I posted here a couple weeks ago about buying my first house. I thought it was kismet, having received some funds from the death of a grandparent that, combined with my own cash savings, were just enough to buy what I thought was my dream apartment. Sadly, the inspection revealed a bunch of issues that I couldn't afford to deal with, so that didn't happen 😞

Now that I've realized I could, I'm interested in buying -- but I'm not unhappy renting, I don't want to lock myself into something not ideal for 5+ years, and the neighborhood I want to live in is $$ and has pretty limited stock. There's nothing currently on the market in my budget that interests me, so I'm planning to just keep an eye on things as they come on the market and only strike if something seems really appealing. Realistically, that could be in a few months, or in 5 years.

I know generally speaking you should keep down payment money in an HYSA, but the thought of keeping all that money in an HYSA for potentially years gives me heartburn. Is there anything else to do with it, or should I really just keep it in cash?

Assets and Debt: 

Equity if you're a homeowner: 

• Based on recent sales near us, we have at least $400,000 equity. Our area went through a stage of skyrocketing growth a few years back, stabilised, then has seemed to go nuts again over the last six months. But then, the national market finally seems to be softening (thank god!). Who knows what we’d actually get if we wanted to sell, which we don’t. 
• We also outright own a block of land worth about $25k (I think, it’s been a while since it’s been valued, although we are thinking of selling it, so we’ll see).

 

Account balances: 

• $88414 available for redraw in our primary mortgage offset account
• $2000 in my husband’s D.’s emergency savings, also an offset 
• $300 in a daily in/out home loan account - mortgage payments and insurance for the house come out of this one (offset). 
• $1536 in high interest personal savings account - this is being saved for my next quarterly tax installment
• D. has a daily transaction amount, which doesn’t normally have much in it, a few hundred dollars perhaps.

Super: approx $120k in superannuation between the two of us (I know, I know, it’s so low)

Student loan debt/HECS: $5300

Main Jobs Monthly Take Home:

• My pay varies, and I earned 65k last financial year. However, I was laid off at the start of this year, and made the switch to part time work supplemented by freelance clients, and I have no idea what it will be this year. I don’t intend to give details about my work, so if you’re looking for a high-earning, high-octane girlboss to give instructions on how to be a good capitalist worker bee, this diary is probably not the one for you, sorry. 
• My husband gets ~65k + occasional overtime + super, and he gets a few ancillary benefits which are equal to about $2k a year. In this village, permanent full time, award pay office jobs (with full benefits, supportive management, ongoing training, and a path upward in D.’s case) are like hens’ teeth, so this job is a godsend. Plus it’s walking distance from home, so our commuting costs are zero.

 

Expenses

Mortgage: Our current minimum required payment is $67 but we pay $300/week and then make extra payments into offset accounts when possible. We have about $42k remaining on the mortgage. 

Private health insurance: $99/week

Home + contents insurance: $147/month. 

Council rates: $463/quarter this financial year

Electricity: ~$450/quarter (higher in winter, lower in summer). 

Water: ~$400/quarter (higher in winter, lower in summer)

Internet: $90/month

Phones: $55/month x 2 (calls and data, we both own our phones outright - this feels like highway robbery and I really need to take a look at what options are out there). 

Car registration + comprehensive insurance (approx $1500 annually together, and then an annual service has been anywhere from $300 to $900, it needs new wheels occasionally etc. ect., so I count the basic costs of car ownership per year as being about $2500 assuming nothing goes wrong) 

Cats: My feline overlord (Fatso, 12) and our five-year-old (Pest) cost a combined $108 a month in insurance, and about that again in food, litter, and preventative medicine. Despite being found filthy in a drainpipe (Fatso), and stinking and starving in a dairy (Pest), they are luxury items and drain my purse accordingly. 

Subscriptions: Audible at $8/month - all other subscriptions we buy a month then cancel. 

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?
I have a bachelor degree and postgraduate certificate. I never considered not going to university after high school, and I did the postgraduate certificate to move into my current role. 

Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parents educate you about finances?
My parents are hardworking and frugal, and they have worked their way up from starting with nothing in their youths to being very comfortable now. They’ve taught themselves to be financially literate but the mentality of JUST DON’T SPEND MONEY was hard to break. I’ve learned a lot directly and indirectly.

What was your first job and why did you get it?
When I was 15, I started working at a fast-food store. The job sucked, but I did like having money of my own. I moved over to work in a department store (which was mildly less traumatic to my very shy teenage self) to build up savings when I was 17, and worked hospo/retail jobs through university holidays to keep myself going through term time.

Did you worry about money growing up?
I was conscious that it was a source of stress for my parents. That said, I never thought we’d not have food on the table or a roof above my head, and I did lots of extra-curriculars (mostly sports, although I’m not sure they got their money’s worth as I have two left feet).

Do you worry about money now?
Yes. I feel less and less stress as savings/assets/debts move in the right directions, but I think I’ll always be a bit of a stress-head about money, and losing my income at the start of this year, just as inflation went nuts, did not help. 

At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
About 20, when I began my first full-time job (which overlapped with my last year of university). Obviously, my parents are our safety net but one I really do not want to need.

What family or additional support have you received? Do you support others or have you received a leg up? (This is how I think the R29 question should look).
Yes, I (then we) have received a lot of support:

• My parents paid for me to live on campus for the first year of university and then helped with rent for subsequent years. 
• They put 30k towards our house deposit, and this meant we were able to buy years before we’d otherwise have been able to (by the time we’d have been able to save that 30k, houses here would have gone up 50k in value, and then the time we’d saved that extra 20k, prices would have gone up even more, etc. etc. etc.). We’d have missed the boat here otherwise, so the difference this has made is hard to overstate.
• They paid for Invisalign. 
• They made a major (10k) contribution towards a complete bathroom renovation we had done. They also talked a qualified family friend into doing the bulk of the reno work with my ex-tradie dad acting as labourer, which massively kept costs down. Trying to coordinate tradies to do the full gut-redo we wanted and needed (when our house only has one bathroom) was shaping up to be a massive pain in the butt, so again, this made a real difference.

 

Passive/inherited income: 

• My husband sadly lost a grandparent recently, and got a small inheritance. 10k of that went against the mortgage, and the rest bought the ticket for an emergency flight home he needed to take.
• Also, I didn’t mention in previous diaries that we rent-vested our house before we moved down to Tasmania, and we got about ten months of rent at $215 per week, which almost exactly covered our expenses (mortgage, insurance, agency etc).

 

Day One: 

6.30am: Ugh, this should be my day off but I took on some extra work to save money for a trip we’re taking in August. I feed my cats Pest (5) and Fatso (12, based on what we were told when we got her, although last annual checkup her vet suggested she might actually be a bit older), quickly shower, have some cereal and coffee and get to work. 

10:30am: My weekend starts now! I have a second coffee and listen to some news with my husband, D. (to his credit, D. has had a very busy week but woke up earlyish to do two loads of washing, then vacuumed and mopped the floors before I finished, so I didn’t feel the need to do it). 

11.30am: it’s a beautiful day, so we decide to take a drive to a nice bakery in a different village in our valley. 

12:30pm: We reach the bakery and order steak + pepper (him) and steak + mushroom (me) pies, along with a lemon meringue pie and a chocolate pie, and cokes (I’m not normally such a caffeine fiend but it’s been a busy week and I’m tired. ($37) 

1:30pm: we drive back home the slow way and stop at our local supermarket. I pick up milk, eggs, onions, zucchini, avocados, pumpkin, broccolini (three bunches, it must be in season because it's super cheap at the moment), passata, carrots, spinach, a half leg lamb roast, chicken drumsticks, dried green peas, flour, canned salmon, linguini, Shin ramen, chilli crisp (current obsession), body wash, shampoo + conditioner, kitchen paper rolls, and toilet paper ($170). I’m congratulating myself on a very frugal weekly shop when I realise I forgot cat litter. We stop on the way home and pick up a bottle of wine ($15 I think). 

2.30pm: We get the groceries away and washing off the line, remake the beds, and I make some pizza dough for tonight, then I hit the wall and decide I need to take a nap. D. and both cats join me. 

4pm: I drag myself back out of bed, and move to the couch and read (the Way of Kings - I know Sanderson is meant to be life-changing for fantasy nerd, but I’m missing something, I’m halfway through and neither enjoying it enough to commit to the series, or bored enough to DNF). 

6pm: I put the oven on for pizzas and throw some carrots, onions, and zucchini in the air fryer; I make one salami pizza for D. and a veggie (with broccolini in addition to the air fried veggies, and ajvar mixed into the tomato sauce) one for me. I open a bottle of non-alc sparking wine (foraged from the cupboard) and D has a glass of red from the bottle we bought today. 

7pm: we are between series and try to find something to watch. We finally watch the first episode of Euphoria and… um, Americans, surely your kids aren't like this? I have questions… but I also understand now why Sydney Sweeney suddenly became a thing.

8pm: We then try Normal People and enjoy it a lot more. The unbearable awkwardness of high school looks much more familiar in this. It’s a heck of a stretch to imagine any young man being embarrassed to be seen with Daisy Edgar-Jones, though. 

10pm: Bedtime with an audiobook (Night Watch, by the late, great, Terry Pratchett. We both love his books and they make great falling-asleep listening for us, as we know our favourites so well it doesn’t matter if we miss half a chapter by falling asleep first). 

Day spend: $222

Day Two:

6.30am: I wake up with cat’s whiskers up my nose - Pest knows this is a certain way to get my attention, no matter how deeply asleep I am. I feed the little bugger and her sister and go back to bed. 

9am: we wake up properly and slowly get out of bed. I shower, then have breakfast of avocado toast and coffee. It is a glorious day (t-shirt weather in May, in Tassie! I don’t know whether to be delighted or terrified of climate change?) so we get out and mow the lawns, weed the garden, trim the edges and generally do middle-aged-middle-class-homeowner stuff. 

11am: I chill with Way of Kings for a bit, then get stuck into batch cooking for the week. 

12pm: I spend the afternoon cycling between laying in the sun and cooking, and end up with a Thai green curry (using the chicken legs), a large pot of creamy beans, and a ham and pea soup (I had a stock already made that needed to be used). 

1pm: I heat up leftover pizza for lunch. D. is feeling tired so he mostly naps with a book in his lap, on the pretext of doing some further-education study for work. 

4pm: we regather on the couch, and listen to what is, for me, a highly enjoyable podcast. We’ve enjoyed The Rest Is History for years, and have recently started enjoying a spinoff with one of the hosts, called The Book Club. I chortle my way through the ACOTAR episode; alas, the enjoyment is a bit lost on D. who loves a stodgy classic above all. 

6pm: I box up all the food and organise it in the fridge and freezer - I’m expecting a busy week so basically I want to not cook beyond chucking some stuff in the air fryer or microwave - and then make green curry noodles, using the curry I made earlier.  

7pm: more Normal People. 

9pm: We have an early night with books. 

Day spend: $0. 

Day Three

7am: Amazing night of sleep. I wake up, shower, coffee, cereal + yoghurt for breakfast, and am at my desk for what will be my busiest day of work in months - I’m covering a colleague for a few hours this evening, and will have a split shift/half day on Thursday to make up for it. 

10am: D. put on a load of washing on when he left this morning, and I pause to hang it out. It’s a gorgeous day, so I don’t rush (D gets this off the line on his way in from work this afternoon).

1pm: I heat up some green curry and rice for lunch, and then get back to work. 

5pm: I have a break, and heat up some beans and have them with a fancy loaf of bread that D. has brought home. 

7.45pm: Ouch, finally finished and my brain hurts. I crash on the couch for half an hour and listen to the day’s news, then we take books to bed. 

10pm: My Fitbit suggests I sleep about this time. 

Day total: $0. 

Day Four: 

7am: You know the routine. Alarm, cats, shower, coffee, food, desk. 

1pm: You know those days you’re working hard, but feel like nothing gets achieved? It’s one of those days. I have a longish lunch break and take a nap. 

3pm-4pm: I get a lot more done, properly rested, but still decide to finish up early. I bake a load of bread and decide to test-run a chocolate cake, then make some chicken schnitzels  to have with the beans and some boiled potatoes for dinner. 

6pm: Loaf, cake and schnitzels all work out well (D. took the chocolate cake leftovers to his work the next day). . 

9pm: read with books, and early bed, as I’m feeling a little off. 

Day cost: $0 - sorry, I’m just remembering why I abandoned my last two diaries on the grounds of me being boring.  

Day Five: 

7am: My alarm startles me awake. I again roll out of bed, and shower, have breakfast and coffee in record time, and am at my desk early. I am feeling uncomfortable (even on a women’s site, I’ll spare you the detail), and call the local medical centre. By some miracle I snag a 2.30pm appointment and I rearrange my day a little so I can attend. 

11.30am: obviously my breakfast toast wasn’t big enough (occupational hazard of baking home loaves and slicing by hand; today I must not have fully accounted for using the heel of the loaf), and I’m starving. I boil some noodles and have an early lunch with some air fried broccolini and tempeh. 

2.30pm: Actually it’s 3pm by the time I’m seen but the doctor is very helpful and is a magical unicorn that actually bulk bills! (*i.e the cost is covered fully by the Medicare Levy, and I don’t have to pay out of pocket today to be seen). I head to the pharmacy, pay $18 to fill two scripts, and am back home about 4pm. 

6pm: Done with work, and I’m starving. I heat up the last of the green curry, rice and tempeh for us for dinner and crash on the couch. We catch up on yesterday’s budget news - I try to work out if D. and I are positively or negatively affected by the changes, and decide we’re in the middle of the seesaw. Either way, I’d like to see houses go back to being places to live, not an asset category for the wanker class, so I think I approve of the changes. 

9pm: We give up on the news and head to bed. It takes me a while to fall asleep but I’m enjoying Night Watch, so it’s all good. 

Day total: $18

Day Six 

7am: I wake up after a very deep sleep feeling much better. Today is another busier day so I run through the morning routine and then dive into it. 

1pm: I have the last of the curry for lunch. It’s still good. 

4pm: I feel the need for something sweet so I go fill up the car with petrol, as an excuse to buy some chocolate at the service station ($26). Should have held onto more of the chocolate cake. 

6pm: Finally wrap up. D. is in a great mood as his team is hiring for a new role at work, that will make his life easier, and he really likes two of the candidates. He tells me about it, and I pretend to listen and make ‘hmmmm, great’ style noises at the appropriate times while I make some cacio e pepe + air fried broccolini. 

7pm: we actually feel like watching something tonight, so we put on Normal People. Why are they both so fucking miserable all the time? 

9pm: Bed. 

Day spend: $26. 

Day Seven 

6.30am: The fluffy alarms are determined to be fed and let out early, and I can’t get back to sleep. My morning routine is interrupted by the lack of avocados, which I forgot to buy last shop. 

7am: A benefit of being awake early is getting out for a short walk before work. 

8am-5pm: Pretty steady work. Nothing bad, nothing particularly memorable, just work.

5pm D. buys a bottle of red wine on the way home ($15, I think). 

6pm: I open a bottle of non-alc sparkling (not bad) as I make lamb soup (very good) for dinner. 

7pm: We have a raging Friday night with D. catching up with a friend as I read, and then watching more Normal People. This is the episode where Marianne is sad for some reason I don’t understand and Connell acts chaotically while looking at her like he’s a puppy dog wanting to be walked… no wait, that’s every episode. 

Total spend: $15. 

Total spend: $281, which was pretty good considering that we did a large-ish supermarket shop. 

Hey everyone. I love this community and the diversity of thoughts here. I am in desperate need of feedback/thoughts/opinions, truly anything that can help give me insight on my situation. Longer post incoming

Background info: Essentially, my parents are older 57(f) and 69(m) respectively. I'm in my mid twenties. For most of my life my parents have never been good with money or had a lot of it. Unfortunately as they've aged they have only become poorer and poorer. They have gone from low middle class, to working class, to poverty. They have no house, no retirement, little savings, and currently survive off of my mom's low income job (I think she made 29k last year) and my dad's social security. He works as a commercial cleaner to make extra money but with his age, he can keep doing this for much longer. I have older siblings but to be fully transparent, my parents were not very involved in their lives when they were younger, so now the relationships between them are very different from traditional child/parent relationship. (Meaning financial help when my parents will need it the most is going to look very different than I think anyone is fully prepared for.)

Issue at hand: being in early to mid twenties and watching my parents struggle with their age, health, and financial situation has become an emotional burden that is becoming more immense as they age. I am not quite sure what there is for me to do here in terms of helping them. I have posted here before but long story short, I have EXTREME financial anxiety that I have been working on since I moved out at 18. I am now making decent salary, have fair savings, and a small amount of investments that I'm working on. I just do not have the emotional capacity to allocate money to help them out. I barely help myself out with my own money if I'm being fully honest. (Thank you intense scarcity mindset)

For those who can relate or have any advice for me, what would you do in the scenario. The harsh reality is that I know I'll never be in a position emotionally or financially to help them the ways that they truly need. There are other things I can do for them besides financial support, which I'm working on with them, but I'm here because I just don't see my scenario talked about much online, in media, or in research papers. Nada. What do those who have older parents in poverty truly do when they themselves are still only in the building phase?

Having poverty trauma while your parents are still in poverty has been the hardest thing I've experienced up until this point. Any words of wisdom or advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm planning to start therapy again soon because yikes. The guilt is immense.

Tl;dr: My parents live an impoverished lifestyle and will most likely stay that way for the rest of their lives, and I don't know what the best forward for myself is.

I realized recently that one of my acquaintances probably has $20-50 million in equity from joining an AI startup early. I don't know why, but it's been making me feel so bad about myself! It feels like my accomplishments financially and career-wise mean so little comparatively, and that the things I've been excited about for the future still won't even measure up. Like say I save 5 million, it will still be nothing in comparison.

How do I get over this? I know objectively other people's wealth has no impact on my life, but it is triggering all sorts of things for me emotionally. Like wanting to be the best in the class but someone else already got an A+++++.

Does anyone else feel like they fall into money comparison? If so, how have you gotten past it?

I want to share my experience so others don’t get blindsided like I did.

I deposited $1,000 in cash at Walgreens to my Chime account. Only $100 posted. I immediately contacted support and provided everything — the Walgreens receipt, the cash load verification, timestamps, all of it. Despite that, Chime refused to correct the missing $900.

Every email I sent got an automated response telling me to call. Every phone call led to being transferred around with no real help or resolution. No one took ownership of the issue.

I also tried to close my account multiple times in writing. My balance was $0.00 with no pending transactions, but Chime still refused to close the account and kept sending automated replies instead of addressing the request.

If our accounts are “insured,” why wasn’t my missing $900 covered?

Posting this so others know what they’re getting into before trusting them with their money.

Welcome back to "Off-Topic Tuesday", followed by "Workplace Wednesday" tomorrow!

As always, anything and everything finance and non-finance related is welcome here. Feel free to vent, seek advice, discuss current events, or share a little about yourself. :)

If you haven't already heard - we're mixing it up a little bit here on the OT thread. Continue to feel free to post your own prompt/question below (just one per comment), and answer prompts from others!

*** You may have noticed a recent uptick in spam posts, please report them as you see them. It takes 3 reports to flag a post for mod review. Thank you to everyone already reporting!

Happy Monday!

This week I really want to get into having an actual routine for my life after work that doesn’t involve just rotting on the couch and scrolling. I workout in the mornings so I do have extra time once I get home from the office. I know I would like to read more and spend more time off of my phone.

I want to be more intentional about this time, so I’m asking you all, what is your 5-9 routine? How do you spend your evenings after work?

Section One: Bio

Age: 33

Occupation: Senior Manager (Individual contributor, no direct reports) at a Fortune 500 company; my husband works in IT

Geographic location: Northeast, USA

PTO accrual: I get 16 days + 3 floating holidays each year. This year, I also rolled over 40 hours from 2025, which is the most I can carry forward.

Section Two: Assets + Debt

Retirement Balance: ~$686,000 between both of our 401ks and a Roth IRA

Home equity: ~$420,000

Savings account balance: $60,971

Checking account balance: $3,602

Credit card debt: $0, we put everything on cards but pay the statement amount each cycle

Student loan debt: $8,265.64 at roughly 3.5%

Car loan debt: $8,862 at 3.99% 

Section Three: Income

Main Job Monthly Take Home: $12,738 between both jobs

Section Four: Travel Expenses

Pre-Vacation Spending: None, I tried finding one of those suitcases kids can ride on last-minute but struck out. So everything we brought we already owned.

Transportation: $224.53

Accommodations: $823.99 for 2 nights at the Ameritania Hotel at Times Square

Food: $393.06

Shopping: $259.17

Entertainment: $87

Total: $1,787.75 

Affording this trip: I do have a savings bucket set up for travel but I only started it a few months ago so it won’t cover the entire thing. Between my bi-weekly contributions to it and a small chunk I added from my bonus in April, there’s $1,127 available. The other $660 I will just pull from my Eating Out and Family buckets, which is where I pull from for things like museum tickets, kid activities, toys, clothes, etc. The hotel was also paid for when I booked last month, so the costs got split up into two credit card statement cycles which is nice.

Section Five: Travel Diary

My 5-year-old son, D, has been enthralled with NYC since he learned that Spiderman, the Ghostbusters, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles all live there. He’s off to kindergarten this fall, so I decided to take him for a little spring getaway, just the two of us. It was a bit of a Choose Your Own Adventure for him, with me saying Yes to most things (within reason). He has dairy, egg and peanut allergies and eating out can be tough, so we were especially excited to explore the various vegan offerings the city is home to.

 Day 1

11:30 - Today is the day we’ve been counting down to for weeks! Our plan is to drop little sister at preschool and make our way to the train station an hour away. Getting out the door is more hectic than usual, so while the kids have had their breakfast, I have not. I put in a mobile Starbucks order for a bacon gouda sandwich, a grande Pike Place roast, and a cheese Danish to eat on the train. I won a gift card in a raffle last month, so I use that to pay. When we’re about 10 minutes from the station, I realize I should get my son some lunch since it will be a 2-hour ride. We hit the McDonald’s drive through for a Happy Meal for him and some fries for me ($9.21). Finding parking in the garage is harrowing but we persevere! I purchase our tickets and we get settled into the train with plenty of time ($20.25 – kids can be added on to adult tickets for only $1!). I think he may be just as excited for the train as he is for the city.

 1:30 – we’ve arrived at Grand Central Station! We marvel at the constellation ceiling and take a picture in front of the clock. I’ve planned our first stop to be the dining concourse for vegan donuts, which are very difficult to find in our neck of the woods for reasons that are unclear to me. At Doughnut Plant, he picks a double chocolate and I also order a strawberry for him because I have a hunch he’ll like it. I get myself a non-vegan Brooklyn blackout, which is divine ($17.70). We head outside, ooh and ahh at some sky scrapers, scare some pigeons, and plan our next move. We can’t check-in yet, so we head to another food bucket list spot: a slice of pizza at a real pizza shop. Navigating an excited little kid, our suitcase, and my backpack is a bit much so I call for a taxi on the curb app ($23.10). We head to Vinny’s Gluten Free Kitchen and get a slice of vegan cheese for the little guy and non-vegan buffalo chicken for me ($14.43). Then it’s off to the hotel to settle in before hitting the streets!

 4:00 – we’re staying close to Central Park, so we go to hit up the closest playground, Heckscher. It is 100% anxiety-provoking as a parent but my son loves it instantly. We see a Vermont maple syrup lemonade stand and decide to split a mango one, since we agree that’s the best popsicle flavor at home ($7.62). It’s delicious and we both wish we’d ordered 2.

 6:00 – it’s time for dinner and the boy wants wings. I decide to be brave and navigate the subway system (thank you, Google Maps). I honestly wasn’t planning on subway-ing much and did zero research, so I don’t realize at first that he still counts as free and pay for both of us ($6). We go to Dan and John’s Wings but when my son hears they have dino nuggets, he wants those instead. He gets a kid’s meal of the nuggets, fries, and a juice box; I get garlic parm boneless wings, fries, and a coke ($30.83). We play Connect 4 and UNO while we wait. I let him try his first ever sip of soda, which he hates. The picture I snapped makes me laugh and laugh. Next up, we want ice cream! I’m feeling overly confident and try to navigate public transit again. We hop on the subway ($6) then off for a transfer but after some aimless wandering, I realize that Google Maps wants us to take a bus next, not another train. I feel too overwhelmed at the prospect, so I call us another cab ($21.40). We get dropped off at 16 Handles, a froyo chain. I LOVED froyo in college and my 20’s but it has completely died out at home! I text my husband and college roommate about how it feels like 2013 and I’m in heaven. My son has several oat milk flavors to choose from and goes with chocolate, so I follow his lead with chocolate for myself, too. The topping stand has lots of options for him, including some cookie dough and Oreos, but he opts to keep it simple with just gummy bears. I go balls to the wall with Oreo pieces, cheesecake cubes, and cookie dough. Froyo Yolo, amirite? We want to see Times Square next but are farther than I thought and it’s late, so we hop on the subway. Someone holds the accessibility gate open for us, which feels like the universe repaying me for overpaying on the last ride. We walk around a bit and I start feeling stressed about my phone battery. I paid it off last month, so of course it’s dying so quickly now. I went from fully charged to 13% in just 3 hours and it’s making me itchy. I stop at CVS to buy a power bank and we grab some gummy bears and gummy snakes for good measure ($33.76). Finally, we head to the hotel for showers, tv, and bed.

 Day 1 total: $190.30

Day 2

8:00 – our only full day of this trip! My son has literally never woken up and gotten himself ready for the day so quickly. I grab a free coffee from the hotel lobby and we head back to the Heckscher playground at Central Park. After about an hour, I start getting hangry so we set out to find me a bagel. We head into the first café we stumble upon where I order a caramel iced coffee and an everything with chive cream cheese for myself, plus a side of bacon and sausage to accompany the Abe’s mini chocolate chip muffins I brought for D from home ($25).

9:00 - We set off for our big stop of the day and one of the main reasons for this trip, the Museum of Natural History. It’s a long walk for a 5-year-old but it’s beautiful out and I spent soooo much on cabs yesterday that I want to make it work. I bribe him with a spiderman popsicle from an ice cream truck ($6.54) and the promise of a visit to a new playground. It takes a while and involves a lot of negotiating, piggyback rides, carrying him, and sweating but we make it. He doesn’t like the Diana Ross playground as much as the other one we’ve been visiting, so we don’t stay long. I pay for our admission to the museum and add on a tickets to the Impact exhibit since he loves dinosaurs ($69). We visit that, the dinosaur wing (the T. Rex was our #1 must see), the whale room, the African mammals, and pay a visit to “DumDum” as my son calls him (the Easter Island head from Night at the Museum). By now, it’s lunch and we’re tired and hungry. We go to a sit-down restaurant but the kid’s menu is very small. He wants the chicken tenders but they’re coated in egg, so we leave and go to the food court instead. He picks out more dino nuggets, which feels appropriate given the venue, and some fries. I get a very random assortment of a Thai grilled chicken thigh, one buffalo wing, a can of Coke, and a Jamaican beef patty – idk, I was in a daze and grabbed whatever ($37.89). My food is just ok so I pick at his nuggets and fries. Then, I almost choke on one when I review the receipt and realize how much those grifters are charging for them. $11 for the dino nuggets when $4 more would buy me a 5lb bag at Costco!!! Sigh. When in Manhattan, as they say.

1:00 – we’ve hit the spots we really wanted to in the museum so we move onto the shopping portion of our day. I’ve wizened up and only swipe myself for the transit to Rockefeller Center ($3). I text my parents about it (NYC natives themselves) and they are so proud. We head to FAO Schwarz which I think looks really cute, but its toy selection is actually a bit dull. Everything is themed rooms - like Barbie, Funko, Build-A-Bear, Strawberry Shortcake - none of which are themes my son is really into, so we head to the Disney Store in Times Square instead. Now this is 100% his speed! He takes his time going through the Star Wars and Marvel rooms and has a hard time deciding, so we shop for his sister while he mulls over his options. He wants me to go broke buying things for “the little one” as he calls her, picking out Elsa and Anna wigs, a Snow White costume, a Belle doll, and more. In the end, I reign him in and we settle on a stuffed Cinderella so she can snuggle with it in bed and some Elsa shoes for the dress up box. For himself, he lands on an Obi-Wan Kenobi lightsaber and a Mandalorian action figure ($159.46). We’re both tired and he wants to test the toys out, so we head to the hotel for some chill time. I stop at a bakery on the way and grab myself a tiramisu and an iced latte ($16.22).

3:30 – we’re rested and ready to get back at it! I give a list of ideas of where we can head to next and D picks the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. Google says it’s another long walk so I call a cab ($23.01). This museum is in a reciprocal network of a museum we’re members of at home, so we get 50% off admission ($18). I end up being very glad for this because it seems to be geared more at younger kids, so we don’t spend much time there. On the ride here, I’d spotted that one of the vegan bakeries I researched, Peacefood, is around the corner. We head there to check the next item off our food list: chocolate cake. We are immediately greeted by a display case with the biggest, chocolate-iest cake we’ve ever seen, real Matilda style, so I order a slice and a massive chocolate chip cookie. They are both DIVINE. D inhales the cookie so quickly that I order 2 more to take with us ($19.60). We take a taxi back to the hotel ($27.42). 

5:00 – we want to check out another of Central Park’s offerings, so we head to Adventure Playground. Obi-Wan brings his new lightsaber, obv, and enjoys battling Sith all through the park. After an hour or so, I can tell he’s exhausted and I have to pee so we head to the nearest bathrooms. They’re connected to the fancy Tavern on the Green restaurant and Mr. Money Bags announces he thinks we should eat there for dinner. I feel doubtful they’d take walk-ins at 6PM on a spring Friday but I’m pleasantly surprised that they seat us right away! I feel like we stick out in our jeans/tank top (me) and Sonic sweater/lightsaber (him) but whatever. He wants noodles and I noticed there’s a vegan eggplant parm on the adults menu, so I order him bowtie pasta with olive oil and vegan cheese, plus a side of fries even more expensive than the museum dino nuggets. I order myself glass of Sauvignon Blanc and a sirloin with broccoli rabe and potatoes. Everything is expensive, delicious, and fancy. We have a marvelous time playing iSpy while we dine ($132.83).

Day 2 total: $537.97 

Day 3

8:00 – To no one’s surprise, D wants to head back to Central Park this morning before we leave. I grab lobby coffee and we start making our way there when our noses are enticed by something that “smells really, really, REALLY good.” We head into a little grocery store/market thing as they’re putting out their hot buffet bar. Breakfast is officially sorted! I grab sausage, bacon, breakfast potatoes, fried plantains, strawberries, a hash brown, and ½ an avocado with a mango salsa relish ($18.38). We scale some boulders so we can eat our breakfast with a skyscraper view and it is so, so lovely! Until I realize I don’t have my phone. And my watch says it’s too far away to ping and I need to connect to WiFi to use Find My iPhone. FUUUUUUCK. We retrace our steps and I actually spot it within just a few minutes, huzzah! It clearly fell out of my pocket on the ascent and is in between two rocks. D is much more agile and into climbing all over these rocks than I am, so he happily scrambles over to grab it for me, my hero :)

11:00 - We hang at the playground until 10, then go back to the hotel to pack up and check out. I leave a tip of all the cash I brought with me ($5). My husband is the cash carrier in the relationship and I never think to have any, oops. D struggles with fun things ending – a trait he gets from me – and is very tearful. We’re not on a strict timeframe since the train runs every 30 minutes, so I tell him we can stick around a bit longer and have lunch in the city. I like to get a tree ornament and/or magnet when I take a trip, so we set off to find one at a Christmas Cottage shop. D can’t read, so he goes based on vibes with the magnet, which is how we come to choose one that says “New York City – the city that never shuts up”. My whole family is filled with yappers, so it feels like a good fit. We also get a subway car ornament and each pick a pair of funky, NYC-themed socks ($65.95). We walk around Times Square a bit but it’s very busy and we’re kind of over window shopping, so decide it’s time for lunch. He wants pasta again and I start googling nearby places. Suddenly, I look across the street and realize we’re near the famous Times Square Olive Garden and figure Why not? It’s a safe bet and it’s not busy, so it's perfect. We get seated on the third floor (?!?!?) and have to take an escalator up. I order plain pasta and fries for the boy, chicken alfredo for myself, plus salad and breadsticks of course ($45.05).

1:00 - We grab our bags from the hotel and taxi to Grand Central ($23.10). I purchase our tickets home ($20.25) but we have some time to kill so I grab a cold brew with vanilla sweet cream foam. At the register, I see they have vegan chocolate chip cookies, so I order one so we can do a taste comparison between this one and the ones we got yesterday ($11.76). They’re very different cookies but both tasty in their own right!

3:30 – we’ve made it back to the car! I pay for parking ($51) and we start our journey home. I’m sleepy – my watch says I’ve walked over 20 miles this trip, sometimes carrying around an extra 40lbs – but I’m glad we did this. It was so special and nice to have some one-on-one time with my son before he’s off into the “real world”. Can you tell I’m a little emo about him starting school?? He’s already planning our return trip since we didn’t see the Statue of Liberty or the NY Public Library lions. I told him that perhaps the whole family will make the journey around Christmas so we can see the lights and tree, too. He's also shared that 3 days was NOT LONG ENOUGH and we must go for 5 or 6 next time.

Day 3 total: $240.49

Total: $1,787.75

Edit: I’m not redoing all the math and can’t edit the title, but I forgot the froyo cost! It was $14.08. Also, the fancy dinner at Tavern on the Green was still pending when I wrote this and didn’t include tip apparently, so that total was actually $162.83. Sorry!!

Hopefully this question is allowed here! I'm just asking cause I'm honestly curious. I've heard a lot of stuff online that HR exists to protect the company, not the person bringing up the issue. However, in your experiences, has HR ever been there to protect you? What was the situation, what did you say to HR/how did you report it, and what was the outcome (either positive or negative)? Did you ever face retaliation for reporting an issue? I wanna hear your experiences!

Hey everyone,

Did something good happen to you this week? Share below!

How are you spending, scrimping, splurging, or saving?

What are you doing with your hard-earned £$€ this week?

Have you read anything good lately? Share below!

That’s it. I survived thankfully. I feel for everyone that hasn’t but also my nerves are shot and stomach a wreck.

It feels so scary that there is no longevity anymore.

I can't imagine I'm alone in feeling this way... I'm privileged to be in a good financial spot currently but I'm really having a hard time making plans (i.e. travel, mid-size purchases, etc) right now. I'm in a risky industry currently but have a partner in an extremely stable industry and we have a very solid emergency fund.

How are people managing risk tolerance when it comes to making future plans with all of the uncertainty in this economy? I'm not being crazy, am I?

Hi everyone,

I’m 21 years old and I’m planning to attend a master’s program in California. My parents are helping me pay for school, but they are basically spending almost everything they have on my education. Even with their help, I will still need to cover part of my tuition, rent, living expenses, and other costs.

Realistically, I need to make approximately $60,000 in one year.

I’ve been thinking about doing reselling through platforms like eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Depop, and Whatnot, and also working through Uber Eats or similar delivery apps. But honestly, I’m not sure if that would be enough or if there are better options.

My long term dream is to become an actor. I also want to build myself as an influencer because I think it could help me financially help me build a community and maybe create opportunities in acting later. But before focusing on that, I feel like I need to work hard and find a realistic way to support myself.

I don’t want to disappoint my parents. This feels like my only chance, and if I fail, I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do!!!!

So I want to ask honestly

Is it realistic to make around $60k in one year as a student in California?

What would you do in my situation?

Are reselling, delivery apps, or content creation realistic ways to reach this goal?

What other options should I consider?