ENTRY 02 ·
First purchases: prices, orders and packages
Our first financial snapshot: what is quoted, what has a payment receipt, and which packages are already on their way.
We are opening the ledger with one rule: a list or a cart is not proof that money has been spent. We reviewed Amazon orders and available purchase emails to separate quotes, verified payments and shipments.
This post preserves the state on October 26, 2026. The purchase record and shipment page will be updated as new evidence arrives. Purchases are paused while we organize this publication.
The numbers, with their meanings intact
| Category | USD | What it represents |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment quoted, including allowance | $2,885.87 | $2,385.87 across 74 equipment lines + $500.00 equipment allowance; tax and shipping excluded |
| Five Amazon orders | $1,524.35 | Order totals including tax and extras; payment is unresolved on three orders |
| FramingTech, verified payment | $300.66 | $179.15 in parts and $121.51 in provisional shipping |
| Domain, verified payment | $4.19 | First year of livinginacat.world |
| Payments verified in the reviewed receipts | $304.85 | A partial subtotal: FramingTech and domain, not all project spending |
These rows overlap: do not add them together. We have not reconciled bank statements or final Amazon charges. There is also no verified total of contributions received, so the site does not invent an available balance.
Taxes and others
Two items were added outside the original robot list. At the project owner’s request, the category is called “Taxes and others”. Its breakdown is $320.94 in added items + $99.74 in Amazon tax = $420.68. Both components are already included in the Amazon orders and are not added again to the $1,524.35 total. This is a classification subtotal; we do not invent a discount allocation between categories.
Equipment allowance
Estimate adjustment · October 26, 2026: the project owner added a $500.00 unallocated equipment allowance. Listed item prices and vendor subtotals remain $2,385.87; the total equipment estimate is $2,885.87. The allowance is not a vendor quote, order, expense or payment.
Amazon: five orders, different states
| Public reference | Order total | Verified status |
|---|---|---|
| AMZ-01 | $22.10 | Shipped; assembly file package |
| AMZ-02 | $158.40 | Payment review needed |
| AMZ-03 | $125.36 | Payment review needed |
| AMZ-04 | $565.89 | Payment review needed |
| AMZ-05 | $652.60 | Shipped; phone package |
Together: $1,427.52 in items, $2.91 in discounts and $99.74 in tax. Two standard-shipping charges are offset by credits of equal value. The result is $1,524.35.
AMZ references are aliases created for the blog, not the actual order numbers. This review corrects the earlier “Amazon purchased” label: the orders exist, but three need attention before progressing. We have not changed a payment method or repeated any purchase.
Amazon shows two FedEx packages. Estimated arrival is October 27 for the phone package and October 29 for the file package. These are estimates from the tracking pages, not confirmed deliveries. Bank-charge verification remains separate from logistics status.
FramingTech: payment confirmed, shipping provisional
The vendor’s email confirms $300.66 paid. Its order confirmation lists seven equipment lines totaling $179.15, plus $121.51 in shipping and no recorded tax. Quantities match the selected profiles, kits and nuts.
Stock is allocated and the order has been released to production. Planned dispatch is October 28, 2026, with UPS Ground listed as the shipping method. There is no dispatch notice or tracking number yet.
The document warns that shipping may be adjusted after packing and weighing. We therefore record the $121.51 as a provisional charge already paid, with a possible additional amount due before dispatch. If it changes, we will publish the difference and the evidence used to verify it.
The remaining equipment
The item quote is distributed as follows:
| Store | Equipment quoted | Initial status |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon | $1,106.58 | Original equipment distributed across orders that also contain extras |
| Bambu Lab | $899.00 | Deferred; announced promotion to review |
| FramingTech | $179.15 | Order and payment confirmed; shipping separate |
| VXB | $60.95 | Deferred after a checkout problem |
| DigiKey | $77.36 | Consolidated cart prepared; no confirmed payment |
| BoltDepot | $8.22 | Cart prepared |
| MakerStore | $4.80 | Shipping requires confirmation |
| Walmart | $29.83 | Cart prepared |
| PhotonLight | $9.99 | Cart prepared |
| West3D | $9.99 | Cart prepared |
DigiKey now consolidates several electrical components, including the Adafruit items we initially planned to buy directly. Adafruit rejected the delivery address under its mailbox/forwarder policy. A welcome email is not an order confirmation: we have not recorded an Adafruit payment.
A prepared cart remains a quote until there is an order and confirmation. Prices may change; a checkout showing different charges will need to be documented rather than forced into this table’s figures.
The cost of publishing
GoDaddy confirms $4.19 for the domain’s first year. The receipt announces automatic renewal on October 26, 2027 at $71.99, before possible charges. We record this as an announced future cost, not money spent now. Pricing may change.
The blog is published as a static GitHub Pages site, with its source in the public repository. No paid hosting subscription is confirmed in these accounts.
How the record will continue
When packages arrive, we will compare items, quantities and physical condition with the order. The ledger will distinguish estimated dates from receipt dates and record problems, substitutions or returns if they occur. Data can be downloaded as CSV, JSON and Markdown.
Original emails and invoices stay private because they contain personal information. The site publishes amounts, source types and relevant status. GitHub history will preserve corrections and show how the information changed.
The next material milestone is resolving orders that are not progressing and receiving the parts. The next technical milestone is printing fit coupons and proving the fit with real components. Both will be documented here.