Teaching, Side Gigs and Door Dashing

So let’s start way back at the beginning. When I first graduated from UMF, sweet baby faced me, made 700 dollars every other week teaching kindergarten. As I quickly learned when my daughter was born three months early, this was not enough money. Fast forward five years ago and myself and a few of my co-workers decided to get our masters degree and really work our way up the corporate ladder of education. Pretty soon we would be living the high life y’all. Come visit us on our yacht and pose for photos.

Fast forward to this year and my husband switched jobs and real estate is going through some kind of weird funk right now, so as I look at my bank account and my kids demand new sneakers for all the sports they want to play, let’s just say it makes this Mama overwhelmed.

Am I discouraged that I still worry about money 14 years into my career? Sure, but I am not down and out. First things first, when money is tight. You get rid of all of those subscriptions. Now I know this will be a hard band aid to pull off. Blue apron, gone. Stitch fix, done. Peacock plus ditch it. Once you have done that, I want you to go over to your couch and feel bad for yourself, only a few minutes. Sometimes your Stitch fix outfits were ugly and you got this. You are a bad ass bitch. Next thing you are going to do. Bag up dem bottles, bring them all down to the center. Get paid. I don’t care if it its 5 bucks or 50. Look at you go. But also wash your hands.

Next, it’s time to make some kind of budgetary spreadsheet with your significant other and just take a gander. Make a pie chart. Decide together. What are we working with? How many times do we go out to eat? You get the picture. Then go ahead and get on social media and just say I am looking for a side gig. A bunch of people will message you. Don’t be fearful of this. But do keep this in mind. School is a tough gig and fall is coming and you need to be recharged for your new class of cherubs. So do nothing with school or kids, or books.

And this is where I landed you guys. I was at Edward Little, walking around the track because my daughter was training for race walk and I thought where am I going to work for a little extra. I thought first of Starbucks, because I have an iv coffee drip at all times. I had to rule this out for now. My kids play games on Saturday and Sundays in the fall and Momma can’t miss to be pouring coffee. Next up I thought of Target to go, but same issue. After that I considered cleaning, but I really dislike staying up past 7:30. Hannaford is also close, but I only want to cut up the fruit. All of a sudden, it came to me. I googled Door Dash and entered my license and boom all of a sudden I was in you guys. No interview, no button up needed, just bam, I”m a Dasher now.

Now, my daughter has ordered off DoorDash loads of times, which is half the problem I need to be a Dasher, but I digress. I knew how the system worked, but did I really? So I did what all anxious little squirrels do. I watched a couple tutorials on Youtube and then when my husband got home I informed him to get in the car and it’s time to drive Miss Daisy. So last night I did my first two Dashes. My heart was freakin racing. I have done zilch to earn money in 14 years besides teach kids how to read, so how can I do anything but? When I saw that I had an incoming order, I just about peed my pants. We zoomed right to Pizza Hut. I blow through the door and announce , Door Dash, I’m picking up Door Dash, order for Tina. The gal doesn’t even look up and just points to the counter. A little anti-climatic, I admit, but the ease of it all was also calming. No one to argue with. No one to say it isn’t ready yet. So with my Nascar driver at the helm, we located the first house and legit dropped that pizza off with time to spare. I’m basically crushing this new job you guys! Next up I get a second order and it is in Gardiner now at Subway, so we zoom there, but then guess what, the person lives in Augusta. AWWWWW. This is the sucky part of Door Dash. You have to be efficient. Get all your customers close together to be worth it. So after two customers, my nerves were shot and I said I’m taking my 25 dollars and heading home driver and that was that.

This morning, I woke up refreshed. I went running. I took my kid to the orthodontist and then I said to myself, SELF , You are in Augusta. Get to Dashing. And that is exactly what I did.

You guys.

It was glorious.

The 10 am time is the bomb. People want their iced coffee and who is going to get it to them? Me. The hungover crowd wants their IHOP, the business gals want their Aroma Joes, the anti socials want their Arby’s. I have found one way to earn better tips is to communicate well on the app. I just type in Tina, I am in traffic, but I am coming for you. This drink looks amazing. I even delivered to a hotel and the fella looked a little sad and pretty high and no shoes, but you know what buddy, T Money has your Denny’s, so let’s pick up the day right? The best part of it all was that all the orders were in Augusta. So efficiency for the win right?

I will say Aroma Joe employees looked on at me with a smidge of pity. They were all dolled up, they had cute high waisted pants. I was doing a lot of perspiring, you know from the pressure of Dashing so well. I didn’t tell them that when their high school sweetheart knocks them up, they too may one day be dashing to pay for the little mutants that took over the house. I just want them to continue to be blissfully unaware for awhile. What do you guys think of my extra gig? I can dash when I want and ditch when I want. I hope it turns out to be a win, win win. Of course I want to put my own special sparkle on it. I would love little business cards, mint chocolates to go on top of their order. My own side app where they can talk to me while waiting for delivery. I daydream it would go something like this.

“I’m five minutes away with your Dairy Queen and you eat it all at once if you want too, he knows what he did.”

I know this blog doesn’t always center around money, but it always has vulnerable human as a guidepost and the last few days have definitely been that!