TO THE FUN BLOG!:
Over the past 12ish days since my last blog James and I have embarked on a number of daily adventures.
1) Vowing to stick to our newly capped budget (Let’s call that a new year’s resolution) so that when the time comes we can do things we want to do…like go to Paris-and afford it-for my birthday.
2) Two Sundays ago, the 15th, James and I had a day off together…but we ended up babysitting Tony (while mum was at the hotel working). We took him to the park
We took him down by the river to see the ducks and swans...
And I played around with my camera....alot.
3) We’ve stuck to our other New Years Resolution of going to Wye Leisure(our gym/spa) at least 2 times a week. We’re on by the skin of our teeth on that one, but some exercise is better than no exercise. Unfortunately yesterday, and today (and probably tomorrow too) we’re unable to go to the gym because they’re doing maintenance on it…so by the end of this week we will probably go twice in a row to make up for the fact that it’s been closed.
4) This last Sunday, I was woken up yet again by the pitter patter of Tony feet. Mum was working at the hotel again, so she brought tony into town and had him dropped off at the flat for me to look after him. So I took him to the park again.
Hanging out with Tony is alright and I don’t mind it so much, but it’s the fact that it’s sprung on me, on my day off, when I’m unprepared for it, and NO ONE ASKS me if it’s alright that I look after Tony. It’s just assumed. And you know what they say about the word assume…it makes an ass- out of –u- and –me-.
That’s all for the fun picture blog. Serious life changing blog/Jenny rant blog is up next:
RANT!
I’ve been thinking a lot about life, rent, how to get by, what I want to make of my life, etc, etc, etc. Since our recent spending spree over Christmas, James and I have been thinking of new ways to ‘cut the budget’ so we can afford our Paris trip which is half paid for, as well as affording rent and such.
I’ve been thinking a lot about life, rent, how to get by, what I want to make of my life, etc, etc, etc. Since our recent spending spree over Christmas, James and I have been thinking of new ways to ‘cut the budget’ so we can afford our Paris trip which is half paid for, as well as affording rent and such.
So far, our rent gets taken out at the end of every month and we’ve paid our property tax(called council tax over here) up until march. That’s standard. But we have yet to see an electric/gas bill in the FOUR MONTHS we’ve been here. We’ve talked to the company we switched to and they said they’d take care of telling the current company that they’re now in charge of our property gas/electrics. Well, we haven’t seen a bill, new or old and we still have power so, I’m not complaining. It just puts us a little on edge that no one’s contacted us to read the meter(cause it’s inside our gated complex), and if and when we DO get a bill we have NO clue how high it will be.
Our other, more ongoing problem is that we spend way too much on food when we could be cutting back to save money. Food is standard, but when you’re poor you can’t afford to be eating like you live in a hotel. James has been brought up with ‘fancy food tastes’ as I call it. He can’t just have simple mac and cheese, so we buy things that jazzes up pasta to his taste. It’s good, but we’ve spending money we can’t afford to garnish our food. And when we ‘run out of food’ the excuse it always, “it’s okay. I have some tips from tonight”. Tips and wages alike, I think all money earned should be put to good use. So…that way of thinking worries me.
Thinking about money in the long and the short run: Short run is, can we afford our living? Rent, bills, etc? And the long run is a lot more ‘what if’. What if we can’t save enough money for our future? James’ plan in life is to open his own restaurant/hotel/etc once his father either fires him or sells the hotel. If we don’t have any money saved up, and something suddenly happens that lands him out of a job, how can we afford to start our own place(oh yeah, his dream involves me working with him). I know there are certain securities to working with your father…father owns business, you have job for as long as that stays the status quo. But if he sells the business to retire, suddenly, your secure job is poof! It makes me worry.
And then there’s other future plans: Travels, babies, buying a house, pets, and career plans.
1) James and I have plans to travel all over the place, including back to America for my last brother’s wedding(whenever it may be) and to visit my parents, ESPECIALLY when it’s their time to leave us(whenever that may be). But with all these places we want to go (some of which include France, Italy, Germany), how are we ever going to afford to go to them if we can’t save money properly? Our forever fluxing bank account tells us that as soon as we put money in, more money gets taken out for our expenses. So, to me that means we need to cut back on things to save money, or make more money.
2) Babies. Don’t worry, there’s none yet. But when we do have kids, that’s another expense that is going to be difficult for us. Babies are needy and money hoggers. As soon as I can’t work and have to take care of a child, our bank account will decrease rapidly to negative intervals, unless we have money saved aside. Again, this tells me that before we think about having kids, we need to change our spending patterns and save.
3) Buying a home. A standard. But James is very specific in what he wants our dream home to be, which I’m fine with. It’s just financially, it’s the more expensive option. We want a little country house with fields around us and a nice garden. Whether we get a house like this in future years is completely up to our financial stability.
4) Pets. James is forever a dog person so we have leveled with each other and decided that later in our middle age when we’ve got a house with a garden, we’ll buy(because no one will ever GIVE you a dog here…you have to BUY dogs) a Malamute Husky puppy…which will set us back a few hundred pounds. Dogs are expensive.
5) Career.
I’ve thought a lot about what I want to do for a career. Something that would actually make us more money than me working part time, minimum wage and barely getting by. I’ve thought about being a school teacher(I’ve been told, you can get a teaching degree over here by 2 years of schooling and interning simultaneously). I’ve also thought about being some sort of RN, in a hospital, or a mental institution because there are LOADS of jobs going for Nurses in the Herefordshire County. I’ve also thought about going back to Psychology, but I don’t know how successful that would be over here. It seems like there’s more therapy jobs in demand for all the Yuppy, over-reacting Americans than there is a need for them here.
All of these jobs though, take money. Money to go back to school and study. And I don’t know if I can handle going to school, spending money to GO to school, and not working all that I can so that we stay afloat. But at the same time, I want James and I to have our best chance at a good life and for that to happen we need a more stable income than me being paid the same amount in a month, that I could earn in a week at six flags.
In a way, I kind of want to take a chance on my artistic side and see if I can start my own business. Like writing. Has Nanowrimo prepared me to take the next step to revising and trying to publish books? Or, alternatively, I’ve recently thought about learning to use my camera better, so that I can take pictures and sell canvas photos. Ya know, take artsy photos and then have them printed on canvases to sell to the public. But I don’t know if I could actually pull it off to make a bit of quick dosh(cash).
If any of my friends/family are reading this and have an opinion of it, please share.
