How Can A Single Mom Make Easy Money
How can a single mom make easy money?
Being a single mom means having only one income and children to raise. The odds are you work a full-time job and still need more money. Most families have two incomes, and you only have one. Of course, you need more money. Who wouldn’t?
Some problems of being a single mother needing to earn more money are
- you need more time with your children.
- You need more time for self-care.
- You need to earn more money without additional childcare expenses.
- Your schedule isn’t flexible. (You need to pick up your children at a certain time.)
This is why side gigs may be a better fit for you. Most single moms need to be more frugal.
Because you need more money, you are willing to work more, but you need time with your children, and you need me time. So, how can a single mother make easy money?
Instead of getting a part-time job, you could find a side hustle where you could work from home, giving you more time with your children and earning more money without increasing childcare expenses and no commute time.
Another option is to find a side gig that allows you to take your children. This would work well if you babysit, housesit or pet-sitting.
If you want to build wealth as a single mom, read my article “can I be wealthy as a single mom.”
Some of the easier gigs to make money would be side gigs you can do from home, saving you travel time and additional childcare expenses.
Not all the suggestions I make will work for everyone, but you should be able to find something among the side gigs I will suggest later.
As a side note, I know a girl who was having trouble paying her rent and seriously considered getting a roommate to save money. Her problem was she didn’t want a roommate because she had so little time with her children. Instead, she was able to land a side hustle so she could afford to live alone.
Side Hustle vs. Part-Time Job
Why A Side Hustle
A side hustle can allow you more latitude to schedule work around your life. Not your life around your work. This is good for you because you can decide when you need or want to work. With a part-time job, your boss will make a schedule that’s best for the company (We all know that what’s best for the company isn’t necessarily best for you.)
Part Time-Job
Let’s face it, the function of business is to earn money. That means your employer needs to earn money from what you do.
They not only pay you but there are other operating expenses associated with employees. Items like insurance, workers comp, rent, the electric bill, and much more.
How Can A Single Mom Make Easy Money?
The first thing you need to do is define “easy.” To some, it will be a job that requires little concentration. Some people want a stress-free job. Others define easy as working from home.
What’s your definition of easy?
What Kind Of Work Are You Suited For
This is personal because you need to know your strengths and weaknesses. What can you do? If you are a good writer, you could be a copy editor or a freelance writer. If you are good at math, you could be a tutor. Or maybe cleaning houses is your thing. It’s all about what you are good at and what you consider easy.
The Four Metrics You Need To Consider Are
- What’s easy for you?
- What are your childcare needs?
- What are your self-care needs?
- What kind of work suits you?
What To Avoid
I know it’s a personal preference. But I never recommend side gigs where you’re required to make a large investment. I am referring to starter kits. My reasoning is if you had just grabbed the lawn mower or some cleaning supplies and found a lawn to mow or a house to clean, you are already on your way to making money.
If you buy a starter kit, you have already laid out some money, and the point of a side gig is to earn money. My experience with starter kits has been the starter kit was more important to the salesperson than the product or service you would be selling.
I Don’t Recommend Multi-Level Marketing.
I have never known anyone personally that had been successful at MLN. I know of some people who have been, but I don’t know them personally, so I don’t know the real truth behind their success.
Maybe they had a large following that had the money to risk at the beginning of their new career.
Maybe they lived with their parents rent-free for two years while starting their business.
Do You Need To Be Certified/Licensed?
Good question. A good place to start looking for answers is Google (of course). Another valuable resource would be to ask others working in the field you are interested in. A resource that is almost always overlooked is the local chamber of commerce.
Insurance And Bonding
Once again, it depends if you are required to have insurance and or bonding. The way to look at insurance and bonding is they can mitigate the likelihood of facing expensive lawsuits or needing a large outlay of money to right a wrong.
But not all side gigs have a huge liability.
How Much Money Do You Need
After you’ve decided you need a side hustle, how much do you need to earn? What is the shortage in your budget that you are trying to fix? Maybe you need more for savings, or you want to pay off a credit card or an upcoming car repair.
How much more do you need to earn to meet that need? Now you need to add in the amount of your added expenses of taking this side hustle.
If you are going to have more drive time, you will need to earn more money because gas is expensive, and you will probably need to increase the amount of money for childcare.
Consider The Cost Of Your Side Hustle
Treat it like a business. How much will this cost you? If you drive from one place to another, how far do you need to drive, How much will the gas cost? You should also consider wear and tear on the car.
Likewise, what will it cost you if you need to supply materials?
After considering all things, will you be able to make the money you need?
List Of Possible Side Gigs
Are You A Good Writer?
If you are, this may be just the thing for you. If you are looking for a side gig, you can work from anywhere; anytime, this may be what you are looking for.
Problogger.com offers a jobs board; you only need to peruse the listings and decide.
Usually, the requesting person asks you to submit a sample of your writing or to take a test.
If they like what you have to offer, they’ll offer you the gig. Most jobs are one-time jobs, but some have ongoing work.
In fact, this can work out any way you want it. You can scale up. You could possibly replace your day job if you’re interested. Or keep your day job and use this as a part-time gig.
1. Deliver Prepared/Food And Groceries
An easy side gig would be delivering prepared food, meals, and snacks. Many companies offer part-time work when you’re available. Or they hire Ubereats, Lyft, DoorDash, to deliver meals and snacks. Either way, it’s easy money.
Delivering groceries has become very popular since the outbreak of Covid. Most of the major grocery stores hire people to deliver groceries. Or you can contact instacart also delivers groceries. Check it out.
There are a few requirements: usually, you need to be 18 years of age and have reliable transportation.
Most delivery services work basically the same.
2. Pet Sitting
In many cases, our pets are considered to be members of our families. And like other members of our families, they sometimes need special care.
Because of our hectic schedules, we sometimes need to hire someone to sit with our pets when we are out of town or have that business meeting we can’t afford to miss. We need someone to pet sit for short or long periods of time.
If you are interested, read my article Earn Extra Money Pet Sitting.
3. Dog Walking
Dog walking is an important job. Think about it. Many people have long days. They leave early and come home late.
Their pets still need to be taken care of. They need to get outdoors and exercise and go potty.
This side gig could pair well with dog sitting.
4. Rideshare
If you like to drive, don’t mind having strangers in your car with you. Rideshare may be a good fit for you. Uber and Lyft are very popular rideshare systems. Both have an app for your phone. The app allows you to summon a ride and pay if you are a customer. If you are the driver, the app gives you the necessary information to find your next rider, and in most cases, the app manages your payment.
5. If You Love Working With Children
If you love children, enjoy caring for them, engaging with them, here’s an idea that may work well for you. This is a side gig you could work into a career. More and more children need care while mom and dad are at work or doing other things.
There aren’t any special requirements, but the more professional you are, the more likely people will hire you to tend to their children.
Some of the things you can do to improve your professional appearance: be certified in CPR and first aid and have experience, and have references.
Parents want to know you know what you are capable of caring for their children.
6. House Sitting
House sitting is increasing in popularity. Most people don’t want to leave their property unattended while they travel for vacation or business. Unattended homes are easy targets for theft and vandalism.
This side gig can be as simple as driving by checking the mail and looking around to ensure that everything is okay to stay in the property while the owners are away.
You may need to prove your integrity with references and experience to find such gigs.
Read my article, earn extra money house sitting It will help you get started.
7. Teach English From Home
More and more countries require their students to learn English as a second language. The nice part of this gig you don’t need to speak their language to be an effective English teacher.
Online English teachers earn 10 to $40 an hour. Of course, if you recently received your TEFL certification, you’ll probably start at the lower end of the pay scale, but you can work your way up to more money.
8. Can You Sew
If you can sew, you can be a seamstress. There’s a growing demand for affordable alterations. If you have a sewing machine and are skilled at hand stitching, you are already in a position where you could start a side gig doing alterations for others.
Introduce yourself to the local vintage stores and boutiques and give them your information to pass on to their customers.
9. Flipping Used Stuff
Suppose you have a knack for finding good usable preowned things, toys, tools, kitchen gadgets, and more. You may want to try your hand at flipping the items you find.
You can resell them in yard sales and post them on Craigslist, eBay and Poshmark.
If it’s clothing, you can resell it at a consignment store or put it online with Poshmark, eBay, or Craigslist.
10. Become a mystery shopper.
Customer experience is important to the business. What did you like? What did you dislike? How can we improve our service to you?
More and more companies are gathering data. And they will pay you for your opinion.
Typically you will buy something and be reimbursed for it and paid for your time.
Two companies are Market Force and IntelliShop. It’s free to join.
11. Odd Jobs
Are you looking for an odd job? Taskrabbit has a system where they have many jobs that are not small but need to be done. They offer the same day service. Some of the side gigs that are offered are handyman tasks, moving, cleaning, shopping, decorating, and so much more.
For your convenience, they offer an app so you can quickly respond to requests.
12. Help Businesses With Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping is usually not a full-time job. If a small business hires a bookkeeper, they are usually assigned other tasks to keep them occupied.
Frequently small business owners need help with the booking and hire trustworthy people to come into the office one or two days a week to keep the books caught up. Sometimes they’ll allow you to work from home.
This could be ideal for you if you are good at math and have a general knowledge of spreadsheets.
Conclusion
How can a single mom make easy money? There are many ways, I’ve given you some ideas that could work as easy money, or you could take it to the next level and start your next career.