I just found out my friend at work puts her WHOLE check into savings and only puts $100 into checking for spending. My jaw dropped. Lucky cunt has Mexican parents who let her live at home and pay for everything, including her car insurance. She's saving up for her own house. I asked "Why, why would they do that?" Her, "Thats just how Mexican parents are."
FUCK. I want Mexican parents.
Thats how I'm want to do it, get myself some Mexican parents!

No cable tv, no dating, peanutbutter sandwiches for lunch, haven't even plugged in my air conditioner yet, militant about unnecessary lights being on, fast showers, do laundry at my parents' house, and working on average 64 hours a week. My normal shifts are 8am-midnight, with a couple 12 hrs thrown in there, and only one short 8hr day a week. Off, 16 hours, 12 hours, 16 hours, 12 hours, 8 hours, off.

No cell phones , no cable TV.

You know all that money gushing from the US to China? China throws a lot of it at Australia, in exchange for lots of rocks of various kinds. That money sloshes around in Australia a few times before going back to China in exchange for cheap clothing and stuff. Somewhere in there it comes and visits me.

Personally, I have a fairly good job and no dependants, so income currently excedes (normal) outgo.

I'm not too confident about the future, though. Either the US will stop belching money, or China will burst their residential real estate boom (what they are doing with all those rocks) or record-high commodity prices will fall. Sooner or later, this golden burst will end.

What makes you think it is her kidney she's selling?


Depends which crack you mean, sweetheart ;)

chyeah - like you got picky all of a sudden?

Well, I'm not sure the thyroid scar would really work, ya know.

<spittle>

this except I don't have a job lined up yet

and this. srsly.

Trying to find work that I can do to supplement my SSDI which is pathetic or get off it completely. There's a program which will pay for me to go back to school for retraining, but I honestly don't know if I can make the grades.

I want to move to Durango which has all sorts of part time jobs I could probably manage, but I need to come up with moving costs first. Meanwhile, I do without cable TV, buy my clothes at thrift shops, make do with second hand furniture, do my laundry for free at the motel, etc.

I draw a good salary, but I haven't had a raise in three years--nobody at my facility has.

Some things I do, that haven't actually changed in the few years:

Pack breakfast, lunch, coffee, and water--I never buy food on a work day.
But all my clothes at thrift stores--I never buy clothing for retail (well, underwear).
I'm fine with one smallish TV and stereo A/B sound--I don't do HDTV, Blu-ray, or Surround Sound.
I don't subscribe to cable or satellite--I do everything through Netflix through my Wii.
I don't smoke.

On the other side:
I do drink, usually something every day.
We go out to eat more than we should.

Basically it's all business during the week, and then a few poor choices during the weekend. Although we try to get a few memberships (the Zoo, the Museum) for kids activities and stick to those rather than always blowing money on onesy twosy outings. With the kids, we don't do "spendy" things, and they get their clothes and toys at the thrift store also.

this too. But we'd still do most of this in a good financial situation.

We are trying very hard to keep up with the bills while having my wife stay home with the kids until the youngest is in school. To make that work, I've had to go shake the trees to find more work. I've found two composers who are hiring me to "ghost" for them on their TV contracts (I write the music, they get the credit, I get paid in cash with a wink and a nod), and I've started taking extra session work playing for (gasp) children's musicals for a publisher in Nashville. I do remote recording sessions over Skype for young, eager, horrible singers all over the world (seems like a lot of them are in the UK) who are getting their demos together. I've started teaching lessons again.

Not exactly the glamorous life of an LA rockstar, but it does pay the mortgage. I'm putting in 10-14 hour days pretty much every day, most of it staring at a computer screen in my garage, and I'm pretty sure I'm becoming an alcoholic.

Last week I revisited the crappy neighborhood where I grew up from age 0-13. It was comforting to realize I'm not downwardly mobile - I'm just returning to my roots.

sure I will take a sniff