An Expensive Day as a Freelance Grant Writer

Non-profit consultant and expert grant writer, Derek Link, shares some thoughts about his expensive day this week:

Some days just cost more than other days. I can go for a week without spending much money except on gasoline and food. But then there are days like today when the universe just seems to have its hand in my pocket and it’s cleaning out my wallet with a vengeance.


I suppose that one of the best things about being a freelance writer is the fact that if your car breaks down, you can go to work in the coffee shop. Well, rather, you have the freedom to link to the Internet and work remotely and you don’t actually have to check with anyone about it.

But if you are an employee, you need to notify your boss or supervisor that your car broke down and that you’re stuck working remotely. You may need to take time off to get the car fixed which has an impact on your income whether you lose vacation time or personal leave, it’s all the same thing -  money out of pocket.

A freelance writer can pretty much work wherever their computer is and can link to clients and needed online resources wherever they have an Internet connection. That’s a pretty nice thing about freelancing.

One issue about working remotely is that it gets expensive quickly. For instance, this morning, I dropped off the car at the mechanic. I then had to take the light rail to a meeting which cost money, and the light rail back which cost money, and then used Internet at a coffee shop which cost money, and bought coffee at another coffee shop which I learned did not have Internet so that was a wasted cup of coffee.

So in addition to paying $150 to the mechanic, and buying light rail tickets, and buying cups of coffee to use Internet services, it is turning out to be a fairly expensive Wednesday. I don’t like spending money, so an expensive Wednesday is not what I was planning on when I went to bed last night.

But that’s the free-wheeling life of a freelance grant writer, you never know where you’ll be working tomorrow and the expenses are out of your own pocket, there’s no accounting department to submit receipts to for reimbursement, when the universe decides to clean out your account, it’s kind of like the IRS, there’s simply nothing that can be done to stop it.

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