The Car Sleeping Experiment

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The medical study I am currently participating in requires me to check in Monday through Thursday morning during study periods.  The study is in St. Louis which is about 3 1/2 hours from where I live.  This means that I need to get a motel room in St. Louis when I have an early morning check in the next day.  Driving from St. Louis to my home and back would cost more in gas than a motel room would.  The cost of a motel is reducing my profit from the study.  I thought a good way to reduce my motel expenses would be to just sleep in my car for one night.

I do have some experience in sleeping in cars.  In my old Toyota I took out the top part of the back seat.  This allowed me to put my legs in the trunk and my torso on the back seat which was a reasonably comfortable sleeping position.  I slept in the car several nights while a friend and I were doing some key swap hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

I figured if I could sleep in my small Corolla I ought to be able to sleep in my larger Camry.  The sleeping in my Camry experiment turned out to be a failure.  I couldn’t get into a comfortable sleeping position in my car.  Just laying on the back seat didn’t give me enough room to stretch out my legs.  Folding down the back seat so I could put my legs in the trunk gave me just enough leg room. The back seat doesn’t fold down all the way flat though leaving my upper torso at an angle that was not conducive to sleep.  If I could have gotten comfortable I think the car sleeping experiment could have worked.  I had a spot where I felt I would be safe and not bothered.  I was able to rig a sheet up from the back window to the front sheets so people couldn’t look in and see me.   I had security and privacy but I just wasn’t able to get comfortable enough to sleep.

I’ll have one more set of Monday-Thursday visits in a couple of weeks.  I have a different, less radical, experiment to save on motel costs that I will try that time.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

January Income – $1833.24

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It is rather late since it is already March but here is a breakdown of my income for January.  I’ll get February’s figures up next week.

Online Income

$975.18

Interest

$23.09

Stock Dividends

$111.94

Mystery Shops

$354.17

Survey/Cashback

$17.79

Job

$351.07

Total

$1833.24

It was a pretty good month for income.  Online income would have been over $1000 but I had some expenses.  I did well on mystery shopping and I had some job income as well. Although it is nice to see most of the income is alternative income and passive income. Mystery shopping was down for February and I didn’t have a job so my February income will be lower but it should still be decent.

 

Online Income Report – January 2011

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Here is a breakdown of my online income for January 2011.

Google Adsense – $214.60

Affiliate Income – $650

Brokered Ads – $49.88

Direct Ads – $101.57

Ehow –             $11.51

Total – $1027.56

My online income was once again over $1000.  It was boosted by a large affiliate check.   Affiliate income will be much smaller this week so my new streak of $1000 months will likely be over at two months.  Still I’ve made $1000 or more a month for five of the last six months so I’m not complaining.  Considering how little effort I’ve put into my online endeavors lately I am lucky to be making this month.  If I put in 40 hours a week working online I think I could make a full-time income.  We will see.

January Expenses – $1913.05

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for January.

Household

$608.39

Entertainment

$86.70

Transportation

 $243.28

Food

$36.75
Medical/Dental

$273.21

Utilities

$119.54

Education

$430.18
Debt $115

Total

$1913.05

My expenses for January were much higher than I would like.  This is mainly due to spending over $400 for bar preparation materials and over $200 for a doctor visit.  My food total only includes meals I eat out by myself, that is why it is low.  My expenses should be lower this month since I won’t have the bar prep or medical expenses.  Expenses will still be higher than normal because my wife and I are taking a short getaway to Dallas.  Also the cost of driving back and forth to St. Louis to participate in the study will increase my transportation expenses although I may just take that out of my income figure.   I’m thinking my expenses will probably get back to around my $1000 goal in March.

January Investment Income – $97.23

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My January investment income rose to $97.23 from $95.71 in November. I didn’t get around to calculating my investment income for December. I’m pretty close to $100 and barring any disasters should make that goal this year. My ultimate goal is $1000 a month. To reach that goal I’m going to have to start investing more rather than just relying on stock increases and reinvested dividends to get my gains.

This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement savings, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings. What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income. My goal is to get this amount to $1000 a month. If I have $1000 in monthly passive investment income I will be able to retire early. You can see what my actual investment income for the month was by looking at my monthly income report and adding the interest and dividend amounts.