May 23, 2012

Getting a Job or Not - Part 2

And so the dialogue continues with myself as to how to increase my income/savings to $100 per week beginning June 1st OR perhaps to find a job and work full time.

A friend of mine from my church has a Merle Norman store and she needs some help on occasion. If she would need me weekly for a couple hours I could earn around $30. I love this friend and her store is a wonderful place to be. When I say wonderful place I am talking about an uplifting and fun experience. For those that are not familiar with Merle Norman, it is a cosmetics store and my friend also does manicures and pedicures. 

I have also had the opportunity to work for the county in the upcoming elections as an election worker. I would earn minimum wage and work at the polls on election days. I would also be paid for training. Next election day is June 5th and I would work around 15 hours that day. Being paid minimum wage ($7.25 per hour) I would expect that I would earn around $120 total.

These are as needed jobs with income. They are obviously based on when I would be needed. 

Other areas I have thought to explore would be to deliver the weekly shopper. This is a supplement to the local newspaper that has the weekly grocery ads in it along with other classified advertisements and such. The pay is low and you would have to bundle these and deliver these to each house just like a newspaper. The average would be delivering around 200 of these papers once a week. I can't imagine delivering 200 papers. This is not a very good use of my time BUT if we were desperate and money being money, I would do it. I talked with a former delivery person and they earned $25 each time (once a week) they delivered this supplemental paper. The other drawback to this is that aside from the low income, if you are out of town you have to find someone else to deliver the supplement and you have to pay them yourself. Again, I am not at a desperate point but if I was, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Another option is to sell something. I have toyed with the idea of selling "retro" aprons that I could make.  This one is kind of hard as let's face it, you don't get a lot of extra money for your labor, but again - money is money. Of course I would have to continually be on the look out for a good deal on fabric. Here is a picture of two patterns for some retro type aprons along with some samples of fabric that I purchased recently.


How about these fabric options?






I want to stitch one of these aprons over the weekend and see how long it takes me, how I like the finished project and see if I really would enjoy making a few of these to sell. How will I sell these? I may ask my friend if I could sell them in her store or I could also sell them through my personal Facebook page. 

More ideas to come and I must say that it has been rather fun to investigate how to bring in more money into our household.

6 comments:

Maureen said...

I have tried delivering the advertising mail, it was a whole lot of work for next to nothing pay and even although I badly needed the money and I so wanted it to work for me I had to admit defeat after a couple of weeks.

The aprons look absolutely gorgeous so maybe that would be the way to go, don't crafters sell their stuff on Etsy ?????

Debby said...

Good luck on your search for a part time job. I don't know about you but when I left the workforce to be home I found 101 ways we were losing money. I was so busy working 40-60 hours a week I had let things slip. One place I know help is always needed is childcare. Moms of young babies HATE to put them in daycare and would love to have them in a home setting. Having a sweet baby around a few days a week is work but oh so fun.

Dana Paper Memories4u said...

Hi Martha, you might look into having an Etsy shop for your aprons. You could also clean houses. In our area the going rate is $15 an hour. It's the quickest way to make the most money. For me the greatest benefit is that I set my own hours. Have a great day!

Juhli said...

The two occasional jobs sound like a good fit for your lifestyle. I think if you can find a local place to display and sell your aprons that would be a nice, low pressure supplement. I bet if you ask around there will be lots of people who would like to declutter fabric they aren't going to use. I wouldn't do the delivery either.

Kimba the Mighty said...

Those are really cute.
I sell my crafty things on Etsy.com - it's free to join, .20 per listing and (i think) 8% comm.
I've also met some great artists on there, too. It's pretty supportive and the only rule to sell is 'it has to be handmade', which I love. (Though there are some who make that a very thin line.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
Kimba

( www.Etsy.com )
( www.Etsy.com/shop/EkesArt )

Unknown said...

I'd love to know if/when you make/sell aprons! I have an eleven-year-old who would LOVE the peace symbol fabric...and I think the striped fabric is cute!