Well, originally, I went to college to become a music teacher. However, after being there a year, I realized that, unfortunately, the music program is always the first to get cut in a school district and I loved teaching and I needed to work, so I switched to my other love and became a History teacher. So, to keep with my music, after school I teach piano lessons from my home. I started out with a lot of students, but am down to just one right now. They usually lose interested when they get to be around 13, as teenage life starts getting in the way. However, this summer, I'm going back to working at an educational day camp (I took two years off from summer work when I was so sick with pregnancy and then to be with my daughter) and I teach piano there, which always brings me new students for the upcoming year. So, that's good extra income. Then, I also tutor after school. Smaller things that I do are refunding, which has started to bring in a bit of extra cash, and we had our first successful garage sale in August before we moved. We made a nice amount, although I was upset to see how much junk we had accumulated. I'm pushing for another garage sale in May, as we moved in September and there are mounds of boxes of stuff in the garage that we haven't unpacked yet. To me, that means that we don't really need them anyway, so we might as well sell the contents since none of it has been used since September!

:smball: Hello my name is Sarah. I live in Maine and have only one income. My family is barely making it on $990 per month. We just get the bare basic of food and we don't eat out. We don't buy gifts but with my mental health issues and the meds I have to take is cutting deeply into our income. My meds are about more than 10 % of our monthly income. How does one make it on so little money? I have been researching work at home jobs but they all want some kind of up front cost. I just don't have that so I have been applying for full time work every where I can find it. This is going to be hard on my 7 year old daughter who will have to spend a lot of time with a babysitter. I can not win for trying. I am begging for any input/advice you all could offer.
Thank you for your caring input.
Sarah

Can you use Coupons on your groceries for like Milk, Cheese, and Sometimes Meats!! I don't know if you buy Convenience Foods or not but they always seem to have coupons !!
Maybe you can find someone who will give you there unneeded coupons so you can save more money on your Groceries!! :)
I hope this helps you out!!
I have never been to Maine so I am not sure of any other Resources you might Have up there that you could use!!

Um...I didn't actually start this thread. It was a response to another thread. Not sure how it wound up being it's own thread!

Sara-have you thought of doing some sort of substitute health care jobs. I managed group homes for many years and a lot of women with small children worked for me on a sub basis so they worked when they felt up to it, or took only overnight shifts so they didn't miss out on mommy time. It is a very flexible situation to give some thought to.

Hi Sara in Maine! I'm Laura in NH! I live about 20 mins from the Sanford, ME/Rochester NH border. I don't have any great advice for you- other than I know Maine's pay scale is really low. I've known many people who have moved from Maine to NH for higher paying jobs.

Alot of those internet work from home jobs all seem to be scams. Imagine going in for a job interview in the regular world and the person there tells you that in order for them to tell you about the job, you have to pay them? I've only ever found 1 work at home ad that was legitimate. One of the hospitals here put a classified ad in the Sunday paper looking for a medical transcriptionest to work out of their home. If you could find something like that- that would be perfect for you.

Anyways, just wanted to say hi and wish you the best!!

Laura

AmyBoz~ Have you thought about offering music lessons to homeschoolers in your community? That might be a great way to earn some extra money.

:( Sarah
Thank you everyone for your support and I will be looking into many local resources for assistants. You all have been a big help. Once again thank you.
Sarah:smball:

Sarah, have you looked into working in your school district? I work as an aide and my hours are very compatible with my daughters. ( she goes to private school, I work in public ) Working in the schools is very family friendly...you get every weekend off, all holidays, summers off, and snowdays off. I hope this idea helps.