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teachingmyown
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| Posted: Oct 21 2005 at 4:57pm | IP Logged
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As our big move approaches, I am getting a little nervous about our finances. I am very excited, the house is large and we will have some land which my husband has always wanted. But, it is an expensive house. Everything on the market was expensive, but this one in particular is going to be a big stretch for us.
My husband has already taken a part time job until his next raise at least. But I know that this will wipe him out and we won't see him at all.
I am looking for ideas of what I can do from home to earn money. I am a registered nurse, but I haven't worked in years and since I am expecting again it wouldn't work for me to try to get back into the field. I have done the Pampered Chef consultant thing, but it was always so painful trying to get out of the house in the evenings and I had a hard time meeting the deadlines for submitting shows and getting paperwork done.
Do any of you have other ideas? What does a pregnant, homeschooling mom of six do to earn money without turning family life upside down?
__________________
In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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Bridget
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| Posted: Oct 21 2005 at 9:07pm | IP Logged
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Molly,
I've thought about this often as well. I realized that with Kevin's long hours at work, hs'ing and raising the children, and managing the home, there was nothing worthwhile I could do to earn extra money.
So instead of putting time and effort into earning I put the time and effort into saving. All the little efforts really do add up. Cloth diapers, turning off lights, hanging up laundry... preparing food from scratch is the bigest cost saver. I'm sure you know the list.
By putting the effort into what I already do, instead of adding on a whole other job, I help us without hurting our family life.
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God Bless,
Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
Our Magnum Opus
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JennGM
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| Posted: Oct 22 2005 at 7:51am | IP Logged
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Bridget, I was going to post the same thing! I'm not in your position with a large brood, but being a better steward and taking the time that you would have spent away from concentrating on the home learning to saving money might help dh.
But I also know what you're feeling, Molly. My problem is all my areas of "expertise" are time-consuming and don't make lots of money. Play the piano and organ, maybe lessons, calligraphy projects, writing, books...nickle and dime stuff at my level.
There are some companies that might let you bring some computer work home, like data entry, which you could do on your own time after the kids are in bed or early morning. Or the old envelope stuffing? Would A.L.L. have any leads? How about selling a few things on eBay?
I guess some questions you need to ask dh and yourself is how much money would be helpful? If you're working outside the home and then start doing take-out because of time constraints, that's not saving money! Or having to buy a professional wardrobe....
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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Victoria in AZ
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Molly, how are your typing skills? With your nursing knowledge, I'm thinking of medical transcription. It's one of the few work-at-home jobs that is legitimate.
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Your sister in Christ,
Victoria in AZ
dh Mike 24 yrs; ds Kyle 18; dd Katie 12; and one funny pug
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tovlo4801
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| Posted: Oct 22 2005 at 12:40pm | IP Logged
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Molly,
I do work from home. There is a legitimate company locally that I pick up data entry work from. There might be something like this in your area. I've done this job for almost 6 years and it meets our needs better than any other job I've looked at.
I am a very fast typist and can do 8 hours of work in 4 hours so I generally make the equivilent of $10.00-12.00/hour for the actual time I put in. Unfortunately if you are not a fast typist this can easily suck all your time and make you less than minimum wage. Only a couple of the people I've refered to this job have been able to make it work. Honestly I think a factor in whether it works or not is how much you truly need to make money. If it's not a real necessity it will NOT feel like it's worth it. I give up 3-4 hours of every day typing and it's very difficult. We really need the money though. It's not a little extra for us, it is above and beyond saving and it's keeping our lights on.
I say this because any sort of job you might take on will tax your family. It will be difficult. There is nothing that you can earn money doing that will not require you to be pulled from your family. If the need is not truly sincere and great it will seem a silly waste of time and you will see that very quickly.
On another note, I'm not terribly familiar with medical transcription, but I've looked into medical billing because I have a finance background and have worked with insurance companies in the past. Everything I've ever found requires that people work on-site for a period of time (several months to years) before they are allowed to move to a home environment. That just wouldn't work for me and I'm guessing that wouldn't work for you either. I have a friend who has been going to school for 2 years to learn medical transcription, but she is planning on working on-site for a company, so I just don't know if you can do that without training and experience on-site first.
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cctabb
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| Posted: Oct 22 2005 at 6:51pm | IP Logged
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Hi Molly,
Another thing to think about is what it will cost you later to work now. Tax time! We looked into me getting a part-time job, and found that unless I was making $9.45 an hour 30 hours a week we would actually be loosing money.
I think MSNMoney and/or Quicken.com have second income calculators. You might want to consider running the numbers.
Charlene
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kristina
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| Posted: Oct 22 2005 at 11:18pm | IP Logged
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Molly,
I don't know how much time you have, but I used to earn about $200/week selling "stuff" on eBay. I would shop at TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Good Will, etc.. and find stuff cheap and then list on eBay. It was really quite easy.
I started off by selling stuff I had in the house. CD's we no longer listened to, books that were never to be read again, outgrown clothing, collectible stuff that was just my clutter, and someone else's treasure. When I ran out of our stuff to sell (great way to de-clutter - especially before moving!!), I started noticing bargains when I was out and about.
I do not know if you have older children, but this is something a teenager could easily help with, depending on the child.
Blessings,
kristina
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momwise
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| Posted: Oct 23 2005 at 9:32am | IP Logged
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kristina wrote:
Molly,
I don't know how much time you have, but I used to earn about $200/week selling "stuff" on eBay. |
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This is what I do only I don't have a digital camera yet so I mainly sell books since I can scan them. I shop the library sales and thrift stores on 1/2 price day.
Peruse the completed sales at eBay to get an idea of what will sell and how to list it. Use lots of great keywords for people searching around. For instance if you sell cookbooks, use lots of terms like Greek, Norwegian, bread, whole foods, vegetarian, etc. so your listing will show up on people's searches.
Another idea might be to see if your dh's or other relative's company has a computer job you could do on a contract basis. My sister has a data updating job at her full-time job that she was able to contract out and take home. My dh contracts out the machining jobs at his shop to himself! You might check around for things like that.
Also, I was thinking about classes for the local homeschool kids. Another mom near me teaches a great 10 wk art class. She has it every Tue. for 2 hrs. in the a.m. and then another repeat for 2 hrs. in the p.m. Her kids come along and another mom sits her baby in exchange for lessons. It would take the whole day up but the rest of your week would be free.
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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momwise
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| Posted: Oct 23 2005 at 9:41am | IP Logged
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Oh I forgot.....now that my dd has grown up a little bit (she turned one) I have been taking things to the Consignment store. I get cash or store credit for 20% more. In a few cases I have actually made back what I paid for a brand name item bought at a garage sale.
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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Marybeth
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| Posted: Oct 23 2005 at 3:41pm | IP Logged
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Molly,
I hope the following does not sound preachy in anyway. For years my mom would begin the firrst day of each new month asking the Lord to help them buy what they need and help them make it through moneywise. We always had enough $$ each month sometimes it coming at the 11th hour, but that tiny prayer my mom uttered each month helped more than anything.
There is a Catholic thrifty homeschoolers site on yahoo which only sends out the occasional email with money saving tips. The few tips I have used have helped us save a bit each month.
Just my 2 cents. God bless you. I know how hard it can be struggling with $$$ on your mind.
Marybeth
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teachingmyown
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Thanks for all of the input. Unfortunately, I am not much more than a tolerable typist. I had to type when I worked as an advice nurse and got pretty good at it, but never fast.
My time and organizational abilities (or lack thereof) prevent me from doing some of the more creative things like selling on Ebay. I would lose orders and forget to ship things, etc. My husband and I ran a bookstore from our home and when he became too busy to work at it I just couldn't keep up.
Marybeth- you don't sound preachy at all. I have always heard, and believed, that if you ask the Lord will provide. Part of me feels like we have created the situation ourselves and now we are asking for help. Typical children, huh? 
I have been praying for a solution that will benefit us all and think I may have found one. I was searching the internet last night for ideas and came across the idea of earning money both as a mystery shopper and by doing online surveys for money, sort of a market research thing. So I will look into it. I hate for my husband to finally get his land and never be around to see it.
__________________
In Christ,
Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
Remembering Today
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Victoria in AZ
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teachingmyown wrote:
| I was searching the internet last night for ideas and came across the idea of earning money both as a mystery shopper and by doing online surveys for money, sort of a market research thing. So I will look into it. |
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Please do let us know how this works out, Molly. I'm curious about both the mystery shopper and on-line surveys. Will keep you in my prayers 
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Your sister in Christ,
Victoria in AZ
dh Mike 24 yrs; ds Kyle 18; dd Katie 12; and one funny pug
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stefoodie
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| Posted: Oct 24 2005 at 11:48am | IP Logged
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hi molly, just saw this -- and thought i'd mention blogging for money -- i'm the network blogger for asian food on aboutweblogs.com -- it's like about.com except it's blog-style. there are lots of network blogs out there and you can pitch an idea -- if they're interested they may ask to interview you over the phone; some have contracts, etc. i pitched an idea to one network, passed the interview and got the offer, but had to turn it down at the end because i saw some "unsavory" material on their network. there's also online teaching courses you could look into -- you post what you want to teach and when people sign up for your class, you get paid. i've got a few friends who are doing these professionally -- most of them stay-at-home moms. some are in the double and triple digits now. like everything else, professional blogging is not easy and not for everyone, but thought i'd throw this out there in case you find it useful. i'm not posting details here because this could get pretty long, but if you want more information feel free to PM me.
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stef
mom to five
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Earning money from home
