Credit: Chris Potter of stockmonkey.com
This is the last month my wife will be working before she takes time off in preparation for motherhood. It is unlikely that she will return to her job as it would not be worthwhile due to costs of daycare and the long hours away from home. Plus, we decided that we wanted to have a parent stay at home with the baby. She is a natural with babies and little kids and works as a preschool teacher. The loss of one income is definitely a hit to our budget, and we’ve been brainstorming ways to supplement our income. Here are a few of our ideas:
Babysitter/Daycare
My wife definitely has a lot of childcare experience and also a Masters in Early Childhood so this option is a good possibility. We even discussed the option of becoming a family daycare provider where she could watch a few kids and hire an assistant. This would probably work if we had a house and could allocate some space for the daycare. It seems like it would be profitable, but we live in an apartment which is too small and I’m sure our landlord wouldn’t like it. Babysitting another child might work though. Check out this site if you’re looking for a sitter or a sitter job.
Tutoring online
As my wife is a teacher, tutoring online is another viable option. It seems flexible and doable from your own home. Tutoring offline is also a possibility but it would have to be after I get home from work or on the weekends.
Etsy
My wife said that she could sell crafts online at Etsy. There is a big market for home crafted goods and my wife is pretty talented and creative so this might be a decent idea.
Blogging
Maybe she can start a mommy blog. Apparently blogs can make money. I wouldn’t know anything about that though! At least I know some of the basics as to setting it up so I can help her with that.
Amazon FBA
A while back, Madison on My Dollar Plan posted about being an Amazon seller through its FBA program. The FBA stands for fulfillment by Amazon, so Amazon stores, packs, and ships your orders. If you are able to buy retail items at bargain basement prices, you can ship it to Amazon (at cheap shipping rates) and they will sell it, giving you a share of the profit. My wife is great at finding deals when shopping so I’ll look into this as well.
Online store
Another idea we’ve been considering is to open an online store. I’ve been reading a blog called My Wife Quit her Job where Steve Chou talks about how his wife quit her job to start an online store, because they wanted to have someone home to raise their child. Wow! That sounds like my story. His wife sells linens geared towards wedding favors and decor, and supposedly they made $100,000 the first year. I’m not sure if I’m as capable of pulling this one off. He does offer a free mini course on how to develop a niche ecommerce website so I might have to check it out. My biggest worry is that I’ll have unsold inventory in my cramped apartment. Although he does also talk about dropshipping, where the distributor handles shipping the inventory. (He mentions that there are pitfalls with this model though).
Gigwalk
I have to give a shout out to Greg from ThriftGenuity who gave me this idea in his article about making extra money. I created an account and saw that there are different gigs which usually involved going to stores or neighborhoods to take pictures. My wife loves taking pictures, as a matter of fact, she ran out of storage on her phone because she took too many pictures. There are a good amount of gigs in the NYC area so maybe it can generate some income. Although a lot of them involved taking pictures inside restaurants, and I’d feel wierd going inside to take pictures if I wasn’t dining there. My wife thought this idea was a keeper.
Freelance
There are a few websites that connect freelancers with those looking to have a project done. There is Freelancer, Odesk, Fiverr, among others. There are tons of various gigs such as proofreading, web design, translation, and personal assistant. My wife speaks fluent Spanish and is always complaining about the horrid translation she sees…so maybe she can sign up for those projects.
Medical Studies and focus groups
No, I’m not trying to get my wife to do invasive medical studies to supplement our income! What kind of husband do you think I am?? But I did some studies back in college and they were pretty interesting. They were psychological research studies involving behavior, memory, etc. They were painless, kinda fun and paid around $10 to $30 an hour. If you check on Craigslist, they will have focus groups, taste tester, and psychological studies where you get paid. If you live in NYC, you can check here as the NYU psychology department has some paid studies.
So what other ways can you make money to supplement your income? Please share!
Thanks for the shout out! I like this list. I have gone through quite a few myself. I would not mind trying the tutoring route. I teach guitar lessons already, so why not another subject? You’ll have to let me know how you like Gigwalk once you do a couple. The awkward feeling of taking pictures in stores goes away pretty quickly 🙂 .
Greg@Thriftgenuity recently posted…Health Insurance – Do You Know What You’re Looking At?
No problem…I’m definitely trying it out! I saw one available which was the same one you mentioned about taking pictures of a Kindle Display. Sounds easy.
Stay at home jobs definitely appeal to me! This is something that I am really working on. Great post!
Michelle recently posted…Finding Time For It All – Summer Edition
Thanks Michelle! Good luck to you! I’d really like it to work too.
This is a great list. My sister in law runs a home daycare, but she has a house- it’d be pretty hard in an apartment. Sounds like you’ve got some great ideas!
Cat recently posted…How to find free apps, free eBooks, and free music
Thanks Cat! If we ever get a house and decide to run a home daycare…I’ll have to ask her for some tips!
Stay at home jobs arent for everyone though. I work from home and my wife tells me all the time it would drive her crazy. She needs the interaction with people. I like being left alone and to my lap top. I need to add more things to my plate like maybe an ebay store. i just recently started blogging again so hopefully I can grow some online income from free lancing as well.
Thomas at Your Daily Finance recently posted…Personal Finances for Everyone – Even YOU!
You should definitely checkout Steve’s blog My Wife Quit her Job if you’re considering an online store. I’ve been reading it and it seems very interesting. I can’t vouch for the course and I haven’t actually done it yet, but I really think its doable. As for staying at home…I think I’m like you…I like to be left alone most of the time, but its good to have some interaction sometimes.
We’re in a similar situation – my wife’s about to give birth too (at the end of July) and she already had quit her job. I have set her up a blog and she started writing – she likes to do it and it’s her second month as a stay at home blogger soon to be mom 🙂 and she made a bit over $200 last month. Although that’s not much, it gives us some assurance that things can get better and that her income will grow once the blog becomes more established and she has more experience. So blogging is definitely a thing to consider!
Freelancing and Tutoring online also sound like a good idea, while I would suggest to stay away from Etsy – although there’s a huge market, there are literally a ton of people selling (or trying to sell) there so it’s really hard to break through that.
Good luck!
Romanian recently posted…Why Going to the Gym Is Better than Home Workouts for Me
Congrats to you guys! I think this July is a popular month. $200 a month is great for her second month…what is her blog called?
What I do – investing. Although that’s hardly stay at home cuz I have to travel so much.
Troy recently posted…Why the Euro is Doomed
My wife joked about being a day trader…she has a very small account and made some good stock picks.
Maybe you can look into some baby modeling if it turns out to be a cutie!
Pretired Nick recently posted…Convert spending into winning and trick yourself into saving
Haha…we’ll see. Hopefully the baby takes after my wife =)
My wife left her full time job when our son was born too and hasn’t gone back. She’s got a private counseling practice that she runs for a few hours each Saturday, as well as some odd hours during the week. We don’t depend on it for our budget, but she’s started making a nice little profit from it and it keeps her engaged in her profession. I think looking for something along those lines can be a great way for a stay at home parent to stay connected to the outside world.
Matt Becker recently posted…Lessons Learned From a Flat Tire
That sounds good. My wife is a teacher so the babysitting/family day care business would make sense.
I think freelancing is a viable option. I have been working on getting freelance writing jobs the past few months and all of my querying is starting to pay off. My workload is starting to get kind of heavy but in the end I think it will pay off.
Alexa recently posted…Finding Meaning in Life
Sounds good, we will definitely look into that. I’m sure it will pay off for you.
How about tutoring, music lessons, or things of the like? This could be done from home, right?
Perhaps market research surveys could yield a few dollars too.
Tie the Money Knot recently posted…Father’s Day Financial Lessons
Yes tutoring can work. What site offers good market research survey for pay? Thanks for the suggestions.
Good post Andrew! I would add blogging to the mix, but it’s a part of writing/freelancing on the whole and it takes forever to make a dime…
Thanks Jacob! I have blogging in the mix, but I’m so new to it that I don’t yet know the ins and outs of monetizing. And many have said that it takes forever to make a dime…
There are many ways that one can make money while working from home (or just not holding a traditional job). I make > $1000 /month by working on the internet and babysitting. Let us know what she narrows it down to!
Daisy @ Prairie Eco Thrifter recently posted…Sleeping Through Stress
That sounds great Daisy! I will definitely keep every updated as to what she ends up doing.
Especially if your wife is a preschool teacher I think a great alternative is babysitting/running a daycare in your home. She can take care of other people’s children as well as your own at the same time while making some $’s. Plus I have heard good things about mommy blogging too.
Lauren @Cheapstudents.ca recently posted…Credit Card Interest-My Little Wake Up Call
All we need is a house and I think we can run a daycare. I’m pretty sure the landlord is not going to allow a daycare, though she can babysit. Others have mentioned mommy blogging…we should look into that as well.
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