How to Make Money While Your Baby Naps
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Leaving work to have a baby can mean a huge drop in finances for many families – here are a few things you can do while your baby naps to make some extra cash.
Having a new baby is a hugely exciting time in anyone’s life – but along with the ups and downs of night feeds and first smiles can also come other worries – such as how the family will cope if Mum is now earning less.
If you’re a family that’s already quite stretched that drop in income could have a huge impact on your finances going forward, especially as maternity pay decreases incrementally as the months go on. Here are a few ideas that you could do to top up funds while baby naps.
How to Make Money While Your Baby Naps
Even if you do want to top up your income from home, finding the time may be difficult with new baby, so I’ve put together a few ideas for ways to make extra money while your baby takes a nap.
These can all easily be done from your phone or laptop so you can have a cup of tea at the same time.
I’d also like to point out none of these are going to replace an income, not even close, however, they will help you make small regular amounts.
For example, many of the survey sites pay in Amazon vouchers and these, in turn, could be used to pay for Christmas Presents or Birthday Gifts for your little one.
1. Sell You Old Stuff On Vinted/eBay/Facebook
As we all know, with a baby comes lots and lots of stuff.
Depending on the size of your baby when they were born, what you had already and what you were given, you may have piles and piles of this ‘stuff’ to get rid of.
While doing masses of listings one at a time may seem daunting, making the effort to do just one or two a day could still see you reap rewards without having to lots of effort.
You could also photograph items during one nap and then upload the items during the next.
My preference for online selling is Vinted as there are no fees and the upload process is much easier than eBay. Vinted also gives new sellers free postage so you should get some sales quickly.
You then have the choice of using your money to buy items on Vinted or withdrawing to your bank account. I find mine usually gets eaten up buying the next size of clothes!
Looking to sell on Vinted? Here are my 22 Vinted Selling Tips
Facebook marketplace is best for large items such as Moses baskets and usually buyers will expect to collect, so no lugging super heavy items to the Post Office.
Top eBay Tip: List on a Thursday for 10 days so your listing covers two weekends and ends on a Sunday afternoon – a peak time for eBay sales.
Cheapest Mailing Bags For Vinted And eBay
Here is my list of places to sell online or from your phone:
If you don’t want to sell your baby and maternity stuff, for example, if you plan to have more babies in the future, there are still plenty of items from around your home you could be selling – see this post for some ideas which includes things most people would usually throw in the bin!
2. Survey Sites
Survey sites can vary greatly in both rewards and the effort it takes to get those rewards and it’s very unlikely any of the sites listed below are going to get you anywhere close to minimum wage.
However, if you’re looking for something quick and easy to dip in and out of whenever you feel like it these are a really easy route to go down and small amounts can soon start to add up.
Listed below are my five favorite sites – as well as surveys some of them offer alternative ways to earn such as searching the web or watching videos.
Of those listed below Prolific Academic is by far the most lucrative and it ensures you are never screened out of surveys for being the wrong demographic.
That said, you do need to concentrate on the surveys so if you are short on time they might not be right for you.
See my full post on Prolific Academic here.
1. Swagbucks
3. One Poll
4. Viewsbank
7. YouGov
3. VYPR
VYPR is a phone app that rewards you for completing ‘Steers’ which are usually related to branded products and supermarket shopping.
They are super easy to complete while baby naps and you earn points for each one you do, typically 10-50 points for those that pop up on your phone.
There are also ‘Steers’ that can be completed in-store while you do your shopping and these are worth a lot more, typically 100 points.
You need 10,000 points to redeem £5 PayPal cash which does take a little while to build up to. I’ve also found that some days there are loads and loads of ‘Steers’ to complete and other days there are nothing.
Definitely not going to make you rich quickly, but a nice, super easy little side earner.
For more details see the VYPR website.
4. Sell Your Baby Pics or Story
Think your baby is the cutest?
Did you have your baby in an unusual place?
Women’s weekly/monthly magazines and even national newspapers are always looking for pictures and stories to promote and you will of course be compensated for your time and efforts.
You can read all about how I made £200 being featured in a women’s magazine here.
While your baby naps try looking through a few magazines Facebook or twitter pages to see if they currently need anything.
You could also take a look at the Feature Me! UK facebook group run by a group of journalists who are always looking for people to feature – one the most recent requests was for a Dad who had delivered a baby.
Here are tips for finding magazines to be featured in:
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Follow loads of magazines on Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram. Chat, Pick me Up, Woman and Take a Break. Many magazines post dilemmas, photo opps and requests for specific types of stories they are looking for. Either comment on the post or send an email. Put some of the above magazines on the ‘See First’ feature on Facebook so you never miss out.
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Search for content requests using the hashtag #journorequest on Twitter.
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Got a BIG story? It may well be worth emailing the magazine directly to see if they can feature you. You can usually do this from their website.
5. Become A Comper
Okay, so I’m the first to admit there are absolutely no guarantees when it comes to comping.
But I didn’t want to entirely discount it from this post either.
It’s easy to sit and do from either a phone or laptop while your baby naps and if you do it often enough it can be fairly lucrative.
I’ll be honest, it’s not going to pay the bills unless you’re lucky enough to win a huge cash lump sum, but even small prizes can be used in so many ways – Birthday or Christmas Gifts, Treats for the children – freeing up money elsewhere in your budget for boring things like bills.
My favourite wins from comping include A box of Lush Goodies worth £100 (kept half for me, used the rest as gifts) an England Rugby Shirt (during the Six Nations, my Husband had been planning to buy one anyway) and a £90 gift voucher to spend at Coast.
The more you comp, the more likely you are to win and there a plenty of compers out there who have one big things like holidays and cars.
Nikki from Glam & Geeky Mum is full-time comper and she shared this post with me about she comps throughout the day – even with a house full of kids!
6. Playing Mobile Games
There are lots of mobile games that will pay you to play. I recently earned £50 by completing 1000 levels of a game via an app called Tester Buddy.
If you’re signed up to Swagbucks there are lots of games on there, including Monopoly Go which will pay you to reach a certain level. You can then cash out via Paypal or Vouchers.
Some good ideas here, and they all soon add up. I’ve not really tried comping yet, always think I should give it a go