SAHM Jobs
Although I love staying at home with my kids, I am not opposed to making extra money. The Proverbs 31 woman did it, and so do I. When my husband and I were first married, I worked as a grocery store cashier until my pregnancy became too much and I quit. When my son was a few months old, I started looking for ways to add onto my husband's income. I've tried a lot of things from an at-home business to paid surveys and here are the ones I loved.
Medical Transportation Volunteer
This is technically not a job, but reimbursed volunteer work. I drove people to their doctors appointments and was reimbursed for mileage. I always made about twice the actual cost of gas. I was able to bring Daniel with me, as he was my only child at the time. This works well if you have a small car and don't have a car full of kids. You need to be able to fit the person you are driving. If you have a van or SUV, you may not earn as much above the cost of gas. It was fun and a neat way to meet different people.
Different organizations run volunteer driving programs in each region of the country. If I wanted to do this again, I would check Volunteer Match.
Mystery Shopping
Most of the hard work with mystery shopping is up front. You have to sign up for a ton of companies and then see if they have jobs in your area. I have manually signed up for almost 200 companies. But, since then, I found a shortcut. Archondev and Sassie are two website programs that many mystery shopping companies use. By filling out one (free) form, you can sign up for every company that the Archondev program services. There is also a list of all of the Sassie companies, which have a near identical and simple form to fill out. I used Roboform (the free version) and it filled these form out for me in seconds. That is 117 companies total. This is the Sassie link, and this is theArchondev link. I have worked quite happily with companies using both programs. The Mystery Shopping Providers Associationand Walletboosters have free lists of even more companies.
In mystery shopping, you are assigned a certain location, and you have to go there within a time frame. You have to evaluate certain aspects of the store, like cleanliness and service, and then come home and write a report online. Sometimes it is a basic yes/no report and sometimes you write several essays. Sometimes you must purchase, other times you purchase and return and sometime you don't buy anything. I do at least one shop a week so we can go out to eat. I can bring my kids to most shops and my husband comes to some shops. (Husbands like this because they get to pretend to be a spy.) Your income potential is based on how many shops are available in your area, how far you're willing to travel, and how much of yourself you want to put into it.
Freelance Writing
You can make money with freelance writing by submitting articles to a site that will pay you for them or through a blog. With paid articles, you are working in someone else's infrastructure and going by someone else's rules. That means if you do what they ask, you get paid however much they want to pay you. When I looked into doing this, the field was a little crowded, but with anything, you can still succeed with hard work and perseverance. There's a list of companies to get started on Walletboosters. Also Associated Content has been recommended to me for this.
With a blog, there is more freedom for either success or failure. You can write about whatever you want and monetize however you want and it may or may not make an income. You can make an income from blogging, but it is not a guaranteed income, as with the other jobs. If you treat it like a business and have a growth plan, you can do well.
What kind of Mommy jobs have you tried?
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20 Responses to “SAHM Jobs”
February 17th, 2010 at 6:20 am
Another easy one is donating plasma-I make $160 a month for sitting on my bum reading
I also just started a blog and monetized it but I’ve made a grand total of .09 cents so far-I agree that blogging is not a guaranteed source of income LOL! But its a lot of fun so the money is just an added perk 
sara http://myfrugalfunlife.blogspot.com/
February 17th, 2010 at 8:31 am
I edited manuscripts when my kids were little. Now I work a “normal” job in the mornings, but in the afternoons I make a little money with an online job helping my son in his ticket reselling business. (He lives overseas and does all his work in the internet, I do the leg work on the ground here at home.)
February 17th, 2010 at 8:53 am
I work as a freelance writer, but I disagree with “If you treat it like a business and have a growth plan, you can do well.” Well not necessarily disagree, just feel something should be added – you have to have something that people want to read about. You have to have a good niche, which this author does, or create controversy, or have a particularly whitty style that people want to read. If you are blogging about changing diapers and whiping boogers, you won’t garner much of a following. You also have to decide how much of yourself and your family you want “out there.” For me, I enjoy my privacy, love learning new things all the time for the various clients I writer for, and find my job to be a good fit.
February 17th, 2010 at 8:59 am
Great article! I will be quitting my full time job in May in order to be a stay-at-home wife and home school our niece and nephew (who live with us), so this advice is very timely for me! The only SAHM job that I’d been able to think of is to do at home typing (which I would LOVE to do), but I have no idea how to find something like that. Thank you for these ideas! Looking forward to seeing some comments with other ideas as well.
February 17th, 2010 at 11:41 am
There are so many options out there for SAHM jobs. We are working locally to convince corporations to set up virtual teams instead of cutting jobs entirely. So far we have a great deal of interest but it is going to take time to get things going.
February 17th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
As a stay at home mom, you can easily make extra money by having an at home daycare, as I do. Or you can work as a cleaning lady. I don’t know how much cleaning pays where others live, but here cleaning ladies make twice minimum wage. I do cleaning during the hours that my husband is home and can make a nice chunk of money in a few hours. Definitely worth it, in my opinion.
February 17th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
don’t forget that a sahm can get into the recycling business right at home…turn your trash into someone elses treasures with crafting, yard sales, etc…i take in mending and make quilts..and although i do not make anything “to order”, i do pretty well being original and creative…my quilts in particular sell themselves.
February 17th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Babysitting, part-time evenings at big discount store, census taking, poll station at an election, sewing, and now I work Saturdays for a dr which I love. I can stay home with my kids the rest of the week, and my awesome husband gets a full day to play with his kids.
February 17th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Um…just to clarify…I love the job, not the dr. ROFL…
February 17th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
I got lucky–I work mornings as a church secretary, and my daughter has been coming with me to the office since she was 8 weeks old.
I’ve also done some editing for a local publishing… it didn’t hurt that “my” first manuscript was a NYT bestseller.
I have been able to make a little money blogging–I convinced a high school ministry that they needed to live blog their conferences each summer, and then I ran their blog for about a year and a half.
Most of my blogging has been done without pay, however, and that’s actually been the most profitable; CNN.com contacted me after I posted something once, and my work made it on to their front page. That helped lead to a contract with a major publisher, and now a professor I had in college wants me to write a book with him.
This is on top of my morning job, my three year old, and a crippling case of fibromyalgia. So it CAN be done! My hope is to be working completely from home in the next couple of years so we can homeschool.
February 17th, 2010 at 10:33 pm
Here’s a tip, if you go to jobslingerplus.com you can sign up for a free trial, which will allow you to sign up for ALL of the MS companies that use Sassie, at once. The trial is truly free; you don’t need to give any cc info to sign up and after one month it’s just over–however, your actual accounts you created at the MS companies will still be there, no problem.
February 17th, 2010 at 10:35 pm
I used to do mystery shopping. Not only did I always get my oil changes for free, we also ate out for free – a lot. That saved lots of money on groceries. Since then, we have gone more “natural” and don’t eat out but it was fun while it lasted!
I also got to stay in hotels for free, got trips to resorts, and much more. Mystery shopping is definitely a good way to make some extra money. You could easily make it into a full-time income. My favorites were apartment shops – got paid $35+ to go apartment “shopping”. Just took a tour of apartments and graded the person showing them. It’s a LOT of paperwork and you pretty much NEED a fax if you want to work for most companies. If you’re organized, I recommend it!
February 18th, 2010 at 1:32 am
http://www.liveops.com – not a scam, been in business since 2000 and totally ok with the BBB.
February 18th, 2010 at 8:29 am
My daughter isn’t a SAHM, since she has no kids, but she does work from home. Several of her coworkers, scattered all over our state, are mothers, though the job is full time so I wonder how they manage with kids at home too. Anyway, they work as on-line school teachers for a charter school that is a cross between public school and homeschool. The students are actually homeschooled, but they have a certified teacher who helps keep them going, keeping in contact via phone and online technologies. (Google “virtual academy” to learn more. Teachers have to be state certified.)
February 18th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
I also do some free-lance writing. Right now I write for eHow which pays a decent amount depending on the number of articles you have.
I also have a blog, but don’t really make money off it. I am up to $60 in Adsense, but at the rate I am going it will take six months to reach the $100 mark, which you can cash in. But I know that blogs can bring profit. I do write about money saving tips though, so you can check it out at http://www.trenchesofmommyhood.blogspot.com
February 18th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
I’m a work at home mom, a freelance writer and internet marketer. I started out writing content for hire and now write my own websites and market products through Amazon Associates to earn affiliate commissions.
My husband and I have four children 6 and under, and my additional income has been a huge blessing to my family and help to my husband.
February 27th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
I used to work for a GREAT company called Alpine Access doing at-home customer service. You can do anything from sales to customer service. Its all in your home and its very flexible. You tell them when you can work and you almost always get exactly what you ask for. They never schedule you when you have told them you can’t work. Its pretty awesome.
http://www.alpineaccess.com
March 3rd, 2010 at 9:59 am
Thank you so much for posting this information as well as the wonderful comments that followed. My fiance’ and I started planning (living on one income and saving) since we became engaged. Our ultimate goal is for me to be a SAHM. In doing so, I still want to contribute to our household income, as much as possible.
Fortunately, I am a licensed school administrator and can teach online. I wanted to try something new, but I really don’t have the patience to wade through the scams. Thanks again for all of your information, very uplifting!
April 30th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
I also maintain several blogs to earn money online. sometimes it is hard to keep your daily earnings to stable levels..;;-
August 20th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
I have things to write about at the blog but i don’t think they can make me some money so i will try these things like walletboosters and mysterious shopping. I also found some answers site that will pay me if i know the answers to some quesitons.
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