Week of Money: Where I am just counting down the days now

DAY ONE

??:?? — I don’t wake up tired at all. A miracle.

5:30 a.m. — I make a cup of green tea.

8:27 a.m. — I log in and start working. Someone sent me the wrong documents. WTF. I have to rush and redo all my work now.

10:25 a.m. — I am totally inspired by the colours of the vegetables

11:08 a.m. — I finish eating my lunch.

12:08 p.m. — I go and grab a green smoothie. I feel like I really need a shot of turmeric and spinach, so I need it. $7.29

2:12 p.m. — I pick up fruits and vegetables to do a green smoothie. $15.44

3:30 p.m. — I REALLY like my outfit today. Simple, neutral… Another grey turtleneck..

4:22 p.m. — I finally head home and Little Bun rushes to the door, squealing happily.

6:23 p.m. — Little Bun sees the mangoes I got and starts hassling me for them. “Are they ready yet? Are they ripe?“… I manage to fend him off with dinner and his father feeds him a little rice pudding as a treat.

7:04 p.m. — We play with the blocks and Little Bun builds little monster robots with them.

8:22 p.m. — Time for bed.

Spent: $22.73

DAY TWO

5:44 a.m. — I wake up, not tired.

6:00 a.m. — I make a cup of tea.

7:02 a.m. — I log in and start working. I have to redo the documents so I am FOCUSED.

8:25 a.m. — I get hassled for those mangoes again. And again. AND AGAIN.

9:12 a.m. — With French TV on the screen, Little Bun takes my chin in his hands and twists it to the screen – Mommy, look at the commercials!

10:20 a.m. — I finally feed said Hassler a mango. I find it a bit sour because (OBVIOUSLY) they are not ripe, but he eats it happily.

11:40 a.m. — I drop by the optometrist and switch my contact lens order. I get a refund of $127 back. – $127

12:08 p.m. — I head out and have lunch with two favourite colleagues. This is exactly what it looks like — deep fried seafood. $22.79

1:14 p.m. — Home. My partner heads out to run errands and I stay in, eat a KitKat happily and work.

3:15 p.m. — I take Little Bun to the park. It is too beautiful not to.

4:40 p.m. — Back home, Little Bun is full of MORE energy…

5:26 p.m. — My partner built a little dollhouse for Little Bun because he has been asking for one for his stuffed toy. He plans on building chairs and furniture for him out of Megablocks.

8:22 p.m. — Time for bed.

Refund: $127

Spent: $22.79

DAY THREE

??:?? — Okay today I am tired.

7:11 a.m. — Work.

8:08 a.m. — I get dressed early and LOVE my secondhand cashmere turtleneck with a few key statement pieces. A vintage necklace I found for $7 at a thrift store, there is a little green dot missing but it is too pretty, and my lovely cuff.. This is the cashmere version of the grey turtleneck, not that slim cotton one from earlier in the week. It is like I am wearing ALL the turtlenecks this week.

12:08 p.m. — I grab another vegan crab cake. Too yummy. $13.79

12:26 p.m. — I pick up a banana and some more contact lens solution. $10.15

2:17 p.m. — I get home, and make a smoothie for Little Bun. He drinks some of it then tells me:

HE HATES IT BECAUSE IT IS GREEN? OMG. CHILDREN.

3:33 p.m. — I pack our swim stuff for our summer trip, I know Little Bun will be near a pool for sure..

6:40 p.m. — We eat dinner, then I make up a game (by his choosing) where I take his stuffed toy and make it go through a ‘game journey’ collecting hearts and stars, after he answers questions in multiplication. I DID NOT CHOOSE THIS. He asked me for a math game, and this is what I came up with. We are now apparently on Level 5 whatever that means.

8:15 p.m. — My brain is spinning. I feel like I have so much to get done, so many things to pack, afraid I will forget something. I have two trips to prep for!

Spent: $23.94

DAY FOUR

??:?? — Tired. It isn’t anyone’s fault I think I am getting a cold, I’m sniffling a lot more lately.

6:06 a.m. — Little Bun whispers: Mommy. It’s 6:06.

7:02 a.m. — I make a cup of tea, log in and work.

12:10 p.m. — I grab a Starbucks as a treat. $5.75

12:10 p.m. — Time to hit that Sephora sale. I end up buying a new foundation brush  #88 from the Sephora Pro Collection to replace the crappy e.l.f. one I had thought was good from Target (the hairs came out!), and I pick up a Kat von D Nahz Fur Atoo crimson blood red lip stain because I had a Sephora credit for about $60-ish bucks, and wanted to use it all up. I also get samples for the I.T. Cosmetics Concealer I had wanted to try for a while in Medium, and a SAMPLE of the Nars Orgasm cult favourite blush for 200 points. $5.35

12:34 p.m. — Kind of love this outfit. I feel like I could pull this off… if only I owned miniskirts.

1:15 p.m. — I am on calls in the car.

2:05 p.m. — Home. I unpack everything and Little Bun gleefully takes my brush and won’t give it back. He loves the carrying case for it..

5:15 p.m. — I finally log off for the day.

6:07 p.m. — Time for dinner.

6:40 p.m. — Little Bun starts screaming — HE HAS BLUE INK ON HIS MOMMY FINGER. He loses it until I calm him down to scrub it off.

7:16 p.m. — We do more multiplication journey games. This kid sucks your brain energy out because you work all day, and then have to work at remembering and playing with him. Mentally exhausting.

7:40 p.m. — I demand some time to read a book by myself, I need a break.

8:08 p.m. — Time for bed.

Spent: $11.10

DAY FIVE

??:?? — Little Bun wakes up crying. I ignore him, and my partner gets him back down to sleep.

6:08 a.m. — Tired. He tells me the time every morning after checking his father’s alarm clock.

7:02 a.m. — I turn to the counter and see what I think is a glass of wine. LOL. I comment to my partner he is starting pretty early to hit the sauce now that he’s retired… and he tells me it’s cherry juice. 🙂

8:48 a.m. — We leave for Little Bun’s first intro to school. It’s a long presentation that says the same thing all schools say at the start, and I am so antsy after about an hour and a half.. Bored. I am only interested near the end when the teacher starts giving real advice like buying REAL metal scissors and erasers that properly erase. FINALLY. Actual advice.

11:22 a.m. — Home. Time for lunch. Fresh bread, eggs, and avocado.

1:49 p.m. — Snacking on green tea KitKats while I work. It is raining pretty badly and I have such a terrible headache again because of it, so I pop two pills.

2:12 p.m. — I love working at home because I get to be comfy in pyjamas but I cannot wait to leave this contract and take a break. YES! I HAVE DECIDED. I am not coming back. I’m taking the summer off. It is a risk, I may not find another contract but I am tired. It was actually prompted by a dear reader & follower who sent me THE BEST message and compliment I could ask for.

I love it because she is living her life the way she is choosing to, and this kind of prompted me to decide not to stay in a contract that is draining me.

I CALL THIS THE SUMMER OF SHERRY!

(like Seinfeld’s George Costanza)

3:17 p.m. — I wash all my makeup brushes, and I organize my makeup stuff. I don’t need to buy any more products, I am trying to use up all of my products before buying anything more.

5:15 p.m. — Dinner.

8:27 p.m. — Bedtime.

Spent: $

DAY SIX

??:?? — Tired. I think Little Bun is getting sick.

6:00 a.m. — I get up and make a big cup of matcha tea. I wonder if this stuff helps my skin. I have noticed a difference since drinking it, but it was at the same time as my SPF-sunscreen wearing and skincare routine schtick, so it could be just a side result…

7:59 a.m. — I start packing up my clothes for our Toronto trip back home. I call it ‘home’… anyway.

3 tops, one red skirt, my romper, three midi dresses and 1 maxi dress.

I may revisit this packing bit, get rid of the maxi dress and add a pair of shorts or distressed jeans instead….. I’m trying to keep it minimal but versatile. Having only ONE bottom for 3 tops seems silly. I need shorts with this.

Anyway, details. The plan is to bring lottttsss of belts so I can change up the look often:

11:50 a.m. — I decide to bust out this super cheap $11 maternity dress I bought at the Target fire sale when they finally exited Canada because they rushed things and did not know how to properly enter a retail market (womp womp), and belt it to bring up the hem (it is about 2″ too long.. I need to get it hemmed).

I love wearing this dress because I feel like a GODDESS in it, which is why I paired it with golden sandals from Etsy. The sandals were not great quality because frankly, how can you make the right sandal SMALLER than the left one, I will never know, but it served its purpose.

4:25 p.m. — At home, dinner is served! Salad, fresh bread, duck. Little Bun eats a good amount.

5:16 p.m. — “Mommy, what’s the dress code? I want to code myself..” …. OMG. Too cute.

6:10 p.m. — “Mommy, I like sequences in coding the best. And typos in the code means you will get bugs which are errors!” … Do not ask me. I think he has been studying his Computers and Coding Flap Book. He has been obsessed with making me read the pages and explain them over and over again.

7:26 p.m. — He starts building letters out of the Megablocks, like X, Y, Z.. and tells me which are his FAVOURITE letters and the ones he hates.

8:13 p.m. — Time for bed.

Spent: $0

DAY SEVEN

??:?? — I wake up. I could have used another hour.

6:00 a.m. — I make a cup of tea, and get busy organizing, thinking about the two trips coming up. NYC first, then Toronto.

8:08 a.m. — I head out early to sell that cashmere sweater. I love my outfit today! And I made +$20

(If you want to see way more fashion posts, shopping and so on, you really need to head on over to my Instagram @saverspender. I even do mini IG money and career posts that I don’t do on this blog, so my content is different as well.

Example:

9:27 a.m. — I pick up the Smashbox Full Coverage Foundation brush instead, it is exactly what I wanted, a little fluffier, not as short bristled but just as dense as the Sephora 88 brush: $51.75 – but will only be about $8 extra, as I already bought the Sephora brush but will return it

9:27 a.m. — I get sidetracked at Winners with a gorgeous Red Valentino coat that is a size 42 (too big) and also $500 but stunning.

Look at the stitching, the detail… the way the tree blends into the way the coat opens so it looks like it is deliberately part of the outfit and not an awkward “oh I just cut this seamless print in half by opening my coat”. THIS, is fine-ass workmanship and tailoring, and the reason why designer duds cost as much as they do. I basically salivated over it in the store. I am sure people found me ridiculous.

10:25 a.m. — I have been using Dermablend in Chai (on bottle #3) for a long time now for a flawless airbrushed look (and my skin is SO MUCH BETTER than before, thanks to Paula’s Choice and my skincare routine – I am so close to even-toned elven skin), but I decide to try I.t. Cosmetics because it feels lighter than Dermablend and has SPF 50. 50!! I end up with the I.T. Cosmetics Your Skin but Better CC Cream SPF 50 in Medium.

10:35 a.m. — I am absolutely obsessed with SPF, having now after 2 years, seen the difference it makes when you slather on SPF regularly, and really take care of your skin. Photos from when I had Little Bun before and my skin was raging angry with acne scars from the hormones, to now, is like night and day… I can put on a very light coating of any kind of SPF tinted product, do a little concealer here and there, and it is flawless skin. That, is a miracle after years of battling acne…

12:08 p.m. — Lunch time!

1:00 p.m. — Little Bun wakes up from his nap.

2:43 p.m. — Little Bun is clearly, very very sick. He just woke up from his nap about a an hour and a half ago, but then goes and runs to the bedroom and goes down again. I bought the wrong foundation colour at Sephora, so I head back to exchange it. Before I leave, I kiss his feverish forehead. Poor baby.

5:26 p.m. — I’m back home, traffic was insane. I also went browsing a bit (obviously) got really creeped out because this grandpa (?) or maybe father? with a 13-year old girl kept staring at me. Like FULL ON STARING AT MY FACE into my eyes for full seconds, not saying anything. I couldn’t tell if it was aggressive, hostile, or friendly… but he stared so much at me I wondered if my mascara had run down my face or I looked really incredibly whacked out. (I didn’t, I checked a mirror after the encounter). I wanted to ask him what his problem was but did not want to start something in case he would spit at me. Who knows with freaks.

6:28 p.m. — We give him a little freshly squeezed orange juice, and he drinks it down, then announces: Mommy, juice is not good for you, it’s for the bad germs. They like juice. …. I explain to him that this juice is okay, Daddy made it, and it has vitamin C in there to help the good germs. He gets this confused look on his face, and then bursts out unhappily: THEN THE VIDEO IS WRONG! The video said that bad germs like juice!!!… I quickly realize he means these videos that teach kids healthy eating… and I repeat that juice is fine, but not all the time, and best when it is freshly squeezed by Daddy, because it has good Vitamin C for the good germs, but too much of it, has too much sugar for the bad germs. OMG… I am talking fast like an auctioneer…

7:28 p.m. — I spend the night reading his favourite books to him, as he lies there, closing his eyes, half dozing off, sick, cuddling up against my leg. Poor baby. I check his temperature again.

9:23 p.m. — He falls asleep after wiggling around a bit.

Earned: $20

Spent: $51.75

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