A Time For Everything

Okay, so I've got this groovy new software for tracking my money and divvying it up for bills and savings and emergency funds. But I've got to wait for the money to come in before I can do anything with it.

And I've got this exciting new career as a freelance proofreader to help augment my day job income. Except, it seems as if I do a lot of waiting for the jobs to show up...

Luckily I haven't had to wait (much) for payments once the jobs are done. But, man, I badly want out of debt and some savings built up!! I know these things take time. I do. But ugh... Okay, enough whining. I shouldn't have gotten into so much debt in the first place, right? Right!

I think I scared off one gal the other morning. We emailed back and forth a couple of times and then she asked about cost. Actual cost was almost double what she estimated. Haven't heard back from her, and it's been almost two days... I also had a guy e-mail me and when I told him how much, I never heard back. You know, a simple, "I can't afford that right now." would have been polite and courteous. And I would have understood. I'm not the most expensive proofreader on the planet, but services aren't cheap either.

I've thought about adjusting rates again. I mean, several jobs at a slightly less expensive rate are better than no jobs at any rate, right?  I'll see how it goes. I've only advertised one place and the rest have been word of mouth jobs from my critique partners. That was before I raised my rates. One job (still waiting for it to arrive) since I upped them.

On the other hand, I've been reading Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I've gleaned that faith is a core component of achieving your goal. The other thing is, I'm a good proofreader. I'm worth what I'm charging, which is not the cheapest, but not the most expensive deal in town either. Tough call, though. In addition, I've been listening to some marketing webinars. Mostly for DH and targeted at the IT industry, but some things cross industries. And now I've got a few marketing ideas. I have to be careful still since I'm only one person and still working that day job.

In the meantime, I'm trying to expand my range of services, which will, of course, increase (hopefully) the inflow of cash.

What services would be helpful to writers, freeing up their time to actually write??

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Last night DH, DD and I watched Sonshine get inducted into the National Honor Society. I'll admit I was surprised because while he's smart enough, he's not always diligent enough in keeping his grades up. But hey, if they want him, so much the better for college applications.



In the last couple of weeks, we've also attended the Band Banquet and the Spring Concert.




We're on the downhill slide toward the end of the school year and we're all very glad.

In other news, the plants and flowers I planted are doing well! Nothing has died on my watch, so that pleases me. In fact, the Gerbera daisy my daughter gave me several months ago re-bloomed. That surprised me because that one just looked like it was going to wither up and die on me. But with a little TLC--okay, just regular waterings--it decided to stick around.



They don't look so great, but hey--it's alive and blooming. I'll take it. An aspect of flower beds and gardening I'd forgotten about and hadn't taken into account: weeding! But I've managed to stay on top of it despite all the rain we've had and all the watering I do. I need to get after the stuff growing beneath the bird feeders now.

In years past, when DH and Sonshine go work the fireworks, I've taken on projects around the house. Don't you know it's just easier to get it done without the men around asking questions and just generally getting in your way? I've got a couple of projects in mind: re-organizing the master bedroom closet or adding a shelving system to the living room. I'm really leaning toward the closet just because the need is greater. Believe it or not, DH has way more clothes than I do and they're smushed together on his side of the closet.

My proofreading is going well so far and I've gotten another awesome project creating a series bible for two different series for an author friend.

It's been a while since I talked about getting out of debt, but most of the money I'm earning from my new "career" path is going to go towards paying off debt. I mentioned a specific credit card a few months ago and that bad boy will be paid off at the end of June. I'll roll its payment over to another debt. Anyway, I'm so excited about this. It feels good to be able to truly actively work at this, rather than just pay monthly and wait for things to get paid off in due time. Speaking of paid off--we'll also make the last car payment in June as well. Of course we're going to need to put some $$ into the all the vehicles soon. Now I just wish I knew something about investing. Something else to learn in due course.

And that's all for now...time to get Sonshine out of bed and off to school.

How are YOU???