I love your thoughts here. I hadn’t ever thought of ways you can last minute engineer a way for the vehicle to keep the pedestrian from being crushed rather than thrown up

I like this - but would companies that fail (in being second) not get credit for their work? You could imagine the second place actually having a more effective product at the end.

Penises are so weird. I’m glad no one can tell my level of arousal unless they are looking at my underwear or under it… Which by that point I probably am okay sharing that information.

Tangential note - had a fun conversation with my person the other day on how I’m used to the erect penis as “normal” and how it looks funnier when it’s not whereas for him it’s the opposite!

Maybe! I had my eyes closed so didn’t see what was happening until I opened them. I kind of want to experiment more.

I want to test this out. Let’s see how it goes. Today I went skiing and I have a pet rabbit.

Holy shit. I expected at least one typo

As a female bodied person - can I get an explanation?

And sleep.

I like everyone’s answers here.

1a. Definitely take at least some consideration of what your mental health looks like over those periods. It could be a symptom. (Not that you won’t sadly still need coping strategies regardless. Mental health issues just suck.)

1b. Do you have a career where there are seasonal variations in workload? Are coworkers or family or friends potentially influencing your spending behavior?

2. You’ve already heard of YNAB. (And it’s like only 10% a cult? 😂) I think it could be a useful tool for you. Since you seem to hate the minutia keep your categories dirt simple. Debt payments, short term fun, fixed expenses. Break them down only so far as they are useful for YOU. YNAB will get pretty good at guessing categories for you these days.

3. Consider what you are working towards when you are in a working hard phase. What makes those savings worthwhile? Afterall - money is only a means to an end. I find it easier to save and consider giving up buying that $800 pair of new powder skis I really don’t need if I know it’s to go on an epic honeymoon in a year. Personally and maybe not as easily applicable, I’ve had an issue of saving too much… so I also gave myself the list of goals I was saving for and what timeline I wanted for them and I avoid saving more than I need for those things over that time. (Retirement, wedding, down payment, honeymoon, student loans.) After that set amount… all the money is mine to do what I want with so I can spend it on what makes me happy without guilting over it.

Thank you for the write up! It looks great!

I can respect that. But also- set aside money on a regular basis (cash in an envelope for the physical reality or in a budgeting app) until you have enough to get one. And then splurge on that or something else you want more by then!

A little late here - but I adore YNAB. I’ll talk about it all day but at it’s base it functions off of a digitized envelope system rather than trying to match projected inputs to projected outputs every month.

YNAB has the automatic uploads of transactions (and does try to guess a category for you but you do have to review and approve).

It is fairly expensive. Although the family plan works if you have anyone you’re open about finances with (or simply trust the family “owner” not to peek - like my younger sister decided to trust me not to look.)