Budgeting…

Yesterday, I talked about not wanting to over work for the corporation. Because lets face it, they don’t care if you have a life outside of work. They only care that you are there to make THEM money. Because without you, they can’t make money. And they make a lot of money on the pittance that you make in exchange for your life energy. It’s not that fair of an exchange, honestly. On our last breaths are we going to be thinking “Gee, I wish I had worked longer hours for so and so to get richer” or are we going to think back on those days we spent away from work, with our friends and family doing things with much more meaning?

Our whole society is based on how to make the rich richer and to keep the normal plebs working constantly. Make education worse, force women to have babies, take away help for those that are disabled and force them to work too and live in poverty, and make it so that the elderly have to work. Want to retire? Nope. Lets keep upping that age of retirement. Make housing so expensive, that the plebs have to work 2-3 jobs with no time to explore better options like self-employment. Make education so cost prohibitive that people fear being in debt for the rest of their lives, making the rich richer with all that interest….

Yes, it’s theoretically possible to rise up above all that- but you have to have a lot of good luck with hard work. Work as hard or harder than anyone else but if you also don’t have a bit of luck, you can fail. Health issues? An accident? A child with illness? A house fire? All kinds of things can happen to set you back. All it takes is losing one paycheck and a lot of people are homeless. It’s not easy to find good employment if you are homeless.

So since I’ve decided to not go running to work on my scheduled days off, mainly because I just HURT so much and am not able to function outside of work on just the few hours I have been having because of the pain caused by working for someone else- working extra hours and not even getting proper breaks- is playing havoc on my semi-disabled body. I don’t mind working if there is not pain, but I mostly want to work for myself where I can care for my body’s needs and have all the benefits of my life energy for me and mine and not using it make a rich person richer.

I know I need the $$ but it really isn’t worth the pain. If you feel pain like this, you’d understand 100%.

So I will have to double down on the budgeting. One week’s worth of pay is my monthly car insurance. UGH. It’s disheartening that car insurance is so expensive. But it’s the law to have it. It’s not something I can cut out of the budget. What bills I can get down lower I have done so. I can’t live without the cell phone. I have no landline here and it’s required to use a cell phone at work…. (Yet they don’t pay that bill, no, of course not!). Of course there is money that has to be in the budget for the gas it takes to get back and forth to work. Work is 50 minutes away one way. So I have to fill up ($60) at least once a week if I go nowhere but to work and back. There is no public transportation out here so that is not something that can be changed. I just will have to make sure I don’t go many places that are not necessary.

Since I don’t have drinkable tap water here, I have to buy water. I’d like to buy a filter but my budget doesn’t allow for that yet. Trying get a cushion in the bank first before any major purchases so that I have money for emergencies like for vet care and car fixes. But that is on the list eventually. So drinking water is necessary, but I do save the bottles and take them in for the deposits and get a little bit back.

Rent is necessary but luckily isn’t too terrible for what I’m staying in. Not something I can really get much lower on.

Eating at work, while convenient costs the very money I’m trying to earn from the place I am working at. Employee discount or not, it’s not worth it. Going to cut that out and just eat at home before and after work. I can survive that long without snacks. It’s not like I get any actual time to sit down and enjoy a meal during the work day anyway.

Have to buy dog and cat food, and that is non-negotiable for me. They are my companions and bring joy to my life and comfort. I’ve lost everything but them and so they are everything to me.

Things like clothes, when I need them, will be thrifted or since I have so little, I will spend the money on quality. Lets face it, the goodwill is just as expensive these days as brand new at most places so it’s a bit ridiculous to only say buy thrifted. I bought a thrifted pair of slacks for work a few weeks ago and they are falling apart already and they cost as much as a pair from Walmart or Costco does. If I’m going to be wearing them a lot because of the limited wardrobe, I want them to last and that may mean buying higher quality. So I will be sure to budget now and then for some new clothes as I need them. Put some money into savings just for things like that. I will for sure need winter weather clothes as the season moves on. All I have is summery clothes and I will get so wet and cold this winter, I just know it so I will have to make sure that need is covered.

Art supplies are a difficult thing… because I love art supplies! Lately, I have neither the room nor the time for art. Just another reason to make sure I take those day’s off! I can sell art. But in order to sell it, I have to make it. I have some of my paintings that I was able to grab as I escaped. I don’t particularly want to sell them, as I love them so much, but I have no room for them. I might make prints of them, which I could store more easily, and sell some too, and then I could sell the original and not feel so bad about letting them go. That would free up some space to make more art…. I just have to not get crazy with the art supplies.

I don’t know, there are probably a dozen more things I could list that I need to decide to budget for, and that would make this post long and boring if it isn’t already. My goal is to try to sock away $1000 a month. Leave that untouchable. It won’t be easy, as there are so many things I want- like a couple fitted sheets for the bed, a warm blanket for winter, an outside cooking table/sink, etc…..but I will look for sales, good deals, and cheaper ways to do things in the meantime.