25 Ways to Make a Few Extra Bucks

Whether you’re working on reducing debt, increasing your savings or just need a little extra cash there are plenty of fun and somewhat easy ways to pocket extra money.

I recently put together a PDF book called “107 Ways to Make or Save Money.” Download it HERE!

From the book here are 25 of those 107 ideas that can help you make some extra money.

1. Deliver pizza. This is not just for college students anymore. People of all ages have discovered an easy way to make extra money by delivering pizza or other food. Most places pay an hourly rate plus mileage. Plus you get to keep the tips.

2. Participate in focus groups and surveys like Swagbucks. Just make sure you research them first. The Penny Hoarder has an awesome post on how to make money using Swagbucks (actually, they have a lot of great posts so make sure you check them out). Other good sites are e-Miles and MySurvey.com.

3. Write an ebook and sell either on your own site, via Gumroad or on Amazon. How-To books and other practical guidebooks are a great way to make some extra money. A good book on how to write and publish an ebook on Amazon is APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur – How to Publish a Book.

4. Become a freelance writer. Freelance writing is a great way to make extra money if you enjoy writing. I have friends that have gone from $0 to $4,000 per month very quickly. One of them is Gina Horkey who now teaches others on how to do the same with her new course.

5. If you enjoy doing yard sales why not offer it as a service? Offer to do it for someone at their house and take a % commission or flat fee. Plenty of people don’t have time for a yard sale or enjoy doing them but have things to sell. You can even offer an extra added service of helping them declutter.

6. Evaluate websites on UserTesting.com. This is a great, fun way of earning extra money by literally speaking your mind about your user experience as you land on a website. Website owners submit their URL to UserTesting and then you go to the page and give feedback on what you think, what you think the site is about and so forth.

7. Walk dogs. Walking dogs is a great way to make extra money plus you get exercise too! On average a dog walker makes 15-20 dollars an hour. Just remember to look into liability insurance and if you are going to do this as a business you definitely want to get bonded, licensed and insured.

8. Water plants and take in mail. Not everyone need someone to stay at their home but need their plants waters, lights turned off and on and mail taken care of in order to look as ‘we are home’ as possible. This is a great service you can offer in your neighborhood.

9. Mow lawns, rake leaves, shovel snow and other simple yard-work. Put your lawnmower and other garden tools to work. Find a few nearby houses whose lawn always look in need of mowing and ask them if they are willing to pay you to come there weekly to mown their lawn or if you live in an area where it snows knock on homes that seem to take a while to clear their driveways.

10. Collect aluminum cans and other scrap metal. Some recycling centers will pay you for aluminum and scrap metal. Or look for a local business that buys metal. If you have coworkers that drink soda ask them to give you the cans. Free money.

11. Don’t shop groceries for a week or two. Use up what’s in the cupboards, fridge and freezer. It’s a great way to clean out, finally see what’s in the freezer and cupboards and use up food that may be close to freezerburns or expiration dates.

12. Offer advertising on your car if you travel around your local area a lot. Check sites like Street Team Production, Free Car Media and AutoWrapped. Also, are there companies in your area that wrap vehicles for a living? Ask them if they need another vehicle driving around town wrapped with their advertisement.

13. Become a tutor. If you enjoy helping students study for a particular topic or test tutoring can be a great gig. You can either advertise your own services or go through an agency like WyzAnt or Kaplan. Check with universities and your local schools too. Try to connect with other tutors to learn how to find clients, what to offer and what to charge. Maybe one of the tutors you connect with is so busy you could help him or her?

14. Run errands for people. Check sites like TaskRabbit to see if they are in your area. You can also offer it as a service in your neighborhood and offer services like picking up dry cleaning, go grocery shopping and any other shopping.

15. Make extra money on Fiverr, ODesk or ELance by offering things you can do easily. Common offers on there are Word to PDF conversion, editing, writing and anything video. You are not going to get rich doing that but converting a Word document to PDF may take you a minute and you just made a few bucks doing that.

16. Power wash fences, siding, driveways. If you own a power washer and clean your own fence, siding and driveway, why not offer that service to others in your neighborhood? A great way to utilize a tool and skill you have and make money at the same time. A lot of people don’t have a powerwasher and would love to have their fence, siding or driveway cleaned for a reasonable fee.

17. Pick up dog poo in people’s backyards. Is anyone offering this service in your neighborhood? If not, you could be making some extra money doing duties some owners don’t have time or want to do.

18. Organize garages, offices, closets for a fee. Are you the master of organization and decluttering? Why not make some money doing something you enjoy doing anyway? Lots of people don’t have the time or skill to quickly organize an overflowing garage, closet or office and would be happy to pay you to take care of it.

19. Put flyers on cars/doors. Rotate magazines, booklets and more. Phone catalogs is still alive and well too. Check with any local magazines that may need monthly delivery to restaurants and hotels. Plus find out who delivers the realtor magazines, coupon booklets and local free newspapers that you often find at grocery stores and gas stations. They may be looking for a new delivery person once a week or once a month.

20. Work at concession stands at events. Also contact companies like Costco and Whole Foods that often do in-store food tasting. You may need a food handler’s permit for these kind of jobs but they are easy to get and traditionally doesn’t cost much. Or even better, see if you can sell water bottles for a $1 a piece at events. Great margin and profit.

21. Create an online video course and sell it on Udemy. Do you do something with ease that others may want to learn? Udemy has tons of different courses. Do a little research and see if you can offer an online course on there. Udemy requires you to include a big portion to be video. All you need is an iPhone or Android to get going. You can also record on your computer, insert slideshows and more.

22. Start driving for Uber or Lyft. A great way to make extra money. But before you join, make sure you check local zoning regulations and with your auto insurance. Some cities now look at those services as you are operating as a professional livery service (taxi and delivery) meaning you may need special insurance. If you don’t, then you can get slapped with a hefty fine. But if you’re in an area with no or few regulations joining either company can put some nice cash in your pocket.

23. Join Mturk – offer your services and set your own prices. Mturk is a marketplace for those looking for various tasks to be completed. It is owned by Amazon. You can go in and look for tasks that people look to have completed, pick the ones you want to do and then get paid if the person picks you to do it.

24. Play music at a cafe, bar or at a street corner. If you play an instrument and can play a variety of songs doing something you enjoy doing while making a few extra bucks is a great use of time. Just remember to put out something people can leave a tip in.

25. Rent out your house or place using Airbnb or VRBO. You can rent out a bed, couch, room or the entire house. You can choose to rent out a day, week or month. It is all up to you. You set your own price, list on those sites and then they take a small fee for the listing. Airbnb especially has become a popular place to look for a place to stay instead of hotels.

 

What do you think? Could you see yourself doing some of these? Share in the comments below.

Also, don’t forget to download your copy of 107 Ways to Make or Save Money. It’s full of ideas to both make and save you money. After all, who doesn’t want some more money in their pocket?

 

*There are affiliate links in here. As usual, I only recommend products or services I either personally use or trust.