Working/making money from home as a stay at home mum.

[IGIVEUPGRRR]

Hi,

Has anyone found a way to make money from home?!

I’m a stay at home mum and could do with finding a way to bring some money into the household and I was just wondering if anyone had found a way whilst at home?

My DD is 15 months and I was unable to return back to work as full time child care worked out to be basically the same as what I would’ve been bringing home after tax and unfortunately both our families live too far away to help with looking after DD.

My partner works full time so we are not entitled to any help UC wise and also has children from a previous relationship. Our DD was not planned and we didn’t find out until I was about 6 months pregnant before anyone decides to go on the attack about ‘choosing to have more children’.

We are getting by but it would just be nice to add something into the household as I feel pretty guilty about being ‘kept’.

Thanks!

Can you do some work when your partner is at home? If that’s evenings and weekends it might be limited to shop / bar work.

There aren’t a lot of employers that would let you work at home while also caring for a child. As pp said evening/weekend work would probably be best.

I qualified as a book keeper and do a little from home

Evening and weekend work around partners hours. I worked 5pm-10pm for three years until my youngest was eligible for funded hours.

Set up a business. Are there any particular hobbies that interest you? I'm a SAHM and I'm going to try to start my own jewellery business, although currently on hold as I am expecting my 2nd DC in just under a month. I intend to sell on platforms like Etsy, Instagram etc and eventually create my own website if things take off. I too feel the guilt of not bringing money in, but even me getting a job will not even touch the cost of childcare and I am unable to earn the sort of money my DP does unless I spend years training/working my way up in a company.

It’s hard isn’t it? I’m going back part time - my wages will just cover childcare costs and no more. Only going back to keep my foot in the door at work rather than having to try and get back into work after being off.

If DH worked a “normal” job I’d look for evening and weekend work but he works offshore and is away for a couple of weeks at a time so we have no option to do that unfortunately.

Either some evening or weekend work or start some sort of small business. I sell a niche product on eBay. If the earn £10 a day thread has quite a few ideas

I'm a SAHM, but I've also done evening and weekend, casual jobs around the kids. Mine have been waitressing and hostessing in restaurants. It's actually lovely, as long as you can deal with the late nights (which luckily for me didn't happen very often). I did it from when my youngest was about 6 months. Such a great excuse to get dressed up and meet new people. Obviously you need to choose where you work carefully! I haven't done it since covid though. May look into doing it again.

Unless you have the money and time to do an intensive "boot camp" then this isn't a quick solution, but I retrained as a Web developer whilst being a SAHM. I started right after my 2nd child was born, mostly while she and my then toddler were napping, and it took me about 2 years to be ready to take on work. You can definitely get j"ob ready" much quicker than that, but I was restricted by time and money. Anyway, I started taking on freelance jobs which I would do in the evenings and weekends, and now my dp has started doing condensed hours so I work 1 full week day and 1 weekend day. Not a quick fix, but something to look into for the future if you plan on wanting from home flexible working longer term.

It might be worth (assuming you liked your former work) reconsidering it, if the suggestions here don't work for you. While you'd be working to pay for childcare, you'd also be getting pension contributions, sick pay and annual leave - none of which you get as a self employed person unless you hit the jackpot! Additionally when your child goes to school you do not re-enter the workplace with a few years' gap, which for most women equates to a pay drop as they usually don't enter exactly where they left off.

Do you have any crafting skills? Tailoring and alterations, jewellery or card making etc?

Or school pick ups and drop offs for a working mum who leaves early and comes back late. It ties you a bit but there are plenty mums on here struggling to find someone.