Feeling Poor
Dec 13th, 2007 by heidi
Christmas is always an expensive time of year, although I think we make a good effort to keep costs down and not spend money we don’t have (I don’t have a credit card in the UK, for example).
The kicker comes when a sudden pileup of other expenses shows up at the same time. This year, in addition to Christmas gifts, we’re facing the following purchases within the next two months:
1. Camera repair – my camera has spectacularly died, in that the screen only shows past photos taken on the card and any NEW photos show up as blackness. I have to assume that something in the image capture bit has died. I have no money at all to repair this and it means I won’t take any Christmas photos and will have to depend on everyone else to take them and send them to me…which sucks.
2. British passport – this will work out to somewhere around £80 including secure shipping of my ORIGINAL documents, such as US passport, etc. Annoyingly.
3. Graham’s green card application – in the neighbourhood of £170
4. New bras – This sounds nuts but I haven’t bought a new bra in 18 months and the two nursing bras that I have are dying a slow and prolonged death. I need to buy new ones but it’s going to cost me at least £60, and that’s if I don’t buy nursing bras. Nursing bras cost more.
5. MLIS application form – not TOO bad but still a cool £25ish I don’t have
6. Flights – ohmigod expensive and likely to cost us over £1100 for all three tickets (I don’t fancy having a toddler sitting on my lap for 12 hours. Do you?)
By the end of January, I expect that our savings will be nonexistent and my stress levels will be rocketing. That’s at least £1450, rounding up slightly, which is very nearly two months’ salary.
I’m most miffed about the damn camera repair! Does anyone fancy purchasing me a brand new, gorgeous digital SLR? 😉
Homage to my dear, sick camera, taken at Tatton Park in the rose garden:
So sorry to hear about all of this–I’m going through some similar money anxiety myself. One suggestion on the camera: have you checked the website of the manufacturer? My boss’ camera had a stroke about a year ago, but when I looked on Nikon’s website, I found out the problem was a malfunction they knew about, and would repair for free even if the camera’s warranty had expired! You never know.
Good luck dealing with it all–you do take fabulous photos, so I hope at least that situation resolves itself soon.
Are you coming out to Seattle???!! If so, when? I’d love to have you over for an afternoon. Heck, I’ll come to you if it works out better for you! Then I can finally GIVE you back Ciaran’s baby toy that I still have and I can collect the breastpump and carseat from your mom! LOL