Fair Go Casino Bonus Codes 2020 Latest No Deposit Bonuses

Section One: Assets and Debt

• Retirement Balance: $84,000 This is based on combined balances in my IRA accounts (Roth + Rollover). My current company, which I’ve been working at for 6 months, doesn't offer 401(k) matching until after the first year of work - so I’m waiting for that year mark to start contributing to one.
• Equity: ~$550,000 This is the current market value estimate of my home, a small 2 BR condo just outside of Manhattan, from Zillow. I purchased my home in summer of 2015 at a closing price of $484K. I put down $284K for the down payment (from my savings and investments which I had slowly accumulated since I was 15. My dad helped me open my first brokerage account at the time and encouraged me to keep investing and diversifying my portfolio as I grew older; this proved invaluable when it came to having the funds for my down payment a decade later) and took on a 20 year mortgage for the remaining $200K. Just last summer (June of 2019), I paid off the remainder of the mortgage balance and am now debt-free. The timing of the payoff was mostly motivated by a city-wide property revaluation assessment last year which bumped up my property tax payment to almost 3X the previous amount.
• Savings account balance: $139,000 I have this in cash in an online savings account with Ally. I normally would have invested some of this, but ever since March and with the ongoing uncertainty with the virus, the presidency, etc. I haven’t felt comfortable doing so. I am also considering buying a second condominium near where I am now that I could either rent out in the future, or move into myself and rent out my current place instead for rental income, so I want to keep funds liquid for the time being.
• Checking account balance: $3,500 This amount is split across two banks - one with Ally and the other with Chase. I keep above the $1,500 minimum at Chase to avoid any fees to ensure I can withdraw cash at one of their ATMs if needed.
• Credit card debt: $0 I place almost all of my purchases on one of two credit cards, but pay them off in full every month (and make sure to redeem the bonus points for cash back!) The total I’ll have charged across my two cards at any point in time usually ranges from $0 to $600 dollars.
• Student loan debt (for what degree): $0 I have an undergraduate econ/business degree from an Ivy League that I’m so grateful my parents were able to help me achieve without having to worry about accumulating a huge student loan for. They started a 529 account for me a little later than ideal (when I was in middle school - I’ll go into more detail in the next paragraph) but saved aggressively leading up to when I graduated high school. They were able to cover the majority of my tuition + room and board this way, and I helped cover the rest through several scholarships and working on campus.
• Mortgage: $0 Paid off last year! This was definitely one of my proudest recent accomplishments. I’ve always lived fairly frugally, due mostly to my childhood experiences and background. If there’s anything I could have done differently, it would have been to get a mortgage for a shorter term (versus the original 20 years) so that I could have gotten a lower rate and paid less in mortgage interest.

Section Two: Income

• Income Progression: My first job was at McDonald’s when I was 15, and I started with the minimum wage rate of $5.25/hour. In high school, I switched to working retail at Kmart and then every summer of college, worked at various paid internships for the full summer in addition to working on campus at various jobs (from cashier to research assistant). My junior year summer internship was at a firm that I would eventually return to full time after I graduated. I've been working full time for 8 years now, and my starting salary was ~$60,000. I started off working in analytics for a financial service firm in NYC and have changed jobs every 2-3 years since then. I primarily stayed in finance up until last year, working my way through steady salary increases each year and with each job change. I had begun looking for a new job and industry right before the pandemic hit in March as I was getting bored and frustrated with my role at the time; I had actually interviewed for my current role right when interviews were all being changed to virtual and didn’t hear back until May as the company was dealing with the big shift to work from home and figuring out headcount for the future. Thankfully my role was kept and I officially started working at my current company in the media/tech space in mid-May. My current annual base salary is $110,000 with a 10% annual bonus ($121,000 all-in).
• Main Job Monthly Take Home: $5,800 This is my final take home, which is paid out bi-weekly (my average paycheck amount is around $2,900). This is after deductions for health insurance (dental+vision), a healthcare HSA ($100 a month), and a pre-tax transit account ($100 a month). Retirement contributions are currently on pause until I hit my one year mark next May and qualify for matching contributions to a 401(k).
• Side Gig Monthly Take Home: ~$890 I have a couple sources of income from Instagram, one of which is my dedicated food account (75K+ followers). For this account, I don’t have a steady stream of income but reap the benefits in various invitations to restaurants in NYC - I’m invited in for a meal (usually with a guest), and for posting photos and stories featuring the restaurants and dishes, have the cost of the meal covered. For sit down meals, however, my guest and I make sure to cover the tip for the service. I’m occasionally shipped food/drink items to share as well. If I do make any income, this is from infrequent brand or restaurant campaigns that I’m contacted for; depending on what’s required in deliverables, these can range anywhere from $300-$3,000. The pandemic definitely impacted this year, but for 2020, I’m on track to have earned ~$6,500 from these. I am also helping 2 friends of mine who started a small business in July with some photography and social media. I post on their social channels and do larger product shoots 1-2x a month, and get $350 a month for this work.
• Any Other Monthly Income: $300 My property also has a gated parking spot included with the deed; so even though I don’t have a car, I’ve found a “tenant” for the spot since I bought my place five years ago. We sign an annual lease every October for $3,600 for the upcoming year, which comes to $300/month.

Section Three: Expenses

• Property Tax: $767 (paid quarterly at ~$2,300, this amount changes quarter to quarter, so I’m using an average for the past year)
• Homeowners Association (HOA) Fees: $434 (this covers water, garbage, and some building insurance)
• Condominium Insurance: $54 (paid annually at $650, my HOA fees cover some initial property insurance, so this is specific to my unit).
• Retirement Contribution: On pause for now as I wait to hit the year mark at my current job to get matching 401(k) contributions. I also want to keep some earnings liquid for a potential future real estate investment.
• Debt payments: $0, aside from paying off my monthly CC balance
• Electricity/Gas: ~$70 (depends on the season, spring and fall are in the low $40s while summer and winter can be in the high $90s)
• WiFi: $40 (recently signed up for the introductory offer at Comcast)
• Cellphone: $50 (I’m on the family plan still, but transfer this amount to my dad each month)
• Credit Card Fee: $8.33 ($200 annual fees across the 2 cards I currently have. Next year I will cancel/downgrade from the Chase Sapphire Preferred as the benefits for Travel and Dining are pretty much moot.)
• Subscriptions: Amazon Prime: $10 (annual subscription, I share with my family) Netflix: $0 (my parents cover this one) Hulu/Spotify: $11 Adobe Creative Cloud: $11 Apple Cloud: $1 OneDrive: $2 Causebox: $17 (quarterly subscription box that I pay the $200 annual cost for)
• Donations: I don’t have a recurring donation organization or amount, but will donate where and when I see the need. So far this year, I’ve donated $500 to my local hospital, the NAACP, and City Harvest.
• Savings Contribution: I will pretty much just transfer over money from my checking account to my savings account whenever it gets above the $1k or $1.5k threshold (I’ll keep more if it’s around the end of the month and monthly payments are coming up). I’m typically able to transfer over $2.5-3K each month, unless it happens to be one where quarterly property taxes are due.

Weekly Expenses:
Food + Drink: $78.70 (including tip)
Fun / Entertainment: $0
Home + Health: $72.33
Clothes + Beauty: $0
Transport: $0
Other: $189.24
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Day One (Monday)
8:45am: My alarm goes off and I hit snooze. One of the worst parts about the whole WFH situation has been how bad I’ve become with getting up on time, knowing that I can be at “work” in less than 15 steps. I scroll through social media a bit and catch up on some posts before getting out of bed.
9:15am: I’ve brushed my teeth, washed my face, and put on my skincare (toner, serums, and moisturizer) and am booting up my laptop. I changed jobs 6 months ago in the midst of the pandemic, leaving my previous role in financial services for a position in a large media/tech company, which has been a little crazy. It’s been tough doing everything remotely, and learning the new industry and programming/software has been especially difficult, but I feel like I’m getting my bearings. I start brewing some coffee.
9:30am: I hop on a Zoom for our weekly department huddle and listen as the different teams give updates on various initiatives as well as some background on company-wide kick offs and projects. Some of the projects I’m working on get brought up and it feels good to be doing what feels like actual work. After the call, I get to work on tackling work for some of the larger projects I have, which include scoping out source/logic details on a production report that we want to integrate in a new platform and QAing a table that I’m working on with data science.
12pm: I take a break to refill my coffee mug and make IG posts for my friends’ small business account and my own account (a food IG with 75K+ followers). I took on the first gig a few months ago when my friends, a couple in Brooklyn, launched their hand-crafted drinks business. I started the second, my personal account, over 3 years ago with a focus on restaurants in NYC. It stalled quite a bit over the last few months with the pandemic, but I’ve been dining out infrequently these days, and have limited myself to dining with only one friend at a time (out of a total of 3 friends since June, all of whom I know have tested negative and have been taking precautions since March).
3pm: I’ve wrapped up a touch base with a manager and a semi-stressful meeting where I had to present to some senior executives a dashboard we've been working on over the last few months. They have a few (mostly minor) tweaks that I note in a JIRA ticket before I grab my mask and take a quick break to stop by a local ice cream shop that’s invited me in to try their latest dessert special. There’s thankfully no one else there aside from one of the co-owners who recognizes me and gets my treats ready. I photograph them, thank her, and leave a $3 tip. $3
3:30pm: Back home, I get back to some Slack messages and try to prepare for another stressful call at 4:30pm that I have to lead. I finish eating the ice cream and call it lunch - but hey, that’s #adulting for you.
6pm: Wrap up some notes from the call and text my dad the address that I’m heading out to. I saw a 1BR condo listing pop up on Zillow over the weekend that looked promising, so I’m getting an in-person tour of it this evening. I get my mask on again and make the 5 minute walk to the building where the realtor is outside to meet me. We go inside to look at the condo for sale - the space definitely looks smaller in person than in the photos, and I note that a number of things need to be replaced or upgraded. I thank the realtor after the tour and give a call to my dad to let him know I’m okay and to give him my initial impressions of the space.
7pm: Back home! I wash my hands and change my clothes and get started on dinner; I’ve been craving soup these days so make a quick hot and sour soup on the stove with mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tofu, and some corn I have in the fridge. While I eat, I edit the photos from my DSLR from this afternoon, and check my IG account email to reply to about 7 emails that came in today about campaigns and invitations to restaurants; one of these includes signing a contract with a new app that’s offering a generous sign on payment and potential future income. I catch up on IG posts and comments and text a few friends.
11pm: I spend the rest of the evening catching up on some news, watching the latest episode of the Korean drama Start Up, and finally take a shower. While my hair is still drying in a hair tower, I do a quick Chloe Ting workout; I started doing some of her workouts a few months ago and while I’m not doing them super seriously, I’ve definitely noticed a difference in my abs and feel stronger overall. My Google Home plays some news snippets for me afterwards, and I roll my eyes at the continued attempts of our current president to try and derail the election results. On the plus side - the initial vaccine results from 2 firms have been super promising!
1am: I remember to take my daily multivitamins and then read a bit on my Kindle (I just finished Sex and Vanity, and start on Me Before You - another thing I picked up during quarantine, and I’ve already read over 30 books since March!). I then proceed to spend too much time on Instagram and reddit before turning out the lights.
Day One Total: $3
Day Two (Tuesday)
8:45am: Alarm goes off on the dot and I, the perpetual sleep procrastinator, snooze one too many times. I barely manage to make it out of bed in time to brush my teeth, wash my face, and chug some water before a 9:15am call. It’s a quick check in on projects within my business area so I summarize the work that’s been done and am grateful I don’t have to have my webcam on for this.
12pm: Unfortunately I need my webcam on for the next two meetings, so try to make myself look semi-presentable by combing through my hair and putting on a sweater, instead of my default hoodie. I get a little more clarification on some metrics and data sources in this upcoming platform integration and discussing my upcoming sprint priorities with my manager. At noon, I make a new post on my food IG and go through my feed. I pour my second mug of coffee and drink more water in preparation for the next batch of afternoon meetings.
3pm: Talk through more Zoom calls to the point that my throat is starting to hurt. I’m especially frustrated after the team huddle that just ended where one of the managers tells me my approach to building out the proposed data architecture is too limited in scope, and I should be more imaginative and proactive. The entire work from home situation has made it difficult to understand how to work with and collaborate with different people, so I try not to get too frustrated. I spend the rest of the afternoon making some minor adjustments to existing production reports and updating JIRA tickets.
5pm: I email over my dad a few of the more promising Zillow listings that landed in my inbox this morning. He jokingly complains that there’s too much to read and the words are too small before I realize that he’s been doing a lot of work on his laptop lately as he’s been WFH more. I take a look at a few computer monitors and opt for a larger (24”) version of what I currently have as it’s been working well for me for the last 6 months. I make sure it includes a HDMI cable and have it shipped my dad. $179.24
5:50pm: I grab my mask, bag, and camera and text my friend to let her know I’m en route to dinner; she’s one of the few friends I’ve seen in person since March and is also a food blogger with a separate full time job. She’s been quarantining in Long Island since the start of everything, and texts me that she’s driving in from her home, I head out to the PATH station, swipe in using my prepaid Smartlink card, and hop onto the next train.
6:35pm: I’m a few minutes late but make sure my friend knows I’m walking over, and meet her outside the restaurant. We get checked in, fill out our contact information on our phones, and get our temperatures taken; thankfully there’s only 2 other groups seated and the windows are open. Tonight’s dinner was an invitation that I already confirmed with the PR team, so the staff are expecting us and understand we’ll both be taking photos. We order a few apps and two mains, and spend the rest of the evening doing some quick photos and catching up on our lives, her plans to move into Manhattan or JC, and complaining about the ongoing election drama.
8:30pm: Dinner is done, and I realize I forgot to stop at an ATM and only have a dollar bill on me so ask if I can Venmo my friend my part of the gratuity. Thankfully she has $20 on her so I quickly Venmo her $10, making sure to use the adorable fries sticker to represent the copious amount that we ate tonight. $10
8:45pm: My friend and I walk out with our masks on, and I bid her goodbye and a happy Thanksgiving before stopping at the ATM to take out some cash, making sure to sanitize my hands after, and then head to my train. As I wait, I make some quick edits to the photos I took on my iPhone and add them with a few captions and tags to my IG stories; I manage to get through them all by the time the next train pulls up and leaves.
9:20pm: It’s always so nice to get back home! I wash my hands, change my clothes, and get started with transferring over the photos from my DSLR to my computer. I spend the next 20 or so minutes editing and saving the final versions in Adobe Lightroom and make sure to chug a glass of water to help balance out all the sodium I had. I check my messages and see that a restaurant in NJ confirmed a lunch delivery for tomorrow and see another contract in my inbox; I read the deliverables and ask the account manager if she can take out the clause requiring a Tiktok post because I don’t have an account.
11:30pm: I shower and put on my evening skincare, take my multivitamins, and do a quick ab workout with Chloe Ting (it still hurts lol). I take a look at my work calendar tomorrow and see that my first meeting starts at 9am, so I update my alarm to 15 minutes earlier. I take my vitamins and spend the rest of the evening catching up on some news, reddit, and IG.
1:30am: I blame Youtube vlogs for this one. Finally turn out the lights.
Day Two Total: $189.24
Day Three (Wednesday)
8:30am: Alarm goes off and I manage to get myself out of bed in a semi-reasonable fashion. Do my typical routine (brushing teeth, washing face, getting water and coffee ready) and log into my work laptop so I’m on the Zoom right at 9am. This is a belated overview session for one of the larger projects that I started working on quite late in the process, so it’s a useful business and data update that gives me a better understanding of the end goals.
12pm: Sit through one other department meeting where I don’t fully pay attention because I look into some minor report and code checks (oops). Once those wrap up, I’m able to take a break to do a post and stories for my friends’ business account and then make a post on my food account. I notice an email come in from a PR company about a new location opening for one of my favorite restaurants, so I check with one of my friends if he’s able to make the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and reply back to the email requesting it.
1:30pm: While I listen in on a company-wide speaker event on the topic of gender sensitivity and awareness, I also click through a recently assigned digital training course on sexual harassment and discrimination. I understand that the latter is a legally mandated item, but find it a bit sad (especially in the current day and age) that these are things that have to be spelled out for people. After I finish, I get a call for my lunch delivery; I grab my mask, keys, and wallet and meet the deliveryperson downstairs. I give him a $6 tip and take some photos of the items, which include chicken wings and a chicken sandwich. After I’m done with photos, I scarf down the food so I can make my next call which requires me to talk and have my webcam on. $6
4:30pm: I have a 1 on 1 with my manager and then a call with a business partner to scope out requirements for a new report. So glad to be done with calls! I get started putting together a project plan/roadmap for one of my projects and Slack one of the recently hired data engineers, who I found out grew up near me in suburban Philadelphia!
6pm: Get the shipping notification email that my dad’s monitor has shipped! I call it a day and close my work laptop and get started on my weekly apartment clean. I call my dad while I do so and let him know that his monitor should arrive on Friday; he thanks me and we catch up on work, COVID, and my potential future real estate investment. While I talk, I notice an alert from Mint that a large charge from Amazon hit my credit card; I’m a little worried until I log into my account and see that the annual prime membership has been renewed. Also tell my dad this as he heard me flip out thinking that someone had been making fraudulent charges on my card, as he and my mom are part of my “Prime household”. ($127, noted in my monthly expenses)
7pm: I’m done vacuuming and taking out the trash and am officially hungry. I make a quick tomato and egg soup with orzo and eat an apple while I wait for the orzo to cook. I wrap up some IG emails while I eat, including signing the updated contract with the Tiktok clause removed and politely declining some invitations to places that I’m not able to physically go to.
10pm: Wash the dishes, take a shower, brush my teeth and put on a clay face mask; while it dries, I do a quick 15 min workout on the mat and then wash off the clay mask before doing my skincare. I make sure to drink some more water and take my vitamins, and spend the rest of the evening in bed on my phone and working my way through Me Before You - it’s a slow start, but I’m starting to warm up to the protagonist.
1am: Lights out!
Day Three Total: $6
Day Four (Thursday)
8:30am: Forgot to change my weekday alarm back; oh well, I’ll survive. Crawl out of bed, and get ready for the day (you know the drill), and make sure I have plenty of coffee on hand. My period also just started, which is never a good sign.
12pm: The morning has just felt like an onslaught of meetings; followed by some impromptu Zoom calls. I’m starting to feel frazzled as various timelines and deliverables seem to have been shifted up and try to work with one of the other data engineers to specify possible business user requirements. This unintentionally gets shared with one of the project managers who sends an email en masse to the business users asking for sign off on this initial list. I don’t think it’s a big deal, but...
12:30pm: Make the post and stories on the small business account and my own account, finish the remainder of today’s coffee while I go through emails and minor JIRA tasks. I hop onto a share screen with one of my coworkers to transition over a project I’d been working on; I had built out a new dashboard and now that it’s “QA” state has been approved, he will now take over the more formal production process and maintenance.
3:30pm: During our second team stand up, I give my manager project updates and he immediately tells me I shouldn’t have let my list be shared with business users and other involved teams. I don’t fully get why; but after our team call he asks me to hop onto an impromptu Zoom with him where he tries to explain some of the complexities of company and team politics and how I should be very careful to give my stamp of approval, however formal or informal, unless I fully stand behind it. The conversation is a bit long, but I get a better sense of what's going on between teams and managers, and try not to cry as my manager tries to tell me it's not anything I did, but I need to be careful of my actions.
6pm: I manage to collect myself in time to meet a friend for the first time in months at an outdoor dine a few blocks away. He (and his girlfriend) was just recently re-tested as negative, which is always reassuring. While I get my belongings and my mask, my coworker Slacks me asking if I’m okay, apologizing for not messing earlier as she was on an afternoon call. She reassures me the same thing has happened to everyone else on the team, that a lot of these nuances I’m not aware of because I’ve never been in the office, and suggests putting on a one hour venting session with the other engineers in the team next week. I happily do so, and tell her I’ll catch up with her next week as I have off tomorrow.
6:30pm: My friend and I are seated near one of the heat lamps, and it’s so good to catch up with him after so long! He gives me some life updates, including the fact that he and his girlfriend are moving into a house they are waiting to close on, and the fact that he just put down a deposit for an engagement ring!! I’m so excited and barrage him with questions on timing, his plans, etc. and almost forget that we need to order food.
8pm: We have a delicious meal that includes burgers and a lobster roll (all of which I photograph) and he gets a few cocktails (I don’t drink). I leave a $10 tip, and my friend puts down $15 for his share, factoring in the alcohol. We mask up before heading out, and I tell him I want updates on everything for the next month as he goes through all those major life events! $10
8:30pm: After my short trip home, I wash my hands, change, and get started on editing photos from tonight. I definitely feel much better after the work “event” and take a longer shower tonight to decompress.
11pm: Decide to skip the workout tonight because I feel like it, and sit in bed doing some more administrative/scheduling tasks on my iPad in bed. I see a few updates from some of the team in India (yay international time zones - not) and debate if I should handle these tonight. Since I’m out tomorrow, I know it’ll be better if I do, so hop back onto the work laptop to wrap up some last minute code edits and JIRA updates. Once I’m done, I make sure my OOO notice and status in Slack are updated and eat a yogurt cup with some grapes because, yes, I’m hungry-ish again.
1am: Hair is dry, vitamins are taken, and it’s time for bed... or not? I’m already past the halfway point of Me Before You and cannot stop reading - it’s at the point where I’m now seriously invested in the relationship between the female and male protagonist and have to know how it ends (even though I already have my guesses). I speed through the rest of the book and shed a couple tears when I finish, which is past 3am. Thankfully I’m not working the next day! I make sure to set my alarm for later and finally go to bed.
Day Four Total: $10
Day Five (Friday)
11am: My alarm goes off and I actually feel semi-decent upon waking up - I don’t think I will ever not be a night owl! I get dressed and get ready to head out to try and get a COVID test; I last took one in June so want to have a more up-to-date status, especially as I’m potentially going home the next week for Thanksgiving. I haven’t seen my parents for over a year at this point and my dad has offered to drive down from Boston to pick me and my sister (in college, who is tested every week) up, but I’m still not feeling great about it given the fact that my parents are in their 60s. At the very least, I want to get a test to have more information before making any final decisions. I drink some water so I’m at least hydrated.
11:30am: I grab my Kindle, mask, and sanitizer and head out to the nearby mobile testing center that was set up. The line is about 15 people long - not terrible, especially as everyone is spacing out 6+ feet between each other - so I head to the end and spend the 2 hours or so in between my phone (making my daily IG post) and my Kindle (next up: Olive, Again) While I wait, I get an email about one of the campaigns I’ve been ironing out, and confirm I’m planning on visiting this weekend to get photos so I can send the content draft over for approval afterwards.
1:30pm: The process is pretty seamless; I fill out my information through my phone, upload a photo of my insurance card, and get my temperature and blood pressure taken before the nasal swab. It’s not that bad, I guess, but having anything put uncomfortably deep into your nasal passages is not fun. The doctor tells me I should get my results by the following Tuesday through the online patient portal; I thank him and head back out with my mask on.
2pm: Home and officially hungry, so after washing my hands and changing, I bowl a pot of water and put in a block of Shin Ramyun. I make it a little less like what I ate back in college by adding in some frozen corn, spinach, and an egg. I also eat an apple and catch up on some emails and go through IG before taking a fat nap.
6pm: I’m woken up by a text from my dad; it’s a picture of his new computer set up at home, and I’m glad to see everything’s working and should hopefully help his eyes. I take a second look at the photo and see that he’s using a tiny USB wire mouse - which he probably got as a work freebie. I sigh and find a wireless mouse on Amazon to have delivered to him the next day; I send him a text to watch out for that delivery as well tomorrow. $10
7pm: Time to head to the grocery store! I have a few options within walking distance of me, but like going to the Asian grocery store just given how unique and sometimes hard-to-find their selection is. I’m doing a virtual dinner swap with a friend tomorrow so I need to get ingredients for that, as well as my weekly grocery shop. I make sure I have my mask and reusable bag, and stock up on tofu, zucchini, mushrooms, bok choy, more apples (Fuji, but Honeycrisp is also a fav, ground pork, and some snacks, noodles, and yogurt. I struggle a bit to carry it home. #smallpeopleproblems $33.31
8pm: Once home, I unpack everything and get started on a (very butchered) version of soondubu with Napa cabbage, zucchini, and mushrooms with a spicy soup base (dwenjaeng paste, gochujang, soy sauce, gochugaru). I cook some rice on the side. While I eat, I load up Netflix and decide to start on The Queen’s Gambit.
11pm: Shower, skincare, and vitamins - and I end the evening with another quick mat workout. After I blow dry by hair, I climb into bed and spend far too much time on the phone as my brain wanders and gets in knots about Thanksgiving next week; my parents and I agreed not to make any decisions until I got my results back, but even if it’s negative, I know there’s still a risk if I were to let my dad pick me up and take me home. I know he and my mom really want to see me though, which makes me feel even more conflicted. I tell myself to stop thinking about it until next week and double check my schedule for tomorrow before opening up my Kindle to read.
2am: Finally decide to sleep after getting distracted by Youtube, again. Oops.
Day Five Total: $43.31
Day Six (Saturday)
10:40am: My weekly Saturday alarm goes off; my friends behind the small business and I have our recurring call every Saturday morning and while I would like to sleep in, I force myself to get up, brush my teeth, and do a quick face wash.
11am: I drink some water as we catch up on today’s agendas and tasks; we’re finalizing a seasonal holiday drink to be rolled out after Thanksgiving, so we go over the ingredients and timing, and figure out when I’ll be able to visit them in Brooklyn next month to get the photos for future posts and website updates. They also tell me they’d like to grab some photos of their new house (that they’ll be closing on soon) while I’m there, and I’m happy to do so. My friend tries to tell me that they’ll pay me extra for this, but I laugh and tell her she can just feed me.
12pm: Grab my mask, keys, and camera - Time to head out today! I have two stops near me to get photos for upcoming posts; one is for a bakery chain releasing a seasonal cake flavor and the other is for a newly opened location of a pizza franchise. My pick up order for the bakery was made in advance, so I stop inside, give them my name for the order, and after a little confusion that leads to them calling a manager, I have my cake ready to go. I take it outside to photograph; this campaign is offering a small payment but thankfully doesn’t need to review the content before I post.
12:30pm: I load up the app for the pizza place on my phone and use the pre-loaded credits to place my order in advance so it’ll be ready for pick up once I arrive. It’s a 15 minute walk or so over, but the pies are ready for me when I get there. The staff is nice enough to put them in a bag for me (they’re personal pies, so thankfully small enough) and I walk over to the waterfront to take some photos out there. I add some photos to my stories and walk home with my goodies; I’ll need to write up and submit the content for approval before posting, but this campaign is also offering a small payment.
1:30pm: Finally home! I wash up, transfer my photos to my laptop, and get started editing. In between, I make a post to my food account and the small business account, catch up on comments and friends’ posts, and try not to make a mess while eating some pizza and a slice of cake.
3:00pm: After putting the leftovers in the fridge, I’m ready for a nap. I set an alarm for 5pm just in case I oversleep since I need to make dinner late for my dinner swap!
5:00pm: Alarm goes off, and I struggle to get out of bed. I know I want as much time as possible to cook though, especially as bad things happen when I rush. I prep the food in advance by washing the bok choy, slicing the mushrooms, and mincing garlic and ginger. I do a bok choy and mushroom stir fry, and make mapo tofu and rice. I barely finish in time to package half of the meal into to-go containers for my friend, and text him; he tells me not to rush and that it’s cold enough so that the dessert won’t melt (lol).
6:40pm: I meet my friend outside halfway between our apartments outside of City Hall; of course we’re both masked. We do our meal swap; I give him the savory items I made while he hands over 2 small containers - and we both head to our separate homes. When I get back, I find out one has tiramisu and the other has a matcha oreo ice cream! I log onto Zoom for our virtual dinner hangout. Even though my friend is so close, he sees his parents regularly as well, so has been doing his best to be extra cautious. We’ve come up with this set up where we’ll each swap items for dinner (usually I’ll cook the savory and he’ll order dessert) and exchange them before enjoying dinner over Zoom later.
8:30pm: Call is over, so now it’s time to clean the kitchen - and it’s definitely a mess, especially as I was a bit frazzled. I wash the many utensils and pans I went through and do my best to dry them; washing up is definitely the least fun part of cooking.
11pm: Spend the rest of the night killing time between my phone, Netflix, and emails. I ask one of my friends (whom I saw earlier in the week) about some potential dates and places over the next few weeks, and send over calendar blocks while I wait to get reservations confirmed.
1am: By this point, I’ve showered, taken my vitamins, and am ready for bed. Read a little, watch some more videos, and eventually fall asleep sometime later.
Day Six Total: $0
Day Seven (Sunday)
12:30pm: It’s the one day this week that I don’t have an alarm, so I let myself sleep in for as long as I want to - which means that yes, I will sleep through the morning and into the afternoon. I dawdle in bed, posting on my food account and catching up on my feed, and just scrolling through various news articles and reddit threads.
1:30pm: After finally washing up and drinking some coffee, I grab my mask and bag to round out a few more groceries for the week; even though the Asian grocery store is great, they don’t have some staples so I’m heading to one of the more traditional stores near me today. I pick up some pasta, tomato sauce, oatmeal, peanut butter, and some more produce. $16.39
2:30pm: Once I’m back home and put everything away, I make a late lunch of oatmeal and apples with some Annie’s Mac & Cheese. While I eat, I start putting together the post and story captions, tags, and links for the pizza campaign, and submit them to the account managers for approval.
5:00pm: After some more dawdling on my phone and getting through more of The Queen’s Gambit (so good!), I hop onto a weekly Zoom with two of my good friends. We’ve known each other for over 8 years and while I do see one of them semi-regularly, the other has some health complications. We’ve kept this weekly Zoom call since mid-March and it helped me get through the rougher months.
7pm: After the call is over, I check my Amazon cart and take a look at anything that’s accumulated over the prior week. For non-essentials, I’ll add them to my cart and take a few days to think through if it’s something I really want/need and I’m usually able to pare down that list when I get back to it later. I decide to keep a saucepan and bath towels and order them for next week. $72.33
8pm: For dinner, I default to my tomato & egg soup with rice, and add in some zucchini for some more vegetables. I eat an apple and finish off the ice cream from yesterday as well.
11pm: Shower, do my skincare, and plop myself into bed. I continue binge-watching The Queen’s Gambit until the end - such a satisfying ending!
1am: Make sure my alarm is set for work before turning out the light.
Day Seven Total: $88.72

I’ve left everything in GBP. 1 GBP = 1.26 USD
H = Husband
S = Son (3 months old)
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance ~ £65,000 in a workplace pension across 2 providers (I contribute 5%, my employer contributes 7%) H has approx £30,000 in a workplace pension. If the state pension exists by the time we retire (who knows!) we’ll claim this too.
Equity if you’re a homeowner - £140,000. House is valued at around £400,000 and we have approx £260,000 left on the mortgage. We currently overpay £700 a month to clear the balance quicker. Fingers crossed Brexit doesn’t cause the housing market to crash when we remortgage next year.
Savings account balance - £9000 in easy access savings account (maternity leave pot), £9500 in Cash ISA (emergency fund), £13,000 in Stocks & Shares ISA (investments), £1160 in a High Interest Savings Account.
I also have ~ £129,000 in stock grants and ESPP with my company, £23,000 of which has vested. The rest vests between now and April 2023….assuming I stay employed at the same company (hard not to with these golden handcuffs!)
£4200 in stock through H’s SAYE scheme at work. This vests in October 2020 and should be worth about £9000 by then.
Checking account balance - Approx £500 for me and £500 for H as it’s payday and we have this as our personal spending money per month.
Credit Card debt - £0. We did buy some furniture at Harvey’s on a 0% deal when we bought our house nearly 4 years ago. The balance outstanding is £300….we should really just pay this off but it is 0% so we’ve just left it.
Student Loan debt - £0 for me (I had £24,000 total paid off last year) £2500 for H (total debt was around £18,000) which will be paid off in the next few months. We both have Bachelor degrees only.
Anything else that’s applicable to you - I am currently on maternity leave with our first child so not working currently. I’m due to return to work at some point between April and July 2020. My employer provides 26 weeks of maternity leave at full pay so I am using this and then will drop to statutory maternity pay (£148 a week) for my last couple of months. I have £9000 saved to cover me during this period and also pay for anticipated nursery registration costs or upfront nanny search costs.
Taking 6-12 months of maternity leave is the norm in the UK, but even still, I am very lucky to have a great maternity package (ironic as I work for an American company!!)
Section Two: Income
Main Job Monthly Take Home: ~ £5400
(This is after Tax, National Insurance, Retirement, Private Healthcare for me, H and A, Dental plan and contribution to ESPP)
I get a £19,000 bonus annually but have not included this in Monthly Take Home as it’s only paid over 2 months on the year. In the past we've spent the bonus on home renovations but now that's all wrapped up we'll probably throw it at the mortgage.
H’s Main Job Monthly Take Home: ~ £2900
(After Tax, National Insurance, Retirement and SAYE Contribution)
H gets around £2000 bonus annually also.
Side Gig Monthly Take Home: Nope!
Any Other Monthly Income: Nope! H sometimes does out of hours work which pays on average an extra £300 or so per month, but it’s variable. He also gets free public transport which saves us about £200 a month in commuting costs.
Section Three: Expenses
Mortgage - £1927 (Monthly payment is £1227 but we pay £700 extra per month) for a 3.5 bedroom house in zone 6.
Retirement Contribution - Mine is £1060.93 pre tax, detailed above. 5% from me and 8% from my employer.
H is around £500 I think, not sure if he exact % split, but I think it’s 4% with a 6% match.
Savings Contribution - I save ~ £1500 to a high interest savings account, £250 to Holiday Fund, £125 to S’s Junior ISA. H saves ~ £500 per month to his general savings and £100 in a savings account for his family.
Investment Contribution - £750 to Stocks & Shares ISA, £410 to ESPP (taken pre tax), £200 to SAYE (taken pre tax)
Debt Payments - £50 Harvey’s 0% Loan
Donations - £50 to various charities. We do have some direct debits but I tend to just sponsor people for the various fundraising activities they’re doing as my primary form of giving. I volunteer a lot through work so currently I am not giving any of my time, but will get back to this when I return. H volunteers 20-40 hours per month.
Electric & Gas - From £70 - £160 depending on how much heating we’ve used. We just switched our tariff for a better deal.
Water - £31.10
WiFi and TV Package - £39
TV License - £12.83
Council Tax - £211 (10 months of the year. Nothing is paid in Feb & March)
Cellphone - Work pays for mine. H pays £30.
Subscriptions - £4 Medium, £0.79 iCloud storage, £5.99 Netflix, £9.99 Spotify
Life Insurance - £14.22 (we both have some cover through work so have a relatively small level of cover we pay for ourselves to “top up” the work provided cover)
Car Payment - £235 (This is a lease, on an 10000 mile per year 3 year term) We don’t drive much as we take public transportation for work so spend only £50-100 a month on petrol.
Cleaner - £60 (2x3 hour visits per month)
Annual Expenses - Home Insurance £380, Car Insurance £600, Amazon Prime £79, Costco £39
Day 1 (Wednesday)
06:00 - S is up bright and early so I nurse him and since H is working from home today I squeeze in a quick Yoga video on YouTube before getting ready for the day. I love YouTube for free workouts! Before S was born, I used ClassPass but it doesn’t cover classes in my hometown and I don’t commute into the city anymore so had to cancel.
I shower, eat cereal, drink coffee and put S down for his first nap while watching Suits on Netflix.
08:30 - Try on the contents of my ASOS parcel from yesterday. 2 sets of Jeggings, 2 Bras, 1 Blouse and a pair of Trainers. All wonderful apart from the trainers, so I package up to return. Will expect a £10 refund to come through next week.
10:00 - H places an Amazon order for a Wicker Basket and book for S (£20.98). We live off Amazon Prime deliveries and have at least 1 parcel a day arrive. If we need something and it’s available on Amazon, take our money!
13:00 - Meet with some other local mums for coffee at the nearest buggy friendly café we can find. Flat White and a Lemon Drizzle Muffin for me (£5.95). They say breastfeeding burns 500 calories a day right? S has a meltdown so I cut the visit short and have a little cry on the way home. S is quite a challenging baby and I normally cope ok but I have the odd moment still where I find it overwhelming. H thankfully takes him off me and settles him enough to nurse and subsequently conk out.
17:50 - Read the latest Money Diary. It’s the French lady in the abusive relationship doing a follow up! Feel very spoilt. Also place an Amazon order for a fascinating device - the “Baby Susher”, which basically just plays “ssshhh” sounds. S responds really well to “ssshhh” but it’s starting to hurt my teeth and make me feel lightheaded! A whopping £29.95 spent, but hopefully it’s worth it.
Daily Expenses £56.88
Day 2 (Thursday)
07:35 - Book myself a home massage for next week on Blow LTD (£60). It’s pricey, but I can’t get out easily with S and I am permanently sore and tense from holding him. My employer reimburses some health related costs so I will submit this as an expense.
10:45 - Now it’s S’s turn! We are attending “Baby Massage” class with S this morning - we try and do something every day to get out, but I think the massage does help him chill a bit too. I already paid for a set of 5 classes (around £50-60 I think) and today, my friend buys me a coffee so I can go and nurse S before class.
13:00 - We have a wonderful cleaner come biweekly to clean and iron for us, which is honestly a marriage saver for us. I used to feel super indulgent and embarrassed to admit we had a cleaner but I’m over it! She charges £10 an hour (no agency, so cash in hand) and does a fantastic job. We’re considering upping her to weekly now that we have S to look after too. 3hour clean today so £30 paid.
14:00 - H calls to say our private health insurance company has declined to pay for his treatment since I accidentally removed him from my plan when I added S. Whoops! Promise to sort it out ASAP, although it’ll require me to log onto my work laptop which I hate doing on maternity leave, even though I really miss work!
16:00 - Take S to see my parents. They feed me tea and biscuits and play with S. Result.
18:45 - Unpack the “Baby Shusher” and give it a little go. Impressive….
Also unpack a letter from British Gas about our new tariff. Less impressive…..
20:10 - It’s the release of the new term of Baby Sensory classes and if you don’t act quick, you don’t get a spot! S loves sensory and I love a happy S so I sign him up for the winter term. Oh how life has changed…..£65
Daily Expenses £95 (not including Massage as it will be reimbursed)
Day 3 (Friday)
06:20 - Up for the day and do the normal morning routine with S. Run around doing some laundry and other chores while he is occupied in his swing. It’s truly amazing how much laundry a baby generates, especially a refluxy baby like S. 3 outfits a day, muslins, sheets, bibs, blankets, it’s insane. We’re getting a tumble dryer now because we can’t cope.
09:20 - I’m trying to construct a new bouncer but the screws provided are impossible to get into the hole! Give up and finish our online Tesco Shop instead.
11:30 - Finally get upstairs to shower and get dressed but S has other ideas. I manage a bit of deodorant, some brow pencil, mascara, hair in a messy bun and yesterday’s clothes.
13:00 - A friend comes over to visit us and recounts the time her daughter called her teacher a Dickhead. It made my day. We drink coffee, pass S back and forth and catchup on our lives. A lot of my friends either don’t have kids yet or do but are not local, so I’ve had to acquire a full new set of mum friends recently. We all know making friends as an adult is hard but having babies all at the same time really is something to easily bond over.
18:30 - H is home and we’re both starving, so we order a Dominoes (£24.90). I eat most of mine (half Hawaiian, half Double Pepperoni) one handed while nursing, (a skill I’m getting really good at recently) and drink a cocktail H made for us. We get takeaway around once a week and between us probably eat 2-3 out of 14 lunches out and 1-2 dinners. Everything else we bulk cook at home. H takes over S Duty while I have a hot bath and listen to the “Headspace” episode of the “How I Built This” podcast. H also successfully builds the bouncer!
Daily Expenses £24.90
Day 4 (Saturday)
06:15 - Wakeup, settle S in his bouncy chair and have some Museli and Coffee. Nurse S and read the new money diary.
08:00 - Hot Yoga Class! I love this class and this studio, and had to give it up when I got pregnant so I only started back last week. I don’t get much “me time” nowadays so this class is a lifesaver. I paid £160 for 24 classes last week so don’t pay today. I get home and quickly shower while H stays with S and watches the Rugby. He has dressed S in his England Rugby onesie for the occasion!
10:30 - Our online grocery shop is delivered. We order weekly from Tesco and normally spend around £50 (excluding some meat, which we buy separately) but this week we’re doing a huge bulk cook so we stock up. We get spinach, limes, pasta sauce, milk, parmesan cheese, onions, hummus, beef brisket, pork loin, lazy garlic, peppers, grapes, wraps, eggs, pasta, chilli, peanut butter, freezer bags, carrot sticks, sundried tomatoes, coke, frozen veg and loads more. £86.41
11:00 - Our Musclefood meat delivery has also just been charged. We got 7.5KG of Chicken Breasts, 6 packs of meatballs, 4 packs of Sausages, 8 Burgers and a few other bits. £63.99
12:00 - The bulk cooking marathon commences.We cook around 60 meals for the freezer, comprised of 8 different dishes. This is the third time we’ve done a huge bulk cook after doing it before our son arrived and finding that we could not survive without our freezer meals - the days are just too chaotic with a newborn and we would have resorted to ordering takeaways much more if we didn’t always have prepared meals ready to go. Now it’s a monthly event for us. It takes 3-4 hours including clean-up and probably another hour planning and ordering the shop with all the right ingredients but if we needed to cook every night we’d spend much longer doing it.
16:00 - And we’re done! During the bulk prep I’ve done 2 nursing sessions, 3 nappy changes, 1 full outfit change, lots of entertaining and settled S for 2 naps also, so I’m feeling pretty triumphant! Now we can relax a bit and enjoy our evening. H heads to the shed to do manly shed related things and I sit down for another nursing session and reply to some WhatsApps.
18:30 - We have one of our prepared meals (Tuscan Chicken Pasta Bake) for dinner and watch some Netflix, then it’s bath and bed for S . I go to sleep shortly after, as I get up in the night to nurse / express so need to sleep when I can.
Daily Expenses £150.40
Day 5 (Sunday)
06:05 - S wakes himself up by throwing up his last feed all over his crib. No Sunday sleeping in for me. Usual routine of breakfast, nursing and playing with S before his first nap.
08:45 - We’re meant to go to church this morning (we’re trying to take S now, as he’ll be Baptised in the new year) but it’s pissing down and H has the car. I make an executive decision to skip it, stay warm and dry and we spend the rest of the morning hanging out while H goes to a gym class.
12:00 - H’s mum arrives for babysitting duty. It’s the first time we’ve left S with her (and only the second time we’ve left him at all) but it’ll be good for them both to spend some time together and good for me and H too. I fret a bit, making sure she knows where everything is and when he should eat/sleep then we head out. Pay £3.50 for 3 hours parking in a high street, which is quite frankly…daylight robbery!
12:30 - Our planned lunch restaurant is only serving Afternoon Tea till 4pm (wtf!) so we leave and head to another place in town. They didn’t even have an Afternoon Tea menu on their website, let alone have anything written about not serving the regular menu. I love an Afternoon Tea, but I’m in the mood for a hot meal. Annoying! In the other restaurant we share Bruschetta and get Calzone and Cheesesteak for mains. It tastes good, but nothing special really. Service was ok so we add a small tip. £42.15
13:30 - We head over to a proper desert shop that’s recently opened to satisfy my sweet tooth. I get a Kinder Bueno Waffle and H gets a Crepe, both delicious. £13.05 We pop into a couple of shops and get bath toys for S and an iPhone cable at Poundland £2.
14:00 - H withdraws £400 to pay a deposit for a second hand motorbike he’s going to see later. It’s a 90minute ride away so it’ll just be me and S at home for a few hours.
H’s mum says she loved looking after S and would happily do it again (woohoo). S proceeds to resist sleep for the next 2.5 hours before crashing out in the baby sling. Netflix and chill for a while.
18:50 - H returns home with £400 as he didn’t like the bike. He also filled up the car with petrol (£59). H has been snoozing in the sling for nearly 2hours so I wake him and we eat, clean up the house a bit and I buy a new book on Kindle to get started on £9.99.
Daily Expenses £129.69
Day 6 (Monday)
06:05 - S has been thrashing around in his sleep since 04:00 so I wake up feeling sleepy. I get coffee immediately and do the normal routine.
07:30 - S is sleeping so I tidy up the kitchen, throw some laundry in and empty the bins. I know….it’s a dull existence. I have nothing but respect for SAHM’s. They are heroes! I am very excited to return to my job next year.
09:10 - Another nap, more chores. This time I hang out laundry and make a big Egg Frittata to feed me for some lunches this week. Our freezer stash goes a bit further if I don’t eat leftovers for lunch so I try and make something different, although I pretty much graze all day since breastfeeding makes me so hungry.
I’d planned for us to go on a walk with a parents group this morning, but the time isn’t great for when feeds and naps are due so I skip it and plan to go for a walk later.
15:30 - Plans are scuppered by the rain. Argh!!
18:30 - H is home from work and asks if I want to go to the gym while he watches S. I’m too tired from last night so decline, but instead take myself up to bed for 30mins to journal. I’ve been keeping a diary since I was 11years old and write 1-2 times a week still. I also call the healthcare company to try and sort out the insurance issue (partially resolved) and they tell me that I get a £150 cash benefit for having a child. Free money! I’ll file the claim another day.
19:00 - Dish up Parmesan Honey Chicken from the Slow Cooker, add Rice & Broccolini and we eat. This was one of our freezer meals and tastes delicious, we make it every time.
Daily Expenses - £0
Day 7 (Tuesday)
07:00 - The gift of an extra hour in bed. Thank you S. I feel like a new woman.
08:30 - Get an email notification that our joint account is overdrawn so I quickly transfer £200 in from my current account. We always go overdrawn at some point every month (we rectify it quick so don’t get charged a fee) but really must start just putting more in to start with. The joint account started at a place to pay all our bills and mortgage from but has evolved as so many of our expenses are joint now. Any groceries, or anything for the house or S for example, comes from this account.
10:45 - £15 discount code comes through from Blow LTD so I immediately book a Gel Manicure for next week. (£25) I had to cancel my massage, so get refunded £60. I may be covered in baby puke most days, but at least my nails will look nice! Unsurprisingly Gel Manicures are not eligible to be claimed through work so I pay this.
12:00 - Baby Sensory Time! Today’s session features lots of singing, rattles and a puppet show. S is fairly mesmerised and I chit chat with some other mums for a bit. We already paid for class so no charge and parking is free.
13:30 - Order a “Cuski” comforter from Amazon for S. He has started holding onto his muslins and rubbing them on his face / chewing them when he’s tired so I decide it’s time for an official comfort blanket for him. These are supposed to be NHS approved so I accept the rather extortionate cost of £15.99. However, cost ends up being £0 since we have loads of gift certificate money on the account (don’t know why, but probably related to our amazon addiction).
15:00 - Visit to my parents house again with S. More tea and biscuits. I actually don’t drink tea at home, but when someone says “do you want a cuppa” I just automatically say yes. Don’t know why.
My sister is home so we catch up on what’s happening in her life. It’s nice to see her more often now she’s graduated and moved back from uni.
18:30 - I didn’t manage to put tonight’s dinner in the slow cooker on time so we have nothing to eat. H suggests we get a Chicken Shish and Chips to share so I walk down to the local chippy to collect it (£9.30). I purposely leave my phone home so I can have a bit of thinking time. I do a mixture of pining over my former life and thinking about what I can do tomorrow.
Daily Expenses £50.29
Weekly Totals
Food + Drink £245.75
Fun / Entertainment £74.99
Home + Health £98.92
Clothes + Beauty £25
Transport £62.50
Other £0
Reflection
I hesitated writing this, as I know my day to day is pretty dull now I have S, but since I love reading money diaries, I wanted to give something back to the community.
This weeks diary was fairly reflective of our spending, and we now spend less that I am at home with S, as I don’t spend anything on commuting, drinks/dinners after work etc.
We are so incredibly fortunate to have high salaries and both try and live well below our means so we can save a lot and also not ever be tied to our jobs.
Neither of us come from money and earn a lot more than we ever expected to in our lives but we're really not extravagant people, so our frugal habits (like bulk cooking for example) have always remained.
I hope you've enjoyed reading!