The Idea of Working From Home

The past month has been a little bit difficult for me.  The business that my husband and I have started is not taking off as well as I thought it would.  We get orders each month, but not enough to substitute my income.  I think there gets to be a point when you wonder how much more energy you should put into something.  The truth is, however, that I really enjoy making the baskets, and it is not something that I want to totally stop doing.  The reality is that the business alone right now is not going to be enough to financially support us, and honestly I do better at the business and enjoy it more when there is not all of the financial pressure. 

So then I was left with the question of what now? Do I go back to working in the mental health field which I know is not a good fit for me? Do I try to find a full time job doing something else at probably lesser pay? Do I continue in school?

I thought very seriously about going back into the mental health field, and then my husband said to me that he hated the idea of me going back to work at something I was so miserable at.  He said that he saw how each night I would come home from work and be so drained, and I never could just relax.  He validated what I already knew, but needed someone else to understand. 

By the start of last week, I still wasn't sure what I was going to do career wise. I made a decison, however, on Mother's Day that I wanted to be healthy enough by next Mother's Day to start trying to have a family of our own.  My husband and I decided to mostly cut out eating out, to start exercising more, and to really see where in our budget we could make cuts.  I got up the next morning and made breakfast.  We then went walking, and I made lunch. We started this great morning routine, and both of us have enjoyed it so much.  We have been swiming most days, and so much more quality time together. 

I shared that to say that it made me realize what I really wanted. I wanted time and flexibility.  I want to be able to get up every morning fix breakfast, exercise,spend time with my husband, eat lunch together, and even have time to clean on a consistent basis.

So I have decided to officially give working from a home a shot.  I have decided to stay in school. I have switched my major to accounting and I am going to work towards being able to sit for my CPA exam,so eventually I can prepare people's taxes at home.  I have also done a lot of research on legitimate at home jobs.  There are actually a lot of companies that hire people to work at home. 

Recently I have started doing some mystery shopping, and I have even tried some of the sites that pay people to take surveys. I wasn't sure how that would work out, but I got my first check in the mail last week for $26.00. That is not a lot,, but I didn't spend a lot of time feeling out surveys. 

I know that there are probably a lot of other people out there that want to work from home, earn some extra income, or just have some more flexibility. I am going to blog each week on what I am finding that works or doesn't work.  Let me know if you have any ideas or have found out anything that works for you.   I am super excited to see what all is out there.