a round-up of thrift, may 2024.

May has not been fun. If you’re new here, these posts are where I talk about all the ways that I used to save a cent here, a penny there. For an indepth intro please see the very first post. As always, I ask you to keep in mind that I know ten thousand and one way to save money – the reason I’m in a pickle and say things like ‘didn’t buy a new bag/ piano/ car/ life” on this list is not lack of knowledge, but a certain deficit of screws in the head. I know how to save money, I just don’t, because I’m a lunatic. Would provide receipts, but who the heck are you to ask for them.

Without further aggressive ado, I give you the narrative of May. Because there’s no real list of thrift.

As mentioned, May was not a fun month. I’ve had a good couple days around Easter, and it all went downhill from there. So let’s list the good things that happened. They are not plentiful. Apart from the anxiety-sponsored “everyone’s alive and not gravely ill, so that should be good enough” – and it is – I give you the following:

I saw a cardiologist. For free. Got prescribed meds that are pretty cheap by the standards of heart and blood pressure medication.

It may have been April, but I think it was May – I had several good conversations with my friend.

My therapist saw me for free for the entire month of May when I told her that I am unable to continue our sessions because I can’t pay. That’s a lot of savings.

I found a kitten. I took her home. She’s a new family member. It’s not a frugal move, but it’s a happy one.

I lost weight.

And now I give you parts of the shitshow. Just the big ones.

My brother is now aware of the true state of my finances. This drives me up the wall and kind of makes me want to light things on fire.

My car got towed for “unlawful parking”. Quotes, because it was not unlawful, but if you ever tried to dispute a parking ticket, or any kind of ticket, then you know the action is futile. So naturally I have a fine now, and I also had to pay for the towing and the tow parking lot. Had I paid the fine within three days, I would have paid 50% the amount, but I could either pay the fine or get my car back. I chose the latter, because the accrued fees on that parking lot are insane. Plus as we have discussed elsewhere I need a car to get to and from work.

Because of that towing fee I couldn’t meet my financial obligations on several loans. Thankfully not all of them. But it is still unpleasant.

I’m currently running around without my medication. I’ve been microdosing and having withdrawal symptoms for about two weeks now. Today before bed I will literally take the last half-dose of the one remaining night medication, which I’ve been taking very sparingly. Everything else ran out already.

Oddly, I think that helped with the last point on the list, because I’m already feeling rather low, and there’s really, like, nowhere to go from here. So I did not turn hysterical when I got fired on the very last day of May.

Yes. I am currently without gainful employment.

We will talk about this later.