How Much I've Spent So Far.

This is my 4th summer waiting for results in September.

I’ve nothing to do except balance the books, stare at Instagram, and work.

I’m bored, and lazy and my summer of doing more social, more exercise, and perhaps interacting with friends is not going to plan. I’m more content with doing nothing at all. There’s probably a diagnosis, but in my mind it’s just stasis.

Results are still 6 weeks away. I’ve sure I haven’t passed any of it again, and that the MW journey is probably over. With no need to study this summer, and most likely no need to get back into study again come September, I’m at a bit of a loss.

I can’t reconcile the time and effort I’ve put into this with not passing the exams. I keep telling myself it’s not all been wasted. That I’ve got enough from the process without passing. There are positives.

I like purpose, I like to think I’m working towards something. I obsess about things I *could* do.

I spent most of last Sunday creating a costing spreadsheet and business plan for a Pizza Van as a side project.

I thought I’d waste some time totting up how much we’d put into the MW journey so far. I’ve got all this info because I’ve kept a separate bank acct for MW study since setting up the GoFundMe way back in Sept 2020.

The breakdown is below. It shows that I’ve personally spent about £23,000 on the MW so far. That spread over the last 4+ years is around £5,000 per year, with the first and most recent years, for different reasons being a little easier on the bank balance.

I can think of much worse things to spend that on. I might have a nicer bathroom, or kitchen, or car, but those material things are no less effective today than they were a few years ago.

Back in April a nice young chap gave us a quote of £20,000 on five new sash windows. When you think about the friends, the people, the places, the time, the wines, the experience, the knowledge… but exclude the stress and anguish, I’d say it’s worth more than one sash window per year. We never spoke to him again.

My original GoFundMe pitch was: “Lots of good people deserve a go at the MW, but can’t afford it themselves”. If I hadn’t raised that first £5k, there’s not a chance on earth I’d be in this position 4 years later. One where I’m able to look back at £23k of my own money spent and not be crippled with debt. So there’s that.

Here you go. Paid subscribers can scroll down for what the full P&L looks like over the past few years.

Dan