Frugal Moms

I don’t think anyone realizes how much money a few extra hours a week spent moon lighting can make.  Depending on the type of work and your interest or skill, it can add up to a second fall back career.  Let me explain a little.  I’m not talking about the 10 hours a week delivering pizza’s on the weekends some people take on to manage their debt.  I’m also not talking about the MLM scams that some people buy into thinking they can be “job” free in a couple years with cash rolling in.  I am talking about good old fashion skills and hobbies put to use in your spare time as a self employed person.  That is the only way someone can ever turn their moon lighting into a career.

I will give you a couple of examples of “constructive moon lighting” and “destructive moon lighting”.  Jim works as a construction worker, but finds in the housing slow down there isn’t much work.  So Jim has a couple of options on his plate.  He can go work at the flooring plant, but since the housing slow down they aren’t hiring as many men.  He can take any job any where as long as the pay is regular and have a handy man or carpentry business on the side.  The second approach is probably the best approach especially in unsure economic situations.  That way he has some regular pay, but he allows the option to advance his pay through his second job.  When the housing market picks up again, Jim might be capable of being his own contractor or sub-contractor on major building jobs.

Another scenario.   Margaret works full time as a receptionist.  She is responsible for all kinds of calls, letters, and general office work.  She still can’t find enough money at the end of the week to pay all her bills.  She has 2 years of post secondary education. She can hire herself out via telecommute to many of the WAH jobs.  However again this is just a second job.  She can start using her education to write poems and children’s books to publish on her spare time.  She could even self publish via Cafepress.com or Lulu.com.  Margaret could also tutor children in school.  She could file to be a substitute teacher on specific days.

In both of these options, the first was to be hired.  The second option was to be contracted too.  Companies don’t mind contracting people due to the legal lee way as opposed to hiring someone.  In the future, think “Independent Contractor” instead of second job.

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