Featured Post
Posted by Lizzie on May-28-2008
I have issues with budgeting and planning. I don’t like to do either. However, with the way gas prices are today, I think it’s a good time to start. My husband and I aren’t going to retire any day soon and we’d like to keep our home, so this is something I really need to get a grip on. Right?
Lately I’ve seen a lot of people asking “What are you doing to cope?” That’s a good question. The economy is tanking and people are feeling the pinch. It’s come down to “Do I keep all 5 cell phones? Cut down to basic cable? Eat day old bread?” While I’ve been trying to learn to cut down on our expenses and find extra dollars here and there, I’ve been thinking of what my grandparents had to endure. And somehow managed to survive.
My great-grandmother was born before the Great Depression. They managed to live on $2-5 a week- if that. They didn’t have a car (much less two) and couldn’t afford to buy their children a different pair of shoes for each different outfit. As a matter of fact, my grandmother once told me that they had their “Sunday best”- which was only worn on Sunday - and their everyday clothes. Two outfits. That’s it. How did they do it? And meat was only eaten once a week- or twice if there was a holiday. They convened at the neighbor’s house when there was an interesting radio program playing, otherwise they did without (no TV mind you).
I look around my house and realize that we’ve got it good. I’m typing this on a PC and posting it via the Internet and if we were really that bad off, I would have neither of these luxuries. I wouldn’t have a special shampoo or be able to choose whole grain bread over white bread. I wouldn’t be able to say “Hey! I need new sandals because these are just ugly!” Nope. I would be canning and hoarding and scraping to make sure my kids had a roof over their heads, not worrying about going to basic cable instead of America’s Top 150 on Dish. My children have closets full of clothes and have milk and meat everyday. I’m scrimping and saving to keep these things. So they don’t go without them. Not so they’ll survive. Because I have no worries that our money woes are going to cause our kids to get sick, go homeless or die. We are LUCKY. I don’t think enough people realize just how lucky they are.
I’m still coming up with a budget, though. I like our little luxuries and don’t want to have to give them up. I like having cable and the internet and being able to buy my kids little cheap toys every so often. I like being able to choose between good food and processed. I like that I can take my girls to a decent doctor and not have to worry about them dying from an ear infection (my great-uncle died from an ear infection when he was 1 year old). We have one car (and it runs!), two tvs (we married our households so one of them is 15 years old), and one PC. Our bills are paid on time every month and our refrigerator is always stocked. We’ve got it good. I’m not complaining. I’m counting my blessings.
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Archive for the ‘writing gigs’ Category
May
23
Posted by Lizzie
There’s a question at the Mom Blogger Club about what our husbands or SOs think of our blogging. I said that mine thinks it’s a waste of time. And that’s true. Unless I’m getting some money for it. Then he makes sure that I’m not interrupted and I have plenty of time to finish a thought. That’s not too very often though.
I’m a little envious of the ladies who said that their husbands (or SOs, I guess) are completely supportive of their blogging endeavors. I think the only time Steve said anything positive about my time online was when I was able to pay the car insurance with what I made. Then, of course, he was thrilled. Usually, though, I just hear a bunch of moaning about how all my time is given to my “hobby”.
I can’t wait when I’ll be able to open my money account and pay all the bills before he even gets a chance to see them. That will be a happy day for us both. I’ll be contributing a lot more and he’ll have more money which equals more “Happy Husband”. That’s another one of my goals, I guess. Add it to the list. Damned list seems to be growing and nothing is getting crossed off.
I blame Twitter.
P.S.
It completely annoys me that every time I post, WP thinks I want the article title to be the date. No, WP, I want to put something in there. STOP saving the date instead. ARGH.
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May
21
Posted by Lizzie
I found out that Brijit.com has gone under from lack of funding. I haven’t used the service much in the last couple of months because, honestly, I just didn’t have the energy to read all the papers and fight with the other writers. I’m not a very competitive person, sadly. It was a nice bit of money when I did get one of my abstracts sold, though. I’m kind of sad to see them go.
This is just another example of why the whole “all eggs in one basket= bad” thing came about. If I had been working primarily on that, then I’d be screwed and would probably be crying in my beer right about now. Just like with Associated Content when they decided they don’t want to really pay anymore (why not when so many people will submit for free?). When you’re working from home, or “making money online” (Ha!), then you’ve got to have a lot of options available to you. If you want that walk in tub then you’ve got to be able to hunt and peck until you succeed.
Yeah. Now that I think about it, I do sometimes feel like a chicken. Pecking at little seeds. But I’m optimistic that my ship will come in (what’s with all these cliches?) and I’ll be able to laugh in the faces of all those that doubted my abilities. Ha! Take that, naysayers! And a kick in the pants, too.
My health has been dragging lately. I’m hoping to feel a little bit better and be able to get some writing clips sent out. Dumb ol’ me didn’t save any for the resumé. No, I just write them up and send them out. This time I’m saving a copy so that I’ll just be able to attach the clip. One place was telling people in the WAHM.com forums that they were looking for bloggers, but when I applied they told me they weren’t. Yikes! Rejected. I’m pretty sure it was because of my clips. I had to link to a couple of my posts and, frankly, they’ve been lacking a lot of, um, umph! lately. Not impressive. But when I’m feeling as crappy as I’m feeling now, I just can’t get it out.
Depressed. In Pain. Grouchy. Ready to throw something at someone. That’s how I feel right now. I wonder if I can somehow manage to get those emotions out in a positive way? Yeah right. There was a specific word I was looking for right then and couldn’t find it. Why? Because I really, really suck when I’m sick. I’m just glad my browser has spellcheck, because I’d be dead in the water right now.
If any writers have any advice for how I can manage to improve my skillz through this time, I would greatly appreciate it. Otherwise, I think I’m just going to go take a nap until August.
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May
03
Posted by Lizzie
I was searching for t.v. spoilers (for my new gig) when I came across these kinds of spoilers. It’s notable because I’m going to be 35 next month and I’d never known what those things were called. I also didn’t realize they were still popular.
At any rate, I found plenty of spoilers for soap operas. Those are easy to come by. But for television dramas? Not so much. Little bits of “what’s happening next week” is about all I can come by. I’m running out of interesting ideas to write about regarding dramatic television. How many character bios does the internet need anyway? Finding something to write about on one topic is very hard for me. But it’s also a great way to get my brain working. Like writing prompts, I’m forced to be a lot more creative in finding topics- niche topics if you will. There’s more interest in reality tv (not from me) than anything else. So it’s easy to find ideas in that arena. I really don’t care what happened on “Idol” last night, but that doesn’t matter to the rest of the Internet. Apparently, I’m supposed to be addicted too.
I have to say, though, that my site there gets thousands more hits than this site or even Simply Stating. I don’t get comments, of course, but there is plenty of interest in what I’m writing. The problem is that I don’t get feedback besides the stats, so I don’t know which direction to go in with this stuff. I’m getting lost.
Is there anything particular (regarding dramatic television) that you’d be interested in reading?
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Apr
22
Posted by Lizzie
Last weekend I made a list of things that I need to get accomplished this week. On the top of that list was “Spring cleaning”. Other things on the list were “Send out Resumés”, “Write two articles”, “Study for exams”, etc. Can you believe I got two of those done? Ha!
Spring cleaning was the worst. I thought I was going to have to rent a couple of steam cleaners.Seriously, this place was musty. Down came all the curtains, out came the cleaning supplies and I got busy. All weekend. Windows, floors, ceilings, everything. It’s like new in this joint right now. It won’t last long, of course, because my home is occupied by a toddler, a dog and two slobs, but for now it looks really good.
I sent out three resumés today. Two of them were for writing gigs and one of them was for a gig that pays hourly (still working from home, of course). My poor resumeé looks like crap. And bare! Holy smokes, it’s pitiful. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed. I’m going to go back over it again tomorrow and see if there’s anyway to make it better. I thought about doing an article on that, but I really don’t have the time for researching it. Isn’t that sad?
Two weeks from tonight is my last night of class for this semester. I’d love to spend this time studying for that, but next week is a section exam. Studying for the final will have to wait until after that’s done. I’m not pleased. This class is not easy for me and I need to get a grip on the material. Since it’s comprehensive I may end up bald and in tears before it’s all over. Luckily my other class doesn’t have a final and I’ve gotten good marks on all of the projects so far. At least I don’t have to worry about that. I’ve decided to take algebra and English next semester. My coding classes will have to take a backseat to this other stuff for now.
I’m also considering moving this blog off the main index of Chipped Polish and making a portal instead. I was thinking, if I get more gigs, that I could make some kind of portfolio page and link from there. I don’t know though. It’s probably an idea that won’t see fruition for quite some time. Honestly, I can’t see myself doing anything extra until after July. By then I’ll be so sick of the warm weather I’ll be hiding inside through the day. The sun isn’t good with me. He likes to make me have episodes and I really don’t need anymore of those.
Tomorrow, I write my articles. I’ll link to them when I’ve got a few more up. Right now my page is bare and I don’t like the way it looks. I have to rearrange some categories, spruce up the forums, etc. I’ll be out of training soon, so I’ve really got to get on the ball. I can’t wait to start raking in some dough.
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Apr
11
Posted by Lizzie
Pee Wee’s pregnancy is progressing well. Her threshold for hourly contractions has been raised from 4 to 5 and she seems pretty comfortable. Now she’s more concerned with general pregnancy discomfort. She’s getting quite round and feels like her innards are going to be crushed. Her hips hurt. She pees a lot. And she could really use natural acne treatment at this point. Poor kid. She really looks like a whole other person now.
In other really GREAT news, I was just approached to do a highly lucrative review of a soon-to-be released miniseries. I almost didn’t believe it was real, but then I contacted my trainer and she assured me that it is. Holy smokes! I’m really excited about that. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Sadly, I almost got scammed by a collegiate “honor” society (not the Honors program to which I’ve applied) yesterday. Vanity was taking hold. Anyway, I’m not paying that much money for a program I’ve never heard of, just because I’m flattered. No, no, no. After a little research, I decided there are better things on which to spend my money. It would have been thrilling if it were real, though. I’d have been strutting around with that letter taped to my forehead. By the way, Collegiate honor society folks, I am the parent. Please do your research before attempting to gain entrance to my wallet. Thanks.
What’s happening with you?
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Apr
05
Posted by Lizzie
I have been so busy this past week. It’s getting crazy around here. I did manage to upgrade my blog platform and I don’t think I broke anything. If I did please let me know. Pee Wee is with her tutor right now and Mags is out at the farm (literally) with Steve, so I have a few minutes to myself. I should be doing other things though. I was thinking about popping some energy pills to get it all done today. That would be hilarious, though. It’s like I’m on fast-forward when I do stuff like that. I talk a million miles a minute and dance around…until I finally fall over. Like someone turned a switch off. I used to take those a lot when I was waiting tables. Gah, seems like forever ago.
I’m almost done with a school assignment and with training for that new position. Apparently I’m not going to get paid yet, but it’s great exposure for me. That’s fine, I guess. It’s a one day a week gig and I’ll be able to use it for writing samples. Not too bad for me I guess. I’m just stressing a tad.
Also, I called in to get my prescription refilled yesterday and the nurse didn’t do it. I’ll have to until Monday night without my meds. That ought to be really interesting. Yikes.
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