my 1 year challenge

so here it is.......and the plan is that as I am now posting this to the world it actually has to happen! eek

Our family situation is a very common one, I worked full time for over 15 years   up until I had Josh, I then went back part-time 27 hours a week after my maternity leave and after having Isabelle me and Sean decided I would stay at home with her.  While this is a great chance spend her early years at home with her it is also very frustrating both mentally and financially.  Don't get me wrong I love spending time with her and being able to do the school run, but financially things could be better.  As many stay at home mums(or dads) will know going back to work with pre-school age children is a huge financial strain, sorry scrap that pretty much impossible.  

As a family we don't have lots of money and if we want days out holidays(not sure I can remember what they are but I vaguely remember the concept) clothes etc we have to save, and not just from one months wages usually for months in advance.  Everything from car tax every six months to kids birthdays and xmas is planned months in advance and goes into my faithful family budget.  My poor husband Sean very rarely has any money of his own and I hate it.  But in order for me to go back to work I would probably need to go back as a professional to make anywhere near enough to earn more than we would be paying out in childcare.  And to be honest the sacrifices that would entail are not worth it.

So here is my plan......I want to work for myself, no longer an employee, freedom from the 9-5 and having to give up any of our home life.  Sounds good to me :) Now there are many wonderful ways that I have looked into and tried that may well work for other people but that's not what I want.  I have been doing research in the best way I know how......Google search(it really is my best friend and I happen to use it several times a day).  Typing in work from home gave me lots of results of home selling opportunities, nope not me!  Then after months of searching without some miracle appearing before me, I stumble upon this website Christian Personal Finance which has a great post about how to make money with a blog.  Now to me that seems impossible (the net is a big scary place after all?) but after reading it from start to finish it started me thinking, 

is it actually possible to make a living from a blog ?

One of the few things I can do that I feel I am fairly good at and enjoy is writing, sadly since leaving school it has not been something I have done much of, but I'm doing it now right?

There are a lot of really useful do's and do nots on the website and something  clicked may be this could be my way forward.......I could earn a living from doing something I really enjoy.

I am not a person that usually has much faith in myself but this could work.......

So here is my challenge.....out there on the web for the world to see.

Can I manage to earn enough money writing my blog so by the time Isabelle starts nursery in September 2014 I can work from home ?

Who knows, I don't but what have I got to lose? Not much, what have I got to gain?.......everything.

I will be posting about my progress and hopefully I may get some other parents trying it too?

Wish me luck

Emma x