Warning: Extremely long post ahead.
I spend $600 on music lessons a month ($150/week)
I am extremely frugal, I go out to eat at most once every 2 weeks. My groccery bill is ~100 dollars a month (company caters breakfast/fruits) and I don't eat much aside from chicken/broccoli/beans/rice/pasta. I don't go to bars/clubs/sports/movies etc. Don't own a car. Walk to work, so saves me from commuting costs. Insurance is paid by company. No credit card debt, student loans, or anything really.
Essentially, the only cost I have is $1700 rent/utilities in an apartment studio (Chicago is expensive), $100 groceries, and this $600 music lessons.
Breakdown: I negotiated with my piano teacher and he normally charges $85, during a non-busy time for him, to $50 for an hour. He frequently goes to almost 2 hours because it's non-busy, and I am extremely grateful for that.
For cello, it's $30 for 45 minutes which is almost the cheapest in my city.
For violin, it's $55 for 45 minutes because violin teachers are expensive here, and she comes to my home, which saves transportation time/cost.
It's a huge part of my monthly expenses, and I am not sure what to do about it. Yes, I can self-learn, but violin/cello are very physical, and playing without a teacher is inefficient at best, and cause major injuries at worst. As for piano, I enjoy it very much (he teaches both classical and jazz). In a typical day, I practice piano for 2-3 hours (an hour before work, and 2 sessions of an hour after work), violin and cello 45 minutes each. I look forward to playing music everyday after hours of work.
What should I do? $600 a month seems like a lot as it's 7% of my monthly income (and 25% of my monthly expenses). That's $7200 post-tax down the drain. I CAN afford it, but it just feels like a waste.
I am extremely disappointed in myself because despite my food budget being very small, the savings there are all "wasted" on music lessons.
Net savings-wise, I am no better than someone who spends $600 eating out at restaurants everyday ($20 a day). In fact, I am worse, because there isn't a way to reduce this without either taking less lessons, or dropping an instrument. I don't spend money on Spotify/Netflix/going out BECAUSE of my enjoyment of these 3 instruments. I truly enjoy learning and playing classical music. 45 minutes lessons are very short, as time really does fly when you're having fun.
I do try to "salvage" some of it back, by tutoring others in math/science/SAT/ACT/GRE prep and charging $35-50 an hour, and going to focus groups, and doing /r/beermoney stuff, but I can't get enough to fully recoup the losses ($600/month).
September 26, 2017 at 02:19PM
