Why I decided to quit my job early.

So, I was asked to stay on another extra month from my end date. I pondered it (another $20K in the pocket) but ultimately decided to quit early.

I am not interested in being jerked around by people who don’t see the value of what I deliver.

Maybe now is the time for them to wallow in their #%@! so that they can appreciate what I was actually doing while I was there .. or maybe, not at all. They won’t see anything.

Either way, I am not interested in petty month by month extensions. It used to be 6 months, then it was 3, and now 1? When is it going to end? Day to day?

It may seem like folly to quit when everything seems to be going fine, and I am getting what I want in terms of working hours and flexibility, but there is a time in a freelancer’s life when you can only take so much before you realize that they don’t see your value.

Until you leave.

So. I am leaving.

If they need me, they can call me back but I’ll be setting new terms of my contract (e.g. only working with the one side of the business I like and not the other), and I’ll be dictating other ‘demands’.

So what am I going to do?

Take a breath.

You know, breathe?

Enjoy the last free summer with my Little Bun who will start school very soon and slowly, but surely, no longer be my little baby.

Oh, and I am going to take this time to significantly cut back on luxuries, but will be living on a reasonable budget (not beans and rice).

I need about $2000 for basic household expenses – condo fees, taxes, groceries, etc and I am going to be coming down hard on my partner to stop buying so much for the house. No more extra bread moulds, pots, pans or whatever.

He is going to have to write a 5-page essay justifying why he needs another pot.

My areas of Achilles Heels would be as follows:

Clothing

I am already instituting a “return everything with tags still on” rule, meaning anything I have purchased in a flight of folly, will get returned to obtain said money back such as:

• Two dresses from Anthropologie (around $350)
• A pair of shorts from Aritzia (around $115)
• Whatever else I can scrounge in my closet

I am taking the time to also start listing items in my closet for sale. I have a few items I have been too lazy to take photos of.

Beauty

As for beauty stuff, I am cutting back on any extra beauty procedures I was planning on — such as:

• the $500 eyebrow microblading thing I wanted to try
• any extra laser touchups for my legs and underarms (few tiny miniscule hairs left, barely noticeable, frankly but I am a perfectionist)
• IPL treatments (Intense Pulsed Light), because my friend tried it and I am very keen to follow

I am only going to keep in my routine

• monthly pedicures
• my regular skin upkeep with Paula’s Choice (I love her stuff, it has literally cleared my skin, full review here)

Luxuries I am I still allowing to go through

THIS TRIP I have planned to NYC. I am going to eat with abandon, and shop very, very carefully.

I may set a budget. I may not. I am hoping not to be too tempted by too many things, but will likely bring back a few items.

Do I really need to cut back THAT much?

Look, truth be told, I am sitting on about $231,000 in cash.

Yes. In cash. Liquid, dollars, I can withdraw at any time I want.

(What!? I’m a good saver when I want to be. A serious squirreler.)

Why am I cutting back then? I sound insane right?

Well… because I want that cash to last the next 5 years if it has to.

And the money is not all personal. Some of it I need to also keep my business going with — licenses, insurance. I still need to run the business while it is ‘dormant’.

I usually find something within a year or two, but you never know. I may not find anything I WANT to work at and I don’t want to take something I don’t want to do. You know?

I am really looking at this $231K in cash, as only having $38K in cash as of today.

The rest is untouchable, and I have to try and live on $38K to stretch it out as long as possible until my next contract comes along.

This means, if I assume $38,000 for the next 12 months, I only have $3166.67 to spend. $2000 is gone due to household, so that is an extra $1666.67 to spend.

Aside from using that $1500 (guess I found my NYC budget!) to go shopping, I am going to save the rest of this “extra” cash to rollover to the next month’s requisite $2000 requirement.

I am part of the set of folks who can’t feel the pinch of anything until I put myself under pressure, and create a sense and mindset of scarcity which is just enough to put the screws to my spending side, but not enough to make me get so frustrated and angry at “not having any money”, that I break and go on some spending binge.

Yes, I am that dumb that I need to make up / force scarcity to exist where it doesn’t, just to make me save.

Just the thought of saving, doesn’t do anything for me. Not sexy at all.

The thought of not having any money and having to sell investments that are earning pretty dividends on the side, or worse, at a loss?

OMG. No.