After all our summer trips I buckled down last weekend and did some budgetting and I’ve realized I have to update the spreadsheet in my head. Here’s how much things cost in my outdated DaveBrain 2000 operating system:

• Fast food -$5/person = $20/family
• Snacks - $2.50/person = $10/family

That –as my bank account is telling me– is super incorrect. The real numbers are much more like:

• Fast food - $12.50~$15/person = $50~$60/family
• Snacks - $5~$7.50/person = $20~$30/family

And groceries have gone up too. Woof. Hard times in the concrete jungle.

We’re updating the database and cutting back on these obvious financial vampires. And we know when/why we tend to rely on them to get us through the week. So that’s good. But when you have kids –snack-reliant kids at that– introducing austerity measures like this is hard, because being a penny-pinching dick about money all the time probably isn’t good for them either.

Don’t worry about me though. I’m lucky to have a great job and two kidneys, I’m sure I can sell one of them for a decent amount.

Namaste.