Is It Time Yet?

How Long Has It Been?

How long have you now been out of work?  Are you really starting to fall behind in your bills now?  Have you had to make arrangements to start paying only partial payments on your utility bills? Has the credit card company canceled extending you any more credit on your card? Is the car payment and the house payment behind or soon will be?

You better be ready to start taking some drastic action in order to play catch up now before you get so far behind that you feel you will never see the light at the end of the tunnel.  The further behind you get the harder it will be to catch up. This frustration and panic will also carry over into your job searches and you won’t go through your interviews appearing confident and self assured. The fear will show through the lines on your face and the dark circles under your eyes from lack of sleep because you are worried sick!

Face it, you are ready to hit rock bottom or already have. Now is not the time to let your pride stand in your way. It is time to let go of “stuff!” It might just be enough to pay your bills and put food on your table if you do it now. Look at it this way, after you get a job and back on your feet, you can always replace the “stuff” that you sold but by then you might realize it really wasn’t that important to have anyway.

Lighten Your Load

Sure easier said than done you say! I am going to give you some real practical suggestions here so hear me out!

Quick Cash

When I say lighten your load, lets take a good hard look at what you have in the way of personal possessions that you can sell right now, through a free ad on a trade paper, through one of the Internet groups that you belong to (ie: Yahoo groups, business forums, etc) or on Craig’s List or even spend the money and do an ad in the newspaper.

Pawn Shop Here I Come!

Another place you might find some instant cash is at the pawn shop. You can either take a loan ticket on the item (if you think you really might want it back) which of course won’t give you as much money as it would if you sold it outright to them. If it is something that you really don’t care about continuing to own, sell it outright and get the top dollar you can barter for.



Have Mower Will Travel

Depending on where you live, there might still be a couple more weeks left to where some of your neighbors might need their lawn mowed. By now they are probably tired of doing it themselves (so many this year went this route because of the economy) and are now willing to pay someone to do it for them. You’ve probably been approached yourself by someone knocking at your door, looking to mow your yard. You may have actually taken time to ask them how much they would charge. I know that I’ve had estimates anywhere from $30 to $15 to do both the back and front yard and I live on a large corner lot! Get out your lawnmower and go hunt down some jobs!
 
Have a Garage Sale

Now this will probably take some preparation, so get your other sources of quick cash started first while you work on this project. Start making a stack of items that you can sell in a garage sale. If you have something you haven’t used in 6 months or clothes that you’ve been holding onto that are either too large or too small, put them in that stack. Get them priced reasonable, go get you a garage sale permit from the city (if required in your area) and have a big old sale!  Put out signs on street corners directing people so they can find you easily. Advertise it in the local paper.

Helping The Elderly and Getting Paid
 
Maybe there are some elderly people in your neighborhood or at your church who would be willing to pay to have some work done around their home. Maybe they would pay to have you drive them to a doctor's appointment or to take them to the grocery store. Approach them and see what type of response you get; you might be surprised.

Barter Your Services

Barter your services like they used to do in the olden days. Perhaps you can exchange your abilities of fixing a car or painting a fence for some groceries that you might need. This would release money that you would have spent for groceries to be used to pay one of the utility bills, or perhaps help with part of a car payment.

I have a friend who is quite a good artist, but right now people are not buying art work to hang in their homes. But she also paints business signs and has contacted local shop owners about making signs for their stores.

I have another friend who makes jewelry. She has all her supplies but sales over her Internet website have been down. So she has taken some of her wares to small independent boutiques with a marketing plan. Put these on consignment in your store, if people purchase them, we will split the sale 60/40 or even 50/50, your only investment will be keeping track of the sale from the ticket item# and providing space to show the jewelry.

These are just a few ideas to ponder. Put on your thinking caps, before you get in such a panic that you can no longer think straight. I am sure you can come up with some ideas also.