(12 minute read)

Congratulations! You are on your way to deciding to be financially free by paying off your debt once and for all. But UGH if only you could make more money right?! Check out the 40 easy ways (and honestly this is just a start!) to make money so you can start paying off your debt today. 

Make More Money

OK, making more money seems obvious as a way to make more money, right? But here are 15 LEGITIMATE side-gigs (many that I have done myself!) that can have you making more money pronto! 

  1. Drive for a rideshare company like Uber or Lyft
  2. Drive for a delivery company like Postmates, DoorDash, or Uber eats (I drove for Postmates, and you can make $100 a day just delivering lunch orders and groceries!)
  3. Walk dogs or house sit on Rover or Wag (I’ve been walking dogs for Rover for five years, and I’ve made over $15,000 doing it!)
  4. Babysit. Maybe you think you are too old to be doing this, but trust me, more parents LOVE having a responsible adult watch their kids than having a young teenager do it. 
  5. Write online content. Scroll through Craigslist or online job boards to see who is currently sourcing blog content.
  6. Run a business’s social media account. I did this for 18 months for two different companies and made over $35,000.
  7. Offer your services on Thumbtack. If you are handy or have a skill that is in need, Thumbtack could be a great site to offer your services on during your free time.
  8. Rent out your car. If you regularly have your car sitting in your driveway, you might consider renting it out! As a remote worker who doesn’t commute, my car sits idle in my driveway for days on end. Sometimes weeks! Why not make some money off it? Check out companies like Turo and Hyre to get started!
  9. Rent out your tools. If you have items of value or usefulness, but you’re just not using them every day, consider renting them out on Just Buro.! Have golf clubs you only use 2-3 times a year? How about a table saw or an underwater camera? List your stuff fast, set your price, and have it all protected using Just Buro. 
  10. Rent out a room in your house. Thousands of people have made tons of extra money by renting out a room in their home on Airbnb. If you have a spare bedroom, consider listing it for overnight guests and make that unused space make money for you literally while you sleep! 
  11. Re-sell books at garage sales or the dollar book store and resell them on Amazon marketplace (books in excellent condition do really well!)
  12. Sit on a community board. Most cities have community boards that need members, and they often come with a yearly stipend. If you are particularly passionate about your town’s libraries, cultural events, or architectural preservation, see if there are open seats on their board to participate. 
  13. Become an affiliate marketer. If you have a knack for spinning up websites, setting up online advertising, or have a product you’re passionate about that you want to tell others about, consider using your online skills to affiliate with companies and products. 
  14. Deliver groceries or packages for Instacart or Amazon.
  15. Start your own company. I’ve started and owned a couple of my own companies, and let me tell you, nothing is more rewarding than making money because of a product of sill you are selling. If you have a passion, consider turning it into a business today!

Bring In More Money

If you haven’t sold something yet on your debt-free journey, are you even living it?! 🙂 Any debt free-er knows that you have money sitting all over your house in things you don’t need or use anymore. Here are five things you could sell today online for top dollar (my favorite online marketplaces are Facebook, Letgo, and Craigslist). 

  1. Kitchen gadgets. Everyone has that one thing (or maybe multiple things) that you bought to make that one meal that you never used again. Post your immersion blender, melon juicer, or rotisserie oven online today. 
  2. Art. Anything you can put on your walls makes a great item to sell because it usually stays in near excellent condition, even if you owned it for a while, often getting you a higher price in a sale.  
  3. Tools. Nothing is more expensive than a trip to home depot for a new tool. So if you have some that you aren’t using anymore, consider selling them online. They are always needed, and people will pay good money for ones in excellent working condition (especially if you sell it with extra batteries and/or battery charger!)
  4. Furniture. Nearly any piece of furniture, even in bad condition, will sell online with the number of DIY-ers out there looking for projects. Increase your earnings by making sure what you sell is in good, working condition. Or simply offload a project piece you never got to and make an extra couple bucks (and clear out some space while you are at it!).
  5. Plants. Do you have a green thumb, or is your garden overflowing with basil? Consider repotting a portion of your plant(s) and sell them online!

**Side note: Shoes, clothes, and electronics are hit or miss online. NEVER expect to get close to what you paid for the original item even in brand new condition with the tag still on or the item still in the box. You absolutely can sell them, but just keep in mind that these items are like cars, they lose value the instant they left the store. If you have shoes or clothing in good condition, consider laundering them and donating them. The tax write-off might be more than that amount you could sell them for!

Find More Money

Now before you go telling me you can’t just go “find” money because it doesn’t grow on trees, I hear ya! BUT what if I told you that you could find more money in your budget already?!  Don’t believe me? Check out these 16 ways to find more money in your budget NOW.

  1. Cancel a subscription you don’t use. When my BF and I started budgeting, we found out we’d been paying for HBO Go every month for 3 YEARS and had no idea. Just by canceling that we found $14.99 a month.
  2. Remove one charge you would typically make a month. If you are buying coffee out six times a month, reduce it to 5 times a month. Depending on the coffee you are buying, this could mean you “find” $2-$7/ month!
  3. Use the Rakuten app. When shopping online, don’t buy anything until you check the Rakuten extension for cash back. A great example was when I purchased my hosting for this very website, Rakuten gave me $30 cash back on the purchase. However, the key to making this tip work in your favor is not to buy anything you weren’t already planning for in your budget.
  4. Use the ibotta app when grocery shopping. Before I walk into the grocery store, I make sure to check the ibotta app for any cash back deals. Now I don’t buy anything I wasn’t already planning to purchase, but on a regular $50 shopping trip I usually make $1-$3  
  5. Sign up for FREE store cards. I am a Food Lion grocery store shopper, and every month they have “shop and earn” deals. That means if I hit the minimum spend on any of their monthly categories, I get $3-$7 off my next shopping trip. So, for instance, I had to spend $25 in produce in a given month to get $5 off. Since I already buy at least $12 of produce every week, in 2.5 weeks, I hit the minimum and got $5 off my next purchase!
  6. Donate blood – get money! On a recent trip to donate blood this week (which I try to do every three months), they were giving out $10 to every blood donor. Free money!
  7. Get a library card. Swap out any movie rental or splurge magazine purchases that you are making by borrowing those same items for free from the library. Also, libraries in bigger cities often have other cool things you can borrow like art supplies, and the library in Washington DC even has a laser you can use! If you regularly buy books or magazines, this swap could easily net you $7 – $20/ month!
  8. Switch TV providers. As a current Sling TV customer, there are a couple of things I love about this company. They don’t lock you into a contract, their packages are super low (50 channels start at $30 a month), and you can make adjustments to your account at any time. We realized we weren’t watching half the shows we were paying for, so we recently changed our package with them (which you can do at any time straight from your online account) and are now saving nearly $20/ month! 
  9. Shop your own pantry/ freezer. Grocery bills can skyrocket if you don’t watch them too carefully. A simple “I”m just going to pop by the store for a few things” can quickly rack up $50 if you aren’t paying attention. Try taking the “Slash your grocery budget” challenge for one month. The challenge? Commit to slashing your grocery bill by 25% or more by making as many meals from ingredients you already have in your house. For a family spending $500 a month on groceries shopping your pantry or freezer easily “finds” you $125 a month. 
  10. Swap going out for dinner for going out for happy hour. A super sneaky going out to dinner hack I have is – go out for dinner during happy hour. My local sushi joint can quickly run you $100 or more for a night out for 2 with drinks. However, when we go during happy hour (which lasts until 7:30 already), the sushi rolls are $1-$2 (nearly 80% cheaper than during dinner!), the drinks are $3-$5, and after tip, we usually leave spending less than $50. 
  11. Make more meals at home. If you work in an office and go out for lunch every day, that could be costing you $8-$12 a pop. Or if you find yourself getting takeout 2-3 nights a week because you don’t know what to cook, that can run you $20-$30 per person per meal! Simply swapping out, bringing lunch from home one day a week could save you nearly $30-$40 a month, and taking the time to meal plan could save you hundreds on eating out. 
  12. Download the Field Agent App. “Jobs” range from $3 – $11 to do simple tasks in your neighborhood. 2 of the jobs on there right now in my town are $11 to go take pictures of the exterior of a house for insurance purposes and $5 to buy a new kind of coffee, try it, and write a review (you get reimbursed for product purchases). It’s free to download and sign up, so give it a try! 
  13. Use the Fetch Rewards App. If you’re like me, I was SUPER skeptical of yet another receipt app that claimed you’d make money from it. But after using it for only a few weeks, I already was eligible to cash out my rewards! 3500 points are all you need to cash out, and if you sign up here, you’ll automatically get 2000 points (or enter my code 5P1M1), and you’ll be well on your way to earning cash by simply taking pictures of your receipts!
  14. Cancel any credit card that makes you pay an annual fee. This is embarrassing, but when my BF and I started budgeting together, we found out we were paying over $700 a year in annual credit card fees (one had a whopping yearly fee of $250!). Don’t listen to what people say about canceling cards ruining your credit (we found out it barely even registers on your credit score) cancel those cards! Wouldn’t you rather save hundreds of dollars a year?
  15. Find something you need for free! I know I know, sounds unreal, right?! Check out the app Free Stuff Finder. The woman who runs it collects TONS of killer deals and tells you about all the free items and coupons you can take advantage of right now. You can also check out free stuff for sale on Craigslist, Letgo, or Facebook marketplace if you need a household item!
  16. See if your car insurance company has a cash back or discount program for safe driving. As a progressive customer, both my BF and I have done their snapshot program (where you insert a device into your car for six months and it tracks your driving) to reduce our car insurance. The first two times I did it, I dropped my car insurance by $25/ month. We just did it again on both our cars, and we dropped over $100 off our bi-annual payment!

Ask For More Money

Didn’t think you could just straight up ask for more money, did you? Well, you totally can. Check out these four ways to ask for more money!

  1. Call your cell phone company. I recently shared a story on my Instagram profile about how I am now saving $40 per month on my cell phone bill simply because I called them up and asked! 
  2. Talk to your boss. If you work a 9-5 job, ask your boss for a raise. Some companies have annual review cycles, but most companies won’t give you a raise unless you ask for it. Put together your accomplishments over the past year (especially if you have been a rockstar remote worker in this crisis) and have a sit down with your boss. 
  3. Ask for a refund. If you had a bad experience with a product or service, don’t hesitate to speak up. I’ve gotten everything from a free pizza from Dominoes because my first order took over an hour to deliver, to 50,000 hotel points credited to my account because our hotel room had a construction crane outside our balcony the whole time! I think people (especially women) hesitate to speak up about a bad experience because they don’t want to be mean or pushy. But you don’t have to be either to get heard. When Delta damaged a suitcase of ours coming back from a trip to Maine, I tagged them in a tweet with a picture of our crushed bag. They handled the issue immediately and replaced our bag with one that cost over $200! 
  4. Raise your rates. Many freelancers that I know keep their prices the same for YEARS as they work with the same clients. Yet their skills and toolkits have dramatically improved. Take the opportunity to discuss this with any existing clients and make sure to raise your rates for any new clients. You should be getting paid what you are worth!

I hope this helped inspire you of ways you can make money, bring in more money, find money, and ask for more money. If you have more ideas, tips, and tricks, or other side gigs and products I didn’t mention, feel free to email me at amy@marryyourmoney.com or drop it in the comments below! I hope you are staying happy and healthy!

xoxo,
Amy