Week of Money: Where I finally hunt down a Dolce & Gabbana dress after 2 years

DAY ONE

??:?? — I wake up to Little Bun squealing, then when I pull a blanket over him, he snuggles into my side, and tries to put his head on my thigh as a pillow.

6:00 a.m. — I get up with him. It’s really early. I am tired. I make a tea and then cuddle him. Sometimes we just sit there. And I log in and do my banking for the new year (the first thing I do is max out my retirement funds by transferring investments to be tax-sheltered).

7:28 a.m. — He’s doing his activity book quietly, and asking very good questions about nature, animals, and trees. I explain some to him, and ask him to think critically about what he is reading and doing. Then he does this one and he’s so lazy… but working smart not hard 🙂

6:34 a.m. — Wow. I sort of want to make this or buy it. I mean, I won’t spend the $500 they’re asking for this, but I can definitely make something like it on my own:

9:19 a.m. — On a podcast.

11:24 a.m. — Lunch time. Wow that went long. I’m super chatty.

12:07 p.m. — I can’t even eat all of my lunch, it is like my stomach has shrunk.

2:04 p.m. — Day one into my resolutions for a low spend year for 2021, and I stumble across a dress I have been STALKING for about 2 years now, ever since I saw Gail Simmons on Top Chef wear it. It’s the culmination of everything I love – food and fashion. The dress came out in the Spring Ready to Wear collection in 2018 by Dolce & Gabbana and cost about $3500 USD if my research is correct:

IT IS BEAUTIFUL. The print is what gets me – I know it’s weird to have vegetables on your dress but it’s so artfully done that they look like flowers to me. Snap peas, onions, radishes, cherry tomatoes.. I am really into this. I bite my tongue for an hour before I decide to go for it. Even the BUTTONS at the top are little cabbage rosettes!!!! Have you ever seen anything more darling?… and the print/pattern matches up beautifully.  $736.88

2:17 p.m. — I revise my budget to add more to Wardrobe, AND I unsubscribe from some emails to stem the temptation for this year. Also, I finish my summary for my money.

3:22 p.m. — Little Bun is up from his nap, wailing. It’s because my partner is on a family Skype call and he scolds ME for speaking too loudly but he does the same and woke him up, so I snap at him: You woke him up! You were too loud.

4:15 p.m. — I snuggle him, give him milk, and then he comes out to chat. He doesn’t want to, and curls into my chest while I hold him. He starts to get more comfortable and makes drawings on the iPad for them.

4:30 p.m. — Time for dinner, I go and feed him as he watches some Sesame Street. I also start him on my favourite kids series – Arthur (I loved it when I was a child!)

5:17 p.m. — I do laundry, dishes, and then eat something.

6:40 p.m. — I finally finish my budgeting posts for the month and the year and he makes the word Love (his favourite word of all time) and a shape of a heart out of blocks (his favourite shape):

7:41 p.m. — He asks to go play in the closet with me but it’s time for schooling online, so I tell him that tomorrow we will paint and upcycle. He nods eagerly — it is his favourite activity these days.

8:12 p.m. — Time for bed. He’s lost his Babiest Stuffie so we are spending time looking for it. Then we give up. I suspect he is stuffed in a purse in the closet somewhere during our upcycling moments.

Spent: $736.88

DAY TWO

??:?? — A bloodcurdling scream jolts me awake. I pat him with my foot (he’s down by the bottom of the bed), I am exhausted.

7:15 a.m. — He’s up, in a good mood, and we at least slept in a tiny bit.

7:57 a.m. — I make tea, answer all my direct messages, comments, clean up my photos and do the cross-posting for the morning.

8:08 a.m. — We spend time in the closet upcycling.

9:25 a.m. — On the phone with my friend, we chat the whole morning.

10:47 a.m. — Time for lunch!

12:15 p.m. —  My partner and I chat about his family.

2:45 p.m. — Little Bun knocks to go to the bathroom, and then runs back to ‘sleep’

2:55 p.m. — Oh and this is my own personal self-care list!

3:01 p.m. — Up from his quiet time, he has some yoghurt.

4:20 p.m. — We spend time in the closet.

5:19 p.m. — I am reading my book now.

6:47 p.m. — Little Bun suggests an art show/video online for my upcycled projects, and he says he will make drawings to go with them. <3 He’s really into these items! I also get comments like this all the time on my pieces I have been working on lately:

The issue is.. I would find it hard to part with these items. I mean I guess I could come up with some pieces I could let go, photograph them nicely and sell them, but this won’t be for a while. I do not know how artisans let their babies go.

7:18 p.m. — I finish the first book in the Sebastian St. Cyr series and I am HOOKED. I thought it started off slow for the first few chapters, but then it just picked up as a great mystery series.

9:00 p.m. — Time for bed. Still haven’t found Babiest Stuffie. I tell Little Bun he must be living his best life somewhere.

Spent: $0

DAY THREE

??:?? — Little Bun wakes up and says: “Mommy, how much longer do you think you need to sleep if it is 5 a.m. right now” …. *groan*.. I tell him AT LEAST ONE MORE HOUR, if not two. *sob*

??:?? — Forget it. He isn’t sleeping.. I am truly tired today.

??:?? — Little Bun: “Mommy, is it okay if it’s CLOSE to 6 a.m., and you’re up?“… I kiss him and tell him: “It doesn’t matter, I cannot sleep if you’re not asleep. It’s been like this since you were a tiny baby, even at 3 months, if you weren’t sleeping, I’d hear you, and I’d get up and lie down beside you in the light while you were awake. I cannot sleep if you’re not occupied or awake.”

5:59 a.m. — I stumble out, get his milk, and then we sit in the hallway and cuddle. He pulls my sweater up and wiggles under it like a koala bear, and he snuggles against me (his favourite way to sit in the hallway since he was 4, while he is “getting used to the light“), and he puts his cold, cold little hands on my body to make me (fake) squeal…

7:03 a.m. — I make tea, and have him browse on Instagram to read these wonderfully wholesome wawawiwacomics of which I bought these books from for him:

7:32 a.m. — He goes and checks on Daddy — “What time are you waking up to make fried potatoes?” Apparently he doesn’t like the answer, which is “8 a.m.“.

8:50 a.m. — We go through ALL of the necklaces I have made so far and it is kind of amazing how many I have made since I started, almost 40 of them!

A little closer look:

And the other half (it took up two massive white papers):

11:40 a.m. — YUM!!! LUNCH! This is Little Bun and my favourite meal… omelettes and fries.

3:25 p.m. — Little Bun must have been tired (5 a.m. wakeup!).. and is sleeping well past 3 p.m.

4:28 p.m. — He finally wakes up, refreshed. I won’t change our bedtime for this, I am actually going to make it half an hour earlier because our routine and then my nighttime made-up story takes so long that I think it may have been delaying it by at least half an hour. He’s in a great mood. I would be too if I napped like that but I know my night sleep would be ruined.

5:11 p.m. — I do all the dishes, chat with my partner about what he’s studying (it’s over my head frankly), and Little Bun is watching Arthur. He doesn’t seem into Arthur, he is really into Sesame Street….

6:47 p.m. — Dishes done, all drying on the counter (I stack them to let them air dry).

6:51 p.m. — He makes a sticker picture for his uncle (I asked him to), and then we just sit here while I try to finish episodes of Bridgerton, my new obsession of a period century drama that has modern music, dancing (some of it), and completely subversive because the queen is black and so are many of the nobles – it makes for a VERY GOOD SHOW. The characters, the depth of the script and the writing is all so well done. It’s produced by Shonda Rhimes (Shondaland), and based on books by Julia Quinn (which I am not likely to read, let’s be honest, as they aren’t chick-lit but more of bodice-ripping romance novels which I am not into).

8:56 p.m. — Reluctantly getting ready for bed. I REALLY WANT TO WATCH THIS SHOW. WHAT HAPPENS!? I should have waited until Season 2 was produced and then binged because now I know I can’t wait.

9:22 p.m. — Snug in bed, HE is the baby tonight and I tuck him in, and kiss him. I tell him: Tomorrow, Mommy’s the Baby.… I do it because I think he enjoys pretending he is helping Mommy Baby, and he asks me: “Do you also love it when I am the baby?“.. I tell him I will never ever tire or hate it, and he will forever be my baby. Secretly though, I really just like being in bed, tucked in, eyes closed, with my Magic Bag warmed up on my cold toes (they’re always frozen), while he closes the door and turns out the lights.

Spent: $0

DAY FOUR

7:20 a.m. — NO NIGHT SCREAMS. I SLEPT SOLIDLY THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT!!! All the way until now, and I felt Little Bun stir beside me, which coincided with my waking up, so it was perfect. OH HAPPY DAY.

7:58 a.m. — I am finished my morning duties (barring no blog breakdowns), I usually do the following:

• Reply to emails
• Reply to direct messages
• Reply to comments / clean out Spam
• Repost from the blog and Instagram to Pinterest and Facebook (my Facebook page is acting up, I cannot for the life of me get them to fix it)
• Complete my Week of Money from last night to now
• Transfer images from my phone to my laptop via Airdrop (much quicker than Google Drive)
• Pin images in Pinterest

This all usually takes an hour or so a day. Every day, so 7 hours a week.

8:23 a.m. — Little Bun is eating breakfast, I started a load of laundry and then I watch another episode of Bridgerton.

10:30 a.m. — I really love these wallpapers, they’re patterned and wonderful (House of Hackney) and could be a cool background for a wardrobe or a feature wall:

11:58 a.m. — Lunch. I make pasta because I am still craving it.

1:12 p.m. — I am reading my book while drinking tea, and stuffing my face with coconut chocolate.

3:23 p.m. — So this happened:

*Us discussing in the kitchen*: “Bla bla bla.. sometimes the bacon can be kind of too salty to eat, we need to use less”

*from a closed bedroom door down the hall Little Bun thunderstomps out*

Little Bun: “Daddy? Bacon? What bacon? Is there bacon to eat?”

Daddy: “Uhh.. no not today, it’s for tomorrow, baby.”

Little Bun: *eyes him then me* okay…. if you say so.. *looks around the kitchen to see if we can smell or see bacon*

When I posted this someone wrote:

4:11 p.m. — I finish my book, and then I snuggle with Little Bun, playing “Red Light, Green Light”, a game where we dance and then when I say “Red Light”, we stop. When I say “Green Light”, we both keep dancing but sometimes I say Red or Green to trick him ad end up tricking myself.

6:35 p.m. — He’s watching The Not So Late Show with Elmo (a very sweet show) and laughs like an angel (to me)…

7:05 p.m. — I finish Bridgerton and I wish I had waited for Season 2 to come out because I could have binged the entire season and figured out the END TO THESE THINGS.

8:36 p.m. — I start to get ready for bed.

Spent: $0

DAY FIVE

??:?? — I wake up, rested.. sort of. I can feel Little Bun sitting there, quietly. He’s watching the clock. He doesn’t want to wake me up, so he’s sitting there, BREATHING. I manage to try and eke out some more sleep.

??:?? — Okay he’s bored of waiting. He’s gently tapping my foot with his little baby paw. He’s trying to get me to wake up but without being rude. I sit up a little and reach out my arms to him. He grins, and jumps on top of me, giving me a morning snuggle, making ‘baby noises’ while I rub his back and his head.

7:32 a.m. — He REALLY slept in. I feel good. I make a tea, and have him do his activity book pages.

7:59 a.m. — Log in for work.

8:50 a.m. — He’s done his pages, but I can see he’s missing a logical / rationalization component in deciphering what he needs based on what the information is there. For instance, a survey was done about favourite drinks. The teacher asks: Did I do it in the summer or winter? .. I tell him he can infer that the hot chocolate being only (1) and slushies being (7) means it is LIKELY it was done in summer, because you only drink slushies in summer when it’s hot to cool down, and hot chocolate is more of a winter drink. I need to teach him this logic / rationality and I tell him I will come up with more problems for him to solve, which I call “brainteasers” (he loves these).

11:25 a.m. — Lunch of pizza. I can’t eat much, I only have one serving, and save the other for dinner. I feel like my stomach is shrinking, and back to work.

12:01 p.m. — On a call.

3:01 p.m. — Call over.

4:09 p.m. — I log off for the day.

4:47 p.m. — I am browsing, and find a cheaper version of my beloved Reiss sweater in a ton of colours for only $30 CAD. I am sorely tempted to buy the dark red one. Here’s what the white one looks like, and there are a few differences but the vibe is there, and for way cheaper than the $200 I paid:

 

5:16 p.m. — I hit pause on that burgundy red sweater above (let’s be real, I have similar-esque sweaters in black, orange red, white, cream, pure white, grey… ), but I find my Meghan Markle dupe (!!!) for that elusive All Saints Ridley White ribbed turtleneck and order that instead. $45.07

And it’s very similar to this turtleneck I have been coveting for a long time but cannot find secondhand, in my size and/or in good condition without yellowing stains, etc:

5:56 p.m. — Little Bun fed, I do the dishes and eat the rest of my pizza I saved. Instead of stuffing my face at lunch, I make it two meals and feel less bloated / stuffed. I am noticing I seem to be eating less and less, or at least, the meals are getting smaller in the sense that I feel fuller sooner.

6:46 p.m. — I spend some of my Poshmark credits I have been saving up (use code SHERRYISH for a free $15 credit) and grab more necklaces to upcycle, about $215 worth of 18 necklaces (which works out to $11.94 per necklace on average), but since I had credits on my account none of it came out of pocket. I have been looking at pieces that I can add on to the end of my stones, like dangling chains like this one:

Though I rather like this necklace just as it is, so I may not upcycle it (haha!)…. I’d have found these for cheaper in a thrift store maybe (full of upcycling material), but as I am not going out for 2021 (I have resigned myself to this fact), I can only shop online for materials, and I pick up another Stella and Dot Alila necklace to do this (I like mine as-is, so I don’t want to upcycle it).

6:51 p.m. — We head into the closet to upcycle (his favourite!). I ask him what playlist he wants, and he tells me: Christmas. ALWAYS CHRISTMAS! So we play in there, and I finish another necklace I had in mind. I am waiting for some pieces like new stones, clay, and bracelets to arrive in the mail, so I don’t / cannot continue without the supplies.

7:34 p.m. — I make a mistake and snap / break a necklace. I am horrified: Oh no! How could Mommy be so careless?… and he pipes up: It’s okay Mommy! You’re not stupid. You just made a mistake. You can fix it. Not everything you touch gets ruined. It’s okay. *pat pat*

(I think my parenting is working!)

8:04 p.m. — Time for schooling with Daddy. It’s verbs today I think.

8:30 p.m. — He does a paint by sticker picture of a nutcracker, and I have to explain to him and my partner about the Nutcracker, a beautiful ballet, the songs… they have no idea. I can’t believe it! He also encroaches on my space. We have two LARGE DESKS. For some reason, he wants to be leaning against me, and using up my working space as well.

Exhibit A: Note the desk delineation – his side is on the LEFT. Mine is on the RIGHT. WHY is his Nutcracker photo on MY side?

It’s done! We send a picture of it to his uncle.

9:45 p.m. — Time for bed. I’ve been making up Christmas stories with elements he chooses. Last night, he took: “Snowflake, Presents, Cookies”, and I had to come up with a story. I made one up about the baby snowflakes in the arms of the Winter Clouds, wanting a present from Santa, in the shape of snowflake cookies, and the elves, reindeers and Santa helped make thousands of these tiny cookies for them to munch on as gifts.

Spent: $45.07

DAY SIX

??:?? — I wake up before him, and he sits up, so I pull him down to cuddle before I get his milk.

8:22 a.m. — I go to make tea but it tastes off. Very savoury. It turns out the last bottle of milk went a bit sour, and it is drinkable but I don’t want to drink savoury milk that’s a bit sour, so I dump it. I won’t have tea for the next 3 days as I need milk for it, and I’m a bit depressed now. It’s the one thing I look forward to every day.

9:02 a.m. — He starts on his Activity Book pages. I am working, reading through documents to get up to speed.

9:25 a.m. — Little Bun refuses to sit nicely in his chair – squatting, etc, and he has already fallen before, so I tell him nicely (at least 15 times), and finally it ends in my scolding him loudly, and he bursts into tears. I tell him I hate doing this. I don’t know why I have to scream at him for him to listen but he has to LISTEN or else he will fall again, slip and get hurt. We spend the next half an hour cuddling. I repeat to him that he isn’t bad, he just does questionable things and doesn’t listen to me for things like this because I don’t want him to get hurt.

10:03 a.m. — He’s asking a million questions about deserts and water, and I explain the best I can about deserts, the Arizona Death Valley that does get a lot of water and blooms, etc. I show him photos. He’s also having issues reconciling left and right as a mirror image. A child holding something on the RIGHT on a page, means it is being held in their LEFT hand in real life. This is tricky.

10:28 a.m. — Wow, he is really not focusing on pages today. He hops off to eat his second breakfast (oatmeal).

10:40 a.m. — I spend a few minutes this morning buying ETFs for Little Bun and myself, about $8000 worth.

11:00 a.m. — On a call.

12:05 p.m. — Call over, I have lunch.

1:01 p.m. — Little Bun down for his nap. I hear him squealing happily to his father.

2:05 p.m. — He’s sobbing. I go in and ask what’s wrong. He tells me he hates it when Daddy leaves the bedroom and closes the door. I snuggle him and say that it’s because Daddy has work to do too, and if he doesn’t feel sleepy like the other days, he can read his books – I point to all of them stacked on the table. He opts to lie down instead. Now that he’s sleeping more, this nap might disappear quite soon, but we will keep it as “Quiet Time”.

4:50 p.m. — Off from work. While I work, he’s beside me, or watching videos, or doing things like colouring or the sticker pictures.

5:18 p.m. — “Mommy, how do rats know if you love them? It is because you take care of them?” … I am caught off guard. I ask him about which rats. What rats!? He says that he was just thinking about how rats know if you love them. I tell him that perhaps a pet rat would be loved or felt loved if they were a pet who was cared for, but I wonder if they would run off if you set them off in a field, or come back like a dog or a cat. I didn’t know the answer and told him so. I also explicitly mentioned that we would never get a rat as a pet, or any pet for that matter. *side eye*

5:40 p.m. — Dinner time.

6:18 p.m. — I make some pasta for myself but it’s too much food. My stomach really is shrinking.

6:30 p.m. — I really like this coat cape trench thing. It’s pretty and I’ll keep an eye out for a secondhand piece.

7:30 p.m. — He watches a new show – Doug Unplugs sitting on my lap (he likes being VERY CLOSE to me) and giggles like a maniac because it’s a cute show. I am reading a book while he is doing this.

8:55 p.m. — We get ready for bed, and I make him recount what Doug did, what he’s like, who he is, his friend Emma, etc. His cute speaking voice lulls me to sleep, and I hear: “Do you want to hear more stories Mommy?“.. I say “Yes“, and then drift to sleep with my warmed heating bag on my chest (it helps me sleep).

Spent: $0

DAY SEVEN

8:03 a.m. — WOW we slept in!!!

8:10 a.m. — Logged in and working.

8:20 a.m. — I make a tea but I can’t really drink it – I feel nauseous, I need milk in it for some reason (has to be psychological), and I am feeling a bit dizzy today. We are now discussing the horrific display of white supremacy and privilege at Capitol Hill today where they basically stormed the place on Trump’s go, and 4 people were killed. Then they were escorted peacefully out, some were maced or helped down the steps but it was NOTHING like the riots with people of colour protesting because they would have been shot dead and forcefully subdued. Without a doubt. 100% they’d all have been shot. These people ARE TERRORISTS, condoned by their leader.

8:50 a.m. — Little Bun, listening, comes and says: “But Mommy what colour are you then? If Daddy is white and I am white, what are you?“… I ask him what he thinks I am, and he tells me: A very light brown. In truth, I am maybe a shade darker than he is, tone-wise, if that.

9:18 a.m. — “Mommy, is this pencil and this white spot after it, is this 1/5 or 1/6 do you think…”… I want to tell him it’s Grade 1 and they’re not expecting such a level of accuracy in measurements down to fractions because that’s an older grade thing, but I decide to leave him to do it because it’s good practice.

9:30 a.m. — He’s under the table now, pointing out that the wall is not properly painted, and his father agrees and says that he’ll paint it.

9:54 a.m. — Now he’s back and working on the activity pages, and asks me: “What’s “a little after” mean?”.. and I explain it can be one minute, up to 10 minutes, it’s up to you,

10:13 a.m. — He’s very excited today because there is “cake” (it’s just sweet bread with bananas added in. I personally don’t like it but he does, so I always save my share for him the next morning as a snack).

10:24 a.m. — I set him up in the bedroom to record a puppet show with finger puppets and the iPad for grandma. He did it once before and it was so cute, watching him make up a story about the elf and the snowman.

12:08 p.m. — Break for lunch.

12:15 p.m. — He makes me play a new game he invented called Stuffies For Life (modelled loosely after the game Starbucks for Life). In this game, the Stuffies want to eat Strawberries (that’s a strawberry in the middle), but they only have 20 Stuffie coins (see top), and need 40 Stuffie coins to buy it, so the game gave an ERROR….

1:01 p.m. — Quiet time for him. Work for me, I have a long call today.

3:12 p.m. — I finish my call, and take a break to eat a snack of yoghurt.

4:20 p.m. — I reply to some emails, try to organize my thoughts (it’s a lot of info at once, and scrambling to learn it all in a short period of time can be stressful).

5:05 p.m. — I log off.

5:27 p.m. — We have dinner.

6:13 p.m. — We play in the closet.

1:01 p.m. — I tell him I need to do dishes (and he wipes cutlery down, I am giving him pots and pans next).

8:09 p.m. — School with Daddy, and I try to read my book.

9:02 p.m. — Okay, ready for a story?, I ask him, after we are tucked in bed (I was the Baby tonight because I asked him if he was the Baby, to be fair, but he told me – I can or cannot be the Baby tonight, it doesn’t matter!.. so I asked him excitedly if I could be the Baby). He tells me yes.

Me: Okay what are the elements of the story you want?

Little Bun: Chromium, Lithium, Oxygen…

Me: What are you saying!?

Little Bun: *harrumphs* You should be clearer in your request for what exactly you want as your details because you asked for elements, and you should tell me what you mean otherwise I am naming elements in the Periodic Table of Elements!

Me: *LAUGHS*… So you gave me ELEMENT elements? Baby, when I say “elements” it doesn’t mean Periodic Table of Elements only, it can mean parts of a story, like the characters, or the setting, etc. It doesn’t always mean periodic table of elements.

Little Bun: Oh. Okay.

Super. CUTE. It’s little nighttime conversations like this that make me marvel at how children can be so literal and in a way, very funny.

By the way during these made up Christmas Stories, he enjoys interjecting with twists to the story like: “But then the Yeti’s oven DIDN’T WORK!!!“, which makes me finish the story in another way.

Spent: $0

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