Money Talks: The MBA student who’s $170K in debt and just spent $4,000 on a music festival

Day 1

Credit: Paper Bunny

1/7

10:00am: I make my morning coffee using a frozen coffee capsule from Cometeer (an excellent instant option for coffee snobs with no time in the morning to make pourover coffee) and was about to head to my morning class when I am inconveniently derailed by stomach cramps that hit just as I’m about to step out the door. My GI tract has been giving me issues for the past year, but has become even worse after I got food poisoning from a trip to Mexico last month. I decide to skip class and watch the video recording later instead.

12:30pm: For lunch, I decide to go with something somewhat easy on the stomach and make a spinach salad with grilled salmon, tomatoes, avocado, and sliced red onions. I use balsamic vinegar and olive oil from my ever-present jar of Meredith Dairy’s marinated feta. That stuff has changed my opinions about marinated cheeses forever. You should try it; I promise you won’t regret it.

2:00pm: I start thinking about packing for my trip to the Coachella music festival later this week, and decide that I need a foldable water bottle, since metal and glass bottles are not allowed, and I only want to carry a small bag when I’m walking around. The desert is not a nice place for the dehydrated. Amazon is my best friend, and I found a bright blue silicone bottle that collapses nicely and will attach onto the strap of my purse. – $30.43

>4:00pm: I’ve finished catching up on my homework for the day and decided to treat myself to a massage. I sprained my neck last year, and it never quite fully recovered, and recently reared its head again so I feel pain whenever I turn or bend my neck. It’s not really conducive to the copious amounts of dancing I’m anticipating during Coachella, so I decide that a splurge is worth it to ward off any future woes. A punishing 90 min massage at a cheap local Chinese massage parlour turns out to be just what I needed. – $95.04

6:00pm: In the same Coachella-prep vein, I decide to get a bikini wax to avoid any potential outfit oops moments. Also our Airbnb has a hot tub and a pool. I haven’t gotten a bikini wax in months, and it hurts. A lot. But beauty is pain, so I bear with it. – $70.96

7:00pm: I pass by a smoke shop and decide to pop in to get some flavoured vapes to bring to Coachella. Nicotine is a vice I’ve been trying to kick, and I switched from smoking to vaping, but now that’s become an even harder habit to kick. Don’t start, kids. It’s not going to be a fun time later down the road. – $36.35

7:30pm: Dinner is leftover dumpling soup from the day before. I’ve been drinking a lot of soups lately because it’s a little easier on my stomach. I also pop some probiotics and digestive enzymes, just in case.

Daily total: $232.78

Day 2

Credit: Five Star Chicken Rice

2/7

7:30am: I wake up earlier than usual to make it to my 9am advanced negotiation class. Two frozen coffee pods are required to get me up. Ugh. Today we’re going through the results of a previous group simulation about a bunch of store owners negotiating over the terms of a new shopping mall they’re thinking of setting up shop in. It’s pretty interesting, and the 3-hour class passes pretty quickly.

12:00pm: I have a virtual referral appointment with the student health center for my neck strain problem, and the doctor says she would prefer to see me in person the next day, since the issue has persisted for over a year. Turning 30 has really sent my body rolling down a hill.

12:45pm: I grab lunch with friends at a Thai place I just discovered near school that serves amazing chicken rice. I swear, the steamed chicken rivals some of the best from Singapore, and the rice is super flavourful. The accompanying chili sauce is a vinegary concoction that goes perfectly with the dish. I can’t believe it took me over a year and a half to find this place! I also get a homemade chrysanthemum tea to go along with it, but it turns out to be too sweet for my liking, and I don’t finish it. Still, 10/10, would come again. – $18.90

2:00pm: For dessert, I grab a piece of spicy honey cornbread from a coffee cart outside school. It’s very rich, with a lovely coarse-grained texture that goes really well with the crunchy cornflake topping. I devour it as I sit in a study room with my friends completing some work. – $4.90

6:00pm: I head home and pull out my cabin-sized suitcase to pack for Coachella. It’s heavily scuffed from my previous trip to Mexico a while ago, and I whip out a Mr. Clean eraser to buff out the scuff marks. This hack works for suitcases of almost all materials and colours — you’re welcome. When I finish cleaning it some 15 minutes later, it looks almost brand new.

7:00pm: I decide to postpone packing and whip up a quick dinner. I’m still pretty full from the chicken rice at lunch, so I just steam some broccoli in the microwave and pan-fry a small piece of salmon. Entertainment is trashy reality TV that my roommate has gotten me hooked onto. Who knew that so many people were willing to offer up their love lives as television fodder?

9:00pm: I feel lazy and decide to postpone packing until tomorrow. I will live to regret this decision.

Daily total: $23.80

Day 3

Credit: The Dry Cleaner

3/7

10:45am: I oversleep and barely run out of the house on time, but a subway delay means I’m 10 minutes late for my appointment with the gynecologist at the school health center. (I’m over 30 and it’s been years since my last PAP smear.) I’m lucky, and they managed to reschedule me to another appointment at 1pm. I instead head in early for my neck strain referral appointment, during which the doctor tsks at my lack of head mobility and refers me to physical therapy. I’m told that a chiropractor probably wouldn’t be able to help correct any postural problems, and a physical therapist will be able to help me more in the long run since I have a long life of computer-sitting ahead of me. Get a good desk chair and elevate your screen to eye level, everyone. – $2.75 for the subway

12:00pm: I’m ravenous so I grab a salad nearby. Pesto chicken with kale, tomatoes, and herbed breadcrumbs. Delicious. The salad bar ran out of cups for water, so I rinsed out my coffee cup from the morning and grabbed some water from the dispenser. – $15.19

3:00pm: I run home to Brooklyn and drop by the dry cleaners to pick up some outfits that I’m planning to bring to Coachella. The Korean couple that run the place are super sweet, and also do great basic alterations. This time, I’ve asked them to let out the hem on a miniskirt I bought that is waaaaay too short for me. Without the alterations, the hem would be at crotch height. Even festivals have limits. I also got them to shorten the hem on another dress that would otherwise sweep the floor. I have no real desire to trip and fall on my face in the middle of a set. – $83.95

4:00pm: I take the subway back into Manhattan to grab an early dinner at a Cuban spot near school with a classmate that I’ve hung out with whom I haven’t gotten to speak to one-on-one in a sober setting before. We talk about life, relationship problems (boy, oh boy), and our respective career switches. She used to make bank at a hedge fund, and I used to be a lowly-paid writer. Now we’re both headed into multinational tech firms. Conversations and connections like these are what really makes an MBA valuable, much more so than the classroom learning. – $37.15

6:00pm: I head to class. This is my first and only class about investment banking and private equity, and a lot of the numbers fly over my head, but both the professor (a managing director at Goldman Sachs) and the guest speaker (the founder and CEO of a multi-million dollar medtech business) are both very engaging.

9:00pm: It’s dark by the time I get out of class, but the weather’s fortunately finally started to get warmer. I take the subway home. – $2.75

9.45pm: I’m exhausted, but I still need to pack for Coachella. (I told you I would live to regret it.) It takes me a solid 3 hours to refill my travel-sized toiletries kit, dig out all the bits and pieces (makeup, jewellery, face jewels, 3 hats, pillbox with vitamins, hand sanitizer, travel documents, etc.), and pack all my outfits into my suitcase, but I manage to wrap up and collapse into bed just before 1am. My suitcase is bursting, since I packed 3 backup outfits on top of the 3 originals I planned, but I figure it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Daily total: $141.79

Day 4

Credit: Air Bnb

4/7

4:30am: Today’s the day! It’s Coachella travel day! I wake up at a ridiculous hour and curse my friends for booking such an early flight, but am nonetheless excited as I get ready to get out of the house. I booked an uber to JFK airport because it’s both unsafe to go there by train in the wee hours of the morning, and because I’m just really sleepy. – $81.47

7:00am: I make it through security in record time since I have my boarding pass on my phone and don’t need to check in any bags, so I grab an exorbitantly-priced sandwich for the plane ride and sit and wait for the rest of my travel group to arrive. We’re headed to San Diego and will make the 2.5 hour drive to Coachella. It was a much cheaper flight ($857.20 each) than flying into Palm Springs directly (which would have cost over $1100). – $18.49

8:30am: We board the plane and fly for 6 hours to the other side of the country. I crash and sleep for almost the entire flight.

1:00pm: After getting the rental car, we start driving around San Diego looking for a spot to grab lunch. We decide on a Japanese restaurant, and end up stuffing our faces because we’re so hungry. We also pop by the Japanese supermarket next door to grab some snacks for the road and to eat during the festival. I dropped by a CVS to pick up a sewing kit and some sunscreen, because I lost a button off my sweater, and apparently Coachella doesn’t allow aerosol sunscreens. – $60

3:00pm: We continue driving around San Diego. It’s my first time in California, and my friend who used to live here shows us around some cool spots, including a beach that’s on the side of a cliff. We spot some people paragliding from the cliff, which seems really fun. We then set off for Palm Springs.

8:00pm: We arrive in Palm Springs and decide to grab dinner at In-N-Out before heading to the Airbnb. The burger is surprisingly delicious for a fast-food joint, and I stuff my face with it, and wash it down with a side of animal-style fries. Yum. My friends fight over whether In-N-Out or Shake Shack is better. I think life is incomplete without trying them both. – $11.75

10:00pm: We check into Airbnb (paid for ages ago and cost us $1061.89 each for 4 nights), and meet up with the rest of the group. There are 14 of us staying in the Airbnb, and we’re all amazingly tired from our travels, so we call it an early night and collapse into bed.

Daily Total: $171.71

Day 5

5/7

10:00am: We stumble out of bed and make our own breakfasts. One of my friends had stopped by a bulk grocery place and bought a ton of steak, eggs, and avocados for us all to have for breakfast over the course of the festival. I have some classic millennial avocado toast.

12:00pm: I start getting ready for the festival. Today’s outfit is the most uncomfortable, but it is super cute, even if I do say so myself. It has three-dimensional pink georgette roses made from deadstock fabric sewn onto a tie-front top and miniskirt. I pair it with a white bucket hat to protect me from the sun, and slather on a ton of sunscreen. I do my makeup, slip my ultra-comfy pink Allbirds onto my feet, and head out the door. We had the option of walking for 50 minutes to Coachella or taking a 10-minute chartered bus, so we collectively decided to head for the bus. Still, the walk from the dropoff point into Coachella proper takes about 25 minutes. I can’t wait to see my step count by the end of today.

2:00pm: The sun is blazing hot by the time we get into Coachella, and I’m very grateful for my hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen. The group splits to fill up our bottles with water, get our IDs checked to be able to buy alcohol, and reconvene at John Summit’s set at the Sahara tent. We stay for Dom Dolla’s set after because we’re all unapologetically hard into EDM.

5:00pm: We emerge from Sahara, and decide to split up and grab a bite to eat. I head into the VIP area (yes, I got a VIP ticket, because that was all that was left when I logged onto the Coachella site all those months ago, and because I decided that this will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime experience) and grab burgers from Irv’s burgers for my friend and I. I also grab a cocktail because it is incredibly hot, and some ice sounds really great right now. – $65.02

6.30pm: One of my friends and I head to the Mojave tent Arcade Fire, but I soon abandon them in favour of Peggy Gou’s set at the Yuma tent. It’s awesome. Best of all, there is air conditioning here. One unfortunate thing about the Yuma tent is that it is so popular (likely because of the air conditioning) that it’s impossible to get in unless you have a VIP wristband and can enter via a separate entrance in the VIP area. Somewhere this time, my friend buys us all double shots of tequila, and the real dancing begins. After the Peggy Gou set, the group of us heads off to buy water and a lot more alcohol, because it’s that time of night. – $50.12

10.45pm: After several rounds of drinks, we head into Sahara for Big Sean, who turns out to be an excellent performer. Some people then break off to the main stage for Harry Styles, and others head to King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard. I manage to catch a bit of both from afar, mostly because I'm resting around the giant spiral art piece that sits smack in the center of the festival.

1.30am: It’s finally time to go home. It’s pretty cold, but my outfit has sleeves so I’m fine. I end up linking arms with a friend who’s shivering and we start on the half-hour walk back to the shuttle pick up point. We take the bus home, shower, and chug some Liquid IV to rehydrate before falling dead asleep.

Daily total: $115.14

Day 6

Credit: Coachella

6/7

12:00pm: I wake up feeling surprisingly refreshed. Liquid IV is magic. By this time, most of the house is up and about, and someone has started grilling steaks on the barbecue outside. I dig into a large breakfast of steak, eggs, avocado, and toast. Unfortunately, we all forgot to buy coffee, so I powered through without it.

1:00pm: I slowly start getting ready. The girls have decided that today’s outfit theme is all black, so I slip into my ankle-length black dress (complete with hip-high slit and waist cutouts for ventilation) and plop on a black cowboy hat. I slather sunscreen on my legs and my midriff, smear glitter on my eyelids, and don a bejeweled chain face mask for extra impact.

3:45pm: We get to Coachella just in time to catch L’imperatrice at the Gobi tent, but it’s not really my vibe, so I wander off to grab a giant pile of loaded tater tots (amazingly crispy and delicious) and fresh lemonade (amazingly overpriced at $13). – $29

5:00pm: I head to the VIP rose garden to hang around and have a look at all the influencers taking photos among the flowers. I also grab a triple shot of tequila because why not. – $42

6.45pm: A group of friends and I catch the 88 Rising set at the main stage and I almost have a heart attack when I see Korean rapper CL come out for a surprise performance. I actually had a heart attack when her former group 2NE1 came out to perform for the first time in about a decade. Or at least the sounds coming out of my mouth sound like it.

8.30pm: We grab more drinks (my friend pays) and catch Flume (great) and Danny Elfman (who knew an orchestra and a metal band could sound so good together?). – $11

10:30pm: I find out that a photographer friend of mine has flown in from London to shoot at Coachella, and make arrangements to meet him. It’s great to see an old friend. We chatted for over an hour (it’s been about three years since we’ve last met) before heading to watch Billie Eilish and 21 Savage. It’s a really great time, although 21 Savage is more clearly my friend’s speed.

1:30am: 21 Savage ends their set and I make plans to meet my photographer friend again the next day before we split and return home.

2:00am: I regroup with my other group of friends at the spiral and head home. It’s freezing, so we huddle together against the wind on the way back. I shower, chug more Liquid IV, and fall asleep before my head hits the pillow.

Daily Total: $82

Day 7

Credit: Skims

7/7

9:00am: I wake up at an ungodly hour and am unable to get back to sleep, so I head down for breakfast and eat until I'm able to food coma myself into a nap. My ensuing nap was glorious, until it was interrupted at 2pm by my friend banging on the door and telling us we only had an hour left before we were leaving for Coachella.

2:00pm: I’m much perkier post nap and am able to get ready in record time. Today’s outfit is the breeziest; I’m wearing a nude Skims bodysuit under a sheer dress. I’m not a huge fan of the Kardashian family, and I hate how much I like Skims. It is terribly flattering.

4:00pm: We kick off our arrival by taking a ton of photos and I grab yet another order of loaded tater tots, only this time with added popcorn chicken for an even more joyous eating experience. I also down two tequila shots before heading to Solomun’s set at the outdoor theater. It’s a really great set to kick off the day. – $45.35

6:30pm: I meet my photographer friend again and we catch up for 15 minutes, but he has to head off to shoot more photos of festival goers before the sun goes down. He’s headed to NYC in the next few weeks, so we agree to meet again at some point. I rejoin my group of friends at Solomun.

7.45pm: We decide to stay at the outdoor theater for Joji, but soon head to catch Doja Cat at the main stage. Sadly, it’s a rather underwhelming set. We should have gone for Jamie XX instead. Ah well.

10:00pm: My friend magically appears with a giant magnum of whiskey. She has an artist pass, and said that one of the artists had passed her the bottle and told her to enjoy it. Naturally, we do.

10.20pm: The whole of Coachella gathers at the main stage to catch Swedish House Mafia and The Weeknd perform. Now pleasantly tipsy, I have an excellent time jumping up and down, burning off all the extra alcohol calories.

12:30am: Coachella ends and we are the grimiest we’ve ever been because of all the desert dust. I shower, force myself to pack because I know that I have an early flight tomorrow, and crash into bed at around 3am. I will wake up at 6am to make the drive back to San Diego and catch my flight the next day.

Found out that I got a $10 rebate for spending more than $50 at Coachella using my American Express card. I’m delighted.

Daily total: $35.35