Money. Environment. Travel.
This quarter's pandemic finance diaries brought the summer, an exciting time during the pandemic! While my partner became fully vaccinated this quarter, cementing our position as a fully-vaccinated household, it didn't turn out to be quite the adventure and travel-filled era for which we were hoping due to the Delta variant's arrival.
In early July my partner and I boarded a plane for the first time in 16 months. We had hoped it would be the first trip of many in our return to regular air travel, a confirmation that everything was safe and well in the world. As it turns out, after about 15 minutes in the airport my partner and I agreed we would not be flying for the rest of 2021.
My partner and I have lived in Washington, DC with zero cars for the past five years. We've purposely designed our life to be car-free. Some people call us crazy, but we have our reasons.
Welcome to Part 5 of the Pandemic Finance Diaries! Part 5 will review my gig job income from March 1, 2021 to May 31, 2021. If you missed Parts 1-4 or are wondering why I’m tallying my gig economy income during the pandemic, I suggest starting at Part 1 of the series. This quarter's pandemic… Continue reading Pandemic Finance Diaries, Part 5: New Opportunities
Let's delve into my new favorite dumpster find, that being my 43-gallon compost tumbler. I've been composting in my apartment for about six years now, but finally received the seal of approval from the head of my building to obtain outdoor community compost bins.
To say that 2020 was a difficult year is an understatement. I have been more fortunate than some in that I didn't lose most of my income, I stayed healthy, I never worried about losing my housing, and, as far as I know, I never contracted the novel coronavirus. However, it has not been an easy year. My profession is prone to high turnover due to burn out - we tend to give too much without taking care of ourselves - and in the midst of a pandemic this rang all the truer. The constant go go go of helping others with their needs, combined with my anxiety and depression, made for some difficult days during the last 14 months.
Before getting into this post I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the fact that the Pandemic Finance Diaries series has extended for a full year; never when I first wrote about my income during the pandemic did I think the world would still be in a scary pandemic place a full 13 months later with too many lives lost and even more livelihoods impacted.
Want to learn how to file your taxes smarter? I ran through the process 2.5 times so you wouldn't have to. I have had some negative experiences doing my taxes in years past, from trying to fill out a government form designed by an illiterate toddler, to being charged last-minute for "extraneous reasons," to having my tax preparer tell me they couldn't guarantee the job they were doing was accurate...
I recently upgraded my phone from 2014 to a phone from, wait for it - yes, 2016. It's a whole two years newer and let me tell you, in those two years phone manufacturers really upped their game. My new phone has such fancy features as enough storage space, an operating system supported by the manufacturer, and a pretty good camera.
Today we'll delve into my most recent favorite trash find, that being my new (to me) bike pannier.
Cheap Eco Wanderer 