Today was my first day of working from home due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Dining Room/Grant Command Central
I haven’t worked from home since my daughter turned 18 months old.
It felt liberating. Roll out of bed, have a cup of coffee, toast a bagel, and head to the dining room table to fire up the borrowed laptop.
In my pajamas.
This whole COVID-19 illness has had a profound impact on communities and on families. The economy and job security are threatened. We will all survive— but as someone working in non-profits, I see this crisis from multiple angles.
But when I first saw empty shelves in grocery stores I thought, “Wow, this is like shopping in Africa.”
You see, in my travels in Africa, shopping is a different experience than here. Shops usually only have one version of any item. And they might not have any of some items. And they are small.
People in less developed countries have less choice than we do. They have less resources. They have less opportunities. They have less corporate businesses. They have unpredictable utilities.
This virus has proven a great equalizer— because suddenly ordinary Americans no longer have access to all the stuff and businesses that they traditionally frequent.
No longer do you have 15 varieties of toilet paper to chose from.
No longer can you just find when you want at the exact moment you want it.
Let this remind you that this is what some people in the world face everyday either due to living in the wrong country or due to poverty.
This is a brief entry about my four-year-old Goffin’s cockatoo with an attitude, Nala. She adores me, but tends to be a tad, um, bitchy with anyone else.
I’ve been very impressed with how she’s adapted both to a new life and a new routine in my crazy menagerie/train station of a house.
I brought her home in early January and have no experience with parrots and barely any experience with birds.
During the last few days I’ve noticed a change in her vocabulary. She already knew what sounds like “Mommy” when I got her—said only when leave the room.
She also learned very quickly to return my kisses with her only little kissy noises.
But now she seems to have learned “step up.” It sounds like what I can only describe as a bird hiccough in two syllables mimicking the phrase. But she says it when she wants me or after I ask her to step up and she’s not sure if she wants to.
So this is an exciting development.
Nala and Misty
She can also hold her own very well against our once feral kittens.
I promised a review of my March 2020 Glam bag from Ipsy. Life has been a little draining so I haven’t quite tried everything— I think all I have left to try is the nail polish and I can’t try that because I have a gel manicure on acrylic-coated nails right now.
I tried the hydrating hair mask over the weekend. I feel like it did nothing for my thick, curly hair. But, as my hair is so thick and curly it’s also super dry because curls do that.
The teenager has a completely different hair texture so maybe she’ll try it and give us a different report.
But that was the whole point of trying Ipsy—sampling products instead of committing.
Now the Naked Cosmetic eye shadow and the Hanalei Lip Balm were my two full-sized products this month and I am very pleased. Who doesn’t love a new lip balm? And this one seemed delightful on my lips.
And the eye shadow happens to be my favorite shade of quasi nude, neutral but glittery eyes that makes me look alive instead of old and sleep-deprived.
So let me just reiterate I know nothing about make up. My mom would never allow me to wear make up and even now that I’m in my mid-40s she comments that she disapproves.
The one product I was anxious to try is the primer. This one, tarte quench hydrating primer, seems really nice so I’ll keep trying it and see if my color stays put better.
Last, but not least, we have Hey Honey Relax Propolis and Honey soothing moisturizer. I struggle with dry skin, and I tend to favorite Johnson & Johnson lavender baby moisturizer because I can’t handle heavy scents and I am prone to contact dermatitis from everything.
This lotion felt really nice and I’m not sure how I feel about the scent. It richly smells of honey. So much I want to eat it, or at least lick my hands.
March was shaping up to be an exhausting month at work before it even started because of all the grants I had to finish— I forget how many so we’ll round to ten. And a couple needed reports.
Then we added a couple last minute important government opportunities and dealt with some EITC issues… if you don’t know what EITC is don’t worry about it, it’s a Pennsylvania tax program for corporations that benefits education.
And then we hit the state emergency of Corona virus/COVID-19 shutdown.
My employer has the largest full-choice food pantry in the County and we serve hundreds of households every month. We educated about a hundred people daily in our classrooms. We serve students in the schools. Provide assistance to walk-ins, existing clients and referrals.
So this has changed everything. The CEO is scrambling. Meetings are going virtual. Our educators are looking at distance learning. Our food pantry staff and volunteers are bagging food instead of letting clients shop.
And now we need to design a schedule and a work plan to use our homes as offices.
Ideally, we no more than 3 people in our admin building at a time. (There are only six of us.)
Tomorrow I have to take the old MacBook Air into the office and hope I can get it to connect to the remote server. Otherwise, I am not allowed to work from home.
And I forgot my journal on my desk, and my planner, but my planner I can survive without. But my journal? Noooooooo!
Every morning, I get up, pour a cup of mostly decaf coffee and write in my journal while the cats eat. Not having this ritual will be upsetting.
To lighten the mood, here is a cat photo from the freshly cleaned room of the teenager:
And an unboxing of this months treats— a Universal Yums box from Brazil (featuring Nala, my naughty Goffin’s cockatoo):
My mom and I went to Grocery Outlet because I wanted some fresh produce. Got blood oranges, spaghetti squash, cabbage, potatoes, radishes, and fresh Brussel sprouts. I was looking for items that would store nicely if something does confine us with COVID-19.
When I got home, the teenager helped me dig a splinter out of my foot and treat it with betadine.
We did two loads of laundry and the teen taught the budgies to hand feed.
We stripped and made both our beds— which ended up with some Oz antics.
And I made two delicious meals for myself prior to my fasting bloodwork tomorrow: leftover sesame chicken with pan-seared Brussel sprouts seasoned with four color peppercorns and tofu burger on whole grain wheat with avocado, sautéed radish and dill havarti cheese.
Of course, the afternoon led to some discussions among my neighbors of whether or not Coronavirus is worse than the normal flu. Does it matter? Flu outbreaks have killed people at fairly regular intervals. I’m not concerned that I will die from it, but I am concerned that I could help spread it if I’m not careful.
The neighbor we went to dinner last night spent the evening playing Yahtzee with another neighbor whose son just came home from college. The son woke up with a 102 degree fever today coughing. And his lab partner just got home from Germany.
And there’s a presumptive positive case in the next town over where my in-laws live. So it’s coming.
And I’m not an alarmist or panic-stricken but I agree that we all should be limiting our interactions. The more careful we are now, hopefully we can minimize the impact on our community and our economy.
I woke up this morning worried about things I can’t control, and to a cat coughing up a hairball somewhere in the darkness of my room. It was 4 a.m. and to get myself back to sleep, I keep imagining a cleansing white light.
I imagined the white light getting brighter and brighter. It filled my house, came up my stairs and saturated my room. It brought me calm and helped me get to sleep.
I finally gave up on sleep around 7 a.m. but laid in bed until 7:30. I got up, fed the cats, started a load of laundry and cared for the birds.
Then I finished the first season of Hell’s Kitchen while folding clean laundry and hanging wet wash.
I had a piece of toast, put dishes away, washed the pots and pans, and scrubbed the kitchen counter (even the trivet and the toaster— have to periodically get those crumbs out of the toaster.)
And I found what could be very handy if COVID-19 ends up in my neighborhood: a bottle of Hibiclens the doctor told the teenager to use in the shower before her surgery in November.
My college professor neighbor and I had coffee on her porch, while I was clad in my African dress that I bought in Djibouti for my trip to Somalia.
I vacuumed the sun porch. Did some necessary paperwork. Gave Nala, my Goffin’s cockatoo, a shower. Scrubbed the tub, but not as well as I would have liked.
But I didn’t strip my bed or play with my new make up.
This evening my other neighbor took us to dinner at La Bella’s as a thank you for watching her dog.
Amazing Bread
The teenager decided to compliment our server every time she came to the table. I had chicken penne vodka. The child had seafood spaghetti vodka. The portions were ginormous and the seafood seemed good. I’m not a seafood fan.
See those bumpy calamari?
I think I’ll have enough leftovers for TWO lunches. As with the teen. And my neighbor. And then my neighbor took us to Owwowcow for ice cream. I got cinnamon bourbon.
The food was scrumptious but made me sad because I’m still having mild dental issues. My neighbor is looking at a root canal so we’re a good pair.
And now we’re home. Roomba is vacuuming my bedroom.
The teen is trying cone incense for the first time. She tried to pick natural varieties that wouldn’t burn my eyes and sinuses. She asked me what to burn, so we went for the cleansing sandalwood— vanilla sandalwood to be exact.
I used to use sandalwood soap to bathe before I practiced rituals and vanilla is a very pure, comforting flavor and scent to me.
I asked the teen, who now has her own altar with her own selected candles on it, why do you burn incense?
She answered, “because it clears my sinuses and helps me focus.”
As you may have been able to tell from my posts about dentists (Tooth and nail) and budgets (Budgeting and Budgeting, part 2), I had a hard week. Not to mention the whole Do I have high blood pressure? issue. So I’m going to lighten it up a bit tonight— we’re going to “unbox” my Ipsy Glam Bag.
And if you noticed that odd photo that is the featured image for this blog post that is Fog, the feral kitten we trapped last trying to get to Nala, my Goffin’s cockatoo. Fog is getting sooooo big (as is her brother, Misty) but the teenager didn’t believe me when I said they’d doubled in size.
March 2020 Ipsy Glam Bag without my cat
But anyway… it’s Friday night and I had to work late unexpectedly so by the time I got home, the teen was leaving to have dinner with her grandparents and spend the night with her dad.
Which means I get to have Vanilla Coke Zero and peanut butter pretzels for dinner. I gave one to Nala. Well, more accurately, she demanded I share.
So I started the dishwasher, and a load of laundry, and took my peanut butter pretzels and my Diet Coke out to see if my neighbor wanted to unbox my Ipsy package with me since the teenager wasn’t home. My neighbor is an economics professor and faces a midterm deadline. I thought it best not to bother her. Nala and I ate our pretzels and opened the makeup.
We also kept Fog at bay, while her brother frolicked in the basement.
Then my neighbor texted she had coffee ready at 6:30ish at night. That’s pretty wild for my Friday night.
I walked out the door and met my other neighbor, whose adorable Yorkie-Maltese mix likes to visit instead of go for a walk. We all went to the professor’s house and even the dogs got to visit.
I got home, retrieved the laundry and the kitten from the basement, and fed my mini-pride of lions before hanging the laundry.
Nala joined me while I hung wash, watching Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen. Roomba vacuumed my room.
Now I’m in bed, taking a breath, playing a little Words with Friends and listening to kittens play. I’m going to watch more Gordon. Hell’s Kitchen is not my favorite but I finished Kitchen Nightmares on Hulu, as I also finished 24 Hours To Hell and Back.
I can’t find any more Hotel Hell and for some reason, The F Word is starting to bore me. I think it’s because Gordon Ramsay is a nice guy on that program.
More on that another day. I’m hoping to formally review Gordon’s shows one of these days.
Gordon has inspired me to try harder with my cooking. Last night, I actually trimmed my chicken, made a marinade, and chilled the chicken in the marinade before cooking.
The marinade was:
Low sodium soy sauce
Honey
Bragg’s Liquid Aminos
Minced Garlic
Fresh Ginger
Water
Sesame Seeds
Lemon Juice
Sesame Oil
I cooked that, and sautéed a bag of broccoli slaw in the leftover marinade and reheated some leftover rice and seasoned roasted chick peas I had made earlier in the week. It was delicious.
But remember that Glam Bag?
I promise I’ll play with it tomorrow. For $12 I received:
A studded teal bag (it matches my room!)
A full sized eye shadow
A full sized chapstick/lip balm
A sample nail polish in a mild creamy cafe au lait color
Ideally, I sit down once a month to work on my budget and I usually budget for two to three months at a time. This helps me plan for the quarterly utility and life insurance bills and the twice a year car insurance. Plus, in late June I typically pre-pay my fuel oil for the winter.
That is a financial gamble, but honestly I don’t even look at the oil prices once I pay. For me the convenience of not having an unexpected fuel bill or an extra monthly commitment is worth it.
So even though I have just paid March’s bills, I am planning April and May and trying to find money to hoard for summer as once I get that fuel oil bill paid, the teenager will be headed back to school.
As a salaried employee who gets paid every other week, if I plan carefully I can use the “extra” pay period twice a year to pay those larger bills. If I had myself on a strict four-week budget, that money could be used to go on vacation or pay down my mortgage but alas, I am not that good.
But what I do do is sit down with a blank sheet of graphic paper, jot the current date on it, and write “start balance” on the top. That is the balance of my checkbook rounded down to the nearest $25 increment.
Last night it was $508 and some-odd cents. So I rounded to $500.
Now, bills, regardless of how it seems, come in predictable cycles. So let’s just start with the concept and not continue with the budget I started last night.
I would start writing due dates and who I need to pay in a chronological list.
3/1 car payment
3/5 mortgage
3/7 electric
3/10 American Express
3/13 PAY
3/15 life insurance (quarterly)
3/20 water (quarterly)
3/20 sewer (quarterly)
3/24 cell phone
3/27 PAY
3/28 savings
3/28 Discover
My first pay day in April is 4/10 so that means not only due I have six months of car insurance due before that check, but I also have car payment, mortgage and electric. This is why I plan so far out.
So when I budget, I also estimate my bills, rounded preferably to $100 increments so when they come in under budget that gives me wiggle room and extra money for groceries. In my March budget for example, I budgeted $100 for electric because February is usually cold and dark and I have electric hot water. It was $80 when the bill came in.
And I do the same with my credit cards. I often use my Discover for groceries so I budget $200 a month to pay that card.
My American Express is my card for everything else, like medical bills or an order for the pets at Chewy.com or Petco. I budget $350 for that. Right now, because of my medical bills, I’m dropping $300 on it each pay period. But the point is, I look at not only what I spent on the card so far but what I anticipate needed the card for in weeks to come.
And again, I round. So I might write phone bill ($115) in the first column, but when I subtract in from the balance, I subtract $125.
Then when the teenager hits me up for lunch money I have it.
For the first 15 years or so of our marriage, I used Quicken to do our household finances. We have always been one of those households just making ends meet, sometimes saving up, only to have something happen to suck our savings away.
When Quicken went to a subscription based cloud product, I groaned but paid the piper because I had almost two decades of financial records in that software.
And then, in late 2018, my 2013 MacBook Air died.
I developed a system to keep my finances organized—
using graph paper.
Each square is $25 in expenses I spent in a month not part of the regular cycle of bills (mortgage, car payment, electric, fuel oil for heat, water, sewer/garbage, car insurance). That is just so I know where my moment went for future planning.
I keep one column for “cash” and one for “credit” above the graph to detail the spending.
95% of my credit expenses go on my American Express, and I keep a Discover in my wallet for those places that don’t take American Express. I typically pay off my entire balance each month (which is where all that tallying and calculating what I’ve spent comes in handy) but recently I used a free trial of American Express’s “plan it” feature to pay some medical bills and for Nala, my Goffin’s cockatoo.
Preparing to Budget
I keep a sloppy register of my checks also in the budget book, and I compare balances against my budget for the month or quarter at least once a week.
But here’s my big hack. I am known to take my credit cards out of my wallet and I never carry my ATM card.
Yes, you heard me.
I don’t carry my ATM card in my wallet. I keep it in a drawer at home. If I want to extract money out of my bank, I have to plan it. Or run to Target and use my Target debit card. This keeps those little expenses from adding up.
There is no “let’s run out and get a sandwich.” That kind of thing.
But, you say, what if something unexpected happens? Well, I do have what I call my discretionary spending card.
I have a Capital One online account where I put whatever money I think I can spare after I pay the bills. Honestly, that’s usually the grocery money. Right now there is $12 left in that account. No, make that $8. I forgot I stopped at DQ for Buy One Get One for 80 cents Blizzards. That is the ATM card I keep in my wallet.
If I get impulsive, if I drop it, if it gets stolen, if it gets hacked… it’s not the account I use to pay my bills.
Plus, I have a savings account in Capital One, so if I get really stuck, I can transfer money between those accounts on my phone. And money between my main accounts and my Capital One accounts also takes a few business days, so it does require planning.
But I’m good at planning.
So right now I’m going to update the budget as I had some more large bills come in (dental crown $400 out of pocket; furnace maintenance agreement $250) plus car insurance is due in two weeks.
I pay for six months at a time and it’s due on the same day as the mortgage.
Speaking of mortgage, when we were 12 years into our 30-year-mortgage I refinanced the house from 5.5% down to 3.25% in a 15-year loan. Too many people want to lower their monthly payment, whereas I focused on shortening the term on the loan.
I borrowed enough money to pay off the car and some credit card bills (an unexpected household repair and my daughter’s euphonium had us in for about $5,000) AND cut two years off our original mortgage length for the same payment as our original mortgage but we were saving an additional $300/month not having a car payment.
I also had them add an additional $50/month for principal curtailment to my mortgage payment. So if I ever need to I can have the mortgage company drop that and I can have a lower mortgage. In the meantime, my principal is dropping.
I do something similar with my car—once I calculate my budget for the quarter I pay anywhere from $50 to $200 extra on my car payment. I think I financed $15,000 less than 18 months ago and already my pay off balance is about $9,000.
My other tip is to have an automatic transfer into a savings account. Most banks encourage this and will waive fees and offer overdraft protection if you do it. I transfer $200 a month into my savings account and sometimes I have to transfer it back to checking the next day. Normally I can live without it, and when a shortfall happens I have that back-up.
Budgeting and financial planning when you’re in a low-to-moderate income household is hard. It’s a puzzle. Knowing what it takes to run your household is key. Planning is a must.
I’ve had fake nail tips and my nails done in acrylic for a little more than a month now. My real nails are just about as long as the tips now! (My friend and nail tech reshapes them when I go in for my fills.
On Friday, I popped off one of the tips (opening cat litter) and was pleasantly surprised to see a lovely, long, healthy nail underneath.
So when I went for my fill on Saturday that nail is now my real nail!
But speaking about fake body parts, today I went in for my permanent crown. The temporary gave me no trouble. I had high hopes for my real one.
It sat too high. The dentist knew it was and starting removing surface was the tooth above it. It hurt. I almost started to cry from the anxiety. And I told the dentist the crown felt okay.
I don’t do well with this dentist— he’s very sweet and quiet but he doesn’t tell me what he’s doing and I need communication or I freak out.
Like I did today.
I mentioned to someone it didn’t feel right. She suggested I figure out whether it was or not because I couldn’t have a crown that was misaligning my bite.
So I tried to eat.
I couldn’t.
I called the dentist’s office and cried to the receptionist. I can’t go back to that nice man, I said. He’s too quiet. She said she’d set me up with my dentist if 30 years.
Except when I got there I got the same hygienist I had earlier in the day and she drilled off pieces of my crown and my actual tooth. You know, the one that was hurting me earlier.
It instantly felt much better and I asked if they had a sandwich for me to test it.
They did not. But the hygienist said I could come back tomorrow if I needed to.
Three times in two days?
So I came home and ate lunch. A small lunch. At 3. And it didn’t feel right. I don’t know if something is exposed in that upper tooth or it’s just sensitive. But it’s sore. And the it hurts to bite on the left. And harder to bite on the right now. The bite has to be off yet.
