The Damage...

...Actually, wasn't as bad as I assumed! Turns out that at the beginning of February, I had £7,590.60 in all my accounts. As of today, I have £7,534.25 in my account. How I managed to get through February and all my overspending without putting a dent in my account I'm not sure. 

During this time I earned £728.83 from paycheques over the month (one was a late one from January), so this covered everything I spent in the first couple of weeks (Amsterdam and rent, bills included). This means that I probably only spent a couple hundred £££ (if that) over the following two weeks. I didn't buy much except for groceries and some meals while at work. 

I'm very much relieved to see these figures. This also means that with my current funds, I will definitely be able to make it through the summer. Even if I spend my allotted £1,500 for both April and May, I will still make it to October before being broke. Plus, my current work said that they are more than happy to take me back in July (yay!!), and I'll be working from July through January again, which should give me enough cash to make it through next spring.

The only thing I want to talk to work about is the number of shifts I'll be working. Currently I work between 1 and 5 shifts a week. I need about 2.5 shifts a week (16 hours or so) to cover rent and bills. They only promised me 1 shift a week when I was re-hired in January, which was fine then, but for the summer I'd like a couple more. We'll see what they say. Come September/October, I know I'll get lots of extra shifts for the run-up to Christmas, just like last year. 

We'll see what they say. If I managed to get enough money to cover rent for at least July to October, then I'll only be spending about £300 a month in extras, which adds up to £1,200 pounds. After that if I'm back to working full-time, and netting about £700 a month. This will cover all my bills from November to January. After January, I'm not sure if I'll continue working or not - it depends what my spring plans are.

Here's a little chart I made - this might help illustrate what my future looks like. I always round down my earnings, just to give myself the benefit of the doubt. I'm also not factoring in any money I'll get back from taxes on either continent. 

So, not that this is concrete in any way, but it gives me a visual of what the rest of 2009 and 2010 will be like. I upped my budget in September since my Dad is probably coming out for a visit, then again over Christmas since well, it's Christmas. 

If all goes well, I will be in London until April or so. After that I'll probably leave my stuff in the closet upstairs, then head over to the Netherlands again for 2-3 weeks to bother (visit) my friends, then back to London in April or May, when my mom will probably come to visit, then I'll fly back to Toronto to waste about a month visiting family, then finally home. All these plans may get bumped up by a couple of months if the money runs short - we'll see. I have a friend who is planning to come visit in February, so I'll at least be here until then. 

But, either way, it's nice to have my finances laid out for now. Yay!