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Stuck in a rut and looking for (any) ideas!

Hi,

I’m feeling really stuck in my current situation and trying to ‘mind map’ a way out of it so would welcome any ideas to help please?!

I’m in my mid-thirties, have been a stay at home mum and carer for my grandmother for the past three years. My children are all now at school but one struggles a lot and cannot currently access out of school care (she’s on autism assessment pathway and this is one of the reasons I gave up work).

My husband works away from home six days and nights a week so we can afford our bills etc and his workload and stress is making him ill. I’m desperate to go back to work both for my own sanity and to try and earn enough to enable him to work locally but can’t find anything that’s either school hours or above minimum wage to make paying for quality childcare viable. Everything is full time which I just can’t do with care responsibilities or the few part time jobs involve nights and weekends.

I’ve kept up to date with my training whilst off, am volunteering to develop new skills, and am happy to retrain in something else but am thinking I may have to rethink things longer term in relation to traditional employment. I have a degree in Psychology but if I go on to get a professional qualification in anything (which most jobs require) I’d still realistically only have access to full time working opportunities.

So here I am... trying unsuccessfully to think outside the box! Thinking of maybe starting up doing something on my own but wouldn’t know where to start (I really miss being in a team but something has to give somewhere), I keep seeing ‘online work from home opportunities’ but don’t know which are realistic viable opportunities. 🤔

Thanks so much for any help xx

Comments

  • Have you thought about writing or copy editing from home? You are obviously well-educated and have a good grasp of spelling, punctuation and grammar.

    Content mills are probably the best place to start to build up your experience; for example, I think there is a thread somewhere for Textbroker. As your skills and confidence grow, you can market your services to private clients, which is when it becomes more lucrative.

    Good luck in whatever you decide to do.
  • tacpot12
    tacpot12 Posts: 9,046 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I've considering setting up as a handyman service. There seems to be a lot of opportunity to do those small jobs around the house that the householder can't do for whatever reason. I'm pretty sure that there is a market doing jobs for old folks where the family would like to do the work, but can't because they live too far away to travel to do small jobs. Also some women prefer to have another woman when inviting tradespersons into the home.

    You might not think that you are capable of doing this, but so many handymen get started doing just the jobs that they would do around their own homes and very gradually extending themselves into trickier areas. You can always say No to jobs that are too risky (you still need liablity insurance but this needn't cost more than £100 pa). There is a ton of information on YouTube on how to do every kind of job. Relatively inexpensive hand tools are needed for most jobs, and very often an expensive power tool can be paid for by a single job. e.g. assembling a couple of Ikea wardrobes will pay for very good electric screwdriver. Trimming the bottom of a door will pay for a Track Saw.

    If you can find a female Handyperson in your area you could give them a call and see if they would be prepared to discuss their experience of working in the property maintenance field. It would better to find someone further afield if you can so they know that you will not be a competitor of theirs.

    Good luck with your jobhunting.
    The comments I post are my personal opinion. While I try to check everything is correct before posting, I can and do make mistakes, so always try to check official information sources before relying on my posts.
  • trailingspouse
    trailingspouse Posts: 4,042 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    edited 27 November 2018 pm30 3:46PM
    I think basically you need to work school hours, would that be a fair assessment?
    The obvious places to look would therefore be schools - teaching assistant, lunchtime supervisor, office staff. But also local FE colleges might be worth a look - some seem to take the half-term break.
    Unless you have Qualified Teacher Status you won't be able to work as a teacher for under 16s, but if you have a specialist subject you could look at teaching 16+.
    The big supermarkets can be very flexible when it comes to hours worked - it's worth asking. It's minimum wage but most give a staff discount on purchases which could be worth having. I worked for a couple of months for Morrisons when money was a bit tight - in that time I was till-trained and also trained on the deli counter, even thought they knew I wasn't planning on making a career of it! They knew I only wanted to work evenings, and they never asked me to work any other shifts.
    Working from home might also be an option - but if people are coming to your home (eg for counselling) there are implications for your home insurance and also your security.
    Other thoughts - doctor's receptionist (slightly above minimum wage, in fact they may be on living wage now, I know they were talking about it), lunchtime cover in places like Post Office/banks - just pop in to your local ones with a CV and see what's available.

    In the meantime, continue to keep your skills/knowledge up-to-date.



    All the very best with it all.
    No longer a spouse, or trailing, but MSE won't allow me to change my username...
  • Wow, Thankyou so much for all the ideas! Between you, you’ve given me the confidence to take a step forward and I’ve just finished an application for a 16 hour a week GP Reception job funnily enough trailingspouse! I’ve figured if I try and get minimum hours on minimum wage, at least I’ve got a steady income coming in with flexible hours to pursue some other ideas. Will definitely look into all of the other suggestions. Perhaps see if I can find one or two people for support / home help as I have relevant qualifications to cover me with that, and look into the copy writing idea. I really don’t think I could pull off DIY, but can do shopping trips and errands etc. My husband is thinking along the same lines as you tacpot 12. He’s a HGV driver currently so his options are limited in terms of local work without taking a huge pay cut, although he’s a qualified gardener, so he’s thinking of getting agency work four days a week whilst he goes to college a couple evenings a week to brush up on existing skills and learn new ones such as plastering. It’s just quite daunting with a mortgage and a depleted savings pot but sometimes you have to take a risk! Best of luck with your venture x
  • You could try Appen - https://join.appen.com/

    I work for them on one of their projects, it's about half an hour a day for me working from home (using their mobile app) and pay isn't bad, up to around £300 a month gross, you'd need to do your tax return although if this was your only income you wouldn't pay any tax.

    Been doing this for a year now, the work is quite simple and tedious but not much time involvement so no problem really.
    Make £2018 in 2018 Challenge - Total to date £2,108
  • You could try Appen - https://join.appen.com/

    I work for them on one of their projects, it's about half an hour a day for me working from home (using their mobile app) and pay isn't bad, up to around £300 a month gross, you'd need to do your tax return although if this was your only income you wouldn't pay any tax.

    Been doing this for a year now, the work is quite simple and tedious but not much time involvement so no problem really.



    thanks for this link! ive just applied for a web search job! can you tell me a bit more about your experience working for them?
    on the road to recovery..:o
  • AGE UK have been looking for home help people in various areas across the UK. It’s not a ‘caring’ role in terms of washing, bathing etc but just things like keeping company, shopping, prescription collecting etc
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