Update #63: Finances

"Hey, folks. Today's update will be a rundown of the ways I've spent large chunks of the Kickstarter money. Toward the end of this fairly long post I also comment on the fact that I wish I hadn't spent money on the ancillary parts of the project (locks, cases, etc.) until the picks were completely made and in hand. That's been one of my biggest takeaways from the project." [...]

"Travel and accomodations at various conferences, trainings and research, this includes trips by both car and plane. $2000 of it went directly to the Jetblue Bluepass, which allowed me to attend a number of conferences and small group events I wouldn't have been able to otherwise. There were an additional $2000 ($2009, to be exact, but as you can tell I'm rounding) in airfare for other events, trainings etc. I am not including personal travel in this, only locksport/physical security related talks, workshops and events.

Trips by car cost, in fuel and rental fees (had to rent twice, once because my car broke done, the other for convenience), $1375. This includes a trip to Chicago, 2 tours of business, schools and hackerspaces in Ohio, a trip to DC, 3 trips to NYC, and a rental in LA, though I'm not counting gas for that trip, because though it was bookended by a locksport related events, I used some of the time in between for personal driving.

Hotel stays I kept to a minimum whenever possible, often just sleeping in my car or with friends. Total hotel costs were $330.

I paid a third party $2000 for assistance in the production of the picks and there were some incidental costs in the process of working with him as well. Though that didn't work out very well, the larger cost of course was the time that I lost in the process. I should have bailed much earlier, but instead I stuck it out for many months. Each month I had other, non-locksport expenses.

My rent is $765 per month. I live in Central Square in Cambridge, MA. Our rents are notoriously high, but for my location & the space that I have, it's pretty good. I can and will be living in cheaper accomodations at the conclusion of my current lease.

My health insurance is $350 per month. My auto insurance isn't much, but the car did need a few significant repairs before I finally got rid of it a few months ago. Total repairs on the car came to a little over $3500.

I made 3 personal purchases (outside of meals, laundry detergent and all that normal getting by stuff). I bought a TV for $300, first TV I had purchased in years. I bought a $1200 laptop, as my prior computer had died. It was the most expensive laptop I've ever bought, but as I do a good amount of design work and video editing, and I had just recieved the initial deposit from Amazon, I decided to invest in a decent one. It has served me well and comes with me to every talk, workshop, etc. but for workshops I could have gotten by with a netbook or something, so I'm chalking this up to a personal purchase. I also took a vacation with my family that cost about $700.

There are innumerable small expenses that permeate anyone's life. Groceries, toilet paper, public transportation, etc. I don't keep good track of those things. I've also donated a lot of hardware to different hackerspaces, and all sorts of other stuff."