How can I bring in more money when I don't live in an urban region?

Question

My husband and I are expecting a child soon and we both would like it if I could be a stay at home mom, but as things stand right now (with me not having a job) we barely make enough to pay our bills every month. Since we're barely having enough to support ourselves, we're having a hard time seeing the light of how things will work out when we through a baby into the mix.
I've already checked out answers to questions on here such as "where can I cut back to save money" and "How can I cut back on wasting money" and to be perfectly honest, we are already doing all those things suggested in those posts. Really. 
We go out to get a slice of pizza once every other month, other than that I cook everything and we eat all the leftovers.
We have no land line phone, only a no-contract cell phone with minimum use (ie: no internet, limited minutes and limited texts)
We are very conscious of our electricity use and use fluorescent bulbs
I do our laundry at home, no dry cleaning
no paid TV service
we shop at BJ's and buy store brand and sale items
we haven't bought new clothes in over six months (except for maternity pants that I bought from a consignment sale at half off, they were 6$)
we're not even planning on buying Christmas presents because we can't afford it
We don't have internet
We rarely buy junkfood (we spend about 3$ a month on junkfood)
we don't buy soda or bottled water
The worst part of it all? We make too much money to get help from social services or Wic...
We only have about 600$ a month in loan debt from credit cards and student loans, which YES, we've stopped using the credit card (we had to use it when moving from Washington state, back to New York state so we could be near family again.)
Yes, we live in New York state, NO we do NOT live in the city OR in Long Island. We pay less than 1000$ a month in rent for 3.5 acres of land and a 3 bedroom house (yes, it's 3 bedrooms, one is used as a dining room because we don't have an eat in kitchen, and the other room was used primarily for our siblings to stay in).
SO, if you've made it through all of that, do you have any suggestions for how I can contribute money to the household when I'm already 4 months pregnant?

Lin · Accepted Answer

I am a stay at home mom to 3 children (1 yr, 4 yrs and 6 yrs) 

I started couponing about 6 months ago, we started out spending about $150-$200 dollars a week. I am now down to about $75-$80 some weeks I still spend $100 when we need Meat and Diapers. I hope to in the next 6 months to be about $40-$50 every week and no more. A few websites I use are www.iheartpublix.com and www.iheartsavingmoney.com they give you the weekly ad early and tell you what coupons to use to get the deals. You would be surprised how often there is something free with coupons.

I also work part time at my church's nursery, not a daycare just occasional childcare for people who attend the church and take classes or attend meetings. I am able to bring my children who are not in school with me to work. I get anywhere from 25-45 hours a month, not alot but it helps with my gas and groceries. 

I hope this helps we struggled for 5 years because child care costs more than I could make minimum wage even before my youngest.

lupin3d · Answer

I am honestly not sure if you will consider my suggestion as a worth while answer as I am not in such a situation. I do have an idea though and I really do hope you can make something out of it. 

If you wish to help increase your earnings then the solution is to earn more.

My suggestions:
1) Think of something that you are really good at.are you good a sewing? Then try to ask your neighbors if they need help in repairing some of their clothes or may be you can sew them new clothes. (Of course, start of cheap until you get loyal customers.)

2) Laundry. Try to calculate the costs and check to see if you can compete with the local laundry shops. Ask your neighbors or your landlord if you can do the laundry for them. 

3) Check local part time jobs. At this point, any amount is still an additional amount. even if you only profit $50 for the month that's still $50 out of the $1000 monthly your family is getting.

4) Cooking. Try to ask your friends if they would be interested if you can sell them lunch boxes or something like that.

I hope this helps. Do not lose hope and do whatever it takes to lift up your lives to happiness.

? · Answer

This could be difficult since you don't have internet, buy if you're artsy or can make anything people would want to buy, you could open a store on Etsy.com. As far as start-up costs, maybe you could fund it throuh kickstarter.com. Hope things work out well for you.

? · Answer

They stay on the line corner at evening making some unreported supplemental earnings and extra toddlers. entire earnings = welfare verify + trick money + extra social protection tests for the extra babies + baby help from oftentimes used fathers the adult men that they entertain stay over for a evening or 2 with them of their section 8 housing till now going lower back to artwork stealing and dope peddling for some extra money to spend on their next woman entertainment.

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How can I bring in more money when I don't live in an urban region?

4 Answers