I should know better by now. I should know that when I ask, the universe delivers. I asked for money, and oh boy, am I getting it, but this is not what I had in mind!!
The gelato shop owner loves me. Thinks I am a stellar employee, a great team member, all that. (May or may not have something to do with all the other staff not being old enough to drink.) After 4 shifts he gave me a raise to $15/hr and scheduled me for 9 days in a row – every single day right after my office job until 11pm, and then weekends 3pm-midnight. In case you aren’t awesome at math (I’m not, had to use a calculator here) that worked out to about 42 hours a week. ON TOP OF MY 40 HOUR A WEEK OFFICE JOB. So an 82 hour work week…..holy. frickin. shit.
I reminded him that I do actually have a full time job already and I was only looking for part time work. He conceded that he had gotten a little carried away with the scheduling as someone was away that week and he liked me a lot so wanted me there as much as possible. So he gave me Monday night off. Out of all that!! So I’m still working 38 hours this week at my “part-time” job.
I am exhausted. My eyes hurt all day from not getting enough sleep. My right arm is getting huge from slinging gelato. My back is sore from bending over the cash register 100 times a night. My feet hurt from standing 8 hours and then walking 45 minutes home.
……..but my bank account is getting very, very happy!
I do realize this setup is totally unsustainable and I will burn out quickly. However, the owner’s plan is to give me Mondays and Tuesdays “off” (I use quotes because I still have to go to the office all day) and then have me work Wednesday to Friday after work until close, and then Saturdays and Sundays 3-11:30pm. That ends up being around 32 hours a week. That is still a lot, but at least I won’t have any time to spend my money! And the raise to $15/hr adds up too. It is looking like my “part-time” job is going to net me about $1800/month. If I still can save $800/month from my office job, that’s $2600 a month towards Roatan – which if I save that much in each of May, June, July and August I’ll have $10,400. I already have $700 saved, I will be getting about $4800 from selling my car and other household stuff, I get a $500 bonus in September for staying at the gelato place until then…that’s $16,400. And that isn’t even counting the money I save in April and September. And also not counting my income from my online business, which I just scored a sweet $30/hour contract on for 5+ hours a month (thanks to a wonderful friend of mine halfway across the world!)…however I am thinking about spending this money on an assistant to help me cook and clean now that I get about 4-6 hours of free time a week and don’t want to spend it doing that!!
Wow. That just blew my mind. I hadn’t actually added it all up until right now.
$10,000 was the bare minimum to do Roatan for 4 months so I would feel better with $12,000 just in case. That leaves me with $4400. I also wanted $2000 in a savings account for when I leave Roatan, so that if I come home or go on to the next place I am not stuck without a damage deposit or money for a plane ticket or something. That still leaves me with $2400 that I think I will put in my RRSP or TFSA. I CAN TOTALLY DO THIS!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I’m so glad I sat down to write this, it makes me way more motivated to go to work tonight. Although I guess that doesn’t include my trip to Roatan in May (although my flight is already paid for and the actual cost of being there for a week is in the $200-$300 range…not much) and it also doesn’t include the $200 I dropped at Winners yesterday for all the tank tops, shorts and sundresses I “need” for Roatan! It’s another grey rainy day in Vancouver and I can’t wait for the sun, beach, hot nights on the dance floor with a rum punch in each hand….one month and two days to go!
So that’s where I’ll be if you don’t see me around here as often. I’ll be slinging gelato with a huge grin on my face, knowing that in a few short months I will be on easy street. Just discussing it with a co-worker, if I don’t do my dive courses I could realistically live in Roatan very comfortably for a YEAR on that much money. A year, people!!
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