I’m going to split this post into three subheadings. We’re talking a little bit of an essay here, including some background on where I’ve come from.

Before Dogecoin;

I graduated from university in Summer 2013 with a BAHons and a HND in General Illustration. At the time I was stressed, in debt and moving into a flat with my boyfriend, Jake, whom you’ll hear plenty about from me!

I was in a bad place. I’d reached out to the reddit community of /r/assistance a few times, for simple things like bus fare to interviews and food. If you’re ever in a position to help someone out randomly, I do urge you to get on over there and see what you can do. Likewise if you are completely stuck, there’s always a friendly face.

I was fighting with the council to keep the roof over my head, my landlord was constantly on my back and my stress levels climbed to ridiculous heights. I had actually made myself ill thinking about the JobCentre on more than one occasion. Anyone in the UK that currently or has ever had to deal with the JobCentre will know this feeling, and is actually more than welcome to contact me for a good old rant at any time.

I tried a plethora of jobs, the only one I managed to stick with (or rather, they stuck with me) is another start-up, a children’s party company. They’re absolutely wonderful people who gave me a second chance and now I thoroughly enjoy working with them on weekends. For this I am paid in FIAT, GBP. I also had another extremely part time job, with less than 2 hours a week under a very, very disorganised company.

I then stumbled upon a doge tip on reddit, did a little searching and forgot about Dogecoin.

A week later, a Facebook friend posts about Dogecoin, tips me 7,000, which at the time was 75p, and directs me to wallets, the subreddit and the community. As it stands, I think I owe this guy some kind of life-miracle.

Before Moolah;

I found /r/dogemarket.

SUPER SERIOUS WARNING: Be careful out there. There are scammers. BE VERY VIGILANT IF YOU USE DOGEMARKET. I didn’t know any better.

I decided ‘Hey.. I can draw dogs. Maybe I should draw some pet portraits, earn myself a little more doge!” It was addictive. I put up a post offering a pet portrait for a decent price in Doge. I had two bites. A cat and a dog. 25k and 15k, respectively.

Wow. I’d actually earned some Doge there!

Then I tried a different approach – 1k for a doodle of a doge based on your username! It worked. I had a LOT of requests! It was exciting, my wallet was filling up and as an artist it stroked my ego a bit, made me feel better about myself, which in turn improved my drive to do more.

Here’s a brief history of transactions made on Dogemarket; http://www.reddit.com/r/dogemarket/comments/1wfdyj/official_verification_thread_vii/cf3tkob

I started looking for work that paid in Doge, I started trawling through posts – did anybody need art? I was contacted by http://www.partydoge.com/ – some of my artwork can now be found on their products.

I made a mistake, I started selling a little doge here and there to cover food, bills, little amounts. Then there was a breakthrough. I had sold enough doge to cover the last portion of rent. That felt AMAZING. Then I lost 20k to a scammer. It was my fault entirely for not checking his post history well enough.

I moved away from Dogemarket. I do still sell small amounts to people I have traded with before, but those people are now an exception. I’m not a Dogemarket Dogedealer any more.

After I moved away from selling actual Dogecoins on Dogemarket, I had a bad week. I was hungry, I had no food in the flat and no petrol in the car. So I posted looking for someone to buy me some food in exchange for Doge. /u/Salsadips came through. He ordered myself and my boyfriend £12 worth of food from a local takeaway for 12k Doge. A true shibe, and one I make an effort to tip if I catch him about.

I started looking for more solutions to selling things and buying things for Doge. I introduced my dad and my friends to Doge. My dad instantly agreed to accept Doge for his business, and my search continued.

Moolah. I saw a post from Moolah on the front page. It was like a shining light. “Here’s your answer.” It sang. A storefront, for doge, with prices set in FIAT on the back end. I signed my dad up, he’s store number 64. We haven’t sold a voucher for Doge yet, but the store will always be up just in-case! https://moolah.io/store/64

Very soon after that I stumbled upon treats.io – and bookmarked it immediately. Initially disappointed with the lack of UK cards, I decided it was worth keeping the link around anyway.

I kept seeing Moolah around, and then I spotted a chance for investment! Whoa! Having never invested in anything before in my life I was unsure on how to proceed, but there was NO WAY I could miss out on this. I popped Alex (Chief Wizard @ Moolah) an email to see if I could have a tiny slice of the pie. Apparently I could – I ended up investing below the minimum amount and feeling very pleased with it. We chatted back and forth over email for a bit, casual.

Moolah;

Now, remembering my ongoing job-hunting from the first section of this post. I work with the party company – I’m paid well for my time with them, but its only enough to live on… outside of rent and bills.

I was up, 1am, browsing reddit. Couldn’t sleep. Jake rolled over, half asleep; “Get off the computer, come on.” I decided to see what was in ‘new’ on /r/dogecoin, as I’d read all the front page posts and didn’t fancy venturing to /r/askreddit. There it was… Moolah was hiring.

Jake grumbled again. I explained my continued computer use; “Hold on, I’ve got to apply for this job.”

So I sent my CV in, with this for a cover letter:

“Well, up late, browsing reddit, when suddenly; Moolah is hiring? I need a better job? OK! LETS DO THIS.

I’ve attached a CV because I think those kind of things are pretty important when applying for jobs. I currently do have a set weekend job where I bounce around with kids for hours, but anything during the week is 100% clear. Schedule 1 is perfect, I spend those hours scouring for Illustration work and supplementing my weekend income as it is anyway. Mad Science (current job, see CV) is a disorganised bunch of people that like to put non-Welsh speaking teachers in Welsh speaking classrooms! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO – never mind. I can leave them on a week’s notice.

Also I seem to be constantly in your e-mails after midnight. AND I’ve got a phone that does e-mails anywhere. Cool stuff, right?

-Chelsea Hopkins”

And promptly shut the laptop. No less than three minutes later I had a positive response from Alex lighting up my phone, with a referral to Hatz.

Friday 20th February. Henceforth known as M-Day. The day I had my Skype interview, the day I officially became a part of Moolah. Things were looking up.

Did I mention my puppy was also born that night? Yeah. A puppy. Irresponsible when you’re struggling for cash, right? Jake is quitting smoking and is using the now ‘spare’ cash for a puppy. Not that that is going to be a huge issue any more. Let’s see how many companies we can find that will accept Doge to care for my dog.

So begins my adventure into Living with Doges.