Day 17| Paid: $1370.27 | Remaining Debt: $61830.74
This past week was my first week specifically driving with Uber to increase my income and pay down my debts.
As I mentioned in my previous posts I have done Uber occasionally in the past, but never consistently. My general goal is to hit the Weekday Quest, and Weekend Quest, of 20 rides each. So that would end up being 40 rides for the week, and I should come out to around $200 minimum and up to a max of $500.
This past week weather, my primary job, and my social life got in the way of hitting that goal.
I did a total of 10 rides with a total payout of $191.44. That is pretty far away from my goal.
However both the weekday quest and weekend quest were horrible. They offered $20 for 20 rides Mon-Thur, and $10 for 20 rides Fri-Sat. Honesty it is not even worth trying to hit those goals. Yes the extra money is nice, but not a real incentive to get out and drive.
However I did have a $100 for 10 rides quest for January, since I think Uber was trying to get me back out on the road. So I drove to hit that number, and decided to call it quits for the week once I hit that.
In total that $191.44 was broken down into $67.42 Fares, $8.02 Tips, and $116.00 promotions which was the $100 for 10 rides plus a $16 for 3 consecutive rides on Monday night from 9pm – 11pm.
The weather was horrible this past week, and my job was busy, so I had very little motivation to drive after work. Then I also realized that I am not going to see my girlfriend the next two weekends since she has a friend visiting next weekend, and the weekend after that I am heading up to the mountains for some skiing and snowboarding.
I decided that the best thing was to spend some quality time with her this past weekend, so I headed to her place Friday night and came back late Sunday. It is a 3 hour drive to and from her place, so I still did plenty of driving over the weekend, but I gave up any chance of bringing in more money with Uber.
January is typically slow, and the weather makes it hard to motivate myself to get out and drive. I drove one day in January 2020 and two in January 2019, and I think the same factors that preventing me from driving more this week were the same as then. There seems to be a lack of demand, and increase in drivers out, and low bonuses from Uber.
However I have to get more consistent and serious with things if I am going to reach my debt destroying goal. There is a decent consecutive ride bonus tonight from 9pm – 11pm, but there is also freezing rain outside and I am not sure if I want to risk driving on roads potentially covered in black ice, and thereby risking my own and the passengers safety, just for a few extra bucks. We will see, I will evaluate the situation tonight.
This weekend since my girlfriend will be busy with her friend visiting I have the whole weekend to myself, so my goal is to wrack up the mileage and the money and get back on track.