Right now what game is the most popular on pc.

I've been looking for a racing game for a while, but never have been able to find a good one. What do you guys play?

I am usually the type to play FPS/RPG/MMOs, but every so often I like to venture out and play a racing game. I've played everything from Mario Kart to Trackmania to Need for Speed(I really, really wish Need for speed: World didn't suck so bad, because then I wouldn't have to make this post). Very little do I play racing games nowadays, however I would love to find one that actually has people playing it. Trackmania United is just sort of dying, plus most people are only playing one type of gamemode(the stadium). NFS:W was fun, but as we all know, EA sucks and hasn't done anything else with the game other than try to push stupid deals for their pay to win bullshit instead of trying to fix the hackers and release new content for it.
So my question is this: What racing game is out there, one with multiplayer (it can be completely online or have an online component) that people play nowadays? Yes I am looking for one on the PC, and I don't care if it costs anything. Just something that there is an actual community for.

Edit - Got a PM from the faker titled; "Do you know what it feels like to log on and have half a dozen ppl calling you crazy?" I tried to reassure him it's all good but he's distraught. Said some things that made me feel guilty and I might delete this thread if he asks me to. I guess the damage is done though. Nice job dicks who harassed him, he seems like a nice enough guy. Said to keep it up but he wants nothing to do with TEFG anymore.
The Evil Farming Game is an old computer game that involves a farm, hiding the murder of your wife from police, and other vague creepy details. It was first mentioned online 4 years ago in a sub for finding video games; https://www.reddit.com/tipofmyjoystick/comments/4h5w1w/this_game_was_kind_of_like_harvest_moon
This got some attention for some reason, and people began to hunt. People were communicating with OP, mentioning games they find which are similar to either have them confirmed or ruled out. Nobody can find it. A couple of years pass and another post is made, this time by a different person. It seems to sound like this fellow is looking for the same game! https://www.reddit.com/tipofmyjoystick/comments/a6wfbm/pc_evil_farming_game/
This fueled the fire even more. People were wondering just what this "Evil Farming Game" was, why it was made, if it even exists. The gaming mystery caught some traction with a couple of popular youtubers and was featured in a couple of videos. It was around this time, a year ago that /ThatEvilFarmingGame begun.
A community which spent a year naming possible games, following leads, being trolled here and there with "broken laptops" and just waiting for the day "Sparta" (OP of the first post) confirms "Yes this is the game." The Subreddit grew to 10,000 people in a year and even branched off onto Discord. At some point someone decided to start a project of re-Creating this game based on the details known. The whole thing started to form it's own little cult based on the idea of this vague game.
Tons of threads, searching and speculating. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/k5ousd/idk_if_i_found_something_but_it_might_be_worth/ https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/jc6u6g/i_believe_the_evil_farming_game_is_confused/ Dozens of this nature. It's all guess work from everyone, they only have a small list of games they know it's not.
After some time most users seem to reach the conclusion it doesn't exist. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/ihp5ywe_all_know_its_fake/ https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/ijjuke/can_we_stop_with_all_the_troll_posts_and_this/
One day a suspiciously low quality, yet credible picture of a game was posted. With it were matching known details and some new ones. For the first time there were also detailed descriptions of the game play mechanics, which sounded like a playable game. It was topped off with the usual story of "on a friends old PC, better evidence soon. There have been many open ended promises of the like over time and people were jaded. However this thread had a ring of truth to it, for what it was. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kt6dcf/this_has_to_be_it_right_the_premise_is_exactly/ (Actual screenshot) https://imgur.com/AVQw8P8
Then it was deleted after only a day. The OP telling the moderator that they feared doxxing, knowing how big it would be to reveal the actual game. They would report back with real evidence soon. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kt9cjl/why_the_op_deleted_his_post/
Deleting it like that seemed to add credibility to it and gave people hope that this time the game would be found. This person wasn't looking for fame. They deleted their entire profile. The original story of how the game was found and how the screenshot was taken was flawed under a microscope, but also completely plausible. A few other people came out and said they had played this game before, or it was familiar. It was looking to be promising.
A lot of speculation occurred. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/ky0kfj/what_do_you_see_in_the_screenshot/
The general consensus being if it was a real game it maybe even THE game. The moderator of the sub was in communication with "Sparta" (OP of TEFG) allegedly. He sent the screenshot over.

"I can't tell, not good enough quality." https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kxk5dd/not_a_lead_for_the_game_i_am_sorry_about_being/

This provoked a lot of questions, naturally.
Most people agreed that despite the low quality picture, the game itself was quite clear. Clear enough that it SHOULD have gotten a clear yes or no from the only person known to have played it. People began to question the moderator more. They questioned this alleged "Sparta." They questioned the whole premise of That Evil Farming Game.
Until the game in the screen shot surfaced they were in limbo and questioning everything once again. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kt9cjl/why_the_op_deleted_his_post/gj41mmm/ https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/
There was one user who became particularly active at the same time the OP of the screenshot disappeared.
This person made a very long thread breaking down why they thought the screenshot was plausible. They were also grilling the moderator pretty hard with questions the Mod couldn't seem to answer, across other threads. This user was apparently trying to establish the credibility of the alleged "OP" and the Mod's communication with him, and knowledge that it was in fact the same person.
This user would post a paragraph of 4 or 5 clear questions and the moderator would reply with very vague answers to 1 or 2. There were claims made of the moderator having an alt, or more. This user claimed to be getting downvoted 3 times in quick succession on replies to the moderator within moments of the moderator replying. Some posts deleted. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/gjdbgqi/ https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/gj9z6vd/ https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/gj83tlt/ (Image in reply: https://imgur.com/a/EVbADTF )
This person was very determined to find hard answers.
Is the screenshot real? Is it The Evil Farming Game? Is the moderator even in communication with OP? How do they know it's actually OP? Why can't OP ID the game?
A popular theory is that it is some sort of scam to promote the game being built to "recreate TEFG based on known details." https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/k92j7i/i_am_starting_to_think_efg_is_a_advertisement/
In a twist, this new and active user came out and made a thread: after a week of asking dozens of questions which had poor answers and writing a books worth on the subject of TEFG.
They admitted to being the one who spent hours fabricating the screenshot.
They had burned a 6 year old, 50k karma account which originally posted the screenshot and story to add more credibility to the whole thing. They made a new account just to question the whole idea of the game, make people think about it. They had also left breadcrumb's of evidence along the way expecting it to turn up. It was another more clear screen shot, with a fabricated email conversation posted in the comments of one of the screenshots imgur links.
The post had proof of deleted posts mentioning how it's probably marketing. They revealed that they had spent the month on and off coming up with the idea as a way to "investigate" if the game was real. They stressed they were doing it in nature of "investigating" and not as a troll job, hence admitting it. After a long break down of a lot of "evidence" of all sorts of things the fake they were met with mostly mockery or hostility. They edited the post to simply say "I misunderstood the purpose of this sub. Yes, I deleted my own thread." Before deleting the thread and vanishing.
https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kzb5hm/the_truth_about_the_screenshot_and_the_results_of/
After some time this user came back. They had posted a long breakdown of the situation the day after the screenshot was posted. The thread got a lot of traction. This post was now edited to include a more condensed version of "the investigation" along with admitting to falsifying evidence up top. The user claimed they had done it all for their own curiosity. For the purpose of the hunt and that they were satisfied with their answer; "the game never existed." They deleted the original "grand reveal" of apparently a months work of investigation due to the hostility. Only revealing the truth of the forgery in an edit on the old thread and a couple of replies to old comments.
https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kts7og/new_to_the_hunt_just_some_thoughts_about/
What do you think? A long con troll? A real investigative tactic? Does the game exist? Why does someone care so much? Why did I spend all afternoon going through this?

So to start, you need to know what "shorting" a stock is. When someone thinks a stock is going to go down or a company will go bankrupt, they can borrow shares from their broker to open a "short" position. They then sell the shares immediately at the current market price. They have a specified amount of time to return the borrowed shares to the brokerage.
If the stock does go down, the investor buys that number of shares at the now lower current market price, and then returns them to the broker. He/she keeps the difference.
If the stock goes up, they have to "cover" their position. They can "buy-to-close" whenever they want, but many of them will wait for a very long time because they are large firms who have a lot of money and leeway with their brokerage. However, if a stock keeps going up and up, the brokerages can call the investor and demand the shares back to hedge their losses. This forced buying drives the price up even more, which then causes other brokerages to make the same phone call to their clients, and so on and so forth. This is called a "short squeeze".
---
GameStop is a declining brick-and-mortar video game retailer. Their management has not adapted to the digital world where many video games are downloaded instead of on discs. They have been making some moves in the right direction, such as closing underperforming stores and paying down some debt, but they need to reinvent themselves to succeed. Many large investors/firms have seen this coming and took out short positions a few years ago. The stock kept going down so the brokerages and banks hadn't called yet. GME is the most-heavily shorted stock on the market. More shares are shorted than are in circulation. It's called "naked short selling", it's complicated, and some of it is probably illegal but the SEC looks away.
Ryan Cohen founded Chewy.com when he was 25 and sold it six or so years later for $3.5 billion. Last August, he purchased 9% of GME's shares. When it was disclosed in the SEC filings, the stock went up 22% in a day (which is a LOT in normal circumstances). The thought being that he was going to attempt to take over the company. There was a lot of speculation online. In late November he wrote a strongly-worded letter to the Board of Directors.
Shortly before Christmas, he disclosed that he had bought more shares and now owns 12.9% of the company. He bought the new shares at $16ish, after buying the first batch around $4. When someone owns 10% or more of a company, there are heavy limitations on how much they can sell at one time, in a given period, and they have to disclose everything.
This signaled that he wasn't in it for a quick buck and he probably really was going to try to take over and modernize the entire company. Gamestop has something like 55 million members in their club/newsletter thing, and that data can be used to make a lot of money through targeted advertising and such. There have also been confirmed rumors that the company will be making a serious run at the fast-growing PC gaming market (many serious gamers build their own computers). Video game competitions are also very popular and can be capitalized on. The stock continued to slowly climb, with some sell-offs and such along the way. It was not for the faint of heart.
Fast-forward to January 10th, when it was announced that Cohen and two of his board members from Chewy were officially appointed to the GameStop Board. It was really looking like the theories from last fall were correct. The news sent the stock soaring and the investors who had short positions were in big trouble. Some of them started covering their debt, but many didn't and still haven't. The ones that did have incurred losses in the collective billions, and there are many more billions still out there that will be lost by short investors.
For the past two weeks, the pro-GameStop investors have shown great interest in the potential turnaround story of a store that plays a big role in their childhood memories. With the presence of Cohen and his buddies from Chewy, an e-commerce giant, small investors can see that GameStop is now undervalued to those who believe in the new Board members.
The stock has been incredibly volatile as the large investment firms try to drive the price down. One way they can do this by opening massive new short positions (AKA selling large chunks of shares all at once) as other shorts return their borrowed shares to the pool. This can be seen many times along the daily charts of GME, in nearly vertical declines. Knowing the potential of both Cohen and the short squeeze, small investors have been buying up all the dips. If the shares are being held, and not sold, they are unavailable to be returned to brokerages. This drives the price up even MORE as the short investors scramble to buy whatever shares are available to fill their debt before the price continues to rise. Eventually someone is left holding the shares purchased at the highest possible price, but in this once-in-a-lifetime case, it probably won't be someone with a net worth under $100 million.
​
Position: Go fuck yourself, shorts

Ladies and gentlemen and everyone in between, strap in because we’re going to use real words for this one. I speak for myself here and no one else (and no one else here speaks for everyone else either). Feel free to DM for more facts and context.
CNBC, whether its true or not, the past 3 days have made EVERYONE honestly believe that you are truly bought out by Wall Street, in every sense. You’ve paraded “analyst” after analyst, hedge fund manager after manager, boomer after boomer, to try and demonize and deflect blame for the GameStop situation.
Firstly, your contributors need to stop pretending they don’t know short squeeze mechanics.
You’ve had dozens of people on your air whining about how no one in wallstreetbets cares about fUnDaMeNtALs and VaLuATiOn regarding GameStop. OF COURSE, we don’t care about GME’s fundamentals anymore, because we are in a SQUEEZE. We are in a squeeze in which the Shorts have DOUBLED-DOWN constantly. That means OF COURSE the price keeps going into the stratosphere. Do you actually believe your own lie that the Shorts like Melvin have closed out? I don’t, and we have data that agrees. Why would we sell our shares “’fair value”” if the squeeze isn’t done?
Secondly, most of us are well aware that GME isn’t a $100billion company, or whatever $5000/share is. I think we are all very much aware that we are in the middle of a short squeeze, NOT price discovery.
This does not mean that our interest in GME was not a value-based thesis at first.
Our most famous GME long u/ DeepF**kingValue has been in GME since 2019.(!!!). There are others here who I’m sure joined at some point way back when. If you want more credibility, the famous Michael Burry and some dudebro Donald Foss both entered large positions in GME a long time ago. These people believed in the FUTURE VALUE of GME. They saw that savage, unrelenting short sellers like Melvin had pounded the share price into the ground, actively and immorally aiming for bankruptcy. Retail bought in in September because Ryan Cohen saw enough value to buy stock. The price jumped to $13/share in November because Ryan Cohen expressed his vision for a turnaround that people saw a ton of future value in. The big spike happened when Cohen n co. joined the BOARD OF DIRECTORS at GME. Why are your hosts and “analysts” pretending that these things didn’t happen?
And the whole while, Melvin and Shorts were DOUBLING DOWN on their positions, which were already part of the preposterous, irresponsible and potentially illegal +100% short interest. And even now (as far as we know), the short interest IS STILL OVER 100%. STOP PRETENDING THAT THESE THINGS DID NOT HAPPEN. You’ve had people constantly claiming that the prices are reaching these levels “for no reason” and that the initial bullish sentiment was created “out of thin air”. The people who keep saying these things, including your hosts, are either willfully ignorant or acting in bad faith.
Good, decent people provided their Due Diligence on this subreddit. They pointed out the $6.4billion in revenue in 2019. They pointed out the E-commerce sales tripling YOY. They pointed out the ability to easily pay off debt. They even called HUNDREDS of GameStops, where we found out they were constantly selling out of inventory, AND have plans of having PC-building-stations in-store. They pointed out the rapidly expanding Gaming Market, and the ability to grab substantial market share. And yes, they pointed out the 140% short interest, BUT PEOPLE DID NOT START BUYING $GME SOLELY BECAUSE OF SHORT INTEREST. Smart or not, honest people here bought into GME initially as a value play. They did their homework. They found data. They showed proof of positions. This brings me to my third point:
In the entire time I have been on wallstreetbets, we have NEVER “targeted” a stock or hedge fund JUST to bust the shorts. Short-busting is not who WSB is. Those are the kids on TikTok, or the grifters on Twitter. Every single popular thesis on here has been backed up with research, financial analysis, and quality (depending on who you ask) discussion. Just because we talk like, stupid people, doesn’t mean we don’t say smart things. And maybe our ideas DO end up backfiring (see: $PRPL), and MAYBE 85% of the members don’t know what theta decay is, but we do not pull stocks out of thin air, as you’ve claimed.
People here genuinely believe in these stocks. People here believe in Ryan Cohen, and the potential for GameStop to be reinvented. People believe in Blackberry’s future (present) as a rock solid software company. This brings me to my final issue:
It is disingenuous and plainly incorrect to blame every. single. price increase. on the “reddit rebellion” and short squeezes. STOP saying we are going after $BBBY – there hasn’t been a substantive post in 4 months on that. STOP saying we are pumping $NOK – we’ve advocated for leap calls in NOK for MONTHS because we know we cannot wait out their giant share float. And for JPow’s sake, STOP BLAMING US FOR A[movie company]MC, EX[clothing store]PR, AND IRBT. TWO OF THOSE TICKERS ARE LITERALLY BANNED FROM THIS SUBREDDIT, AND THE OTHER ISN’T EVEN REAL TO US. WE CANT EVEN TYPE THEM INTO A POST WITHOUT GETTING AUTO-DELETED. People who try to pump a stock for no reason are BANNED. Yes, because of the events of this month, and because of the actions of groups like Citron, many people are happily engaging in one particular short squeeze. But that’s it. Yes, retail is more powerful than you may know, but we are not that powerful.
If you or anyone else reading this are wondering why there seems to be more internet chatter on that one particular movie company, hear this: SOMEONE has been creating fake accounts and BOTS to spam and pump up [movie company] and $nok, etc. to distract from GME. Ask the admins. Look at Chamath’s twitter replies. Look at ALL OF FINANCE TWITTER. There are newly created accounts and bots spamming the hell out of these other stocks in an effort to manipulate the market and save the shorts. Jeez, I wonder who is behind that? Could it be the same group of people who bought $1.2million of GME puts right before tweeting something?
If anyone in the void is reading this, thanks. The point of this post was just to fight back in a tiny way against the days and days of whining millionaires on TV berating people they literally know nothing about. It’s to point out the ignorance of self-serving boomers saying things like “the SEC needs to regulate the Reddit”, etc. The point of this post was just to get our little corner of truth out there in the world, because we all know that truth is in short supply. 🚀
​
​

I feel like a broken record talking about this but I was inspired by an askreddit post that got really popular, and I think sometimes I just need to vent my pent-up frustrations.
I used to work at a PC store, selling gaming/custom PC components and building them on occasion. My nametag said, 'ormr_kin - Build Your Own PC'.
And goddamn it pissed me off so much when guys would come in and ask,
'Did you build your own PC? Do you build PCs?'
Drove me fucking insane. Feels like I'm a toddler and someone is crouching down and gently patting me on the head and going 'Aww that's cute sweetheart.'
Maybe I let it get to me a little too much but I don't get how people can be that thick. I have the nametag that LITERALLY says 'build your own PC'. I've gotten this question even as they see me elbows deep in a computer when they come in!!
It happened at my job before there too when I worked at a game store. 'Do you game?'
There was one time when I kind of just laughed nervously at the guy because I didn't really know what to tell him. Like, uh, dude, I literally just recommended you a game I have indeed played. Yes. I game.
I dunno. I know that most people don't mean harm by it. It just bothers me. I hope that one day we can normalize women being into tech/stem/etc and I won't be regarded as this 'magical unicorn' because I'm a computer geek. And don't get me wrong, it's certainly better than it has been in the past, but it still baffles me that guy's are surprised when they find out I have my own gaming PC and I built it myself and it's not bright pepto-bismol pink (not that there is anything wrong with that - I just have found from experience that guys will expect my computer to be pink for some reason. It's cute, but not my thing).
EDIT: wow this really blew up! Honestly I wrote this thinking I'd just be shouting into the void but I had a great time reading about other people's struggles with similar things. I work in fiber engineering now and a lot of the things I read I can definitely relate to. Thankfully though I have experienced a lot less of this stuff since I'm no longer customer-facing which is really nice.
I also wanted to clarify something -- I wasn't trying to insinuate that everyone has to squint at my nametag and confirm that I work in a department before they ask me for help or anything like that. I used the nametag as a sort of joke because A. It was my job title, and B. It's incredibly obvious what department I worked in/what I do the moment you step foot into the department. Obviously I can tell the difference between someone genuinely asking me that question because they want to make sure they are talking to the right person versus someone asking me because they don't expect someone like me to be tech savvy. And the latter is frustrating. That's all!

The Evil Farming Game is an old computer game that involves a farm, hiding the murder of your wife from police, and other vague creepy details. It was first mentioned online 4 years ago in a sub for finding video games; https://www.reddit.com/tipofmyjoystick/comments/4h5w1w/this_game_was_kind_of_like_harvest_moon
This got some attention for some reason, and people began to hunt. People were communicating with OP, mentioning games they find which are similar to either have them confirmed or ruled out. Nobody can find it. A couple of years pass and another post is made, this time by a different person. It seems to sound like this fellow is looking for the same game! https://www.reddit.com/tipofmyjoystick/comments/a6wfbm/pc_evil_farming_game/
This fueled the fire even more. People were wondering just what this "Evil Farming Game" was, why it was made, if it even exists. The gaming mystery caught some traction with a couple of popular youtubers and was featured in a couple of videos. It was around this time, a year ago that /ThatEvilFarmingGame begun.
A community which spent a year naming possible games, following leads, being trolled here and there with "broken laptops" and just waiting for the day "Sparta" (OP of the first post) confirms "Yes this is the game." The Subreddit grew to 10,000 people in a year and even branched off onto Discord. At some point someone decided to start a project of re-Creating this game based on the details known. The whole thing started to form it's own little cult based on the idea of this vague game.
Tons of threads, searching and speculating. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/k5ousd/idk_if_i_found_something_but_it_might_be_worth/ https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/jc6u6g/i_believe_the_evil_farming_game_is_confused/ Dozens of this nature. It's all guess work from everyone, they only have a small list of games they know it's not.
After some time most users seem to reach the conclusion it doesn't exist. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/ihp5ywe_all_know_its_fake/ https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/ijjuke/can_we_stop_with_all_the_troll_posts_and_this/
One day a suspiciously low quality, yet credible picture of a game was posted. With it were matching known details and some new ones. For the first time there were also detailed descriptions of the game play mechanics, which sounded like a playable game. It was topped off with the usual story of "on a friends old PC, better evidence soon. There have been many open ended promises of the like over time and people were jaded. However this thread had a ring of truth to it, for what it was. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kt6dcf/this_has_to_be_it_right_the_premise_is_exactly/ (Actual screenshot) https://imgur.com/AVQw8P8
Then it was deleted after only a day. The OP telling the moderator that they feared doxxing, knowing how big it would be to reveal the actual game. They would report back with real evidence soon. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kt9cjl/why_the_op_deleted_his_post/
Deleting it like that seemed to add credibility to it and gave people hope that this time the game would be found. This person wasn't looking for fame. They deleted their entire profile. The original story of how the game was found and how the screenshot was taken was flawed under a microscope, but also completely plausible. A few other people came out and said they had played this game before, or it was familiar. It was looking to be promising.
A lot of speculation occurred. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/ky0kfj/what_do_you_see_in_the_screenshot/
The general consensus being if it was a real game it maybe even THE game. The moderator of the sub was in communication with "Sparta" (OP of TEFG) allegedly. He sent the screenshot over.

"I can't tell, not good enough quality." https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kxk5dd/not_a_lead_for_the_game_i_am_sorry_about_being/

This provoked a lot of questions, naturally.
Most people agreed that despite the low quality picture, the game itself was quite clear. Clear enough that it SHOULD have gotten a clear yes or no from the only person known to have played it. People began to question the moderator more. They questioned this alleged "Sparta." They questioned the whole premise of That Evil Farming Game.
Until the game in the screen shot surfaced they were in limbo and questioning everything once again. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kt9cjl/why_the_op_deleted_his_post/gj41mmm/ https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/
There was one user who became particularly active at the same time the OP of the screenshot disappeared.
This person made a very long thread breaking down why they thought the screenshot was plausible. They were also grilling the moderator pretty hard with questions the Mod couldn't seem to answer, across other threads. This user was apparently trying to establish the credibility of the alleged "OP" and the Mod's communication with him, and knowledge that it was in fact the same person.
This user would post a paragraph of 4 or 5 clear questions and the moderator would reply with very vague answers to 1 or 2. There were claims made of the moderator having an alt, or more. This user claimed to be getting downvoted 3 times in quick succession on replies to the moderator within moments of the moderator replying. Some posts deleted. https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/gjdbgqi/ https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/gj9z6vd/ https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kx48zw/someone_somewhere_is_lying/gj83tlt/ (Image in reply: https://imgur.com/a/EVbADTF )
This person was very determined to find hard answers.
Is the screenshot real? Is it The Evil Farming Game? Is the moderator even in communication with OP? How do they know it's actually OP? Why can't OP ID the game?
A popular theory is that it is some sort of scam to promote the game being built to "recreate TEFG based on known details." https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/k92j7i/i_am_starting_to_think_efg_is_a_advertisement/
In a twist, this new and active user came out and made a thread: after a week of asking dozens of questions which had poor answers and writing a books worth on the subject of TEFG.
They admitted to being the one who spent hours fabricating the screenshot.
They had burned a 6 year old, 50k karma account which originally posted the screenshot and story to add more credibility to the whole thing. They made a new account just to question the whole idea of the game, make people think about it. They had also left breadcrumb's of evidence along the way expecting it to turn up. It was another more clear screen shot, with a fabricated email conversation posted in the comments of one of the screenshots imgur links.
The post had proof of deleted posts mentioning how it's probably marketing. They revealed that they had spent the month on and off coming up with the idea as a way to "investigate" if the game was real. They stressed they were doing it in nature of "investigating" and not as a troll job, hence admitting it. After a long break down of a lot of "evidence" of all sorts of things the fake they were met with mostly mockery or hostility. They edited the post to simply say "I misunderstood the purpose of this sub. Yes, I deleted my own thread." Before deleting the thread and vanishing.
https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kzb5hm/the_truth_about_the_screenshot_and_the_results_of/
After some time this user came back. They had posted a long breakdown of the situation the day after the screenshot was posted. The thread got a lot of traction. This post was now edited to include a more condensed version of "the investigation" along with admitting to falsifying evidence up top. The user claimed they had done it all for their own curiosity. For the purpose of the hunt and that they were satisfied with their answer; "the game never existed." They deleted the original "grand reveal" of apparently a months work of investigation due to the hostility. Only revealing the truth of the forgery in an edit on the old thread and a couple of replies to old comments.
https://www.reddit.com/ThatEvilFarmingGame/comments/kts7og/new_to_the_hunt_just_some_thoughts_about/
What do you think? A long con troll? A real investigative tactic? Does the game exist? Why does someone care so much? Why did I spend all afternoon going through this?

As a semi-follow-up to this thread, what are your favorite games that, although not nearly as popular and influential as they should be, you think everyone should try?
Here are 10 of my picks. I'll try to stay away from obvious choices like Pyschonauts or Beyond Good & Evil. Feel free to recommend them below, though!
In order of release:

The Lords of Midnight | 1984 | ZX Spectrum, PC, Mobile

A work of technical wizardry. I have no idea how did they put such a complex game into the (even for its time) archaic ZX Spectrum. The story is nothing to write home about: defend the lands of Midnight and fight Doomdark's (really) legions. The gameplay, on the other hand, is a great mix of strategy and role-play. You can either recruit the titular Lords of Midnight and fight an epic war, eventually sieging Mordor Ushgarak, or send a small party to steal and destroy the One Ring Ice Crown. You can even do both at the same time, diverting Doomdark's attention with your armies while one of your heroes goes for the crown — in fact, that's the approach the game manual recommends.
It's not just technically or mechanically impressive, but visually as well. It uses the limited pallet of the ZX Spectrum in a smart way, going for an ethereal look that I find aesthetically pleasing to this day. Thanks to modern ports to PC and iOS/Android, which add QOL improvements to the interface and eliminate the absurd load times, it's easy to enjoy this game nowadays.

Alter Ego | 1986 | DOS, PC, Mobile

Alter Ego is a life simulator, in the same vein of The Sims. Well, kinda, but not really. For one, it's much more down-to-earth and less comedic. You play as a single human being, from birth to death, reading little vignettes with life events (some important, some mundane) and making choices along the way. You get the whole package: you learn how to talk, embarrass your family at parties, discovers masturbation, get your first boyfriend/girlfriend, go to college, and so on.
Now, what I find really interesting about this game is how some events and decisions are surprising even for today's standards. You can die at an early age by the hands of a child abuser. You can get pregnant as a teen and have an abortion. You can even commit suicide, if your character develops depression!
I dare say that many of the events of this game would be at least controversial nowadays, given the current political climate and our modern sensibilities. But Alter Ego is not trying to be edgy or controversial. It's just trying to simulate a normal life, with boring bits and dramatic episodes getting the same space on the spotlight.

E.V.O.: Search for Eden | 1992 | SNES

A very unorthodox mix of platforming and jRPG, with unique story and gameplay. In EVO you're not a hero trying to beat a Big Bad or save the princess, but a simple life-form that has to survive and evolve. You start as a small fish in the Cambrian Period, eating jellyfish until you have enough evolution points to be able to evolve - which is done by spending said points "buying" new body parts, like better teeth or a fins.
But survival is not its own end. The "survival of the fittest" is a race with a definite goalpost, with the best and brightest life-form being able to enter Eden and become the consort of Gaia (the personification of planet Earth). The thing is, like any competition, you have to look out for cheaters. Some beings are able to take huge leaps in evolution thanks to mysterious crystals, whose origin is unknown. As the game goes on, you travel to other time periods and see more evidence of interference on evolution and Gaia's plan. Can you reach Eden, or will you die along the way as just another failed evolution?

Sub-Terrania | 1994 | Mega Drive

Shoot 'em ups are not my jam, but Sub-Terrania is The Exception to the Rule. It's like someone took a look at Asteroids or Gravitar and said, "know what it needs? To be more like Metroid!". Crazy thing is, it works. Each stage is like a micro-metroidvania, where you have to explore, find keys and shoot a bunch of aliens to proceed. Traversing the levels is a challenge in itself, since you have be careful maneuvering your ship and always take your fuel reserve into account. It's a total of 9 levels with multiple objectives and the eventual boss along the way. Very challenging, but also very fun.

King of Dragon Pass | 1999 | PC

A mix of RPG, strategy, simulation and visual novel set in a non-tolkienesque iron age fantasy world. What's not to like?
It's also a very, very hard game. As the leader of a orlanthi (human) clan in the titular Dragon Pass, you have to deal with internal, external and even supernatural problems all the time. To approach KoDP as a traditional strategy game is to doom yourself. The only way to succeed is by understand the culture of orlanthi society and act accordingly. Should we raid or neighbors or show mercy? Is banishment a just punishment for adultery? What about our ancestors, what's their view on slavery or friendly relations with dragons? These are just some of the decisions you have to make as a clan leader - and a single mistake can put all your people in jeopardy.
But even if you do everything "right", the good ol' RNG can destroy your progress in a heartbeat. You're just one bad harvest away from famine - or, most likely, one bad sacrifice away from a curse or zombies.
It's all very challenging, sometimes even downright stressful, but also very much worth it. Finally uniting the orlanthi tribes and becoming the King of Dragon Pass is a experience I'll never forget.

Vagrant Story | 2000 | PS1

Probably the most well known game in this list. I have to confess, it's not a game for everyone. It has a very unique combat that mixes real-time, turns, 3D maneuvering and elemental strengths/weaknesses, an absurdly complex crafting system, a plot centered on political intrigue and conspiracy and a visual style that deviates from your typical anime-esque jRPG. It's hard, complex, obtuse and old. But it's also one of the most creative and well-made jRPGs I've ever played.

Ninja Five-O | 2003 | GBA

An action-platformer that screams "Ninja Gaiden" or "Shinobi". It's just as hard as these classics, but I dare say it's also a much smarter game. If you don't think before you act, you're gonna have a bad time. Not that the game gives you much time to think, mind you. You're always at your edge, at the same time reacting and planning your next move. Just like a... Ninja.

Astro Boy: Omega Factor | 2003 | GBA

I love Astro Boy and at first was reluctant to play this adaptation. Well, it's not just an excellent tribute to Tezuka's work, but an awesome game on its own - although I recommend the game specially if you're a fan of Osamu Tezuka.
The game has an excellent audio-visual aesthetic (almost bringing the GBA down on its knees) and a cool beat 'em up/shmup gameplay (it was developed by Treasure, after all). But the true high point is the plot. Goddamnit, what an incredible story. The first ending was a big mindfuck, and the true ending a genuine tearjerker. I wasn't expecting such a strong narrative from this game and was pleasantly surprised.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia | 2008 | NDS

Castlevania is quite popular, but Order of Ecclesia is an often forgotten installment of the series, even among the fans of the GBA/NDS games. Which is a shame, since it does some unique things for the series and is, in my humble opinion, the best Castlevania since Symphony of the Night.
OoE tries to mix the action-oriented style of oldschool Castlevanias with the exploration-focused experience of the post-SotN era. The world is divided in smaller stages, which one being a mini-metroidvania map on its own. Some stages are more direct and linear, while others are full of secrets and have to be revisited once you get new abilities. Some people complained that this approach simplified things too much, but I felt it was a nice change, with levels still requiring exploration and being well designed.
Another notable change is in the challenge. The difficulty is substantially higher than the previous installments, more closely resembling the unforgiving experience from the NES and SNES (although not to the same infuriating degree).
And to top it off, the art direction returned to the gothic style last seen in Aria of Sorrow, abandoning the generic anime-like aesthetic from the two previous games. Thank God.

Samorost 3 | 2016 | PC, Mobile

Originally this post would be about point-and-click adventures, but I decided to recommend just this one. I feel that if I don't, no one will. It's by fair the most recent game on this list, too, so maybe calling it a "cult-classic" is forcing it. Maybe we could consider it a "modern cult-classic", instead? I digress.
Maybe you already played another point-and-click adventure made by Amanita Design, Machinarium. Well, Samorost is the prettier, crazier, more charming cousin. I wouldn't be surprised if the devs actually used amanita before making this game. It plays as your standard point-and-click: get things, combine things, use things. But the things you get, combine and use came from some psychedelic, drug-induced trip.
Although crazy, I wouldn't say it's cryptic. The puzzles make sense in context and you can beat it in a couple of hours or a long afternoon at most. It's a short and sweet experience and a delight for eyes and ears.
Tl;dr: Samorost is The Secret of Monkey Island for cool kids.
N.b.: Samorost 1 and 2 are cool too, but not as cool as 3.
N.b. 2: if you think Samorost 3 is too young to be on the list, you can replace it with I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
What about you, fellow patient gamers? What are some cult-classics you recommend?

Hey guys, Ivan from The Right PC here.
I am happy to announce that Keycap Buddy is now available for pre-order starting 1/18/2021 and ending 2/15/2021 11:59PM PST. There will be 4 colors available this run: 3 standard colors and 1 limited edition color with limited quantity available.
Have you ever needed a friend? Keycap Buddy will always be your friend! Our Keycap Buddy Desk Mat will be there for all your gaming, productivity, and desk setup needs. Keycap Buddy says ともだち or "Tomodachi," which means friend in Japanese (lettering written in Hiragana).
Early samples for reference: https://imgur.com/a/eApX2hJ
Renders: https://imgur.com/a/JLVzNcz
Standard Colors Product Link
Limited Edition Color Product Link (Limited Quantity Available)
- Edit: the limited edition one seems to have sold out really quickly, we might open up a couple more slots randomly throughout the group buy period to give people a chance to cop one.
- Edit 2: 1/18/2021 11:07am PST - I will be adding 15 more slots within the hour for the limited edition color to give people a chance since it sold out right away. That will be all the slots I will open up for the rest of the group buy to maintain the limited edition aspect of the mat!
- Edit 3: 1/19/2021 11:42AM PST - Limited Edition is officially sold out as of 1/18/2021 at 3:32PM PST. We do not plan at the moment to open up any more slots, but there will most likely be a couple extras released after the mats have shipped!
Edit 4: 1/23/2021 12:09AM PST - GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! WINNER IS ImpossibleExcuse7781 They have 24 hours to respond to my pm or the winner will be rerolled!
Due to popular request, we will also be releasing a limited edition holographic Keycap Buddy - Series 1 collectable sticker pack in the limited edition colorway. Details here. Stickers will be available to ship earlier than the desk mats if you only purchase the stickers. If you order a sticker pack with your desk mat, they will be shipped together. For international customers, you will get free shipping on the stickers if you order any desk mat (you must add both to your cart for it to automatically be applied).
Product Details:
Dimensions: 900mm x 400m x 4mm
Pre-Order Pricing: $27 + shipping (Limited Edition will be $30) | US and Worldwide | Free shipping to the US | International shipping available
Edges: High quality stitched edges
High quality printing process.
Note: Color might vary slightly from the render.
US + Worldwide Vendor: The Right PC - https://www.therightpc.tech
Thank you to everyone who joined our discord! We're almost at 200 members and have built a fun community!! Please also consider joining our discord for updates and news. We do giveaways during product launches (like this one) on our discord as well!! I am very active on discord so you can always reach me there. Follow us on Instagram as well!
Discord: https://discord.gg/429cvBA
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therightpc
Giveaway Details: 1/18/2021 - 1/22/2021 11:59PM PST (US + International)
To celebrate the launch of Keycap Buddy Desk Mat - Series 1, we will be giving away one Series 1 Keycap Buddy Desk Mat in any of our standard colors of your choice. To participate in the giveaway, comment down below what colors you would like to see in future Keycap Buddy Desk Mat releases.
To qualify, your account must be at least 15 days old and with at least 30 total karma. Winner will be chosen with reddit raffler on 1/23/2021. Winner will be re-rolled if there they do not respond within 24 hours of being notified or if they do not have a valid shipping address. If you pre-ordered a standard color Keycap Buddy Desk Mat, you will have the option to get your order refunded if you win the giveaway.

Game Information

Game Title: Cyberpunk 2077
Genre: Role-playing, first-person, action-adventure, sci-fi, dystopian, open-world
Platforms: Playstation 4/5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC, Stadia
Media: 2012 Cyberpunk 2077 Title Reveal
2013 Teaser Trailer
Mike Pondsmith about Cyberpunk World
E3 2018 Trailer | Gamescom 2018 48-Minute Gameplay Walkthrough
E3 2019 Cinematic Trailer | E3 2018 Keanu Reveal
'The Gig' Trailer
Night City Wire: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5
Refused: Becoming SAMURAI | Lifepaths | Tools of Destruction
Postcards from Night City | Gangs of Night City
Rides of the Dark Future | 2077 in Style | 'The Diner'
Xbox One X & Xbox Series X Footage | PlayStation 4/5 Footage
Johnny Silverhand Trailer | JALI Lipsync Tech
Official Gameplay Trailer | Photo Mode Trailer
Developer: CD Projekt Red ^Info
Publisher: CD Projekt
Price: $59.99 USD
Release Date: December 9-10, 2020
Next-gen features patch - TBA 2021
More Info: /cyberpunkgame | Wikipedia Page
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 77 | 65% Recommended [Cross-Platform] Score Distribution
MetaCritic - [PS5]
MetaCritic - [XBSX]
MetaCritic - 86 [PC]
MetaCritic - 54 [PS4]
MetaCritic - 58 [XB1]
MetaCritic - [Stadia]
Neuronally arbitrary list of past CD Projekt Red games -

Entry	Score Platform, Year, # of Critics
The Witcher	81 PC, 2007, 50 critics
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings	88 PC, 2011, 76 critics
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	92 PS4, 2015, 79 critics
The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone	89 PC, 2015, 37 critics
The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine	92 PC, 2016, 50 critics
Gwent: The Witcher Card Game	80 PC, 2018, 6 critics
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales	85 PC, 2018, 51 critics
Cyberpunk 2O77	99 PS4, 2020, 79 critics

Reviews

Reviews in bold were posted after launch

Website/Author	Aggregates' Score ~ Critic's Score	Quote	Platform
Polygon - Carolyn Petit	Unscored ~ Unscored	Cyberpunk 2077 is dad rock, not new wave	PC
Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Graham Smith	Unscored ~ Unscored	Cyberpunk 2077 is huge, sprawling, complex, and deeply flawed. It’s at its best as a fairly straightforward singleplayer action game, with likable characters and thrilling capers in a fascinatingly detailed open world that looks better than any game before it. It’s at its worst if you want it to be an RPG, an approach-as-you-please Deus Ex successor, or a polished piece of software. I enjoyed my time with it a lot, and I even want more of it, though I’m going to spend years complaining about its flaws. I’ll enjoy the complaining, too.	PC
Skill Up - Ralph Panebianco	Unscored ~ Unscored	This game and Night City are far too special an experience to be interrupted and undermined by the issues that currently undermine this game. Part of me wishes I was among the people who picked up the game for the first time a year from now, with all its parts finished and shiny like a brand new Quadro type 66 Avenger. Regardless of when you pick it up, you're in for a once in a lifetime experience, and you can't say that about many games.	PC
Push Square - Robert Ramsey	Unscored ~ Review-In-Progress	On PS5 via backwards compatibility, there's still fun to be had - a glimpse of the game's excellent potential - but even then, it's crippled by bugs and crashing issues. There's something truly special at the core of Cyberpunk 2077, but in its current state, it's simply not good enough. So far, a colossal disappointment.	PS4
TheSixthAxis - Alexis Ong	Unscored ~ Review-In-Progress	Pondsmith has talked at length about how 2020 and 2077 aren’t meant to be prophecies, but cautionary tales, but CDPR isn’t quite the right studio to pull off a cautionary tale of this scope. I’m not sure whether dumping more hours in will yield a better takeaway, but here’s hoping for more.	PS4 Pro
Press Start - Brodie Gibbons	Unscored ~ Review-In-Progress	Cyberpunk 2077 is staggering, overwhelming, and even surprising at times in its spectacle. Although my first dozen hours with the game has been marred by easy-to-fix problems, Nighty City, along with all it offers and all that call it home, makes for an intoxicating escape. Here's hoping the next one hundred hours are as utterly compelling.	PC
Eurogamer - Chris Tapsell	Unscored ~ Recommended	Exceptional characters, heartfelt storytelling and enjoyable action threaten to be engulfed by endless bugs and hasty, uneven design.	PC
GameOnAUS - Royce Wilson	Unscored ~ Essential	This is an outstanding and highly enjoyable game, but take your time with it, do all the side missions (think of them as extensions of the main quest, in fact) and don’t rush the main storyline. You should absolutely take the earliest available opportunity to explore Night City and everything it has to offer. From the visuals to the music to the vibe, it’s a superb experience and one I am looking forward to spending a lot more time with.	PC
Daily Mirror - James Ide	100 ~ 5 / 5 stars	It's been a long wait, but the end result is a massive sprawling RPG with an incredible story, heart-pounding action, solid mechanics and customisation, offering you unparalleled player choice in a deep, atmospheric world that I can't wait to plug myself back into.	PC
Digital Spy - Owen Gough	100 ~ 5 / 5 stars	We could wax lyrical about how good this game is for another ten years, and we still think the conversation would be relevant - so yes, we think Cyberpunk 2077 is the game of the decade. This is an event, and a big moment in gaming, because the brilliant Cyberpunk 2077 is laying down the stepping stones for greater feats in the future.	PC
GameSpew - Richard Seagrave	100 ~ 10 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t perfect, but it is ambitious. It marries a gripping story with a huge open world absolutely dripping with atmosphere; one in which, after fifty hours of gameplay, I still feel like I’ve only scratched its surface. Even now I’m itching to jump back in and complete yet more side jobs, not only because they’re enjoyable, but also just in case they offer V more options when it comes to ending their story.	PC
Gamerheadquarters - Jason Stettner	100 ~ 10 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 is the cyberpunk game of my dreams, it provides one of the most highly detailed environments I’ve ever seen, with an incredibly expansive and immersive narrative.	Stadia
GamesRadar+ - Sam Loveridge	100 ~ 5 / 5 stars	What Cyberpunk 2077 lacks in core campaign length, it makes up for with depth and soul, offering a world of intrigue and violence unlike any other.	PC
God is a Geek - Mick Fraser	100 ~ 10 / 10	Despite a few flaws, Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most consistently astounding pieces of media I've ever had the pleasure of consuming.	PC
PowerUp! - Leo Stevenson	100 ~ 10 / 10	Frankly, Cyberpunk 2077 is the best video game I've ever played	PC
The Digital Fix - Andrew Shaw	100 ~ 10 / 10	CD Projekt Red has set a new standard for what can be achieved in this sandbox. Cyberpunk 2077 is taking open-world gaming to the next generation.	PC
TheGamer - Kirk McKeand	100 ~ 5 / 5 stars	I’m V and the game is Silverhand - I can’t get Cyberpunk 2077 out of my head. I’ve had it a week and played 70 hours, which is probably about as healthy as scooping out my face and replacing it with electronics, but it didn’t feel like work. Like a digital personality loaded onto a biochip, it felt like stepping into another life for a while. It’s a life I can’t wait to relive.	PC
VG247 - James Billcliffe	100 ~ 5 / 5 stars	With so much to see and do, Cyberpunk 2077 is the kind of RPG where you blink and hours go by, which is just what we need to finish off 2020.	PC
Windows Central - Jez Corden	100 ~ 5 / 5 stars	Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world masterpiece that features some of the most immersive and liberating storytelling this industry has to offer. With full freedom to choose V's personality, looks, and gameplay style, Cyberpunk 2077 gives the player an unrelenting amount of control in a world that delivers dozens upon dozens of hours of high-quality content.	PC
Stevivor - Jay Ball	95 ~ 9.5 / 10	The most important thing that everyone needs to know about Cyberpunk 2077 is that while it’s imperfect, it is without a doubt a superb game.	PC
Geek Culture - Marion Frayna	91 ~ 9.1 / 10	The dark future certainly looks promising, thanks to the collective imagination of the team at CD Projekt Red, which seems to know no bounds. Cyberpunk 2077 certainly took a while to come to our hands, but be glad it’s finally here, for it is here to stay for a long time to come. And it certainly did not disappoint.	PC
Game Informer - Andrew Reiner	90 ~ 9 / 10	An open world you can get lost in and continue finding new things to do	PC
GameWatcher - Marcello Perricone	90 ~ 9 / 10	A remarkably well-executed open world game whose greatest heights exceed its deepest failings.	PC
GamingBolt - Rohan Philip	90 ~ 9 / 10	Minor flaws aside, Cyberpunk 2077 on PC is an exciting and enthralling open world experience. It doesn't set a new industry standard, but it does most of the things it aims to do with great success.	PC
Hardcore Gamer - Chris Shive	90 ~ 4.5 / 5	Cyberpunk 2077 is excellent and one of the must-play titles of 2020, but unfortunately this statement needs to be clarified depending on the platform.	PC
IGN - Tom Marks	90 ~ 9 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 throws you into a beautiful, dense cityscape and offers a staggering amount of flexibility in how you choose to take it from there.	PC
PC Invasion - Jason Rodriguez	90 ~ 9 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 has some glaring flaws and missed opportunities. Its open-world sandbox suffers from poor NPC and police AI, and it lacks customization and transmogrification features to help your character stand out. Still, the pros outweigh the cons owing to a brilliant narrative, memorable missions, strong supporting cast of characters, well-integrated combat and hacking mechanics, and jaw-dropping visuals.	PC
PCGamesN - Richard Scott-Jones	90 ~ 9 / 10	Groundbreaking, but not quite as much as you're hoping it is. Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't surpass its brilliant influences, but in Night City, Johnny Silverhand, and its chilling vision of hyper-capitalism, it claims territory of its own.	PC
RPG Site - Alex Donaldson	90 ~ 9 / 10	When Cyberpunk's grim setting and mix of gameplay systems land, it is a powerfully impressive experience - sprawling, dense, clever, witty, and most importantly damn good fun. Other times, it has all the charm of a moody, edgy teenager.	PC
TrueAchievements - Heidi Nicholas	90 ~ 4.5 / 5 stars	It might not reinvent the genre in every aspect, but for a fantastic story, an insanely detailed word, and brilliant dialogue, you’ve got to try it.	PC
Xbox Achievements - Dan Webb	85 ~ 85 / 100	Cyberpunk 2077 is an incredible but hugely flawed video game. At its core lies a deceptively deep-RPG, set in one of the most wonderous cities ever created in video games and it’s genuinely an experience I’ll never forget. It’s just a shame it’s such a bloody bugfest, though.	XBSX
Daily Star - Tom Hutchison	80 ~ 4 / 5 stars	If you’re willing to lose yourself in Cyberpunk for the long term you’ll definitely get your money’s worth out of a strong role-player that’s flowing with action missions.
GameCrate - Angelo D'Argenio	80 ~ 8 / 10	I want to recognize how ambitious and fun this game is while simultaneously warning people about how incomplete and sloppy it is. Whether or not this is a worthwhile purchase will be entirely up to whether or not you want to brave the bugs, glitches, and general half-baked feel in order to get to the core roleplaying game underneath.	PC
GameHaunt - Mark Louis Salazar	80 ~ 4 / 5 stars	Cyberpunk 2077 is of massive ambition, and the characters in it are brilliantly written and performed.	PC
Jump Dash Roll - Derek Johnson	80 ~ 8 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 has some seriously major technical problems, but it's worth putting up with them to experience a fantastically down-to-earth story that's accompanied by solid shooting and great music.	PC
Metro GameCentral - GameCentral	80 ~ 8 / 10	A stunning achievement in open world gameplay but one whose tonal inconsistencies and weak narrative undermines what could have been an all-time classic.	PC
Screen Rant - Cody Gravelle	80 ~ 4 / 5 stars	Ultimately, it feels like Cyberpunk 2077 is a fitting bookend for the previous generation of games and a strong starting point for current-gen. Now it's time to start innovating again.	PC
TrustedReviews - Jade King	80 ~ 4 / 5 stars	CD Projekt Red has created a triumphant RPG experience with Cyberpunk 2077, yet it often falters under the weight of its own ambition thanks to inconsistent writing and narrative	PC
VideoGamer - Josh Wise	80 ~ 8 / 10	The scenes that have lodged most deeply in my memory are not those devoted to the chases, the shootouts, or the narrow squeaks, but those possessed of a quiet empathy.	PS5
PC Gamer - James Davenport	78 ~ 78 / 100	Some nice characters and stories nested in an astounding open world, undercut by jarring bugs at every turn.	PC
Critical Hit - Brad Lang	75 ~ 7.5 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 tells a compelling story with an excellent assortment of characters but fails to deliver on the promises of a living, breathing open-world. All of these faults are amplified by a messy user interface, unengaging combat, and shoddy performance across multiple platforms.	PC
Destructoid - Chris Carter	75 ~ 7.5 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 is a victim of bloat, but you can choose to ignore a lot of it and take in the sights. That's where Night City is at its best, and I sincerely suggest that you take your time going through it, as rushing will only lead to disappointment. Even just strolling through though though, you'll probably be left wanting more.	PC
Easy Allies - Ben Moore	75 ~ 7.5 / 10	The glitz and glamour of Night City unfortunately doesn't cover up its rampant bug infestation. Written	PC
Attack of the Fanboy - William Schwartz	70 ~ 3.5 / 5 stars	Cyberpunk 2077 will ultimately be optimized for every platform and the major bugs will likely be squashed, but it's real problems will remain. A lack of gameplay and systems that matter leave the game feeling uninspired, even if some of the conversations and characters in this world are the best we've seen in quite some time.	PC
But Why Tho? - Quinn Hiers	70 ~ 7 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 offers players an interesting world to explore, great storytelling, and loveable and deep characters. But the main story is light on cyberpunk themes, and the bugs and bad graphics really hinder the playability. Once the technical bugs are hammered out, Cyberpunk 2077 will be a game I would recommend.	PS4
GameSpot - Kallie Plagge	70 ~ 7 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077 has standout side quests and strong main characters, though its buggy, superficial world and lack of purpose bring it down.	PC
Kakuchopurei - Jonathan Leo	70 ~ 70 / 100	Cyberpunk 2077 is definitely a massive CRPG undertaking. If it weren’t for the glitches and bugs in the way, I’d say CD Projekt has a helluva masterpiece in its hands.	PX, XBSX
PCMag - Gabriel Zamora	70 ~ 3.5 / 5 stars	I fell in love with Night City, warts and all. If its many bugs can get ironed out, Cyberpunk 2077 is a potential Game of the Year candidate. Here’s hoping that CD Projekt Red can quickly push out fixes.	PC
Shacknews - Josh Hawkins	70 ~ 7 / 10	I’d love nothing more than to sit here and tell you that it’s a perfect game and that you won’t have any issues playing it. Sadly, that isn’t the case. In its current state, Cyberpunk 2077 has a strong story and world, but those strengths are weighed down by bad design decisions and bugs aplenty.	PC
Twisted Voxel - Ali Haider	70 ~ 7 / 10	Too ambitious for its own good, Cyberpunk 2077 attempts to do too much and falters in its execution as a result. Despite its issues, it’s better than the sum of its parts and might be worth checking out for fans of action RPGs.	PS5
Worth Playing - Chris "Atom" DeAngelus	65 ~ 6.5 / 10	It may not sound like it, but I enjoyed many aspects of Cyberpunk 2077. It doesn't hit the highs of The Witcher 3, but it still has a lot going for it. However, it was released in such an unfinished state that it's hard to give it a positive review. It's an 8.0 game hiding in a 4.0 game wrapper.	PS4
Cultured Vultures - Ryan Stevens	60 ~ 6 / 10	A lack of focus, vague combat, and some truly befuddling performance issues hamper the still competent, and often enjoyable, detective sim that the best parts of Cyberpunk 2077 want to be.	PS4
Gamers Heroes - Blaine Smith	60 ~ 60 / 100	Cyberpunk 2077 is a great game, but it could have been an incredible game that defined a generation. Instead, it falls victim to its own ambition and the industry's constant desire to push, push, push it out.	PS5
GamingBolt - Shubhankar Parijat	60 ~ 6 / 10	Contrary to expectations, Cyberpunk 2077 is not going to set the world on fire. It's not the gaming revolution that was promised to us, but it's still a fun RPG- with plenty of room for improvement.	PS5
Guardian - Keith Stuart	60 ~ 3 / 5 stars	Blade Runner meets Grand Theft Auto in this sprawling hellscape of a role-playing game, which is extraordinarily immersive but let down by misogyny and xenophobia	PC
Pure Xbox - PJ O'Reilly	50 ~ 5 / 10	Cyberpunk 2077, in its current form on consoles, is a hard game to recommend getting involved with. There's a strong narrative here, brilliantly written characters, some excellent side missions, fun combat and an astonishing setting but, as things stand right now, it's an experience that's in need of some serious TLC. The Series X version may well perform better than the frankly shocking last-gen console efforts but this is a game that we had constant problems with and one that doesn't feel or play like a fully finished product.	XB1
IGN - Destin Legarie	40 ~ 4 / 10	Please don't play Cyberpunk 2077 on a base Xbox One or PS4. It is a shockingly bad way to experience what is a fantastic RPG on better hardware.	PS4, XB1
Gadgets 360 - Akhil Arora	30 ~ 3 / 10	CD Projekt Red delivers a horror-show on the most popular console	PS4

​
Technical Analyses

Website/Author	Subject
Digital Foundry	How bad is last-gen performance - and what will it take to fix it?
Digital Foundry	PC tech analysis: a closer look at the ultra high-end experience

First Review Thread
Games Early Impressions Thread
The latest patch of the game is version 1.04 at the time of posting.

The last drama post I did about Kuma Miko seemed to have gotten some praise, but some wished to see a Hobby Drama post that had consequences outside “people got angry over it”. So without any further delay, here’s a story about a studio that’s close to my heart, one that I’ve backed twice and seen die twice.
Note: This is a fairly lengthy drama, so forgive me if I’m not able to provide all of my sources. Most of the front half of this comes from this video, which chronicles the first half of Lab Zero entirely in Russian.
From Ahad to Mike Z
Let’s start in the beginning. Alex Ahad is a freelance illustrator who, in between other work, had created character designs for a prospective fighting game. Mike Zaimont is a professional fighting game player best known for games like BlazBlue and Marvel Vs. Capcom, but since 1999 had been coding a custom engine in his free time, which he hoped could be used for a fighting game. The two met in 2008, and the two quickly realized that with each other’s help, their dream could come true. In 2010, the two joined the newly developed game studio Reverge Labs. Joining their team was Mariel “Kinuko” Cartwright, a friend of Ahad’s and daughter of a Disney animator who helped animate games such as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Shantae; Peter Bartholow, who acted as CEO of Reverge as well as their PR arm; and an assortment of other animators and designers. Their goal: a fighting game in the style of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 with hand-drawn animation that they called Skullgirls.
After obtaining publishers in Autumn Games and Konami (at the time of development the Microsoft required indie devs to have a retail publisher in order to bring their games to Xbox Live Arcade), the team got to work on Skullgirls. Initial impressions were favorful - people liked Ahad’s unique character designs, the fluid animation, and the solid engine Mike Z built - but upon release, there were some concerns. The time and money needed to develop each character meant a starting roster of only eight characters, a far cry from other fighting games (the original MvC had 15 characters in 1998), and due to the team trying to get the game out, there was no in-game move list. Some were also concerned that the cast, consisting entirely of women, was too fanservice-filled, although Bartholow said that the characters were just attractive women who could fight as opposed to characters using their sexuality in battle (Ahad said that sex wasn’t his main focus, he just wanted to have monster girls fight each other). The team at Reverge Labs stressed that they would continue to update the game, with plans to add DLC if the game sold well enough. Good thing nothing could go wro-
Everything goes wrong
Alongside publishing Skullgirls, Autumn Games and Konami had previously published a karaoke game called Def Jam RapStar. Unfortunately, around March 2012, the time Skullgirls released, both parties were at the end of several lawsuits made against them - one argued that Autumn and Konami did not get the rights to some of the songs used in the game, while another claimed that the game was funded with a bank loan which Autumn Games was unable to pay back. The result of these costly lawsuits was that Autumn was unable to pay Reverge the money made from Skullgirls - this led to the entire Reverge team being laid off around July, and the future of the game in the air.
And so, the team decided on a whim to reconvene as a new development studio, Lab Zero Games. At a fundraiser for breast cancer research which included a fighting game tournament, Mike Z revealed the first DLC fighter and promised that new information about her and the team would be posted soon. This would turn out to be an Indiegogo fundraising campaign that asked for $150,000 to develop the first DLC fighter, with more characters promised if people backed enough.
In the end, $829,829 was raised in the campaign, enough to fund five DLC characters, a bevy of stages and voice packs, and other features. It was quickly becoming a cult classic.
The Skullgirls Curse
And so work on Skullgirls DLC was underway. However, a variety of events happened to befall Lab Zero during development, some causing controversy and others just annoying the team. Some dubbed this “The Skullgirls Curse”. So let’s go over some of them:

• Paypal Woes: During the Indiegogo DLC campaign, Lab Zero announced that Ahad had created around 30 prospective designs for DLC characters, and that there would be a vote to see which characters would be the two “mystery characters” teased in the Indiegogo campaign. As you would guess, this caused the Skullgirls fanbase to get heated, to the point where some stressed that they would ask Indiegogo for their money back if their character didn’t win. PayPal, who managed the funds for this campaign, was concerned about these threats and put nearly all of the money on hold. Bartholow tried to negotiate with PayPal, and was eventually able to get the funding - once PayPal was given a hefty sum as collateral.
• Bad Juju - If you notice on the list of prospective DLC characters, one character is Juju, a character who was designed by Ahad from a fan’s suggestion on a Whiteboard Wednesday art stream. Ahad seemed to like the idea of the character, and kept building her up until she became a legit character in the game. The original fan made a joke on Facebook that he’d like to be compensated for the design, which led Lab Zero to negotiate obtaining the character rights from him. They eventually worked out a contract that would give them the rights to the character, but only if the original fan didn’t reveal it until Lab Zero announced it themselves. The fan then posted about it on the Skullgirls forum the very next day, breaking the NDA immediately and making it so that Lab Zero couldn’t use the character at all.
• Don’t be (Red) Cross with me: One of the characters included in the base game of Skullgirls is Valentine. As you can tell, the two biggest features of her character are her being a nurse and a ninja - as such, her costume is decorated with red crosses. This was upsetting to the real Red Cross, which fights hard to prevent its trademark from being associated with violence - as such, when they came to the Skullgirls publisher demanding a change, all red crosses in the game had to be changed to magenta.
• #FucKonami: In November 2013, due to Konami barely helping at all with the publishing process for Skullgirls (they refused to greenlight any patch or DLC until Lab Zero tested it itself on their own time and money, they didn’t help with Microsoft’s certification process for Xbox, etc), Lab Zero dissolved their publishing agreement. This led to a massive snafu where, due to the dissolution, the original Skullgirls was taken down on consoles, and Lab Zero had to scramble to get a new publisher on the consoles side and then reupload the game as Skullgirls: Encore. It was a tangled web of issues which the above YouTube video relays, but required certification from both console storefronts and even the Japan storefront, as their publisher there was also coincidentally being dissolved at the same time without Lab Zero knowing.
• EVO 2014: During one of the largest fighting game tournaments of 2014, Skullgirls was promised a space for airing their tournament stream by controller distributor Madcatz. Lab Zero and Autumn provided a pot for the tourney, and everything was smooth sailing - until a multitude of delays made it so that the entire time Skullgirls had for streaming was replaced with Tekken tournaments. By the time these issues were fixed, only the final four matches were able to be shown.
• What’s the worst kind of ship? Censor-SHIP!: In April 2015, one of the patches of Skullgirls altered the animation of some characters, which according to Lab Zero themselves was because of their own artistic values (while they admitted that panty shots in a fighting game comprised entirely of girls is unavoidable, they didn’t want to go out of their way to show them). As you might expect, this led to a massive onslaught of negative Steam reviews and caustic tweets from people who abhor censorship of any kind. Funnily enough, this brigade started around October, six months after the changes were made, and only via word of mouth - people didn’t even notice there was a change until someone told them about it.
• Backer characters: As part of their Indiegogo campaign, some of the highest-paying backers could have their original characters put in the background of some custom stages. Lab Zero warned these backers that these stages would be a casino and a ballroom, respectively, so their OCs should ideally be designed with a formal flair. Some backers did follow this unspoken rule - ZONE, a notoriously NSFW Flash animator who helped work on the DLC characters, made a perfectly formal look for his mascot Zone-tan. As for the others, well...
• SonicFox: This isn’t included in the compilation video mentioned above as this occurred way after all the initial Skullgirls drama. Basically, SonicFox is a five-time EVO champion and one of the best Skullgirls players in the world. In May 2020, after Skullgirls was mostly complete, they were given a cameo in Skullgirls’ training stage. Of note is that SonicFox is black, non-binary, and a furry, and the character added to the game was their fursona, who has a trans rights flag in the inside of their jacket you can only see for like one frame. People reacted as you would expect. Also, one of the original backers requested to change their character as they were now transitioning, which didn’t get as much flak, so that’s nice I guess.

So as you can see, Skullgirls had a menagerie of problems and issues during its dev time. However, their Skullgirls curse seemed to have faded away, as they had a new game in store.
If I was Indivisible
Indivisible was a new project of Lab Zero, announced in 2015 as Skullgirls DLC production was nearing an end. Billed as a platformer RPG similar to games like Valkyrie Profile, it would tell the story of Ajna, a young girl whose town is stricken by tragedy and she finds out that she’s a portion of the god of creation, who has grown discontent with the world and wishes to remake it anew. Its Indiegogo campaign focused on Incarnations, party members who came from a variety of cultures, religions, and demographics not usually represented in popular culture. And as you can see by the fact that it got over two million dollars in funding, people were excited to see what Lab Zero could do. They even got enough funding to get Studio Trigger, of anime fame, to create the opening for the game.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Lab Zero without the occasional issue here and there. As shown above, some Incarnations were changed or scrapped during development, which irked some who backed because of that character specifically (not naming any names, but look in the incarnation list and see if you notice any). Backer characters were included again, and although there were more places to add them so they didn’t look out of place, you still had the occasional few that did. Critics liked the art and presentation of the game, but disliked some gameplay issues: the second half of the game became a cakewalk once you progressed far enough, it was a bit of a pain to go from one end of the map to another, especially for side quests, and a bunch of party members simply weren’t complete. Most egregiously of all, the Nintendo Switch version of the game was ported by a different company and released before Lab Zero was even aware of it - which forced them to scramble again to patch it up so it was on par with other consoles.
Still, it was a better situation they were in than when Skullgirls started. They had a legit publisher in 505 Games, people were satisfied with the base game, and Mike Z mentioned how the base game would continue to be refined with gameplay changes, small additions, and guest incarnations from other indie games. NBC even announced that Indivisible would be adapted into a television program for their Peacock streaming service. Things were looking up for Lab Zero.
Everything goes wrong... AGAIN
During the production of Indivisible, Alex Ahad was let go by Lab Zero. Not much is mentioned about it except that he was growing increasingly hostile, making it difficult to work with him, and his art was not meeting the standards for the game. He left, tried to sue Lab Zero, and eventually agreed to a sizable settlement. Mariel became the lead artistic director in his stead, and the art team had to be rearranged to compensate.
Now, as Lab Zero was preparing to transition from being employee-owned, Mike Z was made the temporary head of the studio. In June of 2020, Mike Z did an “I can’t breathe” joke during a Skullgirls livestream just days after George Floyd’s death - he later apologized for this, claiming he was trying to bring attention to the issue. Soon, more people provided proof that Mike Z has had a history of sexual harassment. Kinuko chimes in as well, noting that while she tolerated inappropriate behavior for years, when she talked to Mike Z about it, he blamed her for his actions. She talked with others in the team, who came to the conclusion that Zaimont had treated all of them like this. Some Lab Zero employees resigned on their own, while others pushed for Zaimont to resign. However, as Mike was still head of the studio, he dissolved the studio board and laid off the rest of the staff.
So where does that leave everyone?

• Ahad is still doing art on his own, and gets by with commissions and his Patreon.
• Kinuko, as well as the majority of Lab Zero, created a new studio called Future Club, which has promised to create new titles with the same art style they refined from Skullgirls and Indivisible.
• Autumn Games still own the rights to Skullgirls, and with the help of some former Lab Zero devs, created a mobile version of the game. It’s surprisingly not bad, although it’s of course stuffed with microtransactions. However, they’ve apparently made enough to fund a completely new character for the game for both the mobile and console/PC versions.
• After everything with Mike Z, 505 games put out a statement which signaled the end of all development of the game, leaving it unfinished. Mike Z has been suspended from Skullgirls streams and the like, making his future in the gaming world unclear.

There’s probably something I’ve missed in all of this, but yep. I backed them twice, both for Skullgirls and Indivisible. I don’t regret it, and I’m looking forward to whatever Future Club does, but I won’t lie - I’ll always miss what could have been.

Edited to remove the tables because when I obsessively checked this post on my phone I couldn't read them?? Also I tried to, but was prevented from, editing the title. I know it looks sanctimonious but that's just one small part of my personality I swear. D:
❤️ Section 1: Assets and Debt
Total Net Worth: $30,875 - all equity.
Retirement Balance: $0 for me; $20,500 for my husband in the state pension program for teachers. (My partner, L, has been paying into the state teachers' pension system for 5 years. For most of my 20s, I either worked at very low-paying jobs, or supported myself and others on a teacher’s salary, so no retirement for me. My current job does not have a retirement program, but one of my goals for this year is to either start a Roth IRA or get a new job with a 401k match… or maybe both?)
Savings Account Balance: $23,733 We’re moving this summer to a city closer to our families, and are saving all we can for a down payment on a dreamy spot. After we move, some amount of what’s left over will go into a retirement fund, and the rest will stay in this HYSA as our emergency fund. For us, three months of expenses, including childcare, is about $18,000.
Checking Account Balance: $455
Credit Card Debt: n/a, pay off each month
Student Loan Debt: $80,000 for L’s undergrad and MAT. $18,000 for my undergrad and (unfinished) MAT. (My undergrad degrees were mostly covered by the Pell Grant, scholarships, and a $10,000 529 from my parents. L was a nontraditional student - didn’t start undergrad until he was 24 - so none of his was covered. Most of my debt is for a MAT program I dropped out of after one year. I was trying to find any way out of teaching at the time (it is demanding, all-consuming, and carceral at once) and thought a PhD would be my only route. When I got my current job I promptly left the program and any dreams of a PhD behind.)
Equity: $83,875 (This number is from an online equity calculator, and is for our house in a very popular neighborhood in a very popular city. Our outstanding debt on the house is $295,000. We put our whole savings down in 2019, which was $9,000 at the time.)
❤️ Section 2: Income
Monthly Take Home: My base pay is $65,000, and L’s is $45,000. I worked a side gig last year that totaled about $10k in additional compensation; all of it went to savings so we don't budget for it. My take home is $4096/month for my full time job, and my current side gig income (grant writing) is variable, between $300 and $600 a month. L’s take home is $2262/month. My health insurance is paid in full by work. L’s insurance and B’s come out of L’s paycheck, as does L’s retirement contribution.
Income Progression: I’ve been working since I was 15 years old, moved out for college at 18, and paid my own bills starting that year. I won’t include that money here though (it was like $12,000 a year as a college student, for reference). Income below starts when I graduated with two BAs that had nothing to do with teaching.
Year 1: $15,600 (part time ABA therapist, full time baby anarchist)
Year 2: $32,000 (year 1 teacher salary: I accepted a spot in Teach for America for this giant salary even though I thought it was an obnoxious neoliberal org. Yes, I was also obnoxious at the time.)
Year 3: $33,000 (teacher, step increase)
Year 4: $34,000 (teacher, step increase)
Year 5: $35,000 (teacher, step increase)
Year 6: $15,000 (community organizer; at the time this felt like a dream job)
Year 7: $20,000 (community organizer & cafe worker)
Year 8: $40,000 (back to teaching, felt rich; this includes a side hustle writing grants on the side for $50 an hour)
Year 9: $45,000 (left teaching for my current job, quit the grants side hustle)
Year 10: $55,000 (got a raise, got pregnant)
Year 11: $65,000 (got a raise and promotion, had a baby)
Year 12: $75,000 (was promoted again in January but waiting on the pay increase to hit, hopefully with backdating. This money diary doesn’t reflect this salary as it hasn’t been reflected in my check yet)
❤️ Section 3: Expenses
Mortgage/PMI/Insurance: $2,110
Retirement Contribution: n/a (L’s retirement is pulled out of his check before he receives it: it’s $169 a month. Right now, I don’t have a retirement contribution)
Savings Contribution: $1000 to main savings, $400 to sinking fund (This is a super aggressive goal for us and is only possible because our childcare costs are covered by work)
Debt Payments: n/a right now (We have student loans to the tune of $100k but haven’t been paying a dime since they were paused due to COVID. But then the other day I checked and saw they've gained interest? Should we be paying them then? WWJD? I legit don’t know.)
Electric: $130
Internet: $100
Cellphone: $65 (For L & I both. We are on a bigass family plan with 40 gajillion other people.)
Subscriptions: $45 ($10 Spotify; $10 Youtube music; $2.99 Apple data (Why?!); $22 NYT (for newspaper and cooking app); also have a split subscription to the New Yorker with bestie F but we paid for a yearly deal.)
Car Payment and Insurance: $150 for a car payment; $202 for insurance (Insurance covers both of our used cars and my dad’s used handicap van. Our car payment is for our used Honda. We only owe $6,850 on the car and I’m back and forth on whether to pay it off with savings)
Medical/Therapy: $0 (My therapist is $140 a session, and I just started seeing her again once a month, but this is reimbursed by work. I also get an inhaler at least twice a month - that’s reimbursed too, costs $60 total.)
Misfits Market: $120 (For a weekly box, which really helps us cut down on overall grocery cost)
Gym membership: $30 (For my intense local yoga studio’s app which is so great in the winter. We also run and bike a lot, as long as it’s warm enough)
Donations: $100 (We give monthly to our local Democratic Socialists of America; the Working Families Party; and a small, local org. I’m also on an organizing committee for that org. We’ll give them one big gift of at least $250 this year, probably in May. I support a couple organizations with grant writing and grant-finding support as much as I can, which usually amounts to a few hours a month.)
Childcare: $0 B goes to a very precious Montessori preschool, and we can walk him there. It’s pricey af ($1300/month). The other $200 is to account for some babysitting from my little sister when L or I have to work weird hours. For now, work reimburses this full amount as a COVID perk; if that changes, we will have to cut costs significantly.
House cleaner: $160 (They come twice a month and charge $80 each time.)
❤️ Section 4: Money Diary
NOTE: We are masked and afraid everywhere we go.
✨DAY 1: THURSDAY✨
4:20 am: Good morning world! I shuffle into the kitchen in my panties and my slippers to fill up the gooseneck kettle. I recently got into pour over coffee even though it’s quite a commitment. With a toddler, a full-time job, and a Libra sun, I don’t really have time for meditative morning routines. This lengthy, half-naked coffee regimen is my closest attempt. As soon as I get the coffee brewing, our 18 month old, B, starts making noise. I open the door and see he’s got his pacifier in his mouth and his pillow in his arms. He wants to lay with Dada. I help him get in the bed with my husband, L, as quietly as possible. Last week L was super sick and we thought for sure he had picked up COVID. Blessedly all of our tests came back negative, but on the heels of that, he started having major tooth pain and had to have an emergency tooth extraction, AND he got an ear infection as he was coming down from whatever virus he had. I hate it :(
I get dressed and do some chores while they snooze to ease L's morning. I start the diaper laundry (usually his job - we use cloth), put away the dishes, start the Eufy vacuum, and get B and L’s breakfasts together: sunbutter and a little bit of syrup on some banana pancakes I prepped earlier this week.
6:30 am: B and L are up! The hour before we take B to preschool is kind of a marathon. L eats with B (and supervises his syrup consumption) as I clean out some more dirty diapers, brush my teeth, make another cup of coffee, strip our sheets, spray my hair with water to refresh the curl, return a few group texts, and wash some breakfast dishes. Somewhere in here I also eat two boiled eggs with Everything But the Bagel seasoning, and a bunch of grapes.
I help L get B loaded up in the car, and just as they pull off, my parents Facetime me. They’re calling to see B but are polite enough to talk to me for a few minutes. They live a few hours away, and are divorced, but cohabitating. The full story is long and spiritual for me so I’ll spare you. Anyway, my mom and I talk for a while about this couch she thinks I should buy from one of her friends, but it’s two hours away and we’d have to rent a U-Haul, so I think we’ll pass. I do hate our current couch though. Please drop comfy toddler- and dog-friendly recommendations in the comments!
8:15 am: I set out to walk the dog and listen to the Daily’s recent update on the coronavirus. Donald G. McNeill, Jr., says we’re in this through the summer, which is a bummer on the personal and global front, but I suppose it could be worse??? Maybe?? As soon as they finish talking I switch over to You’re Wrong About. I’m deep in the Jessica Simpson series and highly recommend this pod for any other nerdy, lefty, kinda burnt out millennials, especially those of you that are queer or queer-adjacent. Once home, I take my whole operation onto the front porch to work, since the cleaner will be here soon and I don’t want to crowd her in this time of COVID. I LOVE a clean house and I love paying someone else to do the big stuff, which is a recent luxury for us.
11:00 am: I’ve been working steadily in my email and google docs for a couple hours now, and it’s COLD out here. The cleaner leaves and I am grateful to go back into the heat. I Venmo her $80 for the cleaning (included in monthly expenses). I take a break from work and check out the job boards. My current job is the best, and highest-paying, gig I’ve ever had, but I’m planning to leave some time this year for several reasons. The premier reason: I recently learned that I’m qualified for several positions that pay over $100k at similar organizations. With that kind of money we could pay off our student loans, help our families out more, make sizable donations, and L could explore a career outside of teaching without freaking about a slight cut in his pay for a few years as he finds his niche. Or - maybe he’ll get into Edtech somehow and we’ll join Resource Generation. Who knows.
12:30 pm: I have a quick break and pull together lunch: half a cheese quesadilla, a big bowl of Smitten Kitchen’s roasted tomato soup, and a LimonCello LaCroix. L is on his planning period and asks me to edit his most recent job application, and I oblige. Since we’re both job hunting, I ask him if I can buy a resume template and guide on Etsy. I have sworn off online shopping for the year to curb my impulse spending, but he says we’ll just count this one as his purchase. Great news because I hate the formatting of my resume from 2016 and don’t want to fix it myself! $9.95
3:30 pm: My Zooms are over, my inbox is at 0, and I put up my out of office message because I’m taking the day off tomorrow to work on my resume and do some things to prep our house for sale. My high-functioning anxiety created an ambitious backwards timeline for this process back in December, and that timeline currently runs my life. I work for a few more minutes to tie up loose ends, and then walk O to a nearby shop to buy my favorite candle, curbside-style. When I get there the owner gives me some percentage off because it’s slightly discolored from the sun. Huzzah! $27.25, marked down from $40
4:45 pm: My angel of a baby sister, J, who lives just a few blocks away and is in a pod with us, comes to hang out with B for an hour so L can rest. I head to my good friend D’s place for my investment overalls appointment. She's going to alter their awkward wide leg into more of a tapered, mom jean shape. I have a capsule wardrobe which means I’ll wear these babies at least once a week, and plus I get to pay my friend, so I’m fine with the extra expense. When I arrive, she and her partner have the fire pit going, and we drink a couple glasses of wine together, yet more than 6 feet apart. I learn they are planning to move to the same new city as us in the next couple of years and legit cry happy tears.
Afterwards, I head out to pick up dinner for tonight. We are getting burgers from L’s favorite place as a treat. On my way, the WOLF MOON appears over the water and my stomach does triple flips. Then I pick up our dinner: a veggie burger with eggplant jam and kale for me; a real-meat burger with mushrooms, bacon, swiss, carmelized onion, and horseradish mayo for L; and an appetizer plate with pretzels, pimento cheese, onion jam, pickles, and chips for B. Delicious and unhealthy. The total is $34.54.
6:30: Home and eating dinner. B loves his meal, especially the “chokes.” He calls pretzels “chokes” because when L first started feeding them to him, I worried aloud that he would choke every time. I just couldn’t stop thinking about how a pretzel almost took out George W. Bush. Turns out our toddler is better at chewing than George W. Bush.
After dinner, L gives B a bubble bath while I do my own, very minimal, bedtime routine. Then L and I lay down with B to put him to sleep. He has a floor bed, which is a Montessori thing I learned about on mom blogs. L is a very hot and talented woodworker, so he took my floor bed dream to the next level by building a lovely house-shaped frame. The top beam is wrapped in twinkle lights and fake ivy. It’s a nice place to sleep, and we pass out here all the time.
10:30 pm: L wakes me up and we wander to our own bed.
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 71.74
✨ DAY 2: FRIDAY✨
4:15 am: Wake up and go look at the clock. Decide this is a silly time to get up on a day off, drink some water, and go lay back down. But once in bed all I can think about is how much I want to read the news, organize my resume, and update this money diary. This is the problem with falling asleep at toddler time. So I get up again at 4:45, make my coffee, read a New Yorker article about Biden’s pandemic response on my phone, and sit down to work on this diary.
6:00 am: L wakes up! He works on breakfast for himself and B and I start meal planning for the month. This is one of my best and most recent life hacks. I found that if I chart out our cooking, weekly takeout, and leftovers at the start of the month, we save lots of money and are so much less stressed about the labor that goes into feeding ourselves. I pull out Smitten Kitchen Every Day and use it to inspire the month’s meals. So quaint to cook from an actual BOOK.
6:45 am: B walks out of our room and announces that he drank my water off the side table. He’s so proud! And so ready to eat. While he eats breakfast, I snack on some grapes and, at B’s request, blast 7 Days A Week by They Might Be Giants. This is the consummate children’s song for any household that dreams of a self-determined world. Over the next hour I take B to school; make myself a real breakfast (a soy chorizo and egg taco); and browse TikTok. Eventually I find a series about this Gamestop situation by a smart Irish woman and L and I watch it together. When it’s over we feel like shrewd stock brokers ready to win money, and L gets to work teaching virtually.
I spend the morning painting our front door and our kitchen wall to prep our house to sell, and talking to my (other) little sister on the phone. She’s an HR person with a job that’s taken her far away from our family, and we don’t talk that often. It is so good to catch up on her life. After that I have a fun, day-off Zoom call with longtime bestie and coworker K. We drink coffee and talk about The Future.
12:30 pm: I make lunch (tomato soup with goat cheese on top, and a savory scone on the side) and get a text from another bestie, M, who offers me a little grant writing contract work this week. Yay! I love them and love working with them. Next, I order our groceries for the week. I get baking powder, eggs, cremini mushrooms, vegan sausage patties, oat milk, ginger root, shredded cheddar cheese, plantains, black beans, doggy bags, broccoli, vegan chicken strips, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, capers, ciabatta bread, grits, bananas, avocados, greek yogurt, and on impulse, a pineapple on sale (?!). Maybe B will love it. The total comes to $94.08.
1:15 pm: I do a brief power vinyasa class in B’s room and take a shower. It takes me approximately two Drake songs to shower and dry off, as I don’t have to wash my hair today and I never shave. I work on my resume until L and I leave to pick up B. On the way home we stop at the park to play, and then we all get in the car to pick up groceries.
6:30 pm: We get home later than planned and eat together: leftover tofu ramen for us and veggie lasagna for B, who is so sleepy that he hardly touches his lasagna. L gets him in the bath around 7:15 and I run through my evening routine. There’s a lot going on in the house - preschool lunch and clothes to put up, a mountain of laundry in our room, all of the groceries for the week waiting to be put away, and dinner dishes are languishing in the sink. L starts on chores while I get B dressed.
As I’m dressing B, my mom Facetimes and B shows her several of his board books. While we’re talking my dad texts me a heart emoji - he overheard B and my mom talking from his room. He lives with a disability and a painful illness, so he goes to bed very early. We hang up with my mom and record a video of B making “P” sounds and saying “I love you” to my dad, and send it over. This is the first time B’s ever said “I love you!” Huge news. We read books and fall asleep next to B.
9 pm: I wake up and nudge L but he wants to keep sleeping. I go clean the dinner dishes, put away the food and reorganize the cabinets and fridge, and mop the kitchen floor while I listen to The Daily’s latest reporting on QAnon believers who are at once totally bananagrams and also remind me very much of my aunt. L wakes up at 9:30 because he and Y, my sister’s boyfriend, are gonna game. Cute! He finishes the laundry and I fold a few diapers to help out. Then we lay in bed together until game time, when I fall asleep.
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 94.08
✨DAY 3: SATURDAY✨
5:40 am: Wake up at a ~*~weekend hour~*~!! Start my kettle, clean and moisturize my face, pull out the ingredients for waffles, and pick up around the house while I wait for it to boil. I try to read some, but get bored a few pages in. I’m currently reading How to Do Nothing and it’s good enough, but I think I need to chill on the nonfiction and read, like, saucy romance novels with hot bisexual leads. Send me your recs please!
Waffle time! This recipe is my go-to. I recommend whipping the egg whites first. B wakes up around 7:15 and helps me cook which is cute and very messy. He eats his waffle with honey, peanut butter, and grapes. L wakes up after him - he had a late night gaming!
8 am: I open yesterday’s mail and find an anti-abortion DVD from L’s grandma. It’s Abby Johnson’s “memoir.” Abby Johnson is an opportunistic right winger and documented liar who once moonlighted as a Planned Parenthood clinic manager. L is a preacher’s kid, so we’re not surprised to receive this from his grandma. For example: 10 years ago, when L and I were a couple years into our relationship, her Christmas gift to me was a book about how one can recover from being a slut by getting married and finding Jesus. This particular package really sends me over the edge, though. I decide to write them a short note later that states my own experience with abortion and sets a clear boundary on this kind of propaganda, and includes an article about Abby Johnson’s bullshit life. It’s unlikely this will change their minds - they are septuagenarian Southern Baptists, after all - but at least I’ll be in my integrity.
In the meantime, I group text L’s siblings, and they commiserate with us. His one sibling who is transitioning shares that grandma recently sent them a book about how to tell your gay friends they’re sinning. We agree that’s hilariously dense (and fucking rude) of her, and talk about how everyone under forty is a gay slut living their best life, so really it’s grandma’s loss. During this time I clean the kitchen, finish the waffles, and freeze them for B’s weekday breakfasts.
9:30 am: B asks to use the potty and does a great job peeing on his own! He’s geeked about it and is especially excited to have my parents on Facetime cheering him on. After that we head out on our morning walk. L takes B to the playground and I take O to the dog park nearby. She gets tired pretty quick and we all head to the thrift store. We need chairs for our hand-me-down kitchen table. The ones that came with it are awkwardly wide. L spots two sturdy ones that are just $5 each. Score! $10
11:30 am: B and L are both wiped out once we get home. They eat lunch and go to sleep. I clean up the kitchen, repot one of my plants, water our porch plants, and eat some leftover ramen for lunch. The Marie Antoinette episode of You’re Wrong About keeps me company all the while. 10/10 would recommend.
2 pm: B wakes up and eats some lunch. We watercolor together for a while (he on his big paper, I in my bullet journal), then walk down the street to the local high school while L preps potatoes for our fondue. The high school grounds are open on the weekends, and there’s an amphitheatre on site. B loves the echo in there.
4:30 pm: L joins us in the amphitheatre and together we drag B two blocks back home. I prep the fondue: brie, gouda, and more gouda with white wine. It ends up being a little clumpy but so delicious. My sister, J, and her boyfriend, Y arrive while I’m cooking. Y brings yummy baguettes from his bakery job for the dipping and we prep broccoli, green beans, and tempeh too. We sit down in our new chairs to eat and for the zillionth time I am so thankful we’ve been able to make a pod together this year. Fondue would be a terrifying proposition with anyone else, really.
While we eat, Y tells us he put in his two weeks at the bakery because their COVID protocols aren’t so tight and his coworkers are continuing to go to bars and out to eat. His plan for now is to get back on unemployment and find a virtual job sometime soon. Both he and my sister have worked food service their whole adult lives so the pandemic has been tough on them. Besides the fact that they’re delightful and perfect, this is one key reason we’re planning to move with them to our new city this summer: L and I will be able to easily afford the majority of the rent, deposits, and utilities on a pretty big, and centrally located, house. Living together will allow us to grow our savings and take our time looking for a Forever Home, and will allow J and Y to pay really low rent as my sister goes back to school full time and Y looks for a full-time job. I’m really looking forward to living with them and know it’ll be good for B, too. They leave around 7 pm and we put B to bed, this time without falling asleep ourselves!
8:30 pm: Turn on How I Met Your Mother in bed and the episodes are baaaaad bad. One entire episode casts sex workers as a punch line. Ick. L and I agree to find a new show, and fall asleep around 10.
11 pm - 2 am: B is up and between our two beds. Wahhhh.
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 10
✨DAY 4: SUNDAY✨
6 am: Up and at ‘em! Discover I’m out of my fancy coffee and don’t want to emphasize the flavor of our grocery store beans with a slow pour, so make a french press instead. B wakes up too early so we watch toddlers together on TikTok while I drink my coffee, then read books while L makes us all eggs for breakfast. We head out for our morning walk around 9 am and stop at a coffee shop a few blocks away. I pick up Counter Culture’s Iridescent beans, buy an espresso brownie on a whim, and tip the cashier because she’s so sweet and tipping is good. The total is 23.03. L takes B to the playground and I drop my purchases and O back at the house before I head out for a run.
9:45 am: It’s 65 degrees and my run is glorious. I run to the water and pause Lil Yachty for a minute to take it all in. Once home I shower and put on a black LA Apparel catsuit and a marled black and white cocoon sweater from AA of the past (I like what I like!). We feed B lunch and then L puts him down while I clean up.
Around 11:30, J comes over after to watch B while we remove the storm windows from our whole house and clean the windows underneath as part of our work to prep the house for sale. We’re a solid team: L removes the storm windows and caulks all the gaps in the wood while I follow behind him and wash the windows inside and out. Our sweet neighbor catches us cleaning and offers to let us use her power washer for free next weekend to clean up the front of the house. I resolve to bake them some cookies.
2:30 pm: We are done with the window operation and it’s time for me to water all 57 plants in the house. Along the way, discover that I overwatered B’s hoya last week and it’s rotting. Noooo! I unpot it on the porch to dry the roots, but it’s raining so this might not work. There’s only one surefire solution: buy a replacement plant! I try to convince L we should go to the nursery, but he’s not so into it. I walk around dejectedly with a towel to clean up all the water I spilled, and Zelle J $70 for babysitting even though she insists she would do it for free. Next B, L, and I share a snack: crackers with goat cheese and harissa. Mmm. B skips the harissa but loves the goat cheese. Meanwhile I begin to stress about making dinner. We’d planned goddess bowls but L and I just aren’t feeling it after our marathon of house work. L requests Chinese and is suddenly more amenable to visiting the nursery, which is near our favorite Chinese takeout spot. Score!
5:00 pm: We leave the plant shop with a heartleaf philodendron for B’s room and a giant, lovely, perfect monstera deliciosa just because. The total comes to $53.24. Then we pick up our food: $33.08 including the tip. L ordered a large veggie lo mein to share with B and General Tso’s chicken, and I got family style tofu and vegetables. We start B’s bedtime routine at 6:30 and he’s out by 7:00 - early for him!
After he’s down, L preps his breakfast sandwiches for the week and I do some dishes. Then we take mutual advantage of the extra hour we have together. Even after 12 years it’s always so good with L. I fall asleep around 10 pm feeling blessed.
🌿 Daily total: 179.32
✨DAY 5: MONDAY✨
5 am: I make my pour over and get started on work first thing. I have a couple of deadlines this week and the side gig to balance so I’m already feeling pressed for time! I wrap up an entire grant report before 6 am and feel very accomplished. Then I pause work to start our breakfast, which is all pre-prepped, hallelujah. While L and B eat breakfast, I get dressed in a black turtleneck minidress, busted old tights, black ankle socks, and my Doc Martens.
I help L load up the car with B and all his gear, and tell L to be careful. Today is L’s first day back teaching in person since December, and we’re both nervous since COVID is still running wild in our red state. On the way to work he fills up his car for $18.33.
2:30 pm: After another grant report, seventy gajillion emails, forty Slack messages, and several hours of Zoom calls, I’m ready for a break. I finish eating the quinoa salad I prepped during Zoom call #2 and then eat a pear too. I see our Misfits box has been delivered. It’s $30 a week, and is included in our monthly expenses. I unpack it, clean the counters, wipe down the bathroom sinks, take O for a walk, and sit down to work on my side gig grant report, which is due Wednesday. I set a 30 minute timer because I don’t want to be too late picking up B.
4:25 pm: Worked longer than I meant to! Pack some snacks and pick up B. On the way home we get a giant bag of potting soil so I can repot those plants. It’s $18.52. Come home and engage in B’s favorite winter activity: pressing all the buttons in the turned-off car. Meanwhile, in another car across town, L picks up a big bag of Purina One, butter, maple syrup, and applesauce. That total is $28.64.
5:30 pm: The whole family is home and we kick it inside until it starts to get dark. L and I gather all the things and take the creatures out for a walk even though there’s a light, but very cold, rain happening. B is cranky and so are we, so the walk is quick.
We eat leftover Chinese food around 7 and start B’s bedtime routine. B falls asleep at 8 and I update this diary for a while, then go watch Ted Lasso in bed with L til about 9:30. It’s much better than How I Met Your Mother, for the record.
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 65.51
✨Day 6: TUESDAY✨
3 am: B wakes up and needs a diaper change. I have the hardest time falling back asleep after: I can’t stop thinking about how I left B’s hoya out in the cold with its roots exposed most of the day yesterday and into tonight. But it’s too cold for me to get up again and pull it inside! So instead I toss and turn and hope it’s not dead yet.
6 am: L’s alarm wakes me up! No early morning reading and writing time for me. I get right up, make a giant pour over, and get breakfast together while L wakes up B. Then I actually sit down with them to eat: B and I both eat boiled eggs with everything but the bagel seasoning and some coconut milk yogurt, and L sips his coffee while his breakfast sandwich heats in the oven. I get dressed in my workout gear and walk the dog while L gets B ready for school. They leave, and I finally bring the hoya in, and start work, around 7:30. L buys coffee and snacks from the gas station on his way to work: $6.88.
9:30 am: I grab some crackers and peanut butter from the kitchen and notice a DMV bill on the fridge I’ve been meaning to pay, but don’t totally understand. I call them up and respond to emails while I sit on hold. Turns out I owe the DMV $10 for paying my Dad’s van insurance late. With the “processing fee” it comes to $11.17.
1:30 pm: Been on Zoom calls all morning, and decide to switch over to the side gig work for a bit. Meanwhile I eat that quinoa salad I prepped yesterday. At 2 pm, my longtime bestie and neighbor F comes over and we take O for a walk in the park together and have such a good conversation. While the context is (very) different, I’m reminded of the Toni Morrison quote when I think of F: “She’s a friend of my mind.” Such a gem, and such a smartie. At 3:30 I start a HIIT yoga class and it kicks my butt even though it’s only 20 minutes long. Afterwards, I shower and pick up B.
5:00 pm: L arrives home while B and I are playing, and we get in the car once more to check out a cute couch L scoped out on Facebook marketplace. It’s a sweet vintage brown velvet actually-for-real midcentury situation. Unfortunately we discover it’s also small and very uncomfortable. $200 not spent. Once home, my family goes for a walk and I make dinner - this grits and beans recipe from NYT cooking. It’s blessedly quick to pull together. Meanwhile D texts me and says my overalls are ready! YAY! She’s gonna drop them off in a couple of days. She says the total is $30. I include a tip and Venmo her $40.
7:00 pm: At bedtime, B cannot get enough of his books and we read All The World several times. He finally falls asleep around 8:20 and L and I eat dinner on the couch, with Ted Lasso. I drink a glass of red wine, which is a mistake: my anxiety spikes right after, my stomach hurts, and I can’t sleep. This is very upsetting as I want very much to be a wine mom. Does this happen to anyone else?
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 58.05
✨DAY 7: WEDNESDAY✨
5:45 am: Wake up with B cuddled into my back - L moved him to our bed in the middle of the night after his second wake up. Get my coffee and breakfast together and sit down at my computer to work on the side gig grant while everyone's asleep. Then L and I manage the morning rush together. I eat sourdough toast, two scrambled eggs, and some pineapple along the way.
7:30 am: Take O out for a walk and on a whim decide to listen to one of my favorite easy-listening pods: A Beautiful Mess. Normally the two sisters and co-hosts, Elsie and Emma, chat about things like home decor or craft making or how to balance kids and work. This episode is about the host’s evangelical upbringing, though, and is a real raw and honest tear jerker. Pair it with this, one of my top reads of 2020: “What Does the White Evangelical Want?” It gets me thinking about L’s upbringing in the church. He and all his siblings are all agnostic now.
Finally sit down at my desk and debate taking Adderall. I used it regularly in college and for a few years after in order to Do All The Things. I try to stay away from it now - I’m not trying to live an impossible life any more - but I also really want to pick B up earlier than normal today, and that means I need to meet all my deadlines and make it through two Zoom calls with my direct reports by 3 pm. I decide to take 4 mg. Right after I take it, three different friends text me at once and then, suddenly, I’ve spent an hour catching up via text. Get to work for real around 9 am.
3:00 pm: Wrapped all my calls, answered all my emails, washed all the dishes, ate some lunch, and finished the side gig work! OK Adderall, you beautiful bitch. Spend a few more minutes tying up loose ends and then gather my things to pick B up from school. The plan today is to go “play basketball” in the park near his school because he is OBSESSED with balls, and I’m trying to do more magical things every day with him. It’s cold but I’m ready to brave it on his precious, curly-headed behalf.
At 4 pm J calls and asks to go pick him up with me. Hooray, things just got even more magical! We head to a different-than-usual park together and run around until B sits in, and then drinks from, a puddle. We panic and J googles “What happens if my baby drinks from a puddle?” The search returns lots of stories of babies eating muddy rocks and surviving, so we decide it’s ok.
5:00 pm Head home and L is back from work! We take the smols on a walk and I tell L that I think nighttime screentime is making me anxious. I’m a sensitive creature and I really don’t want to blame the wine. He’s very perfect so he helps me think through an alternate plan for this evening: hot tea and book reading in bed, and maybe sex, too! Fun.
Next, I head home with O to pot the plants we bought the other day, and L takes B to the playground. They get back around 6:30 and I am very excited to reveal my new plant placements. Everyone feigns interest except O. Then we eat leftovers together and B gets in bed around 7:30. L and I promptly fall asleep next to him and don’t wake up again til 11 pm. Guess our new nighttime routine will have to wait til tomorrow!
🌿 DAILY TOTAL: 0
❤️ Section 5: TOTALS
Total Expenses: $478.71
Food & Drink: $220.25
Fun & Entertainment: $0
Home & Health: $109.01
Clothes & Beauty: $40
Transport: $29.50
Other: $79.95
❤️ Section 6: REFLECTION
This week reflects a new normal for us, I think! We just set the goal of saving up for another down payment in December, and that’s when I swore off online shopping both to save money and to stop lining the pockets of evil billionaires like Bezos (no shade to anyone who uses Amazon, this is purely a personal goal & I’m not sure I can meet it). This self-imposed rule is helping me reign in my discretionary spending overall. L and I have only been living a two-income, middle class life for a few years, and my lifestyle creep was a little out of control in 2020. That said, I can and do still regularly justify spending money on things that make life more luxurious and beautiful - like a $40 candle or a totally unnecessary but very lovely plant.
There are a couple of things not reflected in this diary that we regularly spend on: gifts (my achilles heel - for example, we spent three! thousand! dollars! on Christmas gifts in December), and medical bills. Both B and I had to visit the emergency room in 2020 and we are still getting random bills in the mail as our insurance company and the hospital duke it out. As I was editing this diary on Thursday, I received one for $787. Wahhhh. I think I’m gonna get on a payment plan, but even so that it will be over $200 a month.
Last thought: this process got me thinking in some detail about the contradiction of organizing for the fall of capitalism (and the rise of a more gentle and just economic system), yet believing everyone - including ourselves and our own families - deserve to live full and abundant lives. This means I compromise my own anti-capitalist values and beliefs every day, in big and small ways. Discuss?