Erin, I literally (yes rly) laughed out loud at the "Take $5 off" bit.

I am usually nice! Except when I'm a heartless bitch. I like to think of myself as a combination of exquisite politeness and cold-hearted practicality!

I may be delusional.

smonster, ITA hear you with the alternate streams of income thing. It's completely likely that when M. goes back to PA in August, I will be needing to get some PT job until I can confidently bring in enough income for our budgetary needs.

I might be shilling makeup or coffee somewhere to bring home the electric bill for a while. I hope not. But it's very likely, and I'm ok with that.

I'll try to use it for writing fodder, and get some easy no-brainer that I leave behind.

I'm thinking of it as taking the business loop through town, instead of sticking to the highway. Either way, I'm still driving towards my goal, and I'll get there.

I just might be stuck behind a tractor for a while.

Erin and Bonny outline exactly why I am insisting on paying one of my best friends who is a realtor for running comps for me and coaching me about contracts. I do NOT want to take advantage of her kindness. Unfortunately her R.E. company doesn't allow any side stuff at all (my landlady and I are trying to leave out realtors) so I will be figuring out a non-cash way to thank her. But she will be!!

I'm currently working with a couple of really, really good friends. We set up an agreement in the beginning to make sure we had excellent boundaries.

I tried to refer them elsewhere but they a) can't afford it and b) insist that they don't trust anyone else.

3 months into it, I've held up my end, they have not. Next week will be 'the talk.'

In this particular case, I'm not upset at all. We'll work it out, but a written agreement is sure nice to have in a case like this.

There are SO many non-cash-money ways to make a fair trade. I've done this with 5 people before...only 2 of which were friends...and it has worked out well each time.

When I get bent out of shape, like I was earlier today, I need to remember that.

I write or at least revise most of my good friends resumes for free. . . but these are people who have bought me drinks, dinner, helped me move, taken me to the hospital, picked me up from the hospital after surgery...

But my sister's friends are starting to ask her if I can help them, and that's more of a sticky wicket.

Erin, I suggest that you establish a "friend" rate. A reduced rate that justifies your time, but also ensures that they don't waste your time.

Guys, I have a launch date -- July 6th for Wordslinger.

Here's a link to my pre-launch blog post. [link]

I'm starting to verrryyy slowly starting to point select people to my website -- my portfolio is giving me fits and my graphic designer friend is working on my header image and logo.

But I am looking for feedback, comment, suggestions on the appearance, content, vibe, etc of the website before I unleash it fully on the world, if anyone would like to take a gander.

Okay, so after far too much inexplicable resistance, I finally wrote a new post for my blog, specifically about relationships and financial communication.

You can see it here: link

I welcome any thoughts for improvement.

I'm trying hard to keep the meaty posts to 500 words, but not succeeding. My writing style is conversational and my audience seems to like it, but it does stretch things out a bit.

bonny, I'm having to rein myself in, too.

I am Wordy McWorderson.

Also, bonny, insent!

I quite liked the post, and it's really good advice. Dan and I have to sit down soon and reset some financial goals and our approach to budgeting, in light of more recent development, and neither one of us is enthusiastic about it.

I think we'll make a money date, maybe reward ourselves with a movie after!

Bonny, that's an awesome post -- I found it a breeze to read in spite of the length (in fact, it didn't feel particularly long at all), because you have a good grip on structuring things well for the web, with short sections, clear subheadings, flow from one bit to the next. It's the long slog through endless gray text that makes long writing fail on the web, not the overall length.

(Plus, I need to keep the actual content in mind. We're good at the sharing and agreeing after having made ourselves learn to be, but following the plan, not always so much. Sigh.)