life is hilarious sometimes. and by hilarious, i mean cruel and tragic. so after blowing all my cash on gambling and the sandwich party, i decided that march would be the month where i try to make it all back. the truth is that many (most?) people are completely without a savings cushion. even though i finally have a little bit tucked away (hardly the recommended 3-6 months of expenses… but it’s a start!), i’ve been free ballin for my entire life- one lost paycheck away from complete financial ruin. wow. that’s really scary when i say it out loud.
the plan is as follows: imagine that i have no savings, and that a serious financial emergency has occurred where i need $1000 above and beyond what i get paid this month. what do i do?
the irony here is that i woke up to some semi-serious bedroom water damage (see photo) this morning (after fuck-storm 2010), and that if my insurance company doesn’t play nice, i actually could have some significant unexpected expense on my hands. surprise! screw hypothetical, i actually need the money. so how am i going to get it?
here are my ideas so far:
1. ebay & craigslist selling my stuff bonanza.
2. blood plasma.
3. labor ready.
4. amateur night at PT showclub.
5. odd jobs.
6. cash in bottles & cans.
7. cash in loose change around the house (found money jar excluded).
8. make stuff for etsy.
that’s all i got. what else can i do? no good idea will be refused!
broke 207 
I’ve been doing surveys online. So far I’ve made $22.90. It kinda annoys me cuz I don’t qualify for a lot of them but it’s been worth it so far!
which survey companies do you use? pincone research turned my ass down, and the only other ones i belong to only give out gift cards. boo-urns.
I have only used Opinion Outpost so far.
I make money off surveys as well, its not alot by far. This month I made $ 129.64 off random internet fun and a decent Ebay sale. Check it out on my mommy blog, lol (WARNING: very much so a work in progress)
http://www.middlegeorgiasavings.com/2010/02/end-of-month-earnings.html
nice! i wish i could have had such good luck. although i think i’ll go check out valued opinions, since it looks like you did pretty well with them. another problem with surveys is that i don’t tend to have a lot of time. i can barely keep up with my one post a day, and some of those surveys take FOREVER. ebay is most definitely on top of my list though.
I was just going to say the same thing! If you really buckle down with those survey sites (and sign up for all of them!) you can (slowly) accumulate some real cash or gift cards that you may be able to use in place of other cash and then put that towards your savings. I just signed up and started taking surveys last Thursday and have made about $30. I don’t qualify for a lot of them either, but I’ve been constantly checking, have my laptop open for most of the day and night to see if this would actually work.
This post was incredibly helpful: http://tinyurl.com/btkprc
Baby-sitting can be decent money.
I think Amateur night is where it is at though.
but i’m afraid of babies! and amateur night. i’ve got some serious work to do.
Who says you have to deal with babies?! My rule is it has to be able to handle the bathroom completely solo. So anything over the age of 5 is pretty easy actually. If you’re lucky they will have video games to entertain themselves with until bed. Then you entertain yourself =)
It’s usually an easy $50 for a couple hours.
$50?! apparently the going rate for babysitting has changed significantly since i was 14! good rule about the bathroom. i’ll try instituting that.
When you’re in your twenties they think you are experienced or something. Imagine what a 30-something-year-old could make!
it’s funny actually, being in your thirties you actually start to realize that you don’t know shit.
HAHAHAHAHA Amateur night is where its at… HAHAHAHA
I sooooooooo needed that laugh this morning!
glad i could be of service. although i don’t actually know how much my bloated ass could make. people might be paying me to go put on sweatpants and get out of sight.
You are forgetting that if you ever really were in trouble, your friends would bail you out. Also, I will pay you $15/hour to do any of the following:
1. Sewing projects- hem my pants, sew up wear I ripped a dress last week
2. Book project – submit my manuscript to publishers. You can pretend to be my agent.
3. Couch project – come shopping with me for the perfect couch.
4. Do my dumb job for me b/c it sucks sometimes.
no, i’m not forgetting that. i’m just pretending like it isn’t a possibility. i’m also not charging friends for things i would otherwise do for free (i heart couch shopping FYI). so i’m sorry love, you’re just going to have to enjoy my company free of charge.
Oh my god I can’t believe I wrote wear instead of where. Stupid job turning mind into swiss cheese.
imogenflowers, I’ll come couch shopping with you for $15/hr! LOL
You might try YouData. It’s not going to make you much money but it’s legit and quick and you can check it as often or as little as you want. You just watch little ads if they’re available for you and you get a few cents. They pay you through paypal every week. And if you use me as a referral, I’ll get $1 and I’ll split it with you.
ooh splitsies!! i will most definitely check it out. i do something called snapdollars where i get paid a few cents for reading emails. although you have to get up to $40 to cash out and i currently have like $12! it will be a while… the key here seem to be the double dipping. the problem for me is that i just don’t really have the time to take multiple surveys per day. blood plasma it is!
Hadn’t heard of snapdollars but I do inbox dollars and rewardport, both of which sound very similar. I hear you on the time. It’s a fine line between doing anything for a buck and our time being worth a little bit too…
hmm, it appears as if your paint is trying to get far far away from your ceiling. bummer. our ceiling is leaking onto my roommate’s bed, but fortunately we have some magical little landlords that will come take care of it. owning a home sounds scary! i hope your insurance just comes through and you aren’t reduced to stripping… although that would make for good blogging.
i knew it would happen eventually, but did it have to be SO SOON?! outrageous. on the up side, insurance with probably cover it and i won’t have to strip. (probably).
so i am looking into this survey thing to see if its worth it, and i’m finding it funny that all the surveys are about what you consume, when i’m so broke that i don’t really consume all that much (or try very hard not to, at least). ironic.
i know! honestly, i lie a lot. i sort of answer questions based on what i would do, not exactly what i have done. i also frequently take multimedia surveys with the sound off. i know, i’m terrible!
[…] been all sorts of suck since day one. we hadn’t even had our condo for a full year when the water damage started. sure, they told us during due diligence that we would need a new roof in the next 2-5 […]