Cheap AF: How I’m Figuring Out Medium on a Budget
By: Deborah Baudoin, She Her
Tags: Médium, Budget, Lifestyle, Paywall

Hanging on to the Dead Presidents

Somewhere in the late 1980s I discovered money. Or more importantly, I discovered the value of money — in that I didn’t have a lot of it to waste. I got really picky about what I spent my money on. That list included books, music, science fiction conventions, and when I remembered them, bills.

To say that money management was not my strong suit is an understatement. Despite making good grades at a respectable private high school and graduating with honors from a decent university, I never learned basic survival skills like making a budget, balancing a checkbook, and not spending money I didn’t have on things I didn’t need — like my collection of Star Trek: The Next Generation action figures I eventually gifted to a friend.

Enter The Taurus

Around 2000, I met and fell in love with Kat, who has been my partner ever since. Since I am eight years older than her, we started off with me managing the finances for the home.

Yeah, that lasted about four months before Kat, my uber-practical Taurus wife, realized that I didn’t a damn clue what I was doing. One long, honest conversation later, we decided that Kat would do the budgeting and money management. I worked my job, took out the trash, and lifted heavy objects like a good spouse.

This has worked for us for 20 years. It’s a model I think every couple should follow — find out what each partner is good at, and assign household tasks accordingly. (You don’t want me cooking, and frankly, I’m never, ever going to ask Kat to unclog a sink or toilet. We all have our gifts.)

The best thing about this is that, because of my wife’s impeccable money management skills (combined with my generally low need for material things), we’ve been able to carve out a modestly comfortable life together.

Those Stupid Little Stars

One of the weird little side effects of my understanding how money should be budgeted is that I have become, for lack of a nicer term, cheap AF. There are so many reasonably-priced or free options for doing what I want to do in life that I really get frustrated when I’m asked to pay for stuff.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I believe 100% that artists, writers, and content creators should be paid for their goods. I still buy books and music with my expendable cash over more superficial pleasures like fancy clothes, cars, or the latest electronic gadgets. (I’ve been using my “Li’l Flip,” my Kirk-To-Enterprise flip phone, for years without ever feeling the need to upgrade to whatever iPhone people are standing in line for this week.)

Li’l Flip

So when I got back hardcore into posting on Medium, there were tons of articles that looked interesting from people whose work I admired.

Unfortunately, almost all of them were behind Medium’s pay wall.

Well, shoot.

Now, five dollars a month is NOT a high price to pay for quality content. And I fully support paying for writers’ work. But I’m already at the top of my monthly entertainment budget and am not ready to give up my other subscriptions.

So what’s a girl to do?

Well, first, I’ve put a year-long Medium subscription on my Christmas list. It’s a good investment, and I usually have a very hard time figuring out anything to put on my list each year.

In the meantime, I finally figured out how to tell which articles are behind the pay wall from which are not (hint: paywall stories are marked with an asterisk*). And until I get my subscription, I’m making a point of seeking out writers who are not behind the paywall, reading and commenting on their stories, and following them in many cases. I figure, this is a good way to support the writers who are not monetized with feedback.

I’m keeping my stories free for now, too. Mainly because I know what it’s like to see a story I want to read and then that pay-wall, but also because I’m hoping it will encourage people to try my writing and perhaps follow me.