The home based sideline

Bfast-oatmeal, coffee
Lunch- chicken wings, taters, corn and water bottle
Dinner- Turkey burgers, fries and water

In these times of strife and economic woe where people are losing their jobs and are depending more and more on the GUVT to bail them out and give them hand outs I have a different methodology. Starting now .
My suggestion, along with the usual scavenging and dumpster diving is to start a second income stream, with a home-based business. Once you have that business started, then start another one. There are numerous advantages to this approach, namely:

You can get out of debt

You can generally build the businesses up gradually, so that you don't need to quit your current occupation immediately. And the extra capital can be reinvested into the biz.

By working at home you will have the time to home school your children and they will learn about how to operate/ maintain business.

You can live at your retreat, or become mobile full time. This will contribute to your self-sufficiency, since you will be there to tend to your garden, fruit/nut trees, homestead improvements and eventually the livestock.
If one of your home-based businesses fails, then you can fall back on the other and even start another.
Ideally, for someone that is preparedness-minded, a home-based business should be something that is virtually recession proof, or possibly even depression proof.
Ask yourself:
What are you good at?
What knowledge or skills do you have that you can utilize. Next, consider which businesses will flourish during bad times. Some good examples might include:

Mail order/Internet sales/eBay Auctioning of preparedness-related products. (I use the local CL as I can meet people locally and get word of mouth advertising as well as make some extra bank.

LocksmithingGunsmithing

Repair/refurbishment businesses (You dont know how many people out there are in need of PC hardware and software work and are willing to pay well for the stuff we do everyday.

Freelance writing and blogging as well as podcasting-- While this blog doesnt make any money right now it is a good stepping stone for my other endeavors.

All in all and most important is get creative and enjoy what you are doing as we can be in this for quite a while. Granted it is a new way of thinking for the majority of us but its a worthwhile endeavor.