells me out of the blue: MOMMY! It is Ten Poop O’Clock! Do you know why? I read about the world’s largest poo in a book…

10:08 a.m. — I get a message and have to log in to work. Looks like I’ll be working this week instead of taking it off.

11:45 a.m. — Oh and LBC digital is now saying 3.3% is only applicable to balances UNDER $500K, fine by me.

12:24 p.m. — I eat leftover paella. It is huge prawns with chicken, and I pick off the food and put it in the rice and prep everything before I eat it. I simply cannot eat this meal with bones in it, this is what I mean by “prepping my meal”, so I can just spoon and eat it.

1:00 p.m. — After lunch, Little Bun goes down for his nap. Until I hear him bang into the radiator and I call out  – LITTLE BUN! NAP PLEASE!!!!... he calls back: BUT I AM napping! ….. O_o

2:59 p.m. — I update the urgent stuff for the blog and then watch some comedy on Netflix because I need a mental break.

3:00 p.m. — Yep he didn’t nap. I think we are officially transitioning out of napping. He knocks on the door politely from inside to ask for his milk. Like summoning a butler!

5:46 p.m. — I finish working.

5:50 p.m. — I now start on my blog work – finishing off my budgeting posts, etc. It is always a push at the end of the year. I haven’t even done books I read all year or clothes sold/purchased! *dizzy*

6:05 p.m. — He watches videos as I do all the dishes and dry them, and my partner comes home from school, excited that his new professor is this older guy who doesn’t want to retire and is SO PASSIONATE about his subject that he can teach it with no notes, and just pure memory. He is so excited and pleased.

6:15 p.m. — I have a quick dinner after feeding Little Bun who initially rejects his vegetable stew but then realizes if he doesn’t eat it, he will have *ahem* issues in the bathroom with hard stool (it is very painful for him), and no more cake or treats if any.

6:54 p.m. — I do more of the dishes, and then we play Hide and Seek, a new game in our household that just started tonight and makes me LAUGH SO MUCH. Little Bun like all kids, doesn’t understand the point of it is to be quiet. So he “hides” and then giggles or screams out his hiding place because he wants me to find him, but I pretend I don’t see him and check various places. When I hide, I hide REALLY WELL and sometimes he runs in and doesn’t see me, then runs out, and I have to stop myself from giggling. I love this game. It is making everyone even my partner laugh because Little Bun is so terrible at hiding and at being quiet in his hiding spot.

7:40 p.m. — We calm down for the night, and read a few books cuddling on the bed, and then he wants more videos, so I sit with him and try to organize my To Do list.

8:22 p.m. — Time for bed. He is starting to get used to brushing his teeth. Consistency is key. No more major fights. We lie in bed afterwards and he plays with his flashlight (I got him new batteries) and loves how bright it is because he can check the time now in the bedroom in the dark, and makes up stories about the light and “finding clues to hunt for treasure”, and checks my face (???) on occasion with the light.

Spent: $5.19

DAY TWO

??:?? — Screaming: “I AM BLEEEEDING!!!“…. it is just his nose but I guess he wiped a huge chunk of blood off on his hand. I am all disoriented having been jolted awake. This is a tiny slice of how prisoners must feel in torture camps. We sit in the bathroom, and he screams when I put down the toilet seat and starts crying because he wanted to go to the bathroom but didn’t say anything and expected me to read his mind!!! WTF. I get annoyed and try to calm myself down or else it escalates the screaming on his side (and mine), but it is very difficult when he IS screaming to NOT scream back.

5:03 a.m. — He grabs his flashlight and shines it on the clock announcing what time it is. I blearily mumble he has to go back to sleep and he bleats — NO MOMMY YOU SAID FIVE A.M. WAS OKAY!.. Crap. He woke me up right in the middle of REM so I am very out of it, and I go get his milk.

6:05 a.m. — I make a tea, drink it, go through my list of things to do today, and have a headache.

6:28 a.m. — “Mommy do you know what the colour of blood is?” .. I reply back: No, what is it?.. He tells me “Red!” .. He likes teaching me facts from what he has read.

8:09 a.m. — My partner is up and I head out to get errands done. Basically I need to buy more lip balm (the one I got is terrible for him, I am going back to O’Keefe’s to stop his lips from cracking and bleeding during winter), and to pick up my friends’ lamp to repackage and mail it to her. I am in love with my UGG boots for winter, my feet are finally warm and cosy:

8:40 a.m. — I pick up a Starbucks chai latte in my reusable mug. I am really trying to at least push this out to all of us regular tea and coffee drinkers; reusable mugs are so easy to swap out to reduce waste, I don’t even know why it is an issue aside from our sheer laziness.

Some benefits:

• Get $0.10 off when you’re at Starbucks – I go on occasion, and when I do, I bring my mug. $0.10 is money! I could make it at home but there’s something different about having it done for you with a milk you don’t stock (soy, almond, coconut), and to get it super piping hot.
• Keeps your drink hotter – In those cardboard cups, they go from hot to cold in about 15 minutes in winter.
• No fear of it spilling in your car or on you – My wide mouth mason jar glass mug and the wide mouth mason jar lid (and this cute silicone sleeve if you’re so inclined) ARE SUCH EASY SWAPS and I can literally put it in my bag upright, or in my car holder and not worry about it spilling or crumpling in on the sides, or the plastic lid popping off (or having to use those dumb little green plastic spout stoppers).
• Eco-friendly, waste-free – You just need to remember to wash it out when you’re done, but even at Starbucks they’ll do it for you!
• Tastes better, feels better, looks better – No more cardboard flavour in your drink (glass for me is best), it feels better in your hand when you’re carrying it (way more sturdy) and is much cuter

9:25 a.m. — In the parking lot waiting for the lamp place to open, I end up selling a bunch of items on Poshmark. I think buyers also don’t realize if they have let’s say a $100 budget, you can’t add $150 designer heels to 10 other items at around $30 each and expect the seller to say “OK”. This isn’t a bazaar! :-\

10:30 a.m. — Home, Little Bun helps me pack up the 10 items I sold, plus the lamp and I bubble-wrapped the hell out of the pendant so it wouldn’t get cracked or shift or anything, and made sure FRAGILE was written all over the box.

11:22 a.m. — My partner heads off, and I sort of tidy up the area, dust things, and then get Little Bun ready to go out for a Mommy & Baby Day. We head off to the post office first, then to Sephora to pick up another tube of Coola sunscreen (tinted, matte) because I am almost out, and then (the finale), I take him to a very nice sushi restaurant to eat. I had offered him three choices: Tacos, Sushi or Pizza, and he is my little boy!!!! <3

1:08 p.m. — At the sushi place (they know me well..), he gets a black cod with rice dinner, I take some raw fish, and feed him beside me.

1:28 p.m. — Then he tells me he is STILL hungry after eating my octopus, toro (tuna belly) and salmon, and so I order some BBQ eel and salmon again (both he gobbled up) before I cut him off. I don’t want him TOO full, just full enough. He leaves with a huge smile on his face. I love that I can treat him to a lunch like this, and some people actually gave me a look when I came in with him because not many kids actually come to this fancy restaurant (it is $$) and no parent really wants to pay for them like that which I find ridiculous because he is my son but I’d feed him cheap crap? NO WAY. $100.28

 

2:15 p.m. — We head home, he is so happy in the backseat, stuffed full of the best sushi, that it makes me happy.

2:37 p.m. — At home, he lies down while watching a few videos because he is transitioning out of his nap right now, and I log into my bank accounts and make sure I have my bills up to date.

2:50 p.m. — We spend the afternoon hanging out. I log in and work a bit (I don’t bill for the full day).

3:45 p.m. — I clean the entire apartment.

7:59 p.m. —  My partner comes home as we are reading books, and then just hanging out (I am beat. I want to sleep.)

8:11 p.m. — Little Bun goes to his father a little bit but then after brushing his teeth, insists on watching two more episodes. I am too tired to argue.

9:48 p.m. — Bedtime. This is way too late. I should have cut him off at 8 but I made the mistake. Now I’ll pay for it in the morning.

Spent: $100.28

DAY THREE

??:?? — He is screaming from a nightmare, I pull him up into my “nook” and cuddle him.

??:?? — He wakes up crying and screaming that I messed up all of his pillows and I have to explain to him that he had a nightmare and I was taking care of him, so I had to cuddled him in a nook and move him away from the cold floor.

??:?? — He uses his flashlight but can’t see the time, and has a meltdown. He is definitely grumpy and sleep-deprived, today is going to be a long ass morning.

5:35 a.m. — He gets his milk, I make a tea, and I try to keep him quiet but he is just so damn GRUMPY. I cuddle him on my lap as he is yawning. I wish children would just go the F back to sleep when they are tired. I am missing at least an hour of solid sleep.

7:59 a.m. — I head out to get stuff done like pick up more allergy pills and a mason jar (I found this super cute amber Ball one) because I need a bigger mason jar for larger drinks. $23.74

8:45 a.m. — It is snowing so badly I drive like a snail and I don’t care. I also end up at Starbucks picking up a breakfast sandwich and tall chai latte because I am weak. I spend time reading this book by Brené Brown – Gifts of Imperfections. I enjoyed it but it .. isn’t applicable to me. I already went through this transformation a few years back. I am in a much better, more imperfect, wonderful place now and couldn’t be happier. $11.50

10:32 a.m. — Home, Little Bun doesn’t rush into my arms because he is studying matching words on his iPad. I snuggle him when he does come to me, and I start laundry, then clean up the area. Little Bun helps me wipe down ALL the nooks and crannies with wet rags, and pushing on my bum to “help me find where to vacuum and what”… which is incredibly adorable and very helpful in his opinion. I encourage him and housework.

12:07 p.m. — My partner is out to school and I end up taking Little Bun out for a pizza treat because he has been so good lately.

1:03 p.m. — He’s back and goes down for a nap somewhat willingly while I work. I know he doesn’t really sleep until about 2, and he SHOULD nap today because he woke me up so early and we slept so late. O_o

1:40 p.m. — He knocks on the door to “show me something in the bedroom”, and it turns out it is a drop of blood on my pillow. I have terrible eczema and it has started inside my ears, and I must have scratched it very hard last night with my nails (which I am cutting to the nub today) and started bleeding. I tell him I’ll wash it later.

3:25 p.m. — He watches a new Looney Tunes movie after he is up from his nap and I continue working.

5:14 p.m. — My partner is home, and I am feeding Little Bun vegetable stew while I make a little meal for myself (leftover paella).

6:03 p.m. — I pull out a new book for him – Periodic Usborne Book – and we go through the entire book. HE LOVES IT SO MUCH. And I do too, I think this might be my favourite book of all the Usborne’s as an adult. I am geeking out over learning about different elements, and in a fun, colourful way. HIGHLY recommend. SO MUCH FUN.

6:45 p.m. — We read the book the rest of the night, I animate out the elements and have him play along with me, making explosion sounds, and mimicking protons, neutrons and electronics.

9:03 p.m. — We watched videos until bedtime. Bedtime.

Spent: $35.24

DAY FOUR

??:?? — So tired. GO THE F BACK TO SLEEP. He keeps interrupting my sleep, fourth day in the row and I am dying.

6:30 a.m. — I need more sleep.

6:50 a.m. — I write an email to my partner telling him he needs to step up his involvement. I am drowning here.

8:22 a.m. — I head out for the morning to read and relax. I go to a local cafe and have a chai latte with a cake. $9.35

10:24 a.m. — I am tempted by this super pretty calendar with cities for each month. I just won’t pay $10 for it. I am thinking $2, if I wait long enough and can buy it for February onwards once they have to put these things on clearance.

12:08 p.m. — Home, Little Bun runs to me in a bit of a panic: MOMMY! MOMMY! I am so sorry. I don’t have your pizza finished yet. It is still in the oven, but I know you are hungry. .… OMG… *sob* How sweet and cute is this little baby boy? I hug and kiss him and tell him it is okay, I can wait. I am excited to eat his pizza, and I love him for thinking of me.

1:09 p.m. — He reluctantly goes down for his nap.

2:45 p.m. — I clean up photos on my phone because… I have to keep it clean or it will get out of control on me. I put them into Albums, notes on things to post, to look up, etc. My whole life is in Photos and in a To Do list.

4:22 p.m. — He wakes up whining softly and I go to him with milk. He tells me he catnapped too long! He probably started sleeping too late, and needed that 1.5 hours, so of course he wakes up late.

5:18 p.m. — Yep, my partner got the memo. He shut down the computer, and picked out a book to read with Little Bun before going out to run errands, telling him he’ll be back to spend time with him. I’m glad I wrote that email. It basically told him how exhausted I was, and that this early retirement of his was supposed to be more family time, not less.

5:39 p.m. — I eat a quick dinner, and then wonder what of the 30 things on my list I should do. They aren’t even massive items, just things I have to get done…. but take time.

6:51 p.m. — We play the Hide and seek game again. He loves it so much and I think it is adorable!

7:45 p.m. — I sit on the pillow and “mess up” his configuration and he tells me: HOW MANY TIMES have I told you! You don’t listen to me! …. O_o .. Kids really pick up on what you say and parrot it back. I say this to him ALL THE TIME. But this one, I explain to him that I definitely did not listen, I agree, and I am sorry, but sometimes things have to move. We don’t live in a box.

7:59 p.m. — He randomly kisses my knee. I hug him back and tell him how much I love it that he kisses me and shows me his love. I ask rhetorically: HOW CUTE are you!? He looks at me seriously and says: I am very cute because I love you.

8:24 p.m. — He wants to watch TV with me because he enjoys spending time with me, explaining what the episodes are.

9:45 p.m. —  Okay we really have to sleep. He is dragging this out. I am getting tired.

10:06 p.m. — He wiggles around and won’t sleep, and I scream at him that I want to sleep.

10:23 p.m. — I feel TERRIBLE. I feel like the worst f&cking mother in the world. I screamed at my little innocent baby who was only wiggling around but he woke me up in the middle of my REM sleep as I was about to sleep. I am about to cry, I feel tired, I am now awake with anger from having been woken up (I am raging), and now I feel like a piece of crap as well. Wonderful. And now he is crying. FML.

Spent: $9.35

DAY FIVE

4:33 a.m. — He wakes up, I check that it is way too early and I tell him to go back to sleep. I AM SO TIRED.

7:30 a.m. — I still have holdover guilt for what I did to Little Bun last night, screaming. BUT THANK GOD HE SLEPT IN. I feel a tiny bit of relief in my brain. I knew I was sleep deprived last night when I almost fell asleep while sitting upright. That is how tired I am.

8:00 a.m. — We do English games (in this English workbook) — he asked for it!!!

8:24 p.m. — I I ask him to talk to me a little before I head out. I check to see if he is okay, I check to see how he felt. I apologize to him for last night, and ask him to forgive me for yelling at him because he didn’t deserve it. I tell him Mommy’s head is very foggy (he likes weather so I am using weather terms), and “When Mommy is foggy, she can turn pink and then really red because she cannot think straight because she is so tired. She is missing so much sleep and it makes her a very mean Mommy sometimes if she cannot rest.” He looks at me and says: My head is sunny right now! I am bright and sunny all day today, but last night… I was very rainy. …. I ask him how he feels now and he tells me he is fine, we hug it out, and I try to let it go.

9:59 a.m. — I head out for the morning to get things done like check the prices on contact lens solution, etc. He tells me: HUG! KISS! .. I need a hug and a kiss before you go! then he says: BYE MOMMY! BYE BYE!! I LOVE YOU!!!!

9:34 a.m. — I pick up a large mason glass jar so I can put Venti drinks in there (I don’t normally drink them that big but I have 150 stars and will get the maximum), and I find this beautiful Ball mason jar in amber and threw on a wide mouth lid for hot drinks. $3.59

10:14 p.m. — I spend the morning working on cleaning up my bank accounts, organizing my notes (I make about 50 notes to myself throughout the day of books to put on my wish list, post ideas, etc).

12:08 p.m. — I come home, have lunch, and Little Bun goes down for his nap. I know he won’t nap and I am happy my partner is lessening up on forcing him to nap, because he is seeing that some days he naps, some days he doesn’t, and he is slowly transitioning out, especially if he sleeps in the morning and isn’t up at 5 a.m.

3:00 p.m. — He is “up” from his nap ON THE DOT because he didn’t nap and just had 2 hours of quiet time.

3:25 p.m. — He asks me how my head is with a sweet, innocent concern only a little boy can have – “Are you still foggy Mommy?” .. and I tell him I am. I need more sleep to make the fog go away so I am sunny again.

4:28 p.m. — I get an email about how I will get charged $20 for a dormant business account and completely forgot I had an account! I go to close it and realize I have $9 in it. SCORE! I have them transfer it to my business account (I can’t even remember the account login, let alone password), and then have them close it.

5:23 p.m. — I feed him soup as we play on the carpeted floor with made up trains out of blocks. He makes up a complicated gating system where one gate has to open for another gate to open.. it is quite imaginative.

6:45 p.m. — We play hide and seek. He is terrible at this game. LOL!!! He doesn’t want to hide any more, he wants me to hide now, and for him to find me.

7:03 p.m. — I do laundry, all the dishes… and Little Bun asks — “Mommy will we play Busy Workers tomorrow?” (he wants to  clean the apartment and be a Busy Worker who works hard)

7:22 p.m. — I remind him that I love him more than anything in the world even though we can turn different colours inside and get angry, my love never changes for him. No matter what. I hope he really absorbs this one.

8:23 p.m. — I remember a really funny fork story from work and I’ll tell it here. Basically my partner is OCD for making sure all the cutlery is in perfect sets. As an example, one day he was counting the spoons and said: “Darling? Where is the tenth spoon?” …. I said I didn’t know, and he wondered if he had it in his lunch bag, but I was marveling at the fact that he even COUNTS THE SPOONS on occasion to make sure we have all 10 sets.

I was at my last contract and I had kept my cutlery at the office in a separate box because I hate bringing extra weight back and forth. So I use and wash cutlery, leave it there, and no one really touched it. Until one day I went to grab my fork and it was gone.

For TWO WEEKS I scoured all the shelves, I grilled possible suspects (colleagues). I was about to lose it because I knew this fork was part of a set and if it was gone, I’d be DEAD.

It wasn’t until I made a: LOST FORK poster, complete with a picture of said missing fork, and put it up there with the words in both languages: This was not a communal fork. PLEASE BRING IT BACK …. one of my colleagues who had taken the fork knowing it was mine, but then put it in his lunch bag and brought it home, brought it back saying he saw my note and thought: OH SH$T and brought it back as not to make me angry enough to stab him with it.

And that is how scared I am to lose a fork from a set, living with someone who is a tiny bit OCD and loves sets. LOL.

8:02 p.m. — I pick up a parcel and IT IS MY DRESS!!!! This MM Lafleur Dina dress… is <3 Better photos to come.

8:22 p.m. — Time for bed. I wash my face, brush my teeth, and get Little Bun to wind down. Time for bed.

8:52 p.m. — Little Bun announces he wants to stay out in the living room with Daddy. I am relieved. I take my book, close the door.

9:15 p.m. — He keeps bothering me in the bedroom!!!!! … finally he brings in his iPad and insists on making me teach him 3-digit multiplication but in his own kind way of asking: “Mommy, would you like to play 3-digit multiplication with me?” I tell him honestly “No, I want to read my book. Can we do this tomorrow?” — this is not what I want to do to wind down. 😛

9:34 p.m. — He tells me: Mommy I need a plan for tomorrow, I need a Busy Worker plan because we have missions and I want to make sure I know what they are as a Busy Worker!

9:48 p.m. — Bedtime.

Spent: $3.59

DAY SIX

??:?? — I wake up and Little Bun asks me: Mommy are you still foggy today?… I reply back that my brain is Cloudy. He says: OH! So you’re Mostly Cloudy.

7:07 a.m. — I hate to say it but the screaming at him helped. He is far more aware of Mommy needing sleep and I HATE THAT I SCREAMED but I also appreciate the result. Even my partner is tiptoeing a little around me.

7:14 a.m. — I play with him on the floor doing blocks, and then “Train” where we made trains out of blocks and they just roam all over the carpet.

7:18 a.m. — He tells me we have to do the Busy Workers Plan right now, as my partner leaves and he wants to do it before watching videos because we work before we play.

The first thing is dishes, so he helps me put them all away. Then we vacuum the second bedroom, and clean up the area so it is neat and tidy. Then we clean the entire bathroom. Deep clean. I remove all the products from the cabinet, I wipe them, I scrub the shelves clean…

Then I put them back in order, all clean and neat. I am using up what I have, and I can cut down on at least 5 items once they’re done because I won’t re-buy them:

Then we deep clean the toilet (I did this part), and he helps me wipe down the floors, the radiator tops, and scrub the sink, wipe down the back tile splash, etc.

9:12 a.m. — I feed him pasta. He wanted to eat it midway through bathroom cleaning but then he told me he wanted to wait until we were done working on this task to eat.

10:02 a.m. — He tells me he has to also eat his second breakfast at 10 a.m. because that is when Daddy feeds him. I feed him his second breakfast and do all the dishes.

10:24 a.m. — I find a few things I was looking for (my second wide mouth mason jar lid for my new mug) and cannot find my cheesecloth to strain nut milk (I wanted to try oat milk), and he watches videos as I finally sit down to “relax” by working on the blog, etc. My partner comes home. Wow. Time flew when we were working!

12:28 p.m. — We have lunch of Le Président Camembert on top of baguette:

Here is my Camembert cheese breakdown:

The Le Président is delicious with an interesting rind, and the other two are of a higher quality (especially for cheese from a grocery store)…

12:56 p.m. — I head out to do some work before meeting a friend. She wants to talk investing (she is a beginner) and I am getting her set up, teaching her the mutual fund ETF sheet and how to read it for the MER. I end up going with an edgy sort of moto, bohemian look. I am posing awkwardly but it looks much better when I am moving – velvet robe, draped Helmut Lang… This entire look is secondhand except for ONE cuff.

1:16 p.m. — I hate opening these stupid vitamin pill seals. I do it and pop my vitamin pills then go.

2:06 p.m. — I work in the cafe until my friend arrives. Then we just chat MONEY. She is trying to spread the gospel of personal finance but it isn’t working on her friends. LOL …. They just sort of nod, and don’t want to think about it. $4.95

5:13 p.m. —I drop her off (it is so rainy) and then I head home.

7:49 p.m. — At home, we have dinner and I do the rest of my laundry, and then I do all the dishes while Little Bun watches videos and asks me to name them properly.

7:49 p.m. — I log off from working on the blog and Instagram and go to read my book – Big Potential.

Spent: $4.95

DAY SEVEN

7:33 a.m. — I head out almost immediately after putting away dishes with Little Bun.

8:34 a.m. — I think there is no yoga today. The entire neighbourhood is completely out of electricity – all the lights are down, stores are black….

9:08 a.m. — I drop by a cafe and just start working. I pick up a cheese croissant (savoury), beignet (sweet) and a hot chocolate. $14.56

12:08 p.m. — At home, some more Camembert cheese, avocado, fresh homemade bread and salad.

12:28 p.m. — Little Bun does laundry for me – sorting and putting away things, then settles in to watch videos.

12:58 p.m. — He checks the time as he is watching videos and shuts down his computer right when it is time for his nap. OMG. How GOOD is this child? He is self-regulating and following a schedule because he is used to the routine. I could cry right now, he is so good.

2:01 p.m. — My partner comes home, tries to nap, and then messes up Little Bun who was trying to sleep quietly. I have to go in and whisper about how Busy Workers need Busy Naps, and he will help me on Missions afterwards.

2:10 p.m. — I try on the Dina dress again and will wear it to work next week FOR SURE. OH it is so good.

3:25 p.m. — We go through my closet to clean it out a bit more and let go of junk

4:50 p.m. — I set him up with videos and then do the dishes.

5:17 p.m. — He is just.. he is horrible. He missed his nap, I know he is dreading daycare tomorrow (I am hanging our Toronto vacation over him like a dangly carrot because he adores my mother to death and wants to spend so much time with her baking and playing), and he just loses it.

The entire night was a SNAFU.

I lost it, I was crying, I was fighting with my partner.

9:26 p.m. — Bedtime. I am sleeping and he comes in with his iPad, glowing blue IN MY FACE and I am so annoyed, I don’t open my eyes but I start getting irritated thinking he is using a flashlight in my face.

He starts sobbing. I let him sob it out, I can hear when it is a fake or a real cry, and this one is fake because he wants his iPad and to play in bed with me “so he doesn’t bother Daddy”… ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I almost lose my @$@!!. He can think about not bothering Daddy but not MOMMY? WHAT AM I F*CKING CHOPPED LIVER?

I don’t give in. He sobs himself to sleep.

Spent: $14.56

———-

Want more? Read all of my previous Week of Money Diaries.