As of this year I have finally achieved a net worth of 6 figures~ (108k to be exact).
TLDR; save schmoney and get that honey! P.S. skip to “EDIT”. Im illiterate and lost all my brain cells watching tIkTok so I wrote my original post incorrectly and confused some folks.
I started doing a traineeship at 17-18 as a receptionist earning $20,000 a year with no money to my name and now in just 4 years here I am (I moved out at 18 too with no help).
For the first 2.5 years I aimed to saved 20,000 a year in a high interest savings account.
Since late 2019 I've been dipping my feet into investing a small amount and I admit, I've lost a lot of money. Since then, I've learned my investing behaviors, improved my knowledge and hope to start making real gains.
I don't drive because I'm scared to get my P's lol - so that's obviously helped.
I didn't go to uni since I didn't know what I wanted to do and that definitely helped since I don't need to pay any fees (I'm a permanent resident and tbh kinda stupid when I was 17 I thought I had to pay since I wasn't a citizen yet oh well) This let me work full-time and get into the office early.
I haven't travelled anywhere which is a shame but it has helped with my savings. As travel restrictions ease, I hope I can see more of the world soon!
I'm typing here because I'm proud of myself and I don't have anyone to share my success with.
I'd like to thank this subreddit for guiding me and to everyone for sharing their FIRE goals and tips.
EDIT:
Damn I didn't expect to get this many replies. Sorry for not clarifying!
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• A description of the journey you took to get to where you presently are.

2016: graduate HS (17 yrs old)
2017: 18 years old doing a 1 year traineeship as a receptionist where I lived at home, my contract meant I was paid only 20k a year and because I lived at home I could save 10k that year.
2018 - Moved out in February and got my first real job as a receptionist on 60k p.a - that allowed me to save more lol hence the 20k savings a year. I turned 19 in may. I didn't ask or get any help from my parents because my parents are divorced, my dad and I are estranged and my mom was struggling to raise me and my brother :( I don't have any family here either that I can depend on, it's just me. Rent was $200 a week and idk about bills but it was between 4 people. How I moved out? Abusive household :x
2019 - Still renting, same job, same pay, continue to lived frugally, hit goal of 20k savings in bank account again, invested $5000 lost like $2000 lol but it's okay I was expecting to lose since I didn't know what I was doing. And for me I was scared coz I worked so hard to save all this money and here I am losing it. Rent was the same, bills the same.
2020 - still renting, same job, salary increase to 63k a year for added responsibilities, continue to live below my means, hit goal of 20k savings in bank account. Learned more about investing, portfolio is now $10k not from gains but from me topping up my funds slowly. No real gains, just learning. New rental for $250, bills for 4 people.
2021 - still renting, same job but now I'm an office assistant and receptionist, same salary, , live below my means, still looking to save 20k this year but I also hope to see some gains for once in my life since I reevaluated my portfolio. I'm only young and I'm trying my best. There really is no trick to it I'm literally saving 20,000 a year that's it (just under $400 a week if you break it down. Rent for $250 incl. bills.
Lifestyle: Don't drink or party because I have no friends or a social life :( I take public transport and walk everywhere, I shop budget at groceries, I try to cook at home because I'm also living an active lifestyle and drinking/eating out too much etc won't work in the long term for my health fitness goals. I didn't go to uni, I don't have a car and I'm still on my Ls which are set to expire next month oops.
Honestly the sacrifice was that I haven't lived...I can't go to nice places, I see so many girls doing their hair, makeup, nails lashes but I jsut don't even though I want to. I've haven't travelled overseas at all by myself. I was scared that If I don't hit this goal of 100k by 23 I'll be in trouble, what if I'm sick ,etc what if I need surgery because I don't have anyone to depend on. I've been working full time since 17 while my friends can party, go overseas, go to brunches and road trips I can't do any of that :( At the back of mind I just think about how I will never ever let someone have power over me because they control my finances and render me hopeless. I grew up in an environment where I was silenced and beat because I had no choice but to obey the authority. I, one day want my own home where I can say this is mine. I did this. You all tried to beat me down but here I am due to my own will. And when I think about that, I owe it to myself to do this now and work for a better future.
Note: Current figures below
HostPlus Indexed Balanced Super: 20,925.47
Westpac LifeSavings acct: $61188.97
Portfolio: $25,885.56 at the time of writing but I gained $1,925.63 today (yay!) Please also note that I've only recently been strengthening my portfolio, and I'm talking December 20 where i was still losing. Most of the sum here was transferred from my bank account but I've made gains of 5k so far this year since I reevaluated my portfolio in early jan. My next goal is to earn 20k a year from my portfolio so that way I can have a total of 40k savings/earnings a year. I don't know if I can do this but we can only try! I've got a lock of stocks yes (don't come for me), but I'm getting into ETF'S now and will build them up over the years ahead.
If there's a few thousand that doesn't add up it's probably the scraps I salvaged from my tax return lol. I'm no math guru sorry but I have no interest in trying to trick anyone here lol.

• What your past/current strategy has been and an evaluation of its performance.

It's pretty dumb LOL, I get why some of ya'll be pressed in the comments. I literally made this 20k a year savings plan when I got my real job at 18 and just went with it. Like I don't want this stuff to be hard, I just want life to be simple and to be happy. I would've started investing in ETF's earlier and salary sacrificed to my super more (just $200 a week). I didn't need to be so stressed and needed to trust myself to get out of my shitty situation. Moving forward gonna get rid of me stonks and learn how to go about ETF's smartly for the long run and idk if anyone has pointers please share. I don't really have any skills so I'm going to get a diploma and just keep learning, because the more I earn the more I can save/invest right? For anyone that's curious how this relates to FIRE, retirement isn't on the radar yet but being financially independent is a part of FIRE and I think I'm on my way there :)
Jks just go to ASX_bets and look for rocket emojis! 🚀🚀🚀
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• Advice for others who may be in a similar situation to you.

May not be the most impressive or savvy way but it's how I did it.

• Make a rule. I note down all my expenses and then see what I have leftover from my salary. I want to save as much as I can so my priority is to "pay myself" first. Work out a decent amount to give yourself for spending and literally put everything else away. Doesn't matter if it's only $200 or if you can save $1000+ It's about building lifelong habits, it might suck at first but you become accustomed to it. Build good habits, maintain consistency
• Learn basic financial concepts. I just read the ASIC's Moneysmart website and the Barefoot investor. It's like weightlifting, once you get a hold of the basics you can just grow them gains baby. It was really confusing though, lots of books are for idk, money-savvy older people based in America in suits or something. I asked myself wtf is a ROTH IRA so many times. Lots of things out there are really complicated and don't help/target young people so I just figured out my own way. It can be really overwhelming and confusing stuff, but don't worry it's okay! Do it for you and learn things that serve you and help you reach your goals. F*** derivatives, whatever the hell that means!
• Lifestyle changes: Re-evaluate what's necessary. For me, it's the gym and eating out once or twice a week at your local Vietnamese for $11 pho lol, so my life isn't very expensive. My interests are very inexpensive, I enjoy walking outside to meet my daily step count, I enjoy playing games at home, I love cooking at home and it means I get to hone my cooking skills. I like my makeup and I value looking presentable but I buy drugstore makeup when they're on sale (thank you Priceline you are my life), no Fenty beauty for me :( Buy staple clothing, obviously buy stuff that makes you look and feel good but you defs don't need to get that corset top from House of CB because like...no I take it back. It's a need.
• Know your why: If your reason is strong enough you'll just do it.
• To anyone from abusive homes or relationships, one day you will escape and be able to live life on your terms. I didn't think it was necessary to go on a whole spiel about my story but keep your head up high you will make it, and you will heal in your own pace. I felt like my life truly began when I moved out...it's a hard and lonely journey but it will be very rewarding in the end. I couldn't afford therapy and still haven't gone but using kids helpline (free hotline for kids, teens and young adults up to the age of 25) really helped me when I needed to be heard.
• Please live your youth if you're my age or just live life in general! When you're in survival mode you can't enjoy the pleasures of life because you don't have a choice. Make it a goal to do something exciting every month or however often you have the time, money and resources to do so. For example, for valentine's Day I'm going on a picnic and making a cheese platter for two for $35! It's cute, affordable and sweet :D

I am 29 years old, make £23,500, live in North East England and work as a service advisor for a bank (Fair warning if you find chat about buying houses boring you may want to sit this one out)
Section One: Assets and Debt
Savings account balance:
Help To Buy ISA- £6,590.57 (when I come to buy a house the government will give me a 25% bonus for balances up to £12,000- it pays 2.05% interest at the minute as well as the eventual bonus)
Marcus Savings - £5,009.67 (pays 0.5% interest which isn’t great, but it’s handy to have my savings somewhere I can keep them out of my mind)
Pension - £14,676.01 (have to be honest I only looked this up to have a figure to put in here and it gave me a small panic attack when I checked)
Checking account balance - £12.64 (this is the amount of money I have left in bills this month)
Credit card debt - £0.00
Student Loan - 20,978.46 (again I only looked this up for the diary!)
Section Two: Income £1,937.50/month - £1,534.04 take home
(£188.00 Tax
£137.46 National Insurance
£28.00 Student Loans
£50.00 sharesave scheme)
Section Three: Expenses
Savings contribution: £1,506.45
Union: £14.95
Phone Insurance: £10.15
iCloud: £2.49
Debt payments: £0
SIDE NOTE: Me and my partner have recently changed how we manage our finances as we are saving for a house- I moved into a flat that he had already been living in for a few years, so all of the bills came out of his account already- previously I would transfer him half of the rent/bills each month & then we would separately pay for our food [I’m veggie/he’s not] and subscriptions & separately put aside savings. From January’s payday I transfer almost all of my money into savings each month -only keeping bills from my account that need to stay for discount/membership reasons- and he pays all bills/food/expenses from his wage, transferring over any leftover to savings at the end of the month. I can pop the costs that I would traditionally have paid in the comments if people would like to see though.
ABOUT ME- I live with my partner J and my dog, who will be referred to as “the boy” throughout because that’s what we call him most of the time anyway I was sent to work from home in May of last year, my partner still works out of his office.
DAY ONE: 7:30 - sunlight alarm goes off, promptly shut it off and snuggle with the Boy, I have been really crampy the last few days & having a Velcro dog that basically sleeps on top of me has been like having an expensive, farting hot water bottle that eats slippers.
8:00 - the Boy stretches out and sticks a paw directly into my eye, okay I guess I’m getting up now! Feed him breakfast, eat a yoghurt, a mini soreen Malt loaf & drink a coffee, it’s the 1st of the month so I log in to my mobile banking & move £200 to my Help To Buy ISA (I get paid around the 23rd of the month so I transfer £200 to a random savings account on payday & keep it there until the 1st when I’m next allowed to pay money into the ISA) my phone insurance has come out today (£10.15) so my current account balance now sits at the grand total of £2.49
9:00- J heads off to work, I have another coffee and eat a mini pack of jammie dodgers.
12:50- Oo J is home for lunch! Work has been manic all day &I haven’t managed to take a break yet, take this as a sign to have a rest, make myself lunch (fried egg, avocado & quorn ham sandwich, pickled onions, gherkins & a packet of salt and vinegar crisps) J tells me about a doggie subscription box ran locally & we decide to sign up for it for the Boy (£11.99/month but it won’t be charged this week) J heads back to work & I take the Boy out for a walk. Browse houses on Rightmove & enjoy the sunshine & fresh air.
16:18- work has gotten no less manic, grab my last break far too late, eat more mini jammie dodgers & have another coffee (believe it or not I am on a diet and have lost 59.5lbs so far, but the joys of CICO mean as long as I have “budgeted” for snacky snacks I still lose weight!) Chase the Boy around the house for a bit, immediately regret it because he is HYPED up and I will have to do another hour of work soon...
19:11- I am in the bath! Excitement has happened, We have found a house! It’s in the right area (we are verrrry specific about where we want to live, it’s basically either this estate we are on now or “the fancy” estate next to us) this house is on the fancy estate! In our budget! I show it to J and he loves it too! We have done some furious scribbling some scrap paper and we can afford it with our finances as they are, okay things would be TIGHT, (we weren’t planning on buying for another few months) but it’s not outside of the realms of possibility, immediately share the house listing with all my friends and start mentally moving in, I have called to arrange a viewing and they’re calling back to sort out a time tomorrow morning! Exciting! I realise I shouldn’t be over excited but am allowing myself an evening of giddiness before my serious “29-year old home buying with my long term partner”face comes out. (In case people would like to know I had a home made cottage pie and veg for my tea while doing maths)
20:56- spend the evening stressing out about minute things- what do you wear to a house viewing? What if they realise I’m not a real grown up?? What kind of questions do I need to ask so they don’t cotton on that I am a Pretend Adult? Head to bed and fall asleep by about 10:30
TOTAL SPEND DAY ONE: £0.00
DAY TWO 7:30 - alarm, snuggles with the boy - eventually get up, eat a yoghurt, a banana and a malt loaf, drink two cups of coffee.
9:30 - work starts, my computer hates me so while it plays up I google some more house related things- solicitors costs/surveys/all sorts and play about with the budget spreadsheet- it’s all a bit precarious if we go ahead with this house we have found but we can definitely make it work.
11:37 - estate agents call! They call a few times today as there was a bit of confusion about when the owners would be able to let us view the property, it’s eventually confirmed for Thursday at 6:30, we are to wear masks (of course) and I will take me and J a hand sanitizer each to use in case we accidentally touch anything. Estate agent adds me on Facebook -bit weird? But it actually works out for the best as I had a few little questions about the property that she’s able to fire back at me with in between doing my work.
13:10 - make lunch, same as yesterday, quorn ham, fried egg and avocado sandwich, walk the boy, it is FREEZING and snowing/sleeting the whole way around our normal lunch time loop. Text with J about the house viewings, he reminds me not to get too over excited which is honestly a fair assumption, I am a known panic buyer & we can’t really afford to panic buy a three bed semi... agree to do an AIP (Agreement In Principle) tonight to show the estate agents if they need it soon.
17:45 - I finish work late as I am stuck on a webchat with a client, it ends just a few minutes before I would have been able to log it as additional time worked. I oven a veggie cottage pie and microwave some mixed veg, we fly through the AIP & we check into the wait times for a mortgage appointment (might be a little premature but Mortgage Appointments were like hens teeth until recently with the government announcing the Stamp Duty holiday- the rich get richer...) they have loads available to book for next week so we hold off until after actually viewing the house (see! Sensible me)
19:02 - I am a creature of cramp & habit so I am in the bath! Message with my friend Z who lives in Canada- I miss her so much, her parents are applying to adopt some kittens! I am very excited for them. (UPDATE- they were accepted! They get 2 kittens soon, the pictures I have seen of them make them look furious, I love them intensely already)
21:30 - bed with the canine hot water bottle- still crampy.
TOTAL SPEND DAY TWO: £0.00
DAY THREE 7:30 - alarm! The Boy decides today is not a day to lie in so I get up, let him out, feed him and then myself (he gets dog food I, shockingly, eat a banana, a yoghurt, a malt loaf and drink some coffee) I start researching local conveyancing solicitors, a few have auto quote options on their website so I run our scenario through them and get a few ideas.
9:30 - work starts, I am still idly researching house things while speaking with clients- I work in a mortgage related job so it’s fairly easy to have a little nose at things and see how they would impact our (theoretical) purchase. The Boy trots up to me part way through work and somehow has found a glass ear plug that I lost about 5 weeks ago, we had torn the house apart looking for it and no joy, no clue where he has found it, the weird little hoarder, but I’m happy to have it back!
12:20 - make myself lunch, quorn ham, fried egg, avocado sandwich, make the boy lunch (dog food) and take him out for a very quick walk, it is freezing cold and sleeting/snowing/raining but he tends to get sassy in the afternoons if he doesn’t get out for at least 15 minutes. Text with friends about my general house worries- I am very good at arguing myself in circles (what a useless skill) and spend all day flip flopping between believing that we (me, the Boy & J) need a 4+ bedroom house with multiple reception rooms, and believing that is total lunacy and far more than we would ever need and that a 3 bed is just right for us.
17:30 - finish work for the day, check in on J and the Boy, J got home from work about 15 minutes before I finished so I catch him up on today’s mental gymnastics, I spent all of my remaining breaks today putting together scenarios of what our costs would look like if we went for this house/a house of a similar price vs a largemore expensive house so I run down the figures with him- he’s on board that a 3 bed should be plenty (child free life simplifies things a little) and points out that my justification for a 4th bedroom (I want a dedicated guest room, not a guest room/office) would be the equivalent of paying £40,000+ interest for the sake of my laptop not being in the same room as the spare bed... he makes a good point that man. & honestly... how often do I have guests? AND when Z, my Canadian pal comes to stay... I will obviously not be at work/needing to use the office anyway as I would be taking annual leave.
18:30 - I oven myself some veggie sausages and mash, make J an omelette, keep my now daily tradition of taking a bath & google lots of versions of “how to buy a house”
22:00 - I’ve spent the evening looking at interior design instagrams (why is everything grey??) and watching my new comfort show (the new season of drag race- just those episodes on repeat) and occasionally shouting ideas through to J who is in the games room/office shooting things?
TOTAL SPEND DAY THREE: £0.00
DAY FOUR 7:30- It’s house viewing day! The Boy is awake, feed him dog food, feed me a banana, a yoghurt and a malt loaf- the Boy has clearly figured out that something is afoot with the house viewing excitement and reacts to this by screaming into the void for two hours. Try and find clothes with no holes in that vaguely fit for the viewing, I feel like I want to be taken seriously but also that it feels respectful to be dressed ...not like a womble when we are going to someone else’s home.
9:30- faff about at work, mainly chat to work friends about the house sitch, eat more malt loaf, fail to pay attention to anything
13:30- walk the boy, text my friends incessant count downs to the house viewing, I am insufferable, I had quorn ham, avocado and fried egg sandwich because of course I did - run into a lady I see often see walking her boy (a border terrier baby!) and have a very distanced chat about the house viewing- she immediately knew what house I was viewing and so I told her I would never forgive her if she bought it.
18:10 - work is over, shoes are on and we are off to the viewing!
19:03 - back from the viewing, we loved it, perfect size for us, had clearly been taken care of, good garden, planning permission for a garage conversion! It’s gorgeous, we are going for it! J chats with his parents and I chat with mine, fill them in on the viewing and the lovely vibes we got. Message the estate agent saying we loved it and want to talk more about the next steps tomorrow.
TOTAL SPEND DAY FOUR: £0.00
DAY FIVE 03:30 - I am suddenly wide awake and WORRIED, where will we put our coats in the new house? Where will the coats go??? Panic about this for roughly two hours, finally get back to sleep and it feels like I just close my eyes when the alarm wakes me up.
07:30 - up and at ‘em, feed the Boy, feed the Me, drink a load of coffee, tell J about my night time panic, he reminds me that hooks exist... god love that man.
10:23 - call the estate agent to confirm we are going to be calling together later to discuss, she sends over a pack of information to read, read through it and send J a rough idea.
13:00 - an offer has been made! We offer asking price, I had googled a load of nearby sold prices and estimates and it seemed like a really fair price for what we are getting, they say they will call back when they have spoken with the seller
14:12 - the estate agent calls back, the sellers are happy to accept the offer but want help with the selling fees (£1000), it’s not really something we tend to do in the UK but agree to speak with J about it. We check the terms of the fees & it’s refundable if the sale falls through.
15:32 - me and J have discussed the fee (& Js dad for a bit of an outside view- Js dad lives alone so is part of our “bubble” but he also loves his own company so we don’t see a great deal of him, before this week we last saw him on Christmas Day) we agree that if the seller had just priced the house at £1,000 more than what we had offered initially, we still would have viewed the house and offered asking price... so a bit of a weird way to do it, but we agree to pay the fees and asking price- we get an invoice sent through to pay and the house is officially off the market! It is ours! No more viewings allowed, no gazumping! Ours... subject to actually getting a pesky mortgage! (J and his Dad disappear at this point as he needs to get his car dropped off for his MOT which is why he came over)
18:30 - (J is back, his dad will take him back to pick up the car tomorrow) we have spent some time checking and rechecking figures, it all works but I like to make sure- agree to tighten our budget up to give us some more breathing space, we are aiming at spending less than £50/week on food for us and The Boy, should be doable, but tight. I ring up the bank to see how to get an appointment with a Mortgage advisor, they say it’s easier if J opens an account so he’s considered an existing customer- that they can book an appt for us if he isn’t a customer but that we would need to visit a branch which feels unsafe to do when we have another option. I feel like we should celebrate a little & remember I have £20 on the mantelpiece from my birthday- I buy us a takeaway, mushroom pizza and garlic sauce for me, kebab for J (£13.50) have a glass of coffee liquor & J has a rum.
22:30- we have made a list of all the things we need to do next week, find a solicitors, book a mortgage appointment, have a nervous breakdown, I head to bed, shockingly mixing pizza, coffee booze & excitement does not end well and I get about 3 hours of sleep.
TOTAL SPEND DAY FIVE: £1,013.50
DAY SIX 8:30 - the boy has no real concept of a lie in, demands to be fed, I get up with him to give J a lie in (he’s just worked 7 days in a row so I feel he deserves one) I eat my yoghurt/malt loaf/banana aund sit down with my coffee, the boy immediately falls asleep on me on the sofa, I watch the new episode of drag race while texting with friends about it/the house sitch.
10:30 - the boy is demanding his walk, so I get ready and take him out, call a family friend, S, and fill her in on the whole house situation! I’m not really paying attention to where we walk and we end up on the same street as the new house - so I take the boy to visit (the outside) of our new house!
11:45 - back from the walk, J has been told his car will cost £120 to get up to scratch, cracking- just what we needed- he pays for this but the lines between his and my money is admittedly blurring more and more these days. He goes to pick up the car.
15:00 - off to do the weekly shop, I have made a list of things to buy and have planned out the weeks menu to keep it under budget. We buy yoghurt, malt loaf, milk, 2.5kg potatoes, 1kg of pasta, tinned tomatoes, treats for the boy, bananas, biscuits, bread, eggs, bubble bath, veggie meatballs, a frozen pizza, frozen vegetables, coffee , cherry Pepsi max (my true weakness- I am going to cut back though as this was 16.6% of our shopping cost this week! These cans must last me until the end of the month at least) the shop comes to £51.25
18:00 - me and J watch a film together (hotel Artemis, it’s actually really good) and chill out on the sofa, he has been working the last 7 days on the trot so I feel like we haven’t had much quality time together, it’s nice to lie down and chill out, we chat about what our priorities are in doing up the new house, what we need to buy first and what can wait & start looking at sofas and beds that we like.
22:00 - bed time for me as I am knackered, the Boy stays up with J, little turncoat.
TOTAL SPEND DAY SIX: £51.25 (not counting the MOT as it’s not my car!)
DAY SEVEN 9:30 - oh frabjous day! A little lie in! I am apparently now of the age where waking up any time past 9:00 feels incredibly decadent! The dream, I get up, eat a malt loaf, drink a coffee, feed the boy & turn on Sunday Brunch (a sort of ...cooking chat show? It’s 3 hours long and I watch it every weekend because I am an old lady)
12:30 -Sunday brunch is over, J is up and has logged into the app the bank told us to use to be able to book an appointment, it actually seemed really easy! I call up straight after it is booked and make an appointment for Thursday, they send out a link with some information we have to read and “e-sign” and they request some documents from us, I log in and upload them right away, J has to get some documents from work so he will do his on Monday.
13:45 - we both take the Boy out, fully intending to take him on a very long walk, it is FREEZING though so he gets a few loops of our standard lunch time walk and I promise him that when it is not so cold that my eyebrows hurt I will take him on a long adventure.
16:00 - we have picked our solicitors out, need to call them on Monday to make sure they can work for us, they were suggested by a friend and Js dad also mentioned he had good experiences with them- good enough reason for me!
18:30 - watch some twitch with J and the Boy, have a small wobble about whether the house is right for us, talk it through with J & I realise that it’s not that the house isn’t “right” it’s that I am catastrophising in my head and trying to talk myself into not wanting the house so I don’t get disappointed if it falls through, think about the house some more and realise that when the anxious part of my brain quiets down I do feel really calm and positive about the house. And if it isn’t meant to be, it isn’t meant to be, but that the universe does not need my bad vibes encouraging something to go wrong- remember my dad always used to say “PMA” at times like this- Positive Mental Attitude, take that memory on board and feel a lot calmer.
23:30 - the Boy fell asleep on me on the sofa and I didn’t have the heart to move him, J rustles something in the games room, the dog assumes it’s crisps and wakes up to investigate, I seize my opportunity and head to bed.
TOTAL SPEND DAY SEVEN; £0.00
Week total: £1,065.02
Food + Drink: £64.24
Fun / Entertainment £0.00
Home + Health: £0.00
Clothes + Beauty: £0.78 (bubble bath)
Transport: £0.00
Other: £1,000.00
Reflection: I started this diary with the caveat that it would be incredibly dull... and it’s still not been the most wild of rides but I definite did not think that I would be making strides to buying a house this week! Except for the (obvious) non-standard spending, I would say the week was about normal money wise- although we wouldn’t usually buy a takeaway every week, and J wouldn’t have to pay for his MOT any other week.
I have been making a note of dates/amounts/appointments for home buying things and hopefully I will be able to put together a home buying diary!

Hello RLs, Happy 2021! For my contribution to making this year better than the last, I’d like to put out my first review into this community. I know 2020 isn’t a super high bar and WOC reviews are a dime a dozen, but I hope this post will still be helpful! I will try to format this in an easy to digest manner, please feel free to skip ahead to the more interesting areas if desired. Lastly, I know I’m still quite new and have a lot to learn so CCW. 😊
🍮 Pudding’s Note: 🍮 Hi! I see you’ve stumbled across the first of many P’s Ns that may appear in this review. They are akin to Editor’s Notes and not at all required reading. Well, actually none of this is required reading, but thank you for taking the time to do so anyway! P.S. just for fun (assuming you’re of age) have you considered playing a drinking game to this review? 👻

• **Disclosure - I was not given any incentives other than the ones listed by Queenie in her December welcome wagoon post here. Queenie did ask if I could write a review, I am happy to as I like what I received and would like to share with the community.*\*
• Seller: Non-TS Queenie. WeChat: bling2015, Whatsapp: 8615202090486
• Price: 980 CNY - 98 CNY (RL 10% off) = 882 CNY
• Payment method: Transferwise
• Price of shipping: 198 CNY, EMS
• 🌏Order timeline: 🌎
  • December 6th: Added on WeChat and begin inquiries of Chanel WOCs. Queenie sends me some style choices, I notice she has the black WOCs I liked.
  • 🍮Pudding’s Note that no one asked for: At this point in the conversation I get a flashback to when I used to get haircuts where I would sit in the chair and assume the stylist knows exactly what I want and is able to work their magic given my age, face shape, and style. I remember how I have had much better experiences when I ask to chat a little about preferences and awkwardly pull out pictures on my phone first, and decide to do the same here. I speak with Queenie a bit more on what I’m looking for -- lambskin as it looks more pretty to me (also caviar looks like a lot of cells or bubbles to me zoomed in really close and that’s off-putting to me personally), SHW as I can’t rock GHW just yet without looking out of place, and I favour quality more so than accuracy as I want to be able to use a bag for a long time. Because at the end of the day, reps can/should be considered items that ought to be deserving of spending hard-earned income on as well! 💸💸💸
  • December 7th: Following our conversation on my preferences I explicitly ask for black lambskin with SHW. Queenie tells me she understands what I’m looking for and provides me with corresponding Factory Pictures and pricing. I ask about the payment method and we work out Transferwise into Alipay Bank Account (shoutout to u/tripleaw for suggesting this!) as I did not know how to use Western Union and didn’t feel entirely comfortable with it. I ask about shipping options and express that I’d like EMS because DHL has, in my experience, almost always resulted in customs and processing fees (also EMS has been insanely fast to Canada!). Queenie agrees and I pay via Transferwise. I let her know that the payment may take up to 4 days as that had been my experience in the past, she tells me no worries. She was able to receive it in 20 minutes though, my bank hadn’t even reflected the update as this was the middle of the night for me still lol 😂. I also inquire about the free gift that is stated in her welcome post. She sends me some selections and I pick a silver Gucci belt after measuring myself. I also send address details and Queenie confirms my order with me.
  • December 9th: I get PSPs early in the morning and I express concerns about the back pocket alignment and Queenie sends me more photos in which I realize it was just the angle. I ask for videos and a couple more photos as I still felt some concern regarding the logo stamping (the C in Chanel looked kinda small to me). Plus, I didn’t get any photos initially of the sides, bottom and chains. Queenie takes and sends more photos without hesitation. At this point I still have some reserves about the CC alignment on the front of the bag as in some photos it looks misaligned and in others, it doesn't. Queenie again sends more photos of the alignment and I GL as I hope it’s just photo angles being weird. Moreover, I really appreciated Queenie sending me so many photos and being patient with my worries. I did not want to be overly critical and difficult as it is a rep after all.
  • December 11th: I get EMS tracking information and begin stalking 17TRACK daily.
  • December 17th: Just for fun I check for an update at 1 am, lo and behold my package had just been processed less than an hour ago. The package is out for delivery in the morning, I am greeted with a yellow cube of happiness at lunchtime.

 

📷 *Photos* 📸

• My potato photos from Unpacking Day feat. packaging
  
• Less potato-looking photos with all RL post requirements, plus commentary
  
• PSPs
  
• Factory pictures, FYI I was not given a Factory Name!
  
• Chanel Website Authentic and TFP Authentic
  

 

🍮 Pudding’s Special Note: 🍮

I will be using a rating scale as follows to streamline and help the reader better understand what a score reviewed by myself entails;
*A score of a perfect 10 will be default, but will be deducted accordingly.\*
[-1.0] for differences that are immediately obvious or do not require much effort to discern.
[-0.5] for differences that require some more careful observations and/or background knowledge.
[-0.25] for differences that would require special attention, such as precise measurements, close-ups, and heavy scrutiny.
[-0.1] for extremely tiny details that probably no one would ever notice unless you were truly trying to find inaccuracies/defects... for something like a Reddit Review or for authentication purposes. 📏
 

⭐️ *Quality - 9.5/10* 🌟

🍮 Pudding’s Note on Scaling: 🍮 This portion is largely based on what I feel is a quality product having taken into consideration the price, material, and usability.
Leather: No fufu smell upon arrival. Though the leather scent was a little faint and has become stronger now than before, I currently have a habit of bringing it up to my nose to sniff now 🤭. It feels different from PU that I own (yes pudding, because this is actual leather, duhh) and is nicer than the leather of an MK bag I own that is priced similarly. I also went around the house and compared it to other SLGs and chairs (the ones that have been used for years!), it feels similar in leather quality to me and I think having been out of the box for a couple of weeks now the WOC leather has gotten even better in feeling. The leather quilts are squishy and poofy, the folded sides are softer than the more firm inside linings, but overall I can’t stop touching it lol. But, I will take off *[ -0.5]\* as the small edge quilts on the left side are not puffed up properly and instead rather flat. It is a little bit hard to tell with photos and even in real life if you’re not purposefully squishing each and every square, but the bottom left and right quilts on the front should be the most noticeable differences if you want to investigate for yourself.

• 🍮Pudding’s Note that no one asked for: My nose is quite sensitive and I have had items before that have made me feel immediately nauseous or gave me instant headaches, even if it was merely a faint whiff. This happens to me very often in cars with “warm” air freshener scents and I would say fufu has that “warm” characteristic that I dislike. 🤮

Stitching: Clean, neat and even, I found no loose threads or wonky stitching.
Zippers: Smooth, and do not feel flimsy. I’ve encountered many poor-performing zippers and I appreciate good ones, these pass the test!
Magnet Closure: Strong, works well and keeps the WOC securely closed.
Chain: Feels like a nice weight! I also have not had any squeaking or twisting problems, even though I had mentally prepared for it after reading many reviews on here.
 

👀 *Accuracy - 8.05/10* 👁👁

🍮 Pudding’s Note on Scaling: 📏 As usual, I will be following the same rating scale. I will be expecting accuracy to be at least that of any auth’s to be considered perfect. This means that any quality control problems with proof found on an auth may not immediately qualify for point deduction if found here as well. I will try my best to find examples and reference images in order to ensure this review is both helpful and informative. However, I do not claim to be nor am I an expert. Therefore, I encourage you to take a look at the hyperlinks I’ve included if you have the time!
🍮 Pudding’s Note on Chanel Boutiques: 🛍 Just for you girls I made a trip to the Chanel boutique for the first time in my life, just so I wouldn’t have to say “I tried my best to compare with reference photos online, I have never felt auth before in my life, but 10/10 accuracy!” as I know I personally would not feel fully confident in an accuracy judgement based on those remarks. Thus, I decided not to be too hypocritical and dressed up for the occasion. Here are some photos from the excursion with commentary.

• 🍮Pudding’s Note that no one asked for: As you may have figured from previous P’s Ns, I’m rather shy and would be equally afraid of window shopping in Chanel as I would in a small boutique or some other empty store. Thus, I believe the majority of my (surprisingly non-obvious) nervousness came not from carrying a rep into the shop, but from me being the pudding that I am and from COVID-19 being the social distancing, hand sanitizing, try-not-to-touch-shared-things Pandemic that it is. To add on, I brought up my WOC in conversation a couple of times with the SA and she treated me with no difference before and after. She was professional and not the chatty type. To maybe illustrate, her repeated response to me realizing caviar feels plasticky was simply that “it’s personal preference” and nothing more. I did not feel like she was trying to rush me out after I was finished with taking photos of the auth WOC for a “friend who is looking to purchase but cannot come down herself so I am helping out” as she still encouraged me to look around at other items too. She did inform me that they were very low on stock as this was the day right after Christmas and asked if my friend would be able to come to look for themselves (I said no they lived too far away lol 🤫). I also mentioned I would come back to look again in January (aka, now) and she said that would be good and recommended it as well. Finally, I was meeting with friends for dinner after and did not want to dwell too long anyways, ‘til the next infiltration. 🔍

Leather: Compared to auth it is noticeably not as buttery soft nor shiny *[-1.0].\* Although I do find that the sheen has gotten shinier since Unpacking Day.

• 🍮Pudding’s Note that no one asked for: I am debating between getting leather honey to condition the WOC with or to wait and see if natural oils will do, and if you have any recommendations I'd love to hear them! The auth discrepancy has made me want to rub the WOC more to combat the dryness and to save on having to purchase a conditioner when I’m still quite content with the leather’s appeal. Not that that’s a terrible thing, my pet WOC and I are enjoying this symbiotic relationship just fine. 🥰

CC Alignment: Alright, here’s the part that bugs me the most. The CC on the front is left-tilted when looking at the WOC head-on from a closer distance. Some days I see it easily, and other days it looks fine and doesn’t bother me. I’ve poured through many many FP listings hoping to find redemption, and I found a small sample size of WOCs with the same problem. Attached here is a Pink WOC where it can be easily seen. I also forcibly asked a friend to stare at my WOC and tell me honestly whether or not they felt it was left-tilted. They told me “it’s not as noticeable as you think.” Therefore, given all the aforementioned observations, I will compromise and take off *[-0.5]\* for good measure.

• 🍮Pudding’s Note that no one asked for: This one is short, simple, and sweet. Sometimes I find that looking at the photo upside down helps me better gauge whether or not the alignment is crooked/tilted. 🙃

Back Pocket: The placement is correct in terms of height, shape, and location. It is ever so slightly to the right when comparing the sides of the pocket to where it touches the quilt intersections, but this is common on auths as well, please see some examples of pocket placement here. A similar case can be made for where the top corners of the pocket smile land, while it is not completely symmetrical there have been many comments on auth having the same issue and are visible in the previous link. However, I notice certain aspects of the backside may not be 100% accurate. Per some recent reviews on CFs, I have investigated further into the bottom row of the half triangles situation on my WOC. I had found it was not 1:1 with the Factory Pictures, but I had thought that would be fine and not a flaw. I realize now I should’ve probably asked for an exchange as there are no other WOCs with the same pattern as the one on mine, auth or rep. Typically, WOC triangles either end with nice half triangles that meet at the bottom of the pocket, or there will be 75% of the diamond peaking out and overlapping onto the pocket and a small row of baby triangles lines the lowest row. If that was confusing, please see the previous link for some examples. However, The closest placement I have found to mine is on the same Pink WOC from earlier, where that small row of baby triangles is juuuust above the outer seam line, not as high as mine is, but very close. I will still deduct *[-0.25]\* here because some work went into investigation. Although, I personally don’t think it is incredibly noticeable as I am still able to ignore it at times. Also, there could be a chance this is not true as I have not poured over every single existing auth photo out there and mainly only investigated on TPF (please somebody correct me, I would love to be wrong for deducting here! 🥺🥺🥺). I also felt an inner lining may be missing from the back pocket, based upon my short period of interaction with an auth of which I spent a solid 3 seconds feeling the inner back pocket. Um, I am unsure because at the time I was much more focused on trying to not look too weird. But, I will still deduct an additional *[-0.1]\* just in case.
Quilting: Puffy and diamond-shaped! I would say between being too puffy and not enough, mine is marginally closer to the not enough side if I had to pick. Thus, I have found an auth where the quilting is much less puffy and quite flat here and here. Overall, compared to Chanel’s website as well as the in-store auth I would say that mine is similar. No points to deduct.
Stitching: I counted ~8.5 stitches per quilt, which I believe is accurate to the expected 8-9 number I’ve seen floating around on this sub. There is some misalignment at the bottom of the back pocket where the stitches do not line up perfectly, but that was a little difficult to tell on black lambskin. Furthermore, I found the same issue again on other autos, but it is easiest to see on the same Pink WOC. As it was relatively hard to tell with my chosen hardware combination, I will only cautiously deduct *[-0.1].\*

• 🍮Pudding’s Note that no one asked for: This was one of those areas I would not have cared for prior to RL, but also at the same time I thought Chanel would be such a great rep purchase as:

1. It is very popular (and therefore easy to find reps of… please I just want the Strathberry Miffy bag so badly 😩🥺).
2. The diamond pattern should make it easy to discern inaccuracies and calloutable items. 🔎

While both points are true, it is still difficult to find differences without prior research and/or extreme staring and measuring. For better or for worse, this led to intensive research on my part both on and off the sub, which had resulted in the most important categories in this review to be filled with many links and reference images. 🔗
Insides and Lining: I matched all linings with auth, no inaccuracies here as the front pocket is an inner black lining, and everything else a deeper maroon. Again, no points to deduct.
Stamping and Sticker: I think the Chanel stamping is a hair too thin and the C is ever so slightly smaller than the rest of the characters from certain angles, giving it a cHANEL appearance albeit with much less exaggeration. But I have also found many auth on FP with such variations on what must now be appropriately referred to as the infamous Pink WOC and on this other listing too. As well, for reference purposes, I have found some auth stampings that are; really thick, thin and clean, super chonky, and not super crisp. The “Made in Italy” likely deserves a 0/10 for accuracy on its own as it almost certainly was not made there 🤣, but otherwise looks slightly messy, which matches what I’ve seen here. Lastly, the sticker is also obviously just as false as the rest of the production-related content, but the serial number does match the one on the Authenticity Card I was provided with. The sticker is in the top right corner of the front pocket, which I believe is true to auth. I honestly had a hard time looking at the sticker without feeling like I would be bending the WOC improperly. Instead, I will wait for any comments that tell me of sticker inaccuracies and deduct accordingly.

• 🍮Pudding’s Note that no one asked for: Holy moly, taking pictures of the stamps and stickers was SO HARD. It was partially why I did not write this review right away, I thought I would try to use the bag a little first and see if softness from usage would be helpful (I think it was). Honestly, kudos to the PSP takers, that sticker is tucked away so well. Anyways, here’s a fun Easter Egg for your time, remember one of the links I mentioned in the stamp and sticker portion? Well it looks like this one has an upside-down sticker! Really makes you wonder if it's actually auth huh. 🧐🧐🧐

Chain: I honestly remember nothing from when I was feeling the chain very briefly, this was one of those areas I felt would be weird to be handling too much. As mentioned previously, I feel the chain is genuinely a good weight and density. And I experienced no squeaky, twisty chains. I have measured the drop length to be approx. 61-62 cm which is in line with this listing, thus no point deductions will be made. I have seen in previous reviews that the measurements vary in auth as well within this range, so I will not deduct any points due to measurement error either.
Measurements: The dimensions are the same, +/- 0.5cm at most, as the auth previously mentioned in the Chain section. Please note that I am not entirely sure how width is measured though and for this section, I measured the WOC’s pocket in its most normal state, which is slightly expanded, but nowhere near fully. Nevertheless, no point deductions here as mine is well within the auth ballpark. I also weighed the WOC to be 36.7 grams, whether that means something or not I don't know. Feel free to let me know if this requires a point adjustment or anything.
Overall Shape and Final Comments: Firstly, the alignment of everything on the front is spot on and easily matches many auth photos. This is great as it is the most obvious side, and therefore the most potentially calloutable. The arch of the cover is clear and the flap attempts to close up on its own, which I think is nice and something I have seen in auth references on the sub. As for packaging, I don’t really have much to say about it as I’ve never seen or felt auth, but I am not going to nitpick based on that. My brain is far too tired to be scrutinizing packaging pictures on the internet at 3 4 5 am lol. I will note though that the shipping cube was very smol, and thus the shopping bag was folded in half and the Chanel Box had a small dent on a corner. If any of that matters to you, please feel free to deduct points in the category you think is appropriate! And for what it's worth (haha this is a pun 💩), I also found the dust bag to be a nice and not cheap feeling material.
Finally, I strongly believe that everything, other than touch, would be rather non-obvious to your average person who sees the WOC next to the auth. I again (kindly) asked a friend to guess between many auth and factory comparison photos and they were unable to do so based solely on photos in 85% of the cases. Thus, I have and will continue to wear my WOC with confidence.
 
🍮Pudding’s *Special** Note:* 🥳 Congratulations! At this point, you have almost completed viewing this review in its entirety. To commend this achievement I present to you some resources I have collected for the sake of this post here (Google Docs with RL WOC references) and here (an Auth Flawbook prepared by yours truly). 🎊
 

😄 *Satisfaction - 9.75/10* 😁

Okay buckle in friends, this entire section and the one after will basically be extended, director’s cut of Pudding's Notes.
Firstly, I thought the WOC was such a stupid concept. Why would you want a wallet that not only cannot fit into a pocket, yet requires you to wear it at all times? Nevertheless, I began watching comparison videos of caviar vs lambskin, CF vs mini, and eventually realized the WOC was the perfect compromise in many ways;

1. It’s classy yet subtle, perfect for any time of the day or year. 🗓
2. It’s a wallet/can hold whatever a wallet can -- an item that is another daily staple of life. 🧻
3. It’s not as bold as a CF or other bags can be, especially when you’re not really of age, income, nor family expectation to be sporting, say, 10 different fancy bags. 🧧
4. Revisiting the wallet argument, I may or may not have had a bigger rectangular wallet stolen from me because I didn’t want to carry it around at the time and left it on a desk momentarily… oh it also housed my phone and saved-up cash I was going to use to replace a charger I lost (I opted for cash because back then my dad had a joint account with me and would’ve found out about me losing the other thing oops 😱). BUT, the on chain portion of the WOC makes this ideal because now I never have to take it off, but my hands can stay free for other things. Updated vendetta: clutches. ☠️
5. I carry a lot of things I never use in my bags now already, maybe because I don’t want to have that empty space or a “what if I end up in a situation where I need an old shopping receipt” type of situation. Suffice to say, that specific outcome has never occurred, and I think my mom would be really proud of me not being a hoarder for once in my life. 🤡
6. Another mom-driven point; she would never approve of me purchasing and owning a designer item so early in life. I guess she’s right because the teenage rebeller in me is still going strong. Although, the sleek design might let me outlive a lecture a little bit longer than more pronounced bags could 😏. I feel the WOC just might be the best bet I have of convincing her to get one too. I'm feeling inspired by all the members who have been able to repfluence their families. 👌🏻
7. Finally, I’m short! Yet, I love wearing bags cross-body, especially when they hit just a tad lower than hip length. After watching 5 different videos of people showing the WOC being worn, I suspected (and rightfully so!) that the excessive length on the WOC would be great for my preferences. ✌🏻

Aaaaaaand there you have it, the 7 deadly sins -- Pudding’s WOC Edition. Having eaten my own words, I conclude that the WOC is the perfect blend of “affordability,” usability, essential storage options, combination variety, and, above all, a timeless beauty. Despite my OCD of the backside flaring up just a little bit here and there, I have surprisingly been able to keep it at bay most of the time *[-0.25].\* For the times I cannot, I ironically turn to the back pocket, as that is where I find the quilts most satisfying to squish in the name of stress relief. 🤓
Bonus! My final point would be that I have reached for this bag far more than the other purchases I have made recently, I believe in the cost-per-use principle and I am satisfied with the contribution this WOC has made to my lifestyle -- both quality and the quantity. 📄 Peep super subtle Office Reference 📄
 

📱 *Seller's Communication and Service - 10/10* 📲

🍮Pudding’s Prelude: 🍮 Following an adequate transaction with a TS, I decided to venture out and explore some Non-TS options. I spoke with quite a few that had been reviewed on this platform already but ultimately stumbled upon Queenie’s welcome post. While I found no review history, I also did not find any red flags such as comments putting down another seller or copy-pasting someone else’s introduction post. It was still a shot in the dark of course, but Queenie added me back so quickly and so politely asked if there was anything she could help me with, I decided to take the bullet. Queenie was also open to allowing me to try to send her payment to her Alipay which was great because I’ve realized I’m a Transferwise or bust kind of gal now. She also did not rush me at any point during the process, which was nice as I’ve had experiences in the past where I was pushed a little too much. By the rating you’ve seen already, I’m sure you can tell I’m pleased with the rewards of the risk, and I had a pleasant transaction with her from start to finish. 😊
🍮Pudding’s Post-remarks: 🍮 Queenie is so sweet, she didn’t mind that I was more chatty than I needed to be (I realize now this has spilt over and is evident in this review post as well, kudos to you for reading this absurdly long piece) and she sends me cute stickers of ducks, babies, and cats. She is quick to respond almost always, with occasional replies taking at longest 1.5 days. I also appreciated her taking more photos and videos quickly without any complaints. I believe she is still new to RL’s PSP expectations, but I acknowledge her attempts and willingness. Additionally, I decided to ask her if she wanted to hear my concerns with the WOC (mainly the CC alignment and back pocket stitching, the latter of which I felt I did not need to share as much anymore because of previously mentioned auth having the same issues) and she said yes. When I did so, she did not make any excuses and reaffirmed it would be fine to have switched it out and promptly offered me a discount on my next purchase, which was totally a surprise and I told her I was thankful. Furthermore, her attitude towards me did not change thereafter, which I’ve heard some RLs have encountered with other sellers before, following problematic purchases. Queenie is also honest with me about her thoughts on factory quality, telling me when she believes the quality-to-price ratio is good or if there’s a cheaper model that she would recommend instead as she knows I do not need the bestest quality for every single item. She encourages me to send her Factory Photos when I do see a review that I like so that she can confirm whether or not she has access to that specific factory and/or bag. I have since inquired with her about many, many other items and she has still continued to be patient with my extreme indecisiveness (spoiler: >!Celine goods have stolen my heart once again!<). Since I received this lovely WOC, I have and will continue to recommend Queenie on this sub, and I hope this review will be of comfort and peace of mind if you do choose to order with her in the future. ☺️
 
~🍵🍮✨ fin ✨🍮🍵~

Hello, Calgary Redditors!
With the new restrictions closing all indoor facilities and in opposition to gatekeeping, I thought I would share some tips from my favourite hobby: winter running!
(Disclaimer: These tips might not work for everyone, but as a fellow anxious human, I'd thought I would throw them out into the void of Reddit in case it helps anyone.)
Dude, it's icy, how tf am I supposed to run?
By being diligent. Winter running, I would say, takes more concentration because you have to watch your surroundings while occasionally looking down to assess how likely you are to eat shit. If I am running and see a patch of ice ahead of me, I will slow down and tighten my core to be more stable. Given a choice, I will always choose to run on snow-covered ice rather than bare ice as the snow provides some traction. It is also totally okay to walk over patches you think are particularly hazardous.
Do I need special gear?
Yes and no - it's up to you, babycakes. (I have learned this is insincere.)
Normal running shoes are fine all year round, but you will have to be diligent about stability not to slip. If you can afford it, I recommend trail running shoes as they have big grippy lugs on the bottom to help with not slipping. Some trail running shoes are even waterproof, which is invaluable, with Calgary's chinooks always leaving big ass puddles.
You don't need special thermal gear. For a 30 min to 1 hr run, dressing in the clothes you already own is more than sufficient. I usually wear for shorter runs: long sleeve shirt, hoodie, and a vest. As long as your core is warm, you'll be fine. If you plan on running like 10+ km, then yea, technical gear is probably better because it's lighter. I only ever wear my ~fancy~ Under Armour stuff when planning on doing a big run.
Earcoverings and mitts are non-negotiable and should always be worn. I'm a girl, so I wear one of those toques with a ponytail hole. Ears and fingertips are sensitive!
When getting dressed, ask yourself: If I slipped and had to limp home slowly, would I be warm?
Edit to add throounyforfun4d67's comment in case it gets lost:
"OP - I am all for getting people outside and exercising, but this recommendation is missing a pretty large and concerning issue- you should consider NEVER running below -15 degrees C, even if you are in Olympic shape.
You risk permanent damage. To those reading this, never lets pride, or someone calling you "baby cakes" make you feel guilty or embarrassed to do something downright dangerous and stupid.
Many links online to back this up, but here is one.
https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2020/01/exercising-in-very-cold-weather-could-harm-lungs-over-time-researcher-cautions.html

Kennedy said ski culture and Nordic culture are slowly changing, but for the most part there is still general acceptance that it's OK to race in -15 C or -20 C."It's not OK," he said. "We have a qualitative study planned on high-level cross-country skiers who have chronic cough and severe reduced lung function post-retirement." "

Various comments on safety
I personally never run through intersections - I always walk. The reason for this is if a driver fails to see you crossing, you have a better reaction time. Also, when it's icy, cars cannot just jam on the breaks. You will always lose to a car, so even if you have the right-of-way, it's best to act as if you don't.
Always run with your ID in your pocket. God forbid something happens; at least you are identifiable.
Running on popular paths is the safest as they are more likely to be clear of ice. However, be mindful of people walking. The path is not your personal track ring. I will often reduce to walking if I can't safely pass the walkers in front of me without getting too close to the walkers coming from the opposite direction. If groups are taking up the pathway's entire width, it is not rude to politely say "behind you, to your left/right" I often tell them the side I am passing on so they don't just disperse in random directions, which makes socially distancing passing more challenging.
Lastly, check the city's website for changes/closures of pathways. For example, most of the Bow River pathway beside Eau Claire is a walk-only zone as it's a popular spot.
Take care, beautiful humans!

Update I recieved the go ahead and approval for the post and the next one. I will post about regaining sensitivity and resetting triggers to something more innocent for those in the preteen and Teen age group. This one will be labeled NSFW Thread three will be a Misc. thread that covers things such as haircuts, clothing, eyelashes, etc.
Hi there, You can call me Jimmy (Not my real name but a nickname after Jimmy Neutron because I was so smart as a kid and everyone called me that). I am 11 years old. I was diagnosed with Aspergers at 11 years old which is coincidence. Like many of you I really am mentally and emotionally that young. And I do experience body dysphoria and if I were to be given the opportunity to jump back into my 11 year old body permanently I would jump at it. However I am not suicidal about it as I am more the type to do something about it for myself and others And I value my own life to much to ever consider it. And I don't mean advocacy as that is better left to those who dedicate everything to it. I mean real Actionable things you can do right now to keep yourself looking younger and closer to your real age. And I don't mean makeup. (Barring some blush on the cheeks for the older among us.)
I wont lie some of this costs money, some of it a lot of money. Some of it is free and some of it can be risky. But for the youngest in body among us it could be the only way of keeping their dysphoria in check semi permanently. I will put warning next to anything potentially dangerous and the money needed if applicable and most of it will only apply to the US. It will range from rejuvenating your body, some of these will have permanent consequences so you must be absolutely sure you could not live without it. I wont lie without knowing about this topic in detail I had fantasized and looked into halting puberty at that age with no feasible options and no money if I had known about what I am going to tell you about I would have jumped consequences or not.
I will also put sources for those that have them and I will update this list as new information appears or community members have things to add that would compliment things. So please comment if you have anything to add.
Now we start with the section that while dicey in places will greatly benefit the physically youngest among us. I will not lie your on a time limit and a very restrictive one as every pubertal change is not something easily reversed. It is also understandable that many of you will simply not have the capital available. Seemingly at least. But there are things you can do and they will serve you well and many will be permanent. However, you must first be absolutely sure that you are age dysphoric and that it will kill you inside to not look at or close to your true age. As until regenerative medicine progresses further these changes will be permanent and irreversible. Talk to a Psychologist first and keep this in your back pocket but make sure as you are a child. In many cases both physically and mentally. It will be significantly easier for you if you have your parents and psych on your side.
As you won't have to go to cloak and dagger route and agonize on how to pay for things. Broach the idea slowly and carefully leverage your autism diagnosis if you have it. Make it abundantly clear that you will be destroyed if you physically grow up but don't get too whiny about it make your case that you already feel dysphoric in your body as it gets older and does not match your mental age. Bargain if you need to, make it clear that you're still going to study and put your best foot forward to get a job. If at any point unless your autism is that severe you make it known that you want to be taken care of like a child beyond love and affection your attempt will sour as many parents don't want that kind of burden. Remember it is more important that you keep your body looking how it should look. This way you can go through with the steps I'm going to list below but with parental approval and backing and hopefully a physician's supervision. You could even use the surprisingly low price as a selling point.
If at the point you put your feelers forward you can see it would never be approved of or they would do horrible things to you, you will have to go to cloak and dagger route this is easier than it seems. The hardest part of the whole thing is getting a hold of the money. You can make this money by hopefully doing household chores and saving up as the first step will not take a lot of money. Otherwise you can perform a side hustle or ask around your neighborhood if anyone needs any chores done. You Will only need around $30 dollars on a visa gift card for this one and a safe place to send it to. Or better yet as part of your chores start bringing in the mail. This will give you chance to hide what you bought and use it later. When you've decided you've reached old enough what is the first thing on your to do list?

1. Closing Bone Growth Plates. Girls have the short stick on this one is their growth finishes earlier than boys. With most reaching adult height at around 15. So the earlier the better for this one. Boys have a bit more leeway but the sooner it is done the younger you will look. There are two moderately safe ways to close the growth plates. High doses of estrogen or testosterone. An easily attainable way to do this is by taking a large and measured dose of birth control. Even the boys though you may have to worry about growing breasts if you continue doing so. If you have the option to though it might be more expensive it will be much better in the long term take the testosterone option instead. A very high initial dose will close the growth plates. Certain SARMS will also do so. But if you are low on time and money you need to take what you can get. https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=6493141 You can get all of this from alldaychemist
2. Puberty Blockers and Anti Androgens:

If you've gotten to this point hopefully you have your parents support as then you will be able to pursue the most ideal option which is an implant called

SUPPRELIN® LA

It will completely suppress puberty for at least one year. Without more permanent and damaging ways of preventing puberty this is the most sustainable and long term solution. With luck you can pretend to be gender dysphoric and just say you need time, that way the doctors will not only go out of their way to prescribe it for you but insurance just may cover it. Otherwise if you are very understanding doctors you may be able to get it anyways. Avoid Lupron though as the long-term side effects are coming out as very bad. If you are unable to get a hold of the other puberty blockers you may have to go the anti-androgen route. There is a tab dedicated to it on all day chemist. You can find Sarms on Science.Bio but expect to spend at least 70$.
There is a possibility the implants can last for more than one year which would be even better.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6551808/
If you are able to do both of these things, you should basically be set. If you are already older than your real age at least you can prevent any more damage.
For the older ones among us.
Now we start with the first thing that will actually rejuvenate your skin and make you look physically younger. This will be expensive up front but the cost will lessen after the initial investment as you will only need to purchase certain items occasionally.
Skin Care Shopping List and Rationale:
1:) Tretinoin : This is the most important part of the regimen, if you purchase nothing else or can afford nothing else this is what you should buy. It is one of the most scientifically studied skincare ingredients with decades of research outside of cosmetic companies. It is not a magic cure but over the course of several months of consistent application it will reduce and eliminate skin blemishes and wrinkles and help prevent the formation of new ones. Put a pea-sized dab on your face before you go to bed. Source Alldaychemist around 8$ per tube no prescription needed. Since starting to apply it my nascent frown lines have halfed.
2:) Skin Medica TNS recovery complex: This is the second most important part of the regimen. It is also the most expensive. It is a solution of over 300 growth factors and cytokines taken from human fibroblasts and is proven when applied over the course of around six weeks to double skin thickness and further reduce and eliminate wrinkles. Since starting to apply this my cheeks have gotten a little bigger and my eyelids have begun to look Dewey again. It is applied twice a day once at night and once in the morning and the single bottle will usually last 2 to 3 months. You may feel a slight burning sensation applying it after tretinoin. You should wait 30 minutes after applying tretinoin to apply this. These two are the only to you needed night. Source: Various sources Skin Medica. Price $60-200 Be careful of scams if going for the cheaper option. It should smell odd and a little organic or it is not real.
3:) Sunscreen: It should be Zinc Oxide and titanium Based. Source Various Price Various. 30-50 SPF
4:) AHA Cream: Morning exfoliation, in studies is proven to accelerate the the results of tretinoin as it operates by a different mechanism. Should be applied in the morning. Price various source various.
5:) Vitamin C Cream: This one should be simple, mono ingredient, and cheap. Apply after AHA and before sunscreen.
6:) Silk Pillowcases: As you get older you iron in wrinkles as you sleep on your side and your collagen production gets weaker. Cotton also sucks out the moisture from your face. The only thing proven in studies to not cause ironed in wrinkles is silk. You can also buy a silk eye mask. I myself use the one from Manta. Word of caution it should be silk not satin, this distinction is very important it should say only one hundred percent silk.
7:) A simple lotion for your body. I use Lush Cosmetics solid body lotion myself. Cost $12
8:) a simple body retinoid. I myself use something called retinoil which is $20. This will fade imperfections in your body. I am still trying to find something that will further fade white stretch marks and I will update this if I can. You can find this at your local drugstore usually.
9:) The last thing for skincare and the one that should only be used when you have discontinued the retinoids or anything that could make you more sensitive to light. Also the thing that could help a lot of us the most. I am talking about laser hair removal or any form of permanent hair removal. A lot of my discomfort would leave me if I did not have to look at body and pubic hair. And I'm certain that a lot of you feel the same. This one can take multiple sessions and until recently left out those who were darker skinned and have lighter hair colors. More recent advancements have made it available for them to. However is expensive and requires multiple sessions. A more permanent but just as expensive and little more lengthy procedure is called electrolysis. This one kills the hair follicle. But it can be painful. The cost for this one can be iffy. You might have to game the system and pretend to have gender dysphoria to get hair removal covered by insurance. You're only half lying as you do suffer from dysphoria (unless you also suffer from gender dysphoria). Otherwise you are looking at a minimum investment of $2000 but it will be probably be closer to $6000 the good news is that this is basically a one time expense. Once it is done you at most have to perform some maintenance sessions every few months in certain areas but you may not have to do it all.
Edit: (2/09/21)
10:) In addition to the retinoid for the body I have found one thing that is empirically backed for the fading of stretch marks. It is something called bio-oil. They have a website.
Now we move on to health and Exercises: Little Boys and Girls are generally thin and limber. And if you were able to portray that image and demonstrate that ability you will be looked at as younger. Thin does not necessarily mean super skinny as if you are too thin you will look much older than you really are and cause severe health issues and damage to yourself that will make you look older. A notable example are some of the pictures you see of vegan men in San Francisco. A lot of them look like Holocaust victims and even though many of them are in their early 20s they look like they're in their 50s. For that reason unless you do it for religious reasons I cannot recommend veganism at all as none of their assertions about health hold up to scrutiny and the "studies" are often found to be fraudulent. Now if you were on a vegan diet for moral reasons I commend you but just know you are making things harder for yourself. Vegetarianism is doable but will require supplementation and Eggs.
Most of us here seem to be on the autism spectrum. For that reason and it's 30 years of study despite its detractors I recommend you begin a gluten-free casein free diet. It helped clear up bowel issues I have had forever. And cleared up Acne I have had on my arms for as long as I can remember. Follow the caloric intake recommendation for your age and sex unless you are overweight. In that case you must operate at a caloric deficit. A good cookbook to follow is this one https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083TJ5WMQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_o01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I also greatly recommend the autism nutrition research Center Regiment. https://www.autismnrc.org/ it can be expensive but it is research-based, and it is no more expensive than each of the ingredients purchased separately.
Sleep: Little boys and girls have bed times. That means 9 o'clock sharp no exceptions. (Unless you work) You should be getting the 10 hours of sleep your body demands. This means practicing good sleep hygiene such as taking your electronics out of your room buying and using bluelight glasses. Installing bluelight filters on your electronics. Combined with the skincare regimen above this should alleviate your dark circles which should make you seem younger. The idea that increase sleep lessons your lifespan has been disproven.
Exercise: Little Boys and Girls Club are fit, thin and limber. Generally as well they have round perky bottoms and thin appendages. Depending on your build, getting too thin can actually be counterproductive and make you look older. I am not going to lie even if you do everything perfectly and manage to do everything I am listing and will continue to list your build will limit how young you can look. But You can optimize your physique to make yourself look younger. Everything should be mostly proportional, for example if you are big and bulky your arms and legs should be within the range of the rest your body. You should have muscle but it should not be well-defined, but you should also try to limit fat as much as you can but not too much as a small layer of fat can stand in for baby fat if controlled properly. It will take some doing but the ideal is to be proportional with a small layer of fat to create a slightly chubby childish look. That does not mean you should be chubby just that it should be look like you have baby fat. I mentioned it earlier one of the big things people overlook and will give you a way if nothing else does is your butt. Children almost universally up to the late teenage years have well-defined and rounded glutes. Some people would call this diaper butt even though no diapers are involved. This is especially true for boys, and is this perspective I'm speaking from. There are other guides for women but the ideal is you want to avoid making your thighs bigger while making your butt perkier. https://www.rachaelattard.com/perky-butt-workout/
This website is a good place to start and is funnily enough aimed at women. Another place to look is a website and workout plan called autism fitness. Some of them are useless if you are not developmentally delayed enough for them but others are perfect for our purpose as our goal is to gain lean muscle and flexibility not bulk. For me personally I do bear walks, dead bugs, squats, sidesteps, glue bridges both weighted and unweighted, Russian swings, overhead band presses, and moderate weight bench presses. Ultimately the exercises that are perfect for you, you have to find in your own.
There is a last exercise I can recommend to everyone that will definitely make you look younger and further reduce the appearance of wrinkles if you have them and prevent their appearance if you don't. It is called facial yoga. Basically it's an exercise routine for your facial muscles primarily your cheeks, this avoids the sunken look and if you start young enough or will you still have enough volume you can preserve and look much younger than you normally would even with the steps mentioned above.
Combining these with some of the geroprotectors, research chemicals, and other substances in the next section and depending on how old you look you will be able to target a presenting age. Which while probably not your actual age should be significantly better than what you experience currently. Calm down look at yourself in the mirror and see what you can fix and change. How old will that make you look? Make that your target. For a lot of us that presenting age will be somewhere in your teens. Not ideal but significantly better than would be possible otherwise. For myself based on my old photos and what I currently look like in my early 20s I could easily shoot for and maintain the looks of someone who is 14. With a stretch goal if some of the things I am investigating pan out of 13 to 12. If I could make it to looking like I was 12 I would be within spitting distance of my actual age and I would be happy with it. But if it doesn't 14 will have to do. When I say 12 I mean what I look like when I was 12 same thing with 14. You could easily just say you're a tall kid.
I will hopefully coin a phrase: Your Presenting Age Goal. The goal of looking as close to your true age as is feasibly possible.
Geroprotectors and other research compounds:
Geroprotectors are compounds that prevent and reverse aging in physical adults. They include peptides, regenerative medicine, and certain research chemicals and non-FDA approved pharmaceuticals which are safe and tested elsewhere. A big thing to look at are the Khavinson peptides. Many of them have studies behind them to present their efficacy and they were developed for the Soviet Union super soldier program which became defunct after the fall. If you have heard of elderly individuals having young blood plasma transfusions to be young again these peptides operate upon the same principle. They make your body repair itself. One in particular would be very important especially among those who have had a destroyed sleep schedule and want to present as younger. That is Endoluten the Pineal Peptide. This extends the telomeres of the body and more importanly fixes your circadian rhythms so you will fall asleep and wake up as a child with the falling of darkness and coming of day. Looks are only half the equation, the other half is how you outwardly present in one of the best ways to seem younger even if you don't look it is hyperactivity. For that reason the adrenal peptide GlandoKort also comes recommended as it will restore some of that hyperactivity.
The only other two I would recommend as essential, depending on your individual needs of course is ventfort the blood vessel peptide. Increased blood flow to areas will not only make you more alert it will also make you look younger by renewing the blood supply in places and giving you that childish blush. And Sigumir the cartilage peptide. This will not only have an extremely positive effect in your skin but more importantly shore up your cartilage and allow you to increase your flexibility and further reduce the age you present as. https://qisupplements.com/collections/peptide-60
I buy mine from here, but if you look you can find it elsewhere. Make sure to buy the Russian branding not the American branding as the 60 capsules only come with the Russian.
Now we move on from generally safe peptides to the riskier research chemicals. This post as long as heck as it is so I will only list each chemical what it can do for you how it can make you present as younger and safety considerations.
NSI-189: Your emotions will be more intense and much more like a child's, you may be mentally a child but your body's hormones may have "matured" out of that stage causing an emotional disconnect. It was investigated first as a smart drug by DARPA and is now being developed and marketed as an atypical antidepressant but it is not an SSRI. It will improve your memory and make it more like a child's as its primary mechanism of action is by increasing BDNF and increasing the size of the hippocampus. This one has been tested extensively and its effective dose is 40 mg increasing the dosage will not increase the effects it will actually lessen the effects. You can look up any contradictions in scientific studies performed upon this. Reputable source = Science.bio I currently take this one.
9-me-bc: As long as you don't do drugs you will take greater pleasure and every day things and will restore "the magic". Many of you probably were put on ADHD medication, this works by down regulating dopamine receptors. This research chemicals on the other hand has been found to regenerate them even dead ones. You only need to take it for at most six weeks and you will need to avoid the sun like a vampire or put on sunscreen in that time. But the results are completely worth it. If you search on Reddit you might find traces of it being viewed as neurotoxic. There is no evidence of this as all compunds in this class do not have the same effect. Preliminary in vitro testing actually shows a neuroprotective effect. Reputable source = Science.bio I also took this one but only for six weeks to repair early damage of ADHD medication.
Cerebrolysin: I recently learned that I suffered from trauma induced alexithymia. PTSD, depression, and other traumas are actually a form of brain damage. This Russian peptide medication is primarily prescribed for that purpose. It is very safe and is been in use for over 70 years and has more than 400 human studies in several hundred more on animals. Why haven't you heard about it than? Because none of the studies are in English and the FDA doesn't consider any study not done in English to be credible. (Yes I am serious) I recently finished a 30 day regimen of Cerebrolysin for 30 days. It did three big things for me. It restored my ability to feel emotions though I still need to learn interoception skills I never learned. It further expanded my awareness of the world and of myself. And it reopened the development period allowing me to start recognizing facial micro expressions and other conversational nuances that were beyond me before. It is also what gave me the awareness to realize I was an 11-year-old flying by the seat of his pants and gave me the nuance to look back on some of my actions "growing up" in a new light. I had always sought to recapture my childhood and remained looking as young as possible. A lot of my past and current behavior started to make sense in hindsight and present more evidence that I was mentally 11 even if I was intellectually much older. The benefit of this is you will better be able to judge situations and physically and emotionally express yourself which will serve the purpose of making you seem younger and simultaneously more polite so even if the people you're talking to see through you they are more likely give you the benefit of the doubt.
It is intramuscularly injected so you will need to take time to learn how to do it safely if you so choose. Remember there is no pressure and you can take or leave whatever I present to you. The only legitimate source in the West to buy it is Rupharma.
For older individuals that are of course numerous hormonal and other interventions you can partake in but I will not list them as they are up to you.
That is all I have for now. I hope it can help some people. Or if it is considered too dangerous I apologize and will remove the post.

Hi, everyone! This is my second Money Diary that I have posted in here and a pretty good amount has changed since my last one. Honestly after reading this one over I thought “shit, I sound so boring!” But there is a pandemic going on and I try really hard to stay home as much as I can.
My husband and I combine our finances and use YNAB for our budgeting. At the beginning of each month we both get $200 of spending money into our personal accounts to spend however we want to, I didn’t track his spending here because most of his money is spent on fast food and video games. Everything that I post comes out of my account or our household account.
Please note that any time I leave my house I wear a mask, I didn’t type this out but seriously I’m never without it. Even at work, if I leave my office I wear a mask.
Questions:
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian educate you about finances? Growing up it was just my mom and I, we did not talk about money and she did not educate me on anything finance related because honestly I don’t think she knew anything about money either.
Did you worry about money growing up? I didn’t worry about money because if there was ever a time that I needed something and my mom couldn’t afford it then my grandma was always willing to step in and help out. My mom did nails and thinking back on it now, there is no way that she made enough money to support us.
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any kind of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it? My grandma really wanted me to go to college and I really tried but it wasn’t for me. I am really bad at math and could not pass a college math class to save my life so I took a semester off to figure out what I wanted to do and I never went back. I’ve worked full time ever since. The almost 2 years that I did take were paid for by a program called OK Go or something like that where I was given 2 years at a community college based on the school district that I graduated from. I would consider going back but I really don’t know how I would pass math.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a safety net? My mom got married to my step dad (who I refer to as my dad) when I was in 6th grade and our lives changed at that point. He is a veterinarian and has always been good with money so he supported mom and me for all of my middle/high school. I became financially responsible for myself around 21, I still lived with my parents but I was expected to pay part of the utilities, my phone bill, my car insurance, car payment and health insurance for myself.
Do you worry about money now? I don’t think I worry about money now because we have a good amount of savings built up. I do worry that when our daughter is born and it’s time for daycare we will struggle but I’m trying to build up a savings for that now.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? No. When my grandma died my mom, uncle and myself should have received something but her bitch of a wife somehow made sure that didn’t happen.
Assets and Debt:
Retirement balance: $6700 in a 401k with my job. My husband’s job recently set him up with an IRA and his balance is $1500. Equity: We purchased our home in 2019 but don’t have much equity built up yet. Checking account balance: $1500 is what I keep in our household checking account, everything else is transferred into our money market account. Savings account balance: $6800 - this is our savings, maternity leave fund and all of our sinking funds. Credit card debt: $630 on our Discover card. This was the purchase of a treadmill after we canceled our gym memberships because of COVID. It’s interest free until November 2021 and I plan to pay it off if we get another stimulus check.
Income:
My monthly take home: $1840, I’m paid every other week and this is after deductions for 401k, insurance (health, vision and dental for D and I) and my flex spending account. D’s monthly take home: $1900, he is also paid every other week and this is after his IRA contribution.
Expenses:
Mortgage: $880 - We live in a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom home with a nice backyard for the dog. ATT phones/internet/TV: $207 for our phones, internet and TV. We only got a TV package this year and I don’t hate having it but I’m not sure if it’s worth it. We get HBO Max included for free. Gas: $25-$100 depending on the season. I make sure that we always have $100 available just in case. Electric: $60-$150 depending on the season. I always make sure we have $150 available just in case. Watetrash: $85 Car Insurance: $233, I got into a car accident in December last year and it went up by like $70. I’m hoping that it goes down soon. Life Insurance: $50 combined for term life on myself and D Discover Card: $35 is the minimum but I usually pay more. Subscriptions (Disney+, Apple storage/music, Netflix): $40 for all of the things. We let my parents use our Hulu and Netflix log in if they want to but I don’t think they do. We debated canceling Netflix but I use it more than the others so we just downgraded to the cheaper plan. Groceries: I try to keep this around $75 a week. We recently started Imperfect Foods so we will get produce shipped to us for like $20 a week and I’m hoping that will keep me out of the grocery store.
Annual Expenses: YNAB: $80 Amazon Prime: $120 Jewelry Insurance: $60
The diary:
Day 1-Sunday
4 am: My husband, D, wakes up at this ridiculous hour and of course he is loud so it wakes me up. I hear him pour some food for the dog but she isn’t ready to eat so she hops into bed with me and goes back to sleep. Toss and turn for about 20 minutes and finally fall back asleep.
8:15 am: Wake up part 2. This seems like a much more appropriate hour. I’m pretty much immediately hungry so I head into the kitchen and I really want some biscuits and gravy but we don’t have anything that I need to make that so instead I opt for my leftover burger that I didn’t finish yesterday. Not the best meal ever but it does the trick. Call my mom to tell her that the pack and play she ordered was delivered and that we are going to start putting it together. I am currently about 17 weeks pregnant with my mom’s first grandchild and she is beyond excited. I am excited too but she takes the cake for sure. After I hang up I get sucked into TikTok for like 30 minutes and right as I feel my brain start turning to mush I decide to close the app and move on to more productive things like making a grocery list. Remember that I need to take my prenatal and Zoloft. I have struggled with anxiety for a long time and this summer it got pretty intense so my doctor prescribed me Zoloft, I guess it’s working but I still get anxiety from time to time.
11 am: Ask my husband D if he wants to go with me to Wal-Mart to get groceries. Normally I do a pick up order but the things that I added to the app didn’t meet the $35 minimum. We head to a different Wal-Mart than normal because the one closest to us didn’t have Bar Keeper’s Friend and I heard that using that in my fiberglass bathtub will clean it better than anything I’ve found. Normally we listen to some sort of true crime podcast in my car but I’m so caught up on everything that I’ve decided to listen to audio books for a while, currently I’m listening to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Once we get to the store I send D on a mission to get a few things off the list while I get the rest, divide and conquer has been the best strategy for us to get our stuff and not commit murder while we are there. We meet back at the produce area and walk over to the self-checkout. I’m annoyed because we ended up spending enough to have placed a pick up order and not have to have gone in the store but oh well, I guess. The total was $41.14 and we got almond milk, chocolate almond milk, 2 pounds of shredded cheese, 2 bags of salad, face wash, canned corn, canned green beans, Bar Keeper’s Friend, salsa and a sticky bug trap thing to go under our kitchen sink. On our way home I ask D to drive me past a day care that is in the area so that I can look at it as a possible option in the future, it looks nice and will definitely be on the list of places that I want to tour. ($41.14)
1 pm: I am so bored I could cry. I’ve done laundry and I need to clean up the house but I have zero motivation to do anything. I try scrolling TikTok again but that doesn’t do it for me, decide to lay down with the dog and read a book for a little bit. This could be bad because normally when I lay down I end up falling asleep and then I can’t sleep at night. I’m reading a book called The Family which is about a cult type situation and I’m not entirely sold on it yet. I love all things cult-y so I thought this would be a good one to try on Kindle Unlimited so fingers crossed that it gets better. Does anyone else have Kindle Unlimited? I paid for 6 months of it a couple of months ago and have barely used it because it seems like anything that I want to read they don’t have and that bugs me. Probably won’t renew when it comes time. Good news, I didn’t fall asleep! I decide that taking a shower sounds like a good idea, it’s not a hair washing day for me so I’m in and out fairly quickly. Skin care today consists of Neutrogena Hydro Boost cleanser and once I’m out of the shower I use some moisturizer that I bought from an old friend who is sucked into the MLM, Perfectly Posh.
5 pm: I really don’t want to cook dinner tonight and that I could really go for Mexican food completely based on the fact that refried beans sound so good. I ask D if he is down for that and he says yes. We order to go from a place up the street: I get a burrito dinner and D gets a combo meal with 3 enchiladas, a tamale and 2 tacos ($40 after tip). D goes to pick up dinner and I give the dog her dinner plus her 2 evening fish oil tablets, she has really dry skin and itches constantly so the vet (AKA my dad) told me to start her on fish oil with breakfast and dinner. We settle in to watch The Santa Clause while we eat. We also talk about Christmas being this week and should I make a special meal on Christmas Eve, we aren’t big on holidays in my family and with everyone staying at their own houses this year I’d honestly rather order a pizza but we have plenty of food in the freezer that I feel like I should whip up a good meal.
9 pm: After the movie we got sucked in to watching Deliciousness on MTV and snuggling with the dog, I am now ready to go to bed and read my book. Put the dog out for one final bathroom break before bed and then we go lay down, she is snoring almost immediately which I’m jealous of because I never sleep well. I read my book until about 10 and then toss and turn until I finally pass out.
Day 2- Monday
6 am: My alarm goes off and I just don’t want to deal with it so I lay in bed until 6:30. D already fed the dog before he left for work (he works 6-2:30) so she is back in bed with me. I tell her good morning and pet her for a few minutes before I absolutely have to get ready for work. First things first, I go start my car. It’s 37 degrees outside and I don’t handle cold very well so I prefer my car to be nice and toasty when I get in. Once inside I brush my teeth and pick out my clothes. Today I’m wearing some black pants and a gray sweater all from Old Navy. I don’t wear makeup very often and honestly I almost never wear it to work so my morning routine is quicker than most. Throw together some yogurt and frozen berries into one container and granola into another, mix up a protein shake with my chocolate almond milk and Orgain protein powder and then grab my leftovers from dinner last night to take to work with me. I also always take a Blender Bottle with water and Crystal Light with me, I really need to drink more water but my go to Crystal Light is the strawberry flavored one and it has 60 mg of caffeine per stick so I try to limit how many I have in a day, I think some pregnant people still consume caffeine like normal but I’m on the fence about it.
8 am: At work and ready to get the day going. I work in the customer service department of a small bank. I take a lot of phone calls from people wanting to know their account balances, people who forget their password to the website and pretty much anything else you would call the bank about. In addition to that kind of stuff I also have a set of daily tasks to complete which include things like balancing the cash reports for all the branches, monitoring new accounts for suspicious activity, approving transactions over $5000, monitoring debit card fraud and approving/denying mobile deposits. I’ve been with my current bank since 2017 and I started out as a teller supervisor where I worked M-F 11:30-6:30 and Saturdays from 9-1, a couple of months ago I transferred to my new department and I’m definitely enjoying it more. The hours here are M-F 8-5 and no weekends. Last week we had 5 employees who work at my location that were on the last leg of their COVID time off after having tested positive the week before and today everyone is back and everything is back to normal for the most part. Except for the fact that I’m in an isolation office away from everyone because I’m pregnant and they want to keep me safe which is nice. I start out my day by checking on mobile deposits, this morning there are 43 which is pretty normal for a Monday. Then I move on to my suspicious activity monitoring and nothing looks suspicious so I’m done with that. The phones start ringing off the hook at 9 am and I can tell it’s going to be a long day. Put in an Air Pod and listen to Harry Potter as I’m able.
12:45 pm: On my lunch break for another 15 minutes. Looking over my budget in YNAB and making some plans for the New Year. I’ve almost got 2 months of income saved up for maternity leave in May, I plan to take more than 2 months but I will have 2 months paid between my sick time and vacation time so I’ll have to go thru that before I use the money that I’ve got saved up. I text back and forth with my mom about baby names because I’m convinced that my grandma is sending me messages from the grave, LOL but I’m serious. D and I were convinced that we were going to have a boy so we had a couple of boy names that we loved and only one girl name because we weren’t going to need it. Well, we were wrong and now D has informed me that he doesn’t really love the name that we have picked out. I was really surprised because when I put it on the list he had no complaints… Turns out a friend of Ds from high school, who he doesn’t talk to anymore, has a daughter that is like 7 with the same name that I love and that means that D is on the fence about it. We are now looking at other options but I think that we are going to wait til she comes out to make the final decision.
2:20 pm: Caught up on my work for the day so now I’m reading Canadian money diaries because I haven’t read any of these and I’m all caught up on the ones from the US. I have a headache and really wish that I had taken a nap on my lunch break. I also pay the balance on my Apple card ($161.67). D didn’t notice an email come thru last week that said our Butcher Box was shipping so we didn’t postpone the shipment. We definitely don’t need the meat because we bought a quarter of a cow last month but Butcher Box couldn’t do anything about it so we are stuck with the extra meat. I also make a payment to my Chase credit card that I use to pay bills. I saw that our internet bill paid last week so I send that over ($50). I see an email that our Imperfect Foods (Imperfect Produce?) box has been charged ($18.30) this is our first box and I’m hoping we like it. I had a $10 off for using someone’s code and they’re sending me between 11-13 pounds of produce so I feel like it’s a good deal, our shipment comes tomorrow and we will get 1 lb carrots, 1 bundle of green onions, 3 limes, 1 lb sweet potatoes, 1 lb potatoes, 2 oranges, 1 onion (?), ½ pound green beans, 3 apples, ½ pound jalapenos, 2 bell peppers, 2 cucumbers and 2 avocados… I also added 2 southwest chipotle nourish bowls because they sound bomb. ($229.97)
4 pm: Text back and forth with D about dinner for tonight. He is going to make some steaks and green beans and maybe some TJ’s sweet potato gnocchi. I spend the last hour of work alternating between reading money diaries and checking on my mobile deposits. I keep forgetting that Christmas is this week which is nice because on Thursday (Christmas Eve) the bank closes at 1. I’m bummed that I’m not going to get to see my family this year but with COVID happening I’m just not willing to chance getting sick or even worse taking cooties to my parents and getting them sick. I’m sure I’ll FaceTime my mom a bunch while I’m cooking or something because I always do, that’s just how we do things since the pandemic started.
8 pm: Got home from work and went a little wild on some leftover chips and tortillas and queso that were left over from last night so I’m not hungry when D makes steaks, I’ll have mine tomorrow. I walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes while watching budgeting videos on YouTube. I let D know that instead of making a pie for Christmas Eve I’m going to make sugar cookies with my grandma’s recipe and then we will decorate them with homemade frosting. This is a tradition that my grandma and I had and I want to make sure that it keeps going. I wish that I could pick up my little cousin and bring him over to make them too but I don’t trust his family’s COVID prevention and I can’t risk getting sick. In bed before 9 reading my book and snuggling the dog.
Day 3-Tuesday
6:30 am: Out of bed and remember that I need to get gas so I’m leaving a little earlier today. Snuggle with my dog for a few minutes and tell her how much I love her and then force myself to get ready. Brush my teeth and head to the kitchen to throw together some yogurt and berries to take to work. I didn’t drink my shake from yesterday so that is still in the fridge at work. Time to head out, say bye to the dog and head out to my (very cold) car. Listening to Harry Potter again on the way to work and I decide to stop at Dunkin to get a breakfast sandwich and a hot chocolate ($5.74). Yes I packed berries and yogurt but that is usually my afternoon snack to give me a little energy boost when I start to crash. Stop at OnCue for gas ($21.29) and then on to work. ($27.03)
11 am: Someone in my department is out on vacation the rest of the week so not only do I get to take over her daily tasks but I get to take on her lunch break which is 11 am. I’ve been pretty busy this morning so I didn’t have a chance to eat my sandwich so I heat that up for lunch but only manage half. I had weight loss surgery 2 years ago so my portions are pretty small compared to what other people eat and certain carbs don’t sit well in my stomach so I fill up faster – this is the first time I’ve had a bagel in about 2 years and now I know that I probably won’t have another one because my stomach hurts pretty bad after eating it. I watch UnReal on Hulu and text back and forth with a friend about a budget spreadsheet that I want but don’t want to pay for because I feel like if I did some googling I could learn the formula to make a spreadsheet do what this one does. Basically this lady made a budget spreadsheet and she plugs in her total income and then all of her categories and when she plugs in the category totals it tells her what percent of her income she is putting towards that category. Do I need that? No. Would I use it? Maybe. Am I going to buy it? No…?
3 pm: Listening to Harry Potter and inputting a bunch of wires. Take a minute to call D, his check engine light has been on for about a week and we are trying to exhaust all the options before we take his truck to the shop. I spoke to the garage that we take it to and George told me that we need to make sure that his gas cap is secure because there could be air going into the gas tank and that will cause the code that D got when he took it to Autozone last week. We had already ordered a gas cap but it didn’t seem to fit correctly so D is going to go to O’Reillys to see if someone there can help him out (O’Reillys people seem to be friendlier than the people at Autozone). Update: the gas cap that we ordered must fit better than I thought because as soon as he got to O’Reillys and took it off to show the people and then put it back on the engine light went off.
4:30 pm: Work is slowing down and I’m ready for a snack, head to the kitchen for my yogurt and berries. Once I’m caught up on my mobile deposit approvals I try to recreate the spreadsheet that I was obsessed with earlier today, I haven’t looked at the formulas yet but hopefully it works out.
9 pm: D gives me the option of watching Friday After Next or Lethal Weapon (weird options, I know) and I choose Lethal Weapon. He considers this a Christmas movie which I find interesting. After eating dinner (leftovers) and watching the ¾ of the movie I look over and see that D has passed out on the couch. I holler at him to wake up and tell him that I’m picking what we watch for the next 2 nights and he just shrugs. We have very different taste in movies and shows so it takes FOREVER for us to decide on something to watch when we are sharing the TV. Take a shower and the dog and I head to bed, watch YouTube and fall asleep around 10.
Day 4 – Wednesday
6 am: Alarm goes off but I’ve been up for about 30 minutes so I lay in bed and scroll TikTok for about 30 minutes. When I’m over TikTok I roll to the other side of my bed to snuggle with the dog and tell her how much I’m going to miss her today. She just looks at me and lays her head back down so I don’t think she feels the same. Fix some berries and yogurt to take to work, get dressed and head out the door. Turn on Harry Potter and make a mental to do list of things that I’d like to get done over the weekend and wonder how I’m going to keep D on track with this list.
9 am: All done with Harry Potter but super behind on work, how is that possible it’s only been an hour? It seems like every time I get on a roll then someone calls with an issue or someone brings me wires to input. Wednesday is always really busy with wires for some reason so I should have been expecting this but I wasn’t. When I have a second I grab my yogurt and berries and top with granola and eat as I go. Send a message to one of my coworkers and ask her if she would mind taking one of my branches large item reports and she said she would be happy too because she is caught up for the moment. Bless her.
6 pm: This day was wild and I’m so happy to be home. Walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes and then we have dinner. We decided to have French’s crispy onion chicken and salad. Normally this is one of my favorite meals but apparently chicken grosses me out these days. Luckily D will eat all of it (in one sitting) so we don’t have any leftovers. I watch an episode of Chopped and D passes out on the couch at 8, I ask him if he wants to go to bed and he says it is too early but then he proceeds to fall asleep again.
8:30 pm: D has fallen asleep again. I wake him up and tell him that he might think it’s too early to go to bed but he’s already passed out so he might as well go to the bedroom. I watch an episode of 16 & Pregnant before I head to bed. With D and the dog in bed there is very little room for me but I make it work because I don’t want to disturb them. Pass out by 10.
Day 5- Thursday (Christmas Eve)
6:30 am: Not feelin’ it today, yall. I woke up at 3 with the worst heartburn and I could not fall back asleep until about 5. The only thing keeping me going is the fact that the bank closes at 1 today. Get up, start my car and get ready for work. I sit on the bed and explain to the dog that I will be getting off work early, going to the store and then I will be home probably before 3 and then we can play outside and take a nap…. She does not care.
9 am: Quick break from work to budget my paycheck in YNAB. We are starting a new budget in January and I’m beyond excited, I’m so lame.
1 pm: Work is over, get me out of here. I have to stop on my way home and get groceries so I’m heading to Winco because I feel like it will be less busy than Wal-Mart. Get my list pulled up on my phone and head into the store. I get sausage, bacon, heavy cream, powdered sugar, bisquick, ranch seasoning, pink salt, hot chocolate, food coloring, crackers, greek yogurt, black eyed peas, tortillas and milk ($41.18). Get home by 2 pm. ($41.18)
3 pm: Got a text from my mom’s best friend that they put some Christmas gifts on our porch. D got a new Ugg blanket (didn’t even know these existed) and a stocking full of candy, I got a Google Nest thermostat and a stocking full of candy. They also gave us a card with a $100 bill in it so that’s cool. We got them gifts earlier this month which we already dropped off on their porch last week, it was a bottle of gin from a local place and a bag of coffee. Place an online order for Michael’s for some cookie cutters and some books of planner stickers and go pick them up before they close. ($44.01).
10 pm: Head to bed after watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I’d tell you what we had for dinner but I legit cannot remember.
Day 6- Friday (Christmas)
7:30 am- D got up at 6 to take a gift over to his parent’s house to put on their porch. His mom is taking it really hard that we aren’t spending Christmas with them so we decided to put together a care package and drop it off for them - it has some assorted cheeses, salami, crackers and wine. Once he gets home I get up and start making breakfast which is biscuits and sausage gravy. Then we open presents. We don’t really do gifts, normally we will give each other a gift card to somewhere but this year we both opted to buy the other something. D got me a new phone case with a picture from Sister Act on it - I’m obsessed with Sister Act so this was a great gift. I got him a nose hair trimmer because that is what he said he wanted. Lol.
1 pm- After diddling around the house all morning I’m bored and decide that I want to get out of the house. I suggest to D that we take the dog to the dog park and he says okay. We drive to one that’s about 20 minutes away and it was a waste of time, she doesn’t want to play or do anything. D and I throw a ball back and forth for about 15 minutes before we decide to head out.
7 pm- The rest of the day is a blur to me, we hung out at home and watched YouTube or whatever we could find on TV. At some point I ordered a hot sauce making kit for my dad on Amazon. ($54.24) D says that he is going to make dinner because he is hungry… this was a bad idea. He is higher than giraffe balls and he messes up the recipe a couple of times but luckily it turns out okay. I don’t know if this is considered a casserole but that is what I call it when I talk about it… it’s basically ground beef, heavy cream, beef broth, cream cheese, a can of corn and a can of green beans topped with cheese and baked. In bed and reading around 9, asleep by 10. ($54.24)
Day 7- Saturday
8:30 am- Up and making some more biscuits to go with our leftover sausage gravy from yesterday. I have big plans today of cleaning the whole house. I made a list of everything that needs to get done and after breakfast we are going to start.
12pm- All done with cleaning. The only room that we skipped (for now) is the kitchen because we are going to make cookies later and I don’t want to do a deep clean just to mess it all up in a few hours. That probably sounds silly but oh well. D’s parents gave us a check for $200 for Christmas so I want to take that to the bank to get it deposited and I’m hungry so I tell D if he rides with me to the bank that I’ll buy him a burger for lunch. After we make our deposit we go to Johnnie’s (I think this is a somewhat local place and it’s not anything special but I think the cheese they use is the best thing on the planet) I order a burger with cheese, mayo, ketchup and pickles with an order of crispy fries and D gets a double theta cheeseburger with onion rings ($27 after tip). On the way home I decide that I want to light a fire in our fireplace and we are out of wood so we run into Ace Hardware and get some. I was just going to get one but then I found a coupon for $5 off in my purse so I got 2 bundles- this won’t last us long but oh well, I need to do some research of where I can buy a whole rick of wood ($7.57). Home, fed and now watching a Sex and the City marathon. ($34.57)
6 pm- D comes in and reminds me that we were going to make cookies. My grandma passed away in September and we always made her sugar cookies at Christmastime and my mom and sometimes my brother would go to her house and spend time decorating (and eating) them. My mom sent me the recipe for her cookies and frosting so I’m excited to do it. I don’t remember how many cookies the recipe makes but I was not prepared for how many there are, at least 25 cookies from one batch of dough. While the cookies are cooling we eat leftover casserole and watch Little on HBO- I thought this movie was cute and I loved the outfits. When it’s time to decorate the cookies I learn that D doesn’t have the patience for this and I don’t think he ever decorated cookies because he just slathers one color icing on a cookie and calls it good while I’m over here creating an artistic masterpiece on mine (not really but I use a lot of colors and try to make designs). The cookies turn out good for my first time making them without grandma’s help and I’m glad we did it.
9 pm- Make plans for tomorrow which consist of going to Sam’s for toilet paper and laundry detergent, making an Amazon return to Kohl’s and meal prepping. Head to bed and read my book for like 15 minutes before I pass out.
Weekly Total: $472.14
Groceries: $127.62 Household: $7.57 Gifts: $54.24 Fun: $49.75 Gas: $21.29 Debt payment: $211.67
Reflections:
This was not an entirely normal week in our house, I don’t usually have to pay $211.67 to debt payments. Other than my Discover card I don’t carry a balance on anything so as soon as I see that a bill paid onto a credit card then I pay it off. My grocery spending seems high but technically I did 2 weeks worth of shopping in this diary so I’m not mad about it.

Title: I am 33 years old and make $121,000 with an approximate 20% bonus and annual stock awards, live in Pittsburgh, PA and work as a Landman in the Oil and Gas Industry (I’m a licensed attorney) This was my Money Diary from two years ago - https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/money-diary-pittsburgh-pa-in-house-landman-income
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance: $152,000 in my company 401K – prior to paying off my student loans in November of 2019, I was contributing up to my company’s 6% match. Now, I am contributing 15% which comes out to about $700/pay period plus employer match.
I have about $10,500 in a personal investment account that I contribute $500/month that I opened earlier this year
Equity: I sold my townhouse in 2017 and moved into an affordable apartment in order to aggressively pay down my student loan debt. I moved in my boyfriend, in his paid-off home, in March.
Savings Account Balance: In my HYSA, I have a $20,000 emergency fund and $10,000 in a short-term savings account with the goal of home improvements and/or down payment for a home
Checking Account Balance: I have $4,000 in my checking account
Credit card debt: No credit card debt – I pay my balance off every month
Car Loan: I bought a new SUV this summer that was around $38,000. The loan is currently at $3,500 between a $10,000 down payment, trade in of my old vehicle, a couple $1500 monthly payments and I recently cashed out $10,000 in stock to put towards the principal. I plan to have this paid off within the next few months.
Student Loan Debt: $0 – I graduated from law school with $85,000 in student loan debt. After three years, I had made $30,000 in payments and less than half had gone to the principal. At that point, I sold my townhouse and moved into an affordable apartment and got serious about paying it off. I was able to pay off that $70,000 in a little under two years.
Anything else that's applicable to you: I receive compensation in deferred stock awards that have a three-year vesting cycle. I currently have about $3,000 in vested stock and $100,000 in unvested. The unvested is monopoly money because: (1) If I leave my job, I would lose it; and (2) The stock is volatile, and its value at vesting is unknown. I don’t have a specific plan for that money but would potentially use it towards a down payment on a future home or renovations in our current home.
I live with my boyfriend, Will, who paid off his mortgage in eleven years shortly before I moved in. We make about the same income. He pays for property taxes, insurance, and utilities. I pay for cable, internet, meal kit deliveries, Amazon Prime and Netflix. We have an active interest in each other’s investments and are on the same page about our outlooks surrounding money.
Section Two: Income
Income Progression: I've been working in my field for 6 years; my starting salary was $85,000 with 20% bonus. This was my first job out of law school. I have had two promotions since I started but my salary increases weren’t necessarily in line with the promotions. My biggest raise was in a year that I did not receive a promotion.
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
$5,762.55
Section Three: Expenses
Rent / Mortgage / HOA fees: N/A – Will owns the house outright and he pays for all property taxes
Renters / home insurance: same
Retirement contribution: see above – approximately $700/pay period, which, with an additional portion taken out of my bonus, maxes out my 401k for the year
Savings contribution: $1000 to HYSA (was $2500 but now diverting $1500 to car payment)
Investment contribution: $500 to mutual fund
Debt payments: $1500/month to aforementioned car payment
Donations: $50/month to a local homeless shelter that really helped by Dad when he was struggling with addiction. My boyfriend and I also volunteer at Meals-on-Wheels once a week. We used to go together every week when they needed us during the beginning of quarantine, but now that things have slowed down, just one of us goes every week. We also make ten bagged lunches for the homeless through a local church twice a month and I pay for those supplies which I would estimate to be between $50 and $100 a month.
Electric: Partner
WIFI/Cable/Landline: $177
Cellphone: Paid through work
Subscriptions: $65/week for Hello Fresh or Marley Spoon food delivery (3 meals a week); $13.90 for Netflix; $10.69 for Apple Music; $13.77 for Amazon Prime; $11.96 for digital local newspaper subscription; $14.99 Peloton
Gym membership: $10/month Planet Fitness + $22/month pretax for gym near my office. I’m not currently going to the gym, but both are so low I don’t want to cancel. I especially want to support the family-owned gym by my office.
Car payment / insurance: The minimum payment on my car loan is about $400, but I pay $1500. Car insurance is $370/every six months
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
I was always a very good student and there was an expectation I would attend college. Finances were never discussed when I was looking at colleges and although my family is not extremely wealthy, they had a “follow your dreams” approach to schooling. I attended a state school as an out-of-state student and my grandparents paid for the majority of the tuition – I believe it was around $30,000 a year. My parents paid for basic room and board expenses and I worked throughout college and in the summers for spending money. I attended law school and my grandparents provided approximately $20,000 a year. I graduated with $85,000 in student loans. After three years, I had paid over $30,000 in payments, but less than half of that went to the principal and I decided to really change my view on budgets and spending and get it paid off as soon as possible. I was able to pay the remaining $70,000 off in less than two years. I am incredibly grateful for the money I received from my family, especially my grandparents, and realize how lucky I am. My grandfather was a high school principal and lived very modestly his entire life to be able to save. I hope I am making him proud!
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
I don’t believe my parents ever discussed money with me in a cogent manner. My grandparents are all very frugal and big savers, but they did not impart that knowledge on my parents. Both are extreme spenders, with my dad in particular having IRS liens and at one-point filing for bankruptcy. I’d like to think I learned from their mistakes, but I also recognize that comes from the privilege of making a comfortable living. When I first started making money, I just assumed you were supposed to spend all of it and that’s pretty much what I did until 2017. I credit Money Diaries and this sub for teaching me so much about financial literacy. You guys are the best.
What was your first job and why did you get it? I
I worked at my local pool as an attendant when I was 14 and started lifeguarding at 16. I liked having my own money and as I’ll discuss further below, I didn’t like asking my mom for money.
Did you worry about money growing up?
Constantly. My parents divorced when I was 8 and my father lost his job a few years later. My mom went from having dependable child support to nothing and her job wasn’t lucrative at the time. She was constantly stressed about money and really put a lot of that pressure on me as the oldest child. I remember just being yelled at for everything I would ask for – whether it was cheerleading shoes or lunch money. This was also during times when we were going on vacations and living in a nice home. We weren’t poor but my mom never saved or accounted for any unexpected expenses. This has really shaped my mindset about saving and not wanting to live my life stressed about money.
Do you worry about money now?
Short answer is no and I think there’s three parts to that: (1) I have been lucky to find a job that pays me well, (2) I set myself up for success by saving and paying off debt; and (3) to live with my boyfriend whose good financial decisions have taken a lot of stress off of our shoulders. On the other side, I also work in a pretty unpredictable industry, so I am cognizant that this job may not last forever and I may need to figure out another career path. But I bet on me and know that I would be an asset to many companies and industries.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
I would say that when I graduated from law school and moved into my own home. My family is very close, and I know that I could move in with my siblings, dad or grandparents if I needed to. I would also consider my boyfriend part of my safety net.
November 5, 2020
7:10 – My boyfriend, Will, wakes me up with some cuddling. I have been having some weird insomnia so sleeping in this late feels awesome! This morning we are volunteering at Meals-on-Wheels, so I get up, make half of a bagel thin with whipped cream cheese and “Everything But the Bagel” seasoning and grab a water bottle and a Diet Dr. Pepper to have in the car.
10:30 – We head home from Meals-on-Wheels. It was another fun morning – we really enjoy going, especially the weeks we both go. Our team of 6 volunteers makes bagged lunches and then a hot meal for 64 folks. Today, the bagged lunch had a milk, applesauce, roast beef and cheese sandwich, chips, apple, cookies, bread and butter, and a piece of pound cake. The hot meal was stuffed peppers with mashed potatoes and green beans. When we get home, I make Will a bagel thin as a pre-lunch snack and package up an apple and leftover chicken pot pie for his lunch while he catches up on emails. We made the chicken pot pie this weekend from the Salt Fat Acid Heat cookbook and it was so good and has been heating up really well. After he leaves for work, I go into my home office in the dining room and catch up on emails/phone calls before heating up a cabbage roll with ground turkey and mashed potatoes that my best friend made this weekend and gave me some leftovers. 10/10 would recommend.
12:45 – I work for the rest of the morning and then go to the NJ EZPass website because when I went to NJ in September, the EZPass I was using was no longer active and I got hit with two separate $50 fees. BOOOOOO. I’m able to get one waived, but I still have to pay $56.15. I also decide I’m a grown up and should get my own EZPass account so I sign me and Will up for one ($76, which includes two devices and $35/each in prepaid funds). I also buy a toaster because we only have a toaster oven and I burn 65% of the things I put in there. ($24.61)
1:00 – I get back to work for the afternoon. I correspond with opposing counsel, draft and revise some leasing agreements, and review leases that were taken by my field guys. The afternoon goes by quickly. I have the rest of my DDP, another large bottle of water, and a spoonful of Jeni’s Brambleberry Crisp ice cream which is the best ice cream I’ve ever had. Around three I have an apple and help my coworker put together a proposal for her promotion. She definitely deserves it!!!!!
4:30 – I finish up my workday and head upstairs for a 30-minute Beyoncé Peloton ride. It is so so fun! I take my daily bath after while watching TikToks. Afterwards, I get dressed, make our bed, and put away some laundry.
6:00 – Will gets home from work and we start on tonight’s Blue Apron – chicken caper pasta. It’s tasty but not my favorite. We watched “Eaters Guide to the World” while we ate – narrated by Maya Rudolph. It seems like a great show, and Maya’s voice is awesome. Will cleans up the kitchen while I type this out and relax.
7:00 – We listen in to a webinar for my friend’s travel agent business. It feels really pyramid schemey to me. I love that she has a side hustle, but don’t love this. Afterwards we watch The Last Man on Earth (“LME”) before going to bed around 9.
Day Two
4:00 – Welp, I’m up. Any advice on how to stay asleep? Maybe seven hours is enough sleep? It doesn’t feel like it to me. I listen to podcasts (Do No Harm and the new Dr. Death) until I get up at seven and start my work day. Will left around 5:30 after taking the trash and recycling out for the week. I have half a bagel thin and an apple for breakfast.
9:30 – I’m heading into the office soon, so I’ve been taking care of housekeeping things and making a list to ensure I do everything I need to in the office today. I’ve been going in about twice a week for two or so hours. My company is still pretty old fashioned in the sense that we use paper pay sheets and have to physically sign off on things. I don’t mind – it’s nice to get out of the house.
10:30 – I get into the office, handle some logistics, catch up with my friends and yell at my boss for not wearing a mask. He’s infuriating. After a few hours, I leave and pick up Mexican food and take it to my dad and grandma’s house for lunch ($45). My gram and I get the shrimp tacos and chips and guac and my dad gets a giant portion of beef enchiladas. After a quick lunch, I head home, stopping to pick up wine on my way ($41).
1:30 – I’m back in the home office and working the rest of the afternoon. I deal with some lease negotiations that are part of a mediation and end of year budget issues. I finish up around 4:30 and chat with my best friend on her drive home from work and then get on a quick call with my boss to discuss the mediation.
5:45 – Will is home and he snacks while we make baked chicken with pesto and mozzarella. We have it with a bag of sautéed spinach and I have leftover sweet potatoes and he has last night’s pasta. I am TIRED from waking up so early!!! We just watch LME and head to bed around nine.
Day Three
6:15 – I’m just waking up now! Yes! Will gives me a big hug before he leaves for the day. Today is technically my Friday off (we do 9/80s, so I have every other Friday off). With working from home, I haven’t really taken the Fridays off, and I have two meetings on my schedule today.
8:15 – Head down to my office, heat up some pot pie (it has veggies so does that make it okay to eat for breakfast?), and catch up on emails. I have a short call at 9 with an attorney representing landowners whose leasing agreement I would like to modify. I’m also going back and forth with our outside counsel regarding current litigation. Fridays are normally my busiest day because I really like to get to as close to inbox zero as possible to have a “fresh start” on Monday.
10:00 – I call a new-to-me hair salon to schedule an appointment and they say they can take me either after Thanksgiving or today at 10:45, so I put some makeup on and head out. The girl who does my hair looks just like Jenny Slate and it was really nice getting to know her! I get a cut and highlights and I love it! ($172 + $40 tip + $3 for parking). Also, the Hello Fresh charge for the week goes through ($77.91). It is a little higher than normal because I ordered some sandwiches for lunch to try out.
1:30 – Rush home for a conference call which goes great! For a late lunch, I heat up a piece of chicken from last night and have it with some leftover spinach and chips and guac.
2:30 – I watch the first episode of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. Omg this season seems like it is going to be amazing. Afterwards, I head to my best friend slash neighbor’s house and we go for a 2.5 mile walk and then sit outside on her deck and catch up. It’s sad to think this may be the last time we are able to do this with the weather getting colder.
5:30 - I order Aladdin’s takeout and Will picks it up on the way home. We get a shish kebob rolled, chicken Dijon rolled, spicy cauliflower, V9 soup and hot sauce. ($35+ tip, Will pays). When he gets home, we take the leaves to the curb and buy his sister a baby shower gift ($280 for a car seat, Will pays). We watch more LME and go to bed around nine.
Day Four
7:00 – I wake up and Will has already left to take his Nana shopping. I putz around and run the dishwasher and wash the bedding. He comes home at nine and we go shopping at Whole Foods. He gets stuff to make borscht for his mom and aunt, sandwiches provisions for lunches this week, salad, and frozen food. Total is around $90, and Will pays.
11:00 – We get home and make a frozen pizza and salad for lunch and watch more LME. Around one, I do a Peloton bootcamp (Jess Sims is my best friend) and Will mows the yard for leaves. I take a bath and relax while Will preps the soup.
4:00 – We have some leftover pizza and watch the last episode of Seduced, the NXIVM documentary. Keith Raniere is such a horrible human being. At some point I buy some more silicone ice cube trays ($9.32) and I make us sandwiches with the leftover chicken/pesto/mozzarella from the other night. We head to bed early.
Day Five
7:00 – I wake up in a great mood and ready to do all the things. I drink a green juice because I’ve been eating like a literal trash panda. I load the dishwasher, clean the countertops and stove, vacuum the kitchen, and make the bed. I fold and put away a load of laundry. I do a thirty-minute Cody Rigsby intervals and upper body workout and then a 15-minute stretch video.
11:00 - I take a shower and get ready to the day I’ve been looking forward to all month – brunch at Eleven! It is a gift from my sister and brother in law for my birthday and my brother joins as well. We start with a basket of croissants, muffins, and scones with honey butter and raspberry jam – literally a meal itself. Then I get the beignets and fried chicken with Brussel sprouts Caesar salad and corn bread. I also have a ginger mule and most of Will’s cocktail. Total was around $200 plus tip for the five of us and my brother-in-law pays.
3:00 – We head back to my sister and brother-in-law’s house and watch the end of the 1:00 football games and then the Steeler game. We have some cocktails throughout the day and before we leave, they make some frozen chicken nuggets from Costco that taste just like Chic-Fila. They also bought the Taste Test of Caramels from Trader Joes – I highly recommend. Will and my sister both got 100% accuracy and I couldn’t be prouder. It was such a fun day! They recently moved back to Pittsburgh from out of state and I’m so grateful that they are close, and we can hang out regularly.
7:30 – We get home and try to watch one episode of LME and fall asleep immediately after getting into bed.
Day Six
5:45 – I wake up and lay in bed for an hour or so catching up on my phone. I head downstairs and go through my work and personal emails and finances. My 401K has increased $12,000 since I started writing this. It doesn’t make sense to me. I also see that I got $50 cash back from Buy Buy Baby, so I get a few more things from Will’s sister’s registry ($5.50 after the coupon)
9:00 – I head into the office to pick up printing (I have a small printer at home, but anything more than a couple pages, I print to the office) and get some checks requested. I grab a cup of coffee and a Pepsi for Will. Once I’m back at home, I heat up the rest of the vegetable soup from Friday and a couple pierogis that Will’s mom made. I negotiate with a landowner for an amendment and ratification, fix a couple revenue issues, pull an order from a 2018 lawsuit and ensure that we are abiding by its terms, and put a memo together for the general counsel.
1:00 – I work solidly throughout the afternoon – reviewing lease files, communicating with my field guys, conferring with my boss about some recent case law, and responding to emails. I finish around 4 and take a bath. I talk to one of my friends on her ride home from work and discuss how we feel like there’s another quarantine lock down coming. Will gets home around 5:30 and we make chicken flautas with pico for dinner.
6:30 – Will and I start brainstorming ideas for Thanksgiving dinner. It is more than likely just going to be the two of us, but we still want to make a full dinner and try out new recipes. We decide to practice a stuffing recipe this weekend to make with turkey, roasted veggies, homemade rolls and some sort of apple dessert. You know the drill – a couple episodes of LME and bed around nine.
Day Seven
4:00 – Fuck. I’m up. I stay in bed for two hours listening to podcasts and trying to fall asleep. I give up at six and watch TikToks until seven. I tell myself I have plenty of PTO, so maybe I’ll take off a couple hours this morning and take a nap. I put blackout curtains in our bedroom last night and that wasn’t helpful in staying asleep but hopefully it will allow me to take a nap.
7:30 – I head downstairs and go through my emails – there’s nothing urgent. I pick out some cookies to buy from a fundraiser at the school my brother works at ($30). I feel surprisingly good, but I think its adrenalin from all the news about PA potentially getting shutdown again on Friday.
11:30 – I eat 1.5 pierogis, a leftover flauta from last night, and an apple before heading to the grocery store. I get stuff to make lunches tomorrow night and then for us for two dinners later this week – ($54) I am starting to feel tired but make myself do a Peloton ride before an afternoon of meetings. I start a Dennis intervals and arms ride and I hate it, and after ten minutes, I check my phone and one of my bffs tells me to do Robin’s Lizzo ride. It was EXACTLY what my life needed. The trajectory of my day is completely changed, and I feel awesome. Just another reminder that I work out for my mental health first and physical health second.
1:30 – My boss decides to no call no show our weekly team meeting. 10/10 wonderful boss behavior. I have another long conference call at 2, so I eat a couple turkey lunch meat roll ups and listen in.
3:30 – Conference call over. I catch up on email and phone calls and am done at 4:30. I take a bath and talk on the phone to friend before prepping tonight’s dinner – bulgogi pork tenderloin with rice and roasted carrots.
6:00 – Dinner is truly delicious! Will and I catch up on our day, clean up the kitchen, and watch Last Man on Earth.
At the end of each day please tally up your daily expenses. Then at the end of your diary please tally up all expenses in the following categories:
Food + Drink: $247.91
Fun / Entertainment: $0
Home + Health: $33.93
Clothes + Beauty: $220.50
Transport: 132.15
Other: $0
Lastly, reflect on your diary!
This week had a couple abnormal spends with the hair cut and the EZ Pass situation. I would say that I try to keep my spending to $500/week, $2,000/month and I wasn’t too far off even with the unexpected issues. I’ll just keep things a little tighter for the next week or two. I am beyond grateful for my limited fixed monthly costs and think I’m doing a pretty good job of putting my money to good use and investing. I appreciate any and all additional advice!