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

Natalie Folino provides for her family.

The stay-at-home mother of three from Dayton, Ohio, is using the power of social media and side hustles to get her family through the federal government shutdown.

“Right now, my husband is an essential employee of the Department of Defense, which means he will continue to work every day,” Folino said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “It takes 40 minutes each way, but we don’t get a paycheck, which is a little problematic for a single-income family like mine.”

Folino was already growing his social media brand before it shut down, but now his side hustle takes on a whole new importance. Due to the closure, her family has been deprived of her husband’s income for 29 days and counting.

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Folino has taken on a number of side hustles this month to help keep her family afloat, and she’s been documenting them on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok; here he has amassed nearly 200,000 followers and more than 2 million likes on TikTok alone.

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

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Folino is not new to making extra money. He began documenting his side hustle about two and a half years ago to help pay for his children’s increasingly expensive football activities. Over time, the experience of juggling odd jobs has equipped her with skills for financial emergencies like the one her family is facing this month.

“Overall, we are leveraging our savings,” Folino said. “I know we’re in a luckier position than a lot of people, so nothing has actually changed for our family other than changing my earnings a little bit.”

Folino showcased a variety of side hustles, including laundry services, dog walking, social media monetization, coaching calls, and even affiliate shopping links. In his videos, he states that he charges $70 for two bags of laundry and $25 for walking the dog.

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Folino said in his videos that his earnings rose up to $431 on some days and dropped to $22 on some days. He said he could make even more this month, but because he lives in a large Air Force community, some of his clients have also been affected by government furloughs and layoffs, further increasing the pressure on the local economy.

While families who are government employees can’t control the federal shutdown, Folino said people can control how they respond to hardship.

“There may be circumstances that are completely out of your control. But there are a few things that I think you can control,” he said.

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

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“I think you can control your attitude and your perspective, and I really think you can control your work ethic. I’m definitely someone who pulls yourself up with your bootstraps type of mentality, and I think if you set a goal and you’re willing to really work and put yourself out there, there’s really no limit to it.”

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

A visibly emotional Folino thanked his followers for their support and announced that he would donate his earnings from the last two days of October to those in need in his community.

“Anything is possible,” he said.