Any Ideas on How to Make Extra Cash in Pittsburgh? (Carnegie: health insurance, condo)

[creepsinc]

Sell your blood.

[Tirade]

Originally Posted by creepsinc

Sell your blood.

Selling blood is illegal in the US.

[catchtwenty2]

Originally Posted by Tirade

Selling blood is illegal in the US.

It shouldn't be, considering you can get paid for donating plasma. A friend of mine in TX who did it for short while when he was broke. Got somewhere around 140 a month... but you had to sit in a chair twice a week for several hours. Not sure what the pay is here.

PlasmaCare.com :: Plasma Donation in Pittsburgh, PA

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by creepsinc

Sell your blood.

That's creepy, creeps!

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by RestonRunner86

I'm considering canceling cable. I currently have the Xfinity bundle package through Comcast for $99/month.

Be careful when you cancel parts of your Comcast service. I switched levels of cable once, which automatically canceled the bundle and put me on their a la carte menu. I ended up paying more for two services, IIRC, than for three.

Not saying not to customize your Comcast account, just know ahead what they're giving you in place of the bundle package.

[SteelCityRising]

Thanks for all the great suggestions, everyone (including the DMs!) A few particular points?

1.) I actually have no idea why my electric bill has been so high recently. I had Christmas lights up in my front-facing windows that I kept on all day for about three weeks in December. I also hadn't been shutting off my Comcast "box" for my digital cable. I also haven't been unplugging my appliances/electronics when they aren't in use. Nevertheless my bill for December was $75, which I consider to be rather steep for a very small apartment. My gas bill is naturally going to be high living in an older home with the relatively cold December and January we had.

2.) Go Phillies, I'm taking a civil service exam next week for a position with the city. My fear about returning to the public sector is once again being handed four hours of work and being expected to stretch it out for 8 or 9 hours, putting up with the laziness/whining of superiors/colleagues about how "tough" they have it, being the brunt of resentment from people who are suspicious of anyone who makes more money than they do, etc. However, the one thing I DO greatly miss are the health benefits, as right now being uninsured I'm on pins and needles and lose sleep sometimes worrying how I'd pay if I had a medical emergency. I'm not looking to "get rich". The job I'm hoping to secure with the city only pays about $30,000, but coupled with a few days of deliveries per week I'll be looking at about $40,000 of income per year---comfortable living here in Pittsburgh. I also foresee learning the inner workings of City Hall as being an excellent segue into eventually running for city council.

3.) I donate blood (I'm B-Positive, just like my personality!). I haven't donated plasma (yet), but I'm worried if I'll be too fatigued from it to be able to hustle on the job as I currently do. Anyone have any experience with how "drained" you feel after giving plasma?

4.) Thanks for the tip about Pitt always looking for transcriptionists. I'm going to toss my hat into the ring. I'm very reliable, a quick and accurate typist, and I know I could really impress there.

5.) Jay, although I'm not happy paying a little over $100/month for high-speed Internet/digital cable/home phone service combined you do have a point that doing things "a la carte" may very well up my overall cost. I can do without cable if it came to the point where I was struggling where I couldn't afford groceries; however, I'll NEVER cancel my Internet. How would I access City-Data with how crowded my library always is?! LOL!

6.) Igo, I sold off excess furniture on CraigsList before moving here from Virginia. I was surprised how much money I made from furnishings I personally had no use for.

7.) To clarify I don't drive my own personal vehicle on deliveries (only on very rare occasion if they slip me cash under the table to work an hour "off-the-clock" as an independent contractor to make a last-minute order after closing time). I'm insured on my personal vehicle through Nationwide, and I'm also insured through the company to drive the company vehicle (which I don't pay for).

8.) I realize the "elephant in the room" is "to sell the car or not to sell the car...", but I really don't think I could psychologically do that. I received a new digital camera for Christmas, and I want to spend my days off in the Spring driving around to different parts of the area to do new photo tours when the vegetation returns. It sucks that when you combine gas, insurance, maintenance, and the payment itself I'm paying a little over $350/month for it, as that would give me the "cushion" I need. I'd rather just pick up a second job that would net me $500/month.

[Tinare]

Originally Posted by RestonRunner86

3.) I donate blood (I'm B-Positive, just like my personality!). I haven't donated plasma (yet), but I'm worried if I'll be too fatigued from it to be able to hustle on the job as I currently do. Anyone have any experience with how "drained" you feel after giving plasma?

I used to be an apheresis donor through the blood bank and they would take both platelets and plasma. I never felt light-headed or drained. They spin out the red blood cells and return them to you and saline is used to keep the lines clear during the process, so I actually was probably better hydrated when I left than at the start. It's been about 10 years since I've donated though -- they won't take my blood now due to tougher restrictions on people who lived in the UK during the "mad cow" years. I think the technology has improved and the process is quicker than it used to be. They used to give you a movie to watch while donating since it was about a two hour process. If you are a regular blood donor and don't have any issues, you probably would not if you donated plasma. I don't know what the places are like that pay you, though. I'd just do some research on those companies first to make sure that they follow strict protocols.

[ML North]

Originally Posted by catchtwenty2

How does your electric bill go up in the winter? Mine drops to next to nothing in the winter, but goes up significantly for the hot months in summer. Vice versa for gas, which I pay on a budget plan.

Originally Posted by RestonRunner86

Thanks for all the great suggestions, everyone (including the DMs!) A few particular points?

1.) I actually have no idea why my electric bill has been so high recently. I had Christmas lights up in my front-facing windows that I kept on all day for about three weeks in December. I also hadn't been shutting off my Comcast "box" for my digital cable. I also haven't been unplugging my appliances/electronics when they aren't in use. Nevertheless my bill for December was $75, which I consider to be rather steep for a very small apartment. My gas bill is naturally going to be high living in an older home with the relatively cold December and January we had.

Remember that even though a furnace is gas-powered, the blower still requires electric power. These units can use up to 600w, which is equivalent to a small space heater or air conditioner. If the furnace is not sized appropriately, or the apartment is very drafty, the furnace will frequently cycle and run very inefficiently. Over a month, this can amount to quite a bit of lost energy. My apartment is the same way.

[greg42]

$75 does seem like a lot for a 1 bedroom apartment. I had an old, large 1 bedroom in Mt Washington with little insulation (though it was at least on the ground floor with another unit above) and the electric was not that high. The Christmas lights shouldn't have been too much unless it was a ton of them. Even the bill at my house is only $80-90 and I'm sure I use a lot more stuff (as I said, electric stove and electric dryer). Do you have a really old fridge? That can be a problem, although my Mt Washington apartment was stuck with one of those too. Makes me wonder what might be running off your feed that you're not aware of.

Comcast: I pay Comcast $55/month: $42 for the regular internet (because two of us are sharing it constantly) and $12 economy basic TV (and a bit of tax). It's actually cheaper to do this by a few bucks (unless something changed recently) because they charge $15 to have internet with no TV service. You can drop down to economy internet and save more. Haven't had a home phone in 8 years, it's a waste. I dunno what kind of TV you have but a set top antenna will get you nice HD of the regular channels, better quality than any cable because it's uncompressed. Economy basic TV has only those channels, C-SPAN and Weather Channel, think that's about it. Oh and HSN and QVC. Ha. I generally don't even have the cable plugged in. I just don't watch that much TV, but I definitely can't be without internet. You can watch most TV on the web anyway the day after it airs on TV (and I don't mean illegal downloads, I mean free from the TV channel's own site). I watch the football games using the antenna. I might watch a regular show or two at it's real air time if I remember (no DVR or anything, don't watch enough!) but even shows I watch regularly I sometimes forget when it's been a while. So I just watch 'em online later.

BTW, shop your car insurance. It never hurts to check for better rates. Though I suppose you may have to get the registration transferred over before doing that....

[BrianTH]

Not that I am suggesting this is the only possible explanation, but sometimes people in one apartment are paying some or all of the electricity for another apartment, common areas, or so on. If you know where your meter is, you can make sure absolutely everything in your apartment is off (which requires actually unplugging a lot of stuff), then check to make sure nothing is registering on the meter.

[Edit: And I see Greg had the same thought. Unedit.]

I'm not going to insist you sell the car, but I will note there are ways to have the use of a car periodically without paying that much. And even if Zipcar isn't an option, you could at least get a cheaper car.