Money matters

About two weeks ago I was approached by my director and offered to do extra work in the mornings. Obviously, extra work equals extra money so I was sorely tempted.

You see, Oliver and I have not had as much money floating around as we had initially hoped for. Oliver has some debts back home so about half of his salary is sent back to SA to cover his expenses which means that my salary helps to fill the gap. Don't get me wrong, we are not starving or anything we have just had to be responsible with our money. This has meant that we had to start budgeting which is great is that our money lasts us until the end of the month...but not so great because we end up feeling like penny pinchers.

Don't misunderstand me....we are not penny pinchers because Korea is expensive. In fact it is because living in Korea is so cheap that we find ourselves going away ang out do often that our pockets get burned. The winter months in Korea are, however, naturally more expensive than the summer ones because you need to go shopping for clothing, etc. We would also like to engage in winter sports which are, unfortunately, very expensive.

So it is no wonder I was so tempted to take the job but I turned it down. I didn't want to look back at my time in Korea and say...what did I do? I worked and worked and worked.....bleh! When I gave the news to my director, he put forward another idea...I do two days a week and Oliver does two days a week! So we agreed. It is only an two hours in the morning and the extra money could really go a long way!

As much as we are reluctant to get up early and do more work I think it will be very interesting because we will be teaching adults, now that will be an intimidating experience but one that I think we can learn from.

Let's see how it works out! If we enjoy it and the work load isn't too much we will continue and if we just can't manage (or don't want to) we will pull the plug.

I hate double edged swords because either decision leaves you with doubts...hmmmmm....We start tomorrow so wish us luck and we will keep you updated!!!

Post by Claudia