Nowadays, people sometimes get a job just so that they can make sure to have health insurance. I’m not going to go into the rising costs of healthcare due to the insurance industry today, so have no fear. But really, how good is that insurance that your company is offering you?
Mr. Grump and I have been trying to figure out insurance for me for a while now. I had been paying for my own insurance at my last job (one major reason why I left: I was paying $150/mo. because they wouldn’t offer insurance), and since working at the restaurant, I have been paying about $100/mo. for a rather crappy plan. Basically the plan I have with the restaurant will cover a broken or sprained ankle, that’s about it.
We figured that when we got married, I would just get covered under his healthcare plan.
WRONG.
His healthcare plan is pretty good - but in order to add just one dependent, it costs between $70-90 per pay period. Wait - did I mention that Mr. Grump is paid every week? The total cost of adding a dependent is actually $280-360 PER MONTH.
Now, as a relatively healthy female of average height and weight, I was paying $150/mo. for individual insurance. Seems pretty screwy right?
Well, in any case, since the insurance at the restaurant will obviously not a stop-gap measure make, because there is no stop once we’re married, I’m going back to just paying out of pocket for a much better plan. One that I know will cover me in almost any instance (except maternity). So until kids are a worry, I’m fine, and I guess I just have to pay more for a better service.
No excuses. Well, maybe just a few. Last week my mother came into town and wedding stuff took over - we went dress shopping. So after being stitched up so tight I could not breathe for four hours a day, I was a little tired and my brain was deprived of enough oxygen that posting was put on the back burner.
October wound up being a pretty good month. We stayed (more or less) within budget, and we managed to reduce our debt a little bit. I wish it was more, but we had spent $700 on auctions for the antique store and eBay in September. So basically, we finally paid that back, and are now getting ahead.
Look at the progress bar to the right… 10% paid off!!!
We put a 50% off sale on the Antique store, and we’ve sold about $150 worth of stuff out of it. The way we have everything priced, that should probably help us at least break even; on some pieces, we’ll still have some profit at least.
Also, we finally had a big month from Squidoo. Broke the $100 barrier! So from Squidoo and CJ, we’ve probably earned about $300 this month so far, which is basically a full week of me working at the restaurant.
This week was pretty good, over $500 in income coming in from all the sources. Things are finally seeming to get ahead. Feels good.
I thought I had posted the round up from last week. Looks like I just saved the draft. So I really haven’t posted in almost a week. Sorry about that.
As I am sitting here cradling my head (allergies are NOT fun) and thinking about how much I need to get done before I go to work at 4pm to - maybe - make $100, I start wondering if this is worth it. I don’t mind hard work, but at the same time I’m not the pseudo-masochist (not sado, pseudo) that Mr. Grump is, either. I do enjoy being able to relax every now and then. He has to be constantly moving and doing.
I’ve been doing this *on the side* stuff from about 7am-3pm or 4pm every day, then going to work at night from 4-10 or 11. Then on the weekends I work at least Saturday night 4-11 and Sunday from 10am-8pm. So really I’m working about 60 hours a week for not a whole lot of money.
I figured out that if I hit my target, I am getting paid about $0.80 per hour. As depressing of a statistic that sounds, it really isn’t the thing that bothers me the most.
The worst part of it for me - I have no time to paint.
I keep telling myself that this stuff *should* eventually be basically passive income. (Honestly, I still think I’d be spending about 20 hours per week on it, regardless). But to get to that place, it looks like I’ll be doing this 80 hours and working at the restaurant for another year or so. Wouldn’t be a bad thing - if I had time to paint.
This is exacerbated by the fact that I’ve recently done some pretty kick-ass paintings. I really think I’m starting to finally “get” it. And my teacher and close artist friends have told me they think I should be able to get into a gallery - and that much closer to my dream - pretty soon. So theoretically I should be pouring all of my energy into art. I feel like something’s gotta give. The happiest two weeks of my life since I quit my job were when I got to paint for 3-4 hours for two weeks and make some of those paintings. This is not an easy path.
Time for the weekly update. As far as our “ventures” went, we’ve managed to make some extra money. Our CJ account paid out this week, which is a nice addition. With all of these sites we are building, we’re seeing about $1-2 per day on CJ now. We used to see several $50 hits at once, but they were more like windfalls than truly predictable. I’d rather be able to predictably increase my daily intake than get large, random hits.
Anyways, so here is the weekly wrap-up:
Restaurant: $350
eBay: $178
Squidoo: $0
Antique Store: $0
CJ: $161
Weekly Total: $689
I’m glad that we made extra this week (almost $300 extra!) because Mr. Grump is taking me to a wine tasting Saturday night for my birthday. As a result, I won’t really be working this weekend. Of the $350 I earned from the restaurant, $200 of it came from two nights on the weekend. The other $150 came from three shifts during the week. Anyways, have a safe and happy weekend!
Why am I writing this blog? What do I hope to accomplish?
Well, lets start with my story. Girl goes through high school. Girl loves art, but is told
“nobody makes a living from art. You don’t want to be a starving artist.” She seems confused, and although she loves it, who wants to be a pauper the rest of their lives. So girl packs up belongings and goes to top 50 business school.
School is awesome, girl’s major, finance, is not. She does not want to work on Wall Street and look at Excel spreadsheets (as much fun as they can be) all day long. So she graduates early rather than continue hated classes. At graduation, only dependable finance-related jobs are available, so she takes a nice, reliable salary job.
Luckily, at this point, best friend from college decides he wants to date girl. She realizes that long distance relationships also stink, so she moves and quits the finance job. Next step is a sales position with a creative arts firm. If she can’t actually paint full-time, then at least she can sell them, right?
Wrong. Company makes several consecutive bad business decisions. Girl realizes ego is the only thing standing in between her and her dreams. So, she quits to go wait tables. Yes, the top 50 business school graduate is waiting tables.
To do what? Give girl time to start her own business and begin painting on a more full-time business.
Eventually, girl raises family, and retires to travel world painting and selling her art.
