A big thanks to  monocle for taking the time to share personal experiences and concerns for what was going on with my house lease dilemma on my last journal. I spent some time meditating on the comments for a few days. Overall, it confirms what I feared I was getting myself into and for the whole reason for "venting" in that journal as another person accurately called it.

I decided to do a follow up journal rather than just replying to comments.

After writing that journal, I embolden myself to stand up to this situation with excuses. Like pretending I am busy with my freelance work and do not have time to do house searching. My newspaper boss, who is the one offering the lease scenario, knows not to mess with my freelance drawing work because of how much better it pays than him or my mom's bookstore job.

I also told him that night we went to look at a house for sale, that if I got a house, I'd have to leave his job because I can't afford it otherwise. That shook him up quite a bit and I think he took it seriously. As he knows I know I'm worth a lot more. And getting a better job wouldn't be particularly difficult (low unemployment here and good employees are very difficult for businesses to find but its not 100% assured to risk jumping out on my own without a good deal of money ready).

I stay at home for a very simple reason. It basically costs me $250 a month. Half my meals are paid. Free utilities, stuff like that. Don't have to pay for my flip phone cause I'm on my mom's plan and cost next to nothing. I'm privileged to all this because I work both for my mom and for the other boss's newspaper who also lives with us (my mom's significant other; a lot of reasons to why they don't want the legal commitment to each other). I did some math on how much I actually save by living at home and factored it into my wages from them. It raises my wage rates from $10 an hour to $20 easily.

The only true cons are that work sometimes follows me home (unpaid), personal favors I have to do, my mom's smoking that I am super sensitive and almost allergic to, and a cat that wakes me up sometimes in the middle of the night for literally no reason (not even food). Is that worth saving $750-1,100 a month? I'd say yes.

Contrary to the typical scenario like this, the jobs are not super terrible. The newspaper I don't like and its not what I want to do for a living, but it does feel fulfilling to work for a force of change in our community. Politicians, businesses, and even criminals (besides the previous two) at times do change how they act because of stuff specifically published in our paper (unlike the other Warren Buffet owned paper in town that puts profits in front telling things like they are).

The bookstore I have a lot of idle time because I do the work well and efficiently. In fact, I am writing this whole journal from there. I tend to handle my Patreon and Twitter activity from here too.

All that said, I will still make a significant effort to save up for a new house on my own; make my own destiny. I've set a monthly goal of saving $750 a month specifically for that. That may not sound like much, but I did my taxes already and I grossed $15,000 for last year. I intend to step up my freelance drawing work more this year too. And that's good for you all because the means more boobs and paws among other things. ^^

Again, thanks for all the input people wrote comments on for my last journal. I really appreciate it. ^^

~Eclipsis