5:30am: My son returned home from his trip to visit family with his grandparents back East yesterday, so I add gently waking him up to the morning routine. I walk the dog around our new to me neighborhood (we just moved in to our newly purchased home on the street my husband grew up on). While my husband, not a morning person, readies himself and the kid for the day, I feed the dog, make coffee with the Keurig, turn off the sprinklers (we’ve been enduring a weird heat wave for the past week in the PNW) pack myself a new mix of peanut butter, honey and Greek yogurt with an apple and Irish cheddar cheese for lunch. I hand a bowl of cut fruit to the kid as I try a new breakfast: two eggs, cheese, and sausage crumbles in a mug, cooked in the microwave. By 7am we’re out the door, dropping the kid off at daycare on our way to work together (we work for the same company and we’re saving about $200 a month by carpooling).

12:15pm: I like to take late lunches, since my boss doesn’t micro manage me at all. Today I’m snagging face time with one of the site managers I support, while he juggles phone calls and an audit, so he buys me lunch at the small cafe in our building. I make myself a hefty sandwich and snag some chips, chowing down while watching him cover for three of his people (one on maternity leave, one recovering from surgery, and one on PTO).

2:45pm: It’s the beginning of the month, so most of our bills are due! We are still jugging clearing out our formal rental house and getting settled in our newer and larger house, so we’re paying utilities for two places and that’s a crunch. A majority of our bills are on auto pay as most larger companies offer a discount if you do, so I pay what isn’t, including our power/water bill (supplied by our small town’s co-op utility company) of $103, and garbage disposal ($47 every three months). I also forward our mail via USPS’s online service, $2. $152

5:30pm: Home, after picking up the kid. I let the dog out while the kid changes for his swim lessons, we grouse about the heat while discussing dinner (my husband is 90% the household cook as I only do breakfast foods), and unpack one of a zillion boxes we still have to go through. We’re off to swim lessons by 5:45, and while our son swims we sit in the SUV with the AC blasting and discuss life, the universe, and everything.

6:45pm: Home, tired, hot, and anything but hungry. I whip up sandwiches for myself and the kid, husband makes scrambled eggs that he tosses after tasting the bad milk he used to make them, then makes a second batch. The kid is overtired from jetleg and his first day back at daycare in over two weeks, so we’re all tucked in bed by 9pm.