As some of you are probably aware, DF and I are big music fans. Up until we bought our house, one of our biggest expenses were music festivals, the second probably being buying actual music. Without doing any calculations, I'd say we easily spent $2k a year each attending festivals (four or more a year). Accomodation, transportation, tickets, drinks, food and an overpriced tshirt sure add up!

So obviously that expense was cut when we decided to jump headfirst into the joy that is 'the mortgage'. We have not been to one since the Big Day Out 2009.

But, buying music is still something that we occasionally shell out on. My dad works in the music industry and we are regularly blessed with packages of 20 or so discs of music that he knows we like. Always a good day when I find one of those on the doorstep! (This also explains why I don't download music, if anyone is wondering - my dad would probably disown me. I don't mind loading it from a friends copy if it has been bought, but I won't support illegal downloading).

DF and I have very similar tastes in music, there are some that one likes and the other doesn't care for, but for the most part we like the same stuff.

However, it becomes hard to buy something when the other doesn't like it. Neither of us see the point in buying a cd if the other doesn't like it. Odd I know, as a normal couple would probably think the opposite way: the person who didn't like it wouldn't want the other to buy it. *shrugs*

Being the weird child I am, I have a love for death metal, especially when I'm working. (I'm sure people could read into this in some psychological way, and I'm also sure some people probably think it is in some way related to the devil - like some people also believe the world is flat... *cough*) Anyway, DF doesn't like it at all and I've never bothered to buy any because of this, and my dad doesn't work in that genre (and doesn't have any desire to aquire any for me ), so I usually just listen to it, streamed from youtube or some other source, because I'm too cheap to buy it just yet, if only one of us is going to enjoy listening to it. (I'm working on it though. "Listen to that guitar, dammit! There's some skill right there, I sure as heck couldn't play like that... if I could play a guitar at all..." Eh! Can't say I didn't try...)

So I just discovered that my little brother (little, being 16) has pretty much all that I could ever ask for. He happily put it all on my iTunes (I think this was the moment he discovered that his OLD sister may, in some extremely minute way, be just a tiny bit cool), and I didn't have to spend a cent, and DF doesn't have to listen to it in some justification of the money spent on it. Thanks lil bro!