One week ago I hosted a yard sale for the first time, and talk about not being prepared.  I knew about the community yard sale for a little over a month, and let me tell you that the time flew by.  One minute it is a month for me to prepare and I am researching how to throw a great yard sale.  The next thing I know it is the day before and I have nothing done.

So did I follow all my tips that I gave in my post How To Host A Yard Sale?  The only thing I didn’t do was really advertise.  This probably hurt me a lot.  Don’t get me wrong I had every intention of advertising, I just never got around to it.  I did however go around town with fluorescent colored poster stating there is a yard sale and directions to get to my house, posted on many telephone poles.

As stated on the previous post that choosing the right date is also key to choose the right date.  My town was hosting a community yard sale, it is probably one of the best three community yard sales around, so there was plenty of traffic.  When I called the mayor, who is the parent of a girl I went to school with, he told me that he would take care of all the advertising.  Which he did, there was a huge ad in the newspaper.  Unfortunately it wasn’t around where all the other yard sales were advertised, but there was tons of foot traffic nonetheless.  The mayor also put together a map which had stars at all the locations that were hosting a yard sale.

What really seemed to put a damper on things, nobody in my block hosted a yard sale besides myself.  Usually the mother-in-law (who lives next door) has one during the community yard sale, but they were out camping that weekend.

Expenses

The big question that everyone is dying to know is how much did I make.  Well before getting into that, let’s talk about what I spent on this yard sale.

Hamburger/Hot Dog Buns – 9/$1.18 = $10.62

Forks/Spoons – 2/$1.48 = $2.96

Paper Plates – $1.96

Clothes Hangers – 12/$1.17 = $14.04

Poster Board – 6/$.77 = $4.62

Sharpies – $1.64

Duct Tape – $3.37

Manwich – 3/$1 = $3

Fun Pops – $2.48

Bottled Water – 2/$2.88 = $5.76

Soda – 3/$3.50 = 10.50

Creamer Packs – 3/$1.50 = $4.50

Sugar Packs – $0.96

Coffee K-Cups – 4/$5.99 = $23.96

————

Grand Total – $90.37

Wow this is the first I actually added up the expenses, and it made me a little sad.  Especially since I didn’t use many of the products.  Take the Manwich for instance, I decided to make my own Barbeque so I didn’t use any of the cans I bought.  Same with the creamer, sugar, coffee and fun pops.

The only solace I get out of this, is that my best friend donated the meat for the food (which I ate for lunch this entire week) and the cups and lips.  Also that everything that I had bought was stuff that we use on a regular basis in the house.  All that coffee will be gone by the end of the month the way my wife drinks.  We needed clothes hangers for our clothes.  So basically the only money I am really out is the money for the poster board.

But as you all know I am a couponer, so how much did I pay for the stuff?  After it was all said and done I paid $61.62.  That is basically because I didn’t find any coupons for clothes hangers or any of the stationary things.  Now I could have probably even less, since I had 98% of the items on that list in my stockpile, but I only buy enough to last my family three to six months (until the next sale.)  That might have shorthanded us during the months that follow.  But in hindsight I think I should have went this avenue.

Profits from Yard Sale

In my last post I stated I was going to sale a washer, dryer, and a china cabinet.  Well because of my procrastination, I was unable to get these out in the yard in time.  I am a independent contractor and my hours of work vary, but during the summer I am contracted out Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. and right from there I go and do my newspaper route.  By the time I arrived home from work, it was about time for the yard sale to begin.  Thank god I put all the stuff out the night before and threw a tarp over the tables.

Now people run their yard sales all different ways depending on what their intentions are for it.  My goal for this particular yard sale was to de-clutter stuff that we no longer used or needed.  So basically I sold everything dirt cheap.  This enabled my wife to stand in for me until I got home, in case my newspaper route took longer than expected.  There were very few items I had specially marked at higher prices.

Here was my price list…

All clothing – $.50 or 3/$1

All books – $.25 or 5/$1

Children’s puzzles and DVDs – $1

Razors and various HBA (Health and Beauty Aides) – $.50 or 3/$1

*note these all items that I got for free through coupons

This was the majority of the stuff I sold.  Nice and simple, but I can’t believe how much clothing my wife and children have.  I still have clothes from 15 years ago that I regularly wear, but my god.  Now my daughter is constantly growing so that is understandable, but my wife is always complaining that she has no clothes.  Two words… BULL CRAP.

Gross Amount I made $187.50

How was I able to make this amount, I am not sure.  Now I mentioned in How to Host a Yard Sale that you had to be prepared for haggling.  There was three instances that this came about throughout the day.  The first one was actually my first customer of the day, he went straight to the DVDs, I had about 25, he asked me how much would I take for all of them.  I quoted him at $20, I was willing to lose $5 in order to move this product.  Well then he asked if I would take $15, well we went back and forth and it ended up at $18.

The second instance was the huge swing set, I intentionally set the price at $75 in case I would get haggling, but the lowest I had in mind was $50.  If I made that amount the higher amount I would be happy, if I sold it at the lower amount I would be satisfied.  Well I was satisfied in this case.

The last case was a young mother who only had a dollar left and wanted to know if she could get four pieces of clothing for her daughter instead of three.  I was more than happy to give her an extra piece of clothing, knowing full well that if I didn’t sell the items they were going to get donated anyway.

So grand total  made $125.88.  My thoughts were that this was going to the get out of debt fund, but my wife had other intentions, the vacation fund.  Who won?  Obviously my wife.

One of my biggest mystery shopping tips that has made me able to mystery shopping/merchandising a full time career is something that you might not have considered yet.  For someone just starting out and trying to make it full time, you might think that taking every assignment you can.  To me, this is a little counterintuitive…

Keep the last week of the month open for last minute opportunities.  25% of shoppers flake out on their assignments.  Some assignments don’t get taken.  Someone has to do these jobs, why not let it be you.

Many reports have to be to clients by the end of the month, and schedulers have to hurry to fill these last minute shops.  Because of these deadlines, you can most likely negotiate a nice bonus for some of them.

Now I am not telling you to turn down mystery shopping assignments in hope of picking up these dropped shops.  What I mean is you should make sure all your shops you take are done as early in the month as possible, and leave some openings to take on more when unexpected shops turn up.

I usually send an email to schedulers I often work with letting them know that I am available if they have cancellations or last minute shop.  For those that are new, this tip also works when trying to build relationships with a particular company.

By following this tip I have been able to skyrocket my profits by an easy 50% a month.

The problem for many potential mystery shoppers is that they have trouble finding legitimate companies.  The number one rule is to never pay to apply to shops.  Even many of the sites that claim that they will protect you from the scams are scams themselves.

One way to find mystery shopping companies is to type in mystery shopping company in any search engine.  This should bring up a number of sites that are actual mystery shopping companies.

The Mystery Shopping Providers Association‘s members have to go through an approval process before the companies are allowed to join.  A list of the member companies can be seen HERE.

There are numerous places to find legitimate mystery shopping companies, but you do want to take a few precautions.  Does the site have contact information for the company.  Not only do these companies need to recruit shoppers, they also need to get clients.  There has to be ways for both the shopper and client to be able to contact them.

Another easy check is to see if the site looks professionally designed.  Any kind of business is going to make sure that they look legitimate.  So if you see spelling mistakes galore or a website like it is just thrown together, chances are that they are not a real mystery shopping company.

There are a lot of scams out there, and you have to be on the look out.  Many scammers include many logos from major companies making it appear that they are affiliated with those companies.  They are not!  Always use your best judgment.

One of my favorite resources is Volition.com.  This forum is one of the most active forums out there and there are tons of experienced mystery shoppers out there that are willing to help out a new person.  There is also topics about all the mystery shopping companies out there.

If you have any doubt about a particular company, check them out first, or just move on to the next company.

Knowing what is going on sale and when is paramount to you saving lots of money.  Each month I will try to go into detail of the monthly sales cycles.  From what I really gathered these sales cycles are going to be the loss leaders throughout the month.

June is National Dairy Month

Unless you live in the few states that offer coupons for milk, you might not think you can get dairy for cheap.  As for me, the state of Pennsylvania actually has a minimum milk price.  From what I gathered, our state can’t sell milk any cheaper than this minimum milk price.

But there is ways around this like getting free milk catalinas when you buy cereal.  This month you will see lots of dairy products going on sale, so stock up this month.

Milk

Eggs

Juice

Cheese, sliced cheese, block cheese, cottage cheese

Butter, margarine, dairy type spreads

Yogurt, probiotics, smoothies

Sour cream, cream cheese

Cream, coffee creamer

Ice cream, popsicles, ice cream novelties

Whipping cream, whipped cream, cool whip

National Headache Month

You will probably find aspirin and other pain relievers on sale this month.  And also be on the look out for allergy and sinus medicine

Fourth of July Preparation

The overall sales prices may not be as low as last month (beginning of grilling season) and September (end of season), but individual items may be lower as they become store featured loss leaders.

BBQ Equipment:  BBQ mitts, aprons, grill sets, grills, charcoal, etc

Grilling Meats:  Steak, beef, beef ribs, porterhouse steaks, ribeye steaks, filet mignon steaks, pork ribs, baby back ribs, ground beef, hamburgers, hot dogs, kielbasa, chicken, sausage

Condiments:  BBQ sauce, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, marinade, pickles, relish, steak sauce, salad dressings

Produce:  salad greens, lettuce, spinach, prepared salads

Snacks:  chips, dips, salsa

Breads:  hamburger buns, hot dog buns, and hoagie buns

Paper Products:  paper plates, napkins, plastic utensils, paper towels, cups, beverage bottles, insulated bottles

Coolers & ice chests

Soda:  Pepsi, Coke, Gatorade

Insect Repellent

Sunscreen, self-tanner

Garden decor, patio furniture, gazebos, pools, hammocks, swings

Swim toys, floats, beach toys

Season Produce in Season

Apricots, blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, cherries, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, grapes, honeydew, nectarines, peaches, potatoes, raspberries, red onions, summer squash, strawberries, sweet Vidalia onions, tomatoes, watermelons

When I was writing for a pretty known blog about mystery shopping, I would get a lot of questions about the value of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA) certification.  Should you get gold or silver certified?

If you currently get as many mystery shops as you want, you are satisfied with the types of mystery shopping assignments you receive, and you have good relationships with most of the companies you work for, then perhaps the certification is not for you.

What the certification does is open doors to more possibilities.  The rest is up to you.  Having the certification can give you a chance to show what you can do.  There are no companies that continue to give mystery shopping assignments to shoppers who turn in late reports, writes poorly, or fails to perform the task at hand, even if that shopper has a certification.

Most MSPA member companies recognize MSPA certifications, but they each decided how they will use the certification.  Some give first notice of available shops to certified shoppers.  Some will give preference to certified shoppers and will give mystery shopping assignments to those first.  Others use the certification as a tie breaker.

“Certified mystery evaluators reconfirm the importance of mystery shopping to our clients, and the information that we gather. BARE thoroughly enjoys working with certified evaluators and can clearly see the impact that the certification process makes in developing mystery evaluators’ to understand mystery shopping as a whole and in collecting and documenting accurate and informative information. Along with our clients, BARE understands the important role of the mystery shopper and without them, we would not be where we are today.”

Guy Caron, Managing Director – North America
BARE International

The gold is the greater advantage, but it does require a larger investment, both of time and money.  Those that have done it say that they are glad they have done it, as it did open up more possibilities.  While silver certification will get you some of the same benefits as gold, and is much cheaper and faster to acquire. But ultimately  the decision is up to you, and what is best for you and your mystery shopping business.

You might have seen the show Extreme Couponing, and saw their mind blowing savings.  Now I won’t get on the tantrum about the show that many other people have about it.  What I will say is that the show is getting many new people into couponing which is great.  But while you might be new to the whole experience or an seasoned couponer, you have to know that there are costs to being a couponer.  Granted being a couponer you can probably cut many of these costs, but there will still be some.  Here is the most common money traps and some ways to avoid them.

Time

This is probably the most important to me.  I have the slogan Let Your Money Work For You not You Work For Your Money.  There are more important things than getting maximum savings to me, spending time with my family is the number one.  To me, couponing is a great hobby that I really enjoy, and it is the major catalyst of my getting out of debt journey.

However, there is a very real “high” associated with getting a good deal and it can be very addictive.  Like anything that can be addictive, couponing in moderating is probably the best approach.

Most people start couponing for numerous reasons, with the majority trying to save money for some reason.  If you find yourself blowing off friends/family you might want to cut back or find a way to include them.  If you are searching for deals for hours upon hours, you might want to evaluate whether the savings you are getting is justifying the time investment you are using.

If you are content with your investment, by all means continue.

Cost of Buying Coupons

There are many ways to get coupons, some are free and some cost money.  When I first started couponing there wasn’t many ways I could get free coupons.  Basically my mother gave me all her coupons every week, but I didn’t usually see her till the end of that week.  My mother-in-law also gave me her coupons, but after she went through them.  So basically I got all my coupons by purchasing my sunday papers every week, so I was spending between $14-$20 per week.  It was a cost I was willing to spend, since I was saving easily double that every week.  Now I deliver papers every day, and I get quite a lot of papers for free every week.

Sometimes my papers don’t have certain coupons or maybe there is a crazy deal that I just need more of that particular coupon I use Ebay or a coupon clipping site.  Remember to include this amount per coupon into your true cost.

Gas Price

Even if you are lucky enough to have many grocery/drugstores within a five mile radius, short trips back and forth multiple times per week will guzzle gas and eat some of your savings up.

Instead of buying, getting your ONYO, RR/ECB, going back later in week.  Why don’t you just roll them right away.  Maybe you need to consider that even though it is free or cheap, do you really need/want it.

Around where I live, there are many ways to save up on gas, many of my local grocery stores have a gas loyalty, so many of the times I can get cheap gas.

Cost to Print

I really didn’t really notice this when I first started couponing, but very shortly after I noticed I was buying more and more ink and paper.  One thing you really need to realize is that you don’t have to print each and every coupon.  Only print the ones you will use or really need.  And also remember to switch over to Black and White which will also save you some money.

Catalinas

When you get a coupon for your next order like a extracare buck from CVS, or +UP from Rite Aid, or just regular catalinas, it is easy to deduct this from your grand total of savings.  You really didn’t get this for free, you paid up cash plus tax… You really have to go back and use that coupon.  So the best way is to count these savings when you are able to redeem them.

Taxes

Some states, (thankfully not mine) you have to pay the taxes on the total before coupons.  so if you are buying a taxable product that you really don’t need, you aren’t getting it for free, you do have tax.  And depending on your state, this can be very expensive.

I am sure there are other hidden true costs, but this is all I had to think of, so if you can think of another please feel free to add some more into the comment section.

One of the most common reasons I hear why people don’t coupon is that “They don’t have the time.”  Everyone is time crunched, so what do we do?  If you seriously can’t find a few minutes each week to get the deals, don’t fret there is still some ways you can save some money.

1.  Check Prices:  Look at all the brands, and see what the best deal is.  Sometimes the generic can be the best bet, while other times the sales on name brand items can sometimes be beat generics.

2.  Pick The Best Store:  Don’t just run to the nearest grocery store or super center.  Make sure the store you go to is the best store for deals that week, especially if you only have time for just one store.

3.  Be Very Flexible:  Usually I advocate planning a dinner menu and have it circulating around the weekly sales, but if you have little time you should be a little open minded.  Walk around your store and be aware of the store’s manager’s specials, their unadvertised sales, and the sales that you might not have noticed.  You don’t even have to look at the flyer to do this, just simply walk around the store and investigate.  Not every thing on sale even makes it in the week’s flyer.

4.  Leave The Kids At Home:  Bringing the kids means you won’t get a chance to compare prices and really have a chance to look at the store.  It usually is a get in, get out fast mentality when kids are involved.  Not only that you are more prone to those fruit snacks just to keep your kids quiet.  You know the ones fruit snacks, chips and pretzels.  Those can eat away at any savings you might have had.

5.  Shop The Ads:  Probably one of my favorite time/money saving acts is to grab all the weekly ads and take them to WalMart or Target and price match everything.  You can also shop from the ads at whatever store you are at, but if you can only go to one store those two are my favorites.  But these store are also not the best for couponers, most don’t double or triple coupons.  They can save you money though.  The front page of the ads hold all of the store’s Loss Leaders, shop around those.

Take a moment to imagine being paid to eat at your favorite restaurant or shop at your favorite store.  It is possible and it’s all in a day’s work for a mystery shopper.  As a mystery shopper it is your duty to pose as a consumer and collect valuable information about the company’s operations or organizational skills.

They also might collect information about the courtesy and professionalism of the staff, or how much they might know about something.  Sometimes it is the company that wants to assess themselves, sometimes it is their competitor.  Getting started as a mystery shopper is easy if you know what to expect.

Mystery Shopper Skills Needed

You do not need any skills or qualifications to become a mystery shopper.  Mystery shopping jobs are available to everyone, but having a great eye for detail does help.  Corporations and research companies rely on the surveys of a mystery shopper so they can implement new campaigns and perhaps new training.  Other common skills that help out are the ability to collect data discreetly and the ability to be able to describe details concisely.

How To Get Started

The best way (even though it could take some time) is to apply to as many legitimate mystery shopping companies as possible.  Please not that a legitimate mystery shopping company will never ask you to pay any money upfront.  If they ask for some kind of fee, is probably a scam artist.

The legitimate companies pay you for your time and hard work, not the other way around.  They also will most of the time reimburse you for any item that needs to be purchased, and sometimes even compensate you for mileage.

Once you apply, it may take some time to receive an offer, while others you can apply to certain jobs right away.  Those that live in a large metropolitan areas typically receive more invites than those that live in rural areas.  Sometimes though you can widen your radius of shops that you are willing to cover.

Some shops aren’t open to every shopper, sometimes the company needs a certain demographic criteria or they choose to offer the job to someone that has been with the company for a while.

Check the websites often to see if there are any mystery shop opportunities that seem appealing to you.  You want to check often, many shops get loaded throughout the whole month.  Many assignments get taken pretty quickly so you have to stick with it.

Once You Accept A Mystery Shop Assignment

It is critical that you read the detailed shop instructions.  Keep reading them until you have everything you need to do basically memorized.  At no time during the shop can you pull out these instructions, so it is paramount that you know what the client expects you to do.

These instructions are usually visible once you accept the shop, while other companies choose to email you the instructions.  Knowing what is required of you before you begin the shop can make all the difference and determine whether or not you get paid and receive other job offers.

After You Complete The Mystery Shop Assignment

Most mystery shop companies expect you to send a detailed report and any relevant paperwork or receipt copies within a certain amount of time after completing the mystery shop.  It is important you complete this by that deadline to ensure that you are paid properly.  If not done correctly, you probably can expect to be going back and forth with the scheduler, and sometimes not get paid for the shop.

Can You Make A Living Doing Mystery Shops

There is the possibility to making a full time career out of mystery shopping, but you have to be willing to treat it as a business and be very organized.  Most mystery shoppers have been doing it for years and have a huge database of companies to choose from, they also live in large metropolitan areas and do multiple shops per day.

Most mystery shoppers do it for the occasional gift, free meal, or to get a particular service done.  A smaller number consider it a part time job, and very few consider it a full time job.  But make now mistake, Mystery Shopping is a legitimate way to make some extra money.

Now a days whether you purchase a new car, a washer or dryer, or the latest electronic gizmo, you have been offered an extended warranty or some type of service plan to protect that purchase.  One thing you must know about extended warranties is that they are typically not very beneficial for you, the consumer.  But they sure are making the retailer a substantial amount of money.

There is such a profit margin on these programs, that retailers try to push them on us for just about everything.  Recently while I was at Wal-Mart they even tried to push a $3 warranty on a $20 DVD.  That is a whopping 15% of my purchase, on a product that unless we don’t take care of it, will practically last forever.  This is the case of the warranty just going straight to the retailers’ bottom line as profit.

An Extended Warranty Isn’t Worth The Price

There is hundreds of accountants and actuaries that calculate the cost cost of an extended warranty.  The odds of an extended warranty costing more than the amount you pay are very low.

Consumer Reports have found most products don’t break during the extended warranty period.  If it does break, many of the repairs are already covered by the regular product warranty.  Whether it is called an extended warranty, a service plan, or a performance plan, they are all the same and they are not very cost beneficial for us, the consumers.

One thing I have been noticing as of late when being pitched an extended warranty is the famous “The plan begins from date of purchase,”  This is one of the most deceptive practices of retailers.  Their service plan is running congruent with the manufacturer’s warranty, and all of them will say “the manufacturer is responsible for repairs under the manufacturer warranty period.”  So you basically are paying for some amount of time where you extended warranty basically does nothing for you.

The Consumerist has a great article about what sales pitches to look out for.

There are a few ways that you can still have the benefits of an extended warranty without paying for one.

Establish Your Own Extended Warranty Fund

Instead of buying warranty after warranty, I have created an extended warranty fund.  Whenever I buy a product that the retailer tries to push on me, I take that exact amount of money that I would have used to buy the warranty and put it in a dedicated savings account.  Not only will I be able to keep the money if my product does not break, but I will earn interest on it as well.

I leave that money in there and just let it gather interest, having the set it, forget it mentality.  By having that amount of cash from all my gathered up extended warranties, I can purchase the item if it does break and I need another on the fly.  You can probably get something far better and much of the time cheaper down the road.  Take the Amazon Kindle for instance, I bought the e-reader when it first came out, for about $200.  Now I can buy the same product for $50.

Now please note, there are some instances in which you would’ve been better off with the extended warranty, but more often than not, you will be the one coming out ahead.

Use An Insurance Rider

Many items which you might consider buying an extended warranty for can be covered under your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance.  Don’t know what a rider is?  Simply put it is an added supplement to your policy that can save you a lot of money.  Most policies only cover to a stated amount of coverage, by adding a low cost rider it will cover the additional value of your high priced items.

While I don’t believe this is the better way to go with items such as a refrigerator, washer and dryer, or a TV, I do believe riders are great added benefits of insurance.  I plan to be adding a rider for my home office… my policy has a max payout for office equipment at $1,500.  That amount basically only covers one of my computers, I would take a huge hit if something were to happen to all of it.  I plan to add an additional $10,000 to this.

Use A Credit Card That Offers Extended Coverage

This is another option to consider, even though I personally wouldn’t use it.  Trying to get out of debt here!  But many credit cards offer some sort of buyer’s assurance warranty program.  I know of a few cards that actually double the manufacturer’s warranty on many products.  If you still use credit cards, and plan to pay for your big purchase, look at your details on your card.

Personally I suggest making your own fund, but ultimately it is up to you.  Let me know in the comments what you decide to do and why, I will be sure to comment back.

Can You Afford It?

Until my son was born, I never even considered staying at home with my wife to raise my children.  And because I didn’t intend on becoming a stay at home dad, I never thought to plan for it.

Before marrying my wife, and becoming a father to Gianna, I always imagined that I would continue to work through everything, since my wife was already a stay at home dad.  Through the first two years I had constant conflicting feelings, mostly about all the time I spent away from my family.  Once we found out that we were expecting, I knew something had to be done.

That something sparked the entrepreneur in me, and I was dead set on becoming self employed.  The question became if I could make the same as I was in the corporate world.  Well the answer is yes, but I would have to work many times harder, which I tried.  It didn’t bother me working harder, but what did bother me was that I was gone just about the same amount of time if not longer every day.

There was many things we didn’t consider before e made the transition to a single-income household, and it took a number of months until we finally made it work for our budget.

Here is somethings we did to weigh the option and figure out if you can live as a one family household.

1.  Track EVERYTHING

You want to track every single penny, nickel, and dime coming into the household.  I recommend doing this for six months, but most of the time you don’t have that luxury, so at the very minimum do it for two months.  Break down your expenses into simple categories.  Here is how I broke it down:

Necessary Expenses.  Everything that you need to have like housing (mortgage/rent), food, utilities, insurance, car payment, gas money, loan payments, credit card payments, contributions to savings, college, or retirement.

Secondary Expenses.  Everything that you can live without like entertainment, eating out, gifts, travel, cable TV, phone services, memberships.

It is also recommended to have at least $1,000 in savings for emergencies.  Having six months worth of savings is better.

2.  Figure out how much it costs you to work.

There’s all the gas money you spend commuting to work, not to mention the parking, coffee breaks, and the childcare.  Oh the childcare, which is the biggest expense of working.  How much would it cost to put your child/children into daycare, the rates vary from city to city, and by the age of your child.

These are real expenses, and can be quite high in fact.  Sometimes it can outweigh your actual paycheck.

3.  Do the math

Take what you are bringing home right now and subtract the amount from step 2.  Now compare that number to which spouse’s (the one who will be working) income.  How close are the numbers?  If not close will it make the gap closer if you can take away most if not all of your secondary expenses?

If they are close then staying at home might become feasible, but you would have to make some lifestyle changes.  One thing that helped us significantly was when we started to coupon to get out of debt and started stockpiling.  Also we decided what we could live without, which was our cell phone bill, cable TV, and the amount of books we buy.

4.  Put into action everything sooner rather than later.

You want to live with your new budget before you are forced into it.  Test out the waters, before making permanent decisions like quitting your job.  Live off of one income and put the second income into savings.  Not only will it give you a real look at your new budget, but it builds up that emergency fund.  You can also make any changes before any life altering changes happen.

After taking all of this into account, you must also realize that it does have some negatives.  I realize that I am toke a big hit in my company matching 401k, and all accrued social security benefits.  And if self employment doesn’t work out for me, that I might take a hit on my salary if I have to reenter the workplace.  Even more it might be harder to find employment if my skills get rusty.  But these are changes I was willing to make to be able to spend time with my family and hone in on my entrepreneur spirit.

There are many ways you could possibly still make it work if the numbers weren’t that good or if you would like to make extra cash.  Maybe your employer will allow you to work from home or even part time.  Maybe they are willing to hire you as a freelancer for on a project basis.  Maybe you can sacrifice working longer four days out of the work week in order to give you a three day weekend.

Maybe you just need a few extra dollars in order to get you to the optimal salary you need to make it work.  How about picking up only a part time job, one where you wouldn’t need to bring any work home with you.  When we were aggressively trying to pay off debt, I worked as a server in the restaurant industry.  Picking up 20 extra hours paid me around $600-$800 extra a week.

There are many other things you can do like mystery shopping, merchandising, direct sales/network marketing, in home babysitting/daycare.  Some require an initial investment, but it could pay off in the long run.

Currently I am doing a mixture of all of these, I belong to a network marketing company, I pick up mystery shops and merchandising gigs, and I also have a paper route.  I do personally plan to do some direct sales in the near future, (either mancave or pampered chef, just so my culinary skills don’t go to waste.)  I use coupons to lower my grocery budget.  I can’t aggressively pay off my debt like we were doing (an extra $800) but we have been able to send at least $50 extra toward payments.

Personally I love being self employed, and knowing that I make my own schedule  has been nothing but a blessing for me.  Not only do I get to spend time with my family but I have been able to do more things that I am interested in, like creating this blog.  Maybe you can make it work as well.