s.z.ichigo Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 Since I'm probably in the same boat as the majority here (husband works, I stay home) I figured this would be a good place to ask this. We're looking at moving to another state where the incomes are lower than they are here. We're also looking to buy our first home, probably in a rural or very small town environment. What are some good ways to bring in a little extra money? I really don't want to take on a night job, as the schedule required would mean never seeing my husband. I've considered maybe childcare in my home? I have some web design and graphic arts skills. I've freelanced a bit but I'm not sure there's much of a market for that without raising my skill level significantly. I homeschool but I've only done it with one child so far. Is there any market for people to teach someone else's child for the lower grades? Any thoughts? Thanks ^^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeaganS Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 \When I started staying home with my daughter, I asked around and found a few opportunities that were unique, but maybe you'll be able to find something equally unique. I have a friend who works for a publisher and she sends us manuscripts to read and evaluate for them. They pay like $.40/page (about $50-$100/book). My husband also donates blood plasma, which takes about 3 hours a week and earns us $65/week. We use swag bucks to get gift cards to amazon and have earned $75 so far this year that we plan on using as our Christmas budget (it's just my husband and I and our 1 year old.) To be honest though, what has helped us most is the ways I have learned to save us money. If you think about it, it's equal to earning money, just in reverse. We canceled our satellite. We blocked texting on our cell phones and moved our plan to the fewest minutes and just watched ourselves. When our plan is up, we plan on cancelling our cell phone altogether and just getting a landline and keeping an old cell phone in the car for 911 emergencies (you can still call 911 even if you have no plan). I started couponing and making laundry soap and hang-drying our clothes. We made our date budget $20/month and learned to be more creative. We switched to cloth napkins, diapers, etc. Every time you do one of these things, you are saving yourself some money that you now do not have to earn. We've cut hundreds of dollars out of our budget that we didn't think was possible. Good luck. I hope you can figure something out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdie Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 (edited) I have a couple of hs friends that work out of their home: one tutors ps children one on one, one writes grants for a grant writing company, and one makes tamales during the holidays to earn vacation money. Also when my nephew was in public school middle school he went to a homeschool family's home after school twice a week. The mom offered a home work/tutor service. I can't remember how much she charged, but since my sister worked full-time she loved it because she would come home from work and his homework was done. This woman also tutored him in math and his grades improved that year. Also wasn't there someone on these boards that had an early morning newspaper route? Ditto what Megan said above. I consider it a part-time job to focus on reducing our outflow. Good luck! Edited August 14, 2009 by Ferdie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbsweetpea Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 I do several things to bring in extra money. What are your talents? I work at our Mothers Day Out at our church 2 days a week and school around it (my younger one's go with me though). I do bookkeeping for a real estate agent yearly I am the operations Manager of a 2 x a year consignment sale. It only requires me to leave the home for a meeting once in a blue moon and to be at the sale the week of the sale. I think looking around for unique jobs is the way to go. I have had friends tutor others, edit books, do website work (all can be done at home). You just got to figure out what you are good at and what you want to do and put the word out there. Good Luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s.z.ichigo Posted August 14, 2009 Author Share Posted August 14, 2009 Thanks for your suggestions! We don't live too extravagantly but there are certainly places to cut back. We can cancel one of our WoW accounts, we don't use Netflix all that much and could at least downgrade our service. We already don't have cell phones so that's a big expense we've avoided. Going out to eat it probably our biggest vice. I could always learn to cook better :) I can probably do websites well enough to handle any local business...my biggest failing is an inability to market myself. Maybe that's something I could work on....Anybody out there handing out free confidence? XD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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