(no subject)

[ewt]

Assignment handed in, eventually. but I'm really far too tired for busking. Arse thorns. Might have gone if I didn't have teaching to do tomorrow and Sunday, but I have.

So, this summer I have many miscellaneous expenses:

Dartington	£237.50
spending money at Dartington	£20
travel to and from Dartington	£45
Aikido camp	£~100
Hakama (really ought to get it before camp)	£~80
Spare dogi jacket and trousers, actually tailored for women, because I don't really want to wear the same kit six days in a row without washing it (ewwww) and it won't dry overnight and the men's stuff I have definitely doesn't fit as it should	£~80
Spending money whilst at Aikido camp	£20
Travel to and from Aikido camp	£35
Renewing Young Person's Railcard	£~20 (I think)
Horn repair	£~400 (was quoted less but don't really want to chance it, you know?)
Spare eyeglasses, so when these ones break I'm not stuck	£60
TOTAL	£1097.50

That's elevenhundredpounds. Or, in USA money, two grand. Or in Euros, 1610-ish. Or nearly twennythreehundred in Canajan money.

Oh, and there's more. I need to get my passport replaced. My computer is on its last legs and though I'm currently borrowing from mstevens I really ought to get something I can actually use for my own work that is, um, mine. I need to continue to buy more sheet music for horn, and it's not like comparison shopping does much good in niche markets like that. At some point I have to renew my Ki Federation membership. It all adds up, and there's probably more that I've forgotten.

This is after things like rent and food and phone and travelcards (so I can work) and a pair of summer sandals that are actually smart enough to wear for concerts. And I should go to some Proms when I get back from camp, you know, and I'm not going to be working the two weeks I'm away. That's easily another £1500 or so if I'm careful with my spending.

I could conceivably pay a lot less for travel to Dartington and to the Ki Federation Headquarters, but only by being uncharacteristically organised and/or dependent on others for transport... and really, travel isn't the bulk of the expense here. And the music shop at Dartington is good and I could easily spend a lot more than £20 there, or in the hippie shops in Totnes, given the opportunity. I've already committed to both Dartington and Aikido camp, and I feel both are equally important for my mental health, so I'm not planning on ditching one for the other. Unless I manage to get up to Edinburgh with pfy. those two weeks are going to be the closest thing to a holiday I get before Christmas. Most of the year I don't even get weekends, not proper ones with two days in them and everything.

Given that I'm currently absolutely skint and it's middle of June, I have six weeks to earn enough to cover baseline expenses for the summer and get far enough ahead to cover the incidentals. And it would be awfully nice to have a little left over so that in August I'm not scrambling before classes start, since I can't get money from Canadia until a few weeks after I'm all registered and have the shiny bits of paper to say so.

MEEP.

Comments

[ksta.livejournal.com]

mmm, it is rather stupid of me to be not living at home, I'd be making a fortune. However, I have to keep reminding myself that it's only money...

[karen2205]

Eeeek:-(

When did you move to the UK? If it was before 1st September 2001 you might be entitled to normal student support as a 'home' student. I know the paper work is horrible, but it sounds like you need a break and if you could get a student loan only repayable after your course, it might help the financial situation.

YP railcard is £20.

Glasses from http://www.glassesdirect.co.uk shouldn't be £60 - ought to be between £15 & £30 I think.

Can't think of anything more helpful to say.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

The problem I had with student loans before is that I don't have a Local Education Authority - Barnet wouldn't have me because I didn't do A-levels there but wasn't yet old enough to be a mature student and had moved out of the borough, Greenwich wouldn't have me because I don't live there, and so on and so forth. The paperwork is staggering, and really not something I can face on my own right now. I might ask Student Services if I can go over my options with someone there, though; they'll know the rules better than I will and they may see a loophole where I actually fit.

Glasses from glassesdirect will very likely cost me £60 if I want thin lenses, for which they charge £40 (took me ages to find this in the small print last time I looked, so it might have changed, but I doubt it). My prescription is strong enough that I definitely do want these. Even with the thin lenses that they offer I will be limited in which frames I can choose because of the thickness of the lenses. If my current glasses fall apart I will be looking at wearing the spares for a number of weeks until I can afford new ones, so while cosmetic concerns are not the only ones, they still get some consideration.

Mostly what I need is to stop being ill and depressed so that the ways I can actually make decent money start to work.

[mstevens.livejournal.com]

I have no current plans for that computer, but it's not impossible that I'll want it back at some point.

[karen2205]

Your LEA will now be where you're currently living - ie. it's your permanent home, not somewhere you're living specifically for the purpose of studying. Agree re asking someone in Student Services for help 'cos they ought to have some idea of loop holes and stuff and the paperwork will be fairly horrendous:-(

Ahh *nods* re necessity of extra thin lenses & associated cost.