We're a One-Income Household Now | How Much Did I Spend Last Week? Nov 21-27, 2022
NO WONDER I HATE SURPRISES.
In case you missed it (you cannot possibly have missed it): Brandin was let go from his job last week, the day before Thanksgiving. Excellent, thoughtful, Christian timing, from the same company owners who took us to dinner at a downtown restaurant to welcome Brandin to the fold and made us pause to say grace before we ate.
Because America is so great America, not only did he not get any notice of his being let go, but he won’t get any severance, either – and, as he was an hourly paid employee, he wasn’t being paid for Thanksgiving or the day after as it was. So he was paid up to Wednesday, and no further.
As is the case with most employees in the US, our health insurance was tied to Brandin’s employment; one cannot exist without the other, unless we opt to pay for private insurance through Cobra which – I checked – would set us back $2,000 per month for the three of us (the other two boys are on their mom’s), which is simply not feasible on one income, at least not right now.
It’s safe to say, things will be changing around here.
With all of that in mind, starting next week, while Brandin looks for a job and I try to increase my Substack subscriptions; look for extra freelance work; and share affiliate links on Instagram like nobody’s business, I’ll be including both of our spending in my money diaries which will, I’d expect, morph slightly into saving diaries or, at the very least, spending-as-little-as-possible diaries.
For all of my pledges to give up Doordash, could this be the time it actually sticks?!
Monday
This morning Atlas wakes up quite late, at 9am, which is lovely, even if he was up three times last night as usual. So we have a leisurely breakfast of waffles and strawberries (him) and waffles and bacon (me) before playing in his ball pit for a while and then with his stacking rings, which he prefers to use as extra balls for his ball drop toy (they fit neatly in the slot, which is annoying), rather than actually stacking them as God and Lovevery intended.
(FYI: Lovevery is currently offering $30 off play kits for Cyber Monday with the code JOY30. I bought our first few play kits, then they started to send them to me, but they have never paid me to mention their products and Atlas genuinely loves the bits we have.)
He goes down for his nap at around noon and I get a tiny bit of work done before our friend J drops off his two boys, who he’s asked me to watch for the afternoon while he goes to watch the World Cup.
The boys are literal angels and, after I’ve fed them hearty meals of ramen and applesauce, respectively, happily run outside to play on the trampoline for about an hour. Why won’t our boys spend more time outside, I find myself wondering!
Anyway! This afternoon, we’ve decided to hold a little impromptu birthday party for our youngest, Finn, who turned 8 a few weeks ago but didn’t get to celebrate as he had strep. So Beatrice arrives with Nash and Fox (Nash’s school gets out an hour before the other two boys) at around 3pm, and Don drops the other two off at around 3.45pm, meaning we’re all in situ by the time Brandin gets back with Finn and William – and pizza, which I’d ordered online on Pizza Hut ($86.52) – at around 4.15pm.
Finn is characteristically delighted but also characteristically overwhelmed and disappears to hide in his room with Nash for a few minutes while he gets used to the idea of all of these people being here to celebrate his birthday.
Once we’ve eaten our fill of pizza and/or breadsticks, we crack out the Costco “white cake” we bought on Saturday (it tastes predictably sweet and nothing-y, let me tell you), although all of the boys are more interested in the little candy-speckled brownies Beatrice brought with her.
A further hour of mayhem ensues before it all winds down and we say our goodnights.
Full disclosure: my sister has since told me that I was like a demon for the entire evening. “I think you were a bit… overwhelmed,” she said, kindly.
It’s safe to say this week has seen me taking a lot more of my “take as needed” anti-anxiety medication than I had been taking previously. Is it helping? Who can say? (Not I.)
Daily total: $86.52
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