Part-time job advice/ideas needed

[happymama28]

DS is due in mid-July - our first child!  We are super excited, but also stressed about our finances.  It is very important to me and DH that I stay home with DS.  The catch is that we cannot afford to live off just DH's paycheck.  We're making some major cuts of our expenses, but I still need to find some type of part-time work.  I would prefer something that allowed me to be with DS or perhaps occurred with DH was home for the day.  I'm open to any outside of the box ideas.  Please help.

[IngaAnne]

Congrats on your first child! My son is almost 2, but that seems like just yesterday.

Right now, I work part time at a library near our house. It's typically two evenings a week 5-9pm and all day on Saturday 8:30-5pm. Total paid hours are 16 per week. It's perfect for us right now because I get to spend all day with my son and he's always with either his dad or me. The pay is enough to make it worthwhile to miss out on some family time.

[happymama28]

Thanks for the suggestion, IngaAnne.

Any other ideas out there?

[HappyMommy2]

The childcare center at my YMCA is always taking applications.  That gives you free childcare and a few extra bucks (and possibly a free gym membership).  They do minimum 8 hrs a week, so I am thinking of trying to do 2-3 afternoons a week to get some grocery money.

[happymama28]

HappyMommy2 - I hadn't thought of that.  Thanks!

Moms, any other outside of the box ideas out there?

[youngspiritmom]

Hi,

I understand your situation for sure. I found several ways to make a little bit of income here and there. I started by selling stuff on craiglist and taking surveys online, but that only generated a little bit of income from time to time. Then I (like a previous poster) got a part time job at the library shelving books, which is great because I basically pick my own hours. But my best source of income was babysitting for my neighbor who has two girls. It took some coordination at first to handle all 3 kiddos at once, but after I got the hang of it, it was a nice source of income because I was in my own house with my son. I know there are a lot of parents looking for before/after school care, so if you have a vehicle and are interested in doing that, it might be feasible with your baby. You could put up some simply fliers around your area and also post in the childcare part of craigslist. The last thing I have is my own editing business. I just edit papers for college students. They send me the papers via email and I edit it and send it back. I send them a bill over PayPal (online). I target international students and just people we know. I charge $30/hour. I also sometimes judge debate tournaments on the weekends ($50/day) and sometimes administer teacher certification tests, ACT test, SAT etc ($100/day). So my approach is just to get a little money here, a little money there....and it really all adds up!

I hope this gave you some good ideas. Good luck!

P.S. I consider the above advice "offense," but if you want to play "defense" related to living off your husband's salary, then look into ways to decrease food costs (meal plan, coupons, cheap meals/protein sources etc.), rent costs (move?, downgrade?), and monthly expenses (gas - walk more? transit to work?, work out at home instead of the gym?, share wireless internet with a neighbor and split the cost?, etc. etc.). Both strategies have helped us.

[Baby_Cakes]

Well, I'll throw an out of the box one at you.  Could you quickly take a massage therapist course or something and look for a job doing PT work like that?  I'm an esthetician, and though the training for that is more intense, I think MTs have quicker courses.  

[HappyMommy2]

Originally Posted by youngspiritmom 

 The last thing I have is my own editing business. I just edit papers for college students. They send me the papers via email and I edit it and send it back. I send them a bill over PayPal (online). I target international students and just people we know. I charge $30/hour.

How do you find your clients?

tia

[savannah smiles]

I started working part-time for Lionbridge which lets me work at home. There's a whole thread about it in the work at home section.

[syn_ack89]

Be sure and check out The Mindful Home and WAHM Well sections on the forums. Lots of good info on how to economize and how to make more money.

[youngspiritmom]

Originally Posted by HappyMommy2 

How do you find your clients?

tia

Several ways. Mainly through referalls, since we had a lot of international friends in college (who need help with writing papers in English, even when they are seniors) and we still know some college students. However if you wanted to promote your business, you could put fliers around your local college campus (especially around the end of the semesters when students are swamped with final papers). I would especially put them up at our "English learning center" and the International Office on campus. You can also pay to put up a facebook ad (not too expensive) and you can target it to show up at students in a college near you. I have never tried these methods, because I have found that if you do a great job with one client (especially in the international student community), they will refer you to their friends.
 

[happymama28]

Thank you all so much!

[HappyMommy2]

Originally Posted by youngspiritmom 

Several ways. Mainly through referalls, since we had a lot of international friends in college (who need help with writing papers in English, even when they are seniors) and we still know some college students. However if you wanted to promote your business, you could put fliers around your local college campus (especially around the end of the semesters when students are swamped with final papers). I would especially put them up at our "English learning center" and the International Office on campus. You can also pay to put up a facebook ad (not too expensive) and you can target it to show up at students in a college near you. I have never tried these methods, because I have found that if you do a great job with one client (especially in the international student community), they will refer you to their friends.
 

Thanks for the wonderful and practical insights.  I really enjoy editing/proofreading (since it just comes naturally) -- I am really interested in getting this started!

.... but I have another question for you: 

How far do you go?  Do you just point out errors?  Do you fix the errors?  Do you re-word an entire sentence if it just sounds better a different way?  Or only if it is technically wrong?  Can you provide a couple examples to illustrate?
 

[HappyMommy2]

Originally Posted by youngspiritmom 

...The last thing I have is my own editing business. I just edit papers for college students. They send me the papers via email and I edit it and send it back. I send them a bill over PayPal (online). I target international students and just people we know. I charge $30/hour. ...

About how many pages can you do in about an hour?

thanks!!