The 'unofficial' Unjobbing Tribe - Page 3

[accountclosed3]

lol true.

[esg]

I'm so glad I've found this thread!
I'm not quite sure I fit in here yet but I am so interested in making a living this way.

I set up a plan for myself a while ago that by two years from now I would be living simpler, would have cut down on the money I'm putting out and would be just working little jobs thats are enough to support myself and my family. Now that I'm expecting my first, my timeline has moved up and it looks like I'll be getting started on other income pretty soon so I can be at home and not at my 52+ hour/week job.

I'll all about tips, ideas, reading other people's stories, etc. This thread is very encouraging and exciting.

[DeerMother]

This is just what I needed! I'm in a transitional phase of my life. Getting divorced and wondering how I'll support dc with no College education or job training when the truth is... I don't even want a job! I have no problem with working, I just want to run my own show.

I'm Splitting a flea market booth with a friend. Does this count? I had my own 8 years ago and made enough profit to pay my bills for about a year. I go to garage sales and auctions, find cute things and clean them up, sell at a mark up. Sometimes I pick up discarded wood furniture and give it a new life. With this booth, I also plan on knitting baby items to sell.

Keep the inspiration coming!

[meg007]

This thread is awesome! I'm expecting my first and am getting pretty burned out on pet sitting, dog walking, and dog training. Animal care seems to be all about working your a** off for very little money, and I'd rather work a little less hard and make a little more money, doing something else that I love. I do love working with animals, but it's not the only thing I love. And if I can do something else just as enjoyable to make a different kind of income, that would be fantastic.

Even if I find something I simply like well enough, that would be okay, because what I really love is having time to hang out with my husband, and time for writing, reading, etc.

I'll definitely keep reading this thread!

[harrietsmama]

Hello! We live in a sort of unjobbing family environment. Looking for ideas and inspiration.

[Neera]

I am not creative but I don't want to go back to a full time job either. In 2 yrs dd will be in school full time. I have thought of working as a bank teller and then supplementing with some other work I can do out of home. But, can't think of what.

[Magelet]

subbing to read more later

[enfpintj]

this is a guest post on a simplicity blog I wrote about our life.

http://littlehousesouthernprairie.wo...se-retirement/

Here is an excerpt:

***We jokingly call it reverse retirement. We want to be with the kids now while they are little, not working until after they are grown and gone. We wanted family to be at the center of our family, not my husband barely remembering the early years of my son’s life because he was always at work. We wanted time together. We married not just because of love, but also because we loved spending time together.

We changed our life. We decided to spend our life learning and living in freedom. We accomplished this by paying off all debt (house, car, student loans) and saving. Our ability to live simply allows us to make decisions we never would have been able to see as possible. Our actions gave us the freedom to have my husband at home with us. I was already a SAHM. When the real estate market is ready, we will sell and move to a smaller town, and possibly build a natural house or buy a small older home and grow organic vegetables.****

Our plan has been not to work or one of us working part time if need be. Because of the housing market where we live and the fact that we need our proceeds from the house to keep following this path, my dh has done one part time consulting contract last year and is starting another for a couple of months. We may get the house sold next year or not, I guess. I am finishing my novel, and who knows if that will have any financial rewards or just the satisfaction of having finished it.

I love seeing others live creative, non traditional lives. I love knowing that we don't dread mondays or live for the weekend. I love taking naps since dh is home almost all the time, and I'm not the only one responsible for the dc. I don't love that I have lived the last 3 years thinking I'm in transition which is hard for me. I have to accept that we may not move as fast as I want, but know that we still have to move to make this sustainable.

[aidenn]

Hi unjobbing folks! This has been a dream of mine for awhile, and I am currently in school to get my AS in Office Management with the goal of being a virtual assistant. However, the health insurance question looms for me - what do you guys do about it? My husband is a diabetic on maintenance medication, so we can't exactly go without some form of subsidy.

[mum4vr]

Originally Posted by aidenn

Hi unjobbing folks! This has been a dream of mine for awhile, and I am currently in school to get my AS in Office Management with the goal of being a virtual assistant. However, the health insurance question looms for me - what do you guys do about it? My husband is a diabetic on maintenance medication, so we can't exactly go without some form of subsidy.

Have you ever heard of medi-share? It's aimed at Christians, but id think it's "exclusive" or anything. We will be signing up soon. Plus it's the only health care option *NOT* effected by the massive government health care overhaul.

I like that I can cover my whole family for the price I am currently paying for myself. Where I teach, we are ALL within the income guidelines for medicaid, so my DC have that now. Wonder if I do have both? ~shrug~ like use the medishare but keep the MA in case we can't afford an item that is not covered? Hrmmm.

[meandk0610]

Originally Posted by DeerMother

This is just what I needed! I'm in a transitional phase of my life. Getting divorced and wondering how I'll support dc with no College education or job training when the truth is... I don't even want a job! I have no problem with working, I just want to run my own show.

I'm Splitting a flea market booth with a friend. Does this count? I had my own 8 years ago and made enough profit to pay my bills for about a year. I go to garage sales and auctions, find cute things and clean them up, sell at a mark up. Sometimes I pick up discarded wood furniture and give it a new life. With this booth, I also plan on knitting baby items to sell.

Keep the inspiration coming!

ohh! could you elaborate? i've never been to a flea market; i thought it was like a big multi-person yard sale. it's not? do you just go to regular yard sales and you can make enough money selling at a flea market to pay the bills? is there usually a table fee? how often do you sell? TIA!

[aidenn]

Originally Posted by mum4vr

Have you ever heard of medi-share? It's aimed at Christians, but id think it's "exclusive" or anything. We will be signing up soon. Plus it's the only health care option *NOT* effected by the massive government health care overhaul.

I like that I can cover my whole family for the price I am currently paying for myself. Where I teach, we are ALL within the income guidelines for medicaid, so my DC have that now. Wonder if I do have both? ~shrug~ like use the medishare but keep the MA in case we can't afford an item that is not covered? Hrmmm.

Did some research on this. Medi-share is exclusive to Christians and they will not cover pre-existing conditions such a diabetes. No such luck for us!

[NettleTea]

Check out this awesome blog post about Unjobbing: http://theorganicsister.com/2010/10/...-what-it-isnt/

[Mother List]

I wish someone could teach my husband how to "do without". I am trying to unjob, but he spends like I have two jobs!

[Mother List]

Mother List;16021591]I wish someone could teach my husband how to "do without". I am trying to unjob, but he spends like I have two jobs!

[donttrustthesystem]

I have been really interested in the multiple income streams since I heard that term used by Bob Doyle (of the Secret) during the Happier Kids Now Summit a few months ago.  Since I've been studying Law Of Attraction (Hicks/Abraham) for a little over a year now, I feel ready to manifest this.  I don't have the hangups that it would involve lack or living frugally...I'm working on clearing out those limiting beliefs.  So, yeah, I'm on board!!  Just getting started!

[dayiscoming2006]

I'm interested in unjobbing. My hubby currently works for a civil engineering company as a civil designer, he also does the company's IT though he doesn't have a degree in it - (he learned it on his own.) He has a degree in mechinal engineering from Romania that is yet to be made equivalent for the US. 

He also knows a bit about website design. He's a quick learner. He can pretty much pick up anything he has an interest in. He knows 4 languages - English (fluent), Romania (native tongue), Spanish (medium/able to converse), and French (medium.) He is musically inclined - decent on piano and guitar.

I myself am musically inclined but have no idea what I'd do with that. (Good singing voice - according to many - and play trumpet and know how to pick up on other instruments very fast.) Could possibly teach others, but don't know if I need a degree to do that?

 I'm also somewhat artistic but not AMAZING. Maybe I could try to figure out something to do with that. Make stuff for etsy or something. I can't sew, but maybe make necklaces, bracelets, I don't know. I can draw pretty well, though not amazing. I don't know what I could do? I wish I could sew as I'd make lovely cloth diapers and other kid stuff. Maybe I could take some classes? 

Whatever I do, I'd have to be able to be around the kids. Will be homeschooling.

So, any ideas as to what we might do with these skills. Hubby is only a permanent resident so I don't know if they'd kick him out of the country if he couldn't sustain the family? I'd really love if he could do something that would allow him to be home with us more and if we could figure out something that would allow us to move near our close friends that are in another state. We've already tried applying for jobs there with nothing yet. 

I wonder if unjobbing can be something that people do while transitioning to a new place or something like that? Thoughts?

Edited by dayiscoming2006 - 12/26/10 at 2:25pm

[Pariah]

dayiscoming2006, you definitely don't need a degree to teach music lessons! I took years and years of lessons for a couple different instruments and I think only one or two instructors studied music in college (and the ones who didn't were just as good).

In my experience, learning to sew cloth diapers is very easy but the market is terribly flooded with stay at home moms who are selling homemade cloth diapers. I couldn't even make back the cost of my supplies when I tried it, and that was a few years ago.

It seems like you and your husband could possibly do language and music lessons. Could your husband do web design from home? My boyfriend and I have been doing that lately...web and graphic design, blogging, etc.

[dayiscoming2006]

Thanks for the tips. I won't bother with the cloth diapers thing then. Never thought of hubby doing language lessons. That could be good. And that's good to know I could give music lessons without a degree. I did study music in college for a bit but theory and sight singing are not my thing. Hubby would love to do web design. He's actually designed 3 websites before. Not a ton of them but each one has their steps and they turned out very nice looking. 

Another question. If we went about doing those things. What is the best way to get the word out. Newspapers, craigslist...? Do we at all have to be registered as a business or something? For example, if my hubby gets good at the designing and gets a lot of business?

[PreggieUBA2C]

My dp used to teach guitar lessons specifically in technique, to beginners and intermediate players, but he has never had formal schooling. He is not great with theory either, being an intuitive player more than anything- someone who plays "by ear", composes and retains compositions by memory, etc.... He'll likely be setting up a teaching gig again soon, since it's well within his abilities (he's been playing for over 20 years and he's very good, but lack of self-confidence and chiding that good guitarists are a dime-a-dozen, successfully convinced him not to pursue his music. :( ), it bring instant cash, provides him with contacts, social satisfaction, and accomplishment with his passion, even though ultimately, the best expression of his abilities would be song-writing. I hope he ends up doing that. He is honestly very good at what he does, but to him, it feels too common to take the unending awe and compliments when he does play for others seriously.

So much of unjobbing for us right now is correcting limiting and untrue beliefs about ourselves.

Also, even if your dp doesn't teach language formally, he can be a conversational coach for people wanting to learn English and who want to speak the languages he does. He could offer to fill out forms for non-English speaking people who need assistance doing paperwork, or editing/proof-reading essays and academic papers from college/university students who need to write their thoughts in English but have a hard time doing so. I think language assistance in a multi-cultural society is probably a gold-mine. I can write a mean essay in English, but if I were studying in another non-English-speaking country, I would gladly pay to have my essays translated properly so that my understanding would be made clear.

I think you could do a lot with language and music. Also, if you are homeschooling, you could do tiny-tots music lessons with several children at a time, then a beginner class and intermediate students could come for group lessons and/or individual lessons. If we didn't live so far out of town, we would definitely offer this to homeschoolers. Public schoolers would need to come in the evenings, which would be very disruptive to our life. If weekends were okay for you, you could teach public schoolers then, though.

I think you have lots of viable options. Trust is the biggest issue for us- trust in our abilities and in society to welcome us. It's crazy to assume anything other than that we are able and welcome, but there you have it; we're working on this in ourselves. It's exciting and scary at the same time. Like a roller coaster. I just don't want to miss the fun, if you know what I mean. I cherish this life, and I want to truly live it!