My Last Hundred Bucks: Really Meaningful, Useful Things

by Jamie Wiebe

Where’d your last hundo go, Jamie Wiebe?

I spent my last $100 for the rest of the month. Fuck. Thanks to Billfold readers, actually, who successfully scared me into freelance-tax submission and I just threw almost all of my free money into my tax fund.

$18, “Gone Home” on Steam. I could have waited. I could have not bought it because chances are good I would forget about the game in approximately 48 hours. But I wanted instant gratification and this was my method du jour. The game was so well reviewed! And right up my alley! I finished it in two hours — two hours I should have been working. And then I spent another two hours reading about it.

$16.50, some Thai restaurant on GrubHub. Pad Thai and gross spring rolls. Despite the fact that I had no money in my ordering-in budget I really, really wanted Thai food so I bought Thai food. They had a delivery minimum so I added spring rolls. They were not good spring rolls.

$5.50, Brooklyn Bagel. A mini-everything bagel with scallion cream cheese and an OJ. The next morning I really, really wanted a bagel.

$9, bodega. A six-pack of beer, paid for in exchange for my boyfriend buying me pizza.

$5, MTA. Because I hadn’t ridden the subway since mid-July, and because I don’t plan to again anytime soon.

$30, a French restaurant with actual French-speaking waiters. We met my friend and co at a restaurant and ordered no food and a $23 half-carafe of wine because that was the second-cheapest thing on the menu. I threw down $30 because I made the final getting-wine-not-beer decision (the only wine my boyfriend really likes is Riesling) and because of bill-splitting anxiety.

$14, a bar. Two SingleCut pilsners. Good beer from the brewery down the street from my apartment, which I always order when I find it on draft (x2, because it was my round to buy).

$16, the same bar, but at another location closer to my apartment. Two Allagash Whites. Because I was the only one with cash at a cash-only bar.

That’s actually $114, but it’s all the money I have.

Jamie Wiebe lives in Astoria.

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