So it took me a couple years since the first concert I attended with just my two youngest siblings and me to finally calculate how much I spend on average on our concert trips. The concerts we like to go to almost never if ever come locally to us, so we have had to travel a minimum of eight hours to get to them, but now, I like it that way. I don't know that I ever want to do a local concert again. The hours of driving and either listening to music or talking with them is awesome. Having to take three to four days off work is more than worth it, but I digress. While those concerts are the main driving factor behind this post, they are not the point of the post.
The point of the post is that I was trying to save $2300 for the two concerts and a new phone to take even better pictures and videos during the concerts and for Rome's graduation which is going to be in a small football stadium but still big enough to need to zoom in to get good pictures of him, so I want an iPhone with the best zoom quality possible--therefore, as of writing this post, an iPhone 15 Pro Max. I needed to get a new phone for at least $100 anyway because my screen cracked, which I thought didn't matter and I could live with for a while anyway but I learned the hard way that a) the glass can come out when it chips and can lodge into your work pants and stab you repeatedly throughout your shift and b) your Face ID stops working, and there are some settings on your phone that are ONLY accessible with Face ID, and apparently the screws that allow my screen to be repaired (which would have been free with the TWO forms of phone insurance for which I pay because I am destructive and refuse to slow down and be careful with my electronics--costs me less than $40/month so it's worth it to me) were stripped according to Best Buy/Geek Squad and therefore made repairing my screen impossible and my only option to replace the entire device, $100 minimum, even with the $40/month of phone insurance. SO I spent the $100 extra (in store versus $200 extra online for the iPhone 15 Pro not max with half the storage space) to upgrade my phone. Idgaf about interest and payment plans. It's more than worth it to me so far. I've been paying for my phone that way since I've started paying my own phone bill, so I don't know any different, and I don't think I'll ever switch from an iPhone, AND my most important feature in an iPhone is the camera quality, so I will always do a lot to get the very tippy top iPhone tyvm.
Sooooooo $2300. $300 for the phone, $2000 to have $1000 for each concert because added a little cushion to the average from each concert to make it a nice even number but also be on the safe side and hopefully have extra. So I had calculated and was well on my way to having at least $2100 saved "for sure" AKA with budgeting conservatively. Well, the first concert is about two weeks away, and as of the beginning of this weekend, I had $700, but I spent too much money on food and the money I had budgeted in our joint account for bills disappeared and the money I started moving ahead of time for my $600 portion of a big bill is GONE. Because I didn't realize when another couple big bills were coming out. Thankfully, one of those big bills will NOT be repeating for long and the other was a yearly, but neither helps me (at least not directly/obviously) for these concerts because the concerts are before the next time the bills come out anyway...whatever. At least them not coming out again means I'll have more to pay Aaron back with if I end up having to use his money to make ends meet between these concerts and our bills and living in general.
BUT instead of it feeling pointless to have had the savings because it's all gone now, normally, I'd have spent that $700 so fast and I wouldn't have had the cushion for the unexpected timing of the bills I knew were coming out versus buying takeout because I didn't want to cook. So yes, it's gone, but I somehow made it last SO much longer than usual. One way or another, it will work out, even if I borrow $1000+ from Aaron and pay him back over the next few months. God, I have no kids yet. It feels like this being tight for money will never end. And yeah, I can stop going to two concerts by one artist in the same month and stop eating takeout but those are my splurges. Y'all dye y'all hair and pay $100's on beauty products. I've got takeout and road trips. If I die in a month (Yes, I'll have made it to both my concerts.), I'll have enjoyed my last month of life and my siblings will have even more fun memories with me. If I do what I'm supposed to, what would it have been for? Nothing because I'm dead!!!! And I have a hefty life insurance policy, so you can't even come at me with the cost of end of life and resolving debt and funeral expenses, etc. Those are all more than covered by my life insurance policy. It would literally have been for nothing. That's not to say I'm going to blow ALL my money because who gives a fuck but to say a month of big irresponsible expenses for fun is not the end of the world or unrecoverable. Believe it or not, I'm saying all of this more for me than for anyone else, but if you can take anything from it, please, do.
Next post: How I didn't think I could ever even half-ass give up soda yet here I am (will hyperlink when available)
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