Homestead Careers

[tortoise]

Hubby works a job that requires an hour commute, so often, he stays in the city during the week.

I am disabled, so I stay at home with my special needs kid. We drive into town (30-90 minute drive) once or twice a week for shopping or therapy or doc appts. But now that he's getting a service dog, that's gonna cost a mint for upkeep and so on. Looking for something I can do from home.

Why will the service dog cost so much? I'm disabled and use a service dog.

 

[Marianne]

I work from home, selling automotive supplies online. Worked months trying to figure out stuff, finally made some progress and started getting orders. I made no money at all for several months which was discouraging.

Ditto on no drama from co-workers. But it was still job jail. I was just chained to the house because of the 800# and people calling, looking for some small piece of hardware. After a looong time, I decided to take the hardware off the website. Less orders, but a lot less work for me and I'm free to go outside and do something.

Now we live a simplier life, less $$ coming in, but a lot less $$ going out. It's worth it to me. Sometimes I miss being around people, though.

 

[Leta]

This is the single biggest thing for me. I'd love to get out and be around other adult humans... in a perfectly drama free environment, of course. LOL.

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

Hubby works a job that requires an hour commute, so often, he stays in the city during the week.

I am disabled, so I stay at home with my special needs kid. We drive into town (30-90 minute drive) once or twice a week for shopping or therapy or doc appts. But now that he's getting a service dog, that's gonna cost a mint for upkeep and so on. Looking for something I can do from home.

Why will the service dog cost so much? I'm disabled and use a service dog.

The original purchase price of the special puppy, and then there's the year or so worth of training which is where the costs come in.

 

[abifae]

This is the single biggest thing for me. I'd love to get out and be around other adult humans... in a perfectly drama free environment, of course. LOL.

That!!!!

I got my CNA, but there aren't any jobs.

I'm gonna beg Auntie to print my resume all pretty about a dozen times and then take a day off work and grab someone with a car and drop my resume off at every place in walking distance who isn't hiring.

 

[Leta]

Wow, abi, no CNA jobs? There's nothing but CNA jobs up here.

I lik

 

[tortoise]

I agree that reducing expenses is more than 1/2 the battle. I used to live on $800/month income with a $500/month mortgage. Ouch. No TV, no phone, no cell phone, no internet, no computer. Learning what you can live without can be scary!

Look for $0 startup ideas. What do you have? I had paper and pencils and drew portraits. Made a bit of money, but wasn't worth the stress. I had a brain and a dog and did dog training. Another bit of money but I couldn't handle the stress of it. Think about what you already have. Maybe you have a bunch of "stuff" that could be sold on ebay?

I am on disability, so I have security of a (small!) income. I work about 2 days a week, make less than min. wage (piecework).

 

[abifae]

A full week of craigs list had three cna jobs.

 

[Wannabefree]

I've done a little bit of everything from harvest and selling acorns, to working on other folks property doing things they didn't want to mess with themselves, contracting small construction jobs, and hauling off scrap, to mowing, to factory work, to cook, to correctional officer and on and on and on. The best jobs were the ones I had right here, on my own land, that didn't pay much, but kept the debtors at bay. We picked acorns and shipped bulk to WV for a few years, and likely will do it again this year. I also sold nuts, that we grow, on Ebay for a while. I have been trading/bartering/selling produce from the garden. There is not a lot of money in working from home, but it is an honest living, and you can definately work it to your advantage in many many more ways than if you worked outside the home. I would suggest something in sales, coupled with strictly managing your budget to cut back on what you spend already. If you can trim the fat, a pay cut isn't as bad. Then if you can get established doing something or better yet, a few somethings, then you can adjust accordingly and stay at home. It's what I have done gradually over the course of 3 years I do various odd jobs, and am open to anything that pops up that I can fit into my schedule. I have done several small jobs this year just by letting folks know of my availability to lend a hand. There is no limit to what you can do when you're your own boss.

 

[tortoise]

Hubby works a job that requires an hour commute, so often, he stays in the city during the week.

I am disabled, so I stay at home with my special needs kid. We drive into town (30-90 minute drive) once or twice a week for shopping or therapy or doc appts. But now that he's getting a service dog, that's gonna cost a mint for upkeep and so on. Looking for something I can do from home.

Why will the service dog cost so much? I'm disabled and use a service dog.

The original purchase price of the special puppy, and then there's the year or so worth of training which is where the costs come in.

Be careful, you can get seriously screwed over. I paid $500 for a dog worth well over $3,000. How did I find this fabulous dog? I bought her littermate on Craigslist. He is a service dog now too. He was awesome so I managed to track down the breeder and get a brood bitch that they ended up not breeding because they were retiring. It took about a month to convince them to let me buy her. A puppy is a crapshoot. A GOOD success rate is 80%. That means that with dogs specifically bred to be service dogs and with professional trainers, 20% of the puppies will not make it. You could invest thousands into a puppy that won't be a service dog, PLUS you have to get rid of your dog to be eligible to try again. Pay a GOOD trainer to evaluate adult dogs against the public access standard. You CAN get a dog that can walk out there and work public access with no specific training. I wouldn't touch a dog that could not pass CGC immediately and in a public place. Not worth the risk. It takes a heck of a bloodline with good nerve, but they do exist. Task training is the EASY part of it, so don't worry about that.

Much of the training you can do on your own. I, of course, train my own dogs. I helped a lady train her own dog. My receipts were about $5,000 over 2 years. Her dog's actual value is well over $20,000. Industry standard is 120 hours of documented training over 6 months. This training does not need to be done by a professional trainer.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming....