Week of Money: Where I reaffirm why I don’t live on beans and rice

DAY ONE

??:?? — I wake up not tired but not rested. My brain is somewhat starting to clear, but with the constant yo-yo of the weather going from sunny to rainy to sunny, the barometric pressure is making me nauseous.

6:20 a.m. — After his milk, Little Bun asks me: Do we have any yoghurt? ….. *sigh* … HE WANTS IT ALL! I tell him to ask his father to get some next week. I then ask him to please close the bedroom door so Daddy can sleep (he was up studying late last night), and he starts to throw a mini temper tantrum not wanting to do it. I remind him this is what ‘etiquette’ is (he was so excited to tell me that word meant ‘polite’ and ‘manners’), and he reluctantly, and grumpily closes the door.

I stop him and ask what’s going on. He tells me he doesn’t always want to be a good little boy, and to have manners. I tell him that this isn’t just being polite, it is showing your father how much you love and care for him by doing nice things too. It isn’t just to be polite.

He stops and absorbs it… then like a storm cloud passing, he happily plops himself on the chair and wants to play this math game (?) called Dice Wars online.

6:36 a.m. — I don’t even know how people run blogs and have full-time lives and families. You need to do so much work on these things, along with just ONE social media platform like Instagram. To work and get up to a decent following (at least past 5K), it is some serious strategy and planning, and that takes time. I recently spent about two hours creating this Introduction to myself for the 15K follower mark to re-introduce my account (you have to do this ever so often when you hit milestones, to catch everyone up):

(You have to click on the arrow on the right in the middle of the post to read the rest of it as there are 10 slides):

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCHjYT0H-OV/

TWO HOURS!!! And people think Blogging, Social Media and all that isn’t a job!!?!?! It certainly isn’t easy.

6:46 a.m. — I prepare a quick breakfast for Little Bun of pasta and cheese.

7:18 a.m. — I prep and finish a post (one out of the 3-4 I do daily) for Instagram. It takes time to create images in Photoshop, and then write captions for them as well so I can easily copy and paste the posting.

9:50 a.m. — Isn’t this the wildest necklace you’ve ever seen?

10:15 a.m. — I have my lunch and Little Bun eats as well.

11:20 a.m. — I drop down for a nap. I can’t take it any more. My eyes close.

12:08 p.m. — I feel Little Bun conking out beside me. His sweet, sleepy face, and I whisper: Are you going to nap?.. he responds back: Yes… and I pull down the curtain and tuck him in.

12:28 p.m. — So I catch my partner still eying houses in the country, looking at 1-acre and 2-acre lots, but I know this might be a future pipe dream for him AFTER Little Bun is out of the house, and AFTER we both decide to commit to stop working, as I am not moving until I am sure that all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed. This great place for school, amenities, and so on — we need this for our young family.

1:30 p.m. — I get an email from a fraudster and comment on it:

1:55 p.m. — My brain is clear again now. I can breathe. That nap helped. I also help answer a question quickly on how to save $40K on an $82K gross income. I did it based on Québec numbers… and it looks tight but it is doable depending on what you pay for living.

2:27 p.m. — Little Bun is still sleeping. And as it drags closer to 3 p.m., my brain slows down again

4:03 p.m. — He’s up, but I can’t take it. I need another nap. I am trying very hard to stay awake and play with him, but I just want to lie down and curl up.

4:03 p.m. — I feed him dinner, and try to clean things but my brain is just so heavy. It’s like I am watching everything in slow motion. I sit beside him and try to also play this mentally challenging game (Two Dots), but I can’t concentrate.

5:01 p.m. — He plays beside me, and I lie down, and conk out for 45 minutes.

5:47 p.m. — WOW. I wake up completely like the cobwebs have cleared from my mind. I feel much much better. It’s strange how I wanted to nap in the morning but then my body demanded another nap again. I hope this doesn’t screw up my night time sleep.

6:30 p.m. — I make myself a light dinner, then I play with Little Bun, reading books with him, and I send him off on expeditions to draw pictures for me. He draws a meal for his Stuffies (pizza, salad, random carrots, cake and a tart), and he draws another meal (vegetable stew with various vegetables).

7:22 p.m. — I go and check a few things and realize that Amazon has been increasing prices on everything. It’s cheaper to buy from a local store and hit the minimum shipping amount, because everything is up by 25% or so. Of course I am looking at random beauty things, and things like nailpolish, but this means you can’t just assume they have the best prices any longer.

9:18 p.m. — My brain is so clear, we end up reading together, then playing a game, and then go to sleep.

Spent: $0

DAY TWO

??:?? — I wake up slightly tired. Could probably use another nap today. I am feeling good enough to do yoga however, so I will likely do a session as part of Mommy Time.

6:22 a.m. — I get this weird message. Apparently this is a real thing. I can’t even imagine it being a thing but let alone taking advantage of someone… and it could be scam anyway. I feel weird AF about this:

7:02 a.m. — I finish my matcha latte, and make a list of what I have to get done today – namely, transfer my US$ into my brokerage account and start researching stocks.

7:15 a.m. — Little Bun plays on the floor with blocks, singing to himself nursery rhymes and made up snippets from various shows he has watched. I know every single one of them! And his singing ability is getting better, a little less tone deaf.

8:08 a.m. — A friend of mine is a gifted artist and I promoted her page (under Instagram – ART SALE).. and mentioned that I could never paint and sell anything because I have zero skills in this department. LOL…

12:28 p.m. — We play a lot of Adventures and games together and I am always sneaking in things about financial literacy to get him used to the idea. He already calls himself “a great saver” which is a great start, but I’d like to transition that into “and a great investor” as well.

Other times, when he has cried because I had to go to work and leave him, I tell him

“Mommy goes to work to make money, and with that money, Mommy pays for this apartment you live in, the food you eat, the clothes you wear and ruin (LOL), books, apps and toys.”

Then recently, as he wanted a (truly inane) $55/USD a year app, I told him:

“But! Mommy lost her job right? And if Mommy has no job, she has no money to buy expensive $55 USD/year apps that don’t educate you or help you in any way imaginable!”

Of course, this doesn’t always go over well, and he burst out (many a time) in a frustrated fit of:

YOU BETTER MAKE LOTS OF MONEY TO BUY APPS!

And I always correct him that I am not the one who wants these apps, he is.

“No no no baby, YOU better work hard to make lots of money to buy whatever apps you want. LOL…”

Of course, I am partly teasing him. I have paid for apps to be ad-free like Happy Colour because he enjoys colouring with them, but I have noticed the minute I pay for it, he loses interest and I feel the loss of that $3 USD quite acutely.

I try and incorporate money lessons into what we do – stories, adventures, etc. Just the other day, we were playing pirates with the Stuffies:

Little Bun: YAY!! TREASURE!!! Lots of treasure to save!!!

Me: So much treasure! Let’s go divide it up into piles for investing because we can’t just save our money right? We also have to save it AND invest it! We should make a budget of how much the Stuffies have, need to live on, and then divide the rest into piles for investing into various index funds!!!! YAY!!!!!

Little Bun: YAYY!! BUDGET!!!! Let’s go do a budget!!!

And I am hoping all of this, constant repeating and brainwashing will work because he’ll just naturally think: I’m a saver and an investor, why WOULDN’T I do this?

7:16 p.m. — I finally finish my bottle of shampoo in plastic and get shampoo bars, and the rest of my cleanser that lasted 3 months:

To keep the cleanser inside the bottle still moist so I can use it, I have these silicone covers that I put over the bottle as I cut it open and chop it down as I am cleaning off the cleanser off the sides:

8:34 p.m. — Something is up with my partner. It’s like he is mad.. or angry about something but won’t tell me. He’s in his cave right now and I’d like to poke him to get him to spill WTF he is brooding about, but it could be nothing, or it will just blow up some time and come out.

8:50 p.m. — I play with Little Bun on the app Two Dots which he loves, and I love it too because we cuddle close together as we try to make squares with the dots, which gives me plenty of time to kiss him.

9:15 p.m. — Time for bed.

Spent: $0

DAY THREE

??:?? — I wake up before Little Bun. A bit tired though. His head is on my pillow and I barely have any space for my own head, so I just lie on the bed, pillow-less. His own pillow is underneath his legs.

5:26 a.m. — Yeah, a bit early. I get his milk as he calls out: Mommy don’t warm it up too hot please … and realize I have turned into a butler to a small tiny human.

6:18 a.m. — I make myself tea, and settle in to do work. Mostly on my blog, replying to DMs and emails. This blogging lark is a full-time job, frankly.

8:10 a.m. — I prep for my call with a friend of mine who wants to have her financial situation re-assessed to see if she is on track. AND SHE IS. By a long shot.

9:40 a.m. — I play with Little Bun amply, so he won’t have time to miss me while I am on my call. Little Bun begs for me to clean the spots on the oven, in the kitchen, on the cupboards, and starts wiping like crazy:

11:15 a.m. — No luck. Within 10 minutes he is at the door wailing like a cat. I let him in as he squeals: I HATE THIS TIME. (meaning, time where Mommy is not 100% devoted or listening to him 24/7) I glare at him and tell him: I am talking on the phone!… and he harrumphs like a mini old man. He sets himself up in the corner in the room, just so he can be with me in the same space.

THIS IS PARENTING. You can never be left alone because your baby will want to be with you all the time, physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally… He is also always talking to me. ALWAYS. I can never get his voice out of my ear…. I am sure I will miss these days but man.. it is rough.

12:08 p.m. — Well this made me laugh, at least of late. Been getting a lot of snark on Instagram which is to be expected in some sense. I was called an ingrate for writing truthfully about my parents not learning any financial literacy and still to this day, gambling what I call their second lottery winnings away. They stubbornly believe they can and will win the second lottery because of karma and can ‘beat the odds’. Hundreds of thousands of wasted dollars.

3:28 p.m. — Little Bun is up, I am still frantically trying to finish updating the Week of Money posts because… this is the only time it is quiet and I can mentally think about what has been going on.

4:55 p.m. — I do all the dishes, then feed Little Bun, and then try to get my brain out of a fog. I AM SO TIRED.

5:11 p.m. — My partner is trying hard to convince me to move out to the middle of nowhere (to me), and buy acreage and then build a new home on that.

He builds a huge spreadsheet to show me how much we’d be saving if we moved, because there are amenities we pay for and don’t use:

And then we start looking at places…..

Finally, he tries to convince me to move because I’d have a massive closet. We will get a third bedroom just for my closet for great selfies…  LOL…

 

6:23 p.m. — This is such a great message to receive. I AM SO HAPPY TO HEAR THIS!!!!!!

7:34 p.m. — Little Bun works on his new book, a second one called “Jokes for Children, by Little Bun”…. and this is one of them:

What’s a computer’s favourite snack?

COMPUTER CHIPS OF COURSE!!!!!!

9:12 p.m. — Time for bed.

Spent: $0

DAY FOUR

6:00 a.m. — Little Bun wakes me up, and I am really not feeling it. I am super tired. I lie there trying to squeeze out a few more seconds. Finally, Little Bun can’t take it that he isn’t getting any attention any more and starts to wail. My partner grumbles something I can’t hear, and I am frustrated because I am so tired, I snap: YOU GET UP WITH HIM THEN.

6:05 a.m. — Little Bun chooses to have a nosebleed from all the wailing and it spurts out of his nose, so I get up with him and we stop it from bleeding.

6:13 a.m. — Nosebleed over, he has milk, I go and make a tea.

6:36 a.m. — I log in and start answering emails

7:07 a.m. — Because I am a penny pincher in a sense for many things that are what I call “easy pickings”, I spend a minute on Amazon chat under Returns/Refunds, and get $10 CAD back in a goodwill gesture for my packages being delivered so late (more than 3 weeks). Here’s my actual transcript:

My motto in life: If you don’t ask, you won’t get it.

8:08 a.m. — My hair has been really wild and BIG lately… I call this having Diana Ross vibes. I wonder if it is the low sudsing shampoo helping my hair out.

8:20 a.m. — My partner gets up and then starts making lunch, which I am sure is going to be chicken and fries. Little Bun squeals in delight when he finds out what it is going to be.

9:15 a.m. — I try to log in and do some tasks like bank account balance checks and so on, but I am listless.

10:28 a.m. — I flip through my style books and realize that street style books are not my thing. I don’t enjoy reading them as much as actual style guides. I select two that I can either sell/donate/giveaway or use as props in my new closet.

12:28 p.m. — Little Bun and I have lunch. It is a serious treat today, perfectly homemade fries and chicken. Little Bun ignores the chicken and goes JUST for the fries, which is his favourite. If you ever want to become besties with Little Bun and gain his trust, it is via his stomach and with French fries:

1:06 p.m. — “Mommy, you have to tuck in the Stuffies for their nap too. Don’t forget. 4 kisses for the biggest one and 2 for the babiest one” … and I tuck them in for him before naptime.

2:15 p.m. — I am likely going to nap as well.. I am drained.

3:51 p.m. — I wake up from my nap. OK I lied, I already was up from my nap when I heard Little Bun knock on the bedroom door to signal he was ‘awake’ (fake awake, he never napped) and to demand delivery of his milk. After his milk, he ran out, I felt him lean in close to my face and peer to see if I was really sleeping or not (I was dozing so yes.. I was…), and then quietly go off to the side and play with blocks.

4:06 p.m. — I think he lasted maybe 15 minutes before he felt it was “enough time to let Mommy sleep in”, and climbs on top of me, snuggling and patting me, squealing happy baby noises “squee squee squeeeee!” (they’re really cute, like a baby squirrel or something). I “wake up” officially and then we bring everything back into the bedroom and play cars together with some blocks.

5:40 p.m. — I do the dishes.

6:16 p.m. — This outfit is pretty.

7:56 p.m. — I have a little oatmeal and maple syrup with hemp seeds snack for dinner:

8:21 p.m. — Time for bed, after we play with the Stuffies making up a game, he brushes his teeth, and then snuggles. He squeals: I AM TOO HOT.. and wants to sleep on a cool bed that doesn’t get hot. WE ALL DO KID. We also don’t leave the AC on because of the noise but also that it gets too cold (artificially), and becomes an issue.

Spent: $0

DAY FIVE

5:26 a.m. — He wakes up grumpy AF, I am already cursing how this day is starting. After his milk, he flops back on the bed and snores. I force myself to get up and close the door I left open, thinking we were going to get up.

7:25 a.m. — He wakes up for real, and in a much better mood. He tells me he needed the milk to cool his body down because it was hot, and complains that it is too warm and he’s sweaty. I take his shirt off and take him to the living room, to fan his body off. I feel like a butler to a small little prince. LOL

7:33 a.m. — I make a tea and play with him talking about the different things he has learned.

8:16 a.m. — My partner is up, and I do all the dishes, dry them.

9:59 a.m. — This quote is so true:

12:08 p.m. — I am starting to feel midday fatigue. I usually get this after I eat things that are heavy like potatoes, of which I had a whole bowl of.

2:17 p.m. — I consider lying down for a quick nap. My brain is dragging and I am likely getting used to these midday naps now. I have to remember to prep for another coaching call tomorrow.

3:50 p.m. — I try to organize my desktop but I kind of need all these papers. I fall down a rabbit hole of looking at different nail polishes, and decide to try the new Sally Hansen 15-free PURE colours. It says 10-free, formulated without: Formaldehyde, Formaldehyde Resin, Toluene, Xylene, Acetone, Camphor, Parabens, Ethyl Tosylamide, Triphenyl Phosphate (TPP), Animal-derived ingredients. It has decent reviews and I get 3 colours that I tend to wear: Be-gone-ia in a light pink pale colour, Cherry Amore in a deepish pink red, and a deep red Pomegranate Punch. $26.87

4:11 p.m. — He continues on his second ‘book’. This time this is “Funny Jokes”

The joke above is: Why did the student eat his homework? .. Because the teacher told him it was a piece of cake (LOL)

5:14 p.m. — Time for dinner. We eat, and then I do all the dishes.

6:25 p.m. — I transfer over a little over $1000 USD to my trading account. It’s a ton of fees along the way. I really need to figure out how to minimize these costs because $25 here, $30 there.. it eats up my money over time.

8:40 p.m. — Little Bun and I share headphones and fall down the rabbit hole of watching Fixer Upper with Chip & Joanna Gaines (I LOVE THIS SHOW NOW!)… I have always liked home reno shows, and I am glad I found this one.

Spent: $26.87

DAY SIX

??:?? — I wake up from Little Bun wiggling around.

??:?? — Little Bun wakes up squealing and we groggily pat him back to sleep.

7:59 a.m. — Wow we REALLY slept in!!!!

8:26 a.m. — I prep for my coaching call coming up.

10:45 a.m. — Call over (I never ever stick to the 30-minute time frames, I usually end up going to 45 minutes or so)…. haha.. which is funny but also because you have an introduction and a chatty person bit I don’t feel comfortable charging people for.

11:37 a.m. — I eat a quick lunch, and Little Bun and I play together. I make another cup of tea but I am still dragging. Maybe I need a little nap, myself.

12:08 p.m. — I conk out for a nap.

3:15 p.m. — I wake up refreshed, just as Little Bun wakes up (coincidence!) and I still feel tired but there isn’t anything I can do. I am just .. bleh.

5:28 p.m. — I have dinner, Little Bun too, and then we read books together because I tell him Mommy needs no screen time right now.

6:22 p.m. — Little Bun enslaves me to finish this level for him in Two Dots:

9:13 p.m. — Time for bed. I feel so dizzy. The worst is because it is the barometric pressure of the atmosphere, and before it rains, or when it flips back and forth between rainy and sunny, the drop in the pressure plays with my brain and triggers my motion sickness.

Spent: $0

DAY SEVEN

??:?? — I wake up hot, and tired. I flip off the blankets and go back to sleep.

6:36 a.m. — Little Bun is up, and before his milk, he insists on grabbing his Stuffie to cuddle with while drinking his milk. Just like when he was a baby.

I always wonder if socialization of children with other children early on, teaches them to not do certain things that they would like to do, like hug and kiss their parents or hold their hands (“ewww you’re not a baby any more”), or all the very sweet, innocent things he does NOW as a little boy of 6 that I remember my younger family members rejecting wholly.

It is almost like they are shamed into not being who they want to be, or taught it isn’t right, especially as a little boy. He enjoys pretending to change diapers on pillows and Stuffies, and feeding them milk, cuddling them and so on. I wonder if he would be teased for such things just because he’s a boy.

7:05 a.m. — I log in and try to do some work. I have a solution to obtain my USD from my Paypal account but I DO NOT LOVE paying the almost $30 USD charge each time I move money monthly and that is considered cheaper than converting to CAD in Paypal if I move $1K increments !!! I want something cheaper. Even if it’s under $5, I need to figure out a better way to save more of my hard earned money. The only other option is to do this weird kind of shady workaround with a USD Bank and fudging the transit numbers, but I am not into that.

7:34 a.m. — Little Bun pokes me to finish this level for him…. and I end up beating the level for him (man it was tough, I used 3 special boxes to get through it):

 

With 7 hours to spare:

 

And this is the badge he hassled me for.. LOL!!!! A PICTURE. Arrrggg…

 

He gives me 6 kisses and as I get up to do the dishes, he says: WAIT MOMMY! YOU FORGOT!... And he runs up to me and hugs me very tight 6 times. Love this child.

9:10 a.m. — I feel like I have a long To Do list I have been putting off for 2 weeks. I finally decide to tackle them, one at a time.

9:15 a.m. — Little Bun works on a ‘blanket man’ (?) a “cookie” made out of a blanket with some blocks for eyes and a mouth, with a pillow for a hat, and then gets mad it doesn’t work.  He almost has a meltdown because it isn’t working so I go and help him and explain how there is a solution – to think: Okay, that didn’t work. Can I ask for help? 

9:40 a.m. — He works on his book, but then gets mad when his pencil isn’t sharp. We ALMOST have a meltdown (second one for today within a half hour span), and I warn him: Don’t get Mommy started today. Really. PLEASE. Ask for HELP. There is always a solution. You’re in charge of your own happiness. 

He looks at me and says: What will make me happy??

Me: You’re in charge of your own happiness.

Little Bun: YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD MAKE ME HAPPY?

Me: What? *bracing for something ridiculous*

Little Bun: A KISS.

I melt. I grab him up, hug him tight and tell him when he says “squeeee” then it means he is ready for a kiss after a hug. He squees, hugs me tighter, kisses me, and then goes to his father for a hug and kiss.

10:30 a.m. — He spends time asking me to ‘read a story to the baby Matties”.. basically these mats we keep underneath the bed to stop it from shifting and sliding (Little Bun runs and jumps on the futons A LOT and we were afraid he’d slip if they moved and smash his face open)… and even checks on them. He even makes me vacuum the area so that it stays “nice and clean for the baby mats“…

Yes, I literally read a story to these brown mats. This is parenting when your child is beyond precious, honestly. And he even patted them and said: “Okay time for your nap! *pulls bed back over them* … Let me check on you one more time and make sure you won’t get cold!!!”

11:09 a.m. — My partner makes pizza and Little Bun helps. IT IS SO CUTE watching him roll out the dough….

1:15 p.m. — He goes down for a nap, and then I log in to try and wipe out some items on my To Do list.

2:30 p.m. — I finish research on a stock, and pick Rogers Sugar Inc. up for a cheaper price. I normally wouldn’t buy a stock with a yield of 7% or higher but it is because it got slammed with a crop yield being an issue due to weather, and then the virus, which is what made its stock price drop. I remember it being $3 years ago when I bought into it. I plan on selling it when it goes back up to $5-ish dollars, seeing as sugar is kind of a staple. Everywhere. And they’re the biggest distributor in Canada.

3:15 p.m. — We do a little workbook after his nap. My mother sent a HUGE STACK of activities for Little Bun:

Please don’t be jealous of my amazing drawing skills. I’ll start side hustling some images later. LOL

4:44 p.m. — I watch more Fixer Upper with Little Bun on my lap because he is really into design as well, and absorbs what I say to him. If I say I don’t like a certain home, he tells me he doesn’t like it either. I always make sure to amend what I am saying and to tell him: It’s just not Mommy’s style but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good style. Mommy is more Scandinavian and less Farmhouse.

4:56 p.m. — I try on my new-to-me suede heels. If you can’t or won’t buy secondhand designer heels, this brand BR and style is the ultimate recommendation I have for comfortable high heels. These are 4″ heels and they are COMFORTABLE. They also fit true to size, so take your actual US shoe size. These are 7s, but I need to add my favourite hands down heel pads at the back as they are a tiny bit loose for my liking, which makes them perfect for me as I’d add heel grips anyway on all my heels, designer or not (to eliminate / reduce friction and blistering).

5:17 p.m. — A small business pleads for people to pay for the lattes and not to make them to save a few bucks by stealing all the dispenser milk to do so. I post it, and get messages like this:

6:30 p.m. — At dinner:

9:13 p.m. — I also want to share The Career Contessa’s Salary Project where people submit their salaries, location and jobs to help others benchmark what they should be getting.

Spent: $0

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