It appears that my temporary work from a week ago is going to be regular work. They just received major funding to continue on the current project and another big project, so they're going to need someone and are liking my work. I'm planning on doing it every Saturday for 8-10 hours and then during the week for emergency fixes only.
The reason why the new work is causing new decisions is because of the pay. It is more than double my normal day pay (and when we worked late this past Sunday night, it was 4x my normal day pay). That is where the new decisions come in...
When you are able to bring in $65-100/hour, is it worth it every week to spend 3-4 hours cleaning the house yourself? You could have hired someone to do the house work while you worked 1 hour. What about ordering that $5 pizza so that you or your wife don't need to work in the kitchen every so often?
We decided on the following:
- No more chicken stock making: It has become time consuming saving up bits of chicken, keeping them organized, then making stock out of it. In the end it probably doesn't save much either.
- Housecleaning: My wonderful wife some days tries to be superwoman and get more done than her body can physically. She has bad feet, a bad back and a pacemaker, so it's not a pretty sight to see when she has pushed herself. We have decided for now it is worthwhile to hire someone to do some of the heavy cleaning once a week (vacuum the house, wash the linoleum floors, scrub the tub and toilet). Most of these have been my responsibility, but with the second/third jobs I've had in the past, it's been hard to get them done.
- Ignore price on fresh fruits & vegetables: My wife has been working at losing weight, but the challenge has been getting fruits & veggies that she likes being on sale. My view on it is that one of our priorities should be our health, so if something is 2x the normal sale price, get it if it will help you.
We know this is a season of our lives and that the increase in pay should not cause us to spend more. If spending a little bit more though will truly increase the opportunity for us to spend time together and doing the work God has put us here to do, I'm willing to consider spending a little more. It though is something to always keep an eye on.
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I do independent jobs and my standard rate is $65 an hour unless it's emergency stuff then its $100 an hour. I also do a minimum of 2 hours so if something only takes a half hour they pay me for 2 full hours. I used to do a flat rate quote for work but found I was taking a pay cut the longer I worked. Extra income is great though.
Keep in mind though when you work for yourself, you have to consider the taxes on that income. I set aside 25% to cover my income taxes and the 15.3% social insecurity/mediscar tax because I treat the income as 1099. To me it's worth working the extra hours and maybe not doing as much for yourself as you normally would.
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