Don't try this at home!

GARETH SAYS...

When we tell people about ONB a lot of the same 'ohhh we need to do that'. Everyone seems to need a big chunk of money for something or other - decorating their bathroom, paying of their credit cards etc.

If the truth be told i would never ever recommend that someone do something as extreme as ONB. It is so emotionally draining. You feel every little bump on the road of life - without cash your tires are flat.

I would recommend that you try one month on and one month off. The constant grind of 12 months of living as cheaply is exhausting. Moan moan moan - ohhhhh how good it feels to moan.

AMY SAYS...

Don't do it! Be cautious with your cash consistently, but even Gareth and I, who have been told we are both crazy and relentless, are struggling to make it outta this one in one piece!!

Sleepless nights

GARETH AND AMY ARE WORRIED...

We haven't been able to contact the woman whose place we are renting for the next two months - her voicemail is full and she isn't responding to our emails. Argghhhhhhh. We have given her a big stack of cash to secure the place and it has made us feel pretty nervous. All we have is one set of keys, a move in date for a few days time and a bit of paper that we all signed. Keep your fingers crossed folks. Let's hope we haven't been taken for a ride :(

This flat is sponsored by Rachel and Chris

GARETH SAYS...

We have friends who are moving to Australia and had loads of stuff they didn't want to take with them - chairs, tables, bedding, food - and they asked us if we wanted it! Of course we said YES and descended like vultures on their apartment.
We walked of with boxes of cutlery, plates, an AC until and tons of other stuff so that when we finally get a permanent housing solution we should have a pretty well equipped pad.

Thank you Rachel.

Thank you Chris.

…FINALLY AMY WILL EXPLAIN…

AMY SAYS AFTER RECOVERING...

I had coordinated with Gareth’s friends at work to throw him a Surprise Party with a few pranks ;) Gareth, ever since I’ve known him, has been the ‘ultimate’ jokester/prankster – from putting snakes in my bed to filling the sugar bowl with salt – yuk!

Anyway, he’s also gone on and on about how he wished that SOMEONE would play a prank on him and all of the effort that goes into a prank just proves how loved someone really is.

I contacted his friends Matt,Dave and Lisa from work and asked if they would help me pull a prank – I told them I was struggling with the ideas because they were either too mean or too soft. Immediately, Matt and Lisa responded with a bulleted list of what we should do – and a side note saying “I think Gareth can take a lot so we should start with the most f**ked up and work backwards."

That’s what we did but we never really changed the pranks from the initial ones we came up with. I had a special cake made. I hacked into his emails and collected all of his friends email addresses, I bought special party favors, and coordinated the pranks with his entire office!!

Each prank was devastating! Truly – I would hate it if someone did it to me, but every one of his friends said ‘Gareth is going to LOVE this, it’s the stuff of legends!!’ So, we went full steam ahead.

Only one of the pranks ended up happening in the end but it was enough to send Gareth off the deep end.

Prank 1: Gareth to wake up and find a positive pregnancy test in the bathroom (taken by Gareth’s pregnant friend at work Ara!)

Prank 2: Gareth to receive cryptic email from Julia (a co-worker) saying that she heard that Amy was NOT paying off her student loans with the money Gareth has been giving her – rather she’s been hoarding it.

Prank 3: Gareth to be pulled aside by his boss Dan and told that he must take a rather large pay cut!

Gareth would then be escorted to McSorely’s, the oldest pub in NYC to a bunch of drunken smiley faces screaming HAPPY BIRTHDAY and turn what seemed like the worst day in his life into a legend!

I ended up making Gareth a T-Shirt with ALL of the emails between me an his friends here are a few of the best quotes from the T:

“The pain will be short live and just think how loved he’ll feel knowing all of the effort that went into his misery” Lisa

“Too mean too mean? Gareth in a puddle of his own tears with us drinking them thru spiraling colorful straws? It al seems too unreal for him to take it too seriously, I’m a willing accomplice and as Gareth has said in the past “The amount of effort is evidence of how much we love him.” Matthew

We had a brilliant night of crazy cake and Karaoke singing till 2am!
My voice still hasn’t recovered!

GARETH SAYS...

I loved it all.
I felt like Michael Douglas in 'The Game'
I can't believe i didn't see the pregnancy stick that Amy left out in the bathroom that morning!!!

Birthday day

GARETH IS 32 TODAY...

To celebrate we are going to the movies where we will be having a LARGE popcorn, LARGE drinks and a packet of twizzlers.

We had booked to go to Gordon Ramsey's NYC restaurant as a surprise but decided to cancel it and use the money to hire a small storage unit to make life a little easier over the next few months. It is not as romantic as a meal for two but it is far more practical.

We have promised one another that we will splurge on a posh meal when we are finally out of the woods of the debt.

Aching all over

GARETH SAYS...

We are in the process of moving to our new sublet. To avoid being ripped off by removal guys like we did three months ago we decided to do it all ourselves and boy are we in pain today!!!

We had to carry a ton of boxes filled with bricks - sorry i meant books - a load of clothes and a surprisingly heavy mattress. We hired a U-Haul van (just like the one in the A Team but without the paint job) and Amy drove it round Brooklyn with a rather nervous Gareth sitting next to her with a map.

The van cost us about $48 a day which is very cheap - they charge a flat rate per day then a dollar per mile on top of it. U-Haul rocks!

AMY HAS SOME EXPLAINING TO DO!!!!!!

GARETH SAYS...

Yesterday was a very odd day! But i'll let Amy tell you all about it when she sobers up. All will be revealed :)

AMY SAYS...