Our Big Purchase

As an overseas hire, my school applied for me to receive a tax benefit called the 30% Ruling here in the Netherlands. From my limited understanding, 30% of my income is untaxed, so I get to keep more of my money, especially since I will still have to pay some taxes in my home country. So, my 30% Ruling came through in October and my paycheck was a bit bigger... and I also received back pay for my first two months of work. What does one do with "extra" money like that? Well, spend it!

Our "was-droogcombinatie" is a thing of beauty. Part-washer and part-dryer, it does twice the work and takes up half the space of a regular appliance. We got a good deal and it was also delivered and installed. The model we picked, the least expensive one, was actually the evil machine that locked up my laundry (described in an earlier post). This time I have an English manual that tells me what I need to do to get the appliance to do my bidding. Really looking forward to doing laundry in my own apartment instead of sneaking it into school! In truth, the school was fine with it but I was slightly sheepish about it. I felt a bit like a bag lady carting my huge blue Ikea bag to school and skulking up the stairs into the Life Skills room to quickly toss in a load before my day started.