What My blogging Salary Buys

Naivety can be a  good thing.  Blindly going into something with a preconceived notion of what the experience is like, but then ending up with something totally different-better perhaps, is a welcome. Blogging was my naive experience. I have to admit, I thought there actually might be a little side earnings available if I just worked diligently to post pithy commentary, share common experiences, and find advertisers and sponsors that would build my family's spending money coffers. I added the AdSense widget, and in December, 2014, my blog began to generate add revenue. $0.03 that first month.  

Well, 18 closed months later, and I have a finalized earnings total of $41.37. That calculates out to $0.075 per day. Looking at my earnings is a mild curiosity now.  I leaned quick that the AdSense does nothing without thousands of followers. A UK blogger, Skint Dad UK, has gotten a plethora of freelance writing gigs from his blog start, plus, followers in the quadruple digits, and I recall reading a post, months past his writing gig success, that he had cleared his first 100 pound milestone on AdSense.  DH will sometimes ask some days, "Did you clear your nickle yet?" on the rare day when I actually hit $1.00, I got an unenthusiastic, "Go mom" from DD2. This is not going to  be a money maker.

Or is it? I've decided to challenge myself to figure out just what my little earnings total might be able to do to enhance my quality of life. I'll start a new daily or monthly average in June, but for my past history, I did a little brainstorm on what exactly $0.075 can buy. While I didn't come up with much, I found that one special treat meets my blogging budget to the penny. Warnings, tedious calculation is ahead. 

I love made from scratch brownies, but am not opposed to boxed versions, particularly the fudgy ones. I regularly can buy boxed mixes for $1.00. They call for vegetable oil, $0.40, and two eggs, at my high average price of $0.20 an egg, and a pan will cost $1.80. I can get 24 bars from the pan, at exactly $0.075 a brownie-less if I get eggs and oil lower. Granted the last time I stopped at one brownie when I baked them was never, but conceptually, my blogging career pays for one self indulgent fudge brownie a day. I might scoff at myself and figure why bother with AdSense, but now it is a bit of blogging fun to check periodically. My earnings are pennies, however, blogging has earned me experiences, escapes, and connections that are priceless, and for that I'll gladly trade in my naive dreams.