Backup home-based work plan

[decoy111]

Oh well, probs take a lot of rabbits to me a jacket for me, just had a kick in the teeth, landlady raised the rent!

[bulldogeagle]

i was a self employed gardener before i retired, could go back to that-i've still got all the tools as we've got an allotment, could grow some plants or fruit and veg for people or sell them in the local market.

[Alleycat]

My grandad used to poach back in the 40/50/60s but that was to feed his family, even when he was a gamekeeper LOL

On my mum's wedding certificate her father's occupation was listed as 'Rabbit Trapper' ......think that was a polite term

Although I am more than happy to keep up the family tradition if I have to, I agree that landowners will become a bit more 'protective'.

[decoy111]

My grandad used to poach back in the 40/50/60s but that was to feed his family, even when he was a gamekeeper LOL

On my mum's wedding certificate her father's occupation was listed as 'Rabbit Trapper' ......think that was a polite term

Although I am more than happy to keep up the family tradition if I have to, I agree that landowners will become a bit more 'protective'.

rabbit trapper! love it, could'nt get to a more natural way of living

[Arzosah]

Scuse me for bringing this one back from the dead I've found it really interesting. I already work from home, and in the little forum I socialise in, an offshoot of moneysavingexpert, we call several income streams a "patchwork lifestyle", which most of us want to do by choice. Its certainly much more interesting, if more problematic (coordinating the times people want you to work, for instance, is more difficult than just turning up to do your hours).

As for me, I work from home as a counsellor - in the recession so far, I've not had anybody leave as a result of loss of income, tho I had a few in 2008. My biggest problems with the counselling work (and sometimes with work of any kind) are that I'm approaching burnout, when its not right for me to do it any more; I can't bear the thought of doing it for another 8 years or whatever it will till I get my pension (assuming pensions still exist at that stage); and since my peak around 2000, my income has more than halved, in real and adjusted terms; I can't do very physical work (arthritis), I've been out of the paid-jobs market for 25 years (used to do administration), and even tax benefits/whatever are irrelevant to me - I have too many assets, because of the dratted flat I part-own in France, which I can't sell or I'll be faced with a VAT bill for £20k.

So! My job has already taken a 55% hit. But frankly, I have lots of schemes that could each bring in some cash, depending on the level of economic/social collapse:
- trading on the fx market - I've been working to overcome fear triggers for years, and have done it by trading £1 a point - of the last score of trades I've done, all but 2 have had a profit. Focus now on this is to learn to stay in the trades longer, the trading mantra being "cut the losses short, let the profits run". Letting the profits run is much, much harder than it sounds, thats why its a cliche
- website - I've done a lot of prep work on this, when I'm back at work in August I've got one more month to get the content going, and then I'll be working on launching it. Income will be from monetising linkies, advertising, etc. I'm struggling with the whole concept tho, of making money from a website - anybody got any good links/books on how to become an agent? Concept of the website is around water saving.
- selling greetings cards/t shirts online - via etsy, cafepress, anywhere really - the niche I've found is Egyptian, I'm an amateur historian and (very) amateur Egyptologist, you'd be amazed at the money that goes into amateur Egyptology in this country - mostly from well off retired people, admittedly
- I'm writing a novel. Of course, this will turn out to be the next Harry Potter/50 Shades of Grey (delete as appropriate).
- locally, as I live in a smallish commuter town, I could do dog walking - given my state of health, I won't even be thinking about this right now, and if I ever did make it a higher priority, I'd want to get a neighbour onside to take the dogs out when I couldn't cope. But its a possibility.
- or babysitting - people will still need other people to watch their kids if they have to work weird hours.
- some call centres used to have people working from home. Depending on the training, I could do that.

Friends of mine sell eggs face to face, sell plug plants on the web, make syrups, salsas and vinegars for sale. I've sold on ebay, amazon and gumtree, and I could do the little plants thing, though they've all had to work really hard to get the packaging right.

The thing for me, now, is focus - focus on getting the income coming in - thats my pension if the economy is still alive, or upgrading my preps and lifestyle if TSHTF.

Sorry this is so long!

[hobo]

Thanks Arzosah!

[metatron]

I own my own company doing medium to large enterprise networking and comms. I also do corporate IT training. If my business was to go tits up, I can fix anything with a plug on it, right down to circuit level repair and reworking.

Other than that I could make furniture, although there is not much money in that, also cook and bake anything. I can also fix nearly anything car or bike related.

I've found work this month is a bit down but the months before are up and I've got loads of work booked in for the next few months.

[Delightful]

Interesting thread, it's something I think about quite often as I don't know if I have a job/role in post-SHTF society. I'm a statistician which wouldn't be much use but I've tutored, been a florist and done clock repairs as jobs before. I'd offer myself up as a nanny/tutor/gardener/cook in exchange for board and attempt to make extra money on the side tutoring, making toiletries and repairing/altering clothes. I'm never going to be as good as someone who does plumbing, building etc for a living but hopefully being able to do a lot of things okay will make me desirable to be around so learning more basic handy skills is a goal of mine.
Private tuition and selling altered clothes on ebay has supplemented my income nicely in the past. I don't really know why i stopped

[daylen]

This is a really interesting thread, thanks for reviving it Arzosah. I love the phrase "patchwork lifestyle"!

I think that's the key to be honest. To not be reliant on a single source of income.

I'm an internet developer (database and back-end stuff mainly) and I had a bad experience when a client went into administration owing me a large sum of cash. I realised that I was too dependent on 2 or 3 clients and have tried hard to move away from selling my time (freelance style) to selling services (hosting, access to small business applications that I've created) so that I have lots of smaller income streams.

I've also started doing some personal websites which have Google Ads on - it doesn't bring in loads but it all helps.

[Teapot]

Hobo, I'm an artist too, and sell prints as well as originals - that seems to be a useful way of increasing money from a single piece, if of course you can find enough people to buy them. Do you do that too?