Friday, June 29, 2012

Life Update: Job, Minimalising, Money, Travel


Friends, I've had a lot on my mind lately. Between Jonathan's accident and graduating with my bachelor's degree, life has been a whirlwind lately.

I have a job interview next week for a job that I think I would do good at. It would be part time and would allow me to work at my current job, which is pretty awesome. The people there seem super nice and are really positive. Cross your fingers for me! I have been working very part time since last October to allow me to finish up my degree. This is what lead to the spending fast (which I didn't do a good job of blogging about - oops). Overall, we did do good at saving money and I have still been weeding through my things to find goodies to sell and am still working at minimalising my life. But I'm done with my degree and I'm SO ready to start working more again! I have really, really missed being able to go see the coast and having more adventures. I have felt like my life has been very small lately.

I've been thankful for the low amount of hours I've been working, though. I think that was the real kick in the butt to get Jonathan and I into saving mode. I've always had money to buy whatever I wanted and to suddenly have to really, REALLY budget was a good experience. It's been good practice for us. Whether I get this other job (which would mean I'd be working almost 40 hours a week total - YAY!) or a different other job it feels awesome knowing we'd be putting almost all of the extra money into savings. We've lessened our wants. I've been purging things. It feels good to streamline.

I can't wait to start saving all this extra money so we can have some fun later. We will eventually need a different vehicle. We want to go on trips to visit Jonathan's family in Maine and my mom up in the Interior. I am still saving for Antarctica, obviously (48% - wha wha!), but I also want to visit friends in North Carolina and Norway (Sonya, I am holding you to your VW van offer ;o). I realize this will be a year without many extra fun times. Heck, in January I blogged about all the cool stuff I wanted to do this year and none of it has happened and I don't expect it to happen. I kinda want to just hunker down and save a bunch of money. (Although Jonathan and I do want to go to Astoria in October for our 5 year anniversary and stay in a fancy-schmancy hotel and eat a ton of seafood.)

This year has had a lot of ups and downs. If you know me well, you know that I like stability and I like planning. I like order. This year has had none of that and it's been a great learning experience. Heck, 2012 is just barely halfway completed. What does the rest of the year bring? What is this post even really about? I have just been doing a lot of thinking lately and just needed to get it out.
Posted by Brittany at 9:34 AM
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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 30, 2012 at 5:34 PM

    So glad Jonathan is okay!

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    1. BrittanyJuly 1, 2012 at 9:33 AM

      Thank you!! Me, too! NOT the call I wanted to receive on his birthday!

      Delete
  2. KanelstrandJuly 2, 2012 at 7:22 AM

    Sometimes it's good not to have stability and not to be able to plan. It just provides us with a different point of view, you know... like in here: http://zenhabits.net/allow/... we need to let go.

    In other news, Norway is awaiting you, any time :D

    I am hoping things will turn for the better for you too and inspiration will strike!

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    1. BrittanyJuly 2, 2012 at 8:24 AM

      Yes, it's definitely been the year of uneasiness for me! It's definitely opened up my eyes, but I am really looking forward to stability again. I have felt really unhappy and sometimes depressed throughout this year and I'm sure you can imagine that I *kinda* like to be happy most of the time. ;o)

      Overall, I do appreciate that this year has happened to me and had this learning experience, I really do! I know that it has caused me to make decisions that will work better for me in the long run.

      Delete
  3. KimJuly 28, 2012 at 10:51 AM

    North Carolina!!! :-)

    I agree w/ Sonya, though lack of stability can be really hard to process & deal with, I think it's really good for us to experience it occasionally in our lives. That being said, I hope 2012 turns around for you.

    ALSO: I have friends that just moved to Eugene (well, they moved to the coast for the rest of summer, then they will be in Eugene when she starts the PhD program next month.) They were excited when I said I was trying to maybe plan an Oregon trip sometime in the coming year. :-)

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    1. BrittanyJuly 31, 2012 at 3:00 PM

      Oh, the coast and Eugene are awesome! That's so great! If they need friends let them know I am friendly. ;o)

      Delete

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