How can I earn from home with no skills

[stuck20]

Hi I made a post in chat yesterday but got no replies. I then posted it in money worries. Still no reply so I thought I would try and on here.

I cannot go out to work. I've tried. What could I do / sell from home with £5,000? I know it's not much but I don't want to waste this money and I'm hoping whatever I do from home can get me out of this mess long term.

I have no skills in IT / Writing / Crafts etc

My original post:

Hi I'm after some advice.

Please no one mock me and say to earn money you need skills / an education / you need to work hard / Nothing comes to you etc. I know all of this already. But I'm desperate.

I'm 35. My children are in school. I've had several jobs. To be honest I've been crap at them all. Doing silly things wrong etc. I haven't worked since I had my eldest 10 years ago. I've applied for lots but I don't hear back. I have autism and anxiety and since having the kids I rarely leave the house.

I've been selling from home for 2 years. I know what people think on here about MLM but as far as my experience goes I've not been conned and I have made a bit of spending money which is better than how I was before.

I do get orders and I've probably aren't £2,000 over the years. I think you have to make more than £4,000 in a year to pay tax so as yet I haven't. The thing is the items I sell are something people buy once every couple of months.

I know when I ask this question you will say "nothing" go and get a proper job.
I've tried that. My psychiatrist agreed that I have a case for PIP but I'm waiting on my tribunal appointment.

So here goes my question is if you struggle for money and was given £5,000 from a family member how would you use it to make money from home? This is the only option for me as I cannot leave home due to my anxiety. I know I can't live off the money I make but event £20/£30 a week would help.

I can't think of a single thing I could sell from home that people would want to buy so frequently.

I've not got another option to be honest and our outgoings are more than what we get so bills are going unpaid and I can't stand receiving the letters.

I will definitely use the money to pay at least all of the outstanding payments but I'm thinking how I could get out of this mess so I don't get into a situation like it.

Thank you.

@stuck20 your kids might go out and about with your husband and your family. But it doesn't mean you not being there doesn't affect them. Or your marriage.

Well done at already having counselling and medication.
But do more.
£5k will pay for private counselling, EMDR therapy, art therapy, music therapy, CBT etc etc. Don't just say you're having one type of counselling so that's it. Get a different kind!

You need to push and push. For your kids. For your husband. And for you!

You're crap at 'numbers'. So spend your days doing your kids school work and learn at the same speed as them.

Do exercise in your home. Every. Single. Day.
Who knows, you could end up being a PT. If not, the exercise will help your anxiety anyway.

You say your husband is armed forces. They offer loads of classes, support and much more for you but you have to go ask for it.

You're making excuses on here for everything. I get why. And to you, they are reasons. Some might be. But most are excuses.
Learning new things is hard. That's why it's called 'learning'.

But you can learn at your 7 year olds level (improve your job prospects long term)
You can make your house amazingly clean and tidy (cleaning skills for a job).
You can make your garden beautiful (skills for gardening work).
You can batch cook foods and try one new recipe a week (cooking skills for catering work).
You can get fit as fuck without leaving the house (fitness skills for gym, PT, dog-walking, manual work etc).

Little things become habits and help mental health enormously. Being busy occupies the mind and makes you feel capable of great things.
Being bored and feeling useless breeds anxiety and hopelessness.

You're not going to be magically cured. But you can be LESS 'bad'.

My own mantra for when I am anxious or scared about learning something new:

In a year's time, you'll wish you'd started today

Following.

Excellent posts from bobby and also great mantra from buzz

Also Op. you can learn how to do pretty much anything online. Want to learn how to draw the perfect circle? There are video tutorials for exactly that. Now that’s not exactly a marketable skill, but who says everything you learn has to be? You can learn something just for the pure pleasure of learning something new. Maybe you fancy learning some new hairstyles for your kids? YouTube. You’ll have more styles than you could do on your children in a year. Help with numbers? YouTube has you covered. With zero pressure to be good. No-one tests you after you watch a YouTube video. You can watch it 70 times if you like. No-one is watching to see if you’re getting it or not. YouTube taught me how to knit and crochet. I still use it now for almost every pattern I try. There are also videos for mediation, beginners yoga or Pilates, and pretty much anything you could possibly want to know about.

Have an explore and see what piques your interest. I guarantee there is something you’ll fancy doing.

(I don’t work for YouTube I just find it really useful)

Thank you all for taking the time to offer advise

@otterses

Could you explain a little more about your amazon print on demand business?
Do they print the journals for you??
I'd love to see what you mean!

If you can break even doing MLM, you have done better than most. Literally.

Really good advice from Bobby but a lot to take in.

I'm struck by this in your OP: I've had several jobs. To be honest I've been crap at them all. Doing silly things wrong etc. We do all get stuff wrong all the time, autistic people more than most perhaps because it's an NT world out there. But that doesn't mean you're stupid or not capable. Your anxiety and autism combined make it really easy for you to catastrophise about minor blunders. It sounds like you've built up a huge negative internal voice about yourself. Hopefully the counselling will help with that, but the thing is, it's quite unlikely that you are actually less capable at those jobs than other people. Maybe you just needed the tasks explained to you in a different way, or a set of reminders written down or something. You are already managing to sell overpriced products to real people. You will be perfectly capable of serving people in a shop or offering them a service in which you will develop expertise. However at the moment the anxiety is in the way.

Have you thought about volunteering with the NAS or a local autism charity? Or somewhere like a community farm? Somewhere that doesn't expect you to be NT and will take you through in baby steps. I think if you could push yourself to do that, it could be the start of great things. I think if you're on antidepressants you need to treat yourself like someone who is unwell, and you need to focus on getting better first, so that you are well enough to succeed in whatever job line you later follow. Being self employed inevitably brings a certain level of stress with it. I think paid employment in a very small team or something like an individual support worker would suit you better, and in the long term would be far better for your mental health than trying to flog things to random members of the public from home.

@BobbyBlueCat amazing post. Inspiring and encouraging.