6.15am – the cuddle alarm goes off. I wish I was joking, but this is my cue to snug my husband for ten minutes before we actually have to get up. Best part of my day.

6.30am – we disembark our boat-home and begin the half mile walk out to the car. The weather has been fantastic lately, this is the second best part of the day.

8.30am – my morning starts out with a slew of meetings. At some point I grab my tub of yogurt out of the fridge, measure out a half a cup, and bring it back to my desk where I dump 40g of granola into it and eat breakfast. I’m trying to lose some fat so I’m counting calories right now. It’s tedious, but it’s working.

11.45am – the meetings are over, I head to the caf to heat up my tex-mex soup before the 12pm crowd monopolizes the microwaves. My. Life. Is. Exciting.

12.00pm – it’s Monday, so I spend my noon hour doing finances. I have a spreadsheet, I tally everything we spent over the last week, then I log in to our brokerage accounts and check the investments so I can tally our net worth. It’s the one thing I look forward to on Mondays.

4.30pm – call it! Time to get going. I go pick up my roommate (yeah, it’s the same one I snuggled with earlier) and we head to Lidl to get groceries. This is a very average grocery trip, I was really hoping they’d have their boxed wine half price again (seriously, $5.50 for 3L of wine) but not this week. $57.77

6.00pm – we arrive home, I’m beat. He cooks dinner and I start pickling the matchstick carrots we bought – normally I would chop up my own carrots but I went for the “convenient” pre-cut carrots this time. I get nothing done for the rest of the night. A hazard of cutting calories, low energy after work.

Daily Total: $57.77

Day 2:

9.00am – my boss stops by my desk to remind me that I have to go to the un-air-conditioned warehouse and physically count parts. I thought we were teaming up on this project but his words seem to indicate that I’m on my own. I head over to the warehouse, sweat my butt off, count all the things, but still make it back to the office by noon. Not bad! After lunch I have to chase down some parts in our office building, so I’m on my feet a lot today but that’s fine.

4.30pm – I get to go home! I pick up my carpool buddy (you know who I’m talking about!) and we head home. Yesterday was grocery day, so today is mealprep day.

5.00pm – we get home, he makes us salads and I enjoy a slice of cheese while he’s cooking. We eat, I know it’s super early but I’m hungry.

6.00pm – he heads up to the marina clubhouse to do laundry and use the good internet for a skype sesh halfway around the world about an exciting eco-science project, I do our weekly mealprep. Usually we do something ridiculously easy, but he’s bored of the easy meals and wants Vietnemese-style banh mi sandwiches. It’s more work, but SO worth it. I marinate and cook chicken, I chop up veggies, I make an amazing spicy lime yogurt sauce. Then I put together our lunch packages with the matchstick carrots I pickled last night. I wanted to get a workout in but by the time I’m done cooking, it’s late so I just shower and go read in bed.

Daily Total: $0

Day 3:

12.00pm – my day is exactly the same as Monday up until this point. Over lunch, I book flights to see my good friend in my hometown, because she just had twins! That’s two babies, y’all – she is an absolute boss when it comes to momming! I can’t wait to meet those little snuggle bunnies and get some serious hang time with her toddler. My family will graciously provide transpo and lodging, and travel rewards pays for all but a few dollars of my flights, so this is a cheap trip. I don’t do hardcore churning – we simply don’t spend enough – but we meet the minimum spends on a couple cards to get a couple free flights every year. $16.03

4.30pm – I go pick up the spouse and head home.

5pm – tonight is Girls Night! Once a month the girlfriends and I get together for dinner, it’s fantastic. I have plans to stop at Harris Teeter beforehand to take advantage of the buy-2-get-3-free coffee sale, so I pretty much get home, change my clothes, then leave again. No luck at the first HT, but I’m so early that I make it to another HT and score 8 packages of hazelnut, plus 2 packages of decaf hazelnut (and potatoes because the spouse thinks we need weekend potatoes). $36.47 

6.30pm – we’re doing Thai tonight, which is THE BEST. I order curry and it’s amazing. My friends are both pregnant so dinner conversation revolves around the 1000 things I don’t know about having a baby. They are amazing, conversation is interesting, I wish we could socialize more often. $13.54

8.30pm – I arrive home and tell the spouse what a great night I had. So great.

Daily Total: $66.03

Day 4:

6.15am – I wake up with a massive headache, I feel hungover but I didn’t drink anything last night. Wtf. I consider asking my gentleman friend to drive us to work today but instead I uterus up and do the thing.

8.30am – I have so many meetings this morning. Who did this to me.

11.45am – finally, I can run to the caf and make myself some amazing banh mi sandwiches then go read r/skincareaddiction at my desk. I’m a ginger and I live on a boat so I click on any thread that mentions sunscreen. Sunscreen is love. Sunscreen is life.

3.00pm – at some point this afternoon the bottom 1/2 inch of my phone’s touchscreen stopped working. This is kind of critical because Instagram doesn’t rotate, and I’m trying to build a brand. This phone is way too young to justify replacing, so I will have to try replacing the screen. Crap.

4.30pm – nothing planned for tonight, which means I can finally get a workout in! Instead we drink two bottles of wine and watch TV. Has it been a ridiculously rough week for anyone else? At least if I wake up with a headache tomorrow morning I will have earned it.

Daily Total: $0

Day 5:

6.30am – the roommate gets to leave work early today so he wants to drive separate, which means I don’t have to drop him off, so I can sleep in for a few precious extra minutes. He gets out some ibuprofen for my headache because he’s a real champ.

3.00pm – okay if I’m being totally honest, I spent most of my day writing blog posts for our boat blog and didn’t do much actual work. It’s Friday. Does anyone really expect me to be productive today?

4.30pm – had a Major Problem crop up at the end of the day, passed it off to the responsible parties and walked out the door with a smile on my face. Realized I needed to stop and get gas on the way home and grumbled about how it would interrupt my routine. Got home to a grumpy spouse because he’s been fighting his raspberry pi server project this afternoon. It’s late on Friday and we are both DONE. $18

6.00pm – he whips up some dinner and I decompress. After dinner I get a couple blog posts posted (I am so far behind!) and get so involved with it that I don’t even realize that he’s left the boat to go shower.

8.00pm – I remember I have a phone issue to deal with and start looking at the cost of replacement screens. My long-term booty call gently asks if I’ve explored returning it to the manufacturer for replacement, or if I’ve watched the how-to videos to make sure I am confident I can replace the screen myself. I haven’t, so I don’t make the purchase yet.

Daily Total: $18.00

Day 6:

7.00am – I want to stop at Harris Teeter and get more coffee, then arrive at our “fun activity” for the weekend when they open at 8.30am. Well, some technical difficulties arise (still fighting this phone screen issue – and what other devices I can use as a work-around) and we don’t leave until 8.30. I’m very chill about this. Being off schedule does not stress me out at all (cue crazy eyes).

8.30am – we’re driving our vintage VW bus today, we need to fill up the tank because if it gets too low we get fuel clogs and the engine sputters and dies. We need to fix this, but fixing involves taking the engine out, then taking the gas tank out, then emptying the gas tank to clean out whatever debris is in there. We don’t have a garage and this isn’t our primary vehicle, so we’re using the bandaid solution for now. $26.60

9.00am – We stop at HT, score 10 more bags of coffee. $32.60

9.30am – We arrive at Boone Hall Plantation, the only Charleston plantation we haven’t been to yet. We get in to all the plantations for free because of the local Parks and Rec amazing volunteer program. (f you’re in the Charleston area you absolutely must check this out, free access to virtually all the local tourist sites for the low, low price of 35 fun hours of your time.) My stoke level is HIGH because their “Avenue of Oaks” is open to vehicles so we have a photoshoot with the bus – this is why I wanted to arrive right when they opened, so we’d have the place to ourselves. We have a great time wandering around, the house is well air conditioned so we’re able to escape the 90°+F weather for a minute. This plantation addresses the slavery aspect pretty well, which I really appreciate because a couple other plantations seem to gloss over the atrocities. $0

11.30am – we head to Target to meet some strangers, the boyfie has been looking at a used drone on FB marketplace. I’m still not sold on the idea so I’m happy that it turns out to be a total bust (no parts or accessories included, which means we’d have to buy them, which means a lot of extra costs). $0

12.00pm – we had some miscommunication regarding our picnic lunch today, and brought zero food along. No big deal. We stop at Aldi and get bread, lunchmeat, cheese, guac, and a couple other Aldi finds. Despite filling the bus up with gas, the engine has been sputtering a bit so my SO crawls under the bus right there in the Aldi parking lot to blow the fuel line out. We head out to Shem Creek to walk the boardwalk and have a picnic on the water. There’s a wonderful breeze, although we eat in the shade because that sun is brutal! It’s Saturday so there’s lots of boat traffic to entertain us. $15.02

2.30pm or something – we’ve been looking at lightweight UPF hoodies, and we have a gift card to buy some. We stop at a sporting goods store to look for them, they don’t have a single stitch of women’s clothing, so not only do we buy nothing, but I also vow never to come back. Sexist! $0

3.00pm – we’re both tired of running errands. However, we’re next door to Goodwill and the frugal law states that we must stop. My husband, bless his heart, has about a thousand plastic bins at home already, but still buys four more because they a) have lids and b) cost a dollar or less (those are his terms and conditions). I don’t complain because he’s a master of organization and he keeps our shit orderly. Thanks, babe. We also get a heavy-duty travel umbrella for $2. Uh, full disclosure, we did go stop at the Harris Teeter next door to look for more coffee. Luckily they were sold out, because really, 30 pounds of coffee in one week is a little excessive, right? $6

5.00pm – it was a long, exhausting day so we mostly laze around for the rest of the evening. Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD keeps us entertained, then sweet, sweet rest.

Daily Total: $80.22

Day 7

9.00am – yesterday was the fun day, today is the work day. We get up and the internet isn’t working, so I am forced to get offline work done. The love of my life realizes he accidentally turned off the wifi breaker when we both woke up to five police boats with flashing lights all around us – he was trying to turn on the radio so we could figure out what was going on. At least he didn’t turn off the fridge or freezer breakers. Boat life! He turns the wifi back on and I start working on blog stuff. Blogs. Are. Frustrating.

1.00pm – I offer to make lunch, but this guy! He says he’ll make us grilled cheeses, so instead I’m writing up the draft of my week for you lovely ladies.

2.00pm – I didn’t work out all week, and I’m trying not to beat myself up about that. I tell myself that fat loss comes more from diet than exercise, but my diet was crap this week too (see: Day 4’s wine intake). There’s nothing I can do about the past, so I take this afternoon for an extra intense workout. I’m killing it with my pushups, so I didn’t lose any strength this week. I try to mess with the SJcam a bit during my workout so I can take videos for form checks but the stupid thing fails to record anything. User error? I take some time after my workout to stretch, then I shower, and pamper myself a bit with post-shower exfoliating and moisturizing.

4.00pm – the husband requested a haircut earlier in the week and we didn’t get around to it. We head out to the back deck and he gets a free haircut. I also put away all my clothes, and clean up the house. It’s not much, but I’m slowing ticking things off my to-do list.

6.30pm – we eat dinner. I’ll get a couple more little things done tonight – I have to put together our lunch packages for Monday and Tuesday – but other than that it’s a quiet night with more Agents of SHIELD.

Daily Total: $0

Money Diary Weekly Breakdown: $189.43

Food: $122.80

Gasoline: $44.60

Flights: $16.03

Junk: $6