The math's all here...am i wasting too much time/gas on this job opportunity?

Question

I live 12 miles from my old job. Now i work M-F 9-5 at another job, but my old bakery job asked me for some help working the weekends for a month or two.

I could use some extra money, but is it worth the gas I use to drive there/giving up my weekends?

Here's the math...

Gas= $3.70/gal

Car gets 18 miles/gal

Daily trip would be 24 miles

24 miles divided by 18 miles/gal = 1.8 gal/day used ($4.80 in gas/day)

So it costs me $5 a day (about) in gas or $10 for the two days to drive tthere.

I work 6 hrs/day @ $8/hr, so that's $48/day or $96/paycheck before taxes.

$80 after taxes per week (about)

Minus $10 in gas to get there...

I would make about $70 extra/week if I take advantage of the offer from my old boss.

Reason i'd do it...

1. I get paid bi-weekly at my real job so it's hard to stretch the paychecks over two weeks so maybe the extra $70 would help a bit if I got it every week.

2. Sometimes at my job it gets slow and i'm sent home about a half hour or an hour early every other day, so $70 might make up for that a bit.

That's all well and good, but will the end justify the means in your opinion? I mean, that's 7 days working.

(btw in my real job I work 1.5 miles from home, so i pretty much don't spend excessive gas money there)

Answer 1

If you need the money go for it.  You can always quit, but I'd give them at least two weeks notice.  You don't want to burn any bridges there in case you want to go back.

Have you tried negotiating an extra $10 (or more?) per day to cover your car expenses, or maybe an extra $1.00 (or more?) per hour to help out on your gas?  Give it a try.  Explain you'd love to help them out, but the high cost of gas isn't making it worth your while to do so.  The worst that happens, is they say no.