I feel like I’ve hit a low point - how can I earn money?

[FinanciallyScared]

Currently a SAHM. Two very young children so can’t afford nursery costs. We were doing okay but my husband has been struggling a little since our mortgage rate massively increased, transfers me a small amount monthly. With that and the CB I’m only just paying my bills, I no longer have enough for anything else and I’m racking up debt on a credit card I can’t afford to do more than pay the minimum payment off.

I need to earn somehow money remotely during any free time or in the evenings (husband works some nights too on random shifts so I can’t be out of the house)! I have generic office based skills up to manager level and have spent hours this morning uploading my cv and details to a site where you apply for random freelance/admin work but when I got to the end you need to pay for ‘credits’ to then apply for jobs…I have nothing in my account and could honestly cry.

I’ve also spent time looking at videos on drop shipping, pdf sales, Etsy shops selling digital products and all sorts but again these all seem to need some kind of money up front which I don’t have and I’ve spent so many hours down YouTube rabbit holes that I don’t know what’s a scam or not anymore. Please if someone lets me know a way I can earn money without having to pay for it, let me know because I’m feeling so low about it all today. (NC for this).

Honestly OP I think you both need to sit down and look closely at all finances, money in & money out, check UC entitlement and come up with a proper plan together. Whether that means a new job for him so that you can also look for a job, adjusting bills and spending to save some that way, you need a plan.

I would be very very wary of anyone that says you can do xyz remotely when you fancy to make money- the vast majority of these adverts you see are scams or MLM schemes.

Might be a stupid question but do you claim everything you are entitled to try turn to us calculator. https://benefits-calculator.turn2us.org.uk. You have children make sure the child benefit is paid to you so you get national insurance credits whilst they are young. Universal credit can help with nursery costs to enable you to work I get that you might not want to but you will get some free childcare when they are older. It’s good that you have a husband who supports you but also check out Martin Lewis site for loads of savings tips.

If you've previously worked as a manager would you not be better off getting a 9-5 and putting them in nursery/childminder? I know it's expensive and frustrating to not clear a huge amount once the nursery fees are paid but presumably at least one of the children qualifies for some 'free' hours and you may get some tax credits too, plus employer pension contributions and so on which obviously don't hit your bank balance immediately but are still worth it long term? And then you'd also be in a better position career wise once the kids are in school and childcare bills drop, not having had a long break from work? I would have thought the net profit from working an average wage job say 4 days a week would exceed what you'll be able to make from random freelancing in admin around the kids (sadly for that you're competing against AI plus what virtual assistants in places like the Philippines are offering for very little per hour).

You mentioned your mortgage rate massively increased this is probably one of your largest outgoings, the first thing I would do is check if your mortgage is fixed rate/ tracker/ standard variable rate? Is there any early redemption penalty for switching products get all this info now then compare on a whole of market broker L&C are great https://www.landc.co.uk/remortgage. Cut up the credit cards and urgently sit down with your partner you should not be racking up debt on them you are a partnership unsecured debt can easily spiral yes he might feel like he’s supporting you by transferring money but does he know about the credit cards?. Do full income and expenditure tools on money saving expert.

https://natcen.ac.uk/interviewer-opportunities

You could try this. No remote but you can work when you choose, so could fit it around your husband's night shifts and do this on free evenings and weekends.

I think they do require a minimum no. of hours each week and its quite a lot (30?) but you could discuss that with them.

You need to do a full, joint review of your finances. Does your DH earn enough to pay the mortgage, bills, work travel, basic food and essential clothing?

Go through all the steps here:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/money-help/

Are you entitled to benefits now your household income is lower?
Can you cut down the cost of things like mobile phones, broadband etc
Are you paying for any subscriptions you could cancel?
If you have a TV licence, do you actually benefit from it?

If you can make a few tweaks to the above, it could make things noticeably easier.

Are you meal planning and batch cooking and does your DH take a packed lunch to work?

Is there any sort of 'bank' work you can do where you can pick and choose shifts in accordance with your DHs rota? Can he change his hours at all so you can work around him?

Also yes as PP says this absolutely needs to be a family problem not a you problem - it doesn't really matter the actual mechanics of how you move your money around (joint accounts or separate), where there are small children to consider shortage of money absolutely has to be a joint issue. If your husband's job can involve the evening or night working is there a way he can apply at his current work, or swap jobs or take on an extra job to work more out of hours, then he can be at home more in the daytime's which would allow you to go out to work while he takes care of the kids? Or if that's not possible can he apply for flexibility to work more of a consistent weekday pattern so you can take an evening/weekend job? Working opposing shifts like this is one of the ways couples on lower wages manage to afford to both work and not lose one whole wage on childcare - it's brutal and can make you feel like ships in the night and have no couple/family time but it's only for a few years while you had 2 small ones, can be re-evaluated once in school?

See if you can fix your credit card to 0% - the Money Saving Expert website explains how that works. How about working in the evenings/ weekends when your husband is not working (presumably he has a Mon-Fri job?) Could be some retail/hospitality options?

But if there's no slack in your budget and you can't make changes in the short term, it might be that you just need to hang on until DC are entitled to free hours and start school and childcare costs drop and you can start working so household income increases and costs fall and you are in a better position.

In the meantime (jointly!) live as frugally as possible, minimise debt to essentials only and make sure it's always at 0% - your DH will need to take some on, because they're his DC too and he's working so will be better entitled to credit. You can pay it off when DC are at school and you are working again.

First thing you need to do is sit down with your husband and go through all your outgoings and income. Your current system isn't working, you shouldn't be in debt for day to day costs.

Then if you still can't make ends meet your need to get a job and childcare. I know childcare seems expensive but remember that cost would be split between both your incomes, you could possibly claim help towards it, second child will get a discount etc. Just saying 'we can't afford childcare' doesn't make sense when that's what most other working families do.

If things are this tight, you’d be better to go back to work and have Universal Credit pay 85% of the childcare costs. It’s probably not how you wanted to do things, but it doesn’t sound like you can afford to be a SAHM right now. There’s no shame in that, very few people can. the economy is horrible and not getting any better.

There’s no decent remote work that you can easily pick up and earn money. Nobody would do any other jobs if there were. I am remote but work all hours, can’t have my kids when I work, and I’ve specialised for 14 years to get here. There’s still more and more pressure to be in the office and if I ever have to change jobs, I’m not sure I’ll find a fully remote alternate anymore.

I think there are things that you could do, but ignore drop shipping etc and just keep it really, really simple.

Buying and selling: first sell some items that you have at home, then use that money to invest in some more items to sell. Sometimes you can buy ‘lots’ of items eg clothing from EBay or kilo sales, then sell the items on individually. There is a lot about this on Reddit, called ‘flipping’.

Clerk to a school governing body. Some evening work involved but the dates will be set well in advance.

Evening receptionist at any local centre where meetings and events are held. Possibly some flexibility if there is a roster of people.

Remote call handling or web-moderation.

Hope that helps.

Only thing I can suggest is Prolific if you can get on it. I can easily make 2-300 a month without trying on it. However, it does depend on your demographic and skills a bit. It is legit though and pays out immediately.

Also, you shouldn’t be worried about having nothing in your account when you’re married unless he also has nothing at all in his.

I did a role as Clerk to the Governors of a school when my children were small and I couldn't afford to work full time during the day. The meetings were in the evenings and I did the admin and writing up the minutes in the few hours when my kids were at preschool in the mornings. These sort of roles are advertised on our County Council s website under non teaching school - based jobs. It also meant it was term time only.

You could look at freelance sites like Fiverr and Upwork, no joining fees. You can sign up for surveys with Research Tribe but it doesn't pay much. Occasionally I see adverts for Parish Clerks which may be doable.

But I don't think it's realistic you'll find a fully-remote regular paid role for evenings only. Are your husband's shifts allocated at short notice over 7 days and nights?

I work nightshifts in a supermarket (10pm-6am) I do the equivalent of 2 nights per week, but I work 4 on 10 off. But I could swap to every Friday and Saturday night. There's also usually a need for more staff to do the 7pm-12am hours. I get a night shift premium plus staff discount etc.

I hate my job and I've been looking for something part time remote for a while, bur those roles get snapped up and my admin and IT are way out of date. The WFH hub on FB is worth a follow

I have a suspicion that OPs DH might earn too much for UC especially as they don't rent but if you want to give us an idea what he earns etc you might get some help.

I do yougov surveys. It does take a while but you can vouchers or £50 after so many surveys.

Thanks so much for all the messages everyone, I really really do appreciate all of them and there’s lots to think about there. My husband does unfortunately earn just about too much to qualify for UC and we are not able to switch mortgage rate until later in the year. Hopefully that may ease things a little though!

Part of the issue is me not telling him how much I’m really struggling as I know he’s also really feeling the pressure but I do need to have that conversation. He does occasionally work weekend days too so that makes finding shift work difficult. I know it’s stupid but I’ve been burying my head in the sand with just how hard I am finding it and don’t want to let our family down, it’s so difficult to imagine putting them in full time childcare to barely make much more than that’s costing but I think you’re all right… it is just completely unaffordable not to work now.

I feel stupid as I’ve been looking for so long this week at any ways to make money that my social media feeds are now just constant targeted ads for ‘download this course and make thousands a month from home’, I feel like I’ve become the desperate person targeted by MLM type schemes that I never thought I’d be.

You can teach English remotely - many sites do not require any qualifications. Or do some editing/proofreading. If you know any foreign language - register with agencies as a translator. There are also many AI tutoring websites, where you can register. All these you can do from home and at any time you want. It won't bring you a lot of cash instantly, but with some effort and patience, you can earn 500-800 per month after some time.

What sites would you try for proof reading/editing? I’d love to do that sort of work but I felt like that may be over saturated or something that companies are turning to AI for now? I have actually been trying to look into ways to use AI in the evenings to try and keep myself relevent so I’ll have a look at the tutoring sites. Thank you ❤️

Why are you feeling bad for having no money? You are trying but can’t be expected to be providing 100% of flexible childcare and exist on barely anything. Get out of the apologetic mindset. What does your DH think you could do? Is he also running up debt or just expecting you to? It should be shared. Is he being as careful as you?

The freelance platform market is saturated, you dont have enough specialist experience to make it on there IMO.

The best solution is to put the kids in childcare and get a full-time job, even if its barely worth it to start with.

Check out freelance sites like Upwork.com
There may be some jobs that fit tbe bill for your skillset, you can filter the search
Once you've accepted the job, you complete it at your pace

I'm sure there are similar sites too, but I find Upwork.com great

Turning down a regular part time job because your husband works an occasional extra shift at the weekend is complete madness surely? Either he won’t be able to take those overtime shifts or childcare for unavoidable clashes will have to be arranged

It seems also that you don’t have proper joint finances too and that you get an ‘allowance’? But not one which covers your expenses. This puts you in a very vulnerable position financially OP. Childcare is a JOINT expense, not yours alone!! Time for a frank discussion and a big rethink. If people were genuinely worse off working, no one would work when they had children!. Without meaning to sound unfair, I highly doubt you’d be in a worse position if you went back to work and that sounds a bit of an excuse not to change the current situation

If he only occasionally works weekends, remember you'll get some holiday you can take too. But also so can your husband book holiday. It can't be for you to be entirely flexible around your husband's job; if a regular second income is needed, then unless you have quite niche and in demand skills, your husband is going to need to work with you to cover childcare.

And don't forget about things like pension and other benefits that go with being an employee.

100% agree stay at home mums put themselves in very vulnerable position. At least some part time work would give you a chance to build a pension have spending money take a bit of pressure off your husband and keep your hand in with working. The only time I have seen it work is when women have a genuine partnership not just a few pounds of hand out from their working partner. Don’t be so quick to accodomate him by being at home to pick up the slack and kids making his life easier if it is costing you financially.