Waivering...

[mommy4ever]

I had plans to hang up my childcare hat in a years time. When the debts were paid off. I would love to persue my home business of embroidery, but it will require a large investment into a commercial machine, I'm not sure when I'll have the $$ for that. So it's all just piddly until then, while 2-3K at Christmas sales is nice...lol. It's not consistent right now all year, childcare is. So until I get that machine and really build the business....I need another source of income.

I sat down and figured out what I'm making. I run a very frugal childcare. I'm good with shopping, so the expenses of it are truly minimal, although there are lots of write offs I can take. So it is a truly profitable venture for me.

So I looked at what my qulifications are, the going wages, even at $20/hr, my take home pay would be less than what I bring in with childcare. I do work longer hours, but I also have to factor in, I'd have 2 kids in childcare, have to trust a 12 and 14 yo home alone for several hours after school. Rush to get the daycare kids and make a meal, it would decrease my take home by alot. As my kids get older, it also enables me to take care of more kids, increasing my income by $700/mo per new child.

I always looked at this as until all my kids were in school. Now i'm seeing it as something beyond that. I'd love to have my life free but with the accelerated mortgage payments dh wants to do, and the cost of gas and utilities, we just can't afford 1 income. (part of what the debt we have is there...we tried for 3 years, it was too hard). He pays mortgage and groceries, my income pays all utilities, and credit payments and auto gas. Once the debts are gone, we can pretty much use all my income as savings, paying the extra thigns, sports, holidays, but mostly savings.

So, it looks like I need to take a little time to re-group and replan my next 10 years or so. Hopefully a little less, once the mortgage is paid off, then we are flying on 1 income easily, but until then....

So I'm hoping to retire the dayhome with I'm 44.... And then see what I want to to. At 44, my youngest is in highschool, the other 3 graduated, so I should be ok.

As I get turn over of kids with pregnancies etc, I'm hoping to get more teacher kids so i can have summers off with pay! So far there 2. I *think* the other part-time family might go for letting me have summers off(though I wouldn't be able to charge them...). SO 1 more teacher family, and I'll be set. That's what I need to do. It would give me a 6 week break every summer, to recharge and refresh. That is what would make it work.

Time to find out where to advertise to get another teacher family. It would only start for summer 2009. But would be awesome!

Sorry...lol. thinking outloud and in circle.s

[mombottoo]

Sounds to me like continuing to run the child care business makes a lot of sense. If that's what you really enjoy doing, sometimes it's worth have less income to do what you enjoy.

"I would love to persue my home business of embroidery, but it will require a large investment into a commercial machine, I'm not sure when I'll have the $$ for that..."

If you would really like to pursue your home business of embroidery I am sure you could figure out a way to do it sooner. Perhaps once you get the debt paid off you could save until you had enough to buy your machine. Or, perhaps you could rework your current budget to allot a set amount to save towards the purchase.

Best of luck with attaining your dream...

[mommy4ever]

I plan to set aside every month for the machine. Right now it's only a small amount, when the dept is gone, I can likely get it within a few months. Dh has plans too though..lol. We've never taken a trip, not a honey moon, or anything. He'd like to take our family on a nice vacation before the oldest is an adult. Soon the house needs upgrades, he wants to do that. So there are many things always on our plates. That is why the embroidery business is not happening. But I do plan on tucking some away. That is my ultimate plan, however the childcare is the stable income. It makes me more than any out of home job will.

[G'MaDebbie]

Did you ever consider subbing out your embroidery? My ex-husband and I use to own a screenprinting shop with embroidery, but because we couldn't afford the machine, we subbed that part out to another company. We still took and handled the orders, and no-one (customers) ever knew the difference. I know that you can still make a good share of money doing it this way. Just a tip.

[Hannahs mom]

What about buying a reliable embrodiary machine, but not a commercial one. My MIL has one that she got for 500.00 at Walmart and it can write in script or text, and has 1000's of designs. Maybe you could start with one like this and use the money that you make to buy the bigger one later on.

[mommy4ever]

I have the smaller machines, but I need something that can to hats, pockets, changing our 15 to 20 coloring changes is very time consuming. So I can't do the volume I've been approached about.

Subbing out isn't an option either, as the shops here won't do what I do, they won't do applique, plus the fee they want is too much for me to make a profit.

I will need my own machine, I also do my own digitizing, so people get very specific with what they want.

So I'm making this a 5 year plan to get the machine, with any luck I can find a used one for 1/2 the price of new at the dealer(with warranty and support).