SURVIVE the summer holidays with our guide on how to make a bit of money from home.
With summer activities costing around £500 per child and childcare coming in at £175 per child per week, there’s certainly no break for parents’ purses.
You can offset the costs by finding clever ways to make more cash, writes Mel Hunter.
All these moneymakers fit into your evenings or spare time – and with some of them, you can get the kids stuck in too.
ONE of the best ways to create cash is to take on jobs that others don’t have the time or skills to do themselves.
Register with a site such as Airtasker, where people post odd jobs they need help with.
On the day we looked, the rate for helping someone pack to move house was £150.
According to Airtasker’s Side Hustle Calculator, two jobs a week adds up to an average of £450 a month for car washing, £400 for cleaning and nearly £300 for washing and ironing.
Lots of householders need help with their garden during the summer.
The charge for light gardening on Airtasker is £60 – or you could make £550 a month if you take on two jobs a week.
DURING the busy summer holidays, many owners seek animal lovers to look after pets.
You could charge £10 for a 45-minute dog walk.
Find out more at the National Association of Pet Sitters and Dog Walkers (narpsuk.co.uk) and look out for pet-sitting jobs on the Nextdoor app.
It would be a good idea to take out public liability insurance – the average cost is around £55.
IF you live in a holiday hotspot, rent out your home or room during the summer. Use Airbnb to find last-minute travellers.
You could also rent your loft space or garage with a website such as stashbee.com, which has around 100,000 users who make an average of £1,300 a year.
If you live near an airport, sports ground, concert venue or other popular location, you could make £3,000 a year renting your car parking space on JustPark.
Or rent out cameras, tools or sports gear you no longer use on fatllama.com.
You can loan your pressure washer for around £15 a day or get £20 for an inflatable kayak.
BABYSITTERS are always in demand during the long summer holidays.
Typical rates are around £10 an hour.
You can spread the word that you’re available to look after children by word of mouth, local online groups or by registering at childcare.co.uk.
Although you don’t need any qualifications to babysit, having previous experience and a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check will allow you to charge more and get more work.
The most important requirements are being responsible and great with kids.
Love their company? You could be quids in.
IF you’re hiding your creative talent, going public could make you pounds.
Handmade items such as jewellery, clothing or upcycled furniture can be sold on platforms such as Etsy or at craft fairs.
Lanre Bianeyin, 50, from Sutton, South London, who has two children aged 14 and 17, sells hair scarves and accessories for around £5 to £25 from her Etsy shop, LanRetro.
She says: “I have always enjoyed making things and love vintage style.”
Alongside her job as a learning coach in a college, she spends a few hours two or three times a week working on her shop – and makes around £100 extra income a month.
She says: “As well as paying for more materials, it helps me give my children money to go out with their friends during the school holidays.”
IT’S peak season for car boot sales.
They often close down from autumn through to spring, so make the most of the summer to sell your unwanted things.
Once you have assembled a pile of DVDs, games, kitchenware and unwanted gifts, simply book a pitch at your local car boot.
Get kids to help price and sell the items for a lesson in how to make some money.
You could set aside your profits for a special family day out.
While you’re there, look out for treasures to sell on for more money.
You could also make cash from old books via the Ziffit app, or sell Lego by the kilo at musicmagpie.co.uk, along with CDs, DVDs, old phones and other tech.
KIDS’ clothes do sell well at car boot sales, but there are other methods.
Vinted and eBay are all good places to start.
A bundle of clothes of the same size often sell better than one-off items.
If that seems like a lot of effort, you might want to use a specialist kids’ clothes service.
The Little Loop, which rents out kids’ clothes, also gives at least £5 credit for each bag of clothes you send to them.
Order a £2 pack at thelittleloop.com/secondhand/clearout to get two bags and free return shipping, then return a bag to get the £5.
Site founder Charlotte Morley says: “Parents are turning to Clearout because we do the hard work, they still get paid, and every item is responsibly resold.”
NOW is a great time to switch to a new current account and pocket a bonus sum. The best options available include Barclays, which offers a £175 thank you, and TSB which offers £100 to switch.
You must close and complete a full switch of an old account by using the Current Account Switch Service, which automatically moves all payments, direct debits and standing orders.
Some of the banks may offer the bonus for switching to paid-for accounts, so check the fees are worth it before making the move.
KATIE ERANGEY hopes to earn an extra £500 to pay for her kids to have fun throughout the summer.
With her family’s mortgage now up £600, she answers dog walking, cleaning and spray tanning posts on Airtasker while also having a weekend job at Heathrow airport.
Katie – mum to Charlie, nine, Scarlet, eight, and Jack, two – says: “My daughter loves football and my son loves golf, so I want them to be able to go to those holiday clubs, which are around £30 a day.”
Married Katie, 40, from Hook, Hants, adds: “Dog walking is good for my mental health.”
