Personal Finance Advice

As predicted, eight of the last nine days have been no-spend-days as I continue to house sit and work on my writing. This has been great news for the minimum wage challenge. As mentioned before, I had everything that I really needed which gave me the opportunity to save a bit of money, although it [...]

As I expected, I woke up quite sore from a the day of digging in the sand. I definitely used more than a few muscles that I don’t normally use, and my body decided to remind me of that the entire day. Even when sitting in front of the computer most of the day where [...]

My current house sitting job ends tomorrow, so a good part of the day was spent cleaning the place to make it look better on their return. Washing, vacuuming, cleaning and all that fun stuff. While doing all that, I began to reflect what I was able to do the first month. The only major [...]

If there were ever a reward for people who somehow seem to embarrass themselves on an ongoing basis, I would certainly be in the running to receive it. I kept up that tradition with flying colors today. I usually take showers a bit late. My normal routine is to get up in the morning and [...]

One of the risks which comes along with traveling from house to house to house is that sometimes I forget things. I have plenty of razors (TIP: I get them for free from drug stores — every time a razor company comes out with a new model razor, you can almost always get them for [...]

Why is it that when there is something wrong with a car, whatever seems to be wrong with it miraculously resolves itself the minute that you bring the car in to get repaired? Today was the last day I had before I needed to head back up north to house sit, so I thought I [...]

With the end of the current house sitting job, I have three days before the next one begins. Since I’ve managed to not have to pay anything for lodging so far this month, I figured that I should try to make that the case for the entire month. The plan was to go to visit [...]

This might sound a little strange, but I’m finding that if I want to save money and reduce my costs as part of this minimum wage challenge, one of the best ways to do that is to do more than people expect (it’s also a great way to get more business and earn more money). [...]

As I previously noted, I like to leave places in better shape than when I arrived, so I spent most of the morning vacuuming and cleaning up the house where I had been house sitting. I consider myself a fairly neat person, but it’s amazing how dirty a place can get with two dogs running [...]

Life likes to throw curves. Sometimes even knuckle-balls into the dirt. And on a rare occasion, the ball comes directly at you and hits you in the head. That is exactly what the last couple of days have felt like. Although I’m not somebody who usually gets stressed, I can confidently say that my blood [...]

Apparently my sister is not only my sister, but also an evil genius on par with all the worst comic book villains of all time in her ability to morph things in ways to get her intended purpose no matter what. I don’t date. It’s not that I think there is anything wrong with dating, [...]

I know it’s been a good week when I felt it was strange that I wasn’t able to go and travel someplace today, although I did get to enjoy the backyard views of the house where I was house sitting (see above). As far as weeks go, I have a feeling that it’s going to [...]

I would be lying if I said I didn’t wake up with a bit of a hangover (I figured I should let 2012 go out big even if I was celebrating alone while house sitting). I have been pleasantly surprised at the way that things have developed for the first day of this minimum wage [...]

By Linda D. I’m able to sock away an average of $700 a month by sitting around. I wish I could say that I was bright enough to have come up with the way to sit and earn money, but the reality is that it kind of fell into my lap. This is what happened. [...]