dave & i have been experiencing a small lull in our debt payoff. (cuz we realized we had to set aside $$ for property taxes, etc....so we hadn't paid off anything in several weeks)
needless to say, we were feeling like we'd lost momentum. well, as of this week, that's no longer the case. yesterday was payday and so we will soon be making another debt payment.
i had my first real night (not training) at papa john's last night. i brought home $23 in tips and will get paid $24.20 gross for my hourly wages. not bad for one night, a little under 4 hours of "work". i say "work" because i can hardly call this work. it is so fun and so easy. i love the challenge of finding everyone's houses. (and that's not even as hard as i thought it might be thx to all the maps they have in the store...) i enjoy getting to talk to all the people. it was so much fun. not to mention, i can listen to the radio and talk on my phone to whomever i want all while i "work".
having 3 jobs has totally changed my perspective on spending as well. yesterday dave & i actually met for lunch. (he was missing me...) we ended up spending $17.45 somehow. way too expensive for a couple sandwiches!! so almost all the tip $ i earned last night was spent on lunch. it makes me not want to eat out at all for now.
the other thing that occurred to me while delivering pizzas last night was how incredibly easy it is to go out, get a job, and make extra money. the only jobs i ever had before the paper route and pizza delivery were engineering jobs. the process one must go thru to get an engr. job is quite extensive, i feel. yeah, sure, you get paid more, etc. but if you need some quick cash, all you have to do is go out there and get a job. and you'll have cash. i can't believe all the time that i've wasted up to this point, complaining about my debt load and not just out-earning the problem. i so could have been working 1 or 2 of these jobs throughout my time at purdue and all the time i've been working days as an engr since. but i always thought i was "sooooo busy". HA! things would never have gotten as bad as they did if we had just been motivated. when dave hurt himself and was off work for 10 weeks while i was in school, rather than asking my parents to help us make our house payment, i should have just gone out and worked SOMEWHERE. ANYWHERE. anything could have made that time easier. when dave was in cleveland for bmw school for 3 months, he should have been working in the evenings rather than brushing up on all the walker texas ranger episodes and running up a cell phone bill talking to me. his excuse was, "i'm only going to be there 3 months. by the time i would learn a job, it would be time for me to move again." well, it took me ONE NIGHT to learn the pizza delivery job. and i have money in my hands. instead, he mooched off his parents for 3 months, and when his mom asked him to pay her back, he thought she was crazy (yes, shan, he did....), he complained about it for years and didn't pay her back until this summer.
in talking with a very wise man yesterday, he pointed out that so many young people these days just want to complain about their debt and feel that companies owe them a higher salary just for being them. he was very impressed that david & i would be so goal-oriented and determined to pay off his debt that we would go out and get extra jobs and do whatever it takes.
well, i told him that it hasn't always been this way. clearly. or we wouldn't have debt to pay off. i'm just so glad we've come to our senses now. and i sincerely apologize to every member of our families for all the years we told you our financial sob stories and asked you for loans/gifts to help us out of the stupid mess we created. ugh.
wed. night i met another pizza delivery driver who has 4 jobs. he's a pastor, works days for a construction company, works nights for Fed Ex and 6 evenings a week for Papa John's. .....he's a dave ramsey fan and is leading his church in Whitestown thru the FPU program. it was nice to meet someone else who's so motivated. he said that he and his family will be debt free by march or april. :)
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