Progress Bars!

I've added progress bars! Oh happy day!

I have been envious of those beautiful little progress bars that all of you have, and now, i've got some too! Now, if you want to know how I made them, we'll I'll tell you.

First off, I ended up (after googling "progress bars HTML blogger") at Hooks N' Needles site, where she has a wonderfully well-laid out post on how to make the bars. You can find it here. After making some and messing around with the colors, I then wandered over to Give me Back my Five Buck's site, where I have always admired her dainty little bars, where I looked through the HTML to find out how to make the font smaller and put the numbers on the bottom of the bars. Yes, it did take me the better of the morning, but it was worth it! Thanks to both of you!

So, now that I've put those bars up there, I thought I'd talk a little bit about them.

My "London Savings" account is the account where I'm pumping as much money as I possibly can. The goal date for all of these accounts is August 1, 2008. I will be leaving for London mid-September, but I will be giving notice at my jobs around August 1, and will no longer have income. The "London Savings" account is the account where I will be living off of when I first arrive in London, and it will help me buy food and other necessities, as well as paying for a damage-deposit and any other first-time expenses.

I will be getting a job in London, although it's hard to say how long that will take. This will be my cushion. If I get a job fast, then I will use this money to supplement my income, as well as paying for other necessities. Ideally I would like to have this fund at %50 upon my return, but I'm not counting on it.

My "Plane Ticket" fund has a goal of $1,200, although I'm hoping to only use around half of that for the flight. I live in western Canada, and unfortunately, I have decided to fly into London during their peak time. If I were to fly direct, I would be looking at around $1000 for a one-way flight - which is kind of a rip-off when the round trip flight is only another couple hundred $$. I have family in the Toronto area whom I haven't seen in a long time, and so, the plan is to take the Greyhound (a cost of around $137) from here to Toronto, then hop a flight from Toronto to London (a cost of around $600). That's the cheapest option, and since I've never seen much of Saskatchewan or Manitoba, I figure i'd be a good time all around. Any money left in this account I will be saving for a return flight.

Another option I've considered is that Air Canada, should I book a return flight and "miss it", they will credit me in the amount that the flight would've cost, which I could then use it against a return ticket home whenever I wanted to come back. I still haven't looked into the logistics of this.

My "Working Holiday Maker VISA Fee" account is to pay off the $470 VISA fee it costs to get the paperwork that states that I am legally employable in the UK for up to one year. The rest of the fund will cover any costs in actually getting my bum to Edmonton to do the application, because they can't do it in my city. Hopefully I'll just hitch a ride with my Dad the next time he goes to Edmonton, but if he doesn't then I'll be paying one of my nice friends to do the honors, since I don't drive.

And last, but not least, is my "London Fun Money!" fund. This is the fund that I will use to buy 'things' in London, as well as any money for travel within Europe (I will have friends in the Netherlands by then, and about 6 people have promised to come visit me while I'm out there) and entertaining visitors, etc. This money primarily comes from pocket change, selling items I have, surprise cheques, etc.

So that's pretty much it.

Typing all that reminded me that I need to check out driver's education classes, as I really should get my driver's license. I'm 23, it's about time. Plus, it gets it out of the way. So I'll be looking into that. It's pretty damn pricey though. I may have to add another progress bar. Heh.