The Mummy Juggle #10 | Money for Mummy

Hello and welcome back to The Mummy Juggle,  a series designed with Mums in mind to share stories and inspiration about how to cope with the day-to-day struggle of juggling work and family life.  A struggle I’ve affectionately named ‘The Mummy Juggle.’

The Mummy Juggle: ‘The non-stop juggling act of being a mother, holding down a job, running a home and generally being an all round superwoman!’

This month I have a special contribution from Eda who set up ‘Money for Mummy’ a blog dedicated to helping parents find opportunities online to supplement their income, or even find an income if they are unable to secure part-time work. Eda’s story is not only inspirational but also very useful and I hope her site can help some readers find opportunities for themselves.

You can find previous contributions to this series here, here and here.

Eda | Money for Mummy

When my daughter got to 6 months old, I realised I needed to decide what would happen when I went back to work. My priorities had changed with the arrival of my little one. I wanted to be able to spend time with her during the week, but still work enough hours to support our family income and keep my foot in the door to my career progression.

I suggested working some hours from home to help me get the right work/life/financial balance. Unfortunately, my employer wouldn’t support this, and I had to cut down to 3 days/week. I was earning so little by working there after childcare costs were considered that it really was just for the love of my job that I was going back.

I would be left with quite a big hole in my income. As I would look after my daughter on the days I wasn’t in the office, I needed to find work I could do while caring for her.

Soon after I began searching for work opportunities, I came across The Money Shed forum. It unlocked so many doors! The community had lots of great ideas and were really supportive, answering my questions quickly and thoughtfully. I was quickly able to find many things I could try.

I had done mystery shopping in the past, so I started doing that again. I downloaded phone apps that paid me to photograph products on shop shelves. I did lots of surveys, then tried out transcription and website testing. I also applied to do web search evaluation work where I would rate the quality of search engine results.

I spoke to a lot of other mums also struggling with issues around going back to work. They were really interested to find out about what I was doing. It was then that I decided I could blog about my experiences and help other mums, or dads, or anyone else who needed extra income. I found out blogging could also contribute to my income via affiliate links and adverts.

Money for Mummy has a growing following and I’m delighted people enjoy reading my posts. Creating the blog has had other benefits too. Through it I have received paid writing work, and recently I was asked to build a website for a company who loved the look of the site.

Now as my daughter approaches her first birthday I have settled into a routine of doing website building and web search evaluation work whenever I can during the day. Both jobs are perfect as I can do small amounts of work at a time, slotting it in when my daughter is napping or playing happily by herself. When she naps I try to pick up web testing work as it pays really well, but I can only do it when I know the room will be quiet!

Working for myself while looking after my daughter hasn’t always been easy. I have had a lot of mum guilt and stressful moments when I have found it difficult to manage my time. However, our little routine is working well now and I am hoping to continue the website building work by creating a small business offering this service.

I never could have guessed where my journey would lead. The beauty of it is that if I ever need to change anything I am free to make those decisions, ensuring I can always work around my family’s needs. It is certainly a juggle, but now I’m catching all the balls (most of the time!)