a few days ago i realized something;
i spend $200 a month on claude, three months ago i would've spent the same amount in about four days on alcohol.
people read it as a flex. it's actually just the first time i ran the math on myself honestly.
the number i never used to track
for years, money left my account in small, forgettable amounts that never added up in my head until i looked at a bank statement and felt sick. drinks here, a round there, the version of a night out that costs more the next morning than it did at the bar.
i never sat down and said “this costs me $1000 a month.”
i recently quit drinking and started thinking of that $$ as means to better my life.
i know exactly what $200 buys me every month, because i build systems, workflows and self-using apps with it everyday.
the rule i actually run before i pay for anything now
i don't ask “can i afford this.” that was never the real question anyway.
i ask: does this replace something i was already spending both money and energy on, or is it just one more thing running quietly in the background.
if it only replaces the money, i give it a month and usually cancel it. if it replaces the money and the energy that used to go somewhere else, it earns its spot.
my claude subscription passes both. the money used to go toward something that cost me the next day too, now goes toward something that gives me the next day back 10 folds.
what actually changed, three months in
i'm not going to pretend the subscription did the hard part. i did the hard part. i quit.
what the subscription actually does is sit downstream of a decision i already made. the money that used to disappear into a night i wouldn't fully remember now goes into a system that's still there in the morning: the vault, the drafts, the automations, a proof of my work i can point to.
i didn't budget my way into this. i just started asking one honest question about where my money was actually going, and let the answer decide.
what's the $200 a month in your life that's never once had to explain itself?
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- AUNY 🧡