Pro-Soup Propaganda

As you may have heard online, I got laid off from my job on Thursday this past week. Yes, it was out of the blue, but it was also not a huge surprise either, really. I had felt something was up for awhile and hadn't been truly happy at work for quite a bit. I had just that morning tweeted that I was making as much in side hustles right now as I was in working full time. The thought of something new and working for myself had been on my mind since World Domination Summit, but wasn't 100% sure how to make that happen. Well, life is funny sometimes, isn't it? ;o)

I am thankful that I worked for the company I had the pleasure of working for and I really liked my boss and coworkers, but the job itself was not great for me. I had a whole lot of downtime and not enough projects to keep me busy. I tried to create projects for myself but even then there wasn't always much to them. (I should mention that this job was not the one I applied for and originally got. I started out as the HR & office assistant and got promoted to receptionist because the receptionist at that time got promoted, as well. It was either become receptionist or be laid off from being the assistant, so I took the receptionist job!)

So now what?

I did get to leave with a bit of a "severance package" so I used that to pay many bills in advance from now through February. I did this for a couple reasons. First, I will be gone through January, so that gives me through February to start getting money saved up again. Also, I knocked the bills down so that Jonathan and I are able to live off his income from now through February. I am thankful we do not have any debt AND that I'm a rockstar at saving money.

While I do have my money from side hustles it was all being saved to go to Antarctica in January, so since many bills are now paid off for awhile, I am going to save my side hustle income the way I used to. I put 10% of it into my Vanguard stocks, 10% into one of Jonathan and I's shared savings accounts, and then the remaining amount into my Smarty Pig fund. I'll still have to take a little bit out of my don't-want-to-touch savings, but it's better than not going to Antarctica at all!

Also, because of this new direction my life took me I'm going to hold off on going to Patagonia until later, which I'm also okay with. Ever since I did Conservation VIP's Peru volunteer vacation I have been wanting to do their Torres del Paine volunteer vacation, but since I was already registered for the first Patagonia trip I was just going to do the volunteer trip another time. Now I can do it whenever I'm able! So that is awesome. (Although I really, really wish I could do the Patagonia volunteer trip in March because it would be the best time of year for me to go out of town for awhile. I wish I could snap my fingers and make $5,000 appear!!)

So what's happening with me, folks! Lots of pet-sitting is happening and figuring out ways to make money. It's nice to not have to drive to Clackamas every day. I was so busy recently that I had almost zero free time to myself, so suddenly having time to take walks, work on projects, read, and nap is really nice! I know things will work out for me, because they always do. As Louis Pasteur said, "...Chance only favors the prepared mind."