How To Survive On No Pay As A Teacher

alvinauh (69)in #adsactly • 6 years ago

The joy of starting work. After I have graduated from university, I thought starting my teaching career would be great! Finally, freedom from exams and assignments. I will be paid a salary and get to buy all sorts of cool stuff. Unfortunately, I was told by human resources on the first day that I will receive no pay for the next three months. Thus started my journey of surviving three months without pay.

The reason behind this delay was due to certain paperwork issues. Apparently, it was quite common among many of my fellow colleagues. As such, I had to go about finding ways to survive.

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Watching My Spending

I had to start using my savings to last me three months. The issue was that I did not have much to begin with. Thus, I had to start watching my spending. All the late night outs and eating out, gone. It was replaced by weekly visits to the wholesale market.

I started researching the best wholesale markets in town. A lot of these markets supplied to the local grocery stores and so instead of buying from a grocery store at a higher price, I might as well go to their supplier. The only problem was that I had to buy much of my groceries in bulk.

As such, I bought boxes of vegetables and meat. Normally, it was enough to last me for about a month. The problem is that these foods do go bad rather quickly. Thus, I had to cook all of my meals and freeze them up for the weeks ahead. The thing is, spaghetti bolognese does get tiresome rather quickly. Imagine eating spaghetti bolognese for a week, two meals a day.

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That being said, it saved me enough to last me for some time, but not enough if I wanted to pay my rent.

Part Time Gigs

Due to the need to pay for my rent and other bills, I had to find other ways to make money. Imagine the irony of having to find another job to pay my bills when I am already working a day job. Thus, I started looking for education centres and private institutions that required additional help.

I ended up working from 7am to 10pm on some days. It was rather manageable until I started falling asleep halfway through my class. For some reason, I continued talking in class when my eyes were slowly closing.

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The hours were crazy and I was exhausted. Then I had a brilliant idea, I could grow my own food! All I need is some space.

I Almost Started Homesteading...Until...

I was very close to homesteading before I received the best news! The funding for my pay finally arrived and I was due to receive my pay the next day. I was super stoked and happy that I did not have to continue eating spaghetti bolognese for any longer. Now every time I smell spaghetti bolognese I feel like barfing.

That being said, it was a great learning experience living below my means. Also, it was a great learning experience to know that as a teacher, there were many great ways I could make money on the side. As for homesteading, I realized some years later that I was horrible at it. The first time I tried breeding fishes, I killed all of them. Thus, I shall stick with doing what I am good at it.