Today was spent almost entirely in bed. Woke up with a headache and a cough and no shifts until this evening. It would have been a good day to research jobs and tidy my resume, but I didn't even turn on the computer until after five in the evening. I have croissant dough chilling in the fridge from yesterday, starting to dry. I answered the phone but didn't catch up on correspondence. I didn't return library books or pick up my paycheck. The clean clothes need folding, craft projects need finishing. Instead I read, glancing at the clock every hour or so, counting down the hours before getting up and readying myself for work.
I took some medication and drank lots of orange juice and listened to Darling and other house mates remodel our pantry. The mice have inspired a near-complete overhaul of every room they have infested, which is kind of a good thing. A better thing is that the mice have been neither seen nor heard from in a couple of days...maybe we chased them out?
As of the first of next month I will have new employers at my second job. There is a chance that business will improve dramatically, which would be a relief. My search for an office job has been put on tentative hold for this and a number of other reasons, and I am weary of the limbo.
I really want to give up house cleaning, which I honestly detest, but it is the best paying employment I have and takes less than four hours a week. I took on the extra work to catch up on rent, which we have finally managed, but I'm thinking of carrying on for a while more.
Yesterday I used a calculator to determine what it would take to be out of debt by May of 2012, in the hopes of paying my debt within the first five years of my Challenge. $650 a month. It's such a large, depressing number. Could I devote $650 a month to debt payment every month for eighteen months? It seems ridiculous, but the years seem to flow by so quickly in retrospect, and it would be nice to chart our progress in such concrete terms.
It seems that whatever our income, Darling and I scrape by, even in absurdly unusual months. And in easy months as much as $200 can slip through the cracks of our personal economy. Maybe if Darling and I were really determined, we could find a way to devote $650 to my student loans. Maybe the excitement of watching that huge number melt away like a candle would make up for the scraping by. Maybe we'd find ourselves pre-disposed to higher paying jobs to sooth the inevitable bruise to our lifestyle.
I'm thinking of experimenting in February. We'll pay rent on the third and then, the moment it's earned, send a $650 payment to that company and force ourselves to make up the difference. The first month will be hard, the second equally challenging, but it seems like we can adjust to anything in twelve weeks or so.
These are the things I think about, moments before heading to work, on such cold lazy days.
3 comments:
In our case its the overdraft and mortgage effect. The only positive about the mortgage is that it still works out cheaper than flatting. The rest shouldn't be there at all but has sort of crept up and taken over. Still, there is only one more year of private schooling to pay for and then high school is public and free except for some minor costs. I would like to use the spare money to pay things off somewhat but it all depends on what happens about my job which is school oriented and may die when William leaves.
Interesting times :)
viv in nz
You can't do everything at once - there are times and seasons in life. If now is the time to get out of debt, great! Getting out of debt is so freeing.
Mama Martin
maybe a better plan would be to forget about the debt for now and build up an emergency fund for dental treatment. The longer you neglect your teeth the more expensive treatment is going to be. Maybe put money aside for regular six-monthly cleanings and get your oral health squared away.
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