Issue #232: My Actual Monthly Expenses and 5 Changes I'm Making to My Finances in 2026

Plus the spreadsheet I use for my budget.

🎥 ‘God’s Own Country,’ available to rent: My friend and book editor Taylor Rondestvedt unsurprisingly always has the best book recs, but I recently came across a list she created of “doomed love” movies. The list includes some of my all-time favorite movies, but I had never heard of this one, starring Josh O’Connor as a young sheep farmer whose addictions are barely covering over his despair, before he falls in love with a Romanian worker who is hired as an extra hand. Quiet and beautiful.

📚 Little One by Olivia Muenter: I tore through this new novel by Olivia Muenter, which alternates between chapters labeled “Now” and “Then,” as a journalist uncovers a woman’s childhood and the cult (and little sister) she left in Florida. I also couldn’t be more excited about the launch of Olivia’s new, six-episode podcast, “Little Pod,” that offers a peek behind the curtain of launching a book, and the joys and anxieties of being a novelist.

✒️ Uniball ‘One’ Pen: I’ve been loyal to the Pilot Precise for years, so enamored with its smooth-sliding gel tip that I was even willing to look past its fatal flaw that it explodes on airplanes. Turns out, it’s sensitive to any real change in altitude, which I quickly discovered in the van. The Uniball ‘One’ Pen is my new favorite—I fell in love with it at Noted, a stationery store in Ojai, despite being initially thrown by how short it is. Don’t be dissuaded: It balances well, writes beautifully, comes in an array of cute colors, and is safe to move about the cabin.

You may not think a spice drawer would cause a financial reckoning, but that’s exactly what happened last week. I had just run out of the garam masala I purchased from an ethical (and beautifully branded) online spice purveyor. Their products are single-origin, they pay fair wages, and they’re actually fresh! Honestly, it’s great stuff, which is why their spices command nearly three times the cost of my grocery store’s alternatives. I care immensely about ethical compensation and the quality of the food I consume and am fully on board with all the Michael Pollan adages, “You vote with your wallet!” “It’s expensive to buy cheap food!”

But at $14 for a tin, plus $5 shipping, it felt like… a lot for one spice.

The empty container sat on my kitchen counter for days (days!), taunting me as I waffled. Am I the type of person who supports ethically sourced, high-quality spices at any cost? Or is it unrealistic for me to be spending $19 on a single tin of a spice?

I feel slammed by this mental math almost daily. The magnesium I drink nightly has ingredients I generally try to avoid (an anti-caking agent and stevia), but the alternative is, again, three times the price per serving. Do I buy the metal water holder for extra water on the van or the much cheaper plastic one? The $280 sweater from an independent maker, or the $60 version on Quince?