Earning Money Substitute Teaching

As most of my readers know I earn money by substitute teaching, which is a job I've done over the past ten years. I also subbed when my daughter was an infant for a couple of years. 
If you're interested in earning money while substitute teaching than this article is for you. 
The first thing I did to start subbing was to visit the school district's (where I wanted to sub) central office. Each school district will have their own set of rules for hiring substitute teachers. 
Some school districts require only a high school diploma or GED. Others will require a Bachelor's Degree and/or teaching certificate. The district I work in required only a high school diploma when I started. 
Today they require a teaching certificate, but the district has a shortage of subs and have been known to be flexible on that issue. So, check with your school district as the rules have been known to change. 
For me, I had some paperwork to fill out and had to have a background check, which I paid for at the time. At the time I paid for mine back in 2003 it was $50, I'm not sure what they cost today. Sometimes the school district will reimburse you for this expense, but not always. It pays to ask about this. 
As far as subbing goes, I get called multiple times per week to sub. I've had multiple teachers ask for the same day especially when there is a county wide meeting. 
I've even been asked to cancel subbing jobs in favor of another teacher. And sometimes I've had teachers ask another teacher if they can trade another sub for me. In a case where I might work for them three days in a row or something similar. 
Substitute Teaching isn't simply walking into a classroom and showing a movie. In fact it's pretty rare that a movie is shown. It depends on the teacher as to what work the students will do each day. 
Some teachers want students to continue with the work they are currently doing in class and will leave assignments for that purpose.
Other teachers will leave  work the students are not working on in class, but are capable of doing as they do not want to interrupt their teaching process. 
And some teachers, especially ones who are sick or have an emergency, might not leave any plans, but that is very rare. Depending on the age, It's fun to have students write a story about "What happened to Mrs. Teacher?" in a case like that. 
Any time you are in doubt you can either buzz the office and ask or ask a teacher near your classroom. I've always found a friendly teacher next door to ask and answer questions. 
One rule of thumb, if you decide to sub, is not to let students get into the teacher's desk. Some children have a fascination with the teacher's desk and want to rifle through it. I always nip this behavior in the bud. 
You are working for that teacher and you want to protect his or her things, so keep students out of anything they have no business going through. 
Same thing goes for the teacher's classroom rules. If I had a nickel for everytime a student said to me, "but she's not here" I would be rich. I always tell students that we follow the teacher's rules even when they are not there. It demonstrates respect for their teacher. 
Another good rule is to always leave the room as clean as when you got there. Teachers are more likely to call you back if you take care of their things while they are away.
Another good rule of thumb is have some sort of classroom management. Students will pick up on this right away and try to get away with things they wouldn't do if their teacher were there. Nip this in the bud as soon as possible by taking  charge immediately. 
Teachers have planning periods, so you might have some down time. Sometimes the office may need you to fill in somewhere else, but that is not always the case. 
You can always bring some work to do during this time or bring something to read. I've done all sorts of things during this time. Reading, crossposting resale items, work on my blog, etc. 
At the end of the day leave a note for the teacher. Thank them for giving you the opportunity to sub in their place. Let them know how the day went and leave any names who were especially good and helpful and any who were misbehaving. 
If you're interested in subbing, The NEA - National Education Association has a state by state summary of substitute teacher requirements. 
And most of all have fun with your students - get to know them if you can. My area of subbing runs from 6th grade through 12th grade, so I've had the privilege of watching some of these children grow up into mature adults. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Frugal Friday ~ August 31, 2018

Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday we stayed and worked from home. The other three days this week I subbed, bringing my lunch & drinks with me each day. 
One item I sold on Ebay this week went for $107.50, which helped to pay some bills this week. In September I'll receive my first paycheck of the school year and things won't be so tight financially. 
On Monday I listed a few things on Ebay and cross posted multiple items on Mercari and Poshmark. I also cleaned several areas in the house. 
While folding laundry this week I went through all of my shirts and pants for work. I like to change them out from time to time and put the ones I've worn lately away for a while and pull out the ones I've had stored away . It makes me feel like I have new clothes to wear since it's been awhile since I've worn them.  
While I was cleaning out my dresser drawers, I took four shirts that are now too big for me and listed those on Ebay this week. 

We have finally figured out what was going on with our electric bill. We went from a high of 187 kilowatts per day down to an average of 74 kwh per day. 
You can see starting from August 9th, when we identified the problem, the daily kwh usage goes down each day as indicated by the green strips. 

Turns out lightening had probably run in through our electrical lines and caused the baseboard heaters downstairs to malfunction. 
We had to have an electrician/plumber come out and turn them off at the breaker box. And he was the plumber who installed our new kitchen faucet. The heaters downstairs are not fixed, but since we don't use that area of the house, it is not a problem right now. 
This has cut our electric bill in half and I suspect another reason the house was so hot this summer. 

On Thursday we went to Sears because they were offering a$10 off coupon on a $10 clothing purchase.  I was able to get this package of 6 pairs of much needed socks for $2.19. 

We also stopped at the Dollar General to use some $1.00 off Oral B coupons and picked up these 7 toothbrushes for free. 

And finally, on Thursday I bought gas using my new Exxon mobil rewards card, which has been collecting points all summer. Yesterday I cashed my points in and was able to get $15.56 in free gas. I love free gas! LOL
That's all the news I have to report this week. How was your week? I'd love to hear about it in the comment section. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Frugal Fun this Week

We've had a fun and frugal week this past week. 
We had so much rain the past week. School was called off at 1 o'clock on Thursday due to roads beginning to flood. So, I actually got off work early and headed to Chattanooga for a paid pet sitting job. 
We always enjoy pet sitting there. We get to stay in her house and love and enjoy her dogs.
She has awesome unlimited Internet and is close to many of the places we enjoy. It's like having a mini vacation and getting paid for it. 
We stopped in at Sears to get another free item using their Shop Your Way rewards program. I picked up another filter for our kitchen faucet. 
Auntie Anne's was giving away free pretzels on Saturday, so we stopped in to get one.  

We stopped in at Barnes & Noble and found they had planners marked down to $2, so we both picked one out. I also picked up a Zentangle book for my favorite art teacher for $2.
I sold two items on Ebay this week and made $10 on both items. 
I did not do any grocery shopping this past week since I knew we would be out of town. In fact, the lady we pet sit for bought fresh produce and said she forgot she would be out of town and to enjoy it ourselves, which was very nice of her. 
That was a wrap up of our week, how was yours?
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Frugal Workshop is Back Up and Running!

First off, our internet is back up and working today! 

On Thursday we went to the 127 Yard Sale and started our day in the town of Pikeville, Tennessee. 

The vendor booth in this picture is selling paper hornet nests. This is something my Dad has done. You wait until winter when the hornets have left the nest and then you cut them down from the tree. Dad had two one year that he sold for $25, so this can be another source of passive income. 

Some of my readers know we lived in the town of Pikeville when my daughter was first born, so I took her around to various places to show her the first house she lived in and some other places and things. 

Here is a photo of one of the houses we lived in and a tree I planted back in 1992, so 25 years ago. Visiting there was a sweet walk down memory lane. 

The sale was so much fun, and miles and miles of yard sales. We stopped at many of them and found some great items. 

One of the things I bought was this aloe vera plant. You can see it already has babies and I'm going to replant them and sell them as another passive income source. 

I also bought a new bottle of hand gel and a cute yard of fabric for $1.00. 

Another one of the places we stopped at was The Country Cupboard in Crossville, Tennessee. I used to love to visit the store when we lived in Pikeville. They have the best prices on spices there. We even found pints of flax seed for 99¢.

The cucumbers and apple were free as one store was giving away the cucumbers for free and we picked the apple off of a tree, with owner permission, that was loaded with them. 

The rest of my blog post is from last week, before the Internet went down here. I wasn't able to post a blog post, but here it is for you to read now. 

Pictured above is cloth pad number 30 for my daughter so I've finished that project for the summer. 
I cleaned and organized my sewing area and made one tub for fabric. 
On Wednesday I took off two loads of garbage to the garbage dump including one broken chair that needed gone. I also cleaned off the back porch, which looks much better. 
I put an ad on Craigslist this week for one free chair and a free rolling file cabinet and these were picked up already. 
I sold one living room chair this week for $100. We had too much furniture in the living room, and getting rid of this chair has made a big difference. I should have done it sooner. 
I  earned another $5 Amazon gift card this week from Microsoft Rewards Points this week and added it to my Amazon gift card balance. 
Tomorrow is the Goodwill first Saturday of the month 50% off sale, so if your local Goodwill is participating you may want to check it out. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Second Frugal Week of June 2017

It's been a busy week at the Frugal Workshop this week. 
On Monday I received two checks in the mail thanks to the reward programs I spend a few minutes using each day. 

The first check was from Inbox Dollars for $33.88. 
The second check was from SendEarnings for $28.82. 

I also earned $5.00 in Amazon gift cards from Microsoft Rewards. I now have $47.42 in gift cards from Amazon for this year. I'm saving them for something special like Christmas. 
Other things that happened this week include...

I earned $112.50  before fees on Ebay this week after selling three of the items I listed for sale last week. I paid $13.26 in Ebay fees on this amount and $4.75 in PayPal fees, so I paid a total of $15.16 in fees and brought home $97.34 on the $112.50 I made. 
I couldn't have made as much as I did on Ebay at the flea market or a yard sale, so I'm glad this option to sell online is available. I think all the tightwads shop at the flea market because they want to haggle with me on the price, which is what I do at yard sales. LOL
I also listed five other items up for sale on Ebay this week. I did a tiny bit of decluttering and decided to go ahead and see if I could sell them on Ebay. I'll only list them one time and if they don't sell, I will donate them to our local charity thrift store. I'm not willing to hold onto them any longer than that. 

I made five more cloth pads for my daughter this week. I asked her how many she wanted to have on hand and together we settled on thirty-five. That way she could go a whole week without doing a load of laundry if necessary. The chevron pattern above was one of my favorites. 

I made a new page for the Frugal Workshop on cloth pads. You can see it at the toolbar on the top of the page and here is a link to it if you're interested. Mostly stuff you've already read if you are a regular reader here, but for newbies they can find all the information in one place. 
While folding the laundry this week I found a pair of pants that needed a small section of the inseam restitched, so I picked up my thread and needle and stitched it together right then. No sense in putting little tasks like that off since I am off from school for the summer. 
On Thursday I made a large stockpot full of Taco Soup based on this recipe from the Prudent Homemaker. I like that it calls for ingredients I already had in my pantry. I did use fresh onions though since I had them on hand. 
My daughter did a CVS haul this week where she bought two tubes of Colgate toothpaste and a bottle of Dawn dishwashing liquid for 21¢. 
Here is a short video of her deal:

On Friday we went to several yard sales. 
Items we picked up included:
- 3 new glass bowls $2.00 (I broke one last week & needed replacement) - Microwave cover - 10¢ - 3 music CDs - $3.00 (one was brand new/just released) - 12 flannel blankets - $2.00, which was 17¢ each - Fabric to make more cloth pads - $2.00 - Multiple textbooks to resell (some were free) - 2 scrub shirts to make pads - 50¢ - Bag of 107 adorable quilt squares - $2.00 - Storage container on wheels for cat food - $3.00 (been looking for one of these for years - didn't want to pay retail) - Battle of the Sexes board game - 50¢ - Lamp - $3.00 (to lighten up my sewing area) - 2 brand new swimsuits - $3.00 (needed to replace dd's swimsuit top as chlorine stretched hers out)  - French fry cutter - $1.00 (still in the box)
We had a great yard sale day.  :) All in all we had a good week here at the Frugal Workshop. We hope you had a good week as well and have a wonderful weekend ahead.  :)
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

First Frugal Week of June 2017

Ebay is another source of passive income for my household. In the past I have sold things year round on Ebay, but in recent years have only done this in the summer time when I have more free time from subbing at school. 
This past Monday I listed five items for auction and hopefully after paying all the fees associated with both Ebay and PayPal will end up making some money to add to our summer budget. 
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We found a nice bag at a yard sale last week for 25¢, but the handle was torn off. No problem. I did a quick stitch of it on my sewing machine and it is as good as new. 

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As my regular readers know, my daughter is the coupon queen here these days. She got in on a great deal on St. Ives body wash at Dollar General this week. 

St. Ives body wash was on sale for $2.00 each. She had five manufacturer's coupons for $1.50 off one bottle and a digital coupon for $2.00 off $10.00. So, she bought five bottles and paid 50¢ for all five, which worked out to 10¢ each, which is a great deal for body wash. 
She is also great at keeping our stockpile organized too. She rotates all the stock putting all the older stuff up front to be used first and putting anything new in the back. 

As a result she had already put the St. Ives in the back of the closet, so I did not get a picture of it, but here is our stockpile from the front so you can at least see the stockpile. 
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We spent part of the day on Friday going to yard sales. We both found a Vera Bradley bag, which trilled me to the bone as I love them. Pictured here is a photo of both of them. 

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I made cauliflower taco meat again for dinner today. Here is a photo of it up close. It looks so much like taco meat that it's hard to believe it's actually cauliflower. It's a plant based dish, which is not only healthier for us, but costs less than buying meat.  Here is a picture of it in the taco salads I made for lunch today. 

I also made baked french fries to go with the salads. I did not use any oil in these and they still turned out great. They are much healthier than fried potatoes and my family loves them. 

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Saturday was the first Saturday of the month, which means Goodwill has everything in the store for 50% off the regular price. We went to three different stores and picked up several things. 
One of the things I found were these really nice cotton cloth napkins for $1.00. These are the ones you want to use as dinner napkins because of the material, which feels good on your skin and is absorbent.  I don't care for the polyester dinner napkins as they are not very absorbent.

Another thing I found were these two scrub shirts. Now I'm not going to use them as scrub shirts, but rather use the material to make cloth pads for my daughter. I love the Mary Engelbreit one and buying the material this way ($2.50 each) was much cheaper than buying the same material ($9.00 and up) at the fabric store. 

Speaking of cloth pads, here is another one I made for my daughter yesterday. So now she has two new cloth pads to add to her stash. 

That's it for this week at the Frugal Workshop. I have more things to share with you at a later time like the really neat surprise my daughter made for us after shopping at Goodwill yesterday. I'll save that for another blog post later this week. 
Don't forget to enter the giveaway we currently have going on at the Frugal Workshop. 
I hope you all have a great week!
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

Unofficial Start of Summer

Monday marked the unofficial start to summer. Last Monday was my last day subbing until school starts back in August. I always look forward to this time of year as I usually get more things done around the house, and some projects usually get put off until this time of year. 
This time of year brings with it a smaller income to our household and therefore, we make adjustments accordingly. We do have several different sources of passive income, which brings in needed funds. 
Recently I made $100.84 from my blog through Google Adsense. I had the money transferred to my regular checking account to start, and then transferred $15.89 into our emergency fund, and $10.00 into our new house fund, which was over 25% placed into savings. 
Mr. Money Mustache regularly saved over 66% of their income in order to retire early. If you are looking for inspiration, be sure to read his blog.  His family lives a frugal lifestyle that even Amy Dacyczyn would admire. 

We stopped by the Mennonite Farmer's Market this past week to pick up some fresh produce. We spent a total of $28 for all of this and have been enjoying it all week long. 
Tomorrow I will be taking my car to an auto shop for a front end alignment to the cost of $45, which is a great deal. My BIL, who is an auto mechanic, recommended this company to me. Asking around or putting out the word of what you are looking for will help to save you money. 
Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~

My Frugal Week

My daughter picked up two of these trial size bottles of Head and Shoulders for free using coupon overage and she gave them to me to use. 
The first bottle lasted me through nine shampoos since I wash my hair every other day the bottle lasted me for a little over two weeks. 

We went to several yard sales today.  As usual we brought drinks and sandwiches with us and did not eat out. 
This must have been a day for cookbooks because that is what I found before the rain set in for the day. 
I found a Woman's Day magazine from October 1965 for 25¢. It has multiple money saving recipes in it and the ads are fun to look at from way back then. 

I found Cook's Country magazines for 10¢ each, so I bought ten of them and paid $1.00. These normally sell for $4.95 each, so this was a good deal. 

I found a Holiday Inn cookbook for 25¢ from the 1970's. It has recipes from Holiday Inns all across the country including the one in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  :)

I found two Ziploc bags filled with smaller type cookbooks from an older lady who was cleaning out her house. 

I love these kind of cookbooks and going through these made me think of the cookbooks I received from my grandmother when we were cleaning out her house. 

Best thing of all? She only charged me 25¢ per bag. I will spend many hours going through and enjoying these very much. 

I also found a Southern Living Inflation cookbook from 1972 for 25¢. 

We went to several yard sales on Saturday too, I found a nice bookshelf for my bedroom for only $3.00. 

I also found a set of 68 brand new CDs of the bible. They seller had then marked for $1.00, but living in the Bible Belt I knew they were worth much more money than that. 

We came home and checked them online and they are currently selling well for around $65 for the set. My daughter will be sending them to Amazon for use in their fulfillment program. 

With my help, she finds new items like this all summer long and sends a package to Amazon at the end of the yard sale season and then she earns money all winter long when Amazon sells her items. This is another source of passive income we utilize. 

Recently we went through one of the free boxes located outside a bookstore in Chattanooga and found several Beth Moore CD sets, so we picked them up thinking they would be worth something to someone. 

Today I went online and found out how much they were worth. There are seven sets of CDs on the book of Romans and they retail for $30 each while the other set we found retails for $39.95. 

I am shocked that someone would just put these in a free box thinking they were not worth anything. I plan on listing these on E-bay to see if I can find any takers. I will keep you updated on if they sell or not.

- We saved money on gas this week, which you can read about in this blog post.  
- My daughter received a free chicken biscuit from Chick-Fil-A on Tuesday. I wrote about about that in this blog post. This coming Tuesday, April 25, will be the last day this free breakfast item is offered. 
I'll close this blog post for now as I think it is long enough, but I'll be back soon with another post on how we save money at the Frugal Workshop. 
I hope you have a great week.  :) Belinda ~ Living within our Means ~