Doing what is necessary.

I've been bartering! Look at this bounty from my friend's garden:



Then I went to Sprouts and bought a ton of lean meats on sale, so I should be good to not shop for at least two weeks. Today I'm getting a free haircut, since I bartered for that too. Last week I bartered babysitting for a massage- I was hurting pretty badly, and sorely needed it.

I start a babysitting gig on Thursday nights with a family I know well and love, so that will be awesome- and they said I could bring Petri with me!

If only I could barter for insurance (health, business, legal, auto), rent, utilities and my big quarterly federal tax payment that's due in two weeks.

Bartering aside, I'm simply making tough but necessary changes. I'm reducing my monthly Roth IRA payments from the max to the min. I'm not renewing my lease, so I will move out of here on November 29th. I have a place to go and there are so many pros- I'm moving in with people I love, I will have a private room, Petri will live with his best friend and have a fenced in backyard! The cons are that I will not have my own place any more, no longer have access to the pool/hot tub at my apartment complex, and that I will miss living 5 blocks from my pal Mike.

Bartering and belt tightening aside, I'm looking for other income sources: Babysitting, house/pet sitting errand running, light cleaning/laundry, maybe even driving for Lyft.

I'm also attending extra networking events, scheduling one on ones, and making improvements all over to my business, since this is the ONLY job that I want to be doing, in a perfect world.

As for my 2 debts and why I started this blog... I still have zero credit card debt (yay!), and I don't have a car payment due until November since I *KILLED* it this summer with the big car payments (I still have $3,500 to go on that), and this will be the first month that I make only the minimum payment on my monthly medical bill- I have been paying $1000/month, but will have to only pay $560 this month: Still have $4,000 left on this bill to pay off.

Adulting is hard.

Comments

  1. HilarySeptember 5, 2017 at 6:50 AM

    Fun fact for those with fluctuating incomes: If you need to rob Peter to pay Paul, you will not have an IRS penalty if you pay less than your quarterly estimate as long as you make a payment of some sort. While your accountant may print out fancy coupons with amounts printed in the boxes, you can just print your own damn forms (page 9 of the 1040-ES) and write in what you can afford. I'm not suggesting you don't pay the total estimate for the year, just bringing to light that if you have less income in September, you can boost that payment earlier in the year or in January. Also...if you think you may owe less to the IRS, you can adjust those payments accordingly!!
    -This unsolicited suggestion offered by Hilary Garlic Fingers :-) :-*

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