Monday, December 07, 2009

Welcome Back Kotter

Well well well, just when you think everything is set just the way it is, you get bit in the butt!

We're sitting here Friday afternoon, figuring out just how it is we're going to make it for a month and a half (including Christmas, oy) on $400. We could still maybe have paid a few bills, but no one was getting Christmas presents and John and I were really going to have to eat Ramen for the month of December...and lo and behold....John got some temp work for a few weeks. Thanks Dori! It's so great, it changes the whole month, it absolutely gets us through till he goes to work and gets his first paycheck and we can have an enjoyable Christmas and get our party hosts gifts instead of coming in bearing dog food.

What a relief.

I am definitely starting to come out of the shell a little bit, it's amazing how chronic unemployment can really bring a person down. But this weekend we (very cheaply might I add) saw our friends and bought vacuum cleaner bags and whined about how we would miss each other and wow, it's just really great.

And here I am at home, working hard, missing John, but focused and ready, so ready to get Chicago Elevated up and running.

We have some ways that my being home will actually save us money, certainly dog walker money is not being spent, my tour money will start rolling in soon and I'm getting into some travel hacking thanks to Chris Guillebeau.

Travel hacking is all about learning how to use miles, how to build up miles without flying and achieving higher statuses. I'm just now learning how to do all this and it takes a lot of work and organization and paying attention. This is something I just would not be motivated to do if I worked out of the house all day. By the time John and I are ready to do some real traveling in a year or so, we should have miles built up all around the joint which could potentially save us thousands of dollars.

It's fun.

I'm also reading a lot of sort of....minimilist financial sites. We're just learning how to budget too and when you're someone like me who gets overwhelmed with "stocks" and things, these sites are really helping me to see it's okay to start simply and stay simple if that's what you want to do. If you're curious to check these out too, try:

Get Rich Slowly


or

Wisebread

I keep thinking of a line from my mantra song "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas (seriously, I know I'm way behind but this song pumps my gnads dude...heh):

Easy come, easy go, now we're on top

Lame, but true. It is all easy come easy go and right now we're moving on up the world ladder. I know we could fall back down a couple of rungs here and there, but MAN are we motivated to get what we can out of the top while we're up there, so the next fall, when it comes and no matter what it is, we'll be a little more prepared.

2 comments:

smussyolay said...

ever since i saw that kid do that song in the apple store (xhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3be6D18ExPg), i've been in love with that song.

smussyolay said...

ever since i saw that kid do that song in the apple store (xhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3be6D18ExPg), i've been in love with that song.