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SusanJ
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I'm curious how many of you work for money. It's come out in recent discussions in our house that dh is not confident he can support us on one income. I think of all of you, most of whom I had assumed are raising large families on one income but now I wonder. Do any of you work outside the home? Work from home? Take in other kids for pay? Run an online business? Do you do this work because the family needs the money or as a hobby that happens to make a bit of extra cash?
Susan
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Mom to Joseph-8, Margaret-6, William-4, Gregory-2, and new little one due 11/1
Life Together
[URL=http://thejohnstonkids.blogspot.com]The Kids' Blog[/UR
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chicken lady
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I ran summer homesteading camps last summer, primarily because my dh was unemployed at the time. I am considering doing it again this year mainly because all the moms keep asking me to and I can use the money for books and Christmas.
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stefoodie
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I tried professional blogging for a while. Even though I made quite a bit of money doing it, it took so much out of me as to disrupt family and homeschooling, it just wasn't worth it in the end. Dd-17 tried it too and she couldn't make it work either. I thought that since I loved to cook it would just be a natural extension of that, i.e., get paid for something I already do and love doing, but no -- it entailed so much more: endless research, talking to people, having to maintain relationships I really had no interest in (the online "network" you need to develop traffic). It also started out as a no-pressure, blog when you can situation, but when the sponsors and the funding started coming, the "bosses" started demanding more and expecting more from us. Understandable from a business point of view, but just wouldn't work for a homeschooling mom like me.
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stef
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LisaR
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I have worked part time in a village library (and brought my nursling with me!!), worked parttime as a nanny for an only child (driving her to lessons, picking up from school, she usually would end up playing at our house with my at the time two little boys as hers wsa more sterile!), worked for a friends ebay store, sold ebay myself, and now I am managing a group of office buildings. This last job seems ideal, it is mostly by phone, but as the weather warms my older sons can work spreading mulch, landscaping, etc.
However, we NEVER "rely" on my parttime income. It goes for school or lessons, mainly, or to pay off medical bills more quickly (read: on time! lol!!)
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
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Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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LisaR
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PS dh has also tried to work parttime in addition to full time Church ministry work. Problem is, he does not hold a 9-5 M-F type job and so working in additional work is really very hard schedule wise. every week is so different!
We DO need the income, but at the same time, are not dying without it. Most of my IRL friends do not even know that I have basically always worked parttime doing something. It is not that I'm ashamed, but it does not seem to come up.
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
Dominic 8
Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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SusanJ
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Yeah, I'm starting to wonder if most stay at home moms actually do have other income that just never seems to come up in conversation. I had always assumed that of course I wouldn't ever have to work but I wonder how realistic that is.
Susan
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Mom to Joseph-8, Margaret-6, William-4, Gregory-2, and new little one due 11/1
Life Together
[URL=http://thejohnstonkids.blogspot.com]The Kids' Blog[/UR
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Lisbet
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Nope - no other income here. Somehow we have always managed on one income, and there are 11 of us right now. I just wanted to chime in to say that it can indeed be done! :)
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Lisa, wife to Tony,
Mama to:
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Sam, 9
Henry, 7
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Cecilia born 10.29.10
Josephine born 6.11.12
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MarilynW
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stefoodie wrote:
| I tried professional blogging for a while. Even though I made quite a bit of money doing it, it took so much out of me as to disrupt family and homeschooling, it just wasn't worth it in the end. Dd-17 tried it too and she couldn't make it work either. I thought that since I loved to cook it would just be a natural extension of that, i.e., get paid for something I already do and love doing, but no -- it entailed so much more: endless research, talking to people, having to maintain relationships I really had no interest in (the online "network" you need to develop traffic). It also started out as a no-pressure, blog when you can situation, but when the sponsors and the funding started coming, the "bosses" started demanding more and expecting more from us. Understandable from a business point of view, but just wouldn't work for a homeschooling mom like me. |
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What is professional blogging?
(by the way Stef - your private messenger inbox is full - I could not pm you)
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Marilyn
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LisaR
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I think one reason I do not want to discuss it much IRL is because I want to be careful about the attitude that we "need it". It is almost thought of as so secondary, that it is not a big part of our lives at all. does this make sense? If it takes over too much of my physical/mental time, then I quit!! (the ebay store work for a friend was an example for us, just not worth it).
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
Dominic 8
Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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SusanMc
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My old profession is ideal for working from home (communications consultant and writer). However, we've found that our lifestyle changes dramatically when I have paid employment because of the time crunch and stress. We eat less healthfully, don't connect as much as a family, the house is grubbier, etc. I get much more stressed out about keeping up with my paid work and the entire family feels it. We also end up spending more money when I work because of take out meals, and the perceived need for a "treat" after working so hard for the extra money.
So I constantly turn down work except when the project is either very appealing or the budget needs a boost. I do still keep my skills sharp through volunteer work. Something about it being "volunteer" allows me to be less stressed.
So, I probably bring in at most about $2K a year in freelance work. I'd much rather spend my time doing frugal things and research on ways to save than bring in extra income through paid work. For us it is about lifestyle more than anything else.
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stefoodie
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MarilynW wrote:
stefoodie wrote:
| I tried professional blogging for a while. |
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What is professional blogging?
(by the way Stef - your private messenger inbox is full - I could not pm you) |
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Professional blogging = getting paid to blog about a specific topic. I wrote up to 3 at one time -- a general cooking one for Creative Weblogging, and an Asian food plus a baking blog for b5media. You agree to a certain number of posts per month, you get paid a base pay + bonus based on traffic to your posts.
Whoops, sorry about the PM box. I keep forgetting to delete stuff. Off to do that now. You can also email me at stefoodie AT gmail DOT com
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SallyT
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I do the freelance writing thing, but not steadily enough that I'd count it as a real second income. It's great when the checks do come, but they don't come that often, and we don't budget around them. (though I have largely bought next year's books out of one First Things check, which has been nice!) I'm not willing to do it to the extent that our home life suffers on a continual basis, which is what a "real" second job seems to mean. Everything SusanMc says, I could say, too (therein lie some of the struggles I've been blogging about).
There's no job that doesn't require you to turn your attention from home and family, with the possible exception of babysitting in your home. I keep a friend's middle-school aged child every day after school and in the holidays; she pays me essentially what she'd pay the school for after-care. It's easy for us -- the school run is just part of our routine now -- the child gets along well with all my kids (this would be far more problematic if she didn't) and is just like one more of the family. It's not that much money -- $40/week -- but at lean times this has made the difference between groceries and no groceries.
I do sponsored Amazon links on my blogs, which generates more than I had expected, frankly. I have it all put into a gift certificate, and I did a lot of my Christmas shopping that way this past year. Having a way to ease the inevitable book-budget crunch has really helped. Any time I blog about a book, even when it's just something we've found at the library, I make sure to put up a linked image, because you never know when someone's going to decide they need that book. Otherwise I don't do paid blogging. I tried that Pay-Per-Post thing, but it just wasn't me, and I don't get enough traffic to get any of the good opportunities anyway.
I have friends with much larger families who rely on one income. Sometimes the dad does take on more than one job in order to make ends meet. Otherwise, there's a lot of frugality going on, a lot of bartering, a lot of trying to create a cashless economy . . .
Hope that sheds some light. That's a really good question, though -- we have often wondered, too, how other people manage!
Sally
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folklaur
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Mystery Shopping, Selling on Ebay, & making Hairbows. It isn't consistent, but has "saved" us a few times.
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Carole N.
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I have not worked ... let me rephrase that ... I have not been in a paid position since we had children. My dh agreed that he wanted me home with the children and when I started homeschooling, there was never a question about me going back to work.
I do worry sometimes, especially now that our cost of living is higher, about making ends meet. But I am hoping that we will all learn to be more frugal in our everyday lives.
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 Carole ... in Wales
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Mary Chris
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I don't work outside the home either. Dh has two jobs though, his govt job and the navy reserves. I did work at a children's consignment shop years ago when my oldest was a toddler, I would take her to work with me and dh would pick her up on his way home. I think my hours were 5-8:30 or something like that.
In a few years dd wants to get a job at the Target that will be built near our community. I have visions of the two of us driving into work there in our red shirts  .
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LisaR
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ah yes, I was a mystery shopper!! For Kroger, for about 4 years!! LOVED it!!!
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
Dominic 8
Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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stefoodie
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LisaR wrote:
| ah yes, I was a mystery shopper!! For Kroger, for about 4 years!! LOVED it!!! |
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That's something I've always been curious about -- tried to investigate it once but there are too many websites promoting it I couldn't tell which ones were scams and which ones were real. Any suggestions?
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stef
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Cay Gibson
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Never heard of that...
Interesting. Do tell.
I even bought my 15 yr old a book on doing this and have encouraged him to "set us up". We seem to have some old Time-Life Old-West Collector books here that are just gathering dust. My fil bought them years ago and dh won't let me bring them to Care-Help or sell in a garage sell. He thinks they're worth something . I hate to be greedy, but I know he's right.
And I do think Ebay would be a good lesson in business economics for our hsed students. 
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Cay Gibson
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Sarah M
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I watched other kids in our home for the first few years I was home until it about drove me bonkers. Now I work p/t at our public library and love it. I sub, so I'm able to say yes/no as much as I want, and I only work on evenings & weekends when my dh is here with the kids. Sometimes I only work about 8 hours a week, other times (when we need to make big purchases, like a vehicle, etc), I work up to 28. But I only work if dh can be here. Otherwise, no way. If you are looking for p/t work, I would highly recommend looking into your library system. I make an excellent hourly rate doing a job that is easy and fun. AND I have no late fines. And I won't even get into how much money I save there!
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donnalynn
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My dh is sole income earner in our home. We live pretty simply in a very small house - but I don't feel we want for anything. We eat mostly organic whole foods - that is probably our biggest ongoing expense. After 13 years we are finally looking to put on an addition to our home -yeah! We've always had decent reliable cars.
I have plenty of books and yarn - so I'm happy!
Dh is a public school teacher who is also a part-time substance abuse counselor. He also teaches occasionally as an adjunct at the local community college. During the summer he runs his own day camp.
There was a time when dh was finishing up school and he had do his teacher's practicum - with no pay - yikes! Somehow we squeaked by. I did occasionally consider getting a part time job but the wages I could earn part time never came close to what dh could make for the same amount of time as a home instructor or private tutor. It just never made me sense for me to work outside the home.
Not sure what will happen when the oldest reaches college age - but that's still at least 5 years away.
Dh works long hours now on Tues. and Thurs. But he is generally home (or able to meet me for afternoon activities) by 4:00pm on Mon, Wed, Fri.
For many years we simply did without a lot - I made toys for the children, we aren't into electronics - I think that helps a lot.
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donnalynn
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Do you have paid work?
