Well I have been back and forth working... not working.... and honestly both are very hard....
When I am working I feel guilty for leaving the kids and my husband when I am not working I feel guilty for my husband having to carry the whole financial burden....
I am currently laid off and have found that by taking the time to be creative and craft you can save and earn quite a bit of money...
I learned to make my own laundry detergent on Pinterest (which I love by the way) and it only cost 1 cent per load. I also make my own febreze (also from Pinterest). I have been hanging clothes on the line instead of using that energy hungry dryer and being more conservative with lights and overall energy consumption... Overall it says alot of money. Cutting a little here and a little there makes a BIG difference. But the main thing that I have learned is that even though you may not be working a public job you have to make it your "job" to be thrifty and save money. Couponing is a great way to save tons of money and even earn money but it can take as much time as going to work. But it is well worth it.  If you just starting to coupon or want to learn a great place to start is www.southernsavers.com This is a great site that does a lot of the work for you.
 I have also been selling my crafts on facebook and Etsy and have been doing pretty well with that. With everything that I currently have going on it is hard to see how I ever had the time to "work". :)
  I hope this has been helpful and would love any feedback and/or suggestions that you may have. I believe that together we can all become self sufficient again and stop depending so much on all of the commercial and industrial and processed "stuff" that we are now surrounded by.