- Jul: $2,450
- Aug: $2,100
- Sep: $1,990
- Oct: $2,100
- Nov: $1,400
- Dec: $2,100
Let’s dig a little. July was a hot mess of transportation, where I went 250% over. The category would have been fine except I rented a car that month to drive from New York to Ocean City, Maryland. That $350 pushed me over the July budget but disregarding the rental, I would have been fine.
For August, September, and October, I was only $280 total over budget, which is just remarkable! But, one major caveat: My budget was $1k a month up until June, when I stopped paying rent. So from July until October, I just basically doubled my budget numbers and upped myself to $2k a month. That meant that August, September, and October were all close to on target, with September even magically coming in at a sterling 99.7% of my budget. (I’m pretty sure I made that happen by avoiding doing anything for the last day or two, so that I could come under at least once in 2014. Go me.)
If I wasn’t paying rent for the summer, then where the hell was I living? Well, here’s the answer: With friends! I went back to my traveling ways and spent most of July meandering my way from New York to San Francisco. Upon arrival in the Bay, I spent the better part of August in my friend’s guest bedroom. Not a bad gig if you can swing it. Was I smooging off my friends (and family)? Of course I was. Thank you friends and family, for opening your homes to me. I look forward to repaying you, but most likely not in monetary form. Do you take goodwill?
I returned to San Diego in September and then promptly left on a ten day trip to Taiwan. The flight was financed by my friend ($1,400 value), and we crashed at our mom’s apartment/hostel for bad sons (infinite value). The total cost of that Taiwan trip was $450, as my friend and I tried to figure out why everything in Taiwan was so damn cheap.My biggest expenses during that week was the cab from the airport, a roundtrip High Speed Rail ticket to Taichung, and a pair of pants and Chucks I bought for $50 apiece. Everything was just super cheap, which I’ll get into later. Wait, why delay, let's talk about my favorite subject, Taiwan, right now!
In October, after a swing through New York for a wedding, I moved to Taiwan permanently mid-month. That added a new column to my expenses, which was basically converting everything x30 for Taiwan dollars (NT$). Those first fifteen days as a Taipei resident affected my budget immediately in the food department, as for once I was way under in that category. Like waaaay under. It’s a magical place, this Ilha Formosa.
Unfortunately, my shopping went to 415% in October due to well, shopping. Things bought that month: $60 for two more white T-shirts from American Apparel (an important post about these tees coming soon), $140 for some books and another best portable Bluetooth speaker, $50 for one pair of black Chucks, and $180 for two jackets from Brooklyn Industries. The last two items were bought on a whim as I was sending my friend away on a taxi to the airport and just wandered into the Soho store because a bag caught my eye. Big mistake since I really shouldn’t have been spending any money on shopping at that point, but there was the perfect jean jacket I’d been looking for all year, plus this cowl front (women’s) jacket I just had to have. I justified the purchase by saying that I needed more outerwear for Taiwan's mild winters. American Giant hoodie, meet jean jacket and cowl front super awesomeness. Let's layer.
In November and December, I was in Taiwan full time, so the budget dialed back down, as I was paying rent again -- this time to Mom and she was charging me about $200 less than what I paid in NYC. In theory, I could’ve found a place for maybe half that, but my mom’s apartment is in a prime location and well, super nice. So, I was getting a deal. Even though my mom was not super delighted to have me living there. “But Mom, we have an empty apartment just sitting there!” didn’t go far. Neither did "And Jack Kerouac lived with his mother until he was thirty-six!" So yeah, $800 rent.
Somehow, despite living in a city full of cheap eats, my “dining out” category ended up being $500-600 a month again for some reason. That's about what I spent in San Diego during the early part of 2014. Of course, that amount in Taiwan represents eating out basically every meal. So that’s okay I guess. And of the meals that were pricey -- by Taiwan standards, which I’m marking off at $20+ -- it was basically all foreign stuff. Two American style diners, two Korean places, a Japanese hot pot, a brunch spot, and an Italian place. So basically I could bring my food expenses down to within budget range by just eating Chinese all day. Noodles, noodles, noodles!
Oh I guess my December numbers were a bit skewed by being home for ten days for the Wedding of the Millenium. Budget Club had its first members’ wedding as Georgemeer got hitched in late December. And I did the ceremony, for free! Of course, I also have given them nothing yet for their big day. No contribution to their honeymoon registry, no envelope of any color (much less red), no sentimental item, nothing old, nothing new, nothing borrowed, and they purchased my blue Topman suit for me so really, let’s just call it even?
I’m gonna deep dive into Taiwan for a minute, because I think some people might be curious about the cost of living here. You can also check out this informative blog post I found at Thousandth Girl about the cost of living in Taipei.For me, November and December worked out to this: $20 a month for subways, $180 per month for taxis (25 rides at $7 average), and $1,300 total used in variable expenses. About the same as when I’m in San Diego actually. The difference is, when I’m hibernating back home, I don’t really do anything. Here, I was doing everything.
Until Chinese school started in December, I was basically running around all day long. For about $150 a month I went out a lot, hit up lots of random art shows, sang a few times, paid for Sunday basketball gym fees, did a hot springs trip, went to Kaoshiung twice, saw a Hello Kitty exhibit (twice!), and threw in an outdoor music festival, an escape the room event, and had monthly wine meetings at church.
Oh yeah, let’s talk about drinking. I went out a lot but still don’t drink too much. And the place I mostly frequent has no cover, although all the bigger spots to go dancing have about a $25 cover for guys. Anyway, a typical drink might cost $7-8 if you’re going regular stuff, and that’s about all I do. No fancy cocktails for this lush. A Heineken at my most frequented bar is NT$250, roughly $9, which is expensive for here. And back home too I guess. My total drinking bill for about fifteen nights out was about $250. Not bad I guess, in the big scheme of things.
I do have to say that in the coming year, I’m gonna stop saying “I don’t drink” because clearly I do. My drinking bill for 2014 came out to a shocking $1,100. What’s funny is that from January through May, I was at $80 total for drinking. And then June and July spiked up to $200 and $300 respectively, coinciding with the months when I was on the go and hanging out with, you know, humans. (Strangely my drinking bill for August was very low, which probably means everyone just paid for my drinks. Thanks everyone, I’ll get you back, I promise.) Anyway, I am now a $125 a month drinker. Call me an alcoholic.
The biggest “play” expense that stays about the same here is movies, which still cost about $10-15 a ticket. Everything else is cheaper. For example, Internet prices are a joke. A year’s worth of home wifi costs the same as a month back home. And for $25 a month you can get a disposable SIM for your smartphone with unlimited 3G Internet -- but very little minutes or texts. You don’t really need to text or call much so that’s like all you’re paying anyway.
To wrap up 2014, I was only 126% over budget this year! Spectacular, right? Especially when I was at 138% in 2013. Plus, my actual expenditures were much less. The huge overage wasn’t in food anymore, but shopping, vacation, and transportation.
- Shopping: 185%
- Transportation: 145%
- Play: 115%
- Food: 110%
- Misc: 25%
- Vacation: 950%
And now, using our semi-new “tags report" feature, a brilliant addition by AMR for 2014, we can see exactly where my variable expenses went in sum, as expressed in percentages.
- Dining Out: 25%
- Travel: 18%
- Shopping: 11%
- Taxis: 7%
- Play / Snacks: 5%
- Drinking / Gas: 4%
- Online / Movies / Misc: 3%
- Car / Grocery / Household / Public Trans / Beauty: 2%
You should see my array of hair stuff now. It’s not just the three step hair dry and product use. There’s brushes, combs, plastic hair bands, elastic hair bands, hats for days you don’t want to do your hair, and most importantly, the hair dryer. Last year, my friend with always great hair asked for (and received) a $400 hairdryer for his birthday. I didn’t get it at the time. But now I do, I totally get it. The hair dryer is so key. And hair spray, my goodness, where was I in the Eighties when this stuff was all over the place?! Hairspray I love you.
I can't wait to shave my head.
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