So I have a nice job lined up that I will be starting in a couple weeks. However, life is expensive and I need to get to my first paycheck, so things will go a lot more smoothly for me if I could rustle up a couple hundred bucks between then and now. My situation isn't bad - I have a pretty good support network I could borrow money from, but I'd like to hold myself up as much as possible before I go asking.

I've come up with a few possible plans:

  • Sell Plasma. I used to do this back in college and pretend I was straight. Is gay blood still a no-go? I'm also on injectable estrogen, would that disqualify me? It seems to pay a hell of a lot more than it did in the 2000s, so if I qualify I could get what I need in just a couple sessions.

  • Temp Work. I know there's a place nearby where I can just show up at the crack of dawn and they'll give me a job for the day, paid at the end of the day. I've referred lots of my homeless clients there. But from what I've seen it's mostly very physical labor, and I am small and weak. I don't know if I could handle warehouse work, and the city is still recovering from a blizzard so outdoors work would be a lot less fun than normal. Does anyone have experience with these types of day labor programs?

  • Download grindr andNOPE not doing that again

  • Rob a bank. It worked for Stalin.

  • Swallow pride and ask family for help. It's not unusual for us to float a couple hundred between each other, but I just don't want to ask if I don't have to.

What's your go-to for when you need more than a couple bucks real real quick?

  • RION [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Not to disregard what you've said about "holding yourself up" in your post but I really do think this is a good time to ask for help from friends & family. I know it can feel weird, and it all depends on your relationship with them, but speaking as someone who loaned their sister money fairly consistently for the past few months I'd much rather have her ask for money from me than sell plasma even if it was tight for me financially. That's what you do for the people you care about. And if you are going to be making money soon, you can hopefully sock some away to pay them back over time.

    If you'd prefer to think of it in a way that benefits your loved ones, think of it as momentarily leaning on your support network to get yourself in a position where you can return that support when others in your network need it—a bit like putting your own oxygen mask on first to make sure you're conscious to help others.