Anonymous wrote:Talk to a temp agency, you may be surprised how much you know about MS Office and what they have that isn't advertised.

also temp agencies will do tests of your skills and they also might offer short training classes for you to get up to speed.

Legal secretary - just work on being able to type quickly

Talk to a temp agency, you may be surprised how much you know about MS Office and what they have that isn't advertised.

Anonymous wrote:housecleaning business - $30/ hour /++ and tax free if you don't have honest values.

Our cleaner only comes in about once ever 2-3 months but I think about this every time I hand her payment. I have a master's and work for a state university doing grants management, working with faculty, provost level administration and outside funders and per hour she definitely makes more than I do!

If you're crafty, look into an Etsy store. Mine covers our daycare cost for the year.

housecleaning business - $30/ hour /++ and tax free if you don't have honest values.

OP, an office job is your best bet. If you have ANY experience with Microsoft Office, even if it's from 5 years ago, then you should be fine. Even if the position calls for more advanced techniques, you can search YouTube for a video tutorial. Actually, you can find a video tutorial for just about anything on YouTube, so if you don't know it, you can learn without paying a cent!

However, I am a more senior secretary in my department and I make less than $50,000. My net wages cover daycare for an infant and probably most of our rent (both $1400/mo). If you are receiving child support, that should go toward paying for childcare and will hopefully help you get up and stay on your feet.

A brief explainer on Adobe: In an office setting, you use it for PDF documents with a program called Adobe Acrobat. These are essentially documents that you can't edit, so I use PDFs as the final version of a letter or something that I send to someone.
Adobe also makes a series of software programs that artists and designers use to accomplish just about anything design-related, from web pages to brochures to taking a plain picture and turning everyone's skin blue just for fun.

You need to self teach yourself excel/word/adobe. They're extremely easy to use.

Secretaries all make that much money

If you could find a job in insurance, see if you could start out in the customer service department and then get them to pay for your state license. That's a stepping stone to a lot of decent jobs but you do need to be licensed first.

Hmmm ... customer service rep in a call center type place, maybe? If you have a degree and can type well and answer phones and stuff (maybe brush up on Office on your own) a legal assistant, secretary, etc.?

You can get childcare that is 10-12/hour even a nanny

Anonymous wrote:Teaching. With a master's degree, you would cover childcare, pay into retirement, and be on the kids' schedule.

Now it's teaching, so that's another bag of worms.

Where did she say she had a master's degree?

OP, what is your skill set, however limited? What kind of jobs have you held in the past?

How old are your children and where do you live? Some counties subsidize childcare costs but depends on the jurisdiction and there may be a waiting list. Do you live with your children's father? If not, does he pay support? Child support costs should be factored in to the support amount.

Teaching. With a master's degree, you would cover childcare, pay into retirement, and be on the kids' schedule.

Now it's teaching, so that's another bag of worms.

Seriously, what can I do that pays more than $15/hour with a limited skill set (I haven't touched Excel in over 5 years and I don't even know what Adobe is, for instance) and a junk degree?