Making money on maternity leave

[OrangeCatnip]

So my maternity leave starts on Monday (yay finally) if our little one arrives on his due date I will have 4 weeks without much to do other than lady muscle exercise, practicing self-hypnosis etc etc. I also desperately do not want to go back to my old/current job after my year of leave and so would like to use this time (and hopefully after he is born) to start up something, a little business or money making scheme so that I can justify staying at/working from home. I have worked out that I would need to make £250-300 a week to make up for what I would lose in earnings minus childcare costs. My place of work is likely to be filling posts in the spring so I am keen to see if I can make this equation balance before then or at least see if there is potential so i don't miss that opportunity unnecessarily. (my work place is boring and i'm looking for an excuse to move to something more exciting that i can justify to myself) OH is supportive either way.

I am in a creative field (think design and computers) and I am computer literate so happy to learn new skills if they are in that direction.

Yes know that my baby will take much of my time at first but by the time he is a year old or so I hope there will be enough opportunity for me to do this. Any ideas? I don't mind if there is an initial outlay to buy software or do some short term training. Have any of you started a business or similar while on mat leave?

P.S. Why isn’t someone taking advantage of this massive workforce of motivated out of hours staff??

Oh yes matched betting! I started and dropped off but still have £250 ish in accounts. I should start up again!

would like to use this time (and hopefully after he is born) to start up something, a little business or money making scheme so that I can justify staying at/working from home.

I know a few people who do mlms/ pyramid schemes.

What you wrote there sounds like the definition of one.

Look up Forever Living, It Works!, etc

I know someone who finished a book whilst on mat leave. It was something she'd already started though, the publisher was fairly relaxed about deadlines and she had a "home help" young woman come round a couple of times a week to look after the baby whilst she worked.

So, it's not impossible, but you'd have to be very realistic about the time you could spend on it and not over commit yourself. And also not feel bad if when your baby comes you change your mind and don't want to do it. Or you're in a situation where it's not possible for practical reasons (prem or poorly baby, postnatal injuries or PND.

As a client, I'm not sure I'd be thrilled with someone trying to work whilst also looking after a baby.

oh dear. yes i agree with PP if you want to do any kind of vague work to a respectable level you will need childcare. they get worse as they get older . i have a 9mo and i can even go to the loo to change my tampon without his 'assistance' when my G is working. it's that or him howling at the closed door.

I WFH as a web designer. It's a lot of creativity and a lot of problem solving.

I can't imagine trying to do this with a small baby. Even worse with toddlers.

It is possible. I've DM-ed you.

If you need to do it, then you will manage. If it's just a dilettantish whim then you probably won't. You need a routine of steel. We went out in the morning (toddler groups/library rhyme time/swimming etc.) and then had a monster 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. Bedtime was a little later to compensate for this (8ish) and I did a couple of hours once all asleep, sometimes in front the of the TV. There is no time for oodling about and I refused (and still refuse) to do telephone calls. And I had to accept that some days it would go wrong and I wouldn't be able to work. By the time the afternoon nap was on its way out it was half days at preschool for one and the next baby turned up. Rinse and repeat.

Think about scalability and avoid intensely intellectual pursuits - concentration will dip a lot in the early days. Only do what NEEDS to be done. Time spent tweaking would be better spent sleeping. But, yes, it is possible.

This is long so the TL/DR is YANBU I did, but YWBU to assume you will definitely be able to
....

Also going against the grain here. I set up as self employed 2 businesses when my DD was born - no issue with my contract and as i was claiming maternity pay (not allowance) and was not self employed before there were no tax issues.

Originally i worked with my daughter at home from 9 months - she was a good sleeper, 2 x 2 hour naps a day, and I also worked evenings. Eventually as business ramped up I put her into nursery 1 day a week. I was able to do all the admin work while she was at home and at evenings and the more dangerous not suitable for a child bits when she was at nursery. but I was making enough money to justify this and still not be at work. I then continued to work while pregnant with my second.

My DS is NOT the same as DD, so much so that I have taken the decision to sell the business with the 'dangerous' job as I don't have the naps I did with DD and he is still not sleeping through. i am making enough to qualify for the 3 hours though so DD (now not napping) is not an issue. I work at night, it is hard, I am tired, but i make it work. I have also taken on a job working 1 day every weekend - so DH has the DC so no nursery needed.

DS is nearly a year and not sleeping through (I went back to work when he was 7 months) so yes I am tired and yes it does take discipline to work when he is asleep instead of sleeping myself. But, and it is a big BUT, he is no where near as bad with sleeping as some of my friends DC, and my DH is in a job where he is around a lot more to help so I know that my situation is not the same as everyone and I am very lucky that I can work from home with children.

Sorry that was long

Just going to repeat the NO MLM thing, juuuust in case (I can see the MLM hun bots rubbing their hands with desperate glee at this thread and PMing you hard...)

There is no way I would have had enough energy to start a business whilst on maternity leave. My year off work was not what I thought it would be. I literally skipped back to work on my first day back, it was like someone had freed me from prison.

Look into matched betting. It doesn’t count as earnings as technically it’s gambling winnings so you don’t pay tax or have to worry about being on mat leave. You can easily make £200-£300 a month from it by just doing it an hour or so 4-5 evenings a week. Start with the Team Profit website, that’ll explain everything. It sounds a bit shady at first but I’m making around £1k per month from it around looking after a small baby. PM me if you want any more info.

For some people it's hard, for others it's doable. I did small bits of freelance work (mostly copywriting) via peopleperhour and did most work in the evenings though once or twice I said to my husband I needed alone time and made him take the kids out at the weekend.

I also did little things to accumulate (literally) a few pence here and there, like Qmee (earn pence from clicking links occasionally but pays straight into paypal) and Swagbucks (with a lot of surveys that don't work so it ends up being a lot of effort for little return, though you can eventually exchange points for Amazon vouchers etc). If you have unlimited wifi/data for phone you can get the swagbucks app and do that while feeding. It's only a few pounds a month though.

I've worked from home since DS was 4 months and my DD was 18 months and it was really hard. I basically worked when they slept and my day could start at 5am and then end at midnight, sometimes later. I spent nearly all my time working and it was exhausting. Housework starts piling up, you realise you not showered for two days and all you've eaten is a few peas from the children's leftovers! In fact, i was probably on the verge of a breakdown most of the time

That said, i persevered and have both DC in part time childcare now and it is becoming easier

It is doable but extremely tiring

I did a lot of writing with a newborn. I would not have done any at all with a 1 year old. They went to nursery, there was no other way to work.

It is possible. I've DM-ed you.

And there we have our first MLMer.

@Skowvegas my suspicions exactly! But I'm sure this MLM is different. And I'm just a hater

Presumably the matched betting thing is MLM-like as well? Otherwise surely everyone would be doing it if you could make £1000 a month from something you can do on your phone whilst looking after a baby?

No no no, not remotely similar. You don't recruit anyone, you don't sell anything, you're entriely unaffected by anything anyone else does... it starts a little slowly at first while you have a small pot of cash and are wrapping your head round it all. I got up to £250, prob at the equivalent rate of about £12ph (though you can't really quantify like that) and stopped due to lack of time but I can pick it back up again and it should start increasing a bit more rapidly. I do know quite a few people that make a decent extra monthly amount from it. Team profit website is a good place to start.

Plus I couldn't do it on my phone. Needed my laptop with several windows open and my spreadsheet!

Totally depends on your baby. I had grand ideas to start a business part time whilst on mat leave with dc1. Dc1 had severe silent reflux and cried about 10 hours a day and didn't sleep much ever. No chance.

DC2 has been a dream. Sleeps easily, very happy baby. I could have set up a business if I was just caring for them. But I had lively toddler to care for at the same time, so again no chance. Working on it now though.

Assassinated no, nothing to do with any MLM, just on your own.

You can't 'do it' from your phone entirely.

Mainly it needs to be a laptop as like the pp said, you need several tabs open at least, plus your tracking spreadsheets.

Once you're up and running and you understand what you're doing, it opens up a bit. I do a lot of casino earners as part of MB and they're easy to do on your phone when you have the hang of them.

MB is easy - once you've learned it. I spent well over a month reading and learning before I started. You go slow and struggle and get confused and then all of a sudden it just clicks IMO.

I use Oddsmonkey as a guide and personally find them much better than Profit Accumalator or TeamProfit.

Assasinated - that's what my DH said, "why isn't everyone doing it if it's so easy?" But actually, it's not that easy! It can be quite complicated (DH didn't understand when I tried to explain it to him) so you definitely need to have a switched on brain, and also be happy to spend time putting on bets just for £3-£4 profit a time. Some days I only make £5, but other days I've made over £100. Plus as a pp said, casino offers are well worth doing. I made over £700 in two days on those. It surprises me that more people don't do it tbh.

I'm not a MLM-er. And OP can confirm that if she reads the message I sent her. But people in RL (and who are on MN) know how I worked round my DC and I don't want them knowing my user name.