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Friends, perhaps you’ve seen my February status post. My husband and I are getting really, really close to being Debt Free, and we can’t wait. We think if we work hard, we can have the remaining $7,000 paid off in July. But my mind is telling me “that’s just not good enough.”
So I’m going to hustle.
Here’s my plan so far.
1. Speed up accounts receivable with my existing small-business clients. Some clients are a little bite late and I can hurry them up a little bit.
2. Actively search for work in the hours that I’m not scheduled.
3. Step up the freelancing. I’ve only been freelancing part time, and I don’t solicit work every month—let alone every week.
4. Sell some stuff. Not sure how much stuff I can come up with that needs selling, but a few hundred extra bucks will do it.
Truth be told, I only work about 10-15 hours a week, and spend the rest of my time on volunteer work, home schooling the kids and housework. Oh, and Twitter. Twitter is going to have to go, and maybe even the housework.
What else should I do to try to bring in this $7,000 faster? I’ve sold almost everything of value that doesn’t also have a sentimental attachment. I don’t qualify to sell plasma… babysitting? Pizza delivery?
If you had a crazy goal to raise $7,000 extra in three months, how would you go about it?
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I would buy/sell penny stocks
just kidding, hey, slow down and do it in 2 months. Its been this long whats 30 days!
Don’t do pizza delivery. You’ll end up spending a whole lot of money on gas (and depreciation on your car).
Babysitting might work, though.
Also, you might want to look into “mystery shopping.” I’ve never done it, but I’m signed up for a few mailing lists that post available jobs. Most pay $10-$15 / shop. Some will just reimburse you for what you are evaluating (i.e. pizza shops), but information like this is always clearly marked. Mystery shopping has the possibility of helping you make a decent bit of extra cash in your spare time.
Thanks Jake for the ideas. I’ve looked at Mystery Shopping before, but it usually relies on people already buying consumer products. We buy VERY little aside from groceries and gasoline. We buy our groceries from a cooperative grocery store that doesn’t use mystery shopping.
Thanks for the tips on pizza delivery. My hours are already erratic because I own a mobile notary service and am often called upon to do notarizations on weekends and evenings–the busiest times for pizza delivery.
Shall take a look at babysitting–my kids especially would welcome another kiddo around the house.
I like the babysitting idea. I am not sure what your dinner menus are like now, but you could go with no meat a day or two a week. You could also cut the packaged snacks for apples or bananas. If you could squeeze the grocery budget for an extra $50 or so a month it might help. You can always eat steak in July.
Chris–we’re about as frugal as you can ever find on food–I calculate it down to the penny, but recently started doing the Atkins diet, so I’m going from an $0.08 serving of steel-cut-oatmeal for breakfast every morning to $0.44 worth of eggs every day. (It’s worth it for the 14 lbs I’ve lost now).
We feed a family of four on $80 a week including household cleaners and toilet paper and all that stuff into or “grocery” budget. We’re crazy thrifty when it comes to food.
Depends where you live… shovel snow? Garage sale? Have a pot luck and hope people leave you the leftovers? Good luck!
Have you checked on working for the census? In my area you can work 20-40 hours a week for up to 10 weeks, and the pay is 17.75/hr. They have desk jobs along with the door to door gigs.
http://2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs/
We went around our house and sold EVERYTHING we no longer used on e-bay.
It is the time of year that phone companies are hiring contractors to deliver their phone books. At least in my area. If it is happening in your area, it usually goes on for around 4 – 6 weeks.
Do either of you have any skills like web development, photography, handyman stuff? Do you have a truck that you can haul things with? You can’t make a lot doing that, but $20-40 here and there. Craigslist is a good place for that. Do you have Fridays or Saturdays open in the evening. Waitressing on the weekend can make a good $100 or so in tips. Doing spring clean-ups for people is a little early yet, but good in a couple months.
Chris
I never thought of phone book deliveries. I think my challenge has been I got complacent on marketing my small business and I haven’t replaced clients as my old clients go out of business. I spent some serious time today on seeking new clients, and I also did a little “howdy letter” to clients I already had.
To raise $7K in 3 months I would sell my motorcycle and then make up the rest by selling stock.
Hello, I think you should look into selling anything you can live without on ebay, I’ve been selling some items from around the house, I made 2950 dollars, and it took me two months.