The Gotham Frugal and The Boy Wizard

Yesterday I received the final installment of J.K. Rowling's tale about a boy who finds out he is a wizard at the age of eleven and then spends 7 years fighting some evil wizard who's ass he mysteriously kicked when he was just an infant. It's very popular. In fact everywhere I go in New York City, in the subway, in the park, on the street, I see people carrying this thick grey book with the yellow spine.

This is actually the first time I looked forward to a Harry Potter release. Previously I'd been a casual fan, reading the books as I got to them. Last winter when I was holed up in the crawlspace above my friend's refrigerator (a domicile not unlike the one-time residence of our bespectacled and scarred hero) I polished off the last two books in the series. I found them to be more fun than the previous 4. The movie is high on my list of things I must do, but the scratch ain't there.

One of the things I like about the reading the book the week of its release is that I everyone else is doing it. I doubt many would call me a conformist or the guy who hops on every band wagon that rolls past, but I have a strange sense of fraternity with the other 9 million people reading the book here in America as well as the other millions around the world. I probably wouldn't get along with but 1 out 100,000 of these folks but at least we can agree on this: That Harry Potter kid is pretty cool. I'll be glad when I'm done because then I won't have to dodge every piece of media that summarizes the events of the book.

Reading is fun and free, I pre-ordered the book so it won't make the breakdown. Tonight I ate more of my lamb stew, which is less impressive and expensive than it sounds, though delicious all the same, and I read book 7. This morning I picked up some dry cleaning which is expensive around here. $22.50. That will make the breakdown, though never again. It's going on the budget and will be a permanent part of my monthly spending.

The Daily Breakdown

Starting Balance: -$46.25

In: $10

Out:
Dry-Cleaning $22.50

Balance: -$58.75