You have brought up some good points. Without sounding like I am making up a million excuses-I am trying to find the words to explain our situation.

After this week and his pay schedule mix up-we knew we were really “screwed”. On the ride home from work today, all we talked about was the whole job situation. We know we are getting nowhere this way. We know this.

The problem is-even though I did not want him getting a 9-5…resumes and applications were still going out just to see what he would get. Nobody is calling. Everyone is laying off here. Even low pay jobs are hard to come by. He is even trying those. The problem is-if he did get a low paying 9-5 just for “steady” income-it wouldn’t be much after the expenses we would pay just for him to work it(childcare,car…etc).

Now if it was an evening job-even low paying which we both have been looking for-we would jump all over it. The car and childcare would not be a problem because 1 of us would be home.

We are both on the lookout for a part time but so are many other people compliments of our economy. I already pick up as much overtime as I can at work to try and help. In the mean time, I do these surveys and articles from home at night or early morning. I do them whenever it is convenient and I can do them from home. I get a few bucks in my Paypal account a few days after and it does help. Getting free stuff helps too. As far as calculating how much I would make hourly-I haven’t tried that out yet. I take it as getting some kind of money coming in rather than nothing.

I do appreciate your insight. These are things I think about consistently. In fact, too much. It is nice to hear what others think and get advice when I can.

I know I wont always make the right choices and decisions but I will admit things are not going right in our financial life and it does need to change. We are working on that.

The surveys and stuff… I’ve never done them, but I wonder if you did the math on how long it takes to find and complete them, what the dollar-per-hour would work out to. It just doesn’t seem like it would be sufficiently profitable in the short term to really help stabilize your situation right now. And when I look at your blog, it always seems like right now is when you genuinely need the money.

I guess when I read about your situation and what your husband does/what you want him to do/what you yourself would like to do, I feel like there’s a disconnect. It’s like you’re someone with cancer who needs chemotherapy, but keeps talking about getting cosmetic surgery. I feel like it would be better to deal with the crisis in the most practical and direct way right now, and figure out the more nice-to-have approach to other things once you’re on a more stable footing.

I know that it’s your life and that there are probably things I don’t know or don’t fully understand. This is just my opinion as an outsider who sometimes visits your blog and who does genuinely hope that things work out for you.