It's Never as Chaotic as I Think It'll Be | How Much Did I Spend Last Week? June 9-15, 2025

Monday

Roman wakes up this morning before 7am, therefore so do I – and as I see Atlas stirring at around 7.05am, I go in and get him dressed and off to his babysitter’s before he can fall back asleep, which feels slightly cruel (he loves his sleep) but I have a lot to do this morning and am, for once, determined to do it.

I get home by 7.30am and pump while I soak some porridge in milk, then once I’m done I lob it in the microwave and top with strawberries and cream (yes, I love myself) and am at my desk before 8am, where I spend the morning editing and publishing two episodes of the podcast (we’re back on the main feed, baby!); recording the voiceover for last week’s money diary; writing another piece for Substack, which I’ll schedule to publish tomorrow; and then a few admin-y bits like rescheduling Atlas’ dentist appointment from tomorrow to Thursday (don’t want to waste a babysitting day when I can just bring both boys!) and paying $170 towards a hospital bill I thought I had on autopay but which, for some reason, didn’t come out last week. ($170.69)

At around 11.30am I realise I’m going to have to pump again as one of my boobs is getting quite sore (TMI? but also the reality of putting your child in daycare while you’re breastfeeding), so I run downstairs and do a really quick pump before I head to grab the boys from their babysitter’s as Atlas has speech therapy at 12.30pm.

On the way, I stop to put $20 of petrol in the car ($20.04, I’m so close!) then we go to speech therapy where Roman snores loudly for the first 30 minutes (very helpful!) before waking up for a feed and then falling back asleep in the car on the way home.

He’s awake when we get back, so I put him in his crib to roll around while I put Atlas down to bed. We usually don’t read books at nap time, but he demands that I read The President’s Glasses to him, so I oblige and then he obediently goes off to sleep.

While he’s napping, I hang out with Roman downstairs and make myself up some leftovers for lunch – bolognese and rice with grated cheese, a very nostalgic meal we used to have at home whenever we had leftover bolognese but my mum didn’t want to give us pasta two days in a row – before feeding him to sleep at around 3pm.

I spend the 90 minutes between his going down and Brandin getting home with our 10-year-old (our eldest has marching band camp tonight from 6pm until 9pm, so his mum is dropping him off and we’ll pick him up later) watching Yellowstone while I make a Target order for Brandin to pick up on his way home ($236.13) – I get groceries, along with baby formula (I’m considering switching to formula on babysitting days for convenience, but I’m not 100% sure about it), the cutest matching jumpers for me, Atlas and Roman, and a lot of chocolate because we’re all out of sweets – then when they get home the TV goes off, I get Atlas out of bed and start preparing some bits for dinner.

Brandin’s going to do the burgers on the barbecue, so I pop some potatoes into the air fryer to bake (around 40 minutes usually does it, I drizzle them with olive oil and flaky sea salt first, very delicious) and then get all of the condiments together.

We eat outside as it’s a lovely evening, but of course the wind picks up as we take our first bites and by the end of dinner we’re barely hanging on to our forks.

I tidy up then hang out with Roman while Brandin runs Atlas’ bath, then I head upstairs and change and feed Roman to sleep at around 7.45pm, getting Atlas out at 8pm.

He gets changed and into his PJs and we read some books before he goes down at 8.20pm; Brandin leaves at 8.30pm to pick up our eldest, and the 10-year-old insists on going with him.

They get back at 9.30pm and everyone’s very tired and grumpy; they have snacks and we all head to bed at 10pm.

My subscription for

Legless In Dublin

($6) comes out, I order replacement filters for our Canopy humidifiers ($29.96) and our monthly 529 contribution for one of the boys’ college funds ($100) comes out.

Daily total: $562.82