Weekend Money Diary #2: Babysitting and Movies
I love tracking my expenses in a spreadsheet, but as an avid reader of the money diaries at Refinery29 and The Luxe Strategist, I thought it’d be fun to share my weekend spending in the same storytelling format for my #WeekendMoneyDiary segment.
FRIDAY
Yasss it’s finally the weekend! I leave work at 6pm and make my way to Port Authority. Ari picks me up at the gas station, and we head over to his place to make some leftover Blue Apron from the week. His family orders three-days worth of Blue Apron, but he’s had a busy week of interviews and hasn’t had time to prepare them. We make these Cajun Fish Tacos, and Ari prepares a Garlic Aioli sauce to make the meal less dry.
Ari has us watching the 2018 NHL Draft, which I could care less about, so we compromise on stopping it after the NJ Devils’ pick.
After dinner and the draft, we migrate to Ari’s room and watch The Handmaid’s Tale. I fall asleep as soon as the episode is over, wake up two hours later and Ari drives me home.
SATURDAY
I wake up and go on my usual run with Char, my German Shepherd. Music used to be the only thing I could listen to when jogging, but since dropping the Spotify membership and unlimited data, I now strictly listen to downloaded podcast episodes. Personally, I think this shift has been instrumental since it introduced me to new things like the financial independence movement!
One hour and two podcast episodes later, I’m ready to start my day. But first, shower! I work on my blog for a couple of hours. My older sister, Gisselle, calls me and asks if I can babysit my nephew Daniel tonight. I tell her that I can but Ari and I have plans to see the movie Hereditary at 10:15pm, so they’ll need to be home before then.
Ari picks me up to go to the public library because I need to pick up The Defining Decade by Meg Jay. Her book was on a list of suggested summer readings my high school sister received, and I knew I had to pick it up. Since graduating from college in 2015, I’ve dealt with a lot of insecurity around my friendships and career. I know this book isn’t going to magically change my life, but I love learning about different perspectives. Check out her TED Talk for a quick overview.
We head to my house to start planning our October trip to Iceland that we’ve been putting off for a while. But from what I’m reading, accommodations book up fast, so the pressure is on! Luckily, we found a few blogs with great itineraries, which at least helps us in figuring out what we need to see. That’s about how far we get before we need to make our way over to Gisselle’s.
We make a quick stop at Trader Joe’s for our dinner. Once again, we buy a bunch of random items. Spring rolls and Kung Pao tempura cauliflower for me. Mozzarella sticks and coconut shrimp for Ari. We’ll share the lemonade and dessert. Ari pays. – $33.12
We get to my sister’s and they tell us my nephew hasn’t slept all day and should fall asleep shortly. Coco is now on Netflix so we decide to watch. Twenty minutes in, Daniel starts crying. I cradle him and he falls asleep in my arms so I put him in his crib.
Finally, time to prepare dinner! As soon as we are ready to eat, Daniel wakes up and requires our attention. Now I understand what Gisselle means when she can’t get anything done.
At 10:15pm the parents arrive. We hand over little Daniel and make our way to the movie theater. It seems like everyone had the same idea in mind because the theater is packed! I pay. – $24
SUNDAY
I wake up craving bagels. Because Ari works all day today, he graciously lends me his car. He works right by the bagel shop so I decide to get some for the house — 2 everything, 3 plain and 1 cinnamon raisin with a pound of cream cheese – $10.92
Since I have a car for the day, I decide to take Char for a bath at the local pet store. The place has a self-service dog wash area and for $25 you receive five 20-minute washes. As a huge shedder, Char creates a mess when she’s wet so washing her at home is not an option. Because I still have a few washes left on my card, I don’t pay. – $0
It’s time to pick up Ari for his lunch break and when he comes out he tells me he’s off for the day. Work was slow and he finished everything assigned to him so they let him leave early. We head over to my house for lunch, last night’s leftovers, and then Ari heads home.
My family is visiting my aunt about an hour away, leaving the house quiet, which is a perfect time to focus on my blog. I work on and off for a few hours while watching Staircase in between. The docu-series is a bit dry but I’m interested in the story and think Michael Peterson is full of BS. He obviously killed his wife, Kathleen.
Ari comes over again as is typical for a Sunday night. We plan our Iceland trip a little more before heading to my room and relaxing the rest of the night. I fall asleep around 11pm.