Money That I May As Well Have Put In the Trash, Burned, Made Confetti Of, Etc.

by Abby Dalton

$130 to visit a boyfriend at his college in Virginia. I spent hours on a bus imagining how great it was going to be to see him, only to spend a week being largely ignored. He broke up with me a few weeks later via AIM.

$1,000 towards a non-refundable deposit to the Columbia Publishing Course. One week after I sent this in, I got word I’d been hired by top-notch imprint for an assistant position, rendering the course expensive and moot. One year later, I left publishing. In my darker moments I imagine how I would spend this money if I had it in my possession at this very moment (clothes, dinners, cocktails).

$20/month ($60 total) for a gym membership to Bally Total Fitness in downtown Boston. I spent half of my trips to that gym actually going to the gym, and half of those trips just browsing the surrounding stores. After realizing my germ-phobias made using the gym bathroom and equipment nearly impossible, I cancelled the membership and bought a copy of “30 Day Shred” on Amazon.

$800 towards the MTELs, a Massachusetts-based licensing test for prospective (and current) teachers. This was during the months I spent figuring out what part of education I wanted to work in, and erroneously decided it would be teaching high school English. I also lost eight hours of my life to that test, and I can’t decide which is more valuable.

$40 on an embroidery class at a craft store. But then I remembered I hate crafts, and didn’t attend. I have yet to apply the store credit to another class, and probably never will.

Abby Dalton lives in Massachusetts with her husband and her cat, and occasionally blogs about money.

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