NYC 2015: Part I

Usually I like to be in a place for longer, but two plus weeks in New York was better than nothing right? Originally I was planning to AirBnB a spot but since I was only going to be there a few weeks, I relied on the kindness of friends to house me (as usual). I didn’t have many specific plans once I hit the city but in an effort to document what I ended up doing, here we go!

First off, I took a non-direct flight from San Diego to New York, which turned out to be a huge mistake. Due to a three hour delay on the front end, I missed my connection in Philadelphia and was almost stuck at the airport there for the night. Instead, I ran from gate to gate, in out-of-breath sprints, and eventually got a ride to Newark. From there, I took a cab into the city — minus luggage since that had gone on to LaGuardia — and got to my friend’s house in Alphabet City around one in the morning. Although it was late, we did our basic catch up and I found out that not only was my friend not in a relationship — when I left, he was! — but he was also recently unemployed and taking some time to figure out his next move. I believe the next morning V bought an extra Playstation controller for Rocket League, even though we never ended up playing it...

The next afternoon, in a move that threatened to tear apart the fabric of reality, I went to the gym. Yes, I put on my work out shoes — same as my regular shoes — and got in forty minutes of real deal exercise. V’s work out routine was this Japanese thing (“tabata”) where you do a set of something for twenty seconds, rest for ten, and then go again. Think lots of push-ups, jumping jacks/stars, and tricep dips. It was mostly fun of the first bit, but by the end I was ready to collapse.

For the next few days I bragged to everyone how much I’d worked out. And vowed to not do it again. Once a decade is plenty.

I generally don’t tell anyone I’m in town until I’m actually there, so the next day I started texting people that I’d arrived! Cue the excitement. Okay, not really. As it turned out, my friend was in town from Chicago and was doing drinks with a number of our friends already. Perfect! After stopping by a friend’s ex’s fashion week show, we went down to Flatiron Hall to say hello. I’d missed J’s wedding back in June, and totally regretted it, so this was a nice surprise, being able to catch her back in New York.

And then since I needed to dance right away, we (my friend from Taiwan who was here for the week, and M, who lives in Greenpoint) hopped in a cab to Williamsburg and hit up Kinfolk 94 and eventually The Tender Trap. Both places were pretty empty but the music at Kinfolk was stellar — at one point there was PM Dawn. We also met a close-up magician who was in the same Magic Castle training class as Neil Patrick Harris. I guess if I could make poker chips and foam balls disappear and reappear, I’d bring props to the club too. The only other people dancing were us three, the magician, and a bunch of lesbians who were making out in every corner and empty space of the dance floor. Kinfolk: always great music, always a different crowd.

Sometimes people take my “I sleep all day” statements as hyperbole. As V found out, I really did sleep late into the afternoon and evening. On Friday I rolled out of bed at like six, prepped up and headed toward K-Town to meet with M. She was already downstairs at her neighborhood bar and we chatted with her friend for a bit about his girlfriend problems and the challenges of going from six blocks to an uptown/downtown romance. Also, when does someone get key status? Their simple opinion: Never, until you live together. Harsh.

Afterwards, M took me around the corner to a steakhouse where we sat in a long line of two tops against the wall. Each interior seat was occupied by a woman, and on the outside seat was planted a man. Like maybe ten couples, all just sitting in a line. So weird. The couple next to us were on the worst date ever, as the guy lectured on and on while the woman sat quiet and displayed little to no interest. I was sure they weren’t on a first date, as the guy was being truly boring, but M assured me it was a first date. It’s a tough (dating) world out there ladies, cut bait on a mansplainer when you can!

Later on, I hopped over to meet up with K&S, and then we walked over to No Malice Palace for dancing. In line, K started talking to the people behind us and they turned out to be quite nice and fun. She simply had told them some friends of hers that had gotten out of line would be right back, which was a very polite thing to do. NMP is a freaking hotbox but the music is always good and it’s basically a no fail fun place, assuming you can get in. A couple more people joined us inside and I even ran into a friend’s brother, whom I had met last year right around this time. This was the party I’d been looking for, with the right people, the right music, and the right atmosphere. Thanks New York!

Since drinking leads to early mornings for me, I got up at 11AM-ish and scrolled through Facebook, trying to see who was in New York. As it turned out, my ex-roommate M was going to be moderating a panel at Photoville, New York’s largest photographic event out in DUMBO. I got myself revved up and out the door to make the early afternoon panel on migration and statelessness. (Read M’s bio, it sounds so damn impressive. Like who are you?!) What I learned was that photographers really shouldn’t talk about their work. I mean, no, they should, but it’s difficult to separate out the photographer from the photos. Like one the panelists just didn’t articulate himself well and I couldn’t take his work seriously. And another photographer, whose work was clearly amazing, seemed to lose some of the audience due to his thick accent. “Let the work speak for itself,” seems to apply in these cases.

After the panel, two of M’s friends cruised the rest of the exhibition with us and then we booked it to Chinatown for soup dumplings. As it turned out, my favorite couple/people from San Francisco were in town, after participating in the Labor Day 9-Man tournament the weekend before. They met up with us for dumplings too and it was one of those times when strangers come together but the discussion doesn’t skip a beat. Everyone got along, we were talking about interesting things, and there was just no lull in the conversation or boredom, etc. It was amazing! Afterwards, we didn’t want to end the day there so hopped to a bar for a quick drink and then rolled up to K-Town for some bonchon. And then after fried chicken, we went down to Revision, right next to V’s apartment, for some dancing and drinks. All in all, a perfect day slash night! (A handful of us chased the night to a few other bars, but that was likely a mistake. “Don’t chase the night,” as Worldwide Wes / Bill Simmons says.)

It made me think that the long percolating Before Sunrise-like movie I’d want to make should really be about a group of people. After all, those were the times I liked best about New York. How you can just travel from place to place, picking up new people, and having the night go wherever. It’s not something that happens in other cities, as far as I’ve experienced, and I associate that sort of time with only New York. It would be a challenge to get that kind of chemistry depicted on-screen but that’s an interesting twist on the genre right?

With Sunday here, I woke up early yet again and met up with JMZ and Jenn in Noho for brunch. We were tucked into a back corner booth at Cafe Select, and it was a lovely place to take down their Croque Monsieurs. Afterwards, we waited around for P to show up, as this was her day off. P’s new restaurant had been getting brilliant reviews for months and her schedule was even more slammed than usual but we got to spend most of the afternoon and early evening chilling out. A true rarity.

Meanwhile, my Taiwan friends were in Soho and after leaving JMZ, Jenn, and P, I met up with them and went to dinner at some Italian spot. J and C were in town from Taipei to help their aunt move from Queens to the Upper East Side, and although it was exhausting, J was still down to do stuff at night. After dropping off C in the UES, we went downtown to grab Citibikes and I took her on her first New York ride, across the Williamsburg Bridge, cruising by the construction that has overtaken WB’s west side. On the way back, we trolled through East Village for pizza, falafels, and hot dogs.

That was the first four days and I'd basically covered all the things I wanted to do in New York already. What's next?!

Ways and Means: Jan 2015 - Jun 2015

We’ve done this before, so let’s do it again. This time with international flavor thrown in! My first six months of 2015 were spent entirely in Taiwan, the land of cheap food, cheap drinks, cheap everything basically. So, did I save any money? Well…let’s see!

To start with, my fixed expenses came out to be about $825 per month. That’s accounting for rent, cell phone bill, and a smattering of subscription services such as Netflix, Spotify, VPN, and iCloud. Also, um, bank fees, but we’ll get into that later. I lived half of those six months at my mom’s but since she was in Taipei for some of the time, I moved out to a small room near my school, at the cost of $550 per month for three months. And I mostly put my Verizon bill on suspension when I was overseas, paying only about $30 monthly for my Taiwan cell phone. So while my fixed expenses fluctuated between $750-900, the average worked out to about $825 per month.

The name of the game is variable expenses of course. I should have readjusted my budget after three months, since I was basically over every month — save one — and I was losing Budget Club bad. But I was stubborn and kept thinking I could make it. Overall, my variable expenses looked like this:

• Jan: $1,400
• Feb: $960
• Mar: $1,360
• Apr: $1,750
• May: $1,700
• Jun: $1,770

Compared to my last six months of 2014, which I spent hopping from East Coast to West Coast, it looks spectacular. However, that variable spending falls in line with what I was spending when I was holed up in San Diego during the exact same time last year. In fact, I was probably spending more in Taipei than in San Diego. But again, more on that later. Anyway, my six month variable expenses worked out to about $1,490 per month.

And let’s not forget that all important Annual tab, which accounts for one-time expenses that we don’t put into the variable part of the spreadsheet. From January till June, I spent $2,700 on “annual” expenses. This consisted of the following: $890 for a new iPhone and iPad Mini, $800 for another semester at Shida, $400 for two flights to Hong Kong to reset my visa (I have to fly out every ninety days), a real estate agent fee of $260 for the apartment (he charged a half month’s rent, which seemed pretty low), $160 for a road trip to Yilan during our semester break, and then finally another $160 for my Citibike renewal. Yeah, you know, that Citibike service in New York? The city I no longer live in? My friend uses my pass and I just kind of renew it because I’d like to have it available. So overall, during those six months, my “annual” expenses came out to $450 a month.

Total I spent about $2,760 a month while living in Taipei. By my rough calculations, living in San Diego costs me about $3,000 a month (assuming $1,000 rent). And New York, well, New York I was basically living on for $3,900 a month. So yeah, to answer the question: Am I saving money by living in Taiwan? “It depends,” is the answer. Ugh, I hate subjectivity.

Finally, here are my expenditures of five major budget categories, and now with a pie chart breaking down which specific tags I spent the most on! We getting fancy.

• Food: $3,050
• Shopping: $1,750
• Play: $1,700
• Transportation: $1,500
• Misc: $900

Let’s talk about this taxi situation. Taipei has a wonderful metro system that costs maybe 0.60 cents to a dollar a ride — compared to three for New York's. The MRT is clean, efficient, open until midnight, with stations very close to my house. So why $250 a month on cabs?! Assuming I am taking cabs to go places I want to go, I am spending almost as much getting there as I am “playing” when I arrive. Well, my justification is that anywhere I live, I would be dropping at least that much on car costs, gas, subways ($120 for NY’s unlimited ride MetroCard), or Ubers. And each taxi ride only averaged about $4.25 anyway, since I started to do less long hauls — as opposed to last November and December where my rides mysteriously averaged $7 each.

Then again, it’s a stark reality that if I never took a cab again in Taipei, I would have 16.2% of my expenditures back. My mom, when she heard about how many taxis I take had this to say, “Maybe if you weren’t always late or rushing, you wouldn’t take so many taxis.” How do you say “touché” in Chinese?

Also, since I don't have a Taiwanese bank account and I generally just pull cash from any ATM around, that's fees. Basic story is I should get a Taiwanese bank account. Or just walk to Citibank ATMs, which charge a lower fee. But Citibanks are few and far between, especially compared to the ubiquitousness of 7-Elevens. Basically I'm paying a premium for convenience, for taxis and cash. So yeah, Taiwanese bank account, put it on the to-do list! No, not that To Do List, this one!

Anyway, that was the first half of 2015 in a financial nutshell. August and September I’m back in the States, and then likely more Taiwan for the rest of year. Maybe I’ll have some shit figured out by then. Haha, or not. Oh right, I ended 2014 saying I basically lived a $52k lifestyle. So far I’m on pace to live a $41.5k lifestyle. That’s good right? I’m downsizing! Does that mean I have a sudden increase in savings? You would think...

Do You Hear the People Sing?

For my dad’s American service, some of his friends got together and made a little booklet of photos and essays and nice things about him. It was printed up and bound and distributed at the funeral. The majority of it’s in Chinese and even after six months of intense Mandarin study in Taiwan, I still can’t read any of it. If I were a different person, that would be a goal. To one day be able to read through this thing. I mean, there’s got to be a lot of anecdotes and stories in there, stuff I’d never hear anywhere else right?

Actually, from what I can gather, 90% of the memories and essays are about golf. My dad was quite the prolific golfer and had a hand in starting the Lower Handicap Golf Club — San Diego’s premier Chinese golf club, I’m certain — serving as its first president. Basically that’s why everyone in the community knew who he was. Most of the English words in these essays are a reference to a particular golf course or stuff like “double bogey, pitching, driver, greens.” There’s also score sheets I think, some possibly in my dad’s own hand.

(There’s also something in there about my mom and “surprise” being yelled out but again, I can’t read enough of it to figure out what the surprise was. My name wasn’t in that piece so clearly it’s not a “surprise, your son dropped out of school” story or anything.)

Also, there’s a page whose lone English word is “newsletter.” That made me recall that my dad used to write newsletters for the LHGC. I mean, I think he did. Well, I’m sure he did, because that’s the kind of thing he would do. Just like I keep overly detailed blogs for my fantasy leagues… I think we both just kind of like community and connecting, although he was more of a showman than I was. By a long shot. He was good with jokes and stories and seemed like he liked being on stage or performing.

Anyway, it’s fitting that this is coming in newsletter format. Unsubscribe at your leisure!

I saw on Facebook that a friend’s father passed away. My general rule of thumb about that kind of thing is to not say anything until I see them. Like I did with a friend in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. I knew that her dad has passed away but didn’t want to bring it up until I was there, face to face.

I think coming from my perspective, it just seems like the last thing you’d want to do during that time is answer a whole bunch of condolence messages. Even just responding with “thanks” can seem like a burden. At least it would seem like that to me.

My friend in Taiwan, about a month ago, was sitting bedside by her friend (really, more a friend of a friend) when she suddenly passed away. Throughout the ensuing week or so of chaos, my friend took it upon herself to see to the arrangements. Like telling everyone what had happened (nobody really knew, as she had been in the hospital the previous day under observation and testing), reaching out to the family overseas (whom the girl had not been communicating with for years), and then organizing a donation campaign to cover costs. I guess that’s one of the perils of living in a foreign country without health insurance or your family/people around.

Anyway, my friend went through an unbelievable amount of shit that week, both physical, emotional, and spiritual. She broke down in tears multiple times, she sort of had her own life blow apart for a moment, it was kind of a mess, but through it all she was simultaneously so strong and so generous throughout. I know I couldn’t have done it. Be that helpful and generous. I would have been like “this is for her family (estranged or not) to take care of.” And ran out of there.

I want to reach out to my friend, the one whose dad passed away, to tell her that I know, and to offer up an ear if necessary, but I also don’t because I wouldn’t have wanted to hear it then. (Or would it be a nice gesture just to send a quick message, perhaps with a “no need to reply” line attached.) Even with my closer friends who have recently experienced parental losses, I haven’t really reached out beyond a quick text. What else is there to say sometimes you know? And I feel like it would be annoying to have to go through the next questions, which starts invariably with “What happened?”

Along the same lines, I had a really good friend who told me somewhat recently that her infant passed away. Just suddenly, in his sleep. Sure, loss is loss but that’s an incomparable loss right? I didn’t know what to say to her because “sorry,” while necessary, didn’t seem to mean much/enough.

In related news: People who put personal news on someone’s Facebook wall ahead of them actually announcing things themselves… Like wow, really? People do dumb shit.

[Cross posted from my Tiny Letter]

Ways and Means: Jul 2014 - Dec 2014

Let’s do this. A year end wrap for another year of spending. Who’s excited!? I already covered the first six months of 2014 so here’s the the last six (remember, this is variable expenses per month, not fixed):

• Jul: $2,450
• Aug: $2,100
• Sep: $1,990
• Oct: $2,100
• Nov: $1,400
• Dec: $2,100

In total, I was $8,000+ over my projected/ideal budget. That’s an ominous extra $666 a month on average. Overall, I spent about $39,000 in 2014, which translates to living roughly a $52k lifestyle. That’s with four months of no rent, lots of freebies, and well, who knows what other contributions. It takes a village indeed. It'll be such a proud day for all when I actually become an adult.

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%

Clearly that “vacation” category needs to be revisited as that’s where I threw in all the flights and stuff I took, which aren’t all necessarily vacation related. Plus, what vacation? I'm always on vacation! Also, my auditors and I will be taking a look at the budget for “miscellaneous” too. (For the record, I took seven or so round trip flights this year. Which pales in comparison to say, my cousin.)

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%

Last note before I go. It’s been a banner hair year for me. I let my hair grow like a bush or five months and then went to a salon -- for the first time ever -- pre-Memorial Day. After getting the hair cut that changed the rest of my 2014, I then proceeded on a magical journey called “hair game.” I went from a good hair cut and buying some newfangled hair paste to somehow dropping $500 total for the year on haircuts and assorted products. Before this I’ve basically been cutting my own hair for the past fifteen years, with no product whatsoever. So the price differential between alternating between shaving my head and clippering my own shit was basically $60 a month. Pricey, no?

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.

Ways and Means: Jan - Jun 2014

A triumphant return to posting! Okay, not really. My newsletter idea went nowhere, and now I’m back for your favorite type of post: a budget recap. No, please, hold the clapping. While I’m no longer doing monthly recaps, I figured I better look at how the first six months of 2014 went. During the first half of 2013, I said I was living a 75k lifestyle (which dropped to 60k by the end of the year). Well, since I am making much less in 2014 -- no book money -- I had to adjust my budget accordingly. Basically I dialed down to a lifestyle that had me spending like I made 50k a year. A couple of years ago, during a conversation with friends in which we named our “ideal lifestyle price,” I said that I could live on 50k annually for the rest of my life. Clearly that’s not true.

Anyway, fixed expenses for the first half year came out to about $7,500, including $1,000 for rent, $250 for phone, $12 for Netflix, and um, that’s about it.  Also, that phone expense gets reimbursed from work, eventually. With about $1,000 left over for variable expenses, I distributed to my broad categories like this: Food ($500), Play ($150), Transportation ($150), Shopping ($100), Misc ($100).

Unfortunately, and without much big surprise, I overspent every month. Somehow, living at home didn’t even save me that much money. Or actually, it didn’t save me any money at all! Here’s the month by month breakdown. I’ll let you guess which month I made it back to New York. Also, these numbers don’t take into account about $2,000 in the Annual tab, which consisted of flights, a vacation to Palm Springs, and renewal of my MoviePass and Citibike.

• Jan: $1,350
• Feb: $1,400
• Mar: $1,000
• Apr: $1,700
• May: $1,650
• Jun: $2,400

If we go according to my budget, I have $8,000 to spend through the rest of 2014. Considering my last two months were both $2k+, I don’t think that’s going to work. The relative good news is that I’m not paying rent anymore, but that just meant I threw that money into my variable budget, as I’ve been traveling and hopping around a lot.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t food that’s been killing me. January it was shopping, which I exceeded by 200%; February was 150% over on shopping and play (a trip to Sea World, a new router for the house); March was shopping again when I got another tattoo; April was a doozy as I vaulted over in transportation, food, and shopping, which basically was due to a ten day trip to San Francisco; May was a disaster for shopping as I went 450% over with expenses such as clothing, a Costco run, a salon haircut that cost a pretty penny, and Electric Kittiez glasses. And let’s not talk about June, which was the month I was in New York, when I went over in every category, including huge in both food and shopping. Not to mention a crapload of transportation costs which was taxis and Ubers.

The good news is...well, there is no good news. The news is that I need more money, but then again, who doesn't?