Money

Ahh pay-day.

I treated (is that a word?) myself to a sausage and bacon sandwich this morning for the grand price of £3.65.

That is my pay-day treat.  Once my rent is paid, electricity, gas, water, train fare to work and food shopping is all taken into account, there isn’t too much left.

I cannot complain too much, I do have money to go out, I am not forced to buy frozen burgers – I do eat good quality food.  I can afford one clubbing trip to London a month and go out most other weekends – though I do have to stay in at least one weekend a month, depending on how many weekends there are in a month.  I can afford to buy a couple of CDs, maybe a t-shirt, keep my subscription to the Economist and the £2.99 a month for a more detailed rain radar.

I am definitely not poor (although technically the socialists probably think I am probably in poverty because I don’t own a sports car).

However there are things I want that I just cannot afford, nothing huge – such as a new mp3 player to replace my disco-damaged Zen (what a shit name), I want a bike to help me get fit, and there is absolutely no way I will be able to afford a holiday, probably not even a weekend away at this rate.

I have cut my expenditure as much as I can.  Or perhaps as much as I am willing.  Housing costs massively down, nothing I can do about train fares, the house is cold enough as it is without turning the heating down more, I don’t go out and party anywhere near as much as I used to.

For now I guess I just have to accept my austerity circumstances and keep plugging away.

I guess one cannot totally rule out a pay-rise or a bonus but I never factor such things into expectations so they are always taken as bonuses as opposed to expectations – though with inflation at 2.8% and continuing to eat away slowly at wages, the pressure may become too much to continue on the same salary eventually.

However I am happy, I enjoy my job, I have a mission to achieve and complete.  And I can listen to music all day whilst working – that is worth a huge amount to me.

None of my little projects look like paying off at any time soon either…still not in the DJ Premier League.  My artwork is not yet featuring in any galleries.

My conclusion is that I need to keep resisting the pressure to increase my earnings and hopefully something will turn up through my hard work and endeavours, whether that be work-related at my current employer, or some external bonus like winning the lottery.  Or just winning one of those competitions I enter would be nice.

I shall keep on dreaming.