Credit Card Damage: The Final Cost

I have been postponing this moment for as long as possible, but I finally crunched the numbers on what I spent all in for this trip. The final bill came in at $2,020 which is truthfully right about what I anticipated spending. Though that number be slightly misleading because it includes a lot of pre-shopping items.

Let me break it down real quick.

• $1,038- Cost of cruise
• $25- Flight (Used mostly miles)
• $175- Cameo VIP
• $74- Mani/Pedi/Hair cut
• $32.50- Hotel in Miami the night before the cruise (after split 4 ways)
• $131.47- Merchandise on board
• $32- Transportation around Miami including getting back to the airport. All of my costs were split at least 3 ways.
• $8- Dinner in Miami
• $4- Breakfast in Miami
• $7- Medicine for my cold :(
• -$50- I got refunded $50 from Rose Tours for a referral. Thanks again Bethany!

I'll pause here because everything listed above I would consider a necessity. Or if not a necessity, I feel that the majority of people would share similar expenses. For example the mani/pedi or merchandise on board aren't exactly necessities, but I'm willing to bet most people have those expenses. So if I stop here at the necessities- the cost was $1,477. I wish the expenses stopped there but sadly they did not.

Additional/Optional Spending...

• $195- New camera. This I obviously plan on using outside of the cruise, but its sole purpose was to be used on the cruise so I'm factoring it in.
• $63- Custom Backstreet clothes for theme nights and wearing on board in general.
• $245 Other new clothes, accessories, theme night apparel, etc. 
• $30- I lost my Lose it All Challenge and this was the prize money. So sad I lost my own challenge. More on that later though.
• $9- Door Decoration- I think I got off pretty easy on this one. Though if I factor in the cost of my time spent on the door, that number would be a lot larger.

Add on another $542 in optional expenses....and that brought my grand total to $2,020. I'm really regretting adding these numbers up now. It certainly doesn't seem like a lot when you buy all of these items throughout the course of 9 months. But a new dress here and a new necklace there certainly can add up.

I find it interesting that last year I spent $2,045 and I came shockingly close to that number again. Though considering the cruise was a day shorter, I'm not sure how I feel about that. It probably should've been a few hundred cheaper, but oh well. I'm just glad I didn't go over budget at all.

I think the scarier number is what I spent all of last year on the Backstreet Boys. If I factor in 6 NKOTBSB shows, 1 platinum VIP, merchandise, travel and expenses, etc- Im looking at an additional $1,360 bringing my grand total for the year to $3,405. Holy guacamole. That is not good. I just need to set up direct deposit into their checking account to save myself some trouble. If I keep up this rate of spending, it won't be long before I spend enough to have like a tour bus named after me or something. 'The Laura D Tour Bus- made possible by the generous contributions from Laura.' Well, maybe not quite a tour bus. Perhaps like a closet in one of their homes is more realistic. Still nothing to be proud of.

Seeing these numbers makes me wonder if I need a Backstreet intervention or Backstreet rehab. The only thing that makes me feel slightly better is to know I'm not alone on this. I took a random sampling of around 20 fans on the cruise and the average fan spent around $2,600. So relatively my expenses weren't too outrageous, but in order to keep my sanity, I think I'll just file this post under 'Things to Never Speak of Again'