Zydrate Wrote: Worse since I quit my fairly steady job at a grocery store. A solid, consistent 40 hours a week with a team that appreciated me, even though 12$ an hour is just not enough in this market. I lost my mother back in November due to covid, and that put a strain on the household. We moved (I live with my grandmother, brother, and mother lived was us all as well) to a smaller one-story house and it got me thinking. My grandmother is fairly healthy, still working, can drive, but she's like 85? And 85 is still 85, still basically only has a few years left and now I'm constantly thinking about the trouble I'm going to have in the future. Once she goes, I'm essentially homeless a month after.

I got a new job at another grocery store, they promised me 32 hours at least but they're barely giving me 20 at only a slightly high 13.50$/hr. Basically my paychecks look identical... but for two weeks instead of one week. So I'm getting paid the exact amount but it takes twice the time to get it. I tried to get the front end to take me on for a day a week to eke out some extra hours but one of the assistance managers pulled me to the side and gave me this yarn about he he can't put emotion in the business and how I need to prove that I 'deserve' the hours before I get more. There's more context to this, like how the produce manager had to basically pull teeth to get me in there because of my experience. So he fought very hard with a store that didn't really want me, and it shows.

So this place will not be my future. I'm trying to get in contact with some office jobs and so far I'm soon to undergo a followup interview for some financial firm that only pays in commission, but some day I need a proper and stable 9-4 job that will actually pay me a survivable wage.

When my grandmother dies, I am so fucked.

Wow, that store sucks. Definitely get out of there as soon as you can.

If you have a license and a reliable car, maybe look into doing Amazon Flex. It's a program where they hire independent contractors to help deliver their immense volume of packages. We'll be going into peak soon so there's definitely no shortage of work there. You basically sign up, tell them what size vehicle you have, then every day you can log in and pick a slot. Go to the warehouse, they give you your packages, then you just go and drop them off and you're done. It's much better than dealing with passengers and it's something you can do around your grocery store hours/interviews. I have a few guys on my crew who do it and they really seem to like it as supplemental income. You can go back and pick another slot after you're finished if there's more available, too. There's a lot of competition for slots so you may not always get more than one.

If it's something you end up liking, you could look into getting a cargo van or a small box truck and working for a courier company. I'm a dispatcher at one and I can tell you most of my guys are paid pretty well for their work. My partner makes over twice what I do (after taxes and other expenses of course); he definitely puts the work in for it but he clears around $1800 a week. There are definitely some downsides to it; early and often long hours, no paid time off etc but if you just need to make a living it'll get you by.

Warehouse work isn't exactly glamorous but they're pretty much always hiring, and depending on where you go there's plenty of room for advancement. I work at one of our customer facilities and I can tell you they definitely boosted their pay to attract workers over the past couple of years. The one I work at has a starting pay of $20.50 although of course that's going to vary depending on where you are. But the hours are guaranteed and bonus, no customers.

None of these are really career opportunities but you can definitely get by. One thing I learned well from my crew is to never rely on a single source of income; currently I have 2 and I'm hoping at some point I can set up a Patreon to start monetizing my work and later get into self publishing non-serial novels. In addition to my day job I have a small reselling business on the side. It's the type of thing I could absolutely do full time if I wanted to but it's mostly just fun money and not really a primary focus of mine.

Cymas Wrote:

Zydrate Wrote: snip

snip

I never learned how to drive. Interestingly, even if I did, and my life went the same way I sure as hell wouldn't have had any money to afford payment on a care to begin with.

Ah, that's unfortunate. I forget not everyone needs that skill.

Well, it's not much but you can check out https://old.reddit.com/r/beermoney/ for some ways to supplement your income from home. You won't make much but it's usually not very labor intensive stuff. I've dabbled in it a little bit here and there. It's not my first choice but it's something.

On the writing side there's freelancing. https://www.upwork.com/ https://www.fiverr.com/ https://contentgather.com/ If you don't want to write to spec, you could provide paid editing or beta reading services. If you're bilingual, translation work is always available.

LJ Wrote: I'm not going great right now. Pretty much extends to the fact, I'm lonely. Aside from my husband, I really don't have any real-life friends. Not where we moved too.

That's pretty much the center of my issues right now.

I understand that quite well. Minus some writers online and my wife, all I have is myself. It's rough, but it really makes me appreciate her and my online friends

TealiciousTea Wrote: On holiday and enjoying life for a few days. It's been too long since I've been away. So, good on my front.

That's phenomenal

I've been a bit all over the place lately, but that's how life often is. My grandmother isn't doing well, which is pretty scary, and a couple of people in my family have also been suffering some mental health issues lately. Of the two cats I adopted as kittens 18 years ago (they're sisters from the same litter), Bebe passed away from a lingering illness while her sister Minnie is fading fast (though my vet is doing wonders). It's also hard to stay positive when so much of the world seems intent on losing its flippin' mind. All that being said, I know how incredibly lucky I am in all sorts of ways, so I try to remind myself to look for the good stuff and try and forget the bad...which is a challenge. Writing has been a great emotional release valve in many ways, but lately, I've found myself struggling to write, especially since my story is full of frustration, angst, and a little terror, but with an overall positive tone that has been almost torturous at times. I'll just keep plugging away, putting one proverbial foot before the other, and continue on this journey we call life.

[Account Deleted]

uhm havnt talked to my family in a decade i mostly avoid people and i am overly active in discord... social anxiety for the win!

Iceduya Wrote: uhm havnt talked to my family in a decade i mostly avoid people and i am overly active in discord... social anxiety for the win!

If that's you in the pfp, you remind me of the average discord mod.

Particularly this picture:

Beverlyy Wrote:

Iceduya Wrote: uhm havnt talked to my family in a decade i mostly avoid people and i am overly active in discord... social anxiety for the win!

If that's you in the pfp, you remind me of the average discord mod.

Particularly this picture:

LMFAO nah im not that bad but I do admin several discords that i run lol 

Iceduya Wrote:

Beverlyy Wrote:

Iceduya Wrote: uhm havnt talked to my family in a decade i mostly avoid people and i am overly active in discord... social anxiety for the win!

If that's you in the pfp, you remind me of the average discord mod.

Particularly this picture:

LMFAO nah im not that bad but I do admin several discords that i run lol

Turned 49 today, had to work. The good news is that I get off in like 3 minutes!