How some survive in todays economy

Today's economy has caused many of us to look for alternate avenues in earnings to help add to our dwindling income and maybe supply us with a much needed break in dealing with the changes in the cost of living.
Many without jobs find it difficult in securing employment due to the overwhelming responses overloading the masses or maybe just have some uncontrollable personal difficulty that prevents working outside the home but still we all need a way to earn a living. I for one have been seeking some way to put extra money in my pocketbook and have found it nearly impossible to achieve.
I never had a problem with working  but over the years my health has caused me to be bound to my home leaving me with less options for earnings and "living off the State", as some put it, is not only unobtainable for me now, and is know way pleasant or fulfilling. I did the supplemental thing for years, through the state cash assistance program, and if I remember correctly the highest I ever received was about $605.00 per month this was consider enough to take care of my boys, myself, the housing cost, bills and any non food items that we needed! Medical, Food Stamp and a local WIC  were other programs provided but one does have to sign up and meet the standard requirements for eligibility. With the only other income at that time being child support and never being over $400.00 when and if I received it of course I was eligible BUT all my assistance, except for medical, was then adjusted to the state level leaving my total income just around the poverty level. *They (the Government Offices) considered an income of under 13 thousand a year too much to receive assistance at a full benefit grant! Well it's no wonder so many would cheat the system!
There has got to be another way and working from home and for ones self just may be it. Yes I am sure we all are thinking the same thing SCAMS, RIP-OFFS, SCHEMES, BEWARE!! I have been searching for some kind of way to make income from home for a few years now but with no luck because the like written above the same thing would come up, too many of the work from home programs are not what they're made out to be!
I started searching through the work from home programs, ideas, offers and have been dealing with these types of opportunities with deeper research, more leads and lots of disappointments but everything became more clear when I found a blog at http://www.workathomenoscams.com where there is so much information loaded on this blog I still have not explored all the opportunities but hey I did win $100.00 just by submitting a comment on the recent bailout package. Another site I found called Smallaa was running a weekly best content provider contest and I won $1,000.00 unfortunately they've closed that contest.
There are many ways to make money working from home and on the internet just some of those ideas may be doing surveys, reading emails, doing medical transcriptions, and yes even writing but most of these usually come with a price the only one I have found that is a sure thing is being a mystery shopper or something similar from the same.
You can find hundreds of retail service companies on this site NARMS.com you must register to look them up but it is free. There you will find tons of useful information, job openings and listings of recruiters from companies looking for help. With this one the only thing I found a little difficult, because I do not have a car, was doing on site shops, remember the folks you see in the supermarket giving out samples well that is just one of the many job availabilities you will find. Some companies also have phone and fax shops as well so there's apt to be something of interest to just about everyone.
So there are other avenues to make money without being "an employee" you just have to be sure to not give up and keep your eyes open for those less desirable money grabbers that are infesting the internet.