March 24, 2007--Ideas on making money

I've been trying for a long time to come up with a good way to supplement our family's income and still be able to stay at home and homeschool the kids. My husband makes enough to support us, but we'd like to be able to put money back for a downpayment on the house and to replace our old, worn-out vehicles. I've tried a couple of things, and most of them didn't work out for one reason or another. I tried babysitting a few years ago, and one girl would bite my baby daughter every time she came over. I thought about doing that again, but we're right on the highway and do not have a fenced in yard. I don't think that's a good place to offer childcare. I can make a lot of things, and I do it for family and friends a lot. When we first got married I made a crib sized quilt and sold it for $40. It took me about three months to do, though, and I thought it was a pretty poor return for the time I had spent. Still, it's not like I've made any money doing anything else. I can cook well, but it takes licenses and permits and inpsections and all that to make money cooking from your home. So I think I'm going to try the quilting again. I do enjoy it, and I can do it in my spare time. I recently made a wall quilt for our pastor's new adoptive family, and it turned out well. What my plans are this time is to put it up on Ebay when I'm done with it. I'm not sure it will bring much--the quilts I found on there didn't seem to be selling for much, but all I'll have invested in it is time. I have the materials around the house. Even if it doesn't bring much I'll still be helping out more than I am now, so I figure it can't hurt to try. I haven't decided what to set as a minimum price. Maybe $20? $30? I guess I'll decide when I get that far. This is a picture of the last quilt I made: