Sunday, August 17, 2008
Income Update
| By Lynn Forgy As I said in a recent post, I have decided to take a break from mystery shopping. That means, of course, that I'll have anywhere from $400 to $600 less income per month. Did I mention that my full time job is now part time? (My choice - so I could homeschool my daughter). So now my monthly income will be decreased by about $600-$800 total. I paid off my car last month, so that's one payment I don't have to worry about. Which leaves the 1 remaining debt (other than the house) from my Debt Snowball - the dreaded STUDENT LOAN. The balance is about $4500 now. The closer I get to paying my debt off, the more I crave not having to work. I don't mean that I don't want to work, but I don't want to HAVE to work. |
Monday, August 11, 2008
When I Tithe...
| By Lynn Forgy I used to think that I was an anomoly - but since beginning my journey to debt freedom, I have met others with similar experiences. I'm referring to what happens when I tithe. It seems like the more I give, the more I get. I know that "it's more blessed to give than to receive", and that what I get doesn't necessarily always mean money. But it is amazing to me that when I tithe, my budget always works out, I haven't missed a payment, and I can usually put extra towards my debt snowball. When I first began getting serious about not having any debt, I was taking a Crown Financial class. One of the classes had us making a budget for homework. I kept that piece of paper, too, by the way. When I look at it now, I think "How in the world did I even manage to feed my family?" But at that time, I always had money to pay my bills, and there was almost always a little something extra to put towards my debt. The thing was, though, that I gave to God what was his in the first place, and I did this before paying anything else. I was happier with my life, too. To be honest, since I bought my house almost 3 years ago, my tithe hasn't been the 10% that it was in my "poor" days. Oh, it's usually around 5% which I guess isn't bad, but I know I should be giving the full 10%. And I don't think I'm as happy with my life as I was then. Perhaps one could say it's the stress of owning a home, the repairs, knowing that a job is necessary because to miss one paycheck would mean certain disaster. I don't really mean that type of happy, though. It's more of a feeling of knowing that I know the right thing to do, and almost disregarding what I'm supposed to do because I can't trust that God would provide for me. So this, too, is one of my goals: to increase my tithing to 10% again. An example from several years ago, again during my poor era, should illustrate what I mean. I had just spent all the money I had on bills and groceries, and I had one small bill (around $20) that I had to pay within the next couple of days. I wasn't due to receive a paycheck within that time period, and I was stressing about how I was going to pay this small bill. Granted, the amount was small and probably wouldn't have made much difference in the grand scheme of things. But I don't want to ignore my responsibilities, purposefully be late on a payment, etc. I think it was the day before the bill was due, and I was obsessing over this $20 bill. I came home, and per my usual custom got out to get the mail. Guess what was in there! A check to me for $20!! I know that God will take care of me, but sometimes I have a hard time with that. Increasing my tithe to 10% is my goal, as is paying off the remaining $4500 that I owe (student loan). |
Thursday, August 07, 2008
A Word to the Wise
| By Lynn Forgy For those of you who are thinking of mystery shopping, or perhaps have already begun, I have a bit of advice for you. One disclaimer though - please don't let what I say here detract from your desire to mystery shop. Up until this experience, for the 8 months I've been doing this, I have had fun, gotten some cool (free) things, found some really neat stores, and met some nice people. It is a legitimate way to make some extra money. First, I'll tell my story and then you can take what you want from it. I'm afraid I can't divulge too much detail, but maybe you can get an idea of what I mean anyway. Almost 2 months ago, I did a shop at a business. My instructions were to act interested in a product sold by the business, interact with an associate and get a business card, and let the associate pitch the product. It went well, I did my job, and provided my honest feedback. So earlier this week, I signed up for another shop at this same business, never dreaming that the associate would be there and even if he was I thought there was absolutely no chance he would remember me. Geez, was I wrong! Not only did he remember me, but he knew why I was there. I walked into the location, asked for assistance at the front desk, and the same guy came over to me. I recognized him, but I thought I was not memorable enough for him to remember me. He came up to me, with a smile on his face, and immediately confronted me. He said he knew who I was, why I was there, and of course I was sputtering and trying to act like I had no idea what he was talking about. (When I'm confronted like that, I usually just open my mouth like a fish out of water and it's not until later that I realize I should have said such and such, etc.) He led me back to his cubicle, sat down at his desk, and began to look through his handy dandy notebook in search of my previous information. He said lots of stuff, basically just calling me out and trying to get me to admit my purpose for being there. Then he really let me have it - did I not realize that people like me take up their time, when they could be making a sale, he told me I was very negative in my comments (I reread them later and saw that I had given him just an average rating), and he was upset to say the least, yada yada. Long story short (too late?), I left the location without completing the shop. But it made me think - two things, really. The first is that I had absolutely no clue that the things I reported would go straight back to the employee I had interacted with. Even if I said just average things, not negative, perhaps they take it the wrong way. Rather than trying to get them to improve, maybe they think I'm criticizing them, personally. I didn't think of it that way. And I wouldn't want to make anyone feel badly about themselves - everyone has bad days. Who knows? Maybe it was me that caused them to provide less than stellar service. Secondly - I should not go back to the same place that has a very low turnover rate. At least not until I drastically change my appearance :) After some soul searching, I think I've decided to take a break from this part time job. I'm very tired (with all the shops I was doing, the travel time, plus the time it takes to enter the reports), it was almost like a full time job. Add to that my other part time job, and (formerly full time job) now second part time job, the fact that I've begun homeschooling my daughter, and it makes for a tiring week. If anyone else has had their mystery shopping identity compromised, with some colorful stories to share, I would love to post them! |
