Solved!

So, I called/e-mailed and cancelled on everyone who was going to come view the place today. The only catch is - none of them replied! So I have no idea if they received my e-mails/txt messages. Doi! So.... I still may have some people show up today, unaware that the room is taken. Hmmmm. We'll see.

I have tweaked and re-done a budget for 2009. I put it on a new excel spreadsheet to give myself a boost - I get a strange sense of accomplishment when I make a spreadsheet.

You already know the numbers, but here's a visual in case you wanted it:

As you can see, I haven't been paid yet this month (monday!), and other than that, I've got just under £8,000 left. Again, I'm still waiting on a couple paycheques, so that number might get pushed towards £9,000, but we'll see. I think for this month I can definitely stay under my tighter budget of £700 - the month is practically gone already and I don't think I'll get out much until next week (I want to be here to help the new people sign things and get settled), and by then, I've only got a week and a half left in the month. But alas...

Next month it might be harder since I am going to Leiden (just outside of Amsterdam) to visit some friends for a couple weeks. Getting there is going to cost me about £53 via bus or £103 via air - so that would eat up my fun monday and/or transportation money. When I get there we won't be doing too much that costs money - more wandering and photo-ing and such.

I enjoy my little calculation that tells me how many months I have left should I stick to my budget, before I would have to work again. I am going to see my old-work peeps on Friday and we'll see what they have in store for the year. They would like to keep me on for, like, 1 day a week, which doesn't really work with my working Visa. So chances are I'll leave for the spring, then come back and see if they are hiring mid-summer or not.

This little month-left calculation doesn't, of course, take into consideration that I have budgeted myself roughly £1,500 a month for May and July. I have family visiting in May, and friends commig in July who both want me to travel with them, so I will need extra money for that. Not sure if I'll need the full £1,500 I have budgeted, but I'd rather be safe.

If I do use up all the money as planned, I can make it to September without requiring money. So if I can find full-time work over August, I should be one month ahead of where I need to be to pay rent and such. I'm not counting any refunds I'll get from my Canadian taxes or my UK taxes, that'll just be extra.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaanyways, that's enough babbling. I'd better go shower in case these people magically show up anyways. Siiigh.