Principles of economics

My bubble of blissful and mindless indulgence popped today.

I can’t go to Barcelona.

I have been looking forward to this for the past 10 DAYS, and just discovered that I can’t make it work.

Bottom line is it would be entirely too expensive to even try to justify, and for the price of this one weekend trip I could go wine tasting in Sienna, shopping in Milan, and skydiving in the Swiss Alps. AND get that cute leather jacket I’ve had my eye on. In a millionaire’s world one wouldn’t cancel out the other; but in that of a poor, deprived, college student, I simply can’t do it all.

On the up-side, I have developed an equation that ensures I will make it to Barcelona soon enough.

Using simple mathematics and the economic theory of opportunity costs, I have projected that by February 25th (when another group of my friends will be going) I will have enough to make my travels.

You see.

($4.00/one starbucks X 25 days) + ($45.00/gas tank X 5 (how many times I would have filled it between driving to starbucks and work)) = $325.00

+

AND since everything takes a little bit longer to walk to I have less downtime and subsequently consume less in other resources, equating to somewhere around ($25/week X 3 weeks)= $75

-

($.085/one espresso in Italy X 25) = $25.25

=

$374.75

Here you can see how I have shaved off $374.75 in daily living expenses in a three week period just by living like an espresso drinking, city walking Italian.

Therefore, I can use that difference to treat myself and go on a trip in three weeks.

Okay, so I may have created this logic, but it works in my brain and that is enough.