The Crappy Job Dilemma

Kind of thinking I've mentally gotten close tot he "any job, no matter how poorly paid or unpleasant" point.

For the longest time my roommate has been suggesting I try delivering papers. He does it and doesn't mind it, and it is (to him) good money. I've been less than enthused by the idea because it doesn't really pay that much ($150 or so a week, maybe up to 300 for a good route), and it's all 1099 work.

Well, that and it requires driving all over town in the middle of the night.

Maybe it's a chick thing to be concerned about that, maybe it's just a fear thing. Maybe it's that my car leaks gas and I'm not sure how many more miles it has left in it (it was, after all, $600) and I'm out of cell phone time until I top up.

My roommate doesn't do his own taxes, though, so I don't know how much the 1099 thing effects him. He also doesn't own a car- he's using the other roommate's, so he doesn't worry about the associated costs of driving around.

Otherwise, it's really not that bad a job- just driving around, dropping off papers. He doesn't do home delivery though- he's the guy that refills the boxes and drops piles of papers off at stores and hotels and whatnot. He's done in just a couple hours, though, so... I don't know. I should google it.

Really though, it's pretty seriously low pay. Figure nothing will cost less than $5 a night in gas alone, so that's $30 a week. Insurance would go up (eventually) which is another however much a month. Self employment taxes and needing to either file myself or pay for e-filing/ online tax-prep. Additional time spent doing paperwork, wear and tear on the craptastic car-o-doom, more regular oil changes (or oil changes at all) and eventually another car. When does the "just need to bring in *something* outweigh the expense of doing it?

Heck, if the average route is 40 miles of driving, and the fed expense rate is still 55 cents a mile, that's $22 a night in car alone- $132 a week. So I'm sure it's a good deduction (if you can take it) but it also means I'd have to manage expenses like a w00t 1337 winner to be making more than $0.50 an hour after expenses. And that doesn't pay the rent any more than 50 cents a day on adsense does.

Pleh. I don't know. It'd be better (mentally) than working at McDonalds. Dunno about financially.