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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Paper Routes



Last month I talked about putting myself on a paper route wait list as a way to make a little extra cash and lose some of my fat sack. I thought if I had a paper route it would make me exercise and I could make a little extra while doing it. Well, I didn't realize how little the pay was or how much of an inconvenience it would be.

I got a call back from newspaper about two weeks ago offering me 1-3 routes in my area. The man said he was going to stop by my place to show me the routes so I made sure my mom was there. BF just happened to be home for lunch when the gentlemen arrived which made me feel more safe having a strange man in the house.

Basically, there were 3 routes available and it was obvious he wanted me to take all three off his hands as he made this offer:

"Take one route and make 5 cents a paper. Take two routes and I'll squeeze it up to 7.5 cent. If you take all three well then I'm sure I can talk my manager into giving you 10 cents a paper. How does that sound?"

Booooo was all I could think, lol. The routes were an average of 57-70 papers each and were located pretty close to home. I knew it wouldn't be much money so I didn't really care but 3 routes was too much for me. It would take too long. So then I decided to ask what time the papers would be delivered to my house in the morning.

"Oh, they should be here by about 8am."

Geez Louise! I remember when papers showed up at 5:30 in the morning so you could deliver them first thing. The expected them to be delivered by dinner time so that means I would have to do right after work which was not appealing at all. So then I asked how often the papers would need to be delivered.

"Three days a week, including Saturday."

Oh I don't think so. I'm not giving up being able to go away on weekends so that I can have a paper route.

So I told him I would think about it. I knew he could tell I didn't seem very into to it so he said if I ever decided to take him up on his offer he was sure he could find another route in my area for me. I thanked him for his time and that was it.

This week I got a call from another local paper stating on my answering machine that they too had routes available for me. Well... I didn't even bother to call back. I'm pretty sure this is not something I want to do.

3 comments:

Canadian Saver said...

Yeah, you know it doesn't pay well when they are constantly looking for new people to deliver.

I remember when our paper had all day to be delivered too, the young guys who delivered to our house all came after school... Times have changed!

Glad you didn't take it as it seems it would have been more of a bother than anything else!

Laura said...

How is your new job going Dolly?

Nathaniel Christopher said...

I thought I was getting ripped off for how little I get paid when writing for newsapers. We never really give pause to think of the poor souls who have to deliver them for like 7.5 cents a paper! That's one heck of a commitment for such a little bit of money. This gig takes too big of a slice out of your sanity. You need your Dolly time!