My Last Hundred Bucks: Valentine’s Day Is For Jerks

by Meghan Nesmith

$100 is a lot of money, but also not a lot of money at all. How’d you spend your last hundo, Meghan Nesmith?

$20.58, Fancy chocolate, eggs, and butter. With which to make this Nigella Lawson chocolate loaf for my coworkers for Valentine’s Day. This made me feel very good in theory, but I busted the cake — overwhipped and overcooked it. Whatever. Valentine’s Day is for jerks.

$10, Salmon avocado roll, sweet potato roll, miso soup. I almost always bring my own lunch, but I just finished day 10 of leftover lentil soup, so this was a reward. (To note, I frequently try to reward myself for good financial behavior by buying myself something. This is the stupidest rewards system ever.)

$1, Can of Coke. An attempt to quit the migraine that had been lingering on the periphery for three days.

$18, Broadway Bodies class. Have I told you yet about Broadway Bodies? If you’ve found yourself within five feet of me in the last two weeks, the answer is yes. A tiny shot glass of energy and muscle teaches you a routine from a Broadway show, and it is literally the best thing that has ever happened to me.

$7.04, Valentine’s Day tulips for the interns. I wore red shoes. I felt optimistic.

$8.51, Just Salad salad bowl. It took a year of sporadic salads from Just Salad before I committed to the Just Salad reusable bowl. The Just Salad reusable bowl costs $1 and every time you use it, you get two free toppings or a free cheese. The goat cheese I usually add to my salad costs $1.50. Thus, the Just Salad reusable bowl offers a return on investment (boom) after just one salad. I have no idea why I resisted this so long, besides the fact that I’m now the girl carrying her reusable salad bowl around the streets of the Financial District.

$54.43, Wine and cheese for two. I took my friend out for Valentine’s Day. No funny business. We used to sleep together, but we don’t anymore. He’s the only person in my life who has smoothly made that transition — the only one I can sit with and not constantly be thinking, “that time we had sex, that time we had sex, that time we had sex.” I think that’s worth a splurge every now and then.

Meghan Nesmith hangs out in Brooklyn and on Twitter. She recently had a conversation about power, sex, and money// pic by loutraje

Support The Billfold

The Billfold continues to exist thanks to support from our readers. Help us continue to do our work by making a monthly pledge on Patreon or a one-time-only contribution through PayPal.