A comfortable lifestyle as a stay-at-home-Mum

OhtobeMortgageFree · 17 April 2019 at 4:12PM

A friend recently posted a link to an article which stated that stay-at-home-Mums work the equivalent of 2.5 full time jobs!
I am a SAHM to my two year old six days a week and then he attends nursery for the day on a Friday. We don't have any family who live close enough to be able to help us with childcare (min 2 hour drive away) and besides, I am really enjoying bringing him up!
However, to make ends meet (includes savings but not luxuries) I also work five part time jobs in the evenings, weekends and Fridays. My husband is on a £36,000 salary but often works away from home or long hours, so I do all cooking, cleaning and general house admin at home.
My jobs range from marking exam papers (I was a teacher before becoming a Mum), social media work, a paperround, checking rental properties for a local estate agent and night shifts at a supermarket. (10pm-6am) I also regularly cash out on Prolific and started Matched Betting earlier this year.
Basically I want to find an easier way of living!!! Are there any other Mums in the same situation? Or who have made a comeback after being in this situation? Inspiration needed!!!

spadoosh · 17 April 2019 at 4:23PM

Our daughter is the same age, we both work full time and pay other people to watch our child because its the most cost effective way, we hardly see each other as we ensure our 2 days off a week are offset so we only require 3 days of someone else looking after our child.

What do you consider an easier way of living?

OhtobeMortgageFree · 17 April 2019 at 4:35PM

Thanks for your reply spadoosh. I really don't know what the answer is! It seems like to be a parent in the UK at the moment has become increasingly difficult over the past few years and is almost impossible to do on just one salary now.
I barely see my partner as well. In fact, there's just one night a week when he's not in bed before I've finished working. I usually try and stay awake on a Tuesday evening so that we can go to bed at the same time but it usually results in me falling asleep downstairs somewhere!

trailingspouse · 19 April 2019 at 10:07PM

It was a long time ago now (youngest is 28 at the end of the month), but when I realised that I was paying my childminder more than half of my take-home pay I decided to become a registered childminder. It meant I could be at home with my own children but also earning money, and it worked well for me.

JoCha · 21 April 2019 at 3:40AM

I work on Mechanical Turk and do quite well out of it. Unfortunately in the UK you are only paid in Amazon vouchers (for the American site) but I've still earned nearly 800 dollars a week some weeks (and many weeks significantly less so don't get excited

). It's easy work from home and it will at least pay for Christmas and birthdays.

culpepper · 21 April 2019 at 7:52AM

The simplest and also hardest thing to do is lower your outgoings. Less need to spend means less need to earn and more time with the little ones.

trailingspouse · 21 April 2019 at 8:31AM

Another thing that I did was to invest the time that I was at home (but mind you, I wasn't working 5 part-time jobs!!). When my oldest was little, I did a degree through the OU. This meant that when the time came to get back into the job market I had the qualifications. I did a PGCE the year my youngest was in Reception, then went into teaching - which had the advantage of not needing to pay for childcare during the holidays.

That sounds like I'd planned it all to perfection - I really hadn't!! I also did other ad hoc jobs at various times - Usborne books, cleaning/making sandwiches at Greggs, Avon lady. You name it, I did it.

They're not little for ever, and once they're in school the options increase.

Charityworker · 27 April 2019 at 6:09PM

I wish my husband earnt £36. Mine earns £12,000 and we don't claim any benefits

savvy · 9 May 2019 at 6:05PM

I spent most of my kid's childhoods studying in readiness for a decent paying job, which I went on to do.....then barely saw them, but by then they were both almost out of primary school. It meant as a single parent I received maintainence grant for them, and then my student loan covered other living expenses.

But I also used to collect Japanese import cars from the docks and drive them back to the yard, then clean them for sale for a bit extra money whilst studying and sports volunteering to boost my CV. I also helped out with a FitKid club, ran a Kickboxing Circuit class and taught a Leadership Award for the council....so like you, really busy but all worth it.

Out of interest, what work do you do with social media?

OhtobeMortgageFree · 10 May 2019 at 8:05PM

Thanks for everyone's replies.

I'm not sure I want the responsibility of other people's children. I love spending time with my own and would worry that I wouldn't look back on my time with my son the same way.

I've not heard of Mechanical Turk before, but will check it out now. Thanks!

Our outgoings are already as cut back as we're prepared for them to be at the moment. We don't eat/drink out or have takeaways, we own both our cars, don't buy new clothes and use Christmas and birthdays to ask for items we would like rather than buy them ourselves. I want to try and pay off our mortgage as soon as possible to try and free up the mortgage money each month as it will make a massive difference to our disposable income.

TrailingSpouse - glad it's not just me with a number of random jobs!!! I already have my PGCE and by continuing to moderate coursework and mark exam papers I'm trying to keep my foot in the door, although I'm not sure I'll return into teaching once my toddler is old enough to go to school himself. We have no family in the area to help and I worry about letting the team (and my son) down by making the call between work and him every time he felt poorly.

CharityWorker - My husband has worked very hard to get where he is and often works away in order to reach this figure. Money isn't everything, just as long it keeps covering the bills!

Savvy - I love hearing about everyone else's random jobs to increase income! Collecting Japanese import cars is a pretty cool job to have!
Social media wise - I run the social media platforms for a local event company on event days (which take place every couple of weeks). I do all the planning and photography (where possible) in the week building up to the event and then make sure all posts go live on event day and respond to anyone who contacts or tags the event whilst it's happening.

savvy · 13 May 2019 at 2:34PM

OhtobeMortgageFree wrote: »

Savvy - I love hearing about everyone else's random jobs to increase income! Collecting Japanese import cars is a pretty cool job to have!
Social media wise - I run the social media platforms for a local event company on event days (which take place every couple of weeks). I do all the planning and photography (where possible) in the week building up to the event and then make sure all posts go live on event day and respond to anyone who contacts or tags the event whilst it's happening.

Haha it was pretty cool driving all the different sports cars to and from the docks

Oh wow that sounds really interesting, mad job to get into especially if you like photography like me!

A comfortable lifestyle as a stay-at-home-Mum

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