Need More Hours in The day

Recent events have hit my household rather hard which has led me to attempting to add more hours to the day in order to get as much work as possible done. It would seem that the gas prices aren’t the only thing on the rise. Food, utilities, Internet and almost everything else under the sun is seeing a rise in costs. I took some time off recently because I was exhausted and while I enjoyed my vacation it’s over. The next vacation is a mere dream as I struggle to keep with the costs.

I require more hours in the day to get everything done. As you know by now I have an Autistic toddler and work from home as a freelance writer. I re-evaluated my income needs and the amount of work I would have to do. Currently I’m using approximately four writing sites on a regular/semi-regular basis. I also have five days a week of therapy to take my child to.

I’ve decided to use my Amazon gift cards to replace the battery for my laptop. This will allow me to take it with me two days a week and work while my youngest is in therapy. That will give me an additional 2 hours and 20 minutes to work that I did not have before. The other three days we only have a half hour session which makes hauling the laptop a bit of a bother. The other days I’ll take that hour and a half to rest. We usually run errands those days so I’ll feel more comfortable leaving my laptop at home.

Why would I need more hours in my day? In addition to working from home I have to clean the house or we might as well move into a tent and get rid of everything. Call me crazy but I like the ability to walk around without falling over things. We have expenses beyond the normal for most people. Remember my Autistic child? She has about a dozen supplements and with her behavior lately we may be putting her back on a strict diet. Recent events have hit my household rather hard which has led me to attempting to add more hours to the day in order to get as much work as possible done. It would seem that the gas prices aren’t the only thing on the rise. Food, utilities, Internet and almost everything else under the sun is seeing a rise in costs. I took some time off recently because I was exhausted and while I enjoyed my vacation it’s over. The next vacation is a mere dream as I struggle to keep with the costs.

I require more hours in the day to get everything done. As you know by now I have an Autistic toddler and work from home as a freelance writer. I re-evaluated my income needs and the amount of work I would have to do. Currently I’m using approximately four writing sites on a regular/semi-regular basis. I also have five days a week of therapy to take my child to.

I’ve decided to use my Amazon gift cards to replace the battery for my laptop. This will allow me to take it with me two days a week and work while my youngest is in therapy. That will give me an additional 2 hours and 20 minutes to work that I did not have before. The other three days we only have a half hour session which makes hauling the laptop a bit of a bother. The other days I’ll take that hour and a half to rest. We usually run errands those days so I’ll feel more comfortable leaving my laptop at home.

Why would I need more hours in my day? In addition to working from home I have to clean the house or we might as well move into a tent and get rid of everything. Call me crazy but I like the ability to walk around without falling over things. We have expenses beyond the normal for most people. Remember my Autistic child? She has about a dozen supplements and with her behavior lately we may be putting her back on a strict diet.

Expenses are outrageous. The last two light bills alone were enough to make me want to cry. The mornings are the time when I’m the most likely to get work done; unfortunately they are also the time when I’m less likely to be awake. Once the little one gets up getting work done becomes harder even when we’re home from therapy. Her father’s idea of watching her is to sit in one spot and yell across the room for a child with communication difficulties to stop what’s she’s doing.

I think I can manage to stay up later at night. Thursday night is my t.v. night but that doesn’t mean that I can’t work while I watch. I just have to focus on what I’m doing more.  As I’m rambling away I could be working so I’m going to get back to it now.

Expenses are outrageous. The last two light bills alone were enough to make me want to cry. The mornings are the time when I’m the most likely to get work done; unfortunately they are also the time when I’m less likely to be awake. Once the little one gets up getting work done becomes harder even when we’re home from therapy. Her father’s idea of watching her is to sit in one spot and yell across the room for a child with communication difficulties to stop what’s she’s doing.

I think I can manage to stay up later at night. Thursday night is my t.v. night but that doesn’t mean that I can’t work while I watch. I just have to focus on what I’m doing more.  As I’m rambling away I could be working so I’m going to get back to it now.

Thinking About Rising Gas Prices and Increasing My Work Load

The beginning of the summer saw changes to my work habits and approach. The biggest change was not taking private clients anymore. At the time it was a much needed and relaxing change that allowed me to focus on other things that had been neglected. I was planning to work less and get by with what I had on hand until I could get something I needed replaced or purchased. Well, it almost worked.

I managed to make it through the summer of 2010; money was tight but I managed. Now I’m facing summer of 2011 wondering if everything will be caught up in time to enjoy the summer. There have been changes in the payment methods of the various writing sites that I utilize to make a living in recent months which makes earning a living a bit more difficult. I can only imagine that the increased difficulty is caused by the fact that for me working from home was a way to do what I wanted when I wanted.

It’s been months since I wrote an article on how much work I would have to do in order to keep up with expenses. I managed to keep up with the expenses without working as much as I thought I’d have to. No, I did not find a magical solution. Instead I cut costs drastically by making more of a lot of the items that we use around the house each day. I’d played with making what I used in the past and even drastically removed chemical cleaners; the removal was more of a safety issue than a savings issue. I’m just not that comfortable with chemicals.

The cost of gas and the amount of work I’ve been able to accomplish lately means that there will not be any vacations this summer. The five days a week of therapy are going to be fun especially since we have to make it a point to run all errands between here and there. I have no idea what I’m going to do during extremely stormy weather since I prefer to be in a safer place for it but I’ll figure it out. I have a feeling that at least part of the yard will be cut with an old fashioned reel mower provided I ever find one.

I have no idea just how much more work I'm going to have to do each month to make it through but I'll be working a lot more. I'll continue to attempt bread making. The next time I won't rush it though so that I come out with something resembling bread instead of a doughy center. I'm using Amazon gift cards to order a hand mixer so that it's easier for me to use. I'm also going to get another hand held can opener b/c I hate electric can openers. And with that I lost my thought so I'll be going now.

just saving a little money today

So far this year is not going anywhere near as well as I had hoped it would when it began. Although considering we began the year in debt I'm not all the sure why I'm surprised that it's not going as I had hoped it would. The loans that were took out at the end of the year and the beginning of this year require less than $190 to pay off at last count; the problem they keep getting interest charges so while that my be the payoff now left alone it will be a lot higher and we're running out of money before month. See a problem?

I know for a fact that my refund if we end up with one has been reduced because of an offset. Depending on the amount of the offset I still have to come up with money to cover six months of auto insurance, the overage on the budget billing and a few repairs to vehicles. Door handles on one, two oil changes so we know how long it's been between them and an overall inspection of the front end on mine. Then I need to put some money away for tires.

I have found that eventually I'll have to go back to private clients but I'm putting that off for as long as I can. I was thinking of starting a website but at the moment I'm just too unorganized. I'm doing a quick internet search of the topics I want to write on to see just how many results come up and thinking I'll focus on the ones with the fewest results for now.

The only thing I know for sure is that at the moment I'm saving some money on the light bill. My heating and air have been off for the last few days. It's been pleasant enough that if the windows are cracked at night it's comfortable all day long. I've managed to get nearly all the laundry caught up because it's been warm enough to hang them out and my clothes line holds three to four loads at a time. That's all for now.

Out of Ideas

I'm running out of ideas. Nothing seems to be unique anymore, original content yes, unique content no. I've done short and sweet news as fast as I can which isn't very fast chasing a four year old. Then there are the editorials, diary pages and articles that are submitted for upfront payment just to see if they will get one before I submit them. Lately it's a hit and a miss on which ones I should wait out and which ones I should go ahead and submit.

Tomorrow I have to mail my other half's check stub as proof of income, the state tax return and a child support payment. We get an entire $18 back from the state this year, last year we broke even. At the rate gas prices are going up I'll be able to buy a gallon with it by the time it gets here. My other half's car has a digital gas gauge that I'm beginning to hate  dislike because it goes crazy from time to time. The only time I'm sure how much gas is in the car is when I first fill up and when the low fuel light comes on.

I need to write but I keep stopping and trying to clean up this and that. The last time everything was in its place at one time was before we moved in and everything was in boxes. At the moment there are a number of boxes by my front door full of clothes that the little one has outgrown to give to charity since my mother-in-law isn't coming to get them it would seem.

OK I've lost my train of thought and I need to put a hyper child to bed. Goodnight world.

Supplements and More Supplements

This morning we had labs drawn. We refilled supplements and got another one. The total cost of the supplements today? $107 that I'll be paying for the first of next month. The good news is that they won't all run out at the same time again.

New supplement for speech -DMG =$18
Magnesium citrate = $6
L-Carnosine = $26
Acetyl L Carnitine = $15
Complete powder (probiotic)= $36
zinc (30mg)=$6
Total $107 that I get to pay next month because I'm out of money before month.

The other day I made a gallon of homemade dish soap following Annie's recipe. I have to get some lemon juice. I made a gallon of hand soap tonight. I'm wondering if I can use it as a body wash too. I'll be making a gallon of laundry soap instead of five gallons next time. I'm re-purposing gallon jugs at the moment. I don't seem to have anything in 1.5 gallon containers and the five gallons of detergent seems to be too much. I have trouble getting it out of the bucket and stirring it seems to be an issue since I don't have a long enough handled spoon.

OK that's about it for now, I'll be back later.

An Expense and Work Update

It’s not even 10am and I’m already tired. I just started drinking my second pot of coffee to ensure my daily dose of caffeine is gotten. I managed a load of training pants and put up the whites that I washed yesterday. I also have three article pages open right now to finish up for submission.

I managed one short and sweet news article this morning and didn’t see anything else that I wanted to write. I plan to finish up these three articles today and submit them for consideration to get upfront payments. I’ve gotten some ratings lately that were not what I would like because of careless errors so I’ll be focusing on my own writing to see if I can not correct these problems with punctuation that seem to have appeared out of nowhere.

I’ve got supplements to purchase. The L-Carnosine is $26, Complete Powder $35, Fish oil $62 (online) and I’m not sure what else we’re out of at the moment. I have to check her list. We’ll be needing $6 Magnesium Citrate soon. That comes to $129 plus whatever else we run out of in the next week.  I found the Complete Powder online for $60, I’ll only be buying that one if I run out of money and have that much in gift cards to purchase it with.

Last night I watched a video on making a gallon of homemade dishwashing liquid. I’ll post the link to the video as soon as I figure out how. I currently have four articles waiting to be reviewed that will help a great deal with gathering supplies again. I have two articles to finish up and another one in my head to put on paper. I’m trying to step up my efforts this month and get a decent payday that will keep us from running completely out of money before the end of the month.

OK I’m done rambling for the day and off to work again as soon as I hit publish on this.

Tax Time

Not my favorite time of the year but they have to be done. I've managed to do half of them. My federal return has been electronically filed and accepted by the IRS, now to find time to do the state return when I have peace and quiet to think as I fill in the form. The federal government will be sending us a small refund compared to previous years but I was expecting that.

The part that I was not expecting was to see that our income has gone down approximately $5,000 a year over the past year. I have to get our income back up, since I control or at least am supposed to be in control of my income that would be my area. I have sat down and figured out that I have to stop taking so much time off without scheduling it.

I spent the weekend resting because I was exhausted. I don't feel much better today and have only managed one article. I have managed to open the three articles I was working on and add a little bit to them so that's a start. I'll be working this evening for a little while.

When the sun comes back out I'll be doing some work outside in an effort to bring down the light bill until we can do something about the decaying areas of the house. The driveway has to be fixed as soon as possible so that it doesn't get any worse. I'm going to search Amazon to see if they have any repairing items I can use my gift cards to purchase.