How To Avoid Going Broke?

[Blackbird]

Alright, I'm going to level with you guys, since I figure I need all the help I can get at this point. Without going into too much detail about my personal life, I am now effectively responsible for paying the mortgage on a house, a substantial bill I was unprepared for. Cutting my losses and ditching the house is not an option. I live very frugally and have cut costs to a minimum (I think). As far as I can see, the only option I have at this point is to make substantially more money and hope to ride it out until I can get the thing fixed up and sold.

Any ideas on how to accomplish this? Any recommendations on jobs that pay well, offer large amounts of overtime, and are available to someone with minimal training? What companies are good to work for? Any advice would be helpful. I figure there are lots of people on here with more life experience than me.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Get a lodger?

[Specineff]

If you can afford to do so, offer a room for rent.

EDIT: Ninja-ed. Gah.

[Blackbird]

I can clear out a couple rooms. It shouldn't be too hard to rent them, as there is a college nearby and plenty of students looking for better housing than what the dorms offer. What next?

[TransatlanticFoe]

You'll need to check out the going rate, then probably just put up ads.

If you can find a friend or friend of a friend then that's ideal for security's sake. No idea how it all works in the US, but I'm guessing the taxman is due a cut too.

[Blackbird]

The tax guy always gets his damn cut =P. All of the people I really trust already have apartments and/or homes of their own, so I think I'd have to screen a new person. I'm not super worried about that because I live in a rural area and the level of crime is generally low here. Most people around here are trustworthy (key word being "most").

[Moniker]

Depending on where you live, IT jobs are at a high premium. Know a guy who used to work for me cut meat @ 14k/year recently got an IT job for 30k. And now he's being headhunted for a 60k job. Folks around this forum can probably handle any IT job with a little research.

Apart from that, roommates are key. Drink the cheap stuff - Pabst beer and Cutty Sark scotch taste good enough and get you drunk when needed. Stop eating/drinking out and going to movies. If you live alone, buy bread and freeze half of the loaf to keep it from going bad. Eat it with peanut butter or hard boiled eggs + mayonnaise, all cheap. Ramen is your friend. Insulate your place as best you can with plastic, cardboard, and duct tape. Don't use AC/Heat unless absolutely necessary. Don't buy video games. Quit your cable TV contract, and just go with internet+Netflix. Don't have a girlfriend.

[CStarFlare]

If you go the landlord route, spend some time reading horror stories, landlord/tenant rights and best practices. It's a potential source of income, but if you want to be getting your house into saleable condition it's worth considering how a tenant could throw a wrench in your plans. On the other hand, if it works out well you might just be able to keep the house. Ever considered renting the whole house?

Overnight shifts tend to pay more, though not a hugely so.
Working 2 jobs is always an option. Working a few evenings/weekends can bring in a couple hundred bucks a month.
You could try a job where you earn tips. If you're not feeling honest, it's easier to hide tips from the tax man. Maybe not as lucrative if you're not a girl under age 25, though.
Alternately, maybe look for someplace that sells on commission and sell sell sell. Some retail stores do this, though it may be necessary to have some knowledge in whatever they sell.
Construction/landscaping guys make OK money and tend to work longer hours in summer, while weather allows. Even if this is a solution, it's probably a seasonal one.

If you're planning on doing work on your home, a job at someplace like Home Depot could be worth looking into if they offer employee discounts. Find out how much you'd need to work to qualify, and work the minimum on the side.

[GaijinPunch]

I need to start taking life lessons from Moniker.

[evil_ash_xero]

Prostitute yourself.

[President_Obama]

Start a libertarian philosophy podcast asking for Bitcoin donations.

Shower gel and bubble bath have exactly the same ingredients, but you get twice as much bubblebath for half the price of shower gel. Spaghetti's a healthier alternative to noodles since most Ramen usually contain palm oil and spaghetti's often much cheaper too. As Thrifty Moniker says get on the peanut butter and egg train for cheaper protein. Meat will be a luxury item, soon.

[Specineff]

Get a pressure cooker. Cook and freeze chicken or beef, or make huge amounts of chicken soup with vegetables, transfer to several smaller containers, freeze them, and thaw as needed.

[Casey120]

Ans sell all your unused CAVE black label full kits !

[Acid King]

Depending on how much money you can make from renting the house out, I'd consider renting the whole house out and moving to a small studio apartment. With a college nearby you shouldn't have trouble finding a couple of people to rent the house to. You may be able to bring in enough in rent every month to cover the mortgage and use your current income to support yourself.

As Thrifty Moniker says get on the peanut butter and egg train for cheaper protein. Meat will be a luxury item, soon.

Or just stick with cheaper cuts of meat. Chicken thighs and drumsticks are cheap and are way better than white meat anyway. Whole chickens can be sub $1 per pound depending on where you look. Pork shoulder is sub $2 bucks a pound and can be cheaper when on sale. Turkey thighs are damn cheap too.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

You don't need to live off ramen - giving yourself a nutritional deficiency or something probably won't help... But there's ways of eating cheaper still. Casseroles using cans of tuna/salmon stretch nicely, and I highly recommend seeing if you have paneer at your supermarket. You can make it yourself using milk too, but it's a cheap protein source that's great in curries when fried. Tofu is not a bad idea either, cutting down on how much beef you consume would save a bit. Supermarkets usually have heavily discounted fresh fruit/veggie sections for stuff that is older or slightly blemished but still perfectly edible, good for cooking with. You can shop for stuff that's cheap and goes a long way with meals like squashes and pumpkins (peel, cube them and stir fry, delicious) without having to give up fresh foods entirely.

Seconding the getting rid of cable TV, etc... Unless you have renters. They may wish for the house to have cable, though I am happy just watching shows online.

[Blackbird]

Thanks guys. Regarding suggestions that have been made:

I don't drink or smoke.
Cable TV is gone, hated most of it anyway. I've gotten rid of all non-essential monthly services.
I don't go to the theater to watch movies.
I stack sales and coupons at the supermarket when possible and rarely buy meat. I eat a lot of pasta, veggies, and cheap fish. Squash sounds pretty good, I'll eat some more =D.
The house is lined with insulation except the attic. Maybe I should line that too? The house has no heat or AC, so no bills there. I just open the windows during summer and put on lots of clothes during winter.
Clothes are mostly obtained at thrift stores.
I turn the lights off when I leave a room.
The only games I buy are indie games that cost 5 dollars or less, and only once I've finished playing the last one.
No expensive/rare hardware like PCB kits that I could sell. Sorry guys =P. I am selling miscellaneous junk (yard sale quality things) around my house at local flea markets.

What does it take to qualify for IT? I could probably do it, but know next to nothing about coding, so I hadn't thought to pursue this job first.

[GaijinPunch]

What does it take to qualify for IT? I could probably do it, but know next to nothing about coding, so I hadn't thought to pursue this job first.

A pulse. There's tons of IT jobs that involve no coding. Networking, System admin, even sitting around doing very little but explaining things to other people is an IT job.

[Blackbird]

If it's as easy as you say, I should start looking for job openings around here =P. Any other job ideas?

[Moniker]

The house is lined with insulation except the attic. Maybe I should line that too? The house has no heat or AC, so no bills there. I just open the windows during summer and put on lots of clothes during winter.

You lose most of your heat through the roof, so yeah, attic insulation would be a good idea, at least if you plan on taking on tenants. If there's no heat or AC and you're comfortable w/ that, I suppose there isn't much point. And if you do plan on taking on tenants, you'll certainly have to invest in basic utilities - you'd have to do a rigorous cost/benefit analysis on that one. Find out what the average rent is around you and plan accordingly. If you have Amish, Mennonites, or similar nearby, call them first for construction type stuff. They do top-notch work on the cheap.

If you want to cut corners even further, I know a guy who traded in his car for a motor scooter to help pay the bills. Those things get like a billion miles to the gallon. Ditto proper motorcycles. He carpools in the winter. Would probably be enough to afford a girlfriend.. although they don't tend to dig on the Vespas, I'd hazard to guess.

As far as jobs go, depends on the area you live in. Miners around where I live make a pretty good living, so I've heard, but forget job security. Once the mine's depleted you're screwed.

If you've got a clean background, departments of correction and law enforcement can pay surprising good salaries. Know a lady who left the store to get $13/hour to watch security monitors at a prison, completely unskilled.

Trained meat cutters are also in short supply. We pay our main guy more than management just to keep him around. IIRC, he told me he started training in a slaughterhouse (grocery stores and butcher shops generally can't afford to train cutters - it takes at least two years to earn your stripes), but now he basically goes to the highest bidder+closest to home. Not a dream job, but lucrative.. mainly because it isn't a dream job.

In any and all cases, so long as you really bust your ass, eventually those paychecks will start looking better. If your area is anything like mine, industrious, addiction-free, well-mannered workers are at a premium.

[President_Obama]

Wow, where I live you need a degree to get a job in a call centre. My kid sister has an MBA and works in a post office.
I reckon McDonald's will have a graduate program by 2016.

[brentsg]

Wow, where I live you need a degree to get a job in a call centre. My kid sister has an MBA and works in a post office.
I reckon McDonald's will have a graduate program by 2016.

Let's keep in mind that what people will consider an "IT Job" cuts a pretty wide swath. It can be as simple as guarding a monitor waiting for green things to turn red, then making a phone call. Or it could entail replacing Windows XP with 7 on people's notebooks and losing all of their bookmarks and e-mail.

[President_Obama]

It's a ridiculous situation all round and the kids still mindlessly keep going to uni just to get into debt.
Did we really become more intelligent under 'new' labour?!
I'm more qualified than my dad was 40 years ago, he cleared £35,000.00 I can't even score an interview and my ex has a degree in travel and tourism (lol) and works in a Waterstones.
I remember being laughed at for calling bullshit on this nonsense about 20 years ago.

[Austin]

What does it take to qualify for IT? I could probably do it, but know next to nothing about coding, so I hadn't thought to pursue this job first.

It depends on where you live and who you work for. In my area, good luck getting an IT job without some kind of certification or a hefty amount of experience.

However, sometimes you can get lucky and nail a basic Help Desk job (either phone support or deskside support) to get your foot in the door. Then you can use your time there to build resume fodder and figure out where you want to take your career (Do you want to go the admin route? Or perhaps the security field? Or maybe networking?). At a bare minimum though for the entry level jobs that you may be able to swing without some kind of certification, will still require a general knowledge of computers and troubleshooting computer issues.

IT is definitely a way to make money, and Security in particular is probably going to be the highest in demand (and in a way, the most interesting) field to shoot for. Most entry level stuff (Help Desk/phone support, in-person hardware support), I think just about anyone could do. However, once you get into fields like Security, you really have to understand how networking and the internet functions on a much deeper level in order to do your job (depending on what it is).

[Ed Oscuro]

Prez Obama's points are the best.

Seriously, check out "life hacks" especially of the "redneck hacks" variety. Free entertainment but also some real life lessons can be learned there.

Some random thoughts about mainly heavy appliances and energy usage: Mainly, observe, fix problems when they arise, and always look for new places to save - but don't do anything dangerous. It sounds like a lot. Who needs to watch sports, anyways?

Turning off the lights isn't the only thing: Do without huge appliances (big fridges) when you can, or use them more sparingly (clothes washers / dryers). There's also lots of power dissipated completely uselessly through many other appliances. If unplugging your cable box often isn't possible, you could try calling up the cable company to get a newer, less power-hungry one (possibly). But just unplugging things that aren't used is one of my favorite ways to not only save money on power, but reduce the total lifetime of items. It used to be that people were very worried about the thermal cycles on equipment, but if you have a mobile phone plugged into a charger all the time, or a laptop, that Mean Time Between Failures is ticking down. This is especially true of LCD screens - brightness (or brightness uniformity) problems seem likely to hurt resale value.

Speaking of energy sources, be aware of gas usage. I've gotten to be very familiar with the operation of my water heater, and that thing will keep the water at a constant temperature regardless of demand. I'd be careful about monkeying with its schedule without consulting somebody first, though. That probably does need to be kept at a fairly stable temperature for long-term reliability.

Fix your own stuff - can save tons of money by not needing to call the repairman or plumber repeatedly. Always do some research online when buying or considering to replace something valuable, to see if you can service it yourself. Likewise, don't stress over little cosmetic things that don't hurt the function of something. But don't avoid paying a pro when it's important; they often know stuff you don't, especially when it's far outside your realm of experience. Likewise, don't sink a bunch of money or even just time into something that's not worth it. Example: Old Toro leafblowers from 1991 can be serviced a bit if you have the right stuff, but while they were well-built overall they have some parts that make servicing hard or impossible, and they're loud and not as flexible as new units. Even more, $30-ish will buy you a leafblower that appears superior to the old one in most ways. Reliability is important, but so are many other factors. How much is a leafblower worth if it doesn't make you lose your hearing or jump out of your skin when you switch it on? Thanks to Toro's $30 price point, you probably don't have to stress over the question so much. Of course leafblowers are more of a thing for the comfortably well-off property owner on an acre or two, but the idea applies to all kinds of different products. Try to consider whether features you're looking at really will help or whether the item is essentially going to be bettered in the next product cycle. And speaking of lawn equipment, make sure to check out cheaper items. Do you need a riding gas mower, or can you do the job just as well (and not have to pay for yearly maintenance) with a plug-in mower?

Insulation is important, but attic insulation is only part of it - sometime I hope to get some new rubber seals in the all-weather windows in my place, because those degrade over the years. Insulation in the outer walls is also important. Additionally, some of the new insulation types seem pretty promising, but many types of construction materials can bring bugs (i.e. silverfish and firebrats, which will eat your paper). But there's ways of dealing with these things.

For anything tech related, including frugally building and keeping machines in good shape, we've got you covered.

Finally, don't forget contingencies. Going somewhere and got nobody to watch over your house? If you've got a well, find and turn off the pump 'cuz nobody's going to be using the water. Nothing would ruin your plans like coming back to a house flood.

[Moniker]

Do without huge appliances (big fridges) when you can, or use them more sparingly (clothes washers / dryers). There's also lots of power dissipated completely uselessly through many other appliances.

I need to start doing this. I've got a hand-me-down fridge from god knows when (I'm guessing '60s or '70s) that is clearly a power hog. Can't afford an energy-efficient replacement at the moment. Same goes with my 2nd window AC unit. The seals on it are good, so unplugging it right before work, and before going to bed would probably cut down on my energy costs considerably. Pain in the ass, but likely worth it. Then again, crawling back behind that thing every day and inhaling dustballs and aging rodent turds? Hrm...

Single-ply toilet paper? If you respect your anus as I do, probably not worth it. But it's an option, certainly.

[brentsg]

I need to start doing this. I've got a hand-me-down fridge from god knows when (I'm guessing '60s or '70s) that is clearly a power hog. Can't afford an energy-efficient replacement at the moment. The seals on it are good, so unplugging it right before work, and before going to bed would probably cut down on my energy costs considerably. Pain in the ass, but likely worth it.

Also, when you forget to plug it back in.. or wait a bit too long a few times.. Don't flush every time you vomit from the food poisoning. Just flush every 3rd or 4th time, or maybe go out in the back yard to do the business.

[Moniker]

I need to start doing this. I've got a hand-me-down fridge from god knows when (I'm guessing '60s or '70s) that is clearly a power hog. Can't afford an energy-efficient replacement at the moment. The seals on it are good, so unplugging it right before work, and before going to bed would probably cut down on my energy costs considerably. Pain in the ass, but likely worth it.

Also, when you forget to plug it back in.. or wait a bit too long a few times.. Don't flush every time you vomit from the food poisoning. Just flush every 3rd or 4th time, or maybe go out in the back yard to do the business.

[Ed Oscuro]

Haha! So with respect to refrigerators, the main thing is doing without the traditional huge one - if you have to buy a new one, buy a smaller one if you can. Obviously, playing around with adequate food ventilation is not a good idea.

I didn't do much in-depth reading on refrigerators before now, but I think I found exactly the resource to answer all our questions:
http://www.aceee.org/consumer/refrigeration

- A new fridge might end up paying for itself over keeping an old one limping along. Our fridge is also ancient (considerably older than 1990) and may well need to be replaced. Not sure what kind of symptoms to look for or whether old fridges leak coolant / cool less efficiently over time.
- Among newer fridges, some have the cooling unit mounted on the bottom (!!!) for ergonomic reasons. Fuck thermodynamics, eh? I didn't think about the ACEEE's point about freezers before, but that's a good one also. That might be a bit more of an ergonomic tradeoff than I'd want to make, though.
- There may be some energy usage savings in going to a small fridge, but check them out if you can. You don't want something inadequate to your needs or annoying you by rattling all the time with a tiny compressor unit.

And finally, if you have a cool place (i.e. an underground basement) that might double for longer-term storage of some things that previously were getting thrown in the fridge for no reason, like jars of olives (who buys those, anyways?) and probably beers as well.

If you have to continue using an old fridge, make sure it has enough clearance from the wall, try not to run hot appliances right next to it, and occasionally clean the vents / coils for dust, which can help its efficiency and keep it quiet.

[Blackbird]

Motor scooter isn't really a viable option, I live in the middle of nowhere and any place I'd want to go is too far away to travel by scooter. I'd probably kill myself on a motorcycle. I do have a relatively gas efficient car though, considering the budget I had to work with.

Replacing appliances would probably be a good idea, but I don't think it would be worthwhile to do when I intend on getting out of this house sooner than later =P.

I'll go around the house and see what I can safely unplug to reduce power leeching. We got rid of an excess freezer already.

Pay people to fix stuff? The only time we do that is when the basement is flooding. Everything else, if it breaks, it stays broken because we've been poor for so long. I wish I knew more about practical things like how to fix broken stuff. I know my way around computers, but if you ask me how to fix a water heater or a lawn mower I'm clueless. The pipes are all barely stapled together with duct clamps and plastic aquarium piping =P.

Obama is definitely right about education. College tuition is just fucking ridiculous now, because the government hands out student loans like candy and the colleges can charge whatever they want for tuition because of it. Colleges get a shitload of money, the government gets a constant stream of income from indebted students. It's a rigged game, everybody wins except the students, who are totally fucked. Just wish someone had told me as much before I drank the Kool-aid.

I don't really care what job I get so long as it isn't absolutely unbearable and it pays enough that I can afford to pursue my hobby of making indie games in my free time.

[gct]

Would probably be enough to afford a girlfriend.. although they don't tend to dig on the Vespas, I'd hazard to guess.

In my experience, at least in my city, girls only dig on the Vespas. They would rather pay $4000 for a scooter that looks cute and retro and only goes 35mph, than to pay $1000 less for a better-performing scooter that looks a bit sportier. We have a dealer/importer in my city called RayBen motors and it's the only reason I can imagine why they have any business at all. They take shitty Chinese scooters, dress them up with retro-style bodywork, and sell them for Italian prices, and there are fools who buy them. They are incredibly loud and expensive for how slow and shitty they are.
Disclaimer: I used to own a Chinese scooter - honestly it was OK for what I paid for it which was not much (only maybe 40% of a RayBen although it looked ugly as sin), and I know they are actually reliable workhorses in the motherland, but driving conditions here require something with a bit more attitude if you don't want to be splattered on someone's bumper.

Alright, done with the rant. If you don't need to travel on the highway, I suggest going for a Yamaha BWS 125 or Vino 125. Chicks might still like the Vino style, and 125cc engine keeps the frame small and manageable, but has enough power for you to move around at city traffic speeds. 250cc minimum if you want to do any highway travel. Look at 2nd-hand if you need to. Maintenance is cheap and you can do a lot of it yourself.

None of this matters though if you have long and harsh winters. When there is ice on the road, I like to have an extra pair of wheels.