A Whole Lot of Nothing | How Much Did I Spend Last Week? April 24-30, 2023
Plus ça change…
This hasn’t happened me in a while, but as I sat down to write this week’s money diary, I found myself thinking, wow, I really spent nothing this week! Sure, I barely left the house!
I was at a loss to come up with a single significant purchase made this week and was, as a result, feeling determinedly smug and self-satisfied. (Much as I try to convince myself that spending is not a moral issue – unless you are spending someone else’s money without them knowing about it, obviously – I clearly still have the subconscious view that a frugal me would be a better me. I couldn’t help but wonder… was my wanton spending seriously impacting my self-worth?!)
Anyway, those of you who come here for the kind of voyeuristic view of my life of devil-may-care spending can rest assured: I had, as it happens, simply forgotten about all the money I spent this week and my weekly total is as high as ever. I had you worried there for a second, though, didn’t I…?!
Monday
We’re up at around 8.30am this morning and I am determined to get our week off to a good, healthy start, so I make us some porridge – I do half milk and half water, because I like it creamy but not too creamy – and add peanut butter and Bonne Maman raspberry jam because I thrive on culinary chaos. Atlas eats about five spoonfuls, two enormous strawberries and a bite of banana (he keeps tricking me into thinking he likes bananas by eating the tiniest bit of banana with great enthusiasm, then absolutely refusing to so much as look at the rest of it).
He’s at his childminder today and we walk over for 9.30am in what Brandin would, I’m sure, consider too-cold-to-take-the-baby-out-in weather. It’s above freezing, he’s wrapped up in his puffy coat and it’s a three-minute walk, so I think we’re fine, but I’ll admit it is brisk.
When we get there, it’s clear the jig is up because, unlike last time, when Atlas toddled in and began to explore the toys and glare impudently at the other children, today he clings to me in a terrified manner and starts crying the minute Miss Robin says hello.
So I spend about 20 minutes chatting to her in the kitchen and waiting for the perfect moment to run out the door without him noticing. (My mum used to run a naíonra, an Irish-language preschool, and she always says she thinks it’s better to tell the children you’re leaving and to make a point of saying goodbye, so that they won’t get a fright when you’re gone and I… just don’t know?! If you have children you have to leave at a creche or with a childminder when they clearly don’t want to be left, how do you handle it?!)
Anyway, I disappear, feeling rather guilty, and head over to Bea’s to record the podcast. We took a week off last week due to a confluence of factors that had left us both feeling incredibly stressed and burnt out – our first break of 2023! – and so have to catch up on episodes for this and next week because I am, once again, determined to get slightly ahead.
We record three episodes before I’ve to head home and I just get in the door and have a quick cup of coffee when I have to go out again to get Atlas.
When I arrive, he’s in his high chair reading a book and absolutely loses his mind.
“He didn’t have a good day today,” Robin tells me, explaining that he was pretty upset, on and off, all morning, and did a lot of crying. I feel awful. He’s in hysterics the entire way home and doesn’t stop crying until we sit down on the couch for a cuddle and a little feed, after which he goes down for his nap and falls asleep immediately.
My phone bill comes out ($54.52) as does my Doordash subscription ($9.99). Can you believe that I applied for a Doordash credit card and they wouldn’t give it to me?!
When I told Beatrice, she said, “They were probably afraid they’d have to fork out too much in rewards.” How bitchy, but probably correct.
I get the first of our three episodes edited in the afternoon and schedule it for release on the podcast Patreon tomorrow, and on our main channel on Wednesday.
Atlas wakes up at around 3.30pm and I change and feed him, then we go downstairs and watch some TV before the boys get home at around 4.45pm. We have chicken nuggets, broccoli and little fried potatoes for dinner. (Atlas eats mostly fruit puffs, but does a great job feeding the rest of his food to Vinny.)
Brandin and I watch an episode of The Mandalorian before bed.
Daily total: $64.51
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