You have my sympathies, CO. It's such a slow trek for most up the aviation ladder the first few hundred hours, especially on the ad hoc route of Part 61. There's so much competition out there, flying is so cost prohibitive, seems like all you can do to get a couple steps farther along. You wonder how you'll ever accomplish a thousand hours of logbook time at this rate. It can be done though. It always has. Do what you must to pay the bills in other ways, make the rounds in the flying community, start with a fresh attitude every day, go easy on yourself if you do not reach the moon by next year. I started flying in 2003 and earned not a dime until five years had passed, and how slow the flight hours went went early on. It was slow like that for many years. An hour here, an hour there, all of it earned by the minute. Only recently have I found a job I can do for a reasonable living and the flight hours hardly matter any more. Funny that. I think it was worth it, but I made sure the journey was worthwhile too. Don't get caught up in the final goal while your life ticks away.