Financial Meltdown

This is probably one of my most personal posts.

Before the stock market came to a crash and having the rest of the world join me in the bad financial year (and boy, do I wish I had some money now to buy-buy-buy!!!), my financial situation this year has been getting worse and worse. Some of it was unexpected expenses for emergencies. Others, bad money management. I also admit to living beyond my means (because next month things will get better, right??). The breaking point was my trip to Europe -- spending 2 weeks in Europe going from hotel to hotel, the majority of the time not sharing a room with anyone, made me officially broke.

It was a wonderful time and absolutely worth it (and I'll probably write more about it), but when my credit card got declined while leaving a hotel in Greece because I had reached my (high) limit, I knew I had reached rock bottom.

So now, I am struggling to make ends meet. Literally. I am on a work visa that restricts me from working for my company, so getting a second job is not an option (otherwise, I would be doing it already). How do you make more money when you don't have any special talent? Still trying to figure that one out.

I opened a little online shop at Cafe Press.com to sell some products with my own pictures on it (adding more pictures little by little), check it out here (I know you're just dying to see it!). It certainly won't make me rich (I get $5 on each product that sells...), but at this point, even 5 bucks make a difference! (I sold a "blue crabs" tile this week, was so excited that someone actually liked my picture enough to buy it!)

If anyone has any ideas of how to make extra cash, send it over my way (I know, I know, if you knew how, you would be doing it already, right?)

I thought about tutoring people in Portuguese, but I am awful at teaching anything (my logic in my head is different than other people's logic. Seriously. When I tried to explain math or finance equations to anyone, people would never "get it" either).

I thought about throwing a big garage sale with one of the meetup groups I am a member of (I have tons of things I can get rid of), but no one can figure out a free or cheap venue that would accommodate all of us (any ideas?)

I thought about donating my eggs (it pays 6 grand!). Really, I'm not joking. I certainly have no issues with my DNA floating around (it's damn good DNA!), so that part doesn't bother me. It's sticking needles on my stomach for three weeks that makes me queasy.

Luckily, I can still bike to work, because this week? When I couldn't get up early enough? I had to search for coins in my bags and around my apartment so I could add to my smarttrip card and pay for the bus.

Of course, it also doesn't help when condo's in my building are being sold for less than $150K (including 2 bedroom ones), when I paid WAY more than that in 2005. I would certainly not be in this situation if I had been renting all this time and was just now buying a place...

Wish me luck...