Sitting here in the middle of a typical Canadian winter, there is not much to do but think about my situation. Well, worry about it, might be a better way to put it.

Buying the house last year put an incredible strain on my finances. I know what you must be thinking: how bad can things be when you own your own property? Well, if you over-extended yourself financially, things can be pretty bad.

In order to buy the house, I had to take some cash from a few of my credit cards to cover some of the costs. The problem was, it was money that I didn’t have. I got so caught up in buying this place, I didn’t take time to think whether I could really afford it. It’s one thing to come up with the money, but something else to actually be able to afford it.

The situation I find myself in now is that I don’t have enough money to make it to April when I can get some handyman jobs or window cleaning. We had an early snow this year and that put an end to my gutter cleaning business pretty quick. By the time the leaves had fallen completely (end of October), I only had 2 weeks to make as much money as I could because we got snow in the third week of November that stayed on the ground. The last thing you want to be doing is walking on a roof in that kind of weather.

In the meantime, I am working full-time trying to make money online. I have seem some success, but it is still not stable enough to rely on. I know that this is ultimately what I want to do. Washing windows and cleaning gutters is not the way I imagined that I would end up.

It is a little unsettling to be in this predicament. Even if I were to put my house up for sale, I only have enough money to pay the mortgage and the utilities for another month. It takes a lot longer than that in these parts to sell a house. From the time the for sale sign goes up, to the time the check is in your hand, you could be looking at 4-6 months. The place will go into foreclosure long before that happens.

I figure that I have at least 3 months before I can start window cleaning, so I really need to take some action. Even if it means working at the local Burger King and taking orders from a teenaged boss, you do what you gotta do.

I am really frustrated with Internet Marketing at the moment. I’m averaging about $200/month writing articles, but that is it. So many people make it look easy in the forums. I suppose they could all be full of shit and living in their Mother’s basement, but I really do think there are a few that make excellent money. Hopefully, it is something that could eventually come through for me.

The main problem I have, and what may eventually sink me, is that there are too many choices and I feel that all I am doing is chasing the next great idea. I can’t tell you the amount of time I’ve wasted.

So, I’m making a promise to myself that I will stick to one thing at a time and give it my all. Let’s see what happens.

In the meantime, I may have to rely on help from my family to get me through  the winter… sigh.?

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Filed under: Becoming self-sufficient

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