Knowing that I’d be going away on field placement for a week has been sort of weighing on the back of my mind for most of the year. But I’m scheduled to take that week as paid leave, so as long as I remember to get the forms signed by the boss, I’ll be covered!
That just leaves the past two unpaid weeks to be accounted for. I sure as hell don’t know how people can afford to take unpaid internships for months at a time!
Over the past few months I’ve put away maybe $150-200 in anticipation of that, and I worked a full week last month which I got paid PROPERLY for (hurrah! I was afraid payroll might not be able to handle the increase in hours, and I’d have to spend ages chasing them). I must say, it was weird being at “work” now and not getting paid for it. I was there as an intern, not as a staff member, and in that capacity was there for free. It’s tiring, it’s draining, but such is the nature of gaining work experience and “furthering my career”, as the boss says.
Out of the extra I made for working that whole week (which included a little overtime) I socked away another $350. I’ll still be getting student allowance for the two weeks, so I just need around $170-180 pw ($340 – 360) on top of that. Easy breezy; don’t know why I was so worried.
