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My budget smokes crack...sometimes.

June 6th, 2011 at 03:52 am

Just went through my budget (for the 100th time) b/c as I'm busy doing something during the day, I will think of tweaking this or moving that to improve cash flow & savings, etc.

Well, today I was happily rearranging stuff and I started looking at my 'savings' tab on my spreadsheet that is linked to the budget tab. Turns out I had some of my formulas messed up and I won't be saving as much as I planned for 2011!! So frustrating and disheartening....I had planned to get some major debt paid down with the money I was saving and now that will not be possible until more like early 2012.

With that annoying find today, I started thinking about ways to make some extra money to supplement our income. My husband is already got stuff lined up to bring in some extra money this summer but now I think I will need to find something to do too.

Does anyone have any ideas -- I might be able to pull off another garage sale but I'm not holding my breath on that being ultra productive. We have construction in front of our house right now and the road is torn up -- folks have to "find" the detour to get to my drive way and I'm not sure if it would be a waste of time. Anyway -- any other thoughts from anyone out there in the blogosphere?

7 Responses to “My budget smokes crack...sometimes.”

  1. My English Castle Says:
    1307332835

    Ebay? Craigslist? They're my fixations lately...

  2. patientsaver Says:
    1307357521

    1. Sell stuff on Craig's List.
    2. If you live in or near a city, look under "Volunteers" section of Craig's List and see if there are any market research focus groups in your area.
    3. Sign up with Toluna or Pinecone to do online surveys. I average $80 to $100 a month doing these, but it takes a lot of time: I spend about an hour or so every day.
    4. don't know enough about you, but do you work? Even p/t can help. It sounds like you've pared down the budget as much as you can already.

  3. snshijuptr Says:
    1307376281

    Ebay, amazon, and craigslist. I'm currently trying to cut the number of books in our house in half.

    Are you a SAHM? Could you babysit other children?

    As always keep an eye out for ways to cut expenses, which can be more effective in the long term than temporary increases in income.

  4. baselle Says:
    1307391961

    There always the classic blood plasma route. I volunteered for a vaccine study - $50 each blood draw. A friend of mine just mentioned this weekend that he proctored a SAT test at the local university - $100/5 hours. I'd check the local alternative paper ... between the sales commission jobs and sex ads you might see something doable.

  5. crazyliblady Says:
    1307405523

    I would suggest doing surveys. I would be happy to send you referrals. Also, do you order stuff online? I can send you a referral to a place where you can get online shopping coupons, free shipping, etc. The discounts vary depending on what you order. Also, if you can do so, you might consider donating plasma. I understand that some plasma places pay around $20 each time. Try saving your pocket change like in a jar or something. If I do this regularly, I can save at least $10 a month, and one year, I saved around $1000 to go on a trip like this. Then, there is always coupons. I don't advocate going mad with them, because that can actually result in not saving money, but using coupons for stuff you already buy in addition to buying stuff on sale can save you a lot of money. I don't buy the newspaper, because there are never good coupons there, but I occasionally buy them at www dot couponkutters dot com for as little as a penny each. There is also a coupon swapping place at www dot thriftyfun dot com. You have to sign up for a free membership, but you don't get spam as a resul. None of these amounts to a lot per month, but together, they could help out a lot in meeting your goals. Good luck.

  6. crazyliblady Says:
    1307405637

    Another thing is to try www dot cash4books dot net. They will buy books directly, and unlike ebay, you don't have to wait for an auction to end. You know right away whether they will buy it or not and they pay for the shipping to them.

  7. Jerry Says:
    1307907829

    It could also be possible to have a combined garage sale with someone who doesn't have construction in front of their place! We did that once, and it would lead to a great success. We actually had three families involved, chose the place with the most traffic, and it offered us some insurance of a better outcome than if we had done it on our quiet side street.
    Jerry

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