3 Side Jobs for Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads

Parents can earn extra cash without sacrificing time with the kids.

Being a stay-at-home parent is a full-time job. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with a full-time paycheck. So, it can be hard for some families relying on just one income to make ends meet.

However, there are ways for stay-at-home moms and dads to earn some extra cash to help supplement the family budget without leaving the house or sacrificing time with the children. Here are three side jobs to consider.

Taking surveys online can be a relatively quick way to make a buck. For example, Harris Poll Online awards points for the completion of online surveys, which can take between five and 25 minutes to fill out. Survey takers accumulate points and can redeem them for gift cards from retailers such as Amazon and Starbucks. Other online outfits that will pay you to take surveys include SurveyClub, Global Test Market and Swagbucks.

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If you have an academic specialty and can squeeze in a couple of hours during the week while your son or daughter is taking a nap or at school, share your knowledge with struggling students. You can try to find students to tutor on your own through your kids' schools. Check a site such as Craigslist.org to gauge hourly rates in your area. Or, you can sign on with an online tutoring company, such as Tutor.com. Tutoring is done virtually from home via a computer, not in person.

Believe it or not, some attorneys actually use large panels of online mock jurors to get feedback on their cases before they go to trial. The mock jurors must live where the case will be tried. One company, EJury.com, pays $5 to $10 per case. You can't be an attorney, paralegal or legal assistant – or even related to an attorney – to participate. On EJury.com, the average case takes about 35 minutes to review. At another company, OnlineVerdict.com, cases typically take between 20 minutes to one hour to review, and fees range from $20 to $60.

If these three ideas aren't for you, see seven other ways stay-at-home parents can make extra money.

Andrea Browne Taylor
Contributing Editor

Browne Taylor joined Kiplinger in 2011 and was a channel editor for Kiplinger.com covering living and family finance topics. She previously worked at the Washington Post as a Web producer in the Style section and prior to that covered the Jobs, Cars and Real Estate sections. She earned a BA in journalism from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She is Director of Member Services, at the National Association of Home Builders.