13 hp 14 mov 54 wil —— 95 aim 0 def —— 90 kills in 24 missions (MEC-1) (Particle Cannon) (no secondary) (SCOPE) (Stellarator) 

12 hp 14 mov 48 wil —— 93 aim 1 def —— 88 kills in 29 missions (MEC-1) (Particle Cannon) (no secondary) (SCOPE) (Stellarator) 

13 hp 14 mov 62 wil —— 85 aim 1 def —— 120 kills in 30 missions (MEC-1) (Railgun) (Flamethrower) (SCOPE) (AJR) 

12 hp 14 mov 65 wil —— 84 aim 0 def —— 115 kills in 28 missions (MEC-1) (Railgun) (Flamethrower) (SCOPE) (AJR) 

13 hp 12 mov 68 wil —— 90 aim 0 def —— 70 kills in 31 missions (MEC-1) (Railgun) (no secondary) (SCOPE) (AJR) 

13 hp 12 mov 67 wil —— 92 aim 0 def —— 49 kills in 31 missions (MEC-1) (Railgun) (no secondary) (SCOPE) (AJR) 

6 hp 14 mov 110 wil —— 84 aim -4 def —— 24 kills in 28 missions (Vortex Armor) (Gauss Carbine) (Mind Shield) (Chem Grenade) (Psibang) 

9 hp 13 mov 73 wil —— 92 aim 3 def —— 28 kills in 31 missions (Corsair Armor) (Gauss Autorifle) (Neural Gunlink) (AJR) (Walker Servos) 

8 hp 15 mov 74 wil —— 105 aim 2 def —— 69 kills in 36 missions (Titan Armor) (Reflex Rifle) (SCOPE) (Marksman Scope) (Walker Servos) 

5 hp 13 mov 52 wil —— 103 aim -3 def —— 65 kills in 29 missions (Titan Armor) (Reflex Rifle) (Neural Gunlink) (Bipod) (Shadow Device) 

5 hp 13 mov 58 wil —— 99 aim 0 def —— 63 kills in 30 missions (Titan Armor) (Alloy Strike Rifle) (Neural Gunlink) (Bipod) (AJR) 

5 hp 13 mov 68 wil —— 100 aim 4 def —— 70 kils in 30 missions (Titan Armor) (Alloy Strike Rifle) (Neural Gunlink) (Bipod) (AJR) 

Game Information

Game Title: Pikmin 3 Deluxe
Platforms:

• Nintendo Switch (Oct 30, 2020)

Trailer:

• Pikmin 3 Deluxe - Announcement Trailer - Nintendo Switch

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 85 average - 97% recommended - 33 reviews

Critic Reviews

Atomix - Sebastian Quiroz - Spanish - 90 / 100

Pikmin 3 Deluxe is the definitive version of a Wii U classic. More content, gameplay improvements and co-op make this installment a must have for Nintendo fans.

Checkpoint Gaming - Omi Koulas - 9 / 10

...Pikmin 3 Deluxe is the same amazing game it was before. Figuring out how to traverse levels and defeating huge bosses is still great fun. The visuals, audio, and performance are up to the standard of every first-party Nintendo Switch game, capturing that superb family-friendly tone. The new side-missions, multiplayer modes, and accessibility options simply add more value to an already fantastic game.

Console Creatures - Bobby Pashalidis - Recommended

Pikmin 3 has this charm to it that makes it hard to put down and the lengthy campaign is incredible and the design choices in play make this one of the smartest games I’ve played recently. If you need a game that wants to challenge you with excellent exploration, tons of strategy and cute creatures; go out and get yourself Pikmin 3 Deluxe!

Critical Hit - Brad Lang - 8 / 10

If you need some optimism and pure joy injected into your life, Pikmin 3: Deluxe Edition is for you. A fantastic remaster that adds a healthy chunk of new content to what was already a bulky game, that improves the overall experience.

Cubed3 - Drew Hurley - 9 / 10

There's nothing quite like Pikmin, as it perfectly captures the same magic as Miyamoto's other masterpieces. While the Wii U itself was a sales disappointment, it hosted some absolutely wonderful titles that deserved a better home and it has been great to see them finally receive that with Nintendo's initiative to bring them to Switch. Pikmin 3 was already a superb game, and while this release is not a remaster, the extra elements added to Pikmin 3 Deluxe elevate it to something special. While the price point may be exclusionary for some, this is completely worth the asking price, even as a double-dip for those who already have it on Wii U. Perfect for families to play together, for friends to grab a Joy-Con each, or for solo play sessions to track down every badge and master the highest rank.

Daily Mirror - James Ide - 4 / 5 stars

It's great to see such a different game that revels in its weirdness ported to the Switch, but disappointing that is still full price despite being a game from 2013.
Pikmin 3 is a breath of fresh air, offering simple yet addictive gameplay as you explore a massive, magical world full of surprises. Despite the age of the game, this is defiantly an adventure not to be missed.

Destructoid - Chris Carter - 9 / 10

Pikmin 3 Deluxe is another re-release that isn't going to blow some people away, but provides another means with which to play a potentially forgotten Wii U classic. For me, it still holds up, and then some.

Digitally Downloaded - Matt Sainsbury - 4.5 / 5 stars

So Pikmin 3 isn't the massive game. It never has been. It wasn't on the Wii U, and it's no "bigger" on the Switch. What it is, however, is a load of fun, and the charm is irresistible. Have we had more impressive remasters of games that were, to be frank, more impressive in the first place? Sure, but Pikmin isn't meant to be "AAA" and it doesn't try to be. Whether you've played this game previously or not, it's still a charming delight.

Enternity.gr - Nikitas Kavouklis - Greek - 8 / 10

In the end, Pikmin 3 is a game which focuses on strategy and will provide you with several hours of fun.

Eurogamer - Tom Phillips - Recommended

Like its many buried riches, Nintendo's Pikmin series remains a treasure ready to be rediscovered.

GAMES.CH - Benjamin Braun - German - 85 / 100

With the Deluxe edition on Nintendo Switch Pikmin 3 remains a wonderfully cute and clever real-time strategy game. On the technically side the WiiU title in the first place could have been more enhanced for the new platform. But if you did not play it so far, the Switch version is best way to catch up on Pikmin 3.

GameMAG - Alexander Kopanev - Russian - 8 / 10

Pikmin 3 Deluxe manages to have cheearfull and colorfull style of Nintendo titles, while at the same time presenting quite unique take on real time strategy genre. If you never tried Pikmin before, this game can be a perfect starting point. And now we just can't wait for Pikmin 4.

GameSpot - Kevin Knezevic - 8 / 10

One of Wii U's earliest gems remains a delight to play on Nintendo Switch.

GameXplain - GameXplain - Liked-A-Lot

Video Review - Quote not available

Gameblog - Thomas Pillon - French - 8 / 10

As fun and refreshing as it was on the original Wii U, Pikmin 3 Deluxe offers a second chance to a very good strategy game. Despite the loss of a second screen, this Switch port add many extras, like an entire bonus arc with well tied challenges, but also very interesting difficulty modes.

GamesRadar+ - Rachel Weber - 4 / 5 stars

Even if it's not brand new, Pikmin 3 Deluxe deserves a place in your Nintendo Switch library.

God is a Geek - Chris Hyde - 9 / 10

Pikmin 3 Deluxe has blossomed on Nintendo Switch into the complete package. With excellent coop and bags of content, it's an experience not to be missed

Hobby Consolas - David Martinez - Spanish - 88 / 100

7 years after its original release, Pikmin 3 for Nintendo Switch is a great strategy and exploration game, with unique characters and interesting additions (prologue, epilogue and main story multiplayer).

IGN - Tom Marks - 9 / 10

Pikmin 3 Deluxe makes an already excellent game even better with some small but enjoyable content additions and a boatload of quality of life improvements.

IGN Italy - Mattia Ravanelli - Italian - 8 / 10

One unforgettable experience, that unfortunately comes too soon to an end. But still, this is one journey everyone should embark on.

Metro GameCentral - 8 / 10

After years out of the limelight Pikmin 3 has resprouted, with its mellow take on real-time strategy more enjoyable than ever, especially thanks to the expanded co-op options.

Nintendo Life - Chris Scullion - 8 / 10

Visually, Pikmin 3 Deluxe doesn't push the boat out much further than the original Wii U version did. Where its changes lie are in its revamped control system and the addition of a new Side Stories mode. Neither are necessarily transformative enough to warrant double dipping if you're perfectly happy with your Wii U copy, but if you're one of the vast majority who don't have a Wii U copy, this Switch update is unquestionably the best way to play it.

NintendoWorldReport - Neal Ronaghan - 8.5 / 10

Pikmin 3 Deluxe is very close to being the definitive version of a modern classic. Now please, bring me more Pikmin adventures. I would like to visit more areas with these little plant aliens.

Press Start - Shannon Grixti - 9 / 10

When it comes to Wii U ports that have made their way over to the Nintendo Switch, Pikmin 3 has probably received the most love, care and new content of any of them. The game is much more accessible than it was before, making it perfect for newcomers to the series with enough new content to give fans of the series a reason to come back.

Spaziogames - Gianluca Arena - Italian - 8.8 / 10

This is the best version of one of the most unique, funny and quirky Wii U titles. A new control scheme, some QOL improvements and new content make it palatable even for returning players.

Stevivor - Ben Salter - 8 / 10

While the gameplay remains strong, and is improved in this Deluxe repackaging, Pikmin 3 is visually a dated game, and it’s a shame Nintendo refuses to remaster last-gen games, whilst still charging full price. Nevertheless, the cracks are covered up to a degree in handheld mode, as Pikmin 3 almost rounds out the full Wii U collection on Switch.

The Digital Fix - Stephen Hudson - 9 / 10

Pikmin 3 Deluxe represents the ultimate version of the title, and even though the experience is over way too quickly, the game is easily one of the Nintendo Switch's best titles, and a must-play for fans, new and old!

The Games Machine - Daniele Cucchiarelli - Italian - 9.3 / 10

Pikmin 3 is still fresh, engaging and eventually challenging after all these years and we hope that this Deluxe Edition is just the beginning of a new era for this sweet and hard-working little creatures.

TheSixthAxis - Jim Hargreaves - 7 / 10

Nintendo continues to revive what some might call their lost generation of games. Pikmin 3 Deluxe is yet another Wii U transplant though one that slots seamlessly into Switch's first party line-up. Although unwieldy and slow to start, Nintendo's charming inventiveness has produced an intriguing, if not excellent, entry in the strategy genre.

TrueGaming - نواف النغموش - Arabic - 8.5 / 10

This deluxe edition of Pikmin 3 brought up many quality of life improvements that made playing a pikmin even more enjoyable.

TrustedReviews - Jade King - Unscored

After playing through the opening hours of this new and improved classic, I'm already smitten with its clever mixture of strategy and resource management. It does a tremendous job of making the genre accessible for a younger audience while seldom taking your intelligence for granted.

Twinfinite - Greysun Morales - 4 / 5

Pikmin 3 Deluxe is a nice and simple finely-tuned Wii U port that’s perfect for newcomers to jump right into. It’s a charming and enjoyable take on the real-time strategy genre that’s not going to make you bash your head against a wall.

Wccftech - Dave Aubrey - 8.8 / 10

This is probably the best Pikmin game, and this is undoubtedly the best version of it. It's a bit of a shame that this isn't full-HD like many Wii U ports have been, but the quality of Pikmin 3 Deluxe is unmistakable. An excellent action-strategy adventure that'll tempt you into 100% completion, and probably leave you in tears when you see your Pikmin eaten at the end of a complicated day.

TLDR; Don't applaud the companies for caring about vulnerable gamers, between profits and caring, they are most likely still going to side with profits and abuse us for money.
​
Hi, first off, I wish to clarify that if there's a profit in it for them to care then they do care, and as people rather than companies they probably do care anyway. There's probably going to be some actual good come from their commitments but there are two major ways they and others take advantage of vulnerable gamers and people shouldn't say they care until these at least stop. They are loot boxes of course and advertising, yes advertising not microtransactions and I don't know what battle passes are exactly and hope to never look at them.
​
Start with the easier one, loot boxes. Just because there is a random chance doesn't mean its abusive which is the same as slot machines, there's the lights, sounds, suspense, I want this particular thing, etc. that come together to help make it addicting. A complication arises in that different people are also affected by different things; suspense might be a main factor for one person but irrelevant for another for instance. For some reason governments don't seem to want to legislate against it either, the Australian government did tests with thousands of adults addicted to gambling (outside of gaming) and found that loot boxes triggered the same part of the brain/endorphins that gambling does and the UK government/courts decided that because you can't get real money from them then they aren't gambling while ignoring they have other abusive parts in them and that vulnerable adults or any child can be sold something with zero value and no chance of profit.
​
Next is advertising, this took a long time for me to realise and I'll do my best to explain, also again different people are affected by different things. I like racing games and Forza Horizon 3 & 4 are some of my favourites but there is also plenty of advertising as you're playing the game. Loading screens, menu, map, interruptions in gameplay all come together to be constantly reminding you you can be spending money. On a good day this doesn't worry me but on a bad day when I'm depressed then it does, the more depressed you are the more vulnerable you are to advertising. At first, I had no idea it was the advertising that was making things worse, I downloaded GT Sport after not playing it for ages and looked at the store, there was like 300+ microtransactions on there so I backed out and loaded up the game, I was depressed a bit at the time and the game was helping. About a week later I realised the lack of advertising and constant annoyances Forza would give me were helping greatly. This does not mean GT Sport doesn't have advertising, just that I never noticed it and don't intent to try or go to other parts of the game to find it.
​
Advertising is arguable the worst thing on this list, when your fine it isn't abusive even though your still affected by it but when your depressed especially heavily depressed it's a completely different story as it is abusive and dragging you down. So far loot boxes/gambling sound worse as its worse at both times and can itself make you depressed when you're not but the bad thing about advertising is that it's pretty much everywhere TV, games, internet, etc. even billboards, signs, walls, etc. while walking down the street shopping can be painful or at least hurting. It is so widely accepted that being exposed to it while trying to recover from depression is so much more likely and that makes it worse, when your being hit from all sides and die from it, you can't just look at the big sticks and say the smaller ones don't matter. For example, being raped by itself would have a low death rate, not getting the chance to recover increases it to a much higher death rate, that makes the smaller sticks worse to me. Not to mention that some advertising specifically targets us like Coke selling happiness but instead all it does is help make you fat and even more depressed.
​
If you got this far, thanks for reading, this took a day or two as I kept coming back to it to do some more and feels hopefully good to get it off my chest and maybe help someone like I've been helped, I'm using a dummy account and email so I may or may not look at this again as I expect most people to not care and/or whine, most people benefit from advertising with free to air tv, free to play games, websites they look at, etc. and most I'm guessing just refuse to believe one can be negatively affected by advertising but think of this if you're not depressed. Do you look at an add and think I'm going to buy that, and I don't mean something you would have bought anyway they're just letting you know it can be purchased, I mean you wouldn't have purchased it but the advertising convinced you to buy it. If the answer is yes, then how are we not more affected by it then you are purchasing more things and getting into money troubles. If the answer is no, why are companies spending hundreds of millions and for really big companies a billion + on advertising if it doesn't make a difference to their sales. No matter what though they will always say advertising is OK as even when depressed, you have no interest in this or that so the advertising won't affect you no matter how depressed you are, but it doesn't change the fact that this or that also won't help you recover from depression either, you still don't have a place to turn to.

Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words, continuing in the footsteps of daprice82. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
• PREVIOUS •
1987
FUTURE YEARS ARCHIVE:
The Complete Observer Rewind Archive by daprice82

1-4-1988	1-11-1988	1-18-1988	1-25-1988
2-1-1988	2-8-1988	2-15-1988	2-22-1988
2-29-1988	3-7-1988	3-14-1988	3-21-1988
3-28-1988	4-4-1988	4-11-1988	4-18-1988
4-25-1988	5-2-1988	5-9-1988	5-16-1988
5-23-1988	*	*	*

• The NWA is the nexus of the three biggest stories this week, and the possible Turner buyout of the promotion may be the biggest story of the year. It’s been rumored for weeks that the Crockett family will sell the majority of their shares to Turner Entertainment, and Dave can confirm that such a deal is currently awaiting approval from Turner’s acquisitions committee. If all looks good, we should know within a week. We're not going to know within a week, this is going to take more time.
  
• If Turner does buy the NWA, Jim Crockett is likely to remain in charge of day-to-day operations. The rest of the family would be divesting themselves of their interest in the company, and Turner will be in charge of promotion, PR, and other business activities. This should theoretically result in a “more professional and business-like approach.” Peers into the future HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Anyway, Dave thinks it’s foolish to speculate at this point about possible ramifications of the deal. And getting out of speculation and into fact: if the deal doesn’t go through, NWA is in a lot of trouble going into the summer, and they need to make major changes to how they conduct business no matter the outcome of the deal. There are wrestlers in the NWA who are owed money, and they’re not going to work for free.
  
• Thanks to Turner’s help, the NWA has already cleared availability for over 8.5 million homes for the Great American Bash ppv on July 10. Vince McMahon’s attempt to monopolize ppv wrestling has failed, at least for the moment. This is the second widest potential audience for a ppv wrestling event ever (Wrestlemania IV cleared 10 million potential homes). With WWF running a ppv (the Summerslam) from Madison Square Garden on August 29, that means most ppv providers have elected to ignore Vince’s ultimatum prohibiting competing wrestling ppvs 60 days before and 21 days after a WWF ppv. That ultimatum killed Starrcade last year, but let’s be thankful it’s pretty much dusted. This all means WWF has failed to kill Crockett’s ability to run ppv events, which was one of their goals.
  
• The card for the Great American Bash is set. Flair vs. Luger for the NWA Title; Windham vs. Rhodes for the U.S. Title; Triple tower of doom featuring the Road Warriors, Garvins, and Steve Williams vs. Kevin Sullivan, Al Perez, Mike Rotunda, Warlord, and Barbarian (yep, they’re going forward with it); Tully and Arn vs. Sting and Koloff for the world tag titles; and Midnights vs. Fantastics for the U.S. tag titles.
  
• The income potential is big for the Great American Bash. If they equal their previous buyrates, they should clear over a quarter million homes and take in ppv sales of over $4 million (ppv for the show will be $15.95), which will at the most conservative estimate give the NWA a cool $1 million in revenue after all the other splits on the ppv total revenue.
  
• The FCC ruled in favor of syndicated exclusivity this past week, and this has some potential consequences for the NWA. Syndicated exclusivity means that any program carried in your local market (so a show that’s put on free tv) cannot be shown on cable by bringing it in from another market. Dave gives the example of how if your local channel 7 carries the Beverly Hillbillies, then your cable company can’t show Beverly Hillbillies by pulling it in from another station in a different market, even if it's in another time slot. This is a potential catastrophe for WTBS, because so much of their programming is old network reruns which duplicate stuff shown in most markets, meaning they have to completely change up their programming or have so little of their material picked up by cable companies that they drop the station altogether. This is effective a year from now (plus any time that might get it stalled by court appeals), so there’s probably a couple years before it really goes into effect, but this is the main reason Turner is starting the TNT network and why eventually you’ll see wrestling get on there alongside the sports and movies and there won’t be old network tv reruns on it.
  
• Curiously, the NWA was doing the hard sell of the May 22 Omni house show on this past Saturday’s TBS show. The press boxes were really full (they’re usually totally empty), and Dave supposes they were probably filled with Turner executives checking out what they’re considering buying. It worked, by the way - 7,300 fans turned up for the Omni show, triple the crowd at last month’s show (and no, the card wasn’t any more enticing than last month’s either).
  
• Reborn UWF had their first show on May 12 and the fans flooded in. They sold out Korauken Hall in 15 minutes about a month ago, with all seats priced at $40 (a $92,000 gate). The first match of the three match show had Nobuhiko Takada vs. Shigeo Miyato in a ten minute exhibition, where Takada won with two submissions to nothing for Miyato. Tetsuo Nakano made Yoji Anjo submit in a 24 minute match for the second match of the show. Lastly, Akira Maeda and Kazuo Yamazaki had a match with tremendous heat and it is clear that there is no man in wrestling as over as Maeda is. Maeda hasn’t wrestled since he shot on Riki Choshu in November last year, and as a result he wasn’t quite in top condition and blew up part of the way through the match, but they went 25 minutes and Maeda won by submission. Dave was told American fans would likely be bored by the match, but the fans there were eating it up. UWF’s next show is set for June 11 in Sapporo, and all 6,000 seats sold out on the weekend of May 13. The real test is coming, though: will they be able to maintain interest with only three major stars and no regular foreigners? They’ll have foreigners in Sapporo, with those guys probably doing singles matches against Takada, Yamazaki, and Maeda.
  

Watch: Maeda vs. Yamazaki

• Former wrestler and referee Fred Atkins passed away at the age of 77 on May 13. He was originally from New Zealand and refereed for Frank Tunney in the Toronto area for a long time. He also managed Giant Baba in the 1960s during Baba’s heel tours of the U.S. His biggest match as a referee was the Terry Funk/Harley Race NWA World Title change at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1977.

Watch: the final ten minutes of Funk/Race

• Financial News Network, which debuts Continental Wrestling Federation on May 29, announced that they’ll be airing World Wrestling Council’s anniversary show this fall. WWC’s show drew 42,000 fans to three locations last fall, and will be aired live starting at 8 EST on September 10. Just an aside, but that means the card starts at 9 pm in Puerto Rico. Billed for the show are 12 championship matches featuring the likes of the Road Warriors, Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, Iron Sheik, Bruiser Brody, and more. Sadly, we’re going to have very different news related to Brody soon. As far as Dave knows, this is the first time an international big show is being broadcast live in the U.S.
  
• Dave got a chance to see the tv from the Oregon promotions and there’s a lot of sly remarks about the other promotions going on. Haynes’ OWF (Oregon Wrestling Federation, the Washington part isn’t there anymore) is emphasizing the size of their wrestlers and how they’re trying to put Oregon on the Map. Don Owen’s Big Time Wrestling, on the other hand, is emphasizing action as well as touting how they have only a 3.5 hour delay between taping and airing, as opposed to the OWF taping a week in advance. Dave says it pretty much is a battle of action vs. size from watching the shows. And if you know Dave, he prefers action to size.
  
• On Big Time Wrestling, they announced Curt Hennig would defend the AWA World Title against Col. DeBeers on May 19. Two reasons for that to be silly. First, Hennig lost the title five days before they announced this. Second, why are they billing DeBeers with his South African gimmick when he was a major headliner here for years as Ed Wiskoski?
  
• Turns out Abdullah the Butcher had gallbladder and ulcer surgery, not kidney surgery. He was released from the hospital on May 19, and should be back in action in late July. This really hurts the current All Japan tour, since he was set as one of the big headliners for the tour.
  
• All Japan will be unifying the tag team titles rather than the singles titles on June 10. Tentatively, they have Tenryu and Ashura Hara putting up their World tag titles against the Road Warriors and their International tag titles. But first they have a world tag title defense scheduled for June 6 in Sapporo (just 5 days before UWF’s show there, so note the timing and how they’re dealing with competition) against Jumbo Tsuruta and Yoshiaki Yatsu. Most expect Tsuruta and Yatsu to win and go on to the unification. And All Japan will deliver on expectation.
  
• JWP, the younger of the two women’s promotions in Japan, will be closing up shop after their May 29 Korauken Hall show. The wrestlers haven’t been getting paid lately because there’s just no money coming in for them. The promotion debuted in 1986 and just never got a television foothold established to ensure survival and cash flow.
  
• All Japan Women is limping along after the retirements of Dump Matsumoto and Yukari Omori, which has led to their ratings being cut in half. There are even rumors that Chigusa Nagayo may retire out of shame that the company’s business has fallen so far and that she hasn’t been able to keep ratings up.
  
• In other news about All Japan Women, some of the owners (the Matsunaga brothers, the last of whom died in February 2020), are trying to sell stock and divest themselves of a portion of the company. They thought bringing in the Jumping Bomb Angels as WWF tag champions would drum up interest, but they haven’t proven to be drawing and really what they are drawing is pretty much down to Chigusa Nagayo. So if Chigusa leaves, the whole company’s in major trouble. On June 8, the Jumping Bomb Angels defend the WWF women’s tag titles against the Glamour Girls, and spoiler alert - that’s going to be an unauthorized title change and kill the women’s tag division as a thing in WWF.
  
• [Stampede]: Steve Blackman’s nickname is Rambo. Just thought that was funny.
  
• Owen Hart wrestled his last match in Calgary for Stampede before going to his Japan tour. It was an absolutely wild brawl against Makhan Singh for the North American title. The finish had Hart thrown onto the floor and Singh’s manager Abdul Wizal started choking him with a chain, only for Hart to escape and tuck the chain in his trunks, which led to him using it to KO Singh and pin him. Then Vulcan Singh (Gary Allbright), dressed as Jason the Terrible, came and attacked Hart and told the referee to check Hart’s trunks, where he found the chain and reversed the decision.
  
• Jerry Lawler’s first defense of the AWA World title against Bill Dundee drew only 2,200 on May 16. Face vs. face and Lawler used a chain to win. Other matches included Robert Fuller beating Jeff Jarrett and Max Pain beating Curt Hennig by disqualification in a CWA title match.
  
• Dave got a chance to watch the tv from the week before the AWA World title change in Memphis and is amazed they didn’t sell out the show with the title change. They hyped the show great, but it’s clear Memphis is trending downward, and no amount of local news coverage or having the mayor on air begging people to come support Lawler seemed to get them there. All the local stations, bar one, covered the title change as just straight up news without even being tongue in cheek about it, and you never see that in tv news these days. When ESPN and CNN and ABC radio covered Wrestlemania, all of them were treating it like a joke. Memphis is really the last bastion of kayfabe, in a way.
  
• Visiting Memphis on the May 23 tv show and making his Rewind debut is Bob Holly. He’s teaming with Pat Rose in an AWA Tag title match, and they’re coming in from World Organization Wrestling in Pensacola. Nobody knows who Holly is, and nobody in the area remembers Rose, so they’re not going to be exciting anyone at the show.
  
• Missy Hyatt is gone from Memphis. There seems to be heat, but Dave’s not sure what the story is. Robert Fuller has twice stolen angles of Eddie Gilbert’s design for Continental and used them days later in Memphis, so that’s probably part of it. The planned Lawler vs. Gilbert AWA title defense set for May 29 has been canceled.
  
• Missy Hyatt is in Continental now as a tv announcer. Also newly added are Mr. Olympia and Willie B. Hurt. Willie is Pez Whatley doing a comedy gimmick where he tells the fans they know his real name and who he is and where he’s been, but now he’s Willie B. He’s a comedy gimmick who won his debut in a squash, though, so that’s different.
  

Watch: Willie B. Hurt

• Gone from Continental are Steve Armstrong and Robert Fuller, who both no-showed. Dutch Mantell also appears to be gone.
  
• In USA Wrestling, Terry Gordy and Wendell Cooley did a 20 minute draw on May 14. The match itself was so-so, but they brawled for another 20 minutes after the match and went all over the building, and that was great.
  
• They also did a big heart attack angle with Ron Wright in USA that was all taped for tv. It all came on the heels of a match where Mongolian Stomper wrestled the Bullet and if Bullet lost, he’d have to unmask. Well, Bullet lost, and under the mask was the Bullet! Yeah, he wore a mask under his mask.
  

Watch: The Bullet unmasks and causes a Ron Wright heart attack

• Word from Larry Sharpe’s Monster Factory are that Futahaguro’s training drills showed him to be really agile for a 350 lb guy. Word in Japan is that if he does go into pro wrestling he’ll go with All Japan over New Japan. Inoki doesn’t sign sumo wrestlers because TV-Asahi holds the purse, and they have a good relationship with the sumo world (they even have a weekly show called Sumo World). Bringing Futahaguro in would be highly disrespectful of New Japan, considering that he was banned from sumo, so yeah. Koji Kitao will not be likely to head to New Japan.
  
• Before he left for the U.S., Riki Choshu banned two major Japanese magazines from conducting interviews and taking photos of himself and the other wrestlers under his banner. That means Super Strong Machine, Hiroshi Hase, Kenta Kobayashi, and more. The magazines? Weekly Fight and Weekly Pro Wrestling. This seems to be in retaliation for positive and strong coverage of UWF, with Weekly Pro in particular getting strongly behind them and even saying things like NJPW doesn’t have top heavyweights and saying Choshu jumping back and forth between All Japan and New Japan has caused the recent hard times in the business in Japan. This got Choshu upset and he’s already hard to deal with at the best of times, but he really didn’t care for being told he’s past his prime or hurting the business. And yet… they kind of have a point.
  
• WWF also has press issues of late related to Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth. They’ve been trying to get Elizabeth and Savage featured in newspapers and on tv to get him over in the media as the face of WWF while Hogan’s gone. It has not gone well. The very first interview, which Dave believes was with a Boston paper, called Elizabeth an airhead, and all subsequent interviews have been canceled. While she may not be a great actress, Miss Elizabeth is definitely a character and Elizabeth Hulette Poffo is not an airhead, according to those who know her well.
  
• World Class now has a committee handling booking. You’ve got Bill Irwin, Eric Embry, Scandor Akbar, Michael Hayes, and Ken Mantell handling booking. Dave’s never seen booking by committee work in the past because you have too many cooks in the kitchen. Their three shows this past weekend drew under 400 fans each, so at least they’re trying something.
  
• Jerry Lawler is working on a deal to do AWA vs. WCCW title vs. title matches with Kerry Von Erich in Dallas, Memphis, and Kansas City. This is the beginning of the eventual formation of the USWA.
  
• Roddy Piper’s next two movies out in theaters have completely opposite word of mouth about them. Buy and Cell, according to someone who saw a preview showing, is absolutely terrible. They Live, however, is good and genuinely scary. If it does well, expect Piper to do more films with Carpenter. If it flops, he’s probably done as an actor.
  
• World Class has gone to the WWF school of crowd estimation. Mark Lowrance called the crowd at Texas Stadium “20,000 fans” while Kerry von Erich said “15,000.” The reality was they had 5,900 paid.
  
• Scott McGhee, who suffered a stroke in January and was thought would never wrestle again, may return to the ring. Dave got a report that he’s starting up or soon to be starting up in Florida. Unfortunately, it’s a false alarm. McGhee will have a match in 1989, but he’s done.
  
• There’s a lot of heat between Verne Gagne and the Rockers. So much so that Verne wants to put together a new team under the name the Midnight Rockers since he owns the trademark (that’s why they wrestle as the Midnight Rock & Rollers in Continental). What's with companies wanting to put knockoff guys in Kliq guys' gimmicks?
  
• Deep South wins the “lowest class act of the month” award. They have a segment with the reader mailbag, which Dave has always assumed was largely kayfabed. Well, some subscriber wrote a letter in and it was highly critical, particularly of the cheap shots they take at Joe Pedicino on tv. Well, they read the letter on the air. Only they changed all the content to make it highly complimentary to Deep South. So there you have it, they kayfabe the letters to make themselves look good. I feel like this is more Dave being offended on behalf of a subscriber than something shocking and truly low, though.
  
• Dale Gagner, who used to work for Eddie Sharkey in Minnesota, now books for Billy Haynes as booker in OWF. When he worked for Sharkey, his manager name was Diamond D. You might know him as the guy who tries to claim a relationship to Verne Gagne and use the AWA name in the late 90s (check the Feb. 22, 1999 and March 21, 1999 rewinds for more on that business). Dude’s a snake, and not in a fun Randy Orton or intimidating Jake the kind of way.
  
• One of Buddy Rose’s former “Playgirls” is now suing Hugh Heffner. Okay, so back in 1983 Buddy Rose was “Playboy” Buddy Rose and his valets were his “Playgirls.” Well, one of them was a model named Carrie Leigh, and she eventually moved in with Hugh Heffner and is suing him, which has made news lately. We’re never going to talk about this again, so here’s the brief: she’s suing for palimony (basically, they were not married, but she felt they had a relationship of marriage-level significance and then the same basic idea behind suing for alimony goes forward). She alleges Hugh told her he wanted to marry her, have kids with her, etc. and now that’s not happening and they’ve separated and she’s suing. And this won’t even get a settlement, but this was apparently a trendy kind of lawsuit in the 80s. They never worked.
  
• ITV in the UK will be dropping wrestling by the end of the year. It’s part of an effort to “polish up” their image. Wrestling audiences on ITV have fallen from over 7 million to 2.5 million in the past few years, and production costs for wrestling have been costing the station almost $2 annually, so time to cut costs. The big reasons for the drop off in ratings and interest is the death of Mal Kirk via heart attack in the ring and the public revelation that Big Daddy, whom Dave calls a 50 year old, 350 lb version of Dusty Rhodes, was really the promoter’s brother. Kirk’s heart attack happened right after Daddy splashed him, too. It’s also come out just how poorly promotions have been paying wrestlers in England. In short: Britwres has always been an absolute shitshow, and I’d say the only difference between then and now is how many nonces they have today, but they had Jimmy Saville back in the day so fuck it, Britwres is and always has been proper fucked.
  
• A couple weeks back Big Bubba Rogers debuted as the Big Boss Man on WWF “C” team shows. He’s still got the sunglasses, but he’s now being billed as a prison guard and squashing Jose Estrada. Until he’s facing bigger guys, he’s been told not to sell a thing. Expect him to debut on tv in mid-June.
  
• WWF managers are officially said not to be traveling except for tv nights. So now Fuji and Heenan will make the shows they’re supposed to wrestle on and Jimmy Hart, due to his gimmick, will show up to some of the shows in buildings he’s supposedly banned from. Slick and Humperdink will only be used on tv, and Humperdink may even be at risk of being let go. Elizabeth will be on all Randy’s shows due to her importance to his act.
  
• WWF is reviving the weasel suit angle for Heenan vs. Ultimate Warrior in Philadelphia next month. The weasel suit originates in Heenan's AWA days.
  

Watch: Bobby Heenan vs. Greg Gagne and the birth of the weasel suit

• Wrestlers in the NWA were due their big payments on May 1 and they still haven’t come in. Lots of disgruntled wrestlers, now. Also the Main Event show hasn’t resulted in any payments either beyond standard tv money, which is like $100, and those shows were put together to be bigger paydays for the guys in the neighborhood of a few thousand per show.
  
• Loads of NWA guys rumored to jump ship to WWF, but that’s always the case. Dave’s only heard three names from WWF people, and only one of them is an NWA guy (probably Sting, I’d guess).
  
• Dave’s not seen the whole schedule for the Bash tour, but NWA is about to start promoting it heavily. There’s going to be something like 19 scaffold matches and 15 War Games matches between June 26 and August 7. There will even be a triple tower of doom or two. FlaiLuger for the NWA title on July 10 is set to be the only NWA title match on the tour. They’ll be put in tag matches otherwise, including War Games matches.
  
• At an NWA show in Houston taped for the local market, Steve Williams apparently looked directly into the camera during his match and asked “How did you like that, Vince?” Not a clue what that’s about.
  
• Dave’s got complaints about NWA tv. They didn’t follow up on either main event angle from last weekend. Instead they did a bit where Kevin Sullivan kidnapped Precious for all of 90 seconds, because they had the Garvins find her under a table shortly after the kidnapping, at which point she shouted "You stay away from me, Jimmy Garvin." That's some fast-action brainwashing right there. They also did a Road Warriors vs. Powers of Pain match that had Hawk do a stretcher job, but they didn’t show it on tv and never followed up. They also haven’t announced a single match for the second Clash on tv yet. That’s only two and a half weeks away. Stop showing palm trees in your commercials and start advertising matches.
  
• Larry Young, an umpire for the American League, writes in to say he’s happy to have discovered a newsletter for smart wrestling fans. He talks a bit about pro wrestlers who had baseball careers. Mostly I bring him up because during the 1995 umpire lockout he winds up refereeing Undertaker vs. King Kong Bundy at Wrestlemania 11.
  
• More letter writers are big mad about the letter in the May 9 issue that thought Dave was off the mark about Clash vs. Wrestlemania. They're upset about the letter being insulting to Dave and disagreeing with them about what wrestling was good that night and honestly Dave doesn't need them to defend him.
  
• A letter asks about the whereabouts of a bunch of wrestlers from the old California promotion Big Time Wrestling. Dave gives an overview. It was run by Roy Shires from ~1961 through 1981 and occasionally did shows in Hawai’i, Samoa, and Nevada as well. It wound up folding because when their top talent got stale, they replaced them with cheaper talent and the fans could tell the difference in quality and stopped supporting them. When AWA started running in the area, they pretty much gave up. Dave says he always thought it was ironic Verne would complain about Vince’s business practices, when Verne did the same thing to Big Time Wrestling. Anyway, Dave goes and gives some updates on the wrestlers. Pepper Martin is an actor. Kinji Shibuya has been retired for a decade and lives in the Bay Area. Masa Saito is still a big star in Japan. Raul Mata trains wrestlers in Florida. Dutch Savage does color commentary for Don Owen in Portland. Paul DeMarco still occasionally wrestles independent cards. Lars Anderson hasn’t been heard from since he booked for Mrs. Maivia in Hawai’i two years back and it went poorly. No clue where Mephisto is. Lonnie Mayne died in a car accident about ten years back. No idea what became of Bobby Garrett and Jim Starr.
  

NEXT WEEK: Turner buying NWA news, WCCW and AWA to do title unification matches, Electronic Media Magazine story on wrestling, and more

As standard – apologies for the length! I’ve found it quite a cathartic experience, and I seem to have managed to merge elements of the reddit, US and UK R29 templates so please feel free to skip over any boring sections!
Background:
I’m British, working for a British Company in the US on a three-year posting (one year in). My salary is actually £33,000 but due to the increased cost of living here, I get an additional £10,000 allowance for living costs, and my rent/utilities are paid directly by my company. This puts my equivalent salary at $93,000.
I’m aware this is an incredibly fortunate position to be in, especially with COVID, however when I return to the UK, I will be paid my UK salary only, so this is a short-term benefit.
The company can split my pay between my UK and US accounts, and currently 95%ish of it is going to my UK account. This % split was only set up after lockdown as we are currently spending much less on travel/socialising here so are taking the opportunity to focus on building our UK savings. My husband, J, was fortunate enough to get local employment when he arrived in country. He earns an additional $46,000 net which we live on.
For ease/consistency, I have converted all costs at 1.3 as this is roughly the average conversion since I’ve lived here – I will write UK next to any cost/savings that are based in the UK.
Section One: Assets and Debt
J and I (now) combine all our finances, so except for my pension pot, and a small F* Off Fund (FoF - we have one each), everything else is split 50/50. This will likely change when we go back to the UK as we’ll have better access to our own bank accounts.
My personal Net Worth is $72,400
Retirement Balance
UK $104,000
I’ve contributed to work pension schemes since I started working full time age 18. This has been set at around 5% since I joined my current employer 7 years ago, and they contribute around 27%. I’m actually guaranteed £4,000 per year once I retire for as long as I live so have multiplied this by 20 on the assumption the retirement age actually stays at 68 and I make it to my late 80’s. This amount will increase over the years with inflation and as I contribute further to it. I can choose to retire earlier, plus take up to a 25% tax free lump sum on retirement, but that will affect the annual pay-out amount.
Equity
UK $52,000 equity, $157,300 left on the mortgage
J and I bought ($197,600) with just over a 10% ($20,000) deposit 3 years ago aged 24 and contributed half each. I managed to save this as I was living at home until we bought, and J got a help to buy loan through his previous workplace. He’s since cleared this.
Savings account balance
$29,700 made up of:
US $6,700 for fun money here (currently planned for another car – we’ll sell our existing one)
UK $6,500 in premium bonds as my FoF, $13,800 in our joint savings account to upsize when we get back to the UK, $2,600 in one of my side saving accounts as a potential future maternity pot. This is joint but kept in a separate account from the house savings.
Around $22,000 of this has been saved since the beginning of lockdown
Checking account balance
US $120 (+ $1,190 in checking, -$1,070 on AMEX). All our savings accounts are easy access, so we try to keep the balance as low as possible and tend to spend the full amount each month. [We end the week with this back up to $1,559]
UK $660
Credit card debt (and how you accumulated it)
0 – we use our AMEX for our everyday spending, so I’ve included it in our checking account as we usually pay it off each week and use it in place of our checking account. J had CC/loan debt in the UK from the house deposit and wedding which he cleared down before we moved out here.
Student loan debt (for what degree)
0 - neither of us went to University
Anything else that's applicable to you
We paid outright for a second-hand car that is worth around $6,000
Section Two: Income & Further Background
Income Progression:
I started at my current company 7 years ago working as a personal assistant and started on $24,000. I stayed in this role for 2.5 years before promoting into a finance role and onto $31,000. After a year I was temporarily promoted (with pay rise) within my team to a higher finance role and after a further 6 months was permanently promoted into the role and onto $35,750. There’s usually an annual pay rise of around 2%, which I’ve received between each promotion, but as this last promotion pay rise wasn’t as high as usual, my last few annual pay rises have been higher to bring me to my now salary of $43,290. I’ve spent the last three years at the same level, but have changed teams to gain more experience which will be needed for the next promotion which I’ll hopefully be able to get when I return to the UK – this will take me over the $50,000 mark.
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
UK – I get paid once a month, receiving $3,783 after tax, national insurance and pension contributions. This also includes the extra living allowance. $3,510 is paid into my UK account, $273 is paid into the US
US – J gets paid fortnightly, and earns a net salary of $3,546 per month (assuming 2 pay periods per month)
Any Other Monthly Income Here
UK - We receive around $598 per month from tenants in our house in the UK. The letting agents take all management and admin fees directly from the rent before we get paid. This amount can be less if any work needs doing on the property, but again the letting agent will pay directly and just transfer us a reduced amount. We also have to pay tax on any rent received and still need to pay last year’s bill, but we haven’t calculated it yet.
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?:
Not from family. My parents don’t have degrees, and whilst they supported my siblings going, it was our own personal choice. If we didn’t go, we were expected to work full time.
My school did expect me to go. I was in the last school year before UK University tuition went up, so the only advise they could give was to go now as you won’t be able to afford it in the future. I had a place to study events management but turned it down a week before the deadline. Bar sometimes feeling like I missed out on the University life experience (aka. freshers week), I have zero regrets not going.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
My siblings and I were always encouraged to save including contributing to pensions when we started working, and prioritise this and bills over spending our money, but conversations didn’t go much further than that.
What was your first job and why did you get it?:
Weekly paper round from age 12 to 16 which gave me $10 a week to pay for my phone credit and to build savings. I started working part-time in a supermarket from age 16 earning around $250 a month, but this was mainly spent shopping and in the pub!
Did you worry about money growing up?:
No – my parents operated on a “what we do for one, we do for all”, so with a house of five kids, we certainly weren’t living the life of luxury, but we never went without, and it encouraged me to earn some of my own money from an early age.
Do you worry about money now?:
No, J and I are in a really good position and try to make sensible decisions so that we can still cope if our circumstances change.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?:
Fully when I bought the house and moved out age 24, although I obviously gained the support from J. I’ve always had to use my own money for wants and non-essentials (phone bill, own laptop, “fun” clothes). I was given a few years grace on rent as my parents helped my siblings at Uni, but this stopped when I turned 21. I’ve always bought my own cars/insurance and would contribute to the household, including buying some food and replacing furniture in my room.
Our parents continue to support us anyway they can, which included letting J and I move back in rent free last year whilst we were replacing our kitchen.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?:
My dad saved around $1,200 from when I was a child which I received aged 18 – this went into savings and then towards my first car and laser eye surgery.
My brothers and I also received $1,950 each from a great aunt when she died, which was a complete surprise (the will was contested so this was several years later). Our much younger half-brother didn’t receive anything, so we split this equally with him. The money left went towards mine and J’s wedding and we also received around $5000 additional from various family members towards our wedding and honeymoon. This was also not expected, and we budgeted not to receive anything, but this was a bonus and it relieved some of the pressure on us to save.
Section Three: Expenses
UK – I auto-transfer $1,170 across various accounts to pay for our UK bills. J & I both kept some bills in our own names to try to maintain our individual UK credit scores as well as our joint one. J’s parents are also looking after our two cats whilst we’re in the US, so we transfer them some money. We’ve discovered our UK entertainment subscriptions work over here so we haven’t cancelled them and pay them from the UK accounts, which is a benefit as they’re usually cheaper.
$910 to our joint account to cover – Mortgage ($986 – includes $130 monthly overpayment), Landlord Insurance ($32), Pet Insurance ($45), our life insurance ($22 – it pains me that the cats cost twice as much as we do. Obviously, they don’t have the NHS covering their medical costs, but they also don’t have a mortgage to pay off….), J’s UK phone bill ($35) – he’s still tied into his contract. The rent income comes into this account so that covers any delta and builds a pot to pay the tax bill. It works out at around $388 per month saved for this. We also pay around ($150) annually to cover IT costs including Microsoft office, McAfee Security and Dropbox storage.
$143 to my bills account to cover – my UK phone bill ($23), a second UK phone bill that I need to cancel as they wouldn’t transfer my existing number to them ($6), Trade Union membership ($19), Netflix ($12), Annual magazine subscription ($19). Any money left over for is for UK online orders and so we have money available when we visit home.
$65 to J’s account to cover – Amazon Prime ($10), Spotify ($20), Audible ($15) and annual Xbox Live ($50)
$52 to J’s parents for the cats.
UK Savings – we have $2,340 to split across the savings. The split varies each month, but as I’ve hit my FoF goal the focus will be on getting J’s to the goal amount and then joint savings.
US – TV, WiFi and Hulu ($131), Phone Bills ($167), Car Insurance ($110), Naked Wines ($40), HelloFresh ($523), Annual Renters Insurance ($152). We currently get Disney+ free with our phones, but this will end soon, and I expect we’ll start paying for it as well.
US Savings – I usually transfer between $500-$1,000 into savings when J gets paid but will vary this based on how much we have left in the checking account from his last pay and what bills are due. We’ll also raid this as needed for big purchases or if we’re running low in on cash in the checking account.
​
Day 1 – Saturday
0900 – I’ve been waking up on and off for a few hours, but the alarm has gone off, so I drag myself out of bed. J and I are booked into a second-hand book sale from between 11 and 12 so we need to actually get out of the house this morning. I tidy up a bit, have a shower and miss a call from my mum whilst I’m in there. I check J is up before calling her back and have a good catch up with her and my Nan.
1115 – We’re a little later than planned, but we make it to the sale. I picked the second slot so that there would still be a good selection of books available and am pleasantly surprised by the amount and overall COVID set up. We spend almost an hour browsing and come away with 15 books between us. $60.01
1210 – We left the apartment without eating breakfast, but there’s a restaurant open next to the sale that we haven’t tried before so we pop in and have a burger each. Discover there’s a cocktail bar underneath and make note to head back and try that soon. $41.92
1600 – J has spent the afternoon building Ikea furniture we bought last week and hiding in the bedroom watching YouTube videos whilst I clean, watch The Haunting of Hill House and drink copious amounts of tea. We bought our car in a bit of a rush when we arrived and to replace his Rightmove house obsession, J spends a lot of his time looking at cars available here. Last week he found an American muscle car that looks in good shape and isn’t extortionate, so in his argument to “buy American, eat American, drive American” whilst we’re here, he’s arranged a visit check it out and test drive it. We’re meant to be there at half past, but we had the wrong address and there’s been an accident so it’s actually an hour’s drive, and we don’t get there until 1715 - Oops. I do not want to like the car, but I’m honestly sold – I knew our current car wasn’t the best, and planned to cope with it for the three years, but this is such an improvement and feels like a fun car to drive on road trips. We arrange to come back next week to buy the car and head back home. Thankfully, the traffic has cleared so it only takes 40mins. We while away the journey by listening to an episode of My Dad Wrote a Porno.
1830 – We stop by Giant to pick up some essentials (loo roll, seltzer, beer, milk) and food for the rest of the weekend. $103.25. I cook pork chops, roast potatoes, asparagus and gravy for dinner, and we spend the evening chilling in front of Netflix with wine before heading to bed at midnight.
Daily total: $205.18
Day 2 – Sunday
0830 – I wake up and sneak out of bed without disturbing J, make myself a cup of tea and settle down to finish off The Haunting of Hill House. J hates scary shows/films, so I try to watch things before he’s up, but he still needs to be in the house otherwise my imagination will go wild. The show finishes and I hear no sign of movement, so I make another cup of tea and discover The Princess Diaries 2 is on freeform so obviously I watch this.
1100 – J gets up and makes us scrambled eggs and smoked salmon for brunch. There was meant to be a bread roll with this, but according to J it had gone off. Silently complain that I didn’t pick up some bagels whilst we were shopping last night. We stick The Office on in the background and binge far too much of it whilst I multitask and convert our savings/bills spreadsheet into $ for the intro to this.
1630 – I had grand plans to spend the day cleaning and assumed J’s mum would do her weekly skype call with us at 3, neither of which has happened, and I only realise this now. I suggest we message some friends to see if they fancy an afternoon pick-me-up, but they are hanging from last night, and I remember I’m doing interviews in the morning so probably not the smartest move. I have a shower, wash and sort my hair out to save time in the morning.
1800 – I get an email reminding me that I have items in my basket on an online order and that they’ve given me 15% off. Seems rude not complete it – J has a quick browse to see if there’s anything he likes but nothing takes his fancy. So it’s just non-wired bras for me and a very cute bee print quilt set. It’s a UK based store so I pay using my UK bank account. $123
1900 – J cooks dinner tonight, a HelloFresh recipe for firecracker meatballs with rice. We stick The Office on in the background, finish the rest of last nights wine and the entire series, getting to bed at half 11.
Daily total: $123
Day 3 – Monday
0630 – Alarm goes off. Ugh. It disturbs J, so I apologise for waking him, hit snooze and repeat 5 minutes later. Rather than getting straight up, I waste half an hour browsing Facebook before washing and getting ready. As an attempt to look semi presentable, I put actual work clothes on, straighten my hair and put on some mascara and powder.
0755 – I make it onto the laptop and do some prep before the interviews. Checking my emails, I spot that I’ve been paid my US pay today. The annual pay rise has come through and there’s a small backdate from last months pay, so I have an additional $127 this month. I clear a few more emails and make a cup of tea before starting the interviews.
1215 – Interviews are done, and as a panel we have discussed and come to a decision. We all need to type up our outcomes for HR, but I take a lunch break before my brain melts. J heats up leftover meatballs and rice from last night and we watch an episode of The Good Place whilst we eat. J’s heading into the office this afternoon so I tidy up, stick the dishwasher on and faff about on reddit before getting back to work at 1. Go straight back into a call with my Line Manager to touch base before he goes on leave – he lets me know he put me forward (and I have been approved) for a bonus for my efforts since joining last year, and the added COVID response. I’m touched and proceed to spend a while mentally spending it. I’m debating between a pair of Louboutin’s and a spin bike…. Slightly different ends of the spectrum I know. Keen to hear any inspiration! It should be around $1000 after tax so reasonably substantial.
1630 – J comes home and attempts to get in, but I appear to have locked him out. I get up, open the door and see that he comes baring this week’s HelloFresh box, which is a relief as I hadn’t seen any delivery emails (we had a few go missing in our apartment block when we started). I have a small break to see how his afternoon has been and reply to some messages with friends about possible Halloween costumes for a small gathering we’re going to. We jokingly consider a group The Office effort, which results in numerous gifs being shared. In a moment of inspiration, J passes me his shirt, tie and blazer to put on… turns out I’m a pretty convincing Sexy Toby. I get changed back into my own clothes and head back to work for a bit.
1930 – J finished work earlier so cooked again. Tonight’s is a HF spicy shrimp pasta. It’s a bit disappointing even with him adding extras from the cupboard. We eat and watch the Umbrella Academy before heading to bed at 11.
Daily total: $0
Day 4 – Tuesday
0730 – alarm goes off, get up, washed, dressed. No interviews today so back to COVID home working uniform of no make-up and trackies. Make a cup of tea and am at my desk for 0830 – in and out of meetings until 10 and spend the rest of the morning trying to catch up on my inbox. J’s headed into the office, so I take the opportunity to listen to the Hamilton soundtrack as I work. Get through the first track before admitting defeat that despite my amazing multitasking skills, I can’t actually sing along and type coherent emails. Settle for the LOTR soundtrack instead.
1215 – make it to lunch and reheat last night’s leftovers (we order HelloFresh for four people for the leftovers, as before we were just ordering in lunch every day). Realise I haven’t physically left the flat for longer than I care to admit, so take my lunch onto the balcony and eat it whilst reading through a money diary on reddit. Remember I have a meeting at 1, so sign back in ten mins before and read through the emails in a vague attempt to sound prepared.
J buys himself and his boss lunch in the office, but his boss will pay him back so $12.17
1900 – long afternoon, managed to start nothing on my actual to-do-list, so feel like I haven’t achieved anything. Yay. J got home half an hour ago (I didn’t lock him out today!) and switched the oven on as he walked past, so I take the opportunity to get up and cook once it’s done preheating. Pork tenderloin with coleslaw and mash tonight. It comes with a cherry jam sauce which I’m not the biggest fan of, so I make it into a fruity gravy. It takes longer to cook than I planned, and I can feel myself getting more and more annoyed with everything from a general mix of feeling stressed and hangry. J sticks toy story 4 on as we eat which doesn’t help my mood (as let’s face it, it’s the worst one). Our friends message asking if we’re watching the debates – J had planned to but had forgotten so quickly changes over to watch it. I have no words.
We make plans to watch the next debate in a group with alcohol, debate bingo and the next day booked off work to recover.
Head to bed at 1120 – still waste time on Facebook despite being shattered.
Daily total: $12.17
Day 5 – Wednesday
0830 – Alarm goes off. I didn’t get to sleep up until 12.30 and J disturbed me at 1.30 when he came to bed so extra sleep was needed. I check my phone, message my stepsister a happy birthday and stick on my dressing gown to make sure I’m online for my 9am meeting. Thankfully, no one has an update, so the meeting is cancelled, and I have time to shower and put clothes on before I properly start work.
1230 – Lunchtime. I have the remaining shrimp pasta and J makes a BBQ chicken sandwich with other leftovers in the fridge and we stick on another episode of The Good Place whilst we eat. We finish up, work for an hour and then drive into the office. J needs to stay in for a while, but I’m only in to sign a cheque so I take the opportunity to walk back home. It’s a glorious sunny day, but with a nice breeze so it’s an enjoyable walk until I’m almost back at the flat and have to walk up a hill and then 5 flights of stairs. It’s a fast reminder of just how unfit I am, and I have to have a quick lie down to recovecool down before getting back to work.
1730 – J and I have plans to meet up with our friends K and J(.2) tonight. In an act of attempting to keep some form of sanity, J and J.2 are heading out to a bar for a “Gentleman’s Club” and I’m heading round to K & J.2’s flat for wine and chick flicks. J gets home from work, kisses me hi and bye and heads straight back out. K’s getting her hair cut, so I continue working until half 6 before walking up to her apartment. I make a pit stop on route to pick up a bottle of white wine as she’s running low. The card machines are down so it’s cash only – I have a mild panic, but thankfully I find some notes in my purse - although I’m pretty sure I withdrew them pre-lockdown! $17
0200 – After a night of homemade mac’n’cheese, wine, films and putting the world to rights, I get ready to head home just as J.2 stumbles back into the flat. It’s lovely to see him, but the state he’s in makes me a bit concerned about what J is going to be like when I get home. Thankfully, when I make it back and he’s already curled up on his own side of the bed, passed out and lightly snoring away. I take off my makeup, do my teeth, get into bed and fall straight asleep.
*I’ve checked the banking app and J spent $50.50 on food and drink. The “club” made their way to our apartment around 9pm and worked their way through our booze which explains the low spend but high drunkenness.
Daily total: $67.50
Day 6 – Thursday
0700 – J’s alarm goes off. He rarely sets alarms and has an amazing ability to sleep though them, so I kick him awake to switch it off. He hits snooze rather than switching it off, so I wake up again 5mins later. Ugh. He actually manages to switch it off the second time.
0830 – My alarm goes off. I’m tired and thirsty, but other than that feeling pretty ok. J is not and I leave him snoozing in bed as I start work. It’s a slow morning (thankfully) and I periodically check on J to see if he’s feeling any better. General consensus is no. The leftovers in the house are not hangover friendly so we put in an order with Panera Bread. $32.25. J has a choose two, but I brought home some mac’n’cheese from last night so just order some crisps and a smoothie to go with it. It takes longer than expected to arrive, but it means a 1230 lunch in front of The Good Place. We finish and go back to work, J heads into the office again.
1400 – I’ve struggled to get back into the swing of things, and as there haven’t been too many emails coming in I take the opportunity to have a break and lie down on the bed (I work flexi hours and have a very high balance so this is done guilt-free). This lie down turns into an hour-long nap and I wake up feeling better, but still while away some time on reddit before deciding to make it back to work at 4.
1920 – J messaged to say he’s on his way back and I’ve already heated the oven, so I finish for the night and start making dinner. Tonight’s HF menu is a creamy lemon butter chicken with courgette and giant couscous. It’s reasonably simple to make, but one of our favourites. I multitask and clean down the kitchen as I go.
2000 – Dinner is eaten, J has made us a cup of tea and we’re settled back into The Good Place. Yesterday was payday into my UK account so I log into the internet banking and transfer to the savings accounts (the bill transfers are set up to auto-transfer on the 1st). $1,170 to J’s savings so he’s now at his FoF goal, $650 to the maternity pot, and $780 to the joint savings. The annual renter’s insurance has also come out of our US checking account today, but that’s counted in the expenses. We both head to bed at 11.
Daily total: $32.25
Day 7 – Friday
0730 – J’s alarm goes off, he’s heading back into the office this morning so it’s valid today and we both actually wake up for it. We both chill on our phones until my alarm goes off at 0830. Up, washed, dressed and on the laptop in time for my 9am meeting. I’m closing off last months accounts and updating forecasts so get stuck into multiple spreadsheets.
1440 – I’d gotten into a good rhythm with the updates, and without J here, I hadn’t realised the time, so I only stop now for lunch. It’s last nights leftovers so couscous and chicken, plus an apple left over from J’s Panera order yesterday. J didn’t take anything in so has stopped by Safeway $14.13 and the work café $9.48. I get the figures from the banking app and realise J has been paid – win. I have an hour break and head back online.
2020 – I’ve been in the swing of things today. It’s a long winded, but simple task so I’ve had Greys Anatomy on in the background as I work. I’d normally have left some of it until Monday, but I have a few urgent requests in today that need the updated figures so it made sense to get it all cleared – it’s also quite therapeutic so feels like a nice way to end the week . J and I have plans to see friends tomorrow, so I don’t feel too bad about not having plans for a Friday night and working for most of it instead. Still, we make the most of it being payday and order in some Steak Frites for dinner and I treat myself to a chocolate cake slice as well. $80.25. We spend the rest of the evening relaxing, finish watching The Good Place (a very emotional finale) and make it into bed for half 11.
Daily total: $103.86
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Total Expenditure: $543.96
Food & Drink: $257.70
Groceries: $103.25
Clothes/Home: $123.00
Other: $60.01
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Lastly, reflect on your diary!
This is a pretty average week for us during COVID. We usually go out drinking over every other weekend, but that extra spending would balance out with the home/other expenditure as I try to make sure we spread our spending out. The AMEX balance is a bit higher than the usual weekly amount as J and I both ordered a trunk club a few weeks and kept a few of the clothes but the system errored which delayed us processing our returns (and them billing us). As we’ll looking to buy the car soon, it also feels like a better decision to leave the balance on the card and keep more cash available – I’m not concerned as we’re only just into the new credit statement period and J’s will get an extra pay period this month which will clear it.
Pre-COVID, this is actually lower than our weekly spend, as we also had most of my salary coming into the US account as well and were spending most of it socialising, travelling and just enjoying living in a city. If we had to, we could cut our costs and save a lot more, but we’re here to enjoy ourselves and so long as we can eat and pay the mortgage, we’re happy. We’ve also already reached our total savings goal for our time out here, so anything extra is a bonus.