My Last $100: Eating My Feelings, Nourishing My Mind And Soul

by Yaffa Fredrick

$6.25, Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter: At the end of an incredibly long workday, I was craving “a deliciously unusual spread reminiscent of gingerbread and made with crushed biscuits.” Fortunately, Trader Joe’s had just the jar for me.

$5.00, Iced skim latte from Culture Espresso: As soon as it hits 60 degrees, I spring for iced drinks. Apparently such a luxury comes at an additional cost. My coffee shop is now charging 50 cents for ice in any beverage, taking my already overpriced latte to a whole new level of absurdity.

$3.00, Twix Bar at the TriBeCa Film Festival concession stand: My boss was generous enough to give me her tickets to see “Chef,” a wonderful film about a Cuban food truck. After watching close-up after close-up of cooks in action, I became incredibly hungry. Sadly, I was forced to settle for the only available item in the theater: overpriced American chocolate.

$16, Registration for Improve your Knish IQ Class at Brooklyn Brainery: Because I’m Jewish, and there are knish samples involved. How could I not?

$23, Hardcover of The Opposite of Loneliness, essays and stories by Marina Keegan: Like every recent grad, I read Keegan’s beautiful essay shortly after her tragic death. And when I learned an entire book of her work had been published, I ran to BookCourt, the local bookshop in my neighborhood, to grab a copy. Fortuitously, when I arrived, the store was hosting a reading of Keegan’s work. I stayed to listen, then nabbed the last copy on the shelf.

$50.75, Röyksopp & Robyn Do It Again Tour 2014 tickets: I recently began experimenting with the possibility of becoming a vegan. In preparation, I followed several vegan blogs on Twitter, or so I thought. I followed Brooklyn Vegan only to discover that newsflash (!), it’s a music site. However, I’m glad I didn’t unfollow them because my loyalty to their Twitter feed resulted in a pre-sale code for Robyn tickets this August. And yes, I’m practicing my “Call Your Girlfriend” dance as we speak.

Yaffa Fredrick lives off of overpriced lattes in Brooklyn.

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.