Confessions of a Clumsy Scot

My first gripe with the grown up world, is the cost.

I’ve been working since I was thirteen, and truthfully have been awful with money since the day I started earning it.
I really wish someone told me back then, just how expensive like would turnout to be and to save at least a little bit.

I left school when I was seventeen, with nothing to show other than a D in Higher English (which I still count as a pass, though anyone official would say it isn’t). I went to do hairdressing in college, and although I loved my time in college, I knew that wasn’t what i wanted to do with my life. I was still working in the same hotel at this point that I started working in when I was thirteen along with working at my local horse riding centre. I adored this job, and I thought about pursueing a career with horses in some way but knowing I didn’t want to leave Skye, this realistically was never going to be an option for me. When the pandemic hit, I left this job and started working with my Dad who was in my ‘bubble’ as an apprentice electrician, and I loved it. The first two years of my apprenticeship were a bit all over the place because of Covid but having now finished my training, I’m glad I stuck with it. I left my hotel work at the end up the 2022 summer, simply because with working two jobs, I was getting taxed so much it wasn’t justifiable.

In December 2021, I moved in with my boyfriend and out of my parents home. Reality hit me…
Living is expensive. Twelve quid for washing powder? A fiver for a pack of 12 meatballs? Then the bills? You could literally not use any electricity for a whole week and still get charged. I know the standing charge isn’t much, but it’s a totally useless fee that we all have to pay.

Council tax? I’d love to see where that goes. Obviously in this instance, each region is different but I’m loathed to pay council tax because none of that money get spent locally but I won’t get into politics here.

We all make the joke about schools teaching kids about tax returns, VAT etc but I genuinely think this should be a reality. Get the kids ready for reality. Even a couple of classes over the course of the year to know what to expect when you leave home. What do you have to pay? How do you budget? Make sure you keep an eye on tax? Basically stop throwing kids into the deep end and watching them drown and making them go to University just to get them into debt.

There’s so much more I could write here, but I fear I’ll get political or basically just make myself look like an idiot, so I’ll leave it there for today.