Adding Income

Now that I have some of my financial mess sorted out – payment plans with credit cards, getting caught up on a couple of back bills, and a general plan in place to continue digging myself out of my financial black hole – I’ve decided it’s time to step up my efforts to find some additional sources of income to get through this debt repayment faster. Not to mention, to survive winter heating costs in the northeast.

To that end, I have several job applications out for a number of part-time jobs. It’s tricky for me, because the biggest employment area is 17 miles from my house (one way, and my car gets about 20 mpg), and my availability is slightly limited because I do have a full time job that I have to work around. Needless to say, my efforts to find a part-time job thus far have been unsuccessful. I have just heard of a customer service center that’s slightly closer to my house that is open 24 hours, has very flexible scheduling, and is currently hiring, so I will be applying there this week. I have more than a decade of customer service skills, so this one is right up my alley. And I believe they start at $10/hour, and possibly more for experienced employees. Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, I haven’t exactly been idle. I’ve been using what free time I do have to make and save money. I’ve started clipping coupons again. The downside here is that the local market where I do most of my shopping is very small and only does face value for coupons, so I’ll have to start doing more shopping at Price Chopper or another large chain in town (17 miles away) to really get the most bang for my buck (or, coupons, in this case).  I’m trying to get the hang of combining the coupons with sales to really make the coupons as profitable as possible. I’ve found it really, really time consuming to track the sales and match them with coupons. It might not be worth the time. So, I might have to settle for just saving what the coupon is worth (doubled, of course) and forget about the whole combining thing.

I’ve also been completing surveys online for cash and to earn points that can be redeemed for gift cards or merchandise. And also earning points in other ways, through searches, referrals, etc. I’m really careful about potential scams, so I am primarily working through two companies I’ve checked out thoroughly, and so far have had good luck. It’s certainly not going to pay off my $10k in credit card debt, but it helps with little things. I’ve used it to pay for the Christmas presents I don’t want to eliminate entirely (niece, nephew, mom, and grandma are the only ones getting gifts this year).

All in all, I’m in a better place – mentally and financially – than I was a month ago. Now I just need to keep that forward momentum going. This is do-able. Phew.