So I was obsessing over my budget yesterday. Don't remember the circumstances, but I think I wanted to play out what it would look like financially to live in Seattle for 9 months next year.
I didn't have the mental expenses committed to memory. I had a number of $3k a month (additional) or $5k/mon inclusive of carrying my NC house. So based on the $3k/mon additional I was curious how I spent almost $20k on just a short 3-4 month stay.
Well when I got down to the nitty gritty, some of my mental math was a bit off.
You can see above just how much I spent. It's kind of a lot, but I knew once the mental dust settled I'd try to beat myself up over why I spent so much money escaping/ chasing boys/ chasing a fantasy/ going on a domestic vacation. Let's not remember I was making serious plans to end my life for most of this year. By most of my recent-past history, this was going to be either the last year of my life or the beginning of the end of the last years. There's still 20 days left so give it a time...
That's a joke. Anything can still happen, but not by my hand.
The point is, I refuse to beat up Past MERJ for spending $18k on a holiday. Who cares. We're all straddling that fine line of living while also dying. It just becomes more salient when you reach these middle ages. Where you are really straddling the middle.
The point is, I was curious why my numbers weren't adding up and I just needed to spreadsheet (yes, I'm using spreadsheet as a verb). Still try to make Seattle make sense. Though at this point, we know it's more than just the money. But let's focus on the money for now.
On my basic calculations (sans tithe, student loan), the expenses were last estimated to be:
NC: $1620/mon (~$18k/yr)
Seattle: $4670/mon (~$56k/yr)
Difference: $3050/mon
So I got it in my mind that 4 months in Seattle should have only cost me ~$12k (3k/mon *4 mons). Wrong.
First my calculations should have been the $2500/mon for housing PLUS $1k/mon for allowance (incl. food, shopping, entertainment, everything else). Which would have put me closer to $14k. And that really didn't account for airfare for which I spent a pretty penny.
And when I actually did the nitty gritty math of just how long I was there, it was closer to 3.5 months.
So I definitely overspent, but not where I thought. It was lodging. That second trip was wrought with so many things going wrong with Blueground and re-challenging my beliefs on 'signs'. That instead of grappling with it any longer, I just decided to go! I ended up just focusing on what I could get for the budget and just getting the heck out of NC. No regrets.
I'm glad on reflection, that even with this hybrid of vacation and local-living, that my allowance budget of $1k/mon is reasonable and can be adhered to.
For housing, I'm still hoping to be around $2500/mon, but will up it to $3k if I find a place I really like or that fits into my desired timetable. Actually now that I think about it, this might make the split work even better. I think at some point there must be a peak rental season and I would suspect it would fall within the time period I'm planning to be back in NC (mid Jul to mid to late Aug).
So this data doesn't make me feel bad. I know what I spent naturally on vacation and when I was trying to imagine a life there (Trip #4). And I know where I can trim (if I want, which of course I do) or just give myself permission to spend, now that I know what it costs.
Without airfare, I spent about $4200/mon. Which I was giving myself the leeway of about $5k/mon, so I'm not that mad about it. And was willing to flex that number depending on how long I want to stay or how lavish I want to live. So even without trying too hard to meet a certain target, my expenses were reasonable for my mental budget.
The almost $20k expense doesn't even scare me a bit because I have established savings goals and really while I don't know how long I'll live, I can only plan one year at a time. I just have to accept that. I'm straddling living and dying and it's always going to be a balance.
Anyway, so this exercise did help me try to put some real numbers to my expenses for next year, and I came up with some loose targets.
Airfare: Try to half next year, given I'll only be taking 2 flights, I should aim for $1700 or less. Enter in my credit card strategy for next year!
Lodging: aim for $2500/mon, but $3k okay if needed (which really I averaged about $3200/mon just that one lower priced one balanced out a higher priced unit)
Allowance: $1k/mon is perfect
This is the fun part. The privilege of gamifying your expenses!
In the end, I just feel good that my numbers work and I don't have to be uber frugal and I can still hit pretty moderate-aggressive savings goals!
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