Did I mention I was feeling groovy?

Jedi and I got some super good news today! We were invited to move into the apartment in the basement of our church! Why does that make it today our lucky day, you may ask!?  Well, for one, our church is located in the center of town, walking distance to my job and Jedi's job -- like, hop, skip, jump!  Now that we've sold one of our cars (did I mention we did that? Cost-cutting!) that is a super bonus.  Jedi's been taking the bus to work, but it means he gets to work an hour early, and if a colleague can't give him a ride home it usually means he has to wait an hour for the bus home. (Even though we only live a 10 minute drive away.)

But the super-dee-duperty big deal?  This is a practically FREE apartment!  We only pay a small contribution toward the heating costs, but other than that we get the apartment in exchange for opening and closing the building every day, and doing small jobs around the church, like setting up tables and chairs for meetings and shoveling the walks when it snows.  (And let's be real-- Jedi will be doing most of that. Ahem.) Pretty sweet!

This ALSO means that we get to rent out my condo, which has been driving me crazy with worry... we've been wanting to get out of my condo for awhile, but we could never make the math add up. One of my big worries was that if we rented out the condo, and then we got locked into our own rental someplace else, if we had a tenant flake out-- or if the condo sat vacant for 3-4 months-- we would basically wipe out our savings. We wouldn't be able to pay the rent on another place AND cover the costs of the mortgage on my condo.  Which basically left us paralyzed and stuck where we were...

But now we can move out, not have to worry about covering both costs (because we could if we needed to), and hopefully build up enough of a nest egg so that if/when we move out of the church apartment we'll have enough of a cushion to cover the carrying costs on the condo to rent it out without having to worry.

PHEW!!!

Additionally, with the internship coming up in the spring I may... just may... have to quite my part-time job.  I really don't want to, because I quite enjoy it.  But I'm having trouble seeing how I can make the scheduling work.... 2 days a week for classes (driving 1.5 hours each way), 10 hours at the clinic at school, 20 hours a week at the internship site (driving 1.5 hours each way in a different direction), and then 20 hours a week at my part time job.   The part time job is pretty zen and gives me lots of reading time... but it's the sleeping time and driving time I'm worried about... as in, I'm not a good driver, and I fall asleep behind the wheel.  *sigh*  I've looked into public transportation, but the options aren't good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that some sort of carpool might materialize... but, I won't worry about that for now.

For now, I'll just be happy that we're moving...!  Eventually!... Not for a couple of months still-- which is actually good, since that gives me time to get rid of my junk pack some of my precious belongings.  Hey, with the holidays coming up, the opportunities for regifting are endless!