When I got back from Australia, in ’99, I had a goal. I wanted to visit every continent by 30. Now, I’ve only been to 2 (North America and Australia) and I’m PRETTY sure I won’t make that goal, which is something I’ve had to put off as I went to school, etc. I may not make 30, but it’s a good life goal, still.

In going to school, I had to be poor. Real poor. As in, I made less than 10k in the last three years COMBINED poor. Dave isn’t wealthy, but he and financial aid supported me. We lived close to the bone, and when I did start working, we got married and continued to live close to the bone as we saved every red cent for buying a house. And it worked.

So, here we are, almost a year married, and now we’re homeowners who want a baby. (Of course, Dave is working the MDA telethon tomorrow, so he will have one of his bi-annual “We can never have kids because they will end up terminally ill” freakouts; thankfully, this is the last one for this year — CMN was in the spring — so it should wear off quickly.) And we want to take a trip.

When I went to Australia, it was on my own. I charged my plane ticket, and saved and paid cash for the rest. It took me YEARS to pay off that $1200 plane fare, but it was okay. When I charged the ticket, I thought long and hard — was it worth it? And I decided it was, and that I would never, ever regret that charge, no matter how long it took to get paid off. I haven’t regretted it, and it DID take me forever to pay off, and while it was a small part of my credit-card debt, that debt was a bitch to overcome. I regretted the H.O.R.D.E. tickets (kind of, it was a great time with friends who are now dead) and definitely the food charges (I paid HUNDREDS of dollars for mediocre HoJo’s fare, I’m SURE) but never the plane ticket. Never.

However, it made me credit-shy. We don’t have credit card debt. That’s a good thing. But now, I look at my savings account, I look at our combined incomes, and it’s hard to say “It’s okay to travel.” I can’t used credit cards. Using savings means that, well, what if? What if the fridge dies? What if we have a serious home repair? What if we need new windows?

And then the baby thing: Babies eat money, don’t they? So, shouldn’t we be saving money for The Baby (that does not even EXIST yet, even in it’s simplest form)?

When persephone posted about “Bermuda sounds better than Savannah,” she was right. It DOES sound better. I would LOVE to go somewhere moderately tropical; and Bermuda seems like a good off-season solution. (See!? I can’t even allow myself to think about going to someplace high-season, as February vacation airfares will already BE high season, to leave Maine.)

I need some frivolous spending money. I need to feel like I can look at Bermuda and have it not be a pipe dream. I need to have a secondary income.

As such, I’m working on the photography as spending money idea. I am testing out shutterfly’s printing services, and I’ve found a place that sells card frames, mats, and such. This will be my project: to make money doing something creative. I also want to do some more writing/submitting, but for now, I’ll start with the photography.

Even if I made fifty bucks, that’s fifty bucks, you know? And that would be cool.

I have to find my way to the middle of debt-saddled & fancy free, and tight-fisted and tense. Maybe creativity will help.