The WIGAJ list. That's how I record how I want to spend my money, when I have some again that is. It stands for, of course, When I Get A Job, and is a list of all the things I want - notice the "want" and not "need" as we've entered the realm of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. When you have a limited income, or no income, then you have to prioritise on spending unless, of course, you want to go out in a blaze of glory buying that Ferrari or Lear Jet and then throwing yourself on the mercy of the State who don't take kindly to you parking next to their bikes at the Job Centre in a super sports car and claiming you have no money. Parking the Lear Jet would be a bigger challenge but we could rise to it I'm sure. Prepare for the strip search.
But when you have limited income it's like being hungry and dreaming and talking about the steaks, champagne and ice cold drinks in Alex you'll have when you cross the searing desert and outwit those clever Germans.
So you have to prioritise and decide what you need to live - actually it would be easier if we gave Tesco our money for the month and asked them to let us have pocket money for ourselves from the balance. Not having money takes away many of the choices you have for spending - the sort of "I'll just have that book/CD/gadget/thing/clutter/stuff/shiny thing" that we clearly were buying but are now not. The credit card bill has halved in size and value. We are contributing half a forest back to Scandinavia this year by reducing the spend on the credit card with the result that it's only one page long rather than five. I think the bank are warning about reduced profits for the second half of the year as a result. Now on the one hand this makes life boring compared to how we were six months ago. We don't go out for meals ("We rarely went out for meals", Mrs EotP), have more or less stopped going to the cinema, buy clothes only when we really need them and have cancelled a holiday. Mrs EotP would like to know in what dimension I lived in, or what chemicals I was taking, when living the Utopian life I claim to have been enjoying as she doesn't remember being there. Anyway the point is that we did more and now we don't. It's all relative anyway because there are always others better off or worse than you all time - it's just my comparison to how it was (probably).
So back to the WIGAJ list. I now fantasise about having a disposable income again. There are two lists, see if you can work out whose (Mrs EotP or me) list is whose. Still got that needs/wants thing going on here I think.
List A
BMW motorbike.
SatNav
G5 Mac with 30" monitor
New iPod
Apple iPhone
List B
Holiday as planned in Summer
New clothes
Meals out for family
Cancel all job applications and continue to build up own business
Replacements for all machinery that has failed during the period of unemployment
The financial position is that we can pay all major bills each month. The part time job allows us to manage the main budget and we are careful with the rest. It looks possible that the part time work will be extended for another three months which is just as well as the full time offers are not pouring in. Or trickling in. Or dripping in. And the postie has asked me to stop waiting at the bottom of the street as she starts her round and asking is there a job offer for me today? She says it just not becoming.
Tempting. We have stopped going to shops unless there is something specific we want otherwise it is just too tempting. When I get work again who knows what will be fashionable by then? It's a sort of consumer coma - when you wake up there will be a whole new range of desirable things to buy that would make the desirable things I wanted to buy today look, well just old fashioned.
That's something to look forward to.
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