Tequila has become a household drink for most people over the last couple of years. What exactly is it? And where did it come from?
Tequila is a distilled beverage made from agave plants (the same plant that makes tequila). People created the drink in Mexico, but today it's produced worldwide.
There are several types of tequila drinks, each unique taste, and flavor. From Margaritas to Mojitos, these drinks are perfect for any occasion.
This article has explained the different types of tequila drinks available.

Different Types of Tequila

1. Margarita

The word margarita comes from mar (sea) and aguardiente (alcohol). They made this drink in Mexico during the 1920s.
A margarita is a cocktail with tequila, lime juice, and soda water. People usually serve it in ice cold and garnish it with salt.
Don the Beachcomber invented the original margarita in 1934. The drink consists of tequila, lime juice, and salt, and it's served on the rocks or straight up.
The original recipe called for two parts tequila, one part triple sec, and half a cup of simple syrup. Today, you can find many variations on this classic drink.
The most popular variation includes three parts tequila, one-third part triple sec, and a splash of orange juice liqueur or freshly squeezed lemon juice.
We can mix the ingredients in a shaker filled with crushed ice. Then, we can strain it into a glass and top it off with club soda.

2. Paloma

The Paloma tequila cocktail is another popular drink among the different types of tequila drinks. It's like a margarita, except it uses grapefruit juice instead of lime juice.
This drink originated in Cuba back in the 1940s, and it's an authentic Cuban cocktail because it contains rum.
People also call it "palomilla," which means little dove. This cocktail is usually served in a tall glass with ice cubes.
You can add grapefruit juice to the mix and a shot of light rum. Then, we can pour a dash of grenadine into the glass before serving.

3. Mojito

The mojito is a tropical cocktail that originates from Cuba, and it's a combination of mint leaves, sugar, and rum.
In the past, they only served mojitos at bars. Nowadays, you can make them at home, and you need a few simple ingredients like mint leaves, sugar, rum, and club soda.
You crush some mint leaves and add them to a mixing bowl. Add a pinch of sugar and stir until dissolved. Next, pour in your favorite brand of rum.
Mix well and strain out the mint leaves. Put the mixture into a glass and top it off with club soda. Finally, garnish with a sprig of mint.

4. Sangrita

Sangrita is a spicy Mexican cocktail among the different types of tequila drinks. It's made with tomato juice, cilantro, jalapeño peppers, and spices.
To prepare sangrita, you start by chopping tomatoes and adding them to a blender. Next, add cilantro, jalapeno peppers, onion, garlic, and other spices. Blend everything until smooth. Strain the mixture through a cheesecloth.
Next, place all the ingredients into a jar and cover it tightly. Store it in the refrigerator for about 24 hours. Afterward, serve chilled.

5. The Pepino

The Pepino tequila drink is another popular cocktail among the different types of tequila drinks. It combines tequila, pineapple juice, and lime juice, and we can serve it on ice.
The makers of this cocktail created it in Puerto Rico, and however, it has become very popular throughout Latin America.
To create the Pepino, you first combine equal amounts of tequila and pineapple juice. Then, you squeeze in some lime juice. Finally, you fill the glass with crushed ice.

6. The Tequini

The Tequini drink is among the different types of tequila drinks available. It's a combination of tequila and pomegranate juice. It's typically served cold.
Pomegranate juice combined with tequila and served over ice. If you want to spice up the Tequini, you can garnish it with slices of fresh pomegranate seeds.

7. Tequila Sunrise

Tequila Sunrise is one of the most famous cocktails among the different types of tequila drinks. It's a combination of tequila, orange juice, and cranberry juice.
Also, we can serve the drink over ice. The makers invented Tequila Sunrise in Mexico back in the 1980s. It became extremely popular after featuring on a television show.

8. Casa Cosmo

A Casa cosmo combines tequila, triple sec, lemonade, and ginger ale. It's served over ice. It's believed that this cocktail originated in New Orleans. However, it's been available since the early 1900s.
The original recipe calls for equal parts sugar and water. Over the years, the ratio has changed slightly, but the basic premise remains the same. Today, most recipes call for two parts sugar to one part water.

9. El Diablo

An El Diablo combines tequila, grapefruit juice, grenadine, and coconut milk, and we can serve it over ice. We can add grenadine to the mix, followed by coconut milk and grapefruit juice.
Finally, we can pour tequila over the entire concoction. This cocktail started in Cuba. However, it became incredibly popular when featured on the television show Sex and the City.

10. Bloody Maria

The Bloody Mary is a classic and fantastic cocktail, and people usually serve it with vodka or rum. However, there are many variations of the Bloody Mary out there.
One of the more interesting ones is the Bloody Maria, and this version includes tequila instead of vodka.
To make the Bloody Maria, you combine tomato juice, celery salt, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, olive oil, and freshly squeezed lemon juice. You also add tequila to the mixture.
You then pour everything into an old-fashioned glass filled with crushed ice. Further, garnish the drink with a slice of pickled jalapeño pepper.

11. Tegroni

The Tegroni combines tequila and gin, and we can traditionally serve it over ice. Tegola consists of agave nectar. Then, we can add gin to the mixture. The result is a sweet and sour beverage.
The drink started in Italy. However, it became extremely popular when featured in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's.

12. Gypsy Girl

The Gypsy girl is a combination between tequila, peach brandy, and champagne, and we can serve it over ice.
People usually use Peach brandy to create the base of the Gypsy girl. Then, we can add tequila to the mixture. Finally, we can pour champagne over the entire thing.
Harry Craddock created the Gypsy girl, who worked at the Savoy Hotel in London. He named the cocktail after his wife, Gypsy Rose Lee.

Conclusion

There are different kinds of drinks out there. Some people enjoy drinking margaritas, while others prefer to sip on their favorite alcoholic beverages.
There are even some people who love mixing all sorts of different flavors. However, if you want to get the best experience possible, I recommend trying each tequila drink to appreciate what each flavor tastes like.

Abdoogh Khiar or Persian cold yogurt soup is a refreshing, creamy, and flavor-packed summer meal made with yogurt, cucumber, and chopped fresh herbs. You can enjoy it as a light lunch or dinner or serve it as a cool and hydrating side dish.

INGREDIENTS

· 2 cups full-fat plain yogurt or Greek yogurt
· 1/2 cup fresh herbs (chives, green onions, basil, tarragon, summer savory, and mint) chopped
· 1½ cups water cold
· 1 cup cucumbers chopped
· 1/4 cup raisins
· 1/4 cup walnuts chopped
· 1 tbsp dried dill
· 1 tbsp dried rose petals optional
· 1 tsp salt
· 1/2 tsp black pepper
· Dried Lavash Naan for serving
· Ice cubes optional

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Chop the cucumbers and fresh herbs. In a large bowl mix yogurt with chopped cucumbers and fresh herbs.
2. Add chopped walnuts, crushed rose petals, raisins, dried dill, salt and pepper. Stir gently until well combined.
3. Slowly add the cold water a little at a time and stir until you get the right consistency. Ab-Doogh Khiyar should neither be too thick nor too thin and watery. You can also add some ice cubes for extra refreshment. Also, instead of adding ice-cold water, you can add some ice cubes to the yogurt soup when serving.
4. Serve with dried Lavash naan and enjoy!

Reference: cookingwithsamira

My plan for summer meals (toddler, teenager, two adults) involves making a big salad a couple times a week and letting everyone get into them when they’re hungry for lunch, using them for sides with dinner, etc. I’ve made several so far but I’m looking for more ideas! I posted in this group because I’m especially interested in salads that are cheap and nourishing. Ideally easy to put together, too. (I love frog eye salad but who has time to make pudding from scratch and then wait for it to cool when you have a toddler?!) Traditional green leaf salads are great but I’m usually the only one in the house who will eat them. So I’m looking more for the types of salads in the title: pasta salads, bean salads, fruit salads, egg salads, tuna salads, jello salads, corn salads, chicken salads, whatever other weird little salads your midwestern, mid-century soul cherishes.
To start us off, here are a couple of my favorites!
Cucumber salad -Sliced cucumbers -fresh dill -cultured sour cream, or half Greek yogurt/ half regular sour cream -optional chopped onion
Watermelon mint salad -cubed watermelon -chopped fresh mint leaves -feta cheese -olive oil or avocado oil -honey -lime juice -optional cucumber, honeydew, or or cantaloupe
Black bean corn salad -can of black beans -can of corn -chopped purple onion -chopped green onion -chopped cilantro -olive oil or avocado oil -red wine vinegar -cumin, pepper, whatever else you want to season it
As you can probably tell from my ~recipes~, I eyeball pretty much everything and just use what I have on hand. So bonus points for other recipes like that!
Edit: sorry about the formatting, I’m on mobile and didn’t realize it would do that 🙃 not very Reddit-savvy and don’t know how to fix it

So I’ve been out for sometime now and recently heard they stopped letting people go to what was called “A-town” during my time (05-08). One thing I miss, and something I haven’t been able to replicate, both myself or the “authentic” Korean restaurants here in the states is this one particular place that made killer Bulgogi. I don’t recall the name of the place but it was the very first restaurant on the right after you got up the hill. It was ran by an older Korean man and his wife. They also had some bangin cucumber kimchi. If anyone here was ever able to procure his recipe I would be forever greatful if you posted it -or if someone still had access to him.

Rice Salad
Basil Tomato Salad Recipe
Yield: 6 Servings
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 cups cooked rice, cooled
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 medium cucumber, seeded and chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
Directions
In a small bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, basil, salt and pepper. Add rice, tomatoes, cucumber and onion; toss. Serve chilled.
Yield: 6 servings.

Hi bakers! This week marks our second seasonal ingredients challenge. Showcase something that is in season where you live (or, barring that, something that is themed on the season it is where you live). If you're not sure what's in season where you are there are tons of resources online, or you might even hit a local farmer's market and choose something!
For example,,,
Simple Cherry Cake - Using fresh cherries which are currently in season in New York
Easy Kiwi Tart - Kiwi is in season in New Zealand
Lychee Baked Yogurt - Lychee (aka litchi) is in season in India now

i also have chickpeas, hot sauce, jalepeno, spices, and soy sauce. i have a few ideas but wanted to see if you guys had any that really go well with all/some of the ingredients. i'm on a tight budget (want to spend <$5 on new ingredients if needed) but i am open to all flavors!

Background: I'm 28 yr old, living in the Bay Area near San Francisco and work in business operations at a Tech company. I live with my fiance and we have a cat together who we adopted from the shelter during the pandemic.
🪙Assets & Debt🪙
Current Net Worth: $492k

• Savings & Investments: $494k
  • Investments: $323k
    • Company 401k: $132k
    • Company RSU: $67k
    • Robinhood Brokerage: $50k
    • Roth IRA 1: $47k
    • Roth IRA 2: $11k
    • Treasury Bonds: $16k
  • Savings:
    • HYSA: $158k
• 💷Checking: $9.6k
  • Checking: $9.6k (just enough + buffer to pay monthly rent + credit card balances)
• 💳Debt:
  • No debt (credit card balance paid off every month)

💰Income💰

• History:
  • Started working after graduation in 2018 with a $77k salary + $8k bonus the first year with a 10k sign on bonus. Promoted to $85k salary in 2019 and then $108k salary in 2021. Then later in 2021 switched jobs to earn $135k base with a $15k bonus.
  • In 2022, I switched jobs and moved to the Bay Area for a job with a total comp of $215k ($155k base + 10% and RSUs) and received a $10k relocation allotment. Last year I earned ~$240k total comp.
• Monthly Take Home: $3,033
  • Note: The take home amount here is low as I max out my 401k, company ESPP (15% of salary) and after tax contributions (20% for mega back door roth). ESPP (I purchase company stock for a 15% discount) and after tax are automatically taken out of my net salary. See math below:
  • Monthly Investment Break Down:
    • 401k Trad: $1,976 (employer contributes $833 which is not incl. here)
    • Company ESPP: $1,976
    • After Tax (to be converted to Roth IRA): $2,634
• Partner Stats: We have not combined our accounts/income so I will not include his spend but will mention expenses he pays for the both of us throughout the week. He is 29 years old and makes ~$300k base (+stock but for a private company so I won't include that here)

💸Expenses💸

• 🏠Household Expenses:
  • Regular transfer to joint account: $2100 (my half of rent for 2 bed 2 bath apartment, partner pays for utilities, insurance separately)
• 📃Other Monthly:
  • Credit Card Annual Fees: $91 (avg per month)
  • Gas: $50 (partner and I share his car, this is my contribution to gas)
  • Copilot Money: $8
  • Cat Expenses: $100 (inc. insurance, food/snacks - does not incl. boarding costs when we travel)
  • Note: On my parent's family plan for phone, partner pays for Netflix, Spotify, Youtube TV and Premium
• Note: My total expenses incl. rent is typically more than the ~$3k take home after investments are taken out. I get company stock every 3 months through ESPP and sell right away. This money is used to cover expenses.

📆This Week:
Saturday:

• 10am: My partner R. and I wake up a bit later today as we just drove back from a night in Big Sur the night before and are feeling fired from the trip. We get up quickly though as we're going to a friend's bday/housewarming party in San Francisco.
• 11am: Quickly we heat up leftovers from dinner and rush to eat something filling before heading out as we know we'll be drinking later.
• 11:30am: We are ready to leave and drive to a friend's house nearby since we plan to carpool to the party. We wanted to get something for them as a gift but didn't have the time. Gift giving doesn't usually happen between us so while we wish we got something, ultimately we need to get going to make it on time.
• 1pm: It's a great time catching up with friends and meeting new people. Their new place is gorgeous and we take some notes on how we can make our apt more homely as well.
• 5pm: People start heading out as many are going to a concert after. We head out as well and plan to grab dinner with the friends we carpooled with. After we leave, R. and I realize we both left our bags with our keys and wallets inside so we quickly call our friend and luckily she's still close by and comes back to unlock the doors so we can get our stuff. We drive her to the concert hall after.
• 6pm: We head to a ramen shop and it's pretty busy. There's a long line outside and we wait for about 30min which isn't too bad. The ramen is pretty good and we got chicken karaage and a rice bowl to share with the group but not worth the wait. R. puts his card down when it's time to pay. Total for the 2 of us is $47.
• 9pm: We arrive home and catch up on shows and some online errands befofre heading to bed.

Total for the day: $0
Sunday:

• 11am: I wake up late and feel super groggy after a busy couple of days. It's an errands day though and I know I have to wake up. R. makes me an oat latte using our espresso machine and I'm so happy to get caffeine in by body.
• 11:30am: I get a pot of soup started and add in pork bones, corn, and carrots. A classic Chinese soup from R's childhood that he loves. For lunch I take the spicy soup from our leftovers, some thinly sliced hot pot meat from the freezer, and veggies to make a spicy boiled beef dish.
• 1pm: R. and I head out to get our car washed and go to the local Korean market for groceries. We don't get the car washed often and it's pretty grimly from our recent road trips. R. pays $18 for it. Unfortunately the first pass doesn't wash off anything and we complain to the staff and get a free 2nd pass which helped a lot to get the car clean.
• 2pm: We get to the Korean grocery store and buy basic product (spinach, mushrooms, scallions, carrots), fresh noodles, some frozen onigiri for a quick snack, and replenish our instant ramen supply. We have a lot of meat in our freezer which we buy when there's a sale so we just need the basics. I spend $37.68.
• 6pm: For dinner, using a pack of chicken thighs from the freezer, I make oyakodon (a Japanese dish of chicken and egg simmered in dashi) and air fry some broccoli. We have the soup which has been boiling since the morning on the side and it's the perfect comforting meal at home.
• 8pm: I purchase some memory foam stuffing from Amazon to fill the leather poofs we got from Morocco last year on vacation. We haven't have the chance to fill them yet and have tried using old clothes but surprisingly needed a lot stuffing so I bit the bullet and specifically bought stuffing for $32.73.
• 9pm: I get ready for bed and take a peek at my work schedule for the next day. I see in my Copilot Money app that my annual fee for my United Card hit and it's $99. I got the card recently for the 100k points sign-up bonus and just reached the min spend.

Total for the day: $169.41
Monday:

• 7:30am: It's a work from home day so I get up a bit later. I make myself a quick oat latte and start work.
• 11:30am: The work day has been fairly light so far and I've been able to catch up on some tasks. For lunch I cut up and season some broccoli to roast in the oven and through a defrosted prepared piece of unagi we got at the Korean grocery store the day before for lunch.
• 4pm: Almost done with work, I spend some time playing with my cat and making sure he used some of the energy from sleeping all day.
• 6pm: For dinner I start making thai basil pork and a soy braised fish in the air fryer. Both the ground pork and fish are from R's mom who we saw over the weekend. Dinner is quick to put together and we happily eat our meal in front of the TV watching some Netflix.
• 10pm: I'm feeling especially tired today so I head off to bed early after doing my usual evening skincare routine and add on an AHA peeling mask as my skin has been looking extra dull from getting too much sun over the last week.

Total for the day: $0
Tuesday:

• 7am: I get up check my work phone for any urgent messages I need to respond to and get ready for work. My hair is a bit messy but I'm too lazy to style it and just put on my usual makeup for work and start work from home while I wait for R. to be ready to go.
• 9:30am: R. woke up and is ready to head to work. We typically car pool if R. is heading into his normal office site as our offices are only 10 min apart. He drives me to work and traffic surprisingly isn't too bad. I order an iced oat matcha for him and an iced oat latte for myself on the way. The barista bar at the office is free and hosts local coffee shops onsite. Such a nice perk to get a made-to-order drink for free!
• 12pm: After some morning work and meetings I go to grab lunch. There's a $10 voucher today to apply to lunch in the cafeteria to celebrate summer so I take advantage order a black bean Chinese short rib dish, a roast turkey and bacon panini, and get myself a salad from the salad bar to go. The entire order is $11.10 and with the voucher, I pay $1.10. Food is subsidized and the salad bar is priced by container rather than weight so I always pile on the steak, chicken and whatever roasted veggie they have and today there is salmon which is awesome. I eat the panini and bring the rest home.
• 3pm: R. gets home and remarks that it's so odd getting home so early. We head out to Costco to take advantage of the rare weekday afternoon we get to ourselves. At Costco we pick up the usual essentials (broccoli, spring mix), pick up a prepared beef japchae since it's on sale, decide on a rotisserie chicken since R. wants to leave work early before dinner this week, and grab a pack of ribeye cap (our favorite steak cut) for our bbq on Friday. The ribeye cap is $22 per pound and R. thinks it's actually dropped a $1 per pound. We decide to marinate the meat and eat it with lettuce wraps Korean bbq style so I grab butter lettuce as well. In total it's $210. We use the cash back we got from our Costco card and R. pays the remaining $127.
• 4:30pm: I get home using the company shuttle which drops me off right at my door. It's more of a shared UbeLyft than a shuttle with a set route which is nice and finish up work. It's $6 per ride but I get $130 in commuter benefits from my company which I can apply to the shuttle so it's free. Our apartment mgmt confirms that our lease renewal is done and sends over the confirmation. Our rent has gone up 4% since our last renewal which isn't bad so we opted to resign to avoid having to find a new place and moving.
• 5pm: I browse social media and check my usual websites. I look for a new cat tree as the one we have is more than 2 years old and I've been meaning to upgrade it. I send some options to R. for him to take a look.
• 7pm: R. has evening meetings so I eat the salad I got from work with a spring mix, roasted brussel sprouts, salmon, and chicken skewers and top it with a sesame miso dressing from my fridge. It's filling without being heavy and I snack on some ripe cherries we got from R's mom for dessert.
• 8pm: R. finishes his meetings and eats the short rib meal I bring back along with the leftover Thai basil ground pork I made yesterday. I take inventory of the food in our freezer and find a bag of leftover chicken bones and decide to make chicken broth. I quickly throw the bones along with carrot, green onion stems and the celery I have in the freezer into the instant pot along with black peppercorn and a bay leaf to pressure cook for 3 hours.
• 11pm: I dry my hair after a quick shower and go through my nighttime routine before bed. I take a quick scan of my meeting schedule the next day and finish off the night with some phone time before setting my alarm and falling asleep.

Total for the day: $1.10
Wednesday:

• 6:30am: I wake up before my alarm and have a hard time going back to sleep. Half-asleep I start scrolling my phone and search for the weekly ads at the grocery store in front of my apartment. I know I'm getting old now that I'm actually excited to see what's on sale at the grocery store.
• 8am: I get up and get ready for a WFH day. I attend to morning messages and later hop on a 1:1 with my manager to discuss my goals for the upcoming year and immediate projects. It's always a bit stressful to have these 1:1s as my old manager recently joined another team for a promo so now I'm directly meeting with my skip level manager but it goes well.
• 12pm: For lunch I quick cook some spinach and mushrooms to make sure R. and I get our veggies intake. For myself I make a simple salad with spring mix, mushrooms, and rotisserie chicken with my miso sesame dressing. R. and I usually eat lunch on our own and he grabs leftover rice, chicken and spinach a bit later.
• 3pm: As a work benefit, I get a free session with a money coach so I try it for the first time and connect with an advisor. I run through my numbers and he gives me some basic advice. I have some specific questions but he doesn't really answer them well and tells me the wrong information about my 401k limit. It's my first time talking to someone about financial planning, investments, etc. but I'm left unimpressed.
• 4pm: I have a break from work and use the time to stuff a leather pouf I got from Morocco with the memory foam that arrived. The foam is in little pieces and it's quite difficult to stuff fully. R. comes out and we work on it together. When it's finally done, the pouf looks nice but compresses a lot when we try sitting down. The 10lbs of stuffing I bought also only fills one pouf so I make a note to buy another 10lbs to fill the other one we have.
• 6pm: After work, I run for a quick mile on my walking pad and catch up on Youtube videos. I also run to the grocery store right outside our apartment to grab ingredients for a bbq we're hosting Friday night. I'm planning to make some sides incl. a dill potato salad, chimichurri for steak, cucumber salad, and roasted broccoli so I grab the produce and herbs for $21.31
• 7pm: For dinner, I roast some broccoli, make more rice and air fry salt & pepper marinated pork ribs we got from R.'s mom. We usually don't have so much food from her but on our recent visit she kindly gave us a ton of food. We also try the frozen kimchi rice ball filled with mozzarella cheese we got this weekend.
• 8pm: I purchase another 10lbs of the filling for my remaining pouf for $31.09. Somehow the price went down a tiny bit from 3 days ago.

Total for the day: $52.40
Thursday:

• 8am: I wake up and get ready for an office day. I do a quick morning skincare routine. put on basic makeup and consider straightening my hair as it's messy but end up being too lazy to do so. I start my morning work at home and wait for R. to get as always so we can head out.
• 9:30am: We're running late as R. overslept and I have a meeting right at 10am so we hurry to my office. I get in and grab a drop-in room right on time to join my meeting.
• 12pm: I head to the cafeteria to grab lunch. There's a message in our site location slack that lunch is free but I didn't expect the cafe to completely be transformed. Instead of the usual stations serving meals, there's hundreds of samples set up. Each sample has a portion of food everything from pizza, spam misubi, coconut shrimp, bahn mi, to salad and fruit. Outside there's a luau bbq with poke and pulled pork along with a whole lechon on display. It's super festive and I sample all the food I can with my team. For dessert we get freshly shaved hawaiian ice and I choose the mango syrup which is super fruity and not too sweet surprisingly.
• 1:30pm: I head back to my workstation and finish up my tasks. Luckily I don't have any meetings this afternoon so I get the chance to catch up on some work.
• 4pm: I head home on the company shuttle and pick up an iced latte from my office's barista bar before leaving.
• 5:30pm: I wash dishes as R. didn't have time to do so last night. Washing dishes is his task. Afterwards, I start prepping food for the bbq tomorrow and boil potatoes and eggs for my dill potato salad. I also look up a recipe for chimichurri and decide to use the blender rather than having to finely chop parsley. I add in some cilantro and serrano peppers I have handy for more herbs and spice.
• 7pm: I'm tired after washing dishes and throw together mushroom soup using some homemade chicken broth I have in the fridge, oyster and baby bella mushrooms and scallion oil I have from a previous meal. I eat my soup with leftover rice and pork ribs from last night.
• 8pm: R. gets back late after a team happy hour. We clean up our place to get ready for our friends to come over tomorrow and I end the night by doing some laundry and preparing for an important meeting in the morning.

Total for the day: $0
Friday:

• 7:15am: I wake up early before my alarm and check my messages quickly as I have an important meeting this morning. My manager sent me a couple of messages early and I get out of bed and open my laptop to respond and correct a couple of inputs before the meeting.
• 9am: R. gets up and I finally get a chance to wash up and get ready for the day. I do a quick skincare routine and put on basic makeup.
• 1pm: My meetings go well and my manager calls me after to debrief. I throw together a quick lunch with leftover chicken broth, rotisserie chicken, mushrooms for a hearty soup and eat it with leftover rice. I also spend time washing dishes that we didn't get to the night before.
• 3pm: R. comes back from work. We usually WFH on Fridays but he had an all hands meeting today. I'm exhausted from the work day and take some time to destress and relax in bed.
• 4pm: I fall asleep and R. goes to Costco to return a box of lychee that's molding after 3 days and buy the cat tree we saw this past weekend. I usually don't return food at Costco but the lychees were pricey at $8 and I was really sad that they molded so quickly. R. comes back with the cat tree but no lychee as they didn't have it. He does get a box of manila mangos so that will have to do.
• 6pm: I finish up prepping for the bbq. Initially we heard 3 friends were coming but then only 1 could make it. We bought 5 steaks in total so of course he have too much meat now but R. and I will eat it over the next day. I throw together a quick smashed cucumber salad with soy sauce, vinegar and chili oil. The recipe I find calls for garlic but we don't have it so I add extra chili oil. I also make some rice and wash butter lettuce to wrap the steak in.
• 7pm: Our friend arrives and we go to the common area outside our apartment to start grilling. The grills can be too weak but today we luckily get a strong flame going and the steak sears nicely. We eat sweet soy marinated ribeye cap with lettuce wraps and american wagyu zabuton we got from Eataly a few weeks ago that we had froze. Both are delicious but the ribeye cap had to be my fav.
• 9:30pm: Our other friends arrive and they finish the remaining steak. We continue to chat outside with some red chianti wine and after another hour move inside as it's getting colder.
• 11pm: R. and the boys head outside to hang out while I watch some Youtube videos to end my night. We have plans to play pickle ball with a couple friend tomorrow so I'm hoping to call it an early night. R. and his friends usually stay up late and typically they leave at 1-2am but I'm ready to head to bed before midnight.

Total for the day: $0
Total for the Week: $222.91

• Food: $60.09
• Home: $63.82
• Subscriptions: $99

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Hey Neighbors!
Hope y’all have been doing well!
It’s been a minute since I posted my Best Brunch in the 'boro Guide.
My days have been super full these past months and I’ve not had many moments to write. We bought a 100 year old house and did a big remodel. It was a lot of hours but definitely worth the sweat! I’ve also been developing some exciting ( to me at least ) social opportunities for the community that I’m nearly ready to share…but not quite!
Several people told me that I had missed one of the best spots in town so I made it a point to get over there and check it out.

1618 West

You can make reservations thru their website. Click! which is always nice.
The dining area is clean and spacious with tall ceilings and open air. Natural light fills the space. I enjoyed all the light as did their house plants. I saw they installed sound dampening in the rafters and it was working well. Noisy spots get me really overstimulated so I super appreciated that touch. The tables are spaced apart amply and I felt uncrowded by the nearest table. I mean I’m still gonna be able to eavesdrop, but now it wont be so obvious :]
The coffee was awesome; from local wholesaler, Synchronicity. Both the espresso and drip were really tasty. The espresso was a bit nuttier, while the drip was dark and robust. Give ‘em a try. Get this though, 1618 has no non-dairy milk in the building. Which honestly seems wild halfway through 2024. I usually take it black (heh), but ya’ boy was trying to have a latte! With some of the highest brunch prices in town I’m sure a thing of almond milk is in the budget.
They have a very impressive drink menu. If you wanna have a good cocktail with brunch you need to come here. I saw several come out and they all looked perfect. I saw lots of people with some sort of espresso martini and they looked so appealing.
Now. What matters most. The food. My wife and I had three entrees cuz we got it like that… Jk I have no savings and need to get an oil change…Millennials am i right? Here’s some hot takes on all three:
The chicken and gravy was served atop a really well made, golden biscuit; one of the best I’ve had in town. The gravy was also on point. Nice and thick, yet still creamy. Great flavor. The chicken was weeeeak. It was a real thick hunk of breast and was so bland. White people chicken- Not mine though. Mine is good as hell. Also someone got a little set of mini sauce bottles for Christmas and they doodled on the plate a bunch…If you got time to play with a Spirograph during service, you better have seasoned your chicken first. Overall a decent dish. I like Melt’s version of this better though. Melt’s “Big nasty fried chicken biscuit” Go try one.
The breakfast burger was really good. Bacon, goat cheese, pickled onion, and chipotle plum chutney. My burger was definitely well done instead of medium but it didn’t matter because the flavor was bangin’. It’s comparable to The Spicy Goat at Hops, I liked this one better though. The home-fries I got on the side were awesome. Best homies in town i think. Nice and crispy, zesty seasoning, and little diced peppers and onions mixed in. Oh yeah. I was happy. Although at $18 bucks for a burger before tip, I better be.
Lasty we tried their strawberry cheesecake french toast.
Eh.
It wasn’t bad. Nobody is gonna eat it and be like “Ew!” It looked pretty. Lil piped sploots of strawberry jam and whipped cream. Tidy triangles dusted with powdered sugar. But it just didn't do it for me.
I’m not an expert on much y’all, but I know French toast. I’ve spent thousands of hours dipping bread into egg and milk. I’ve made gallons and gallons of french toast batter. The smell of French toast on a flat top is permanently etched into my brain. When I die people will stand over my casket and say — “I’m gonna miss that French toast.”
Ya’ know what— stop the presses. Let me hit y’all with:

THE French toast recipe.

1 cup of milk
3 eggs
1.5 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp vanilla extract
4 Tbsp sugar, brown sugar, or honey. I use honey a lot.
A pinch of kosher salt
A dash of nutmeg if you’ve got it

• Mix it all in a bowl.
• Now you need a sturdy bread. My vote is pretty much always gonna be brioche, but use whatever you have that isn’t gonna fall apart when you soak it in the batter. If you use wheat, I'm gonna judge you a little bit.
• Get you a non-stick pan or your griddle and heat it to medium.
• Now, this is the most important part. Soak the bread. Don’t just dip it. Make sure your bread is completely saturated by the mixture.
• Pull your soggy bread out of the mix and let all the extra liquid run back out into the mixing bowl.
• If you don’t soak it enough. Congrats you just made toasted bread with egg and milk on the outside.
• If you don’t let it drain enough — bread pudding that will take ten years to cook through.
• Now some people would use butter in the pan, but honestly I pretty much always prefer non-stick spray. They cook up way prettier and It’s already so rich, I don’t miss the butter at all. But do you.
• Now toast on both sides until dark golden brown. We want it aaaalllmost burnt.
• Check that its done by pressing your finger in the center. If any liquid comes out or it feels soggy… it ain’t done. Flip it over again and keep turning every minute or two to stop it from burning until its not soggy in the middle anymore.
• Serve it up with some maple syrup and hit em with a lil powdered sugar. Throw some berries on the side if ya wanna.

Bam.
People now like you a little more because you make the best french toast they’ve ever had. You’re welcome.

Back to 1618

They didn't let it soak long enough. Toasted bread with egg and milk on top.
I’m also almost positive it was in a deep fryer. That’s not how you make French toast. It still tasted good, but now it tastes like a funnel cake. The texture was different and the rapid frying pushes all the mix out of the bread and on to the top side of the toast.
The strawberry sploots were tasty, but I wanted more and they coulda hit me with a few real berries on the plate. The cheesecake element was lost. I think the whip was supposed to taste like it, but it wasn’t coming through for me. It was a good tasting dish, but not one I’d want to be the benchmark of perfect pain perdu.
Score: 8.4/10 Overall 1618 West puts out a super attractive and upscale brunch. One sure to impress whomever you’re bringing. Don’t come broke though. It's one of the priciest spots in town for brunch. I wouldn’t usually mention some of the small things that I did, but at this price point you gotta deliver near perfection. Still definitely good eats and worth a visit!
Median Entree Price + 20% tip: $17.36+$3.42 = $20.83
There ya have it neighbors, thanks for reading! I’ve got a bunch of notes for more and I’m gonna be back soon with more of these one-off reviews. They seem easier to fit into my day right now.
If you like my content, I am much more active on Instagram. Add me if ya wanna @ zaccamcorder and you can be subjected to the stuff that I’m up to. Good food and movie recommendations, art I’m working on, handyman projects, garden stuff, cool trails you should go hike, and lots of my thoughts on living with and trying to be okay with mental health challenges.
Until next time!
Your neighbor,
Zac

Title: I am 31 years old, make $92,600 base, live in Northern Alberta, work in Forestry, and recently returned to work after a year off for maternity leave.

• All $ in CAD. $1 CAD to $0.73 US.
• I will call my spouse H.
• We aren’t looking to change spending habits too much, this was more a fun exercise to see what we spend and how we’re doing financially now that I am back to work.

HHI: $166,000
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance: Total $76,431 (joint)

• My retirement accounts include a DCPP of $62,495, an RRSP of $8125, and a TFSA of $130
• H’s only has a spousal RRSP of $5631
• DCPP amount is from a 5% base contribution plus 2% matching from my employer, and 3% from me. I have had this account since 25 (when I started at the company) and have done the matching the entire time except during my maternity leave. They continued the 5% base while I was off on maternity leave, I had the option to get the matching as well but we couldn’t swing the cost while I was only on EI.
• RRSPs are mostly from excess benefits money. I have flex benefits and get an annual amount to “spend”. Before we had our kid there was about $500/month split going into our RRSPs. Now we do $42.30/month split ($21.15 for each). The spousal RRSP means I can claim this on my taxes, instead of him claiming on his.
• TFSAs will be our next focus once we’ve caught up on the annual bills from May to July - annual house insurance and two vehicle insurances. We haven’t been consistent with depositing into our TFSA’s, so we have $80K+ room in each.

Equity: The house is worth $400,000. We owe $303,000. Equity is $97,000.
Savings account balance: $450 in emergency savings (this is a priority starting in August to beef up), $2000 in property taxes sinking fund (to be spent by July)
Checking account balance: $5288.15 - we both got paid today so I will be moving money around and this number will be down a lot by the end of the day.
Credit card debt: $16,635

• $12,855 LOC. This is entirely from vehicles - before I went on maternity leave H sold his truck and we took a $9500 loss - pulled the money out of the LOC to pay off the lien. In April, we needed a different vehicle so we took $6500 out of the LOC to purchase a new-to-us car. We have yet to sell the vehicle we replaced, but when we do that money will either go onto LOC or into emergency savings. We’re aiming to get $3000 for the sale.
• $530 My CC. This is from not budgeting for two road trips I took in the last two weeks, plus some other overspending on random things.
• $3250 H CC. This is from overspending on groceries/gas and vehicle expenses.

Student loan debt: $0

• H went to trade school (8 weeks/year for 4 years) to become a journeyman mechanic
• I took a 2-year diploma program that cost $12,000 (including books and random spending). My parents saved up $20K for me to go to college/university, so I got about $8,000 in cash from my mum once I graduated as I didn’t use all of the savings for school.
• I lived with my mum while in college and H lived with roommates so his income went to rent/groceries/bills and I had basically no living expenses as my mum covered everything.
• When he went to trade school I was working, so I covered our bills while he was off (and he got EI and some grants during that time frame).

Other Info:

• H and I have had combined finances since we were 19 when we married. This has greatly changed our financial situation.
• I have access to an employee stock purchase plan - I have about $1400 in my company stocks with no plan for them at the moment.
• I got a salary top-up when I went on maternity leave. My employer covered my 1 week EI waiting period and topped up to 100% salary for 11 weeks. The rest of the time I was off I was getting $1158 biweekly from EI.
• We qualify for the Climate Action Incentive from the federal government. This is about $1200/year.
• We get CCB for our kid of $140.61/month. This will increase to $273.74/month come July as our annual income was less in 2023 compared to 2022.

Net Worth: $164,484
Section Two: Income
Income Progression (Post College/Trade School):

• H has been in his field for roughly 8 years and his starting salary was about $37,000 ($19/hr). Two years ago, he took a $20/hour pay cut moving from a journeyman mechanic ($45/hr) to a service advisor ($25/hr). He’s since gotten a $10/hr pay increase from switching employers and switching roles/getting a raise. H now makes $72,800 not including any overtime, which he does get fairly regularly.
• I've been working in my field for 8 years, and my starting salary was about $41,000. I have not changed careers, but I have changed employers. I got two raises when at my first job post-college from $20/hr (41,000) to $23/hr ($47,800) to $30/hr ($62,400). When I started at my current employer in 2018 I was offered $78,000 annually, plus moving benefits (approx $2000). I’ve consistently gotten a 2-5% raise every year (except this year - but I did get a raise 2 weeks before going on leave) or have gotten promoted and am now making $92,600 before bonuses. I get two bonuses a year, one is based on company performance and has been $0 to $10,000. My other bonus is performance-based and has been anywhere from $1200 to $4000. I got both bonuses while on maternity leave, the company performance one was cut in half based on hours worked. I also had to pay back EI because of my bonus income.

Main Job Monthly Take-Home:
Mine: $4768.90 (two paycheck months)

• My monthly deductions include ESPP $213.60, DCPP matching $213.60, social club $5, flex benefits $26, plus taxes $701.27, CPP $203.97 and EI $59.14. In September I usually have an increase in my monthly take home as my CPP/EI is maxed out, but this might not happen this year as my RTW date was the end of April.

H: $3687.28

• H gets an advance on the 15th of $1000 and at the end of the month gets the rest of his pay. His end-of-the-month pay has ranged from $2600 to $3900 already this year because of illness, time off and short months.
• H’s deductions include taxes $623.25, EI $78.23, CPP $263.07, and $61.10 of HCP, but we’re not 100% sure what the HCP is cause he declined his benefits. This reminds me he should talk to payroll and see what’s up with that. He hits his 1st anniversary in August so we’ll see if he ends up maxing out CPP/EI in September or so.

Side Gig Monthly Take-Home:

• I craft and go to some markets and things, but don’t make much after counting all my costs. If I didn’t sell things I made, I’d have no room for craft storage!
• I am working on a custom quilt that when finished will bring in $275.

Any Other Monthly Income Here:

• As said above, we qualify for the CAI and CCB. CCB is $140/month currently and CAI is $400 quarterly.
• I get $500/year from my benefits to spend wherever and however I want. So far this year I’ve spent it on clothes and hiking boots. I have $190 left.

Section Three: Expenses

• Mortgage: $950 bi-weekly - $1900/month on 2 pay period months.
• Property Taxes: Sinking fund of $185/biweekly (we pay this annually in June. It is $2250 this year, last year was $1950).
• Home Insurance: $1640 annually. We pay this in full in July. I expect it to increase this year, but I’m unsure how much.
• Retirement Contribution: In addition to pre-tax contributions above, starting in August, biweekly contributions will be $377 to H’s TFSA and $226 to mine. H’s is more as I have my DCPP and when H’s total is closer to even or maxed out, I’ll max out mine.
• Savings Contribution: $200/biweekly starting in July, we also will have a home maintenance fund and will save $425/month.
• Debt Payments: LOC minimum is $130/month. We pay anywhere from $200 to $2000/month. This will increase come August, and the LOC will be paid off in May 2025. Both CCs should be paid off by September.
• Donations: $20/month to the animal shelter, and $20/month to SOS, I also volunteer at least 5-15 hours a month to a local sports group and to the foundation my MIL set up after my BIL passed. I sit on the board for both non-profits. We also randomly donate money to other things, or go in on 50/50 raffles different nonprofits have.
• Utilities: In the winter $600/month, the summer around $300/month. Gas and electricity combined. I live somewhere where it hits -40C and +40C depending on the time of the year.
• Garbage Rental: $40/month, $120/month when we get it dumped - approximately every 4 months. We live on an acreage and instead of carting garbage bags to work every week or going to the dump, we rent a dumpster for the driveway and call to have it dumped when it's full.
• Septic System Inspection/Cleaning: $400/year
• Internet: $105/month for unlimited fibre optic.
• Cellphone: $70/month for H. I have a work phone at no charge.
• Subscriptions: Amazon Prime $99/year, Spotify $11.54/month, Patreon $10.50/month (Money Feels <3), PlayStation Plus $32/quarter, Kindle Unlimited $10/month, Crunchyroll $9.99/month ($60.95/month total)
• Pet expenses: Roughly $100/month for food and litter for our two cats. Plus $400/year for an annual checkup. This will go up some as they age and probably have to have dental cleanings done.
• Car Insurance/Registration: No payments we own both vehicles outright. Insurance is $1500/year for both vehicles, we pay this in May/July. H spends around $300/month on gas as we live 30 min out of town. I have a work truck so I have no commuting costs. Annually we spend $160 on registration. AMA is 262.50 annually in July.
• Paid Hobbies: Don’t have fixed costs for these right now as we cut them out while I was on maternity leave. In January though, we’ll each get $100-200/month for hobbies.
• Daycare: $900/month ($450 the 1st and 15th). This is slightly more expensive than some others we found and does not qualify for subsidy or grants, but L loves her day home and the caretaker is great.
• Life/Disability Insurance: $125/month for both of us. This is $500K each for life and $100K each for critical illness.
• Food: Roughly $800/month in groceries and I’m not sure about eating out. Since going back to work a month ago life has been hectic so we’re spending more than usual on eating out/convenient foods. H has ADHD and forgets his lunch at home or in the car every day which is a waste, so he buys lunch either at the nearby grocery store or restaurants. I sometimes pack leftovers and sometimes go get food. I’ve been trying to get freezer meals and leave them at the office so I don’t have to pack things back and forth and we haven’t been making meals with leftovers.
• L’s Baby Supplies: $75/month? We have to buy diapers and wipes monthly pretty much.
• House Cleaners: This is an expense we had before H took his pay cut, and we’ve been slowly putting it back in the budget on and off. Roughly $200/clean which happens sporadically as the house is a mess and there is no time for two working parents to clean with an 11-month-old butt scooting everywhere. She always manages to find floor snacks
• Family: We send my sister-in-law money on a fairly regular basis, anywhere from $20-$100. She always pays us back, but we treat this as a write-off in case she doesn’t.

—
Day 1 - Friday
2 am - L wakes up and I get her back down 3 times before 3 am. At 3, H takes her out of the room to burn some energy before they both come back to bed roughly an hour later. Thanks, L. Thank you, H I was getting pretty frustrated with our darling child.
6:30 am - The first alarm goes off and I grab L for a cuddle and morning nursing session. Once she’s done, she rolls around and tries to climb both of us to get our phones before we all get out of bed at 7. Today is a PJ movie day at daycare so we don’t bother dressing her only changing the diaper and then H and L are out the door by 7:15. I leave for work at about 7:45 after doing some putting around.
8:15 am - I get to work and my first stop is the coffee machine. I get back to my office after talking to a few coworkers about our social club golf event next weekend. I see that an industry-specific mentor cohort program is open for applications so I find my most recent resume (2021!) and do a major update before applying. This year one of my goals is to work on leadership skills and mentoring so why not apply?
9 am - I had a hard time finding a bra this morning so I go online and purchase two new ones from the local bra-tique for pickup. My total is $170 after my 10% discount for signing up for their email list. This money is coming from my $500 annual work benefit for whatever I want and I now have $20 left. I eat my breakfast at my desk - yoghurt and homemade granola today.
11 am - I have a webinar on caribou to attend so I log into Zoom and while it's loading, pull up our cashflow forecaster to get the payday finances done before the weekend. $1750 to H’s cc to cover some overspending/vehicle expenses, $100 to the LOC, $373.10 for utilities, and $450 for daycare. Total is $2673.10 I’m not sure if I should include the bills in the daily writeups, but ah well. Day 1 spending is off to a great start.
1 pm - I get the notification that my bras are ready for pickup. Woohoo! I get new bras for the weekend! I send $50 to H’s TFSA once I confirm the bank account is connected.
2:30 pm - Eating lunch now as breakfast was so late. Freezer butter chicken with broccoli. I only have 1 more freezer meal at work so I make a note to restock.
3:30 pm - I work on some cycle times for the log haul for this coming logging season. It takes me a few minutes to remember exactly what I’m doing and how to do it. I am super glad I came back to work at the end of April as I get 3-ish months of slow time to get back into the swing of things before work starts to pick up.
4 pm - I am struggling to do any more than format my Excel sheets so I figure it’s time to pack it up and head home.
4:30 pm - After picking up my bras, I go to Once Upon A Child for some cheap baby clothes. L is in between sizes and we somehow managed to misplace all her more summery sleepwear so I’ve been grabbing a few here and there. OUAC has a sale on, 5 sleepers for $15 so I grab 5 of those and 4 other onesies for summer. We have a family photoshoot on Canada Day and I’ve been hunting for something that’ll match L’s ribbon skirt. $30.45
5 pm - I stop at the store to check the mail and grab a 12-pack of mixed tequila smashes. $37.55
5:30 pm - H calls. He’s off work and headed to get L. I pull burgers and fries out of the freezer, start up the BBQ and get the air fryer going.
6:05 pm - H and L arrive home in perfect time as the burgers and fries just finished cooking. I have an open Pineapple Tequila Smash and I hand H one to drink with supper too. L also has a veggie pouch with the burgers and fries.
7:20 pm - L is in bed nursing to sleep after her bath while H preps episode 4 of Obi-Wan Kenobi for us to watch. We watched it when it was first coming out, but he saw the discs at Walmart last week and figured to grab them. We thought we hadn’t seen all the episodes, but so far we’re 3:3 so we might’ve seen them all.
7:40 pm - L is down and out and I sneak out of the bedroom. I start a load of laundry and find the two bras I couldn’t this morning and handwash them. I sit down with H and we watch some Obi-Wan Kenobi.
10 pm - I check my email and see one from a local photographer group I really like. I’ve done at least two shoots with all 3 of them separately before and they’ve now joined forces. I went to their open house yesterday and won 50% off a boudoir package in 2024. I’ve wanted to book in since they announced their group, so I go through their open spots and book for November. My initial deposit is $262.50.
10:30 pm - We finished the last 3 episodes and watched all previously except for the finale. Of course. It was pretty good, but near the end, I started to scroll on my phone more than pay attention to the show. I swap the laundry, shower and head to bed at 11 pm.
H’s spending Day 1: $7.54 for lunch, $267.58 on vehicle parts/oil change that we didn’t budget for. Normally we would’ve, but communication is kinda crappy atm, and I think that’s due to sleep deprivation.
Day 1 total: $775.62 spending + $50 to TFSA. Oof off to a spendy start for the pay period.
—
Day 2 - Saturday
2:40 am - L is awake again and not going back down. This time it’s my turn. It’s already been a not-great night, hopefully, this 2 am party time doesn't keep happening.
4 am - We go back to bed. Our internet is on autopay and the notification comes through for my credit card. $105
7:20 am - L is up for the day. I don’t want to get out of bed yet, so I cuddle H and L rolls around, tries to stand and almost deletes everything on my phone. Then she notices my boobs so it’s time for a quick nurse.
8 am - I run the coffee machine and get breakfast going. We’re having pancakes this morning. While they’re cooking I pop some milk in the frother to make a fancy coffee. TBD if I drink it while it’s still hot. I feed the cats their morning meal.
8:30 am - H gets up and I’m still cooking. He grabs a coffee and takes L into the living room so I don’t trip over her and the plastic container horde.
9:30 am - H plays some Baldurs Gate 3 and L watches while I sort through the laundry I did last night. I try to get dressed and none of my shorts fit anymore so off in the donation bag they go. It’ll be a summer of dresses I guess! I start another load of laundry.
9:50 am - L is ready for a nap. Just kidding she just wanted some boob instead. We go outside afterwards to get some morning sun. Hopefully, this will tire her out and she will go down for a nap later! She hasn’t been big on sleep since she was born and gets major FOMO so we have no semblance of a schedule on weekends.
10:45 am - I bring L back inside and change her into outfit #3 for the day. Her trike got rained on and she gets soaked when she sits in it. I switch the laundry over, start yet another load and then pass L to H so I can head to the store, fill the Jerry can with gas for the lawnmower and do the recycling. 20 L of gas is $32.78 and I grab two lime slushes for H and I ($5.19). It’s +20 already and gorgeous. Total $37.97
11:30 am - L is ready for a nap! By 11:50 she’s down and I head outside to mow some of the lawn. It’s usually a 4 hr job so I don’t think I’ll get it all done today.
1 pm - I head inside for lunch, we’re having tuna sandwiches. L napped for 20 min and I didn’t get more than half the lawn mowed. After lunch, we head into town to hang out with my friend K and her two kids. We met in college back in 2014 and have babies of a similar age so it’s always nice to go over and visit.
4:30 pm - We leave K’s house and I swing by Wendy’s for a cold coffee-type drink for the drive home. I try the chocolate frosty-cinno and it’s terrible. Should’ve just gone to Tim’s for an ice cap. $4.19
5:05 pm - L fell asleep on the drive home so I hang out in the car with the windows down for another 5-10 minutes before moving things inside. She wakes up and we head in. H picks a meal and starts making dinner. L is fussy and still tired so I nurse her and we hang out in the cool basement while H cooks. I sort through the laundry that finished off today.
6 pm - H is still cooking our dinner, I reheat leftover pasta for L. H runs her bath and I bath her. She’s still grumpy on and off so she’ll probably be going to bed right after this.
6:45 pm - H and I eat chicken wings and shrimp poppers. L has decided it’s not bedtime yet, I tried to put her down and she got a second wind instead.
9:30 pm - I work on the website for one of the non-profits I volunteer for once L goes to bed at 8. After I’m done, I head into the craft room and work on the custom rag quilt project. One row left to sew together, then to put the final 5 rows together, figure out my borders and start cutting all the edges! It’s not ‘due’ until mid-July but I’d rather get it done sooner and not have to rush. My SIL texts and asks to borrow $50 till Thursday, I send it over out of my spending.
11 pm - H and I both go to bed after some kitty snuggles
Day 2 total: $92.16 (not counting $105 for internet)
—
Day 3 - Sunday
7 am - L is awake and I nurse her a couple of times cause she can’t decide if she’s happy or not. It was a decent night, but she must still be tired from not napping much yesterday. It’s my day to sleep in so H takes her out of the room by 7:30.
9:30 am - I get up make some coffee and slowly start on breakfast
10:30 am - L and I are eating breakfast, I made scrambled eggs, fried up leftover sausage, tomato and she also has two crackers with cream cheese. H and I wrote up a grocery list before I sat down and he’s off to town to get groceries and fuel up the car before the work week starts. Usually, H and his best friend C have a grocery shopping bro-date every Sunday, but C and his family are out camping this weekend so H heads in alone.
11 am - L is ready for a nap. I put her down and fold her laundry and the house laundry, taking a few breaks to scroll Reddit or Facebook and drink more coffee.
12:30 pm - L woke up and is kinda grouchy so we have a dance party to elicit baby giggles. H gets back from shopping and we put the groceries away, they cost $374.03. This is actually cheaper than the last few times we did a stock up so that’s nice! Groceries include ground beef, frozen chicken, wings, fries, cucumber, tomatoes, grapes, bananas, yoghurt, frozen lunches, macaroni, Ichiban, burgers, buttermilk, perogies, frozen fruit, frozen veggies, gravy mix, hollandaise mix, and more. We’ve been buying more convenience foods lately, but I do have 3 suppers planned for the week. He also grabbed me a big coffee mug for $6. He got gas for $60.83, and once we unload the groceries, he runs to the store for bacon, 2 jars of our favourite cowboy candy (pickled sweetened jalapeños), chips and a Starbucks frappe drink for $41.93. I make some sandwiches for lunch for tomorrow so I don’t have to scramble in the morning.
1 pm - Lunch is Ichiban noodles for H and I and baby charcuterie for L - strawberries, grapes, ham, cheese, and cucumber. We head outside afterwards to enjoy the weather, L is so close to walking, she pulls herself up onto everything right now. She has an after-lunch snack of mown grass and dandelions.
3 pm - We’re back inside and H puts on Die Hart 2. L goes down for her second nap at 4:15 and we finish the movie. I wake L up at 5:45 so she doesn’t sleep too long. When she wakes up she makes a face identical to her dad’s and it’s hilarious.
7 pm - H is cooking dinner, we’re having eggs Benny and bacon for supper. I prep L’s diaper bag for tomorrow and we run it out to the car. I also put all my laundry away so the closet is ready for the week. H sits on the chair once we’re done dinner and both cats flock to him and spread themselves over his legs.
9:45 pm - I finish off piecing the quilt top and head downstairs to shower. L is getting tired too so as soon as I’m done we head to bed. H is not far behind us.
Daily 3 total: $482.79. This is pretty usual for a grocery shop day.
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Day 4 - Monday
6:35 am - My alarm goes off. Can’t lay in bed today as I need to meet my coworkers at the office at 7:30 am. We’re doing a team bonding mountain hike and it’s a 2.5 hrs drive away. I grab a banana, toast a bagel, add cream cheese and I’m out the door before 7 after filling up the cats' food.
7:30 am - I get to the office, fill up a water bottle, make a coffee and grab a few things from my office. Almost everyone is there, and we leave at 7:45
9:45 am - We’re there! I’ve seen 2 moose, 1 mule deer, 1 elk and almost hit 2 caribou on the highway already today! We start up the trailhead at about 10 am
1:00 pm - This mountain is much steeper than anticipated. A coworker and I decide at about 300 metres to the top that we shouldn’t push it. The last km has been extremely steep and we’ve hit our max. The rest of the group has gone ahead and summitted. We eat our lunch with a great view and start the trek back down.
3:30 pm - We’re back at the trucks! 11.2 km round trip. We hit the road to head home and stop at Dairy Queen for a celebratory ice cream. I spend $4.92 on a medium dip cone.
6 pm - Back at the office. I call H and let him know I’m headed home now and he suggests chicken wings for supper. I’m down for anything as long as I don’t have to cook.
7 pm - We all eat dinner. L has some veggie pouch, chicken wings/nuggets and leftover pasta. I am almost too tired to eat. One cat keeps trying to get L’s nuggets so he gets in trouble and shooed out of the dining room.
8:15 pm - I try to put L to bed and she goes down for a bit but decides ultimately that it’s not actually time for bed.
8:40 pm - I go and have a hot, hot shower, my muscles are sore and tomorrow might not be fun. L and H party in the TV area, she’s pulling herself up onto everything and trying to crawl up the couch. Not sure where she got this energy from! One of our cats comes for some aggressive cuddles and pets and H puts his dirty t-shirt on the chair for him. Our cat loves dirty laundry it’s hilarious.
9:20 pm - Time for bed for everyone. Hope tonight is a good night and we all can get some rest.
Day 4 Total: $4.92 (this would have been covered by one of the superintendents but a few people got ahead of her in line so she couldn’t pay for us all). My card is also charged by the garbage disposal company for the dumpster ($40.43 - counted in the bills above).
H didn’t spend any money today.
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Day 5 - Tuesday
7 am - The first alarm went off at 6:30, but we are all tired and don’t want to wake up. I nurse L for a bit then we get up at 7. I’m pretty sore this morning so I’m not moving too fast. Get her dressed and H and L leave by 7:10. H fed the cats this morning so I don’t have to.
7:30 am - I forgot to pay H’s other cc and it’s due in 4 days so I pay it off now - $93.80 (random Amazon purchases and my KU). I pull some chicken out of the freezer to defrost and make my breakfast of homemade granola, hemp hearts and yoghurt. I leave the house around 7:45 to head to work.
8:20 am - I get to the office and immediately get asked some questions about blocks we have slated for this Fall/Winter. I’m not 100% sure of the answer and have to double-check with my boss. I grab a coffee and chat with the head boss before my boss arrives. I clarify what I need and relay the info back to my coworkers.
9:30 am - I eat my breakfast while I scroll through online courses offered by my company. I got an email yesterday of one I’m supposed to take so I book into that.
11 am - I book H and myself massages, 2 each - one this month and one next month.
12:30 pm - I took a long time to eat breakfast so I’m not quite hungry yet. I grab my running shoes from the truck and take a slow walk on the elliptical to help my sore muscles. This morning hasn’t been too busy, but I’m having a hard time starting my next big task (cycle time calculations) so hopefully the slow walk helps some.
1:30 pm - I’m back at my desk and diving into cycle time calculations. H grabs KFC for lunch $24.12
2 pm - Lunch time, I’m having a leftover sandwich from yesterday, a grapefruit cup, grapes and strawberries. I also grab a chai with milk from the coffee machine. I eat while I plug away at the cycle times.
3:45 pm - I finish off one section of cycle times and my brain has had enough. I go fill my water bottle and chat with a few coworkers. At 4:15 pm someone comes by to sign a few cheques I asked for and I leave the office at 4:30 pm
4:40 pm - H grabbed buttermilk instead of heavy cream and I need it for supper tonight so I swing by the grocery store. Then, I head out of town to a colleague’s house to drop off one of the cheques. $4.95
5:15 pm - I check the mail, get home and start cooking. We’re having Skillet Dijon Chicken with Asparagus and Mushrooms for supper. I also make some macaroni for a side. H and L get home about 5:45 to the cats waiting at the door.
6:20 pm - Supper is served! It is delicious. L and H aren’t fans of the asparagus, but the chicken, macaroni and sauce are perfection! H also riggs up a tie to L’s water bottle so it doesn’t hit the ground every 30 seconds. We fed the cats at the same time and they’re not begging for food quite so much tonight.
6:50 pm - We’re finished supper, H cleans up and I bath L.
7:30 pm - H calls my/our best friend J via FaceTime and we chat with her and her daughter R for a few minutes. L tried to steal the phone and gets mad when we don’t let her. J’s daughter requests a morning call so I promise to call at 7 am. J doesn’t think R will be awake yet so we’ll see!
8 pm - L is tired and ready to go to sleep. I put her down, have a hot bath, throw in some epsom salts, and read a bit on my KU.
9:40 pm - Bedtime!
Day 5 Total: $112.17 (removed $10 for my KU - counted in subscriptions)
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Day 6 - Wednesday
7 am - I nurse L, she had a weird wake-up last night so we’re tossing the idea of taking her into daycare today. I’ll probably take her in a bit later and H will take his truck so if I have to WFH for the afternoon I can. Try calling J and R and there is no response - I am not surprised.
7:45 am - L and I leave the house, she’s not coughing much and doesn’t have a fever or anything so she’s good to go to daycare today
8:15 am - I drop L off at daycare
8:30 am - I get to the office. I talk with a few coworkers and ask our admin if my new phone has been dropped off yet.
9 am - My new phone is here! Now to start the setup process, everything takes forever with all the authentication apps we need. I also go through all my iCloud photos and organize/save them to my OneDrive while the phone is getting set up.
12:30 pm - I think the phone is finally done. Now to eat some lunch, I’m having leftovers from 2 nights ago - chicken nuggets, strawberries, grapes and a Cherry Bubly.
1:30 pm - H goes to a food truck for lunch. $35.01. This includes the tip.
3 pm - I had some more phone set-up to do. Might be finished now? Get an email about the cats’ annual checkups and vaccinations so I book their appointments for August.
4 pm - SIL paid me back the $50, plus another $50 she’d borrowed earlier. (+$100) I work on the photo garland for L’s first birthday for a bit.
5 pm - I haven’t gotten much done today beyond setting up my phone. I leave the office and pick up L at 5:20. I talk to her day home provider for about 15 min about how she’s been doing, etc.
6 pm - We get home! H has cooked supper already, so as soon as we get in the door we sit down to eat. Supper tonight is perogies and garlic bread. L also has a veggie pouch. H tells me the old vehicle was sold, and the buyers are doing a payment plan. We will get $300/month for the next 10 months. A lump sum would be nice, but H’s coworkers will handle all the paperwork so it’s no more work for us.
6:45 pm - Time for a bath! H cleans up supper, cleans the litter boxes (we have 3) and starts some laundry while I take L and get her cleaned up.
7 pm - All finished in the bath. We head downstairs and hang out until L is ready for sleep. I mostly scroll my phone and H plays on his Rog Ally. L climbs the couch and me and scoots around on the floor hunting for different treasures.
8:40 pm - L is ready for bed. I put her down and read some more KU
10 pm - H and I head to bed. I washed and dried a baby quilt to bring to work in the morning for a coworker.
Day 6 Total: $35.01 for H’s lunch. I spend $0, and ‘make’ $100
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Day 7 - Thursday
6:35 am - The first alarm goes off. It’s a new one on the phone and nice to wake up to! L doesn’t want to wake up and she grumbles and rolls around.
7 am - We all get out of bed. I get L dressed while H packs up what he needs for the day. I get her milk together and they’re out the door by 7:15
7:50 am - I leave the house. After H and L left, I did the dishes and packed up my stuff for the day. Made a smoothie for breakfast (yoghurt, flax seed, orange, banana, rhubarb jam, frozen berries, watermelon, cranberry juice and milk) and there’s lots left over so I pop that into the fridge for tomorrow. I need gas in the work truck, so I head there before going to the office. I have a fuel card so I don’t spend any $ on fuel.
8:30 am - Get to the office and it’s time to make a coffee. I have some things to get done before my webinar at 11 am.
9 am - I show the quilt to my coworker, she loves it and buys it! (+$100)
11 am - Oops. I didn’t get the login link earlier and don’t know who to contact to get it so no webinar for me. I scroll Reddit and my socials and work a bit more on my cycle times. I snack on some grapes and drink another coffee.
1 pm - Lunch time! I’m having leftover skillet Dijon chicken and macaroni. It is still delicious, that recipe is going into the rotation for sure! H goes to McDonalds for lunch and spends $35.66. He bought a coworker lunch as well, she was having a rough day.
2 pm - Chat with a few coworkers about different projects/things we need to think of for this next year.
3 pm - I have an afternoon pick-me-up snack of Brookside pomegranate-flavoured chocolate and a ginger ale.
4:30 pm - I’m tired and don’t feel like doing anything else. I leave the office and call H to see what we should do for supper. We decide on potstickers and veggies, I’ll start cooking when I get home. I stop and check the mail on my way home too.
5:45 pm - H and L arrive home. I take L into the spare room and we call my mum and grandma for a video chat. L rolls around the bed and shows off how she’s almost standing!
6:10 pm - We sit down to eat, L isn’t that interested in either the potstickers or veggies so we pull out some leftover macaroni and she goes to town on that.
7 pm - Bath time! H cleans up and does some more laundry. It just seems to never end.
7:30 pm - Bedtime for L. I read some of my book while I put her down.
8:30 pm - SIL texts again to borrow $50. I send it over out of my spending. I get all of the borders cut for the custom quilt.
9 pm - H has SING on so I sit down to watch it, he’s also playing his Rog Aloy and I’m reading some more of my book.
10 pm - We go to bed.
Day 7 Total: $35.66 for H’s lunch. I spend $50, and ‘make’ $100
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Weekly Expenses:

• Food + Drink: 575.09
• Fun/Entertainment: $0
• Home + Health: $38.78 (includes gas for lawn mower)
• Clothes + Beauty: $200.45
• Transport/Vehicle Expenses: $328.41
• Other: $496.30 (CC payment, photoshoot, TFSA and $ to SIL)

Total Spending: $1639.03
Reflection:

• This was a more expensive week for sure. I don’t usually spend money on clothes and the photo shoot deposit was a random impulsive spend. The vehicle expenses were also a bit different, usually, they’re budgeted for but not this time.
• Honestly surprised we didn’t order dinner at least once this week - usually we do!
• Events-wise, it was a typical week except for the mountain hike, those are not part of my usual work day. This time of year is slow and mostly involves prep for the coming winter.
• This was a fun experiment to write! I did have to cut some things as my word count kept increasing and I didn’t want it to be too long - is this too long even still? Too much detail on baby routines?