Breaking Even, Inc.

Repurposing Old Furniture

Why Buy New When You Can Customize It For You?

When my parents gave me their ginormous entertainment center five years ago, I took it. It was massive and kind of dated but if held a lot of stuff (all my DVDs and CDs fit on one of the slide-out shelves) and it served as a bulky home for my television (also "stolen" from my parents).

My last move took its tole on my entertainment center. Made of that fake wood particleboard, part of it came off the side while taking it out of the Uhaul. Everyone's first inkling was to junk it. Instead, I saw a massive blank spot in our kitchen as an opportunity to repurpose it.

After nailing the falling off piece back on, Sean helped me take apart the top and bottom pieces (which were only held by four screws). Then I painted the bottom part black (1/2 gallon of black and some left-over primer: $20). It took about four coats to make it so the fake wood was no longer showing through.

To make a counter, I got a scrap piece of birch from the pile of leftover wood at my local hardware store (they gave it to me for $5 and cut it to size), some cheap moulding to put around the edge, and polyurethane to seal the whole thing when I was done (all totaling about $25).

My mom and her Miter box helped me cut the molding and nail it with tack nails to the side. I put four coats of polyurethane over what would become the counter of the island.

I then attached the counter to the black-painted island. It just seemed to need one last thing.

My brother-in-law helped me order fork, knife, and spoon pulls for the island (and then paid for them without telling me). Sean installed them for me as a favor one afternoon.

So with a little help from friends and family and about $50, Sean and I now have more counterspace for prep as well as a place to store those slightly obscure kitchen appliances (I really should use my blender more...). Here are the before and after shots (forgive the bad MTV show playing in the background. That was back in the cable days!)    

In addition to not spending a ton of money on a piece of furniture, we've helped keep it out of the landfill at least a little longer.

And what happened to the top part of said entertainment center? Well that's for another blog...

Headed Back To College...

Use Those Networking Opportunities At Your College

When I went to college, I just concentrated on getting through the semester. I fell asleep while studying my chemistry book (talk about sleep lines!) and took what I thought were challenging and interesting classes. I worked as a lifeguard in my hometown in the summers to make book and fun money for the year. I had a couple small campus jobs to supplement the "fun money". My parents paid for my college and told me my job was to study and get the best grades possible. So I did. I thought I was pretty motivated at that point in my life, until yesterday.

I sat in a room yesterday with fifty to sixty students who gave up one day of their weekend to network with alumni. They had taken summer internships relative to what they wanted to do. They took notes, nodded at what you were saying seeming genuinely interested. They asked thoughtful questions. They knew going in that they might not get job offers; they just wanted to meet us. Five years ago, I wouldn't have been in that room. But I was there yesterday.

BATEScene was set up by Bate's Office of Career Services. I got invited because I have a creative career, both in my "day job" and with this blog. I was part of small group discussions but at the beginning when everyone was listening, we had to give our names, our job titles/companies, and one piece of advice we would give people about to graduate. The good news is I had a two and a half hour drive to think about this.

My friend Michaela always tells me she admires how I always "put myself out there" and I thought about that a lot yesterday. I didn't realize that other people didn't do that. I looked back on how I got a newspaper job, how I met my boyfriend online, how I got someone to publish my first article. No matter how awful the date was or who told me it was too hard to get published, I kept going. When it got to be my turn to speak, I knew what to say.

I encouraged them to internalize what they wanted and tell everyone they knew. I want people to visit this blog for example. It's in my email signature. I published the address to it in my company newsletter. I tell people upon meeting them about it. "Coca Cola didn't become a household name but sending a couple emails then hanging out in its dorm room. Coca Cola told you that it was Coca Cola over and over again until you believed it." I thought this may have been too corny but a few people chuckled. I guess I am a little corny. But persistance pays off.

On the personal finance front, questions of money came up indirectly. In a small group discussion, I encouraged students to start a savings account beginning with their first job. (They were very concerned with liking their first job and how long they should stay at it.) I told them that they should save even $20, whatever they could afford, and have it automatically taken out. I told them that if they ever felt like they wanted to leave their job (or even were faced with a financially difficult situation) that having that cushion would make them feel so much better. "Plus I mean $20. That's lunch. You'll just buy something stupid with it and be happy for five minutes." I kick myself for not starting saving at my last job, which was higher paying than my current one. But what can you do except tell people open to hearing it who are about to enter the same part of their lives.

I not only met some great students but also other people in related fields. I networked, I ate in the new dining hall, I saw my friend Sarah (who got me involved in this). If your college does any networking event like this, whether you are a student or an alum, it's very worthwhile to go. Networking may get you your next job, allow for a travel opportunity, or even get one more person to read your blog. You may also just get to meet interesting people and have a free lunch. You may even be able to help someone out.

My college's networking event was well worth the five hours of driving. And how many things can you say that about?

Image from www.woodworthassociates.com   

Some Updates At Breaking Even

You may have noticed some recent (though minor) changes on this site. I'd like to explain.

First of all, I've successfully purchased a new domain: breakingeveninc.com. A friend has helped me make it so when you type in breakingeveninc.com, you will get to a page which talks about my freelancing (though to get to the blog, just click on the link). You will notice in the header that the blog is now titled "Breaking Even, Inc." to go with the new, easy-to-remember web address.

Breaking Even, Inc. is still a personal finance blog with a personality. The free content of the Breaking Even, Inc. blog gives people not only a reason to visit this site daily but also gives me a reason to write everyday about a fun and fascinating topic. Breaking Even, Inc. in addition to being a blog is also now a site where my freelance communciations work will be anchored. Check out the Breaking Even, Inc. Communications link to the left to learn more about what I can do!

Besides a slightly changed name and a web-based communications business (as if that wasn't enough, right?), I'm also now part of the BlogHer ads network. This means I may actually generate funds to break even on the costs associated with this blog. I hope you don't mind a little advertising. Just think of it as good things for your friend Nicole. And if you want to click on the ad, feel free but certainly don't feel obligated.

So Breaking Even, Inc. is still Breaking Even, just a little bigger and better. And I hope you think so, too.

Follow-up: Online Photo Contests

You may remember that about a month ago, I decided to try to make money off my cute dog by expoliting her in online photo contests. Here is what happened:

PamperedPuppy sent me a confirmation email and nothing else.

Cutest Pet Contest sent me a confirmation email then followed up via email and regular mail, offering to sell me the book my dog is in for only... $69.95. After I didn't respond to either solicitation, I heard nothing back.

Picture.com has been the most aggressive, emailing me several times a week more and more urgently that they need to hear whether I want a copy of the book they're selling (also about $70) and whether I will attend an amateur photographer's conference. I'm allowing them to email my account for another month before I mark them as spam.

Both Cutest Pet and Picture.com had me make the semifinal round in less than two weeks but have given me a month to buy their books. If anyone has seen anything from any of these contests, monetary prizes or otherwise, I'd love to hear about it. For me, they have been a little disappointing, of course for the lack of prizes but mostly for a lack of clear communication.

So in the online pet photo world, there is no money for nothing. At least not yet. (I can still hope a little, right?)

Meanwhile I've heard Kodak has a photo contest. I kind of believe in Kodak so I'll give you the link to submit here.

Is It Getting Hot In Here Or Are We Playing The Stock Market?

I'm In A Couple That Knows The Meaning Of Romance

Some young couples buy their first piece of furniture together, or buy land to build a house. Sean and I have gone an even more romantic route and bought stock together as our first jointly owned item.

I've long wanted to enter the stock market game. But buying stock in some small unknown company or just a company I couldn't get excited about never seemed interesting to me. Yet that was precisely what I could afford.

I've talked about wanting to "own Google" frequently enough. At work, we use a lot of their software and I like that they are a company who treats their workers well. (I also think they are going to figure out television on the internet before anyone else but that’s just my hunch.)

When I inquired at dinner one night whether one could buy half a share of stock (GOOG was approaching $600 at that point), Sean offered to go in on it with me. We submitted money to eTrade and waited while it cleared. (Unlike their Superbowl commercials that promised instant stock purchasing, there is a nine business day waiting period on new funds.)

Meanwhile, Sean became interested in a company called Luminex that he likes and uses a lot at work.

As of two days ago, we are proud owners of 1 share of Google and 4 shares of Luminex (Sean has less expensive taste in stock than I do). We have a romantic dinner wager on which stock will do better, which we will evaluate six months from now.

And while I’ve always felt cheated that I couldn’t play the stock market game in high school economics class, I get to play it now.

Of course Google tanked and Luminex slightly tanked yesterday. I’ve decided for personal sanity reasons to take the little stock graphs that update every 15 minutes off my Google homepage. While I’d love to think I’m going to get rich off GOOG, I think this will just be a fun way to hopefully grow my money in the long run and allow me to learn more about markets firsthand.

I’d love to know how you’ve played the stock market game and how much you enjoyed or didn’t enjoy it.

Image from: http://btr.michaelkwan.com/2007/10/09/google-stock-breaks-600-will-anything-stunt-its-growth/

DNTO: Deep Into Debt

Show Discusses Interesting Domestic Arrangement

At work I'm allowed to listen to media through my headphones while I do my more tedious tasks. While I sometimes listen to music, I am more of a fan of podcasts, in particular newsy podcasts.

I began listening to DNTO (acronym for Definitely Not The Opera, a radio program that plays on the CBC Saturday afternoons when many other public radio stations are playing, you guessed it, opera) when I lived in Canada and am a subscriber to their Best of DNTO podcast. I finally got to listen to their "Deep Into Debt" episode this morning.

This episode discussed a new TV show called "Maxed Out", one professor's attempt to hold onto his youth by paying his student loan debt very slowly, and the nostalgic/cool allure of being able to have a bar tab. Overall, it was an interesting show that didn't go too far off its main topic. (DNTO does occasionally do that.) I did particularly enjoy one idea from it.

One part of the show talks to Dave Meslin (from a Toronto band called Hidden Cameras). Dave gets his prime Toronto office via a barter system with the owners of the building (he helps with computers, sweeps, etc.). Barter in itself is pretty interesting but what's more intriguing is how he lives.

Dave is a professional houseguest. He stays at a house for two weeks and helps the people with odds and ends. He's alphabetized 1,000 children's books, cooked, cleaned, ran errands, and built custom bookcases. In exchange, he gets a nice place to sleep. I found an interesting blog by one Pretty Lady that explains how she turned to professional houseguesting after her relationship with a Flaky Heiress forces a change in living situation. (And it made for a very funny read.)

Sean had a room mate before I met him. A good room mate. And there are times when a room mate is really convenient for everyone concerned. I am, however, intrigued by the idea of a room mate for a shorter period of time that would be mutually beneficial.

When I looked online earlier for some kind off an association around this idea, I only found lots of people who are professional houseguests (among other things) and a Myspace page visitors are directed to when visiting www.houseguest.org. (I have not been able to visit the site from my work computer but I will check it out this evening.) In any case, there should be a place on the internet where professional houseguests can meet up with potential hosts. It would only make sense. And while you aren't making cash on the side, you would be getting value added services for next to nothing.

Have you ever been a professional houseguest? Or had one? How did it go?

Would You Pull A Lindsay Lohan?

This week, Lindsay Lohan’s nude pictures for New York Magazine crashed their web site and got lots of people talking. It doesn’t take a genius to know sex sells and naked pictures of the attractive and famous sell especially well.

The whole incident made me think of college. I took an art class, not knowing a nude art model would show up in class half way through the semester. When Naked Guy walked in with a robe that fateful day, I couldn’t believe it was going to happen. Of course, after staring at him naked those three hours, I began to notice him everywhere on campus. The uncomfortable feeling I had every time I saw Naked Guy made me glad I didn’t ever try nude modeling… Or did it?

A nude model for the art class was the highest paying job on campus. I could have made $15 an hour versus the $5 an hour I made driving the security van, working in the planetarium, and manning the front desk of the science building. I could have worked less than I did and had more money. Darn my inhibitions at the time!

The Dartmouth has a good article about the psychology behind being a nude art model, meaning that there’s more to it then being the type of person who can walk around naked and not care. Meanwhile, an online search doesn’t yield much information as far as how much money nude pictures go for, which I’m guessing means the whole practice is fairly subjective and sometimes sketchy.

Perhaps you are uninhibited enough to give this a shot. Most art classes are at least a couple hours long and the hours vary, making this lucrative part time work. If you are interested, start by contacting the art department or your local adult education center for contacts. A comprehensive list of things to bring with you on the job can be found at good ol’ wikiHow.

Meanwhile, would you ever pose nude for an art class (or have nude photos taken) for money? Also if you’ve ever made some nude money (ok, let me rephrase, legit nude money), do share.

Photo of Rodin's La Penseur statue: www.garden-fountains.com/.../thinker.htm

A Possible Sponsor

Those of you who read me know how I'd love to make money at this blogging thing, only the right opportunity hasn't come along...until today.

This optimist web forum contacted me, asking if I could place an ad on my site for 24 hours to see how much traffic they would get. I checked out their site and there is nothing I see wrong with it so I said no problem. I think if they get enough referrals from this blog, I may be making some money on the side.

If you want to check out their site, you can click on the advertisment in my sidebar (at least at the moment it's there) but please don't feel any pressure. I just wanted to let you know what was going on so you'd know what the ad was doing there.

Two Project Updates

So for awhile now, I've had several projects going. Good for me (right?) but it probably left you wondering, "Hey, what ever happened to that?" I'd like to update you on a couple of fronts.

First of all, you may remember how I decided to become a total stagemom and use Sadie as a meal ticket. Well guess what?!? Cutestpetcontest has come through for us, at least so far... I'll keep you all posted as to Sadie's winnings. This may be come tease, as half the email is spent telling me how I could go about buying this book that Sadie is apparently in.

Secondly, remember my trying out of The Grocery Game web site? I finally stopped procrastinating last week (the weekly "Guess what you're missing" email from the company in my instance is actually kind of helpful). Sean and I did some of our shopping at "the other store" also known as Shaws since the Grocery Game does not price compare with Hannaford, where we normally shop. One trip saved us $10.91, more than paying for our month membership. (You can also try it for a month for $1.) I'll do this a few more weeks to let you know if it ends up being worth it or not. So far, I get it and I'm a total Grocery Game convert... plus they have coupons you can print off their site. We saved $1 on Sean's contact lens solution last week!

I'd love to compare these with other coupon sites. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? 

A Moral Dilemma

I’ve been faced with an interesting dilemma these past couple of weeks.

Twice, I have been contacted about advertising on my site. Would I be interested in advertising? How about a pay-per-post or a small text ad? Basically, do you want money for what you are already doing? Sure do. Seems like an easy question, right?

So both of these potential advertisers that have contacted me are short term (sometimes called “pay day”) loan companies. Not so easy anymore. For one, I'm very against these but also I wouldn't want someone visiting my site to get into a bad situation because they followed one of my links.

I would love to make money blogging. Actually, I am currently paying to maintain this Typepad site so I guess breaking even should be my first goal. But at what price? It becomes a moral dilemma.

Have other bloggers been faced with this? If so, how have you reacted?

Making Money On The Side: Online Photo Contests

So whether you know me or not, you've probably figured out that I'm not a money for nothing kind of lady. You won't see anything in my budget for lottery tickets or anything like that. I have, however, decided to  investigate this whole online photo contest thing after my dentist epiphany.

The original inspiration WEZQ your easy listening station (what other music would be playing in a dentist's office? Death metal?) proved to be a cumbersome web site. I mean, voting by email? Bleh. There had to be something better.

A web search quickly yeilds a ton of results. I decided not to enter anything that required a fee or anything that was too big (no offense to Sadie but entering her picture in a National Geographic-type contest is like taking a small town beauty queen and plopping her into Miss Universe, expecting her to do well). In the end PamperedPuppy and Cutest Pet Contest got submissions. I also submitted the lovely photo in this post to www.picture.com because it makes me giggle whenever I see it. Hope it makes you smile too. Also will let you know when (ok, if) the cash starts flowing in.

Summary: Online photo contests are a long shot and nothing to count on but worth five minutes of effort to submit photos to free ones.

Working My Money Maker

As I was lying in the dentist’s chair getting my teeth buffed and praying for no cavities when I overheard a cutest pet contest on a radio station. It was then I had an idea. Maybe I could make money by doing next to nothing. I Googled pet photo contests only to find a ton, some paying.

My dog Sadie is pretty darn cute. She’s 13 and I often joke that if she weren’t an old lady, I’d be pushing her into show business. And this is mostly a joke.

So for those who want to give me feedback, I’m making a Sadie photo album on this blog. Let me know what picture you think is the cutest and that’s what I’m sending in. Because I don’t often pursue these something for nothing events, I’ll indulge this one time. Plus it’s a great occasion to put together all those great Sadie pictures into one place.

Check out the Sadie album here!

The Old Long Lost Relative Fantasy

First off, Happy 2008. Best wishes to you in the year ahead, financially and otherwise.

I stumbled across a little blurb in a woman's magazine that fed my whole long lost rich relative fantasy. You know the one, where you find out some relative you barely remember dies and leaves you a fortune? Maybe I've just seen to many movies.

Anyway, I thought I would give you a link where you can check (by typing your name only, no social security number or anything fishy like that!) if you have unclaimed property somewhere out there. Here is the link where you can search by state and here is the link where you can search nationally. Both pages are part of the National Association of Unclaimed Property site, which must be a fantastic job because you get to give people money they didn't know they had, making them (I'm guessing) really happy.

Unfortunately, my uncommon name yeilded nothing while my boyfriend's much more common name yeilded hundreds of results. Will he look into them? I don't know but there is something to knowing it's out there. . .

Making Money Blogging... Some ideas

I told myself I would never blog about blogging. It just seemed like a kind of odd thing to do. But here I am...

So I think it's clear that I like to write. Always have, always will. I'm trying to figure out if blogging will actually ever make me money. Before I think about making money off Google Adsense or my own ads or endorsements, I need to build some credibility. And I need more people to come to this site.

To drive up traffic, I've 1) added this blog to blog directories (see my list of links on the side of the page). Have a forgotten one? Let me know. I'm going to track my stats and see which blog directories are driving the most traffic my way. I'll let you know.

I have also 2) emailed and told people about this blog. Some of my friends love it and tell me, and some just read it, both of which I totally appreciate.

I am taking a next step 3) learning how to market my blog. There are some great tips on this web site.

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

I am hopeful that all three of these things will drive up traffic on my little blog. Anyone else have other ideas they've tried or know about? 

Money On The Side: Adult Ed Teacher

When I think about it, almost everyone I know who is underemployed has some way that they make money on the side. I know people who rent out buildings they own, do free lance photography, write, and design web sites.

Even while I was preparing to move to my current location, I was thinking of ways I could make money on the side but still have time to write and do the other things I like to do with my time. Enter Adult Ed.

My boss hooked me up (he teaches adult ed courses and I expressed an interest) with the director of our area adult ed. I decided to start out teaching one night a week to see how it would go. Within a week, I was signed up to teach two, four week long courses (3 hours each- hello 11 hour workday!). The first course was Microsoft PowerPoint, which I found to be fairly straight forward. This second session, which began this evening, I began teaching Microsoft FrontPage, a web design class. Tonight, I taught them everything I know about the program but I'm too tired to panic about this right now. I have a feeling that I can figure out enough to make a majority of people satisfied with the class. But not tonight. Tonight, I enjoy that the first class went well and everyone upon leaving said "See you next week." Few! I hope I don't disappoint.

I, of course, don't think adult ed alone will be entire plan of making money on the side. I hope to try out other "gigs" and write about them on this blog. I'd like to encourage others who make money on the side to share what they do as well so we can all get more ideas.

Gig At A Glance
Gig: Adult Ed Teacher
Pay: $17/hour, though I have no idea how this was determined.
Qualifications: Know about something: there are adult ed classes on everything! Friendliness. Infinite patience for the slower learners or general crazy people.
Pluses: Get to work with people who think you're a genius, realitively easy and painless. Well paid for what it is. Looks great on a resume.
Minuses: Classes are often at night. You will have at least one student who knows next to nothing and constantly struggles and one who is so advanced they know as much if not more than you do- Can you deal? Not compensated for preperation time spent outside the classroom.
Overall: Great for the money if you already know a lot about the topic and are on the patient side.