22 Side Hustles for Stay-at-Home Moms to Earn Extra Cash

Being a stay-at-home parent is a pleasant and gratifying role, but it’s also financially unforgivable. Most new parents see a decline in their income and an increase in expenses. The best way to counter that is by finding yourself a side hustle to earn some extra money.

Various side hustles for stay-at-home moms and dads leverage the fact that they can have flexible working hours and are often at home. None of them will make you rich, but they will give you some extra income and give you the possibility of getting out of the rut for a while.

Here, we will present twenty-two side hustles that will work for stay-at-home parents in different situations. Whether you are looking for passive income or freelancing to balance with your family responsibilities, you will find great options below.

Parenting and Profit: Side Hustles for Stay-At-Home Parents

Parents, especially new ones, don’t have much time and often cannot leave their homes for side hustles. It doesn’t mean that there are no options. The side hustle ideas we collected below will cater to stay-at-home moms and dads of different skills and parenting situations.

All that is left for you is to try as many of them as possible to see which ones stick. Just make sure to set realistic expectations – none of them will make you rich, but it’s certainly a viable extra income source.

Sign Up to Pawns.app

Chances are you have access to the internet, and that’s all that is needed to earn money on Pawns.app. Stay-at-home moms and dads can use three different strategies to earn money, and each of them leverages flexible hours and can be done from home.

• You can make money selling unused internet. If you are like most regular internet users, you most certainly don’t consume all the bandwidth available to you. Pawns.app allows your device to share that connection for extra money.
• You can answer paid surveys. Simply share your opinions about brands and services and get rewarded for your answers. On average, one survey takes around thirty minutes and can be completed on your phone.
• You can play paid games. Simply pick a game from the Pawns catalog and earn rewards for playing. Be sure to follow the rules for claiming rewards, as they might ask you to perform specific in-game actions to qualify.

Each method earns stay-at-home moms and dads around $10 per month without them even breaking a sweat. Combined, these strategies on the Pawns.app can make up for a significant income to help you raise kids.

Taking Care of Pets

Caring for pets as a side hustle is not just for teenagers. A stay-at-home mom or dad can also use it to earn extra money, as waking a dog or feeding a cat isn’t that difficult when you are already looking after a child.

In many cases, having a pet around can even help you with babysitting. Children who like animals are calmer and entertained when they can also interact with a pet. Of course, if your children don’t like pets, pet sitting isn’t an option as a side hustle.

Starting isn’t that difficult and usually involves making posters in the neighborhood or using social media to know you are available. Most stay-at-home moms and dads can only sit pets at their own homes, so make sure to mention your own situation.

Childcare Services

A good parent can look after more than one child at a time. It sounds counterintuitive, but just like with pets, it can be much easier to look after a couple of children than just one. That’s why offering childcare or babysitting services is one of the best side hustles for stay-at-home moms and dads.

With multiple kids, you can organize group activities or simply let them play together and take care of each other. Of course, there are exceptions, but good parents can handle it while also making money from it.

Become an Airbnb Host

Turning into an Airbnb host can be an excellent side hustle for stay-at-home parents. It provides schedule flexibility and makes use of additional space in your home to produce income. The main advantage of this side hustle is that it gives you a lot of flexibility.

You can organize your hosting schedule the way you need to meet your family’s demands and routines. You can also monetize any vacant area in your house, whether a spare bedroom, basement, or the whole property, by listing it on Airbnb.

You might need to put in some preparatory work to ensure the space you rent is suitable for visitors. Some spaces might even require a small renovation. Listing the space on Airbnb itself is easy, but do some market research on pricing and set convenient house rules for guests.

Online Tutoring

Ever since the pandemic, online learning has become a new normal. Even traditional schools nowadays use Zoom and other platforms to run classes. The same goes for tutors of all kinds, as platforms like Italki, TutorMe, Wyzant, schools, and many others revolutionized this side hustle.

Fortunately, you don’t need much to start. Armed with your qualifications in whichever field and the willingness to work, you’re good to go. You can expect to make around $17 per hour at the start, and of course, the pay will get better if you have good experience or credentials.

You will earn more if you teach formal subjects or help students with exam preparation, but you can earn extra cash with less. Many platforms don’t require formal credentials or accept people to teach unofficial subjects – niche languages, history, musical instruments, work skills like programming, etc.

Sell Your Courses or Ebooks

If you have an in-demand skill, such as programming, web design, or accounting, but teaching others one-on-one isn’t your thing, consider making courses or writing books. Platforms like Udemy or Skillshare allow any knowledgeable individual to make their own courses and sell them for a profit.

You can do it as a stay-at-home mom or dad, as you won’t need to leave the house. Most of what you need is internet access, recording gear, and lots of free time. After you create a course, you get money for each person who has completed it. If the courses are of high quality, it can even become a passive income side gig.

Platforms don’t charge you for publishing courses, but they will take a cut from the sales you make. Some creators make a living from their courses, but as a side hustle, you can expect to earn around a thousand dollars from a useful course. A large part of your earnings will come from marketing and the quality of the course.

Work as a Virtual Assistant

Virtual assistants (VA) provide various administrative services to clients while working remotely outside their offices. It’s a perfect job for a stay-at-home mom or dad who is skilled in tasks like scheduling meetings, replying to emails, and setting up appointments.

However, a VA can also work in customer service, financial, and management roles as a supporting employee. Depending on your previous experience, your VA work can differ vastly. You can be a VA working as someone who answers a phone or proofreads blog posts and creates landing pages.

Traditional job posting boards, such as Upwork or Fiverr, are full of opportunities to find such jobs. You’ll earn better if you finish some courses or gain relevant qualifications first, so be prepared that earning good money will take time.

Become a Social Media Manager

Working as a social media manager, you are responsible for managing a social media account for one or multiple companies. Writing and scheduling posts, answering comments, and aligning communication between different channels are the main responsibilities of a social media manager.

The job requires a high level of proficiency in various social media platforms, their trends, and knowledge of automation programs and practices of running advertisements. More than anything else, however, you will need to have some sales skills to find clients.

There are many social media managers constantly looking for work, so you might need to have good connections or be able to stand out when reaching out to companies yourself. Stay-at-home moms and dads are at an advantage since they can work at unusual hours, which might be required when managing social media.

Online Resale

Reselling stuff you no longer need on eBay, Facebook marketplace, or other platforms is one of the best side hustles for stay-at-home moms and dads. We all have things lying around the house that can be sold. You only need time to browse marketplaces, determine prices, and make listings.

A similar side hustle is looking for cheap goods sold for cheap in stores or marketplaces and then selling them for a profit. You will need some investment, but if you know the market, you can make some money. If you put in some work in restoration, you can profit even more, but know-how in the relevant field is required.

Finding your niche is the most difficult part of starting such a side gig. Some find success reselling clothes, others reselling cars or electronics. It all depends on your skills and time investment into research and repairs.

Handmade Crafts

Handmade crafts can be an excellent side income for parents, especially stay-at-home moms. You can craft handmade jewelry using various materials, like necklaces, bracelets, earrings, or rings. You can use beads, wire, or polymer clay for these projects.

Manufacturing knitted or crocheted goods such as scarves, hats, or baby booties using knitting or crocheting techniques can also help you tend to a specific niche in the arts and crafts market. It’s all up to your creativity and skills when making the crafts. The more difficult part is finding buyers.

Platforms like Etsy, Amazon Handmade, or even a custom website can help you reach your audience. Be aware that there’s a lot of competition, so you will need to stand out, write compelling descriptions, or even purchase ads to reach your customers.

Cooking Desserts and Meals

A related side hustle is monetizing your cooking skills. Many stay-at-home moms are expert cooks who can craft delicious cookies, cakes, sandwiches, and much more. There’s an entire market for people who are looking to improve their home party with great homemade food.

The best part is that you won’t need to leave your home or take away a lot of time from preparing meals for your family. You can simply make more food than needed for your family and sell the extra portions as an order for a customer.

The best way to find such work is by posting photos of your delicious meals or desserts on local marketplaces. Make sure to research prices beforehand and buy food at wholesale prices, as you might lose money with this side hustle otherwise.

Print on Demand (POD)

Platforms like Tee Public, Printful, and Red Bubble allow people to sell their designs for t-shirts, coffee mugs, and other accessories. Such a business model is called print on demand (POD), where designs are printed on the goods only when there’s an order to make them.

You don’t need to have the printing equipment or take care of the shipping logistics. Your contribution is purely creative, so it’s a perfect side hustle for artistic stay-at-home moms and dads. Some make a living out of POD, but it would be realistic to expect a couple of hundred per month when you start.

Freelance Graphic Designer

If you are creative and good with Photoshop, consider freelancing as a graphic designer. Skilled Photoshop experts can make thousands per month selling their services on Upwork or Fiverr. It might be a better alternative than POD platforms, as you won’t have to compete for your artistic input.

Instead, you’d be hired by companies and individuals that need specific graphical design tasks taken care of. Creating logos, website designs, posters, and many other things can get you extra money from your home.

Sell Stock Photos Online

Stock photo marketplaces give everyone the opportunity to take photos or create graphical art as a side hustle. These days, you don’t even need an expensive camera for near-perfect photos. Your smartphone camera is just as capable.

Once you upload your photo, companies and individuals can use them by paying a small amount of royalties to you. Although you are unlikely to make more than a hundred dollars per month when you start, it’s still a great passive income side hustle.

Freelance Writing and Editing

Some parents are better with words than with visual arts. If you are one of them, then becoming a freelance writer or editor can be a side hustle for you. Traditional freelance platforms like Upwork and Fiverr are full of work for writers.

The AI craze hasn’t changed anything. Quite the opposite. There’s a lot of editing to be done now to make the text more human. The more productive writer you are, the more you’ll earn, but be prepared to create a good portfolio with a track record.

Remote Accountant

Stay-at-home moms and dads who are good with numbers can become remote accountants. While usually a full-time job, remotely working as a bookkeeper for a small company can be a profitable side hustle that leaves room for parenting duties.

Depending on your country or US state, you will need certain qualifications to become an accountant. You don’t necessarily need a degree in accounting, but a degree, especially in a related field, such as economics, is helpful.

It’s more important to pass the Certified Public Accountant CPA exam to get started. It isn’t easy and will take time, but it’s worth it. Qualified remote accountants can make anywhere from a couple of thousand per month to over a hundred thousand per year.

Start a YouTube Channel

If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past decade, you must know that millions are making a killing on YouTube. It can be one of the best side hustles for stay-at-home moms and dads if you strategically approach making money on YouTube.

The key is to find a niche where you can create quality videos and shorts. Starting a video blog about parenting, creating funny videos of your day-to-day life, or compiling the content of others are all valid options. The most difficult part will be to get into a YouTube partner program, but once you qualify, you can start earning.

Affiliate Marketing

If you are a person who likes to recommend things to others, then affiliate marketing is a side hustle for you. It’s a marketing type where companies pay a commission for each sale you attract their way. Online, this is usually done with affiliate links that include special trackers in them.

Such links can be placed in your online blog, social media channel, comments, emails, or anywhere else where you can reach a big enough audience. The most difficult part is to reach that audience.

Rent Out Your Car

If you are a stay-at-home parent, chances are your car remains parked on the driveway for most of the day or during the summer. Various rental marketplaces, such as Turo, can be of help. Once you sign up and receive approval, you’ll receive requests from potential renters.

Then you set up a meeting, hand over the keys, and that’s it. The client will return the keys once they finish using your vehicle, and you’ll receive payment from the specific marketplace the client used. There are some requirements for insurance and car maintenance, so you can try to rent the car to friends and family for better earnings.

Put Advertisements on Your Car

If you don’t mind driving in a branded car, your automobile could be your perfect income source. Advertisers consider vehicles moving billboards, and how much they pay for it depends on the size of your car and the geographical location you traverse.

Of course, the bigger the car, the more real estate the advertisement will have, and therefore, more money in your pocket. Your best bet is small local businesses that would be willing to pay for putting stickers on your car. It will take good connections to sell them this service.

Provide Ride-Hailing Services  

Ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft have become one of the most popular side hustle ideas for everyone, not just stay-at-home parents. To make money from them, sign up as a driver, and you’ll be able to turn on your app whenever you drive clients.

It’s a great way to make yourself busy while kids are in school, sports, or other activities. Beating traffic back and forth might be a waste of time, but driving a few customers will earn you some additional income.

Get Into the Vending Machine Business

Vending machines have created a name for themselves as a reliable source of passive income. You’ll have to nail your machine’s location to fully exploit this business idea. Be sure to place it strategically where there’s lots of human traffic, and to make it popular with customers, make all forms of payment available. 

It’s also important to be conscious of the fact that you’ll be selling food products. As such, restock and maintain your vending machine regularly, but stay-at-home parents can do it on a flexible schedule.

Transforming Parental Duties Into a Revenue Stream  

The side hustles for stay-at-home moms and dads we mentioned might seem completely unrelated to parenting. It takes a little bit of creativity to find the connection, but it’s well worth looking for as it can save you lots of time.

Many affiliate marketing strategies, for example, can be well-integrated into your parenting duties. Reviewing childcare products or services on your blog, podcast, or YouTube channel is a steady source of income for many.

Buying children’s goods for retail arbitrage or online resale will help you to find better products for your own kid as well. The same goes for designing merchandise, printing on demand, and many other side hustles for stay-at-home moms and dads.

True, some side gigs in the list are less directly related to parenting, but parenting creates specific opportunities for them to thrive. For example, ride-hailing while your kids are in school or renting your car in summer when you don’t need to commute that much is a great way to make some extra cash.

Making Every Moment Count: Time Management for Parent Side Hustlers

Balancing parenting responsibilities and a side hustle can be difficult, but time management is an acquired skill that’s never too late to learn. It’ll be even easier if you combine your parenting tasks with a side hustle, as we advised before. The rest is advice generally applicable to improve time management.

• Establish clear and realistic goals to keep and organize your time for a side hustle. 
• Create a routine that involves your entire day, week, or even month to stay in control of your time. 
• Prioritize the most important tasks and sacrifice unnecessary things to make time for your side hustle. 
• Accept flexibility in case of unforeseen circumstances that may disrupt your plans. 
• Be productive with the time you dedicate to your side hustle. There’s no point in allocating time for work just to mindlessly scroll social media. 
• Look after yourself, as being a parent side hustler might strain you physically and psychologically. Make time for relaxation and exercise. 
• Know how to say no, especially when a side hustle requires sacrificing time you’d rather spend with your children.
• Embrace AI if your side hustle is online. Many of them can be improved or even automated using various tools.

Achieving the appropriate balance between parental duties and side hustle may take trial and error. Stay organized, be patient, and constantly adapt your strategy to your needs. With good time management, you can make the most of every opportunity.

Wrapping Up

Whether you decide to become a virtual assistant, begin a freelance writing job, or dabble in social media management, the goal is to choose a side hustle that matches your talents, interests, and available time. There are many side hustles for stay-at-home moms and dads who want to earn money. You only need to choose wisely.

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