If You Thought Last Week Was Bad… | How Much Did I Spend Last Week? Nov 6-12, 2023
The other day, I was chatting with a friend about my Substack and what, exactly, I do here – and she asked if I was always honest in my money diaries. “Do you ever just leave things out?” she asked.
I could tell her, honestly, that no, I’ve never left anything out. I’ve never even been tempted, but if ever there was a week to leave things out, I think it would be this (last) week.
I am firmly of the opinion that no one else gets a say in how you spend your money – maybe with the exception of your partner, but even then, people vary widely in how they divide (or don’t divide) their incomes – and that there is nothing immoral or inherently “bad” about wanton spending, just as there is nothing moral or inherently “good” about saving.
But this week… this week might just make a case for me being totally and utterly wrong about that.
Monday
Beatrice has a routine hospital appointment this morning – “because I’m getting old!” she wailed down the phone at me last week – and I offered to pick her up and drive her there and back, so I’m up and ready at 5.30am for her to pick me up.
Brandin’s going to drop Atlas to Robin’s this morning, so I say goodbye (to Brandin; Atlas is still asleep) and head off. Luckily, I brought my book, so I read while Bea’s being seen to, and she’s done and ready to go by around 8.30am.
She’s “starving!”, she wails at me once more, so we take a quick drive through Starbucks to get coffees and croissants (I top up by $20) before I drop her home, and take her car back to my house, telling her I’ll stop by tomorrow to return it, and she can drop me home.
Liam texts me to recommend that I buy a copy of Stephanie Foo’s What My Bones Know, and I see that it’s around a fiver on Kindle so I order a copy, but the subtitle – “a memoir of healing from complex trauma” – is not exactly selling it to me. I’m more in my smutty romantic comedy era, but I’m sure I’ll (maybe?!) get around to it some day. ($5.79)
Thanks to my getting up at the absolute ass crack of dawn, I am incredibly unproductive today and finding it hard to concentrate on anything. I, of course, should have taken a nap – I’m just now coming to terms with the fact that I am an eight-hours-sleep-minimum person, and that’s just that – but I didn’t, so am in no fit state to work today, meaning I finish Selling Sunset, get some emails answered and (just about) get some freelance content work finished and sent off before collapsing into bed at around 9pm.
I couldn’t even tell you if I had dinner (although it’s a pretty safe bet that I did, tbh).
Before I nod off, I realise that Bea and I didn’t quite think things through, because now I have her car, and she has an appointment tomorrow morning at 9am, while I have a massage appointment at 10am and then she needs to be in a meeting at noon. So I tell her I’ll pick her up at 8.45am and we’ll have to just take turns being each other’s chauffeurs for the morning. Fun!
Daily total: $25.79
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