Free money anyone?  "I like money!" says Mr Crabs (Spongebob)

I think that money is ethereal, its like the sea washing in and washing out...nothing confirmed or in one place for more than a day or two it seems.

We have all enjoyed money too much apparently, spent away on the good things that built up into massive debt, which apparently (again) is all our fault..not the banks that forcefeed us debt as the norm.  In fact to continue my rant I absolutely hate it when I call my bank to find out my balance only to be told that I have £....available... available?  No...I want to know how much of my own money -my own I have in my account - debt was/is for everyone and readily accessible...spend money that you haven't yet earnt...go on...store up some s£%** for the near to medium future and if you are really unlucky...for aeons to come...horrid.

We like every other family have been effected by the recession.  Job losses, chasing payments, long periods of naff-all work and extreme nail biting at how on earth we are going to meet all the montly bills.  But then... we enjoyed all the good bits too.  Before the crash when we had a regular wage going into the bank we used it to the very enth...we had a fab house in a fab part of London.  Long boozy Sunday lunches after Sunday walks around the fabulous park that we lived next too.  We loved it, all of it yet we knew it wasnt really us..not really truly....a bit like living in the telly now I think about it.

A sharp turn out of London came when we ran out of cash.  We sold our fab house in a fab part of London by merely putting an advert in our local fab postoffice..we could have sold it 5 times over privately.  Our only happiness was that a really nice man moved in.  A widower whom we knew would be very happy in our fab house, with our fab view.

We bounced out of London to our chosen place.  Dealing with removing every item we own to a smaller house.  Our stresses became less frequent but more intense I think.   The work for DH became dry, which of course made for long periods of us both in said smaller house.  The summers were the hardest I think.  6 weeks of us all being here, 4 very large characters in largish bodies trying to get on with something productive to make ourselves feel better and like we have achieved something with our day.  One thing that I will give us is that DH and I are never, ever short of something to be getting on with...workwise that is...you should see our airing cupboard, and as for the bathroom...really.

So what did I have in mind when I drew 'Free Money'?  I think its just that - anyone want some free money?  Its the antidote to whats going on now, the downturn, the stress, the dull toothache that  most of us are feeling on a daily basis - I wanted to turn it on its head - come on, pitch in, help yourself - its there for the taking.

Its 2. 5 years now since we moved from our fab house in our fab part of London to where we are now and now I love it.  I dearly love our small house with the 4 large characters in it.  I love where we live and the people that are in our lives daily now.  Of course my daily heartache is missing all my girls that I spent the past 20 years with day in and day out, but we are making it work - our friendships are still as strong and no we didn't shrivell up and die because we moved out of the M25! 

'Free Money' is about the delicious blips that come to us unexpectedly.  The £2o you find in your jeans, the act of kindness that just turns up.  We are all well.  This is the real money..the health of our 4 beings in our little unit.

We are lucky, really lucky.  Hurray for families.  Hurray for friends, Hurray for marrying the right person, Hurray for lovely children.  You can keep the money...we don't need it.

Sam