Getting a Job or Not - Savings - Part 1

My $100 a week to save or earn is going along quite well.  I have earned $45 in the past week and I have saved $32 for a total of $77 in my “$100 a week savings account.” 

I saved $22 by trading services in return for getting my nails done.  Now before anyone asks why I am living a frugal lifestyle and getting my nails done, it is the one thing that I do for myself that is worth every penny.  To sit for an hour and have a dear friend tend to my nails and polish them is a treat and is also cheaper than seeing a  therapist.  It is the one thing that I asked my husband if we could still afford when I chose to stay home and it is the one thing that I have scrimped and saved to make sure that I could afford to have done every other Wednesday. 

I need to concentrate on saving money as that will be a big part of meeting my goal.  I’m looking at saving money on clothing.  Namely – I’m not going to buy any clothing for myself.  I have plenty of fabric on hand to sew tops and other things I need but I think I will find the most savings from repairing clothing that normally wouldn’t get repaired.  I’m talking about socks and underwear here folks.  Yep – a little needle and thread to sew holes in socks and repair undergarments will work just fine.  In fact, I’ve started to do this already. 

I use pads sometimes and the sticky backs to these pads can wreak havoc on fabric fibers in the crotch of underwear.  I have several pairs that have worn thin in the crotch from using these pads.  I took 4 pairs of underwear that had the fibers worn thin and a couple had holes in them.  I sacrificed 1 pair and used a double thickness of this fabric to sew onto the crotch of the 3 pairs of underwear that had holes in the crotch or the fabric was quite thin.  I didn’t get my sewing machine out to do this, I mended these by hand.  The result is that I have 3 nice pairs of underwear with a little extra thickness in the crotch.  This will extend the life of the underwear. 

Now before anyone says that this is something that isn’t worth their time, I want to ask this question.  How much time do you spend watching t.v. or a movie?  What about being a passenger in a car for a lengthy car ride?  Place items to mend in a basket and then when you are sitting and watching t.v. reach into your basket and start mending.   

Too many times we toss things out that could be salvaged if we just put a little time into it.  These items have already been bought and paid for and it can be such a waste just to toss them out without trying to salvage them. 

To replace these pairs of underwear would have cost around $10.00.  They were repaired while I was watching a movie that I had planned on watching.  No extra time was expended and I have the satisfaction of salvaging these articles of clothing by repairing them.

I am taking $32 from our checking account and will move it to my $100 a week savings account.”  ($22.00 saved from trading services for a manicure and $10 saved from repairing my underwear.)  This will bring my total earnings and savings for this week to $77.  

Getting a Job or Not - Part 3

Trying to find a way to increase our income has been a good exercise for me as it has made me really focus on what I want to do with my life. 

My desire has been to put $100 per week in savings by either earning $100 or by combining additional saving strategies with earning some income to total $100 a week.  

Here is what has happened in the past week. I investigated ways to earn an income outside of the home. I had the opportunity to go to work full time and at the same time I had an opportunity to piece meal some small jobs together. What did I learn about myself? I have learned three things. 

1. I really have come to value my time at home. It has taken me 3 years to truly realize the value of having the luxury of making my day my own and the independence it brings to my life and my family's life.

2. I need something to call my own - that is what a "job" can bring to my life. Something that takes me away from my house that doesn't involve my family. It is totally mine.

3. Money doesn't need to be earned by traditional nine to five jobs.

I decided that while the full time job would bring in a considerable amount of money quickly, it would also bring some problems. I really sat down and considered it and in the end I realized that although I had worked in an office setting for many, many years that perhaps it was time to consider something completely different for me to do.  I was a legal assistant preparing legal documents and now I am going to do something completely different.

I am going to help a friend in her Merle Norman cosmetic's store when she needs me. I helped her out on Thursday and I had a wonderful afternoon. I will be helping her again this Wednesday. It surprised me that I was having a lot of fun working in that type of environment and as I walked home at the end of the afternoon I knew that I had found a new interest and that was the direction I needed to go in. The office job would be stressful and I had already been that route before. 

In looking for opportunities to earn money I also have to consider what I can and cannot do. I have lower back problems and while I work out and lift weights to help strengthen my back, I cannot do a lot of physical work. For example, I cannot clean my entire house in a day. I have to pace myself and split it up into 2 days. So housecleaning is definitely out.

I am going to start sewing some aprons and I hope to sell these via friends on my Facebook page and perhaps on Etsy. This most likely will happen in the fall when I will have more time for sewing. 

More fabric purchased for $1.00 and $2.00 a yard on clearance.

This morning at church a friend told me that a local bakery is looking for some part time help for the summer only. I would pursue that but my son's former girlfriend works there and that would be kind of awkward. I really like her and don't want to make her feel uncomfortable. Networking and "putting the word out" is one of the best ways for finding part time or temporary work.  The important thing is to let everyone know that you are not limiting yourself to what jobs you held in the past.  You are open to something new. 

I now know that I can earn some money by working at my friend's store and by other creative means. It is very possible for me to earn an extra $100 a week over time. In other words it will take some time for me to be able to find enough work (or sales) to net $100 a week, but it will be worth it. 

Nothing happens over night, but it will happen. I know it. Then I will increase my goal. In the meantime I will balance earning some extra money per week, with finding more ways to save money so that I can net $100 in savings per week.

What ways will I find to save more money? I am working on a few ideas. More later.

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.

Getting a Job or Not.

For those of us living on one income, there does come a point when you question what you are doing. This is happening to me. Last week there were a few advertisements in the newspaper for jobs. These are real jobs and not just the "call this 1-800 number for more information" type of jobs. It got me to thinking. Should I apply for the three secretarial positions available? 

Do I want to apply for a job and if I got a job, do I really want to do this? Over the weekend I spent some time pondering this question. Am I serious about being a full time stay at home homemaker or do I want to go back to work and resume my career? 

The bottom line is that I feel we need more money in the bank for emergency home needs such as replacing a furnace, central air conditioner and other items. Money is what is really driving this thought process and how can I generate the money.

BUT the other side of this conversation is do I want to trade 40 hours out of my week for money and do I need to? What amount of money per week am I comfortable earning/generating to put into savings and does it require my working a full time job?

I have been home for almost 3 years now and my family is used to my being home. For that matter, I am used to it and I like the freedom it brings to me and my family. As the mom/wife I generally set the tone for the home and I am the one that is generally in charge of most things domestic. I may choose not to clean or do laundry, but I do believe that as long as I am home full time that is my responsibility and my job. Am I ready to trade my time and then do these things on the weekend with help?

Do you identify with the above? This has been quite a dialogue I have been having with myself. 

This morning my alarm went off at 6:00 as usual. I get up at 6:30 and my first thought was, I'm glad I don't have to get up and shower right away and get ready to go to work at an office. I like my freedom and I like being home. 

As I brewed a cup of coffee a number came to me - $100 a week. That is the amount I would like to come up with each week to either earn or find ways to cut from my budget in order save each week. I want this to be tangible. By tangible, I am planning to get to a goal of $100 saved and then open up a bank account and actually put money in it each week as a separate household account. Having a separate account to track my savings will give me the incentive I need to keep doing what I need to do.

So, what ideas do I have to generate the income or cut back and save the money? Well, I do believe that a bulk of it is going to come from finding a way to earn some money. I have some ideas and will post about those later. My goal is to do the research and be ready with a game plan by June 1st. That is only 10 days away so I need to get to work and evaluate how I can save money or earn money without sacrificing my enjoyment of being a full time homemaker.

A New Way with Pasta

Yesterday I decided to make what I refer to as goulash for supper. It is simply cooked macaroni with spaghetti sauce and ground beef topped with a little mozzarella and some parmesan cheese. Sometimes I use crushed canned tomatoes and some tomato sauce that I season with italian seasoning in place of the spaghetti sauce. Again, simple and frugal. 

I had some leftover spaghetti meat sauce that had been frozen waiting to be used. 

So what was the "new" about this dish? I cooked the macaroni and drained it well. Then I put a little oil in a skillet (and I mean about 1 tablespoon) and I coated the dish thoroughly. I dumped the drained macaroni into the skillet and proceeded to fry it until it was crisp. The key here is to be patient and let the heat do the work for you. When the bottom was nice and crispy I turned it over to cook the top and then broke it up so that each piece of macaroni had a chance to get crispy. 

I heated up the spaghetti meat sauce and then served the dish by simply placing the macaroni on each plate, topped with spaghetti sauce and sprinkled a little mozzarella on the top. I served this with a nice tossed salad of lettuce, yellow and red sweet peppers and carrots. Walmart had their day old French bread marked down so that rounded out the meal.

The crispy macaroni gave the whole dish a new flavor in that it was crispy and almost "popcorny" tasting. It was nice to have a crunch to the dish and it actually made me think of fried ravioli that you can get in a restaurant as an appetizer. 

I will definitely be doing this again. Best part - it was gobbled up and there were no leftovers.

Baby Robins

Here is what I found in my arbor near my front door today. 

I took this picture with my cell phone and I am not a photographer. Not bad for me.  It's fun to have time to enjoy nature.

Hamburger Update

For those of you interested in my hamburger dilemma I posted here, here is an update. 

I decided that $1.99 for 85% lean hamburger was too big of a deal to pass up. So a week ago today on the very last day of the sale I went to the store and they were totally out. I was given a rain check good for two weeks. This was even better. It gave me two weeks to figure out how exactly I was going to fit this additional amount of meat in my freezer. 

Here is what I plan to do. Cooked hamburger takes up less space so I am going to take about 15 lbs. of the 80% lean hamburger I already have in the freezer and cook it up and package it in 15 portions and freeze it. This will be wonderful to have ready to go for pizza toppings, sloppy joes, spaghetti and other casseroles. 

A few days after I received the rain check I noted that the same hamburger was now $3.99 a lb. I'm glad I got the rain check and will be purchasing the sale hamburger in the next week.