Its Friday and time to wrap this week up!
- Extra payments: NONE
- Extra Income: I went to donate/sell my plasma this morning, but I couldn’t get the physical without my driver’s licsence and social security card.
- Sweet Treat Business: We launched a fundraiser this week. Our goal is to be a debt free company, so the funds will go to get us to the next step in our entrepreneurial journey. Our numbers: 7 treats on our first day, 26 fans on Facebook, 1 Twitter follower and a ton of love & encouragement from our friends and family.
- Financial Coaching Business:This business has been though for me to make progress with. I am not sure why but I am sure it is a combonation of things. I don’t feel like I have the time to build the business because I work during the key time of day to contact people. My attitude from my current job spills over into the rest of my life. This weekend I have a client consultation and will work on drafting an example Statement of Advise. (the Sweet Treat business is more fun with my friends).I attended an open house with this church that I have been attending and they offere Financial Peace University. On the card I offered to be a volunteer coodinator.In May, I teamed with a local university to apply for a grant that would bring financial literacy progams to their students. We were supposed to hear something on the 15th, but they recently said it would be another two weeks. On a better note a local bank donated $150.
- Health/Fitness: Monday started the beginning of half-marathon training. I signed up with a free running group at my local running store. We meet at the store for short runs on Mon & Thurs and do long runs at the park on Saturday. There are so many people who run. I am disappointed that I just now took the time to discover the group. On my cross training days I am doing Insanity. It is tough, but I love the challenge. (Friday & Sunday are rest days)I have noticed that I am sleeping better at night, drinking more water and eating less unhealthy foods.
- Costume: The dance costume I am making is coming along fine. I will share some pictures soon. I will start studying for my test sooon.
>
Alot has been going on but I haven’t done any post. So this is just a bird’s eye view…
- …we picked up our keys for the new apartment yesturday. I am so excited. When checking out the apartment it became clear to me why we were able to decrease our rent by $300 per month. The apartment is not bad, it just isn’t as polished as my current apartment. In my current apartment I was definately paying for “cool”. We will ge the new place decorated and it will most likely be more homey than the current.
- …Apartment Therapy will start as soon as we get our stuff moved on Monday. I have arranged for one of my co-workers to come to my house to lend her decorator’s eye. I will have pictures of the old and new place next week (I hope!)
- …the touchscreen on my phone when out this month. The phone was 2 years and 8 months old, so it wasn’t a surprise. Sprint couldn’t do anything for me since I was out of warranty and I don’t have insurance on my phone. I decided to go ahead and take advantage of the upgrade and get the HTC Touch Pro2 for $199. This was definately not in the budget. Since I don’t pay for insurance, I have decided to start putting money aside each month to go towards a Cell Phone Replacement Fund…LESSON LEARNED.
I looked at the Epic and EVO, but my area doesn’t have 4G coverage and they wanted me to pay an additional $10 per month for “cool”. By “cool” i mean that the extra fee is for an enhanced experience. No one at Sprint can explain why they are forcing their customer to pay for something that should be optional.
- …I was recently accepted into an entreprenuership program that is going to guide me through the process of getting my Financial Coaching business off the ground. It starts next Monday. Only 15 of 47 people where chosen to participate, so I am very honored. The cost of the program is $1250. I will write it off on my taxes and I intend to make that money back with the business.
- …Customer Service is lacking in every area of work and personal like. I would like to start my own chapter of P.A.L.S (People Against Lousy Service). If you don’t know what I am talking about, check out this Cox Communications commercial.
- …Work has been specifically challenging. The work is easy and boring, but the enviornment and political relationships have been difficult to manage. I am tired of being worried about what people think, especially when they don’t take time to do their jobs. They spend all their time putting on a show. I have been looking for new opportunities and have had two interviews. The first was last week and it was with an manufacture. The interview went well but the jobs/company is not a good fit for me. Yesturday, I interviewed with the city. Why don’t I already work for the government?! ( I will write more later)
- …The switch to ING is coming along, but I don’t know if I am going to love it as much as I love BOA bill pay. I am going to see how it works between now and the new year. If I am not loving it by then, I will go back to Bank of America.
- …the half-marathon and fundraising went well. I found out that the local chapter of Team In Training charged my account without calculating in my $250 alumni credit. Sometime I just wish they would get it together at that office.
>It is official. The regional manager for my complex reviewed my request and advised the property manager & staff of what was approved. She sent me an email stating that they would call me to review the offer. I never heard from the staff, so I called around 5PM. The guy that I spoke to acted like he had no clue about what was going on, but at the same time tried to appear informed. This guys behavior was a nice reminder of how much I hate the customer serviced offered here. They are the worst.
Eventhough, I did not get them to lower the rent to where I wanted it to be I feel like I won. My goal was to get cheaper rent, which I got, but I wanted a much bigger savings. In the end I will be moving to a complex 1 mile down the street and it will save me (and brother) about $5000 over a 15 month lease. This is after moving expenses.
On another note…I finished my “Sweet Treats” for the fundraiser. It was a hit and I raised about $500 after cost of materials. This includes additional spending to make up for big and small mistakes. The people really liked them and now more people are try to make orders. Lucky for those people I will be baking them again in mid-September. I am playing with the idea of using this as a side hustle…maybe it may turn to a business. We will see, but how cool would that be!?
Your thoughts?
>
In previous post I have mentioned the idea of starting a small business to make additional income. WIthout going into to much detail the business will provide a service and will be client based. I will not need to take out any loans to get started.
Over the past couple of years I have been dragging my feet or living in denial about using my God given talent to help others and increase income. Many friends and family have been trying to push me in this direction, but I have been oh so resistant.
About a month ago had an “Ah ha!” moment when things that I was not planning started falling in place. I was approved for a professional week long training that would kick-off my journey to start a business. I wasn’t going to be able to attend because of a friends wedding, but then the wedding got moved up. I realized that I had been wanting to get a part-time job that would be flexible with my full-time schedule and personal life and paid more than $2 per hour. All of a sudden working for myself became more enticing and I started doing my homework. The more homework I did the more excited I got and the more my hope became a reality.
The cost of the training is $2500 (includes hotel, transportation to/from airport/hotel/traning facility, food, materials & training). My airfare is minimal due to connections with friends in the airline industry. I will fly standby, but it will be worth it. Another cost will be to print some business cards and flyers to advertise in the local area. Once again my business will be debt free!
Over the next few weeks I will be working on a business plan & bio.
I am so excited about this new opportunity!!!!!
More details to come…..
>Today, I had an interview for a part-time job and I think it went well. The hours are flexible and on the weekends. Can’t wait to hear something.
>Below is my reponse to “Hipsters on food stamps” article at Salon.com. I came acrossed it on Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge.
******************
When I was getting my Master’s I received foodstamps. I qualified for $115 per month and I ate well. Some classmates asked me where was my pride. It was in tact, I was not to proud to participate in a program that exist to help myself and others just because the many of the people participating where abusing the system.
This is a system that everyone who pays taxes supports, therefore if you have a need for the benefit you should participate. Foodstamps is not a gift from the government it is a program that the public (YOU) pays into.
Don’t be hungry because you are proud.
>
This week I made another payment on my car loan that brought my balance down to $1950. (I am so excited, this is a long way from $30,000). The car loan is my second to last debt and I expect it to be paid off by the end of March. At this point I will only have a student loan for $52K standing between me and debt freedom. Being that I am so close to the last loan, I have noticed that my perspective and sense of urgency is changing.
I have had this debt so long it is like it is a part of me. I have stronger feelings about becoming debt free than I did about graduating HS, college and grad school combined. I think I might cry that day. In any case, I feel like I am on the home stretch even though the amount is huge. I have become very determined to pay it off over the next 11 months.
Up until a couple of weeks ago, I worked part-time as an on-call employee for a retailer. To remain employed you have to work once every 60 days, well they didn’t use me for 60 days, so I got a letter letting me know I was no longer employed. My boss had not idea, because last week she called to see if I wanted to pick up some hours. At the time I wasn’t so concerned, but know I wish I was still on the list.
Now, I take advantage of every opportunity I have to bring in some money. Below are a few things I have started or inquired about.
- Plasma Donation: Up to $200 per month. Must complete 8 donations to get the entire amount.
- Change IRS withholding: I went from 0 to 3 and will find out next payday how much more I get each month ( Check out the IRS Withholding Calculator)
- 2010 Census: I have an interview tonight with the 2010 Census people in my area. (Check out the 2010 Census Jobs website)
- Amazon Mechanical Turks: Pays you to complete little task like test new websites or provide feedback or surf the web for specific information. You get as little as $0.01 to over $20 for a task. (Check out Amazon Turks)
- Inquired about being a non-alcoholic bartender…haven’t heard back
- Inquired about banquet staff…haven’t heard back.
>
As I am going through my post, I see that I have a draft post titled “Extra Jobs” from mid-December. Obviously, it has been on my mind for some time now.
This week I read a post about extra jobs and followed a link to the
2010 Census application. For my city I found out that the pay is $13.75, which is between $1100 (20 hours) and $2200 (40 hours) per month before taxes. This could really put a dent in my debt snowball this year. I will be checking this out when I get into the office tomorrow.
Is anyone else picking up an extra job to kick 2010 in the butt?
