10 Ways I Have Made Extra Money

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Extra money can be a great way to pay off debt, save money or give yourself a little extra spending cash! Depending on your financial goals, the extra money can go multiple different directions for you. If you have figured out your income and expenses and feeling hopeless, there are tons of ways to make a little extra money.

When I first started paying off my debts, it was a slow roll. At first, I didn’t think I made very much money. Honestly, as a waitress/bartender I didn’t know how much I was making. Because I always had money, I never tracked how much I had. When I first got serious about paying off my debts is when I got serious about tracking my income. Then, I got serious about making more money.

Once I realized that I had a decent amount of money, I realized that I could make more. I watched people online making money from a ton of different ways. I started looking into a ton of different things. Ultimately, when I am looking at different side hustles, I try to decide if the time invested is worth the money paid for the activity.

Here are a few ways that I have personally made extra money.

1) Poshmark ($600) 

Poshmark is a clothing reselling app and website. You can list your used clothes on the website and make money from them. It is a little like Ebay for clothing. It does take a little bit of time, but it can be great! If you want to sign up for Poshmark, you can use my “ELYLYONS” referral code and get an extra $5 if you make a purchase.

Once you spend the time listing things, it can be a little bit of passive income after that. If you spend an hour listing everything, you might make money from that a few weeks down the road because sales can happen anytime. I have spent just a few hours listing things and make money over and over again from those hours. The more active you are on the app, the more likely things are to sell. If you have 10-15 minutes every day to share your stuff and other people’s items, you are more likely to see success. The buyer pays for shipping so you just print out the shipping label, package it up all pretty and ship it off! Mercari is another great app to use to get rid of unwanted things!

2) Blogging ($2,000+)

Blogging can be a decent source of income if you are willing to put the time and effort into it. I enjoy it because it helps me get all of my ideas out in the open. I have also made a little bit of money in the past two years. When you create a website, you get the freedom of what information you want to put out there. You can decide which brands to support without you. It can also become a tax write off, because a lot of them are business expenses.

I love blogging because of the freedom and influence. Getting to help people has made it more rewarding. I have spent many MANY hours trying to learn how to do things for my website only to find out that I didn’t really need it. It can also be a little bit of an investment when you are first getting started. It can be quite the learning curve if you don’t know what you are doing (ME!), but there are a ton of resources out there to blogging.

Other Blogging Resources:

• How To Start a Blog
• How to Make Money with a Blog
• Things I Learned from Blogging.
• Blogging Resources that aren’t a waste of money

3) Mary Kay (4-6 hours a week = $500 a month)

Direct Sales are business that you usually buy into products and then sell them. It honestly depends on the specific one. Direct Sales can be a GREAT way to make extra money depending on which one you get involved with. I know that there are a million people out there that will tell you how awful Direct Sales are. Honestly, I love mine. I am personally a Mary Kay consultant. I started this before I started my debt free journey, but I picked it up more while I was paying off debt!

Most of them are “decide how much you work” type of businesses. They don’t usually have a mandatory schedule that you have to follow. This also means that if you don’t work, you won’t make money. You wouldn’t expect to never show up to your job and still have them pay you. You would get fired. There is also a wide variety of businesses, so you can decide on a product that fits in with your lifestyle and a product that you love.

I picked Mary Kay because I LOVE seeing the look on women’s faces when they see their makeup after not wearing it every day. When women feel beautiful, it makes my heart happy. I firmly believe that women don’t take care of themselves. They spend sooo much time taking care of everyone else, so when I get to hold a pampering session with a woman, I get to see her sit down and really focus on herself for one hour. It is one of my absolute favorite things in the world.

Most of them usually require an money investment upfront. Mary Kay’s starter kit is $100 to be a consultant, which I believe is incredibly cheap to start your own business.  Some people think they are “scammy.” I will try to keep my rant about this short. If you are going to suggest products for your social media followers to purchase, it might as well benefit your pocket.

How many times have you posted about a new drink at Starbucks, a new food at a local restaurant, or a concert you just bought tickets for? If you are willing to advertise for those products that you love that you don’t get paid for, why wouldn’t you be willing to advertise for products that you do get paid for. I am going to leave it at that. It might change your life. It might be a waste of money, but the only way you are going to know is if you give it a try. If this is something you are interested in, I would love to chat more with you!

4) Selling My Stuff ($300)

Selling your stuff that you don’t use can be a great way to make some extra money and clean up your space at the same time. I have been working on minimizing the amount of stuff that I own. While I am not great at the whole “minimalism” mindset of getting rid of everything, I have downsized quite a bit. I have personally found that Facebook Marketplace has been the best way for me to sell things. It means that it is local and you don’t have to worry about shipping.

Your home, garage, and closet will feel so much better. You will be less stressed because of the clutter. It also leaves you with less things to clean, which also means less time it takes to clean. That means more free time to do the other projects. . If you don’t have a ton of stuff worth money, it can be harder to make money doing this as well. This can also be time consuming because you might have to message back and forth with people to work out pick up time and place.

5) Picking up extra hours at work ($100/shift average)

This seems like the most obvious to me if it is available at your work. I understand that some jobs aren’t as flexible as just getting more hours, but if you aren’t already working 40 hours and you have extra time, this is where I would start.

I love my job. The more I work, the more money I can make which makes it great to be able to pick up shifts for extra cash. You already know what you are doing, so you don’t have to try to learn something else on top of your job. Not every job is this flexible. I know a lot of jobs will cut you off at 40 hours so they don’t have to pay you overtime as well. There were periods of time while paying off debt that I would have been willing to do almost anything to not have to go to work the next day because I was sick of being there.

6) Finance Apps ($300/year)

I hesitate to put this in here because it isn’t all just extra money, but some of my finance and money saving apps have helped a ton! Finance apps on your phone can be great! I use things like Ibotta, Ebates, and Swagbucks to earn some cash back when I am already spending money. I wrote a list of my favorite finance apps that have helped me earn some money!

Ibotta is a grocery rebate app. I am all about saving money on groceries. Instead of saving money up front like with coupons, it is a receipt scanning app. The app will pay you for scanning your receipt when you purchase certain items. I love Ibotta because there are a ton of different things on there. Alcohol, produce, meat, frozen foods, and household items can all be found with rebates. Checking it regularly can mean getting cash back on things that you are already getting! When you sign up for Ibotta, you will get a $10 welcome bonus when you redeem your first rebate! (Who can beat free $10!)

Rakuten is a great application to use on your computer and your phone! It is set up to give you cash back for almost all online shopping that you do! You can install the browser extension and it will pop up whenever you are on a website that offers cash back! I have earned $75 cash back without even trying! You can sign up for Rakuten today and get a $10 welcome bonus when you spend your first $25 with them, or check out my full review of how I saved money using Rakuten when I bought my new phone!

Swagbucks is sort of like Rakuten with a ton of other additional features. There are a ton of cash back offers on different websites, but it also offers a ton of surveys! I have swagbucks as my search engine as well, so I get a few extra points for every day I use my search engine! Swagbucks also offers discounts and cash back on some gift card purchases! I purchase gift cards for different restaurants and get points that I can turn in for even more gift cards! Swagbucks offers gift cards for Amazon, Wal-mart, and Target as well as a ton of other different places! Sign up today to get started earning Swagbucks for surveys and shopping!

7) Got a second job ($500-$1000/ month)

Throughout my debt free journey, I have had a few different second jobs. I started with waitressing and bartending. Then I was picking up extra training for the military. And then I got a steady, but temporary position for the military and was bartending on the side. Then I became a full time bartender. Now I am a part time bartender at two bars. You have the ability to pick anything you want to do. If you can get a second job in your field, then it might be a little easier. If you can find something that pays decent, it might be a fun switch.

It can be hard to divvy up your time without having to cut back somewhere else. Working two jobs is not a long term solution. This is more of a temporary quick fix unless you do a really good job of taking care of yourself.

8) Pet Sitting ($50/time)

I have a few friends that I have pet sit for while they were out of town. This works out super well depending on the level of work that each pet requires. I know there are also apps where you can sign up to be a pet sitter or dog walker, but I don’t know much about that. I usually just let my friends know that I could watch them. This isn’t necessarily a side hustle you can rely on consistently unless you have friends who travel a lot, but the little bit of extra is nice.

 9) Keeping all of my change ($80/jar)

This may not seem like an extra way to make money, but it was a huge help when it came to extra debt payments. Every night when I come home from work with change, it would go straight in the change jar. Once a week, I would empty out my wallet of all of the change from spending money!  Keeping my spare change paid for most of my tattoo during my debt free journey. If you don’t spend cash a lot, it can be harder for it to add up, but I would still encourage you to try. If you are using cash envelopes, you will be surprised how fast it fills up!

10) Mystery Shopping ($20-500/month)

I don’t have a ton of experience with mystery shops, but I have done a few here and there when it fit in with things I was already getting. I have used Field Agent the most. There are a ton of different apps based on your location. The money is pretty wide ranged because it really depends how many you have time for and which ones you are willing to do. Some of them can pay pretty well. A lot of them will reimburse you for whatever you bought as well. These do take some money up front usually and time to travel and write up the review. They vary with amount paid and time put into the shop! This is something that I plan to look into more as I focus on side hustles more.

 

What are ways that you have made extra money?

Regardless of the way that you choose to make some extra money, it is always beneficial to have at least one main way to make some extra money! My focus changes depending on the season, but I love having a few back up plans!  All of the extra money that I have made has helped me reach my debt pay off goals and my savings goals fast than I could have on my own.