Supporting yourself w/o working...

[Fandango 1,439]

eh I'm sure rika had his/her reasons for the bump!

Edited January 12, 2008 by LisaD

[Ban Hammer 13,342]

how on earth did i miss a thread about bras for so long

[Mags 112]

how on earth did i miss a thread about bras for so long

I have no idea but you must be slacking. Only explanation.

[rebeccajo 14]

eh I'm sure rika had his/her reasons for the bump!

Yeah, probably. To start up a fuss? Little late for that in my book.

[brtlmj 0]

Basically, I'm wondering how everyone else got by not being able to work, and living in a foreign country.

I remained employed in Europe. The wonders of Internet :-) The only downside was that taxes got complicated and we needed professional help.

But, as others said, if your fiance not working is going to be a financial problem, then you will have an even bigger problem getting a visa for him.

[Fandango 1,439]

eh I'm sure rika had his/her reasons for the bump!

Yeah, probably. To start up a fuss? Little late for that in my book.

Eh who knows? Could have been at the bottom of another thread & was just clicked on? I have no probs explaining my POV, and yeah I thought the bump was odd myself, but eh, no big shakes.

[GabachaYucateca 0]

Pardon me for acting like there was no hiatus in this convo, but I was very interested in LisaD's comments.

And amazed at the two full-time jobs thing! I'd be exhausted too.

But it all comes down to one's philosophy of how to live life...I often vacillate between throwing myself into work on overdrive so as to be able to live with more creature comforts and wanting to work less, accepting a more humble life, but with more time to do things I want to do. Alas, those things have to be free if I work less!

Lisa...can I ask what you do?

[Ban Hammer 13,342]

Pardon me for acting like there was no hiatus in this convo, but I was very interested in LisaD's comments.

And amazed at the two full-time jobs thing! I'd be exhausted too.

But it all comes down to one's philosophy of how to live life...I often vacillate between throwing myself into work on overdrive so as to be able to live with more creature comforts and wanting to work less, accepting a more humble life, but with more time to do things I want to do. Alas, those things have to be free if I work less!

Lisa...can I ask what you do?

lisa sells real estate, long hours in that job too.

[Jeraly 4]

All right, here is a freeloader's advise

Usually housing is the major cost.

If you are religious, you may ask your church for help with housing. Sometimes they have dormitory style living quarters for those in need. In exchange you will have to go to masses and may be help around a little... but if you are religious anyway, that should not be a problem

Ask around, may be someone needs a house sitter for several months, close to the date of your fiance's arrival. That's a nice free housing for you

Otherwise - move in with your parents/siblings temporarily.

You could ask for a room in exchange for work. Often times you can get it at horse stables. Your fiance could babysit in exchange for a room for two of you. Excellent experience for handling your future children, LOL.

For immediate expenses:

Sell your no longer used stuff on Ebay or through Craig's list. That can be done by your fiance once he's here...

See how you can cut your current bills in preparation for future tough times. You do not need the following: cell phone, cable TV and I-net. Yes, I mean it You surely LIKE them, but you can use free I-net at your school and watch only the free off air channels. Surely you have friends who will invite you over if there is something you *must* see on the cable!

You can take a student loan, invest it for now into a CD account and use it when your fiance arrives.

Find out if you can add your SO to your student health insurance plan and how much that will be. If not possible, find out if there is free stuff offered by your university. If you have a Medical Department, there are likely times/places where one can get medical help for very cheap, because there will be medical students learning how to work with patients.

Don't eat out, instead learn to cook and learn where to buy food cheaply. Your fiance can take tips from you and do the actual shopping to help you. He can cook himself too, right?

Most of all, don't quit school for a low paying job. In the end - it is not worth it. Your student status gives you a lot of perks - cheap health insurance, discount public transportation etc. Learn how to live frugally instead. You can do it!

B) B) B)

Thanks for this

I stayed out in the US for a couple months in 2006 and my OH came to the UK the same year for 3 months (give us an idea of living together before getting married etc ) When I was there I went crazy on my own in the house all day - it didn't help knowing that we weren't going to be staying there. But I sold things on eBay and did those online points incentive things to get a little bit of money - we used to take all our bottles and cans etc to be recycled which brought in a little extra money and I saved up all our change... small things that don't help out much but it is at least something.

When Jeremy came to the UK, we looked for cash in hand jobs we couldl do together or that he could do on his own that wouldn't be too dodgy - he had a paper route () which wasn't much but gave him some money he could call his own and we delivered yellow pages together - paid by cheque so didn't require a NI number - that was seriously the worst job I have EVER done!! But we did it because it meant he could stay longer (until he had to leave early cause his dad died - another story) We even set up our own business making jewellery (very small profit but profit nonetheless).

When I move over I am intending to start up the jewellery again but try and make a more serious go of it. I will prolly try to get the last amounts of money for the points incentives (can't do the US ones with UK IP address) so I can cash those out. I will look for jobs and "nest"... luckily my OH earns enough that we can get by - it might be a little tight as we don't have a place to stay yet but we'll get there in time - we're just not going to have a massive 5 bedroom mansion right away

[no name 1]

I stayed out in the US for a couple months in 2006 and my OH came to the UK the same year for 3 months (give us an idea of living together before getting married etc ) When I was there I went crazy on my own in the house all day - it didn't help knowing that we weren't going to be staying there. But I sold things on eBay and did those online points incentive things to get a little bit of money - we used to take all our bottles and cans etc to be recycled which brought in a little extra money and I saved up all our change... small things that don't help out much but it is at least something.

When Jeremy came to the UK, we looked for cash in hand jobs we couldl do together or that he could do on his own that wouldn't be too dodgy - he had a paper route () which wasn't much but gave him some money he could call his own and we delivered yellow pages together - paid by cheque so didn't require a NI number - that was seriously the worst job I have EVER done!! But we did it because it meant he could stay longer (until he had to leave early cause his dad died - another story) We even set up our own business making jewellery (very small profit but profit nonetheless).

When I move over I am intending to start up the jewellery again but try and make a more serious go of it. I will prolly try to get the last amounts of money for the points incentives (can't do the US ones with UK IP address) so I can cash those out. I will look for jobs and "nest"... luckily my OH earns enough that we can get by - it might be a little tight as we don't have a place to stay yet but we'll get there in time - we're just not going to have a massive 5 bedroom mansion right away

Illegal stuff is not condoned on VJ...