The last few days I have been consumed with ways to 'make' money to save my home and support an even longer existence sans work. I've put some of my gift cards out for bid. I've contemplated making crafts to sell. I even contacted an old friend who sells things at bake/craft fairs to ask her how she does things. I've bundled some of my utilities to get a cheaper deal. I changed my car insurance policy to save $12 a month and I even went to the bank to sell some leftover foreign currency from the days when I could afford to go on faraway trips. 10 British pounds and 45,000 korean won equals almost $50. Hey that's at least a few lunches and lattes. I've been impressed with my creativity and wonder how much money I could have saved doing some of these cost cutting measures sooner. I'm wondering if there's a shower at the dance studio so I can use their water after Zumba class!
Yesterday I had my appointment with the debt counsellor. It didn't go exactly as I wanted it to. On the bright side, the lady said the amount of debt I have isn't too bad. On the flip side, she confirmed I pay too much for housing and transportation and therefore can never get my debt down. She kept saying, 'if you don't want to lose your house...'. It really scared me. She suggested a few things that I determined were not viable options: share a room with my Mom and rent the other room to a student, park my car and take transit, or make Mama P pay for some things. Her best suggestion was for me to call all my creditors and tell them I'd been laid off and need to reduce my monthly payments for awhile. She didn't recommend asking them to reduce the total remaining balance because it goes against my credit rating and I need a decent credit rating to re-negotiate my mortgage next April. I thought she could wave a magic wand and fix all my problems. I should know better than to think life is that easy. They do have formal debt programs where they do all they legwork and make the calls for you but they cost money and seeing as how I'm trying to save a dollar here and there, I'm not going to pay someone to make a few phone calls for me, no matter how much I hate talking to the man. Needless to say, I was a little down yesterday but after a sweaty session of Zumba with G and another friend, R, I felt ready to tackle those calls the next day. P.S. G, I totally know the lady you're talking about and I think she's CHINESE not Korean. She definitely needs a lot of space with her huge dance gestures. She has no rhythm and makes me laugh but I commend her for dancing like nobody's watching. It's a rare thing in life.
So today I had planned to make those dreaded phone calls but ended up running errands instead. On my way out of the house, I ran into my aunt who was just coming over to have lunch with Mama P. As soon as she came in the door, she took an envelope out of her purse and handed to me, telling me to read it when I was at work to which I said that I didn't have any work to go to. She ignored me and started chatting with Mama P so I just left to run my errands. Later when I opened the envelope, there was a cheque and a note that said she wanted to help me with my mortgage! I called her later to say I could not accept the cheque. She said she had no idea that I had been laid off when she gave me the envelope and that she had just found out while having lunch with Mama P. She said I couldn't turn the money down because it was a sign from God. How could I argue with that? The money won't fix all my problems but it will keep me afloat for a couple more months. The money is an amazingly generous gesture but the real miracle is the gift of time that this money has afforded me, time to figure out exactly how I want to reinvent myself in my next life, without having to take a job I don't want to because I have to. I can't believe just as I was losing hope that I could be so blessed by this miracle. I will be paying God back for this one for a long time to come:)
After running my errands and with my small winfall in the back of my mind, I celebrated...just a bit by going to T&T and buying myself everything I felt like eating. I know it's not really a celebration but it's not often I throw caution to the wind and buy whatever I want without calculating in my head how much everything is going to cost. So it was a good feeling. And the celebration still goes on as I am sitting here typing and eating the bbq pork I bought.
Well, it's almost 2am and I have to get up 'early' (as in 10am) for my date with the PVR guy. So excited I don't know if I can sleep! By tomorrow night, I will have joined the 21st century! We are in the 21st century aren't we? I should google that. Night.
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