How I Spent The First Week of the Rest of My Life

At 4:30 p.m. or so, it's been officially a week since I was laid off.  I think I've kept myself entertained.  A little too entertained since I've only watched two Netflix and read about 10 pages of Everything Is Illuminated (full disclosure, I'm the world slowest reader that is able to walk upright).

As I mentioned a couple of entries ago, it was free museum week so I wasn't around my apartment a lot.  Next week, I keep telling myself, is the week that I'll catch up on life like I wanted to from the start.  Today, since it's snowing in Chicago like seemingly everywhere else east of the Mississippi, I'm staying indoors.  I'm going to a UYE (Unofficial Yelp Event) in La Grange tonight, but I am not going out there before then.

This gives me a chance to catch up on the receipts portion of this blog.  The boring part, to be sure.  But the actual spending part of how I'm "spending" my unemployment.

With the help of Foursquare, here's how I spent my first week.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 4 ($18.26)

• 7:07 p.m. Aldi - $18.26.  I bought about five microwave dinners and 20 of the .29 cent burritos that I actually like (and I'm not telling myself that just because I can afford them).  I still have the burritos, so I think I can actually survive on a food budget of about $20.00 per week.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 5 ($16.20)

• 1:56 p.m. Small Bar Fullerton - $11.00.  This was certainly an unnecessary expenditure given that I had been unemployed for less than 24 hours.  But it was Manchester City v. Arsenal.  And I never got to watch (or even hear, once they took streaming audio away) weekday matches at work.  So, it was kind of nice.
• 4:34 p.m. Chicago Public Library - Logan Square Branch - $1.20.  I had an overdue book (six days at .20 cents a day).  Hopefully, with more time to read this won't happen much.
• 8:37 p.m. Lincoln Hall - $4.00.  There was a free showing of Naked Gun and Airplane.  I arrived late so as to minimize drinking (and because I'm not a huge fan of the first).  And I got a cheap beer.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 6 ($4.00)

• 4:26 p.m. Logan Theater - $4.00.  I went to see Burlesque.  If that's not full disclosure, I don't know what is.  It was terrible.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 7 ($20.28)

• 12:25 p.m. North Community Bank - Free.  Deposited my final paycheck which included my personal days.
• 1:28 p.m. Museum of Science and Industry - $12.28.  The museum itself was free admission.  However, the Jim Henson's Fantastic World exhibit was $5.  A panini in the museum's cafe was $7.28 after tax.  In the future, I'm going to make sure to eat lunch pre-museum.
• 7:53 p.m. Regal City North 14 - $12.00.  Had plans in advance to see True Grit.  It was good, but I think I could have waited and seen it for $4.00.
• 10:32 p.m. Quencher's - $6.00.  Could have gone home but I decided to have an Okocim Beer instead.  It was to celebrate my first "weekend" of unemployment, right?

SATURDAY, JANUARY 8 ($13.25)

• 11:17 a.m. U.S. Post Office - Clemente Branch - $13.25 - Express mailing in my severance agreement.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 9 ($0.00)

• 3:22 p.m. Eckhart Park - Free - Trying out the equipment during the Chicago Park District's Free Fitness Week.

MONDAY, JANUARY 10 ($15.00)

• 3:36 p.m. U.S. Post Office - Clemente Branch - Free - Returning the final Netflix that they sent in 2010.
• 4:08 p.m. McCormick Tribune YMCA - Free - But the steam room was priceless.
• 6:29 p.m. Olive Garden - $15.00 - Yeah, this was totally unnecessary, but I was really craving Capellini Pomodoro after a lot of discussion of the restaurant on Yelp's message boards.  And I needed to get out of the city.  I was supposed to go to Milwaukee and I realized that I hadn't left the city since slightly after Thanksgiving.

So that's $86.99.  Kind of more than I'd want to spend in an average week, but not breaking the bank by any means.  And it was less than I was spending while I was working.  I think I'm going to take out $200.00 at a time and just make it last as long as possible.  I'll go from there.