Once again, we're going back a ways -- I'm writing my catch up posts in Feb 2024, haha. So last year was half San Diego, half Mexico City, but for all of 2021, I was in San Diego full time, with a newish relationship underway and the pandemic still kind of raging.
In February, I took a short trip up to Oakland, drove down the coast, and then settled into domestic life with a few pseudo-roommates as quarantine house continued. The early months were full of people and games, and then summer quieted down as people went away and I was even solo for a month or two. By fall, it was safe to travel again, and there were trips to Catalina Island, Hawaii, and then Utah. Let's start as usual with the month-by-month breakdown!
- Jan: $3,750
- Feb: $2,750
- Mar: $4,500
- Apr: $3,250
- May: $5,500
- Jun: $2,750
- Jul: $1,750
- Aug: $3,250
- Sep: $4,000
- Oct: $3,500
- Nov: $4,750
- Dec: $4,000
I averaged $3,500 variable expenses a month, with May spiking into $5,500 territory—it must have been action packed!—and then the end of the year also rising more than normal due to end-of-year travel. The only “quiet” month was July, when everyone had mostly left San Diego, leaving me solo.
- 🥐 Food: $20,000
- 🏏 Shopping: $11,500
- 🪂 Play: $7,000
- ✈️ Transportation: $2,500
All in all, 2021 resulted in $44k in variable expenses, $35k in fixed expenses, and then $12.5k in annual. That’s about $92,000 for the year, adding up at an astonishing $120k lifestyle.
There were $5,500 worth of “big ticket items”, which included stuff like tickets to Sea World, a shopping spree for my friend, some travel bags and surfboard gear, and quite a few AirPods as gifts! Oh and there was Wicked as well, which I watched twice!
There was a lot of house stuff as well… A new mattress from Tuft & Needle ($800) for a proper guest room, a new TV setup for the newly created salon / family room ($1,000), shelving and bins for the garage ($700), a small couch for the bedroom ($300), and money spent on revising the backyard ($600). Oh and two extra mini-TVs for Fortnite ($200) as I set up multiple TVs for the ultimate viewing experience. Mini-TVs are so cheap! In sum, my house became an actual house this year with the help of my girlfriend, who really leveled up the house all around.
And as my car edges into obscurity, every year it takes about a thousand dollars to keep it alive. 2021 was a new alternator ($350), some wiring issue ($300), and some sort of battery issue ($300). When does a new car come into my life? Considering I’ve never bought a car by myself ever—and I’m not keen to ever buy one—I’ll try to drive this Lexus till it crumples.
One flight to Oakland ($650), a couple of flights to/from Mexico ($650), and that was it for air travel! Then there was one night trip to Catalina which cost $1,000 including hotel, and then twenty-two nights in Hawaii cost about $7,000 all-in.
As for categories and tags, get ready to be shocked! Remember last year when I said: “I justified as LOL being my new hobby and replacing all the “play” I wasn’t going out and doing in the world. Needless to say, I am now making a tracking tag for “LOL” next year.” Well that LOL tag came and it recorded a whopping $3,800 on League of Legends. Was it my biggest expense under Play? It sure was! For those not counting, that adds up to about three hundred dollars per month spent on a video game. Oh but the friendships we made along the way! Run it down!
Aside from that, nothing really leaps out from tags to be honest. The usual high spending on food is there, the eye popping amount spent on boba perhaps, but otherwise it was the same as usual for a year that was mostly spent at home until the last two months.
So while 2021 was a big uptick in spending overall, it was justified right?! There was a physical and digital family to support!
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