How I Made $83 an Hour

First, let me say this, I was super reluctant to take this route. Really, there are some things for which I don't like to compromise my comfort or convenience. When traveling by air, I like the convenience of arriving at the airport by my own car, which entails the expense of high parking rates at the airport. Nonetheless, I am willing to pay for parking, either at the airport proper or at a discounted, off-site parking location, just so I can be more comfortable getting there.

I recently went out of town for a few days. My departing flight was super early in the morning, and my returning flight was late at night. I am especially not a fan of the off-site parking joints when it means I have to get up extra early for a flight or be there long after dark (kinda sketchy area near the airport). So, I had talked myself into paying the full rate at the airport, which would have cost about $140 for the days that my car sat parked. A few days before leaving town, my car began acting up. I didn't have time to get it looked at, and I was very concerned about driving the hour and fifteen each way to the airport. In addition, I didn't have anyone that I could ask for a ride. (Due to the distance, I consider a ride to the airport to be a pretty big favor.) I looked into shuttle possibilities, but as both of my daughters were coming with me, a shuttle would have cost close to $200. After spending a weekend on the fence about driving, taking a shuttle, or daring the public transit, I made a last-minute decision to take a series of 2 public buses and 1 stretch on light-rail for my transport to and from the airport. We had to walk a mile to the bus stop (with heavy backpacks, and yes, it was uphill part of the way) and ride public transportation, which took 2 hours. However, it was worth it, as our cost was $25.50 in total for the 3 of us to get to and from the airport, yielding a savings of $114.50. The additional time, compared to driving to/from, was about one and a half hours. Going on these figures, I estimate my hourly savings' rate at about $76.33. But wait, it gets better. Gas for my car to get to and from the airport would have cost about $10, giving me a total savings of $124.50 or $83/ hour for my time. Of course, I had to get both daughters on board with this crazy plan. So I offered each of them an incentive, $25 to spend any way they wanted while we were out of town. When you're young, beautiful, and broke, $25 sounds pretty enticing (or at least it did for my two daughters). They said, "let's go for it," and we did. With "sharing" that awesome hourly rate (bribing offering an incentive of $50 total to my daughters), my hourly rate for a little inconvenience dropped to $49.67. That's not bad, and I think it was worth the inconvenience.

I also like to remind myself that when I "earn" money by saving what I had planned on spending, those "earnings" are not subject to income taxes. If I had taken a paid job for that same amount of money, income taxes would have eaten into the earnings, and I would have had to work more hours to earn that sum. And truth be told, my area of expertise is in a very un-lucrative field. Convincing someone into paying me $83 per hour would be a tough sell.

Who knows, maybe my car would have made it to the airport and back, or maybe it wouldn't have. I'm glad I didn't chance it. It's in the shop now, and I'm hoping the repairs are not too exorbitant. The good news, though -- now that I've done the bus and rail to the airport, and discovered it wasn't bad at all, I will take this route again. The bonus is we all got a bit of exercise before sitting on a plane for a few hours.

You know, when we travel, I think nothing of taking public transit in other cities. And I take the bus whenever I want to go into Seattle. So, I'm kind of surprised that it took me this long to take transit to and from the airport. I guess I just need a little push in the right direction every now and then.

How about you? Has there been something that you've were reluctant to try, but you did and were glad for the push to get you into that experience?

A Wonderful Box from Last Summer's Free Piles

One late-summer or early-fall evening while driving home, my daughter and I spied this box on a free pile. I snagged it without thoroughly looking through the contents, as I could see it was filled with nice Christmas crafting material. I put it in my trunk and left it there until last week.

Wow! This is full of wonderful material. There are spools of ribbon, several grapevine wreaths and balls, vines, silk flowers, pine cones, ornaments, pots, florist foam, and other tidbits. The stuff was all jumbled together, with tangled ribbon holding everything in large masses. After untangling the ribbon and separating items into piles, I could see that I had found a treasure trove of crafting material.

I have already begun using some of the contents, as you saw on the lid of the tin that I spruced up. So much fun to have new supplies! We'll be making wreaths later this week, and I have a kissing ball in mind with one of the grapevine balls, burgundy ribbon, and silk roses. Lots of fun times at no cost to me.

I had the opportunity to meet the woman who kept her free pile stocked all summer, when she held a garage sale in early July. Apparently, she and her young family were moving out of the area and, therefore, were lightening the load of what to bring to the new house. Not only does she have an interest in crafting, but she also shares my passion for studying art and artists. Their home was just a few blocks from ours, and I was so sorry to discover this kindred spirit just as she was leaving the area. She gave me a few of her art books for my own library, which I'll treasure as mementos of this chance encounter.