Currently Chaos Theory By Sarah Chalke, Elisabeth Harnois, Denalda Williams, Patricia Idlette, David Berner see related

You know how they always tell you to save for a rainy day?

When I was little I REALLY wanted Sea Monkeys, so I saved and saved (because my parents wouldn't buy it for me) and then I bought a set. (Actually, come to think of it, I wonder how I would have saved for it; perhaps ang pow money?) It was actually seriously disappointing; mine never grew bigger than a speck, and definitely never did any tricks.

Anyway, in Uni I used to save a bit, not very much because I liked going out and buying stuff too much, but enough so that by the end of the year I usually had a few thousand, and then I would go on some extended holiday.

When I started working full time in March 2008, I didn't have any real thoughts as to saving but I managed to scrounge up enough to buy this place. In March 2009, I decided that by the end of 2009 I would have enough money saved up to consider buying another little one-bedder and getting my equity up.

I did a budget yesterday based on my actual historical spending since settlement in February and realised I will be flat broke (literally) by the end of the year, especially since we just booked tickets to Japan yesterday!

The practical side of me ('other Sherlene' who likes staying in alone and watching DVDs and drinking Coke from the bottle) says that having ZERO dollars in your bank account when you're 25 and wanting to go to London is not such a good idea, and that a little bit of money saved is a step further in the right direction.

The other side of me ('actual Sherlene' who likes going out and partying and drinking and jumping in puddles) says that this is my first year out in the workforce, earning enough money to go on multiple holidays is a pretty sweet deal, regardless of how much (how little) I actually do earn, and how often can you just keep going on holiday and spending money on completely non-essential things!? (Like, did I REALLY need to bid on 167 items on eBay?) And further to that that if you're only going to come out of 2009 a few thousand bucks ahead (it was meant to be more, but in the last 4 months there's been some crazy budget blowouts) then why bother saving such a small amount and why not just spend it and be happy and deal with saving money next year?

Actual Sherlene also consoles herself with the thought that she already HAS a little one-bedder and so its not like she really is throwing money into the wind. Have I mentioned I <3 my one-bedder? You might bag it for being too small, the building's too old, thin walls (haha), weird hot water system squealiness, gas leak (ok that's actually pretty serious and I should start looking into fixing that) but I look around and I feel happy when I get home. And I love my furniture. Lalalalala.

So in 2009 it'll be Feb Sydney, Mar Singapore, Apr Melbourne, Aug Vietnam, Nov Japan. And fingers crossed, London in March 2010.

There are some perks to working.