Over 130 ways to make extra money

This is taken from my book, Happily Frugal. Learn more about the book here.

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There are ways to make extra money here and there or on a regular basis. Some of these are from home. Some of these you choose to go somewhere to offer services. Some are freelance work. A few are for companies. There are things listed here that will make a little bit of money and things listed that make a lot of money. Here’s the beauty of “side money”. You can choose what you want to do and choose what hours work for you. You choose how much time you need to put into it. The schedule is flexible, and your family can come first. These things can vary from one-time options to seasonal to regular. Do whatever works for you. When it comes to extra money earned in addition to your primary job, there are so many reasons we may need to do this. As you look through this list, be reasonable with how much you can do. Try out things and see what you like. Most of these things don’t need to be like traditional shift work. For example, you can do a freelance delivery service such as DoorDash after your regular job and only do 1 or 2 runs on your way home. If you work 5 days a week, that’s 20 runs a month. You don’t have to go out on your day off and work an 8-hour shift doing a side job. You can still have a day off. There are a lot of options to make extra money. If this is something you need to do, I hope you find something that fits you well and you can maintain a healthy work/life balance. Without further ado, let’s look at the options to make extra money. Find a way (or multiple ways) that work for you!
 
If you are going into people’s homes to provide services or are working in a way that puts you alone with people, please be safe. Take precautions.

One time or occasional methods to make money

• Turn in your used ink cartridges.
  
• Collect and turn in aluminum cans.
• Some states pay you for recycling. You can make money from cans and bottles. Some companies will pay a small amount for your old cell phone and other electronics.
  
• Selling scrap metal can get you some extra money. When your washer, dryer, water heater, etc… goes out don’t throw it away. Take it to the scrap yard. If you replace piping, cash it in. 
• Donate your plasma and receive compensation.
• Participate in psychological studies.
• Some companies offer free products or cash compensation for testing their products. 
• Sell your items to a thrift store that pays cash for good products.

Ways to make occasional or regular money working independently in-person

• Home care
  • Childcare is a classic choice. You can do this in your home or theirs.
  • A mother’s helper is someone who comes to a family’s home and assists the parents with child care, cleaning, and cooking while the parents are still in the home.
  • Pet sitting actually makes decent money.
  • Cleaning houses as a profession makes good money.
  • Offer your services in cooking and meal prep. There are people who hire for this. You can cook at their house or menu plan and prep for them. 
  • Are you good at organizing? Sell home organization services helping people get their household in order.
  • Spend time with the elderly who need entry level home care.
  • House sit for people out of town.
• Yard work is something people are always hiring for. 
  • Mow lawns.
  • Rake leaves.
  • Shovel snow.
  • Offer shrub removal or tree stump removal. 
  • Do landscaping.
  • Help someone plant their garden.
• Handyman skills are always needed. Can you do any of these things?
  • Car wash and detailing
  • Routine car maintenance or basic repairs and replacements
  • Paint
  • Carpentry
  • Home remodel  
  • Routine house maintenance that the owners don’t know how to do or don’t have time for
  • Haul stuff or help with moving… for a fee.
  • Light installation assistance is needed by some for Christmas lights or other decorative outdoor lighting.
  • If you have the proper training for more advanced work including plumbing, electric, and HVAC, you can offer those services around your regular work schedule.
  • You can do freelance work on your own or through a company to offer handyman work, furniture assembly, help with moving or delivering, etc.
  • Sell firewood from trees you cut down.
• Services can be offered in-person around your schedule.
  • Work as a tutor.
  • Is there anything you can teach classes on? 
  • Is there anything you are qualified to coach on?
  • What are you passionate about? Is your passion something you can offer as a service? Many services can be offered around your regular job schedule or your family’s schedule when it works for you.
  • If you happen to be musically talented, you could sing or play music at events for a fee.
  • If you’re a natural at organizing and enjoy hosting, consider being an event planner.
  • Do you enjoy photography? This can be offered around your family’s schedule.

Work independently from home around your schedule

• If you’ve had the proper training to be an editor, that makes good money.
  
• If you are good at typing, you can offer transcription services.
• Write blogs or articles for companies.
• If you enjoy writing, consider becoming a published author.
• If you have graphic design skills, offer it for hire.
  
• Sell illustrations or custom-make them if you can draw.
• Create fonts and sell them for commercial use.
• Do website design. This is something people are often seeking to hire for.
• Offer photo editing services to busy photographers.
• Create art and sell it. 
• Market your talents. What are you good at? Do it for hire.

Domestic skills you can sell

If you have mastered any domestic skills that are no longer common knowledge, use that. The ability to do these things will always be needed.  

• Have chickens and sell the eggs.
• Be a beekeeper and sell the honey.
• Garden. Sell some of your leftovers. Set up a home produce stand.
• Sell seeds you’ve gathered from your garden food.
• Start extra seedlings in the spring you can sell.
• You can also grow flowers to sell. Sell individual flowers. Make bouquets. Start spring flowers in the pot and sell them.  
• Offer food preservation as a service for those who don’t know how to can and dehydrate their food.
• Make homemade jams, jellies, preserves, spreads, and condiments to sell.
• Sell baked goods. You can also offer a menu that’s made to order.
• Offer homemade meals made to order.
• Make homemade cleaning supplies.
• Make bar soap.
• Sew. There are countless things you can sew that will sell for a good price. Remember you don’t have to buy fabric that is brand-new. You can buy clearance fabric and choose what to make because of what’s on sale. You can buy clothes and other fabric from thrift stores.
• Offer your services as a seamstress for repairs, modifications, and handmade clothes.
• Offer embroidery services.
• Crochet. There are numerous possibilities. Homemade blankets are a good thing to sell.
• Knit. Try knitting scarves to sell.
• Weaving is also a domestic skill you can use to make products.
• Make candles.
• Make crafts. There are endless possibilities when it comes to crafting.
• Build furniture.
• Flip furniture. Freshen up thrifted finds. Reupholster chairs.
• Make home décor. This could be as simple as painting pickle jars or making garland. You could also do pottery. There are a lot of possibilities.

Set up shop

• Yard sales are a traditional choice to make extra cash.
  
• Sell things online. Facebook can be an easy and free place to sell items.
• Is there anything you enjoy making that you could sell? List your ideas.
• Consider having a booth at a consignment shop you don’t have to be at while it’s selling. This could be anything from yard sale type items to antique stores.
  
• Set up at a flea market. Some markets do short-term rent and others do month-to-month. 
• Sell at a Farmer’s Market. It’s fairly low-cost to be a vendor for the season, and it’s often only one day a week that you have to go somewhere in-person.
• Have a table at a Christmas bazaar.
• What kind of vendor events are relevant to what you want to sell? This could be a regular thing or a yearly event.
• Sell print-on-demand products that are printed and shipped by another company. The creator gets a portion of the sale.
• Many people start stores out of their home. Is there any niche of merchandise that you would like to invest in and sell from home?  
• What could you make or sell that is wanted by the communities you are connected with? For example, a cloth diapering momma could start selling cloth diapers out of her home or from a store people can visit.
• Have a website that sells digital downloads.
• Use an e-commerce website to sell digital downloads. This could be books, digital art, handwritten fonts, customized items.
• Rent out tools if you have a decent selection. 
• Rent out décor such as wedding décor or themed baby shower décor.

Make money from your property

• Do you own property you want to sell? This is a one-time way to make a large amount of money.
  
• If you happen to own a home you are not living in, you could rent it out. This can be a big money maker and regular monthly income.
  
• If you have property that would work for this, rent out your rustic barn for weddings or part of your land for events.
• If you’ve got the land for it, grow a pick-your-own flower farm.
• What could you use your land for? You could rent it out, let a farmer use some of your acreage, build something, start a campground, have a pay lake to fish at, and more.

Get connected to the world

• Connect with affiliate marketing. You can promote someone’s product or program for a bonus when they get business through you. Or you can create the class that offers affiliate marketing to encourage others to promote you.
  
• Create podcasts that are paid or monetized with ads.
• Make money from a website. This often requires regular blogging.
  • Have ads on your website.
    
  • Have ads in your blogs.
  • Use affiliate marketing links.
  • Earn commission.
  • Promote sponsored content.
  • Get paid to do reviews.
  • You can get paid to do book reviews and participate in things like book blog tours. Connect with other bloggers who review similar items.  
  • Use social media to promote your blogs and increase traffic to your website.
  • Have an email list.
  • Sell digital downloads.
  • Sell physical products.
  • Sell services that you promote through your website. 
• If you gain a large following on social media, you can make money at it. This does take a tremendous amount of effort to gain followers and maintain each account. However, it’s something you can do from home to make money.
  • Several social media platforms offer content creators the ability to monetize their account.
  • Earn commission through affiliate links.
  • Earn ad revenue.
  • Get paid to do ads or sponsored content.
  • Be a brand ambassador. 
  • Offer exclusive content for subscribers (monthly fee).
  • Be open to donations.
  • Sometimes they launch businesses once they are popular. They may write books, introduce a clothing line, or offer something their fans can buy.

Do delivery

• Some companies allow you to deliver packages as needed with the ability to sign up for shifts when it works for your family. You can do this locally or you can travel. (example: Amazon flex)
  
• Work for a company that does food delivery. You decide your availability. (examples: DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grub Hub)
• Deliver groceries when it works for your schedule. There are several grocery stores that offer this. (examples: Instacart, DoorDash red card, Spark Driver, Shipt)
• Be a personal shopper. There are apps for this as well. You go shopping for them and then deliver their items to their house. (All of the companies in the above option offer delivery for retail shopping as well.)
  
• Use your car for rideshare driving. Pick people up and deliver them to their doorstep. (examples: Uber, Lyft)
  

DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grub Hub, Instacart, Spark Driver, Shipt, Uber, Lyft, and Amazon flex are all companies you can freelance for when it works for your schedule.

Extra money working for a company

• Virtual assistant work is becoming popular.
  
• Social media management is something you can do from home.
• If you like to teach, there are programs you can teach under someone’s brand that uses their curriculum and they take a percentage of your class fee.
• Direct sales for a company that sells exclusively through members instead of directly to the public is an extremely popular thing to try out for extra cash.
• Work for day to day hire around your schedule.  
• Check the temp agencies in your area. They may have short term jobs available.
  
• Work seasonal jobs. Retail jobs always hire seasonal workers for the holidays. A garden center or farm may need extra help for the summer. Search seasonal jobs in your area.

There is a lot of flexibility in this type of work

Many of these things can grow into a full income. Many of them can be a supplemental income. While it is hard to have small businesses or put in the time for side jobs, there is a lot of flexibility. You set the pace for how much you want to do. You decide when you want to do these things. Live frugally. Make extra money when you need to.

Also consider apps

• Earn cash or gift cards by scanning your receipts. I have a blog on that here.
  
• Get rebates on your groceries through apps. I have a blog on that here.
  
• Make a little bit of money with referral codes. I have a blog on frugal apps I use that offer referral codes here.
  

There is a blog series on frugal apps to save money and make money on my frugal living page.

Better yet

Better than any of these options, save money in your budget so you don’t have to go out and work extra. Learning ways to save on your monthly expenses can make the difference between mommas being able to stay home or having to leave their babies. Developing your skills in feeding a family frugally can be what lets you be a homemaker so you don’t have to work outside the home if you don’t want to. I would love to teach you over 1,000 ways to save money. It’s all in my workbook, Happily Frugal.

learn more about living frugally here

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What do you do to make extra money when you need to?
Tell me in the comments below.