How I spent my $500 Medium Bonus
Thank you so much for your support!
I’m very late on announcing this, but when am I not 🤣? I’m grateful for the $500 Medium Bonus from April, which honestlysays more about how you, as a reader, are supporting me more than what I’m doing as a writer.
For that, thank you so, so much.
This is why I wanted to be transparent about exactly what this goes into! We all lead different lives and we sometimes assume we all do the same things — it’s in reading different narratives that have honestly helped me open my eyes to the world.
Some folks saved up their bonus, some folks invested that money. Some splurged on random small business items, yet others channeled that right into their rent and utilities.
For me, my mind immediately went to my rant about re-imagining my apartment interior.
I live in the dungeons (i.e., a basement) amongst the critters. I didn’t think I was staying in this place for long, so I actually never invested in a couch, or even shelving. I have makeshift bookshelves from cardboard boxes, and leftover pantry items often get stored in the same boxes they came in — on the floor.
It’s a physical challenge for my nyoomba and an emotional challenge for my boyfriend.
So it’s time for change.
And you, dear reader, were part of that change. So thank you ❤
Step 1: Convert that sweet, sweet USD into CAD
So, two things happen at this stage.
Stage a) involves the slashing of this $500 USD amount considering that Medium takes away 30% for tax as I’m a Canadian writer.
$500 USD x 0.70 = $ 350 USD
I know, I know, the shift between a 3-digit number that starts with a 5 and a 3-digit number that starts with a 3 is … quite something. Even though I hope that the taxes are going to important services, my brain still feels that drop.
Stage b) is the exciting USD to CAD conversion.
$350 USD is actually $424.75 CAD.
This is also wild to me because $1 USD is something like $1.21, so my brain goes, “okay, that’s almost 1:1”.
That means things that are $10 USD are actually something like $12.14 CAD, so it’s still only a few cents / few dollars more when I do the mental conversion.
But when we work in the hundreds?
Damn.
In fact, I’m realizing that these two stages of conversion often cancel each other out when I’m considering what I’m getting in my pocket via Medium earnings. Sure, I have to pay tax so the number decreases, but when I convert from USD back to CAD, the original number in USD is actually pretty close to what I actually get in CAD post-tax.
[1] Kitchen Trolley — I went for the ones I loved
With your support, instead of going for the ugly, cheaper item, I was able to justify splurging on two trolleys that I liked considerably more.
Trolleys selected:
Total, with shipping: $109.58
[2] HOOKS
The price of 3 (3lbs) command hooks is $5.97 CAD; $11.94 in total.
Time to elevate things off the floor!
Running total: $120.94
[3] A shower caddy (or bath caddy?)
Why a bath caddy? Do I even take baths that often?
The answer is no.
The truth is, I live in a basement, so the way they set up the bathroom is a bit weird. There’s a bump where the showerhead is, so typical shower caddies do not hang.
Also, I’ve looked into getting one of those caddies that you can just stick to the wall. However, in reading all the horror reviews of caddies crashing and breaking, or even worse, crashing and breaking the bathtub, I was too scared to go that avenue. Breaking the bathtub in my rented place would not be a pleasant thing to have to tell my property management team.
So, I’m investing in a bath caddy.
Sure, I could just arrange my shampoo bottles on the edges of my bath, but because the bottles are making direct contact with the bathtub, it’s quite disgusting not thoroughly drying and/or accruing residue. My bathtub is also odd (???) in that the tops of the bathtub are much more difficult to clean than the inside surface, though to my eye and touch they seem to be made of the same material.
Side rant: For a good 2 days I tried the Marie Kondo advice of wiping down my bottles after every single shower and then placing them outside of the bath, which is a habit I simply could not stand because I can only tolerate being moist in the humid shower for up to 30 mins.
So, bath caddy it is. My hope is that the minimal wire design of this bath caddy (rather than the bamboo ones you often see on Pinterest and home decor social media accounts) reduces the surface area that’s touching and any residue never builds up because I’m moving all of the bottles often enough.
Price: $33.44 Total: $154.38
So, in total I spent $154.38 CAD of the $427.74 CAD I got from this Medium bonus, and I’m pretty psyched. Considering that the pandemic (and now, some internal changes in the department) are definitely elongating my PhD degree by at least a year, I might as well finally live like a human being.
Thank you for contributing to my comfort ❤ and making this entire pandemic ordeal and PhD adventure a little bit easier for me to sail (or arduously hike?) through.
Hi I’m Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) and I write about whatever I want. What about you?
Hop down the rabbit hole? 🐰🕳
^ by Rebecca Stevens A.