The month in review: July 2019

Spendings report: $1, 033

July is my vacation month, I didn’t work and had a month to cram in as much socialising as I can before heading back to China August 1st. I’m quite impressed that I didn’t go overboard and blow like $2,000 in one go.

About $200 worth of purchases were made with points or paid by friends but I’m including them because I would have spent the money regardless.

A lot of my leisure/social activities revolve around eating out and food, so the two categories are quite mixed. If a leisure activity is mainly food, I’m putting it under Eating Out for now.

My contribution to my family’s groceries this month was a $15 block of cheese.

I wonder if this is an accurate foreshadowing of my non-living expenses once I reach FIRE? I went out 6/7 days each week because I knew it would be another year before I see friends face to face again. If I were back in Canada I wouldn’t be in nearly as much of a rush and would spend less on eating out. However, I didn’t pay for groceries at all this month because I lived at home so it will probably balance out.

Net worth update: +2, 360

Surprise! My net worth has increased despite me not getting paid for a month and spending all my time eating and sleeping 😀

Thank you, RRSP tax refunds and dividends.

High lights

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• I worked through 2 online math courses to prep for my Masters 😀
• Vacation mode has been super indulgent for me, just sleeping as much as I want and doing whatever I want, whenever I want
• Packed social schedule as I try to fit in ALL THE FRIENDS into one month before going back to China in August.
• Breathing in the beautiful, clean, Canadian air
• Cooking with my grandma
• Attending church with/for my parents (and then never again lol)
• Living my best life by having all the free time I want
• Went to the Aga Khan Museum, 10/10 would recommend
• Had a delightful birthday gathering
• Ate at PowWow Cafe and drank spruce pop
• Got to show my friends some of my favourite places in Toronto.
• Found 2 new board games I can bring back to China with me 😀
• Summer BBQ
• Picnics in the park
• Beach day
• Tax reassessment went through smoothly
• Rooftop patio hangout
• Tamil cooking lesson
• Another existential crisis successfully managed.

Reflection

I’ve given up stitching together a coherent story in this end of month reflection. There’s so much to do and see and breathe in I want to put all my minutes towards it. Each paragraph should be its own separate blog post but I’m having too much fun to write them up. This will change once vacation is over haha.

Life is nothing without people to share it with. This next year will be my 3rd year away from my friends and family. Some parts of it get easier and some parts of it never do. I am and continue to be thankful for my life – it’s really easy to want more and forget how much I already have. Since I have a lot of free time this month I got to hang out with friends 7 days a week. I might work 12hr days during school time but I do get 3 months of paid vacation to make up for it.

I’ve been spending my mornings in Canada with my grandma. She’s a healthy and spry 70-something and I’m going to make the most of the time I’ve got with her. She’s still quite active, and it’s keeping her mind sharp. I will follow her example and focus on my physical health so I enjoy the time I’ve got in this world. There are some pictures of my backyard in the gallery above. Up until my parents, my entire family were farmers so my grandma turned our backyard into a mega vegetable garden.

My family are Buddhists so my quest to become 100% vegetarian instead of 100% at home and 50% when eating out is coming along nicely. Yessss, all according to plan. My best vegetarian joke to tell is that I’m vegetarian when I’m not eating meat.

I get sappier and more melancholy every year. I was not expecting to feel this way from travelling all over the world.