Share your insights or perspective on the financial matter presented in the input.

What ways are there for us to earn a little extra side money?
For your girlfriend (congrats to you both on the coming new baby!), full-time mothers often become work-at-home moms using skills that they may have utilized in the outside-the-home workforce before they made the decision to stay home.   Etsy can be a place where some do this, but there are many articles out there pointing out that it also doesn't work for many people.  I tried to earn some side money there and didn't make a dime.  For those with a niche product, though, it can really work. A book on working at home as a mother (from a Christian perspective with specifically religious overtones, so not the right book for someone who would not appreciate that aspect) is Hired @ Home.  There are secular resources, such as the website Work From Home.  From everything I've ever heard in researching the topic of becoming a WAHM (work at home mother), it's a challenging but rewarding lifestyle.  Note that according to one WAHM I know, only contract work is reliable enough to be depended on for family obligations (this is true of any part time work).  Freelancing will have so many ups and downs that you can't bank on it to, say, pay the mortgage unless you really get going. Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich focuses a lot on Earning More Money with ideas that might benefit both of you.  His angle is that of working on top of an existing job, so it may specifically help you think of how to take your programming skills (or a hobby you have besides programming) and translate them into a career.