can't sleep 🙃 too many stimulants

Hurricane Milton looks pretty serious tho

Been a day of painful, chesty coughing. Luckily not as bad as the previous time, hoping this bloody clears up soon. No fever or chills so far thankfully. Regular codral seems to be helping (even though it's not the good shit).

Soxcat has been very affectionate today, sat on my lap for hours and was in my face quite a bit. I'm so grateful to have her company during these trying times.

tax

Inheritance, family support, maybe a little windfall from insurance...

I know someone who will be coming out of 6 years prison soon and his parents will buy him a place so it's okay even if he takes a lower wage job... Another dude who had a breakdown maybe 12 years ago and never worked for a wage since, his parents have offered to cough up for a deposit after supporting his rent and treatment for years (I'm thinking there's a workplace payout involved as well)... There's a regular on the reddit DT who seemingly hasn't worked in many years, gets the DSP, but doesn't have to worry a cent about rent - presumably gifted the house by family...

Otherwise yeah. Rent is now easily a normal person's entire wage. Impossible on a single income

Insane. This is why the only way I can envisage catching my breath is to stay with family for a while... It's absolutely unmanageable on one income let alone part time.

Thanks mate. Chances are once I leave I'm gonna have a fresh start and I'll give the established stuff away, and turf the rest. Let's see if I can rejuvenate these curry leaf plants, they're probably the biggest buggers on the balcony. Could sell em on possibly.

Delete the banana and I'd be a willing test subject. Banana bread is the only context in which I can tolerate bananas and baked goods

Ah, a sign of the times that the Tenants Victoria call line goes straight to "we are experiencing a higher than usual call volume and cannot help you" right after pressing the numbers to get assistance as a private renter. Guess I'll have to spam call over and over

E: managed to get through to a really lovely lady, unfortunately it's really unclear as to whether VCAT would consider that "market rates" include REA fees de jure (even though they very much do de facto). But it's worth trying to appeal anyway, I guess. Gotta do what I can 🤷

E2: appeal lodged. I'm really not confident I'll get a rent reduction but ah well. Not fussed about souring the relationship with LL when they were the ones who pulled the dick move anyway. I don't want to move and be locked into a year long contract when I'll leave by June. Might look at slowly getting rid of my stuff (and plants...) in the new year and see if I can go stay with a friend or extended family member for cheap in the last couple months and leave this place earlier, if possible.

my throat does not like any of this

e: but the cold is good for attracting cats

We keep waiting for the house of cards to fall but I don't know when the heck that's happening

As a single person with no chance of an inheritance and no family support in Vic, and who probably can't ever maintain a 5-day full time job for more than a few months at a stretch without burning out, I'm seriously wondering if I can afford to exist beyond being a financial conduit from my employer to the landlord

Not saving that much moving to the outermost suburbs as there's less stock for singles and a jump in commuting costs and time. The only real future I have is to move interstate to live with family

Just chiming in to hope Baku returns whenever he feels ready. He's one of the leading lights of this little corner of the internet but also destined for amazing things ahead... if you choose not to come back buddy I hope you might dimly remember us when you're 35 and running your own IT business mate.

Landlord has suddenly withdrawn any option of negotiation - her accountant has apparently told her she "has" to up her rent to match market rates.

110/week extra. 21% increase. 550/week. This system is just not bearable any more. I'm going to seek advice... at least as to whether market rates include typical real estate agent fees or not