When it rains it pours

It’s a very rainy Friday night. On my cycle ride home it really started to come down when I was a few miles from my house. Two hours after getting home, my shirt was still sodden. Well, probably a combination of sweat and rain, but none the less wet. It seems like we’re going to be socked in for a while here.

Tonight, I’m hiding from everyone. It’s much better for me to be hiding right now. I’ve had some awkward type conversations with various people this week and it’s nice to be sitting in the dark, in my bed, listening to the rain fall with no one threatening to drag me into a conversation I have no desire to have.

And well, I got some crap financial news this week. After overhearing my colleague call HR about his payslip (and lack of pay), I thought I’d log on to check my own payslip. At first I thought “Woah I made more money this month! Sweet!” I thought the amount went up. But then after gloating for a minute about all the beer and whisky I was going to buy with the extra money I checked back to my last payslip. And……oh. No. Fuck. I made £120 less. What? WHAT? WHY? £120 more to the tax man to be exact. That’s not cool.

So I called HR today and they said, yes they are taking more money out for tax. No rhyme or reason. Just that’s the way it is and nothing to do to change it. So my already strapped budget just got strappier. Great.

I was pretty pissed and depressed about this. Nothing I can do to change it at this point. I left the office dejected. I had a basket filled with scraps of food from my co-worker Rob who wanted to make sure I had enough food to get me through the weekend. Unfortunately, the 2 bananas and a weird Majorcan pastry he gave me only lasted me tonight. But during my cycle home, I decided to turn that frown upside down and turn this into a challenge. A blog challenge at that. And maybe just maybe I won’t feel as bad about it.

So after student loans, credit cards, rent and utilities paid I have £296 to last me 31 days. For those of you playing the American version that equates to $469.95. Thats £9.50 ($15.16) a day. Some of you may think, dag, that shouldn’t be a problem. But I imagine a lot of you are thinking, dag, that’s not much. Especially living in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

But I’m going to give it a try limiting myself to that amount. I think about 50%-60% of that will go to food with the remaining bit going to alcohol, a bit of transport and a few odds and ends that will inevitably come up.

I’m going to track all of my spending here on this blog. I won’t bore you with my complete shopping lists, but most discretionary spending I’ll be reporting with the price.  And if anyone buys me something (likely beer or snacks) I’ll report that as well. It will be interesting to see how much charity I actually receive in a month. I’ll try to update everyday I spend money. The longer the gap between me updating my blog, the better for my pocket book. Also, I’m going to attempt to do something free and fun every week in the city. That should add some excitement to this challenge.

Honestly, I’m not sure if I can do it.  I normally spend about £90 a week on who knows what. So making it £60 sounds tough.  Every week I try to only spend £60 and I inevitably fail. Oh and did I mention I’ll be on holiday the last week of the challenge? I’ll be in NYC and Rhode Island, so I will attempt to spend less the other weeks just to have some spending money there.

Do you think I can do it? Could you do it? Do you do this every month!? This will be entertaining this month, but the long term viability of this pay rate and way of life for me will be short lived. I am going to have to sort something else out long term to make up the gap. Or maybe my Fairy Godmother will give me a surprise raise.

Any ways, my 31 days start tomorrow. I’m going to a street party and I seem to always spend too much money at it every year. Hopefully that won’t be the case tomorrow. It will also be my first day of drinking in a month. Luckily, I’ll be a cheap date for myself. I hope you all have a nice weekend planned. Cheers.