Erasing Our Debt

As I near my one year anniversary with the new company, I have now realized that I made the right decision to accept the job.
When I turned in my two weeks notice at my old job, I was asked how much it would take to get me to stay there. I was prepared for that and about a week before I had made a list of things that would be necessary for me to stay. I didn't bring any of it up except the money because that was number one on my list. I asked for two thousand more dollars a year than I would make at the job I was being offered. I pretty much knew it wouldn't be match or even negotiated, but I did begin to worry what I would say if it was.
Needless to say they didn't want to negotiate and I'm very happy that they didn't. You see at the new job, I have income that I really don't see that I never even had a chance to not see at the old job. This "income" is in term of benefits.
We have a personalized website that we log on to see all of our benefits, how much money we've made for the year, and how much our benefits cost the company. The cost of my benefits to the company is almost $14k. That comes out to about $6.50/hr in money I don't really see.
Let's compare the benefits I have now as to what I used to have:

• Great medical insurance, costs about half as much as the old job's plan / at the old job, just about every claim got denied
• Health care spending account saves me money on my taxes and is an interest free loan / didn't even have the option
• Short and Long-term disability for no cost / had to pay for it at the old job
• Life insurance at 1x annual salary at no cost (can purchase multiple for about $1) / had to pay for such a plan
• 12 vacation days, 12 sick days, 8 holidays (and if I work a holiday, I get paid extra for it) / not quite sure but maybe 12 paid days off a year, no sick time, 5 or 6 holidays paid but not paid extra for working
• 20% off my cell phone bill with options for discounts on other things including buying a car and mortgage rate reduction/ no option for such a thing

And the BIGGEST benefit I have received in relation to this blog's theme: a 5% reduction on my credit card interest rate. This may only save me about $800 over the time it takes me to pay off my debt but it's still something.

Labels: benefits, interest rates, job

Been quite awhile since I've blogged so I figure I better hop on here to appease the masses.

Well I quit the second job after only a week due to:

• a lack of training-first hour on the job, I am stuck out there attempting to assist customers when I know absolutely nothing. It continued to be that way after 3 days.
• a lack of accountability - I strongly believe that if you know something is wrong and you have the ability to right the wrong, then you do it. This place was lacking in employees in that department. Should I ever own my own business or become a manager, I would recommend/require people to read The Question Behind the Question
• a lack of teamwork - last night on the job, I worked 7 hours w/o a break. Always doing something. 3 of those 7 hrs were after the store was closed and we were doing cleanup, I was feverishly working to get out of there asap, whereas other employees were chit-chatting and sitting down doing nothing

Enough of that, $7 an hour isn't that appealing to me when you take into consideration of the above. I can work 2 hours of overtime and make just as much as I can make in a day there. My boss said my overtime can continue as long as it's not exorbitant. I figure I will probably get about 15 hours of overtime a week. Which will be needed with the next item.

Early last week, the fiance and I found out we are expecting parents. The baby is expected late September or early October. With this news, I am at a crossroads on what to do. I still want to continue to knock out as much debt as possible, but I also know I need to save up extensively for the new addition. Thank goodness for my medical insurance. We had to go ahead and pay for the delivery and stuff and it only cost $200. And thank goodness for my health care spending account!

Labels: baby, job, News

Got a call today to come fill out the paper work to start my second job. All I can say it's about dadgum time. Took me long enough
Thanks to my friend for helping me get the job

Labels: 2007 goals, job

I've finally started selling some stuff for a little extra income. Before I moved to the city from the country, I was umpiring high school baseball. Sports officiating is a good way to make some extra cash if you're looking to do so and if you've got the time at night. With baseball I could make about $50-100 a game depending on distance traveled as we got paid for mileage. Sometimes I'd even clear almost $200 for a game that was about 2 hours away. Baseball was the only sport I officiated but I heard if you can get into basketball and can get a tournament, you can easily make about $200 in one afternoon. The best part about sports officiating is that you are basically getting paid to watch the sport and make a few decisions. I always viewed it as I was getting paid to watch baseball and there is nothing better in the world as baseball has long been my favorite sport.
But back to the story at hand. I sent a message to one of the board members of my old umpiring chapter and let him know that I had some equipment I wanted to sell since I have no use for it and to tell any new members that they could get some on the cheap. I got two phone calls within 12 hours and sold some things for about $150. I probably spent about $400 on it all but it is used so I figure the things I'm getting rid of are worth that much. Baseball is one of the more expensive sports to get into in terms of cost of equipment to rate of pay. But over the course of 2 years, I probably made about $3500-4000 with umpiring and that really only covered about 4-5 months out of the year and usually only 2 days a week, so I think I made out pretty well.

Labels: extra income, job, selling stuff

It seems as if the problem with me finding a part-time job lies in the time that I am available. I work from about 2:15pm-11:15pm during the week and on Saturdays 8-5. Found a job on careerbuilder last night so I sent in my resume and got an immediate call back this morning. But the job is an 8-5 schedule. Arghhhhhhh!!! Guess it looks like back to school for me! Which isn't such a bad thing after all

Labels: careerbuilder, job

This just sucks. And that is putting it mildly. Went to my appointment with the staffing agency at 10am. I wouldn't call it an interview as it seems as if they are willing to put anyone in the position they are looking for.
"Fill out these forms"
"You forgot to sign here"
So we get into the "appointment" and he tells me about the job and how its data entry into an Excel database and I tell them that I'm a expert at Excel. Then he says the hours are something along the line of 8-4:30. Well I can't exactly do that, buster. I'm not quitting my current job for a 4-6 month job as he described it. My current schedule is 2:30-11. I guess I could try to get it to 5-11 and work Saturdays to get my 40 in.
I told him I was looking for something like a 6-2 or something. "They don't have that schedule available".
I just wanted to bust out, "Well why the heck not? If the data gets entered, it doesn't matter what time it gets entered. Right?"
But I didn't make such a statement. Arghhhhh

Why is it so hard for me to find a part-time job!!!??

Labels: job, work

I've decided after reading some of Makingourway's 2007 goals, to make my own. But that will be later today. For now I have to get ready for an interview for a second job. I just really hope it's possible to work around my current job schedule. Of course if they can't then I guess I won't be taking this job should it be offered. But more of that later! Also got free Stars tickets for tonight, so I'll be going. Taking the train and avoiding the downtown Dallas traffic and $15-20 parking.

Labels: 2007 goals, entertainment, job

Well after applying anywhere and everywhere and getting nowhere, I decided to register with a staffing agency in hopes of finding a part-time job. Got called back the next day and have an appointment set up on this coming Tuesday.
I'm not too sure on exactly how many part-time jobs are offered through staffing agencies but I guess we will see.
If I can't find one by the 15th, then looks like I'll be starting back to school. Sounds like a win-win for me!

Labels: college, job

I received an email from a job poster on CareerBuilder.com. I still have my resume out there and all my information to get contacted. I think I need to take it down.

Anyway's I get this email from a guy that needs to be contacted back for work for Marshal A.G. It goes on to say it's a European company founded in 1989 and specializing in steel constructions. Here is the rest of the email:

We are looking for part-time employees from different USA regions to represent our company in United States. The duties are described below. The job is available weekdays between 9AM to 1PM your local time. Sometimes Saturday work is also required. Training is possible during the 1st month of service and is paid by the company. The pay is from $40 per hour (the first month if training is required is paid as $35 per hour). The responsibilities are:
- Supervise company accounts in your region
- Manage financial transactions between the Company and it's suppliers
- Check your e-mail every day to exchange information with general office
- Be reachable with your contact phone during all working hours
The position does NOT involve sales. Please REPLY to this e-mail if you're interested to apply for this position

I replied saying I was interested and to send more information. $40 an hour just seems like scam. Especially since it's an unsolicited mail and it doesn't sound like it was a match to the jobs on my resume.

I've searched and searched with no results on this company. Anyone else heard anything about this company?

Labels: careerbuilder, job, scam

I have been contemplating getting a second job for a while now. But while contemplating (read: applying everywhere with no success), I am getting the chance for just about all the overtime I can handle at my current job.

I have concluded that this will be way better than a second job for now at least. Why? Well why should I go work 4-5 hours a day somewhere else for about $7 an hour when I can make almost 4x that much? Doesn't make much sense to me.

The only downfall to all the overtime is the way we get paid at work. Some of you might experience this but it is very new to me as I was accustomed to getting paid every 2 weeks for the previous 2 weeks of work. But now that I get paid twice a month, I get a check with 86.67 hours on it and any overtime comes from about 2-3 weeks ago. My goal is to get in about 60 hours of overtime before the end of the year. But the bad thing is that I won't see most of it until my first check of next year.

In previous years, I would be saying "Awesome!! I can use that to pay off what I charged up for Christmas gifts." But now that I am not reliant on credit cards, I can say "Awesome!! I can use that to pay off 2003, 2004, and 2005 Christmas gifts."

Labels: job, overtime