Nerfherder
Honorary Master
Have you ever had a really good week with people just throwing money at you ?
Things have been on a downward slide for me recently, as with most people I have started to feel the pinch with rising costs and my lifestyle catching up to me.
My costs just started exceeding my means and my debt started climbing, party due to poor money management and partly just to rising costs.
So a while back I realised that I was basically in a downward spiral and had to do something drastic to get out of it.
I started with small things like cutting back on debit orders, just cleaned out things I don't need. I reduced my ADSL costs and moved down a package on discovery, relooked at insurance and managed to save a bit there.
Not much changed and I realised I'd have to look at my lifestyle as well. The most obvious thing was day to day costs like lunch ect but then I looked at what I was spending my money on it was actually work expenses that were nailing me.
Driving to work, cellphone and general travel costs. So I took it back to my employer and basically said, look I can't afford to work at this level. They have to absorb some of the costs,I absorbed someone else's job, they need to look at what they are paying me.
My boss has been on my side and without me knowing he was actually looking at getting some overtime paid out for me. This year has been 60 hours so far, it was then up to the big boss to approve. I also have about 21 days of leave owed to me.
I have mentioned before that its almost impossible for me to take more than a days leave and even when I do take it I generally come in to support. I worked all night the night before my father in laws funeral.
So then nothing kind of happened for a while and then other day I asked for my payslip and I saw that about 30 hours of overtime had been allocated on my payslip, Jacob Zuma too his slice as well but I still got some much needed cash out.
Even better this is the increase month next month... I'm not expecting more than 6% because I was rated "just above average" in my review for the 3 people job I do.... but still that is something else.
Then I do my tax and all of a sudden SARS pay me out R8.k, I'm not sure why, I have had to pay in for the last few years, now I get something back. Could be that my employer finally got my tax right ?
So thinks are looking up and I get an email from Liberty Life saying that they have started an incentive scheme and are paying me out R1500 because of the policies I have !
So thats R13.5k that just came out of nowhere, my debt was almost 40k so still a way to go before I'm back in the clear but there is more money coming next month!
Then... on top of that I have been looking for a new job since the beginning of the year and after a few interviews I had a really good one. The position wasn't really available till they saw my CV, the company looks really nice and I need to do a technical evaluation but looks like it could work out. Its not going to be a massive pay increase but its closer and will hopefully be the change I'm looking for.
So if I stay or go it will be better for me financially. If I leave I get paid out for my leave (one months salary) and my overtime and then obviously the new salary that is a bit higher...
IF I stay I will have all kinds of leverage, obviously better pay but getting those things committed to my contract and then one other major play that I have under my sleeve that could work out very well.
Its so weird how things go in waves... up and down... then you have a week like that !
Things have been on a downward slide for me recently, as with most people I have started to feel the pinch with rising costs and my lifestyle catching up to me.
My costs just started exceeding my means and my debt started climbing, party due to poor money management and partly just to rising costs.
So a while back I realised that I was basically in a downward spiral and had to do something drastic to get out of it.
I started with small things like cutting back on debit orders, just cleaned out things I don't need. I reduced my ADSL costs and moved down a package on discovery, relooked at insurance and managed to save a bit there.
Not much changed and I realised I'd have to look at my lifestyle as well. The most obvious thing was day to day costs like lunch ect but then I looked at what I was spending my money on it was actually work expenses that were nailing me.
Driving to work, cellphone and general travel costs. So I took it back to my employer and basically said, look I can't afford to work at this level. They have to absorb some of the costs,I absorbed someone else's job, they need to look at what they are paying me.
My boss has been on my side and without me knowing he was actually looking at getting some overtime paid out for me. This year has been 60 hours so far, it was then up to the big boss to approve. I also have about 21 days of leave owed to me.
I have mentioned before that its almost impossible for me to take more than a days leave and even when I do take it I generally come in to support. I worked all night the night before my father in laws funeral.
So then nothing kind of happened for a while and then other day I asked for my payslip and I saw that about 30 hours of overtime had been allocated on my payslip, Jacob Zuma too his slice as well but I still got some much needed cash out.
Even better this is the increase month next month... I'm not expecting more than 6% because I was rated "just above average" in my review for the 3 people job I do.... but still that is something else.
Then I do my tax and all of a sudden SARS pay me out R8.k, I'm not sure why, I have had to pay in for the last few years, now I get something back. Could be that my employer finally got my tax right ?
So thinks are looking up and I get an email from Liberty Life saying that they have started an incentive scheme and are paying me out R1500 because of the policies I have !
So thats R13.5k that just came out of nowhere, my debt was almost 40k so still a way to go before I'm back in the clear but there is more money coming next month!
Then... on top of that I have been looking for a new job since the beginning of the year and after a few interviews I had a really good one. The position wasn't really available till they saw my CV, the company looks really nice and I need to do a technical evaluation but looks like it could work out. Its not going to be a massive pay increase but its closer and will hopefully be the change I'm looking for.
So if I stay or go it will be better for me financially. If I leave I get paid out for my leave (one months salary) and my overtime and then obviously the new salary that is a bit higher...
IF I stay I will have all kinds of leverage, obviously better pay but getting those things committed to my contract and then one other major play that I have under my sleeve that could work out very well.
Its so weird how things go in waves... up and down... then you have a week like that !
last year I got some cash back.
