ways to make alil extra $$ while staying home

jlpev

Soo I'm looking for ways to help make alil extra $$ while staying @ home for like 6 months or maybe even longer hopefully!!  I have no clue on clipping coupons & how people save a ton of $$ doing that but I've started trying & I think my mom is gonna pay me to help clean her house & do laundry & stuff.  That will be nice b/c I can take lo with me & breastfeed.  But do you girls have any any suggestions???  I'm up for anything!!  I'm planning on breastfeeding soo that will help some.  But I want to help do whatever I can...

ginger01604

google money saving mom.  She has a wonderful website on ways to live with little money.  She also goes through how to save money with coupons and ways to make extra money completing surveys and other things.

 I wish you the best...

mchupie

I am interested in this, too!  When we move next fall we are planning on me being a SAHM, and I'm just a bit worried about whether we can financially do it. 

I just created a blog page about some of the little things I currently do to save extra money and earn money.  Check it out if you are interested.

I hope others have some good ideas, too

Doodle2011

Are you crafty?  You could start an etsy shop.  I'm going to be doing some marketing for a local home builder.  Basically making cold calls for leads she has.  Just a few hours a month but it should help.  I also do bookkeeping on site for her; she has told me I am free to bring the baby with me, so I will do that another 8 hours a month.

izzourclue

mchupie:

I am interested in this, too!  When we move next fall we are planning on me being a SAHM, and I'm just a bit worried about whether we can financially do it. 

I just created a blog page about some of the little things I currently do to save extra money and earn money.  Check it out if you are interested.

I hope others have some good ideas, too

I like these tips mchupie!  OP, do you like walking dogs?  Maybe some people in your neighborhood would pay you to walk their dogs while at work or just let them out in the middle of the day.  Most "professional" dog walking/pet sitting services charge $10-$20 per 1/2 hour walk or time spent with pet.  

Katsouza1

ginger01604:

google money saving mom.  She has a wonderful website on ways to live with little money.  She also goes through how to save money with coupons and ways to make extra money completing surveys and other things.

 I wish you the best...

 

OMG Money Saving Mom is brilliant I tell you! Thank you so much for sharing this!!! 

Jenny33

Two words, "coupon match-ups".

I save money by using coupons on weekly sale items. I usually go to two-three stores per week and stock up on items we use that are on sale.

For example, today I bought 4 packages of glad trash bags. That was a total of 160 trash bags. Do I need 160 trash bags this week? No. Will I use them over time? Yes.

They cost 7.49, but were on sale for 5.99. I had four printable Glad coupons that took 2.00 of of each one. So I paid 4.00 per package.

I paid 16.00 for 30.00 worth of product. With my other groceries, my bill was 138.00, but I only paid 78.00 with coupons and sale items. Not to mention the store I shopped at gives me discounts on gasoline for buying groceries, so I got that too.

I started "deal-seeking" for fun, and am hooked. I am not as good as some of these amazing people you can find online... but I save a good handful of money too. You should see my basement, it's like my own little grocery store:)

Try googling the name of your favorite grocery stores in your area and adding the word "deals". There are probably local ladies that blog about the deals that they get at those stores. Takes all of the guess work out of it for you!

The only item I paid full price for were my Oreo cookies and a few veggies I needed for my soup tonight. As for the Oreo cookies, they were a non-negotiable. The baby made me do it:) 

Disneygeek77

I work at my church for a few hours a week.  Apparently they pay people to do child care during their weekly woman's bible studies.  I had no idea until I had a baby and was looking to make a little extra money.  It is nice becuase I could bring my DD  while I watched the other babies and nurse her when needed.  It was also good for me because it gave me a reason to get out of the house, meet other moms, get DD used to other adults and babies, and I was making a little extra money.  It truly has been a blessing.  I saved up half of that money all year for Christmas and we will be having a nice Christmas.  I thought having paid child care workers during bible studies was unique to my church, but it is not.  A lot of churches in my area pay people to watch kids during the bible studies. 

So it might not hurt to call a few churches in your area and see if they offer something similar. 

jlpev

Thanks for all ur advice!!!

mishu917

Get into pet sitting. My roommate did it in college and used to make tons of money. The peak times are around school holidays and the major national holidays. For example, she got $800 for Thanksgiving weekend to clean out the litter box for these people. She'd also walk dogs for people on vacay and would make about $500 a week just for going once or twice a day to feed or walk. Google the petsitting business in your area, and you might find people looking to hire pet sitters for their company. This way, you can build a clientele and branch off on your own. I live in NYC, but I don't think the prices I quoted were inflated, DH's parents in SC pay around the same to have their dog taken care of when they are out on vacay. Good luck!

BTW, couponing works but it takes a lot of time and many of the coupons are inserts in the Sunday newspapers. I coupon sometimes but I have a F/T job so it's hard for me to follow up with it... so I can't say I saved a ton, but I did save a little I guess. The etsy store suggestion was good, I'd suggest headbands, they are SO easy to make and people will pay a lot for them. Also, you can try to start an ebay kids store and figure out where people buy stuff super cheap and so on. There is a lot of money in this because people start bids at .99 and make a living out of this... soo I think it just takes a little commitment and start up initiative.

kcisthebombdotcom

I hate to start this post as a negative nelly, but be weary of staying home unless you're fully financially prepared for it. As someone who just survived the first year of motherhood, there are TONS of unplanned expenses that having a kid will bring, and if things are going to be tight, you probably should consider getting some sort of part time job for some steady form of income. There are plenty of jobs you can do on a part time basis-call centers, retail, hotels, offices, etc commonly hire people part time and with the economy being the way it is, part time work is easy to obtain since employers don't want to pay benefits for full time employees. You can't rely on BF as a money saving technique because many women can't BF for a ton of different reasons. Some have to go on medications for PPD or other medical conditions after giving birth that aren't compatible for BF, some have supply issues that make nursing impossible (or they have to supplement with formula), to a million other things that can go wrong that make nursing impossible.

To answer your original question, hip2save.com is a great website that gives you internet coupons and tells you what stores to use them for the best deals. Other ways to save money-have your DH carpool to work, cancel cable/cell phone plans and get pay as you go phones for emergencies and use a magic jack at home to make phone calls, stick to a strict budget and don't pay for expenses with debit cards only cash, only use one vehicle and cancel insurance on the other one, give up going out to eat (or only go out once a month), invest in a deep freezer and stock up on meat/frozen foods when they're priced low, etc.

Good luck!