On Second Jobs

While Denis and I are doing a bit better financially upon moving down to South Carolina, the time has come where we need to evaluate our expenses, cut costs, and try to find ways of bringing in extra income. I’ve already monetized the blog, which has been decent thus far. However, 1/2 that money went to Christmas shopping for my entire family. The other portion will go to pay for second session of gymnastics classes for the kids. I know that’s a splurge and I should probably NOT renew it, but I’m going to go ahead and renew for the January/February session and then stop until the fall sessions. But I don’t want to have them do it for four weeks and then just end it when they obviously enjoy it. So the other half of my current PPP payout will go to that and it won’t be an “additional” expense for us out of our monthly paychecks.

Denis and I already know of at least 5-6 monthly “services” that we are going to reduce or get rid of for the time being (we only need to pinch pennies until September 2008 when CootieGirl switches to PT daycare and reduces that monthly expense). We’re going to sit down and take a full inventory of where our money goes and how we can be more effective with our money management.

I’ve also signed up for elance.com, which is an online freelance website that I actually posted about last month. The opportunity to do word processing from home is extremely enticing, and if I can even land one freelance job per month it’ll pay my car payment each month.

As I said, once we get to September 2008 we can breathe a bit easier, but until then it’ll be a cutback around our house. I’ve put a hold on our Netflix account, we’re going to reduce Denis’ cellphone extras, we’re going to take DirecTV out of the guest room, we’re going to see about putting our gym membership on hold for a few months, and a couple other things. I want to be more diligent about eating the food in our house before replenishing. We have a LOT of food in our pantry and freezer, and if we can commit to ONLY buying stuff like eggs, butter, fresh veggies and milk until the pantry and freezer is cleared out, then so much the better. As for me – no books, no cds, no DVDs, no iTunes. No lights left on, no use of the gas fireplace (we’re reducing our Christmas display timeframe to 4 hours from the now scheduled 6 to save on utility bills and will be taking down decorations right after Christmas instead of waiting for the 2nd week of January). Reset the thermostats from 72 degrees to 70 degrees. All those things right there will reducing our money spending by at least $175/month.

Despite the financial issues, I know we are still so much better off than we were in NoNJ. Denis doesn’t like it when I say this – but if we had stayed in NoNJ even three months longer than we did, we’d be in such rough shape right now it’s not even funny. In fact, it’s a bit scary to think about what might have been if we hadn’t moved.

So we’re relying on God to provide for us just as he did last year when we needed to get out of New Jersey, in whatever way He deems fit. Whether it’s great freelancing jobs to help pay bills, or financial gifts that come out of nowhere, I’m confident He’ll provide – He always does.