Making Money from Home, Part 3

About now, you're probably feeling like you're bobbing in the water, barely breathing and mostly drowning. Sink or swim time. You've probably spent more time finding work to do than actually working, and the work you've done has paid pennies. The budget is getting tighter and it's starting to get scary. Your situation right now might be a working mom trying to get this started so you can eventually work from home, a mom who recently lost your job and have no choice but to make this work, or maybe you're pregnant and can't afford daycare but can't afford to stay home either. Maybe a minimum wage job would pay more, but how much would you be paying in daycare? What would you be missing out on? I am not someone who advocates staying home when it will mean you aren't supporting your family, if your family needs you to bring in an income, then go get an outside of the home job. End of story. However, if you have the ability to make this work between now and making that income from home, then do it.

This is probably where you are getting into a couple serious conversations (mine involved a couple insults thrown around) with your husband. A lot of this is based out of worry, feeling like one doesn't understand how hard the other is working, generally being unequal, and concerns about getting the bills paid. If you have never listened to Dave Ramsey, do it now. He talks about a "gland" that women have that men don't. When you have money problems it hurts a woman in a place that men don't have. And for women, a man needs to be a knight in shining armor. If his income isn't enough, he's feeling a little worthless, his sword is rusty and his armor is dented. Talk it out. Do a detailed budget and make sure that you can REASONABLY make this work. If this was forced on you by a job lay-off, you probably can use unemployment benefits to fill in the gaps. Another thing I don't advocate except in short-term, extreme need circumstances, is welfare benefits. If you need to use food stamps, WIC, or medicaid/CHIP to make sure your children are covered medically and there is food on the table, then do it. The MOMENT you don't need it anymore, get off of it. If you're finding yourself needing it for more than a year, you probably need to re-evaluate your situation and just get a job. There are child-care programs that will help low-income parents get childcare for very little or free to help you make the transition. This is about being self-sufficient, not being a lifetime welfare case. Ok, I'm done with my soap box.

Once you have made sure that you and your spouse is on the same page and you're communicating about where the money is coming from and going to and it will work, then you can take the stress of harming your marriage off your plate. Now you need to find the balance. It's hard. Try getting up a little earlier than the kids to get a few articles knocked out in the morning so you can get the big kids to school, or get the baby fed and yourself fed. Make yourself a daily work flow. Block out 2 hour chunks of your day. Alternate between home and work with those hours. If you can't focus at all while the kids are climbing up your leg, call a friend. I have a friend come over and she takes care of the kids, we chit chat (I am most creative when we are just talking) and if I need to go somewhere to be in peace, I just pack up the bag and go. She comes over 2-3 days a week for 4-5 hours. She drives about 20 minutes so I give her a little gas money to thank her. The other days I'm mostly working on the house and the kids and work on my other stuff when I can. A schedule will help you stay focused and organized, and you can always show it to your husband to show what you did (do it as a look what I did today, Honey! Isn't it great?) He will feel more involved and supportive if he isn't afraid you're home taking naps while he works his butt off.

Right now you're about being efficient. You need to find the fastest, most reasonable way to make a couple bucks (which we have covered as writing articles), time to work on the stuff that will pay off in the long run (we will cover that more in depth in the future) and also take care of the family you are trying to support. Use this time to find out if you have any interests that you can allow blossom now, or if you have any unique skills that you can market. Vague, I know, but we'll get into more detail later so you can actually use that bit of advice.