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Update: Three Months of Being Self-Employed

BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 71 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

My last day at my day job was back in early October. It’s crazy to think that it’s been a little over three months since my last day. Every day of self-employment seems to go by quickly. I don’t ever wake up dreading work, which is very nice.

Instead, I wake up happy and energized. I look forward to each and every new day because that’s a whole new day of new possibilities.

I’m in control of my future, and everything that I do it matters. It can be scary, but it is also great.

Three months is of course not a long time, but I want to do a quarterly update to see how I am doing, and hopefully improve each and every quarter. It will probably also be interesting to read these updates years down the road to make fun of myself.

Many of you have also said that you are preparing to make the switch as well, and that periodic updates would be helpful for you. Thank you to my readers for being interested! 🙂

 

After three months of self-employment, I have learned a lot.

I definitely am no expert at being a self-employed person (at least not yet!), but I do think that I have learned a lot. I am learning more about my business, how to expand my business, and much more.

I really love being self-employed and so far it’s been treating me pretty well.

 

I thought that I would have a better schedule.

When most people think about making the switch to self-employment, one of the things that they usually look forward to is the idea of a flexible schedule.

A schedule just doesn’t seem to work for me right now. I find myself constantly on my phone, but I do think that may just be because I am excited for my new business.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my schedule, however, I need to work better at creating a more strict schedule and working during those hours. Instead, I find myself on the couch or on the bed working. I need to sit in a REAL chair and work!

 

I’m starting to spend less.

One thing that many self-employed people will tell you is that when you are working from home, you will save a lot of money. However, that just didn’t prove true for me in the weeks after I left my day job.

Instead, I found myself spending much more right after I left my day job. I was spending more and eating out much more. It didn’t make any sense. I was at home more, so why couldn’t I just make myself some meals?

Luckily, that has completely changed. We find ourselves eating at home much more and cooking delicious meals. It does help that I’ve also been on a healthy kick, so the smell of fast food actually makes me sick.

 

Luckily, I’m not eating everything in my view.

I thought that when I would switch to self-employment, I would constantly be in the kitchen or in the fridge. That would only seem normal right? If I am at home, that would mean that food would always be in reach. It would be completely different from my office job, where we didn’t have a vending machine or any food to snack on.

What has really been helping me in this area that I don’t really buy snacks anymore. I can’t even remember the last time I bought a bag of chips. Snacks in our house now consist of fruits and vegetables.

 

I’m still sleeping probably a little too much. 

When I had my day job, I would wake up a few hours before work so that I could work on side business tasks. This meant that every single day I would wake up around  5 or 6 a.m.

Nowadays, I wake up around 5 a.m., work for around an hour, and then go back to sleep… AND THEN, I don’t wake up until hours after that. This is something that needs to change.

This will sound stupid, but it has been hard to wake up at a certain time, early in the morning, while being self-employed. Technically, I don’t have to be anywhere… However, I know that I work best early in the morning, even though I am not a morning person. Weird, but it’s true for me.

 

You know how self-employed people are always thought to be in their pajamas?

Well, it’s true. I feel like I’m always in my pajamas. If I’m not going somewhere that day, then I will be in my pajamas all day it seems.

Haha I know – you probably think I’m absolutely disgusting.

There is one positive in this though – I hardly spend money on clothes anymore. In the past three months, I believe I bought two jackets (I’ve been eyeing the Patagonia jacket that I recently bought for months!), a dress, and one shirt. I probably didn’t even need that shirt, or that dress.

 

What else do you want to know about my three months being self-employed?

Did anything in my update surprise you?

 

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About Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Cents, a blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series. She paid off $40,000 in student loans by the age of 24 mainly due to her freelancing side hustles. Click here to learn more about starting a blog!

Comments

  2. Justin @ Decisive Dollar says

    January 14, 2014 at 5:17 am

    It sounds like you’re learning a lot so far about being self-employed! I can totally believe that sticking to a structured schedule is much more difficult. Not having a boss/manager expecting you to be at your desk every morning must be nice but also an adjustment since there’s no big consequence for starting work late, taking longer breaks, etc.

    I was wondering if there’s any social aspect of work that you miss? Is it a big adjustment working solo?

    Reply

  3. FI Pilgrim says

    January 14, 2014 at 5:48 am

    That sounds pretty cool Michelle, and it looks like you’re improving at the self-employment thing as time goes on, congrats!

    For myself, I worry about finding the motivation I need if I have a more flexible schedule. Right now I leave the house around 7:15am every day, which is when my kids are waking up. It would be really tough for me to accomplish anything between 7-8am if I were working from home, because I would want to hang out with them and eat breakfast with them, etc. I can see the rest of the day having temptations like that too.

    I hope I get to find out one day though!

    Reply

  5. DC @ Young Adult Money says

    January 14, 2014 at 6:29 am

    Your update didn’t surprise me too much. I’d be interested in hearing how you feel about it one year, two year, three years down the road and what changes you have made over time to make it work better for you. I think if I ever quit my job to work for myself full-time I’d rant and rave about how I don’t have a commute and how much more productive I feel without having to lose that hour or so every day!

    Reply

    • Michelle S. says

      January 14, 2014 at 10:00 am

      I don’t know why I didn’t mention those two areas. It’s AMAZING not having to commute to work anymore. I save so much time, and it’s nice to just wake up and be able to work. Also, I don’t have to deal with crazy drivers anymore.

      Reply

  7. Cash Rebel says

    January 14, 2014 at 7:51 am

    I’ve noticed that I don’t have the opportunity to spend much either when I work from home. You just aren’t tempted to walk over to the sandwich shop when you can make a delicious sandwich with the stuff you’ve got in the fridge. Your sleep schedule sounds a little strange, but probably more healthy that just getting 5hrs per night like most Americans.

    Reply

    • Michelle S. says

      January 14, 2014 at 10:01 am

      Yup, exactly. I spend less because if I wanted to eat something, I would have to leave my house – which is just too much work. It’s easier just to make myself a meal.

      Reply

  8. Connie says

    January 14, 2014 at 8:18 am

    That sounds great and its only been 3 months!

    For me, I worry about the stability. Even though I wouldn’t have the stress of a typical 9-to-5, I think I would worry more about not having a stable paycheck. How do you handle that? Has your income been as you expected?

    Reply

    • Michelle S. says

      January 14, 2014 at 10:03 am

      Yeah, sometimes I do get worried about the instability of it all. In reality, I was hoping that my income would be a little bit higher by this point (especially since taxes take so much). I’m hoping to ramp everything up soon. I feel like I haven’t been working as hard lately.

      Reply

  10. John S @ Frugal Rules says

    January 14, 2014 at 8:50 am

    I can so relate to much of this Michelle! I thought that it’d be easy to set a schedule, and after being at it for about 18 months now, I still struggle with it. My wife, who has been doing it for four years is a little better, so there is hope. 🙂 We also find that we spend a lot less. As long as I stay off of Amazon, then we do virtually no spending at all. The pajamas thing…yea, I’m definitely guilty of that one. 😉

    Reply

    • Michelle S. says

      January 14, 2014 at 10:04 am

      Yes, I also need to stay off online stores as well. That is a disaster. Occasionally I will shop online, fill up online shopping carts, but I never buy. I guess it’s my version of window shopping 🙂

      Reply

  13. Dee @ Color Me Frugal says

    January 14, 2014 at 9:13 am

    Thanks for the update Michelle! I’m hoping to trade my job in for self-employment one day, so I’m interested to hear how things are going for you. Also, I think spending an entire day in pajamas sounds pretty awesome! (I suppose it might get old after a while though 🙂

    Reply

  14. Alexa says

    January 14, 2014 at 9:38 am

    I am not too bad with the schedule. I try to stick with certain hours but of course it doesn’t always happen. My spending has went way down though and I’m still not eating very much. I was worried I’d be eating 24/7 when I started working from home but my eating habits haven’t really changed.

    Reply

  15. Dear Debt says

    January 14, 2014 at 10:02 am

    Great update, Michelle. I would want to sleep in a little bit, especially after waking up at 5am before! Could you go to cafes and work? I can imagine it would be hard to separate your life from your work though. I think having a stricter schedule will help with that.

    Reply

  16. Anne @ Unique Gifter says

    January 14, 2014 at 10:05 am

    A hard and fast schedule would be the absolute hardest part for me. I really like sleeping. I would probably need to set up any meetings/etc that I could for first thing in the morning, to get myself turned on to working.

    Reply

  17. Broke Millennial says

    January 14, 2014 at 10:44 am

    I’m working on doing the waking up to work on my side hustle before work bit. So far, I’m more of a stay up really late and then hit snooze a million times in the morning person. It’s great to hear your self-employment is going well!

    Reply

  19. Fig @ Figuring Money Out says

    January 14, 2014 at 11:32 am

    So interesting! I find myself doing similar as a self-employed person. I definitely sleep way more than I did when I was employed by a company.

    I’ve started getting out of the house to work more because it makes me more productive. I appreciate how some people work well from home but I definitely need a separate work space!

    Reply

  25. Mark Ross says

    January 14, 2014 at 5:35 pm

    I think you sleeping too much is okay, it’s good for your health. 🙂 Although, it’s not that good when it comes to earning money. I think you’ll be able to figure things out and find the perfect balance someday.

    Reply

  30. CeCe @Pink Sunshine says

    January 15, 2014 at 4:00 pm

    Jammies all day is awesome. Nothing disgusting about it. I find that if I wake up and then go back to bed I am ALWAYS more groggy then if I had just stayed up. That 2nd sleep is deep and hard to get up from. Glad it’s going well.

    Reply

  31. Jon @ MoneySmartGuides says

    January 15, 2014 at 4:19 pm

    I can relate to some of these myself! I find that some days, I don’t shower in the morning. I’ll shower right before I need to run out. I’ve also found I eat lunch out frequently. I have cut back most everywhere else so I am OK with this for now. For me, I need to get out and interact with people after awhile. I can’t just stay inside all day. Lastly, for the first few months I didn’t have a schedule. I worked hard but always felt like things were hanging out there. Now I have a schedule and get a ton more done. In fact, there are some days when I get so much done, I treat myself to a late afternoon movie!

    Reply

  32. Jack @ Enwealthen says

    January 18, 2014 at 8:09 am

    Working from home is great, especially for the first few months when you’re feeling the freedom.

    Make sure you schedule in some social time where you’re out in the world interacting with people on a regular basis. It’s very easy to get sucked into the working-all-the-time trap when working from home – you don’t realize how much socializing you do at work until it’s suddenly gone.

    Reply

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