Some Lessons Aren't Worth Learning | How Much Did I Spend Last Week? July 28-Aug 3, 2025

Yesterday, I did one of my semi-regular Google searches for the perfect winter coat. I saw a woman in Avoca once, years ago, wearing an incredible grey wool coat I’m 99% sure was Marc Jacobs, and while that particular coat was out of budget, I’ve spent far too much time since then looking for a version I could afford, and which would fit me. (If I added up the hours spent looking for this coat, and billed them at my hourly rate, I could probably have paid for it twice over.)

Anyway, this week I found an almost perfect coat, albeit in a not-perfect colour (I’m just not a camel / cream / beige person, okay?! see trousers above), and thought to myself, I could never spend $799 on a coat. Yet here I am, writing yet another money diary where I spent $700-odd on… basically nothing. So maybe I could afford the coat. It’s probably just as well they don’t do it in grey.

Monday

Today we’re meant to have speech therapy followed by babysitting but of course Atlas had a temperature yesterday, so I decide to keep both boys home out of an abundance of caution. (Honestly I think they’re fine, but I’d hate for any of the other kids at speech therapy or at their babysitter’s to get sick!)

Atlas is, of course, delighted to be spending the day at home with me, Roman, Granny and Grandpa (my Mum’s endless energy for playing with him is truly incredible – she’s flat out laying out the matching cards and lining up different games for them to play while I’m only short of pushing him towards the TV so I can read my book)!

Mum and Dad watch the boys for a bit while I edit an episode of the pod (new episodes are Patreon-only for now, so if you’re not on the Patreon, you should be, and you can do a one-week free trial if you’ve never been a member!), then I come back downstairs to feed Roman and put him down for a nap before ordering lunch for me, Dad and Atlas from Chipotle (Mum has decided to make herself a sandwich). ($51.55)

After lunch (two kids’ quesadillas, my parents are horrified by this indulgence, but he only likes the cheesy wrap part which he gingerly dips into the guacamole and won’t touch the rice or beans) I put Atlas down for his nap and sit at the kitchen table doing a little bit more work.

I’m doing a bit of freelance work at the moment that I was referred for by a friend, which is amazing (more work referrals please!) but when I quoted for the job I misunderstood the scope of it, and now find myself doing quite a bit more than I’d bargained for. Basically, it was outlined as an editing job but it turns out there’s quite a lot of actual writing required before I get to the editing portion.

Luckily, it’s interesting so it’s the kind of work I genuinely enjoy doing, which makes a difference. Not to mention the fact that it’s for a company I’ve never worked with before, so they may have more work down the line (even if, as I write this, my giving such a low rate will lead them to believe my work is always going to be super cheap which it… absolutely is not. LOL).

My friend D stops by in the afternoon – but doesn’t come in as her kids have hand, foot and mouth (it’s doing the rounds here at the moment!) – with a double buggy she was getting rid of, and which I bought from her a few weeks back but hadn’t got around to picking up.

We did buy a double buggy when Roman was born, then didn’t use it for the first few months and foolishly thought that meant we wouldn’t need it?! But then I realised it’s essential to have something to strap Atlas to when we’re out and about, even just to go to the shops, or to wander around downtown, so when D was getting rid of her double buggy for a mere $50, I went for it.

Dad makes meatballs for dinner, so when Brandin and the boys get home we get the sauce and spaghetti on, then we all sit down to argue non-stop have a delightful and entertaining family dinner together.

Tomorrow’s the last night the boys will have with my parents, so I’d been semi-thinking we’d go downtown to Bravas for dinner (they do a $10 meal deal on Tuesdays of a burger, fries and a drink), but after this dinner, which is at least 70% arguments (between the boys, between us and the boys, between Atlas and the boys…), I decide we’ll get takeout instead.

After dinner is all a bit of a blur. We have baths, reading, bedtimes, I try to read some of my book (and fail)… and then we’re all in bed by 11pm.

My monthly Doordash subscription payment comes out. ($9.99)

Daily total: $61.54