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I am 25 years old, made $87,000 last year and expect to make $104,000 this year, live in Minneapolis, and work as a Data Analyst / Data Scientist.

Note: I’m not a citizen, but I’ve been living in the US long enough to be considered a resident alien for tax purposes. On my visa, I cannot work any job that’s not directly related to my major in grad school (IT/computer science), but I can invest in the stock market.

Section One: Assets and Debt

Net Worth: from -$13,603.63 (Jan 2020) to $9,605.97 (Jan 2021)
Retirement Balance: $16,000 in my 401(K).
I only started working 2 years ago and my company messed up my registration so they basically didn’t put any money into it my first year there (I found out in horror and they gave me around $1,000 to say sorry…). I contribute 9% and my company matches 3%.
Savings account balance: $2,500
I have $2,500 set aside as my “emergency fund”, and I’m building back my vacation & study abroad budgets after having to tap into them for a move. My job is very stable and I won't be let go any time soon (unless I quit myself) so I’m not setting aside a big emergency fund for now.
Checking account balance: $3,111.01
Investment account: $1,500 in some stocks.
I initially dumped half of my 2019 bonus and some monthly contributions (totaling around $4,000) to this account to test strategies. This was my “study fund” and I didn’t care if I’d lose it all. I grew the account to around $10,000 and withdrew almost everything (that went to all the fees I had to pay to break my lease, my brother’s lease, deposit, moving expenses, and new furniture) and left $1,500 worth of stocks in there right now.
Credit card debt: $2,243.76 on my BestBuy card and PayPal Credit.
I had the money to pay for the items in full but they offered X months interest-free and I wanted to throw money into my debts instead. I always pay off all balances well before the deadline. I also pay all my credit cards in full and have never paid any interest.
Student loan debt: $11,046.09 left on my $20,000 loans at 8% for my BA in Biology and Statistics. Day 1 of arriving in the US, they sat us down, handed each of us a pen, and said hey kids here are the terms of your 8% loans, sign the documents now! I just turned 17, didn't even know I had to pay this money back, and remembered thinking "Is 8% a lot?" That's how clueless I was.
As a non-citizen, I will never have them canceled, so my plan was to tackle this as soon as possible and I started paying more aggressively until they made it 0% interest since Q4 last year.
Car loan: $4,900 left on my $10,000 loan at 8.9%. I didn’t have a long credit history when I bought the car (September 2019) since I only got my first credit card after graduation, so the rate was terrible. I’m planning to pay this all off after my bonus comes in March.

Section Two: Income

Income Progression:
2012 - 2016: I had multiple student on-campus jobs all throughout my undergrad, making from $7.25 to $10/hour. After graduation, I couldn't find any job directly related to my majors within 3 months (I had only been searching for Bio lab work), ran out of money, and had to go back home. Honestly, I didn't want to keep doing science either and was very lost back then.
2017: My first full-time job was being a tutor for a private college prep institution when I went back to my home country to “figure out what I wanted to do with my life.” They paid pretty well for the standards of living there ($1,000/mo). I worked that job while self-studying how to code and data science courses on the side and preparing my grad school applications.
2019: I got a job at my current company a semester before I graduated from my MS in Data Science program. This was my first “big girl job.” I started out at $64,000 and couldn’t work for 2 months due to complications in my visa processes so that ate up all my savings that year. By the end of the year, they bumped my salary up to $76,000 and we also had an annual 3% raise, so in total $78,280 + 5% bonus.
2020: One of my teammates left and one thing led to another, I got a title change from Data Analyst to Data Scientist towards the end of the year. I asked for a raise and they bumped it to $96,000 + 5% bonus.
2021: After our annual 3% raise my salary is now $98,880 (+ at least 5% bonus). I think I’m slightly underpaid, but this job is very low-stress and flexible (especially after we WFH).
Main Job Monthly Take Home: $5,082.58
Taken from my last paychecks (before the annual raise)
Gross salary: $8,000
Tax: $2,081.68
401(k) deduction: $720
Health insurance: $115.74

Section Three: Expenses

Rent & renter’s insurance: $935 for my share for a 2bed/3bath condo. My parents pay a flat $700/mo for my brother’s share. He recently moved here since his school went virtual until at least the end of this semester and our family wanted us to be nearby to take care of each other.
Savings contribution: $900
Investment contribution: $420, but will increase once my car loan is paid off.
Debt payments:
Car insurance: $127.01 ($762.05 paid in full every 6 months)
Car registration: $25 ($300 annual)
Donations: $20 monthly (ASPCA), plus several hundreds throughout the year (last year I donated to BLM orgs and local animal shelters)
Gas: $0. I drive an electric car. Charging probably drives up my electric bill by a bit, but still cheaper than gas. Also, this means no car maintenance at all until my car battery dies, which probably won’t happen in the next 5 years.
Utilities (electric, natural gas): ~$150
Wifi: $40
Cellphone: $10.61 ($108.66 for 6 months and I got a $45 credit from my bank)
Groceries: $500 (for 2 people)
Subscriptions: $20 (HP Ink, shared Netflix account, YNAB, Disney+)
Pet expenses: ~$20 for wet cat food
Personal care/hobby: I collect perfumes. Between makeup, skincare, clothes (which I had planned to stop buying this year) and perfume bottles and samples (the majority of my "personal care" expenses...), I averaged $400/mo last year. Without the makeup, skincare and clothes, I budget $150/mo this year for my fragrance hobby.
Household supplies: $30
Education: $30 (language/technical textbooks, Udemy/Coursera)
Gifts: $30
Credit card fee: $21 ($250 annual)

Section Four: Background

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?
Education is one of the top priorities in our household and this has been instilled in my mind since I was a kid. Perhaps because my grandparents were both professors and my parents both attended grad school, it was expected of us to have at least a bachelor's degree. With that said, my family tried to support our higher education financially as best they could and I'm very thankful for it. During undergrad, I had need-based financial aid and on-campus jobs, and my parents helped with the rest of my tuition. I still had to take (required by the school) a $20,000 loan. My grandmother helped pay for my 2-year master's program.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
During high school, I had a measly weekly allowance and my dad had me write out all the transactions in a notebook. I thought it was very silly back then but now thinking back, it was probably some good practice. Other than that, they didn't talk about money at all, and I was absolutely clueless and wasn't interested in personal finance until a couple of years ago. I don't remember how but I think I woke up one day and decided to read every book about personal finance I could find and now I do talk with my dad about finances.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
My first job was washing dishes as a student worker! We all had to do it our freshman year before we were allowed to find other jobs. I managed to find 3 other jobs (stage crew, sports event worker, and math tutor) and stayed with all of them for 3 years.
Did you worry about money growing up?
Even though our parents never let on to us about their finances, they made sure that we'd grow up comfortable financially, so I didn't worry because I didn't know anything.
Do you worry about money now?
Yes. As I grew up, I came to learn more about my parents' financial situation and realized that they've sacrificed a lot for us. I had the majority of my college tuition supported by the school, but my brother doesn't, and tuition in the US isn't cheap, especially when you convert it to our local currency. I also never know for how long I can stay in the US and keep making the same kind of money I'm making now so I'm trying my best to pay down the student loans ASAP.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
I became fully financially responsible for myself when I started working at my current company. Before that my student worker jobs paid for my personal expenses in college but my parents still chipped in for tuition. I guess my family back home is my safety net but personally, I wouldn't ask them for help even if bad things happen to me in the future.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
Nope.

Diary

Day 1 (Thursday) - $3.35
Day 2 (Friday) - $206.24
Day 3 (Saturday) - $71.27
Day 4 (Sunday) - $0.00
Day 5 (Monday) - $40.10
Day 6 (Tuesday) - $8.02
Day 7 (Wednesday) - $3.49

Summary

​
Category Amount Note
Food & Drink $95.99 Groceries
Fun / Entertainment $7.52 Disney+ subscription
Home & Health $0.00
Clothes & Beauty $206.24 Perfume samples
Other* $22.72 Shipping labels
Total $309.75 shipping labels not included
*I don’t count the shipping labels as expenses because they’re already factored into the profits I made from my sales, but I included them anyway because they're still charges on my accounts. Any profit goes back to funding my album purchases so... I guess it's a vicious cycle.
Overall, a pretty normal week for me in terms of food. I don’t eat out often (I allow myself only one meal and one dessert every month) and have used up my 1 dessert allowance this week so I probably won't have any more this month. I might’ve gone overboard with the perfume purchases this week, but tbh perfumes bring me joy. My mood is lifted and I'm transported to old and new places every time I put on a perfume that I enjoy, so for me, it’s worth it. I try to be frugal whenever I can, but I'll never skimp on education and hobbies that make me happy. Writing this week-long diary, I realize I need to get back to working out, though. I'll probably have to stop procrastinating and pull out my RingFit gears still inside the moving boxes. Playing Just Dance also makes me miss dancing so bad as I used to be active in several dance crews since college (but stopped after I started working full time). I'll try to stick to Just Dance for now to get my cardio until Covid is over and I can get back to in-person dance classes.
submitted by thr0waw4y1210 to MoneyDiariesACTIVE [link] [comments]

I am 42 years old making $72,000 living in Northern California and work as a Consultant

​
Section One: Assets and Debt
I am 42 years old making $72,000 as a Consultant. I live a debt free lifestyle, work part time, and am CFBC. I track with the median household income in my area, but it’s just me an my dog in a one income household. I grew up in a family that valued education but had no money to contribute to it, so I worked my way through college. I graduated with some student loan debt. I don’t have a family financial safety net and have not/will not inherit anything, but also do not need to financially support my family. I took a purposeful step back in my career after growing into a management position and realizing that it was not what I wanted to do. Now I make the bulk of my income doing the work I love. Pre-Covid I traveled quite a bit for fun, both internationally and in a camper van. I have tried working while traveling and neither was rewarding, my job permits me to separate the two and I do not work when I travel. I have struggled with that during Covid, because what is the point of working less if you can’t do anything fun with your free time?
My Covid pod is a married couple, another single women, and a new boyfriend that I started dating this summer. He is kind, creative, a good listener, and brings me coffee in bed. The boyfriend, from here on dubbed the King of Coffee (KoC) has his own place, but for a while was spending weeks at a time at mine. We recently both decided to refocus and be more effective, so he is spending ½ his nights at his own place. We do not combine expenses.
Retirement: 243K - I have 237 K between two employer sponsored 401K’s and another 6K in a Roth IRA. I’m trying to catch up and would like to make the max contribution this year but an struggling with motivation.
Equity: 0 -I’m renting. I lost about 80K in equity in a home during an unfortunate break up a few years ago and am happily renting. It sucked to walk about from 15 years of equity, and have to start from scratch on a down payment fund, but sometimes your freedom is worth it. I was able to cash flow legal fees to emerge debt free.
Savings account balance: 900
Checking account balance: 13,000, I keep my emergency fund in my checking account. I like my money like I like my wine, liquid.
Credit card debt (and how you accumulated it): 0, I use my cards and pay them off very month.
Student loan debt (for what degree): 0, paid off 21K in loans about 10 years ago for a Bachelors Degree
Section Two: Income
Main Job Monthly Take Home: 3,264 (variable)
I've been working in my field for 18 years, my starting salary with a Bachelor’s degree was $23,000 (a pay decrease from my college jobs). I was up to 109K for a few years in my 30’s. But I woke up fat and miserable, so took a step back. I now work part time as an employee for a couple of different companies with a ton of autonomy and the ability to take on the work I love to do. I average the same per hour, but work a lot less hours. California state law prevents most companies from hiring me as a 1099 employee, which is fabulous, because it makes my life really simple. I fill out a timecard with my hours and they deposit money in my bank account. It’s like magic! I primarily work for one company, and they pay for my health insurance premiums, which is a huge benefit vs when I was spreading my time more evenly among multiple jobs and purchasing health insurance out of pocket. I also net between 4-7K a year on a side gig that is 1099 contract wor.
Main Job Monthly Take Home: $2,964, per month My primary job is somewhat seasonal. My take home varies a lot as I am not guaranteed hours, and sometimes choose not to take on projects with work that I don’t love. This is netted wages from my primary job over the yea12. Month to month it can be more or less.
Side Gig Monthly Take Home: $300 per month (averaged). 1099 contractor work. My gross is about 12K a year for this, but there is a ton of overhead and taxes ($3,600 per year in broker fees, $3,400 business fees, office space, mileage for this job, and other business expenses). I allow this side business to pay for my phone, office space, etc.
Section Three: Expenses
Rent: $1,050, I’m silly lucky to have rented a dated 1 bed/ 1 bath flat in a great area before prices skyrocketed. My landlord that has not kept up with market rate. After being a home owner, I love not having to mow the lawn, worry about the gutters, or fix anything. Market for this unit would be around $1,850. Current California rent controls ensure my rent will not raise more than 6% this year.
Renters / home insurance: $12
Savings contribution: 0, nothing budgeted, my income is variable so my account ebbs and flows. I sweep any extra money over 15K from my checking into my savings, and start to panic if my balance gets below 12K. I have been a scattered spender and lacked focus for the last year.
Debt payments: $0
Donations.$50 a month, Average between the local food bank, individual fundraisers for homeless outreach, go fund me, and local non-profits.
Electric: $55 (average)
Natural Gas: $50 (average)
Cellphone: $30* (this is my portion of an unlimited data, talk, text on a family plan with a friend, I write this off against my 1099 income)
Gym membership: $89, this is a small family owned gym that I love. I kept my membership active during the Covid shutdown which was objectively a waste of money, and just started going back to their classes (done outdoors in compliance with local regulations)
Pet expenses: $140, this is the average for food, flea and heartworm meds, and one scheduled vet visit a year, and one unscheduled. In the past it has been less, but the last couple of years vet costs have gone up for my aging pup, and will likely continue to rise.
Car payment: $0, I saved to buy a new (used) car in cash for 15K early last year. It is a great car, and should last me 5-8 years without looking like a beater.
Car insurance:$130, this is for a camper van, a car, and a motorcycle. I pre-pay for the 6-month policy.
Gasoline: $200 (I get some of this back but will get to that).
Groceries: $300, I’m not great about sticking to this
Wine Club: $30, I cancelled a wine club because we can’t go wine tasting due to COVID, and then immediately signed up for another one, so there is that.
Coffee: $30, yes, this is just for coffee at home. I purchase beans from a local farmer owned co-op because it’s important to me.
Eating Out: $120, this is really variable, I used to spend more, and our COVID lockdown just loosened a bit so I have been meeting with my pod for outdoor dining/happy hour more often.
Toiletries and home goods: $30
Clothes: $75
Other Business expenses: $312. If I’m counting that gig income I should probably count the expenses. Professional licensing fees for my primary job: $38 ($450 once a year), Professional registrations for side job: $75* ($900 once a year, write off against 1099 income). Office space rental: $199* (this one kills me but I’m locked into a year-long contract on this, it includes copies/printing/wifi/coffee etc and is a great workspace, but has been unusable most of the year due to COVID, write off against 1099 income)
So that’s what I "plan" to spend money on, lets see how I do.
Wednesday: Daily Total $81.11
The KoC stayed over, so that means I get coffee in bed (see above budgeted expensive coffee). I had to run off to work, so he also walked the dog. We started to date about 6 months ago and he is a gem and really starting to grow on me.
Grabbed gas at Costco on my way to work $50.90. My car takes premium, it’s $3.22 a gallon, and I get about 20 miles to the gallon. About ½ of the miles I drive on this tank will be reimbursed at 56 cents a mile by my primary employer, so I will get reimbursed about $89 on this tank. The mileage rate is also suppose to account for wear and tear, which is much harder to calculate. My tires are almost brand new, but when I had to replace one it was $260! This car is much more expensive to drive them my previous vehicles.
At lunch I ran to a sporting goods store to look for snow pants to go to the snow this weekend. Dang they are expensive, maybe I can do without, or find some at a thrift store? I popped into the grocery store for food for lunch and walked out with a giant bag of pumpkin seeds, 3 avocados, a couple jars of Paleo BBQ Sauce, some pecans, beef jerky, and a couple protein bars ($30.21).
I get home and the dog has successfully extracted all of the trash from both the bathroom and kitchen trash can. I proceed to vacuum up shreds of paper and am reminded that the nozzle on my vacuum is broken (functional, but you have to hold it together).
​
Thursday: Daily Total $57.19
The weather is awful and I decide not to go into work, and instead worked on technical reports from home. I hate reports and only ended up billing about 3 hours. But I don’t have to worry about snow pants anymore because at the end of the day I get offered another 8 hours of the work I love so do, so now I get to work the weekend. I found a broken vacuum on FB marketplace for $30 and go pick it up. Apparently, all purple Dysons are not the same model. The parts are not interchangeable. I need to pay better attention. Now I have two broken vacuums. Doh!!
A friend called to see if I wanted to grab dinner. We choose a spot with a cozy patio. The City has temporary suspended metered parking fees due to COVID. I bring a blanket. I got an entrée and a glass of wine, my total with tip and tax is $27.19.
​
Friday: Daily Total $174.58.
Coffee delivered to my bed again! Went back to the gym from the second time this year. It just reopened under revised COVID restrictions this week. Classes are outside and masks are required, but it still feels strange. I justify it because I just haven’t been doing the weight training I should on my own, and the cold weather has really stalled my outdoor cardio workouts. Packed a lunch and just worked through lunch. Had to apply to renew one of my professional permits ($136.90)
Stopped at the grocery store on my way home onions, cucumbers, a shitload of broccoli, two heads of cauliflower (one organic and one not, why are these the same price? Is there a size difference? Better get them both and figure it out later), two lbs of grass fed ground beef that are on-sale and a rack of ribs ($37.68)
Had roasted broccoli and tea for dinner, and worked on a report for a non-profit board I’m on. Went on an audio book checkout/download spree using my public library app and started listening to the “Happiness Project.”
​
Saturday: Daily Total $10.37
Off to work because of the earlier lack of productivity. Had to stop by CVS and purchase some supplies for the office $10.37 (my employer will reimburse me for this). Packed some leftover chili con carne and a jar of snackies (see aforementioned groceries, pumpkin seeds, pecans, and beef jerky). Zoomed into a 7-hour annual meeting for the non-profit board while working.
Done by 4 pm. I’m sore from the workout yesterday. Everything hurts. I get home and am started to soak in a lavender epsom salt bath while listening to my audiobook when I get a call from a friend. She had a rough day and is wondering if I have time for dinner. I abandon my lovely bath and rally.
We split a bottle of wine, I have a cookie but decline to share her pizza since I’m “trying” to eat better. My friend insists on paying. I let her, but I feel bad. I am hyper sensitive to carrying my own weight since I am choose to make less and be relatively stress free while they work long hours. I don’t want to let that get in the way of my friendships. I never say I don’t have the money to do something fun.
​
Sunday: Daily Total $60.50
I run back into work to finish some things, but am supposed to be done early for a lunch date with the KoC. I call on my way home to make sure he will be ready to go by because I’m starving and we are planning on walking. He is sort of ready to go, and we walk the dog about a mile to my favorite café, which also just opened for outside dining. It is a beautiful day, my food takes forever. I get a giant noodle salad and drink water, it’s $14.35, but the KoC pays. This is the second meal he has purchased for me in 6 months, the first being our first date. He is always up for a long walk around the neighborhood, which I love. He is not well employed, and we don’t eat out much. He eats a lot of my groceries, and when he is with me at the grocery store will sometimes Venmo me $20. I have found myself purchasing more things he likes recently.
On our walk back, I get a text that some friends are at a local brewery. We redirect our walk. The KoC takes one look at the crowd (outside and at separate tables, but it’s still more people than we have seen in months) and asks if I mind if he just heads back to my place. No worries. The puppers and I flag down my friend, we decide we are also not comfortable with the crowd and head to a nearby Café. I repeat the bottle of wine ($18) and cookie ($3.75) from the day before, my portion of the bill is $15.50 with tax and tip. She insists on sending the rest of the bottle of wine home with me.
For dinner the KoC and I have a game night date in a friend’s yard. She has a lovely yard with twinkly lights and provides heated blankets and heat pads for each of us. We distance and wear masks when not eating/drinking. We finish the rest of the bottle of wine I brought from the Café, a bottle of port from my wine club (accounted for in wine club budget, $25), and order sushi for delivery (I Venmo her for my portion, $20). No games are actually played, but it’s nice to catch up.
​
Monday: Daily Total 0.
I sleep through the 6 am gym class. Chat with a friend about nailing down reservations and hiking permits for some national parks this summer and apply for the lottery. I have a few client calls in the morning. I have poor work hygiene and work from by bed most of the morning. The dog doesn’t get out of bed until noon, At least I beat her. Had breakfast for lunch, farm fresh eggs from a friend and a few slices of bacon. Got myself together enough for a zoom meeting in the afternoon, and ducked off-line early to hit the 5pm class at the gym. I roast a boat load of broccoli for dinner and have more nuts/seeds/ sugar free chocolate as snacks. KoC stops by late after he is done with work and eats the rest of the broccoli. He stays over. I’m getting coffee in bed tomorrow.
​
Tuesday: Daily Total 0.
Just as I suspected, coffee in bed. We wake up early and spend some time chatting in bed since I’ve been a little unavailable the last few days. He goes for a run, showers, and brings me tea while I work on a report before taking off to start his day. We are both trying to be more effective with our time and part of that is hard deadlines ending our time together. I bill 8 hours, make myself lunch, and never leave the house.
For dinner I ate the equivalent to a whole head of roasted cauliflower and slow roasted the ribs from the earlier shopping trip. If you are wondering, there is no flavor difference between the organic and non-organic, the non-organic head is a bit larger. I rice the cauliflower stems in the blender and toss the cauliflower rice in fridge to sauté with some ground beef for another meal later. I knit while listening to my audiobook. I have a lifetime supply of yarn so it’s a no spend hobby.
​
Wednesday: Daily Total 0.
I signed up for the 7am class since I slept through 6 am on Monday. Everything hurts from Monday’s workout. The KoC hand ground my coffee, set out the pour over, and filled the kettle before he left last night, so I just need to hit the power on the kettle and pour over.
Weekly Total: $383.75
Food + Drink: $155.58
Fun / Entertainment:0
Home + Health:$30
Clothes + Beauty: 0
Transport: $50.90
Other: Work expenses, $147.27
Reflections:
I’m trying to spend less on crap. I have way to many clothes, but always seem to be able to justify small clothes and food spending. I did a good job on these things this week. The reopening of restaurants, combined with the nice weekend weather led to more eating out then I’ve done in months. Pre-Covid, a large portion of my spending was social eating, happy hours, drinks with friends, dinners out, and I have used that for justification for buying more food for home in recent month.
My income and expenses are messy and difficult to categorize. Some work expenses I pay out of pocket, and some transportation expenses are recovered as a reimbursable. My savings account says I’m treading water, and not making progress towards additional saving for a house. That’s not horrible given the current Covid situation, but it’s also not great, since there is less social spending opportunities so I should be making progress.
My life is easy and stress free with time to do the things I love when I had the motivation. I worry if I am making/saving enough to maintain it in the long run? I struggle with the worry that I am not working hard enough or saving enough to secure my retirement. I'm saving 18K a year towards retirement (401K and Roth). Housing costs continue to skyrocket and I am also fearful that I am not keeping up income/asset wise with the COL in my area or my peers. Oh, and I miss traveling.
​
Edit: formatting
submitted by More-Bee-4851 to MoneyDiariesACTIVE [link] [comments]

[Emulation] Desmume And Its Disdainful Developers

Context
This post was inspired by this one. It goes into more detail about what emulators are, but the gist of it is that emulators are essentially applications that let you run games on devices other than their native consoles. The one that I’ll be discussing today is DesMuMe, one of the most popular emulators for running Nintendo DS games on computers. I didn’t see this drama unfold firsthand, so I’ll be drawing from the DesMuMe forums and old Reddit threads as my sources.
Transfer of Power
Desmume was originally created by a user called Yopyop156, who eventually decided to stop working on it due to changes in the laws surrounding emulation where they lived. However, Yopyop did release the source code, which allowed others to pick up where they left off. (Source)
It was from here that another user by the name of zeromus picked up the reins. This was fine, at least initially. While they have done good work since, they've taken a rather condescending attitude on various occasions. The most obvious examples of this are their comments on the forums and the FAQ. (Note: Some of the other developers seem to have shared zeromus’ opinions, at least to some extent.)
Samples of Disdain
Here are a couple examples from the forums:
http://forums.desmume.org/viewtopic.php?id=11613
apccristobal: I don’t know how to post the .dsv file? How do you post it?
zeromus: you should have received training on that when you got your internet operator's license. It's not my job to provide remedial instruction. Try send.firefox.com
​
http://forums.desmume.org/viewtopic.php?id=11614
RhiannonofOld: So I am currently playing through Pokémon White Version and I am wondering how do I cheat. I looked up a few websites and such and they gave me codes. I then input said codes into where it said cheats using action replay. But, it just doesn't work so I am wondering how to do it.
zeromus: cheating requires brains to understand the effect of the cheats and how to operate them as well to make sure youre actually using cheats for the correct rom and not interfering by misusing savestates which predate the activation of the cheats. This is not the best place to ask about this. Find a pokemon gamer's forum.
Most of zeromus’ responses appear to be legitimate attempts at advice, but they also make a fair amount of abrasive comments like the ones above. The FAQ is pretty similar in that it also provides legitimate advice, yet it also has significant portions with patronizing tones baked in. Here’s a couple parts that I find interesting:
Q: My computer overheats and freezes or reboots while using DeSmuME!
A: This is not DeSmuME's fault. Check for dusty fans, malfunctioning power control software, and update your video drivers. If you are running DeSmuME on a laptop, then a laptop cooler might help.
​
Q: DeSmuME runs too slow!
A: DeSmuME is a very CPU demanding app. While many users will see DeSmuME as a toy (and use it as such), it is actually a very sophisticated piece of software with lots of features. Also, DeSmuME focuses more on compatibility and features than on speed. Our philosophy is this: You can always mow some extra lawns or babysit some more rugrats to buy upgrades for your computer; but there's nothing you can do to fix compatibility or gain new features. We take care of our side of things, so you should take care of yours.
One thing I'd like to note is that the second example mentions that DeSmuMe is focused more on compatibility, or, in other words, accuracy. u/Auctoritate explains why this distinction is important, so I'll just yoink their explanation: "This quote leads to a funny quirk of emulating DS- desmume aims for accuracy over efficiency, meaning that they try to make it run as similarly to the original hardware as possible. This makes it a lot more resource intensive to run, as opposed to the other design philosophy in emulation, which is simply running software efficiently regardless of how accurate to the original hardware it is." Of course, it's within the devs' prerogative to choose what direction they want to take their project in, but they actually ended up contradicting themselves, as you'll see in a bit.
(Some inaccurate information was also removed thanks to some input from u/missabuse)
A Massive, Raging, Hate-Boner for Pokemon
The title for this section says it all. The devs hold a deep, personal hatred for Pokemon. This should be clear from the section at the very start of the FAQ that’s dedicated towards Pokemon.
Q: Why can't I play Pokemon Diamond / Pearl / HeartGold / SoulSilver / Black / White ? Why aren't they supported?
A: We are not going to support these games. Don't waste time asking, it will only make us angry. If you can't make it work, then give up and go buy the cart. gbatemp.net and ds-scene.net may be more interested in this topic. If you create new threads in our forum about these games, don't be surprised if they get closed or deleted depending on how obnoxious they are.
​
Q: I got to the end of Pokemon and now I can't reset and load my save file!
A: Too bad. Next time if you're going to play a game that requires that you make in-game saves consider making sure it works before you invest that much time in it.
It seems like this hatred for Pokemon came about because there were many people who were bugging the developers about it and being quite irritating in the process. It’s understandable, considering the sheer amount of Pokemon fans out there. (source)
And Now We Have a Motive
It was this hatred for Pokemon that led to a lot of the dev team/zeromus’ later actions. For example, they refused to fix specific glitches just because they happened to appear in Pokemon games (to be clear, these glitches also affected games outside of the Pokemon franchise). They also refused to work on wireless connectivity emulation, both for local multiplyer, and for the WFC, which allowed for online multiplayer. The initial excuse was that Nintendo could sue them for it, which is reasonable. Nintendo doesn’t take very kindly to emulators, and the company certainly wouldn’t like it very much if said emulators were able to connect to the official WFC servers (brief reminder that the post that inspired this one is literally about how Nintendo sued a website that hosted original game codes, which emulators need if you actually want to play old Nintendo games). Of course, Nintendo’s WFC servers were shut down in 2014, so it’s kind of a moot point now. Also, it seems like the actual cause was the aforementioned hatred for Pokemon.
On another note, realize how in their FAQ, the devs claim that they aim for accuracy and full features. The whole not fixing things because of Pokemon contradicts that.
All of this, while incredibly petty, was within their rights. This is something that the devs were doing in their free time; they weren’t getting paid for this. It’s not like they were obligated to do anything, as nasty as their attitude could be.
However, zeromus actually went behind people’s backs and removed their work on wifi emulation, specifically the work of a user who went by Luigi in the past and now goes by Arisotura.
Another thing that should be noted is that zeromus also insisted on having only the original resolution. They only relented on adding HD resolution after people started forgoing the main project in favor of the X432R fork.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4
Outcome
Although all the stuff listed above did spawn some discourse, there was never any direct backlash. DesMuMe remains one of the most popular DS emulators for the PC out there, although it still lacks any wifi emulation. On the development end, it’s pretty stagnant. While there’s still some activity on Github, the last stable update was in 2015, and it seems like the only remaining active developer is zeromus. Some of the developers left because they got busier or lost interest, but there are definitely those like Arisotura who left because of the behavior of zeromus. There are also those who expressed interest in working on DesMuMe but never joined the development team because of the overall atmosphere.
As for Arisotura, they seem to be doing fine. They started up their own DS emulator called melonDS. It practically has all the core functionality, and the development team is currently working on emulating the DSi and getting the wifi features to work properly.
All in all, DesMuMe seems to be going out with a whimper, rather than a bang.
submitted by Grimseye to HobbyDrama [link] [comments]

I am 25 years old make $75,000, live in Northern Virginia and work as a Senior Advisory Specialist

I live with my boyfriend, W., but we do not combine finances. Additionally, I would like to put a content warning here at the top: I discuss tracking food and weight loss throughout this money diary.
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance - $19,195 in two 401ks (current and former company) and $18,478 in a Roth IRA (my grandparents set this up and matched the money I made working in high school/college - I'm very grateful that they set this up for me!)
Equity - no equity currently, I rent and do not own a car
Checking account balance - currently ~$5,000 (I try to keep it around this amount)
Credit card debt - $0 (I pay it off every month)
Student loan debt - $9,500 remaining to pay off the loans for my BA in political science (here's hoping I finish it off this year!)
Stocks - $1,190 in stocks from my former company. I also have some miscellaneous other stocks that I was gifted when I was younger and I'm unclear on the value of them (my dad manages them for me)
Savings - $1,500 (it took a big hit while I was unemployed this past summer)
Section Two: Income
Income Progression:
High school (2012-2013) - I worked at a local office supply store making $7.50/hour. I did this for fun spending money a few days a week after school.
College (2014-2017) - I worked two on-campus jobs. The first was as a front desk person at the fitness center beginning at the end of my freshman year; I typically did ten hours a week at this job. The second was as an assistant in our career center, and I did this for the entirety of my senior year; I typically did five hours a week at this job. Both paid $8.50/hour.
Internship (2015-2017) - I studied abroad off-cycle from July to December in Australia, and was offered an internship doing recruitment and operations work at my mom's company after randomly meeting the COO in an elevator and impressing him in a brief conversation. What originally was going to be a five week internship went on to be part-time remote when I was at school, and full-time when I was home for the summer and on breaks. It paid $12/hour and introduced me to human resources and strategy & operations.
Company #1, Job #1 (2017-2018) - After graduating college, I moved to begin working in Washington DC as an associate at a healthcare firm making $40,000/year. I really enjoyed this work and my team, even though there were some times I had to work long hours. I was promoted to a senior associate role after my first six months, which came with a 10% raise.
Company #1, Job #2 (2018-2020) - I decided that, while I liked my role within the company, I wanted to gain client-facing experience. I applied for and moved into a analyst role in a different department at $52,000/year. I was excited about this role because I got to travel and train clients onsite one to three times a month and build up a lot of important business skills. About halfway through 2019, I was told that they wanted to pay me more because they felt my effort outpaced my seniority and was out of the blue bumped up to making $70,000/year. During this role, I was also eligible for up to a 10% bonus based on how my team did.
Unemployment (2020) - Due to COVID-19, my company took a big hit being in the healthcare space. The vast majority of my team was made redundant in June 2020. While a super stressful time, I did get some severance and used it as an opportunity to assess what I really wanted in my next role; I knew I liked being client-facing, but realized I wanted to get back to human resources in some way.
Company #2 (2020-present) - I took my current role as a senior advisory specialist in the fall. I was able to negotiate a $75,000/year salary and a 5% bonus. The work I do is very energizing and rewarding, and I'm hopeful I can stay here for a while and move up the ladder because I like what I do a lot!
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
I make $4380.90 each month after deductions. I get paid twice a month.
Deductions (per paycheck)
· Medical insurance: $29.50
· Dental insurance: $7.50
· Eye insurance: $2.75
· 401k contribution: $156.25 (I plan on increasing this after my student loans are paid off) + 4% company match
Side Gig Monthly Take Home:
I run a book blog on the side, and while I currently don't make any money off of it, publishers often send me advanced reader copies of books! I save a lot of money that way, because I am buying books constantly.
Section Three: Expenses
· Rent: $975 for my portion of the one bedroom apartment that I share with W. I pay slightly more than half because I make more money than he does. All utilities are included.
· Student loans: $500 is the minimum I pay per month because I want them paid off as soon as possible (the minimum monthly payment is about half that). I usually throw extra money towards them when I have a low spend month.
· WiFi and cable: $140.06, which is absolutely ridiculous and I keep saying I'm going to call Comcast and negotiate this down but get lazy and don't. Yell at me in the comments to do this!
· Netflix: $14.88 (I also let my best friend use this)
· Spotify: $9.99
· Hulu with live sports, HBO, Starz, and Showtime add-ons: W. pays
· Amazon Prime: W. pays
· Nail salon subscription: $40 (this is cheaper than the cost of a gel manicure and includes a free gel mani every month plus extra bonuses, which makes this very worth it despite sounding extravagant!)
· Care/of vitamin subscription: $70
· Boxing membership: $179 for unlimited classes
· WW: $15.11 (I'm on a six month deal currently)
· Fitbit Premium: $9.99
· iPhone payment plan: $31.20 (this will end in November for my iPhone 11. I am still on my parents' unlimited data phone plan and have been told I never have to leave, which is a total blessing!)
· Google storage: $2.12
· iCloud storage: $2.99
Additionally, I have an annual payment of approximately $2,750 for my life insurance policy; I have a blend of whole and term life. I am currently not making these payments, as my grandparents created a fund to pay the first several years of premiums as they felt it was important for me to get life insurance at a young age so it could start gaining cash value. I am incredibly grateful for this!
Day One - Tuesday 1/19
7am: My alarm goes off and I am still tired. W. and I cuddle for ten minutes or so before he gets up to make us coffee. We drink our coffee in bed while watching a few YouTube videos from our favorite content creators; the two of us are very into a video game that we play together and consume a lot of content around it.
8:30am: Time to get back into work! We both work from home right now, so we move into the living room together. My inbox is surprisingly empty after a long weekend, so I dive back in to a client request that I didn't finish before closing my laptop on Friday.
9:00am: I have a few morning meetings, so I take a few minutes to get ready. I throw in my contacts and brush my teeth, then get dressed from the waist up in a comfy gray Fortune Ivy sweater and hoop earrings. I make another cup of coffee to keep my energy up.
9:25am: I move into the bedroom to take my meetings. I have a bed tray for my laptop, which makes it feel more desk-like on my bed. I first have a meeting with another member of my team to discuss how we're dividing up a project that we're working on together, followed by two town hall meetings. At some point during my meetings, W. texts me that he ordered an energy drink powder that we've been meaning to try and Venmo requests me for my half ($23). I munch on the last four donut holes we have left over from the weekend for a snack during my meetings and make sure to log what I eat in my WW app.
1:00pm: Out of meetings and in need of a break. W. comes into the bedroom and asks me if I want to go out on a quick walk, which I happily agree to. I throw on Girlfriend Collective leggings, my lucky Rangers sweatshirt, ballet flats, and a freshly washed mask and we head out. After a good 20 minute walk, W. offers to pay for McDonald's for lunch, which is great but definitely not WW friendly. I get a 10 piece nuggets and large fries, and W. gets himself a few burgers. He pays and we take it home to eat on the couch and chat for a few minutes before I have to get on more work calls.
2:00pm: Time for more meetings and project work! I return to the bedroom and call into meetings for an hour, including a weekly meeting I facilitate, and then put my 800th rewatch of Grey's Anatomy on the TV in background while I work.
5:30pm: I log off of my laptop right on time for a Facetime date with my DC best friend, A. We met at my first job and have been close since the minute we met. She just moved into a new apartment and got a new job, so she gives me a tour of the new place and we catch up for about half an hour. After we hang up, I say hi to W. for a few minutes and then go hop in the shower. I do my usual skincare routine (a bevy of Ole Henriksen products, I swear by them) before throwing on comfy clothes and joining W. in the living room.
7:00pm: I throw the Rangers-Devils game on my iPad (I'm a diehard New York sports fan except for basketball) and text my hometown best friend, B., about absolutely nothing while W. plays a video game for a while. I'm not super hungry, so W. heats up leftover tuna casserole for dinner while I just cut up an orange. At some point we mute the hockey game to watch a few episodes of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, our first forray into the Housewives franchise which we've quickly become addicted to. We brush our teeth and make it to bed around 10:30pm.
Total: $23
Day Two - Wednesday, 1/20
7:00am: Usual morning routine: wake up, cuddle, coffee, and videos. I get out of bed to make the coffee this morning.
8:15am: I join W. for a quick morning shower before work starts for the day. I also do my weekly weigh in and I'm down almost another pound! The progress is slow, but that is also the healthy way to lose weight. I mark it down and log my coffee.
9:00am: I text with my mom about today's inauguration while I work. She wants to know if I can hear anything from my place, but besides the occasional sirens, there is no big fanfare yet. I set a reminder on my phone to turn on the news in a bit to listen.
10:45am: I finish up a difficult client request and send it off to their account team. W. gets me a lemon Pellegrino from the fridge for me to enjoy during my 11:00 meeting.
12:30pm: Out of my meetings and we have a new president!!! W. gives me a recap of Biden's speech and I find myself getting emotional after watching the video of Kamala getting sworn in. After wiping away the tears, I throw some chicken, buffalo sauce, and seasonings into our pressure cooker so we can have easy lunches: chicken sandwich and salad for W., chicken quesadilla for me so I can easily measure out how much of each food item I'm using. I log my food and we eat together during a quick fifteen minute break.
2:00pm: After changing out my water bottles (I like to drink out of reusable water bottles over drinking glasses, not really sure why) I remember why I don't like to use this one. I log on to the Hydroflask website and order a 21oz bottle with the sports cap lid ($28.58). I pick a color that's on sale because it's cheaper, find a coupon code for free shipping, and go through Rakuten so I can get 2% cash back. I also figure now is as good a time as any to get dressed since I have to be on camera for my afternoon meetings, so I throw on a camel and black polka dot Papermoon blouse and black Beyond Yoga leggings.
3:45pm: Weekly check in with my manager while I snack on a sliced cucumber. He and I discuss my 2020 review, which he literally had to do for me when I was less than a month in the role, and what my goals for 2021 are. I am setting my intentions on Friday, and I am very excited to think through what I want to accomplish this year. We discuss a few other projects and end a little earlier than expected. A friend of mine is streaming on Twitch, so I put his stream up on the TV while I work on a data project and gift a sub to a fellow viewer ($5.99). I see that someone has put a 4:30-5pm meeting on my calendar for tomorrow, so I have to cancel out of my 4:45 boxing class. Sigh.
5:45pm: I wrap up my work and head out to chat with W. for a bit. We decide to play our favorite video game for a while, so we log in and start playing in duos. We get a win in our very first game! After a while, our good friend N. joins us, so we switch to trios. At some point during what becomes a marathon gaming session, W. makes himself a frozen pizza and I drink the last two Stella Cidres we have in the fridge. Brush our teeth and head to bed around 11pm.
Total: $34.57
Day Three - Thursday 1/21
3:57am: I wake up for absolutely no reason. I hate when this happens. It takes me over an hour to fall back asleep.
7:00am: Usual morning routine, cut a little short for me to get ready for an 8:30 meeting.
10:00am: In desperate need of a break from my work, I log onto Etsy to pick out some cute candles for A. as a little housewarming gift. I have to text her for her new address, which kind of ruins the surprise, but I know how much she loves candles so I do it anyway ($32.86).
1:00pm: I get off of a client call that I shadowed with a member of my team. I have just decided on my focus area, hence why I am trying to get more exposure to the client work here. My teammate and I debrief and agree that I'll continue to shadow the calls that she does with this client so I can see the whole process through.
3:00pm: Out of another team meeting and exhausted from work. My 4:30 meeting cancels, and I'm bummed for a few minutes because I cancelled my boxing class to be in that meeting. But my mood turns around almost instantly - I got off the waitlist for the 6pm class! I text W. so he knows, and he asks if I can make him dinner before I go because he doesn't want to wait until I get back to eat. Fair enough. I agree and get back to work on my data project.
3:30pm: I get an email with the return label for my Fitbit. I've had it for a year and it randomly started giving me a rash on my wrist, so Fitbit is reimbursing me the total amount I paid for it. Customer service at its finest! I send the label to my Fedex store for pickup tomorrow, since I don't have a printer ($0.52).
5:30pm: I wrap up my work for the day and throw on Old Navy active leggings and a tank, tie back my hair, mask up, and head out the door to the boxing studio. It's endurance day and we do eight minute blocks instead of six, so I am dying by the time class is done. After class, I go to Target to pick up a few miscellaneous items we need: half & half, white vinegar, and chocolate peppermint stick Luna bars ($10.64). I mobile order and stop by Chipotle on the way home to grab a dinner of crispy chicken tacos and chips and guac ($16.23).
7:30pm: I stop by the concierge desk on my way back into the building to grab packages I have waiting and to catch up with my favorite concierge. She is a delight to talk to, but busy tonight, so I don't stay too long. Once home, I devour my tacos in about four minutes and then shower before putting on the Laker-Bucks on the iPad while W. plays video games. We migrate to the bedroom after halftime to finish it and are both exhausted that we fall asleep immediately after.
Total: $60.25
Day Four - Friday 1/22
7am: Usual morning routine. After watching two videos, W. announces that he isn't feeling well and is taking a day of PTO. I get him tucked comfy into bed with a movie and start my work day early. I put Grey's Anatomy on the TV while I work.
11am: I am hungry after powering through work all morning, so I place an order for a cheese pizza from Wiseguys ($21.99). A nice quick walk will feel good.
11:30am: I mask up and head out to pick up the pizza, stopping by CVS on the way to get a Red Bull for W., a Diet Coke for myself, and a bottle of Benadryl because I ran out ($27.27). I eat a slice of pizza while watching a bit of a Twitch stream before getting back to work. I also spend some time texting with B., as well as my older sister, C.
1:30pm: Back to back calls. When they're over, I check in on W., who unfortunately only feels worse. He decides to try and nap, and also informs me that he wanted to watch a Marvel movie so he added Disney+ to our Hulu subscription. He pays for that, but I'm happy we'll finally be able to watch those shows we've been missing out on!
4:30pm: Done with my projects and decide to call it a little early today. I appreciate that my manager doesn't particularly care if we stop early when all of our work is done, and I need to go to the Fedex store. I listen to one of my curated Spotify playlists (a lot of Halsey, Taylor Swift, Joan, and Flor are on this one) while I walk there to pick up the label I had printed. As I walk out of the store, several of my music friends start texting me - Halsey cancelled her summer tour. I am bummed because I was supposed to travel and go to several shows with friends. I make a mental note to start cancelling hotel reservations and request my Ticketmaster refunds tomorrow.
5:30pm: Manicure time! I've started doing gel manicures every other week because I have a horrible nail biting habit and this is the only way I can stop myself. I catch up with my favorite nail tech and the salon owners over a glass of sparkling rose. Today we do a nude-pink polish with black and white polka dots. When that's done, I also poke around at the beautiful jewelry they sell and pick out a pair or multicolored acrylic bow earrings. My subscription covers the manicure, so I only have to pay my tip (25% of the service cost) and for the earrings ($24.87). I text W. to let him know I'm on my way home and he asks if I can pick up NyQuil for him. I pop into CVS on the way home to get it ($16.94).
7:30pm: W. and I have a quiet evening, bouncing between a few TV shows and basketball games. We call it an early night and go to bed before 10. Wild Friday!
Total: $91.07
Day Five - Saturday, 1/23
8:30am: I wake up feeling pretty well rested. W. is still sleeping, so I get out of bed quietly and head out to the living room. I answer a few work emails that came in last evening, including a stretch project to present some webinars later in the year! I used to facilitate webinars in an old role of mine, so I'm looking forward to flexing that muscle again. I also submit my Ticketmaster refund requests, cancel some hotel reservations, and peruse my favorite auction website. I spy my dream Louis Vuitton bag (Speedy 40 in canvas and leather) at what could be a steal. I do some mental math at what would be the max I would splurge on it and set a max bid. I'm currently winning and text B. with excitement.
9:45am: W. texts me that he's awake but still not feeling well. I crawl back into bed for some snuggles and ask him what he needs. He wants bagels, so I agree to go out to pick them up if he pays for them. He orders a BEC on an everything bagel for himself and a multigrain bagel with butter for me. I throw on black Girlfriend Collective leggings, a Halsey tee, and my Adidas superstars, grab my mask and jacket, and head out the door. It's a little chilly, but it feels good. It's a quick turnaround to get back with the bagels. W. and I eat them in bed while watching some Real Housewives.
12:00pm: We're still in bed. Oops. We transition into watching Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and W. orders us some Popeye's to eat throughout the day: 12 piece spicy chicken, biscuits, fries, mashed potatoes, and a large Diet Coke to split. We will heat up leftover Popeye's for lunch someday this week. I embrace the fact that this is not going to be a good WW week for me, and remind myself it's okay to be human and have some indulgent weekends. Progress, not perfection!
5:00pm: W. dials into his weekly virtual D&D session and I decide to solo queue my video game for the evening. I debate having some wine, but decide the fast food was probably enough for my stomach and that I don't need to add alcohol into the mix. W.'s session wraps up around 9:30, so we chat while I clean the apartment a bit before taking a quick shower. I towel dry my hair, toss on some weekly skincare (eye cream and a fancy serum that I'm not really sure what it does, it just makes my skin glowy) before settling into bed.
Total: $0
Day Six - Sunday 1/24
3:00am: I wake up congested as can be. I get two Benadryl and a Zicam from the bathroom, lay back down, and pray for sleep to come.
9:10am: Well, I guess sleep came. I missed the start of the booking window for upcoming boxing classes, but luckily there are still openings in all the classes I wanted. I'm trying to up my workouts, so I decide to try the Wednesday morning class as well. Maybe I'll like being a morning workout person?
11:00am: W. and I both decide to call our respective moms. My mom and I try to talk at least once a week on the phone (we also text every day, I just haven't mentioned it, whoops) and we catch up on random bits of each other's lives for about 45 minutes or so. I tell her about Halsey cancelling tour and we're a bit worried, as we're supposed to see Maroon 5 together later in the year after it got rescheduled from 2020. Hopefully by the fall we'll have herd immunity, though I'm not super positive that concerts will happen. I miss concerts :(
12:00pm: I do a bit of apartment maintenance: taking out the trash, breaking down boxes and taking them to recycling, wiping down the countertops, etc. W. comes out to the living room when his phone call ends and we try to decide what we want to do. W. is still not feeling great, which is worrying, but he has no COVID symptoms. He gets a quick telehealth appointment and is assured that he most likely has the cold/head flu thing that is going around and should stay home to not burden the healthcare system. The doctor assures him that me coming/going from the apartment shouldn't transmit whatever W. has and that while he should stay home until he is feeling better, as long as I'm sanitizing and showering often, I can leave. I'm guessing a lot of people are asking that question since the doctor told him that unprompted, and I'm relieved to know that I won't be unknowingly getting someone else sick.
1:00pm: W. and I decide to order Vocelli's for a late lunch/early dinner: bacon and cheddar pizza rolls and a build-your-own stromboli with bacon, spinach, and extra cheese. I have a GrubHub gift card from Christmas so we don't have to pay out of pocket for this meal. We play some video games together until the food gets here, then pause to eat and watch an episode of Shark Tank. When we finish eating, we go back to gaming because there isn't much else to do while W. is sick.
7:00pm: I move into the bedroom so we can watch the Rangers-Penguins game on my iPad while he plays a different video game and I scroll on my phone. My dad randomly calls me, and I'm worried something happened to my grandpa (he's my last living grandparent and lives alone). Luckily, Grandpa is fine and my dad was just jealous that I talked to my mom this morning while he was out running errands. He's adorable. We catch up for about ten minutes before he has to go. When 8:00 rolls around, we switch over to the Wizards-Spurs game since they're finally playing again and mute the hockey game. Both teams lose and I'm a sad sports fan. We brush our teeth and throw on some Futurama to fall asleep to.
Total: $0
Day Seven - Monday, 1/25
7:00am: Usual weekday wakeup routine. When it's time to get to work, W. decides he'll work from the bedroom so he can continue to rest. We order Starbucks (peppermint mochas for both of us, turkey and pesto panini for him, sprouted grain vegan bagel for me) on UberEats and split the cost because we wouldn't normally have it delivered ($14.87). I listen to calls while I work and get dressed in a bright color Girlfriend Collective set and black Forever 21 active tank to try and offset the dreary weather.
10:00am: Out of my first set of meetings and I run the laundry down to the laundry room ($3.25). I listen to a Twitch stream while I work and continuously check on the Louis Vuitton I'm bidding on. The auction ends tonight at 8pm and I'm still winning!
1:00pm: Still working through projects. I have been outbid past the maximum I set for myself on the Louis Vuitton, which is disappointing but I'm sure I'll get one eventually. I can still dream about it in the meanwhile :)
2:15pm: I take a quick break to package up my old Fitbit and place an order for a replacement. It ends up being free because of my full refund; the only cost is not having a tracker for a week or so. Could be worse! I make myself an energy drink using the powder that we ordered earlier this week to fuel my afternoon meetings with some non-coffee energy.
4:30pm: I throw on my sneakers and mask, grab my gym bag, and head off to boxing. After a few tough client requests today, throwing some punches feels amazing!
5:30pm: Out of class and off to Safeway and Target for some filler groceries. I did a big food shopping last Monday and we ended up doing a lot of takeout, so we don't need much. I get milk, yogurt, frozen berries, ciabatta rolls, frozen popcorn chicken, peanut butter pretzels, and two types of cereal. I text W. to let him know I'm on my way home ($23.70 for my half) and despite the drizzle, it is a refreshing walk.
6:30pm: Freshly showered and time to decide what to do for the evening. I find a movie, Collateral, by doing a reference search for a movie vibe that I loved (Inside Man, if you're curious) but am disappointed to find out it's not available on any streaming service. W. saves the day by telling me we actually own it on DVD but have never watched it, and lo and behold, it's buried in our giant plastic tub of DVDs. Movie night saved! We curl up on the couch and watch the movie with leftover Popeye's.
8:45pm: The movie is done and I'd give it a solid 4/5 stars. While discussing our favorite parts of the movie, we get into a random fight. I find myself getting heated for no reason, take a deep breath, and ask him to explain his side. W. has severe anxiety, and it turns out he had a few anxiety attacks during the movie so he wasn't articulating himself properly. We talk it out and he apologizes; he's made a lot of progress on dealing with his anxiety, but he has a long way to go. Not wanting to end the night on a bad note, we decide to stay up a little later than usual so we can watch some more Real Housewives and feel better by the time we go to bed. Asleep by 11:30.
Total: $41.82
Weekly Expenses:
Food + Drink: $118.71
Fun / Entertainment: $5.99
Home + Health: $68.06
Clothes + Beauty: $24.87
Transport: $0
Other: $33.38
Lastly, reflect on your diary!
This diary was very typical in some ways, and atypical in others. I normally cook a lot more, but with W. being sick I definitely used that as an excuse for takeout, hence why I'm following WW to try and lose weight! I think if I continue to be careful with my spending I can pay off my student loans this year and build my emergency fund back up, so I'm definitely buying less "fun" things in 2021… but if another Louis Vuitton comes around I'll probably bid on it :)
submitted by janmoneydiary to MoneyDiariesACTIVE [link] [comments]

I am a 32 year old RN making $57,450, living in rural MN and I get a colonoscopy this week

One day early. Buckle up, it's a long one!
Trigger warning: digestive & anxiety issues, medical procedures
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance: PERA account $7,389.65
Equity: roughly $45,000 (house and vehicles)
Savings account balance: $523
'Secret' cash stash: about $800 between us which we pretend doesn't exist.
Checking account balance: $2,318
Credit card debt: $6404.47 🤯
Student loan debt: $30,593.72 for my associate's in nursing and one semester of my BSN which I have no plans to finish.
Current clinic bill: $814. I have about $620 left in my flex account from last year that I need to use so I'll probably pay this off this month.
Section Two: Income
Income progression: It's been pretty straightforward for me. I worked at McDonald's in high school (minimum wage) and came back after one semester of college. I was eventually promoted to shift manager in 2007 (I think $9.50/hr). I got my CNA license in 2008 and started working at a nursing home ($10.65/hr). Gradually increased over the years. When I got my LPN license in 2016, I bumped up to around $16.50/hr. Another bump for my RN license at the end of 2017. I started at $26.50 and now make $28.75 base. I work 12 hour nights so I get $.50 differential from 6p-10p and $1 for 10p-6a. This is considered a joke of a differential btw. We get time and a half on holidays. I do truly love my work but I'm so burnt out. I've been in long term care for so long that I'm not sure how to even do anything else at this point.
Main Job Monthly Take Home: ~$2700, more if I work a holiday or pick up a shift
Taxes: ~$700 Health insurance: $303 (family plan with high deductible) Retirement contributions: 6.5% of my pay HSA: $192.30 Flex: $46.16 Clinic bill payment: $100 Life/STD insurance: $54.42 Christmas account: $50
Side Gig Monthly Take Home: generally $0. I do sell some craft items on the side but I don't hustle.
Child support: supposed to be $531 but I get what I get most of the time.
I am married but we do not have a joint account. B's gross is $41,600/year. He recently started a new job and got a $4.50/hr pay increase. He's also a volunteer firefighter and gets paid once a year from that, although last year's check was only $750. He carries dental and vision insurance for us and has a flex set up, about $170/month.
Section Three: Expenses
Rent / Mortgage / HOA fees: $0. 2 bed 1 bath home we share with my daughter (Z, she's 8) full time and B's stepson (E, he's 14) part time. We own outright.
Property tax: $497 this year, B pays.
Car registration: $206 this year for my car, goes down a bit every year.
Home & car (3) insurance: $237, B pays. We just combined everything a few days ago so we might split this. ETA after getting the first bill, I will pay *$265/6 months* for my car and half of the SUV, about $175/6 months.*
Savings contribution: lol, whatever comes from my round up rule
Debt payments: CC bills $400, B's pellet grill $35 (was a Christmas present). B has no debt.
Electric: fluctuates with the climate, last month was $245!!! We are trying to figure out ways to reduce this. B pays.
Gas: $50 now on the yearly plan, B pays.
Watesewegarbage: ~$60, B pays.
Wifi: $59, I pay.
Cellphone: $290, I pay for 5 lines.
Babysitter: $180
Student loans: in deferment, not making payments
Meds: around $50, paid with flex money.
Monthly subscriptions: Hulu, HBO, Pandora, Design Bundles, razors, Netflix, Apple storage, NYT, Cricut Access, Disney+, Amazon subscribe and save items, my entire life, $250. I pay.
Amazon Prime: $124/year, I pay.
Pet expenses: averages around $100 between food, haircuts, shots and insurance for my youngest pup, I pay.
Car payment: $405.27 for my car. We paid cash for our used SUV in December, and B's truck is old and has been paid off for years.
Groceries: around $400, B tends to grab things here and there and I get the big hauls.
School lunch: free this year! Thanks USDA!
Extracurriculars: Z opted out of any extracurriculars this year due to COVID.
Regular therapy: nope
1/16 Saturday
3:30 AM: I'm awake but I refuse to get out of bed. Cruise Indeed and Facebook for jobs. I recently put in my 30 day notice so I need to find something ASAP. I've put in probably 6 online applications already. Print out two applications, three copies of my resume, and create two cover letters. Why do I have to fill out all my info on an application when they can find it on a resume? Get a year of a resume and cover letter making site for $24.99 because I'm terrible at both. Buy some new Brumates that I don't need $67.93 and see that my yearly Prime payment has been pulled. Watch YouTube and fall back to sleep around 5.
8:20 AM: B crawls into bed after work and snowblowing basically the entire yard. Cuddle for a while so he can leech my body heat before I go upstairs. I need to wash my hair. Fall into an internet hole of Facebook and NYT while lounging with the dogs.
Noon: B comes upstairs. I didn't wash my hair. We need some groceries so decide to drive the hour to the nearest town with a Walmart AND a Menards - it's the 15% off bag sale right now. Throw in some dry shampoo, brush my teeth and get dressed. Change the water jug in our machine (our tap water is sketch), let the dogs out and head out.
1:18 PM: Gas is up to $2.34/gallon. Cringe thinking about filling up the SUV. My car is a hybrid but doesn't like Minnesota winters. B and I debate bringing our cat to the vet during the drive. She has FIV and has been losing weight, but we decide against it as there's not much we can do at this point anyways. She's still happy so 🤷‍♀️
2:34: Check out of Menards. $99.15 on a new door lock with keypad, sanding blocks and paper, disposable condiment cups, and Armor All wipes after 15% off and B's $15 return credit that he forgot to use. B gets LED bulbs, grill brushes, motor oil, a door latch for our porch, something for his brother's toilet and a propane tank exchange. Only saw one guy without a mask, so I'd call that a win.
3:05: $15.98 after coupons at Joann's on more tumbler supplies (e-6000 spray, 5 taklon brushes) and one roll of clearance ribbon. Realize I have my Christmas money in my purse and forgot to use it. B goes to Harbor Freight for more tools he doesn't need and a sporting goods store for a gift card for his best friend's birthday.
3:32: We decide to go to Perkin's, hoping they won't be too busy in the off hour. The hostess is wearing her mask under her nose and I'm so annoyed. I have some weird stomach issue going on, so I just get two eggs and toast. B tells me he should be able to get the first COVID shot this week, and I tell him I still haven't changed my mind (we both already had COVID during an outbreak at our workplace). I've been 'not preventing' pregnancy for almost two years. At this point, I'm too anxious to get the vaccine, and there is just not enough data available on pregnant/TTC women to change my mind. My time limit is my birthday, so if I'm not pregnant by then I'll be getting the vaccine in August. $28.87 +$5 tip.
4:47: Check out of Walmart with wet cat food, pop, milk, butter, Mac and cheese, cereal, snacks for the kiddo, chips, ketchup, tator tots, Gatorade, Hawaiian Punch and deli meat. $88.65. Every time I ask B if we need something, he says we have it at home. Also, no grapes? Usually a Walmart trip sends me into an anxiety attack but the store is pretty empty today.
5:09: My favorite stop of the day: the liquor store. The store at home is so crazy expensive so this is a treat. I get Truly Iced Tea and two different kinds of hard coffee to try for $41.91. B picks up three cases of beer.
5:18: B stops for gas ($37 🥴) and we head for home. Buy some vape juice online, $86.59. Yeah yeah, I know. My gut hurts, I'm super bloated and I just want to nap. We talk about our options regarding my medical procedure that is coming up and decide to try and get it done while we're still on my work insurance. I had a positive FIT test so now I have to have a colonoscopy. I'll end up maxing out the deductible but I'll get it half off if we can pay the bill within 30 days. I'll get my PTO paid out at the end of my 30 day notice, so we should be able to swing it. Not really sure we have a great option at this point as B doesn't want me to take on another payment. He is so anti debt, and I have $6500 in CC debt. We are opposites in so many ways.
6:20: Get home and unload the SUV. The dogs are going WILD. I feel like garbage and immediately get into pajamas. Give the cat a can of wet food and she eats a few bites. I still can't find a type she really enjoys. I also hook up the drinking water fountain I bought for her a few days ago. B installs the new door lock and I'm thrilled to have a keypad again. The old one stopped working a few months ago. Pay an invoice for a bulk order of keychain tassels from a wholesale group, $19. Basically do nothing for the rest of the night.
9:45: I'm falling asleep in my recliner. I decide to do my nighttime routine (rinse face, No7 HydraLuminous Gel Cream, Algenist Complete Renewal Eye Balm) and go to bed in hopes of feeling better tomorrow. I skip brushing my teeth because I'm nursing a ginger ale. Watch some YouTube and fall asleep around 10:30.
Daily total: $478.07
1/17 Sunday
2:09 AM: I wake up for the second time tonight with nightmares. I rarely have them so I'm annoyed. B isn't in bed to cuddle with either. I go upstairs to use the bathroom and find him in his recliner. Realize I forgot to take my meds last night (antidepressant, probiotic, omeprazole, hair skin & nail vitamin, Lysine supplements, allergy pill) so grab those along with two Goli gummies and a lorazepam to help me calm down. My gut still hurts, and I'm so over this. Browse the internet and watch YouTube again to fall asleep.
3:55: Wake up to stomach cramps and know my colon is going to empty itself out. Park myself in the bathroom for half an hour and try not to pass out. I'm not sure if it's just IBS or something worse going on, but I'm glad I'm getting it checked out.
7:17: Still awake. I am stressed by the potential of not having a job for a few weeks, my health, and the current state of everything else in the world. Decide to compound this by opening my NYT app. I am so hopeful Joe can start turning things around.
12:17 PM: I must have finally fallen asleep because B comes down to ask if I want to go to South Dakota today. We check out local case rates by county and decide we are probably safe. We are about the only ones who wear our masks in public over there. I must admit that going through this pandemic feels much different out here in the boonies than it does in the city. We had a large surge in cases for about 4 weeks in November-December, and now we are back down to about 2-3 new cases a day. Our local businesses work hard to keep us safe, in part because they don't want to be known as the place so-and-so got COVID. Ah, small town gossip. We do our part try to support them as we really can't afford to lose any businesses in our area. I shoot a text to Z's dad to confirm I'm picking her up in the morning.
1:28: I finally get out of bed and wash my hair, which is my least favorite chore. I brush it out before my shower, use some Head and Shoulders 2 in 1 to combat my winter dry scalp, finish it off with SheaMoisture Purple Rice Water conditioner. I decide to heat style it today, so I use two heat protection sprays. To brush, wash, condition, brush again, dry and curl my hair takes 1.5 hours. Now I remember why I never do this.
3:30: We hide in the corner of the bar for the meat raffle. I really love coming here because the money they raise goes to local charities. We also have drinks and supper. I get a BLT chicken wrap, and we win 3 free drink tickets. We head out around 6. $50 + $10 tip, this comes out of my Christmas money. B goes to the drivethru on our way home and gets me a frozen hot chocolate. Yuuuum.
8:45: For some reason I can't keep all the school calendar changes straight. Z was supposed to be off tomorrow, but I just realized she does have school. I message Z's teacher to let her know Z won't be there, since she has her yearly physical tomorrow after being rescheduled 3 times. Do a quick nighttime routine, take my meds and head downstairs for YouTube and sleep. Hoping for a decent night of it!
Daily total: $60
1/18 Monday
3:05 AM: I'm awake, but for no particular reason this time. Working the night shift really messes with your sleeping schedule. I must have been snoring because B has gone upstairs to sleep in E's room. I clean the litter box and decide to fire up my laptop and Cricut machine to get some projects done I've been procrastinating. I finish a water bottle for B, a stash jar for a friend, create a couple Valentine's mock ups for my business page and seal some glitter signs. I grab a couple SVGs on Etsy $1.38. My mom sees my Snapchat and we message over the woes of insomnia.
6:20: I have come to the realization that buying craft items and actually using them are two separate hobbies. I lay in bed with the cat and doze.
8:40: Leave the house to go pick up Z. Her dad lives about 25 minutes away. On the way home we stop at Casey's for random snacks, $7.64. The clinic calls and we schedule my colonoscopy for Thursday. I have to get some blood drawn later this morning when I bring Z to her appointment. I also have to have a CT with contrast so I'll figure out when I can get that done as well. I take a quick body shower when we get home.
10:55: Bring Z to her well child check-up. I think they asked us about 100 questions, and some of them were super weird for an 8 year old. She finally gets her flu shot and only spills a few tears. No major issues so that's a win! She does miss a few sounds on her hearing test, but we decide to just watch it for now. I get my blood drawn when we're done with her appointment and talk to the radiologist about my CT. He says my prior authorization hasn't gone through yet and he'll call me when we can get it scheduled. We're both hopeful it can get done tomorrow. Then I talk to the surgical nurse to get my pre-op instructions. Finally leave the clinic around 12:45. Pick up my surgical prep from the drugstore, $52.06 (!!!) from my flex account. Z requests cheese pizza for lunch so I oblige.
1:17 PM: I get a call about a job and set up an interview for Wednesday afternoon.
4:10: I bring Z down to the local salon for a haircut. I can't go in (COVID restrictions) but Z loves the feel of a fresh cut so I don't worry. Her hair dresser is her classmate's mom and my old neighbor. $18 + $7 tip.
6:30: B has a fireman's meeting tonight, so Z and I have mac and cheese per our tradition. B hates it so we usually only eat it when he's gone. I make Z have an apple on the side so we can make at least one good food choice today. The Bachelor is on tonight! I usually hit the Reddit stream but I got a late start tonight so I skip it.
9:05: Make sure Z brushes her teeth and hug her goodnight.
10:20: My oldest (and crankiest) dog just cannot be pleased tonight. She keeps wanting to go outside, but it's cold and snowy and she doesn't like either of those things. Sigh. Do my usual nighttime routine, take my meds and go to bed. Fall asleep around 11.
Daily total: $33.99
1/19 Tuesday
6:45 AM: Success! Finally got some sleep. Good thing I woke up though, because I forgot to set an alarm. I wake up a very cranky Z at 7 and make sure she gets ready for school. We are very fortunate that our school district is small, and Z has been going to school in person, full time, all school year. She never complains about wearing her mask either. I drop her off at 8, then B and I bring our SUV to the mechanic. I think B is dropping me off at home but instead we go out for breakfast downtown. I have a pancake, scrambled egg and side of fruit. I hear the regulars (old guys who come in every morning for coffee) talking about signing up for their COVID shots. This is a good sign! B pays, $16.04 + $3.96 tip.
9:01: I get an email that a hospital position I applied for has already been filled. Dang. It's still snowing, so I plan for a lazy day. B goes outside to snowblow.
9:55: The radiologist calls and tells me we can get my CT completed. We decide to do it right away this morning. I run up to the clinic to grab my contrast drink and set a timer so I drink the right amounts during the right time frames. It tastes like flat, flavored water. My stomach doesn't seem to appreciate it much. Hopefully this doesn't become a problem when I'm in the CT machine.
11:00: Get my CT done. I get an IV in my arm and the radiologist pushes Lord knows what into my veins, but it makes me feel like I wet my pants 🤣 He lets me check out the images when we're done. It only takes about 15 minutes and then I head back home. I sit around with B for a while, then I go downstairs to make a few crafty things and fill an order. I put a couple more things on my business page as well. During this time B brings his truck out to the mechanic and brings home the SUV. They put in a 'Minnesota approved' battery, the repair cost was $220. I offer B half but he declines, saying "let's see what the truck costs first."
2:45 PM: I get so distracted crafting that I almost forget to go pick Z up from school. She gets in the car and tells me she had the best day ever! I ask what happened, and she says she didn't get strawberries at lunch. Oh... she was being sarcastic. She picks up her room and puts away her laundry when we get home. We don't do much this afternoon.
7:00: B makes supper tonight, nothing fancy. A chicken patty for me and corn dogs for him and Z. I'm staying away from roughage to make my life easier tomorrow. Z gets ready for bed and I tuck her in at 8:45. Shortly after, B leaves for work. I go downstairs to work on a Valentine's day order.
Daily total: $0
1/20 Wednesday
12:45 AM: I have spent far too long organizing files on my computer. I call it a night. I look up my CT report and it doesn't show anything urgent or explain why there's blood in my stool. Sigh. Normal routine and bedtime.
7:05: I'm up. IT'S INAUGURATION DAY! B is already in bed. He tells me he has the chills, is nauseated, and his arm is killing him. I tell him his COVID shot is working and bring him some ibuprofen. I wake up Z and she gets ready for school. While I'm waiting, I take a body shower, let the dogs out and feed them. Drop Z off at school at 8, deliver a Valentine's Day order (+$20!) and go home to watch the inauguration while eating mini wheats.
10:45: I watch Kamala get sworn in and I get tears in my eyes. Such a historic moment.
11:45: I make myself scrambled eggs and drink a Dr. Pepper. After this, it's only clear liquids until tomorrow afternoon. B helps me give my oldest dog a haircut. You'd think we were killing her the way she cries. She's been getting haircuts every 2-3 months her whole life and still can't sit still.
2:00 PM: I have a virtual interview. The job sounds so interesting but it involves a lot of travel, and I'm not sure that would work with my family. I pick up Z from school when I'm done. She tells me "happy Joe Biden day!" when she gets into the car. We talk about the possible new job and she's not into the idea of me being gone.
5:00: B leaves to go work on his brother's house. He's been there on and off all week. He also got the night off for his floating holiday. I take my meds early so they have time to get into my system. I mix up the colonoscopy prep: two packets of powder into one liter of water. I make dinner for Z while I'm in the kitchen.
6:45: COLONOSCOPY PREP IS NASTY. Like, the taste of the drink is so disgusting and it's making me nauseated. I know it's important to keep it down, but it's also important to drink it within the one hour timeframe. Uuggghhhhh. It ends up being one hour and 45 minutes. B comes home around 8:30 and gets Z into bed.
9:00: The best way to describe how I feel is early labor. The cramps come and go and are so intense I have to take deep breaths. It's so exhausting I end up falling asleep.
Daily total: $0
1/21 Thursday
12:30 AM: IT'S TIME.
6:00: I slept between bathroom trips, but now it's time to mix up my second liter of prep. Yes, I have to do this to myself all over again. This time, I have to make sure to drink it all within the one hour timeframe.
7:30: Everybody is awake and chaos ensues. Did I mention we only have one bathroom? Z is trying to get ready for school, B wants to shower and I'm, well, you know. I get my entire liter of prep down in 65 minutes. B is still not feeling well from his COVID shot.
8:45: I manage a body shower although I had to get out once for the toilet. I am basically a zombie at this point. B drops me off at the hospital at 9:10. When I get there, they are running behind so I have to wait half an hour before I get into my room.
10:05: My nurse blows my vein and I have a panic attack. We are starting this day off great. A second nurse comes in and gets my IV in right away, thank God. Things move pretty quickly from here. By 10:30, I'm in the OR getting the good drugs. By 11:20, I'm awake enough to remember what's going on and drinking water so they'll pull my IV. The surgeon comes in and tells me they didn't see anything abnormal, but they did take some biopsies so hopefully I get some answers. By 12:05, I'm walking out the door.
12:15 PM: I am absolutely starving. B takes me out for lunch. I have a tuna sandwich and a 7Up. Our total is something around $17. I throw him $5 for the tip.
1:00: We're home. We spend the afternoon watching movies and laying around. My stomach is still pretty upset from all the torture. B picks up Z from school since I'm not supposed to drive yet. When she gets home, she regales me with the tale of getting hit in the face with a hulu hoop in gym. She actually has a fat lip!
5:00: I get a jar of my favorite eye cream on a BST board, $20.
6:00: B heads out to work and I make supper. We have tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches tonight. Comfort food for the win.
9:00: Z has a quarter in her tonight. We play a couple games on her iPad before I stick her in the shower and then in bed. I promptly fall asleep in the living room.
Daily total: $25
1/22 Friday
3:30 AM: Move downstairs to our bedroom.
8:00: After work, B picked up E and they come home. The dogs are frantic. I eat a bowl of cereal and hang out with Z, since she doesn't have school today. We make funny drawings of each other and she reads me some knock knock jokes. I also get two more interviews set up for next week. I head back to bed around noon. I have to go back to work tonight. I have a block schedule: 7 off, 3 on, 1 off, 3 on, 4 off, 3 on. Our pay periods are adjusted for the night shift, so if I work the weekend that's my 36 hours for the week.
4:30 PM: I'm up. I take a shower and wash my hair. B makes pizza for the kids, another traditional meal timing in our house. He leaves for work at 5:30. I am dreading work. I have been exhausted after every shift no matter if it was busy or not. I'm not sure if it's my actual job, or just the night shift catching up to me. Either way, I'm looking forward to a new position. Also, getting ready for work is a chore these days. I use Fog Block on my glasses, then put side shields on. I hook my two masks up to my ear savers. Then I find two bottles of hand sanitizer and two pens to put in my pockets because I always lose one somewhere along the way. I pack my bag (water bottle, energy drink, iPad, shoes, snacks and supper) and start my car. I say bye to the kids and head out at 5:45.
6:00: Work is already a shit show and I just clocked in 5 minutes ago. I'm so annoyed and I just don't want to be here. But you better believe I'm going to suck it up and be happy for my residents. They are usually pretty happy to see me after my long stretch off.
11:45: I buckle up for what's going to be a very long shift.
Daily total: $0
Weekly total: $597.09
Food + Drink: $177.07
Fun / Entertainment: $60
Home + Health: $203.44
Clothes + Beauty: $45
Transport: $0
Other: $111.58
Reflection: This was a normal week considering its events. Obviously I don't usually buy a new door lock, and I typically only stock up on vape juice every 6 months or so. I'm heavily into my depression spending, but with everything going on in the world I've cut myself some slack. I'm only going to live once! *ETA our cat passed away this evening, 1/25. We are very sad but are happy we got to give her a good life for the last 3 years.
submitted by samj732 to MoneyDiariesACTIVE [link] [comments]

I am 30 years old, making $43,110/year in Pittsburgh, PA as a lab technician.

Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance: $6215 between a 403b & a 401a. I work for a university, and with this employer was the first time I was financially able to contribute to a retirement account of any kind. I just hit vestment in 2020 and plan to bump up my contribution % slowly throughout 2021 until I hit the maximum I can afford to contribute.
Savings account balance: $3201. Up until 2020, I never had any extra money to put into savings, so I'm not at all upset about this amount! Building up my savings account is my biggest financial priority currently.
Checking account balance: $1706. I keep between $1-2k in checking.
Acorns investment account balance: $74 (just started this in December, only throw in a little bit monthly, not too sure what I'm doing but I'm eager to learn, lol)
FSA account balance: $55. I contribute $5 per paycheck (biweekly), but I will be increasing this when I can make changes to my benefits, at the beginning of the new fiscal year in July.
Credit card debt: $0, but see below regarding a personal loan. I pay off my balance every month.
Student loan debt: $32,417 for a BS. Most of my schooling was covered by scholarships & grants, but I had to take out loans for whatever was left. My parents cosigned my loans, but I am fully responsible for paying them. In 2020, I finished paying off approx $11k in private loans; the remaining amount is all in federal loans.
Personal loan debt: $5532. This had been money owed on my credit card - a few very expensive car repairs years ago, and then compounding interest because I could only make minimum payments for a long time. In 2020, I was able to get a low-interest personal loan through my credit union and plan to pay this off by 10/2022.
​
Section Two: Income
Income Progression: I have had quite a few jobs, most of them making slightly above minimum wage until just the last few years. In high school & college, I worked at a bowling alley and in retail, making from $7.25/hour to $8/hour, anywhere from 4 hours weekly (high school) to full-time (college during summer break).
After graduating college, I continued to work the 2 part-time retail jobs I'd been working for most of my college career: one position as a sales associate for $7.50/hour and one position as a front-end manager for $10/hour. I worked around 50 hours total each week in order to make ends meet.
After 2 years of this, I went to grad school. I was fully funded by my PhD advisor's grant and did not need to take out any loans. I worked as a research assistant on campus making $1850 per month.
Grad school wasn't for me, so I dropped out after one semester. I returned to one of my previous retail employers, this time as a full-time assistant store manager, making $11/hour.
After about 1 year at this position, I took a job working part-time for a local science museum - I had experience in college volunteering and interning in science education, and at the time I thought it was the direction I wanted to go for a "real" career. This job paid $10/hour. I dropped down to part-time at the retail job but was able to keep my hourly pay.
Then, about 1 year later, I finally fell into the job I have now, and love: I got a job in 2017 working as an assistant lab tech in medical research at a local university. Starting out, my title was Technician 1, and I made $25k. I was promoted to Tech 2 in 2019, making $28k, and then to Senior Tech in 2020 with a salary of $38,493. The large raise between Tech 2 and Senior is partially due to me obtaining some professional certifications in my field; without them, I expect my salary would be closer to $35k. I still work in retail, too: 1 day per week at $11.10/hour. I don't NEED that job now, but the extra money is nice - I make around $4600 yearly from the retail job.
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
$2200 minimum. This is highly variable as I am eligible for OT pay and I do work OT most weeks.
Side Gig Monthly Take Home
About $300 monthly from the retail job. Variable depending on how many hours I work in the month.
​
Section Three: Expenses
All expenses below are monthly unless otherwise specified.
Rent: $630
Renters insurance: $10
Investment contribution: $20 plus spare change to the Acorns app. I just started using it last month.
Personal loan payment: $273
Student loan payment: $84, but I need to renew my income-based repayment plan and I expect this to increase
Electric: approx $50
Gas: approx $70 during winter; in summer it's around $20
Water: $17
Trash collection: $195 annually
Sewage: $42 quarterly
Wifi: $68
Cellphone: I'm on a family plan with my parents and brother, and my contribution is $25.
Subscriptions: $10 for Spotify & Hulu; $14 for Netflix; $15 for a coffee subscription
Pet expenses: Approx $100 monthly. I have two cats that eat prescription diets ($75 every 6 weeks), plus one axolotl that thankfully just eats worms. The rest of the pet budget is for litter, toys, etc, and I'm including birdseed here for the feeder I have on my balcony for wild birds.
Car payment / insurance: My car is fully paid off, and my parents pay for my insurance which is honestly wild at my age, but I think they like to help out in this way since I'm otherwise pretty independent.
Medications: $68
Other: I budget $200 for groceries monthly, though I'm not upset if I go over that amount.
​
Diary
Disclaimer: I am an essential employee at both jobs; masks and other appropriate PPE were worn at all times outside of my home.
Saturday 1/2: I wake up at 4:15am to go to my retail job. I don't mind being up so early since it means I don't have to interact with customers for most of my shift. My car has been making some odd noises lately, and they start up again on my drive in to work. I need to get the car inspected this month, so I decide to try to make an appointment for next weekend...the noises are making me nervous. I work an 8 hour shift and buy a few snacks and two sodas from the vending machine ($6.70). After work, I play some video games. A close friend got the new PS5 recently and gave me her old PS4, which is awesome - I've only had an old Xbox until now. I decide to buy Skyrim for the PS since it keeps crashing when I try to play it on the Xbox ($16.95 on a gift card I'd gotten for Christmas). Later this evening, my pharmacy calls to tell me that the manufacturer of one of my medications is no longer offering a discount I'd been using for the last year: my cost will be increasing by $30 per month supply. I check online for any other discounts/coupons/goodRX offers.. no dice. I'm asleep by 10pm.
Total: $6.70 (not counting the gift card purchase, since that was already paid for by someone else)
Sunday 1/3: My day off! I wake at 6:15 and make some coffee. I place an Amazon order for a new shower curtain, rubber beads to tighten face masks, and a supplement ($25.57). Later in the day, I head out to pick up my prescription. I buy 3 months' worth of this particular medication at once, so it's $120; I also buy some coffee creamer and milk ($4.28). I stop for gas on my way home ($25.04). I spend the rest of my day alternately relaxing and getting some things done at home: I do some laundry ($2.25), renew my drivers license online (no need to go to the DMV because of the pandemic, so yay! $30.50 and they'll mail my new card), and I create a group on Goodreads because my friends and I were wanting to start our own book club this year. I make a big pot of pasta with Beyond crumbles and spinach for dinner and a few lunches for the week.
Total: $207.64
Monday 1/4: Wake at 5. Car is still making scary noises, so I drive to work slowly. $5 for parking, but it will be reimbursed by my employer at the end of the month. Drink breakroom coffee since it's free. On lunch, I make the appointment for my car for the weekend: inspection, oil change, tire rotation, and please make sure my car isn't trying to kill me/fix the mystery noise. Yesterday's pasta and a yogurt for lunch. Work is uneventful; at home I eat some soup for dinner and read some of my book for book club until it's time for bed.
Total: $5
Tuesday 1/5: It's my birthday! I'm up at 5. $5 for parking, and free work coffee again. My supervisors and coworkers printed & signed a giant birthday poster for me - it's hanging in our breakroom - and it makes my week! I really, really love my job and the people I work with. At home, I consider buying some perfume for myself - indie fragrances are a hobby of mine - but I get overwhelmed and decision fatigued, and don't end up buying anything. I decide to take another look over the weekend. Make rice & daal for dinner, plus a giant bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Watch some tv (Bones on Hulu) until bed.
Total: $5
Wednesday 1/6: You know the drill: wake up at 5, $5 parking, and free work coffee. Leftover rice & daal for lunch. Received a birthday present from a coworker that I'm good friends with, which is incredibly kind of her. Again, I love, love, love my job and the people I spend time with there. Unfortunately, after work I spend most of my evening doom-scrolling thanks to the attempted coup at the Capitol.
Total: $5
Thursday 1/7: Up at 5; $5 parking; free coffee at work. Today's a super busy day and I spend most of it just running around, feeling like I'm not getting any actual work done. While at work I start listening to a new audiobook from the library (I highly recommend the Libby app, btw). The last of Sunday's pasta for lunch. Soup and crackers for dinner, and then my older cat cuddles up on my lap while I play some Skyrim.
Total: $5
Friday 1/8: I took today as a vacation day for my birthday - had too much to do at work on my actual birthday, so I gave myself a long weekend instead (I also took Saturday 1/9 off from my retail job). I sleep in until 7... super late for me! Make coffee for breakfast, and while it's brewing, I fill up the birdfeeder on my balcony. Perform a feat of gymnastics to keep my cats from running out while I do so. I received my $600 stimulus payment a week ago, and I take the morning to deal with that: $120 is split among 3 charities that are important to me, and the remaining $480 goes to my savings account. After this, I'd love to get up to get my book club book to read, but I've got a cat sleeping on my legs, so obviously I'm stuck sitting. I browse Reddit on my phone for a while. Order food for lunch with contactless dropoff ($17.44 with tip). In the evening, I drop off my car at the auto shop - my appointment is early tomorrow morning, so I just leave the car and keys with them overnight - and I walk home since the shop is in my neighborhood. I've been wanting to try punch needle crafting, so I buy a very basic starter kit on Amazon ($13.99).
Total: $151.43
Week Total = $385.77
Food + Drink $28.42
Fun / Entertainment $13.99
Home + Health $147.82
Transport $45.04
Other Donations: $120; $30.50 for the driver's license renewal
So, this was not a typical week for me: the $120 prescription is a purchase I make once every 90 days, the driver's license renewal is only once every 4 years (lol), and I'm not a regular charitable donor - I donate sporadically throughout the year whenever I have some extra money. However, I'm pretty happy with my spending otherwise! The $20 in parking fees will be reimbursed by my employer at the end of the month, and though I made more Amazon purchases in this week than I would in a normal week, I think I was reasonable with my spending. Pre-covid, my coworkers from my main job and I would go out for drinks on Fridays, so I guess I've been saving an extra $20-30/week since the pandemic started. Also, in case anyone was wondering - the mechanic found nothing wrong with my car, but it's still making a weird noise. They told me that I basically have to wait until it gets worse, and maybe then they can determine what the issue is. Yay.
submitted by moneythrowaway113 to MoneyDiariesACTIVE [link] [comments]

A week in Northern Virginia on a $209k joint income (27, Customer Success Manager)

Happy almost new year! Thanks for reading 😊 I included some R29-inspired questions before the diary begins as they provide interesting context for me as a reader *EDIT: and are important to understand our financial situation.* You’ll notice that I don’t talk about work at all – this is primarily because I was on PTO the whole week, but for me my job is just that, and I see it as a means to an end rather than a core piece of my identity. I do enjoy it, but ultimately it enables me to live the life that I want to live which is what’s important.
Section One: Assets and Debt
Net worth (made up of figures below): $817k. Many MDs on here don’t list NW, but I’m always curious so thought I’d do the math for you.
Retirement balance: We have a total of $325k saved for retirement (my husband D. and I each having approximately half), the majority in 401k/rollover accounts and less than 10% in Roth. We have been contributing since we started working, and both began maxing 401k (pretax) three years ago. We also began maxing Roth contributions last year, so contribute $51k/year total (plus 4% employer matches) to retirement accounts.
Home equity: $268k. We bought our townhouse in 2017 with a down payment of $130k, and we currently owe $297k on our mortgage. When we bought, our income was much lower and we started with a 30-year mortgage; last year we refinanced to a 15-year, and since then have dumped an additional $40k and shaved 2 years off of it, so we are on track to have it paid off before I turn 40 (unless we need to move for work before then, the slight possibility of which gives me the hives to think about). We have a low interest rate, and while we could make more with the money we’ve used to pay down our loan by investing it in the market, we feel like we have enough exposure with our brokerage and retirement accounts already and I would love to have the peace of mind of being mortgage-free.
Savings account: $66k in a joint high-yield (not really, recently – more on that later) savings account. This is what we consider our emergency fund.
Checking accounts (one large joint account that our paychecks both go into, and two smaller individual accounts): $47k. Way too high, need to move some of this into savings or investments.
Non-retirement brokerage accounts: $111k, about evenly divided into individual accounts for D. and I
Non-mortgage debt: $0. No student loans and while we put most of our expenses on credit cards, we pay off the balances in full every month.
Section Two: Income
Monthly Take Home: $9227 between the two of us. This is after our pretax contributions to 401k, medical/dental, and HSAs.
My income progression: 21/$30k - 24/$45k - 25/$55k - 26/$66k - 27/$85k (current pay includes an $8k bonus which is all but guaranteed). I have bounced around quite a bit career-wise, but have been in SaaS customer success for the last three years.
D.’s income progression: 23/$63k - 25/$75k - 27/$98k - 29/$124k (last year he also began receiving $5k in RSUs per year, but I am not including them in his income or our assets because they are not vested). He is and has always been a mechanical engineer.
Section Three: Expenses
Mortgage (principal + interest only): $2507/mo
HOA dues: $222/mo
Property taxes: $6300/yr (we recently closed out our escrow account and pay taxes directly to the city)
Condo insurance: $372/yr – this will sound low compared to those in fee-simple homes, but because we don’t own our roof/the exterior of our townhouse it’s quite inexpensive and our community’s master policy covers the rest.
Savings contribution: Whatever is left over, usually in the ballpark of $2k/mo. Our emergency fund is substantial and we own a home (albeit not in full), so there aren’t any specific items (aside from retirement) that we are laser-focused on saving for at the moment.
Utilities: ~$140/mo
Wifi: $81/mo
Cellphone: $35/mo – I am on my parents’ plan and D. has a cheap Google plan.
Gym membership: $14/mo. D. and I share a Peloton Digital account and do all of our workouts on there.
Pet expenses: $300/mo (insurance, food/treats, grooming, and anxiety medication)
Car insurance and tax: $643/yr – this is for our vehicle tax and D.’s insurance only, I am still on my parents’ car insurance policy. We own our one car in full (parents purchased in my name).
Home security subscriptions: $130/yr (Ring doorbell and Nest camera streaming)
Jewelry insurance: $204/yr for my diamond rings and earrings
Chase Sapphire Reserve annual fee: $550, but $300 of that gets credited back to travel, and with the other credits they have now for DoorDash and Peloton, the card almost pays for itself right off the bat. We thought about canceling this year since the only travel we are doing is local AirBnBs, but decided to hold onto it and will hopefully use the points for some nice vacations when this is all over!
Entertainment subscriptions: $0, we use D.’s parents
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? My parents both have master’s degrees and while I never saw college as optional, I never felt pressure to have perfect grades or to attend an Ivy League like them (I ended up going to a good state school). I have a bachelor’s degree, and was lucky to have college paid for by my family. D.’s parents paid for his undergrad and he did research for a professor to pay for his graduate degree. I have been encouraged to get a graduate degree, but the idea of working and going to school at the same time is too overwhelming to me (kudos to everyone who does this) and I don’t want to give up my income, not to mention that in my current field it wouldn’t mean any substantial salary bump.
Did you worry about money growing up? I never worried, per se, but going to a private school I noticed that we had inexpensive cars and a smallish house, compared to my friends’ Lexuses and McMansions. My parents never talked about money, so I drew my own assumptions that we just had enough to live modestly, and not much more. I discovered around college that this was not the case at all, and I give my parents a ton of credit for never letting on how comfortable we actually were – I think it taught me some important lessons that have translated into me budgeting fairly well and not feeling entitled.
Do you worry about money now? Not at all. The only thing that somewhat stresses me out is given the head-starts we have gotten financially, I want to provide the same (college, wedding, down payment, help with random things as adults) for any children that we have, but that is very far off in the future.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? I received about $100k from the estate of a grandparent who passed when I graduated from college. Every year since then, I have received $15-$30k from my living grandparents and/or parents. The initial $100k helped us immensely because it mostly funded our down payment, and the subsequent annual gifts aren’t something that we budget for, but they allow us to buy fun extras that we wouldn’t feel comfortable spending on otherwise and travel internationally frequently in non-covid times.
Wednesday 12/23
· 7:30 AM: Happy first day of adult winter break! I barely used any PTO this year and as such am taking the last week and a half of the year off. The last time I had this long of a break was over a year ago and I’m excited. D., our dog T., and I slowly get out of bed and get ready to go. Our cleaners are coming this morning, and for everyone’s safety we leave the house when they come. We hired cleaners starting when we first got T. – definitely a luxury but so worth it because I would otherwise be cleaning for 20 minutes a day. They come every other week. I leave a check on the fridge ($120 for their normal fee plus $100 holiday bonus), unlock the front door, and the three of us get in the car. $220
· 8:15 AM: D. drops me off at our favorite breakfast restaurant where I order biscuits and coffee for us from their outdoor window. We haven’t dined in a restaurant since February, but our local restaurants have done a great job of pivoting and creating options that allow us to support them and feel safe. $27.60
· 11:00 AM: Back at home, I clean up after the cleaners putting everything back in its correct place and start laundry. Since I’ll basically be sitting in my living room for the next 10 days (as opposed to my home office – what a change!), I drive to the florist and pick up a beautiful arrangement of ranunculuses, roses, and other unidentifiable flowers. $53
· 12:30 PM: My mother-in-law stops by with our stockings and we talk in the driveway for a bit. D. has had to go into the office for the duration of the pandemic, so we unfortunately probably won’t be spending any time indoors with either of our families for several months, despite both sets of parents living under an hour away, but we make do by meeting up outside.
· 5:00 PM: I plug in the heater in our garage and blast it to make my workout slightly more bearable. At the beginning of the pandemic, we had our garage floors and walls finished so it would feel like a real room that we would want to work out in vs. a dusty garage. I love how it looks now, but it is still as cold as any garage in the winter. I string together a few Peloton strength workouts. We don’t have the bike or treadmill, but I am obsessed with their app and strength classes and never want to go back to an in-person gym.
· 8:30 PM: Call my grandparents, who live about five hours away, on FaceTime to catch up. The last time I saw them in person was probably a year and a half ago – I was supposed to visit them in May, but they are quite elderly so I decided not to take any chances with covid. My grandfather’s brother passed away a few weeks ago and I know they with they could be spending more time with family these days, so I try to call them every couple weeks. After we finish talking, I take T. out for a pre-bedtime walk and we go to sleep.
Daily total: $300.60
Thursday 12/24
· 10:15 AM: I don’t think I’ve slept this late since college, but we have nothing to do today so I take my time getting up. As we get dressed, I hear the doorbell ring with what is probably our millionth package since Black Friday. It’s a printer! We have been living the millennial lifestyle of not owning a printer ever since our last one broke a year or so ago, and when I worked in an office it was fine because I would just print everything there. We finally decided something needed to change when I made a Poshmark sale last week and had to drive to my parents’ house to get the shipping label because our library (the other place we would usually print) is closed.
· 11:00 AM: After setting up the printer and rolling around on the floor with T. (normal dog mom activity), I make myself eggs and an English muffin, my usual breakfast. I generally do not enjoy cooking at all, but my parents got us the Caraway cookware set for Hannukah and it is a dream to look at and use so I’ve been in the kitchen much more than usual the last couple weeks.
· 12:00 PM: Tonight is Christmas Eve, so we’re doing Chinese food over Zoom with my family. I order our dinner from a much-acclaimed restaurant that we’ve never tried for an early afternoon pickup to avoid all the other Jews picking up their dinners ($56.32). After placing our order, I peruse through my Pinterest wish list, which is what D. and I use to buy each other gifts, to see what’s left over from the holidays. I pull the trigger on a cute and comfy-looking Varley sweatshirt ($109). Since I started working from home in March, I’ve worn athleisure every day, so pricier brands are worth it to me. $165.32
· 1:00 PM: I pick up our dinner and listen to an episode of This American Life to pass the time in the car. When I arrive at the restaurant, I’m happy to see that this early in the afternoon the pickup table has a huge number of orders.
· 4:00 PM: I knock out a killer 45-minute full body strength workout, courtesy of Adrian Williams. The garage is warmer today, so I only wear a sports bra on top. Aside from not having to travel to a gym, the fact that I can feel comfortable wearing whatever I want is one of my favorite things about working out at home. I shower and don my Christmas eve attire of Align leggings and a cashmere sweater (AKA the same general outfit I wear every other day of winter).
· 6:30 PM: We meet up with my family on video chat and enjoy our Chinese takeout. I am fairly picky and went with my usual of tofu with broccoli, and a side of fried cauliflower. After eating, we play a bunch of rousing rounds of Skribbl (online Pictionary-type game) until everyone is ready for bed.
Daily total: $165.32
Friday 12/25
· 6:40 AM: T. jumps off the bed to signal that it’s time for his morning routine to start. I take him outside to pee, feed him breakfast, change his water, and then we get back into bed and sleep for three more hours.
· 10:00 AM: Christmas morning isn’t a big deal around here, but it seems like a good excuse for cinnamon rolls. I walk 20 minutes in the cold to the only grocery store nearby that’s open to pick up a can of Annie’s ($6.14). We have a car, but since I began working from home and therefore moving less, I’ve been trying be mindful about using errands within ~1.5 miles from home as an opportunity to get some steps in and enjoy the outdoors. $6.14
· 1:30 PM: I review our bank accounts and notice that our checking account (which earns virtually no interest) has way more than what we like to keep in it due to some recent bonus payments from my work and a check from my grandparents, and decide to apply $10k to our mortgage as an extra principal payment, which takes five months off of it. $10,000.00
· 3:00 PM: I do 30 minutes of core exercises in the garage and then take a shower, after which I proceed to give myself a very sad pedicure, no paint. Even with professional help I do not have the most beautiful feet, so given the fact that I have not gone to a salon in 11 months they are currently a slightly terrifying sight.
· 6:00 PM: D. and I put the new Wonder Woman on TV and half-watch it. They filmed it around the DC area and a chunk was filmed a mile from our house, so it’s cool to recognize spots we’re used to dressed up as movie sets. I make a simple dinner of sauteed broccoli and ravioli.
· 9:15 PM: After we finish Wonder Woman, I waste some time online and discover that a photographer whose work I love is having a 20% off sale. I spot a framed photo print with balloons spelling “I AM BUSY” and think about how it would be great addition to my video background in my home office. I go back and forth on whether it’s too sassy since I work with clients, but decide to go for it before calling it a night. $319.43
Daily total: $10,325.57
Saturday 12/26
· 9:30 AM: We start our day with a couple episodes of Bridgerton on Netflix. I was thinking a period piece romance was going to be a me-only show, but D. is surprisingly down to watch.
· 11:30 AM: While I’m getting dressed (switching my leggings and sweatshirts), I see that T.’s overflow toy basket in our closet is getting quite full and decide to do something about it. D. and I pick out 10 or so of his least-loved toys for donation. When T. was a puppy we had a BarkBox subscription, but as he got older and stopped destroying toys we ended up with way too many and I figure that they would be better off going to some pups in need. It’s a beautiful day, so I bag them up and take a scenic trail walk to the animal shelter a couple miles away. The shelter and the city recycling station are right next to each other, so I also bring our empty glass bottles and jars.
· 12:30 PM: Back at home, I make myself eggs for lunch. I’m a creature of habit, what can I say? This is money diaries, not food diaries, but I know my palate is bland.
· 2:00 PM: I’m sitting in the corner of the sectional in the living room. T. comes over and curls up literally on top of me…I guess he’s decided it’s joint naptime. I have other things I sort of need to do, but cannot handle how cute this is so I accept my fate as his lounge chair.
· 5:00 PM: D. prepares zucchini and Trader Joe’s cacio e pepe for dinner and we watch another couple episodes of Bridgerton. A couple hours later we finally decide that we should get off our butts, so we take T. on a short and painfully cold walk before D. retreats to the den to play video games while I tidy up the house (I am really OCD about neatness so this is a constant thing for me).
Daily total: $0
Sunday 12/27
· 6:30 AM: My morning to take T. out. He jumps off the bed right on time, we go outside for a bathroom break, and then pile back into bed. How am I going to get back into the habit of actually starting my day at this hour when my vacation is over?
· 10:30 AM: I eat honey nut cheerios for breakfast and hop on video chat with one of my oldest friends, who I’ve known since middle school. She lives overseas now, so I haven’t seen her in person for well over a year. We catch up on life during the pandemic – it’s interesting to hear how differently (read: better) other countries are handling it.
· 1:30 PM: I drive into the city to go biking with my dad. I know there’s free parking somewhere near where we’re supposed to meet, but I’m directionally challenged so I pull into the first parking lot I can find and start a parking session on ParkMobile ($5.74). My dad finds free parking and after yelling at each other for 15 minutes on the phone we finally locate each other and start biking. About five minutes in I realize that I cannot feel my pinky fingers or toes at all, and we decide to call it at a measly four miles. I make a pit stop at Whole Foods on the way home to pick up a variety of random snacks – dark chocolate, popcorn, granola bars, yogurt, etc. ($39.75). $45.49
· 6:00 PM: I throw together homemade pizza for dinner. After we eat, I spend some time organizing our closet in an attempt to feel productive…I am not great at just relaxing. After I’ve run out of things to move around, I kill some time on Reddit, take T. out for a nighttime walk, and go to sleep early.
Daily total: $45.49
Monday 12/28
· 9:30 AM: Wake up, stumble down the stairs, and eat honey nut cheerios for breakfast. T. comes downstairs, stares at me until I go to the couch to cuddle with him, and I hang out with him on my lap editing my money diary formatting.
· 11:00 AM: Tomorrow is trash day, so I go around the house consolidating trash cans. I then throw our towels in the laundry. The time at home not working is starting to drag and I have six more days, so I order Codenames Duet from Target to pick up later today. $16.95
· 2:30 PM: I return from Target and check mail to discover that our escrow refund check is on the way, woohoo! It’s D.’s turn for errands and he goes to Harris Teeter to pick up vegetables and dinner foods. We have a very piecemeal grocery shopping strategy – we buy about a third of them at HT, a third at Whole Foods, and a third at Trader Joe’s. $50.68
· 4:00 PM: Another great workout, where I use almost all of our weights. When D. stopped going to the gym in the spring, he insisted on getting a ton of free weights for our garage, and while at the time I was skeptical about how necessary it was, we now have enough equipment that anyone except for a bodybuilder could easily get a great workout in.
· 5:30 PM: Dinner tonight is hot dogs and homemade fries. We unpackage the new game and settle in at the dining room table for a couple rounds, and once we’re done, I do a thorough kitchen cleaning.
· 8:00 PM: I binge a few episodes of John Oliver on YouTube. As you can probably tell, I am running out of activities to amuse myself with. D. tells me that he has purchased “shoe cream”, whatever that is. His quarantine spending habit has been on fancy shoes and shoe care items, which feels odd for a time when he is wearing nice shoes less than ever, but whatever. $25.43
Daily total: $93.06
Tuesday 12/29
· 5:45 AM: I am rudely awoken by D.’s alarm – why he decided to work on this random Tuesday during the holiday week, I do not understand. Luckily T. is not disturbed by the alarm and stays cuddled up next to me under the covers.
· 6:30 AM: D. leaves for work and is not particularly gentle with the door, so T. gets up to investigate. Before getting up to take him out and feed him, I check my email and am dismayed to see that T.’s lifelong grooming spa is closing – not because they don’t have enough business, but because they have too much business and not enough employees. Such a strange year for the pet industry…vet waitlists these days are also many weeks long because so many people have adopted during the pandemic. I make a mental note to look into alternative groomers to go to starting next month.
· 8:30 AM: I do some research on end of year banking promotions. When we opened our Ally savings account the interest rate was 1.2%, and since then has shrunk to .5%, so we are thinking of moving our savings elsewhere for the time being. I spot a Citibank promo that will give us $700 if we park $50k in it for a few months, which is about $500 more than we would get from Ally in the same time period. I bookmark the page for us to look at together over the weekend.
· 11:00 AM: I vacuum the house with our Dyson Animal. I detest cleaning (this is why we have cleaners) but this stick vacuum makes me inexplicably happy, so I use it in between the cleaners’ visits.
· 12:00 PM: Settle in on the couch with T. in my lap for an episode of Below Deck. I am slightly overwhelmed even opening Bravo because I have three episodes of RHSLC that I need to catch up on. I grew up without cable TV and having access to all these shows now honestly stresses me out because it feels like a never-ending to-do list. I know that’s a really odd way to think about entertainment…
· 3:30 PM: I’ve barely moved today, so I bundle up for a walk around the neighborhood (without T. – he is useless for long walks when it’s less than 50 degrees). I’m a bit nervous because this will be my first time crating him in a couple months, but I know it’s important to do this from time to time so that he doesn’t develop any separation anxiety. When I come back, I open the crate and am thrilled that he decides to stay in there and continue relaxing. It makes me so happy that he still loves his crate!
· 5:00 PM: D. is home from work and neither of us feels like cooking, so I offer to pick up Chipotle. I get a tiny burrito without meat that they charge as two sides, and D. gets a steak burrito. $12.38
· 7:30 PM: Another few rounds of Codenames, and a family walk before bed. That’s all for the week (aside from my reflections below) – see you in the comments!
Daily total: $12.38
Weekly Total Spend: $10,942.42
Food and drink: $192.87
Fun and entertainment: $16.95
Home and health: $10,592.43
Clothes and beauty: $134.43
Transport: $5.74
Reflecting on the week: I would say this was a fairly normal week during quarantine, with the exception of the $10k house payment and the art print. Since it’s the end of the year and we know where we landed against our annual budget, we’ve spent a bit more freely than usual over the last few weeks. Being home all the time definitely makes mindless spending easier; before the pandemic we spent a lot on things like transit and a dog walker that aren’t in the picture now, but now I often find myself online shopping just for fun, which I didn’t do as much in the past. Nonetheless, I feel like we are in a good place financially, and I’m looking forward to watching our savings and investments grow in 2021.
submitted by throaway9799 to MoneyDiariesACTIVE [link] [comments]

The noobiest of linux questions, I'd really appreciate your feedback!

My humblest thanks to you for taking the time to read my post! I apologize for the beginner questions.
I'm hoping to move to Linux because I'd like to reduce datamining, increase privacy and get away from big tech, with the hopes that I could still keep the functionality I'm used to. I like open source and free software, if a product is very good, I don't mind paying, but obviously FOSS is my favorite. I don't like bloatware.
This is what I currently use my pc for every day: libreoffice, E-mails (thunderbird portable), calendar, listening to music (aimp, I just want a functional music player that has a small user interface and a playlist with dark theme), bitwarden, reading (firefox), watching movies (smplayer), privacy/security Adguard (I really like this app).
  1. Would any of these functions or apps (or their alternatives) not work well on Linux? I'm not tied to any of these programs. I'd just like to keep using them, their linux versions or an alternative. In case of Thunderbird I'd really want to keep my e-mails which are stored on my hd.
  2. How many commands do I need to know for using Linux?
  3. What am I missing out on if I only use the graphical user interface?
  4. I've only used DOS & Microsoft operation systems since Windows 95, so no Linux experience whatsoever. Is it even realistic for someone like me to switch to Linux?
  5. If I ever get an urge to play pc games that are meant for windows, would I be able to play those on linux? If so, how well would they run?
  6. How hard would it be to make my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 usb audio interface work (my speakers are connected to it, I listen to tons of music)?
  7. I have a Logitech G700s mouse where I've bound 8 extra buttons to various keyboard shortcuts - would I be able to use the same mouse and shortcut functionality in Linux? Using those keyboard shortcuts makes my life so much easier :o
  8. Quite some time ago I used to work as a designer, it's not my profession anymore and I don't plan on picking it up. However I really value ease of use and aesthetics. Are there any Linux versions that I should exclude if this is something that is important to me? Or perhaps are there only some Linux versions that I should consider?
  9. Would I be able to access my current files (that are in the windows 10) from Linux? Does it need any special operations etc?
  10. I got a router at home which shares wifi. My partner uses it (windows 10) and I'd be using it too. Would connecting the pc with linux to wifi be hard?
  11. I consider myself to be a skill level 6, maybe 7 (out of 10 levels) Windows user, my eyes are kinda sensitive - so the ability to configure user interface (and dark mode) are very important to me, I like setting things up to suit my needs & not having to tinker with them - like which Linux versions do you recommend for me?
Cheers!
submitted by qUxUp to linux4noobs [link] [comments]

Shadow PC on the 4K Fire TV Stick [Setup Instructions]

Just wanted to share my experience today setting up Shadow on the Fire TV Stick. Played Star Wars: Fallen Order on ultra settings without a hiccup.
Here's the hardware list for setup:
The Firestick is located close to our 5G router. It's a basic router that came with the cable service. You can setup anywhere in the house, given you have a mesh network in your home (pods supplied by cable service that extend WiFi around your home).
Instructions:
  1. The Firestick comes with an extender cable in the box. This I believe boosts the WiFi signal, so suggested to plug it in.
  2. Connect your controller to the Firestick. XBOX controllers are best, but the cheaper SN30Pro works, since it has the same buttons essentially, and is well-built.
  3. Install "Mouse Toggle" app on Firestick. This gives you mouse functionality needed later. Follow this guide to install it, and despite comments, you can use the 4K Firestick link provided in the article. It works: https://www.firesticktricks.com/mouse-toggle-firestick.html
  4. Install "Downloader" app on Firestick (covered in guide above).
  5. Within Downloader app, navigate to APKMirror and download/install the latest Shadow build for Android. I used the 3.4.4 BETA: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/blade-group/
  6. On your mobile phone or tablet, install the "Fire TV" app from official app store. This gives you a bluetooth keyboard needed later. Once downloaded, connect it to your Firestick using the code provided on screen.
  7. Go to your computer and fire up Shadow PC. If like me you have games on several platforms like Steam, Epic, Amazon, Origin, etc., you'll want to access your installed games that utilize a controller in one interface on the Firestick.
  8. Open Steam, and add the games you want to show up on the Firestick from each platform. Installed Steam games will show up in your library automatically, as you'll be using Steam's Big Picture Mode to navigate on the stick. Games from other platforms must be manually added. Here's a guide: https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/how-to-add-games-to-steam-library/ "scroll to section: Add non-Steam games from other services (such as GOG.com)".
  9. A few tips - favorite the games in Steam you've manually added from other platforms. In this way, they stay separated from your main Steam library for easy removal later. Also, you likely will want to rename the games in Steam as they take on the game's executable file name (which is not pretty).
  10. In Steam settings > Interface > enable “Run Steam when my computer starts” and “Start Steam in Big Picture Mode”.
  11. In Shadow settings, set your bandwidth to a few Mbps lower than recommended, to ensure smooth playback. In my case, they recommended 20 Mbps. I set it to 10 Mbps.
  12. Shut down your Shadow session, note your Shadow username/password, and return to the Fire TV Stick.
  13. Open Shadow app on the Firestick. Login with your credentials. You can use the standard Firestick remote for this part with its built-in keyboard.
  14. Once credentials are entered, you'll be presented with a 6-digit confirmation code sent to your email to approve the connection. Open the "Fire TV" app on your phone and with its keyboard, enter the 6 digits in the email. Then click the "Continue" button in Shadow.
  15. Shadow will ask to convert your Shadow PC to Beta version. This is OK, as it only does it for the session, and nothing gets messed up. When you open Shadow on your computer later, it'll revert back to regular Windows 10 with all your stuff intact.
  16. You should be greeted by Steam in Big Picture Mode when it boots up. From there you can navigate to your installed games library using your XBOX or generic game controller. Launch a game and Bob's your uncle.
  17. If like me you have some Star Wars games from EA, you'll likely need to login to Origin again on the Firestick. Using a combination of "Mouse Toggle" and "Fire TV" apps, you can navigate the Origin login process since it requires keyboard and mouse input. For Mouse Toggle, you press play/pause button twice to enable it, then up/down to move the mouse.
  18. A quick note about bandwidth. The Shadow android app has its own bandwidth setting independent from the standard desktop Shadow settings. By default, it was set to 5 Mbps, so I set it to 10 Mbps (as I know my network can handle that), but YMMV.
  19. It's worth noting that you should keep at least 1GB of storage free on your Firestick at all times for best performance, and the Shadow app uses roughly 55MB of storage space. It keeps next to no additional data or cache. I was pretty shocked at how light it is!
I wanted to document this process in case it helps anyone else. I've heard the 4K Fire TV Stick flakes out on others, but as of January 2021 I had zero issues playing Fallen Order for an hour with the best graphic settings. Also I didn't notice any compression artifacts on a 52" 1080p LCD TV.
I don't believe the 30 minute inactivity shutdown is a problem with the android app, so IMO it's worth moving longer gaming sessions to the TV. Less chance of losing in-game progress when you step away for an exercise break.
Stay healthy gamers!
submitted by ChiefSitsOnAssAllDay to ShadowPC [link] [comments]

free app games that don't need wifi video

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