9 months without a paycheck: how it went and what I spent

On the 1st of January I was officially jobless. No paycheck, just vibes & savings. Nine months later I’m still jobless with no paycheck, just vibes & (less) savings. How do I feel? I feel great. After I had written my resignation letter and sent it to my manager, his manager, and HR, I started planning for this sabbatical of mine. Initially it was supposed to last three months, at most. However, in my financial budget I did take into account that it could last six months. Me being me, I needed to be “sure” that if things didn’t go to plan, I would still be able to afford it. That’s why I also accounted for a worst-case-scenario of one year without a job. But I for sure was not going to be home for one year. I couldn’t possible do that … or, could I? 

As I said, originally the plan was to be home for three months at most. My plan for these months was to rest, learn some new skills, look for a job, and also spend some time in Ghana. I planned to have a good balance between being productive daily, helping family and friends out whenever I could (since I had lots of time), and also taking some time to genuinely rest. This went great the first two months. In January and February, I followed online courses to learn how to code. This didn’t really go as planned, I thought I wanted to pursue a career in coding, but soon realized that I needed something with more human interaction. On the days that I wasn’t just looking at a screen with code lines and numbers, I was spending my time tutoring. I was also part of my friend’s bridal team and spent some time preparing for her big days. 

In March, I stopped working with a plan, because I started preparing for my trip to Ghana. Those close to me know that I have a special place in my heart for Ghana. I go there pretty often, never want to leave, and I’m really at peace. So, this time as I was going, I started fantasizing about what it would be like to work and live there. You know how people like to do drastic things when they’re young and they just pack their bags and leave for a different country? Yeah, I wanted to do something like that, but less spontaneous. I had watched an innumerable amount of YouTube videos about people moving from the diaspora back to the “motherland”. I knew about their struggles, their triumphs, and their doubts, yet I still had to see it all for myself. So, here I was, ready to go to Ghana in my third month of the sabbatical. I planned to stay for four weeks, but it turned into six (I’ve gotten into a habit of doing that). While in Ghana, I analyzed the living situation and possibilities of getting a job for myself. It felt less like a vacation and more like a trial period for when I do decide to live there. The six weeks flew by and I had seen plenty things I liked and probably the same number of things I didn’t like. So, I came back to the Netherlands and still had no idea what I wanted to do with my career. (I was in Ghana, all of April.)

Time flies, even when your days aren’t packed with things to do. By now, it’s May. I had to get accustomed to the Dutch weather again and I felt like some invisible clock was ticking and waiting for me look for a job. I ignored the clock and continued tutoring. I felt like looking for a job wasn’t going to be the best idea, because (1) I hadn’t found anything that I really wanted to do, and (2) I was part of two more weddings in the coming months, and it would be great not to think about work during that period. May and June basically consisted of me tutoring.

Then summer rolled around the corner and it was time for two more weddings to attend. But before that, I wanted to do something useful again and in July, I decided to boost my marketing skills. Google offers a digital workplace where you can learn courses for free and even get a certificate for some of them. I took the ‘Fundamentals of Digital Marketing’ course (I recommend this for anyone wanting to learn more about online marketing), and I’m proud to say I got a certificate out of it. Now, that that was out of the way, I felt I had done something good for my CV again, so I could go a longer period without worrying about that. The last wedding I attended was my cousin’s. It wasn’t just any wedding, it was a wedding in Ghana. And, guess who went to Ghana for six (instead of four) weeks again? Yup, me! Once again, I looked around to see if I could possibly work there, but it just didn’t feel like the right time. So, in August I finally decided that maybe it was time to start looking for a job. Also, because I had spent quite a lot and I was getting close to reaching the limits of my budget. In September, I slowly started applying for jobs here and there.

The above is how it all went. Now let me tell you what I spent. I’m a bit of a geek by heart and do practically everything with spreadsheets. I had my whole budget planned out in Excel and know exactly what I’ve spent and what I spent it on from January 1^st until now. My standard monthly expenses were about €715, this consisted of fixed costs (i.e., insurance, phone, car) and pocket money. Added to these costs were car maintenance and repair costs (over €1000). Also, as you’ve read, I went to Ghana twice this year (once in low season and once in high season) and I needed to have pocket money both times. Also, I treated myself to a few shopping sprees, because why not? (I’ll admit that shopping is one of my more expensive hobbies that I do not intend to let go of.) At this point, you could make a rough estimate of what I’ve spent in nine months. I don’t want to sum it all up, because it won’t be nice.

All in all, I’d say that I’ve truly had one of the best years in my life. I’ve really enjoyed and I’d do it again. To someone looking from the outside in, it might seem like I didn’t do much. I didn’t travel around the world or do extreme things like others tend to do. I took it easy and did what I liked to do when I wanted to. There have been moments when I thought that maybe I should have travelled to Asia or I should have gone parasailing, but when I thought hard about the reason why I would do those things, I came to the conclusion that I would do it just so people could see I spent my time well (in their opinion). I’m glad I stayed true to myself and took this moment to do a lot of resting and reflecting.