Feeling the strain

[beebalmmama]

My dh and I just moved to our area from a super expensive CO ski town. My dh is a public school teacher and therefore makes very little. We thought we picked a more financial reasonable place to live. We did research but did not realize real estate was climbing drastically and all research was null and void by the time we got here. We managed to get a little fixer house but pushed ourselves financially higher than we ought to. Now we're looking at making dh's income stretch to the max and it probably still won't make it each month. We've got some savings to cover ourselves for maybe a year. I hate to think we could lose our savings though. We're hoping to cash in on real estate market in 3 years or so and move out onto some land to start small scale rganic farm. I'm cutting back on org produce and such, but need to do more. Does anyone make money from home? What do you do? I don't want to leave ds for at least a year, maybe two (only 2 1/2 months now). Any suggestions?

[Shiloh]

Does anyone make money from home? What do you do? I don't want to leave ds for at least a year, maybe two (only 2 1/2 months now). Any suggestions?

Well start with the obvious, dh is a teacher - tutoring is good money and 'afterschool' work usually cash under the table. If you want to stay home could he do night school, mark correspondance classes, summer school?

part time things you could look at doing...
well first think of the 'real cost' there are many things you could do but sometimes if you spend time 'making money' you will loose it by not having enough time to save money - ordering in cause you're too tired to make dinner, buy what you need not shop for better price.

Ski town? do you have the ability to rent a room, a parking space, offer a service (laundry, dog sitting, baby sitting, etc) that might be in demand there? In my old town a lot of mommas drove the school buses (babies allowed in car seats) or drove kids in their cars to schools lessons.

But figure out what you need weekly to make up the gap and how you could do it. It might be better to really cut back than to take another job into the house as it will be added stress.

You can also look at hosting an exchange student, homestay those are usually 800-1000 a month if you have the energy to cook for another person.

ALison