Learning New Guidelines

It's hard to adjust to new guidelines, you think I'd be used to it by now. Every time I write for someone they have specific guidelines to follow depending on what they want me to do. So why is it that reading the guidelines for Constant Content is taking me so long? Could it be the three strikes and you're out thing? I'm betting that it is.

I've grown fond of Textbroker even though at first I avoided like the plague because the instructions didn't appear clear enough for me. Well, turns out that they are and it takes fairly little time to write the articles and have the clients accept them. I managed to get my balance up to $81.65 since I requested payout on the 18th of January. That's not bad considering this is the 31st which means I've managed to average almost $7 a day with therapy, potty training and cleaning the house. The bad news?

There are a number of things that I have to buy this month most of them supplements. Complete powder, L-carnosine, magnesium citrate and pro-omega fish oil. Then there are the ones that I'll have to buy the next payday. To top it off my other half's loan that he didn't bother to consult me about is coming due and he can't pay it and put gas in the car to get to work.

It's 60 degrees in an effort to keep the light bill from reading so high again.

What's the point?

I was happy when my $25 from sidetick finally came in so I could put toward a phone bill and have the rest of my payments for the 31st and 10th to help pay off a loan so we could come out of the red. This morning my other half shattered that when he asked me for gas money. I have $63.67 at Textbroker and another $37.49 at Helium. That brings my incoming total from content sites up to $101.16 - 21.80 for a phone bill will leave me with $79.36. A good deal short of what I actually need when you consider that I have to buy a $60 bottle of fish oil out of that. The bottle will last for one month. I need to put her back on the melatonin so that she sleeps at night. The money I gave my other half this morning was for supplements.

I'm going to have to begin taking his check and giving him an allowance again or making him walk to work. I'm tired of his always causing problems. It would be cheaper to divorce him that to put up with him but then my child's grandparents would butt their noses in more than they do now and cause all kinds of problems because that's just the way that they are.

Days off to a good start but........

I wish I knew more about online games. If I did I could make up to $126 on one article.  That would put me well over my goal for one site's next payday. I set a goal of $100 for one site b/c of the work that I do there and I'm over half way there now. I did five short and sweet articles this morning and just submitted a review of toothpaste to another to get myself a bit closer to payout there. I intend to make this payout my last one there so I'm sort of in a hurry to get it. 

I'm not doing too badly today seeing as I managed to get the kid on the bus, do some dishes, get the laundry down and lay out dinner for tonight all with an ear ache. I'd really rather be in bed crying right now but there is no rest for the wicked. I'm wishing for a hot water bottle to lay on next time I feel this way.

Finally! Found It!

I was excited today. I went to the local ACE Hardware after a search high and low for actual Washing Soda. They had one box left for $3.79. Sales tax is 9% which means it's cheaper to drive out there and get a few boxes once they get more in than it is to order it at the price and pay $6 worth of shipping. That means since I found it locally my Amazon gift cards can be used for something else that I need. I found Fels Naptha at Ace too. It's a little bit more than the Zote and almost double the price of the Octagon. I'm wondering how well it works in homemade laundry soap. 

The bar of Octagon I have on hand for the next batch, and the borax I have also. Next time I'm only making a gallon so I can use the empty five gallon bucket to store dirty training pants. The kid's getting more of them to cut down on the amount of times I have to wash them. Two five gallon buckets should hold enough that I can watch them every third or fourth day instead of every two to three depending on how often she has an accident. Once she's fully potty trained I can sterilize the buckets and use them for something else. I need a small bucket to put bleach water in and soak my kitchen towels so they get a bit whiter.

I managed about five short and sweet articles today and had a rewrite accepted. I'm up to $21.64 for my next TB payout request, I have $46.84 requested for the payout that I should be getting in the next few days. I have another $25 coming from Sidetick provided they get caught up from the holidays and the weather which will be $71.84 that would go a long way right now. Helium's next payout is the last day of the month and at the moment I have $24.96 which means I only need four cents for payout. Given that there is another week in the month I'm good there. I just need to do a few promotions.

Well, I've got an article I'd like to work on some more so I'll be going.

Revisions

I began my day by finding that I had a revision request for a rewrite that I did yesterday. Seems it was too much like a rewrite which is what they asked for. Apparently they wanted a new article completely. What is it with people and not saying what they freaking mean?

So this morning I've done that revision still waiting on word about that $7 and had a short $1.50 article that took about five minutes if that to write accepted already. That's a strange way to start the day but I guess either they'll accept my rewrite as it was resubmitted or I'll turn it into a new article can sell it myself somewhere else. The whole thought of spending hours trying to figure out what to write is irritating in itself.

My break will come during therapy this afternoon as I read "Thinking in Pictures" while I watch the therapist. At the moment the fact that I need a new roof I can't afford would be clear as I feel water from the ceiling fan. Fortunately turning it off seems to solve that issue. I should have a payment from Textbroker in the next few days that will cover pull-ups for nights and school. I may use it to buy a few more training pants with the plastic to protect the furniture. Just another pack to put off the amount of time between washings and save a bit of electricity, as it is I'll be washing them tonight so ensure that there is enough for tomorrow and Friday. We'll be gone this afternoon and in cloth the entire time as well as tomorrow afternoon. It's speeding up potty training and saving me a small fortune on pull-ups. I have some regular underwear for her that I might put on her to see if the prettier ones make a difference for her, if they do then I'll start using them too. I just hope I don't run out of old towels for the floor.

OK I'm off to see if I can do some more work and check my Amazon gift card balance.

Uggh, well I've been working but savings..........that's another story

Well the 19th I will request payment from TB again. At this point I've gotten another $18.59 from when I requested the last payout I'm looking at getting between the 21st and 25th. That payment is set to be $28.25 without it. Together they come to $46.84 if I don't manage to do anything else there this week. I hope to do a few more assignments before I hit the button again but the short fast assignments that I like aren't there when I'm my computer the most so I'm trying to figure out when they are there.

I finally got payment from Helium last night. It's a whole $34.14. That covers the next $21.80 phone bill with a little bit left over. I have found that I have no choice but to keep getting payouts there each month hopefully 2 times a month in order to cover my phone bills that come directly out of my paypal account.

I have a whole $2.31 at Bukisa from before they switched to google adsense.

My other half needs two outside door handles for his car. I have to make him understand that the $102 for a mechanic to do it's not in the budget. (yes that includes the part.) He's going to have to take the time to do it himself or do without a functioning door. That is if I can make him understand he's going to have to order the part to see if it's the right one then send it back if it's not.

OK that's all for today. Oh I got $5 in the mail in a survey over the weekend. That was the brightest spot of the three day weekend.

A Solution Maybe??

I think I found a solution of sorts to recent work issues. So far Text Broker seems to be working out pretty well. Once I finally decided to write something I managed the $10 payout minimum actually double it in two days, mostly from one article. Now a day after requesting payment because I got in a hurry I'm half way to payout again writing short articles of 150 words or less than don't take up too much time. I mean I can actually watch the kid while I'm doing them and once I claim them I don't have to worry about them not being there when I get back to them. I like the short ones because they cause less frustration and only take a couple minutes to write. They have longer ones but unless the deadline is at least 2 days sometimes I can't do them because of therapy schedules. I've managed to write three of them this morning alone!

I have three articles waiting for evaluation at Associated Content. I'll be so glad when they tell me something one way or the other. I need to write some more and submit but I can't think of anything to write. I'm re-evaluating the earnings goals and needs that I have at the moment. I'll have them outlined over the weekend. I'll be back.

Waiting for acceptance..

OK I've had three short articles accepted at Text Broker of 100 to 150 words that gave me $3.82. Right now I'm waiting to hear about a 4th article that will give me $22.93 for it alone if it's approved. That would put me over the payout amount. I had until Wednesday morning to finish it and I managed to get it done in one day. I usually do short ones that only have day to do.

I have a feeling that I'll have a better chance of finding a couple short news articles to do first thing in the morning. I think I've finally figured out how much work I have to do to get everything caught up. At least I hope that I have. It's 9 at night and I'm already tired. It's been a long day.

Tomorrow I have to squeeze in therapy before therapy along with some work. I"m about to go back to daily earnings goals, I think that was easier for me to achieve.

Almost productive and economical

I have managed two articles the entire weekend, well maybe three I've lost track. I managed to copy a few pages out of Theresa's HWT workbooks so she use them. The books are expensive so we're copying them. That way I know the kid actually worked at some point instead of just tearing, marking up and losing the pages. I managed to do a few of her cards with her to get her to tell me what you used for what already today. We take breaks, sometimes they're too long but we take them.

I have to do some more laundry so the workday will be shorter than normal since we have preschool tomorrow. I plan to do my email checking before Theresa gets up. Once she goes to school I'll be checking Textbroker and Ecopywriters for assignments.

OK that's about all for now. Cutting expenses is difficult but I'm doing pretty good. Don't really have a choice since my income keeps going down.
As you'll see by the image of one of the workbooks she has they are expensive, just think we're getting what she needs individually as she needs it, the entire set is enough to empty my wallet on most paydays lately.

How much electricity?

OK so the good news is that my light bill isn't due until the 25th of this month and the budget amount of $200 is all that I have to pay. The bad news? The bill itself was for 23 days and actually $229.54 which leaves us with $46.80 credit out of the original $76.34 we'd managed to build toward the actual bill month. The problem is really that at this rate I'll be seeing an increase in the budgeted amount next year. There are times when I wish that the City of Dothan did like other utility companies and adjusted the budget amount up and down during the year to prevent overages and credits. The credits aren't so bad you can end up with a month with a light bill or more. The times you owe it's all due at once and it can be almost double what the budget amount was. That part sucks is awful.

We have a doctor's appointment this morning and therapy this afternoon which puts me going across town twice today. That wouldn't be so bad since my tank is full still if it weren't for the $2.99 gasoline. It cost me $46.90 to fill up from a quarter of a tank when gas was less. If it falls below half I'm screwed. I have no idea what to do since I can't manage to keep money for gas and I need to have enough to last all month long. Come summer the gas will need to be cut again which is going to get rather expensive I do believe.

Helium I have $25.15, I can also request payment and get an extra payday on the 7th! I'm a good mind to do it. I want to order Theresa's pictures from the Pancake Breakfast. I have enough but I'll need some more to replace it. My problem is wondering if I'll make enough to request payment again the 14th to get paid the 15th. I have all day and some of tomorrow to figure it out.

I still want a Kindle but for the time being the Kindle on PC application will have to do. I do need to get a new battery for my laptop so that I can work while Theresa is in therapy. A case for my laptop will help too. I can carry it with me when we go out to therapy. I have a couple days when I actually have time to get some work done. I think I'll work on getting my laptop battery and an external hard drive I've made a decision that requires I have more memory and the ability to work from anywhere that I don't have with my constantly dead battery and need for additional resources on my computer. Well I'll be going for now.

Reflections on a Post I read

This post about boundaries really gives you something to think about. Making yourself happy. I work a lot out of necessity because my income has gone down a great deal over the last few years. I have to buy a lot of supplements and this month they seem to be running out all at the same time. That's an expense I'm still earning the money for. Today on the way home from speech I have to stop and buy a container of baby wipes, actually a refill. I'll be buying the small one to last until the next payday because I don't have enough to get the one that'll last all month long. I'm going to have to buy the little one a new pair of shoes and some pull-ups before school starts back next week. Those too expenses are unavoidable but I did reduce the amount spent on pull-ups by putting her in cloth for potty training purposes while we're at home.


The light bill due this month has yet to show up so I can pay it. The last bill I had a credit of $76.34 toward the settle up month, I'm hoping it is a trend that continues. I've been working really hard to keep the usage down but one of televisions acts funny when it's cut off from the power source. 


OK I'll be going now since my thoughts were about earnings and cutting costs this was the natural place to post. I'm going to check Text Broker one more time before I close my browser and come up with today's article topic. 

Work Requirements figured out

I think I have what I have to do for work figured out. I have to update all three of these blogs daily to keep them focused, or at least every couple days.

Sidetick = $15 a month which is $180 a year. So with $25 being the smallest payment amount I can cash out seven times a year. That doesn't include the few minutes a week looking at pictures or the views the daily blog postings I make get during the year. That's not bad for doing the same things I'd do on FB for free each day.

AC - well, the earnings there are not much but I can write a few articles a month for upfront payments. I figure I need to write approximately 20 to 30 a week. That would be an evening thing.

Helium- no idea what I'd have to do. The new payment system not working for me although with promotions I can continue to ensure I have enough ad revenue to pay the phone bill.

Saving Money - I found a loaf of 12 grain bread for $1 yesterday. I love that bread and that's a lot less than the local grocery store, trust me. I bought shampoo that was 50 cents a bottle yesterday too.

OK I think I have to do some more figuring because I'm not past putting change in a jar to save money and using Amazon gift cards for household items. That's about it for now.