Recession is an unpredictable period of time when anything can happen. Companies let people go, businesses close down and being financially ready for anything will help your stress go away and you won’t be as worried for your family.

The experts say that you should have enough money in the “rainy day fund” to keep your family afloat for 3 to 6 months (Frugal Dad even suggests 6 to 12 months). So if that’s not the way things are now, you need to do something about it fast, because saving a $100 a month ain’t going to do it.

You need to make more money to save more money and here is how:

1. Earn more if possible by working more hours.

This is the easiest way, really - no new jobs to look for, no resumes to send, just start handling more tasks at work, do more overtime and consequently get more money.

A nice side-effect of that will be the good impression you’ll create. Having seen that you’re taking more responsibilities your manager will start appreciating you more and hopefully this way you’ll have more chances to keep your job if and when they start firing people.

2. Work from home.

There is a number of things you can do from home - starting from filling surveys online to professional blogging. You can buy and sell stuff on EBay, become a VA (virtual assistant), do anything you like, anything you are good at, and earn more money. I won’t bore you with all the possibilities, you can google “work from home” and get an exhaustive list of ideas.

3. Get a part time job - in addition to your existing one.

If you ask me, having two part-time jobs is much safer during the recession than just one full time job. Simply because the chances that you will get fired from two jobs at once are much smaller. So even if you get fired from one of the jobs, you’ll still have half of the income to live on while you’re searching for another part time job.

But if having two part-times is not an option for you, then consider finding a job that you can do on weekends or evenings, so that it won’t interfere with your main job. It can be house-minding, dog-walking or anything else really.

4. Sell things online.

Ever heard of garage sale? Of course you have. Well, you can hold a garage sale as we know it, in a traditional way, or you could be courageous and innovative and sell the dusty, useless, cluttering-your-space stuff on EBay. Either way you’ll make money out of items that just sit there.

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