This is an un-doctored image of my desk I had heard that a clean desk is the sign of an insane person. By that standard, I am quite sane 🙂

I was inspired to write this by reading this Diary of a 21 year old software engineer that makes $260k a week (I don’t make that much) here’s my diary of the week

Age 33

Location: Brentwood, CA

Monthly expense

Rent: $2325 Single family home of 1300 sq ft in Brentwood CA

Utilities: $200/mo

Student Loan Payment: $0 Finally paid this sucker off last year

Health Dental & Vision: Fund an HSA through work, hard to call this an expense

Netflix, Spotify & Amazon Prime: $13 (I just pay for netflix)

Cell Phone: $50 paid to my brother

Transportation: for work 0, for my kids $200 a month

Gym membership: $60 Fit4mom for my wife

Investment account: $0 (I have 401k through work. Currently at 5% contribution)

House Down Payment: $0 (already sunk into home/land)

TOTAL Monthly Expenses : $2848

Day 1

4:50

Alarm goes off but I don’t get up until 5:30. At 5:30 I make my breakfast and my wife’s to  be “overnight oats” in the fridge till she gets up. I read my scriptures and write in my journal and am working by 6AM. My daughter gets up at 6:30 (too early) so I take her to the only empty bedroom and encourage her to lay down while I work in the bed beside her.

7:15 

The 3 yr old stops pretending to be sleeping, and the rest of the kids get up. I make breakfast for the 3 yr old and 18-month-old. It’s the same thing I eat today… Oatmeal with raisins, mixed with honey and blackstrap molasses (a processed sugar free breakfast) $2-$4

8:00

Help the wife get everything ready to go to her exercise class. And work when I can by 9:00 she is on her way

9:15

Some domestic trouble from my kids and me and my wife. Luckily there are resources that we are aware of. I call “Crisis support” to help talk with one of my kids. They de-escalate the situation and I get back to work. They’re licensed therapists and helpful. Back to work!

12:00

Went to lunch with my wife at a Mattress store. We tried out a bunch of pillows ate a jumbo jack at jack and the box. I spent $3.20 there and another $2.50 on my daughter’s burritos. Then we were 30 mins late to her singing with Liberty singers. Then it was back home to continue working. Part-way through I helped my daughter stay asleep. I work in the room she naps in and if she awakes, I lay by her till she goes back to sleep.

16:40

I make Homemade dinner of moraccan chicken salad while the 17 month old slept for a whole 2 hours! All ingredients probably cost about $4 At 6 the 3 yr old gets ready for bed, it’s not an easy task tonight, but my wife takes over when I lose patience. Then at 18:30 I take the older kids on a run with the 17/mo old in a stroller. The therapist recommended this to help them sleep at night.  By 7 the 15 yr old and 12 yr old are in bed. The 17-month-old and 13 yr old stay up till 19:45. Then I put the 17-month-old to bed laying in a queen bed with me. I fall asleep until 22:30 when I get up, get ready for bed, and collapse into bed to start again tomorrow.

Day 2

5:50

My alarm goes off and I wake up, but I was having a dream of diving my cousins old VW that he drove when he was 16 and I needed to return it to his house. I went back to sleep till 5:50 so I could return his car in my dream. I woke up thinking that was silly. I got my daughter up at 6 so she could be ready for school and made breakfast for me, my wife and my two little kids ($3). Then started working until 6:30 when I drive my oldest daughter to her church class.

7:00

Get my other older kids up, and the two littles are already awake. We all eat breakfast, the usual coaches oats with raisins

and I go to drop off one kid at school. Then we all drive back to see Mom and help load the littles for her exercise class while getting the suspended one working on homework. He’s nice and quiet with his school work. And my music from my coding-time doesn’t bother him much

12:30

I had lunch with my son, It was a grilled cheese from homemade bread I make from this honey-wheat bread recipe. We had a conversation that he said was “very frustrating”. It’s fun being a dad. My lunch cost about .25 cents. Then it’s back at work.

16:30

Begin preparing dinner. Tonight it is 2 butternut squashes similar to this recipe. Since my wife is on a no-refined-sugar-diet, I just use honey and Italian seasoning to roast it. It is delicious. Also I watch this video to learn how to peel and cut butternut squash. All in all, it costs probably $4.50 To feed 3 kids and my wife and I with some left overs. I typically watch a show with my wife and play a video game when everyone is in bed to wind down. Tonight however, I fall asleep with my two littles for an hour, then come out and do my taxes. Talk about stress relief. I’m in bed by 23:00.

Day 3

5:10

I get up a bit earlier and tackle all the dishes from the previous night. I have the same breakfast

• 2/3 cup of coaches oats
• 1-2 tsp honey (I don’t measure)
• 1-2 tsp blackstrap molasses (I don’t measure)
• A handful of raisins (I measure with my hand being full)

I only eat half my breakfast and save the rest for my little kids. It makes less of a mess (if they need to eat it in the car) when it’s cooled and solidified. I  also make my wife’s breakfast:

• 2/3 old fashioned oats
• 2 tbs
  • Unsweetened coconut pearls (it’s difficult to find unsweetened dried coconut)
  • Flax meal
  • Wheat germ
• 1/3 cup coconut milk
• 1/3 cup milk (or a bit more till it’s wet
• Stir it all together and let it sit in the fridge for a couple hours
• Later she adds about 20 grapes

Breakfast for the 4 of us is probably around $2-$4 depending on the price of grapes. I write in my journal and read my scriptures. Then work until 6AM when I awaken my daughter again and head back to work. I worked until I need to take my older kids to school. Then came home and worked while waiting on hold with the Social Security office. My return is rejected yearly because one of my adopted kids SS card doesn’t get updated in the database.

11:45

Worked in the car as my wife drove to check out mattresses, went to the Chiropractor and went to a shoe store. I took a lunch in between to help her get shoes ($50). My wife hasn’t purchased new exercise shoes for 5 years. We ate leftover chicken salad form earlier. I go back to work on some python/database coding

16:00

Finished up work a bit later because of all the driving. Wife made homemade chips and guac. We used 4 avocados, 1 lime  and about 18 corn tortillas about $2.50 and it fed 5 of us. I also helped the girls make my sisters-in-law’s recipe for Chocolate chip cookies. That cost about $5.50 butter is expensive, and I had to buy chocolate chips at the store. That evening my wife and I watched a movie to wind down and ate some fruit.

Day 4

5:20 am

Same routine, coconut overnight oats for Hannah, Oatmeal for me and the two littles About $1.00. After that, I need to get to work quickly because there were some issues with codes last evening. I worked hard all morning as my wife took the kids to school drop off. At about 9am I started to make Zopf (I can’t find my recipe online any more but this one is close) for my littles Valentine’s party. It turned out well

12:00

I eat lunch at my kid’s party. I bring a loaf of Zopf which costs probably about $3 to make 2 loaves. The party is fun for kids and I chat with the moms before coming home after my lunch break. I put the littlest to bed and keep working.

17:00

I snack throughout the day and then make 4 eggs with a minced bell pepper, and of course a side of zopf. Dinner tonight is probably about $1

Day 5

6:00

What a rough night, between the 2 littles I’m up 5 separate times. Needless to say I cannot scrape myself out of bed at the usual 4:50am time. Luckily, the littlest wakes me at 6am and I decide I better get up. Usual breakfast of oatmeal and coconut overnight oats. About $1.50 I work on some database stuff till lunch

11:30

I worked through the day and started lunch a bit early because I was making sheet pan fajitas for lunch.  The cost was about $5 for the whole two pans (lots of leftovers). Then back to work

17:00

Dinner was left overs and Hannah made guacamole with home made chips. The guac was $2.50 and the leftovers were free from before. The littles ate a box of mac and cheese for $0.60

Day 6

6:50

Since it was Saturday I slept in till 6:50am till one of the littles woke me up. It was the usual breakfast of hot cereal for the kiddos and coconut oats for Hannah again about $1.50. Later we did a Daddy daughter donut date with Mom (she took the pic, and I have typical fox morning hair)

11:00

I pack a cheese sandwich (Hannah says they aren’t real) and take the kids to therapy. On the way home I stop at Walmart and get Darrel $8 church shoes for tomorrow. I also stop at Guersky Ranch to get some local honey and some dried apricots. I spend about $18 there.

14:00

I start making dinner early. Tonight it is Lettuce wraps. Only I don’t have butter lettuce, so we use romaine lettuce and make lettuce tacos. They’re delicious! It probably cost about $6 for all the ingredients. After that we take all the kids to Menchies Zoey has a free 8 oz fro-yo. We use it up and spend about $3 more for all the kids

After that we go home and go to bed.

Day 7

Since I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints. I’ve prepared everything before hand so here’s how much money will be spent. Not at the store.

Breakfast is made for all the kids. It’s the only time all 7 of us gather around the table with food. I make German pancakes:

• 6 eggs
• 1c whole wheat flour
• 1c milk
• 1/4c butter

It costs about $1.50 for the recipe. We have some fruit too

Lunch will be leftovers

Dinner will be Jambalya without the shrimp and cost about $5 for everyone to eat.

Overall this week cost about $50 for gas, and $83 to feed most of my family for the week. $10 on shoes for a kid that’ll last 3 months and $50 was spent on shoes for Momma that’ll last another 5 years.

That’s my week!

Now to rinse and repeat