Are There Any Real Work-At-Home Jobs?

On several occasions I’ve written about the things I’ve tried in order to make a few extra bucks. I guess it’s safe to say that at the moment, I’m not doing any of them.

As you know, I left my part-time job at Sears because it wasn’t worth the $7.25 an hour. Sure, I was supposed to get commissions on major sales, but the only items we sold in my department that earned a fair commission were riding mowers and treadmills. Well, I’m here to tell you that most people do not buy riding mowers and treadmills between the hours of 6-9 pm Monday through Thursday.  Normal folks make major purchase on the weekends when they have time to look around. What they buy Monday thru Thursday is mower blades, oil, workout gloves and dumbbells or what some call accessories. There is no commission on accessories.

Since quitting my part-time gig at Sears, I’ve looked into a several new opportunities. What I can’t understand about the people who run some of these “opportunities” is why they are not in jail. A while back I subscribed to  a newsletter that gave suggestions for starting a business at home. I mostly ignored the things they wrote about because they start off with things like “Make $10,000 a week from your kitchen table”. Well I go by the adage that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, so I ignored most of the ideas.

Every now and then I would see something interesting and would research it to see what other people thought about it. It seems funny that a couple of times I found a lot of good reviews before I ordered it and then a lot of bad after I started having problems. I ordered  a certain “assemble products at home”  program and then waited for the promised email confirmation of my order. By the second day I received nothing and called the companies number (not 800). I got an answering machine that time and the next.  I sent two emails asking if they received my order and got nothing.  I then sent an email requesting a refund and they responded asking for my correct address and the name of the kit (they had several) I had ordered. I figured that at least I would get my refund. Five days later the kit arrived in the mail. It had been mailed the day after I sent my refund request. I sent the kit back unopened and sent an email telling them “nice try but I had lost confidence in the company” I also told them they had ten business days to get my refund to me. After eight days I sent a reminder email, telling them I would contact the Better Business Bureau on the tenth day. Nothing! So I processed an online complaint to their local BBB in Austin, TX on a Friday and the BBB sent me an email on Monday saying they had forwarded the complaint. While on the BBB site I noticed that there had been 36 complaints in the last three years, most of them unresolved. On Friday I received the first of two checks, it seems they had sent the wrong amount the first time. I also got a call from the owner of the company saying that he apologized for the mix up but he had some new people working for him. I told him that since there had been two phone calls and four emails ignored, he might want to look at replacing the new people as well.

The last two opportunities came by US mail delivered, unsolicited, to my house. Both of them sounded like real opportunities to make money and I could see where they could really work. This time I checked them both on line by searching by the owners name and then the word “review”. It turns out that there was a class action lawsuit against one for false advertising although you really could make money from it, if they would just pay you as agreed, which they seemed to have a hard time doing. The other could have worked as well if their prices were more competitive and they didn’t provide shoddy work.

Anyway, I’m still looking and am hoping to take advantage of some of my 94 web sites to do it. What do you think? Have you ever had a similar experience? Let me know by posting a comment and hopefully a recommendation. Just remember I will check it out and hold it against you forever, if it’s not real.

The Married Man’s Weight Loss Plan!

A couple of days ago, a friend sent me an email concerning a newly discovered way to lose weight. It was supposed to be a real study done at the School of Physics in Sydney, Australia. According to the study, when you eat something cold, your body expends energy to heat the substance to body temperature, before digesting it. Expending energy means you are burning calories and in the cases given many more calories were expended than what was contained in the substance eaten, thereby resulting in weight loss. The substances used in the study were ice cream and beer. The study went on to explain that some people eat pizza as an excuse to drink beer. Well since pizza is already heated and contains lots of calories, you obviously cannot eat pizza to lose weight. The solution: drink more beer.

I have to admit I’m not the scientific type, but the argument makes sense. However, it is not an option for me since I only like pizza and ice cream on occasion and not as part of a regular diet. Beer on the other hand…

Lucky for me, I stumbled on an easier way for married men to lose weight and you don’t have to get drunk to do it, just send your wife away. Yep! Two weeks ago I sent my wife to visit her family in Panama, since then I have lost six pounds.

Now, I love my wife dearly and miss her terribly. In fact she left on our 33rd wedding anniversary due to some unfortunate circumstances, but there is no denying it’s helped me slim down. My wife is a really good wife and nobody has one better. The fact is she takes really good care of me whether I like it or not.

After a second major surgery on my left foot and my hip replacement last year, I had put on a few extra pounds, OK 20 extra pounds. I’ve tried here and there to exercise to get rid of the tonnage, but it usually ends in pain, so I don’t try too often. I’ve also tried to eat right for the sake of dropping the extra weight but this is a problem because I have a great wife.

My great wife insists on cooking good meals every night, in addition to making sure I eat a good lunch and big breakfast. Sometimes she says she doesn’t know what to cook and I’ll offer up French fries and fish sticks, which I happen to like, a lot! She’ll say that’s not  a dinner and proceed to cook something better, in her opinion.

Not only does she feed me well three times a day, but she insists on covering the plate so you can’t see the design underneath.

Since she left, it’s been lots of stuff that takes 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees in the oven, all of which I can do on a sheet of aluminum foil, thereby avoiding pots and pans to wash.  If I can do it in the microwave in 2-3 minutes and use paper plates, it’s even better. I also take my vitamins and eat cups of yogurt and fruit in a cup, so I’m getting lots of vitamins too.

I’ve also been getting exercise, like chopping wood, cleaning the pool, cutting the grass and washing the cars. This past weekend I also scrubbed the tiled floors in the kitchen, dining room and laundry room. This required me getting on my knees to clean the grout, but it looks great and I found a couple of places I have to re-grout, so I already have plans this coming weekend.

I have two more weeks to lose more weight. When she gets home I’m hoping she’ll be very surprised and help me stick to my new weight loss plan. My guess is she won’t because she’s a really great wife.

AHHH!! The Memories

This past Sunday I took my five year old grandson, Jaden, out to watch his Daddy play soccer with a local men’s team. Also playing on the same team, as his Daddy, was his Uncle Tommy. His cousins Rylan (3 weeks), Rylan (19 months) and his Aunt Nikki (age with held) were also there. Tommy and Joey played opposite ends of the field with Tommy on defense and Joey up front. They both played very well, as did most of their team, with Joey scoring all three of their goals. Unfortunately, they did not have their usual goalie that day and the other team outscored them by two.

This was the first time I watched my boys play soccer together in about 16 years. From the time Joey was about 6 or 7 and Tommy 4 years older, they both played soccer. They started playing while we were stationed in Panama and continued when we arrived in the states.

Some years they played 11 months out of the year. They played soccer for school, Classic soccer (the best teams from each city), summer soccer and indoor soccer. Since they were four years apart, they were often on different teams based on age group. Since my wife and I tried to attend every game and were very involved with the teams, we sometimes had to run from field to field to ensure we gave them both equal viewing time.  It was much easier when they were on the same team.

Anyway, watching them play together again on the same team brought back a lot of good memories. My wife unfortunately is in Panama, due to a family emergency, and was not able to see them. When I told her about the game on the phone, she was so happy that her boys were playing nicely together again. Ahhh! The memories.