Battling Debt and Mental Illness — and (hopefully) Winning!

crazy_cat_lady

Fabulous news. Everything crossed for you.

AspiringButAnxious

Thank you everyone

Today has been quiet and lazy, but I got a £5 Amazon card from SB, so my new balance is £9.24 and I'll soon be able to get the present I've lined up for my friends' (different friends this time) little girl.

Tomorrow is the 2nd anniversary of my dog dying and Sunday would have been her 12th birthday, so it will be a difficult weekend. I'm going to try to keep busy, especially woth working on the ebook.

crazy_cat_lady

Sorry you have a tough weekend ahead ABA... Be kind to yourself.

Orange_Ena

Ah sorry to hear that ABA. These pets of ours are an absolute joy when they're with us but leave a massive hole when they're gone. Remember the good times. Good luck with your ebook and well done on getting that job. Have a great weekend

AspiringButAnxious

Thanks folks :beer:

I think my bad mood today has pushed me to make a difficult decision... After another problem with The Client :mad: which involved them being rather patronising towards me, I told them I no longer wish to work with them. $2 an article is soooooooooooo not worth the hassle.

Part of me feels guilty for turning down the money, but most of me knows my skills are worth more. I got that job, so I will be able to get more in future and — judging by The Client's desperate replies to me, I must have been doing a good job. I was reluctant to accept it in the first place, but was desperate to get a foot in the door. Live and learn, I suppose.

It wouldn't have been so bad if the job had involved my getting credit for articles I could link to on my website/LinkedIn, but it was writing anonymously for people who were paying The Client. In future, I will be more discerning. After all, it was not the kind of work that could have led to me making a living from freelancing nor would it have helped me network.

I used to be the kind of person who put up with being treated badly, but I actually have some self-esteem nowadays. Maybe I would have stuck it out if I were being paid at least $12 per article, but I am not standing for being treated disrespectfully when I'm being paid peanuts.

My decision has freed up more time for other writing — my own projects at the moment, but hopefully (decent) paying clients in future. The lady who I am seeing next week about writing a leaflet seems keen to give the job to me, which is a good sign. I will try to impress her boss, too! I can take some writing samples — articles written pro bono for nonprofit organisations — and the lady has sent me the document from which I will be sourcing most of my material, so I can go into the meeting prepared.

Maybe I'm a idiot for turning down paying work, even if it is for so little money, but I feel more relieved than anything.

crazy_cat_lady

There are some things that you just cannot put a price on, and your health and wellbeing is one of them. Good for you - you are most definitely worth more than $2 an article.

32b3in2013

Hello AspiringButAnxious

I've just read, and subscribed to your diary.

You sound really organised and determined with the presents. Deciding what you are going to get and then getting the points for those gifts. You have inspired me to go back to swagbacks.

Was it you who said you would be saving for a fitbit? If so, when you get one, don't forget to join Bounts. You get points for steps and can swap the points for rewards. I have earned 4000 points since April and swapped them for a boots voucher yesterday which arrived today. Free money for walking can't be bad can it

Keep going

32b3

Bobarella

Good for you ABA. I know quite a lot of freelancers who blog and they have all complained about being asked to write stuff for free. Always with the promise of getting them publicity but still. One of them now has thousands of followers on twitter, has written a couple of books etc but still outs the people that do it to her. It's wrong. You wouldn't ask any other trade to do their job for free.

There_Is_a_Light

Congratulations on the job offer ABA and I agree with you and what others have said about being paid your worth. Some people/organisations take advantage of may of the professions that are difficult to get started with such as writing/musicians/acting etc and expect you to work for almost free and be grateful for the chance to showcase yourself despite the likelihood of you actually benefiting from future and better work as a result being extremely slim.

I think I have mentioned before that my son is a musician an has had similar treatment, It really makes me angry.

Glad to read that the counselling was positive (my Mum works for M!ND in the north east of England).

Olliegami

Okay! I have several things I NEED, yes need to say to you, so forgive me for this long post.

First of all, thank you for commenting on my thread over there, and thank you for being so open about your own health.

Secondly, I've just been skimming through this diary, and you really need to go back to the beginning and read where you were at the start. You've been doing some freelance work! At the beginning you weren't sure it was going to work out. Hope you can gain some more self-esteem from that.

Thirdly, and most important and rambling, I am slightly shocked and excited that we seem to have so much in common. I'm 29 and have just been diagnosed with BPD, which was a blessing in disguise! I'm also a writer, and also just turned vegan last month, as well as having debts up the ying yang because of impulse and spontaneity. Yes, I definitely did need another cute pair of jeans that the shop only has in a size smaller than I am now, but I was totally going to lose weight to fit into them.

I've started using Upwork for freelance work. Like you I'm happy to do an array of tasks to earn some money - but it's hard to get accepted and then they want to pay you pittance. I got accepted for one job and out of the blue they went from requesting 250 word articles to a 10,000 ebook in 48 hours. It was a bit too much, and I knew that!

Anyway, I'll be checking in. Look forward to reading more, it's nice to read something positive and something I can relate to on so many levels. xxxx