Financial Fitness February: Day 14

I have decided to focus Friday’s mostly on doing food delivery since it gives a nice boost to our income and it is also usually the best day to earn the most money doing it.

So, for the most part, my day was spent delivering food, however here are a couple other things that went on financially.

1.) Bought My Wife Some Valentine’s Treats

While it is great to be frugal and financially conservative, by no means should anyone get to a point where we won’t ever spend any money, especially on someone else.

Valentine’s day has become very commercialized, however, it is still a great time to take a moment to show your significant other how much they mean to you.

That being said, I still tried to be smart about how I went about it.

As you know if you have read my previous posts, my wife had to make sudden travel plans and therefor had to leave right after work today.

Since she is a teacher, she got lots of sweets and goodies from her students.

So, I didn’t want to load her up with chocolate since she is also trying to watch what she eats. I also didn’t end up buying flowers (terrible I know) but the simple fact that she will be traveling on a bus and train over the weekend means she would not be able to enjoy them. Plus, I might just have a some flowers in mind for when she gets back ;)

So instead of those things, I went to the store and bought here some of her favorite travel snacks she can enjoy while on the road.

I didn’t want to get her nothing but I also didn’t want to be pressured into getting the “normal” valentines day gifts when I knew they wouldn’t mean as much right now.

I personally think that it is good to try to be more thoughtful with the way you spend money, but I am curious to know, what do you think?

Since my wife was out of town, I decided to take my sister out to dinner and was able to spend some nice time catching up with her a bit.

2.) Payed for and Picked Up Some Items Won at an Online Auction

I will be honest with this one. I actually didn’t realize I had won these items and was late picking them up.

That being said, I also probably should have been more thoughtful and not bid on them in the first place.

It’s not that the items I won are bad, and I should be able to sell them for a profit, it is just the fact that I really didn’t need to get more stuff and I just got caught up in the excitement of bidding on stuff.

Of course, by reading this you are probably realizing this isn’t exactly what you would call a financial win…

But I share it because I want others to see that not every financial choice I make turns out being a WIN.

However, I can turn it into a WIN by taking it as a learning experience, and not making the same mistake of bidding frivolously on auctions again.

That being said, I spent a total of $77.16. Most of the items I got will sell over time and I should be able to recoup my money, but it will take a while and in hindsight, I should have just passed up on them.

FUN FACT: Auctions can actually be a great way to save some money on things you are needing to purchase. I bid on an auction site called K-Bid which features auctions all over the country. Some of the auctions for things like cars, furniture and household items end up selling at a very reasonable price.

Those 2 things are the major things that affected my finances today, but I figure I will also continue sharing my earnings from doing food delivery as I hope someone will find the information helpful in deciding whether or not food delivery is a good idea for them.

Today I delivered for Instacart, Postmates, and UberEats

In the morning I did Instacart since a lot of people order in the morning for their weekend. I only did two orders but one of them was really good pay.

In the afternoon and evening I mostly did UberEats but switched to Postmates for a couple orders.

Here is the breakdown:

Postmates:

I spent about an hour doing 2 deliveries, although part of that time I was tracking an UberEats delivery which I ended up cancelling because it took to long and I got the Postmates order.

On those 2 deliveries I made a total of $16.93 before tip and I have not yet received a tip on those. I did however get a tip from yesterday’s Postmates delivery for $3.74 on top of what I earned yesterday!

Instacart:

As I mentioned, I only did 2 orders this morning, but one of those orders alone was $53!

In total, I spent 2 hrs and 27 minutes doing these orders and earned $72.88

UberEats:

Today, the orders were fairly consistent, as they tend to be on Fridays.

I also got some decent tips, I am assuming due to the holiday.

I spent 3 hrs and 57 minutes logged onto the app and did a total of 9 orders in that time period.

My earnings including tips so far is $76.04 or an average of $8.45 per delivery.

You can see just by comparing the numbers, why Instacart is quickly becoming my favorite!

LESSON FROM TODAY: Giving makes us a better person and we should never be too stingy to give. It doesn’t just have to be giving money though, other things such as giving time can be just as valuable.

Today’s post was a bit long I know, and I wouldn’t blame you if you just skimmed through it. But I do hope that maybe you at least found something helpful.

Do you have any WINS to share?

What about any financial mistakes you have made that you are not proud of but learned from?

2 Likes

For nearly 2 days I lost my sign-in access and was unable to respond to your posts or to any at all. Anyways, I like what you are doing with the shopping services, particularly Instacart and Postmates. Tell me this, is there a way that you can just deliver for any of these companies and not do the actual shopping? For example, you go to the store when an order has been filled and you deliver. I ask because I’m physically unable most days to do a lot of walking, but delivery in my area would definitely work.

You have some mystery shops this weekend, don’t you?

1 Like

Jon, thank you for the breakdown of your wins…sharing with us in your daily journaling takes a good bit of time, I would think, and it’s very appreciated!!! It’s inspiring and exciting!

My financial wins were all on paper, thanks to a bull market and good counseling from our financial adviser. I know that can be erased Tuesday when the markets open again.

I have to turn “my biggest financial mistake” into a funny because it was like a movie script. Not too long after my first husband and I divorced and his re-marriage to the young secretary, he inherited a substantial amount of money from a quietly wealthy, land owner Uncle who had never married. Most of his family didn’t see it coming! If I’d hung in there just a few more years…well… Surprisingly and thankfully, it was just an “oh-darn” moment for me. My children and their families will benefit and I’m thrilled. because who of us doesn’t worry about our children’s and grandchildren’s future?

For the serious money mistake I made personally, I think it was being way too smug because my income was strong. Things can change on a dime. Once one gets themselves out of debt and you feel this freedom from stress and worry it’s so tempting to spend freely on the unnecessary and frivolous “stuff”. I had a very rude awakening after several great years in a career, when I encountered uncontrollable, outside circumstances that brought it to a dead stop.

It’s one thing when you can control your own actions and shoulder the responsibility of the results, good or bad. But there are always surprises. Always! The first time it happened to me, I was forced to live off a credit card and carry a large balance month to month. It was almost 20 years later when it happened again; the construction industry collapsed, totally out of our control, and if I hand’t learned from that first lesson, I’m pretty sure we would have lost our home. We went to zip income and it happened fast!

But this time, we were prepared because we had saved heavily and had avoided growing too big as a business, keeping it mom and pop and operating out of our home. We had quit buying “stuff” and by second nature had turned into frugal freaks.

2 Likes

I was reading this article but I did not find anything related to debt consolidation. I want to get a brief knowledge of it. Once I visited and they were saying through their article that before consolidating multiple debts you need to take the advice from an expert in this field, technically they were right. But I want to make the decision about whether I should go with this theory or not. Look my background is bio-science and I don’t know much of it. I need knowledge, not any advice.

Regards,

Bob

Moore Income posted:

I have decided to focus Friday’s mostly on doing food delivery since it gives a nice boost to our income and it is also usually the best day to earn the most money doing it.

So, for the most part, my day was spent delivering food, however here are a couple other things that went on financially.

1.) Bought My Wife Some Valentine’s Treats

While it is great to be frugal and financially conservative, by no means should anyone get to a point where we won’t ever spend any money, especially on someone else.

Valentine’s day has become very commercialized, however, it is still a great time to take a moment to show your significant other how much they mean to you.

That being said, I still tried to be smart about how I went about it.

As you know if you have read my previous posts, my wife had to make sudden travel plans and therefor had to leave right after work today.

Since she is a teacher, she got lots of sweets and goodies from her students.

So, I didn’t want to load her up with chocolate since she is also trying to watch what she eats. I also didn’t end up buying flowers (terrible I know) but the simple fact that she will be traveling on a bus and train over the weekend means she would not be able to enjoy them. Plus, I might just have a some flowers in mind for when she gets back ;)

So instead of those things, I went to the store and bought here some of her favorite travel snacks she can enjoy while on the road.

I didn’t want to get her nothing but I also didn’t want to be pressured into getting the “normal” valentines day gifts when I knew they wouldn’t mean as much right now.

I personally think that it is good to try to be more thoughtful with the way you spend money, but I am curious to know, what do you think?

Since my wife was out of town, I decided to take my sister out to dinner and was able to spend some nice time catching up with her a bit.

2.) Payed for and Picked Up Some Items Won at an Online Auction

I will be honest with this one. I actually didn’t realize I had won these items and was late picking them up.

That being said, I also probably should have been more thoughtful and not bid on them in the first place.

It’s not that the items I won are bad, and I should be able to sell them for a profit, it is just the fact that I really didn’t need to get more stuff and I just got caught up in the excitement of bidding on stuff.

Of course, by reading this you are probably realizing this isn’t exactly what you would call a financial win…

But I share it because I want others to see that not every financial choice I make turns out being a WIN.

However, I can turn it into a WIN by taking it as a learning experience, and not making the same mistake of bidding frivolously on auctions again.

That being said, I spent a total of $77.16. Most of the items I got will sell over time and I should be able to recoup my money, but it will take a while and in hindsight, I should have just passed up on them.

FUN FACT: Auctions can actually be a great way to save some money on things you are needing to purchase. I bid on an auction site called K-Bid which features auctions all over the country. Some of the auctions for things like cars, furniture and household items end up selling at a very reasonable price.

Those 2 things are the major things that affected my finances today, but I figure I will also continue sharing my earnings from doing food delivery as I hope someone will find the information helpful in deciding whether or not food delivery is a good idea for them.

Today I delivered for Instacart, Postmates, and UberEats

In the morning I did Instacart since a lot of people order in the morning for their weekend. I only did two orders but one of them was really good pay.

In the afternoon and evening I mostly did UberEats but switched to Postmates for a couple orders.

Here is the breakdown:

Postmates:

I spent about an hour doing 2 deliveries, although part of that time I was tracking an UberEats delivery which I ended up cancelling because it took to long and I got the Postmates order.

On those 2 deliveries I made a total of $16.93 before tip and I have not yet received a tip on those. I did however get a tip from yesterday’s Postmates delivery for $3.74 on top of what I earned yesterday!

Instacart:

As I mentioned, I only did 2 orders this morning, but one of those orders alone was $53!

In total, I spent 2 hrs and 27 minutes doing these orders and earned $72.88

UberEats:

Today, the orders were fairly consistent, as they tend to be on Fridays.

I also got some decent tips, I am assuming due to the holiday.

I spent 3 hrs and 57 minutes logged onto the app and did a total of 9 orders in that time period.

My earnings including tips so far is $76.04 or an average of $8.45 per delivery.

You can see just by comparing the numbers, why Instacart is quickly becoming my favorite!

LESSON FROM TODAY: Giving makes us a better person and we should never be too stingy to give. It doesn’t just have to be giving money though, other things such as giving time can be just as valuable.

Today’s post was a bit long I know, and I wouldn’t blame you if you just skimmed through it. But I do hope that maybe you at least found something helpful.

Do you have any WINS to share?

What about any financial mistakes you have made that you are not proud of but learned from?

You must be exhausted with all those foodie trips you make for others. How do you feel about it?

1 Like

I am disabled and desperately need to find a full time remote-type job at my home. Do you have any recommendations? I don’t have the resources with which to buy fast-speed internet service, a laptop computer and headset. I have a BA degree in interdisciplinary studies.

My doctor wants me to buy Boost high protein drinks or Ensure Enlive complete protein drinks. I cannot afford to buy them. I feel weak when I do not drink these high protein drinks.

Are there any online companies that supply electronic equipment and fast internet access? Any ideas will be greatly appreciated!!!

Do you have any helpful suggestions? Thank you.

I just found these links. I hope they help.

http://www.startgrants.com/fre…-disabled-people.php

https://wahadventures.com/get-…top-from-government/

https://wellkeptwallet.com/get-free-laptops/

http://www.lowincomefinancialh…low-income-families/

https://www.reference.com/worl…led-2032fcb2cf425d6b

https://moneypantry.com/free-l…low-income-families/

3 Likes

sthom posted:

For nearly 2 days I lost my sign-in access and was unable to respond to your posts or to any at all. Anyways, I like what you are doing with the shopping services, particularly Instacart and Postmates. Tell me this, is there a way that you can just deliver for any of these companies and not do the actual shopping? For example, you go to the store when an order has been filled and you deliver. I ask because I’m physically unable most days to do a lot of walking, but delivery in my area would definitely work.

You have some mystery shops this weekend, don’t you?

@sthom I can tell you about grocery delivery for Instacart, but Postmates doesn’t do grocery delivery in my area so I am not sure about that one.

As for Instacart, they updated the app last year with a feature that makes it so you no longer have to schedule specific hours and instead can just pick up any extra orders that the people who are scheduled are not able to fulfill.

There are indeed delivery only orders which require you to only go to the store, pick up the groceries and then deliver them to the customer.

In my town, they don’t have them as often but they do exist. Instacart also pays some people to just be shoppers in specific stores and those are the orders that end up being delivery only for drivers.

If it is something you are interested in doing, I would say it can’t hurt anything to at least sign up for the services. Because they don’t require you to work if you don’t want to. But by signing up, at least you can get a better idea of how they work.

Feel free to message me if you would like an invite to any of the apps and I would also be glad to help walk you through any questions you may have throughout the process.

1 Like

Thank you for sharing @mintjulep It is so true that it is easy to get too comfortable when things are going good. This is a great reminder that keeping your finances in check is not ever something one should let slide.

Bob Swift posted:

I was reading this article but I did not find anything related to debt consolidation. I want to get a brief knowledge of it. Once I visited and they were saying through their article that before consolidating multiple debts you need to take the advice from an expert in this field, technically they were right. But I want to make the decision about whether I should go with this theory or not. Look my background is bio-science and I don’t know much of it. I need knowledge, not any advice.

Regards,

Bob

Hey @bob.swift Debt Consolidation is a big topic and I am not sure I quite understand your question.

I am going to go ahead and make your reply it’s own topic on the community so it can be discussed further without all these other non-related comments. Maybe on there you can clarify a little more.

Thanks,

Jon

@mskimberly Yes, doing all those deliveries can get exhausting, but it is something I really enjoy doing for several reasons.

First, it does allow me to get to know my town a lot better than I ever have. Driving back and forth to restaurants and peoples houses in all different neighborhoods gives me a good idea of the layout of the city.

Second, I enjoy all the people I get to meet, even if just for a brief moment. I enjoy interacting with people and let me tell you, there is no better way to put a smile on someone’s face than to bring them food! laugh(as long as you don’t take too long and they are hangry)

Thirdly, the fact that I can earn a significant amount of money doing this just blows me away.

I will say however, my least favorite part about it is the fact that it makes my car smell like food and I have not found a good way to get rid of it quickly since during our winter it gets so cold opening the windows is not an option.

Also, thanks for providing those links in response to the reply above.

2 Likes

I appreciate it @moore.income. Will definitely get on InstaCart and Postmates and check them out, probably next week (adding to calendar now). I think I’d enjoy delivery; what I wouldn’t enjoy is too much walking in aisles making selections; my health is such that I never know how I will feel hour to hour. Of course, I’ll also have to be careful because there have been instances of delivery people getting robbed around here…

This week, I’m full on with Appen projects.

1 Like

@sthom I do think it would be a good option for you to earn some extra income on your own schedule and would also work for your situation.

1 Like

I agree with you. Definitely worth checking out. I like to have my hands in as many pots as I’m able to. Thanks again.

2 Likes

It is important to see something good in what you do…

1 Like

For sure!

Moore Income posted:

@mskimberly Yes, doing all those deliveries can get exhausting, but it is something I really enjoy doing for several reasons.

First, it does allow me to get to know my town a lot better than I ever have. Driving back and forth to restaurants and peoples houses in all different neighborhoods gives me a good idea of the layout of the city.

Second, I enjoy all the people I get to meet, even if just for a brief moment. I enjoy interacting with people and let me tell you, there is no better way to put a smile on someone’s face than to bring them food! laugh(as long as you don’t take too long and they are hangry)

Thirdly, the fact that I can earn a significant amount of money doing this just blows me away.

I will say however, my least favorite part about it is the fact that it makes my car smell like food and I have not found a good way to get rid of it quickly since during our winter it gets so cold opening the windows is not an option.

Also, thanks for providing those links in response to the reply above.

I don’t own a car, but if I did…this could be fun.

1 Like

I just found these guide for How to get Free Government Laptops for Low income families

@mskimberly posted:

I just found these links. I hope they help.

http://www.startgrants.com/fre…-disabled-people.php

https://wahadventures.com/get-…top-from-government/

https://wellkeptwallet.com/get-free-laptops/

http://www.lowincomefinancialh…low-income-families/

https://www.reference.com/worl…led-2032fcb2cf425d6b

https://moneypantry.com/free-l…low-income-families/

I dont know why my replies are not visible here but want to add one more that has missed https://getgovtgrants.com/ways…oney-from-government