card designed by Nicole Elliott

The December budget is always a tough one to balance! Especially during a poor economy when it has been hard to save anything extra each month for holiday giving. So what is a mom to do? Here are a few ways to make some extra cash in  the coming weeks for Christmas:

1.  Bake your most yummy Christmas treats and cut or make them into sample sizes. Take them to work or send them into your husband’s office/breakroom along with some order forms. Be creative and make something that not everyone else is making.  For example, I’m from Ohio where everyone makes the famous “Ohio Buckeyes“…(my recipe is similar but I won’t give away all my secrets!)….but here in Colorado, you can’t find them anywhere.  There is a man at my husband’s work who pays an extraordinary amount to order buckeyes from a chocolate factory in Ohio AND they are not nearly as good! Now, he can get them from me at a cheaper price, no shipping, and they are more fresh and yummy than he would get from the factory! (*local & state regulations apply)

2. Offer to decorate houses, hang lights, address and send Christmas cards, or wrap gifts! Many working parents run out of time for these necessary tasks and some older folks are just out of energy or ability to do it themselves. Post your availability in the newspaper, on facebook, and craigslist.

3. Gather up all of the outdated clothes and toys in your home. Take them to a local resale shop to receive cash up-front or sell them on craigslist. Everyone is looking for bargains on gifts this year. Don’t forget about older game stations and video games! Those still go for a lot this time of year.

4. Clean houses. This is definitely not a favorite, but if you’re only doing it for a few weeks for some extra Christmas money, you can do it! Let your friends, neighbors and family know you are willing to clean for a certain price. Again, the season is so busy that many people will be willing to pay someone else to save time on their part!

5.  Take family Christmas photos. Families are lining up to take their children to Walmart, Sears, JCPenney, etc. to get their photos taken in time to include with their Christmas cards.  If you have a nice camera and a Christmas tree, you can offer to take photos at your home! Take a few free online photography courses to understand lighting and then get to work! Practice on your own family first. You can even offer hot cocoa and cookies for the families that come through your doors. All this from a friendly mom at a price they can afford–without the lines, the sometimes rude sales associates, and the often dirty photo props used by all the other kids this time of year!

Check out more ideas to make extra cash on the Christian Moms Business Resource website HERE.

Do you have a great idea for earning extra cash from home at Christmas? We’d love to hear from you!

2. Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21 NIV

3. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. Psalm 27:14 (Relax!)

4. You do not have, because you do not ask God. James 4:2

5. God loves the pure-hearted and well-spoken; good leaders also delight in their friendship. Proverbs 22:11 MSG

6. Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities! Luke 12: 48 MSG

7. For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6 NIV

8. Don’t turn your back on wisdom, for she will protect you. Love her, and she will guard you. Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do! And whatever else you do, develop good judgment. Proverbs 4:6-7 NLT

9. Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14-15

10. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  Jeremiah 29:11-13

 Housework–is there honestly anyone out there who really enjoys it? I don’t mean the wonderful feeling of having a clean house..I mean the sweeping/mopping/vacuuming/dusting/scrubbing that goes into that! Though I have never *disliked* cleaning now that I’m a mom I would much rather be playing with my kiddos or working! Since a cleaning lady is no where in my future, however, it’s great to try to make cleaning as quick, easy, effective, and even as fun as possible!

I have a couple of ways that I do this. I love FlyLady and have gotten most of my inspirations from her and her book/website. Though I still have a hard time following along with all of her ideas I decided to embrace her over-all ideas and philosophies (which is what I think FlyLady is all about) I especially took hold of the “house work done incorrectly still blesses your family” saying! Here are some tips from her and some tricks of my own that help me keep my house nice and tidy without spending a ton of time!

My favorite tip/trick is the one in the picture. I fill up the baby bathtub with water and dish soap for bubbles and then let my daughter splash around in the kitchen as much as she wants (she *loves* this and it usually occupies her for at least 30 minutes) After she’s done I take the wet soapy towel and swish it around on the floor and *Voila* the mopping is done!

Other tips are to take care of mail as soon as it comes in–throw away all the junk, put all the bills in one place, and take care of anything else. During dinner clean up while the food is cooking and do a quick dishwasher load at the end. Waking up to a nice, clean kitchen is so much of a nicer way to start the day than to look at a pile of dirty dishes!

Hope these might help you out, and if you have any easy cleaning tips please leave them in the comments!

2. Small Business Tips & Training

3. Facebook Tips for Small Business

4. 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business

5.  101 Ways to Promote a New Blog

6. 10 Bible Verses Every Small Business Owner Needs

7.  5 Ways to Communicate Effectively With Your Customers

8. The first rule of doing work that matters

9. 7-Step Course Correction in Your Small Business

10. What if the business you love is not making money?

If you’d like to give it a try, click on the button below. Sign up using your twitter account and then set a bid about how much money you’ll accept for each tweet. I suggest starting under $2 and working up, depending on how many followers you have, etc.  Have fun tweeting!

**Today’s giveaway is for a $25 Gift Certificate to use with any of our Christian Businesses. Enter HERE!

This morning I woke up with “There’s a Place for Us” from West Side Story running through my head. (What can I say—my husband’s a theatre person!) But instead of focusing on Tony and Maria finding their place in the world, I want to ask you to think about your place in your world.

As a busy working from home mom, where do you center your business activities? Do you have a desk or office space dedicated solely to your income-generating pursuits? How does that fit in with the flow of your family’s life? Do you need peace and quiet to concentrate, and instead find yourself trying to work in the middle of your family room—aka Grand Central Station?

Several weeks ago, my husband and I realized that we were seriously out of balance in the way we were utilizing our house. With five children in our family, we figured out that every room in the house had been taken over by kids and their stuff. Now, don’t get me wrong—our kids are a joy and delight in our home, but as we re-evaluated things, we realized that they had taken over! There was no adult space anywhere! And since we are seriously outnumbered by minors, we figured out that creating an adults-only zone was an essential step in preserving our sanity.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the space to completely isolate one area of the house as 100% kid-free! Our solution was to repurpose our downstairs as a “study.” With seven people in our house, it’s unlikely that we will have a 100% kid-free zone anytime in the near future, but we knew that creating a quiet zone in the house was a move in the right direction. We purchased a desk for my husband (so he didn’t keep infringing on my space), brought a computer down for the kids to work on school stuff, and created a sitting area for reading books. The rules for using the downstairs are now centered on preserving a quiet workspace where family members can retreat to work and study.

The key to the room makeover we accomplished was in the self-reflection that occurred prior to rearranging the furniture. Both my husband and I knew that something wasn’t working, but it took some time for us to ponder the issue and uncover the true source of the problem. By addressing the way we utilized the space in our house, we have now created a place where (hopefully) all of us have the ability to be productive and accomplish the things we have been called to do.  Don’t be afraid to step back and observe the flow of your workspace with a critical eye—you might just unlock the key to your own productivity!