nablopomo 2021

Snapshot of My Day | November 9, 2021

Hey, friends! Let’s take a snapshot of yesterday, shall we? As a reminder, this post idea comes from Torrie at To Love and to Learn. It’s a fun way to take a quick look at a day in my life. 🙂

Time I woke up: 6:00 a.m. (Well, full disclosure, my alarm went off at 6 a.m., but I snoozed it until 6:30, ha. The cats were being snuggly and I just didn’t want to get up!)

First thing I did upon waking: A Peloton workout! I queued up a 30-minute spin class with Cody Rigsby, and if that’s not the best way to start a day, I don’t know what is.

Today’s weather: It started off in the low 60s and then warmed up to the upper 70s. Sunny and gorgeous all day long! Florida will be going through a bit of a warm-up over the next few days (highs in the upper 70s) but then should get cool again over the weekend, yay!

An out-of-the-ordinary thing that happened today: Probably all of the meetings I had today! I had five meetings in total, which is very unusual for me. Typically, I’ll have 1-2 per day but I was popping in and out of Zoom chats all day long.

Last thing I read (not on the Internet): Disability Visibility, which I just started last night.

Last thing I read (on the Internet): A Reddit forum devoted to discussing Crooked Media podcasts. I just finished listening to Saturday’s Lovett or Leave It episode and had some strong opinions about one segment and wanted to see if others felt the same way.

Last website I visited: My own blog to find the prompts for this post! Hehe.

Last show I watched: Brooklyn 99 (are you surprised?)

Last thing I said: “Aww, look at those sisters. You two just love each other!” (I was folding laundry and saw Lila grooming Eloise on the head. It was adorable.)

Last thing I ate: An ice cream bar.

What I was doing an hour ago: Editing and uploading the pictures I wanted to include in this blog post

What I will be doing an hour from now: I’ll be cozied up in bed with my book! Yay!

Current whereabouts of other members of my household: Lila is currently sitting next to me rubbing her face against my laptop screen while Eloise is eating a late dinner. 🙂

One thing I crossed off my to-do list today: Work-wise, I needed to re-post a bunch of website pages because the content I published last month somehow disappeared (annoying) and I got that done during one of my (many!) meetings. Personal-wise, I wanted to do a load of laundry (mainly, all the towels that I used to dry my kitchen floor when my washer flooded). And yes, I can use my washer again! Maintenance came by on Monday morning and apparently, one of the hoses in the washer got dislodged. So, no new washer/dryer for me (ha), but I’m glad it’s usable again.

What was your weather like yesterday? Tell me the last thing you read!

Categories: Personal Finance

Quarterly Budget Update | Q3 of 2021

Hey, friends! I’m a month delayed on my quarterly budget update (oops), but it’s all good. It was a pretty good quarter for me—I spent much less in some of my more, shall we say, problem categories but then I spent more in other less-utilized categories, so I guess it all balances out, huh? Check it out:

Overall bills (41.4%) –My overall bills this month were a smidge higher due to my yearly renter’s insurance payment that was due in August. My rent increase didn’t kick in until October so my rent stayed the same for Q3, which was a nice surprise.

Rent ($1,045 per month)
Electric (averaging $133 per month, an increase of $26 from Q2 and $47 from Q1; damn Florida summers)
Water (averaging $50 per month, a decrease of $13 from Q2)
Internet ($80 per month)
Phone ($107 per month)
Student loan ($105 per month)

Food (13.5%) – My food spending was the lowest it’s been this whole year! Some of my food spending got funneled into my entertainment category, however, as I put any money I spent on dates there. My grocery spending, which averaged $341 per month in the first half of the year, came down to just $201 per month in Q3. I don’t know if I can keep it that low (it was likely a function of eating more meals out on dates), but I’m proud of myself anyway.

Travel (8.2%) – This category comprises flights (I had a credit, but had to pay the difference + travel insurance), adventures (I bought the Chicago CityPASS), Lyfts around the city, food, and souvenirs. My mom and I went halfsies on everything.

Auto (8.1%) – I had a car repair ($198), an oil change ($28), and my biyearly car insurance payment. I also spent a smidge more in gas this quarter ($112 compared to $71 and $81 respectively).

Home (4.5%) – I bought a new area rug, a new TV, floating shelves, and some Mixtiles.

Savings (3.8%) – My savings this quarter was abysmal! I used my credit card a lot more than I should have and prioritized paying off the balance every month, which sometimes meant I couldn’t add any money to my savings. I only put away $425, ugh.

Shopping (3.6%) – I spent less this quarter than any previous quarter, so that’s good news! I don’t itemize my shopping the way I should, which is something I think I’ll start doing moving forward so that I can better understand where my shopping money is going. There was my quarterly Stitch Fix box, some workout clothes, jewelry, and lots of books, among other items.

Entertainment (3.4%) – Dates took up the majority of this category (70%), followed by adventures with friends and app game downloads.

Pets (2.9%) – Another busy month for the girls! There was Ellie’s annual appointment at the vet ($128) and then I bought litter ($65), treats ($53), food ($37), a new water fountain ($26), and toys ($12).

Spa (2.5%) – I spent much, much less in my spa category in Q3, thanks to not needing a hair appointment (which saved me $200+). I spent $125 on pedicures and $160 on my massage membership + tips to my masseuse.

Gifts (2.4%) – It was a busy gift-giving quarter with lots of birthdays: my mom, my brother, my nephew, two friends, and a friend’s baby.

Subscriptions (2.1%) – Monthly subscriptions cost me about $78 per month, which includes Patreon, some streaming services, Book of the Month, a photo editing app, and Spotify. This average is $11 lower than Q2 because I canceled one of my Patreon subscriptions and my Ipsy subscription.

Supplies/Toiletries (2%) – I try to keep my supplies/toiletries budget under $100 and I’m doing excellent with this goal this year! Every quarter, I’m spending around $75 on average.

Beauty (1.3%) – This category mostly comprises my Paula’s Choice skincare products, but I also replaced some makeup products and, since I decided to start doing at-home pedicures to save money, it also includes a bunch of stuff I bought for that (nail polish, callus remover, nail files, etc). Still, I spent a lot less in Q3 than Q2—even had a month where I didn’t spend any money on beauty products, whaaat.

Health (.4%) – Just my monthly Peloton subscription, nothing exciting here!

Categories: Recurring Series

A Weekend in Pictures

I woke up from my nap on Friday to this sweet face right next to me. What a doll! She often interrupts my sleeping to beg for pets (often by poking me with a claw right on my face), but I can’t even be mad at her. She’s too cute!

After my nap, I took a trip to Target. I needed to get a gift for Olive for her birthday as well as one for Mikaela who just had a birthday. I couldn’t help stopping by the books section, but I didn’t buy anything. I was good!

Once home from my Target expedition, I took a hot bubble bath that was so relaxing. The rest of my night was fairly low-key—I Facetimed with my mom, watched a few episodes of Brooklyn 99, wrote Saturday’s blog post, and read my books.

My busy Saturday began with a long walk around my apartment complex. It was a brisk 61 degrees when I woke up, and the walk felt really good. I listened to the latest episode of Office Ladies during my walk. I don’t *love* this podcast (the deep dives on random subjects are kinda ridiculous), but all of the behind-the-scenes info about life on the set of a TV show are super interesting. It’s amazing how much work goes into even a one-second scene!

I test-drove a 2021 Mazda CX-5 on Saturday (my mom came with me), and man, was she a beauty. Both to look at and to drive. I have four other cars on my list that I want to test-drive and I’m not in any rush to buy, so I’m taking my time with this research assignment and only went to one dealership this weekend. I had a really good experience with the car salesman (shocking!) and he didn’t pressure me at all to make a decision. All in all, it was a pleasant experience and made me so excited to finally have a new car sometime in the near future.

I was so excited that I finally got the alert that this book was ready for me to pick up at the library! I’ve been on hold for over a month now, which is unusual for my library system. It’s a 2020 release and I usually never have trouble getting those books fairly quickly. It just means a lot of people are requesting it, which is a good thing since this is an important topic!

Saturday was Olive’s birthday party! If you remember, Olive is my dear friend Mikaela’s baby who had a rare and aggressive form of cancer (her chance of survival was 9%). Somehow, she made it through an incredibly risky surgery and countless rounds of chemo and has emerged victorious from her cancer treatment. She’s had a few scans since she finished treatment, and all of them have been clear. Even more astonishing is that her treatment didn’t stunt her development at all! Both physically and cognitively, she’s right where she should be. Isn’t that incredible?! Warrior baby, for sure.

Olive turns two on Wednesday, and we celebrated with a very fun birthday party for her. Myself, I enjoyed chit-chatting with my friends Amber and Lynn (we wore party hats and got tatted up, as shown in the picture above) and watching Olive destroy her cake. 🙂 It was such a joyous day!

Saturday evening was an eventful one! I wanted to do a load of laundry so I started the washer and went on my merry way. The way the water was filling the basin sounded different than usual, but I didn’t think much of it.

… Until my downstairs neighbor knocked on my door to tell me that water was leaking into her kitchen. Sure enough, when I looked at my own kitchen (my stackable washer/dryer is lodged into the space across from my fridge), there was an inch of water on the floor! I immediately shut off the washer (and discovered that no water was even flowing into the basin!) and called emergency maintenance.

What a mess! I live in a third-floor apartment and learned that water had not only leaked into the second-floor apartment below me but also into the first-floor apartment and the concrete outside. OOF. I felt terrible! I know it wasn’t my fault (I’ve never had an issue with my washer before!), but damn. There wasn’t much maintenance could do for me on Saturday night. Because of the way the kitchen is set up, they are going to need to first remove my fridge so that they can move out my washer/dryer to get into the space where it sits to figure out what’s causing the leak. So I’ll have maintenance in my apartment all day today—a day in which I have three meetings, argh!

I’m crossing my fingers and toes that they’ll just set me up with a new washer/dryer since the one I have now is super old and makes so much noise. I usually can’t run my dryer if I have meetings at work or I’m watching something on TV. I’ll even turn it off when if my mom Facetimes me while it’s running. Super annoying.

Once the mess of my leaking washer was solved (at least for that night), I ordered dinner and watched a few episodes of Brooklyn 99. I was in bed a little on the early side and read my books for a bit before calling it a night!

I woke up way before my alarm on Sunday. While I despise Daylight Saving Time (especially in the fall), it was nice to wake up around 7 feeling fully rested! I spent my extra hour curled up on the couch with a blanket, finishing up Ginny Moon.

Mikaela and I had a lovely Sunday morning writing date at Panera! I set my fantasy football lineup before writing my Sunday stream-of-consciousness blog post. We also spent a lot of time talking about the party yesterday and reflecting on what an incredible day it was. Mikaela said that Olive had a blast, and I was so happy to hear that!

The rest of my Sunday was spent at my mom’s, watching football and snuggling the dogs and sneaking in a few chapters of my book in between plays. I love these Sundays so much—it’s just a low-key afternoon with my mom, my brother, and my older nephew. I cherish this time!

Of course, there’s more football to watch when I get home from my mom’s! Ellie will sometimes sit on the edge of the couch and watch the game with me. It’s always so funny when she does that! I ate a late dinner while watching the game, and also put the finishing touches on this blog post.

And now it’s a new week and is shaping up to be a good one. I have plans with two different friends and work shouldn’t be too much of a killer (here’s hoping, at least).

How was your weekend?

Categories: Life

Stream of Consciousness Sunday

Hey, friends! It’s Sunday and I’ve decided to devote each Sunday this month (well, all but the last Sunday in November, as that’s my birthday!) to a stream-of-consciousness post. The challenge: to write without a specific purpose. I just want to discuss what’s on my mind right here and now. Let’s dive in!

I’m really excited about getting a new car. My current vehicle is a 2005 Scion xB (the car that looks like a toaster!) and it’s served me incredibly well in the many years I’ve had her. She’s never needed a repair of more than a few hundred dollars and she’s got 130,000 miles on her. But many things drive me crazy about her. Like:

Filling up my car with gas can be a frustrating experience because there’s something wrong with my gas tank in that the fuel pump will click off before the tank is full. This just happened today when I went to get gas and I had to figure out the right way to tilt the fuel pump to direct the flow of gas in a way that won’t cause the fuel pump to click off. I dream of the day when getting gas isn’t a frustrating experience!
My power windows are losing their… power, I guess? They will roll down easily, but getting them back up is not so easy. It usually takes a few minutes of continually pushing the button and the window going up inch by inch. What this means is that I can’t ever use a drive-thru car washing station! You have to put your car window down to pay at the station right before the car wash, but then I can’t trust that my windows will go back up before the water starts! (Yes, I could just get out of my car to pay, but that’s annoying.)
I don’t have Bluetooth. To listen to my podcasts on my phone, the volume has to be at the highest setting and I have to put my phone in a cupholder to amplify the sound. Pretty janky.
Using my trunk takes two hands these days because a mechanism in the trunk lock is broken, so I have to use one hand underneath the bottom of the trunk to lift it up while my other hand is lodged under the handle of the trunk to push the lock to open it. Sounds complicated? That’s because it is. I never use my trunk anymore because it’s too annoying.

Those are just some of the annoyances I have with my current car. I’m just ready for a new car and I know it’s the right time to make this purchase. A lot of the things I want with a new car are just stuff that comes standard in cars these days, like Bluetooth, a backup camera, a power liftgate, etc. I’m not looking for the flashiest car—truly anything will be an upgrade to what I have right now.

I’ve also never had a new car. I never thought I could have a new car. Growing up poor, we had our fair share of embarrassingly ugly and decrepit cars. There was the car that a friend said she thought was going to fall apart every time I got in it. There was the gray station wagon with two huge dents on its right side. There was the time my mom drove a church van for a while—that was fun. There was the little Ford that had rope holding its hood closed. There was the car that would take forever to back out of a parking space because of how many times it would stall when in reverse.

So I’m excited about the chance to have a new car. And I’m also really grateful that I can. I’m grateful that I have the means to make this happen for me, that I will be able to put down a sizable down payment, that I won’t have to worry about affording a car payment. I don’t take that for granted at all.

Categories: About Me

Ask Stephany Anything | The Girl Behind the Blog

Happy Saturday, friends! I hope your weekend is off to a lovely start. In today’s inaugural Ask Stephany Anything post, I’m answering a question from NGS:

It’s not a question so much as a request. I’m a relatively new reader and I don’t know a lot of basic things. I feel like a “basic facts” would be useful. How old are your cats? How long have you had them? What do you do for a living? What are your favorite types of books? What do you consider a good date? What’s the best vacation you’ve ever been on? I think I’m nosy, but maybe that’s what you need right now!

This seemed like a great time to introduce everyone to the girl behind the blog. 🙂

Hi, pleased to meet you! My name is Stephany and I’m 33 years old. I live in St. Petersburg, Florida, which is a hop, skip, and a jump away from Tampa. I’ve lived in this area my entire life, which is unusual—there are not too many native Floridians and even fewer people native to the St. Petersburg area. But I love St. Pete with all of my heart and soul and cannot imagine living anywhere else! It’s a more liberal area of Florida with a lively downtown scene, lots of breweries, great restaurants, and tons of museums. St. Pete is considered a “peninsula on a peninsula,” which means we’re surrounded by water on three sides and we have so many incredible beaches—it can get pretty touristy around here!

For my job, I’m part of the content team for a large digital marketing firm. My company is based in Tampa, but we became a fully remote workforce after the pandemic hit. Apparently, most of the people at our company really enjoyed working from home, so my company moved out of our old office and into a smaller one that will function more as a coworking space. I looooooove working from home full-time and I don’t think I could ever go back to being in an office on a regular basis.

I just celebrated 8 years at my company in August, and it’s really been a wonderful 8 years. I still love what I do, even if it can get stressful at times. (But what job doesn’t?) My primary role is writing. I write short-form (300-ish words) and long-form (500+ words) articles for a variety of clients, mainly in the healthcare and home improvement industries. I also do a ton of editing, mostly because I’m managing the workload of one of our contractors and am responsible for sending her assignments, editing her work, and sending it to clients. I also do project management and content strategy for some of our more specialized accounts. Basically, my days are busy and no day is the same.

Let’s talk about family! My mom is my very best friend and we Facetime with each other multiple times a day. She’s remarried and lives just 10 minutes from me, and I try to see her at least a couple times a week. She has two of the sweetest dachshunds, Chip (3) and Lucy (7 months), and I love them to death. My brother also lives nearby. He’s married to his high school sweetheart and they have two boys: J. is 13 and D. is 6. I’m estranged from my father, a decision I’ve talked about extensively on this blog. It was a decision I made in 2010, and it still hurts knowing he’s not in my life, even though that was the best decision I could have made for myself.

I have a big extended family on my mom’s side. She has five brothers and all but one of her brothers have children. (And many of those children have children of their own!)

Currently, I am single and I live by myself, which I love. While I hope for long-term partnership someday, I am also really happy being alone. Of course, I don’t actually live alone because I have my cats! I adopted Eloise at the end of 2018 and Lila a few months later. They are around the same age and turned 3 in the spring. Both of them are rescues who were living on the streets and having a rough go of it. I’m so glad I’ve been able to give them the cozy home they need! They are my entire world and I don’t know what I would do without them.

My hobbies are pretty varied! I love writing, obviously, and this blog has become the perfect outlet for me. I’d still love to write a novel, but that dream has been put on the backburner for the time being. Of course, reading is probably my biggest hobby and I make time for it every day. I also love NFL football, podcasts, going to museums, Peloton, traveling, reading blogs, and coloring.

I’ll finish by answering some of the questions that were posed to me in this question:

What are your favorite types of books? Romance is probably my favorite genre, and that’s why I usually have a romance book going alongside whatever else I’m reading. Other favorite genres: nonfiction (social justice and memoirs, mainly), thrillers, and women’s fiction.

What do you consider a good date? For me, a good date is less about the place and more about how I feel during it. A good date is when we can talk and talk and talk without running out of things to say. It’s not having awkward pauses. It’s wanting to extend the date, and not run back home to my cats within 20 minutes. It’s that feeling of hopefulness and happiness when it ends, knowing it was something special that only comes around every once in a while. It’s excitement that maybe, just maybe, you have found your person.

What’s the best vacation you’ve ever been on? Gosh, I’d like to say my trip to Ireland because it was such a bucket list vacation, but I was not my best self there and I spend a lot of time regretting how I planned that vacation. So instead, I’ll say it was the second cruise I went on in May 2012. My mom and I booked a six-day cruise where we biked around Key West, swam with sting rays and played with dolphins in Grand Cayman, and discovered our love for zip-lining in Jamaica. It was an incredible six days and we had so much fun!

I’m still looking for questions for Ask Stephany Anything! Comment below with your question or use my handy-dandy form.