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Link love (Powered by late nights and jungle pad thai)

Big Sur, California

California (among many, many other states) dreaming. Image by the_tahoe_guy via Flickr

A decision has been made.

Fact: Whatever my next career move, it will almost certainly involve a pay cut. (My working hours may suck sometimes but I’m decently compensated, and my resume is the better for it).

So while I’m able to save at this rate, I want to focus not on a South Island road trip, although if that pans out great – but the big ticket. The major, expensive, eye-opening trip.

Which means one of two possibilities:

The US.

Europe.

Either of which will be extremely exciting, and which I want to undertake before the house and kids and all that jazz!

Which means… you can look forward to upcoming posts seeking advice!

In the meantime, feast on these:

MONEY

JD Roth has lost some weight through some effective diet tablets and is asking: How do you build a wardrobe on a budget? (Plenty of posts on that for women have been done, but I don’t know about a male perspective.)

Cate offers some suggestions for simple homemade Christmas gifts.

Jane on the price of pet love: brave girl admits that the threshold is different for each of her pooches.

Jacqueline, one in a long line of money hoarders, is trying to break the cycle with her son.

According to Punch Debt, he and I are peanut butter (yum!) Our better halves are jelly. But we make it work. Although, what you call jelly is actually jam. So he’s jam. Which, incidentally, he really likes.

Oh, and he asked how much you would put down on a house. Funny thing is, I was just discussing that with a friend (she literally had no idea, even though her family has investment property as well as their own home.) As much as I can, is what I say. Realistically, we’d need anywhere from $50-$100k.

Kevin at Thousandaire gets his outrage on after overhearing the reason a girl at the next table turned down a promotion. Eavesdropping never did anyone good! Not that that stops me, of course…

My Pretty Pennies has said yes to a wedding dress! Read all about it here.

Amber at Blonde and Balanced reflects on what she learned from being in debt.

WORK

Ahhh, content mills. How does a writer move up from them? Carol Tice offers seven detailed suggestions.

I’ve had a lot of jobs, but none of them were all that weird. Marian can’t say the same.

Ask a Manager explains what to do when you know your organisation is running out of money.

The Indie Travel Podcast offers advice on making money and achieving location independence. (Not something I’m aiming for, but a great read nonetheless)

Meanwhile, Financial Samurai blogs about how to finish the year strong, for those of us who work for Da Man.

FOOD

Dudes, I live in New Zealand. But thanks to blogging and social media, I’m hearing all about Jewish holidays and even better, Jewish food. And latkes sound fanfrigging amazing. Who wants to host me when T and I hit the States? Hmmmmm?

Also, NOM. The Joy of Caking is my new fave blog, and this amazing chocolate tart is next on my list to tackle when I have an afternoon off.

Something else that will take up an afternoon is this rich minestrone via DALS.

I’m always thrown by the mention of ‘zucchini’, but then I remember that they’re just a humble courgette. Pair em with mushrooms and you’ve got a healthy enchilada.

If like me bolognaise is a regular goto meal for you, try mixing it up with homemade meatballs.

Not a recipe, but…Stacface shares the details of her no-meat experiment.

LIFE

So I’ve only been inspired enough to participate in one of the #Reverb10 prompts so far (bring on tomorrow’s!) but I really enjoyed reading Hannah, Just Breathe’s account of a moment where she felt alive, and her birthday reflections on the things she has carried.

Wanna know how many chemicals you put on every day? Thankfully, I use less than half of those products.

Sarah at Yes and Yes shares some thoughts on beggars and making a difference in one person’s life.

Heather Rae admits to having regrets, and actually regretting them (something that goes against, you know, that whole no-regrets philosophy). I can think of one big thing I’d’ve done differently, and it’s to do with family…but to be honest, it doesn’t bother me very much; I’ve put it behind me.

Luckily, prices here prohibit me from joining the smartphone revolution. Here are the stages of smartphone withdrawal….

Cordelia may have failed NaNoWriMo but it doesn’t mean she didn’t learn anything from it.

Simple, but beautiful: Nicole and Maggie on cultural differences and household chores.

Like me, Dana is a control freak, and here she explains why it’s not all a bad thing.

Penelope Trunk argues you should stop trying to be happy. As someone who believes true balance is basically impossible…I can’t quite bring myself to agree. You can’t expect to be happy  ALL OF THE TIME, and if somewhere you were, you wouldn’t be able to appreciate it. I actively try to achieve a semblance of balance in life, and I am, generally, content.

Phew! Have a lovely, wondrous, fabulous weekend. I’ll be at work 🙂

PS – Last chance to enter my Christmas giveaway – $60 worth of gift codes to spend on yourself or someone else!

13 thoughts on “Link love (Powered by late nights and jungle pad thai)

  • Reply nicoleandmaggie December 4, 2010 at 17:13

    Wow! Thanks for calling that post beautiful, and for including us. 🙂

  • Reply cordeliacallsitquits December 4, 2010 at 17:15

    Thanks so much for the link love!

  • Reply Marian Schembari December 4, 2010 at 20:59

    Don’t leave NZ yet! I’m here and you and I are going on a blogger blind date.

    • Reply eemusings December 4, 2010 at 21:19

      Yes, yes we are. Don’t worry, ain’t no big trips happening for another year at least!

  • Reply Stacey December 5, 2010 at 02:25

    Thank you so much for including a link to my no meat experiment post! Lots of other good links here for me to check out as well. 🙂

  • Reply Revanche December 5, 2010 at 08:54

    Well, you know where my vote for your big trip goes 🙂

    Though, I’m in the UK and have been without any phone, smart or not, for a week now, going on two, and it’s been *weird*. But I refuse to crack! I figure if I want any phone use, I’ll want the whole shebang and that’ll add up to nearly $100 for now only 1 week’s use. Not worth it at all!

  • Reply Revanche December 5, 2010 at 08:55

    P.S. I am much less adventurous without the phone because I have no navigation which means when I get lost (five times today), I have a MUCH harder time finding my way back out or just finding new things to explore instead. But still, not the end of the world.

  • Reply FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com December 5, 2010 at 09:49

    Hey! Thanks for featuring EM on there. That chemical graphic had me frightened.

    Okay, so my vote for your big trip is definitely to the US.

    You MUST MUST MUST go and see NYC 🙂 San Fran or L.A. are also beautiful, but NYC for me was the first of many “wow AWESOME” cities.

  • Reply danablair December 5, 2010 at 10:58

    thanks for the link love, and yes, latkes are amazing. I’m with Fabulously Broke. You must come to NYC.

  • Reply meorthethoughtofme December 5, 2010 at 12:05

    sounds like some very exciting things are on the horizon for you!

  • Reply Possible Trip 1: America! « Musings of an Abstract Aucklander December 21, 2010 at 10:08

    […] eemusings in Uncategorized Tags: travel As I mentioned a little while back, I’m going to go hard on the travel fund in the new year, focusing on saving for one of the two major trips I want to […]

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