Wife to government employee earns $5K in side hustles during shutdown

Natalie Folino covers her family’s expenses.

A stay-at-home mother of three from Dayton, Ohio, is harnessing the power of social media and side pursuits to help her family get through the federal government shutdown.

“Right now, my husband is an essential employee at the Department of Defense, which means he still works every day,” Folino told Fox News Digital in an interview. “It’s a 40-minute commute each way, but we don’t get a salary, which is a bit of a problem for a family like mine, which is a single-income family.”

Folino was already growing her brand on social media before the lockdown, but now her side hustle has taken on a whole new importance. Due to the lockdown, her family has been without her husband’s income for 29 days and counting.

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To help keep her family afloat this month, Folino has taken on several side hustles and documented them on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, where she has amassed nearly 200,000 combined followers and over 2 million likes on TikTok alone.

Her goal for October is to earn $5,000, which is ambitious. (Spoiler alert: I did it!)

“I have to make $160 every day. There are no days off, we only have a few days,” Folino told Fox News Digital.

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Folino isn’t new to making extra money on the side. She started documenting her side hustle about two and a half years ago to help pay for her kids’ expensive soccer activities. Over time, her experience juggling odd jobs has equipped her with the skills to handle financial emergencies like the one her family is facing this month.

“Overall, we’re depleting our savings,” Folino said. “I know we’re in a more blessed position than a lot of people, so nothing has changed for our family other than the fact that we’re moving my profits around a little bit.”

Folino offered a variety of side hustles, including laundry services, dog walking, social media monetization, coaching calls, and even affiliate shopping links. In her videos, she refers to charging $70 for two bags of laundry and $25 for a dog walker.

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Folino said in her videos that her earnings ranged from $431 on some days to $22 on others. She noted that she could have earned more this month, but because she lives in a large Air Force community, some of her clients were also affected by government furloughs and layoffs, exacerbating the pressure on the local economy.

While families with government employees cannot control the federal shutdown, Folino said people can control how they respond to the challenges.

“There may be circumstances that are completely out of your control. But there are some things that I believe you can control,” she said.

Natalie Folino, a mother of three daughters ages 12, 10 and 9, completes a laundry service at her home in Dayton, Ohio. (Natalie Folino/Instagram)

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“I believe you can control your behavior and your outlook, and I truly believe you can control your work ethic. I definitely encourage yourself to step up your mindset, and I think if you set a goal, and you’re willing to really work and put yourself out there, then there’s no limits to it.”

In a video posted Thursday, Folino shared an update with her followers about her efforts to earn $5,000 in October, saying she not only met her goal, but exceeded it by $224.

Visibly emotional, Folino thanked her followers for their support and revealed that she would be donating her earnings from the last two days of October to those in need in her community.

“Anything is possible,” she said.