Tag Archives: money

Double Shift Days (or Hoping To Make Enough Money By Payday)

I’ve been lucky that recently I’ve had more double shift days than usual (although as I typed this blog post I got my schedule for this week which says I’m not working at the box office job at all this week and only for 3 hours next week). I know I’ve said before that I’m finally getting used to it, and again, I’ll say that it’s starting to feel a bit more normal.

Last week was the members only announcement for the next season at my box office job. I had worked that event last year, but it was as a telesales member then (which meant I made commissions). Even though this year I didn’t get any commissions on all my sales, it was still a successful evening. I worked more hours that day between my two jobs than I had any other day since being laid off from the telesales job. And I really have fun with my box office co-workers. This event ended up being only women working from the box office.

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And that particular event is fun too. I get to see so many people who I’ve only talked to on the phone before. And since this will be my 3rd season at the theater, many people know who I am.

But people knowing who I am also took a weird turn this year. This customers are used to me calling them to renew their memberships, and that a telesales job not a box office job. I’m trying to be politically correct while talking with the members so I just say that I switched from working telesales to box office. And when they asked me to say hello to my old boss or my former co-workers, I just told them that I would.

While money is still extremely tight for me right now, I’ve been very fortunate being able to make ends meet somehow. I even managed to pay my rent early for June. But now I’m down to less than $20 to get me through the end of the month.

I’m still on the lookout for day job #3. But it’s hard because I can only work evenings and I still want to make myself available for the box office job (even if they do only use me once a week). I’m looking for maybe another work from home job, but one that doesn’t depend on being done during business hours. That way I could do it in the mornings before I make my recruiting calls or in the evenings when I’m not at the box office (or even after that job in the late evening).

So I’m putting it out here (since you were all so helpful with sports bra advice). If anyone knows of another job for me, please let me know. While I’m doing ok with paying all my bills right now, I have no idea what the next month has in store for me.

Busy Time (or Scheduling Again)

I’m really starting to get a hang of having 2 part time jobs. It’s not easy, but it’s starting to make more sense in my life.

The recruiting job is going well. I’m still pretty much working from home all the time, and I’m starting to have more success at it. My boss is pretty happy with my progress, but I’m hoping I get much better at it pretty quickly. The money that I earn from successful calls would be really nice.

The box office job is going pretty well also. I’m still waiting on getting my own login information for the computer systems, but I’m able to borrow another person’s login for now so at least I’m able to do all the work I need to do. It’s still a bit weird to be doing some of the same work I’m used to doing but it’s still pretty different. I’m not pushing ticket sales as hard as I used to and there’s no pitch to join as a member. I’m also not feeling the same motivation to try to get people to buy more (or fancier) ticket because none of the sales in the box office are commissionable. But I’m sure that the box office will feel like normal very very soon.

And finally, my money situation is getting better. After taking my NYC trip, my savings account was pretty much wiped out. My unemployment was ending (because I was still using an old claim and it was almost done) and I didn’t know how much I’d be making at either job. At the beginning of this week, I didn’t know how I was going to manage to pay my rent at the end of the month.

But I got paid from my recruiting job (I missed the cutoff for the mid-month payroll at the box office job so I won’t get my first check there until the end of the month), I got my new unemployment started, and my tax refund came in. This all happened in 2 days. And I finally had my rent money in place (and was able to pay it early which I like to do).

I always say that somehow things fit into place for me. And I’m starting to have more hope that that is really how it will work out. I’m not sure how things will be next month, but maybe I’ll get more successful calls from my recruiting job or more hours in the box office. It’s all a little up in the air but it looking like a much more realistic lifestyle now.

Sorry if this is a somewhat boring post, but that’s where I am in life this week. But to add some excitement, here’s a set of photos my dad just sent to me. The top picture is Tucker when we adopted him and the bottom photo is Tucker yesterday (about 4 months later). He’s getting so big!!

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New Routine Time (or Time Management At Home)

Now that I’m spending 4 hours each day working from home, I’ve gotten into a bit of a routine. But this routine isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Because I’m still dealing with some hip pain, I’m not out doing a lot of stuff each day. I also haven’t returned to spinning yet. I know that I need to get that back into my schedule soon.

I’m pretty much working from 10-12 and then again from 1-3 each day. After 3, I try to go out and do something, but that’s not always working out. I tried the other day to drive over to Griffith Observatory (not to hike, just to be out and enjoy the view), but traffic was so horrendous that after driving for over an hour and not even being half way there, I just turned around.

Soon, I’ll start working back at my old job again for some evenings and weekends (I’m working this Friday evening and Saturday all day). This will be a sporadic thing, so I’m still looking for job #3.

But the part of my routine that I need to break now is the fact that I’ve found out that if I don’t make an effort, I can spend my entire day at home and not go out at all. This happened yesterday in fact.

I need to start making more plans for my afternoons and evenings. I won’t necessarily be able to have regular plans since my hours at my old job will be random, but I will know my schedule a week in advance so I can try to go out and have some (hopefully free) fun.

I’ve gone through the issue of getting into a good routine a lot in the past, and I just have to do it again. It’s not a horrible thing, but I’m glad that I noticed as soon as I did that the new routine that I’ve gotten myself into isn’t a good one (or at least one that I should be doing on a regular basis).

I’m still hoping to get back into acting classes soon, but money is beyond tight right now. Because of all the unemployment I collected last year, I owed money on my taxes. I had enough to pay it, but after paying a few of my monthly bills, I’m almost out of money. I will get paid from my new job next week, but it won’t be enough for my rent. I’m not sure how I’m going to figure this all out, but just like before, I know that somehow it will.

Maybe before the end of the month I’ll be able to find another new job and then I can add that into my new routine.

In the meantime, if anyone has any fun and free things that they like to do in LA (and hopefully are close to the westside so I don’t have to drive super far), I’d love to hear your suggestions. I need to start booking up my afternoons!

Training Day At A New Possible Job (or Next Time, I’ll Give Myself 3 Hours To Get There)

Yesterday was my training day for one of the new jobs I’ve been offered. This one is working with film screenings.

The training was going to take place in Woodland Hills. I go to that area a lot because I have friends there, so I know that it usually takes me between 30 and 45 minutes to get there. Since this was my first day at the new job and I wanted to make a good impression, I gave myself about 90 minutes to get there.

My drive started off rough. There was a huge line of cars trying to get onto the freeway. When I finally made it on, traffic was completely stopped. This was happening at 11am, so I couldn’t figure what was going on.

Finally, one of the traffic signs said that there was a major accident and all but 1 lane of the freeway was shut down. It said to expect over a 2 hour delay.

That wasn’t going to work for me. I rushed off the freeway, texted the trainer that I might be late, and worked on finding another way to get to Woodland Hills.

It ended up taking me almost 2 hours to get there, but I finally made it. And since this was such a huge accident on the freeway, the trainer knew I was telling the truth and he was very understanding.

The training went pretty well. The first hour was spent going over all the rules and how the job works. There isn’t a ton of structure with the hours, but there are lots of rules I need to follow.

After that, we headed out to do some work for the next few hours. I let the trainer take the lead at first, but then he encouraged me to try it out. I was able to talk with a few potential customers, but it was still a little intimidating for me.

After the shift was over, the trainer and I headed our separate ways, but he let me know that I did a pretty decent job for my first time.

I won’t know exactly how much I made for a few days, but hopefully it will be something decent. It’s kind of a commission based job just like my last one, however the hourly is a much lower rate (so I would have to depend on commissions a lot more).

I have no idea when my next shift will be, but hopefully it won’t be too long. I want to see how realistic of a day job this is. If I can’t make it worth my time, then I need to find something else.

I’m still applying for jobs everyday because I don’t want this job to fall through and then I have to start over again. It feels like I’m being negative about this new job, but honestly, I’m just trying to be realistic.

It’s just so tough out there and I really need something great to come through for me soon!

Unemployment Issues (or I Shouldn’t Stay Quiet)

My last day of work was on September 20th. I was done at 1pm and as soon as I got home, I got on my computer and filed for unemployment. It took about 15 minutes and I got a confirmation online that I had filed. I was supposed to get a paper confirmation of my unemployment status within 10 days.

I never got anything. At first, I thought it was because we had a new mail person for a few days and they never brought anyone the correct mail. But I started to worry.

You can only talk to someone at the unemployment office on the phone between 8am and noon. You can also submit questions online. So I did the form online but I also called.

Everyone must have been calling because for 3 days, I could not get through on the phone! I still hadn’t gotten any other response from the unemployment office so yesterday I knew I needed to keep calling.

Somehow, I got through to somebody around 9am (I made about 100 calls prior to that yesterday with no luck). They looked up my confirmation number and said that I never filed for unemployment.

That’s just ridiculous! I know I filed and that I filled out all the paperwork. I re-filed on the phone yesterday and they let me know that they backdated my filing but I still would not get any paperwork for about 10 days.

So by the time I get my paperwork, I might be back at work. I will still get checks for the weeks that will have passed, but I might not have the money by the time that my rent is due. And I don’t have enough saved right now to pay rent without my unemployment money.

I guess I was thinking too lightly about unemployment. It was so easy last time and there was almost no delay in anything. I thought it would be like this again.

I also should not have just figured it was a mail issue behind me not getting my paperwork. I wish I had spoken up sooner so the delay wouldn’t have been as long.

But as people say, hindsight is 20/20. But I know for the future to take more responsibility for all of this and to speak up sooner if I think that something is wrong.

Learning From My Dental Situation (or How Getting A Crown is Educating Me on My Weight Loss)

I’m writing Tuesday’s post on Monday night because tomorrow morning is part one of my crown procedure at the dentist. I’m horribly nervous and can’t wait for this whole thing to be done.

The only positive that I can see out of having this done is getting an extra day off of work (but that also means less money in my next paycheck). Also, if this wasn’t being done now, it could end up being a root canal (which I’ve never had and never want).

Sometimes, you just have to suck it up and do something because in the long run, it will be a good thing, even if in the short term you are extremely unhappy or stressed.

This crown is costing a ton of money (and my insurance isn’t very good so at most, half of it is covered), but a cracked tooth or a root canal would be way more money.

Yes I’m missing out on another day of work, but my supervisor knows and if any of my customers call in, he’ll take the order for me and I’ll get my commission.

Yes, I hate that I have a ton of weight to lose now and a bunch of debt to pay off, but if I don’t do it now, how much worse will it get?

I’ve talked about the “what ifs” before, and I don’t want this time in my life to be a  “what if” in a year or two. If I don’t take action now, I’m going to regret it later in life. This I know for sure.

I’m going into tomorrow expecting a bad day. It will go one of two ways. Either my mouth will be so sore and so numb that I won’t eat anything all day and that will be that. Or I’ll be in a ton of pain until right before dinner and then I’ll be starving. I’m hoping it will be the first, but I’m trying to prepare my house with foods that are safe both for my crown and my waistline.

Soups, whole fruit popsicles, yogurt, and jello all seem like they are safe in both ways. I’ll have to be careful eating with the temporary crown, but maybe that will help kickstart this attempt at weight loss.

I’m hoping to not get too out of control tomorrow. But I’m also allowing myself to do so and not go into a downward spiral. If tomorrow is a bad day, why does the next day, or week, or month have to be bad too.

This is the lesson I’m hoping to learn from this really sucky dental situation.

Sharing the Truth (or It’s Time To Rip Off the Band-Aid)

There are some things that I just love to share with everyone (I mean, hello, I’m writing a blog!). But there are other things that I either keep to myself or share half truths about.

I’ve found that being secretive like this is dangerous. When something isn’t out in the open, it eats you up inside.

The two main things I’ve been secretive about in the past are my issues with food and my credit card debt.

I kept my credit card debt a secret because I didn’t know anybody else with debt. Maybe student loans, but not credit cards. Nobody in my family really has credit card debt. I was taught to always pay off the full balance each month. And I did do that for a while. But then I found myself without a job. And I still had bills to pay. So they went on my credit card. And now, I have debt.

But I’m working my way towards paying it off. It’s going to take some time, but I’ll do it. And once I started telling people I had debt, I started hearing from other people that are in the same situation as me. For some reason, people don’t like to talk about it, so it feels like something to be ashamed of. But it’s not. So here I am saying that I have credit card debt, it sucks, but I’m working on paying it off.

My issues with food is something harder for me to discuss. This is something that I’ve dealt with my entire life, and I’ve only been honest with myself for the last few years. For those of you who don’t know me that well (or I just haven’t told you this yet), I have an eating disorder. I’ve probably had it most of my life, but it was only properly diagnosed when I was in college. The thing that sucks the most for me is that I don’t have anorexia or bulimia, I am a binge eater. And that seems to be the eating disorder that isn’t as studied or as common to hear about. Most people are pretty secretive about having it. So as I’ve tried to get treatment, it’s very difficult to find someone who understands my disorder and doesn’t try to treat me as a bulimic.

So revealing this to you all is a big step. And I only had the courage to do it after something that happened yesterday. I was out at happy hour at Bodega with my best friend. She and I have been friends for 20 years, so she’s more than just my best friend, she’s my family. We were deciding on what food to order for dinner when I had mentioned that I hadn’t really had too much food that day. I was saving my calories for happy hour. I wanted to prove it, so I got out my phone and showed her my food diary I keep on My Fitness Pal (which is an awesome app). We were laughing about it and she mentioned that she uses the app too. For some crazy reason, in my head I only thought that people who use the app are people struggling to lose weight. But my friend doesn’t have a weight problem. She’s super in shape and has even done a marathon before!

And then it hit me. Keeping track of your food is something that normal people do. Just like how I’m not the only one with debt, I’m not the only one who tracks my food and workout calories. Somehow, this made me feel so much better. I don’t need to be ashamed of tracking my food and trying to live a healthy lifestyle. This is what I should be sharing with everyone.

So I am.

Hello (or Tomorrow Never Comes)

I’ve been putting off writing this post for a long time. I wanted to wait until I had an idea of what this blog would be about, or when I had my page looking beautiful, or when I had something amazing to write, or after I had written a lot of posts offline and then was able to post them all at once…

Procrastination sucks.

So, here I am writing this post finally. I don’t know exactly what to say, but I’m saying something. I created this blog because I wanted to find a way to keep me accountable as I try to lose weight (for the millionth time) and as I try to start being more financially responsible. Turns out, being overweight and having credit card debit can be related (http://www.fivecentnickel.com/2010/11/10/debt-and-obesity-whats-the-connection/).

So here I am trying to create a healthy lifestyle and checkbook at the same time. Hope you enjoy my journey. I’m not quite sure where it’s going, but it’s going somewhere.