Andy Hough

November Income Challenge

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I decided not to work while I’m in school this semester.  The idea was I’d increase my side income to make up some of the loss of job income.  I have managed to increase my side income some but I should be doing much better.  The combination of laziness and procrastination has led me to not dedicate nearly enough of my spare time to making money.

In order to reverse that trend I’ve created a November Income Challenge for myself.  I’m going to do something to make money every day of the month.  Blogging won’t count.  It has to be something that will definitely make money.  Some examples are surveys, mystery shopping, writing for Associated Content, and bank bonuses.

I’ll post a roundup once a week or so of what I’ve done to make money.  For Thanksgiving and other days where I know I’ll be too busy to do any money-making activities I’ll do an extra money maker the day before or after.  I’ve had mixed success with challenging myself recently but I think I can meet this challenge.  If anyone else wants to do their own income challenge let me know and I’ll link to your results.

Gas is Under $2 a Gallon

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It was only a couple weeks ago that I posted about gas being under $3 a gallon and now it is under $2 a gallon.  Most gas stations around here have it at $1.99 a gallon.  Since I don’t drive much now this doesn’t make much of a difference in my finances.  I thought I was going to be able to make it through this month with only one fill up.  I had to make a couple of extra drives though and had to get gas Monday.  Gas was just a smidgen over $2 a gallon then and it cost me under $20 to fill up my car.  It has been a while since I’ve been able to do that and it is a great improvement from the over $40 it was costing me this summer.  With my current driving habits the cheap gas is probably saving me $10-$20 a month.  That isn’t a lot but I’m still glad I have a fuel efficient car though.  These gas prices will eventually go back up.

What’s Your Worst Financial Habit?

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Mine is procrastination.  It has caused me to delay saving for retirement, looking for a job, finding better deals, etc.  It affects a lot more than just my finances though.  I should have aksed what is your worst habit is that affects your finances.  Procrastination also causes problems with my school work, exercise,blogging, and just about every aspect of my life.  That is how I had no school Wednesday and still didn’t manage to get a blog post done.

This Monday I was stressed out because I had delayed two projects until they both had to be done that day.  I could have easily had them done before Monday and spared myself the stress and ordeal of working all day on them but I didn’t.  You’d think I’d learn from this but that hasn’t been the case in the past.  I might do a little better for a while but then I’ll start letting things slide and eventually I’m procrastinating as bad as ever.  I have a lot of things I want to do but I never seem to have time to do them.  I know I could do more if I would just stop wasting time putting off actual work.  I’m sure there is some way to cure this habit but I haven’t gotten around to looking for the solution yet.

What's Up with Google/Feedburner?

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Is anyone else’s Feedburner stats messed up?  It looks like other blogs are having their stats reported correctly but mine are way off.   Last week my subscribers went from 257 to 199 overnight and then up to 292 the next day.  This week they’ve gone from 278 to 174 in two days.  I don’t think I’ve done anything to alienate the readers so much that they would unsubscribe in such large numbers. When I go to Feedburner my number of visits isn’t being recorded at all.  I suppose it is something to do with Google absorbing Feedburner and the numbers will eventually be accurate again.  The numbers aren’t really that important but it stil annoys me.

I wish Google didn’t have so much control over everything.  They stripped me of my Page Rank last year and it doesn’t look like they’re ever going to restore it.  I resisted putting Adsense on here for a long time but I’m sure that I can use the revenue more than Google.  I’m trying affilliate links instead of Adsense this month but they’re way behind what I made from Adsense.  I’ll probably put Adsense back next month.  If Google is going to annoy me I might as well make some money from them.

A Somewhat Frugal Bed Purchase

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We acquired a new bed over the weekend.  We had been needing one for some time.  Barbara Mandrell may have complained about sleeping single in a double bed but sleeping double in a double bed isn’t all that great either.  There just isn’t enough room for us to both sleep comfortably in a double bed so we upgraded to a queen size bed.

We got the mattress for free from one of my GF’s coworkers.  Her coworker didn’t like it because it was too firm.  It is definitely firm but I can sleep fine on it and the price was right.  My days of hiking and sleeping on a wooden floor with just a thin sleeping pad under me have changed my perception of how soft a sleeping surface needs to be.

Although we got the mattress for free we still needed a new frame and foundation.  We were hoping that the frame we were using for the double bed might be adjustable but no such luck.  We went and bought a frame fairly cheap at Sam’s Club and then bought the foundation at Big Lots.  We still needed bedding since the double size sheets wouldn’t fit the queen bed.  While shopping for those we found a bed frame that also doubled as a foundation.  Since it was cheaper than the foundation alone we bought it and now have to return the frame and foundation we had already purchased.  Kind of a hassle but worth it for the savings.

Setting up the new bed was pretty easy and didn’t take as long as I thought it might.  I’ve now had two nights sleep in the new bed and I think it was worth the investment.  We haven’t turned on our heat yet and being able to curl up in a warm, cozy bed is nice.