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Week of Money: Where I announce I am close to quitting my job

DAY ONE

7:30 a.m. — I log in and start working. People try to call me in the morning but I beg them to not talk to me until after an hour or two has passed.

8:08 a.m. — GASP!! A BRIDGERTON SPINOFF IS HAPPENING! And it’s on Queen Charlotte, one of my favourite subcharacters on the show Bridgerton (which by the way, I think that season two was their best season yet…!)

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time. I am messaging about how separate blankets = peace in a partnership for life, and the responses are pretty funny:

(That icon is a burrito in my message)

1:07 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom and starts on schooling with his father. Then afterwards, Little Bun and his father got a Rubik’s cube this week (he had asked for one), and have been trying to learn how to solve it (there is some mathematical gobbledegook assigned to it), and his father tries to codify the instructions into something they can both follow.

5:12 p.m. — Dinner, dishes and laundry. Little Bun is wiping down cutlery. Then he runs back to solve the cube with his father again, to learn how to do each row, etc. In the meantime, I am watching the very funny Ronny Chieng:

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed. More Rubik’s cube talking.

Spent: $0

DAY TWO

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7:30 a.m. — I log in and start working.

8:08 a.m. —

8:08 a.m. —

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time. I soak some dried, shredded coconut to make coconut milk afterwards.

1:00 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom.

3:40 p.m. — Little Bun helps me after his schooling with his father, and we blend the coconut shreds that have been soaked, and I squeeze them out to make coconut milk. So far, pretty tasty! I give some to him to drink but he doesn’t like it at all (no sugar added), but I enjoy the creaminess.

5:12 p.m. — Dinner, dishes and laundry. Little Bun is wiping down cutlery, and we run off to the bedroom afterwards to play Stuffie Adventures.

6:25 p.m. — Babiest Stuffie walks around the pop-up city in this super cool pop-up book: The Ultimate Book of Cities

And looks pretty much at home!

Then we build a tower of “babies”: Pillow baby at the bottom.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed.

Spent: $0

DAY THREE

7:30 a.m. — I log in and start working, then I try making a matcha latte with the coconut milk I made the day before. DISASTER. I don’t know if it’s my brain or what, but when I drink the two together, I want to vomit. The flavour was so good on its own as coconut milk, but then mixed in with matcha? Forget it. Maybe it’s missing salt, sugar.. so I add some sugar, and it is .. passable but not what I was expecting.

I feel disappointed.

I suppose the commercial brands add a LOT more to make it more milky, and that’s what I like… except they sell them in plastic-lined cartons and jugs/jars, which is the #1 source of microplastics leeching into our bloodstream. I am trying to make this all at home so that I avoid absorbing microplastics.

I am going to try with dried soybeans next.

9:45 a.m. — I call my manager and basically tell her I am about to quit. I say that this is an extremely unrealistic expectation and deadline, and our deadlines never move even with constant delays, which is unfair. Instead of having 2 months to complete something, we are now rushing in 2 weeks, and this intense pressure, inefficiency and terrible planning is taking a toll.

She panics and tells me we need a call. So we talk.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time.

1:01 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom.

3:40 p.m. — So .. apparently the team will now be merged with another team, and it feels like a lot of bureaucratic shuffling to me, but if it works, it works. We will see in two weeks when they work out how to get this done. It is frustrating to be given deadlines and no support at all, especially since the team I am taking over, has been working on this for years, and now I have to ramp up in less than a month, to absorb the SAME knowledge. This is impossible.

5:12 p.m. — Dinner, dishes and laundry. Little Bun is wiping down cutlery and I am wiping the bottoms of the dishes to let them air dry over night on the counter. With no dishwasher, it is hopefully more eco-friendly, even though they say hand washing items uses more water than a dishwasher.

I sort of beg to differ because sometimes when dishes come out of the dishwasher, those high-efficiency models leave food on the plates because it isn’t enough water and it isn’t soaking in it long enough. If I have to pre-wash dishes before I put them in the dishwasher, does that not defeat the entire purpose OF said dishwasher!?

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed. I am feeling drained. I haven’t had any energy or motivation to be creative lately, or even read books. I am trying to re-read favourites to muster up some sort of interest.

Spent: $0

DAY FOUR

7:30 a.m. — I log in and start working, and make note that today we have to make some body lotion from concentrate and top up the conditioner as well.

9:25 a.m. — While on a call I start grating the body lotion bar into a bowl (I use these ones, use my referral link for 20% off), add boiling hot water, and stir. All done!

The end result is having a reusable bottle for these things, and getting concentrates in cardboard packaging to be able to reconstitute in water. They work GREAT. The shampoo, conditioner and even the body lotion are super moisturizing and perfect.

I grate the bars ahead of time into the bowl because the hot water melts them in seconds rather than spending minutes trying to stir small chunks of the bar to beg it to melt in time.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time.

12:57 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

3:25 p.m. — Up from his nap, he has some milk, and looks very bleary-eyed. He actually did nap today. He must have needed it.

5:12 p.m. — Dinner of a pasta, the vegetable stew went sour in the fridge (ARRRRG) and so Little Bun has extra pasta and brussel sprouts instead.

6:25 p.m. — We sit in the bedroom reading stories to the Stuffies, and talking about things. I am trying to bring back Reading Hour before bedtime because I really enjoy having him on my lap, snuggling me, while we read stories together. It is one of my favourite activities of all time.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed.

Spent: $0

DAY FIVE

??:?? —

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7:30 a.m. — I log in and start working.

8:08 a.m. —

8:08 a.m. —

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time.

12:55 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he runs to help his father make the dough for the burritos tonight. He mixes the ingredients then rolls out the dough. It has to rest for a little bit, then his father will get him to roll them out again into circles, and then his father will bake them on our pizza stone in the oven (pizza stones are SO USEFUL, not just for making THE BEST homemade pizza!)

5:12 p.m. — His father has started to up the ante with an extra large bowl of guacamolem and has included onions nad red peppers with mushrooms for a twist. He is STILL MISSING MY PICKLED SHALLOTS. But the meal is extremely filling and delicious:

The end result is delicious.

6:25 p.m. — I am cleaning the kitchen, then we all watch the TV Reality Series on The Biggest House in America – The Queen of Versailles. They have spent 20 years trying to build this monstrosity. Frankly, I would not have bothered with such a massive home, even with all the money in the world. There comes a point where there is enough space & enough money to be happy where you are, but perhaps with some people more is never enough. Seems like a very lonely, stressful way to live.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed.

Spent: $0

DAY SIX

8:38 a.m. — I set up Little Bun and I with an activity – we are going to wind skeins of embroidery onto bobbins like so:

Little Bun is SO PRECISE that he wants to wrap it perfectly. I tell him not to waste time and just go fast, it doesn’t matter if it’s lumpy in one area or not:

 

Wow a lot more left to do..

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time and not a moment too soon, we finally end the morning having done these:

12:55 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he comes and asks what we are doing today. I redirect him to his father. I just feel so drained from the week I have had, AND I spent the morning with him already.

4:25 p.m. — We prep for burritos again – his father is making the fresh tortillas, and we use up the rest of the food from the day before.

7:12 p.m. — Kitchen cleanup while everyone sits around, stuffed. Little Bun cleans the cutlery, helps me wipe down all the pots and lids, and then they settle in to some Mr. Bean videos while I take my e-reader and go to the bedroom. I end up getting mindlessly lost on Instagram, scrolling into oblivion. Some say this is a terrible thing that rots your brain, but sometimes you just need to do mindless, brainless scrolling to relax it.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed.

Spent: $0

DAY SEVEN

7:50 a.m. — I have fallen off the yoga bandwagon, so I do a quick 10-set of sun saluations (having worked up from one a day), to get back into the rhythm. I enjoy the burst of exercise, and I do as many as I can until I feel like my arms will give out (and even then, I know I could squeeze another two or three out).

8:35 a.m. — We head out to the park to play. Luckily it is sunny today. Kids are there, listless. Some play really well, but others just wander around, not wanting to climb on anything. Little Bun wants to climb everything.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time. We have pasta with green curry.

1:05 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom. ON THE DOT he always “wakes up” or comes out at the same time because he watches the clock in there, while he is reading his books and magazines.

3:40 p.m. — Rubik’s cube again. I retreat to the bedroom to read a book. Or attempt to. It ends up being brainless instagramming again, and following up on emails, To Dos from my family and my mother (I help her with online shopping and finding items), and organizing through my life.

5:12 p.m. — Dinner, dishes and laundry. Little Bun is wiping down cutlery.

6:25 p.m. — Eventually, Little Bun and his father solve the cube together! (This was over a space of a week, spending an hour and a half each night)

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed. He recounts excitedly how he solved it during the week with his father, before we drift off to sleep.

Spent: $0

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

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