It could not be more “back to basics” than this past month has been. Between working remotely, barely leaving the house, and just trying to get by, my world has become fairly small, fairly quickly. While this week as I type this I’m having a bit of a down one and struggling with the limitations of lockdown, I have to be fair and acknowledge that I’m fortunate that it’s all bad thus far.

I’m not sure our apartment has ever been this clean, this consistently. Laundry and dishes are being done daily. I’ve organized and RE-organized shelves and storage to declutter and tidy our spaces. I’ve actually hung some of our artwork, which is ridiculous seeing as we’ve lived in this apartment for eight months now…

Who knows what’s going to come our way in May (2020 seems to be trolling us all now), but looking back on the strangest of Aprils, I’m pretty pleased at what I have to report.

Money

Even though I’m on a reduced salary (voluntarily) the compulsory asceticism of the past few weeks have some definite financial upsides. We continue to prioritize cooking with occasional “splurges” on meals from local favorite restaurants. Lack of even daily bus or Tube travel has meant that savings from pennies and pounds has added up nicely. We’ve got a reliable and delicious coffee subscription service that thus far has not let us down and is far cheaper than what we’d spend out and about in normal times.

That being said, we did spend some money this month. We restocked the liquor cabinet, and I finally got a pair of decent headphones after sending a series of cheap ones to their graves over the past few months. This and my pin from Paris are going to count as my birthday presents this year, so I feel okay about them. I also picked up a pair of “comfy but high quality” work from home trousers that are pull on, but look like normal pants and could be worn outside as well as in, and a light trench to replace a similar coat that was ripped and stained beyond repair.

Lest you find this horribly extravagant, we continue to operate mostly with cash day-to-day and have even topped up our emergency fund a bit. A good feeling in normal times, a great one right now.

Relationships

I’m so grateful to be quarantined with someone I love, like, and feel safe with. Not everyone is nearly as lucky right now, and people in unhealthy or unsafe circumstances deserve kind thoughts, donations, and offers of safe help wherever you can.

In other areas, I’ve kept up with therapy, though reduced the frequency of appointments due to the current situation, and it continues to help keep me balanced. Texts and calls with friends continue, with more scheduled.

Basic Bitch

Let me preface this with a firm statement that no one should feel weight shamed or weight shame themselves right now, we are literally in the middle of a public health and economic knock down! Speaking only for myself and my body, I stepped on a scale for the first time in weeks and was annoyed at what I saw. Between a knee injury and then quarantine I have not been as active as I wanted for the first quarter of the year, but in the past month I actually put on weight. Which is diametrically opposed to a specific health goal I gave myself for this year! For some reason, and I’m sure there is a psychological underlying cause for this pettiness, this gave me the motivation I’ve been lacking and I started (and have so far maintained) daily workouts. More details in my favorites post tomorrow, but I’ve found some really interesting options even in the depths of quarantine. I hope that next month I will have lost the weight gained and will be able to report a continuation of the habit. I decided to focus on weight loss this year because my own health process and

Elsewhere

Paid off all but one credit card. Death to debt!

Ticked off goals related to gratitude and mood.

Baking and album listening goals continue, though the baking one is definitely going on pause to focus on weight loss!

Nurtured my houseplants

Reading goals also pushing along, I’ve read over 70 books so far this year and started on some classics and biography book goals this past month as well. At the rate I’m going I’m going to read at least 200 books this year, so might as well tick off every single book goal I’ve got while I do it. What else are we gonna do, we’re quarantined!