With the holiday season gearing up and many families having their incomes drop down due to layoffs and rough economic times, I’m seeing a lot more people looking for quick answers for ways to work from home and bring in extra money. Sometimes they don’t care what it takes; they’ll take any shot they can find.

Often this leads to being in a worse financial position than when they started.

There are a few legitimate ways you can earn money from home quickly, however. If you can write, you can write a bunch of articles for sites such as Associated Content. You can sell on eBay or at a garage sale. You can take on freelance assignments from sites such as SheLancers, Freelance Work Exchange, eLance or Craigslist.

You do have to be careful, especially on Craigslist, of scams. If they’re promising you thousands of dollars for practically no work at all, just skip it. It’s probably either a scam or illegal. You don’t need either one.

The freelancing route can be challenging if you have no portfolio, but we aren’t talking here about making a lot of money right off. We’re looking at earning just a little something extra to keep things going for the holidays.

Starting right now, however, means that you can build up as you like after the holidays are through. Get the quick work now that maybe doesn’t pay so well, and start really ramping things up later if you find the business suits you.

You may note that I’m not suggesting blogging, affiliate marketing, network marketing, pay per click and so forth. These can all be great home businesses. Some people make a lot. Others struggle for years and hardly earn anything. And that’s why I’m not saying to start out with them.

Especially pay per click marketing. You do well with that, you can do very, very well indeed! But the learning curve is tough and often expensive. Not what you need if you need money right now. Also, the money may not come in until after the holidays anyhow, depending on what you choose to promote.

If you’re looking for shortcuts, just remember there is no substitute for hard work. The 4-hour workweek
is a nice dream, but most of us won’t be able to start out that way. Your most reliable shortcuts to earning anything at home may not earn you much, but they’re a start and a great way to find out if working at home is really for you.

Are Your Kids Getting Enough “Dirt Pile” Play? – I love this. I’ve always found that my kids do better with more time outside and less television/computer time.

Go Offline for More Traffic – A great thought for all you home business owners. Even if you’re already marketing offline, you might find a new idea here.

Social Media and Marketing Lesson for the makers of Motrin: Don’t Mess with Moms! – Maybe you caught all the fuss, maybe you missed it. But a good point.

Ways to Beat Overwhelm and Give Thanks! – Some great thoughts on easing the stress at this or other times of year. You probably have plenty to be thankful for.

With Winter Coming And Money Tight, Consider Sharing Tools This Year. – If you’re on good terms with your neighbors, this can be a great idea.

Productivity in Wasted Moments – You don’t have to consider time spent in wait rooms as wasted. I get bits of work done during my wait while my son is in speech therapy, for example.

Letting Your Kids Watch TV So You Can Work – Lots of work at home moms do it. Should you, and do you feel bad about it?

5 Free Ways to Promote Your Online Home Business – While you’ll often need to spend money on your home business, some of the best promotion methods are free. The time cost can be a challenge, however.

Blowing bubbles is a lot of fun for kids, but you can get them to be creative about it too. The materials you use will depend on the age of the kids, as some require more strength and dexterity than others.

1. Make bubble wands with pipe cleaners.

If your kids are like mine about crafts, you have these on hand. Two can be twisted together for larger wands, with a third making the handle. These are fairly easy to shape so even younger kids can be pretty creative with them.

2. Make bubble wands with wire coat hangers.

Yes, a way to get rid of any wire coat hangers you have tangling up with each other in the closet! These are harder to bend, but the bubble wand will therefore last much longer. You may need to get out the needle nose pliers or other basic tools to really get a good shape.

3. Rope bubble wands.

Tie a light rope to the end of a stick. Soak a bit in the bubble solution and have the kids run to make it open up and blow bubbles.

Alternatively, you can tie one end of the rope to each end of the stick so that it stays open. I’ve seen this in a children’s museum, and it’s fun for the kids to try to blow big bubbles out of it.

4. Anything around the house with holes in it.

At least that you’re willing to allow to get wet and soapy. Funnels are good. I’ve seen some people suggest fly swatters for lots of little bubbles – just make sure the kids aren’t putting their mouth on it to blow. Go through your kitchen and see what might work.

‘Tis the season… to go a little crazy. With all the family events, how do you balance having fun for the holidays with working at home?

Some things are pretty obvious. I mean, unless you have a work at home job that won’t give you the holiday off for some reason, you can just choose not to work during family celebrations. But if things are picking up, what then?

Prioritizing with a Home Business

If your home business picks up right when you want more family time, you can have some tough decisions to make. If you want to succeed, you do often have to sacrifice some time.

But there are options.

I mentioned virtual assistants the other day. This can be a great time of year to hire one to handle all the basics that really don’t need your personal touch. If you haven’t been sure about hiring a bit of help, this is probably a good time to try it out.

This may also be the time to just plain lose some sleep. If you can work a bit later into the night you can keep business things going while losing less family time.

When a Work at Home Job isn’t Cooperating

Most work at home jobs are pretty flexible. In a lot of cases you say when you are willing to work. But sometimes your employer will have a schedule they need you to keep… even on holidays.

Sure, you could call in sick, but you know how realistic that will sound.

Asking for the time you will need early on is key, but it doesn’t always work. If you get stuck working at a time you’d rather be enjoying your family, try rescheduling events a little. Hard as it may be to alter your usual holiday routine, it’s worse if you lose income your family needs.

I grew up flexible around holidays so that may be easy for me to say. Christmas took several days just because of the time it took to see both of my parents and my grandparents. It wasn’t uncommon to not see some people until New Year’s.

Know what? It didn’t make the celebrations any less special. It was about seeing family, not just the food and/or gifts.

Of course, your religious observances may be another story. But in many cases you have a few options for when to attend services. If not, that’s something you will have to deal with and discuss with your employer.

Remember the Reason for the Season

Much as we celebrate holidays on a particular day, they really aren’t about that day so much as they are about the events they celebrate. Keep that in mind as you decide what is most important to you.

I’m not much of a coupon user – too disorganized and I know it. It’s a round and round kind of thing where I might be interested if I were more organized but I’m not organized so I’m not interested…

But for those of you who are more organized, have you tried the Couponizer? It’s a system that helps you to organize your coupons, keep you shopping list, keep track of your savings and so forth. It looks like a possible good investment for those who do enjoy using coupons… or maybe even a Christmas present for people you know who use a lot of coupons.

There’s even a consultant opportunity if you decide you really enjoy the system.