Back to school with a family.
This blog will chronicle the absurd things a 23 year old returning college student with a wife and a kid will do to finish college.
Absurd Things:
I quit a job where I made $40k a year as a sign electrician to move my wife(no kid then) from SoCal to small town New Mexico so that I could go back to school and get my degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Somehow I got lost after moving to NM and ended up doing a few different things: sign electrician, gas station attendant, used car salesman, water well technician and slot machine technician. All in a two year period since moving.
I ended up owning a house 100 miles from the school I wanted to go to. So I put my house up for sale and went back to school. 20,000 miles later I sold my house. It only took an entire school year.
Now in year 2 of back to school I live in the right town, only 1 mile away from the campus. I have two crappy jobs: working in a warehouse on campus for $7.50/hour and delivering pizzas at Domino's for a few hours a night.
That wouldn't be so bad except that my rent is $900 a month. Did I mention my wife is a stay at home mom? So I am the sole source of income in the home. On the bright side my financial aid/student loans after I pay for tuition/books will pay for the rent for 8 months. So I only have to cover bills, car payment, food, diapers etc. At least until May.
So I've been working on ways to increase the efficiency of my monetary pursuits. Namely make more money working less hours. Then I could work more hours and make even more money.
Ways to make more money:
Mow lawns - I already have a lawnmower and a weedwacker so I figured I could mow people's lawns and make decent money. So I made a pull-tab flier last week and put them on all the bulletin boards at school. So far there have been a few tabs pulled but no calls. I think my flier is too busy. Too much text. I probably need to make it simpler.
Sell bottled water - I didn't come up with this idea I got it from http://nevblog.com
So anyway last night I bought a case of water at Smith's grocery store for $3.99. I figured sell them for a buck and make $20 a case. I put the water in the fridge, cleaned up a cooler I already had and rounded up some dollar bills for change. I planned on selling the water on campus because most of the vending machines don't have bottled water in them only soda. So I got up this morning and it was raining and the high today is only going to be in the low 70s. Bad day to start so I put the water idea on hold till the weather gets better which should be next Monday.
Sell Pizza - This one is still in the incubation stage, but I am thinking of a way to buy pizza from Domino's with my employee discount (60%) and sell pizza by the slice on campus. I can get a large pizza for $6. It has 8 slices and selling them at $2 each would net me $10 per pizza. I am still working the details out on this one. Once I see how bottled water goes (whether campus police tell me to cut it out or else) then I'll yea or nay this one.
Absurd Things:
I quit a job where I made $40k a year as a sign electrician to move my wife(no kid then) from SoCal to small town New Mexico so that I could go back to school and get my degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Somehow I got lost after moving to NM and ended up doing a few different things: sign electrician, gas station attendant, used car salesman, water well technician and slot machine technician. All in a two year period since moving.
I ended up owning a house 100 miles from the school I wanted to go to. So I put my house up for sale and went back to school. 20,000 miles later I sold my house. It only took an entire school year.
Now in year 2 of back to school I live in the right town, only 1 mile away from the campus. I have two crappy jobs: working in a warehouse on campus for $7.50/hour and delivering pizzas at Domino's for a few hours a night.
That wouldn't be so bad except that my rent is $900 a month. Did I mention my wife is a stay at home mom? So I am the sole source of income in the home. On the bright side my financial aid/student loans after I pay for tuition/books will pay for the rent for 8 months. So I only have to cover bills, car payment, food, diapers etc. At least until May.
So I've been working on ways to increase the efficiency of my monetary pursuits. Namely make more money working less hours. Then I could work more hours and make even more money.
Ways to make more money:
Mow lawns - I already have a lawnmower and a weedwacker so I figured I could mow people's lawns and make decent money. So I made a pull-tab flier last week and put them on all the bulletin boards at school. So far there have been a few tabs pulled but no calls. I think my flier is too busy. Too much text. I probably need to make it simpler.
Sell bottled water - I didn't come up with this idea I got it from http://nevblog.com
So anyway last night I bought a case of water at Smith's grocery store for $3.99. I figured sell them for a buck and make $20 a case. I put the water in the fridge, cleaned up a cooler I already had and rounded up some dollar bills for change. I planned on selling the water on campus because most of the vending machines don't have bottled water in them only soda. So I got up this morning and it was raining and the high today is only going to be in the low 70s. Bad day to start so I put the water idea on hold till the weather gets better which should be next Monday.
Sell Pizza - This one is still in the incubation stage, but I am thinking of a way to buy pizza from Domino's with my employee discount (60%) and sell pizza by the slice on campus. I can get a large pizza for $6. It has 8 slices and selling them at $2 each would net me $10 per pizza. I am still working the details out on this one. Once I see how bottled water goes (whether campus police tell me to cut it out or else) then I'll yea or nay this one.
posted by average joe at 10:18 AM
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