“Making Money” Archive

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Has Anyone Seen My Husband?

About two months ago, hubby and I agreed he would only work three nights during the week and one weekend day doing side work. The other two nights and other weekend day, I would work from home on my side work while he ‘relaxed’ and watched the baby.

Over the last month, he’s been gone every night since folks wanted to get that ‘one last thing’ ready for the holidays. Right now, he’s installing lighting in a kitchen and since the homeowners can’t use the kitchen while he’s working on it, he’s been over there every night.

I’ve been doing my side work from home while our kidlet keeps himself entertained with toys our neighbor gave him – I’m SO thankful to have a happy, mellow baby – but I work slower than usual since I have to juggle feeding and rocking him while typing. We are tired – definitely hubby more than me (poor guy!) – but all this extra work makes a huge difference. We were forced to rely on our guestimated tax refund to pay off the rest of our debt but now it looks like we may have enough to put us on our way toward saving a larger emergency fund.

I just keep telling myself, it won’t be like this forever. We won’t always be this tired and we won’t always be blessed with this much work. Yes, I see all this work as a blessing – especially in this economy.

Two more months.

Posted by Beks on January 6, 2012 at 5:00 AM in Making Money | 8 Comments »
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I sold my body to science for $250.

I always laugh when I hear about folks who participate in tests for pharmaceutical companies. It seems like a horrible idea to take drugs that haven’t been tested. I mean really, who does that?!?

*Meekly raise my hand*

Apparently there is a black market for pregnant lady blood and I decided to cash in.

My co-worker participated in a study on pregnant women dedicated to preventing the need for dangerous amniocentesis testing. No drugs are required, only blood donations from pregnant women.

The value of a tiny tube of my blood? $250.

I was reluctant to donate blood at first, regardless of how little was required, but gave in as soon as I visited the medical facility. It was cleaner than my doctor’s office!

Test subjects can donate up to 6 times over the course of 20 weeks, but I’m too far in my pregnancy and could only donate once.

I’m a bit jealous of my co-worker who is on her third donation and has fully furnished her baby’s room on pharmaceutical company checks but hey, I’m extremely grateful for my $250.

Yes, my doctor approved the donation. Yes, it was safe and sanitary. Yes, the check cleared.

And one day, I hope amniocentesis testing will be a thing of the past.

Posted by Beks on May 24, 2011 at 5:00 AM in Making Money | 16 Comments »
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Makin’ Money!

My husband and I were invited to bring our garage sale items over to my sister-in-law’s parent’s home for a neighborhood garage sale. No need to hang our own signs or advertise? Heck yes!

We arrived at 7:15 and sold a good portion of the items by 9:30 – mostly because my husband will sell you just about anything for a dollar.

I was getting a bit agitated at my husband’s negotiating skills (he’ll agree to any price as long as he doesn’t have to cart it back home) and was considering saying something but decided to keep my mouth shut and trust his judgment.

We arrived at my sister-in-law’s parent’s home with a full sized truck bed and back seat full of items. We left with over $120 and a small container of leftover items for Goodwill donation. Perhaps my husband knows what he’s doing after all.

After dropping the items at Goodwill, we recycled several huge boxes of plastic and aluminum bottles we’ve been collecting and nabbed another $98.

My husband can now do cartwheels in his empty garage (trust me, he did) and we netted over $200 for less than 4 hours of work.

Posted by Beks on April 21, 2011 at 5:00 AM in Making Money | 6 Comments »
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Roommates?

The roommates are moving out. OK, I know I said that before… but this time I mean it?

Well, my husband and I thought they were moving out. They closed escrow on March 3rd. Made sense right? You own a home. You move into it.

Or not.

My brother and his wife (our roommates) have decided to remodel the home before moving into it – and it’s not a simple job either. They have moved load bearing walls, tore out the kitchen completely, moved a wall in the master bedroom, removed the fixtures in the master bathroom, and removed the floor coverings.

These things are kinda important to have put back together BEFORE moving in.

So, we still have roommates.

Knowing they ARE moving out sometime in the next 2-3 months makes taking their rent check pretty darn easy.

I’ll miss that check when it’s gone *cough* I mean, I’ll miss THEM when they are gone.

Posted by Beks on April 11, 2011 at 5:00 AM in Making Money | 1 Comment »
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The Craigslist Lesson…

We’ve been trying to sell some of our older duplicative furniture on Craigslist after the big furniture tradeoff in December. Annoyed that the furniture was filling his garage, my husband asked me to price our old queen sized bed and nightstand at $50 to make room.

After a week on Craigslist at $50, we were contacted by precisely 1 interested person… who asked us to drop the price to $25 without even seeing the bed.

When my husband found out we had received an offer, he was angry I had turned it down. Confused, I went out to the garage and appraised the bed again. Was it really only worth $25?

Unwilling to admit defeat, I placed the set on Craigslist again with the exact same description and photos but priced it at $130.

2 hours and 11 offers later, a local college student bought the set for $130.

Lesson learned: Equally as important as not pricing yourself over the market is not pricing yourself UNDER the market.

Plus, it felt REALLY good to flash $130 cash to my husband.

Posted by Beks on February 16, 2011 at 5:00 AM in Making Money | 20 Comments »
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An Unexpected Gift…

My husband, as per usual, was working a side job last night. The homeowner had a huge map across her wall marked with red string indicating the cities she had visited. Clearly she loved to see the world. She and my husband chatted about our plans to visit Italy and he asked for her advice about the Cinque Terre.

He spent the next four hours fixing her washer, her sink, and various other handyman projects she needed help with.

When my husband packed to leave, she shoved $300 in his pocket. He tried to return the money, even running to the truck, but she caught him, slapped the money in his hand and said, ‘Have fun in Italy while you’re young. It’s harder when you’re 65. I would know.’

Sometimes the kindness of others overwhelms me.

Posted by Beks on September 20, 2010 at 5:00 AM in Life Experiences, Making Money | 16 Comments »
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Garage Sale!!

My grandparents moved from Arkansas to California to live with my parents a few months ago. Since my parents live in a rural area and I live in the city, mom thought it would be a good idea to have a garage sale of her and my grandmother’s duplicated items at my house.

My mother flew in my sister, the family garage sale expert, from Kansas to help her assemble the wares. Yes, it was a pretty transparent excuse to get my sister to visit, but we didn’t mention it.

I haven’t hosted a garage sale at my home before and wasn’t sure if she would get the traffic she needed.

Judging from the stack of cash she had sitting on the kitchen counter…

My area is very garage sale friendly. Mom earned just over $1,000, my brother made $150, and I made $10.

Clearly, I didn’t keep a good eye on mom’s bookkeeping.

It was a learning experience and if I had anything to sell, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Posted by Beks on August 28, 2010 at 4:15 PM in Making Money | 3 Comments »
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