I recently reflected that this Christmas was going to be the first year I did not have to stress about financial concerns... that anything extra, work or otherwise, would be free to put towards something of my choosing rather than be obligated towards tuition or field trips or medical expenses and the like.
Then I got the visa update. The most recent visa was issued in July. It expires this month. Actually, they both expire this month. The new biometric visa format has about tripled the cost of the actual visa. Then I have to pay for all the notarizations they require from the multitude of owners listed on my building (it's a dang co-op and each board member plus the actual owner of my flat have to sign multiple pages), plus the agency fees... and I need a new passport as the airport people don't like to use pages that already have a stamp on them. One month ago I had 3 empty pages and a number of half-filled pages. Today I have one empty page, the same number of half-empty pages, and 2 pages that each have one stamp. The foreign police require 3 empty pages.
Additionally, the insurance requirement has changed. Basic/emergency insurance is no longer enough. I must now purchase comprehensive insurance for a full year term - payment in advance. The comprehensive insurance policy is so comprehensive that the co-pay at the doctor is only 30kc - just about $2USD. When you have it it's great, but pre-paying a year in advance is really, really rough.
And - now the taxation laws have changed as well - they're jumping up the tax withholdings by something like 1/3. There are other funky changes going on with that too that I don't fully understand just yet. I know it was supposed to be beneficial for workers but the actual law got the wording wrong and it's being interpreted in a way that is taking more taxes than was ever intended and making it so people who make less then 10,000kc don't pay any taxes and people who make 10,000 get taxed on the full amount and not just the amount beyond 9,999 as was meant (the difference is so big that many contract teachers want to drop their contracts to the lower amount as after taxes they'll be taking home a truly minimal amount of money).
I know - I was counting my chickens before they hatched, but all that I really wanted was, for each of us, some new boots, some new clothes and to have some money to save towards a trip home. I wasn't planning on going to Tahiti or Thailand or anything... maybe eventually to Budapest but that's just a short train ride away. Instead, I am back to where I usually am pre-Christmas - already feeling overextended and waiting to pay bills before we buy a tree.
I started to write... maybe next year, but it just hit me - EACH Christmas, for at least another year or two or three, our visas will expire and EACH year I will have to pay the agency fee, the visas fees, notary fees, and buy insurance.
Maybe by 2015 I'll have it figured out. I'm going to hold out hope.
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