Saturday, February 04, 2006

Ranting and Raving

So I apologize up front for the attitude of this post- it will not be very positive. I will try to condense as much as I can while still retaining the integrity of the story :) Some of you know what Timm's job arrangement consisted of: He ran a scuba shop, and in turn, took the store's profits each month. Based on last year's sales, we were supposed to make a good $8000 more than we had been making a year, which would have made life comfortable. (i.e. not watching every single penny, just every nickel...) Well, we kept on for about 6 months, waiting for the payoff we expected, but each month was just not quite as good as we had hoped. Well, January the store took a loss of almost $3,000. The shop's owner gave us a pity $1,000 for us to live on, and luckily we have some student loans to make up the difference. We decided that we couldn't keep on doing this. The business arrangement was just not proving as productive as we needed it to be. It's really unfortunate for a few reasons. This was the first time since I've known Timm that he didn't have 3 jobs. He scheduled himself, so it was flexible. He never had to work Sundays, and he was home most nights by 8 pm instead of 11. He still wasn't hanging around the house all the time, but I saw him some nights and every Sunday. He was the boss, so it was flexible. He and the store owner decided that with Timm's school schedule he just didn't;'t have the time to devote to running the shop the way it was needed. So the new arrangement is that Timm will be paid by the hour. The problem: with his heavy school load (17 1/2 credits) he will only make about $1000 a month. We don't know what else he can do. He is already at school for 15 hours some days of the week, and has a part-time job at BYU as well. I don' tknow what we're going to do. We have to consider all of our options- I'm even thinking of getting a paper route in the wee hours. My dad did that supplementary for a few years, and Rachelle does that now as a single mom so she can stay home with her son. It sounds absolutely horrible, but like I said, we have to explore all of our options. (I guess it's a really good thing that it turned out I wasn't pregnant!) Oh, and the real stickler of it all... Obviously we won't be buying our new place :( For those of you who didn't know, we had put money down on a condo that is in construction and we were going to move in June. It was going to be brand-new and we were going to get to pick out our materials and everything. We're going to have to see if we can get our money back and continue renting. Ah, the American dream has died. Obviously I'm pretty bummed about this all, but I'm trying to keep a stiff upper lip. The world I escape to in my book is filled with much more suffering than this so I am trying to keep a perspective. However, I still don't know how we're going to make it... Even if we can manage to survive monthly, we're back to that dismal existence where we can't ever take a day off because we can't afford for Timm to miss work- if the car breaks down we have no reserves to fix it, we have no money for gifts for people's birthdays, definitely no discressionary money so we wait for birthdays and Christmas to cash in... I'm sorry I'm just complaining, but I need a sounding board to vent to. I know many of you will understand this, so I needed to vent somewhere. Please forgive the self-pity. I'll get over it.
*Any ideas for a job for me?*

6 comments:

Jill said...

Oh Jessie, I feel your pain. It looks bleak, but I have a great suggestion for you. Become a scrapbooking celebrity and rake in the cash while working from home! You should do an all out assault on the industry and submit your pages and projects to all the magazines. I would think that in a short while they'd be hiring you for specific projects and you will become a regular contributor to the magazines. (Scrapbooks etc. pays the most.) Until then, the paper route might be a viable plan or perhaps some sort of data entry from home.

Anonymous said...

I sooooo feel your pain and understand the hopelessness! I have been looking for work from home stuff for a while and have come up with nothing except the inconsistent LP stuff, which has slowed down considerably. I am actually looking for something part time in the evenings, so as I am looking, I will let ya know if I see anything you can do in the wee hours as you put it. Hang in there though, this is just a small part of your whole life that will pass in time. (at least that is what I keep telling myself)

michelle said...

Oh drat!! What a huge let-down! I second Jill's suggestion: I think you're the next big thing. Before you know it you'll be getting paid and published and you'll probably be the next contributing writer, too. Start sending those pages in!

Anonymous said...

Oh Jessie, I am so sorry to hear that. :( I will keep an eye out for you , in terms of a job - I'm still looking some too. Unless I get a possibly more permanent position early this week at Meier & Frank, I will have to find something else. You can always start by subscribing to Monster.com, or check the 'jobs' page at the utah.gov site. You and Timm will definitely be in our thoughts and prayers!

Anonymous said...

I got this off a group I am in regarding building your scrap resume...maybe check them out???

"There is a website http://www.scrapbookresumes.com/ that will advertise your services (for a fee I believe). http://www.scrapsubmit.com/ is another site to help scrappers "get out there"."

everything pink! said...

I know you don't know me, i know your sister (who i love by the way)
My husband is finising his 10th year of school. I feel like we have had a carrot dangling in front of us for so long. The biggest mistakes we have made was thinking that it would be just as fun to live the life we wanted to live even if we couldn't afford it and that because people our own age were doing something or being able to do something we should too. Don't fal into the trap of what the real american dream is. It is not the house, the car, it is people who love you. Having patience at a time like this can be so hard! I have a great bag business concept you could do if you know how to sew. It is what paid our groceries during the first few years of residency. email me if you want me to give you some information. Hang in there, these will be the days you treasure.. oh who wants to hear that! but you will.
www.everythingispink.blogspot.com

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...