Back Again and a Venting of Financial Frustration

[Maxamillion]

Oh, something I meant to mention earlier about being able to call people is Skype. It's free to download and to call someone else who also has Skype on their computer. You do have to buy minutes to be able to call to a phone (can't remember if it's cell phones or regular phones or both), and it's generally cheaper than buying cell phone minutes. You do need a microphones and speakers (or earphones) for your computer. I just downloaded it recently, it's pretty cool.

[reader99]

First of all, my sympathies. You have a tough row to hoe right now...

When I went through a drastic reduction of income, it was going to be complicated for a variety of reasons to get a second job. But I did find that I was surprisingly successful finding dribs and drabs of money--$20 for opening a new checking account, $50 for testing a new computer game, money here and there from doing consumer panels, babysitting, online surveys, Amazon Turk (online microtasks). None of it was much, but it added up to enough to get me a little breathing room. The person who writes The Non-Consumer Advocate blog writes about this kind of thing often. Since you haven't been able to find a regular part-time job, maybe you could buy yourself a little room with this kind of thing. I knew of someone who between jobs rented herself out for $10/hour for whatever kind of help people needed, anything from cleaning houses to babysitting to designing flyers to driving people to the airport.

Thank you for mentioning Amazon's Mechanical Turk. I;ve been having a lot of fun with it the past two days. Not only made a couple of bucks, but it is tuning up my brain, like puzzles or brainteasers would. I'm out of work and have literally nothing else to do most of the day, so as they let me do more it may become a paying hobby.

[reader99]

Also, if a need for some material object like furniture or tools comes up, check Freecycle first.

[Gizmo]

Oh, something I meant to mention earlier about being able to call people is Skype. It's free to download and to call someone else who also has Skype on their computer. You do have to buy minutes to be able to call to a phone (can't remember if it's cell phones or regular phones or both), and it's generally cheaper than buying cell phone minutes. You do need a microphones and speakers (or earphones) for your computer. I just downloaded it recently, it's pretty cool.

I actually did a long distance job interview on Skype last year. Very cool technology. And easy to use. I'd never used it before doing that interview and it was very user friendly.

[Amator]

Hi everyone! Thank you so much for the suggestions and support. There are too many replies to repond to everyone individually, but here are a few notes:

We're looking into our options for selling my car. Selling the used Camry that my in-law's just bought my wife is not an option that we will currently consider, sorry. In our area there is absolutely no public transporation and we must have at least one reliable car.

My wife and I agreed to try eLance for 3 months to see if she can get work that way and so far we're almost a month in. She's underbidding on lots of jobs, but has not won a contract yet. She will be doing some childcare - a friend just had her baby six weeks ago and is preparing to go back to work. They're still working out the details, but it looks like my wife will keep her son while she is at work.

Our son should qualify for Medicaid. My wife is getting our pediatrician to sign the forms to apply when she goes to get his prescription refills on Thursday. His ADHD medication is a class 2 controlled substance, so we have to get a new prescription every month.

Marketforce.com was a no go - spent 30 minutes completing all of their paperwork and there are no tasks to be done within 100 miles of me.

I'm adjusting our tax withholding today. I actually haven't changed it since I was first hired in 2007 when I was a bachelor.

Refinancing our mortgage wouldn't really help. I got it 3 years ago at 5% and the rates now are 4.2% and up...which is exactly what the rates were when I bought the house.

The only place in our city that bought plasma went out of business a couple years ago. Plus, I'm type II diabetic and they wouldn't accept my plasma.

I actually use Google Voice rather than Skype for free phone calls. I'm planning on transferring my phone # to Google (a $10 fee) and disconnect my cell phone for a few months until things get better (a $25/mo savings).

Freecycle stinks in my town. 90% of the traffic are people asking for items and when anything is posted it is taken within five minutes.

Thank you everyone for your support! I'll continue updating here as I have more news.

[lhamo]

I know his website name is kind of obnoxious, but check out Ramit Sethi's www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com. He does have a fairly hard-sell approach for his products and classes, but he makes a lot of useful information avaialble for free. The main thing is he focuses on what you can do in very short time to bring in extra cash by providing goods and services that people in your market really need and will pay for. Not "do what you love and the money will follow" but "figure out what you can do that people will pay cold hard cash for, and work on buildling that up in short time for a decent second income or possibly your own full-time business." He is VERY results oriented, and the approach seems to work for many people if they really apply themselves. I think you might benefit from a bit of that reality. I sympathize with your community arts and skills center idea -- dreamed about doing something like that myself at one point when I was in career transition -- but I think you need to focus on more realistic goals and actions.

Great that your wife will be doing childcare for the friend. That could be a win-win situation for all of you.

Good luck and keep letting us know how things are going. We care and are here to provide support and encouragement.

lhamo

[Amator]

Thanks Lhamo. There's a reason why the community arts and skills center was listed as a pipe dream business.

I have a few more realistic ideas in motion, but several of them will require a little capital first. I will chekc out Ramit Sethi's blog over the next day or so.

Thank you as well for the encouragement. Honestly that means a lot.

[flowerseverywhere]

The only thing I can think to add is that when someone asks you to go out to eat you should be honest. "It's just not in our budget right now." Don't be embarrassed about being honest. They may offer to pay and you have to be prepared to accept or decline.

I second the idea about looking into WIC or food stamps, you might be eligible. Also, is there a food bank near you? I would see if there was any close by and stop in to see if they can help. Ours gets bread from Panera and lots of stuff from the local grocers that need to be eaten quickly. Even stopping in once a month if you qualify would help a little.
If not, both of those places might have some suggestions to help or resources you can access.

Are you able to do yardwork? One of our friends had a son who mowed lawns. When he went off to College he took over and spent a couple of evenings a week and a weekend day mowing, but he made tax free cash and it really helped his family. Sometimes thinking crazy stuff might be the solution. You never know.

[mm1970]

I second the phone idea.

Our landline plus long distance is about $18/month.

Our prepaid cell phones (emergencies only) are $200/year (for both).

About $35 a month.

[Amator]

Hello everyone, I wanted to give you all an update.

I've had success both with cutting down expenses and with increasing income.

Thankfully I received a small promotion and a 7% raise at my full-time job. This will go into effect next month. I also adjusted my tax withholding at work since it was still setup as when I was single with no kids. With both of these changes I should see around $600 additional net income per month.

I've also spent the last two months investigating a second job. I applied for ~20 jobs and was hired by two within a week. The first was waiting tables at a Chinese restaurant, which I did for a few nights. The second is writing weekend posts at a high traffic blog for 2 days a week @ $110/day. I parted ways with owner of the Chinese restaurant and have been writing every weekend this month. That will bring another $880 income per month and it's fabulous experience. The only drawback is no more free Chinese food.

We're still not completely out of the frying pan. I've made arrangements with my mortgage and auto lenders and should be completely caught up on all payments by Aug 15th. After that we can work on the chunk to pay the hospital for birthing costs. Hopefully by the time the baby comes in November we will have a small emergency fund back in place and be caught up with everything. Then I will throw an extra $1000 at the car loan per month and have it paid off by summer 2012. Then we should have no debt except for our mortgage.

Thanks everyone for all the great advice!