Is anyone else broke right now?

I understand how stressful that is. I am *finally* getting a handle on my finances. I'm sick of over drafting and living pay check to pay check so I'm starting to make better decisions and budget my money better.

One other thing I've been doing is helping my computer illiterate friends sell stuff on ebay and craigslist. They give me 30% of whatever we sell. I've also been helping people here and there with their computer problems. I charge them $20/hr. So that little bit of extra money here and there helps.

Can you do something like this? 

I have thought of ebay. I actually have my own stuff I could sell, I have a garage full of furniture that is extra from when DH and I got married and merged our stuff. I was hanging on to it in case we got a bigger house soon, but, yeah....we actually have a third car we've been trying to sell too. After these next couple of months things should be better. I haven't been very conscious of where my money was going for a while, and I've found a few areas we can cut back, eating out and Target and Petsmart visits, lol, it just won't make an impact until next month. And in two months the medical bills will be paid off too, so that'll be good. It's just frustrating, it seems like we've been taking one step forward, two steps back for a while.

Boy howdy do I know where you're coming from, albeit on a different scale.  I only have Joey to take care of and my rent will actually be paid on time.  I just have, let's see, after today's $30 trip to Walmart for two weeks worth of groceries... $40 to last two weeks.  I foresee lots of gas going on the credit card I can't seem to pay down.  At least it'll be half the gas bill it used to be.  Monday I start back at my old job and it's sooo much closer.  Plus I won't have to pay $200/month to have Joey walked every day.

Where is the sense in this: Paycheck for final week at job I just left won't come until the next regular pay schedule (okay, I understand that, sorta) but then the payout for my unused vacation time won't come until two weeks after that!  Why?!  I'm really trying to look for the silver lining and be thankful I'm getting it at all but sheesh, I could so use that money right now!  Guess it's kind of forcing me to save it though because once it comes, I won't be in dire straits anymore.

Is anyone else thankful the stimulus checks are coming sooner?

Yeah, I know how that goes. Btw, I've sold furniture and my old car through Craigslist pretty fast and there's no fee like you get on ebay.

I think that most of my money goes to my dogs and food for myself. I have to stop myself from always buying new toys and rawhides and such. The dogs won't die without these things, you know? Plus I can live off grilled cheese sandwiches and scrambled eggs if I need to for a while lol That's cheap! 

 I'm there with you.  I think I have about $140 to last me until next Friday.  Not that I NEED to spend it, but I hate not having something there, just in case.  Julie, any  more tips you have, send em out please!

Yeah, that last paycheck business....I'm trying not to panic right now, because if DH's last check comes in a timely manner we'll be ok, but he didn't leave on great terms, so I don't really trust them to give a crap about his check. Worst case scenario, I'll borrow a couple hundred bucks from my mom until next month.

I too am broke and TIRED OF IT!!! We are paying our bills but little money for any food for us. Yes our dogs come first. With Maxine having knee surgery in 2005 and 2006. Then Art's crap car needed $3500 in repairs so we could trade the POS in, followed by Teddi's THR we ar drowning.

Unfortunately I don't have anything to sell. I am going to look at one of the data entry online jobs. It costs a little to get started but a couple of the sites were rated good for return.

I am hoping our tax rebate hits our account this week (we filed our taxes EARLY) we need that to pay the credit card bills.
 

we're not screaming broke at the moment by my business is suffering with the recession/economic stress.  And I understand that.  So about a month or so ago I decided I would like to get a part time job or a reasonable ft job.  I hate not having my own income.  Well so far nothing.  Stunned.  I've never had trouble before so I'm working on not freaking out.

I was going to say that Craiglist is very easy for large items and for lots of stuff.  I have a separate email for it so I don't get any crap to my main account. And I tend to meet people somewhere to make the deal - furniture is another story.  Overall I have been happy with that for sales.  I used to use eBay all the time but that has become a lot of work for not much profit.  Another place is Amazon sales.  When you look up an item you see the 'used' option.  If you click on that on the right hand side you should see sell yours.  I've had some good success with that.  They take a decent cut but the sale price is generally a lot better than eBay.

LOL I am thinking about offering dog walking services in our community - I've got Bugs out anyway.  Also looking at going back to teaching trumpet and trombone privately. 

I feel like up until maybe 6 months ago we were doing okay... not great, but we had a wee bit of money left over at the end of the month to save.  Now, I'm glad we did since everything has gone up so much!! 1/4 tank of gas was $15 the other day!!  We spent $92 grocery shopping for TWO people, and not like we got much meat or anything pricy....  Sigh.  Living on one income and only getting paid once a month really has its downsides sometimes. 

It's like we were finally getting a handle on things and saving money for a house, but with the economy so unstable I wouldn't dare buy a house any time soon since it would put us on thin ice if anything happened. 

DH's mom is moving here next month and she has been job hunting since January -- though she's had a few phone interviews, she's not had one real nibble.  And its not like she works in a specialty field or anything.  It's pretty sad how our economy is at the moment. 

So yeah... I get paid on Wednesday so there'll be a few days, until I pay the bills, where we aren't broke.  yay!

Kiddo I have soooo been there !! Some days are golden and some not so much..... I have hit a pawn shop or two when things got really tight and I have cut back on major things.  I budget my personal income on less than 800.00 a month that is to raise two grandkids compleately and assist with the other 3 that have been with us since birth. Medical bills about wiped me out when my insurance changed last year for several months and I went from zero co pay to a hefty one with no notice. I wanted to cry when all the bills satrted coming in!   Raising the 9 dogs can be a challenge, two have a moma who pays well for thier care  but the rest are mine or my daughters. I recently made her take her 9 year old RR to the vet for a skin rash and was not real surprized when it ended up on my vet bill !! That is another 100.00 I did not need to pay out.  My MIL taught me ages ago "This too shall pass" It will, and we sure aren't alone. Right now I have 1.75 till the first !

Bonita of Bwana

 We're not poor. we just dont have any money....  

now in the eyes of my fellow countrymen we're dirt poor. my husband has been out of work for five months. God only knows how we've survived like this but so far the only casualty has been the internet lol (we're running off my mom's wireless now though!!)

one thing that helped was DH getting into that car accident. yeah it hurts to lose a very good working auto... but i dont think he could have sold it for the price the insurance company paid him for it. if i could find her i would thank the dippy DHL driver for making that illegal U-turn...

my husband has been going to interviews and everyone is saying "We're looking for people but wont need them until next month".. we are waiting on one company to get back to him within the next three weeks over a job that would put us back on track. but its been the same thing for the last five months. he's been working odd jobs in between that but its getting to be a bit redundant.... the money he makes only pays for the gas to go back into town to make enough gas money to go back into town... etc and so on.

anyway other than gas money and electric bills we're doing ok. we have two milk goats, loads of chickens and birds, several rabbits and a few gardens so thats how we weather THAT part of the storm lol so i dont feel too bad about moving to the country... i dont know HOW we'd cope if we had to buy groceries on top of gas........ welfare i guess?
 

I've been thinking of that too (the dog walking thing) but I've been toying with the idea of dog boarding for like $15/night. I'm on an area wide dog e-group and people are always looking for someone to watch their dogs while they're away. It'd be fairly easy money for a few days. Just something to help buy groceries for the week - or dog food. 

Jewlieee

I've been thinking of that too (the dog walking thing) but I've been toying with the idea of dog boarding for like $15/night. I'm on an area wide dog e-group and people are always looking for someone to watch their dogs while they're away. It'd be fairly easy money for a few days. Just something to help buy groceries for the week - or dog food. 

The extra money you make from dog sitting or dog walking helps a ton!! Unfortunately around here it seems like everyone is a dogsitter anymore so its hard to get people, but I get a few a month and the extra few hundred bucks helps me alot.

BTW, I'm broke as a joke!  

Things are definitely on the tight side over here too with the move and the condo and everything.  Particularly when my company last week decided to NOT pay for relocation since I was the one sho suggested it in the first place; however, they want me to go.  Oh well! 

I have a couple new job prospects in the hopper so maybe one of them will come through.

We have sold some stuff on ebay and Craig's List and it does help, that's for sure!