I’m the expert on running on fumes. To be more specific, I run on fumes in a number of ways. Let me count them for you:

1. I can go about 3 hours in the morning on a Starbucks coffee alone. No food, just java juice, teaching 5- and 6-year old’s how to read up until their recess time. I run my body on a highly caffinated and sugary drink. (Sometimes this includes a 45 minute bike ride to school on a beautiful day).
2. I work a total of 12 hours a day, if I include my travel time. I start the work day at 8am (no travel included here) and finish around 6:30 pm or 7pm, depending on the day. I teach, I help my husband with his graphic design business, I post daily, and I have homework to complete. I rarely have time to breathe, let alone have a sit-down meal. (There’s a trend building here I think).
3. I can stretch our bank account dollars until our next payment arrives, whether it’s a client we’re waiting on, or my monthly (yes, monthly) paycheck. The most frustrating part of owning your own business is the infrequent payments; some clients pay within a week or two, others pay on a monthly basis, and still others take their time and pay when they feel like it, pushing 45 – 60 days at times.
4. I can hyper-mile our car until the gas light has been on for a full day running on fumes, or ride my bike if I feel like not filling that day. This isn’t as difficult for my husband and me since he works from home and rarely needs our one vehicle, and I enjoy biking to and from work or school.

I’ve always been a very active person, I can’t sit still for very long or remain unproductive. I’m not ADD or ADHD, I know what this looks like, I can actually focus on tasks and complete them. I just like to stay busy. I’ve been like this since I was a child; playing outside until the street lights came on, babysitting when I was a teenager, working two jobs or more jobs when I was attending college for my BA in my early 20′s. It’s very difficult for me to just sit.

Full Speed Ahead

Most friends and family members comment on my fast-walking pace as I zip around the neighborhood, school, or store. I physically can’t walk slowly, it hurts my hips, which you would think would be just the opposite. Whether I’ve eaten a balanced, nutritious meal, or I’ve only had my sugary Starbucks drink, my speed remains the same: full speed ahead.

When my husband and I visit our families, we become restless while the television is blasting in the background and our relatives are in a vegetative state on the couch. We fidget and squirm until we finally get up and leave for a bike ride, or a drive to the store, or a bar for a drink (not that I’m a big drinker – I’m always the designated driver, a complete tee-totatler). With the holiday season coming up, we’re making our plans and dreading the family visits. We love our families, but we don’t necessarily like how they celebrate the holidays, in front of the TV! So, we must decide how we are going to keep busy, active, and productive over the holiday season, whether I’m running on fumes or a full tank.

Financially Free

When I think about the times I felt financially free, it was when I was making less money than I do now. It’s sort of ironic how that works out. Years ago, after I had graduated from college, I was working two jobs and making just enough money to cover my expenses. I never worried about money because I was employed and didn’t ever feel like I was going to be let go at any time. I felt financially free in some ways. I didn’t have an emergency fund, but I always had some money in case I needed new tires or some other emergency popped up. I wasn’t in debt, and that was the key to my financial freedom. I didn’t owe anyone any money. I was living below or at my means.

Then, my lifestyle changed. My husband and I started our own business (he was actually my boyfriend at this time) and that sunk us into our initial debt. We were stressed about money most days, always trying to figure out how to make more and keep up with our expenses. For many years we felt strapped down to our debt. Slowly, we paid it off or let it expire off our credit reports. We were young and figured we would have time for the negative items to fall off and be forgotten.

Once this started happening, I again felt more freedom. We didn’t acquire any new debt, we were living below our means and even had a savings account started. Our small business was bringing in just enough money to cover our costs and we didn’t have to work 80 hours a week to make this happen. We felt financially free, we were even working on improving our credit. We were able to purchase a new car at a decent APR and didn’t stress out about the payments. We felt excited and  happy most days about our new path.

Then, our lifestyle changed. (There’s a pattern evolving here!) We decided we wanted to move out of our 2-bedroom apartment in a shady neighborhood, and into a rental house in a slightly better community. I had figured out that we could afford $400 more in rent and an additional $200 more in utlities. We had enough in our savings account for the deposit, and chose a fixer-upper of a rental house. At the time, my husband liked the idea of the landlord living 2-hours north of us, rarely visiting, and being able to fix the house up to our liking. I originally didn’t factor in the cost of fixing up a rental.

A month into living in our rental house, our small graphic and web design business was picking up new clients. I was subbing full-time and didn’t have much left over time to help my husband. We decided to hire a part-time employee. Another $1,600 a month that I hadn’t factored into our inital lifestyle change. Luckily, our business was able to keep up with the cost of having a part/full-time employee, and later that year we gave him a raise.

Slowly, our financial freedom began to wane. I was becoming stressed out due to all of these added expenses that I hadn’t originally factored into our move. Our business slowed down over the summer months and I stopped working because school was out. We took on a line of credit to get us through the first summer with our employee. We didn’t want to let him go since he had only been with us a few months and was working out quite well.

A few years have passed, and this year, my husband and I decided we are tried of feeling so stressed out about money. We started saving towards a down payment on a house. We’ve also started paying off our debt and trying to get back to that financial freedom we once had. Meaning, not oweing anyone any money. We’ve reduced our employee’s hours, so the stress of trying to pay him his salary is slightly relieved. We have also stopped improving the rental house. We realized it is silly to put in our hard-earned money towards something we don’t own. The house is in slightly better condition than when we moved in. The two rooms we spend the most time in have new carpet, paint, and window treatments, thanks to us.

What I’ve learned, looking back, is that the key to financial freedom is not having any debt and living below your means. My husband and I are planning on purchasing a house within the next year, another lifestyle change. However, this time, we will be doing so without having any other debt to pay off. We are also restucturing his business so it is something he can manage on his own and not have to pay someone a full-time salary. Hopefully these tactics will allow us to feel financial freedom even with another lifestyle change.

One thing I’m beginning to understand is that even if you work hard, you sometimes need to expand what you already know and maximize all avenues of revenue. For instance, I consider myself a hard worker, but am realizing that I’m at a point in my life where I really can’t waste anytime. To build some background, I’ve been working since the tender age of 6 months, if I count my parents shuffling me from agent to agent posing for baby ads. This was only due to the fact that my parents, in their youth, were actors. They of course thought that maybe their children would follow in their footsteps. Only one of us is still a “struggling” actor/dancer, and it’s not me. The rest of us (all half- and step-siblings) continued on towards other, more stable, career goals.

I'm a hard worker, I deserve a sticker! (I've been teaching too long)

I’ve always held at least one job, if not more, to maintain my lifestyle – I would define it more as a minimal middle-class lifestyle. My husband, early in our relationship, had numerous entrepreneurial ideas and eventually one of them panned out. I encouraged him to pursue the one idea I thought would prosper, and helped him build a graphic and web design business. All through this time, I worked a full-time job. First, as a sales coordinator, then as an administrative assistant. Finally, I landed a job at an internet start-up company as a Trade Show Events Manager. However, in 2001 the company flopped due to not having a product.

Later that year (2001), I began substitute teaching. I originally thought I’d only teach for a year or two, or until the economy improved. However, here I am 8 years after initially becoming employed with our local school district. Last year I began to realize that I might be teaching for a few more years. Heck, 8 years have flown by and I have to admit that I like teaching. So, this year I applied for a teaching credential through my state university.

The credential program is usually a 1-year program. However, because I already work full-time and need to continue making a salary, I am spreading it out to over 2-years. One of the drawbacks of this credential program is that there are 2 semesters where I have to student-teach. This means I have to teach a total of 18 weeks without pay. This is where I realized I needed to be creative and figure out a way that I could sustain my current lifestyle with this daunting task upon me.

I began exploring all of the ways I could make money. My husband also helped come up with some of the ideas so that the 18 weeks of unpaid teaching wouldn’t be too painful. A few ideas we brainstormed included:

• Maximizing affiliate links – my husband has affiliate links with a few vendors, but we’ve never really utilized them. This year our mission is to promote some of these affiliates.
• Write articles through Hubpages to maximize adsense income – I recently read an article about how one writer was making a small amount of money through her adsense links by writing articles on Hubpages. I signed up for an account, and currently have 9 articles posted. It’s a small start, but every little bit helps.
• Continue networking with other schools - this year will be tough for all substitute teachers, our local district is short on funds and many subs won’t be working as much this year as in the past. However, if I continue networking with schools I should be able to remain employed until it’s my time to student-teach.

Of course these ideas aren’t likely to bring in a windfall of money, but even small amounts could help towards those unpaid 18 weeks. Fortunately, my student teaching is a year away, this gives these avenues of revenue some time to mature.

Do you have alternative ideas for making small amounts of money that could add up over time? Have you tried maximizing all of your avenues? What things have you tried? I’d love additional comments or ideas.