Sorry for the lack of posting. Things have been hectic in our house. Our youngest had gotten the flu and was home sick for a while. Luckily the rest of us seemed to have dodged the worst of it…for now anyway. I did end up taking a few more days off of work to take care of my daughter while she was home sick… and I was glad I did. I am never the parent to take time off or deal with any of the kids when they are sick–my husband usually does because his schedule is much more flexible. With everything going on at work, I honestly did not care what they said or did and I had zero guilt for taking the time off. Not anymore, no way.
So, I did decide to go back to work. It was definitely not an easy decision and one I did not take lightly. The economy did have a lot to do with my decision–a lot to do with it. Although I am freelancing now part-time and earning money steadily, I am scared to take the leap to do it full-time. I see all these people out of jobs and hear horror stories in my own family and I am scared. Granted, my job is no guarantee–working for someone else is never a guarantee. I could get fired, laid off, company could close down—who knows? But, I know the status of my position right now and I am pretty comfortable that I will have a steady check–at least for a little while.
I was not happy going back to work. As a matter of fact, my first day back was horrible and I hated it. I kept trying to be positive but I was miserable. It was noticeable. Then I got mad at myself for being so miserable. I kept telling myself how lucky I was to have a paycheck. Some people don’t. But no matter what I did, I was unhappy. Finally I broke down and had a talk with my boss. I kept it short and sweet. Basically I offered to give up a day and work 4 days a week. It would put me just under 40 hours which is fine with me. The company saves money and I save my sanity! With that…I got my day off. 
Yes, I am losing money per paycheck, but I freelance all day on my day off. No commute, I spend more time with my family, and honestly it is really helping me out. Now when I am at work for the 4 days, I have so much work to keep me busy, nothing really bothers me. I don’t have time to get bothered. For now anyway…
If I did not do it this way, I would have cracked. I would have quit. So right now I have the best of both worlds: I freelance and get a steady paycheck. It is my way to test out the waters. If I continue to do well writing, I will eventually leave my job permanently. For now though, I am taking my money I earn freelancing and putting it in savings. Gosh, I never thought I would have money in savings.
So now that the little one is all better and things are getting back to normal here–I will be posting more frequently. Luckily on the financial front we are doing a lot better than we were this time last year. That is always a good thing.
Hey glad things are working out, hope everyone is feeling better now! Its awesome you have money in savings, and glad the job worked out with 4 days. Are you really making money freelancing? I always hear about it but never really knew anyone that could make a go of it. It’s awesome if you are, and then just keep it up! If you could make it work than maybe you have a new profession!
: )
Thanks J! I thought the exact same thing. Heck, I think everything is a scam-because half the time they usually are
. I started out writing a few articles for a site a while back and made a few bucks. I got excited. I would read various writing forums and WAHM forums and paid attention to advice from people that actually do this full-time for a living. I found other companies to get my feet wet with by doing that and have been so happy with the outcome!
The sites I work for from what I hear aren’t the top payers, but I will admit I am not exactly upset by that. I am new to this and don’t expect to get paid the big bucks that an experienced writer would make. When I get that experience, yes I would want to be paid for it. In time I hope. I am happy with the pay so far.
The real passive income though is in the niche blogs/sites I talk about. I have a few and have let them sit. It is funny, I neglect my own sites but write content for others…lol. I am gonna work on those tonight.
I wish I knew about a lot of this stuff when I was knee deep in debt. No wait–not knee deep…drowning in debt! This may have helped us with settlements. But I still have no regrets. For as much debt as we had, I am just grateful we are no longer suffering. Gosh it was hard. We lived and learned and will never go back again. Doing all these things like being frugal and cutting coupons, surveys, writing, and saving will definitely keep us out of debt.
Even if I keep working a day job or if the writing for some reason doesn’t work out, I know now to always have a few things lined up. My eggs will never be in one basket–that’s for sure.