Seeing Some Light at The End of The Tunnel Even on This Gloomy Day

I sat down last night and paid my first batch of April monthly bills and I feel pretty good about it! Last month I had a bunch of unplanned expenses-mainly things I forgot I had to pay for and budget for. Vet visit for dogs $168, three membership renewals in various organizations $110, replacing my damaged storm door, $300 (ouchy on that one), and in one swoop that was $578 of unplanned for expenses. My electric bill was insane ($249) and I had a partial propane payment that I thought was due in April ($75). Part of the storm door came from my emergency fund, but it was still money out of pocket. I did use a small part of my tax refund to buy some new curtains for my bedroom and some new shades (which will be appreciated come mid summer to block out the really hot rays in that room). I had to give to the Court Trustee a huge majority of my tax refund as part of my BK. March was an expensive month. Oh yeah and the new vehicle......

BUT I am actually very pleased with a couple of things. Even though going back to a budget has been a learning experience (and my attempt at a zero based budget was pitiful). I am much more conscious of what I'm spending my money on. More than I have been in years. For those of you who are working on a budget and have this personal finance thing down pat, you may think-yeah so? But for me,working through this bankruptcy and the fiscal hell that was my life for so long this is a REALLY BIG THING. REALLY BIG.

I still have the second job hurdle to jump over, (this is one of the few times I dislike the rural area I live in). I want to go back to a more aggressive savings program (which will be possible with a second job to offset the car payment.) I'm in desperate need of a real vacation, or at least a 3-4 day weekend at home doing nothing being accountable to no one. Pay Per Post opps have dropped to nothing and I sell a few items on half.com (which gets snowflaked to my emergency fund and every once in a while, I buy myself a new to me DVD). I still have some items that are reaching the end of their working life and need to be replaced (laptop 6 years old, toaster oven-10 years old, lawn mower-8 years old, clock radio-just seems to be dying), but I'm checking out the sales, circulars and freecycle and craigs list.

Overall, I feel pretty optimistic as I enter April, more so than I have in previous months. I know I'm still in a huge relearning curve, but I'm feeling better and more confident about my future than I have in a long time. And that is a good thing.

The Second Job Woes

As I've posted earlier, I have a tentative job offer to work 2-3 weekend a month at a horse farm local to me. This job would be ideal, it would pay enough to cover most of a new to me car payment, it's fairly close to home, the hours work out well for me, there is some flexibility if I need it for a weekend errand or three and I like the people I would be working with. I would be replacing a current employee who has made plans to leave the area. She was supposed to leave this month, but has pushed back her leaving until some time in late April if not early May.

Sigh, not good for me at all. I was starting to count on that job. It really would have been perfect for me on many levels and since a new to me car is a priority, I'm having a hard time justifying putting off a second job search much longer. The biggest drawback is weekend only second jobs are not easy to come by or the pay is dismal to the point of I'd have to give serious consideration to work in a place that the pay was so bad AND to give up my weekends as well. Yes, I need and want the additional money, but I know from past experience I need to at least like the place I work at if the pay is going to be low.

The real estate market is still painfully slow, as expected. I'm hoping the spring season may bring out a buyer or two and the commission could be put to good use (car, E fund, etc).

What I really need to do is just get my butt in gear, stop whinging and find a second job so I can get my new to me car.

One More No Spend Day, Using Up Food Staples, and the Job Hunt Continues

Yesterday was another no spend day (thank goodness these are becoming habits!) and I'm in the middle of a pantry clean out.

I've gone back to cooking my meals and instead of aimlessly wandering the grocery store with no set menu in mind, I've been planning meals from what's in the cupboards. I keep thinking I'll use up what I have in the cupboards, but it does not always happen. Many of us talk about using up the food in the cupboard, but how many of us really do? This month, I am. I wanted to make black bean soup last night only to find I was out of canned (and dried) black beans. Quick menu change, I made Tuscan White Bean Soup, as I had two cans of white beans. Improvisation is key. I looked at my supply of potatoes and they are starting to look a little under the weather. Plan for those is either scalloped potatoes, or potato and corn chowder (I have a can of corn in the cupboard, I prefer fresh or frozen). I'm just not quite sure what to do with the can of cream of something unusual soup I have no memory of buying (not mushroom, or chicken, or celery). Some sort of a creamy casserole? I will have to figure that out for one of my weekend meals. I'm almost out of all my frozen veg, just have a few burgers left in the freezer (which may become some sort of ground beef casserole), soup sized pasta, assortment of dried beans, etc.

I can honestly say that my stress eating has decreased dramatically in the past few weeks. I feel like I'm getting back to normal eating patterns. Since I don't have to stress eat, I'm not stress food shopping and I'm saving some money. I don't have this complusion to run to the grocery store every day. I envy those folks when stressed they lose weight, I eat and gain weight :(

I've gotten a couple second job ideas from folks and I'm looking into them. I never connected with my friend who will be looking for extra help starting in March, our paths just did not cross. So it's on my agenda to touch base with him in the next few weeks and see if that is still available. Job pickings in the local papers are small this time of year.
Something will turn up, I'm sure of that. Now that I have my new TV, I'm focusing my energy on a new to me car.

Sent in the Paperwork And I'm on My Way.

I spend this morning mailing out the appropriate forms for my real estate license. Between the reactivation and professional fees, I shelled out $610. YIKES. And in a down market, but something says, give it a go non the less.

I have a meeting on Monday with the real estate folks, (I get the day off from my regular job). So we shall see what's expected and whats happening.

Sometimes When You Least Expect it, Help Arrives

As I posted earlier, I've decided to re-activate my dormant Real Estate License. One of my big concerns are the fees involved in this process, totalling just over $600, money I have, but earmarked for other things like my emergency fund.

Over the weekend, my ex boyfriend stopped by to return some DVDs of mine he found on his book shelf and to say happy holidays, and we got to chatting. I've not told him about the bankruptcy, but he knew I was struggling fiscally. I mentioned to him that things were getting better slowly and I had made the decision to try real estate but was concerned over the initial outlay of cash and told him I'd figure it out. He commiserated with me, wished me luck, happy holidays and went on his way.

Today he stopped by my office with an envelope and a plant, gave the envelope to me and said, "Consider this a no interest loan, pay me back when you sell your first million dollar property and not until then". And he walked out before I could say much more than Hi.

In the envelope was $650 cash and a note that said, Good Luck, I know you can do this.

Wow. My ex is a nice person, he can afford this, but we are no longer an item, our relationship just did not work out, he has been seeing someone else, we rarely run into each other (we have different social circles), but when we see each other it's always a very pleasant exchange of greetings. This is something totally out of left field.

It's nice to know that someone has faith in my abilities and I'm very lucky to have a such a generous gift to start my real estate career.

Going on Instinct This Time...

I spent the better part of the past couple days mulling over do I or don't I re-activate my dormant real estate license. I talked to a couple brokers, I went through the pros and cons, the biggest con was the initial outlay of cash to switch the license to an active broker, total cost $608 (various fees, board dues, etc). It's money I do have, but have earmarked for my new to me car fund,Emergency Fund and Health Savings Account Fund.

I found two brokers who are willing to let me hang my license with their office and are willing to work around my full time work schedule and my weekend limitations and understands what my weaknesses are in the real estate field. Both offices are also willing to work with me to develop the skills I feel less than proficient in. That's good, my biggest concern was my lack of certain skills pertaining to real estate and how I could work on those skills. I like both brokers and my gut says to do this!

The rational part of me says "Why are you activating your license and spending the money better earmarked for other items in a down market?'

The other part of me says "Remember you have made sooo many bad decisions over analysing situations, your gut says go for it!

Truly, most, if not almost all, of my bad fiscal decisions these past couple years have come from me over thinking my money decisions. For someone who prides themselves on making sound rational decisions, I've made a bunch of bad ones these past few years and yes, those decisions have come from overthinking, reading too much into things, taking the "safe" way. That has just NOT worked for me.

I'm going to go with my gut and re-activate the license.

The Second Job Hunt Continues

One of my goals this month was to find a second part time job and or find a way to earn additional income (both earmarked for the new to me car fund).

As I have said before, I live in a section of my state that is not overabundant in evening work and I'm just that much too far from the larger towns/small cities that would enable me to work in a store in the mall or something like that. My local stores tend to close at 5 or 6 PM, just when I would be gearing up to do some night time hours.

Needless to say, it's a challenge and I have to think creatively to get around this.

What I have done so far.

1) I have told most everyone I know that I am looking for some part time work, evenings or weekends. I am trying to find something that will at least use some of my skills.

2) I've been searching the local paper and any and every bulletin board in the area for any kind of a lead.

3) I have a potential lead to work in an animal related field on weekends, but that would not start until late winter and I need to find something sooner. It would be two to three weekends a month and would give me the perfect amount of extra money I need for the car fund. But it is POTENTIAL and not definite.

4) I run into the problem of businesses saying I am overqualified for a lot of the positions. Which in reality, I am, most jobs don't require a post secondary school education, which I have, even with dumbing down my resume and my past work experience. Heck, I just want a part time job to supplement my income. At times I feel penalized for spending all those years getting a Masters Degree (for a field I no longer work in-can you say major burn out at age 36 and now still trying to figure out my next career path).

5) I have been toying with the idea of re-activating my real estate license. I took and passed the test for a real estate salesperson a few years ago, had a Broker who would hold my license, but he went into semi-retirement soon afterwards and my license is in limbo. Still active, but in limbo. You can't hang your shingle out as an independant agent unless you are a Broker. Salespeople need to work for a Broker. The downside to this is the real estate market is very soft, supposedly gets dead quiet in the early winter (like now) and while I think I have some transferrable skills that would work in Real Estate, I know I don't have a lot of other skills that are needed to be successful. The upside is the money, selling a house can net anywhere from $2,000 to $50,000 in commission depending on sale price of house, commission split, etc.

I'm thinking about re-activating and transferring my license to an active broker, but I need to find out what expectations they would have. Lots of the local brokers don't need or want part-time agents, especially part time inexperienced agents. At this point I'm just feeling out a few folks to see if it would be a good investment of my time (and money).

And the job hunt goes on......

Looking for a Second Job has hit a Snag

Even with my resolution this past month to find a second job, it has been harder than anticipated. Part of it is due to my full time work schedule. I don't get out of work early enough to go home, deal with my animals and make the drive to the nearest mall or shopping center to work an evening shift. I can do weekends, but almost exclusively, the places I have spoken to or dropped off applications need both weekday and weekend. I live just that bit too far in the sticks to be able to make that type of work work for me. Most local businesses close at 5 or 6 PM, I get out of work at 5PM. I don't have the flexibility to change my work schedule either. Frustrating.

I did pick up a very part time position photographing homes for a title search company, but it only pays $15/$20 per photograph and it is not steady work. If I could do at least 5 to 6 properties per week, that would be a big help. It's my understanding that the real estate market it slow and gets even slower between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I have not given up the ship yet. I just have to be a bit more creative and see what I can find that will work with my schedule or see what other options are out there.