Blogging Challenge Day 15: Something Difficult About Your "Lot In Life" And How You're Working To Overcome It

I guess all in all I'm pretty lucky. I'm a white woman in a western country who is free to do pretty much what she wants. All my problems are 'First World' ones and, in the big scheme of things and relative to the rest of the world, I don't have much to moan about. But I am somewhat of a complainer by nature so let me do my best to answer that question for you!

My something difficult:

The problem that's arisen over and over again for me is the issue of affordable housing. At the moment I'm in the incredibly fortunate position of having most of my rent paid by a client who needs a UK address. This is, of course, a unique situation - but if and when he decides he doesn't need a property here then I've got some thinking to do. 

I've written many posts on here about how I'm always moving house and how expensive it is to rent here. All the money I spend on rent means I can't save for a deposit plus I can't get a mortgage anyway because I work for myself.  Even renting through an agency means coughing up 6 months rent in advance and all rental agencies here gyp you for costs wherever they can.

So my something difficult is affording a place to live on my own (I don't want to live in a shared house in my forties) and still being able to pay bills and go out and basically have a life. This one-bed flat plus bills without any help would be around £1000 ($1542) per month. Which is a lot.

How I'm working to overcome it:

Both my businesses are doing ok but I still have the problems I mentioned above. I do however have options. I suppose I could move into a shared house as long as the other person was ok - but things would still be in a state of flux as they might want to move out, we might not get on, and frankly I'd like to live on my own. I want something permanent and I don't want to spend nearly every penny I earn on rent and bills and I don't want to worry that I can't pay each month.

I'm overcoming the problem by trying to save money and researching my options. Saving will only get me so far and won't solve the issues completely but it might give me a bit of a head start and allow me to even raise the advance rent if I went through an agency. I've not saved much but I know I need to and I  have started to get a good enough income (most months) that I'm kinda in the position to put some away a bit at a time. 

I'm also starting to give some thought to moving out of town if I lost my flat. Although I could love anywhere in theory as both my businesses are virtual, I also have  a life here and I love the town I live in. So I don't really want to move but I could. I could even move abroad to France perhaps as I have a friend that does and he manages it. I'm not sure how that would work for me emotionally in practice although I'm fine with it in theory.

Another option that has crossed my mind is buying and living full time in a large RV-type campervan or on a canal boat. Both options are do-able in theory but I need to research both options thoroughly and save my arse off. I think I'd be ok with the practical aspects and I can even drive now thank god, but I'm not sure about the day to day emotional aspects of either - being on the move or being away from people I know, that kind of thing. Both mean I could travel with my cats and carry on freelancing as long as I had a reliable Internet connection.

All quite exciting possibilities actually but all terrifying at the same time! I'm quite brave but I don't want to do something silly either. All is well here for the time being, but a gal has to plan ahead.