How can I earn an extra £400 a month?

[lorinay]

I’m a midwife and having to drop a day at work as I simply cannot get the childcare (single parent), but really can’t afford the drop in income.

I need to find something I can either do from home, or during school hours to replace the shortfall.

I am desperate and open to pretty much anything!

I am in the exact same position.

Are you entitled to any UC?

Any hobbies you could turn into a side business? Such as making and selling jewellery/soaps/candles.

Ironing or sewing service

Online surveys or proofreading

Do you live in an area where there might be much demand / capacity to pay for antenatal-type classes or similar? You could offer it during school hours. I went to a few pregnancy / yoga breathing type classes when heavily pregnant - I went to those as well as going to NCT classes. And to be honest, I found the non-NCT classes really helpful, as the teacher (i think she was a yoga teacher?) introduced the concept of yoga-breathing during labour (visualising a rectangle, with a bright light travelling round the perimeter, and doing in-breaths on the short side and our breaths on the long side), and I used it for hours during my first labour, and it really helped me focus and distract myself from the pain. I think she also gave practical tips on moving around and visualising breathing out through the pelvis, in order to open up / relax the tension down there. If you have a potential market of more wealthy folk near you, it might be that you could aLao offer one-to-one late pregnancy mentoring sessions / support, on your day off?

Advertise your services as a Doula, breastfeeding consultant, postnatal mother's helper etc

Can you offer private antinatal classes, baby massage classes, infant first aid training? Or any sort of generic baby group, with a midwife present to give support on infant care/health/nutrition/weaning etc would be popular with new mums. You just need a village hall. Do a 10 min chat about topic of the week, plenty of tea and biscuits. Perfect!

The £10 a day threads in money matters are pretty helpful

I think this is the current one

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/money-matters/4953179-earn-ps10-a-day

Babysitting, extra pair of hands/ ‘maternity nurse’ for new mums , teacher of baby first aid courses, lactation consultant, train to cut tongue ties and do them privately, dog walker

Application and interview prep for people who want to train as a midwife - Dr prep is a similar business for med school

Can I just say, doing online research/surveys will not yield you much money! (As someone who used to be in the research world)

Welfare Assistant at a School near by. I work 8.5 hrs a week there. Earn about £400 a month. Fits in well around the Children. Also lots of School hoildays!

In the short term whilst you get set up with all the great ideas above - make sure you utilise all the bank opening account offers. Lots of them ask you to switch but you can open a second current account at your existing bank very quickly and easily. Then use that for the ‘switch’. I think Lloyds have one for £200!

Exam invigilators at a secondary school? It’s around £14 ph but I completely dependant on your current hours and shifts and how these are rotated.

so If you are doing two 13 hour shifts per week, potentially have 5 days to pick up invigilating during exams. Not suggesting you work 7 days a week but you have flex. it is impossible to advise without more info on current hours. If you work 9-5 and a going to a dixed day off per week that is more challenging.

Go to the job centre and ask

I’m in the same position and have a few supermarket Christmas positions interviews coming up. They are pretty flexible on availability.

I would definitely aim to do something with your existing expertise as a midwife because you ought to make more money that way. If you do try one of the goo ideas already suggested, have a think about remote versions as well - so much coaching / training etc is done really well via zoom now.

Application and interview prep for people who want to train as a midwife - Dr prep is a similar business for med school

Dont try to re-invent the wheel! Using your existing midwifery knowledge and skills is an excellent idea and will save time and effort on learning a whole lot of new stuff. Some very good suggestions from previous posters. Classes could take place during school hours or in the evening. Unless you feel that you want to get away from your profession, but that would be a great pity. From what I read on Mumsnet there is not enough available help/advice for new mums in many areas. Planning a course may seem daunting if you have never done so but this is where AI can help with structuring your ideas.

I am a retired academic and I do private tutoring with postgraduate students (mostly international) including helping them prepare applications and write personal statements. I dont aim to take the place of the student's official supervisor. However many students find that their professor simply does not have sufficient time to devote to them. I also have a side hustle selling antiques online based upon many years in the antiques trade. Im always being asked if I do courses on Ebay selling and am now consiering putting together a course.

Post natal doula - there's not enough of them.

Could you look at local FE colleges for vacancies? You could do a little teaching to supplement your income

Breast feeding consultant for new breast feeding Mums.

Thank you everyone

Our community midwives (I am one) are DESPERATE for midwives. We'd happily let you do school hours bank shifts for visits or bookings. If you're NIPE-trained, you could do school hours NIPE shifts too, or speak to your Matron about doing school hours bank shifts to cover breaks?

Everything else suggested here seems to involve setting up a business etc which is great if you are good at that kind of thing, but I know I would be rubbish at it and end up spending a load of money on setting up and then getting no clients! But I have done all the things I have suggested above, by talking to the right people, and it has enabled me to pick up the extra money I needed around my substantive shifts. I also do some days at our local uni as an OSCE examiner or teaching skills, it's slightly longer than school hours - usually home by 4.30 or 5pm, so I can see my kids of an evening, mine are secondary so get themselves home.

Also, with many bladder and bowel clinics being scrapped, and gender issues with district nurses, several factors have generated a fair amount of private work changing indwelling catheters in people's homes, for catheter trained natal female nurses. (users order their own equipment - nurses usually expected to supply own gloves - mutual understanding about grey areas, if suitably qualified professional)

I’ve managed to make £400 already this month on eBay / vinted / marketplace selling stuff from around the house that we don’t use anymore. Obviously not sustainable for every month but could tide you over until you find something more long-term? Online surveys or platforms like Prolific can add a few hundred a month too.

I would say this is the winner. A lot of the survey things are a lot of time input for very little money.

Play to your strengths and existing knowledge/training. A lot of mums of little ones will also need contact during school hours so that is likely to fit well, or mums on maternity leave are likely to have time during the day.

You can earn a lot of money through “switching” bank accounts. (Not your real bank account, set up dummies) It can take a few months and once you’ve done them, you can’t do it again but I earned over £1400 doing it and only takes a few minutes a month. Look on the MSE forum under banking.

Do you get UC, if you do the drop in wages might mean your UC payment increases. If you don't get it, have you applied? I was suprised to find that I qualify despite earning £48k as a single parent with one child and no child care costs. Not a huge amount, just over £200 a month, but it still helps.