Chapter 1

My wife Joyce and I have been married 13 years and up until the last few months it has been pretty good. Right now things were getting a little rough as I have been laid off work with my benefits ending last week. The icing on the cake, so to speak, is that Joyce just lost her job due to “Economic Cutbacks due to COVID-19” according to her company. So for the first time in our married live, we are both out of work ... this sucks!

“Mike we are out of money in our checking and there is only $173.45 left in savings to roll over to checking.” Joyce shared with me. “My final check is only $369.02 because they took out the final payment against that Savings Loan we had taken out for our car.”

“I had no idea that things were this bad dear.” I answered her. “I just don’t know what we can do to bring in the replacement money we need so badly.”

“Well Bob,” Joyce replied almost crying, “I didn’t know either; but I asked Susan to stop by this afternoon to share what she and her husband Bob did when he was let go from his job. Then Susan’s job said there was ONLY some out of town work she could take on if she was really interested in it ... as her local position was going to done away with!” Joyce was crying now so I told her to just go out on the deck and relax and I would review our Quicken checkbook ... just to see what we could cut out of our spending! Finally around 2pm Susan arrived at our front door.

“Susan, come on in and I will get Joyce.” I told her. I called Joyce in from the deck and the three of us began to visit in our living room.

“Look you two, I can’t tell you it won’t be hard, but if you both really try,” Susan began with, “I promise you can make extra money to get you through this mess!” Susan went on talking and sharing several things her and Bob had tried but finally brought up the one that would work for SURE! “What we found to quickly bring in the needed money was we ... well, we Rented Out our two spare rooms!”

“You mean you brought strangers into your home?” I quickly asked Susan. “How did Bob react to that, I mean he has his pride ... I know this for a fact!”

“Well Mike,” Susan began, “Let’s just say that Bob and I sort of warmed up to the idea when we saw we could not only make the money we needed to replace our lost incomes ... but how we could actually make MORE than we have ever made in our lives by Renting Out our spare rooms!”

“This sounds almost too good to be true Susan!” Joyce told Susan. “Just a spare bedroom can’t rent for that much money. How did you two make it work out?”

“Joyce the hardest part will be on you Mike dear ... how about letting the two of us women talk in private first and then we’ll bring you back in for the final plans ... ok sweetie?” Susan instructed me. So I went out on the back deck and the two wives talked ... hell I guess for a couple of hours. Finally Joyce came out and sat down beside me.

“Mike,” she began, “Susan had to run but she told me enough for me to explain how it works to you too dear! Susan also told me that it worked so well for them ... they still continue Renting Out their spares rooms. In fact, SHE shared she will even find us our Renters and keep us in business ... at no CHARGE! Mike I know this will be hard for you to take ... I mean buy into sweetie! But please hear me out ... please let me finish then you ask your questions ... ok?” Joyce began covering all the basic stuff I expected to hear about as to how we would provide the Rooms to Rent, along with the clean sheets once a week and allowing the Renters to use the shared bathroom between our Spare Rooms.

“Mike,” Susan then told me that if we offer meals too,” Joyce continued, “you being such a good cook ... she said the Renters would pay more to be able to eat where they sleep too! Plus Susan told me if we really made it feel like home ... you know for them ... they should also be great tippers!”

“This doesn’t sound that bad,” I told Joyce, “and I’ll be cooking our meals anyway, so I guess we could charge them enough to cover the entire cost of the food too!? If you are willing I guess we could give it a try ... you know to see if it really works out or not. I still say this sounds too good to be true!” So we called Susan and told her we were in and she told us our first Renter would stop by in just a few days! So Joyce and I began cleaning up our two spare rooms and of course the guest bathroom! I even purchased some extra food just in case we could talk the Renter into us preparing their meals!

“Hi are you Mike and Joyce,” the man asked at our front door.

“Why yes we are, please come in.” We both sort of spoke at once. Well my worst case fears didn’t hit because this man was white, about 6’2” and maybe 170lbs. He wasn’t in a suit but his clothes looked ok. He was also groomed well as he was clean shaven and he hair looked as if had just be styled.

“So what are you looking for Tom?” I asked him.

“Well a clean room of course and my meals ... yes I need to eat here ... can’t afford to eat out all the time! And I need my clothes washed and dried; once or twice a week. How much extra would that be ... I mean do you wash for your Renters too?” Tom replied back.

“Yes Tom,” Joyce assured him, “between me and Mike we can take care of any and all of your needs ... can’t we sweetie?” I just looked at Joyce thinking she might just acting a little too positive ... you know on our first chat and all. This being our first Renter, how in the world could we even know what his needs might be! We both took him to the rooms and offered him his pick since he was the first Renter and all. Then I showed him the Guest Bathroom while Joyce was heading to our laundry room with his first bag of dirty clothes. We fed Tom his supper and he took off for the deck ... setting out there talking on his cell phone for several hours!