I don’t have a job right now. Yes, you heard me right, I am JOBLESS. Now before you start with the judgement or stereotyping let me explain. I am “selectively unemployed” as my friend calls it. I wasn’t fired from my job, forced to quit or anything of that nature. I also am not lazy, “living off other people’s tax dollars,” or looking for any free handouts. I was in a bad situation and I simply needed out.
Let’s go back a little. When I say I was in a “bad situation,” bad is a subjective term. I wasn’t being sexually harassed or bullied or anything of that nature, but I was in a bad place. The company itself had great potential, but the leadership was poor at best. Favoritism ran rampant and getting a deserved promotion on your merit was near impossible. Speaking of merit, they set you up for failure with almost unobtainable metrics. None the less, I pushed
forward, persevered and actually became quite successful. I worked in several different departments for the company and loved my actual job duties. I had a solid performance evaluation every year, was liked by my direct manager and co-workers and made a solid salary (based on the median per ca-pita income for NC, I was making bank $$$). Doesn’t sound so bad, right? Most of you are probably thinking “what does she even have to complain about?” Well, here is where things take a downturn. I worked there for four years. Within the first 6 months, I was already pulling 55-60 hour work weeks – EVERY WEEK (keep in mind, I was salaried so there’s no overtime there folks). I was constantly “behind” by at least 3-4 days which was nothing compared to my seasoned co-workers that were often 30 days or more behind on their diaries. I was chained to my desk. Those unobtainable metrics we were talking about earlier – Part of that was how many of your incoming calls you answered. When you’re getting sometimes 80+ phone calls per day and you have to answer 50%, you can’t get any other work done. Not to mention they counted the calls you received on weekends and after hours towards the number of calls you were supposed to be answering. I started skipping lunches, skipping company events, I even limited myself to only running to the bathroom to twice a day on some days (That’s a long time to hold it when you’re there for 10-12 hours). By limiting my bathroom and lunch breaks – I was also limiting my water intake and food choices. I was living on coffee and junk food. I gained 43 lbs in 4 years. In the beginning, I tried to maintain my workout schedule, but it was impossible. After working a long day I was so mentally tired that I became physically tired and all I wanted to do was go home and veg out. I was so tired that some days I would fall asleep on the couch at 7:30 PM and sleep the whole night. This left little time for date night with my husband, going out with friends or enjoying hobbies that I used to have. My skin was gray and pale, my period stopped and I had reflux like no body’s business. The stress was so bad on some days, I would come home and cry for hours… and I wasn’t the only one. I’d seen co-workers break down in tears more times than I’d like to remember.
My husband had pushed me for months to quit, he begged even. I continued to work because as I mentioned earlier, there is a stigma associated with being unemployed. Finally, I reached my breaking point. I knew with the stress that I’d never be healthy, never have kids, and eventually – I’d fall apart like so many of my co-workers. I left my job in November of 2017 and haven’t looked back since. Yes, there is a slight financial burden cutting down to once salary and I want to eventually go back to the working world, but in the meantime we’re being fairly strict on our budget and using all the resources we can to help stretch our budget as far as possible. Below are my top picks for how to supplement your income and live on one salary. I currently use all of the apps/programs below myself and have had success, however, success will vary depending on the time/effort you put in.
- MyPoints – MyPoints is a rewards program that gives you points for reading e-mails, shopping, taking surveys, doing web searches, and completing a variety of other business-centric activities. Once you accrue enough points, you can redeem them for a gift card to your choice of over 75 merchants.”
- I’ve personally been using MyPoints since college (2005!) and it’s my favorite site. I’ve redeemed over 70,000 points and currently have another 25,000 just waiting to be used. This isn’t something I do every day, but imagine the earning potential if I did! It’s easy, REAL and has great potential to help supplement your income.
- You can sign up here: Join Here For Free
- SwagBucks – Similar to Mypoints, Swagbucks offers users points for watching videos, taking surveys, shopping and even completing short tasks such as transcribing 10 second audio clips. I’ve been using Swagbucks for about 6 months now and have already redeemed my points for 2 giftcards to Amazon!
- Sign up for Swagbucks Here for free!
- Ibotta – “Ibotta is a Denver, Colorado based mobile technology company that enables users with its smartphone app to earn cash back on in-store and mobile purchases with receipt and/or purchase verification”
- The beautiful part about Ibotta is that for MOST of the stores, you don’t have to select what you are purchasing beforehand. The only one I am aware of that makes you choose your purchases in advance is Foodlion. It’s quick and easy and you even have a few days grace period to submit your receipt in case you forget.
- Sign up for Ibotta and Claim your $10 Bonus Today!
- Fetch – Fetch is as simple as scanning your grocery receipt, earn points and redeeming them for giftcards at dozens of merchants. You won’t earn as much, but FREE MONEY IS FREE MONEY. It takes less than 30 seconds to submit and you usually receive confirmation within 48 hours.
- Sign up Here and use code N0TFD to get 1500 bonus points with your first receipts scan!
- Walmart Savings Catcher – Another SUPER easy app to use. All you do is sign up through the mobile app, scan the bar-code at the bottom of your receipt and the app searches circulars to see if any items are listed a lower prices. If the app locates an item priced lower, you get the difference back on an e-gift card in your app.
- Dietbet – DietBet is a great way to earn money and get in shape. I’ve done 2 rounds myself and am up $47. This one is slightly different in that you DO have to put in some physical work. You download the app and “buy in” to a game. Most are a $10 joining fee, but some range up to $250 for those that want to participate in a longer game. In the traditional games, you have 30 days to lose 4% of your body weight. If you win, you get back your buy-in money and all the winners split the remaining pot (buy-in money forfeited by the “losers.” If you don’t meet your goal, you forfeit your buy-in money. A great way to motivate yourself to get in shape and earn extra money!
- Sign up for dietbet by downloading the free app in the Apple or Google Play store today
- Look at your monthly bills and figure out a way to lower them. My husband and I switched from Verizon to T-mobile and saved $30/month on our cell phone bills. Not only did we save on our monthly bill, but we got B1G1 free phones, FREE Netflix which saves us 10.99/month and ALSO got 20,000 points through MyPoints (about $150 – Yes, MyPoints and Swagbucks will sometimes have in store opportunities where you take a pic of your receipt and submit online). We also cut our cable through Spectrum and signed up for DirectTVNow – an online streaming service. By keeping our internet only and signing up for DirectTVNow, we’re saving $27/month! With just 2 small adjustments, we’re saving over $623 PER YEAR!
- Last but not least, WRITE IT DOWN. There is no better way to save money than to make lists and written budgets. One of the top ways I save money is by meal planning. By writing down what I am making, what I need versus what I already have on hand – I save HUNDREDS of dollars per year because we waste little to no food. The same thing goes with clothes shopping, back to school shopping and budgeting in general!
Again, these are not going to make you rich or makeup for not having a salary, but they will help you supplement your income slightly. They are all 100% legit based on my personal experience and are easy to use. A few last things to keep in mind:
- Get the most from your resources. Let’s say you do your grocery shopping at Walmart. The first thing you would want to do is submit your receipt through Savings Catcher. You would then want to also scan your receipt on Fetch and also search for qualifying purchases on Ibotta. Don’t limit yourself – Use all available resources.
- Don’t just assume you only get points for internet purchases. Per my previous example, Mypoints had a great promotion for in-store purchase through T-mobile – it was as simple as taking a pic of my receipt and submitting.
Be sure to sign up for emails so you can stay up to date on new posts. Check back next Thursday for a new addition to the blog. Also, I’d love to get to know you, so drop a comment below. Make sure to check out my Instagram page (link in bio) for updates on my weightloss journey!
Dirt and Dumbbells 