Of Saving, Bangus, Taxis and Go Go Yubari

I usually go through payday cycles pretty comfortably, single guy that I am… eat meals pretty much anytime, pretty much anywhere non-five star. Splurge on comics or any odd thing or toy that piques my interest, take taxi cabs to work in the morning, the works. But when unusual purchases hit, it jars me. So it was that I had just spent a bundle on my PC, right after I splurged on quite a few DVDs and comics at the Blood Bank. Suddenly I had an uncomfortably small amount of resources compared to time till next payday. No problem, I thought. I still had more than enough to get through.

I made plans. No more cab rides to work. Comic purchases limited to bare essential titles. Meals to economical and dinners eaten at home if possible. Tightening belts was the order of the day. I had done this before, in order to get K.I.A. moving, albeit to a lesser degree. It seemed to work for the first few days.

Then, in the middle of the week, I got an email from a local anime shop that they got a copy of Azumi 2, the samurai/ninja sword-slashing sequel starring Aya Ueto and featuring Chiaki ‘Go Go’ Kuriyama. Hey… something to get next payday.

Of course, I couldn’t wait till pay day.

That same afternoon, I got off work relatively early so I did what my desires told me to. I got into a cab and made my way to Greenhills.

Of course, it was in rush hour traffic from Makati to San Juan, which took about an hour and about 120 pesos. I raced against the light, knowing that the shop closed at about seven-ish. But I was confident I’d make it. My cab got into Greenhills just after seven.

Goddamn shop was closed.

GYAH. Disappointed and angry that I wasted the cab ride, I just wanted to go home and save the day with rest. But then, I was hungry, so I decided to eat out. Somewhere economical and delicious. My hunger led me to Bangus, a new resto in one of the many new mini-malls in the GH area. I ordered sizzling bangus (milkfish) fillet, rice and a drink. Good meal. But it cost almost three hundred pesos.

ARGH!!! Economical!!! Must… save… money… must…

Aaah. What the heck. Defeated, I hailed ANOTHER cab (another hundred off there) to get me home.

And so it was that during my time of scrimping and saving, I spent an extra day’s worth of money for pretty much nothing.

Oh well, in the end, the meal was good and you really shouldn’t regret food. And anyway, payday finally came and I reached it with some cash left over. Things didn’t work out totally as I planned, but they worked out anyway. Sometimes you just have to let things flow, let things go, let stress off and just live a little. Or, you can just avoid situations like what I just related to you and be better off. Your pick. Heh.