Income ideas for stay at home moms

I have heard a ton of mom's asking if anyone knows of a way to earn some pt income. Marco and I decided we were not willing to put Tarynn in full time daycare, but I still wanted to earn at least a little something.

These are a few of the ways I have found to earn some extra income while still having a very flexible schedule. Feel free to share any of your own knowledge on the subject.

Mystery shopping:

Be careful with this one. Most of the offers I get are not worth my time. Many pay $8 for something that will take two hours of your time. I also live in a small town and most offers are out of town, so if you are adding drive time into it, it's def not worth it. However once or twice a week I get an offer that is worth my while. A couple days ago I did a COACH shop that paid $24 and took me 10 minutes. I have done shops on gas stations that pay $15 plus free gas. Trader Joe's also has a shop program if you are under 26 that makes sure their employees are checking ID properly for alcohol sales.

Now you will not make enough to pay your rent doing this, but if it's stores where you already shop it's a great way to earn extra income and get free products. Movie theatres, zoos, bowling alleys, and amusement parks all do mystery shops. Awesome way to get free admission and earn some extra money.

Here are some websites to get you started:

www.dynamic-advantage.com/

www.kernscheduling.com/

Another option is babysitting. I myself am not able to do FT daycare. I go to school and my schedule is pretty sporadic. I do offer on call day care for friends and family when their regular day care is not available. I also watch a couple of kids two days a week in their home. A good way to find people that need PT daycare is care.com

There are many elderly people that need assistance. I used to help a woman that was 92 and lived on her own. I would go for two hours in the morning make her breakfast, make sure she took her medicine, and straighten up the house. The best way to get something like this is word of mouth, but care.com also has a section for the elderly.

Speaking of care.com let me just go over all of the income opportunities you can find on the site. There are ads for child care, elderly care, tutoring, and pet care.

Tutoring is also a good way to earn some extra income and do something impactful at the same time. Check care.com, craigslist.org, call your local schools and give them your info, and check the bulletin boards at your local college.

Doing promotions is also a quick way to earn a few hundred dollars. Companies hire people to promote their products ranging from alcohol at a night club to working in a booth selling t-shirts at a festival. You can find these by googling promo companies or looking under gigs on craigslist.org. When you sign up for an "agency" keep in mind they will have a wide range of job postings. They will have gigs that require wearing a string bikini and gigs that require wearing khakis and a polo passing out samples. The pay for these usually ranges from $15-$30 an hour.
The availability of promotions will vary greatly on your location. In San Fransisco there are many convention promotions available-professional dress, providing information, $30 an hour. In other areas you will see more offers to be the "Coors Light girl", paying $17 an hour.

A girlfriend just told me about becoming a process server. She said it pays about a hundred dollars per papers you serve. I haven't looked into much, but I found this ehow to article.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2099796_become-process-server.html

Also use your talents. Resume services, website design, typing, business card design, housekeeping, home organization are all services people are in need of. Check craigslist.org under gigs and you will see people need all sorts of help. I recently saw an ad that a musician needed someone to manage their social networking sites--twitter, Facebook, and Myspace.

As I said, if you have any suggestions please feel free to share.