Week of Money: Feeling very blah these days.

DAY ONE

??:?? — What the……. this feels early.

5:34 a.m. — FML. I thought he would sleep longer than this. Even until 6 a.m. would have made a huge difference for me, because I am battling a second (?) cold of some sort (had a slight fever yesterday), and I really need the rest. I can’t believe that as a parent, “sleeping in” means sleeping until SIX A.M. OMG.

5:45 a.m. — Little Bun is FULL OF ENERGY. He is using an old box, pretending it is an old train (yay for imagination & creativity!!); making up stories about how the train helps other cars and fire trucks (loosely borrowed from The Little Engine That Could, for those of you who are really into children’s literature), and tells me how the train carries parts for the toys. It is really adorable… but at 5:30 in the morning the charm is a little lost on me right now as I drink my tea and try to keep him quiet from making the downstairs neighbours angry (they have never complained but still).

6:04 a.m. — My partner leaves early for work (means he comes home early too) and I am all bleary-eyed, still. I make a second cup of tea, letting the this chai tea bag from Mighty Leaf steep as long as possible. I used to buy the syrup from Starbucks and mix it with milk, but I am seriously trying to cut back on added sugars in the sense that if I don’t need it I will avoid putting it in my body. Obviously I cannot avoid it with cakes and so on and will not ban myself from eating it, but in things like tea, I have weaned myself off adding sugar from it, so why regress back!? I don’t quite want to go as far as Schaub’s family here in her memoir – Year of No Sugar – but I am very conscious now about careless sugar intake.

6:57 a.m. — I finish my emails and wait for people to come into the office. The nice thing about working at home is being able to log in and work early, set your own hours so to speak.

7:33 a.m. — I get him ready to go, I want to hit the grocery store first before selling this hat…

8:12 a.m. — I pick up some sausage rolls because.. I just know I will be hungry. $8.79

8:58 a.m. — HAT SOLD. Cha-ching! $35

11:08 a.m. — Little Bun is being ridiculously cute today. He is telling me he will go down for his nap at this time, and then he will do this at that time…  He is taking charge of his own schedule, and within reason, I am letting him set and choose what he does so that he learns independence, self-confidence and self-discipline. THAT IS THE HOPE OF ALL PARENTS.

10:43 a.m. — I log in and handle conference calls while I putter around my closet. I really want to clean this out. Should I just throw it all into consignment and forget about it? This is too much work to list it on eBay, etc…. and for what gain?

12:08 p.m. — Little Bun is PROTESTING HIS NAP SO HARD. He wants to sleep WITH Mommy and cannot nap alone — this is new. In a fit of desperation, I take my favourite Eberjey Gisele pajamas (the ones I have on right now), and wrap them around his pillow as a pillowcase, and I tell him that he is now going to “sleep on Mommy.. it feels similar, just like Mommy“, I tell him. As I leave him, he starts counting loudly from 1 to 100. (This happens nightly too.)

12:20 p.m. — Must be conked out. I don’t hear any more counting.

1:00 p.m. — I hop on another call. I really want another one of these Shakti smoothies with ginger, banana, pineapple, kale and spinach…. it is so delicious and spicy…

4:17 p.m. — I log off and stop working.

6:25 p.m. — My partner comes home and we have a light dinner of smoked fish. Little Bun attacks the chive plant and insists on basil leaves all over the place. He is just like me.

7:33 p.m. — Time to get ready for bed. I’m unpacking everything that came in the mail tomorrow, I bought ergonomic monitor, wireless everything and am planning on making sure I don’t hunch and create permanent damage to my posture.

7:48 p.m. — Is this kid serious about making me read this book TEN TIMES? It’s The Nice Book, and he is obsessed with making me read it over and over again. Luckily it is short.

Earned: $35

Spent: $8.79

DAY TWO

??:?? — Screaming, nosebleed… I try my hardest to get him to stay still so I can stop it. He won’t. Gah.

6:58 a.m. — He wakes up as my partner leaves for work.

7:03 a.m. — I feel like with this sleeping in, he won’t nap today. His nap usually makes up for his lack of night sleep. We will see.

8:08 a.m. — I hop on a call.

9:11 a.m. —  I take him out and donate the bag of items I cleaned out of my closet, and I pick up some extra snacks. $6

• T-shirt dress
• 2 x boys sweatpants
• Grey tank top from All Saints (well-worn)
• Black v-neck from The Gap – just never wear it

12:06 p.m. — Yep. Super Nap Fight. He does NOT WANT TO SLEEP.

12:31 p.m. — I let him skip his nap. He laid there for half an hour, it didn’t take… so *shrug* I let him up and will have to secretly snack on pretzel snacks.

12:31 p.m. — I unpack and set up my desk top area. Large 36″ Benq monitor, Belkin wireless Qi charging pad for my new phone, new charging cases for my Airpods to make them Qi charging, wireless Apple keyboard, wireless Apple trackpad… I am pretty much ready to go and I can feel a big difference in my posture, sitting up straight looking at a monitor rather than hunched over a laptop.

12:56 p.m. — Little Bun is flushed and coughing a lot. I think he is sick… Sigh.

1:00 p.m. — And he vomits into the garbage can. Ugh. At least we made it there in time.

3:34 p.m. — I don’t feel well. I think it is about to rain. At least I am not terribly sick, just nauseous. I pop my medication for this.

6:38 p.m. — My partner comes home late, and Little Bun looks up at me and says: Where is Daddy?? He went out! and literally 2 minutes later, my partner comes in the door. What good timing.

7:46 p.m. — After dinner, time for bed.

Spent: $6

DAY THREE

??:?? — I can’t sleep any more. I WANT TO but I cannot. Today, it is just it being SO DARK at 5:30 a.m. that you feel tired because it looks like night (you don’t get the sun absorbing into your skin to signal that it is time to wake up), and I feel sluggish. I don’t want to go to work but I grit my teeth.

5:45 a.m. — Little Bun wakes up and cries seeing the door closed. He doesn’t like enclosed areas and I tell him it is because it was too bright and I wanted him to keep sleeping, so I closed the door. He calms down and accepts this. Little Bun doesn’t want to go to preschool either (woke up saying that) and I am fast-talking my child to get him into clothes to get going. He sobs and clings to his father’s leg, he wants to stay at home with Daddy today. Ugh. SUCK IT UP.

7:20 a.m. — At preschool drop off, he clings to me until I separate him with a stuffed animal between us, and some cookies. I make my escape as he munches on a digestive biscuit (a treat! forbidden cookies!), and I go to work.

7:32 a.m. — Working. Made a tea.

11:08 a.m. — I work until lunch. I eat it early, then bolt, and finish my budgeting posts for this month. I have not really been in the mood to do more posts lately, getting worn down. So I have been trying to do something other than blogging on my time off so that I get a mental break from that too (feels like a job some days).

11:25 a.m. — I listen to Cardi B.’s – Like it like that on repeat. I discovered this song lately and love the beat and background melody (very familiar from other songs).

11:51 a.m. — Either my cellphone is incorrectly mapping how much data I am using when I am calling, or I am using a #%(&#%’ing load of data without knowing it. 4GB in 5 days!? SOMETHING HAS GONE WRONG, EVERYONE. I need to figure out what is doing this. O_o

3:44 p.m. — I leave early and pick up Little Bun who says: “MOMMY. I AM FAMISHED.” Obviously he is learning bigger and bigger words with the iPad.. 😛

4:17 p.m. — At home, I get undressed, clean up, put things away, and then do more laundry and make noodles.

5:39 p.m. — My partner gets home and we chat.

8:00 p.m. — Bedtime

Spent: $0

DAY FOUR

??:?? — Little Bun wakes me up. It feel very early.

5:19 a.m. — Yah. I am bleary-eyed and making a tea.

7:29 a.m. — At preschool drop off, NO SOB FEST because of two biscuits. Thank goodness.

8:08 a.m. — Work.

12:08 p.m. — I am trying out this new colour by Clinique (free sample from the Sephora points box from Clinique), and the colour is Woppin’ Watermelon. Very pretty and neutral. Not sure I’d buy it just for this colour but it was free and it is a nice neutral. And doesn’t stink of flowers or food.

4:00 p.m.  — I bolt and grab Little Bun. We head home.

4:21 p.m. — I try to bring him to a park but he refuses to play. He has a thing against cobwebs now and apparently all the parks are “yucky” because of the spiders and cobwebs. I clean out the car instead. I plan on having it detailed tomorrow, so I am making it easy for them.

5:30 p.m. — My partner comes home, and we have a light dinner, followed by some homemade rice pudding.

6:21 p.m. — My partner is having contract issues, so I listen to his options and just say: Be sure you know what you are doing, if you tell them no thanks. Money is money. *shrug*…

8:31 p.m. — LATE bedtime. Some little someone doesn’t want to go to sleep and keeps knocking his head against mine.

Spent: $0

DAY FIVE

??:?? — WHY IS HE WAKING UP SO EARLY.

5:13 a.m. — I need to put him on a hamster wheel or something to tire him out. I am not getting the night sleep I need.

7:00 a.m. — I bribe him with a sticker (Daddy gives it) before I leave, and no tears. This monster sticker thing is working out fine. I’m rationing them hard so that they are very coveted / rare and as a result, he is really listening to me and being good.

7:32 a.m. — I drop the car to be cleaned. My ride flakes on me, so I just walk to the office. *eye roll*… on the way there, I stop for Starbucks. $5.11

8:08 a.m. — Work. I drink my drink, answer questions…. my brain is slowly taking a break from the super fast rolling it has been doing.

11:12 a.m. — My project manager tells me he is leaving, and he says out of everyone he has ever worked with, he has never, ever met someone as good as me at my job, and at how fast and accurate I am with my work. I accept his praise nicely, and tell him to keep me in mind for future projects (he runs his own consulting firm too). 😉

12:56 p.m. — I make returns at Banana Republic (those two leather bags that just STANK), and pick up my tailored trench skirt (YAY!) and drop off my ripped jeans to be hemmed (I hate how unhemmed jeans look, and I hem it right to my ankle bone). -$268.82

4:11 p.m. — I go and pick up my car. Traffic is crazy, and I walk there.

4:45 p.m. — Looks GREAT. They cleaned the inside and outside, and it was well worth them doing it professionally than me. I would have been sweating and swearing. I leave a tip. $340

5:31 p.m. — I organize the car outside before I head home, and tell my partner to re set-up the car seat that I took out so they could clean.

6:50 p.m. — My partner heads out for dinner. I log in and see that I got a LOT of payments off the blog today. About $500 worth of affiliate payments. THANK YOU!!! 😀

7:24 p.m. — We have a ‘late’ dinner (8 p.m. is bedtime remember), and then we all go to sleep after I leave the dishes for tomorrow. Can’t be bothered. Will do the linens tomorrow too.

Returned: $267.75

Spent: $351.95

DAY SIX

??:?? — So early.

9:08 a.m. — I feed Little Bun a bit and try to clean up and organize my area.

11:18 a.m. — This Dr. Pimple Popper stuff is gross. WTF is that? I don’t want to watch that….. *shudder* I have never seen the show and I DO NOT WANT TO.

12:28 p.m. — I go out and meet my friend for sushi. We’re making it together and dissecting his love life at the same time.

5:12 p.m. — Back from the outing, I greet Little Bun at the door, and my partner heads out to get some bread.

7:32 p.m. — We have dinner and then Little Bun does math and we all go to bed.

Spent: $0

DAY SEVEN

??:?? — SO EARLY.

8:00 a.m. — I take Little Bun out to do errands and he wants to play on a piano, so I take him out to do so.

9:44 a.m. — I am about to leave and I spy this adorable llama Christmas card for my brother. We don’t normally do cards but he’d love this. $5.74

11:59 a.m. — Back at home, lunch of charcoal grilled chicken and pasta.

12:41 p.m. — Nap time. He refuses to nap but after 15 minutes of just lying there, he conks out.

2:20 p.m. — Up from the nap. I’m groggy. I don’t want to wake up. I still want to sleep.

3:03 p.m. — I start on all the dishes.

6:01 p.m. — Dinner time. Then Little Bun builds this massive ‘city’ in the middle of the floor.

8:12 p.m. — Bedtime.

Spent: $5.74

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