Read Your Lease

I am a stingy person. I have found that I will always look for ways to put off purchases, whether they are wants or needs. For example, on the wants side, I have been eyeing upgrading my monitor to an ultrawide for about 11 months. It would cost anywhere from $300-$1500 + tax depending on the model. On the needs side, I have been putting off buying new underwear, even though the pairs I own now have holes where it should be covering my ass cheeks. Or the pair of Made in Indonesia H&M sweat shorts that I have been wearing for about 6 years, 9/12 months each year. I bet one day I will be walking down the streets of San Francisco on a windy day and the fast fashion seams will give their last breath to unwind and uncover my ass, only to expose my boxer briefs that are hanging on for dear life. At which point people will assume I am just some shroomhead trying to find my way back to Golden Gate Park. God bless San Francisco. But, I digress.

The main point is, it would probably cost me $100 to update my aging bottoms wardrobe. But, because I love being f r u g a l like a good Millenial/Gen Z'er, I've adopted the Buddhist art of ignoring capitalist impulses and self-denial in the post-Great Recession, and soon to be post-COVID economy we live in. However, I recently decided to move to San Francisco from the South Bay because I can work remote "forever", and I wanted to see what BIG city life is like. I spent 5 Saturdays in a row touring places, stayed up til 2AM after work one week to write a Craigslist scraper webapp to find new listings, and finally found a place that we liked. We signed and I thought "Pop the champagne!". And don't get me wrong, I will pop the champagne! But! It turns out my lease at my current place goes a month longer than I expected. I thought it ended on 6/31/21, but it actually ends on 7/31/21. So, now I am on the hook for an extra month of rent that I didn't realize, all because I was too dense to dig through a stack of papers, find the lease, and confirm when my move out date was.

So, what's the lesson Zach? Well son, the lesson is, if I spent approximately 17 kilocalories and 4 minutes to find my lease, squint my early onset myopic eyes, and scan for a pattern along the MM/DD/YY format, I could've saved $1510, bought my wants and needs, and my ass wouldn't be hanging out in the middle of the street right now

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, metaphorically.