Checking In With Summer Expenses

By the time you read this, I will be in Los Angeles, getting ready to read short fiction about Mars as part of SPACE TIME with Marian Call and Friends. (Wed. July 8 at Room 5 Lounge in LA, then Fri. July 10 at 99Bottles in San Diego. Tix at the link, and come say hi afterwards!)

I don’t know how much I’ll spend on this trip, and although I’m telling myself that I’m saving money by not getting a San Diego Comic-Con pass, if I hear that they’re selling Neko Atsume plushies in the exhibit hall I may end up slipping cash to a friend and saying “buy me one please.”

But I can tally up how much I’ve spent on summer adventures thus far, so here we go:

— Lindy Hop classes, summer session: $60

— JoCo Cruise installment payment: $250

— Mad Max tickets: $13.73

— Hari Kondabolu tickets: $14

— Smash Putt, the combination art installation/mini golf course: $15

— Gin and tonic at Smash Putt: $7

— Fancy pizza at Via Tribunali after Smash Putt: $40.86

— Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart, and Mamrie Hart tickets: $45.25

— Two slushies at the Helbig/Hart^2 show: $7

— Autographed copy of Mamrie Hart’s book, You Deserve a Drink: $17.52

— S’mores cookie at Hot Cakes after the show: $6.48

— Meal with friends in Portland after family reunion: $25

— Bolt Bus from Portland to Seattle: $26.50

— Smash Putt again (it was cheaper this time because we went in the afternoon): $13

— Gelato after Smash Putt: $5.38

— Flight SEA-LAX: $222.50

— Host gift for the friend hosting me in Los Angeles: $19

— W00tstock ticket: $55.30

— Lodging, three nights in San Diego: $442.21 (this is down from the original hotel booking I made which was $740.26, yay me)

— Flight SAN-SEA: $5.60 (travel booked on Southwest Rapid Rewards points)

Should I also count all the summer clothes I bought, so I’d be set for Seattle’s heat wave? Fine, let’s do it: $129.71. (This includes three sundresses, two pairs of leggings, and one cloche with a pink flower on it, which averages to $21 per item.)

Total summer expenses: $1,421.04

At the beginning of the summer, I estimated that I’d spend $3,270 on travel and “summer adventures,” and I am not quite halfway there. It’s interesting to see what got added in to my summer (SMASH PUTT) and what got dropped (sorry, Jurassic World, I heard you were not that good of a movie).

I’ll tally up the cost of my Los Angeles and San Diego week when it’s over — I’m hoping it’ll be the costs I’ve already listed plus food and Fireball snowcones, and maybe a taxi or two — and after that I only have one more big summer trip, my annual visit to Rockville, Maryland to be a guest at Intervention.

How are you doing with your own summer adventure spending? Want to tally up some numbers? Are you spending more, or less, than you thought you might this summer?

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