Penny Pinching Mom

When You’re Stuck in a Rut

Ever feel like you’re stuck in a major rut in your job? I’ve reached that point with every job I’ve ever had, even the ones I enjoyed. I guess part of it is because I’ve never been able to get a job in which I could fully utilize my skills. And maybe part of it was just plain old boredom.

Take my first job, for example. I worked in the kitchen at a hospital. I started there shortly after graduating high school, and only intended to stay there until I finished college. But it took me several months after I earned my degree to find anything, and although I enjoyed interacting with the patients and thought most of my coworkers were great, I started to dread going to work each day.

And then there was my factory job. At first I rather enjoyed it, because at least I got to use my problem solving skills. Not to mention that the pay was pretty good. But after a while, I got tired of unjamming the machine, loading pallets, placing orders for industrial supplies, filling out paperwork, and lather, rinse, repeat. Some people enjoy work of such a repetitive nature, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that, but I’m not one of those people.

I have even reached that point in my writing career, as much as I love it. But I believe that depression was a major contributor to that. Fortunately, now that I’m on medication and beginning to feel better, my passion for writing is starting to return. And for that I am extremely grateful. I had been considering getting another J.O.B. since I wasn’t really making any money, but now it looks like that won’t be necessary. Whew!

I’m sure there are plenty of you out there that feel stuck in a rut in your jobs. But with the economy in such a fragile state, and jobs rather scarce, maybe you’re afraid to make a change. If you have the time, part-time freelancing could be the answer. It’s not always easy getting started, but if you’re persistent, you could eventually find that you’re making enough money to leave your day job behind. That’s how I became a writer, so I can tell you that it is possible. It’s something to think about, anyway.

The Transportation Situation

My truck has been parked for some time. It needs various types of work, but the reason that I have refused to drive it is because of the spring hangers. They’re broken, and when I hit a bump it sounds like they’re coming through the bed. They’ve already dented it, and I don’t want to make things worse, so it’s been sitting next to the garage.

I’ve got my car tagged and insured, but I don’t like to drive it unless absolutely necessary. That’s because the throttle got stuck a couple of times when Hubby was driving it. He says it’s fixed now, and it hasn’t done it sense then, but I’m paranoid that it will. And besides that, it’s really unpleasant to ride in it when it’s hot out. That’s because the windows won’t roll down and the AC isn’t working.

So for the most part, I stay home unless I go somewhere with Hubby or can drive his truck. The plan was to get my truck paid off and then get it fixed with the money we were spending on payments. But we’ve found someone who’s interested in buying it as-is, and if he decides to take it, I guess I’ll part with it.

I don’t really want to, but we could definitely use the money right now. And when our finances are in better shape, we can go buy another used vehicle. I hate to do that, because I love my truck, and I know that used car dealers aren’t exactly the best allies. But it appears that in the short term, selling it would be the best thing to do. And as much as I prefer to operate in a way that works out best in the long run, our short-term finances are in dire straits right now.

But I suppose I’m getting ahead of myself. The prospective buyer hasn’t even driven the truck yet, and he may decide not to buy it. In a way, I hope he doesn’t. But if he wants it, I guess let it go.

Yard Sale Season Is Here

As I was driving down the mountain to see my mom over the weekend, I saw a ton of yard sales going on. It almost made me wish I had gotten everything I wanted to get rid of together and had a sale of my own that day.

It also made me wish I had accepted Hubby’s offer of some cash for my trip. I had a few bucks of my own from selling a couple of things to his brothers and their wives, and my debit card that I could use to get gas, so I thought that would be enough. But had I known I would pass so many yard sales on the way, I would have taken some money from him. And I wouldn’t have spent it on stuff we didn’t need like personalized footballs from a team we’ve never heard of. I would have picked up some clothes for Pumpkin, maybe a piece or two for Hubby and myself, and possibly some stuff for the house if I saw anything we could actually use.

Oh well. I guess I need to finish cleaning out the house and have a yard sale of my own before I start buying more stuff. We did sell a few things to Hubby’s brothers on Friday that we would have otherwise put in a yard sale, but we’ve got a lot more stuff in the garage that needs to go. And I haven’t even started cleaning our bedroom or my office yet, so I’m sure there will be plenty more to go with it.

I just hope that this yard sale goes better than the last one I had. I thought it would be a good idea to have it in early spring, because people would be anxious to get a jump on the yard sale season. Heh. The weekend I planned it for turned out to be sunny, but it was also windy and not especially warm. All together, I don’t think I even made $100. I’m not sure whether it was the location or the weather, but hopefully next time I’ll be able to do better on both.

It Could Be Worse

Times have been tough for my family lately. I have to constantly remind myself that it could be worse. There are plenty of people out there who are less fortunate than us. And we have had worse times than we’re having now, too.

Like when Pumpkin was a baby. Hubby was working full-time and I was working part-time at the same place, but the pay was terrible. It was all we could do to afford a dump of a trailer to live in and the clunker of a vehicle I was driving. I couldn’t afford luxuries like an Uppababy Vista stroller – I wouldn’t have even had an up to date carseat if my coworkers hadn’t pitched in and bought me one.

And there have been several times when one or both of us was out of work. We even had to move in with his parents for about a month because we got evicted. Boy, was I ever glad to get out of there!

Things have been really rough for the past few months, but I’m finally getting to the point where I’m able to work again, and our tax refund will help us get caught up on things. Hopefully I’ll be able to bring in enough money to support us within a couple of months, and Hubby will get some sort of money coming in. I’m trying my best to be optimistic. I know that if I have a bad attitude about things, it will only make them worse.

It’s Up to Me

I’ve got a lot riding on today. I’ve got to get enough work done on a certain project to be able to pay our car insurance before it is canceled and buy enough groceries and gas to get us through until Hubby gets paid. It’s do or die, and I’m feeling the pressure.

It’s really not a lot of work that I need to get done. But as you may have gathered, I don’t do very well under pressure lately. All I can do is suck it up and give it my best shot, but what if my best shot doesn’t cut it? Yes, I know I’m overanalyzing things and should just get down to business so I’ll have a fighting chance. But that’s not easy for me to do lately.

It’s too bad I can’t just make a trip to the nearest college bookstore and sell textbooks to make some extra cash. I could certainly handle that. But all of my college textbooks are long gone, and I’m sure they would bring little to nothing today even if I did have them. So I suppose I had better buckle down and get some work done.

People Wasting My Time

I am happy to help people who are serious about working at home get started. I didn’t have anyone to help me when I was trying to get something going, so when I hear about someone else who is interested in bucking the system and working for themselves, I have no problem with giving them advice and even sharing job leads.

The problem is that most of the people who have asked me to help them get started just aren’t serious about it. I mean, if I’m going to take time out of my life to come up with customized advice for them, I expect them to at least try. But in most cases, they ask for advice, I send them some and tell them to get back to me if they have any questions, and that’s the last I hear from them. There have only been one or two that have even bothered to thank me for it.

Of course there have been a couple of exceptions. But most of the time, I might as well just not even bother. And last week, I didn’t. I got an email from one of Hubby’s relatives asking me if I knew of any way he could make some easy money online. (Bear in mind that this is a guy who couldn’t be bothered to take surveys online. He probably wouldn’t take a job testing acne treatments for $100 an hour.) A whole narrative about how there is no easy money and he should get off his sorry butt and get a job popped into my head, but I didn’t feel like taking the time to type it out. Instead, I wrote him a note that went something like this:

Most of the stuff I know about is either surveys or requires writing. Unless of course you want to do adult webcam work… I hear there’s lots of money in that.

I haven’t heard back from him since. Maybe I should just copy and paste that into every request for help I get from now on. Well, maybe not every single one, but the ones from people who I know just want easy money.

Flexibility Has Its Disadvantages

For those who have expressed concern, I just want to say (1) thank you, and (2) I’m all caught up on my work now. It feels good not to be so stressed out for once! And yes, I will be taking a few days off… long weekend probably.

I was getting worried that I would have to quit writing and go back to a regular job. And that would suck. Because I do love being able to work on my own schedule. But as you may know, all that flexibility does have a few disadvantages.

For one thing, that probably contributed to me getting behind. I wasn’t out partying, or sitting here pretending to work but really comparing the merits of the best weight loss products all day, but there were plenty of distractions going on that weren’t helping my concentration. And there were times when instead of fighting them, I just gave in. I’m positive that it was because I was so severely stressed out, but had it not been for that flexibility, maybe I would have tried a little harder.

And then there are other people’s expectations. When you write for a living, people think nothing of asking you to drop what you’re doing and do what they want you to do. At least I’ve found that to be true in my case. Like one evening when I was working hard and Hubby asked me to stop and cook him something. Had he worked all day I wouldn’t have minded, but all he had done was a quick side job that morning. I got a little snippy, then asked him if it would be okay if I came to his work and asked him to cook for me. He ended up making himself a sandwich.

Even with those things to contend with, I wouldn’t trade my job for the world. I just hope that now that I’m caught up and going to take a breather, I’ll be able to get back on track so that I don’t have to even consider getting a J.O.B. again.

Stressed Out and Completely Useless

Life sucks right about now. I’m behind on my work again, I’ve got a ton of stuff I need to get done today, and there’s no way I’ll be able to complete it all. I’ve been trying really hard all week to write, and while I’ve gotten a little more accomplished each day than I had been doing, it hasn’t been enough.

I’m beyond stressed out. It’s getting to the point where it’s affecting me physically. I’ve got a terrible headache that Tylenol just isn’t putting a dent in right now, and for the past few days I’ve had frequent bouts of absolute exhaustion. I’ve fought it with everything I had, but it’s nearly impossible to get any work done when my mind and body are so freaking tired.

Once I get all caught up, I have got to take some time off. I’d like to be able to take off and get a room at Hotel New Orleans or something, but that’s not exactly an option. But I definitely need to just stay completely away from the computer for a couple of days. If I don’t, things are just going to keep going downhill. And if they get any worse, I’ll probably end up giving up on writing.

The Hazards of Freelance Writing

Things have been pretty crazy for me in my writing career for the past few weeks. It all started when I got the flu, and I was pretty much completely out of commission for a week. Hubby got it too, and he missed quite a bit of work without pay. That stressed me out pretty severely, and that, in turn, gave me writer’s block (or at least contributed to it). Not good, considering that this is the busiest month I’ve had in a while.

As badly as I was freaking out, I did manage to keep my sense of humor through it all. Even if it was a bit more twisted than usual. When a client emailed to ask me about a report that was overdue, I mentioned something about beating my head against my desk. I hope she knew I was kidding. She must have, because the paramedics didn’t arrive with all of their medical equipment to try and rescue me, nor did any men in white coats show up.

I’m still behind, but maybe, just maybe, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. If I bust my butt and the writer’s block doesn’t come back, I should be back on track by the weekend.

How Are We Gonna Sell This Stuff?

Hubby has sold some of the stuff that was in the garage that we needed to get rid of. But there’s still a bunch out there. Trouble is, there’s a lot of it that we’d be hard pressed to sell at a yard sale. Things like air filters and oil filters and such. They’re brand new, but we would be really lucky if someone were to come by and need one and happen to know which one would fit their vehicle and we would happen to have it. Not a likely scenario.

My best bet would probably be to try putting them on one of those sites that has free online auctions. Then they would be out there for anyone in the country to see. And the chances of someone who could use them finding them that way would be much better than someone who could use them stumbling upon our little yard sale out here in the middle of nowhere.

It’s still a long shot. After all, there aren’t too many people who go looking anywhere except an auto parts store or mass merchandiser for things like that. But maybe, just maybe, if we try putting them online, we could get them off our hands.