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A Beginner's Guide to RGB in 2021

It’s been years since my last totally new build, and wanted to share what I learned about making my new PC into a spectacular neon rainbow over the last month. My kids thought my old computer was "so boring" compared to my sister's so I knew I had to bring my A+ game with a rainbow explosion :)
I’ll start out by saying that figuring all this out has been by far the most confusing and frustrating part of my new build. Every time I thought I understood everything, there was always yet another exception to the rule. So don't feel bad if you feel like this is all super complicated and confusing, because it is! There's a TLDR is at the bottom.
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The difference between RGB vs ARGB

The first and most crucial piece of information is that there are two types of “RGB” for PCs:
ARGB (also sometimes known as digital RGB) is far more flexible, can create way cooler effects, and it’s what most modern LED devices use. It's also a newer technology, so a lot of older "How to do RGB" posts/articles just assume you're using the 12V kind. Also you should never plug an ARGB 5V device into a RGB 12V header. Each type of device should be kept to its own type. Some photos comparing ARGB vs RGB headers can be found here.
What makes it very confusing is a lot of product listings and articles (like my post title!) just say "RGB" without specifying which type they're referring to until you dig deeper into the specs.
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The different ARGB connector types

Adding to this cluster-mess is that most 5V 3-pin ARGB devices use a 4-pin footprint which have one of the pins left off so there's only 3 physical metal pins. But because nothing involving RGB is straightforward, there are also some ARGB devices that use a 3-pin footprint instead (JST-SM 3 pin). This image shows the two different ARGB connector types.
Because of this, some ARGB devices include a cable compatible with both types of ARGB headers. But other ARGB devices only provide one option and you'd need an adapter if it's the wrong type of your setup. This very important detail isn't always listed in the product description either because it’ll just say “3-pin Addressable RGB” without specifying which types of headers are supported, making it extremely frustrating and confusing. In an attempt to keep it clear in this document I’ll use the following abbreviations which I’ve made up just now (if there are better ones, let me know and I'll update):
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How do I control all these lights?

Modern motherboards usually include both 5V ARGB and 12V RGB headers which can be used to control your lights via their respective motherboard utility software (MSI Dragon Center Mystic Light/ASUS Aura Sync/etc). These motherboard headers can be named a variety of things depending on the manufacturer. On my MSI board the 5V ARGB header is called JRAINBOW while the 12V RGB header is called JRGB. You can use both types of headers at the same time as long as you make sure to connect the correct type of (5V ARGB or 12V RGB) devices to their respective headers.
For ARGB, most motherboards (Asus/MSI/ASRock) use the 3P4F header for ARGB, but other motherboards (Gigabyte) use the 3P3F header for ARGB. However based on comments it looks like newer Gigabyte boards have moved to the "standard" 3P4F ARGB header which is good news. So check your mobo manual to confirm what it has. Yes, it’s a confusing mess.
Older motherboards might only have a 12V 4-pin RGB header or even more horrifying, no RGB header at all!!! We’ll cover what to do in that case a bit further down.
Making things even more complicated, some manufacturers created proprietary headers/protocols that plug into their own proprietary light controllers which are then controlled via USB. Corsair is the most famous example of this as their fans/lights will only work with Corsair's proprietary hubs which then talk to your PC via an internal USB header. Though as some comments have pointed out, you can buy adapters to get around this.
Corsair isn't the only one either, other "addressable RGB" manufacturers (NZXT for example) have decided to do their own thing with a proprietary connector and/or protocol that doesn't work well with anything generic, and it's often not obvious that's the case until you buy it and it doesn't work with the other stuff. If you keep to the same ecosystem it'll (usually) "just work" all together, but you'll limit yourself to a specific brand.
If you want LED devices that have more flexibility across brands to mix and match, look for the device product description to say "Compatible with MSI Mystic Light and Asus Aura Sync" which typically means it uses a generic 3P4F ARGB header. But there may be exceptions, so I can't 100% guarantee it'll work with your other devices and this is a huge reason why RGB can be such a headache.
Finally some fans or light strips or cases have no external connections - they can only be controlled by an included remote. The product descriptions sometimes aren't clear when this is the case, so you have to read the specs very carefully and read the reviews. Some devices provide both a remote and ARGB header connection and you hold down a button on the remote to switch between the two options.
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How do RGB fans work?

The fans typically come with two cables connected to them: one for controlling the fan speed (like any other fan) and the other for controlling the LEDs. However some fans have a 3P4F header while other fans have a 3P3F header, and some fans provide both types of connectors. Also remember that double the cables, double the cable management!
There’s also some fan “kits” that come with an ARGB hub that all the fans ARGB cables plug into and then you can control the LEDs with a wired remote. This is more common if you buy a 2, 3, or 4 pack of ARGB fans together as one package. Also some fan kits have the ARGB cables plug into their specific proprietary hub, and then the hub has a single cable that plugs into the standard ARGB header for your motherboard.
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I have 20 ARGB fans for my case and only 1 ARGB header, what do I do?

Most motherboards only come with one or two ARGB headers. You have a few options
  1. Use a simple splitter - Straight forward and cheap. You connect it to your motherboard's ARGB header. However whatever colopattern is used on the longest device will be the colopattern used for all the other devices connected to the splitter. So if you set a 12-LED pattern (like a rainbow) with three devices connected to the splitter - a 12 LED strip shows all 12, a 6 LED fan shows the first 6 of the pattern, and a 3 LED fan shows just the first 3 of the pattern. So all devices connected to the splitter will be mirrored. This may or may not matter to you based on how you want to light your system. Also each ARGB device has an amount of max current it could use, so you want to make sure the sum of all those devices hanging off the splitter is less than what your motherboard supports (usually around 3A).
  2. Some devices allow you to daisy-chain them together so you only need one motherboard header to connect multiple LED strips/fans (think of how your Christmas lights chain together). You'd have to determine if your particular device can do this as some devices have a connector to support this and some don't. It often has the same limitations as using a splitter with the mirroring. However as a commenter pointed out, that's not always the case depending on the device.
  3. Use a hub - Typically an ARGB hub works just like a splitter and is connected to your motherboard's ARGB header, but also includes a connection for power (usually provided by a SATA power connector from your PSU), so you can power more LEDs/devices than a splitter. But it still has the same mirror coloring limitation, which may or may not be important to you. Some fan kits (especially if you buy a 2 or 3 pack) come with a hub included.
  4. Use an ARGB controller - The most flexible option because each device you connect to the controller can have unique colors/patterns and won't have to be mirrored. It’s typically controlled via an internal USB header on your motherboard and does not use the ARGB header on the motherboard at all. It also allows you to control the lights without having to use the motherboard software. I went this route and *highly\* recommend it.
Keep in mind that there are also power limitations to consider. Some LED devices have their own SATA power connector to get around this limitation, while others just use the ARGB header 5V power which will then have a limit on how many fans/strips you can daisy chain or split off. That particular limit will be motherboard dependent (usually around 3A but you have to check your mobo manual for your specific board) and also dependent on the power draw of the LED devices. But the end result is that you can’t actually control 20 ARGB devices off a single ARGB header because the LEDs would get way too dim.
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I don’t have a RGB or ARGB header on my motherboard, how can I turn my PC into a rainbow wonderland?

There’s two options:
  1. Make sure the LED device you’re interested in comes with its own remote. The drawback for a physical remote is that it might be complicated to get that remote outside your case if it’s a wired remote, so anytime you want to change the colors/patterns you would need to pop open your case. This may or may not be a big deal for you. There are some remote-only LED kits that use a wireless remote though, so you could search for those too.
  2. Buy specific hardware to control the LEDs like the Razer Addressable RGB controller I mentioned above which connects to your PC via an internal USB connector that almost all motherboards have.
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My experiences with different devices:

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There are 2 different main lines:
And then each line has two different versions:
I originally bought these not realizing that the normal non-Lux version only has a connection for a 3P3F header, which is not compatible with my motherboard or the Razer controller. You can buy the adapter separately for $5 a pop, so I bought that, but all 4 adapters were *super* loose on the ARGB header and would fall out of both the Razer controller and motherboard headers. I really wanted to like these, but I had to return them because it just didn’t work well at all. I was also super annoyed I had to buy an adapter and wait a week to ship because Phantek’s product description doesn’t make it clear at all that it’s not compatible with the standard 3P4F ARGB header.
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Some last notes:

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This is everything I wish I’d known when I started this whole process, so hopefully it can help someone else out too. I’ve always thought being a concert lighting engineer would be a fun job and this is the closest I’ll probably ever get. So while RGB isn’t for everyone (and just like Crossfitters and people who don't use Facebook, you don’t have to ask someone if they don't like RGB, they’ll make sure to tell you), I’m extremely happy I went all out on the RGB!
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TLDR: Buy 5V Addressable RGB (ARGB) devices that use the standard 3-pin ARGB header in a 4-pin footprint (3 physical metal pins as one pin is left off) and get a Razer Addressable RGB Controller which connects to your motherboard’s internal USB header. Now you’ve got something that’ll work with almost any PC and almost all standard generic ARGB devices.
submitted by FakeSquare to buildapc [link] [comments]

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

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

Section One: Assets and Debt

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

Section Two: Income

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

Section Three: Expenses

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

Section Four: Background

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

Diary

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

Summary

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

I am 23 years old, making $6,993/year in Manila as a Social Media Analyst.

NOTE: All currency has been converted to USD (1 PHP = 0.021 USD)
Intro: I hope this gives people an idea of what life is like on the other side of the world, in the Philippines. I’ve also included Ref29’s questions at the beginning to give you more insight into my background. Please know that writing this turned out to be much harder than I had originally anticipated since it forced me to confront several things about me, particularly about my mental health and my privilege. I’m aware that I’m incredibly privileged and have lived a very comfortable, sheltered life, when compared to most Filipinos, especially amid this global pandemic when practically half the country is starving. I’m really nervous to share this with all of you, but please be easy on me as this was not easy for me to do.
Ref29 questions:
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Yes, education is held in high regard here in the Philippines, to the point that landing a well-paying job without a bachelor’s is extremely hard, if not downright possible. Parents are also expected to pay for the entirety of college, although, of course, this isn’t true for all. Coming from an upper-middle-class family, I was even more pressured to land a spot in one of the Big 4 universities, which is sort of like the equivalent of the Ivy League here. In the Philippines, college admission involves taking an entrance exam at each college that you’re applying to, so my senior year of high school was spent in after-class prep centers to prepare for this. Fortunately, I was able to major in a pre-law course in a Big 4 university, which my parents fully paid for.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
My parents had the mindset of “work hard, play hard,” which meant that they worked seven days a week, but compensated for it with week-long family vacations abroad between twice to thrice a year. As I mentioned, this was a very privileged upbringing. They weren’t extremely thrifty, but they definitely instilled in us values like delayed gratification and spending money only if you worked hard for it. They also insisted that my brother and I save at least 20% of our allowances, so upon reaching first grade, we were taken to the bank to open a junior savings account.
Unfortunately, our business has taken a huge hit, due to policies that the current government has, so we’ve had to significantly tighten our belts. We don’t worry about putting food on the table or of being unable to afford basic necessities; however, we’ve had to do away with things like weekend shopping trips, impulse purchases, eating out every week, and international vacations for the past two or three years now.
Did you worry about money growing up?
It’s extremely privileged of me to say this, but no. I didn’t. I come from generational wealth on my mom’s side while my paternal grandfather owns several properties. I was always secure in the fact that if we were ever struggling financially, one of my grandparents would end up bailing us out.
Do you worry about money now?
Yes, I’m currently saving up to go to law school abroad. This will mean repeating my bachelor’s, but this program will open up so many opportunities for me. However, it also means having to save up at least $20,000 to make it work, and I’m still pretty far from my goal.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
I’m not yet financially responsible for myself. My 22-year-old brother, E, and I are still living with our parents, and they’ve refused our offer to pitch in with the bills. They both believe that as long as they’re still working, then it’s their duty to provide for their children. However, this also means that their kids are their retirement plans, which is a very common mentality in the Philippines.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
No, I haven’t.
SECTION ONE: ASSETS AND DEBT
Retirement Balance: All my money right now is being poured to fund my future studies, so I don’t have a retirement balance yet. I don’t know if this is wise or not, and this has been a great cause for my anxiety these past few months.
Savings Account Balance: I have approximately $16,000 spread out across three different bank accounts right now.
Miscellaneous Debt: I bought AirPods from my friend last year, and she asked me to pay her back in installments, so she wouldn’t be tempted to spend all the money in one go. I have approximately $56 left on this, which I’ll be paying next month.
SECTION TWO: INCOME
Income Progression:
This is my first job ever. As I previously mentioned, school is extremely important here in the Philippines. In my case, throughout my elementary and high school years, I was in school from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., and this was supplemented by after-class tutoring sessions and weekend advanced classes. College was basically the same since I decided to take up two minor degrees, in addition to my major, which meant that I took 8-10 classes every semester. So, I didn’t have time at all for a part-time job, which was okay, given the fact that my parents funded my education 100%.
2019-2020: I graduated from university in June 2019 and my parents asked me to start working in the family business. This didn’t turn out so good, though, since they refused to pay me a salary and would guilt-trip me whenever I’d take money from the day’s sales to pay for my expenses. When talks of a lockdown began in February 2020, I began looking for a job that would allow me to work remote since I had an inkling that our business would be shut down. Fortunately, my friend recommended me for an open position in the company that she was working at, and that’s where I’ve been since then.
In addition to my full-time job as a Social Media Analyst, I also started doing freelance work early last year.
Main Job Monthly Take Home: This varies. I’m considered a freelancer in my job, despite the fact that I’ve been with them since early 2020. I think they mostly do this to avoid paying me benefits, which is morally questionable but sort-of legal in the Philippines. So, I get paid a daily rate and am on a no-work-no-pay basis. If I don’t take any leaves for the month, then my take-home pay will be $582.79.
Side Gig Monthly Take Home: Again, this varies. In 2020, I believe I averaged approximately $1,200 per month. I don’t know if I’ll be able to hit these same numbers this year, though.
SECTION THREE: EXPENSES
All expenses below are monthly unless otherwise specified.
Phone Bill: This varies, depending on my data usage. Our WiFi doesn’t reach the second floor, so I’m forced to use my data if I’m working or staying in my bedroom. Our phone bills during lockdown were also suspended and have been amortized over six months since then, so I’m still paying this off. Currently, my phone bill can be anywhere from $52 to $83.
Subscriptions: Spotify Premium ($3) – but this is added to my phone bill, thanks to my service provider. I also pay for Babbel ($13) because language learning is my hobby, and I’m currently learning Brazilian Portuguese.
Pet Expenses: I average about $10 for my dog’s food and treats. A trip to the vet for a regular check-up is $8. My local government unit provides certain pet vaccines for free, so we get our shots from them.
Other: My brother, E, and I have privately agreed to answer for the expenses that our 10-year-old brother, L, incurs. So, we pay for his food, school supplies, etc. I budget $15 for him, but I’m not upset if I have to go over this amount. Right now, though, I’m paying for most of L’s expenses since E’s business isn’t doing too hot, due to the post-holiday slump.
DISCLAIMER: Face masks are mandatory, if you’re outside. People also aren’t allowed to go into establishments if they don’t have a face mask + face shield on. Both of these were worn at all times outside my home.
DAY ONE - SUNDAY, JANUARY 10
10:00 a.m. – My cousin and her husband are heading to the shopping mall to run a few errands. I go with them to have my eyes checked as my last prescription was from 2019. The doctor tells me that astigmatism in my right eye has been corrected (thank god) but that my left eye has gotten worse (noooo). I buy contact lenses and have them put in new lenses in my specs. $93
1:30 p.m. – My cousin is a few weeks pregnant and is craving mushroom soup from a particular chain restaurant, so we head over there. I get a burger and offer to pay for my share, but she and her husband refuse.
5:00 p.m. – My parents are very religious and require us to attend Sunday Mass every week as a family. Our church has the recommended COVID-19 measures in place (2-3 people to a pew, contact tracing, etc.), but I’m still annoyed that the Catholic Church here is trying to claim that mass is an essential service that should be allowed to continue, even when it clearly isn’t.
6:00 p.m. – Before heading home, we drop off take-out dinner for my Grandma. She lives alone, so we try to visit her at least once a week. We talk through the gate, though, to keep her safe.
11:00 p.m. – As a social media analyst, my shift is from 12 a.m. to 9 a.m. because I have to take note of all the online traction from the day before. This has worked rather well for me, mainly because I have insomnia.
Daily Total: $93
DAY TWO - MONDAY, JANUARY 11
5:30 a.m. – On Mondays, I have to analyze all social media traction from the weekend, and this has definitely cemented my deep hatred for this day of the week. Fortunately, it wasn’t too terrible this time. I chill for a bit by catching an episode of Friend Zone, a TV series from Thailand that’s sort of like Gossip Girl, except they’re middle-class and have actual jobs.
7:00 a.m. – I wake up L for his classes and begin working on my freelance job. Breakfast is leftovers from Sunday night dinner, so I have Truffle Mac and Cheese, and Garlic Parmesan Chicken Wings. My parents and E usually leave very early in the morning for their respective businesses, so it’s usually just me and L.
10:00 a.m. – I send off my social media reports and watch an episode of Fairy Tail.
1:00 p.m. – My brain is out of creative juices, so I take a nap. Before doing so, I place an order to replenish my toner ($5) and AHA serum ($5). I’m also running low on my fish oil capsules, so I order that too ($6.87). My total comes out to $19.25, due to shipping. $19.25
3:00 p.m. – L wakes up from my nap and I work some more before heading out to walk my dog. It’s cold outside – 28ºC or 82.4ºF. This is how winters in Manila look like!
6:45 p.m. – Dinner is white rice, Steamed Tilapia, and Ginataang Sigarilyas. According to Google, this translates to “Winged Beans in Coconut Milk.” I don’t know if this translation is 100% legit but it’s probably one of my favorite vegetable dishes ever.
Daily Total: $19.25
DAY THREE - TUESDAY, JANUARY 12
2:30 a.m. – One of my accounts is in crisis mode, so their reports are much more finicky than usual. When I feel that my brain is about to explode from reading social media posts, I work on my freelance deliverables.
7:00 a.m. – Again, I wake up L. Tuesdays are hard for him because he has back-to-back classes, and it isn’t long before I notice that he seems a bit overwhelmed. This year has been tough for him because we moved him to a new school and this, plus online learning, meant that he’s had to adjust like crazy. It’s too much for a 10-year-old, I think. I buy him his favorite Iced Cacao milk tea (I think it’s called boba in the States) to cheer him up and order an Iced Matcha for myself ($7.89). We drink our milk teas while having a very healthy breakfast of hotdogs and rice. $7.89
11:00 a.m. – The rest of the morning goes by quickly. I send off my reports, work on my deliverables, pitch to new clients, answer e-mails, and so on. Unfortunately, two of my clients have declined to work with me again since I was a bit late with a few of my deliverables, due to the holiday season. I try to take it as a sign from the universe that I need to slow down, but I’m still pretty sad about it.
5:30 p.m. – I wake up from a nap and notice that my phone bill is due, so I pay ($53.49). I Dinner tonight is Fried Milkfish, Rice cooked with Crab Fat, and Sayote sa Sotanghon, which is basically chayote mixed with vermicelli. $53.49
Daily Total: $61.38
DAY FOUR - WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13
2:00 a.m. – Thank God, my account has ended its crisis mode, so work is a bit more chill. Again, social media traction and freelance work. When I was 15, I thought I’d be spending my early twenties in a high-paying corporate job, wearing cute clothes and going to parties afterward. Instead, I’m spending it in teddy bear pajamas. I blame Gossip Girl and Korean dramas for my unrealistic expectations.
7:00 a.m. – After waking up L and sending off my reports, I spend the rest of the day working on my freelance jobs.
11:30 a.m. – Our live-in helper, J, prepares fried chicken for lunch and I eat it with L. He still has some time left before his next class, so I play a few rounds of Among Us with him. I honestly don’t enjoy the game as much as I make it seem I do, but it’s his absolute favorite and I like having these small bonding moments with my little brother.
1:45 p.m. – My brain can’t take it anymore, and I pass out from exhaustion.
3:30 p.m. – L wakes me up from my nap and I try my best to get a few more things done. Thankfully, my next deadline involves a podcast script on a certain historical event. These are pretty easy to write, although researching them can be a pain in the ass sometimes.
4:00 p.m. – I take a break from work by checking out apartment listings because it’s fun, even though I have no plans to move out. I honestly want to, mainly because my relationship with my parents isn’t that great, and living back home has highlighted that even more. E has it worse, though, and his relationship with our dad has deteriorated so much that they got into a few physical fights during lockdown. While I can afford to move out, E can’t and of course, L is underage, so I can’t take him with me. Right now, I’m bearing the brunt of my parents’ stress and frustration, and if I leave, then it’s likely that they’ll start taking it out on my brothers. So, I don’t because I’m their eldest sister and a huge part of me feels like it’s my duty to protect them. But if worse comes to worst, then I’m ready to shoulder E and his expenses. He only started his business last year, so it isn’t super profitable yet. The post-holiday slump hasn’t been kind to him either.
5:30 p.m. – Dinner is Tinolang Manok, which is a dish that consists of chicken and papaya slices cooked in ginger-flavored broth. For me, it’s a must-eat during “wintertime.” While eating, my parents ask me what my plans are for my upcoming birthday. They’re trying to pressure me to treat the entire family to dinner, but I decline because a) I’m trying to save money, and b) COVID-19.
8:45 p.m. – I take a shower and catch a few episodes of a Chinese drama called “A Love So Beautiful.” Then, it’s back to work.
Daily Total: $0
DAY FIVE – THURSDAY, JANUARY 14
3:45 a.m. – I finish my main job early, so I go and work on some deliverables, but I keep getting distracted by “A Love So Beautiful” that I barely get anything done. Before I know it, it’s nearly time to wake my brother up, and I haven’t accomplished anything at all.
5:00 a.m. – My mom brought home fried chicken from McDonalds last night for L’s breakfast, but I’m so hungry that I steal it. I order the same thing ($5.50) and schedule a 6:30 a.m. delivery to hide my crime. $5.50
7:00 a.m. – I wake up L, shower, and settle in to watch the final episode in the series. I’ve accepted the fact that I won’t get anything done until I find out what happens to Chen Xiaoxi and Jiang Chen.
12:00 p.m. – I must be more torn up about losing two clients than I initially thought I was because I end up crying while working on a deliverable. I lock myself in my room and plan to have a good 10-minute crying session, but this quickly into a full-on breakdown. I never really recognized the impact that my home situation and lack of proper sleep have left on me, but it looks like the emotional toll is too much. I’m also feeling really anxious about one of my long-time clients, who I feel is a bit disappointed with my work lately, and this sends me spiraling even more. I end up crying for a good hour or so. It would have gone on longer, had it not been for L, who knocks on my door and cuddles me for a bit. He can tell that I’m upset, thanks to my swollen eyes, so he offers to treat me to milk tea using his Christmas money. It’s sweet, but I decline.
4:00 p.m. – After working and a quick nap, I put on a Korean eye mask to hide how swollen they are. My dad gets annoyed whenever we cry since he perceives it to be a sign of weakness. I know that he’s completely wrong about this, but I’m too exhausted to argue with him tonight.
5:00 p.m. – Dinner is white rice and Pork Bistek. I don’t know if that has a proper English translation, but it’s basically pork chops and onions cooked in soy sauce and calamansi juice. I’m still feeling pretty lethargic from my breakdown earlier, so I take a cold shower to feel refreshed.
10:00 p.m. – I guess breaking down uses up a lot of energy because I’m starving, even though dinner was only a few hours ago. L is also hungry, so we ask J to buy us Puto Bumbong, which is a steamed purple rice cake topped with margarine, coconut flakes, and brown sugar. This particular stall also puts cheese and condensed milk on theirs. I personally find it too sweet, but L is in love, as only 10-year-old boys who can eat a whole jar of Nutella can be. J uses the leftover money from today’s dinner to pay.
11:30 p.m. – Work is pretty chill today, so I watch an anime called “The Promised Neverland” in-between monitoring social media traction.
Daily Total: $5.50
DAY SIX – FRIDAY, JANUARY 15
12:00 a.m. – Happy 23rd birthday to me! I initially wanted to go to treat myself to a spa to celebrate my birthday, but I canceled my booking because of COVID-19. Hopefully, the Philippine government will finally get its shit together by March, which is when I had my appointment rebooked. I’m doubtful, but hopeful.
7:00 a.m. – I log off for the week and settle in to finally enjoy some no-work bliss. Kidding! I wake up L, take a shower, and work on my freelancing deliverables. Since it’s my birthday, J allows me to decide what breakfast will be and I pick chicken nuggets because I know that it’s something that L will enjoy too.
11:00 a.m. – My lack of sleep this week has caught up to me, and I pass out from exhaustion. Thankfully, I don’t have any deadlines today.
4:30 p.m. – L wakes me up, and we dress for Mass. My parents require us to attend Mass together as a family whenever it’s someone’s birthday. L isn’t allowed inside the church because of my area’s COVID-19 restrictions, so he and E sit outside. I’m jealous because the air is so stuffy inside the church that breathing through a mask and a face shield is a struggle.
6:00 p.m. – We come home and a few of my other family members are there for a...surprise birthday dinner. I’m trying not to feel annoyed at the fact that my parents went against my wishes because I know they mean well, but still. I had planned a quiet night with anime and a face mask to celebrate my birthday, but of course, this won’t be feasible any longer. I’m trying not to let my irritation show because everyone made an effort to be here, but still. Oh well, at least they kept the number of guests below 10, in line with restrictions.
6:30 p.m. – My mom ordered food from a caterer, and we settle in for a dinner of Baked Salmon in Cheese with Green Beans, Braised Chicken with Rosemary and Potatoes, and Ox Tongue with Mushrooms. They’re all pretty good, but I can’t help but dream of the face mask that I had prepared in anticipation of tonight.
11:00 p.m. – I nurse a glass of white wine, and it isn’t long before my aunt and I have managed to polish off the entire bottle. I can’t help but feel a bit sad because only two of my friends greeted me today. I know that I shouldn’t put a lot of stock into birthday greetings because they’re just words, and I know that all my friends are busy with work, and I also know that they’re going through their own mental battles right now because of COVID-19, but still. It sucks.
11:30 p.m. – A friend from Germany asks me if he calculated the timezone correctly, and he wishes me a happy birthday. As a gift, he sends me a video of snow falling out his window. I don’t know if I’m crying because I’m wine-drunk, or if I’m crying out of envy because SNOW or because I’m a teeny bit sad. Maybe it’s all of the above, idk.
Daily Total: $0
DAY SEVEN - SATURDAY, JANUARY 16
2:00 a.m. – Party’s over and all my relatives have gone home. I set an alarm for 4 a.m. because I have an early-morning deadline to meet.
9:00 a.m. – I must be drunker and more tired than I thought because I completely slept through my alarm. I apologize to my client and ask for an extension. I’m hoping that he’s kind to me because it was my birthday the day before; fortunately, he grants the extension.
12:30 p.m. – E is craving Chinese food, so I hop onto Grab (Southeast Asian version of Uber) and place an order from Panda Express. They were only brought to the Philippines in 2019, and lines have been pretty long, so it was only this year that I was able to taste their non-Chinese Chinese food. I pay for our food as a late birthday treat for my brothers and also because I know that E has been denying himself a lot of things lately to have more cash to inject into his business. With delivery, the total comes out to $13. He offers to wash the dishes afterward, which I’m really thankful for. $13
3:00 p.m. – The rest of the day passes by quickly. It’s J’s day off today, so L and I do household chores. While doing them, I catch up with some of my favorite podcasts, including Military Murder and The Asian Madness Podcast. Highly recommend the two of them. And, let me know if you have any recommendations!
4:00 p.m. – I’m trying to work out whether I should buy the new Macbook Air M1 or not. I’ve been using my 2014 Macbook Air 11 since high school, but while this has been great for school, it’s a huge challenge now that I’m spending more than eight hours a day on it. The screen is too small, so my back and shoulders hurt the entire time I’m on it, and the resolution is also too low. A few people from this sub have recommended that I get an external monitor, but I don’t have a home office or a desk. I work on our dining room table because my vanity’s too small. Since we don’t have Apple Store here in the Philippines, I have to make do with a re-seller. Right now, the lowest that a Macbook Air M1 goes for is $1,102. This is something that I can definitely afford, especially since a junk shop has offered to give me $249 in exchange for my old one. But I’m having trouble being okay with buying a new laptop when my current one is working just fine. I know I deserve it after all my hard work and I know that it’ll make working much easier, but still.
6:00 p.m. – For dinner, my parents bring home take-out from a local restaurant. We eat Breaded Tofu, Butter Buffalo Chicken Wings, and Mixed Vegetables. I do the dishes afterward, which takes a long time, because dishwashers aren’t common in the Philippines, and it’s hard to manually scrub oily food.
8:00 p.m. – I work and watch anime in-between.
Daily Total: $13
WEEKLY TOTAL: $192.13
REFLECTION
This week’s spending was unusually high, mainly because of my phone bill and rare expenses, like eyeglasses and contact lenses. I also had way too much food delivered this week, but I felt like treating my brothers since it was my birthday, so I don’t mind that all. My usual weekly spending, however, is somewhere around $10.
But aside from spending, I think that writing this money diary really forced me to confront my privilege and mental health issues, as well as my workaholic tendencies. It’s tough to admit to yourself that you aren’t happy at all, but maybe it’s time to finally face it. I feel like I also have a problem with making big splurges that will ultimately benefit me, so moving forward, I’d like to remember that while treating my brothers is totally okay, I should be kinder to myself too. There’s still a lot of issues that I need to unpack and work through, but hopefully, being 23 will give me the strength to do so.
I hope you enjoyed this money diary from the other side of the world :-) And sorry for any typos. I’d edit, but it’s 2 a.m. right now, and I’m exhausted.
submitted by schade_marmelade to MoneyDiariesACTIVE [link] [comments]

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ok now I'm GENUINELY confused. (Manifesto inbound)

I don't know what to do in this game. I seriously don't.
I started my account about 2 months ago after deleting my old account and I SERIOUSLY am confused as to how I'm supposed to enjoy this product.
I've beaten story mode, and it isn't really that fun to play nor do I believe anyone plays this game for the PvE content considering most of it poses no challenge and the element of being able to go up against real opponents obsoletes any excitement in going up against a CPU.
I've grinded a few F2P units up, but I never have enough STA to do anything of significance because I'll go 2 100 STA Skips thinking the game will give me the means to get more STA and Skip Tickets but it's never enough to continuously grind a unit to their maximum (as if they expect players to use F2P units that are under 14 star zenkai 7'd). I'll grind Android 21 or Kakarot Goku up a bit, get some apples or macarons and not only will I not have enough to get more STA to actually USE THE UNIT AT THEIR MAX (LIKE THEY INTENDED), but I'll run out of exchanges resulting in me LITERALLY having no way to play asides from using 10 CC on 10 STA which is abhorrently useless.
I do adventures. And I will say, without a SHADOW OF A DOUBT, that this is the most braindead game mechanic I have ever seen in a Dragon Ball game. If you want anything even remotely valuable you gotta wait 5 days or something to exchange something in the shop for the BARE MINIMUM of what a player needs, it's like they knew how bad the gameplay was and thought to make a mechanic that FORCES you not to play.
Summoning in this game is actually some sort of psychological warfare from the people over at Bandai to punish people dumb enough to play gachas. You need to pull a unit a grand total of 12 times to max them out with NO GSP on every banner (cough cough Dokkan) and some of the worst rates I seen on a gacha game in my life. It's so obvious they desperately need your money and this is further exacerbated by the fact they drop a new meta-breaking LF or zenkai every 2 days or something. This new LF Gohan is cool, but I literally could not care less as a F2P player when I know full-well they're going to drop a red LF next month or something to make whales with underdeveloped prefrontal cortexes shout "AWOOGA" and drain their debit cards. Every unit that is more prevalent and more available to players sucks. The zenkai-able ones in the masters pack banners are good but good luck Zenkai-ing them as a F2P who probably has MANY other things to use their CC on.
​
On the topic of Zenkais;
If adventures are the most braindead mechanic in any dragon ball game, this is the most money-hungry mechanic in any dragon ball game. I'm going to demonstrate this by asking a series of questions related to the mode:
Want to Zenkai a unit? Use CC.
Want to Zenkai a unit while using less CC? Use 2000 CC and only get to Zenkai 1 (which, believe me, does NOTHING for the unit i.e SSG Vegeta)
Want to Zenkai a F2P unit? Use CC to refill your stamina bar, BUT WAIT, did we mention this is also going to be stupidly tedious?
It's like they saw EZA's in Dokkan and thought, "lets copy that but make everyone who plays this game hate the devs". And made EZAs but instead of the player GETTING virtual currency, the player LOSES it. It's crazy to me how they made one of the only mechanics in this game that COULD have been beneficial for F2P players such a P2W thing. The only semblance of it being F2P is with Zenkai missions, which aren't fun to do, are stupidly tedious and don't buff the unit beyond Zenkai 1.
​
The gameplay; good god is it bad sometimes.
​
Lag: A mobile PvP game that requires players to make FRAME PERFECT ABSURDLY QUICK reactions has no form of lag compensation and will actively punish players for their opponents' connections. I can't say how many times I've tried switching a character mid-combo and thanks to my opponent's 2G data hotspot wifi I drop the combo getting vanished and punished. Other times I'll try to cover change and it just won't work at all, or I'll use an arts card to no avail when I KNOW my opponent will attack. This is REALLY bad, and it gets worse when the core gameplay itself is flawed.
Movement: Who thought it was a good idea to let players move mid-combo? It LITERALLY obsoletes some cover change mechanics. Take Zamasu for example, good defensive unit, right? If you go up against a Vegito Blue that dashes up towards you after every arts card they use, unless you have the reaction time of Mike Tyson in his prime, you aren't going to be able to tell whether your opponent is going to use a blast arts or a strike arts card. Why did they even make that animation of a character flying up to chain strike arts together if it's A BAD THING to use? It's like it was only there as a fail-safe in case the game got so laggy that you NEEDED the guarantee of your cards connecting.
Movement 2 - The return of Movement: Neutral movement is useless. Tell me otherwise. From close range, it doesn't do anything except MAYBE bait out your opponent to attack or vanish-step. From mid-range, it's useless, because tackles can only be vanished or attacked, nothing else (who designed that move?). From long-range, it's useless, tap blasts are the most useless thing in this game, the whole point of it is to get your opponent to vanish as a mistake but it doesn't even do anything if it hits, so your opponent can literally just stand there taking tap blasts till the end of time because they'll never be baited into vanishing. And because moving from long range has no other effects, it's pointless. This game could have been on a 2D-plane and it still would be the same for the most part.
Combat: Is just rock, paper scissors with extra fluff. Here's how the game will go MOST of the time:
  1. Throw arts card out.
  2. Opponent vanishes. (Could result in a perfect vanish, which, FULLY unincentivizes the concept of playing aggressive)
  3. Opponent throws arts card out or waits.
  4. If opponent throws arts card out, vanish, then attack, rinse repeat. If opponent waits, prepare not to enjoy the game at all.
  5. Welcome to hell, many things can happen at this point in the game, for example:
​
I don't want to stop playing because I love Dragon Ball, there aren't that many good DB games on the market rn, and the game can be fun sometimes, but it really isn't as enjoyable as it should be. A good analogy would be that this is like playing basketball but the ball is covered in dirt, so even though it can be fun, it isn't as fun as it would be if it didn't have the dirt.
submitted by OmnKali to DragonballLegends [link] [comments]

fun games that don't need wifi or data video

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Even if you have great network coverage and can stay connected to lightning fast 4G LTE connections, there will be some times when you don’t have network coverage or free WiFi available. If you only have games that require an internet connection, this can get boring, especially during long waits or commutes. So, keeping one or 5 great Android games that don’t need WiFi on your smartphone all the time is a great investment. For one, you’ll be able to enjoy quality time whenever you want but also won’t have to worry about connecting to the Internet and data charges. Racing Games That Don’t Need WiFi. Here are some of the awesome bike racing games that you can play without an internet connection. #1 Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Need for Speed: Most Wanted is undoubtedly one of the best offline racing games for Android out there. Single Player Games That Don’t Need WiFi. For times when you don’t have access to the internet and want to while away some time on your smartphone, you should check out these Android games: 1. Jetpack Joyride. Kicking off the list is a game that’s reached such levels of popularity in India that it has even received a special Indian version. If you’re a fan of tower defense games and don’t mind the cutesy graphics offered by Plants vs. Zombies (which might turn off some potential players), Plants vs. Zombies 2 is an excellent addition to a growing genre. The biggest flaw with the game comes from its controversial freemium plan on both iOS and Android. These are the games that you can play without a WiFi connection. You may also call “No WiFi games” as “Offline games” for which you don’t need to be online to play games. Thus, to play any “No WiFi games” data connection is not required. Why Do You Need Free Games that Don’t Need WiFi? From coding games to apps that encourage creative thinking, everything on this list provides high learning potential. Plus, they're so much fun that kids might not even realize they're learning. For more fun apps that are great for offline use, try one of these Fun Apps That Don't Need Wi-Fi or Data. Are you looking for the best games that don't need WiFi? These are the best games that don't require WiFi and you can Play these free games without WiFi. Asphalt 9, Hungry Shark, Fallout Shelter, Crossy Road, Plague, Duet, Gangster Vegas, Limbo, etc. are Games that do not require the data connection. When you're somewhere the internet is not, it's hard to know if your kids' apps will work. And while many apps -- once downloaded -- don't require Wi-Fi or data, some do, and it's hard to tell which is which. If you're looking for games that don't need Wi-Fi, there's something for everyone here: puzzles, number games, even multiplayer party Enjoy these no-data-required games and many more on your Republic Moto smartphone, as part of Android’s many choices of games that don’t require cellular data in order to play. At Republic, it’s our mission to help keep your enjoyment level high while we help keep your phone bill low.

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The Free PC Steam Games Tier List - YouTube

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fun games that don't need wifi or data

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