May’s Notes From the Field

Just setting money on fire over here

May was kind of a mess.

On paper, it was our most expensive month of the year. And somehow it was also relatively frugal. We are in the slog of prepping to list our house for sale, which means a steady stream of contractors, landscapers, repair people, cleanup crews, and assorted “well, while we’re doing that…” projects. We spent nearly $28,000 on house-related expenses in May (with more to come in June). One the other hand, our actual lifestyle spending was just $7,433. (Which is not bad for us.)

Coming up: What a bonkers expensive month actually looked like. Also, I got sick (again), rediscovered yoga, and finished seven books.

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Spending

All in, May spending came to $35,342 (that doesn’t count housing and investing). That sounds…horrifying.

$27,909 of that total was home maintenance and yard work related to preparing our big house for sale. (We moved out of that house last year but were waffling abut whether to sell it.) Excluding those costs, our actual lifestyle spending was just $7,433. Felt like a normal month!

A quick note on housing: we’re still carrying two housing costs (our current apartment plus the mortgage on our house.) I don’t include either in the monthly spending totals. A gal is entitled to a few secrets.

🏠 Home Maintenance & Yard — $27,909

Well.

Between repairs, cleanup, landscaping, prep work, and all the miscellaneous expenses that come with getting a house market-ready, this category absolutely dominated the month. And we’re not even done.

I don’t regret the spending. The house is one of our largest assets. The goal right now isn’t minimizing expenses. The goal is protecting the value of the property and getting it sold.

Still, it is objectively funny that we spent more on the house this month than on literally every other category combined. Funny. Like sooooo funny. 🫠

🍽️ Food & Drink — $1,632

Groceries ($1,113) — A pretty normal month. No hosting, no Factor, no giant Costco stock-up runs. Regular grocery shopping for two people. Our grocery spending is just always high. I like fresh fruit and Spindrift.

Restaurants ($232) — Three dinners out. Two with friends and one date night.

Takeout ($122) — A vast majority of this was getting ice cream on five lovely evenings.

Coffee Shops ($99) — Fairly typical. Six trips to local coffee shops.

Alcohol ($66) — Not much to report.

💊 Medical — $831

A handful of appointments, prescriptions, and some new glasses. Nothing dramatic, which is exactly how I like my medical spending.

🎁 Gifts & Charity — $1,662

Charity ($1,345) — You should put me on your invite list for your charity gala. I can’t resist a paddle raise.

Gifts ($317)

🪑 Home Furnishings — $521

A whole lot of paint samples. A couple of new lamps. A couple of patio chairs. A curtain rod.

🧹 Home & Personal Services — $475

House Cleaning ($400) — A constant and a joy.

Personal Care ($75) — A frangrance sampler from Ulta and a Sleepy Tie, an overnight heatless curls tool

⚡ Utilities — $535

Gas & Electric ($232) — For both homes, yes, still.

Internet ($249) — This is for both homes and I tend to take any Apple account charge and just put it here. What these actually are? None of my business.

Water ($54)

🚗 Transportation — $541

Driving ($186) — Parking, car insurance, some charging. (I mainly charge for free at work)

Auto Maintenance ($203) Mmmm I don’t remember. We took the car to the dealership for something and they fixed it. Or maybe it was routine maintenance. Shrug.

Car Service ($152) — Lyft and Uber

🎭 Entertainment & Fun — $413

Live Performances ($120) — Always yes to a show.

Games & Books ($193) — A new stationery shop and a new bookstore opened up nearby.

🏋️ Fitness — $293

ClassPass for both of us and Peloton.

✈️ Travel & Vacation — $95

Just one credit card annual fee.

🐶 Pet Stuff — $142

Pet Grooming ($101) — It helps with shedding. A little.

Pet Food ($41) — We’re down to one pet (We maxed out at three) and just one little bag of food a month.

Spending — Year to Date

January: $19,000 (Europe flights, laptop, mattress)

February: $13,859 (travel booking, medical, home purchases)

March: $9,706 (Mexico, Pilates package, home maintenance)

April: $7,434 (first normal month!)

May: $35,342 ($27,909 of which was house stuff)

YTD: ~$85,000

The biggest lesson from May is that the big things matter a lot more than the little things. No amount of meal planning, skipping lattes, or subscription-auditing was going to move the needle this month. And stuff is just expensive. When I look at our $7kish in regular expenses the number feels so high but nothing seems extravagant. We could have skipped the charity and the home furnishings and still would have been over $5k.

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🏋️ Movement

In May I logged ~18 hours and 30 minutes of movement. Mostly yoga (7h 10m), strength training (5h 31m), and walking (4h 13m), with a little stretching and meditation mixed in.

I averaged 5,974 steps per day (well below my normal range). The main reason: I spent most of the month dealing with a lingering cold/cough situation that somehow stretched 30+ days before an inhaled steroid finally got things moving in the right direction.

One silver lining of being sick was that I had to take a break from the high-intensity Pilates classes I usually gravitate toward. I still had ClassPass credits to use, so I ended up taking a lot of restorative and yin yoga classes instead. I loved them so much! I had forgotten how much I love a real yoga studio with plants and incense and sound bowls. I’ve been doing yoga at my gym or on Peloton and it’s just not the same.

I managed to maintain my 500+ day Peloton streak, although there were definitely days when a walk, a ten-minute stretch or a short meditation was all I managed.

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🤒 Sleep, Recovery & Health

According to my Oura Ring:

• Average sleep score: 90

• Average resting heart rate: 55 bpm

My highest monthly average sleep score ever! Maybe another side effect of a month spent fighting off whatever respiratory bug decided to move in permanently.

Still tracking nutrition with Nourish, still focused on protein and fiber:

• Average protein per day: 115g

• Average fiber per day: 32g

Not my highest protein month of the year, but comfortably in the range I’m aiming for.

Sleep Scores — Year to Date

January: 87 / 58 bpm

February: 81 / 57 bpm

March: 89 / 59 bpm

April: 87 / 59 bpm

May: 90 / 55 bpm

Nutrition — Year to Date

January: 125g protein / 28g fiber

February: 121g protein / 28g fiber

March: 122g protein / 37g fiber

April: 113g protein / 30g fiber

May: 115g protein / 32g fiber

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🍷 Alcohol

8 drinks

26 dry days

Again, was kinda sick the first part of the month and then had a little burst of social activity at the end.

Alcohol — Year to Date

January: 8 drinks / 25 dry days

February: 20 drinks / 14 dry days

March: 32 drinks / 19 dry days (Mexico)

April: 11 drinks / 21 dry days

May: 8 drinks / 26 dry days

YTD: 79 drinks / 105 dry days (out of 150)

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📚 Reading

Books I finished in May! Seven total (4 audiobooks, 3 Kindle books).

Of Boys and Men — Richard V. Reeves

Nonfiction · sociology / politics (audio)

I heard the author on public radio and had been meaning to read his book for a while. It’s a tough sell and a brave thing to write about: that no one is paying enough attention to men’s suffering. I moved it up my list after I saw a speaker who absolutely butchered the same topic and left the audience sneering. Reeves does a much better job here. A couple of his key points are that while the workplace discriminates against women, our education systems discriminate against men, and both problems are worth solving. He says that a central issue isn’t that feminism has gone too far but rather that it hasn’t gone far enough. It was a thinker for sure.

The Comeback — Ella Berman

Fiction · contemporary literary (kindle)

A former child star retreats from public life after a traumatic event and then gets pulled back into Hollywood years later. I thought this was going to be lighter (like…washed up starlet makes a triumphant comeback!) but it was dark and moody. I didn’t find the resolution especially satisfying, but I could see why others might enjoy it more.

The Long Game — Dorie Clark

Nonfiction · business / personal development (audio)

A book about thinking in years and decades instead of weeks and months. This would be a GREAT book for someone trying to build a business or especially trying to become a speaker/recognized expert. One of my big takeaways was when you form a new relationship, no networking asks for a year.

The Sum of Us — Heather McGhee

Nonfiction · politics / economics (audio)

My favorite nonfiction book of the month. This book is about the ways racism creates costs that ultimately affect everyone, not just the people being directly targeted. Very thoughtful. From this book and from other places I feel like lately I keep reading about the history of the public pool in the U.S., and I now see pools in a new light.

Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice — Elle Cosimano

Fiction · mystery (kindle)

After spending most of the month reading about democracy, economics, gender, and public policy, I just wanted to read a silly book about a single mom who fights crime. The Finlay Donovan books continue to be ridiculous in exactly the way I want them to be. Quick, funny, and completely implausible. The book version of a buddy crimefighting comedy.

Built to Move — Kelly & Juliet Starrett

Nonfiction · health / fitness (audio)

Sometimes you want to be told over and over again things you mostly already know and agree with. I enjoy health and longevity books. Sometimes I learn something, but mostly I’m re-motivated to do the things I already know I should be doing.

Giving Up Is Unforgivable — Joyce Vance

Nonfiction · politics / civic engagement (audio)

Part memoir, part guide for staying engaged during a time when many people feel exhausted by politics. (That’s me.)

Books — Year to Date

January: 4 audio / 3 kindle

February: 2 audio / 3 kindle

March: 5 audio / 7 kindle

April: 6 audio / 5 kindle

May: 4 audio / 3 kindle

YTD: 21 audio / 21 kindle (42 total books)

Forty-two books through May puts me right at pace for 100 books this year, and I’m still trying to decide whether that’s something to aim for. I may need to resist the urge to take reading for pleasure and turn it into a Key Performance Indicator. I do fully think that reading on my kindle before bed (as opposed to reading on the kindle app on my phone) has spiked my sleep scores.

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Closing Thoughts

May felt a little stressful and chaotic. I was sick, annoyed by all the work done at the house, and work was a little nutty. But! I spent a lot of time reading and being nice to my body, giving it protein and fiber and rest.

If you want to encourage me to do this seven more times this year, hit the like button. And leave a comment! (A nice comment.)

How was your May? What’s on your dashboard?

xoxo

Liz