Money Mom Podcast
Welcome to The Money Mom Podcast—the ultimate guide for moms who want to take control of their finances, crush debt, and create a life of financial freedom and abundance. Hosted by Rachel Coons, a budgeting expert and mom of three, this podcast is your go-to resource for practical tips, mindset shifts, and empowering strategies to help you manage your money with confidence.
Whether you’re navigating grocery budgets, tackling debt, or dreaming of building wealth for your family, each episode offers bite-sized, actionable advice to make money management simple, stress-free, and even enjoyable. With relatable stories, expert insights, and a dose of mom-to-mom encouragement, you'll learn how to transform your finances—one small step at a time.
Tune in every week to discover how to save more, spend smarter, and feel empowered to create the financial life you deserve. Because when moms thrive financially, families flourish.
Money Mom Podcast
53: How to Make More Without Getting a Job (Even as a Busy Mom)
Ever feel like you're doing everything right with your family budget but still struggling financially? You might be caught in what I call "the saver's trap" – that frustrating cycle of constantly cutting expenses while overlooking the power of generating additional income.
In this episode, I share why I've always been passionate about finding creative ways to make money on my own terms. As stay-at-home parents, we often think our financial contribution is limited to stretching the family budget through careful spending. While that's valuable, there's another side to the equation that can be transformative: bringing in extra money without sacrificing your primary role at home.
This isn't about complex business models or working 40+ hours weekly – it's about spotting opportunities, leveraging your existing skills, and thinking differently about your capabilities. Whether it's selling items online, offering services based on your talents, or creating something people want, even an extra $300 monthly can dramatically change your financial situation.
xoxo,
Rachel
Where to find me:
Instagram: @heyrachelcoons
TikTok: @heyrachelcoons
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Hey there and welcome to another episode of the Money Mom podcast. Every episode that I do of this podcast is exciting to me. I love talking about these topics and getting into the nitty gritty of money and how our relationship with money is important. How we can save, spend and build wealth is important. But this topic today is one that I am exceptionally passionate about and it's one that I actually like when I go back to my roots and who I am as a person. Like this is deeply a part of me, so I'm really excited to kind of share a little bit more today about it. But first, before we go into that, I want to share something that's been on my mind for a long time and as I've gotten deeper into this world of helping moms and women with their family's financial situation.
Speaker 1:This is something that I don't think gets talked about enough, something that I don't think gets talked about enough, and that is the power that we have to be able to save money through budgeting, through intentional spending, and people in my space, budgeting people, speak this all the time. We always are talking about how you can find extra money in your bank account, how you can save. I'm really big on saving money on groceries and that's all fine and dandy. It's beautiful, because when we can save $600, $1,000 a month, we really can change our financial situation. But the problem is is, if you are constantly focusing on saving money, you might be stuck in what I call the saver's trap. Now, the saver's trap is always worried about saving and not worried about increasing your income at all. As a stay-at-home mom, that's really where our power is is to save the most amount of money. But this could also feel really restrictive when we're constantly cutting back and trying not to spend any more money, and it can also feel very disempowering and slow. If you are stuck in debt and you're like I have to have this amount of money every single month to be able to pay off the credit card or to be able to make ends meet and you're budgeting as much as you possibly can, you're stuck in that saver's trap and the issue is you haven't focused on how to actually increase your income and, as a stay-at-home mom, we're not the ones maybe going out and getting a job that may be our partner's job or capability at this point in our lives, and so then it feels really disempowering because you're like I'm doing everything I can. He's doing everything he can. So how can we increase the amount of money in our bank account when we're stuck here? And that is when we need to bring in this opportunity that women who stay home have, which is to increase the amount of money coming in every month. Yes, we're going to focus on budgeting. Yes, we're going to save as much money as we can, but there is something really, really fun about tapping into making money as well, and this doesn't mean you have to go out and get a job. It doesn't mean you have to spend hours. You know, working for the man, but if you want to help your family financially, you need a new way to think about income. So I want to break that down today and talk about how you can bring in some extra money right now without clocking in anywhere. Now I again.
Speaker 1:This has been something that I've always been really passionate about my personality. I actually don't really like working for other people. I've never really liked working for other people. In high school, I worked at a deli and there was something that was so annoying to me about having to clock in at 9 am and clocking out at 3 pm, and I only made the whatever money I was paid hourly and I couldn't do anything about it. It wasn't until I went to college, when I would come home and I would nanny in the summer, that I started to have more flexibility. I could charge what I wanted to charge, I could work as much as I wanted, I could add on extra hours if I needed, and that brought in this really sense of excitement about making money on my terms, how I wanted.
Speaker 1:And I'm not saying you have to go out and start a business and create a full-fledged entrepreneur journey. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is simple, easy ways that you can add 50, 100, 300, or even 500 extra dollars a month without going out and getting a job, because I know you need something that fits into your schedule, it fits into your busy lifestyle and it helps you financially. But it also gives you flexibility, and that's what side hustles can do for you. And, like I said, there are really simple, easy ways that you could do this. But first a question for you what would $300 extra a month look like for you? What would that unlock for you? We're going to save as much money as we possibly can on groceries, but what if, on top of that, we also brought in an extra income? And we have to start thinking differently when we do this. We have to start thinking about what talents, what things am I already doing in my life that I could charge for, or what could I create, or what could I sell that could then bring in extra money.
Speaker 1:Now I want to tell you a fun story. So, again, this has always been something that I've thought about. My journey actually started in an MLM. That's where I started side gig from home, right when I was having babies and I was selling makeup on the side, and I actually was very successful in that MLM and I'm going to do a whole podcast episode on that next week and my experience in an MLM and what it meant for me, because there's good things and there's bad things about it, and I'm going to talk about it all next week. I've always had this idea of like I can stay home with my kids, but I also would love to have something else that I could make money with. So I'm always thinking of ways to like bring in more money and, in fact, my brother-in-law one time told my husband he was like that Rachel, she's a hustler, she's going to get it done. She's going to figure out ways to make money if she can. That's just how my brain works, and so it's really fun for me to talk about this, because I've had lots of experiences of ways that I can kind of figure things out and make more money.
Speaker 1:Here's a good example of this. So a couple of years ago, you all know about the Stanley cups, the tumbler cups, the 40 ounce tumblers that everybody wanted in 2020, 2021. Everyone was obsessed with these cups and you like literally couldn't even order them because they were out of stock all the time. They would come in stock, you'd have to buy them within the first 10 minutes and if you didn't hit that, then you would have to wait another couple months. They were selling for like $40 minimum, but then if they had special additions, you were paying twice as much for these cups, and it was just ridiculous. Honestly, I don't even like them anymore. I don't even know why we were so obsessed with them, but we were okay. This was the mom thing at the time.
Speaker 1:And so one day I have a friend I actually don't know how I heard about this. I think it was a friend like actually don't know how I heard about this. I think it was a friend. Like we were in a mom chat and one of my girlfriends texted out if you're familiar with the store Leslie's Pool Supply, it's a pool supply store Like you can go get your chlorine and your chemicals for your pool and you can buy them in bulk. There's equipment there, whatever. So my friend texts out one day and she's like, oh my gosh, you guys, I was just in Leslie's pool supply and they are selling Stanley tumblers the black and white version for $11 a piece, the 40 ounce Stanley tumbler that everybody's obsessed with for $11. Now again, they were being sold for like $40 online. I'm like heck, yes, I'm going to go buy myself some Stanley Tumbers. They did have like a Leslie's logo on the backside, but everything else was the same Stanley branding, all these things.
Speaker 1:So the next day I get the kids in the car, I drive to Leslie's pool and I buy myself a Stanley for $11. And I buy myself a Stanley for $11. And on the way home I am like I think I could make some money from these. What if I went in and I bought a bunch of these Stanley tumblers and then I resold them online on Facebook Marketplace and if you're not familiar with how to sell things on Facebook Marketplace, you definitely need to get yourself in the Money Mom Club because we're having a whole training on how to make things on Facebook Marketplace. You definitely need to get yourself in the Money Mom Club because we're having a whole training on how to make money on Facebook Marketplace. I'm telling you it's a goldmine in there. You can make so much money by selling stuff on Facebook Marketplace and I'm pretty good at it.
Speaker 1:So I was like okay, if I go in and I purchase and they had the tumblers online as well, not just in store. So I was like I could go in and I started calculating the numbers. I could buy 50 Stanley cups at $10 or $11 a piece. So I would spend about $500 upfront for these Stanley tumblers. But then if I could go and turn around these Stanleys and sell them for $40 online on Facebook Marketplace, I'm going to make like a 300% profit. Like I'm going to spend $500 and I'm going to make closer to like $2,000. That's a pretty good business model, if you ask me. So I asked Brad hey, are you okay if I buy 50 Stanley tumblers online? And at first he's like what are you talking about? So I kind of explained the breakdown of like how much money I would make and how much it would cost and he was like, yeah, go ahead and do it.
Speaker 1:So I buy the Stanley tumblers, they get shipped to me and they actually didn't all ship at once. So I would get like five Stanley tumblers a day on my porch for like a couple weeks and I had a closet that I would put them in and I would put up these posts on Facebook and this probably took me. I'm trying to think of like the time it took me to like order the Stanley tumblers was like 10 minutes. Then to organize them and like post, the post probably was like 15, 20 minutes and then when someone would order, I would just like print the shipping label, stack it on the box and then like ship it out and drop it off the post office. So we're talking maybe maybe an hour every couple weeks of like selling these stanley tumblers and I ended up selling every single stanley tumbler that I bought. Actually, I think I kept one for myself and I think I gave one to a friend at cost. I like had her just pay me back for the price and ended up making close to two thousand dollars on this investment that I made, and it didn't take me extra time or a bunch of extra energy, and I brought in $1,500 after expenses for literally a couple hours of work.
Speaker 1:And this isn't rocket science. It's not something that you can't be doing all the freaking time Finding things that are a little bit cheaper, upselling them for a cost and making money. All it takes is a little bit of mindset shifts, a little bit of changing how you think about your world and how you have the opportunity, as a person, to bring in money. You don't have to just focus on budgeting. You could also focus on making money. So you have to shift it. You have to think I want more money, I want to be able to bring in more money. And what does that look like? That might look like selling five items on Facebook Marketplace for $20. That might look like starting a side gig where you're working as a virtual assistant for a business owner. That might look like you're opening up your home once a week for moms to drop their kids off and you're charging like $5 a head or something. Or maybe you're baking cookies for the neighborhood and selling your cookies.
Speaker 1:Once you figure out something that you can do to create money, it's going to feed the fire. It's going to make you excited about doing it again and again. You don't have to be a sitting duck when it comes to helping your family financially. Once you've done it, you can do it again and again and again, and that momentum builds and it gets you really excited for it. But let me say this lovingly to you is that you're never going to feel fully ready unless you jump in. You don't need to be fully ready. You just need to start messy, start small. You're going to figure things out as you go and you can tweak things as you go as well. What matters is the desire to make a little bit more money and then taking small steps, one at a time, to be able to do that. So here's what I want you to do after listening to this episode or maybe you've been doing it as you've been listening I want you to grab a notebook or your phone and a pen and paper and brain dump a quick list of five ways that maybe you could make $100 this month without going out and getting a job.
Speaker 1:They don't have to be perfect, they just have to be possible, something that you could do on the side, and I'm going to challenge you to go out and try and make $100 this month. That's our challenge for our Money Mom Club members and we're helping them get to be able to make that money. But I want to challenge you, as a podcast listener, to go out and find $100 this month. Just try it out. Just test it out. Start thinking of different ways that you can bring in some money.
Speaker 1:And it's exciting, it's super fun. It's really cool to be able in some money and it's exciting, it's super fun. It's really cool to be able to make money. And it also can give you a little bit more extra wiggle room in your budget Because, remember, money doesn't have to be hard. You're already doing so much as a mom. You just need to do a little couple tweaks to help make money work for you a little bit more, and I hope you'll try it. I hope you'll do the challenge. I want to hear how it goes. Find ways that you could make $100 this month, and I cannot wait to see how it goes. Okay, thanks for being here. I'll see you next time.
