90-Day Life Challenge: Amazon's Mechanical Turk

Well, I'm on to Day 2 of my 90-Day Life Challenge, and today is about Amazon's Mechanical Turk. I desperately need a little extra money to feel secure that we won't be homeless again if one of the cars breaks down, and we still have to focus on my medical debt. I've dabbled with it for over a year, very very sporadically, and have accumulated somewhere around $70 that I transferred to my Amazon gift card balance.

As you can see, it's not a scam. You really will earn a little extra money towards Christmas gifts, household supplies, etc, and there's no catch.

What is Mechanical Turk?

Amazon's Mechanical Turk, or MTurk for short, is a form of crowdsourcing work that pays individuals small amounts of money per assignment to complete microtasks at home (or on the go). MTurk's particular form of microtasks are called HITs--Human Intelligence Tasks--and they range from $0.01 per task, all the way up to $100 or more (depending on the work, of course).

How Much Money Can You Make?

As stated, the amount of money you can make on MTurk directly depends on a few factors:

1. Your "level" as a worker. When you start out, you do not have access to some of the better paying HITs because those requesters may want you to have a specific success rate (i.e. >95%) or have completed at least 500 HITs. However, this is easily accomplished by taking on as much "batch" work as you can until you hit the threshold that allows you to accept better work. More on that later. 
2. How much time you are willing to commit. Since my work at the preschool is only 10 months out of the year, and my work with the special needs baseball league has off-season time, I usually wax and wane a bit in my use of MTurk. However, for the purposes of creating a better source of income, I will be aiming for between 30 minutes and 4 hours every day.
3. Use resources that help weed out the good HITs. I will link a few below, including a Reddit forum that posts high-paying, low-time commitment HITs.

Ultimately, you can probably expect to make $2-3/hour when you first start out and are learning the ropes, but once you get the hang of "batches" and uses some the resources I have listed below, you will be able to earn (I've been told) upwards of $30/hour. Right now, I've progressed to $5-6/hour. 

What Are "Batch" Jobs?

"Batches" are jobs that pay only $0.01 to maybe $0.10 per HIT, but you can complete 5-10 HITs per minute making them a very efficient way to bump your experience and make money. You can find them by sorting your available HITs by "most first" (see image below). Transcription is a difficult one to start with unless you're good at that sort of thing already, but you get the idea.

So, What Am I Going to Do?

Right now, I'm a decent level worker with respect to my approval rating, and I have completed a little over 350 HITs, but I need to do better. 

Here's the plan:

• Complete "batch" work to get me to 500+ HITs, then 1000+, then Masters level. The Masters level is where you find the fun jobs that pay you $1-2 for 5 minutes of work, sometimes more. 
• I will post a follow-up to this post every 45 days, since that is the length of time that MTurk uses when you check your account and click on the link that says "see more." 
• MTurk and the appropriate forums will be loaded onto my computer when I wake up in the morning. If I have a few minutes to sit down and churn out a few, great, but if not, it must be available for me to do whenever I have spare time during the day. I generally feel too busy for this, but honestly, TV isn't as productive as paying down debt...
• At minimum, 30 minutes and 50 HITs must be completed before I go to bed at night.

Ultimately, I would like to see myself in a position where I am working around 1-2 hours per day, and make $30-60 daily. That would allow me an additional $900-1,800 in income monthly.

Plans for the Money

For a more detailed description of our personal finances, click here. Needless to say, we are functional, not quite comfortable, but we definitely don't have enough extra money floating around to preemptively handle household issues or significantly pay down debt. That's where MTurk comes in.

I have budgeted around $400 every month for odds-and-ends: tires for the cars, oil changes, new shoes for Wee-One, household supplies, and any other neccessities. Whatever isn't used just gets rolled over into the next month's budget. The thing is, all of these items can be purchased through Amazon. I've always transferred my MTurk earnings to a gift card balance so it works perfectly. Now, I have $400/month set aside that I can use to pay my medical debt!!

Useful Links for MTurking

HITs Worth Turking For (Reddit)
MTurk Forum
Turker Nation
MTurk Grind

Well, that's it. Good luck to anyone that would like to try MTurking, and let me know how it goes.

Happy Reading,

Your Devoted Friend

90-Day Life Challenge: Intermittent Fasting

This is Day 1 of my 90-day life challenge, and I'm beginning with my weight. Currently, I am 5'3" tall and (according to my appointment on July 15, 2016, I am 214.4 lbs. Obviously, this is an unacceptable weight for someone my size. I typically wear an XL or a 16-18 comfortably. 

To track the effectiveness of intermittent fasting, I will post updates after each of my chemo infusions since this is the only time I weigh myself. Not proud of where I'm starting, but very proud of where I'm going.

Why Try Intermittent Fasting?

Last week, I did a Google search for "diets that improve blood sugar." I'm not diabetic or even close to it, but I do have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome [PCOS], which comes with a healthy dose of insulin resistance. I needed something that I could manage while still mothering my wee-one and working two and a half jobs. And up pops intermittent fasting. I'm not gonna lie, I was extremely intimidated by the idea of not eating for 16 hours at a time, but the logic is sound. My oncologist even thought it would be a good plan for me to try since it's main benefits are: managing blood sugar, retraining your body's response to hunger, and (of course) facilitating weight loss. It has even been suggested that intermittent fasting can lower the bodies risk of certain cancers that are exacerbated by weight gain, i.e. melanoma.

So, What Do I Need to Do?

On a random Google Image search of "intermittent fasting," I stumbled on this beautiful infographic that explains the ins-and-outs of the Lean Gains version of fasting, which is basically 16-hour daily fast, followed by 8 hours of an eating period. The source of this infographic is linked under the image. As you can see, there are many ways to use intermittent fasting for health and weight loss, but I've chosen the LeanGains 16 hours "on" and 8 hours "off," primarily because I want to have lunch and dinner with my family. All forms of fasting recommend some form of exercise before you break the fast in order to use more fat stores and accelerate weight loss, but that is a challenge for a different day.

Credit: The Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

So, Is Intermittent Fasting Right for You?

The short answer is, eh, it depends. Since you do not eat for long periods of time, you would either need to have a relatively easy time dealing with the feeling of hunger, or a deep desire to control that impulse. I fall into the latter category. At the same turn, this would not be good for someone with a specific dietary need to eat small meals at short intervals, or for a diabetic person who has not checked with his/her doctor first. 

Additional Resources

• A Woman's Guide to Intermittent Fasting
• Complete Guide to Intermittent Fasting

Well, that's the basics, and like I said, I'll post another update after my next infusion appointment on the 29th. Wish me luck! I welcome any criticisms or commentary on my methods, or any suggestions for improvement.

Happy reading,

Your Devoted Friend

90 Days To A Life That Works For Me

If you have read my About Me page entitled, Meet Your Devoted Friend, then you already know that I am a hard-working Mommy and partner who has been battling cancer and struggling to find balance and joy in life. After nearly 8 months of climbing this hill, I am going to do something about it.

I want to scale mountains, have a clean and perfectly organized home, speak a dozen languages, rid the world of poverty, be cancer free, be the world's most amazing mother, but I can't be any of those things until I joyfully take my first steps, without expectation or judgement.

What's Not Working?

For starters, I am not a fan of my weight and overall physical condition, but that's nothing surprising considering my cancer diagnosis. I am working and make a reasonable salary at my two and a half part time jobs, but it's not enough to pay down my medical bills and save money so we can purchase a small family home. I don't feel like I spend enough time with DH, Wee-One, or any family/friends. I tend to get overwhelmed easily by the ever-expanding "To Do" list. But now, I'm fed up...

Rules of the 90 Day Challenge

1. Post for 90 Continuous Days. I love writing, and blogging gives me a sense of accountability. Most days, I wake up in the morning, excited to post about a new idea or recipe, but don't because I woke up too late and ruined my plan. No more, 90 days chronicling my step-by-step journey towards a happier me.
2. Each Day Represents 1 New (Positive) Habit or Task to Complete. i.e. Drink 1 gallon of water per day, or Organize and Purge Clothing.
3. Choose Steps from All Areas of Life. My weight is an issue of great concern--particularly as it relates to my battle with cancer and my future well being--but it is not the only concern I have. Therefore, tasks and habits will also address personal finances, family, relationships, career, spirituality, health/wellness, or any other subcategory relevant to a quality life.
4. Do NOT Move Backwards. Once I take a step forward on a new routine, task, etc... there is no going back.
5. Accept My Learning Curve. Not every post will be a work of art, but I do expect my writing, editing, marketing, technique, and networking to improve with practice. I will aim to keep my posts between 500 and 1,000 words so as not to set an impossible bar. Although, if I stumble on a great topic, it will become a feature post later. Of course I reserve the right to edit whenever I get the notion.

Here's how I am starting:

I sat in front of this monthly calendar for 5 minutes and just listed a few of the small changes I would like to make in my life, putting them on the blog calendar as I did so. This helps me recognize which posts may turn into small series, and which ones may require another stand-alone article. Hmm, I definitely need to stand-alone post about these resources I'm using. *Sigh of relief* I'm finally working on my happiness.

What is your first step? 

Thank you for going on this journey with me.

Happy Reading,

Your Devoted Friend

Books I Love: Where The Wild Things Are

Where The Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak (1963) is a staple of many homes, classrooms, and imaginations of former children. I, myself, owned a copy of the book as a child. My copy--in fact--was so well loved that it no longer exists, and after several years, I forgot about the book entirely. And though it is not the most relevant piece of media, it shaped my childhood understanding of imagination, and deserves to be my first entry of the "Books I Love" series.

This leads me to 2009, when--while sitting in a local movie theater--I saw the following trailer for a book I had forgotten long ago, featuring an awe-inspiring theme song (both are linked below).

As excited as I was for the film adaptation, I waited until it was released in the $1.50 theater before going to the movies. And once it was finished, I couldn't remember why I thought it was so important to wait. The movie warmed and broke my heart. First of all, the voice cast (James Gandolfini, Chris Cooper, and Catherine O'Hara, to name a few) managed to turn the "wild things" into a lovable and fearsome set of characters who seemed to have an almost familial-style love for Max. Catherine O'Hara's voice is the voice I now hear in my head when I read the line "We'll eat you up we love you so" to my preschool students.

Trailer, "Where The Wild Things Are" (2009)

Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" was the song featured in the movie trailer, and I instantly fell in love. I actually got the idea to write this blog because I recently stumbled across a mix-CD I burned several years ago, which included "Wake Up." As I listened, I remembered the movie trailer, then the movie, and finally the book that started it all. And these are the kinds of memories that I want to keep as long as possible. I want to share them with my son some day. I listened to the song continuously for the next half-hour of driving just reliving the sweet, dreamy feeling I experienced the first time I heard it.

"Wake Up" by Arcade Fire (2008)

Lastly, as a sort of "P.S." to this article, apparently Alt-J's song "Breezeblocks" was at least in part an homage to Sendak's work. Obviously referring to the "urge to run away" from a loved on--not so much about the cheating and possible murder. The video is definitely worth a look.

I can't wait until my Sweet Baby is old enough to be able to read this book with me. I can see so much of Max in my son--the unintentional destructiveness and little-boy wildness, and the book's message of never-ending imagination evokes a warm feeling I can't wait to pass along.

This was never intended to be a blog for reviews, or critiques, but rather as another way for me to document all of the songs, movies, books, pictures, etc, which helped shape who I am, and brought me countless hours of joy during my childhood. As such, I sincerely hope you enjoyed this walk down memory lane.

CHALLENGE: At some point this week, think about and find a favorite book from your childhood. Then comment below. I'd love to build a library for my son and I need suggestions :)

Sincerely,

Your Devoted Friend

When Life Gives You Lemons...

So, there we were...minding our own business, paying bills, making ends meet, and BAM--we're homeless. Hyperbole aside, it happened over the course of two weeks because our *dripping with sarcasm* super-cool landlord realized that he could rent the house for far more than he was getting from us. 

So, here we are...living with my grandmother in her upstairs apartment, desperately trying to save enough money for my Dear Man, myself, our beautiful baby boy, and our 3 dogs to get a new place.

At first, I was predictably upset and scared, but truthfully, it's not all bad. In fact, there are a few very important lessons I've learned as a result of this upheavel:

1. Stop romanticizing and buckle down
2. Income minus future planning equals "actual" income
3. Enjoy each moment for what it is, not what you want it to be
4. "More" makes you tired, not happy

Lesson 1: Stop Romanticizing and Buckle Down

While we were living in our rental property, we behaved as though we were going to live there forever. We didn't overly worry about savings, we made repairs to the house out-of-pocket, and we planned for a life we couldn't realistically afford. Our finances--and our dreams--needed a harsh wake up call. Ideas do not equate to ownership, and are useless without a solid plan to achieve your goals.

Lesson 2: Income - Future Planning = Actual Income

Yes, what you just read is correct. Dear Man owns his own "Start-Up" business for which he cannot yet take a salary, so we decided to only take my income into account. In the interest of transparency, my income is divided between 3 part-time jobs (preschool teacher, program coordinator for a local non-profit, and church nursery worker), and totals $2,200 for 10 months out of the year. The 2 months that preschool is on Summer Vacation, I only make $1,300 per month. 

What's the equation all about? I decided that we would pay ourselves first.

Right now, $100 per month will go to building our $1,000 emergency fund. An additional $400 per month goes to our standard 3-6 month emergency fund. Right now, Sweet Baby's savings account is comprised of all of our $1 bills and change that we scrape together and deposit at the end of every month. Doing the math, that means we don't have $2,200 to work with, but rather $1,700 ($800 in my Summer months). This is a big shout-out to Dave Ramsey and David Bach who outlined simple, logical, doable plans for the Average Joe who wants to live without financial fears.

That's Us!!!

Lesson 3: Enjoy Each Moment For What It Is

Fun and relaxation are now an important, and coveted commodity in our home. Whether we're talking about a free community event, or a chance for a family outing to the grocery store, it's not just the mindless spend-fest it used to be. Our son is 11 months old--big and beautiful--and all I want is for him to grow up happy. So maybe some of this living in the present is related to guilt that we feel, but who cares? In the end, he's only going to see how hard his parents worked, how grateful they were for the work, and how much he is loved.

Lesson 4: More Makes You Tired, Not Happy

My typical day before we moved consisted of taking my son to Preschool with me, having my Mom watch him while I went into the non-profit office for a few hours, pick up my son, cook dinner/play with Daddy, put Sweet Baby to bed, and crash. Guess what? Nothing's changed, except for my attitude. Now I care and appreciate the time with my son, the work that provides us with money for food, and the family that has supported us through our challenges.

Working towards shared family goals (financial or otherwise) is energizing!

We take great pride in watching our debt decline, our savings increase, and our lives declutter. Each month, we grow stronger as a family and take a few steps towards the future we want.

CHALLENGE: This week, think about whether or not you are putting your family first. If you aren't saving the way you want, is there a bill you don't need? If you don't spend enough time together, is there an activity you don't need?

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,

Your Devoted Friend