Homework Clinic to make Fast Cash

Something I hear over and over from my friends ... homework time stinks!.  If their children are in aftercare, they don't do all of their homework because there are too many distractions or the child to caretaker ratio is too great.  If they have a grandparent or alternate senior relative collecting them from the bus, the grams or gramps can't follow the complexity of the assignments.  "What I wouldn't give to have someone sit with my kids and MAKE them do their homework before I get home from work."  Alrighty!  The Frazzled Cheese Homework Clinic is now open!

I decided to open my dining room table up to a few children in my son's class.  They are all working on the same assignments and I am pretty good (actually excellent) at coaching him (my son) through his more difficult reading and math assignments.  As a matter of fact, I have a degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education, for Pete's sake!  Why wouldn't I do this?

I felt like I could handle four kids (including my own child). So, three kids it is!  I started to spread the word and, voila...three kids quickly made their way into my home at around 3 PM.  And again, I decided to not scare away parents with exorbitant pricing. (Like my Movie Night pricing)  Hey, we were already spending this time on homework so, I am not sacrificing anything here.  I work from home and normally stop working when my son gets home and the pick up my work again after bedtime to get in a full 40 hours.

I decided to charge an average of $5 an hour.  (I believe this was the deal that the parents in my children's class couldn't pass up.) So, the clinic is open from 3 to 6...$15 bucks a kid.  Check out how much I am projected to make...

My three lil' students arrive shortly after my boy gets home and stay until between 5 and 6. During this time I sit with the kids, get them started with each assignment.  Then, as questions arise, I am there to coach them through the sticking points.  Most, if not all of their homework is done before their parents pick them up. Plus I serve healthy snacks.When they get home, they are ready to have dinner with their family with out the stress of impending doom uh, I mean homework.

I also provide an environment for success.  The TV is NEVER on.  No one is in the homework space but the students and myself. I only leave when they are engrossed in an activity, only going as far as the kitchen (which is in direct eye contact of the dining room.)  I am usually prepping  for dinner...something I am defrosting  in the crock-pot or fetching more juice or water for the lil' students.  I have snacks prepared ahead of time and, when they work their way through these eats, they are done eating.  (Don't want to spoil their dinner.) If one of them finishes their assignments before the end of the session, they have two choices.  They can help another student (with my supervision of course) or they can work on one of the numerous worksheets I have at the ready. All homework is reviewed by me prior to moving on to the next assignment. Hey, their mind is already moving in that direction...may as well keep them going to make the necessary corrections.  It's a time-saver, trust me.

At pick up time, I give a brief summary to the parents on their child's accomplishments. This is something the parents enjoy.  They know that their child was not left alone the entire time to fend for themselves and that the TV was NOT babysitting.

So, there you have it...the Frazzled Cheese Homework Clinic!  A tiny bit of extra work yields over $6,000 in approximately 9 months ...just by doing something that I WAS ALREADY DOING!

Host a Kiddy Movie Night

Here is something my family does every Friday night...Movie Night!  We pick a G rated flick to stream on Netflix, pop some popcorn and settle around the TV for the entire 90 minutes...after Pizza of course.  Normally during Pizza time we just chat and are silly.  Sometimes we make up stories or games.   After the movie, we talk about it!  Sometimes we draw pictures about the story.  This entire process starts at dinner time and ends just before bed-time routines begin (Somewhere between 5 and 6 hours).  As I have been trying to invent ways to earn extra money, a plan started to brew.  My son has plenty of friends from daycare (although he has been pulled out due to cost, we keep up a pretty active play date schedule) as well as neighbor kids all around his age.  Why not include one or two kids in this movie night? It's themed babysitting!

Schedule:

Supplies and Cost:



Benefit to the parents?  They get a free Friday night!  Their kids get dinner and a movie and come home with a craft. 

Benefit to me?  I was already doing this!  So for an extra $6.25, I get to make some extra money.  

How much money?  Well, I didn't want to set my prices to high.  Why try to soak my friends (or my kid's friends) when I was already doing this?  I set my sights on $20 a kid.  I started with three kids (and with my own kid, that makes four).  I can manage four kids at once with a plan.  

Profit schedule:

    

Now, the above can be altered up or down depending on adding or subtracting kids, skipping a week here or there due to family scheduling but, it's a start!  

Our first Movie night was this past Friday night.  All went well.  We watched Hop since it was the Friday before Easter (Good Friday) and we all made bunny ear headbands out of foam sheets.  The parents were all grateful to spend only $4 dollars an hour on babysitting while they prepared for their own Easter plans.  I'll call this one a success!

Let's give it a try!

Let's face it, money is tight.  No, not tight...nonexistent.  My husband is injured, my mom has cancer, my mother-in-law has moved in with us after a nasty accident...our debt is to income ratio is akin to an elephant and a flea trying to play on a see-saw.  I have a full-time job that takes up 40+ hours of my week but I have to figure out a way to bring in more money to try to gain the upper hand in this unfair fight with our finances.

Let's not forget the incredibly high gas and utility prices, food prices, daycare costs!  It goes on and on.  Cable TV is off the table, our son has been take out of daycare and we still can't afford the basics!  I have to do something.

I'm gonna try some money saving and money making tactics that I have either stumbled across online or come up with on my own.  I'll report them here - successes and failures alike.  I have an idea brewing so, hang tight for my first idea.   Wish me luck...I'm gonna need it!