Filling up a 15-gallon tank costs about $65 at the current national average of $4.33 a gallon, which is roughly $19 more than the same tank cost a year ago, when the average was $3.07. The average has stayed above $4 since late July, and drivers in only 14 states are paying less than that.
Congress has been debating ways to bring that number down since March, with proposals that would suspend the federal gas tax, tax oil company profits, or limit gasoline exports. None has passed, House Republican leaders decided in September against bringing a gas tax bill to the floor before the election, and the House is not due back until November.
The idea with bipartisan backing in Congress is a gas tax holiday, which would take 18.4 cents off a gallon, roughly 4 percent of what you are paying now.
The Democratic bill now runs through September 2027 and covers diesel
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Senators Mark Kelly and Richard Blumenthal introduced the Gas Prices Relief Act in March, after the national average jumped 21 percent in a week to $3.47, and Representative Chris Pappas filed a matching House version. As written, it would have suspended the federal gasoline tax only through October 1. On September 29, Kelly and Pappas introduced a replacement called the Consumer Fuel Prices Relief Act, which would pause the gas, diesel and aviation fuel taxes until the end of September 2027 and require companies to pass the savings on to buyers. The original bill would have moved money from the general fund into the Highway Trust Fund to replace the lost revenue.
The original bill appears to have stalled after it was introduced, and the replacement came out less than three weeks ago, with the House out campaigning until November.
A holiday would not take the full 18.4 cents off the pump price. Estimates put the real drop at 10 to 16 cents a gallon, or roughly $2 to $3 on a 16-gallon fill-up, because part of the cut would likely be offset by higher prices before tax. Diesel carries a 24.4 cent federal tax, so the cut per gallon would be larger for truckers and farmers, but diesel is now averaging above $6 a gallon.
The Republican bills differ mostly on how long the tax stays off
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Senator Josh Hawley’s Gas Tax Suspension Act would set the gasoline and diesel taxes to zero for at least 90 days, and the president could extend the pause for another 90 days if economic conditions called for it. The bill also tells the Treasury to move general fund money into the Highway Trust Fund to cover what the tax would have brought in. Representative Jeff Van Drew’s House bill goes much further, with an 18-month suspension that would phase the taxes back in gradually instead of bringing them all back at once.
Representative Andy Harris, who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, has a third version covering gas and diesel, and it is the one House Republicans pushed hardest to bring to a vote.
President Donald Trump has said he supports a pause, but he would need Congress to approve it, since only lawmakers can change the federal tax. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the best way to bring gas prices down is to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while adding that he would hear the president out.
One bill would pause the tax whenever gas stays above about $4
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Representative Brendan Boyle introduced H.R. 8600 in April with a built-in trigger, which pauses the federal gas tax in any month when the national average exceeds $3.99 a gallon. Because the average has been above $4 since late July, the pause would be in effect today, and it would switch off on its own once prices fell back under the threshold.
The bill also pays for the pause differently than the others. Instead of drawing on the general fund, it would redirect about $30 billion in existing federal subsidies for oil and gas companies into the Highway Trust Fund, and it would pause two oil and gas tax credits, the enhanced oil recovery credit and the marginal well credit, during the months when the gas tax is suspended.
Like most of the other bills, it has not reached a vote, and the broader pattern this year is that similar measures have stalled.
Why House Republicans never voted on a gas tax bill before the election
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On September 15, Harris and other holdouts briefly held up floor action on other bills to demand a vote on his proposal to suspend the federal gas and diesel taxes. The next day, Speaker Mike Johnson said leadership had decided against a vote because the conference could not agree, with roughly ten different ideas about what to do.
Representative Clay Higgins, a co-sponsor of the bill, said House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves opposed bringing it to the floor, and Graves declined to comment. The rule for debating the other bills passed 214 to 211 after two Democrats voted for it, which took away the Freedom Caucus members’ bargaining power.
Whether the bill could come up in November when the House returns remains to be seen. Harris was the latest lawmaker to propose a suspension, after four similar bills earlier in the year, and all of them appear to have stalled.
Two Democratic bills aim at oil company profits and gasoline exports instead
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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Ro Khanna’s Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act would charge large oil companies a per-barrel tax equal to half the difference between the current oil price and last year’s average, paid quarterly, and return the money to taxpayers as rebates. Only companies that produce or import at least 300,000 barrels a day would owe the tax, and the rebates would phase out for single filers earning more than $75,000 and joint filers earning more than $150,000. The sponsors estimate that with oil near $100 a barrel the tax would raise about $33 billion a year, which works out to $216 a year for single filers and $324 for joint filers, or about $18 a month for a single filer. Nothing in the bill lowers the price at the pump.
Khanna’s separate bill would stop U.S. refiners from shipping gasoline to other countries whenever the national average is $3.12 a gallon or higher, on the theory that keeping more fuel at home would lower prices. The United States was the world’s largest exporter of motor gasoline in 2024, which is the supply the bill would keep here. The bill is described as unlikely to pass, and Khanna has said Republicans are unlikely to back it.
Why every version runs into the Highway Trust Fund
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The federal gas tax supplies about 85 percent of the Highway Trust Fund’s highway account revenue, so every suspension has to answer the question of who pays for the roads. A one-month holiday would cost an estimated $3.5 billion and a six-month holiday about $21 billion, and a five-month suspension was estimated to cost the fund $17 billion. The fund is already projected to run out of money by 2028 at current spending levels, and Thune has warned that a suspension would leave a big hole in it. That is why the Kelly, Hawley and Boyle bills each include a way to replace the revenue.
Congress is also in the middle of rewriting the highway program. The five-year law that funded it expired on September 30, and Congress passed a short-term extension on September 2 that runs through December 11 but did not renew $36.8 billion in annual advance funding the old law had guaranteed. A five-year replacement has passed a House committee but has not been enacted.
What drivers can count on before Election Day
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The House left in September to campaign and is due back in November, so no federal tax change can reach the pump before the election. The relief available now comes from states. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed a bill suspending the state gas tax for 90 days, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp suspended the state fuel tax again for 30 days in late September, and Indiana Governor Mike Braun renewed his state’s suspension around the same time. Utah has cut its gas tax by about 15 percent through the end of the year, and Kentucky and Illinois have frozen or paused scheduled increases.
Where you live changes the price by more than any bill on the table would. The cheapest gas in the country averages $3.70 a gallon in North Carolina and the most expensive averages $6.23 in California, which makes a 15-gallon fill-up about $38 more in California.
No bill can pass before the House returns in November. In the meantime, the price at the pump keeps following crude oil, which was nearing $100 a barrel this week.
By mid-October, the useful fall purchases have a job to do: warm up chilly mornings, get dinner on the table, or make the house feel festive without a second storage bin of decorations. A small slow cooker and a few inexpensive pantry staples can earn their space well past Halloween.
Target has affordable seasonal picks alongside a few marked-down finds, with plenty of options under $10. Prices and availability are accurate at the time of publishing but may vary by store or change quickly. Check your location for pickup, delivery, and shipping options.
A sofa blanket gets used on ordinary Tuesday nights, which gives it a better chance of earning its keep than another decorative pillow. This Room Essentials plush throw costs $10 and measures 50 by 70 inches. That’s enough fabric to cover your legs while reading or watching a movie, without dragging a bed comforter into the living room.
The lightweight polyester knit is machine washable and can go in the dryer. Navy is an easy color to leave out through winter, too. Keep it within reach of your usual chair, or tuck it into a tote for a cool evening at a friend’s house. It takes up less space than a bulky spare quilt.
Good & Gather pure pumpkin
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At $1.99 for 15 ounces, Good & Gather pure pumpkin is a useful starting point for fall baking. It’s pumpkin rather than sweetened pie filling, so you control the sugar and spices in muffins, quick bread, or a pie. The can also works for savory cooking when you want to stir pumpkin into soup or a pasta sauce.
That flexibility matters if you’re buying for a small household. You can choose a recipe that uses the whole can instead of buying a large container for a few spoonfuls. If your recipe leaves some behind, portion and freeze the extra for later baking. A basic ingredient stretches further when it isn’t tied to just one dessert.
Wild Fable PeachySoft full-zip hoodie
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Fall weather can require a sweatshirt at breakfast and bare arms by lunch. Wild Fable’s PeachySoft full-zip hoodie makes that adjustment easy, and the blue version is $21.25, reduced from $25. The heavyweight fabric blends modal, recycled polyester, and spandex, with a drawstring hood and a kangaroo pocket.
A zipper is helpful when you’re layering over a work shirt or heading between warm buildings and cool parking lots. It also lets you wear the hoodie open instead of buying a separate lightweight jacket for mild days. The linked blue medium was available when checked; other colors and sizes may have different stock or pricing. Compare the size chart with a sweatshirt you already like before ordering.
Figmint nonstick loaf pan
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Pumpkin bread becomes a less expensive habit when you bake a loaf and slice it across several breakfasts. Figmint’s 5-by-9-inch loaf pan is $8, with an aluminized steel body and a nonstick surface. The reinforced rim helps the pan hold its shape, and it’s oven safe up to 450 degrees.
This is useful beyond sweet fall bread. Use it for a small meatloaf or a regular sandwich loaf when the recipe calls for this size. It’s dishwasher safe, which is welcome when a weekend baking project has already filled the sink. Check your recipe’s pan dimensions first; using a smaller or larger pan can change how quickly the center cooks.
Good & Gather pumpkin spice instant oatmeal
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Eight packets for $2.69 puts this pumpkin spice oatmeal at about 34 cents a bowl before any extras. That’s a small outlay for a warm breakfast you can make while the coffee brews. Each packet has 31 grams of whole grains, and preparation takes just water or milk and a microwave or kettle.
The packet format is especially useful at work, where keeping a whole tub of oats and measuring everything may be more trouble than it’s worth. Add fruit or nuts you already have if you need a more substantial breakfast. You don’t need a special topping assortment to make it work, and the remaining packets can stay in a desk drawer until the next rushed morning.
Warm cider and cinnamon pumpkin candle
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A small candle is enough seasonal scent for a desk or side table; you don’t have to buy a large jar for every room. This warm cider and cinnamon candle comes in a pumpkin-shaped glass container and costs $5. The five-ounce size keeps the purchase modest, with two wicks and a scent that fits October through Thanksgiving.
It’s a reasonable choice if you want one autumn accent in a small apartment or a simple host gift to bring to dinner. The pumpkin container supplies the decoration, so there’s no need for a separate holder or display tray. Use it on a suitable heat-resistant surface, and keep the lit candle in sight rather than leaving it burning during errands.
Good & Gather butternut squash ravioli
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Fresh butternut squash ravioli gives you the flavor of a fall dinner without peeling and roasting a whole squash. Good & Gather’s nine-ounce package is $4.99, with a filling that includes ricotta, honey, and nutmeg. It cooks in about five minutes, so the main work is getting a pot of water boiling.
Keep the rest of dinner simple: a little butter or olive oil and a vegetable you already have will do. This is a small package, so plan around your household’s actual appetites rather than expecting it to feed several hungry adults. For one person or a light dinner for two with sides, it’s a manageable alternative to ordering a restaurant pasta meal.
Goodfellow & Co cuffed beanie
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Losing a hat shouldn’t require replacing a pricey piece of outdoor gear. Goodfellow & Co’s cuffed beanie is $6, with double-layer, midweight knit fabric and a little stretch. The linked black version is easy to pair with whatever coat you already own, instead of building a new set of winter accessories around it.
It’s a useful everyday layer for walking the dog, waiting at a bus stop, or sitting through an evening game as October cools down. The plain design can keep working through winter, which helps spread that small purchase across more wears. Care is hand wash and line dry, so keep it out of a hot dryer when the rest of the laundry goes in.
Hyde and EEK! ghost welcome doormat
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If your front mat is worn out anyway, replacing it with something seasonal can cover two needs in one purchase. This 18-by-30-inch ghost and bats welcome mat is $13. Natural coir fibers help brush dirt and debris off shoes, while a latex backing helps hold the mat in place.
That makes it more useful during leaf-tracking weather than a decoration that only sits beside the door. The compact size suits many apartment or porch entries, though it’s worth measuring your space before ordering. Shake it clean as needed. One patterned mat can make an entrance feel ready for Halloween without adding a wreath, lights, and several porch figures to the same shopping trip.
Good & Gather pumpkin pie spice
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Buying five separate spices for one fall recipe can leave you with a surprisingly expensive baking project. This $2.29 jar of Good & Gather pumpkin pie spice combines cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and cloves in a 1.7-ounce container. It’s useful when you want the familiar flavor but don’t keep a fully stocked spice drawer.
Beyond pie, try a little in pancake batter, oatmeal, or homemade pumpkin bread. The blend also lets you change up plain foods you already buy, which can be more economical than purchasing a seasonal version of everything. If your pantry already contains all five spices, mixing your own may make more sense. This jar earns its spot when it replaces several purchases.
Crock-Pot two-quart slow cooker
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A small kitchen doesn’t always need a family-size appliance. This two-quart Crock-Pot costs $17.99 and has straightforward high, low, and warm settings. It suits smaller batches of soup, chili, or a warm party dip, with a footprint that’s easier to store than a much larger cooker.
For one or two people, the size can help you cook a practical amount rather than commit to a week’s worth of the same dinner. The removable stoneware and lid are dishwasher safe, which makes cleanup simpler. This is a manual model, so it won’t automatically switch to warm on a timer. Choose it if those simple controls fit your schedule and the capacity fits your usual recipes.
Good & Gather apple cider seasoned pretzels
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One shared snack bag can be enough for a fall movie night. These apple cider seasoned pretzels cost $4.99 for 16 ounces, with apple powder and spices in the seasoning. The pound-size bag gives you more to put in a bowl than many small seasonal novelty snacks.
Serve them alongside sliced apples or whatever cheese is already in the refrigerator, rather than treating a themed snack board as a new grocery list. The package has about sixteen one-ounce servings, although a movie-night handful may be larger than that. Portion some into a container before setting the bag out if you want enough left for lunchboxes or an afternoon snack later in the week.
Hyde and EEK! Halloween hand towel pair
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Two hand towels for $5 makes a small seasonal bathroom update cost $2.50 per towel. This Hyde and EEK! set pairs a black cat design with orange and black stripes. Both towels measure 15 by 25 inches and use cotton velour terry fabric, so they have an everyday purpose beyond looking festive.
Put one by the sink and keep the second ready for laundry day, or split them between the kitchen and bathroom. They’re machine washable and can tumble dry. The cat design is sold as glow in the dark, but customer reports on the glow vary, so buy for the pattern and usefulness rather than counting on that extra effect.
Cat & Jack toddler jersey joggers
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October is often when last spring’s toddler pants turn out to be too short. Cat & Jack’s jersey joggers are $6, giving you a low-cost replacement for everyday daycare or play clothes. The midweight cotton-blend fabric and elastic waist are practical for moving, sitting on the floor, and getting dressed without complicated fasteners.
The linked blue pair in 5T was available when checked. Check the measurements and your preferred size rather than assuming every option has the same stock. These make sense as clothes a child can actually get dirty in, especially when a growth spurt may limit how long they’ll fit. Machine washing also keeps them in the regular laundry routine instead of creating a separate care job.
Good & Gather pumpkin spice ground coffee
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If your fall spending includes frequent flavored coffee stops, changing the beans at home may be enough to scratch the same itch. Good & Gather’s 12-ounce pumpkin spice ground coffee is $8.99. The light-roast Arabica coffee has notes of cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg, and pie crust, without requiring a separate bottle of flavored syrup.
It’s already ground, so you can use your usual compatible brewer without adding a grinder to the purchase. The number of cups you’ll get depends on how strong you make it and how large your mug is. This is flavored brewed coffee, so add your usual milk or sweetener if desired. Making it part of an existing morning routine is where the savings can happen.
Pillowfort stainless steel food jar with spoon
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A reusable food jar can put last night’s pasta or soup to work in a packed lunch. Pillowfort’s ten-ounce double-wall stainless steel jar costs $10 and includes a stainless steel spoon that stores at the lid. That saves you from buying a separate utensil just to complete the lunch setup.
The small capacity is geared toward kids’ portions or a modest side, so check that it holds enough for the person carrying it. It needs hand washing, and Target doesn’t give a clear guaranteed heat-retention time on this listing. Follow appropriate food-temperature guidance when packing. The useful budget angle is making food you already cooked easier to take along, rather than buying a ready-made lunch each day.
Good & Gather butternut squash and feta flatbread
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For a night when cooking from scratch isn’t happening, a $6 butternut squash and feta flatbread offers a fall-flavored dinner shortcut. Good & Gather’s 13-ounce flatbread pairs the squash and cheese with a brown sugar, maple, and sage drizzle. It gives you a different flavor from standard frozen pizza without a delivery charge.
Keep a simple salad or leftover vegetable alongside it if you need to make the meal larger. The package size is worth noting before you promise pizza night to a hungry group; this is more useful for a small household or as a shared snack. It also avoids buying a whole squash, feta, and separate sauce ingredients for one low-effort dinner.
Hyde and EEK! harvest pumpkin garland
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A pumpkin garland can cover a noticeable stretch of wall without the cost or storage demands of several large decorations. This harvest version from Hyde and EEK! is $5. The pumpkin theme also gives it a longer display window than something printed with a Halloween date or a trick-or-treat message.
Try it above a doorway, along a shelf, or across the front of a serving table, using hanging supplies suited to the surface. You can leave the rest of the room as it is and still have a clear seasonal touch. For a renter or someone short on storage, a small garland is easier to put away than a collection of tabletop pieces.
Good & Gather caramel dip
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Apple slices and caramel dip are an easier group snack than making individual coated apples. Good & Gather’s 14-ounce tub costs $4.49, giving you a shared topping for fruit you may already have from an orchard visit or grocery trip. There’s no caramel melting step, candy thermometer, or pile of sticks to buy.
Spoon a little into a small bowl and put out apple wedges for an after-school snack or an informal fall gathering. Graham crackers are another option if they’re already in the cupboard. The tub format lets you serve only what you need instead of preparing a whole tray of treats at once. Apples and any other dippers are extra, so count those in the snack budget.
OXO Prep & Go food storage container
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Leaking soup can put you off packing lunch altogether. OXO’s 3.3-cup Prep & Go container has a gasket and two locking clips to help keep leftovers contained. Target lists it at a new lower price of $9.99, down from $12.99. The clear lid window makes it easier to spot which meal is inside.
The container is microwave and dishwasher safe, with handles designed to stay cool during reheating. It’s a useful size for leftover chili, roasted vegetables, or a portion of a casserole. Press the middle of the lid before closing the clips, as directed, to get the seal seated properly. A container you trust is more likely to leave the house filled with lunch.
Cat & Jack dachshund sweater crew socks
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A little seasonal fun can be something a child wears rather than another object to display. These Cat & Jack sweater crew socks feature a dachshund design and cost $3 for one pair. The cozy knit has stretch and banded cuffs, making them a small addition to a cool-weather clothing drawer.
The linked beige small was in stock when checked. Look at the sock size guide carefully, since the letter size refers to a range of shoe sizes rather than a child’s clothing size. They’re machine washable and can tumble dry. Pair them with shoes that still fit comfortably over the thicker knit, and you have a practical little fall treat without committing to a whole themed outfit.
Good & Gather pumpkin spice hot cocoa
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Eight pumpkin spice cocoa packets cost $6.49, or about 81 cents each before milk. That makes this Good & Gather box useful for an occasional flavored drink at home when the alternative would be buying one while you’re out. It combines cocoa with pumpkin spice flavor, and the individual packets keep measuring simple.
The directions call for milk, so remember that extra cost rather than comparing the packet price alone with a prepared drink. Make a mug after a cold evening walk or keep a few packets for a weekend movie. Whipped cream and decorative toppings are optional; the mix already supplies the seasonal flavor, so there’s no need to build a separate hot chocolate topping bar.
Hyde and EEK! large cauldron serving bowl
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A four-quart cauldron bowl gives Halloween candy a home without requiring a whole party-serving set. This black plastic version is $8 and can sit by the door for handing out treats. The shape supplies the theme, leaving you free to use whatever wrapped candy fits your budget.
It’s also handy as a central container at an office gathering or a small home party, especially if people will be helping themselves throughout the evening. A serving bowl is easier to reuse each October than disposable themed packaging. Treat this as a serving piece, not cookware: the cauldron look doesn’t make plastic suitable for heating. Store it with your seasonal supplies after washing it according to its label.
Pepperidge Farm pumpkin cheesecake cookies
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You don’t need to bake a whole cheesecake to have a fall dessert with coffee. Pepperidge Farm’s soft-baked pumpkin cheesecake cookies are $4.59 for an 8.6-ounce bag. They’re made with white chocolate drops, brown sugar, pumpkin, and spices, with about eight labeled servings in the package.
The value here is a modest ready-made treat you can share across several snack breaks, without buying the ingredients for a larger dessert. Put a few on a plate for visitors or add one serving to a packed lunch. The cheesecake flavor comes in cookie form, so this isn’t a substitute for a slice with a creamy filling. It’s a practical choice when you want something seasonal with no baking or cleanup.
BioBag compostable lawn and leaf bags
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Leaf cleanup is one of fall’s less photogenic expenses. BioBag’s 33-gallon lawn and leaf bags are $9.99 for ten, or about a dollar each. They are certified compostable and designed for yard waste, which makes them worth considering where a local collection program accepts this kind of bag and doesn’t allow ordinary plastic.
Check your town’s rules first. Some programs require paper bags or a reusable bin, and buying the wrong kind won’t save you anything. These are a specific tool for an accepted collection system, rather than the cheapest choice for every yard. For households that can use them, the large capacity helps gather autumn leaves without using several small kitchen trash bags.
Hyde and EEK! stoneware ghost mug
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A single seasonal mug can be enough to make the morning coffee routine feel different. This 13-ounce stoneware ghost mug costs $5, so you can add one Halloween piece without replacing a whole set of dishes. The ghost shape is the decoration, rather than a separate accessory sitting beside your usual cup.
It’s a small gift option for someone who actually enjoys Halloween, especially if you know they have room in the cupboard. For your own kitchen, think about whether it will replace a worn or chipped mug instead of becoming one more thing to stack. Check the care directions before cleaning or heating; a decorative shape doesn’t tell you which appliances a mug can handle.
Good & Gather pumpkin spice granola
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Plain yogurt is easy to turn into a fall breakfast with a small scoop of pumpkin spice granola. Good & Gather’s 12-ounce bag is $3.99 and includes rolled oats, pumpkin seeds, and spices. It has about six full cereal servings, or more smaller portions when you’re using it as a topping.
That makes it flexible for households where not everyone wants the same seasonal flavor. Keep the yogurt or other breakfast base plain and add the granola only to the bowls that need it. It also works with milk or as a crunchy snack. Reseal the bag between uses, and measure a topping portion if you want it to last through more than a couple of breakfasts.
Softsoap pumpkin harvest hand soap
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Seasonal soap is a small change that gets used up instead of joining the decorations in storage. Softsoap’s pumpkin harvest liquid hand soap costs $2.99 for an 11.25-fluid-ounce pump bottle. The orange soap and pumpkin-and-spice scent give the kitchen or bathroom sink a fall touch without buying a separate decorative dispenser.
It’s most useful when you’re due to replace an empty bottle anyway. The pump is included, so there’s nothing else needed to start using it. This is a scented product, so stick with your usual unscented option if fragrance bothers you. For a household that likes autumn scents, it’s an inexpensive way to make an everyday supply feel a little more seasonal.
Hyde and EEK! pumpkin-head spider prop
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One large decoration can have more impact than a handful of tiny pieces scattered around a room. This 50-inch pumpkin-head spider is $7, reduced from $10. It has eight orange and black legs, a single-eyed pumpkin head, and fuzzy accents, giving you a noticeable Halloween display for a small outlay.
It’s intended for indoor use, so keep it off an exposed porch even if that’s where you’d normally place a spider prop. Try it as the main accent in an entryway or party room, with the rest of the decorating kept simple. The markdown saves $3, but the practical reason to choose it is coverage: one piece can set the scene without several additional purchases.
Good & Gather organic chai black tea
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A box of tea is an inexpensive way to keep a warm drink on hand as the evenings cool down. Good & Gather’s organic chai black tea is $3.59 for 20 bags, or about 18 cents a cup before milk or sweetener. The ingredient list includes black tea, cinnamon, cardamom, orange peel, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, and clove.
Those spices give it a fall feel without requiring a syrup or premade drink concentrate. Brew a cup as directed and add your usual milk if you prefer it that way. Tea bags also travel easily to work, where a mug and hot water may be all you need. Since this is black tea, it contains caffeine, which is worth keeping in mind for an evening cup.
The blue and white trinket box on your grandmother’s dresser has probably held spare buttons or forgotten earrings for thirty years. Flip it over. If the base reads “Wedgwood, Made in England,” you’re holding a piece of the same pottery company that made china for Catherine the Great and still supplies the White House today.
Wedgwood has been in continuous production since 1759, across more different materials and patterns than almost any other maker still in business. That range is exactly why the value swings so wildly. A plain blue Jasperware box from the 1970s and a hand painted Majolica plate from the 1870s share a backstamp and nothing else in what they’re worth. Condition, age, and which specific line you’re holding decide almost everything.
These are the pieces that turn up in attics, china cabinets, and the miscellaneous dishes box at an estate sale, not the ones locked in a case with a six figure insurance rider.
Jasperware is the matte blue stoneware with white classical figures raised on the surface, and it’s the single most recognizable thing Wedgwood ever made. Josiah Wedgwood perfected the formula in 1774, and the company has never stopped producing it, which is exactly why most examples sitting in a dresser drawer are modest in value. A clean, lidded box with sharp white relief and no chips typically brings $15 to $40, depending on size and how crisp the molded figures still are.
Age matters more than most sellers realize. Boxes marked simply “Wedgwood Made in England” with no further date code are usually mid to late twentieth century, and the relief tends to look slightly softer than on earlier pieces because the molds wear down with repeated use. A box in an uncommon color, like crimson, lilac, or yellow instead of the standard pale or dark blue, is worth pricing separately, since those colors sell for noticeably more. Hairline cracks in the lid or a repaired finial cut the price sharply, and a box with the lid missing is worth a fraction of a complete one.
2. Jasperware Christmas plate series, 1969 to 1988
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Starting in 1969 with a view of Windsor Castle, Wedgwood issued a new Jasperware Christmas plate every year for two decades, each one stamped with a different London landmark in white relief on pale blue. Millions of American households bought them directly from department stores or through the mail, which means a huge number survive today in their original boxes, barely touched. On their own, individual plates typically bring $10 to $20 in clean condition, with the first year’s Windsor Castle design commanding a small premium simply because it started the run.
The real money is in completeness, not any single year. A matched set running the full twenty years, 1969 through 1988, with every plate present and undamaged, has brought around $265 as a group, more than ten times what the same plates would fetch sold individually. Check every plate for hairline cracks near the rim, which are common on pieces that hung on display hooks for decades, and keep the original cardboard box and paper sleeve if you still have them. A factory flaw in the molding is not the same thing as damage and doesn’t reduce value the way a crack does.
3. Peter Rabbit nurseryware
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Wedgwood began making Peter Rabbit china in 1949 under license from Beatrix Potter’s publisher, Frederick Warne and Company, using her own illustrations rather than a redrawn version, and the line stayed in production for decades afterward in Queen’s Ware and later bone china. A child’s plate, bowl, and mug set in clean condition with no chips typically sells for $15 to $45, with the better end of that range going to sets still in their original presentation box.
Most surviving examples date from the 1970s through the 1990s and were used for exactly what they were made for, so look closely at the rim of any plate or bowl for the fine scratches that come from years of spoon use. Those marks don’t ruin the piece but they do affect what collectors will pay. The earliest 1949 and 1950s issues, with the original Frederick Warne copyright line and a printed rather than transfer finish, are scarcer and worth separating from later reissues before you price anything. A set missing a piece, or mismatched across different production runs, sells for noticeably less than a complete matched set.
4. Black basalt teapot
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Black basalt is Wedgwood’s other signature stoneware, a dense unglazed black body that Josiah Wedgwood developed around 1768 and the company kept making well into the twentieth century. The engine turned teapots, with their fine machine cut geometric bands around the body, are the ones worth seeking out. A clean example from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century with no chips to the spout or finial typically brings $150 to $260, with crisper, earlier engine turning toward the top of that range.
Run your fingers around the spout tip and the lid’s finial first, since those are the two spots that chip from ordinary use and are easy to miss against matte black glaze under normal light. A wobble when the pot sits on a flat surface usually means the lid doesn’t quite match the base, which happens more often with black basalt than with painted china because the pieces look so similar to each other across different production years. Plain, undecorated basalt teapots without the engine turned pattern are far more common and bring considerably less, so the surface decoration is worth checking before you get your hopes up.
5. Kutani Crane bone china
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Kutani Crane is an English bone china pattern, made entirely at Wedgwood’s own factory and named for its two Japanese style cranes in bright enamel against a plain white ground, a look borrowed from the Japanese Kutani ceramic tradition rather than imported from it. A set of four cups and saucers in good condition typically sells for $20 to $45, while larger serving forms, a covered vegetable dish or a gravy boat with its stand, bring meaningfully more because fewer survive intact with lids and stands still matched.
The pattern was produced for decades, so completeness and gilding condition matter more than age. The hand applied gold trim wears fastest at the rim where cups touch saucers and where plates stack, and a piece with the gilding worn through to bare china sells for a fraction of one with crisp gold intact. Because the pattern is still fairly easy to find, don’t expect a big premium for an individual piece. The money is in building out a full service, since buyers actively hunting to complete one will pay more per piece than the going rate for odd pieces sold alone.
6. Wild Strawberry bone china teapot
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Wild Strawberry is Wedgwood’s best known bone china pattern by volume sold, a scattering of hand painted strawberries and leaves under a gold rim that the company has kept in production since the 1950s. Because it was a wedding registry staple for generations, most individual pieces, a cup and saucer or a side plate, are worth very little on their own, often under $15. A full size teapot is the exception: a clean example with no chips to the spout or handle typically brings around $100 to $150.
Check the gold rim closely under good light, since it’s the first thing to wear and the first thing buyers look for. A rim worn down to a dull line all the way around cuts the price noticeably, even if the rest of the piece looks perfect. The pattern has stayed in production so long that dating a piece by its backstamp alone is unreliable. What actually moves the price is completeness and whether the piece is a less common form, a teapot, a covered butter dish, a cake stand, rather than the everyday cups and plates that show up constantly at estate sales.
7. Susie Cooper for Wedgwood tea or coffee set
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Susie Cooper was one of Britain’s most respected twentieth century ceramic designers, and her company merged into the Wedgwood group in 1966, after which her patterns, Corn Poppy, Keystone, and the mid-century Sunflower design among them, carried the Wedgwood backstamp. A matching coffee or tea set of a dozen or more pieces in good condition typically brings $50 to $200, with complete services that include a teapot, sugar, and creamer toward the higher end.
Her designs are collected for the clean, modern shapes as much as the printed patterns, so check the handles and spouts carefully. Cooper’s coffee pots used distinctive angular or faceted shapes that chip at the corners more easily than a rounded traditional pot. A set with mismatched pieces from different Cooper era patterns is worth less than a genuinely matched service, even when every individual piece is in nice shape. Her earlier, pre-Wedgwood work made under her own company name is a separate and generally more valuable category, so a Wedgwood backstamp specifically points to 1966 or later production.
8. Columbia pattern dinnerware
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Columbia takes its name from the female personification of the United States that was common in nineteenth century American iconography, and Wedgwood developed the pattern, with its griffin and floral border, specifically for sale in North America rather than at home in Britain. Individual dinner plates in clean condition typically bring $15 to $25 each, while larger serving pieces, a sugar bowl, a gravy boat, or a large oval platter, sell for considerably more, with platters in particular often bringing $100 or more depending on size and colorway.
Wedgwood made Columbia in several color and gilt combinations over the decades, including a plain white and green edition and a more elaborate blue and gold version, and the gilt versions generally sell for more than the plain ones piece for piece. Check the backstamp for the specific pattern number, since it tells you which colorway and production run you have, which matters when you’re trying to match pieces to build out a full set. A complete service for eight or twelve, with serving pieces intact, is worth meaningfully more than the sum of its individual plates sold separately.
9. Jasperware cameo jewelry
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Wedgwood has mounted its jasperware cameos, the same white classical reliefs used on trinket boxes and vases, into brooches, pendants, and cufflinks since the Victorian era, and the jewelry turns up constantly in old jewelry boxes because it was a popular gift for generations. A simple cameo on a sterling silver pin or pendant chain typically sells for $100 to $200, while the same cameo set into solid 14 or 10 karat gold, rather than gold plated silver, can bring $500 to $2,000 or more depending on the gold weight and the cameo’s age.
The metal mount is what separates the inexpensive pieces from the valuable ones, so check the back for a hallmark. Sterling silver carries its own stamp, and gold is marked with a karat number like 14K, while a piece with no metal mark at all is usually a cheaper base metal setting worth a fraction of either. The jasperware itself survives well since it’s unglazed stoneware rather than fragile glass or enamel, so condition issues are less about chips and more about whether the mount’s pin or clasp still works properly.
10. Napoleon Ivy pattern
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Napoleon Ivy gets its name from an actual historical connection. Wedgwood created the pattern, a trailing green ivy vine on plain cream earthenware, around 1800, and it was the china Napoleon Bonaparte used during his exile on the island of Saint Helena after his defeat at Waterloo in 1815. Wedgwood reissued the pattern in 1965 to mark the battle’s 150th anniversary, and that reissue is what most people actually find today. Individual pieces, a salad plate or a cereal bowl, in good condition typically bring $60 to $200 depending on the specific form.
Serving pieces and anything with a lid, a soup tureen, a covered vegetable dish, bring noticeably more than the everyday plates and bowls, since fewer of those forms were made relative to place settings. Check the ivy border closely for fading or rubbing, which happens more on pieces that saw regular use than on good condition 1965 reissues that were bought as collectibles and barely used. The pattern was discontinued in 2003, so supply is fixed and won’t grow, but it’s common enough that condition and completeness, not scarcity alone, drive what any single piece is worth.
11. Majolica strawberry or leaf plate
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Wedgwood’s Victorian majolica, the thick, brightly colored lead glazed earthenware made from the 1860s through the early 1900s, shows up most often as plates molded into the shape of leaves, baskets, or vines with strawberries and grapes worked into the design. A single plate in good condition, with strong color and no chips to the raised edges, typically brings $75 to $200, with the price climbing toward the top of that range for sharper molding and richer, less faded glaze color.
The glaze is the whole appeal, so inspect it in good light for the fine crazing that’s common and generally acceptable on majolica this old, versus actual glaze loss or chipping along the raised leaf edges, which is not. A set of six or eight matching plates is genuinely hard to find complete and sells for considerably more than the same number of plates bought separately. Reproduction majolica in similar leaf and strawberry designs exists from the twentieth century onward, so check for the impressed “WEDGWOOD” mark, since unmarked pieces or ones marked only “Majolica” are not Wedgwood and are worth far less.
12. Drabware teapot
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Drabware is one of Wedgwood’s lesser known stoneware bodies, a muted olive tan clay that the company put into regular production for tea and coffee sets starting around 1810, usually decorated with a contrasting band of blue or white relief. It’s scarcer than Jasperware or black basalt simply because it was made for a shorter window and in smaller quantities, which is why a clean teapot from the 1820s or 1830s with its lid intact typically brings $175 to $250.
Drab stoneware shows wear differently than glazed china does, so look for thinning or flattening in the molded relief rather than surface scratches, since the body itself is unglazed and quite hard. A small chip to the spout tip or finial is common on pieces this old and doesn’t collapse the value the way it would on a modern piece, but a crack running through the body does. Drabware is often mistaken for plain stoneware or mislabeled by sellers who don’t recognize it, so a correctly identified piece with a clear Wedgwood impressed mark is worth more to a knowledgeable buyer than the same piece sold as generic antique pottery.
13. Jasperware cheese dome
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A full size cheese dome, a domed cover paired with a flat base plate large enough to hold most of a wheel of cheese, is one of the more impressive Jasperware forms Wedgwood made, usually in the familiar blue dip with a continuous white relief scene running around the dome. A complete matched set from the late Victorian or Edwardian era, with no chips to the base’s rim or the dome’s finial, typically brings $200 to $450, well above what a trinket box or small dish in the same material would fetch.
Size and completeness drive the price here more than almost any other Jasperware form. A dome without its matching base, or a base without its dome, is worth a fraction of a complete set, since the two pieces were made and numbered together and don’t mix and match across different production runs. Check the inside rim of the dome where it meets the base for chips, which are common since the piece was handled daily in a working kitchen, and look at the finial on top, which snaps off easily if the dome was ever lifted by it rather than by the body.
14. Runnymede dark blue bone china
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Runnymede takes its name from the English meadow where King John sealed the Magna Carta, and Wedgwood introduced the pattern in 1964 with a dark blue band, pink shell motifs, and gold trim running around plain white bone china. Individual pieces in good condition, a dinner plate or a cup and saucer, typically bring $15 to $45, modest money on their own since the pattern was produced in volume for decades.
The pattern earns real money only as a complete service. A full matched set for eight or more, with serving pieces like a gravy boat, covered vegetable dishes, and a sugar bowl all present and undamaged, has been valued at close to $2,000 as a group, many times what the individual pieces would add up to sold separately. Because the pattern ran so long, matching production dates matters less than simply confirming every piece carries the same gold trim and hasn’t faded unevenly, which happens when a set was displayed in direct sunlight for years.
15. Florentine turquoise dinnerware
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Florentine turquoise, with its griffins and baroque scrollwork border in a distinctive turquoise blue, has been in Wedgwood’s catalog since 1935 and is still made today, which keeps individual pieces affordable. A dinner plate or side plate in clean condition typically sells for $20 to $60, while a teapot or covered serving dish brings closer to $75 to $150.
Complete sets are where the real value shows up, and it climbs fast with size. A large matched dinner and tea service running into the fifty or sixty piece range has brought well over $1,000, with the biggest, most complete services reaching several thousand dollars. Check the turquoise ground for fading, which happens with repeated dishwasher use and shows up as a slightly chalky, uneven color rather than the deep, glossy blue of a well cared for piece. A set with heavy wear to the gold or platinum rim trim across most of its pieces is worth meaningfully less than one that was used carefully or displayed rather than run through a dishwasher for years.
16. Keith Murray Art Deco vase
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Keith Murray was an architect by training who designed a line of strikingly plain, ridged Art Deco vases, bowls, and lamp bases for Wedgwood through the 1930s, finished in matte glazes with names like Moonstone, a soft off white, alongside more colorful options in green, straw, and grey. A clean vase in the 13 to 16 centimeter range, signed with his “KM” monogram alongside the Wedgwood mark, typically brings $120 to $350, with taller forms and less common glaze colors toward the top of that range.
The matte glaze shows handling wear more visibly than a glossy finish would, so look for a dull patch or faint ring where the vase sat on a table for years, versus genuine damage like a chip or crack. Murray’s pieces are prized specifically for their plain, architectural lines rather than for decoration, so a vase with the ribbing crisp and undamaged is worth considerably more than one where the edges have softened from years of dusting and handling. Reproduction Moonstone glazed pieces exist without his monogram, so the KM mark is what confirms you actually have a Murray design rather than a generic Wedgwood vase in a similar glaze.
17. Jasperware portrait medallion
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Wedgwood has made small oval portrait medallions, a white relief profile of a historical or classical figure set against a colored jasper ground, since the 1770s, originally as affordable cabinet pieces for collectors who couldn’t buy an actual portrait bust. A common nineteenth or twentieth century medallion of a generic classical or mythological figure typically sells for $20 to $90, while an early medallion depicting a specific, named historical figure, an admiral, a philosopher, a statesman, can bring $300 to $600 or more depending on age and how well documented the sitter is.
The sitter is everything here, so it’s worth researching who’s actually depicted before assuming a medallion is run of the mill. A medallion still in its original gilt frame is worth more than a loose one, and the frame itself can be a clue to age, since Victorian frames differ noticeably from the simpler mounts used on later reproductions. Check the jasper ground color too. Tricolor jasper, with two contrasting relief colors over a third background shade, commands a real premium over the standard two color blue and white that most medallions were made in.
18. Eric Ravilious coronation mug
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Eric Ravilious was a British artist who designed a series of commemorative mugs for Wedgwood in the 1930s, originally for King Edward VIII’s coronation, which was withdrawn after his abdication and reworked for King George VI and later for Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. The 1953 coronation version, with its distinctive geometric bands of color under the rim, is the one most likely to turn up at an estate sale, and a clean example with no chips typically brings $150 to $300.
Ravilious died in 1942, which means every mug bearing his design was produced after his death, so age alone doesn’t separate a valuable example from a common one the way it does with most ceramics. What matters is which coronation the mug commemorates and how clean the printed decoration is, since the colored bands were applied as a transfer print that can fade or scratch with handling. It’s worth checking any plain looking commemorative mug closely before assuming it’s an unremarkable souvenir, since Ravilious’s other Wedgwood work, including a set of alphabet and boat race designs, brings considerably more than the standard coronation pieces.
A chipped rim or a replaced lid can cut any of these values by more than half, so a careful look before you clean, repair, or sell one is worth the five minutes it takes.
An actuary who clears her exams on schedule can be earning $150,000 before she turns 30, and she can do it from a kitchen table three states away from her company’s head office. A medical science liaison with a PharmD rarely sets foot in a hospital some weeks, yet still out-earns most first-year physicians. These jobs are posted and hiring right now, and almost none of them involve writing code that ends up on a resume under “AI experience.”
The jobs on this list share three things. They pay $150,000 or more. They can be done from home most weeks of the year. And none of them are the roles quietly getting automated out of existence, the copywriting, bookkeeping, and first-draft editing jobs that software can now do a rough version of for free. These are jobs where a person still has to show up, make a judgment call, sign their name to something, or close a deal built on trust from a video call rather than a script.
Some of these will be familiar. A few will surprise you, including one that most people assume died along with the crypto crashes of the past few years.
Companies that spent the last few years hiring machine learning engineers by the hundred are still hiring them by the hundred, just more carefully. The average total package for the role in the US now runs close to $212,000 a year once base pay and cash bonuses are combined, and that number holds up whether the engineer works out of a San Francisco office or a spare bedroom in Ohio.
The job itself is less glamorous than the title suggests. Most of the work is building and maintaining the pipelines that feed data into a model, not having ideas about artificial general intelligence. That grunt work is exactly why the role isn’t at risk. Someone has to clean the data, retrain the model when it drifts, and catch a failure before it reaches a customer, and a chatbot can’t do that job to itself.
Hiring has shifted toward people who can own a model end to end rather than specialists who only build or only deploy. A computer science degree still helps, but plenty of machine learning engineers moved over from data analytics or backend development with a few solid projects to show for it. Remote postings for the role have stayed above two-thirds of all listings for several years running, which is unusually stable for a job title this new.
Enterprise account executive
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Selling six-figure software contracts to companies that take six months to sign anything sounds like a grind, and it is, but the average pay for an enterprise account executive in software sales is now $241,147 a year, and the top quarter of earners clear well past $300,000.
What keeps this job remote-friendly, and keeps it from being automated, is the same thing that makes it hard. Closing a seven-figure deal usually takes a relationship, not a script. The people signing the checks want to talk to a human who understands their business, remembers the last conversation, and can hop on a call at 7 a.m. their time without complaint. Software can draft the proposal. It cannot build the trust that gets the signature.
Most enterprise account executives spend years in smaller sales roles first, learning how to run a long sales cycle before they’re handed accounts worth real money. Base salary is usually only part of the pay, with commission on closed deals doing most of the work above, which means the job rewards people who can handle months of no income followed by one enormous one. It isn’t for everyone, but for a confident closer willing to live with that rhythm, it’s one of the more dependable paths to $150,000 that doesn’t require a graduate degree.
Patent attorney
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Every company racing to patent a new battery chemistry or a piece of AI hardware needs a lawyer who can read an engineer’s notebook and turn it into language the US Patent and Trademark Office will accept, and there aren’t enough of those lawyers to go around. The average patent attorney salary is now $155,552 a year, with top earners well past $230,000.
What makes this job AI-resistant rather than AI-adjacent is the credential wall around it. A patent attorney needs a law degree, a license to practice, and in most cases a technical background in engineering, chemistry, or biology just to sit for the patent bar exam. That combination is rare enough that demand has outpaced supply for years, long before anyone worried about software taking legal jobs.
Much of the work, researching prior art, drafting claims, and responding to examiners, can be done from anywhere with a secure internet connection, which is why patent law firms were some of the earliest legal employers to go fully remote. The pay ceiling is also unusually high for a non-litigation legal job. Patent attorneys with a specialty in a hot technical field, like semiconductor design, can out-earn partners at general practice firms twice their age.
Site reliability engineer
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Every hour a company’s app sits offline costs real money, and the person whose job is to stop that from happening is a site reliability engineer, a role that barely existed fifteen years ago and now pays an average of $173,000 a year in the US.
The job sits at the intersection of software engineering and operations, and it was built for remote work almost by accident. Outages don’t wait for office hours, so SRE teams were running distributed, follow-the-sun schedules long before the rest of tech discovered remote work. Someone in Austin hands off to someone in Dublin, who hands off to someone in Singapore, and the system never sleeps even if everyone involved occasionally does.
AI tools can suggest a fix for a known bug, but they can’t take responsibility for a production system at 3 a.m. when three services fail at once for reasons nobody has seen before. That’s still a job for a person who understands the whole system well enough to make a judgment call under pressure, and companies pay for that judgment. Senior SREs with a few years of incident response behind them routinely clear $200,000 in total compensation.
Medical science liaison
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A medical science liaison is the person a pharmaceutical company sends to talk science, not sales, with the specialists who prescribe its drugs. They hold PharmDs or PhDs rather than sales quotas, and the pay scale reflects it. The average salary for the role is $211,115 a year, with senior MSLs clearing $280,000 once bonuses are counted.
The role exists because drug companies are legally barred from having their sales teams discuss off-label use or detailed clinical trial data, so they built an entirely separate, scientifically credentialed job to handle that work instead. That legal wall is also why the job isn’t disappearing. Software can summarize a clinical trial. It cannot stand in for a licensed expert fielding a cardiologist’s specific question about drug interactions in a way that satisfies a regulator.
Most MSL roles are built around travel to medical conferences and one-on-one meetings with physicians, which means the job was effectively remote before remote work had a name. MSLs have always worked from home between trips, managing a territory rather than reporting to an office. Fully remote postings covering a multi-state or national territory have become the norm rather than the exception, especially in specialty areas like oncology and rare disease, where the pool of qualified clinical scientists is too thin for any one employer to insist on a home office.
Senior product manager
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Somebody has to decide what a product actually does, and increasingly that person isn’t an engineer or a designer but a senior product manager who sits between both, plus sales, plus whoever is angriest about the roadmap that week. It’s a job built on judgment calls nobody else can fully make, and the pay reflects it. Average total compensation for a senior product manager in the US runs around $244,000 a year, with base salary alone averaging $176,000.
AI tools have made it faster to write a product spec or summarize customer feedback, but someone still has to decide which features matter, which customers to listen to, and which fights to pick with engineering. That’s a political and strategic skill, not a drafting one, and it’s exactly the part of the job that resists automation.
Remote senior product manager roles have become the norm rather than the exception at most software companies, since the job is fundamentally about coordinating people across time zones rather than sitting in any particular building. The path in usually runs through a few years as a regular product manager first, often after starting out in engineering, design, or a customer-facing role where you learn what the product actually needs to do.
Actuary
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Insurance companies and pension funds need someone who can put a number on risks that haven’t happened yet, and that job, actuary, has one of the stranger pay structures in corporate America. Your salary rises every time you pass a professional exam, whether or not your title changes. The median annual wage for actuaries sits at $125,770 as of the latest federal wage data, a figure that blends people a year into their first exam with Fellows who’ve passed them all.
A credentialed Fellow with a decade of experience, or a chief actuary signing off on a company’s regulatory filings, routinely earns well past $150,000, and increasingly does it from home. Actuarial exams are standardized and taken independently of any employer, which gives actuaries a portable credential that travels with them and makes remote arrangements easy to negotiate.
The job has survived decades of automation scares because the actual work, pricing risk correctly enough that a company doesn’t go broke, requires judgment about real-world uncertainty that a spreadsheet can’t take responsibility for on its own. Someone has to sign the filing. Right now, that’s still a person, and federal projections expect the profession to grow 22 percent through 2034, far faster than average.
Cloud solutions architect
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Nearly every company has moved its servers into Amazon’s, Microsoft’s, or Google’s cloud by now, and each one needs someone who actually understands how to design that system so it doesn’t fall over or rack up a surprise six-figure bill. That’s a cloud solutions architect, and the average salary for the role in the US has climbed to $231,958 a year, with top earners past $350,000.
The job is almost entirely remote-native because the infrastructure itself lives in the cloud, not in any physical office. A cloud architect in Boise can design and manage systems for a company headquartered in Seattle without ever setting foot there, and plenty do exactly that.
What keeps the role out of reach of automation is the sheer number of trade-offs involved in a real architecture decision, cost against speed, security against convenience, one vendor’s quirks against another’s. AI tools can suggest a configuration, but someone still has to own the decision when it goes wrong at 2 a.m. during a traffic spike. Most people land here after several years as a cloud or systems engineer, often picking up an AWS or Azure architect certification along the way, which tends to add a real, measurable bump to the number above.
Corporate counsel
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Every company past a certain size needs a lawyer on staff, not at a law firm, reviewing contracts, flagging regulatory risk, and keeping the business out of court before anything gets that far. Median pay across the legal profession as a whole sits at $151,160 a year, and in-house counsel at a mid-sized or larger company routinely lands at or above that figure.
In-house legal work has gone remote faster than almost any other corner of the profession, mostly because the job is built around reading, reviewing, and negotiating documents rather than appearing in a courtroom. A contract review doesn’t care what city the reviewer is sitting in.
The reason this job hasn’t been automated, despite plenty of software promising to review contracts with AI, is liability. Someone has to be willing to put their bar license behind a legal opinion, and a company that gets sued over a bad contract wants a named, licensed human who can explain the decision, not a tool’s output. Corporate counsel roles increasingly specialize by industry, with technology, healthcare, and financial services companies paying a premium for lawyers who already understand the regulatory landscape they’re walking into.
Sales engineer
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A sales engineer is the person a software company sends into a deal once the prospect starts asking real technical questions the sales rep can’t answer, questions about whether the product will actually integrate with their system that decide whether a contract gets signed. The median total pay for the role is $156,000 a year, climbing well past $200,000 for senior sales engineers handling the largest accounts.
The role sits in a sweet spot that’s hard to automate. It needs enough technical depth to be credible with an engineering team and enough people skills not to blow up a deal in the room. Companies have tried replacing parts of this job with product demos and documentation, and it hasn’t worked, because the questions that actually block a sale are usually specific to one customer’s weird legacy system, not something a generic demo covers.
Most sales engineers start out as software engineers or support specialists who discover they’re better at explaining a product than building it, or the reverse: salespeople who picked up enough technical fluency to hold their own in a room full of engineers. It’s one of the few technical careers where commission, not just base salary, is doing a lot of the work to push total pay past $150,000.
Telehealth psychiatrist
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Psychiatry has a strange reputation for being one of the lower-paid medical specialties, and by physician standards it technically is, but a psychiatrist willing to work through a telehealth platform is still earning serious money for a fully remote job. Average psychiatrist pay across the profession now sits at $331,000 a year, and fully remote telepsychiatry postings routinely offer base salaries at the top of that range.
What makes psychiatry uniquely suited to telehealth, more than most of medicine, is that the core work is conversation and clinical judgment rather than hands-on examination. A psychiatrist can run a full session, prescribe medication, and adjust a treatment plan over video just as effectively as in an office in most cases, and patients in rural areas who’d otherwise have no psychiatric care at all have driven real demand for exactly that.
The mental health shortage in the US is severe enough that remote psychiatry isn’t a consolation prize. For a patient outside a major city, it’s often the only realistic way to see a psychiatrist at all. That shortage is also why the job isn’t going anywhere. Software can screen a patient or draft notes, but prescribing controlled substances and making a diagnosis still legally requires a licensed physician’s signature.
Engineering manager
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Somebody has to manage the humans writing the code, not just the code itself, and that job, engineering manager, pays noticeably more than most of the engineers reporting to it. Typical total pay for the role runs from $180,000 to $284,000 a year, with base pay alone often clearing $150,000 before any bonus is added.
The job is a strange hybrid of technical credibility and people management, and that combination is exactly why it hasn’t been automated or outsourced the way some pure coding work has. An engineering manager needs enough technical background to make a real call on architecture decisions and enough emotional intelligence to handle a team member who’s burned out, underperforming, or about to quit. Software can track a sprint board. It can’t have the difficult one-on-one conversation that keeps a good engineer from leaving.
Remote-first engineering teams have made this one of the easier leadership jobs to do from anywhere, since most of the actual work, code review, planning, one-on-ones, happens over video call and chat regardless of where anyone sits. Most engineering managers spend several years as individual contributor engineers first, which means the typical path to this salary runs through years of writing code before anyone hands over a team.
Quantitative research analyst
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Hedge funds, trading firms, and increasingly regular banks need people who can build the mathematical models that decide what to buy, sell, or hedge against, and they’ll pay well above $150,000 to get them. The average quantitative research analyst salary is now $184,036 a year, and the top 10 percent clear close to $280,000.
The job demands a level of mathematical and statistical training, usually a graduate degree in a quantitative field, that keeps the talent pool small relative to demand. That’s part of why the pay has stayed high even as AI tools have gotten better at crunching numbers. The other part is that a model making real money decisions with real capital still needs a person accountable for its assumptions, and firms aren’t willing to let that accountability sit with software alone.
Quant work has become steadily more remote-friendly over the past several years as firms outside the traditional Wall Street hubs, fintech startups especially, compete for the same small pool of talent by offering flexibility the old guard wouldn’t. A quant who’s good at the job can work from almost anywhere with a stable connection, building models a trading desk thousands of miles away relies on every day.
Security architect
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Somebody has to design the actual blueprint a company’s engineers and analysts follow to keep attackers out, not just react to breaches after they happen, and that’s a security architect’s job. The average salary for the role is $198,825 a year, with senior architects at larger companies clearing well past that.
Cybersecurity as a whole has resisted automation for the obvious reason that attackers are human, creative, and constantly changing tactics, which means defense has to be just as adaptive. A security architect’s job isn’t to run a scanner. It’s to think several moves ahead of an attacker who hasn’t shown up yet, and that kind of adversarial thinking is still squarely a human skill.
The role is one of the more senior destinations in cybersecurity, usually reached after years as a security engineer or analyst, and it tends to be remote-friendly because the actual deliverable is a design document and a set of standards other engineers implement, not hands-on work with physical hardware. Demand has only grown as companies that once treated security as an afterthought have been forced, usually after a costly breach somewhere in their industry, to hire someone whose entire job is thinking about it full time.
VP of sales
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Running an entire sales organization is one of the highest-pressure, highest-turnover jobs in corporate America, and it’s compensated like it. Average total pay for a VP of sales is now $329,646 a year, with base salary making up roughly half of that and the rest coming from bonuses and commission tied to the whole team hitting its number.
The job is remote-compatible for the same reason the enterprise sales reps below a VP of sales are. The work is relationship management and strategic planning, both of which happen over video calls and travel, not at a desk in a specific building. Plenty of sales leaders run distributed teams across multiple time zones without a central office at all.
What keeps this job firmly human is accountability. A company’s entire revenue number depends on this person’s decisions about territory, pricing strategy, and who gets hired or fired on the sales team, and boards want someone they can hold personally responsible when the number comes in short, not a dashboard. Average tenure in the role is famously short, often around two years, which is part of why the pay runs so high. Companies are compensating for risk as much as skill.
Data engineer
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Every company drowning in data needs someone to actually build the pipelines that move it from where it’s collected to where it’s usable, and that’s a data engineer’s job, distinct from the data scientists who analyze what comes out the other end. Average total pay for the role is now just over $150,000 a year, with senior data engineers at larger tech companies earning considerably more.
The job has become more important, not less, since AI tools arrived, because every machine learning model a company wants to build depends entirely on clean, reliable data getting to it in the first place. Recruiters in the field have a blunt way of putting it: no data engineer, no AI. The pipelines don’t build or maintain themselves.
Remote work fits the role naturally, since the infrastructure being built and maintained is cloud-based rather than physical, and well over half of all data engineering postings now offer remote or hybrid arrangements. Most data engineers come up through computer science or software engineering backgrounds, sometimes after starting in data analytics and realizing they’d rather build the plumbing than interpret what flows through it.
Blockchain engineer
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Cryptocurrency’s reputation took a beating over the past several years, but the engineers who build the infrastructure behind blockchain systems, the ledgers, smart contracts, and security layers that have to work perfectly because there’s no undo button once money moves, are still paid accordingly. The average blockchain engineer salary is now $155,000 a year, with senior engineers at established companies earning $195,000 to $220,000 or more.
This is one of the more surprising entries on this list, because so many people assume the crypto hiring boom ended along with the market crashes of recent years. It didn’t disappear. It just got more selective. The speculative projects dried up, but the companies building actual financial infrastructure, payment rails, tokenized assets, institutional custody, kept hiring experienced engineers and paying well for them.
The job demands real expertise in cryptography and distributed systems, areas where a mistake in deployed code can mean an unrecoverable loss of real money, which keeps both the hiring bar and the pay high. Remote work has always been the default in this corner of tech, since blockchain companies are often distributed internationally from day one and have never built their hiring around a physical office.
Technical program manager
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Large tech companies run dozens of complex projects at once, each one touching multiple engineering teams, and someone has to be the person tracking dependencies, unblocking teams, and making sure none of it quietly falls apart. That’s a technical program manager, and the average salary for the role is now $162,658 a year, with senior technical program managers averaging over $200,000.
The role requires enough technical background to actually understand what engineering teams are blocked on, not just a project timeline in a spreadsheet, which is why it tends to be filled by former engineers rather than career project managers. That technical credibility is also what keeps the job from being replaced by project management software. A tool can track a deadline. It can’t walk into an engineering team’s standup and figure out why they’re actually behind schedule.
Big tech companies have made this one of the more consistently remote-friendly senior roles, since the coordination work happens across meetings, documents, and chat regardless of time zone. Most technical program managers move into the role after several years as software engineers who discovered they were better at coordinating ten teams than writing one team’s code, which keeps the career path narrower, and the pay higher, than generalist project management.
None of these jobs are easy money, and most took years of training or a specific exam, certification, or license to reach. They’re still proof that six figures and a kitchen-table office aren’t mutually exclusive, even for people who’ve never written a line of code.
Single moms hear a lot about self-care, usually from people who assume you have a free Saturday and a spare $200 for a spa day. The reality looks different. You are juggling work, school pickups, bills and bedtime alone, and every dollar has a job.
But self-care does not have to be a splurge. Some of the smartest purchases and habits are the ones you use every single day, and when you look at the cost per use, they are some of the best value in your budget. Here are seven small upgrades worth the money.
If there is one thing single moms are short on, it is sleep. Yet according to the CDC, adults need at least seven hours a night to function at their best. Before buying anything, look at your evening routine. A consistent bedtime, a phone that charges outside the bedroom and a cool, dark room cost nothing and can change how you feel by the end of the week.
2. Invest in a robe you love
This sounds like a luxury, but run the numbers. If you buy a quality robe for around $100 and wear it every morning and evening, that is more than 700 wears a year, or roughly 14 cents a wear. Compare that with a pair of jeans you wear twice a month.
A soft, breathable bamboo robe is easy to throw on while you make breakfast, answer the door or sit with your coffee for ten quiet minutes before everyone wakes up. Bamboo-based fabrics wash well, dry quickly and feel lovely against the skin, which makes a robe feel like a small treat rather than just another piece of clothing.
3. Make your morning coffee at home
A $6 drive-through latte five days a week adds up to more than $1,500 a year. Brewing at home with a decent coffee maker, a frother and your favorite creamer gives you the same ritual for a fraction of the cost. Put the money you save toward something that matters, like your emergency fund or a weekend away.
4. Use your library card
Your local library is one of the best free resources out there. Beyond books, many libraries offer free audiobooks, ebooks, streaming movies, museum passes and even online courses through apps you can use from your phone. That is entertainment, learning and kids’ activities without another monthly subscription.
5. Batch one meal prep night
Choose one evening a week to cook two or three simple meals in bulk. A big pot of chili, a tray of roasted vegetables and a batch of rice can cover several weeknight dinners. You save money on takeout and, just as importantly, you save the mental energy of figuring out dinner at 6 p.m. with hungry kids.
6. Upgrade one thing you use every night
You do not need a new bedroom to sleep better. Start with the one thing that bothers you most, whether that is a flat pillow, scratchy sheets or a lumpy mattress topper. Replacing just that one item is a small cost compared with years of tossing and turning.
7. Schedule an off-duty hour
This one is free and might be the hardest. Block off one hour a week when you are off duty. Trade babysitting with another single parent, ask a relative to take the kids to the park or use the time after bedtime. Read, take a bath, call a friend or simply sit in the quiet. Put it on the calendar like any other appointment.
The real return on self-care
Self-care is not about spending more. It is about spending intentionally on the things that help you show up as the mom, worker and person you want to be. When you look at cost per use, a robe you wear every day, a pillow that helps you sleep and an hour that belongs to you are some of the best investments you will ever make.
Self-employment can provide valuable flexibility for a single mother, but it also removes some of the predictability that comes with a traditional paycheck. Income may change each month, taxes are not automatically withheld, and benefits often become your responsibility. A financial plan built around those realities can make uneven income easier to manage while protecting your family from expensive surprises.
A conventional budget may assume roughly the same paycheck arrives every two weeks. That approach can be risky for freelancers, contractors, and business owners.
Review six to 12 months of income and identify what you typically earn during slower periods. Use that conservative figure to build a baseline household budget covering housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, insurance, childcare, and minimum debt payments.
During stronger months, avoid automatically increasing spending. Extra income can help fund future slow periods, taxes, savings, or irregular expenses.
Keep business money separate
Open separate accounts for business and personal finances. Client payments can enter the business account, while a planned amount is transferred to your personal account for household expenses.
This separation makes it easier to track revenue and business costs. It can also simplify bookkeeping when tax season arrives.
Set aside money for taxes as income comes in rather than waiting for a quarterly payment deadline. The appropriate amount depends on income and individual tax circumstances, so a tax professional can help determine a realistic percentage.
Create more than one savings bucket
An emergency fund is especially important when one parent is responsible for the household income. However, emergencies are not the only reason to save.
Consider separate reserves for business slowdowns and predictable expenses. Car repairs may be unexpected, but annual insurance premiums, school costs, holiday spending, and professional fees can often be anticipated months ahead. Automatic transfers can make saving more consistent, even if the amount varies according to monthly income.
Protect the income your family depends on
Single parents should consider what would happen financially if illness, injury, or death removed their income. Health insurance is one piece of that protection. Disability coverage may also help replace part of your earnings if a qualifying condition prevents you from working.
Life insurance can provide financial support for children or other dependents after a parent’s death. Comparing life insurance quotes online can provide an initial look at pricing, but coverage needs should reflect debts, ongoing household expenses, childcare, and future financial responsibilities.
Do not ignore retirement
Self-employment does not mean retirement saving has to stop. Depending on your circumstances, options may include a traditional or Roth IRA, SEP IRA, or solo 401(k).
Contribution rules and tax treatment differ, so choosing an account requires more than comparing annual limits. Consider income patterns, business structure, tax situation, and whether you expect to contribute consistently or primarily during profitable months.
Self-employed single mothers need financial systems that can absorb change. A conservative budget, separate business finances, multiple savings reserves, appropriate insurance, and retirement contributions create layers of protection. Check out the infographic below to learn more.
