How to Make Money as a Stay-at-Home Mum

It’s often the dream isn’t it? Being able to stay at home with the kids whilst still bringing in a decent income is something that I know many mums would love to be able to achieve. OK, so it isn’t for everyone – I totally understand the desire to get out of the house and go to work. Staying at home isn’t for everyone. For us, when we had our first child I did continue to go out to work. But then two redundancies later and another child on the way meant I was going to be a stay-at-home mum for a while whether I liked it or not. I’ve always worked and I’ve always felt the need to earn money. Back when the second redundancy happened, I did everything I could to earn extra money during my pregnancy. I’ve tried LOTS of ways to make money from home. I wanted to share the ways I’ve found that actually work.

Use your existing skills

Think about the skills you already have. Could you turn these into a business?

Having worked in childcare previously, I took a course and became a childminder. It meant I could stay at home with my own children and still work too.

Skills you may be able to turn into a business:

• Baking
• Teaching – tutoring is big business!
• Cleaning
• Dog-walking
• Freelance writing

The list is endless.

Spend some time thinking about how you’ll make your hobby or skill into a successful business. How will you advertise it? It’s often worth spending a little bit of money initially to set yourself up as a professional-looking outfit. A couple of simple touches such as a professional logo and a well-designed website can really help to make you stand out.

Matched Betting

I’ve been matched betting for a few years – in fact it’s one of the main ways I earned a decent amount of money when I was on maternity leave with our third child.

Often, when I first mention matched betting to somebody, they’ll be concerned that it’s gambling. MATCHED BETTING IS NOT GAMBLING. I’ve written extensively about the benefits of matched betting and how it works. I’ve made thousands of pounds completely risk-free with matched betting.

Start a blog

Blogging is a great way to make some extra money, in fact some people make a full-time income from their blog. Blogging isn’t a quick way to make cash though. It can often take a long time to get to the point where you can start to see the money regularly coming in. It took me about a year before I was earning any kind of income from My Money Cottage.

Ways to earn money from your blog

If you decide that you want to write a blog and make money from it, you’ll need to think carefully about a number of things before you start. Are you going to focus on one area – such as travel or parenting? Think about the name you’ll use. If you want to make money from your blog then you’ll need to be writing about topics that people are actively searching. You want to be helping your readers with something. Last year, I bought a blogging course that has really helped me to increase the income from My Money Cottage. The course is relevant whether you’re a complete beginner or a more established blogger looking to supercharge your income.

Sponsored posts – This is when a company or an individual pays you to write about them and link to them on your blog. How much you get paid will depend on your blog niche and other factors such as social media following.

Affiliate income – This is when you recommend a product and a service to your readers and make a commission when they click through your link and make a purchase.

Mystery Shopping

Mystery shopping is a great way to earn some extra money and get hold of some freebies too. The great thing with mystery shopping is that you can often take your children with you. I’ve treated my youngest to lots of meals out and free things. I also love that it gives us a reason to get out of the house on days when we don’t have much planned.

There are a number of companies I’d recommend signing up to for mystery shopping jobs:

• Market Force
• RedWigWam
• ESA Retail
• Amber Arch

Crafting & Jewellery Making

If you enjoy making things, then you might want to consider making and selling your crafts. You’d be amazed at how successful some crafters are! You could make jewellery, ornaments, personalised gifts – there are lots of options.

You can sell items on places such as Facebook Marketplace and an Etsy shop.

Think about what you’re going to enjoy making and take it from there. If you enjoy what you do, then you’re far more likely to be successful. Once you’ve decided on what you want to make, it’s then time to start sourcing your supplies. Make sure you find a reputable supplier who will provide you with high quality stock and resources at reasonable prices so that you can start to make money from your new sideline. For example, if you’re going to make jewellery, then you’ll need to find some jewellery making supplies UK so that you can start to design and create beautiful items of jewellery.

Reselling

Reselling is big business. The idea is that you hunt for bargains in places such as auction houses & charity shops and resell those items for a profit. Reselling is something I’d really like to get into when I have some more free time. There are resellers who have managed to turn this into a full-time job but you’ll need to do some research about the kinds of items to look for and how to go about selling them on.

Surveys

Online surveys are a great way to bring in a little bit of extra money. Some sites are better than others though, with my biggest earner being Prolific Academic.

I tend to do surveys when I don’t have the energy to do much else. They’re easy just to sit and do in front of the TV. These are some of my favourite sites (note some of these also pay for completing other tasks too):

• Prolific Academic
• Inbox Pounds
• Swagbucks
• OnePoll
• Earnably

Childminding

Childminding is definitely not something to go into half-heartedly. In fact, these days it’s not that easy to become a childminder. Even in the five or six years since I first started childminding, the regulations have changed. You now need to have certain qualifications (or be working towards them) as well as be registered with OFSTED before you can even begin to start working as a childminder.

I was a childminder for around five years and by the end of it, I have to admit that I’d had enough. I was working 12 hour days and struggling to fit everything in. The amount of paperwork involved is ridiculous. I loved spending time with the children in my care but there were tough days when I wondered why I was doing it!

Do your research. It’s a wonderful job if you go into it with your eyes open. Make sure your family are on board too because it can have a tendency to impact on their lives too.