I’m a Moron – Here’s a Writing Opportunity
In the interest of making sure I have as little chance as possible of getting a gig with ING Direct – I am going to open it up to you, my dear readers, and send you over to ING where you can apply to be a blogger for ING Direct.
Because I’m stupid.
See, I know a lot of writers. Most of them are totally into money and finances like I am. So it’s basically saying, “Hey…you people that are as good at writing or even better at writing than me – go take this gig!!”
Even though I really, really want it.
But what goes around comes around and this is me making a deposit into the karmic savings account. Even if I’m holding onto the dream with a deathgrip before sharing it and letting it go into the wild for you to try and score.
You can enter until February 15th, and the rules are all on the We the Savers Blog as well as the We the Savers Blogger websites.
Go now, and take my dream gig.
Because I love you.
But, you know, if you were bored or something and hated writing and never wanted to blog…it wouldn’t be totally out of line to hop on over to the We the Savers Blog and maybe tell them that Jen from Beyond Mom is a purrrrfect choice to talk about saving and doesn’t mind sharing how she busts her butt to save or invest, even if it’s just a little at a time.
I Think This Might Be a Demotion
Ok, all that fire and passion and interest and my business is officially on the back burner for now.
I still write some freelance stuff and do odds and ends, but it’s the Internet equivalent of working a job that’s so part time the other employees are pretty sure your mom made you take the job to learn responsibility, not because you need a paycheck.
But it’s all the husband’s show now….and he seems to be taking to the stage like a duck to water. Meetings of all sorts – client, potential client, team, and networking – take up extra time here and there that he would normally use to catch up on Mafia Wars.
Okay, I admit it, I don’t think he plays Mafia Wars but you get my point.
Maybe in other families both spouses go after their dream at 100% full speed – even when they have kids – because they’re just so Type A Personality that they don’t have any other option but to do everything to the absolute max. Maybe I have unrealistic expectations.
Recently, though, I realized I like spending time with my kids. They’re pretty cool and I enjoy their company. So if I get to focus on my kids, do household accounting, keep us on our debt snowball, AND help my husband by making great business cards and being secretarial staff and doing an amazing job….why not?
Everything is looking pretty good so far 
The DBA is Done!
So we’re almost legal-eagle here.
We have the DBA taken care of, and hubby is on his way to pick up the girls from preschool.
Wow, I remember when we worked like this before – pregnancy changes so much – and I’m looking forward to getting back to it.
Does this make me a glorified secretary for my husband? Yep. Am I okay with it? I’m working on it.
I also get to be the accountant, graphic designer, copywriter (of course!) and bookeeper…so my talents don’t go completely to waste! LOL
I’m starting to get to the place where I’m less scared and more excited. That’s a good sign, right?
I’ll Leave The House Again Someday
Still sick.
I have got to get right, I’m telling you, this is just a lingering feeling of awful that keeps me from focusing and I want to sleep it off but I’m afraid that might take a couple more weeks.
In the meantime, here’s what’s going on in Casa de G today:
- Submitting a DBA to the local county.
- Revamping and ordering business cards.
- Writing a plan to get to the people we’re targeting. (Aim…ready…LOL)
- Hounding hubby to finish his white paper and case studies (Aim…ready…NAG! haha)
It doesn’t seem like a lot, maybe, but it is a heck of a list and if I’m doing my job we’re going to get some serious traction on that white paper and those case studies. Both are very important to the new business plan. On the bright side, white papers and the like are hubby’s specialty.
You know me, I only write fun stuff. I don’t do well with dry writing. It’s not my bag.
But it’s Monday, and I’m feeling physically bad but mentally great.
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, yadda, yadda, yadda…the bottom line is it’s time to kick some butt.
In the meantime, if you’re in cook county, and need to download the forms to file a DBA you can go to the Cook County Clerk’s webpage to download and print a DBA form.
Going Back to My Internet Marketing Roots
I’m back in bed after being up for a while, and I’ve had an epiphany.
It might be a fever-dream, but you know, sometimes those are good, too.
I’m going back to basics. Anytime I see a site where someone is selling Internet marketing services, I always think, “If they know so much, why aren’t they doing it for themselves instead of for someone else?” Because, you know what? If you’re good enough to be SELLING Internet marketing services, you should be using them yourself for more than getting people to your website. You should pick a niche and put your skills to the test.
So that’s what I’m doing. Not to prove a point, but because that’s where the profit is, my friends, and mama is turning over a new leaf in 2010. How much money can I make without having a client to answer to.
I’m not going to do it for anyone else. I’m going to do it for me. Treat myself like the best. client. ever and follow my own directions to the letter – and it’s going to rock.
Honestly, I’ve given away so much free advice in the last few years it could fill a book. A book I don’t want to write and that will become outdated too quickly. But, I will continue to give out advice to people who ask for it that probably have no idea that I’m handing them something that could change their lives.
But this year? It’s time to:
- Double the savings account.
- Pay off the student loans.
- Start working on paying off the house.
Standing in the way of my success for those plans?
- Me. (More specifically, my utter lack of consistent focus.)
I am my only hurdle.
Okay, me and the really loud kids I have. Sometimes I swear if the two older ones aren’t being loud the baby is crying. That hurts focus. But I will find a workaround.
I’m determined.
I’ve picked a few niches, some new, some old…all are totally unlike any from anyone else I know that has niche sites so we’re not double dipping or competing against each other…and I’m going to start writing tomorrow.
It is, in fact, game on like Donkey Kong.
Maybe it IS the Plague
So. Sick.
Today is the first day in three FULL days I’m starting to feel better. Thank goodness because I have a “breakfast with the girls” to attend this morning.
I’m going to eat a muffin and have coffee – more solid food than I’ve had in – oh, how long has it been now? – THREE days.
Hopefully it doesn’t kill me.
But that’s the funny thing about being on social networking sites and everywhere online and getting sick. Unless you can actually drag your butt to the computer to tell someone, no one knows.
Worse yet, even when you do say you’re sick, no one is able to grasp the severity. Are you “I have a cold” sick? Are you “ZOMG PLAGUE” sick? Or are you “Mental health day” sick?
I sort of wanted a webcam site like the cute little Shiba Inu puppies have to show people I couldn’t get out of bed except to moan and grovel my way to the bathroom.
But who would want to WATCH that?
Do you work from home? How do you call off sick for a few days when your body has decided it isn’t going to work for a while?
Even better, if you don’t have any pressing engagements or deadlines – do you need to answer the phone and let your friends know you’re sick? Do you call off friendships like work?
Because doesn’t ignoring your friends usually get taken in a “you’re mad” way rather than a “you’re sick” way?
If I’m not making sense…yeah, you know…it’s because I’m sick.
Why Do I Decide To Make Major Changes Right Before A Big Event?
So I’m all, “we’re going to be crazy cheap/frugal from here on out” two days before my kids’ birthday party.
What kind of a jackass does that?
*points to self*
This kind of jackass, that’s who!
So now, instead of being cheap, we are being frugal in planning a party.
I think i have enough ingredients to make a bunch of cupcakes from scratch, so we won’t have to buy cake mix. I don’t know about making the frosting from scratch and I certainly don’t have the ingredients to make red velvet cake without a trip to the store. Not only for the assload of red food coloring, but for the buttermilk, too.
So after this weekend we’ll be frugal again. Until then? We’ll get by for as little as possible.
On the bright side, I bought my kids’ birthday presents when I bought their Christmas presents. So no present buying needs to occur! Yea!
With that as my bright side, keep me away from the razors, cause it’s kind of bleak when you look closely. Being cheap about a kids’ birthday party is so pathetic.
But everyone will have fun … even if I have to liquor everyone up and spike the punch.
Crap. Should I have punch? LOL
We Went Money Crazy but Now are Getting Back to Basics
Whew.
The holiday season saw me spending out of our savings account like it was going to magically regenerate.
Unfortunately, like limbs, savings accounts do not regenerate on their own!
Consider this a public service announcement
Now that we’re done spending – and after finding out how little some people appreciate being showered with gifts – we’re going back to the “poor as dirt” way of living we had gotten so used to living like in the beginning.
What About all those Activities Your Kids are In?
The kids will still stay in dance, gymnastics, and taekwondo – we’re even adding an art class for Sadie that starts ON her birthday! So exciting!
But as much as you would think this is overscheduling the kids, each of those activities only meet for an hour a week (except taekwondo which meets for an hour up to three times a week, parents choose how often the kids go up to the three time a week limit). Add that to the fact that they only to go preschool three times a week three hours a time…they aren’t nearly close to being overscheduled. They have time to play and relax to their hearts content – plus there isn’t something going on EVERY day. They have days off.
So maybe we’re not going totally “beans and rice, rice and beans” because we are keeping the kids in activities. Maybe we’ll have to really look at what they’re in and determine if we’re going to continue all of them.
Blame it on the Baby
Being pregnant made me not care about much, because I felt lousy all the time. Spending money and buying nice things for people (including myself – I have a great wardrobe now!) made me feel better. It made for a great Christmas with all the things to be unwrapped and all the stuff Santa brought the kids was a huge hit. We may have had one kid that I never heard a Merry Christmas or Thank You from, but I’m getting more and more used to making an effort and getting nothing in return in that regard.
So I choose to blame the excessive spending on the baby and being pregnant and wanting everyone around me to be happy. When I’m surrounded by happy people, it brings my mood up, and I needed it!
For those of you wondering how this flies when I had the baby on 9/30 and Christmas wasn’t until 12/25 – I bought most gifts way before the holiday. I still felt like crap for a while after having the baby because of her birth circumstances, but after about six weeks I was much, much better. That’s when I started saying to the husband, “Hey, we have to slow this puppy down before we hit an iceberg!”
So What’s the Long-Term Goal?
Still being debt free. There are a few different business decisions I need to make. I still do marketing, I still write, but after getting my Canon Rebel xsi DSLR camera for Christmas…I’m thinking I can finally take some classes myself to make my favorite photography hobby into maybe a photography business. Not weddings and babies. I hate kids and weddings. But like food pictures, or stock photography, or disaster photography – or even getting a police scanner and getting pictures of the local car wreck.
Whatever. There is a world of possibilities. Maybe Brittany Spears will come to my town and do something hot-mess-style and I’ll get it on camera and make a bajillion dollars. A girl can dream, right? LOL
Everything is about paying off the debt. Our monthly living expenses are crazy-low for having a house and a mortgage. (Right around $3k) that paying down debt shouldn’t be a problem at all.
And, of course, if it is a problem…you’ll hear about it
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Yep – I’m a Joiner!
