A woman spent a year saving up by recycling bottles and cans to buy tickets to Taylor Swift’s final Erasure Tour show.
Katherine McKenzie, 31, became a fan of Taylor Swift after the popularity of the Erasure Tour in 2023, which gave her the opportunity to delve deeper into the artist’s discography.
Catherine started recycling plastic bottles and metal cans for change in November last year.
In just 12 months, she managed to save $905, but the rising price of resold tickets meant she fell short of the required minimum of $1,045.
However, when it was all over, Katherine heard from her sister-in-law’s friend who was able to get her two restricted view tickets for $11.15 each for the final show of the tour.
Catherine, who owns a cat in Victoria, Canada, said: “It was an amazing twist of fate.
“I’ve worked very hard and been looking forward to this experience for a whole year.”
Katherine came up with the idea after remembering a time in her childhood when she had hatched a similar plan.
Katherine said: “In fifth grade I was totally obsessed with Elvis and my mom said if I could save money for my plane ticket, we could go to Memphis.
“When I was a kid, there were limited ways to save money so I thought about recycling bottles and cans at plants where they pay you money to hand it in.
“I saved for several months and finally saved enough for us to move.”
Katherine started with some of her friends, who helped her by giving her empty plastic bottles and cans.
Four months later, Catherine found out that she was pregnant but it did not make any difference to her and she continued moving forward.
Catherine said: “It didn’t take long for me to decide to go ahead with the plan.
“I knew I would pretty much be pregnant by the time of the concert but that didn’t stop me.
“However this changed my collection strategy as I knew I would not be as active towards the end of the pregnancy.
“When I was more mobile I reached out to the neighborhood Swifty Facebook group and asked if anyone had any trash they would be willing to give me.
“The response was overwhelming and I was soon making weekly trips collecting everyone’s trash, organizing the recycling and then taking it to the plant.”
Over 12 months, Katherine saved a whopping $905, but the rising price of resold tickets meant she didn’t have enough tickets.
But in a stroke of luck, Katherine’s sister-in-law’s friend had extra tickets and she was able to purchase two tickets for $11.15 each for the final show of the tour.
Katherine said: “It was very disappointing to think it wouldn’t work at all so I’m glad I got the chance to go with my sister.”
A large portion of the money left during the concert was spent on merchandise.
Katherine said: “We spent probably $208 total on merchandise that night.
“The rest of the money will go into our savings to put toward a house in Vancouver and will likely be spent on raising our new arrival who is due to arrive on New Year’s Day!”
