Week of Money: Where I spend $1000 in two shots

DAY ONE

??:?? — Little Bun wakes up squealing: AHHHH AHHH!!!… He’s having a nosebleed. I go with him in the bathroom and it takes 3 tissues and about half an hour to get it to stop (as per Little Bun’s insistence on checking the time).

6:20 a.m. — I will definitely need to nap at some point today. My brain is all foggy.

6:33 a.m. — I make tea, clean up a little, and then he insists on playing Brain Test which is actually a set of fun apps for adults and kids alike.

8:41 a.m. — It actually takes me more than 2 hours to run through basic things which are:

• Emails
• Set up & post my new blog post in Stories Instagram
• Update my Week of Money Post – I have to do this 3-4 times a day so I don’t lose track of all the notes I take and it becomes overwhelming
• Update my Month of Style Post – Again, I have to update the slider, name the photos, and write commentary so I don’t leave it to the last minute and freak out
• Check Canada Revenue Agency email inbox – why do I have a $300 balance due for taxes? This was all squared away. Need to call them today.
• Check my brokerage account and realize it may have not been reported accurately to CRA. Could this be related? Make a list to call them and ask on these two points.
• Check bank accounts to make sure I am not outstanding on any fees, balances, etc and I have the money in there for cash flow coming up
• Check all instant messages on Instagram and respond
• Plan the posts for Instagram today – I have most of them already ready to go but creating a good mix so it isn’t just one topic is key

AND I HAVEN’T EVEN WRITTEN ANYTHING OR DONE ANYTHING WORTHWHILE to check things off my To Do list!

No blog posts, no new IG posts, no emails, nothing. This is just basic bare minimum maintenance. Every morning.

8:50 a.m. — Oh WTF.. why does my site say Not Secure? I look into it and try to fix the issue. This takes at least 20 minutes and it isn’t resolved but at least it doesn’t say in red “WARNING, NOT SECURE, DO NOT ENTER ANY INFORMATION”….. It was just a question of the URLs on the page not matching up from HTTP to HTTPS. ARRRGGGGGHHhhhhhhhh. I need to do even more research today to try and get it to “SECURE” because this is bothering me.

OH. I see. It’s not really me. It’s that the settings on people’s browsers like mine, need to be modified to make their visit to the site secure or not. I wonder what I will need to pay or do, to get this to be SECURE no matter what. This will cost me money but I have to get it done.

It does say I need to pay for some sort of extended protection to get it to be green. There goes another $300/year.. maybe.

9:16 a.m. — I feed Little Bun breakfast, and then go back to my list of things to get done, like get back into doing a bit of yoga which I do:

10:20 a.m. — A snippet of life:

 

Hepeating by the way, is when a man repeats what you’re saying as if it was his own original idea to begin with. 😉

11:15 a.m. — I eat lunch, and then Little Bun runs up and says very sweetly: “Baby wants Mommy Time!”… which is what I taught him to say “Please ask for Mommy Time”, and I pick him up, cuddle him, play with him and snuggle him just like a “Baby”. He loves pretending, still.

1:46 p.m. — After Little Bun goes down for his nap, I spend about almost $900 USD in one shot.  I pay for super encrypted SSL for my websites which was about $336 USD (ouch… but necessary), and I send about $525 USD back to family to help pay their bills. This is not my aunt in the U.S., this is another extended family branch.  $861 USD or $1168.86 CAD

This is kind of why I need money and cash, because that $525 USD is a fortune for them, and it more than covers my other aunt’s medical bills and care, which is getting too expensive for the family to pay for. I know everyone says things like: Oh but people should have known to save up for these things, and it’s their fault they didn’t save enough for their retirement and care….. .. but in the same vein, this is family.

3:02 p.m. — Little Bun up, I am glad I got through the stuff I needed to get through.

5:21 p.m. — I do all the dishes, eat a light dinner of Oatmeal and Maple Syrup..

6:44 p.m. — I work on trying to delete photos off my phone. I am trying to clean up but each time I delete something I remember I forgot to email how cute it was to my mother. I tell Little Bun “I need a break.” and he runs off to play by himself.

6:49 p.m. — 5 minutes later — “Mommy, did you get enough of a break?” Me: “No. I got A break, not enough of a real break.“…. and his face falls. He has no concept of what a break really means, but he’s trying at least, so I hug and kiss him for being such a good little considerate boy.

7:17 p.m. — I watched at least 3 more Fixer Upper videos because I got Little Bun hooked on an app that teaches Mirroring and thinking spatially, and I have quiet time to myself.

7:26 p.m. — “Mommy, I am helping Daddy find ALL THE SPOTS TO CLEAN in this house!” …. (Good. Go. Go clean.)

9:16 p.m. — As of late, I have been working in little lessons on money to our stories (I make up stories for him at night), and this one in particular went like this:

“...And the little mousie saved all of her gold coins from her pirate booty chest, and invested it into the stock market 100% because she was young and had plenty of time to save, took advantage of compounding interest and never had to worry about buying fancy French cheeses again. The End.”

Spent: $1168.86

DAY TWO

6:37 a.m. — Little Bun is up, and I snuggle him like a baby, feed him a secret crêpe I saved aside from yesterday as his morning treat (it made him so happy!!!!), and then we play the “I can’t tell which part of you I love the most” game and tell him: I can’t decide which cheek of yours I love more! Let me check!.. and I kiss his left cheek (he squees!), and then his right one ( he squees!)… and then I check by kissing his cheeks again, and proclaim: I CANNOT DECIDE. I love them both.

7:05 a.m. — I make a list of things to get done, top of the list is definitely my morning SHOT, calling the revenue agency.

8:59 a.m. — Today is CRA day. As in Canada Revenue Agency calling day. It will take at least 2 hours, so I pre-warn Little Bun I will be in the room and he cannot come and disturb me.

10:25 a.m. — Calls finally over, I get things sorted out – I didn’t deduct my RRSP contribution in the year I did it, so it carried forward and now it confused me with the way they posed the info on the site, making me think I had that FREE room available to contribute to. *sigh* WTF…..

These government sites are not properly and clearly detailed out, and frankly, I can see why people get into trouble with taxes because it just simply isn’t clear, or misleading.

So now I will get slammed with a $600 penalty fee next year. Whatever. I’m trying not to stress over this horribly privileged Rich Person’s Problem of Overcontribution because I have too much money. I hate stupid fees and I was stupid AF for incurring this fee. What a dumb ass I am. A stupid, dumb, ass.

11:50 a.m. — I have lunch, and then Little Bun runs up to me: “Baby want Mommy!” .. and I pick him up, all 60 pounds of him, and love feeling his little body snuggle against mine. This is the best. I’m glad I can carry him fairly easily…I mean not for long but at least I can lift him.

1:24 p.m. — Little Bun goes down for his nap, I hear him chatting with his father before sleeping.

3:40 p.m. — He wakes up and then I snuggle him, a little damp from his nap, and kiss him. I check his cheeks to see which one I love better (he asks me to), and I can’t decide!!!!

4:02 p.m. — How beautiful is this armoire!?!?… But for $2000? I wonder if I can make this a household purchase. LOL…. (doubtful, he isn’t into ornate items). Maybe if I could get wallpaper or something for an armoire that was a gold wave pattern like this, it would give me a similar vibe:

5:12 p.m. — I tell Little Bun that his room is ready for him any time he is ready to sleep alone. He pauses, looks at me and says: “Mommy, I want to never sleep alone, I will sleep with you until I am a zillion years old.” …. I side eye him and laugh. I tell him: “Baby, I think you’ll want to sleep on your own before that. Until then, we can snuggle together all the time okay?”

He tells me his favourite part of being in our bed is the talking every night, the snuggling, and the chatting, which I also enjoy. He likes the feeling of having another warm body there, just the way I felt when I was his age and even a bit older until 7 years old or so. I slept in the same bed as one of my brothers because it made me sleep deeper and more comfortably as a child. A lot of North Americans find this mentality weird but this is very normal in many other parts of the world.

6:50 p.m. — I do all the dishes, dry them… and then make a light dinner.

9:12 p.m. — Time for bed.

Spent: $0

DAY THREE

??:?? — My baby is giggling. Like straight up giggling in his sleep and I wake up, and can’t help but giggle too.

6:20 a.m. — Okay, he’s awake after his little giggling spell. I’m glad he’s in a good mood. He comes out, and he quietly plays on an app while I go through my To Do list. I created a new goal to have $300K in cash ready for the next 3-5 years for this home because I am not going to bank on $250K (which is a $500K total all-in), and I really don’t want to sell any investments to get this money.

7:58 a.m. — I go through and try to figure out what to do with all of my To Do list things because I have a lot but also can’t do a lot of it because… it’s all in limbo because of the pandemic.

11:15 a.m. — Lunch time. I make a cup of tea afterwards, and watch more Fixer Upper for ideas. It is a pretty good idea to have the toilet in what is like a smaller ‘water closet’, and the shower in another section.

12:05 p.m. — I do laundry.

3:00 p.m. — Little Bun knocks to let Daddy know he’s up.

3:28 p.m. — I start looking at antique pianos from the 1900s because I love that kind of history in pieces.

4:04 p.m. — I make a meal of noodles, eat them happily (they’re such a comforting meal), and then I feed Little Bun while we play Two Dots.

5:25 p.m. — I am not into mashed potatoes lately. Maybe I’ll make potato pancakes with them tomorrow, Little Bun loved those.

6:17 p.m. — I lie down and finally force myself to read more of my book and get super engrossed in Bill Bryson’s The Body

6:40 p.m. — Annoyed at having to put cream on my feet but then feeling it soak (and get wasted?) into my socks at night, I search online for an alternative, and come up with these silicone socks that will be easy to wash. I just need to wear them at night when I am lathering my feet in cream, not walk around in them (which I’ve read the reviews on, seems to make them tear easily as they’re very thin silicone covers). I also pick up another blue light cover because Little Bun smashed the last one when he broke my mini iPad. $47.29

6:55 p.m. — I spend the night extrapolating how big the plans for the apartment would be based off finding a square in a room and then dividing it into a grid on Photoshop. We use the measuring tape and realize we’re basically adding a whole new living space completely ON TOP of having a new closet, pantry, and 3-car garage if we build it to these new specifications.

8:14 p.m. — My partner is so excited with these new dimensions.

9:00 p.m. — Little Bun starts his bedtime routine: Book with Daddy, Brush Teeth With Daddy, Bedtime With Mommy.

Spent: $47.29

DAY FOUR

??:?? — I feel rested. I try and force myself back to sleep anyway.

7:00 a.m. — Oh THIS is why I feel good.

7:27 a.m. — After his milk, I make a tea, and then I log in to answer DMs on Instagram and email. This takes up at least half an hour.

8:08 a.m. — I am super nervous about the markets just crashing by July 25th / August 1st because of the Stimulus money disappearing and… frankly, things not doing any better. It could be another year or two before a vaccine or cure is found. By that time, maybe there’s another pandemic, or the virus has mutated to something that the vaccine no longer works for. *stress*

8:20 a.m. — A friend messages me and we plan out a NYC trip together. Maybe I’ll go twice in 2022 because I missed 2020, but also just as a stress reliever. Then I remember having to save up $300K for my half of a new home and I am less excited.

9:00 a.m. — I make potato pancakes, this time with extra flour, an egg, and a touch more oil at high heat in the pan, and they turn out great:

9:08 a.m. — “Mommy, do you wish you were a Stuffie because I am making so many beautiful postcards for them for their vacation and you don’t get any, because you were born, not made?” ….. LOL!!!! …. He has been making these beautiful “Your Vacation Continues” postcards that the Stuffies get a the end of every adventure like going from the house to the BBQ, or the house to La La Land, or the house to the bedroom, and then he claps for them, and they get a postcard that he drew and coloured in for them.

I do kind of wish I were a Stuffie because in this household they are living their best lives for sure.

12:28 p.m. — Time for lunch, and then I play some Two Dots with Little Bun (he has been having a lot less screen time as of late).

12:56 p.m. — Little Bun says: Mommy, go out to the living room now please. I have to go grab Daddy for our nap. … because his routine is his father naps with him, and I get peace and quiet for about 2 hours more or less even if he doesn’t nap, he plays quietly in the bedroom.

1:34 p.m. — I am ridiculously sore from re-starting my yoga from 2 days ago. I have to take a break and try again tomorrow, I can’t even do a pushup right now, my arms are in so much pain. This is NOT A GOOD SIGN. I used to do yoga daily and be fine with all of these flows, so it means I am getting weak and lazy.

*By “guns” I meant really sculpted arms. Not actual guns.

4:25 p.m. — Little Bun is up, and I try to coax him into doing workbook exercises. HE IS NOT HAVING IT. I don’t know why he’s resistant now, but I want to try to not push him because it’ll make it worse. Maybe what he needs is a schedule but even I can’t stick to one so….

6:30 p.m. — My partner, Little Bun and I, work on the plans for the home together. We are adjusting things like moving walls and so on, to see where things could go, and thinking of new things like solar panels, grey water recycling.. all of this is very appealing to me.

7:50 p.m. — Dinner time over, all dishes washed, I consider just buying a cheapie electronic piano so we can practice and play on it while we wait for my real piano. I am set back another 3 years because of this home.

8:16 p.m. — Little Bun starts getting ready for bed, and I moisturize my feet and put socks on. Then we cuddle in bed, talking and playing Two Dots, and then we snuggle and talk about when he was a baby and how he was born (he loves my birth story and how he gave me a beautiful scar where they cut him out of me.) Plus awesome Mommy Tiger Stripes on my stomach where he stretched my stomach out.

Spent: $0

DAY FIVE

??:?? — I feel rested but I am always still very tired, especially around noon, where my body craves a nap.

7:00 a.m. — I make a tea, Little Bun gets to work colouring like crazy, because we’ve been watching a lot of Fixer Upper, and he tells me he is doing a “COLOUR UPPER” for the Stuffies and then he will do a BIG REVEAL to them at how cool it looks.

7:59 a.m. — My partner is up, he starts on making crêpes, and I feel.. odd. I feel like I should have more to do, projects, and so on.. and yet I do not have anything on my list. I also feel like I am missing something. Taxes are done, business stuff is done, nothing is wrong on my list but yet I feel like my life isn’t under control. I suspect it is the pandemic fking with my brain. It is making me think  I am unproductive and lazy but it’s just me having pent up energy and stress.

8:22 a.m. — I go through my To Do list at least 8 times.

10:16 a.m. — I lock the door and do some yoga again. I am keeping my flows short and sweet because I am still recovering but I have to get back into it. I used to do full flows DAILY and now I am just weakening from demotivation.

10:36 a.m. — Little Bun runs out just as crêpes are ready, and he doesn’t tell me to come, but when he’s done eating, he realizes he ate without me, and runs to the bedroom sobbing, which causes his father to scold him in alarm with his sticky fingers running to me before washing them, which sets off a huge meltdown. I think he’s a little tired or something, because he just bursts into tears sobbing about how I didn’t eat crêpes together with him and he wanted to eat them with me, and now it’s all RUINED because he ate them without me.

I end up calming him down, then he cuddles against my chest, closes his eyes, and I slowly cut and fork my crêpes while he lies against me, feeling comforted. I cuddle him just like when he was a baby. He closes his eyes, I hug him closer, cuddling him, and keep eating my food awkwardly (it’s hard not to drip maple syrup on a child on your chest).

1:03 p.m. — He goes down for his nap but before he flips over, he tells me: MOMMY. I want you to beat that Ultra Hard level while I am napping. I expect it completed by the time I am up. O_o … I am a Two Dots level-beating employee now LOL

1:42 p.m. — More Fixer Upper. I want to watch them all.

2:45 p.m. — I hear Little Bun wail in despair from the bedroom, and his father gets up, and asks him what’s wrong. I eavesdrop and he says: “But I don’t WANT to nap until 4 p.m. … and I am not tired. *sob sob sob*.. *wail*.” .. I guess my partner got cross with him a little earlier when HE was trying to nap and said: TIME TO NAP. Or else this nap will go on for LONGER! GOOD. My partner is reaping what he sowed earlier, with that cross remark, and now he has to calm him down. I hear my partner soothe him, and say: “That’s okay. What do you want to do? Just play quietly?“… and Little Bun agrees. For the next 15 minutes, he plays with the blocks in the bedroom and then knocks on the door to ask for milk.

3:00 p.m. — He’s up. We watch videos on solar homes. I am warming to the idea of solar panels for the entire roof outside even if we will never see the investment, it will mean having a reliance off the grid on energy just in case storms knock out power (we get 1-2 storms a year that do this).

4:15 p.m. — I feed Little Bun and then myself and then do all the dishes.

5:40 p.m. — This is a FANTASTIC new show I am obsessed with: Gordon Ramsay’s Uncharted, a chef who goes around the world and learns about indigenous cuisines in different countries, and foraging / hunting for the food, which is mindblowing.

6:41 p.m. — Little Bun has a weird red dot on his earlobe and I am getting concerned. It is the second one in a few years and I’d take him to the doctor but .. COVID. I’m worried now. Is this something that’s an issue?

7:25 p.m. — I try to email a buyer but their email address keeps bouncing back. Urgggh…

8:41 p.m. — Time for bed. Little Bun enjoys nighttime talks, so we cuddle into bed, and then he asks me: Would you like to choose the Story option or the Talking option? Then I choose Story or Talking (Story means I tell a story about an animal and their day and Talking is a Topic on anything)… then he says: Would you like General Topics or Mathematics? (LOL!.. just like an app. He even makes me pretend to swipe left or right). Then within Math, he gives me 2 options: Would you like to talk about Geometry or Other? .. Sometimes I choose other topics, and tonight, I got “Planets”, so he asked me to quiz him on planets and dwarf planets, and we talked about how far and close they were, how big they were, and he tells me fun facts he learned about them from books or in his apps.

Spent: $0

DAY SIX

??:?? — I wake up before anyone else, but can’t sleep again.

??:?? — Little Bun snuffle snorts, and snuggles up tight against my side, one hand on me, one leg wrapped around mine. I relish these cuddly moments. The entire bed is empty and he is just cuddled up next to me, feeling security and comfort in another body, the way I felt when I was younger and couldn’t sleep in my own bed alone. I used to crawl into my brother’s big bed and sleep beside him instantly, feeling safe beside him. I think I did it until I was at least 6 if not 7 years old.

6:00 a.m. — He wakes up, kisses me, and tells me he had a dream about making pizza. I go and get his milk, then start my day.

8:08 a.m. — Finally got a hold of the buyer who contacted me on Instagram. THANK GOODNESS. I tell her I tried twice, and tried Paypal, and just waited, hoping she would email ME. I happily send her the books.

10:11 a.m. — My partner makes pizza earlier instead of forcing Little Bun to wait for noon which is helpful because Little Bun gets super hungry early, AND he won’t stop pestering him until pizza is done.

12:08 p.m. — I do all the dishes, laundry, handwash my things to get rid of sweat stains etc, and am HORRIFIED that my favourite Lululemon white top has what looks to be ballpoint pen INK STAINS on the white sleeves. I am scrubbing it out furiously:

1:25 p.m. — He goes down for his nap, and I work on my Canadian Investing Course, which I am not sure I want to continue to be honest. I am trying it out to see what the interest is, but honestly, I’m sort of ‘meh’ about this extra work seeing as I have to prep for it, do slides, prep talking points and so on. It’s not just 1 hour or 90 minutes, more like 5, and if there isn’t much interest .. well.

2:22 p.m. — Little Bun knocks to let his father know he needs to go to the bathroom. He does this EVERY DAY at the same time because he is playing in the bedroom, NOT napping but giving us quiet time, and he absolutely saves up his bathroom break until this time so he can run out for a bit just before “waking up”. It’s comically cute.

3:00 p.m. — *knock knock knock* … Just in time.

4:15 p.m. — I do all the dishes, feed him, and then feed myself.

6:20 p.m. — I am watching episodes of Fixer Upper in the background (I think I’ve gone through them all), while I do my bank transfers and make sure I have balances available to pay bills for the start of next month.

9:20 p.m. — Time for bed. We chat, and he asks for a dinosaur story, and I make one up.

Spent: $0

DAY SEVEN

??:?? — Apparently Little Bun had a nosebleed last night, and Daddy took care of it. I slept through the entire thing. I only saw evidence on the counter in the morning.

??:?? — I wake up refreshed.

8:14 a.m. — After my tea, I try my best to beat this special level for Little Bun. He is INSISTENT!

8:45 a.m. — My partner gets up and starts making the food for the week and fries as a special treat which Little Bun LOVES. He says groceries are getting more and more expensive these days.

9:25 a.m. — I force myself to do a strong yoga flow with one legged chaturangas and so on because I feel myself getting weaker and less flexible the less yoga I do. DANG THIS VIRUS. I do so much better if I can go to a class.

10:11 a.m. — I try my best to beat a level in Two Dots and can’t. ARRRGG!!!!

1:08 p.m. — We have lunch of a chicken leg each and some fries, and Little Bun gobbles up all of the fries in front of him (his favourite food which he now gets bi-weekly).

1:28 p.m. — He heads down for his nap, and I drink some cranberry juice, and feel sort of heavy after that meal. It’s too much meat for me these days, I feel sleepy.

3:45 p.m. — I kid you not, I spend 4 hours in total researching, googling and choosing from a list of teas because I want to try Mariage Frères (an expensive tea brand in France), and end up spending $167.07

I found a Canadian shop that sells it, and frankly, it isn’t worth the trouble plus duties to go through the site directly as they are based in France and the duties cost would be through the roof. I pick up these 3 for various reasons:

• Marco Polo Sublime – Heard it is amazing, as a black citrus tea
• Paris Earl Grey – It has bergamot in it which I love
• Paris-Tokyo Darjeeling – It has yuzu in it which I also  love

I have never spent this much in tea in my life, and I will see if they live up to the hype. I hear I can’t go back to drinking my old tea, but we will see.

2:26 p.m. — I FINALLY get my main laptop reinstalled back down to an old operating system, and restored back to a time backup from 2 days ago. Honestly, I have no idea why they make this so difficult for people who want to upgrade, don’t like it and then downgrade.

3:11 p.m. — I am feeling fatigued by all of this pandemic stuff, but who isn’t? The coping I have is to browse for things that will be luxurious at home like tea and pyjamas but even that is starting to wear on me.

4:20 p.m. — I get my hair shampoos I was trying out from Ethique after I make it through my first batch, and I am VERY excited to try their conditioner bars as well:

5:20 p.m. — I also got my maruka hair oil which I was trying to use up a credit for, and it smells like a heavenly, vanilla, creamy citrust scent. I may have also used too much on my first go at it. Oops. Just half a pump is more than enough!!!!

6:45 p.m. — I spend time doing my pedicure (this is literally the first one I have ever done in my life), and they turn out okay if you look from high up and don’t get too close. Especially near the baby toe, which .. aptly named… gave me the MOST TROUBLE being there wasn’t much of a nail bed to begin with, it was all full of ridges and cuticles….

For my first ever pedicure, I would say: NOT BAD AT ALL. I obviously cleaned up the edges in the shower the next few days, and I do need to let my nails grow longer…

7:50 p.m. — I eat my dinner late because I wasn’t sure if I was hungry or not. (I was.) And then Little Bun starts studying with his father – we bought these books about the world, and plants, and he is reading a page with his father a day.

9:22 p.m. — Bedtime.

Spent: $167.07

———-

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