A Few Freelancer Secrets To Saving Money

If you are a freelance anything, you carry all the costs of doing business. From paper clips to dues for professional organizations, it is all on you. You are your own IT Department, Accounts Payable (and Receivable :) ), and the person who makes the coffee in the morning or evening, whenever you start work.

So how do you cut some corners and save a little money even if you are not paying the expenses of a daily commute? I have a few suggestions. Some of the items may be obvious to you, but not so to the newbies. If you have any I have not thought of, send me some comments. I am always interested in cutting my freelancing costs.

• Re-use whatever you can. Mary Lewis re-uses bubble envelopes, and Sharon Wren uses a big ceramic planter as a garbage can. Sharon also uses a box that once held Harry & David chocolates as a place to store her Post-Its. (I think she would rather have the chocolate!)

• Bundle your services. I am saving about $1000 this year by bundling my phone, cable TV. and internet service for one year. Yvette Deluca Davis suggests using freebie versions of document creation software such as Open Office. She says they provide quality as good as MS Word. She also suggests some of Google’s applications. I have recently been using Google Documents (look in Applications) for documents I am collaborating on with others. You can all work on the same document virtually. So far, it has been working well.

• Craig's List is a great place for freebies, too. The chair I am sitting on came from a group I discovered on Craigslist, and so did my webmaster, Zack Rosen. How cool is that? (Shameless plug: Check out my webmaster's work at http://www.rosemaryob.com/.) Incidentally, Craig's List is also a good place to find the odd writing or design assignment.

• Sometimes you have to spend money to save money or your valuable time. Take Norma Murray of Able Assistants, my new virtual assistant. I met her through a women’s networking group (Wild Women Entrepreneurs) and hired her to update my expense report. I dread inputting all of my receipts for the accountant, and frequently put off this task while the receipts pile up. Well, Norma took care of the pile and charged a reasonable amount to do so. A writer friend who hates typing now uses her for his transcribing. Yay, Norma!

• If you work from home, you may ignore all of the household chores in order to complete assignments. Dig out the old Crockpot, Google some recipes, and get dinner going. When you use it, cook enough for two meals and then freeze the leftovers for another busy day. Or check out my new favorite service, Emealz. The two sisters create seven dinner menus along with a shopping list. If you live near them, you get the added benefit of a shopping list tailored to the grocery store in which you shop. This is my first week with them and my family LOVES dinnertime (and I love the number at the bottom of the grocery receipt!). I saved approximately $80 on my grocery bill this week and got two meals out of their recipes a couple of times. For a modest cost, you save some time and money.

• Cancel any subscriptions you do not read such as women’s magazines, hobby and craft magazines, etc. While I love getting my scrapbooking magazines, I found them piling up while I felt guilty about not getting to them. Life is short. Look it up on the internet! It will save money, some paper, and you will not have to look at the pile you are not reading.

Give some of these ideas a try. You will definitely save money, and remember that time is money, too. Then leave a comment for me and let me know how it worked out.

Six Flags Military Appreciation Day

Saturday, August 9
Price is $37 per person and includes admission to both parks (Six Flags andHurricane Harbor), free parking and an all-you-can-eat buffet from noon to 2p.m. The menu includes: a quarter grilled chicken, char-broiledquarter-pound sirloin hamburgers or cheeseburgers, all beef hot dogs, fixingsbar, potato chips, ice cream novelties, tossed salad, pasta salad and aselection of soft drinks in the pavilion.

Tickets may be purchased at the ITT office (Newport Naval Station) or call841-3116/841-3137 for more details.

AAFES Offers Aspiring Young Writers Opportunity for Great Prizes

http://www.aafes.com/

DALLAS - School may be out for the summer, but the Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) has one more assignment for military dependents. The"Back-To-School Essay Contest" will give students in grades first through twelfth the opportunity to submit an essay of 200 words or less on "WhatAAFES means to me and my family."

My Day With Alex

There are several topics to write about today. I could write about how aggravating it is to have two seconds to squeeze in some work – in between the time when dinner is ready and the potty-training “incident” – and having another computer problem. Or I could always talk about the fact that I woke up around 3:30am and could not get back to sleep, so ended up having a pretty useless day. I decided to stick to the positive, though, because it makes me happy to think about and, therefore, to write about it.

My youngest son, Alex, and I spent a rare day together this past week. It was rare because I work from home and have two different age groups to work with by having an 8-year-old and a 3-year-old. I do not usually have time to spend with my younger son the way I did with Nicholas. Nicholas was essentially an only child for 4 ½ years. I took him everywhere and did not even have the option of any sort of preschool until he was almost 4. He went grocery shopping with me, had several Mommy and Me-type of activities, and I enjoyed hanging out with him. He was also more attentive and patient when it came to crafts and tangible activities such as cooking. His brother, on the other hand, is a very different child. I occasionally take him out on short outings to the grocery store or on other errands, but he always wants to be wherever his brother is. I think that is a good thing overall, but I regret not having time to spend with him alone.

So when he had a day off while his brother was at school, I hung out with him and did absolutely no work at all. (Don’t tell my editors!) We grabbed a donut at Dunkin’, went to the store and visited Nonni at work. I even helped him make a pillow fort and then climbed into it at his request! It was a tight squeeze, but totally worth the back pain when he said, “I like hanging out with you, Mommy,” his face beaming with his smile.

When it snowed later in the day, and my choir rehearsal was cancelled, he was in Heaven. He got to romp in the snow with his brother after dinner. This was a good call on my part since it poured rain overnight and the snow was gone by morning. We made snow angels, built a little fort for his dump truck, and drank hot tea with honey after we came in for the night.

Time is passing and Alex will grow up all too soon. His brother is already eight! He will be busy with school and friends, and there will be no time for his old mom. My work will always (hopefully!) be there, so I think I’ll have to schedule a few of these days off from now on. I do not think his college boards will be affected if he misses a day of preschool, do you?

The Benefits of Outsourcing (even just a little bit)

It is January again, but this year is different. This year I am not spending hours entering receipts onto a spreadsheet. Yes, I have a few to insert, but not the seemingly hundreds of bits and pieces of paper I have had every January since I started freelancing in the mid-90’s. What’s different this year? The difference is Norma.

Norma Murray is a virtual assistant and owner of Able Assistants . I met Norma while attending a networking event, also virtual, called Wild Women Entrepreneurs. I had no idea what to expect when I signed up for the 3-day online networking event this past September. All I knew was that it was an opportunity to network with other women who are building up their businesses. Three days later and I had over 20 new business associates, one of which was the invaluable Norma.

Virtual assistants are part of a growing trend of services available by virtue of the internet. When I need to hire some help, I didn’t have to put an ad in the newspaper, interview a bunch of people and then commit to a set number of hours and tasks per week or month. All I did was discuss Norma’s services via e-mail a few times in order to get an idea of what she offered. Her price was right, and I figured I would have more time for actual work if I had her enter all of my receipts for the year. I sent my envelope full of receipts, insured and registered in case it went astray, and the next thing I knew, I had an expense report with only a few current items missing. The missing items had not existed when I sent my envelope off to Norma or you can bet they would have been in there!

My advice is to outsource some of the more Able Assistants saved me so much time that I would have otherwise spent NOT writing and DEFINITELY dragging myself to complete the task. Virtual assistants don't just enter data onto spreadsheets. They can answer your phones, type documents, even do your mailings. Do an online search to find yours.

Have you ever used a V.A.?

Tell us about your experience with this excellent new possibility for freelance workers and those who work from home. In the meantime, have a happy and prosperous 2008!

Rosemary