Stay-at-home mom of two pays down debt with four side gigs

She left her marketing coordinator role in 2023 after her employer removed her hybrid schedule and asked for a full-time in-office presence, then became a stay-at-home mother in Houston. She had earned about $70,000 a year before resigning and expected to return to work after maternity leave, but instead chose to focus on her children.

Living on one income from 2023 to early 2026, when the family welcomed a second child, tightened the household budget—half of her husband’s take-home pay went to the mortgage. In January she posted on Instagram about the $18,000 of nonmortgage debt she wanted to tackle, which included student loans, medical bills and credit-card balances.

Over the last six months she tried mystery shopping, creating user-generated content (UGC) for brands, doing brand deals, freelance graphic design and experimenting with print-on-demand on Etsy. UGC takes up most of her time, about 10 hours a week, and her side-income has helped cut the debt to $13,100.

United States, Houston

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