I am a big fan of Refinery29 Money Diaries. The comment section is often wild, and sometimes unpleasant, and it’s one (though by no means the only) reason why I would never post a diary of my own. What I love the most about MDs is seeing how other people spend their discretionary income, and what they buy. The thing about the weekly format is that you get only a small snippet of that individual’s shopping, and it’s luck of the draw if the week chosen by the writer is a purchase-intensive one or not. Not to mention that, too often (for my taste), diarists focus extensively on things like what they ate or did; except in rare cases, those things are of limited interest to me. Tell me what kind of dry shampoo you use, and how it’s going to change my life!

While I have no interest in revealing all of my financial information (I am hardly anonymous here, after all), I thought I would take a stab at a modified Money Diary that provides the kind of details I would like to read about. Before I go on, I just want to make it clear that I’m not coming at this from a Personal Finance perspective, and this is most definitely not a how-to on budgeting or anything of the sort. For what it’s worth, my approach to money is to balance saving and enjoying a comfortable life; my monthly personal spending budget is between 1/4 and 1/3 the amount of my monthly personal savings, which seems like a reasonable compromise between my present “wants” and my future “needs”.

So, here it is: one month of discretionary spending!

Week One

Monday – I have been very diligent lately about packing my lunches to work, but it’s Monday and summer, and I succumb to the lure of the Second Cup “frocho” (frozen hot chocolate). I refuse to think about what’s in it, but I’m guessing 90% sugar with a dash of milk ($5) [All amounts include GST and/or tips and have been rounded up or down to the nearest dollar amount because I’m lazy.]

Tuesday – It’s frocho time again. Sigh. $5

Wednesday – I am working from home, so no frocho temptation today. I do end up ordering a bunch of stuff for the kids on Amazon, and use the opportunity to stock up on knitting yarn ($26). My favourite brand is Lion, especially the Wool-Ease variety. A ball of this typically costs between $6-7 on Amazon, which is maybe slightly cheaper than Michael’s. I have Amazon Prime, so it’s also more convenient. I’m currently working on a scarf for my husband for Father’s Day (per his request), and also looking ahead to Christmas; it’s never too early to start planning presents.

Thursday/Friday – No personal spending, which is some kind of miracle.

Saturday – Saturday mornings are my time for thrifting. This week, I find an interesting brooch ($4.50), and a bunch of Maisie Dobbs mystery novels ($15) at Goodwill. In the afternoon, I go to Winners to buy birthday presents for a kid’s birthday party. Winners is like Costco for me – I go in for a $30 present, I walk out with $100 worth of other random stuff. This time, I get sunglasses for my husband ($17, Father’s Day present), a Pixi eyeshadow palette ($21), and some Stila lip balms ($19). Impulse beauty buys are my Achilles heel, but at least these ones work out ok; I am especially in love with one of the Stila balms (review of sorts here). The Pixi palette has georgeous colours but the pigmentation and staying power are meh.

Sunday – So, sometimes, I also go thrifting on Sunday – especially if it’s a sale day at Value Village. A quick stop yields a gorgeous Sarah Pacini dress ($12), a Nougat sequin cardigan ($7), and a Fossil bag ($11) which is going to be a Christmas gift for someone. No telling!

TOTAL: $123

Week Two

Monday – Frochos have now turned into my “reward” for getting through Monday, so I have another one ($5).

Tuesday – no personal spending

Wednesday – It’s been another stressful week, so while the kids are visiting their grandparents in the evening, I make a quick stop at Goodwill. I pick up a Maeve dress ($8.50), Judith & Charles cuffed pants ($9.50), Lida Baday linen cropped pants ($5), and Wilfred knit tunic ($8.50). On my way home, I also pop into Value Village, and score some knee-high Stuart Weitzman boots ($20). I love all these pieces except the Maeve dress; I was kinda on the fence about buying it, which should have been my signal not to proceed. I did, and after wearing it once, I’m thinking it’s destined for the consignment pile.

Thursday – I’ve been looking for a new “signature” perfume for a while, but haven’t been able to commit. I decide to finally try Le Labo, and order 3 samples: Santal 33, Iris 39, and Rose 31 ($27 including shipping).

Friday – On Amazon again to order more kids’ stuff, and somehow a couple of books jump into my cart: Spook by Mary Roach, and Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance ($42).

Saturday – I haven’t had a pedicure in about 3 weeks, and my feet are looking the worse for it. I pop in for a pedi at my local cheapie salon, and end up splurging for gel polish so I can get a cool-looking chrome finish ($69). I saw my boss sporting a similar pedi this week, and I wanted to try it. In the summer, I tend to get pedicures once a month – usually just the basic kind for about $35. Based on how the gel polish is looking after a couple of weeks, it might be worth making the switch (at least for the rest of the summer before my toes go back into hibernation mode).

Sunday – Since I didn’t go yesterday, it’s time to hit up the thrifts. I find a couple of pairs of Acne jeans ($9.50 each) and a Vince knit top ($8.50) at Goodwill. The jeans are a smidge tight; I may end of selling them if they don’t work, but I’m pretty confident that I can make my money back.

TOTAL: $222

Week Three

Monday – No surprises here: frocho ($5).

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday – No personal spending

Friday – I was good all week, but I finally cave. Frocho Friday, baby! ($5)

Saturday – No personal spending

Sunday – Having survived a horde of 7-year old boys climbing all over my house for my son’s birthday party yesterday, I feel like this morning’s thrift trip is well-deserved. I get a Rachel Roy dress ($8.50), a biography of W. Randolph Hearst ($4), and a Japanese vase ($4.50). Later, on a grocery run at Superstore, I succumb to the dreaded impulse beauty buy again. I get a L’Oreal Paradise Enchanted eye shadow palette ($20), which I really don’t need but which will hopefully replicate my favourite IG filter, and I restock on a Joe Fresh lipstick balm that I like a lot (Bumbleberry) because it’s on sale ($8). The palette turns out to be the real winner – it’s pigmented and has decent lasting power, and the colours are fab. It immediately becomes my go-to for eye makeup. (Fair warning: it is scented, which may bother some people.)

TOTAL: $55

Week Four

Monday – Miraculously, I don’t get a frocho today.

Tuesday – I have not seen my bestie in nearly a month; she recently started a new job and is in the process of embarking on an exciting new life/career change, so we haven’t been able to get our schedules to align. We finally get to hang out after work, so we grab some poke bowls and catch up ($17). We also manage a quick trip to VV, during which I pick up a pair of Me Too flats ($16). They’re brand new and real leather. Two old pairs of “walking” flats recently bit the dust, and I needed to replace them; a replacement pair I bought a while back has proven to be too wide on my foot, so it’s going to my bestie instead. This was a timely purchase, which doesn’t happen all that often with thrift, so huzzah!

Wednesday – I get massages once a month, and today is that special day. The majority of the cost is covered by my health insurance, but I cover the rest plus the tip ($25). Technically, I would categorize this as “household” rather than personal spending, since it’s a health-related expense, but I’m adding it here for transparency.

Thursday – I cave. Frocho ($5).

Friday – At lunch, I visit my friend Jen (Life Preloved) to get a sneak peek at some new pieces in her store. There are many tempting things but I decide to sleep on any purchases for now. I do end up taking home some adorable Anthro homewares, a vase and a bowl ($40, out of my PayPal balance).

Saturday – Thrift time! I grab a book ($4), Iris Setlakwe dress ($8.50), a couple of Alex & Ani bracelets ($5.50 each), and a cool looking bead bracelet ($4.50) at Goodwill. By the way, you can see all my hauls on my Insta-stories, along with thrift store try-outs. I also pop into my fave consignment store to drop off some clothes, and naturally don’t walk out empty handed. This time, I score a fabulous Tibi skirt for just $19.It was $500CAD at retail! I’m stoked to wear it, and it makes up for the $6 Tibi skirt I found at Goodwill that was too tight on me.

Sunday – No personal spending.

TOTAL: $146

All in all, this was a pretty average month for me in terms of both the amount and the nature of my discretionary spending. Although I’ve been tracking my spending for years (on and off), putting together this daily log was still an interesting experience. It definitely helps to keep me mindful of what and how I spend; since my goal is to maximize the amount of fun/pleasure I get from my discretionary dollars, that’s a good thing.

Do you track your spending? Would you ever write (and share) a Money Diary? And if you have, what was the reaction?

Hey, wanna hear about stuff I bought recently? If so, it’s your lucky day. If not, well … it’s not your lucky day, but it could be worse. I could be talking about knitting again. Ba-dum-tish! (Although, in the interests of full disclosure, there is a post on that very topic waiting in my draft folder. You have been warned.)

Amope Pedi Perfect Foot File

I loathe feet. Have I ever mentioned that before? I’m sure I have, because my loathing is strong and of long-standing. I include my own feet in that statement, so summers are a trial for me from that perspective. I do what I can with salon pedicures, but it never seems to be enough. Being too easily grossed out to try that whole Baby Foot business, I decided to go a more modest route with this Amope foot file [non-affiliate link]. It’s cheaper on Amazon than at Shoppers Drugmart, which is the extent of my consumer research into this product. It’s okay. It doesn’t work as well on heels as that blade thingie they use at the salon, but if used consistently, it does seem to keep my feet looking somewhat presentable between pedicures.

I thought I would be ingenious and use some of my (skincare) acids on my feet – skin is skin, and a little chemical exfoliation wouldn’t hurt, right? Well, it turns out that, no: the skin on my feet probably needs a more nuclear option (like the aforementioned Baby Foot) in order to see any results, because a little glycolic acid made no difference whatsoever. So now I just use Aquafor to try to keep my hooves as soft as reasonably possible.

L’Oreal Mythic Oil Huile Originale

This is basically fancy leave-in conditioner. I bought it at Shoppers on a whim, after remembering that my old hair stylist used it once on my hair, years ago. This would have been around the time of my second or third perm – remember those days? – when my hair was very dry; the oil, I seem to recall, made a big difference. Considering the current length of my hair and the fact that I don’t colour it (and barely style it), the Mythic Oil is probably overkill. But it’s nice and it does wonders as a detangler for my daughter’s waist-length, naturally wavy hair. I’ve also started using it as a leave-in conditioner for my son’s hair, which is very thick and wiry. A little goes a long way, so my current bottle (which was around $28CAD) should last the family a while.

Castor oil

I bought this after a bout of pink-eye forced me to ditch all my existing eye products, including my beloved EyEnvy serum. A friend told me that castor oil is good for stimulating hair growth and, well, it’s a lot cheaper than EyEnvy. I did use it on my eyelashes for a few days with no adverse effects, but then I chickened out and went back to the EyEnvy. Now, I’m using the castor oil mostly on my eyebrows and my hairline, in spots where I have some hair thinning. It’s only been about a month, so it’s too early to have a good sense of results (or lack thereof), but I think I’ve seen a little bit of improvement in my (patchy) eyebrows. Will keep you guys posted.

Stila Color Balm Lipstick

I found a couple of shades of this lip stuff at Winners for $8.99 and … well, I’m weak, you guys. After Rimmel discontinued my favourite lip crayons, I still haven’t found my replacement Holy Grail lip product. So I keep looking and succumbing to various temptations. The good news is that this Stila stuff in Raisin is the bomb. It’s a great reddish brown that nails the whole “my lips but better” thing. The finish is somewhere between shiny and matte, which is great for everyday, and it doesn’t dry out my lips. I am less fond of the Avery colour; it’s a sort of coral that doesn’t really work for my complexion, and it has that minty smell I dislike in lip products (which, oddly, the Raisin does not have). I’m not sure if these are still carried by Stila, but I like Raisin enough that I will probably investigate further once my current tube runs out; the regular retail price is likely to be too high for me, but we’ll see.

This blog might not be good for much, but it’s a workable excuse for all kinds of self-indulgent projects because … blog content, amirite? Anyway, I love an excuse to “experiment” with “science” so blogging it is. Those scare quotes are there for a reason, by the way, because what I’m going to talk about today is actually more in the line of playing around with skincare. But that doesn’t sound nearly as cool, sigh.

You may recall that, a few months ago, I busted my skincare budget when I decided to splurge on some Dr. Jart Cicapair Tiger Grass Cream. I like the cream a lot, but maybe not $60 worth of a lot. I started to look around for a plausible dupe and, lo, I found not one but two. Sort of.

First, L’Oreal definitely jumped on the centella asiatica bandwagon with Revitalift Cicacream. This usually sells for about $30CAD at Shoppers, which is half the price of the Dr. Jart cream, but still on the high side for me. One day, I found it on sale for under $20CAD, which is when I decided it was worth trying. For science, you understand. (Also because, as we have established before, $20 is the magical number my threshold for impulse buys.)

The second product I decided to try was the Roche Posay Cicaplast Baume. This actually does not contain the same active ingredient as the Dr. Jart cream, though the name sounds similar which is what drew me to it in the first place. I’ve done exactly zero research into this (which is, come to think of it, par for the course for my “science experiments”), but I think the “Cica” comes from cicatrice – the French word for “scar”. Both creams are supposed to aid in healing damaged skin, you see. The Cicabalm was around $20CAD (regular price) at Shoppers; for what it’s worth, you can also get it on Amazon for around the same price, and it has very good reviews.

My experiment went something like this: I switched from using the Dr. Jart cream (every morning, after my lactic acid, and before sunscreen) first to the Roche Posay, and then to the L’Oreal cream. I gave each new cream a month’s trial; I figured this would be long enough to see any effects, differences, etc. And? I’m sure you are on the edge-of-your-seat excited to hear about the results. Well … sorry. The truth was that I really didn’t see any real difference among the 3 creams. All 3 worked well as moisturizers for my normal-to-dry skin. I experienced no adverse effects, though I also saw no dramatic change.

With that said, here are my (subjective) impressions:

I *think* I like the Dr. Jart cream the best, though the Roche Posay is a close second. Oddly, I think I like the slight medicinal smell of the Dr. Jart cream and its consistency (more balm-like). Also, it’s green. The Roche-Posay smells nicer, though not in a skincare-fragrance sort of way. It’s lighter and absorbs more quickly than the Dr. Jart. The L’Oreal cream is the one that feels (and smells) the most like a typical face cream. I don’t hate it, but I also don’t feel like raving about it, if you know what I mean.

What’s next? Since I am nowhere close to finishing any of my current tubes, my plan is to use the Roche-Posay and L’Oreal creams through the summer and fall, then switch to the Dr. Jart in the winter because I find it a little bit heavier (and, in my mind, slightly more moisturizing). When the time to re-purchase comes, I think I’m going to go with Roche-Posay. I like it a lot, it’s easily accessible, and it’s relatively inexpensive (at $0.50/ml, it’s cheaper than the other two: Dr. Jart, $1.20/ml; L’Oreal, $0.60/ml).

If you’ve done any “experimenting” of your own recently, and have some good discoveries to share, let me know in the comments.