Because I Just Don't Have Enough to Do
I'm contemplating a second job.
As much as I'd love that discount (and the ability to wear a red top with khakis on a daily basis), I won't be applying at Target. I was cruising Craig's list yesterday and stumbled upon a transcription company. So far they seem legit, and this is the sort of thing I can do late at night, when Ben's at work and Bob's in bed, in my pajamas, with a cocoa and Kahlua in hand. And it pays $15 an hour, with no fees or start-up costs.
Except that I may need to invest in a new dictaphone. Mine is a cheap $15 Target job that's now two years old, and it's painfully obvious. I may need to invest in a better one, unless I can figure out how to connect the start/stop foot pedal from my transcriber to the computer, or somehow otherwise come up with a start/stop strategy. The audio files are MP3 files. For the test files, I played the MP3 file and recorded it on my cheap shitty recorder, then transcribed the tape with my transcriber. Then I listened to the MP3 file again to check my work. It took about double the time to do it this way, so if anyone has a nerdy suggestion, I'm all ears.
At any rate, I've decided I need to find a way to make a little more money trickle in, while spending as little more time away from home as possible. I don't do the "night/weekend job" gig anymore. Call it laziness or whatever, but when I get home at 5:00, I don't have any intention of going back to work until morning. And working weekends? Perish the thought. I'm too old for that shit.
But I'm also too broke to just rely on my day job for income. We've got shitloads of debt to pay, and with child support being questionable at best and non-existent at worst, and a husband whose hours are as unforgiving as the salary he's paid to keep them, the burden to take up the slack falls on...yes, me. I suppose I could send Bob out to find a job. Or dirty him up a little, dress him in some of the too-small clothes db sends him home in, and put him on the corner with a "pleez help" sign around his neck. (Actually, that sounds promising.)
Or I could just make some money at my old stand-by. (Meaning transcription. Hooking would be my second old stand-by.)
I still wish I knew how my parents managed to have four children on one (lousy) income. Our house was small and crowded, we shared rooms, we didn't wear the most expensive clothes, we didn't eat out, we drove used cars, and there were times we walked away from the dinner table wanting more, but we certainly weren't destitute. How the hell did my parents do it?
Well, now that I think about it, my parents weren't spending upwards of $300 a month on a loan for legal fees. My parents didn't pay for child care. They didn't have student loans. They paid $28k for their house. And we ate a lot of canned tuna and ramen noodles (which I'm not willing to subject myself to as an adult).
And it would be nice to still have some money coming in when I take off to have a baby next summer. If it happens. When it happens.
As much as I'd love that discount (and the ability to wear a red top with khakis on a daily basis), I won't be applying at Target. I was cruising Craig's list yesterday and stumbled upon a transcription company. So far they seem legit, and this is the sort of thing I can do late at night, when Ben's at work and Bob's in bed, in my pajamas, with a cocoa and Kahlua in hand. And it pays $15 an hour, with no fees or start-up costs.
Except that I may need to invest in a new dictaphone. Mine is a cheap $15 Target job that's now two years old, and it's painfully obvious. I may need to invest in a better one, unless I can figure out how to connect the start/stop foot pedal from my transcriber to the computer, or somehow otherwise come up with a start/stop strategy. The audio files are MP3 files. For the test files, I played the MP3 file and recorded it on my cheap shitty recorder, then transcribed the tape with my transcriber. Then I listened to the MP3 file again to check my work. It took about double the time to do it this way, so if anyone has a nerdy suggestion, I'm all ears.
At any rate, I've decided I need to find a way to make a little more money trickle in, while spending as little more time away from home as possible. I don't do the "night/weekend job" gig anymore. Call it laziness or whatever, but when I get home at 5:00, I don't have any intention of going back to work until morning. And working weekends? Perish the thought. I'm too old for that shit.
But I'm also too broke to just rely on my day job for income. We've got shitloads of debt to pay, and with child support being questionable at best and non-existent at worst, and a husband whose hours are as unforgiving as the salary he's paid to keep them, the burden to take up the slack falls on...yes, me. I suppose I could send Bob out to find a job. Or dirty him up a little, dress him in some of the too-small clothes db sends him home in, and put him on the corner with a "pleez help" sign around his neck. (Actually, that sounds promising.)
Or I could just make some money at my old stand-by. (Meaning transcription. Hooking would be my second old stand-by.)
I still wish I knew how my parents managed to have four children on one (lousy) income. Our house was small and crowded, we shared rooms, we didn't wear the most expensive clothes, we didn't eat out, we drove used cars, and there were times we walked away from the dinner table wanting more, but we certainly weren't destitute. How the hell did my parents do it?
Well, now that I think about it, my parents weren't spending upwards of $300 a month on a loan for legal fees. My parents didn't pay for child care. They didn't have student loans. They paid $28k for their house. And we ate a lot of canned tuna and ramen noodles (which I'm not willing to subject myself to as an adult).
And it would be nice to still have some money coming in when I take off to have a baby next summer. If it happens. When it happens.
posted by Mitzi Green at 9:05 AM
2 Comments:
Put that young lad to work selling lemonade in summer and shoveling snow in winter.
That should do it.
He's cute; he'll get big tips.
I was thinking along the lines of a chimney sweep, that way he'd be covered in soot and nobody would know who he is and therefore wouldn't identify the cruel mother who put him to the task ;0)
I'm with you on the evenings and weekends being out. 9.00pm is for sitting in front of the tele sinking a spritzer not scanning some skank's shopping.
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