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I’ve been a stay-at-home-mom for 12 years! 12 years! Wow! I love being home with my kids, but it’s not always easy and anyone who says it is, well, they are lying! If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know I’m a true entrepreneur at heart – I’m always trying to think of ways to make money in my everyday life. I’m so thankful I get the pleasure (although like I said, it’s not always a pleasure) of being at home with my kids and taking care of our household. But, let’s be honest, being at home all day taking care of laundry and kids doesn’t pay the bills.
We chose to wait to have kids until we were ready and able to have me stay at home to take care of them, knowing that I would not bring in an income. While I know that a lot of couples do not have this choice, it was our desire for our family. After reading Dave Ramsey’s book, Total Money Makeover, we decided to work extra jobs for the first 5 years of our marriage to pay off all our debt and that sure made it easier for me to be home not working.
I’ve tried over the years to find ways to make money, but most of my efforts are on the money-saving side instead of the money-making side. I use coupons for everything, I try to make a lot of the products we use such as all-purpose cleaner, food items like taco seasoning and granola (find my granola recipe here – it’s yummy and healthy – WIN WIN), my kids take their lunch to school every day and we like to use plastic lunch box containers that we can reuse to save on those little plastic baggies, and much more. I know many moms are in my same spot – they are at home, trying to save as much as they can, and longing to also earn money doing it! Well, here ya go – my top 10 ways you can make money being at stay-at-home-mom and I have personally tried all 10 of these things and currently do a few of them right now:
- Nannying
Nannying is an excellent way to bring in extra income while staying at home. The best part of nannying is that it goes right along with what you already do as a stay-at-home-mom, especially if you are able to nanny a child around the same age as your own kids. Plus, having another child around to play with your child is also a bonus! I nannied a little girl last year for the duration of the school year. She was with me 3-4 days a week and she fit right into our daily schedule of kid activities. Plus, my kids loved having her around the house and always wanted to play with her. - Make Your Own Product
I have been making my own all-purpose cleaner for years and recently while sitting at church I had a bright idea that I should bottle it and sell it for all the people who just don’t have time to make it themselves. It’s called CLEAN MOM Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner. Plus because I’m making it myself, it’s pure, natural and has no harsh chemicals. If you have a product you can make and sell, go for it! I’ve chosen to advertise my cleaner on a local Facebook page dedicated to Homemade products, as well as my own Facebook page, my Katrina’s World facebook page and my Katrina’s World blog. The sky is the limit on where you can post your products to sell them. Use local online pages, or consider setting up a booth a local Farmer’s Market or craft show on a weekend to display and sell your products. If you know any business owners with a storefront, consider approaching them about possibly setting up a little point-of-sale spot in their business. - Start a Blog
I’m working on this now! I’ve had my blog for about 4 years now and it’s never made a single dime of income for me. I’ve taken it very slow, built it from scratch, spent countless hours pouring my heart into my posts, and have loved it. I take a lot of breaks from my blog to focus on other things especially when life just get really stressful. For me, that’s ok. I never started my blog to be popular – I really don’t know why God lead me to start my blog…I still wonder. I can tell you this, I like working on it, it’s a lot of work, but I know from all the other blogs out there that I follow that you CAN make money with your blog. I would love for my blog to make a real income for our family – even just a little bit would be helpful, but it’s all in God’s time and I’m willing to go along for the ride. Most of the money made on blogs comes from advertising income, guest posts, sponsored posts, etc. It all comes down to page views on your site and how many people are active on your blog. I’m currently working on that aspect right now. - Take a Work At Home Job
The sky is the limit on the work-at-home jobs that are out there, you just have to get creative on where to find them. A few of them that I have done are: Data Entry, Virtual Assistant, Lead Processor, Appointment Scheduler, and Research Assistant. When I really think about it, most of these jobs have just come along when I’ve been in the right place at the right time. I never really went out looking for them. I did some data entry – but I did struggle with this, as I’m not good with numbers. I’ve been a virtual assistant many times over the years, but mostly for friends. I also recently spent a few months doing some lead processing which tied right in with appointment scheduling for a local doctor and loved the job! It was simple to do, didn’t take very much time, and made great money! I got paid every time I called a lead and got them scheduled for an appointment. If they showed up to their appointment, I was paid. It was a perfect job to do at at home, I just needed a phone and my computer. Again, this was another job I did that found me. I really liked it, much more than I thought would and hope to do it again soon! For work-at-home jobs, sometimes you just need to jump on Facebook and tell your friends and family that you are looking for something you can do from home and then list off all your skills and see what comes back to you! - Freelance
I’ve done lots of freelance design jobs over the years. Since I have a degree in graphic design, all my work 20 years ago centered around design. I worked full-time doing design for other people and then for my own business for many years! When I stepped away from my design business I still would do all sorts of freelance design jobs on the side for different people. I still do – especially for close friends and family and a few local doctor offices. If you are able to do any type of freelance work, it’s a great way to make extra money. I have friends who code apps, space plan, or stage houses – the sky is the limit for what type of freelance work you can do! - Multi-level Marketing/Network Marketing
Join a network marketing company or multi-level marketing company. There are so many of them out there – find something you are passionate about like lipstick, makeup, health products, vitamins, candles, essential oils, etc. Instead of just consuming the products, sign up as a consultant and sell the products to your friends and family and then you can earn what you consume for free usually! It’s a win-win! I’ve had my own network marketing company and boy does it come with it’s ups and downs – be ready for a LOT of rejection, and a lot of triumph! I’ll be honest, it just wasn’t for me – but that’s a whole other post to write some day! - Teach Classes
There are 2 ways to do this – if you have a 4 year degree you can teach in many different ways – Community College, Substitute Teaching, Online Classes to foreign kids (and I’m sure there are many more). A long time ago, before we had kids, I was working full-time as a graphic designer and we had just finished Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course and we were committed to get out of debt as soon as possible. We both worked extra jobs and for a while I started teaching at our local community college. I taught basic graphic design classes at night and it was hard! The workload was a lot because I taught 2 classes a week , but it was so worth it! We made some great extra money and payed off all our debt in one year! I’ve never done substitute teaching or online teaching, but I’ve considered it. I have quite a few friends who teach online classes to Chinese kids and they love it! I’m not a fan of the hours though – it’s typically an early morning job – which is one reason I’ve not wanted to give this a try. I’ve also never tried substitute teaching at any of my local schools, but have considered it as well! - Public Speaking
I love to speak to large groups! If you are passionate about a topic, find a way to brush up on your speaking skills and share your knowledge with others! Join your local Chamber of Commerce and start out small by speaking for free to a small group. I used to speak about inexpensive ways to market your business with my local Chamber at a monthly luncheon and it was a great way to share my knowledge and also get my company name out there. I loved it and would love to do more speaking! I’ve also spoken at my local MOPS group about couponing, as well as how to raise kids with God’s grace. While I never made a lot of direct money from speaking – I did make money in other ways from it – such as I grew my graphic design business by gaining new clients by just putting myself out there and I also was given gift cards as payment for speaking for a my MOPS group. - Dog Walking
I don’t do this as much as I’d like to! I love dogs, especially mine, and I walk her ALL the time – usually about 6 miles a day broken up into 3-4 smaller walks. Sometimes I think she’s taking me for a walk more than I am walking her. I need some breaks all day long to stay focused and walking her is the perfect way to do it! She’s still a puppy and is FULL of energy, so walking her is a perfect way to give us both a break. I’m walking so much all the time, that I sure thought it would be nice to find a few other neighborhood dogs that needed walking as well and make some money getting exercise! I’m still open to this idea and hoping to find the right pups to walk! - Bake Sale
Have a bake sale with your kids on your front lawn! I do this with my kids every summer and it’s a blast! We bake up a whole bunch of treats and make a festive table in my front yard. We stick up signs around the neighborhood and viola! It’s great to pair a bake sale with a garage sale if you really feel like doing some work!
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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