
Week of Money: Where I go on an Hermès scarf buying spree
DAY ONE
??:?? — I wake up with Little Bun whispering: Good morning Mommy! … Even though he doesn’t let me sleep, you can’t help but love this morning start.
6:15 a.m. — Bleary-eyed, it’s so dark outside. I log in and start working.
6:30 a.m. — First meeting of the day. We are on different time zones so this is typical.
7:59 a.m. — On a whim, I purchase two Hermès scarves. I plan on framing them underneath museum-quality glass, and it will serve as art in my future office. I was inspired by this photo. These are all 90 cm scarves, and I do not want these boring images of equestrian, colonial life. I want interesting scarves that make me smile, have interesting colours, life and so on. I pay dearly for the exact ones I want, but I am happy! $2231.19
10:25 a.m. — Oh good my meeting got cancelled. I eat lunch early instead.
12:08 p.m. — I am researching different ways to tie scarves and come across this which is fantastic from Futilish!
You’d need a really long scarf, at least 140 cm to do this.
1:03 p.m. — Little Bun down for his nap and I have status calls.
4:56 p.m. — After I log off for the day, we play in the closet, making more art. He’s starting to really get into painting and new creations, and I encourage everything so that he builds confidence and tries new things even if they don’t work out.
7:24 p.m. — Dinner, laundry, dishes. I am also collecting the history on the scarves I got so I can note it – can you tell that fashion is more of a hobby for me than anything? I really like knowing how the scarf was created and how it came about.
8:11 p.m. — Little Bun plays Scrabble on his own, creating his own themes for words like: “Oh Mommy I did Fruits and Vegetables! LOOK!” ..and makes me take photos of all of his Scrabble boards.
9:30 p.m. — We read about converting fractions and then talk about how cool it is to use the Multiplication chart to find matching or equivalent fractions. Bedtime. I conk out almost immediately, just after we chat, and he was asking me: Have you ever had days where we haven’t had ANY Great or Not so Great things? .. I tell him yes, but we should always try and look for the best in each day even if we think it isn’t the best we have ever done.
Spent: $2231.19
DAY TWO
6:00 a.m. — I email my mother (she doesn’t text) to let her know my friend is coming to pick her up at 11 today to go to the gardening center. My friend very kindly offered to drive my mother, and in thanks, my mother baked for her. It’s just too cute.
7:59 a.m. — Oh I love this photo. I am normally not a feathers person but I like the softness of it against all the jewels and the velvet.
11:25 a.m. — My brother calls and texts me in a panic to ask my friend if my mother had a mask, as she left so quickly he wasn’t sure she had one. He’s scared of any of us getting Covid and I am really touched he’s going to this level of care for my mother especially since I can’t be there to do it myself. I really feel a rush of thanks and gratitude that I have such a strong family. We may not be as close emotionally the way I am with my partner, Little Bun and my best friend (the one taking my mother), but we are extremely tight in family bonds.
12:08 p.m. — Little Bun is learning about saving and being smart with money, and as we are playing with his Stuffies, he comes up with a game where they use a detector to find clouds (it’s a block he is pretending is a detector), and when I ask him if the detector also helps trap the clouds, he looks at me shocked: No Mommy, that is too expensive for the Stuffies! He doesn’t have that kind of money!! …. Clearly children are little sponges who absorb everything, as this is what we say to him when we are deciding between things – oh this one is too expensive because of X reason, or this one is a lot of money but it is well priced because of Y reason.
Slowly I will be introducing savings and then investing as the second layer on top of being frugal.
12:28 p.m. — Little Bun proudly shows me how much he has collected in our Two Dots game that we enjoy playing together. He has been saving up booster boxes, and using them sparingly to get through levels, which is something I taught him – I told him to keep what we needed in reserve otherwise sometimes on a tough or tricky level we won’t have help if we haven’t SAVED (eh? eH!?!) the boosters to help us, and we used it all on easy levels because it was convenient. Clearly he has absorbed these lessons here:
3:45 p.m. — I receive a message saying that someone had done the math on maxing out their child’s education plan with $50K at their birth and now had $200K by the time they were 18, instead of doing that thing were we wait every year with $2500 to get the $750 match ($500 from the federal government, $250 from the province). I ponder this. Obviously you need the money to be able to max it out from the start, but also, that makes sense – there’s a cap on how much you can get from the government anyway, and the contributions they give you are (a) taken back if your child doesn’t use the whole RESP, and (b) you have to wait each year to contribute to get the match, and you can’t do a full $50K at the start and get the full match as well, it’s time-sensitive.
I decide to do the math, and I end up with $30K extra (projected) in his RESP if I can max it out now rather than waiting each year until he is 16. Time in the market is more important than this free money.
7:20 p.m. — Laundry, dishes, bedtime. Same routine as usual except this time I am engrossed in all of the Sujata Massey mysteries as she’s a gifted writer.
Spent: $0
DAY THREE
??:?? — I wake up still tired but not too far off.
6:00 a.m. — I log in and work.
7:12 a.m. — Little Bun starts on his pages early and I am checking his answers. I love the one he gave at the bottom, it’s just so … LOVING. “I remember when I looked at you and then you loved me.”. He told me he wrote it thinking of me and each time how I tell him I love him, and he tells me out of the blue how much he loves me as well.
8:30 a.m. — Whoa all my calls got cancelled, we have some sort of crucial urgent situation. My manager is peeved no one told her, so she tells me not to work until she finds out what is going on, as it is delaying all my other projects.
10:45 a.m. — Okay, turns out it’s needed. She tells me to do the work but I of course, ignored her and did the work anyway because I saw who was asking (another manager) and she usually doesn’t raise the alarm for nothing. I figured it had to be delivered fast, so I did it ASAP.
12:28 p.m. — Lunch break. I head out for a walk and to drop off some packages in the mail to my friend as a surprise. $18.90
2:56 p.m. — I come back just before the end of Little Bun’s nap and log into a call.
4:20 p.m. — We try to clean up the closet but I get hit with a massive migraine and have to take a break, a Tylenol and I lie down. This only happens if it rains or is about to really storm, as the barometric pressure drops. I haven’t been able to get rid of it, but I can stop it from happening often if I simply avoid caffeine including in chocolate.
7:30 p.m. — I ponder getting a box of stuffed cookies. Maybe for the end of the month?
8:56 p.m. — I am sitting in bed, eyes closed, listening to Little Bun talk about his favourite planets, facts and interesting things he learned while my massaging machine crunches my muscles to relieve the tension and pain.
9:30 p.m. — Time for bed. I take another pill before sleeping so I don’t wake up in the middle of the night, disoriented and nauseous.
Spent: $18.90
DAY FOUR
??:?? — Little Bun wakes up and squeals when I wrap my arms around him, but then says: OH RIGHT. Snuggly time!... and curls up into my side making ‘baby’ noises of happiness like “wee wee…. awww… wee wee…”.
8:08 a.m. — I log in and start working. He has been waking up later and I am so grateful for the extra sleep.
8:58 a.m. — On a call, I very drily said: “Well that doesn’t seem realistic at all” to a plan that was being proposed with tight deadlines (you need to get approvals! it takes time!)… and afterwards, I get laughing messages from my other team members saying: Your message was spot on. .. I guess when you care less about being fired, you’re more honest about everything. I think this is not going to end well, but all I can do is focus and try my best.
9:21 a.m. — Little Bun runs around like a banshee then out of the blue squeals: OW! MY KIDNEY STONES!….. I look at him flummoxed. Kidney stone?.. Turns out he was watching Dr. Binocs on kidney stones and now any pain he feels of any sort, must be a kidney stone. He’s like a mini hypochondriac.. lol I tell him it is likely not a kidney stone, as he eats well and drinks lots of fluids, and it is probably just a stitch in his side.
12:08 p.m. — Lunch, a short break, meetings until four.
5:46 p.m. — I finally log off. I put out a few mini fires today. I feel like it’s sufficient. I also have to stop trying to do everything at once, so I make myself park things to do later.
6:10 p.m. — Little Bun gets fed, then begs for Uno games. We play rounds of Uno together, and he comes up with prizes when we play Wild Cards. So if we play a Wild Card, he gives us a Stuffie. Once all the Stuffies have been played, the person who gets the last Stuffie for having played that wild card, gets a huge Uno Snuggle. By the way, it isn’t just the regular stuffies, he has created new ones out of the wool socks I have given him for sleeping and staying warm during the winter. He made ‘babies’ out of them, as he is wont to do.
7:18 p.m. — Dishes, laundry, and I am trying not to work in my head, so I read in bed. Our dinner was a simple pasta with tuna bits (we use meat and seafood as a condiment, not the main dish), and Little Bun harvests some basil leaves to sprinkle liberally everywhere. He eats the leaves by themselves as well.
8:45 p.m. — We read a page out of the math book, and then it is bed time. We usually have topics after we tell each other what we loved about our day today, and it is genuinely a highlight of my evening.
Spent: $
DAY FIVE
??:?? — I wake up a little groggy. It’s so early.
6:20 a.m. — I am trying to remember to do this in the mornings – where I put my hand under the mask (10 minutes at a time), and around my neck so it is done and over with as my afternoons are increasingly booked with constant meetings.
10:20 a.m. — I break early for lunch because I know I am going through it with back to back meetings.
11:30 a.m. — Call… I have lost count. Not only do I have conference meetings, I have side bar meetings where people randomly call me to ask questions, so my day is spent just fielding calls.
4:50 p.m. — I log off for the day.
5:45 p.m. — I ponder a cashmere set with a sweater and pants for lounging at home but am not sure I can justify it. Almost $800 … I also find that I tend to be pretty hard on my clothes, and all my cashmere joggers in the past, have all gotten holes in them from sitting and playing on the ground with Little Bun so much. To buy it and then wear it into holes, is not a great idea for now. Maybe when he is older.
6:48 p.m. — I pack a few things to ship out, write a card, and Little Bun continues on his pages. He frittered away his morning, doing goodness knows what, and now he’s paying the piper.
8:58 p.m. — We read a page of math, he watches some Dr. Binocs and then it is bedtime.
Spent: $0
DAY SIX
7:56 a.m. — I read in bed while I wait for Little Bun to wake up.
8:12 a.m. — He stirs and wakes up, then squeals and launches himself at me to snuggle.
8:25 a.m. — I start my first call of the day.
12:08 p.m. — Lunch break, I check to see that I have packages to pick up.
1:00 p.m. — Down for his nap, I head out for the afternoon to walk and chill.
1:03 p.m. — MY SCARVES ARRIVED!!!! I pick them up and am gratified to see the cute boxes with the ribbons intact.
2:00 p.m. — Back home, logged into calls.
3:30 p.m. — Little Bun hears me say: Oh I am so stupid!…. and afterwards, he comes up to me and says firmly, but distressed: Mommy I do not like it when you call yourself stupid! You are not stupid! And it makes me sad when I hear this. Please do not do this to yourself.
I was saying it self-deprecatingly, but Little Bun is very much my personal advocate. He really reminds me not to put myself down, and to be positive, take deep breaths, and sometimes it is okay to be frustrated (these are all things I have been teaching him, so I am gratified to hear it repeated back to me).
5:28 p.m. — I log off for the day, my brain spinning. I have a lot to get done. Not sure how it is all going to happen.
5:46 p.m. — I should decompress for the weekend and not think about work but it is hard. It is absorbed into my brain…
3:30 p.m. — I play with Little Bun, we do Scrabble together – this time no scoring or points! Just getting words.
Spent: $0
DAY SEVEN
??:?? — I wake up with Little Bun snoring in my face, having hogged all the pillows. I am pillow-less.
6:10 a.m. — We sit in the dark living room, while I have my tea. The week passed by ridiculously fast.
8:00 a.m. — We head out for a walk after breakfast.
11:27 a.m. — Back home, we settle in for our lunch. Little Bun groans: I AM STARRRRVING!!!! (unlikely)
12:08 p.m. — We play Scrabble and cuddle, then then it is nap time. He wants to do some upcycling with jewellery afterwards, but I haven’t had the creative energy or brain to do this lately, but I have had lots of ideas. Just haven’t done any of them.
1:00 p.m. — I spend the afternoon reading and I end up napping, I feel so tired.
2:56 p.m. — Little Bun is up and squeals: WHAT ARE WE DOING TOGETHER NOW MOMMY? .. I lead him into the closet to start organizing / cleaning up because it is starting to get overcrowded in there with his things. He is like the cutest little magpie alive. He collects clothing tags, business cards, subscription business reply mailers, stickers, small boxes, small little toys, stones… everything goes into this little closet and it is starting to become overrun.
5:30 p.m. — Time for dinner, we only made a dent in one shelf. He wants to keep everything, obviously.
6:17 p.m. — After dishes, time for some movie action with Daddy. I take the opportunity to go and read a book instead.
8:40 p.m. — Time for bed. He excitedly tells me what happened in Beverly Hills Cop. He doesn’t understand everything but he likes the car chases and action.
Spent: $0
———-
Want more? Read all of my previous Week of Money Diaries.
Post a comment