Something I Can Count On

For the first time in thirteen years ... I am working one job and receiving one pay cheque. That I can rely on.

I will know how much I am getting paid. I received my pay stub one day before I got paid. I know exactly what day I will be paid. I am receiving a salary, so once these first few months of adjustments, etc are behind me ... I will know how much I will be receiving from month to month!

My ability to budget will become a reality once again.

My daycare days were a budgeter's nightmare. The comings and goings of my families were never ending. Last minute changes incessantly altered my monthly income. I had some families that paid me like clock work. Others? Not so much. I could count on losing half of my income over the summer. Every single fall initiated changes that made me believe that I would not earn enough to cover the bills. The final dollar amount I received changed like the wind.

I took on a part time typing job last summer/fall/winter. It was a job where one phone call altered the course of my day. It was feast or famine. I was working weekends. Then not at all. There was absolutely no consistency. Pay days changed from month to month (depending on my ability to invoice him on my first working day of the month). It was supposedly bonus income, but due to the unreliability of my bookkeeping wage ... it wasn't.

My bookkeeping job? What was supposed to be a full-time (or more) job ... was a fight to work enough hours to cover my bills. I was told that my pay day was the first of the month. It wasn't. It was a struggle to get my much-needed pay stubs. What I received was not a pay stub and if I had to remit proof of my income, it was a struggle to get exactly what was required.

Thankfully, there have been some reliable income sources from other avenues throughout these years. My income from my second job at the bank; government cheques and student loan disbursements have been my stabilizing factor.

I could have framed this first pay stub that I received. I checked my bank account on pay day ... and it was there!!

I am thrilled to be back in a place where I am not juggling the variables of an unstable income. I am excited to know that I would be thrilled to work for this employer 'forever'. I will be beyond relieved when I pass all probationary periods and eventually find a permanent, full-time position.

Finally. One piece of the puzzle is feeling like it has fallen securely into place. Soon, I can 'glue it in' and get to work on the rest of the unsettled pieces of my life.

Job security. Something that I can count on. It is so close ...