Also, remember Susan, if you pay down your debt and have your other savings goals taken care of, you'll have that much more per month that you can put towards the trip. It's easy to forget that when chunks of your money are flying out the door to pay debt.

I have to keep reminding myself of that as well because, while I really want to get my own place, I just can't afford it right now. But, when my debt is paid off in two years, I'll have at least $850 more per month to spend on whatever.

why won't Victora's Secret show me the backs of their panties?

Probably because it's naughty. But dammit! It's important! That's my ass you're talking about there.

I worked for a company that would play around not only with paying their bills, but also with paying their employees. I do remember once they didn't pay us on the normal payday, saying it didn't matter because it wasn't a banking day. Fuckers--we're open and working! You can cut the damned check!

They never pretended to be anything other than flush. Luckily they'd stopped bouncing paycheques by the time I got there.

Yes -- I keep telling DH that once we have no CC debt we will have a lot more money free. And more than we actually pay to the debt, because we won't have to think about the possibility of an emergency in the same way.

Huh. The University of Botswana is looking for a math lecturer. I don't really want a "lecturer" position, though I'd take one if it were the only thing I was offered. I supposed I'm just keeping in mind that there are a bunch of jobs available outside the US academic world. And I do have good teaching experience and recommendations. Just not so much with the research credentials.

Susan, I think if I were you I would be making spreadsheets of what-if scenarios. Tot up the dream vacation if you could take it today an dthen play with strong/weak currency, inflation, extra things you might tack on and extraneous things that you want to include but won't be heart-broken if you have to cut. Because that would be fun and might even be useful in just getting a ballpark idea of what you might expect.

This ad is interesting.

The Department of Mathematics at the University of Utah invites applications for the following positions: Three-year dual post-doctoral Assistant Professorships. Couples who have obtained PhDs in the last 18 months are invited to apply. At least one member of the couple must be a US citizen, national or permanent resident.

The rest of the ad is just the usual Equal Opportunity Employer stuff, and where to send your CV and recommendations. I'm also finding it interesting that they're not defining "couple" anywhere. I've got two friends who graduated last year, who'd been living together for years and got married a few months before graduation, who ended up with jobs several thousand miles apart because they couldn't find two academic math jobs closer together, at least not jobs that would let either of them get any further in their careers. I think they were planning on getting out a bunch of publications and contacts in the first year or two and then applying for jobs again when they had more to go on.

do I escape early from work... or wait around for another 90 minutes for free food (Baja Fresh catering)? Ugg. So bored. I really don't want to do anything either. Much rather be home doing nothing. I know as soon as I leave, they will need me for something.

Ugh. We got the sheet to put in our preferences for which course we'll TA in the fall. I generally fill this thing out by first looking for the courses which have no 8 AM sections -- there are usually two or three of those -- and then picking from among those based on which classes I'd like to teach and which professors I'd like to work with. For the fall, though, every single class has at least one 8 AM section. And also, every single class has the recitations all on the same day, so it's three hours of teaching in an hour on, hour off schedule throughout the day, which pretty much makes it impossible to get any other work done that day.

I'm sitting on my balcony, enjoying the gorgeous weather, drinking a glass of wine and posting on my wireless internet. Despite all of the random shit I'm unhappy about, my life is pretty fucking sweet.

The way I travel?

I say, "I've got $4k (or whatever)". And I make that amount stretch to whatever it is I want to do. I can't imagine trying to use a spreadsheet for something so far into the future. Why not just list the places you really want to see, plan the time you'll need to see them, and save as much as you can every month to put in the bucket for the trip?

Or am I missing something? I traveled all over China for a month, and some days I spent $200 and some days I spent $35. I just made sure I got to see the top things on my list, and scheduled days for absolutely nothing.