You don't have to limit yourself to JRM pickups. A few times they called offering JRM for 2-day trips and I asked for (and got) straight time plus move-up, instead of wasting a JRM on a 2-day.

Why pick up a 2-day then? Sometimes to fly more so I don't suck, but mostly because the offered trip worked with my fam schedule better than the ones I dropped. Remember, this is first-year schedule management, not how to get rich on $38 x 72. I usually didn't GAF whether or not I got back up to or over 72 hrs, because again I could make more doing a secondary job and if I'm not getting paid much, I'd rather spend time with my kids.

Beyond 1st year pay, now that's a different story where getting as many hours as possible both helps pay the bills and helps with applications to other airlines with a current contract. If you can't afford to sit out that first year with respect to building hours, at some regionals you can get close to 1000 hrs/year and with the bonus that is becoming fairly common, make about double what spirit pays first year while building hours for your legacy application.