My Last $100: Curology and Trivia

By Kelsey Zimmerman March 28, 2018

It’s really quite uncommon for me to have a stretch of spending that isn’t made up of banal expenditures like rent, student loans, phone bill, electricity, etc. But here we have it: a few days where my money went towards things that largely enriched my life.

Thursday

$39.90: My bi-monthly Curology prescription charge hit my account. Now that I’m in my mid-20s, I feel as if I should’ve outgrown acne several years ago and have tried seemingly every lotion and potion to get it under control, all to no avail. Curology is a subscription-based dermatology service where a medical professional reviews pictures of your face and chats with you online to determine your needs. I’ve been a patient for three months, and though I haven’t seen much improvement yet, it’s been worth it for me to have a medical professional whose proverbial ear I can talk off, and my assigned medical professional just adjusted my prescription. I still have hope! I have to, because the damage that going around pockmarked does to my self-esteem can often be borderline unbearable.

$7.71: One of my coworkers passed on to me several hand-me-down Lululemon pieces a friend had given to her. I’ve never bought anything from Lululemon or even entered one of their stores, as I’ve always had them internally categorized as prohibitively expensive, so this was a real treat. The clothes were in good shape, save that the support tops were all missing their bra inserts. The tops are also a teensy bit small on me, but I am not one to let free stuff go to waste! Turns out Amazon has a plethora of options for bra inserts. More than I could have dreamed. I bought a 3-pack that was $10.99 and used $3.28 in credit card rewards to bring down the price.

Friday

$7: My local NPR station was hosting a listening party. I don’t actually listen to the radio, but several of my friends work there and I do try to be a supportive friend. I bought a raspberry ale to sip on while we chatted and listened to Sam Sanders’ mellifluous tones.

Sunday

$9.54: I try to grocery shop on Sundays because it’s at least marginally less busy than Saturday. I went to Kroger and picked up milk, bread for the PB&J sandwiches I bring to work daily, some bananas (also for my work lunches), and an Alba Botanica sunscreen on clearance for $3.49, because I have to bring some joy into my life.

Monday

$9.99: My monthly Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan hit my account. I miss the days of being able to buy a piece of software for a set amount, but $10 a month for how much I use Lightroom and Photoshop as an amateur photographer makes it worth it.

$13: A local bar was hosting Game of Thrones trivia and one of my friends had it together enough to organize a team and make sure we went! It was $25 for a team of five to attend, so I chipped in $5 for that and also had a beer. Almost no thanks to me, our team led the entire game heading into the final wager and question. I argued for a conservative wager, worried we’d get the last question wrong and lose. We went that route and got the final question wrong, so we only lost a few points — but teams behind us wagered much more than we did and answered correctly, leaving us to slide to fifth. Lesson learned. Next time, wager more aggressively and get the answer right. Foolproof!

Wednesday:

$25: I’m lucky to have great health insurance, and every other Wednesday I pay $25 as the co-pay for my therapy appointments. At open enrollment, I elected to put enough money in my HSA to cover these appointments, so I save by not having this money taxed, too.

My therapist reminded me to breathe.

Total: $112.14

Kelsey Zimmerman is an editor from Ann Arbor, Michigan. When she’s not watching ER reruns, you can find her writing and taking photos around town.

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