Note: this diary is from Feb. R29 didn't publish. I had every intention of doing a fresh diary for this, but time got away from me.
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance (and how you got there): This is managed by our financial advisor, and I admit I'm not always on top of the most recent numbers. Between retirement funds and our stock portfolio, it's over 1M.
Equity: It's been about a year since we bought the house, so roughly $50,000
Savings account balance: We generally move funds to the investment portfolio, but we do keep about 20K in savings for an emergency fund.
Checking account balance: Our paychecks auto-deposit into checking, so if we are on top of things, we don't have a lot in this account because we've moved the money. Otherwise, we just leave in enough to cover the bills.
Credit card debt (and how you accumulated it): No credit card debt
Student loan debt (for what degree): No student loans for either of us (we both have undergrad and graduate degrees)
Section Two: Income
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
$7,311.34
Spouse Monthly Take Home
$7,062 (he takes out the flex spending for childcare from his paycheck, so it's less than mine)
Any Other Monthly Income Here
$2,038.66 from my husband's military retirement
Section Three: Expenses
Mortgage: $4,462.24, including escrow
Electricity: ~$250
Water: ~$40
Trash/Recycling: ~$40
Car Payments: $0 (we paid off both vehicles a while ago)
Health Insurance: $0 (this is part of the military retirement)
Car Insurance: $127.60
Netflix: $10.99
Spotify Premium: $9.99
Phone: $52 (for mine, and my work phone and my husband’s cell are covered by work)
Internet: $72
Martial Arts: $120 (this is my membership)
Ballet: $89
Swim: $99
Childcare: $1,208 (this is before and after school care) (Note: only applicable in the school year)
School Lunch: ~$80 (on average per month) (Note: only applicable in the school year)
401K: $3,160 for both of us (19,000 max for the year per person)
Life Insurance: $440 (for both of us)
529: $500 a month per kid, so $1,000 total
IRAs: $1,000
Financial advisor fee: $130
Day One:
5:00am – Alarm goes off, and I get up in the dark to get dressed in the bathroom to try to not disturb my husband. It takes about 10 minutes to get dressed in workout clothing and shoes on, and then I head down to the basement to the elliptical for a 40-minute workout while watching random videos on YouTube because my Netflix app decided to stop playing audio and I didn’t want to waste time troubleshooting that. Once I am done, I stretch out a bit.
6:00am – Prep lunch for my older daughter (N.) and a snack for my younger daughter (G.) because kindergarteners bring an afternoon snack daily, and make my own breakfast. While I do that, my husband (F.) is up and he walks the dog and feeds her before he goes upstairs to get ready for work.
6:30am – Kids are up (one has an alarm that keeps her in bed until 6:30am, and the other has an alarm to wake her up) and they bound down the stairs for breakfast. I brush and style their hair, and then they sit at the table and eat their breakfast while watching YouTube Kids on their iPad. I hate those videos (why do they all seem to involve slime and/or unwrapping stuff?) but they love them.
6:45-7:15am – I shower, get dressed, and put on some make up (eyebrow gel, eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, and light foundation). Outfit of the day is a black and white patterned pencil skirt with black tights, black top, and black blazer. For shoes, I go with my new Rothy’s black round toe flats. I held out for a long time on getting these things, but they live up to the hype so far. Most comfortable flats I own. I don’t do my hair because I don’t have the patience to blow dry it.
7:20am – Daily drama about putting on shoes and coats. You’d think I was killing them by asking them to move faster than a glacial pace.
7:30am – Dropped off the kids at the school for before care. Their school doesn’t start until after 9:00am.
7:50am – Arrive at work, put my lunch in the fridge, and get my computer going to get organized before my meetings begin for the day.
8:30am – Get a cup of office coffee. It’s not great, but it’s free and fast. I also eat a little bit of turkey jerky from my snack drawer because my cereal for breakfast isn’t cutting it.
9:55am – More office coffee.
10:45am – Tiny bag of Fritos from the snack stash at work. I’m trying to get all of my daily sodium before noon. I also eat a small apple from my purse. I get the big bags of small apples for the kids, which works for them, but I always feel like it’s four bites and then it’s gone.
12:20pm – Eat lunch at my desk. Today I’m having leftovers from last night, so it’s steak and buttered pasta. Ideally, I’d have some salad too, but G. finished it off last night. I top off the meal with a fun sized Milky Way from the kitchen at work.
5:11pm – Realize I meant to leave 15 minutes ago, and pack up and head out.
5:35pm – Arrive home and get dinner going. Breakfast for dinner is fast and easy, and everyone likes it. We have biscuits from a can, sausage links, and scrambled eggs. My older daughter N. has more math homework than usual, so F. helps her with that while I clean up.
7:30pm – Leave for my martial arts class at 8pm. I take the toll road. ($1.50)
9:40pm – Return home via toll road. ($1.50)
10:30pm – After a quick shower, we are in bed and done for the day.
Daily total: $3.00
Day Two:
5:50am – Alarm goes off. No early morning workout today.
6:00am – Usual drill, make a lunch for N. and a snack for G. to take to school. I also get out their Valentine’s Day gifts for their teachers. They are in charge of the classmate Valentine’s for the first time this year, and I didn’t even check them. I send them each with a bag of lollipops to pass out and figure Jesus can take the wheel on the rest.
6:30am – Run a straightener through my hair because I slept on it wet, and put on a black top with gray pants and the same black flats as yesterday. Little bit of make-up and I’m good to go.
7:15am – Drop off the kids at their school.
7:35am – Arrive at the office and jump into my tasks for the day.
8:10am – Office coffee and a fun sized pack of peanut M&Ms because they were there.
10:15am – Eat an apple while on a telecon and check the mute button about 10 times to make sure no one can hear me.
11:47am – Dash out of a meeting to leave to volunteer in G.’s classroom for her Valentine’s Day party. Her teacher is really well organized so it’s fairly easy to step in to help, and it makes G. so happy to have me there.
1:30pm – Arrive home because I’m going to work from home the rest of the day rather than drive back to the office. I walk the dog (who I had to wake up, I guess her hearing is going due to her age), and then heat up some reasonably fresh pasta I found in the fridge. I get my computer set up and work.
4:21pm – My husband arrives home. He had a dentist appointment and now we are going to go over together to see the kids test for their next belt in their afterschool martial arts class. He picked up poke bowls for dinner ($22.34) and a matcha bubble tea for me ($6.19). ($28.53)
5:35pm – The kids’ test goes well. We pay the test fee for both ($54 each). ($108)
5:45pm – We swing through the drive-thru for happy meals after the test. It’s post-belt test tradition. ($6.76)
6:30pm – I leave to go teach a martial arts class at the local rec center. G. decides to go with me, and N. wants to stay home because she’s tired from her test. I don’t want to force them to do my kind of martial arts because they are honestly a little young for it anyway, and I don’t want them to burn out on it early. This approach makes G. even more interested in it, so right now she’s one of my star pupils.
8:15pm – Arrive back home, help G. get ready for bed and say goodnight to N.
8:35pm – Dinner time! Starving, and so glad we have those poke bowls waiting. F. always waits to eat with me on these teaching nights, even though it’s really late for dinner. We also split the half bottle of rose in the fridge.
9:00pm – We exchange Valentine’s gifts. I sponsored a dog’s adoption fees in his honor, so they sent him a cheesy card from the dog, which was pretty funny. He got us tickets to see Shen Yun at the Kennedy Center, which will be absolutely fantastic. I’ve wanted to see this show for a while! (Note: This show had amazing dancing, but it was like a fever dream with crazy imagery (Karl Marx tsunami?) and I'm glad I didn't take the kids because one of the dances featured organ harvesting)
10:00pm – After a couple of episodes of Schitt’s Creek, we go to bed.
Daily total: (143.29)
Day Three:
5:00am – Alarm and cardio time. I normally lift weights on Friday but I have two martial arts performances tomorrow so I skip that today.
6:00am – The usual lunch and snack making, plus getting some cereal for myself for breakfast.
6:30am – Kids are up and somehow already fighting over…something. I threaten cancelling the movie night we do every Friday, so then they sit in glum silence, which I guess is an improvement. I throw on a black pantsuit because I have meetings, per usual. I haven’t done casual Friday since starting this job.
7:20am – Drop off the kids who have shifted to being in a great mood. I don’t understand the logic of their mood swings, but I’m happy for it.
7:30am – Stop by Starbucks for my Friday latte. I get one every Friday to avoid getting Starbucks for merit reasons (like being extra tired, or extra busy) because then that creeps into happening way more than once a week.($4.63)
8:08am – Arrive at work, still irritated from the delay (my mental tricks aren’t totally successful) so I mostly close my office door to get through some tasks before my meetings start.
10:30am – Office coffee. I used to only drink one cup of coffee a day, but it has slipped to two cups.
11:27am – I buy Amtrak tickets to NYC for a trip next weekend. I’ve never been on a train before, so this should be fun. I’ve been told it’s a comfortable way to travel and it was only marginally cheaper than flying, but logistically easier given the end destination. ($250)
12:15pm – Lunch. It’s a boring Lean Cuisine, but I’m avoiding buying lunch at work. It’s been over two months so far! It’s too healthy so I round it out with some Fritos from the snack drawer and a fun sized Milky Way.
3:22pm – I realized that I waited too long on booking summer camp options for the kids, and one of the sessions they wanted is already waitlisted. I decide to book some of the other weeks, but the county website is not user friendly at all and it’s taking forever. I get through two weeks of camp with before and aftercare and resolve the do the rest this weekend. It’s pretty pricy, and it’s not even “fancy” camp because it’s at the local Rec center. This kind of stuff is partially what motivated me to go back to work after staying home with them when they were babies and partially what drove me to make the career moves to almost triple my salary in the four years I’ve been at work, so I won’t complain about the cost. I send the receipt to my husband for childcare FSA tracking. Our other camp option will let us split the fees into two lump payments, but in our experience, it’s typical for summer camps to expect full payment up front to hold the spot versus the monthly payments we do for care during the school year. ($1,647.00)
5:15pm – I lost track of time and left later than I wanted, but it’s Friday afternoon so traffic is light. F. texted me that the kids want Chinese food instead of our usual pizza night, so I put in an order for our favorite Chinese place through GrubHub. We get two orders of lo mein, crab fried wontons, dumplings, and egg rolls. It’s delicious. ($48.14)
7:30pm – Kids are in bed, so F. and I raid the kids massive bag of Valentine’s Day candy (we avoid the things they are excited to eat and focus on the unappreciated chocolates) while watching more Schitt’s Creek and YouTube video clips of late night shows.
9:50pm – Sleeping time. Didn’t even make it until 10pm, but it’s been a long week.
Daily Total: $1,949.77
Day Four:
7:00am – The kids are up, and so is the dog. I get up too because my back is already killing me from sleeping for too long. The cat gives me a dirty look for getting up, but that could just be how her face looks in the morning.
7:15am – Kids have their breakfasts and they are cackling over something on the iPad, and F. and I get coffee and breakfast. Most Saturdays we split up the kid morning activities, but F. has to do it all today because I have to go to martial arts performances.
8:00am – I get G. ready for ballet and do her hair, and I get N. ready for swim and do her hair. I make sure they have what they need in their bags, and then I get myself own stuff ready. As I’m talking with them, N. is telling me that her pajamas are all too small. I agree, and when I go on the Target app I see a $10 off a $40 purchase sale, so I get some summer clothes for her too. I get her two 3 piece PJ sets (shirt, pants, shorts), three tee shirts, and two capri length legging pants for $45.79. I don’t pay shipping and I got an additional 5% off because I have a Red Card. ($45.79)
8:35am – Drive on the toll road to meet up with the rest of the team. ($1.50)
9:00am – Fill up the van with gas ($31.11) and I got the kids some Kinder Joy eggs as a treat for being good while I’m gone all day, and a bottle of overpriced seltzer water. ($7.25). I hadn’t even looked at the water price before I bought it, and I’m not sure it was worth it. I assumed gas station beverages had to be cheap…how much can one banana cost Michael? 10 dollars? style of thinking. (38.36)
9:45am – Leave for performances. We get lunch between shows, and it’s $12.43 expensed.
2:15pm – Get back to the martial arts school, and I text with F. to see how things are going before I commit to staying for normal Saturday practice. He says things are great and he’s out with the girls while they bike around.
4:20pm – Finished with practice, and extremely tired. I drive home via the toll road. ($1.50)
4:50 pm – Immediately jump into a very intense board game with the family when I get home. The kids love this game.
5:35pm – Finish up the game in time to make dinner. I use some defrosted chicken from the freezer and cook it in oil and garlic and then make a white wine reduction sauce with butter and serve it with pasta. It’s not the best thing I’ve ever made, but no one cried at the dinner table, so it’s a win.
7:30pm – Kids are in bed. G. is exhausted from all of the biking, and N. is happily reading the same books she’s read at least 34 times. She’s allowed to read until 8pm every night.
8:00pm – I emerge from the shower cleaner and a lot less smelly, and I catch up with F. He told me that the garage repair guy who came earlier in the day was able to fix the door on my side, so now I can use it again. Score! It apparently only took about 3 minutes to fix, but it’s not cheap. ($250) F. says that he watched the repair so he knows what to do if it happens to the other side. He also paid for G.’s new ballet shoes ($20.14) and her recital outfit ($68.90) ($339.04)
10:11pm – Sleeping time!
Daily Total: $426.19
Day Five:
7:02am – I’m up for the day, and pretty sore from my work outs yesterday. We are all up, and F. gets the kids set up cereal. I make my biggest mug full of hot tea, and flip through social media as I drink it.
8:20am – We leave for the grocery store. We always go all together and go early enough to avoid crowds. Going early has the added benefit of getting first crack at the marked down meat. My kids love steak, and I usually plan my menu around discount meat. I’m not going to list out all of the stuff we got (think CVS length receipt), but just imagine food for four people for a week that includes a metric ton of yogurt and berries. We also got a six-pack of beer and a bottle of white wine because the white section of the wine fridge is empty. For what it’s worth, I saved about $64 with coupons and sales. ($209.25)
10:15am – Back home and put all the groceries away. I also clean out the fridge, and sweep the floors. I have the kids do their chores (neatening up, vacuuming, and cleaning their bathroom).
11:00am – F. takes G. outside for more bike riding, and N. is reading while I go down to the basement for some cardio. I watch some “Jane the Virgin” while on the elliptical. It’s such a silly show, but I can’t seem to quit.
12:10pm – Lunch time, and I also order some things we couldn’t find at the store. I need hand soap refills, dish soap, and after shave. Both Amazon and Target make these items “add on items” which I find irritating when I pay for Prime membership and have a Red card. Target had better prices for the soaps, so I place my order there and throw in some No. 7 eyeshadow to get it to the shipping limit. ($31.58)
1:30pm – Go through all the kid clothes and pull out stuff that doesn’t fit them anymore. They both recently grew a size, so it’s a big task. We end up with two giant black bags full of donation clothing that doesn’t fit G. I’ll let friends get first pass through those clothes and then the rest will go to charity. Based on that drill, I can see that N. has almost no summer clothes, so I will keep my eye out for sales.
3:45pm – Realize that I need to start dinner (trying to make corned beef for the first time) both both kids are cuddled up with me on the couch. F. takes over dinner, and I handle the sitting on the couch.
5:00pm – Let G. make the cornbread to go with dinner. It mostly involves mixing, and I have some regrets about having her do this after cleaning the kitchen earlier, but she doesn’t make a mess.
6:00pm – Dinner! The corned beef turned out great, and between the four of us, we eat it all. I need to figure out how to make it from scratch because this one came from a kit that is normally pretty pricey at the store but happened to be on sale this week.
7:30pm – The kids are off to bed. G. is upset because her hair is still wet, even though she adamantly insisted that she didn’t want me to blow dry it after her shower earlier. Since she’s the reigning Queen of Bed Time Procrastination, I give her a towel for her pillow rather than getting out the blow drier.
8:00pm – F. builds a fire, and then we have tea with whiskey while watching SNL from the previous night.
10:00pm – Bedtime after the usual dog walking and feeding the cat.
Daily Total: $240.83
Day Six:
6:58am – Wake up a little confused about why it’s light out, and remember that today is a holiday. N. is already up and downstairs, so the dog is also ready for a person who will take her outside to be up as well.
8:02am – G. finally gets up. I think this explains her usual Monday morning mood when I get her up at 6:30am.
10:00am – After spending some time cleaning the house, I go down to the basement to work out for about an hour. I watch more “Jane the Virgin” and work on my martial arts forms.
12:00pm – The kids have a light lunch because they are so excited about their friends coming over for a playdate later, and I make myself avocado toast with poached eggs. I’m proud of how well it turned out this time, I guess setting a timer was a key step (I normally overcook my poached eggs).
12:50pm – Playdate kids start arriving. I normally invite over kids as singles, but I thought I’d experiment with having a small group because I’m trying to test the waters for hosting a sleepover. Verdict? I think with enough wine, I could swing it.
3:30pm – Everyone is gone, and I get a pot roast in the oven. The roast was over half price yesterday. That’s right, more cheap meat. While I was dealing with 8-year-old girls with nail polish bottles, F. went out and got my van inspected ($64) and brought me back some bubble tea and coffee for himself (6.19). We had a coupon from the last trip, so his coffee was free. ($70.19)
4:00pm – F. and I each get a beer and then sit on the couch with the kids while they watch “Nailed It” on Netflix. They love watching adults make a mess.
6:15pm – We have the pot roast with Parkerhouse rolls (from the freezer) and salad. G. mostly eats salad, and N. mostly eats the potatoes from the pot roast, but no one cried too much so it’s a win.
7:35pm – Kids are in bed after their showers, and F. and I have some ice cream and watch “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver on YouTube. After that’s over, we switch around between random videos until it’s bedtime. I normally have martial arts class on Monday nights but it was canceled for the holiday, so it’s nice to just hang out and be lazy at home.
9:45pm – Head to bed early to try to avoid the pain of the alarm tomorrow.
Daily Total: $70.19
Day Seven:
5:05am – Up to do yoga. This is my “rest” day and I do yoga to help keep my core strong and my back happy. I use the Down Dog app (the free version) and do a 35 minute flow with a hip opening sequence.
5:55am – Make a lunch for N. and a snack for G. to take to school, and put together breakfast for me.
6:30am – N. is up and in her usual good mood. G. is…not. Hopefully getting back to the kindergarten routine will help. I get them some cereal and berries for breakfast.
6:45am – I get dressed and curl my hair since I have extra time due to the yoga workout. I put on a black and white hounds tooth dress with black tights and a black blazer. To be really wild, I top it off with gray ankle boots.
7:20am – Drop off the kids at school. It’s pretty cold this morning, and I regret not letting my van warm up before we left.
7:45am – Arrive at work. I see that someone left a box of Samoas in the kitchen. It’s going to be a good day. I grab a cup of coffee and two cookies.
10:04am – Another cup of coffee, and I RSVP to a birthday party for G. next month. I go on Amazon and pick out some ridiculous sequined Beanie Boo kitty and a pink owl Squishmallow, both of which I know the 6 year old birthday girl will love. I try to keep birthday party presents between $20 and $30. ($22.51)
11:30am – I eat lunch early so I don’t have to rush before a 1pm meeting. I have a Lean Cuisine because I didn’t feel like packing anything actually good to eat. After that, I close my door like I’m doing important work, but I actually just want to have a Blow Pop that I grabbed from the candy dish without looking like a deranged child in front of my coworkers.
3:17pm – Work is busy, and I have diet Mountain Dew because I hate myself. Now instead of being tired, I am tired with a headache.
4:36pm – Get the text saying schools are closed for tomorrow because we are predicted to get snow and ice. It’s unusual for them to make the call so early, but I prefer this over getting up at 5am and finding out that I shouldn’t have set their alarm clocks.
5:16pm – Leave for the day, and take my computer and critical papers home with me because I’m going to work from home tomorrow to avoid driving on ice.
6:20pm – Sauté some onions and green peppers and make steak sandwiches for dinner. The kids eat each ingredient separately instead of as a sandwich, which is our usual compromise for them not liking dinner.
7:45pm – Text with my friend about our tattoo appointment this weekend in NYC. We thought it would be fun to get a small one on our trip, and I need to send $100 as a deposit for my appointment. This tattoo will fit nicely into an empty spot on my arm and I’m excited to get it done this weekend! ($100)
8:00pm – We watch Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark on Netflix, and I forgot how annoying the female lead is in the movie, and how beautiful young Harrison Ford looked in this role. Also, when I saw this as a child I don’t remember questioning how Indiana stowed away on a submarine, but as an adult this baffled me. I looked it up, and apparently this is a common question. The beauty of the internet!
10:15pm – In bed after the usual dog walking and cat feeding. Go to sleep wondering if the snow and ice storm will be as bad as they predict, or a total bust.
Daily Total: $122.51
Weekly Totals
Food + Drink: $304.56
Fun / Entertainment: $1,866.55 (I put the kid camps in this category because it's fun and entertainment for them at least)
Home + Health: $250
Clothes + Beauty: $77.37
Transport: $287.11
Other: $100 (tattoo deposit)
Reflect on your diary! This was a fairly normal week with a couple of exceptions. Yes, I really do pay over $200 a week at the grocery store! Kids eat so much food.
One abnormal payment was the kids' camp payments. Now that we are in the summer and not actually paying for childcare (since we prepaid it), a current money diary would look like we don't have that cost, so it's probably more accurate to show this February week. I also had the train ticket and tattoo deposit, both of which are on-off expenses. I limit myself to one tattoo a year. :)
Submitted July 02, 2019 at 03:28PM by NuttyCoondog https://ift.tt/2xr75Rg
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