Work and Work

I do two kinds of work. One *can* pay crap, and is part of a kinda floaty long term plan. The other *only* pays crap and is over in January.

Yesterday I was supposed to do the first type. I had it all planned out- after 8 or so hours of goofing off and relaxing, I was going to do this work that'll pay off later.

Then I made the mistake of answering the phone.

I guess it's been too long since I worked in a "real" outside the house job. This time last year I knew better than to answer the phone on my "day off". Yesterday, though? Ha.

So I went to the place where I'm working temporarily and stayed there from 4 until 11. That whole time I stood at a register, then tidied the store. While my check will be kinda nicer, it means I didn't get to do any of the things I needed/ planned to yesterday. Things like:

• write articles for up-front pay
• write articles for my own sites
• write articles for places that do revenue share like HubPages
• Do laundry
• get my food made up for this week
• relax
• catch up on NaNoWriMo
• get some work done on my blog that *really really* needs to be done
• buy groceries

Instead all I did was earn $42, give or take $3. I'd have been much better off, crazy as it sounds, staying home. Now I have to find some way to fit all that stuff that I didn't do yesterday into a schedule that's already taking over my life. Oh, and I need to cancel an appointment, because "work" can't/ won't reschedule me around it. Even though they knew about it *at the interview.*

Soooo not interested in this work thing. really, Not. Oh, yeah, and being around all those strange people and little screaming kids, I'm getting a cold. Extra Pleh.

Making Money is Hard Work!

I have some semi-automated blogs. I toss them up a couple at a time, spending maybe 1/2 hour each to get them up and running. Really not bad.

Then I have to go back a month or so later and add advertising, affiliate links, and random other links.

Holy Crap, that takes time. Even just using Amazon I'm spending closer to an hour each to add these links and whatnot. Hopefully it'll make some money eventually. I might just add adsense to a couple of them to save time.

Still, serious time.

Then there's writing for TextBroker. At a penny a word, it takes pretty serious output to manage even minimum wage each hour. And when the only subjects are really dull, or really nit-picky, or just things I don't know anything about yet, the time per article goes way up. Don't even get me started on people looking for too much in exchange for a $3 article.

I'm still too wimpy and haven't managed to submit an article to Constant Content. Super wimpy, really silly, and a bad business decision, too. Writing articles for a penny a word is just plain stupid when you can write them for 5 or more cents per word. It's crazy.

I found a few other places pick up content work, and while one or two are similarly crappy (pay-wise) to TB, a couple may be a bit better. I'm checking them out now. Just need to finish the application. Still, if it works out (and they accept my app and let me work, and rank me higher than the very lowest) I could write those same 300 word articles and walk away with 5 or 9 dollars each. Same work, more money sounds like win to me.

Don't even get me started on the website I've been half-assedly working on since May. Not enough done yet to open it up, and I've been "starting" it for 6 months.

Finally, at the end of this month I'm * definitely* changing around the advertising on my other "real" blog. I want to use something that allows more flexibility for me, doesn't limit me as much in what I can post or how much, or when. Also thinking about (but who knows if it will materialize) moving things around there to put information stuff (like recipes, or easy substitutions) in easier to find/ central locations. I'm thinking about adding a "donate" button, but I want to feel like I'm providing more value than just entertainment before trying it. Also, I don't want my readers to feel like I'm using them to make money, or pushing things on them.

So, That's what the money thing looks like right now.

Jobs and Goals

Well, I earned enough for a payout this week, at least.

I've been really bad about actually writing articles. It's strange, because when I find one that I can easily write I sometimes still procrastinate until I haven't got enough time to write. It's not so good for the budget. Not that really anything I do is, but still.

So with my lack of production (and don't even ask about NaNoWriMo- when I finish this I'm swapping computers in hoes of actually getting *something* done) I've come to accept that I have, maybe, 2 options.

I can actually write.

I can get a job.

There's this in between option, as well, which is writing *while* having a job, but who knows how that would turn out.

So, in an effort to motivate myself (electric shock-style) I've put in a couple applications for seasonal retail work. Applying doesn't mean I have to take a job, and it also doesn't mean I *don't* have to. It just means that I might end up working somewhere other than right here in my warm little writing nest.

Of course, I then looked up how much I was likely to make per hour at each of those places I applied.

It's *maybe* $300 a week. Working full time. 

If I'm thinking about torturing myself for 8 hours (or more) a day in exchange for $300 a week, I should do it at home. Here I get to eat when I want, go outside when I want, drink soda all day and loaf about in my pj's. I only have to deal with people I want to deal with. And I can go off on angry rants without losing my "job".

'Cause the only people here in my writing room are, well... it's just me.

I bet I could make $300 a week writing articles. You know, if I *really* wanted to. Probably do it faster if I'd just try to sell them someplace that pays better than $0.01 a word, but whatever.

In better news, the child-style star goal/ chore chart thing is working out pretty well. even though the only things I've got gold stars in are napping, having fun, and posting blogs on time. But I've gone from a low of 3 goal areas with anything in them other than FAIL to four, five, or six stars a day. Yesterday I got 5. Would have been 6, but that fiction writing thing never happened. 

So, yeah, more is getting done, now to earn enough that I can get away with not taking a "real" job, even just for the holidays.

Blogging Dollars

So I got paid by my blogging network-thing. It's not a huge amount of money (just over the payout, in fact...), but it's mine! (cue evil laughter)

By check, of course. I guess I got the paypal request/ info in too late.

In other news, I'm trying to decide what direction to go with my travel site... direct paid ads, adsense, affiliates... it doesn't make much difference to the content, but it might change the layout a bit. I don't have to decide now, but I'd like some idea of what direction I'm going to take it in before I get too far into it.

So... yeah.

Still deciding if I should stay with the ad network or not... There isn't much ad inventory now, and I don't know if it's worth it to follow their rules and whatnot when I could make the same (or more...) with Google.

This internet stuff is tough.

Ok, back to writing crappy content articles for next to nothing.

Payment Day, But No Payment

So... I held off on this one, giving them a chance. I'm sure there's some reasonable reason for me not getting my paypal-ed dollars today from the ad network I use on teh other blog, but forked if I can figure out what it is. It's totally possible that they're sending me a check, having missed the bit where I decided (about 2 months ago, now) to skip the waiting and just use the electronic transfer-ness.

Which kinda sucked, since I had an appointment to go to, and not enough gas money for a round trip. And not enough money to pay for the appointment. (I did make it, BTW)

Magic Dad to the rescue.

Which makes me feel like crap, of course, and if I were able to be motivated right now, the idea of never calling him for money again would do it. Too bad motivation = 0 right now.

Anyway, he loaned me some more money, and I'm adding it to the list. I think I owe him about $4,000 right now. Wrote down what I remember and added it all up while I was waiting earlier today. That's almost 7 times the cost of my car. It's more than my smallest student loan.

So it feels like crap, but I'm glad he's there. And I think he likes being able to help without dealing with anything messy, and getting to pester me about what kind of late-retirement he expects. Looks like the state home is out. Oh wells.

Now if only the forking ad network would pay me....

Interesting money stuff

So, I have no ads here. I did at one point, but I decided to pull them from this blog.

The other one, though, has ads. And they were doing pretty good for a while, and I changed to a new ad network thingy. It lost me the more profitable adsense space, but it brings in traffic (mostly) and was earning more.

I don't know what's up, but September seems to be a crap month for advertising. It's probably better on family or child-centered blogs, but food and general life crap? I'm making more (and have *made* more) on the much less profitable adsense placement than I am off my big pretty hot-spot ad.

Part of it, I suspect, is due to some kinda blogger flub. But mostly? There's no ad inventory. something like 2/3rds of my page loads have been PSA's or in-house ads. that's 2/3rds of my pageloads earning either nothing or almost nothing. It's kinda a startling change.

Good thing I don't live off that revenue, I'd starve to death. Ok, I'd starve to death faster.

It does help me realize that if/ when I get everything going with web sites and whatnot, I need to make sure that money can come in from more than one place. There *are* ad networks that will fill in with ads from other networks when they have nothing to serve, but this isn't one of them.

It really reinforces the whole "diversify" thing. Lucky for me the blog is for fun and keeping track, or I'd be forked. I think about this more than i probably should, actually. With building a working-for-myself type life I am running into this more.

I probably ran into it more when I was working for a company in a "real" job, but when your ability to pay rent depends on kissing the boss' ass and behaving in public, you try not to think about that stuff. Now I'm trying to build as many different streams of income as I can find. Every dollar that comes from blogging, or book reviews, or a website I build, or an article that sells at CC is 100 fewer words I have to write for textbroker. Forget saving the earth, I just want to save my wrists at this point.

Now I just need to get the novelling going so I can earn real, live royalties. Write once and get paid for it forever (or until the book pirates get their hands on it... either one works for me).

But, yeah, oddness with the advertising income this month.

Depression Means Small Paycheck

So, the more depressed I get (and I'm sure this is common) the less I actually do. Either because I have no motivation, or I'm sure anything I do will suck.

I'm pretty sure I've dropped into a rather low low, since I haven't managed to write anything but blog posts for close to a week now. And the blog posts themselves were a near thing. With a normal job, that wouldn't be so bad. the little bit of work would be masked by the huge amount of goofing off most people manage as part of their daily work schedule.

Unfortunately, my income is totally based on how many words I crank out each day. No words means no dollars, and 500 words (more than I've done in *days*) means 2 gallons of gas. I could, in a normal month, maybe swing a couple days without real production, but this month? Not so much.

I try to keep from thinking about the bills while I write- it just stops me, makes me nervous, and slows me down. But it's still important. This month I have to pay car insurance again. I have to start paying one of my student loans. I have to start getting stuff together for my "great escape." And, of course, I have to pay the rent.

None of that is going to happen at a rate of $5 a week.

So today I need to center my brain, find a "happy" place, and get some damned work done.

Stupid brain. I'm tempted to hand it over to the first hungry zombie that wanders by.

Not Much

Won $4 on the lotto, bought a new ticket. I think that's my second largest win ever- best was $7!

I know, I know. In other news, I found another penny a word place to write, dunno how that's going to work. I can at least try it, though, right? This one pays every Saturday. If I get this whole thing really going, I could eventually get paid (a little bit) a couple times a week-

• around the 1st
• around the 6th
• around the 15th
• around the 21st
• and every Saturday

Wowz, that's a lot of paydays. $100 from each of them would be $800. Not bad at all. Bet I could make $100 a week from each of those- that's more like $1200, or enough to pay the rent and one or two of the student loans with money left for food.

What I really need to do, though, is get off my butt and write for Constant Content. $20 for a 300-500 word article is much better than 3 to 5 dollars. 'Specially if I can get one or two done in an hour, or 6 a day. Even selling only 1/3rd of them I'd be making about what I do now, and my wrists would thank me.

Ok, now I'm just blathering.

Self-Employment, Life, and Taxes

When you have a job, you just get a check. Taxes come out, but until about February, most people with jobs don't need to think about taxes at all. When you don't have a job? Suddenly the tax thing is a huge scary monster.

When you work for yourself you're responsible for your own taxes. Sounds obvious, but it's trickier than I thought. Take home pay calculators for the traditionally employed are all over the internets. Calculators that can/ will do the math on self employment taxes are rather more difficult to find. To be safe I've been working with 35% overall tax rate- FICA, state, fed, whatever.

Turns out this is (more than a little) high. There's no way in any colored hell I'll make enough to pay that much. This year I'll be lucky if I make enough to pay federal income tax at all. Feels strange to write that, by the way--lucky to pay tax. A more accurate tax rate for me, random web site told me, is 22 to 28 percent, including state, fed, and FICA--if I make $4,000 a month for the rest of the year. Not bad.

Related to the whole tax thing, I have to figure out what my tax home is. I don't think you can be without a tax home, and I don't want to be taxed SC state income tax (7% of everything) while I'm off living in some random country. So I foresee some quality time spent between the IRS website, and their Q&A hotline.

Positive stuff this weekend included reading about someone who wandered past an ~300USD /month studio with all utilities included in the non-tourist part of Playa del Carmen. Ok, the *less* tourist part. With WiFi. That's $70 less a month than I pay now, and without a car my savings would be even better. Mexico and South America sound better every day. I'm dreaming about travelling and paying down my debts, all for about what it's costing me to eke out some miserable un-life here. Sounds good to me, even if it means travelling slower than slow.

Learning about PayPal

Up until now I haven't had much to do with PayPal. Strange, I know.

Everyone and Everything (just about) uses PayPal. Except me--until recently I'd only used it once. To pay for my Africa trip. But I'm learning.

Most of the places I'm "working" with use PayPal for payments. So I earn it, and when they pay me, it's sitting there in my account. Online. Where I can only spend it Online.

Problem. I don't think my roommate's mother (also known as my landlord--talk about problems...) has an account with them. I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to pay transfer fees, if she does have an account. I sure as heck don't want to.

So where does that leave me? Well, I can transfer money from my online account to my linked bank account. It takes 5 to 7 days (might even be *business* days) but it's free. Or I can use a debit card linked to my PayPal account, but if I get cash from an ATM there are fees (from the bank I'm using, I don't think the card has fees). If I get cash back while I'm shopping, I'm limited by the amount the store allows. And I'd have to shop. Plus, to even be eligible for the debit card you have to upgrade your account.

Not a problem, I chose the debit card (for when I need money *now*), and I can always still transfer cash whenever I have a week or two to wait. So I upgraded my account (no fee) and applied for the debit card. I'll have it in a week or two- just in time to pay the rent a bit late. Better than a lot late, I guess.

Now I just have to get my W-9 to TextBroker so they'll pay me. Well, and write. A lot. Every day until payout. Pleh.

Finding Cash

I've finally ended most of my associations with the huge retailer I no longer use. Called and sold my 1ish shares of stock and cashed out my 401k.

Wow, do they make that both easy and crazy hard. I tracked down what paperwork I have. I put more money into stock then they're showing, but no way to prove that, so... They charged me $20.10 to sell my 1+ shares. They're really all about keeping the investors. The guy tried to upsell me to faster check postage, but I wasn't going for that. My 50 had already shrunk to 35, I wasn't interested in shrinking it any farther.

Then I called and dumped the 401k. That was actually worth more than I thought. When the lady told me that I wasn't fully vested, that I'd have to spend a full 6 years there to be, I almost cackled over the phone at her. If I'd spent much more time at that place someone was going to end up dead. Probably me.

So they held back 15 for fees and 40 for estimated taxes, and she advised me that I should talk to someone about taxes, because it could get complicated... I said that's nice, and USPS for free is better than UPS for $20, now just sell the dratted thing.

So sometime around the end of the month I should be getting two checks for a total of about $230, no small pile of cash in my world right now.

Yay?

Income, Positive Thinking, and Motivation

Totally linked. My motivation and positive thinking are both low (not as bad as last week, oddly, but yeah, down there), so my income is too.

But even as low as my income is (and it doesn't match my expenses at all right now), it's still something. So I'm gonna work with that.

The last two months I've "earned" enough each month to pay any *one* of my two or three (5?) lowest bills. Now, that's not much in the overall scheme of things, and it's not enough each month for a payout, but it's money I wouldn't have otherwise, and I didn't have to go do some job I hate to get it.

It's a pretty bit deal to me. Of course, I don't know what it says about me that I have 3 or 4 bills that run about $15 a month, but wow.

So with zero motivation, and a deep and abiding belief that I'm a huge pile of FAIL, I manage to invent enough money to pay a bill. What could I do with some motivation? And where do I find it?

Now, normally I'm sure people would say something like "fake it 'til you make it", but the very thought of that makes me want to throw up. And I'm a *really bad* liar. How do you fake wanting to do something anyway?

(Note- this might be part of the reason I'm not one of those settled, grown-up, married people.)

So instead I'm going to set a goal, and not let myself do anything fun until I get the dratted thing done. I'm writing at least the home page for my (sitting there empty and abandoned) website. Before noon. And then I'm damned well putting it up. Even if the theme sucks.

So I guess it's time to decide if I'm using WP or some sort of "real" CMS, huh? But not until after I write the damned article.

Building Something from Nothing- part 1

I want (to some degree) to provide transparency here. More specifically, I've been building something online. I want to provide transparency with that. All sorts of people make and sell e books about how they make money online. I'm not ever intending to do that- I doubt I'll ever make enough to not feel like a total impostor.

But I've got something actually bringing in some money- not much, mind, but some. I intend (hope?) to turn that "some" into more. I guess you could say I'm slowly fashioning time into money. It isn't the end of the month yet, so these aren't the actual numbers. They should be pretty close, though.

Incomes-

• Adsense- $117
• Amazon- $0.10
• Associated Content- $5

Expenses-

• Photobucket Pro- $4

Adsense is actually about 2 years worth, with all but 50 cents coming in the last month and a half. Associated Content is upfront payment for an article. I'll have to do more of those- it off-set the cost of having to increase bandwidth on my photo hosting.

So, what am I doing with $118.10? Ideally some would go to savings now, for taxes later. I don't have the luxury of doing that just yet, so it's going to have to wait a bit.

What I'm really going to do with it is pick up some cheap hosting for a year or so (I should be able to manage this) and build an informative site that has lots of advertising possibilities, and plenty of affiliate tie-ins. Hosting alone should take up most of my "income", and any left over will probably be used to upgrade my photo hosting. If there's anything left after that, I'm thinking of adding a book review blog- I read anyway, might as well review and post as well, right?

In the mean time, I've got a couple articles claimed and needing to be written for a couple different sites, and I'm looking into the whole "article marketing" thing. I don't know that it's for me, but I might as well check it out. Worst that could happen is I get blocked from a couple places, right?

As far as longer term goals are concerned- This all works with my "don't live someplace longer than you have to" goals. Paper books might be tough to come by in some countries, but electronic copies are often easier to find. An informational website shouldn't be too tough to keep updated from elsewhere- while there are changes, my target topic only really has a few seasonal peaks in activity, and it'd be easy enough to either be close by, or always online around those times.

Motivational Career Books

Let's be honest. Job hunting doesn't take *all* day. It probably takes less of my day then it should, actually. But even if I applied to *every single* job, the second it was available, rewriting my resume and cover letter from scratch (even for fast food), it still wouldn't take 12 hours a day. That's really just a lot of time to fill.

And Hulu only has *so* many shows.

So when I'm not applying or watching TV on my computer, or playing on my (soon to be cancelled) WoW account, what is there to do?

Well, I'm a reader, so I read. It gives me ideas, and then I work on those- like freelance writing, or things to put on a website, or just general life-improvement stuff.

I'm a bit of a free spirit, I admit. And being a reader, I tend to go to books and written information when I'm trying to figure something out. So in addition to the usual pile of romance novels stacked on my bed I've also got a bag full of "escape your crap job and see the world/ start a company/ become a petty dictator"-type books.

And they're great books- don't get me wrong, they're totally amazing books. For people who already have jobs, or still have their savings, or have a boat-load of available credit to float on until they're up and running with their dream/ company/ country. Nowhere out there (at least that I've found yet) is a book for people in *really* crap jobs. No books for retail underlings, or fast food cooks, or hotel housekeepers.

They're all written for people trying to escape *real* jobs- you know, the ones your parents aren't embarrassed to admit to having a kid working. So while I'm reading Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim, and reading the blog and stuff that goes with it... Well, I've only been forced into a cube for about 2 weeks total, temping. The closest I've been to "Corporate America" is my father. Well, and working for Walmart.

Same with How To Succeed as a Lifestyle Entrepreneur, which seems to have a lot of "so you already have a business and/ or income". Tim Ferriss isn't quite so focused on people with snazzy crap jobs, though that seems to be where he comes from. The problem with the version of The 4-Hour Workweek that I read is that his "method" is pretty money heavy. He picked the perfect product, maxed out his credit cards (or not) and away he went.

I'm not saying there isn't something in these books for everyone. I'm saying I have to pick and choose to figure out what's even vaguely applicable to me. Following my dreams, sure. Finding the intestinal fortitude to ask my boss for time off? Well, I don't have a boss, but even when I did, that was never a problem. Heck, I asked if I could count the money from home one day- they said no.

But these books are all about jumping. There's very little about "get a job that makes you just enough to sleep inside and eat, and build slowly", probably because it doesn't sell. All the "how to start with nothing" type-books come off as spammy, or get rich quick scams. Where's the "I got a just-for-now day job while I built my dream, and here's how you can too" book? The one that tells people who never were interested in taking a dull job with high pay just because it paid well how to live their dreams? Am I just missing it?

And more importantly, how do I keep my "must find job" motivation up when everything I'm reading shouts "quit your job, build your business now!"

I know people are doing it- building a business or other income just big enough to cover the very basics while keeping a (seriously crappy) job. They're tough to find, and most of them seem to be off in the world now, rather than at home still grinding the day job. So there is hope. I have it clogging up my iGoogle homepage, and dribbling down my bookmark list.

The ones I'm following for now-

Location 180

Experiments in Passive Income

The Professional Hobo

NuNomad

I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones I'm finding most useful for this starting from nothing deal. I've accepted that dog walking is a bit too settled. For some reason, whenever I think about spending more than a year someplace I break out in hives. starting, running, dealing with a dog walking business would take at least a year to be really worth it. And then I'm chained to it, or have to take another year to sell it to someone else or train up a manager. Pleh.

Running numbers

Starting a business and working only for myself sounds great. I'm sure it sounds great to just about anyone. I mean, who wouldn't want to decide when they work, or for whom? And who doesn't want the freedom to build something the way they want it, then sell or dissolve it when they're ready to move on.

I have just enough accounting coursework under my belt to make the numbers come out. I made a list of projected expenses, and ongoing expenses, and the price of gas, and drew a 15 and a 20 mile radius around my house. Then did the same for a more central, desirable location. I come up with some scary numbers.

I'll be burning almost (at least?) 100 dollars of gas a month, just to get back and forth from the area I want to work in. Everything is so spread out here that I could easily spend as much time going from house to house as walking dogs. And while it might be high, I'm assuming $3 in gas per location, just to get there and away.

And don't even get me started on playing with tax numbers. It's scary.

So if I'm going to do dog walking as a business, and feed myself and live inside, and meet all my financial obligations, I need to walk a whole boatload of dogs.

In order to make more money (or walk more dogs), i need to have them closer together. Cutting out travel time is the single biggest savings I can manage. If I go from needing 10 minutes between each of 8 houses, to needing only 5 minutes to get from one to the next, that's one whole extra walk I have time for, every single day.

I'm also running the calorie numbers. There's a lot of energy burned by walking 10 to 20 miles a day. I'm not sure I could actually manage to find and eat that much. the thought of trying makes my stomach hurt. But I'd rather work for myself than for anyone else.

So that's where I am. I know how much I'd have to make to break even (it's one customer for 1/2 hour walks, 5 days a week, all month). I know how far I live from the people I want to get hired by. I know how fast I walk. Now I just need to get the website up, the name registered, and find a couple customers.

Why is the hard part always next? Some days I really wish I was that girl who was willing (and able) to marry some rich guy and get him to pay off everything I owe. Drat my desire to be in charge of my own life.

Drat, I say.

In which I earn a (very small) bit of money

My father travels for work. He has done this probably most of my life now. For the last year or so, my sister has picked him up and dropped him off at the airport for about $30 a trip. This morning, I got to be the driver.

So I earned $15 in cash, and he knocked $15 off what I owe him. All because my sister wanted to do something else at 4 this morning. And no, she wasn't sleeping, she went on a short road trip.

So yay, I have gas money. And Yay, I now owe my father $15 less. But it really feels like a lame handout.

Dog walking, still thinking.

I'll get to the dog walking thing in a minute. First... I need a basic bill paying job. I'm spending part of this afternoon helping Mom finish setting up her blog, and part of it applying for crappy server jobs. Well, maybe not crappy, but server jobs. Which I don't feel confident at, but which pay better than fast food.

On to dog walking.

As soon as I have a name I'll put up an ad on craigslist. I don't know that I expect to hear from anyone the first couple of days. I still need to have the paperwork ready in case I'm wrong. So I need a client or "dog walking" agreement. And a questionnaire, vet release, and... there was something else. I know what my price points are-

• $10 for a 15 minute potty visit,
• $15 for a 30 minute walk (plus water refill,and whatnot- about 40 minutes total)
• $20 for a 45 minute walk, and
• $25 for an hour walk

They don't sound too low, or too high. Town is kinda flung out, so I need to figure out how to deal with people who live way out there. Do I start out with a more limited service area and expand into middle of nowhere areas when I have x potential clients? Or do I add a surcharge for driving way to hell and back?

And incentives- what's a reasonable rate to offer them at? 1 free walk after a referral has completed and paid for 5 walks, or is that giving away too much? 10% off a week's service?

And discounts for hardcore users- weekly rates, or discounts, or one free walk every however many booked and paid for? Puppy packages, food delivery, pet taxi, dog walking for new parents...

Mom was like "wow, that's a great idea", but now that I'm digging into the realistic side of things, holy carp there's a lot to do!

I guess I can treat Charleston as a training ground, then when (if?) I move to savannah, I'll have the know how to pull it off. Have I mentioned how well dog walking fits with running a hostel? Now I just have to see if I can do it.

In other news, I still have no job, no money, bills due, and rent to pay. Oh, and a huge house-sized hole my debt goes in. Pleh.

well, here's to jumping.

Job hunting and possible options

I still don't have a job. I'm still looking and not hearing back. I'm sure there's something out there, but most of what I'm seeing either needs experience I don't have, a degree I don't have (for $8/hr??!!), or is part time and requires full availability. Which is not happening.

So I'm thinking about shifting my focus. One of my roommates does paper delivery, and while it's not huge or great money, it's not bad, doesn't take too long, and is usually available. If I can get a paper route (yes, increased gas/ car expense), I can also look at an evening job. Papers in the morning, hostess in the evening, it would leave my whole day open- either for an eventual "real, day job" or for something I do myself. The two part time crap jobs would cover gas, rent, and most of my minimums until student loan repayment shows up.

Which leaves me with my current possible idea. I don't know how it would work out, though.

I'm thinking about starting a dog walking business. There are a lot of dogs in the Charleston area. And lots of people who work a lot. And, I guess, if I want to be really honest, a couple (bunch?) of people who already do dog walking or running.

Startup costs are pretty reasonable-

• Advertise on craigslist until have a couple clients (free)
• poo bags/ water bottles/ snax/ backpack to carry them all in (already have, free)
• gas to get to clients (~$2.60/ gal)
• printing cost of contracts, client info, report cards, vet release ($5-10)
• setting skype to send calls to my cell (or get another disposable cell) ($0.12/ minute or $30+)
• possibly a business license- have to check. ($30?)
• basic lock box (<$15 for cash box)
• spare leashes/ collars/ haltis (<$30, borrowing leashes for now)

If I can get a couple clients, then once there's more money coming in than going out, can add-

• insurance and memberships (starting at $150ish/yr)
• printer/ paper/ ink so I can print my own paperwork
• phone number just for business calls
• business cards and flyers to leave at vet offices, groomers, community boards and just for handing out.
• Basic web-site
• Better lock box
• binder, three hole punch, pencil bag for keeping organized during the day

If it starts doing well- to the point that I can make it into a "real job" then I can add-

• accounting software
• online scheduling and payment software/ service
• better web-site
• i don't know what else...

Obviously there's some pretty serious wear and tear on the car, and gas expense. I'd have to increase mileage on my car insurance too, which will make that go up... And I don't have the best car for advertising a business. I can do a little to make it look better, I'm just not sure how much can really be done to it though.

But there are deductions for business driving (I'll have to look into what's acceptable), and eventually I could save up for something better with better gas mileage.

I'd probably have to register a DBA, and get a separate bank account too... eventually. Wonder if the local FCU has cheap business accounts?

When you can't find a job that pays what you need, create one, right? I'd much rather walk dogs then clean houses. I'm better at it, too.

Has anyone out there done this? Is it a crazy idea? Is there anything I'm not thinking of?

Realities of paying off debt

There's a lot of emphasis online, and out in the world, to focus on cutting expenses to pay off debt. Sometimes I wonder who these people are, that they still have enough padding in their budget to cut a bunch and pay everything off faster. If I cut all the remaining fun from my budget, dropped to a (slightly) cheaper car insurance, and picked up all the change I saw on sidewalks and in parking lots (instead of just silvered) I'd have maybe an extra 1800 a year to pay stuff off.

While that might add up to my two smallest debts, it also would be me hating life and running around uncaffeinated. That wouldn't be good for anyone.

While there needs to be control of spending while paying off debt, sometimes (most times?) there needs to be increase of income too.

I put up my budget numbers last time, and they aren't very promising, but they are what they are. Less promising is what's available in the local area. $12 jobs don't grow on trees here normally, and South Carolina is not in the best condition now. Tourism is picking up a bit, and with the dollar relatively weak there are more tourists from Europe and whatnot, so service jobs are looking up.

But I am nowhere near a good enough server to pull $600 a week in tips. Just not. The other jobs in town that are interesting pay between minimum wage and $11 an hour, and as the pay goes up so do the expenses- gas because they're farther away, clothes because they go from behind the scenes/ casual to office gear, entertainment and shared office expense. Because while no one at Taco Bell expects you to kick in $15 for the boss' birthday gift, office ladies will drive you out for it.

So I'm going to work on finding a "day job"- something that while it may not pay well, at least pays something- and a server job. And in my (theoretical) spare time, I'll work on building a freelance sideline into something that actually pays at least one bill every month. And of course, work on finding a day job that pays more.

I think the worst part of paying back what I've borrowed isn't that all my money goes right back out, or even that I've left myself no real freedom. It's that money is now very important to me. Important enough that I'm willing to give up things that are also important to me in order to get my hands on more of it. Important enough that I worked a dead end job someplace I hated, with business practices and employee relations I abhor just to have more.

Hopefully I can manage to find something I at least don't mind doing this time. And I've still got just enough cushion in my account/ low enough expenses that with a server job I can at least buy gas and pay the rent. So I can hope for something I even believe in while spamming every place that might be willing to hire me.

Yay?