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Life's Expensive

Author: Sara Jamison

Published on: February 1, 2001

The other day I was balancing my checkbook, and got down to the last transaction to see that my account had been depleted to $11.56. Eleven fifty six. Ouch. And payday was a half a week away. That's when it hit me.

Life's expensive.

A couple weeks ago, my boyfriend and I were headed to the mall on a day where the roads were sloppy from the melted snow. Well, little did I know, that large puddle of water on the right-hand side of the road was concealing an extremely large pothole. And sure enough, I hit it. Hard. Hard enough to cause an unexpected flat tire with a bent rim.

Cost of this hidden pothole: $90.

Cha-ching.

Then, the other day, after coming home from my boyfriend’s house at around two in the morning, I was expecting to crash in my bed the minute I got home. Well, I got to the bed, but when I did, my mom came in and goes “You got your cell phone bill today.”

“That’s nice,” I muttered, rolling over to face the wall and getting settled in for the night.

“Well...you’re not going to like it...”

The pausing and the slow speech frightened me. I rolled back over to face my mom. “Why?”

“You went over your daytime minutes...”

Cost of this stupid mishap: $160.

Cha-ching.

Not only is it things like that, but just those nasty monthly payments I have to make twelve times a year.

Car payments to my parents: $50 a month.

Insurance: $60.

Cell phone bill (BEFORE I rack up five hundred minutes...): $29.95. Plus tax.

If life doesn’t get expensive enough, I’m saving up the dough for a one-bedroom apartment with my boyfriend. The expenses don’t get any better.

Bathroom towels: $30.