Earning a living too

[email protected]

2 Apr 2001, at 11:48am

Not to get off the subject, but I would like to hear from anyone who
home schools (or unschools) regarding earning extra household money.
ONe of the biggest areas of concern I have is how can a family of 4
be able to home school/unschool and live off of one paycheck? Does
anybody take on part time jobs as well? What about insurance &
taxes? If you homeschool or unschool in Illinois, are you allowed any
special tax breaks as you would normally receive if your child(ren)
were in a public school? Any help in this area would be greatly
appreciated.

Angela

2 Apr 2001, at 12:57pm

We are fortunate enough to have health insurance through my dh's job, but we do have to pay a chunk of money for it. Unschooling can be as cheap or expensive as you want it. It is *very* important to me to not only stay home with my kids, but to unschool. I personally would make a lot of sacrifices before I sought out employment for myself. I think it is too important to have me at home and not stressed out from a job. We eat a lot of rice and don't go out to eat often. We utilize the library and we only go to field trips that are free or really cheap. We shop for our clothes at second hand stores or sales and we don't have all the latest expensive toys. ( though we do have too many to keep the house clean) Hope this gives you some insight.

Angela
Unschooling mother in Maine to two beautiful daughters.
"Play is our brain's favorite way to learn."
Unknown
Check out my themestream articles.
www.themestream.com/gspd_browse/author/view_author_info.gsp?auth_id=152256
Angela's Home School
www.geocities.com/autonomousangela

Jon and Rue Kream

2 Apr 2001, at 1:11pm

Living on a really detailed yearly budget has helped us get by on one income. -Rue

-----Original Message-----
From: Angela [mailto:unschooling@...]
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2001 12:58 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [Unschooling-dotcom] Earning a living too

We are fortunate enough to have health insurance through my dh's job, but we do have to pay a chunk of money for it. Unschooling can be as cheap or expensive as you want it. It is *very* important to me to not only stay home with my kids, but to unschool. I personally would make a lot of sacrifices before I sought out employment for myself. I think it is too important to have me at home and not stressed out from a job. We eat a lot of rice and don't go out to eat often. We utilize the library and we only go to field trips that are free or really cheap. We shop for our clothes at second hand stores or sales and we don't have all the latest expensive toys. ( though we do have too many to keep the house clean) Hope this gives you some insight.

Angela
Unschooling mother in Maine to two beautiful daughters.
"Play is our brain's favorite way to learn."
Unknown
Check out my themestream articles.
www.themestream.com/gspd_browse/author/view_author_info.gsp?auth_id=152256
Angela's Home School
www.geocities.com/autonomousangela

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Valerie Stewart

2 Apr 2001, at 1:24pm

After I had more than one child it just didn't make sense to have (yet
another) job. It would have killed us in taxes and babysitting not to
mention transportation, etc. I only work for $$ every so often and it has to
be for at least $25 an hour or it's just not worth it. You have to figure
out for yourself how much money makes it "worth it" for you and your family.
It makes more sense to me to budget for one income.

Valerie in Tacoma

[email protected]

2 Apr 2001, at 1:37pm

In a message dated 4/2/01 11:51:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
tgraves@... writes:

<< Not to get off the subject, but I would like to hear from anyone who
home schools (or unschools) regarding earning extra household money.
ONe of the biggest areas of concern I have is how can a family of 4
be able to home school/unschool and live off of one paycheck? >>

Hi!!
I'm a consultant for Usborne Books and I also baby-sit a few children
several days a week. Hope this helps!

Amy
<A HREF="http://www.ubah.com/z0939">Usborne Books Online Sales</A>

Tami Labig-Duquette

2 Apr 2001, at 1:48pm

We have a small home repair business, and in the summer we run a drive in.
Anytime I work I take my kids with me(I dont do the sitter thing), they
learn alot being with one us. We also buy second hand and live as simple as
possible. We grow our veggies and fruit and herbs (organic).
Tami

>From: tgraves@...
>Reply-To: [email protected]
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: [Unschooling-dotcom] Earning a living too
>Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2001 15:48:27 -0000
>
>Not to get off the subject, but I would like to hear from anyone who
>home schools (or unschools) regarding earning extra household money.
>ONe of the biggest areas of concern I have is how can a family of 4
>be able to home school/unschool and live off of one paycheck? Does
>anybody take on part time jobs as well? What about insurance &
>taxes? If you homeschool or unschool in Illinois, are you allowed any
>special tax breaks as you would normally receive if your child(ren)
>were in a public school? Any help in this area would be greatly
>appreciated.
>

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

Karen

2 Apr 2001, at 1:48pm

> << Not to get off the subject, but I would like to hear from anyone who
> home schools (or unschools) regarding earning extra household money.
> ONe of the biggest areas of concern I have is how can a family of 4
> be able to home school/unschool and live off of one paycheck? >>

We just recently paid off the last of our debts.... We are following a budget that includes monthly savings and we have figured into it about how much we spend a year on educational games, trips, etc., so that those things aren't left out of the equation, too. We are also fortunate that my husband can moonlight occasionally to help us save for/meet extra expenses. Even if he didn't moonlight though, we are in the best financial shape we've ever been in. And once he gets out of the Air Force, it will be even better... his pay will more than double (he is a nurse anesthetist).

Karen
Mama to Emily (12/91), Noah (12/95), Halle (10/98), and Joel (9/00)
http://www.geocities.com/heartland/2358
mailto:careermom@...

Samantha Stopple

2 Apr 2001, at 3:47pm

> ONe of the biggest areas of concern I have is how
> can a family of 4
> be able to home school/unschool and live off of one
> paycheck?

Read Amy Dacyczn's Tightwad Gazett and Your Money or
Your life.

Does

> anybody take on part time jobs as well? What about
> insurance &
> taxes?

You may qualify for state supported health insurance.
I would do a search online. At the very least there
are health insurance programs available for the
children.

Samantha

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[email protected]

2 Apr 2001, at 6:44pm

I second what Angela said. We also pay quite a bit for health insurance and
are getting by on one income. I stopped working outside the home 5 years ago
with the birth of our first child. I think at the time I was actually the one
with the insurance and the biggest paycheck! We just knew that me being home
was most important for us and we found a way. There was a time when my
husband worked 3 jobs and I know that is not for everyone but it is what
worked best for us. Finally, he is working just one job :) For a while I did
do some work selling on Ebay. It took a great deal of time for me and it just
was not worth it. We just look for ways to save $$ now(we don't have nintendo
or a microwave and we just got our first cd player :)). If you need to get a
part-time job I would consider the restaurant field. Depending on where you
live, you can often make much more per hour than in a typical "part-time" job
at least that has been our experience and we have a family of five--good
luck! M.

DiamondAir

4 Apr 2001, at 12:59pm

as big down here as we don't live near a huge major airport (with such

rich folks as Paul Allen and Bill Gates flying about), but it's still quite a

comfortable living. Also, owning our own business means that we can buy

insurance for ourselves and our employees (we don't currently have any)

under the small business rules. One of the nice things about these rules (at

least here in Oregon) is that there are NO pre-existing condition clauses for small
business health insurance. So we keep bare-bones insurance on ourselves and
at any time we can upgrade if we need to. As others have mentioned, we buy
almost everything second-hand unless it's specialty items, we don't dress
fancy or do a lot of expensive dinners-out, etc. When we were first trying
to budget, a book that really helped us out was "Your Money Or Your Life", I
would recommend this book to *everyone*.
My step-brother also has a niche cleaning business, he cleans range-hoods
for big restaurants. He has a couple pieces of specialized equipment and his
pick-up truck. He travels and cleans for about 3 - 4 months a year and the
rest of the year he gardens and kicks back. Not bad!

Blue Skies!
-Robin-
Mom to Mackenzie (8/28/96) "My pants are outgrowing me"
and Asa (10/5/99) "Potty pee! Potty pee! Potty pee!"
http://www.geocities.com/the_clevengers Flying Clevenger Family

Tammy Graves

4 Apr 2001, at 1:19pm

I think that is the same book I picked up last night, if not, it was something
named really close to it. I will be reviewing our finances/income/expenses over
the next few days or so and try to work on the spreadsheets they discuss. That
way I should at least really understand what kind of $ I will be losing or who
knows, winning. I appreciate all of the business advise. I think most of those
"niche" businesses around here end up going to unions. I have in the past,
worked a little side line business of my own that was actually being a rep for
Tattoo-A-Pet. It was mainly because I had a strong need to have my dogs tattooed
and there was no one around to do so except the vets and then they did not
register them. It brought in a little bit of extra cash, but I was not doing it
then for the money at all. Now I will probably look into either the micro chip
or get into a business where I help out the seniors in my area (again, I think
our town offers a lot of this though for free). Getting health care is a
different story. Going to a service such as Blue Cross/Shield will cost my
family a ton, especially if I wanted to get prenatal care if we decide to add
more to our family (which we do want to). I will not go with HMO's. I am
strongly against them (that is a totally different conversation). We have
already discussed moving, but our house is very small and moving into a
"cheaper" area will really just mean moving into a more dangerous area.
Unschooling my girls has been the only thing on my mind lately so I am really
doing research. Thank you for all your help.

|--------+-------------------------->
| | "DiamondAir" |
| | <diamondair@emai|
| | l.msn.com> |
| | |
| | 04/04/2001 11:59|
| | AM |
| | Please respond |
| | to |
| | Unschooling-dotc|
| | om |
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>--------------------------------------------------------|

>--------------------------------------------------------|

A while back, someone (John A.??) posted an article about pursuing jobs in
the trades. Doing exactly that has been what has helped our family be a
single-income family. My DH started up a business cleaning aircraft (big
corporate planes, like Learjets and such). A niche business in the cleaning
industry - not a glamorous job, but you wouldn't believe how much people
will pay other folks to clean up after them! While we were living in the
Seattle area, his business was edging up into the pretty lucrative realm.
Then we moved down here to Oregon and he had to start over. It's not
as big down here as we don't live near a huge major airport (with such
rich folks as Paul Allen and Bill Gates flying about), but it's still quite a
comfortable living. Also, owning our own business means that we can buy
insurance for ourselves and our employees (we don't currently have any)
under the small business rules. One of the nice things about these rules (at
least here in Oregon) is that there are NO pre-existing condition clauses for
small
business health insurance. So we keep bare-bones insurance on ourselves and
at any time we can upgrade if we need to. As others have mentioned, we buy
almost everything second-hand unless it's specialty items, we don't dress
fancy or do a lot of expensive dinners-out, etc. When we were first trying
to budget, a book that really helped us out was "Your Money Or Your Life", I
would recommend this book to *everyone*.
My step-brother also has a niche cleaning business, he cleans range-hoods
for big restaurants. He has a couple pieces of specialized equipment and his
pick-up truck. He travels and cleans for about 3 - 4 months a year and the
rest of the year he gardens and kicks back. Not bad!

Blue Skies!
-Robin-
Mom to Mackenzie (8/28/96) "My pants are outgrowing me"
and Asa (10/5/99) "Potty pee! Potty pee! Potty pee!"
http://www.geocities.com/the_clevengers Flying Clevenger Family

Angela

4 Apr 2001, at 8:40pm

I just want to second "Your MOney or your life." Great Book!

-----Original