gas mileage calculation update

So, I had to fill up my gas tank this morning, which means I get to see how much it costs me to get to and from work.

Since my last fill-up, I went 359 miles and when I got gas today it was 9.807 gallons. So, that's around 36.61 miles per gallon (right?).

One-way it is 36 miles to my job. At $3.00 a gallon (it was $2.95 today) that is $6.00 each day.

Now, I can use this when I am looking for places closer to home to see how much less I can make an hour.

Calculating gas mileage

In an effort to make an accurate estimation of how much less per hour I can make if I work closer to home, I decided I should first see how many miles to the gallon I am getting. I filled up my tank today and reset one of my trip odometers. In a few days when I fill up again I'll be able to see how many miles I get per gallon and then I can get a more accurate picture of how much money I would save on gas by working closer to home.

A different strategy for job hunting

While I have a job, I'm looking for something more to my liking. I've been using Monster and CareerBuilder without having any luck finding anything that catches my eye. But sometime in the last week I came across a post on someone's blog (don't remember where) asking people what they used to find their jobs. Sites like Monster were way low on the list.

So, I've started looking in places like Craigslist and free weeklies where smaller offices might be posting jobs due to the cheaper placement cost. I'm hoping they have more what I'm looking for and I think they will. I've already found some non-profits, so I'm stoked.

More than just the cost of gas

As previously mentioned, I’m looking into finding a job closer to home mostly because I hate the long commute but also to save gas money and wear-and-tear on the car. As I started to think it over I realized that there are a few other things that I need to take into consideration as well.

At this job I get weekly overtime. I average out about 3 hours a week, which is around $35 after taxes on the ole paycheck.

How do I measure the time spent driving? Should look at it in terms of dollars or in term of additional activities I would be able to accomplish instead? Then I have this thought – it takes me about 20 minutes to crank out an article for Associated Content. My average payout is $6.18 per article. If I can get home in enough time that I would be able to crank out 1 article a day, that means I could cancel out the overtime effect on my paycheck. But this also cancels out the time I would gain by getting home earlier.

So, if one article a day means I can get a job with no overtime, then I would day I spend about $30 a week in gas that I could save by working closer to home. So, that would mean I could make $0.75 less an hour.

Ah, I just don’t know. Anyone see anything else I should be considering here?

Saving money by working closer to home

I was talking to a co-worker yesterday who lives out near where I live, only she's about 15 miles farther from work. She was telling me that she spends at least $50 every week filling up her Camry because of the long drive to work. Because of this, she's been looking for a job that is closer to home but has been having difficulty finding something that pays the same amount.

She and her husband apparently sat down and figured some things up and realized that if she got a job downtown instead of out on the west side( where we work) then she could make over a dollar and hour less and still end up with the same amount of money at the end of the day.

After hearing this, I think I need to see how much working closer could save me to see how much less I can make.

Gas station convenience stores for milk?

A local gas station where I live is having a special on gallons of milk for $2.00. The catch? You must buy 8 gallons of gas.

This gas station sits on a corner of a busy intersection. And, you guessed it, there are 3 other gas stations on the 3 other corners. All of them have the same price for gas. Nice gimmick.

Stupid money mistake strikes again

I have a history of making stupid money mistakes. Usually it's not transferring money from ING to the checking account in time for the auto debit of a bill. Those are expensive mistakes that I thought I was past.

I was wrong.

I got a $52 late fee for my apartment rent. See, I thought I had 5 days to pay it at the beginning of the month. I paid it on the 4th. Last month I did the same, and the same before that. This is the first late fee I've gotten. I was really mad when I found out about the late fee.

I looked at my lease. It says I only have 3 days. I guess I should be thankful that this is the first time I've gotten the late fee!

For those of you using Associated Content...

For some time now I've been writing tripe articles for Associated Content for tiny amounts of money per article. Yesterday, I was looking around the message board over on AC and found a thread titled something along the lines of "Associated Content is a Scam" so of course I clicked on it immediately.

Seems someone had found something on wikipedia that pointed to AC being a scam, but one of the later posters wanted to let everyone know that he had tagged it for deletion. This meant that no one else could see it.

Ah, thank goodness for cached pages. I've copied what the page used to say below (spelling errors are theirs). I suspected they were doing something like this, which is why I submit most of my articles as non-exclusive.

Cons Of Associated Content
The Cons Of Associated Content, yes its true, yet another website claiming to pay for your writing, while in fact paying you they also Steal! your content and post elsewhere to thier own benifit.

I,ve seen so many, many, people yelling and screaming about "AC SCAMMED
ME!" or "THEY RIPPED ME OFF",

I guess its true, after about a year with AC i found that i was getting a flat fee of $5 for every article i posted, and after searching in dogpile searh, I found my article posted under "AcAdmin - The proud owner of associatedcontent.com", who was a REAL user on sites like Helium Knowladge,
E-pinions, and others, taking mine and other's content and MAKING MONEY OFF IT!

So you think to your self, how dare they, now tell me, is Associated Content really a site you want to trust with YOUR work?

THIEVES!

thats what they are.

A bunch of scam artists running another, yes another BS scam, costing us all money, and taking, OUR content. Tsk Tsk.

Originally at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cons_Of_Associated_Content

Learning new things

A few weeks ago I was looking into taking some graphic design classes at the art institute online. Upon further investigation, the place is just too freaking expensive (over $3000 for 2 classes). I really want to learn the stuff, just not at the prices that they had.

On a whim, I looked up a local community college to see if they offer anything similar. They do! And at a fraction of the cost. I can take 2 classes there for under $700 total. That’s pretty exciting. I mentioned before that I think this would be a good thing to use to start a business...assuming that I like what I learn.

So that’s why I can’t seem to get ahead!

Two years ago I bought a brand new Corolla. I went to the dealer to look at a used Solara, but I ended up negotiating a good deal on the new Corolla, so that is what I left with. That was really stupid. You will never see me buying a brand new car again. Ever. For any reason. Uh-uh. Not gonna happen.

See, over the weekend I figured up how much this car was costing me over a year. The results made me a bit nauseous. Actually, it made me very nauseous.

Over the course of a year, I pay out around $5600 in car payments and insurance. This does not include any extra payments I may be making. Looking at where I have been tracking my spending, I spend about $2800 a year on gas. It might be a little less, since recent gas prices have been pretty steep, but I’m sticking with that number. Obviously, I drive quite a ways to and from work each day. And for things like oil changes, registration and other maintenance, I’m saying around $600 a year. I think that’s a pretty good estimate; however it does not include tires because they aren’t needed every year.

So, that is $9000 a year on this vehicle, or $750 a month. That is $17 dollars less than my rent. Are you nauseous yet?

Owning a car is expensive, and way more expensive that I thought. Even if I had a little beater car, I’d still have most of those expenses. I would not have the car payment, but I might have more maintenance charges. So, I would guess that a beater car would cost me half as much as my current car. Boy, I could really use that extra $375 a month. Of, if I could find a place to live in a city like NYC where I could use public transportation and have the rent be less than $1500 I could come out ahead. And get the added benefit of exercise. How truly depressing.

On workplace myths

Everytime I read one of Penelope Trunk's articles over on Yahoo Finance, I am both appalled and angry. I'll explain what I mean by that in a moment. Her current article, The Five Biggest Workplace Myths address advice that applies to outdated workplace environments and gives you the reality on these myths. They are:

1.Getting a promotion is good
2.Hide gaps in your work history
3.Sexual harassment law protects you
4.Your first job out of college matters a lot
5.You'll be rewarded if you do a good job

While I didn't really find any of these myths to be groundbreaking as they match my experiences, I am appalled by the fact that some of these are the norm, which is where the anger comes in.

I have had firsthand experience with #3, and yes the law is designed to protect companies, not the person dealing with crap. I had a job, years ago when I was naive and though that the law protected people, where a male co-worker was harassing me. I told someone when it went beyond what I could deal with. They immediately took his side and made things worse for me. After getting a death threat from him and no one caring, I left that job. And yes, I utilized the EEOC and followed the dispute resolution process to the letter. And yes, I attempted to sue them after I felt I was forced to quit. And yes, the law worked in favor of the company.

And I take issue with #5, that you will only be rewarded if you are likable. I don't want someone that is just likable running a company. I want them to be competent as well.

When going to work costs you money

I work in a department of about 20 people, 2 of which were promoted last Friday. As a result, they have decided that they want to have an office potluck this Friday, where everyone brings something and we celebrate their promotions.

The problem?

Taking something to feed 20 people for lunch will cost considerably more than it does to feed just me on Friday. But, you can never get out of these sort of things at work. It's rather frustrating that they just assume that everyone has the funds to feed 20 people. In fact, it was suggested to me that I make a fruit salad or grilled chicken to bring in. Hah! That is way more than I can spend.

My first thought was brownies, cause brownie mix is cheap, but I'd need to buy two boxes of it. That would put me at around $5, but then there would not be anything there that I know I could eat for lunch, so I'd also have to spend money on making my lunch. Then today I had this thought - lettuce is currently onsale for $0.99/head. I could buy 2 of those, some tomatoes on sale and a cheap salad dressing and probably also come out around $5 but I'd definitely have something that I could eat. Did I mention I'm a picky eater?

Anyone else have this problem at work? If so, how do you handle it? Maybe you have a better idea than the salad?

Debt roundup #4

May started out really strong with the alternative income, so I had really hoped to have a lot of extra cash that I could throw at the credit cards. Unfortunately, the stream of cash declined as the month wore on. That means there was no throwing of cash at said debt.

Here where I am at as of the end of May:

• car loan = $12, 994.26
• credit cards = $29,563.81
• student loans = $154,004.07
• TOTAL DEBT = $196,562.14

Slow and steady. Or maybe just slow. That's how I feel about my progress. But I have high hopes for this month. My birthday falls later in the month, and if I am fortunate enough to receive some cash then it can be used to throw at the credit cards. And if all goes as planned, the review me posts will go towards the evil credit cards.

Wanted: Must be friendly, competence not necessary

I was looking over some of the articles over at Yahoo Finance and came across one on making yourself more likeable at work. I am from the school of thought that I don't go to work to make friends, I go to work to make money. This doesn't mean that I go to work and be foul to everyone, I just don't need to hang out with my co-workers after work for happy hour. So, imagine my shock when reading this in the article:

In fact, a 2005 study published in the Harvard Business Review shows that people would rather work with someone they like who's incompetent than someone who's competent but not likable.

Wow. Now, from a business standpoint this seems rather stupid. Purposely hiring incompetent people just because they have a likeable personality? Maybe I don't have the same definition of work as most people. See, I thought I was getting paid to perform a set of tasks, not make buddies.

Another good alternative income month

For May, I met my alternative income goal and then some. I’m actually amazed by the dollar amount, until I realize that I spent all of my free time doing things to make money. It’s great because it is a lot of money. But it sucks because right now it’s just supplementing my income as I don’t get paid enough to cover all the bills. When I look at the total it kinda makes me sick because in a perfect world, it would all be extra money I could throw at debt. I’m *really* hoping to have something happen on the job front this month. I either need to get that promotion at work or find a higher paying job elsewhere so that this alternative income can be all for debt payments. If I could do that, I could have all the credit cards paid off in less than 2 years. That would be awesome.

Total alternative income for May was $1397.97

The breakdown for that is:

Associated Content at $629.19
Amazon marketplace at $30.45
Ebay/ e-junkie at $738.33

And, not included above, I made $22.50 with Review Me that is supposed to have a payout of today, I think...at least I hope so because it is marked for my phone bill. And I got $10 from Pinecone Research for a couple of surveys.