Stingy month: week 1

The results are in for week 1!

So far, Graeme has spent £34.69.

I have spent £63.92.

This consists of:
- £16 on flights to Berlin
- £10.73 on junk food/snacks
- £1.70 on a bus fare
- £27.01 on three birthday presents
- £8.48 on a CD for me.

Therefore I must spend less money on crap food, holidays and music. However, I am going to London tomorrow, which does not bode well...

Income includes £10 that I found on the floor, and £5.55 my mum gave me for a train ticket.

Stingy month begins!

So here are the rules for mine and Graeme's competition to spend as little money as possible in November:

1) Only money spent during the month counts, ie. electricity or water bills that have been prepaid don't count.
2) Rent doesn't count.
3) Heavily relying on the generousity/lending of friends will be seen as 'not in the spirit of the rules'.
4) Our own accounts of our spending will be official.
5) We are allowed to ask for details of each other's spending.
6) We each should publish a weekly total.
7) Cheques count on the day they are written.
8) Income cannot be deducted from expenditure, but can be taken note of for side interest.
9) The prize has something to do with German Christmas markets.

As I will update this every Monday, I'll give my lowdown for yesterday here:
1/11/09 - £16 on return flights to Berlin

How depressing...

This morning in our Japanese literature class we watched one of the most upsetting films I've ever seen - I actually wanted to cry when it had finished. It was Oshima Nagisa's Cruel Story of Youth, and I know Oshima is meant to be this cool, edgy director, but I have no idea what exactly he was trying to say with this movie. It was basically a lot of woman-beating, rape (and then the victim falling in love with her rapist), prostitution, forced abortion, some more rape and woman-beating then a nice violent death to top it all off. The main female character had no autonomy whatsoever, was saved from being raped by a guy who then raped her and then put her in more situations where she could have been raped so that he could 'save' her. The complete objectification and lack of any kind of respect for all the female characters was deeply troubling. I was planning on watching Alain Resnais' Night and Fog afterwards for my homework, but I think that's enough depressing stuff for today.

In other news, Pau is no longer offered as a term-abroad option, because it is shit. Yeah.