Kate Gosselin: I Made So Many Mistakes During Reality TV Show, Divorce from Jon Gosselin [PHOTO]

Kate Gosselin and her children have been off the air for two years but are still trying to figure out life without the reality TV cameras.

Kate and her brood of eight – twins Mady and Cara, 12, and sextuplets Alexis, Collin, Hannah, Joel, Leah and Aaden, 9 – appeared on their own TV series Jon and Kate Plus 8 and the spin-off Kate Plus 8 before TLC decided to end their show.

"I'm living very carefully these days," she told PEOPLE in its latest issue, on newsstands Friday. "To not have a reliable income is scary."

Kate faced a very public divorce from Jon Gosselin in 2009 after a cheating scandal hit the tabloids.

"I made so many mistakes, of course," she said, admitting that her own diva-like behavior may have led to her current unemployed state.

Looking back on the heyday of her fame, and the scandal that surrounded her, "It feels like a whole other lifetime ago," she said. "And sometimes I don't even remember much of it. Both when the babies were first born and during the divorce, I was on survival mode. I feel like I've lived two lifetimes already. I'm not the same person I was ... I don't even recognize her."

Right now, Kate claims she's making ends meet “piecing and patching together” an income from a variety of projects.

Jon Gosselin's Top 10 Most Ridiculous Quotes

In June, Jon Gosselin revealed he now lives "in the woods," and says he doesn't even have an address. During an interview with VH1's The Gossip Table, the former reality star said he's taken to a more private life after living in an apartment where paparazzi and others "figured out where I was."

Although Jon has fallen off the map, so to speak, he said he'd be interested in appearing onDancing With the Stars, as his ex-wife Kate famously did in 2010. (She was the fourth celebrity eliminated on the show's tenth season.)

"I feel like I could probably get further than her," Jon said.