Hey look!  My first paycheck from my new EMT job!  Whooo :)

Whooo first EMS Paycheck!

Whooo first EMS Paycheck!

Unfortunately, at $9 an hour, even though I worked 105 freaking hours, the total amount is a bit of a laughable.  :(   It’s a bit of a stab in the heart to look at that and think it’s not even 1/4 of my old private equity paychecks!  But still- this is a very proud moment for me, signifying my hard work and career change is starting to pay off!  (heh, pun intended).

So, with my new lower-income bracket status, it was time for Earl and I to sit down this weekend and have a serious, Kitchen Table Talk (did you know all Serious Talks should happen at the kitchen table?  Preferably after a yummy homecooked meal).  So, on Sunday night,  after chowing some farmer’s market baked chicken with sauteed mushrooms and rosemary-olive oil roasted potatoes, that’s what we did.

We sat down and crunched out a comprehensive monthly and yearly budget.  We had sort of just been going with the flow, and I think we were a tad used to our former dual-income, high-fallutin style, Manhattan lives.  It even showed in our choice of apartments out here in San Francisco.  Right now we pay about $3000 a month to live in an absolutely gorgeous place, right on the park, in a ritzy neighborhood, gorgeous historic building with our own garage, storage spot, fireplace, yadda yadda.  The problem is, we shouldn’t!  We need to be saving money each month- it would be nice to have a few months of living expenses saved up and particularly have an emergency fund for things like freak vet appointments and when I am an idiot and get the car towed.  I also want to start putting money away for Christmas presents and travel to see family (living on the opposite side of the country as my family thing comes with it’s own financial cross).  Then we have massive school expenses in our future, as Earl hopes to start taking some PhD level math/statistics classes at either Stanford or Berkeley, and of course the USS Ceej is currently embarked on a neverending progression of school, which started when I registered for my EMT Course.  Quickly approaching on my horizon:  Phlebotomy Technician training —> Paramedic school —> ongoing post-bacc classes —> 4 years of med school.

Earl is also hoping to get ski passes this year and go in with some of our friends on a ski house in Tahoe.  Plus I’d like to be able to afford to register for some running races and perhaps even Ironman St. George for next year.  Oy.  All these things which, with the lifestyle we’re living now, just aren’t in the financial cards.

So, as much as it’s a tough lump to swallow, we’ve decided to move out of our cushy digs and into something more reasonable.  And get this- we might even move outside of the city to doso!  Can you believe it??!?!?  Crazy, I know.  Particularly for Earl, who regards the suburbs with sheer disdain.  But, we decided the sacrifice would be worth it as we re-build our bank accounts.  My biggest requirements for wherever we move to is that it has access to somewhere nice to walk Linus every day and… this is such an unnecessary perk but I am going to try and aim for it… I’d really like to find a place with a patio.  I miss our mega-NYC patio sooo much, primarily as a place to grow plants and herbs, and park it outside to read the paper and drink coffee.

With that said, the apartment hunt begins now.  Oh, what a rat-race, apartment hunting.  :( :( :(   And foreseeing what a mega pain it is to move, we undertake this task without much enthusiasm, but do think we made the right decision.