Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Well it is back to the work week for me again. This week coming and going should be quite interesting. The weekend coming up in another 4 shifts won't be the usual type of weekend. Instead, it is Ally's 10th birthday, and we know that at least grandma *erin's mom* is coming up for it... we're not sure if erin's dad is coming too. She has mentioned possibly staying at our house and has also requested that we make sure that the house is clean. Erin and I both agreed on the same thing, that we will do the best that we can, but worst case scenario, grandma can stay at a local hotel if she wants. With me working my over night schedule, there are not many times when I feel like massively cleaning the house during the day time when I am awake.

Usually I simply want to just lay around and relax.

So on to further news/updates. It has been weeks since I last spoke through email with the hiring representative at that refridgerated trucking company. I think I wrote about it on a previous blog entry, but if not, here is the cliff-notes version.:

Trucking company that transports refridgerated stuff like food and beer, offered me a job about a month ago driving for them. Schedule includes: 3 weeks on the road, 3 days home, resume another 3 weeks on the road, repeat, etc. Starting pay, 25 cents per mile for the first 90 days, then after that I would be a leaser/operator and would be making 85 cents per mile. I did the math, and at 85 cents per mile, 3,000 miles per week, that, I believe, adds up to a little over 100k per year. But, I pretty much had decided not to take it simply because I don't want to be away from my family that much. OH! the job also comes with full benefits as well, and paid vacation after I am employed with them one year.

However, recently, because of how we are always so tight living paycheck to pay check, I started thinking "well maybe it might be worth it, work for them for a year and a half, pay off debts, save a shit load of money away, etc...... then come back and live a little easier because of the lighter money burden.." So I emailed the guy again, explaining that I have just been busy with my job, and apologizing for the delay since our last email... I asked him how paying for gas works...he said during the first 90 days, when you are simply a company driver, you don't have to pay for your own gas...when you become a leaser operator, you then pay for your own gas, but you get paid mileage for your gas, etc... I said "ok, so on average, how much does the average driver end up paying out on gas?" He said "i'm not entirely sure, but I do know that the average take home salary for leaser operators is around $48,000." That got me going a different direction. I havent responded since that email, but basically I'm not sure I want to take the job anymore, simply because I do not know if that is enough money to make it worth it.. If it was 70-100k, 6,000 or so per month, that's one thing, but a thousand a week estimated? Yes that is better than what I make right now... In fact, it's practically double my current take home pay, but still doesn't seem like it's high enough to be away that much.

If I'm sacrificing all my time with my family to work for them, I want to feel like the money is worth the sacrifice.

So on a different note, earlier Erin made a comment about how she should write a children's book. It made me think back to my book that I have going, which I haven't worked on in a while, but instead have been reading through the 100+ pages I do have written, re-acquainting myself with the story, so I can continue. It made me think about how I need to hunker down and get working on it again. With the money situation we have, we need to do whatever we can so that we can make our own financial dreams come true. Maybe for me, part of it is dedicating myself to finishing my book and hopefully publishing a best seller. My main goal for myself and for my family is to make enough money doing something, that we can end up not having to worry about financial issues. I hate living pay check to pay check... But, it's a must!

In closing, school is going ok. Algebra sucks! I have about 3 weeks to go, and these quizzes are hurting me bad! I was up around an 80% when I took the last quiz, which I got a 30% on, and now my grade in class is like 73.9%. I'm like "oh great.. i'm so close.. please do not end up having to retake this class!!" I even expressed my concern to the instructor. The other class, the hospitality class is actually going well. I'm around a 90% in that one. So I have 2 main objectives before I am pretty sure the rest of my courses probably wont be too bad. 1) pass algebra1A. 2) pass algebra1B next session, and then just keep going till I get that degree. Funny how, I'm good at math, yet these two algebra classes are a nightmare for me!

So, here's hoping and praying I will make it through both of them without need of repeat!

On that note, going to sign off as I have other things I have to get done in the next 20 minutes. Thanks for reading and I will write more for you all soon!

C