A Financial Crunch

We're in a pickle financially, gas prices having finally caught up to us and bleeding us dry. We had a happy little budgeted stay-at-home thing going for the last 3 1/2 years, but the last 6 months have been really really hard. Add to that the fact that Evan is now wanting to do things, you know, like preschool and t-ball, it adds to the crunch.

Working from home for a not-for-profit is awesome. It's rewarding and Evan loves being my assistant most days (meaning he feels important though he doesn't do any work- easy there, child labor geeks). We're torn because I need to bring in money RIGHT NOW and he's not quite ready for school full-time. We're about a year away from kindergarten now, and it seems silly to go to work part time just to pay for someone to watch him and come out even. I could work nights, but Hubby does not have a dependable schedule which means I could work, oh, 11pm to 4am or something like that and be a zombie the next day. I could work weekends, but Hubby protests, and I also spend 80% of my weekends working on the not-for-profit stuff. I could work full-time again, but again, Hubby protests and we both know that these years with Evan are so precious, we want to avoid that if we can. So, what to do?

For one, we switched to Trader Joe's for grocery shopping. I was able to do the equivalent of a $200 grocery shop for $105 just this past week. Sweet. Secondly, we are now buying all of Evan's clothes at Once Upon A Child. Just got about $250 of Gap and Children's Place clothes for $52. The air conditioning is turned off, the lights go off the second they are not needed, I'm coupon clipping for those trips to the store that Trader Joe's does not cover, and I'm streamlining trips anywhere to include any and all stops that are along the way to conserve gas. The good thing is that I get paid for mileage that I rack up for the not-for-profit. The bad news is that the amount I get paid no longer covers the actual cost of gas. It hasn't for a long time.

I don't need to bring in that much money to keep us afloat. $100-$150 a week would be great. I am dog-sitting in our house this week, which, if I could do on a regular basis, would certainly help. But, Hubby doesn't want to advertise this service, so back to square one. All the things that I am good at making or doing end up being all tied to the not-for-profit. So....? Fuck.

I don't know what to do. I'll figure something out, but we're bleeding pretty hard right now.