Trying to earn extra money on the side? These easy side hustles can help you increase your income and pay those never ending bills!
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At a recent family get-together, a bunch of us were hanging out around the table talking when my brother-in-law wryly said, “Yeah, I just need to figure out how to make an extra $20,000 a year and we’d be set!”
We all laughed empathetically because let’s be honest, who doesn’t think an extra $20,000 would help make life a little easier?
As the laughter died down, he turned to me and asked more seriously, “What can I do to make an extra $20,000?” Apparently being a frugal homemaking blogger makes you the family expert on these kinds of subjects? 🙂
Really though, his question is one that a lot of us have, right? Money is tight, we have mortgages to pay off or we’re trying desperately to stay out of debt.
And we wish we could find an easy side hustle or two that would make it at least not too hard to earn a bit of extra money.
There are hundreds of ways to make money on the side, and there’s no way that I could cover them all. But here are some of my favorite side hustles that are mostly easy and have the potential to pay decently.
Quite a few of these side hustles are things you can do from home too, which is a big plus if you’re a stay-at-home parent. By investing as little as 5 to 8 hours a week, I think you can easily earn a nice little side income!
At any rate, hopefully, these ideas will inspire you and help you figure out how to make a little extra money on the side so you can enjoy the freedom of having a little less tight budget. 🙂
Side Hustle Ideas to Make Extra Money
1. Rent out a room…or your whole house
Have a spare room? Or a spot that you could turn into a guest house? Maybe you’d like to just do what some friends of ours do and pay for your vacations by renting out your house while you’re gone.
Either way, being an Airbnb host can be a great way to earn a little extra money! You can especially do well if you are in an urban location or close to lots of events, conventions and the like.
2. Get Paid to Grocery Shop
Love shopping for groceries? Why not become an Instacart Shopper and get paid to grocery shop for other people?
If this sounds like fun to you, check out this Instacart Shopper Review that gives the low down on how Instacart Shopper works, the best tips to do it well and one shopper’s side hustle experience where she made over $1500/mo.
3. Become a Proofreader
If you enjoy detailed work and have a bit of a knack for grammar, becoming a proofreader could be a great fit!
This free proofreading workshop by Caitlin Pyle is a great way to find out if this is something that might work for you. And I was amazed to learn that the majority of Caitlin’s proofreading students make $17/hr at the start!
4. Be a Virtual Assistant
Want to work from home and help business owners and influencers with online work? Then virtual assistant work could be the perfect side hustle for you!
Virtual assistants do a lot of different tasks– everything from graphic design, social media management, blog management, email management, content production, bookkeeping, project management and more.
VA work is in demand, especially in the blogging world! I have a couple of VAs that help me with my blog and I’m ever so grateful for them!
You can learn more about how to become a VA as well as sign up for the amazing course that Fully Booked VA offers. The average rate for virtual assistants that have gone through this course is $35/hr., with some going as high as $100!
5. Do Recipe | Craft Photography
Do you love photography? Guess what? You can get paid to work at home taking recipe and craft photos for bloggers, social media influencers and even brands!
With the huge growth in blogging and social media marketing as a business, the demand for skilled photographers to develop, create, style and photograph recipes and crafts is in high demand!
As someone in that niche, I know from experience how valuable a good, experienced photographer is. And at an average rate of $85-$150 per recipe/craft, it’s not a bad way to side hustle either.
Not sure where to start? The Pretty Focused food photography course is a great investment and will teach you all the skills you need to do recipe and craft photography successfully.
In fact, the photographer that helps me do some of my recipe photography is actually a graduate of this course!
Another less expensive option is this Tasty Food Photography ebook written by a top food blogger. I’ve long admired Lindsay’s recipes and photography and she always does such a great job of making things so easy to understand!
6. Baby Sit
If you enjoy kids, babysitting is a great way to earn a little extra money! Obviously, you can try to find your own connections, but if you want to simplify things and more easily find opportunities, check out Sittercity.
Once you sign up to be a sitter, you can take on jobs as a full-time nanny, date-night sitter, last minute care and even pet or senior care and housekeeping!
More ideas for how to make extra money on the side
7. Pet Sit
Love pets? This side hustle will be a dream come true for you! Sign up with Rover to get paid to pet sit, dog walk, board pets and more.
8. Become a driver
If you have a car, one unique way that you may be able to make money is by signing up to drive with Uber or Lyft. If you aren’t familiar with Uber and Lyft, they are companies that enable people to catch a ride whenever they need one.
This is a great great opportunity if you are looking for a side gig that is flexible and can be done whenever you have time available.
9. Become a Transcriber
Are you a fast typer and good at remembering what someone says? Then you might enjoy being a transcriber!
This free general transcribing mini course is a great way to learn more about it and whether it’s a good fit for you.
And for reference sake, according to the Transcribe Anywhere website, the average annual income for a transcriber is $45,000 to $60,000.
10. Teach English As a Second Language
You don’t have to leave your home to teach English as a second language! With VIP Kid and Italki, you can make around $19/hr. teaching English from the comfort of your living room.
There are some requirements to become a teacher though. For instance, VIP Kid requires that all teachers have a Bachelor’s degree of some kind. But overall, it’s a unique, relatively simple to start side hustle option!
11. Sell your skills
Fiverr is an online platform where freelancers can sell their skills and services.
While you can sell almost any service and even actual items, Fiverr works especially well as a side gig for graphic designers, programmers, writers, artists and similar freelance type jobs.
12. Deliver for Local Restaurants
Like the idea of making money on your own schedule? Sign up with Uber Eats and bring the local food people love right to their door.
Depending on your city, you may be able to deliver food with your car, bike, or scooter. The gig is super flexible—you can deliver day or night, for however long you’d like.
When you are ready to do a delivery, you simply turn on the Uber Eats app, and you can start receiving delivery requests in your area. And one of the best parts? Any money you make can be paid out instantly thanks to Uber’s Instant Pay feature!
More easy side hustle ideas
13. Sell your Hobby
If you’re good at creating things, why not try selling on Etsy? You’ll get to do what you love and get paid for it at the same time!
A few of the things that are often quite popular on Etsy are homemade clothing, handcrafted accessories, handmade home decor items, handmade party decor, homemade art items.
14. Start a Blog
Yup, you really can make money blogging! But contrary to what many people think, it’s not an easy or get-rich-quick type of job.
However, if you’re willing to invest enough time and effort into it and if you love the topics that you share about, it can be a great way to make extra money or even become a full-time income!
I’ve been blogging for 14 years, but only really started getting serious about earning money from my blog about 8 years ago. We have been living off the income that I make for the last 6 years, but I’m not going to lie- it’s been a lot of work!
However, I love that blogging offers a flexible schedule and that I can do it while still being at home with my children.
If you’re interested in starting a blog, I recommend using Food Blogger Pro to help you get started.
It’s packed full of great information and will give you a great basic framework to help you set up your blog and get started making money. And while it’s geared towards food blogging, there’s lots that is helpful for other niches too.
15. Make Money on Your Purchases
This isn’t exactly a side hustle, but it is such an easy way to make a little extra money that I had to include it. What’s not to love about making money on things you were already buying?
These apps or websites will allow you to get cashback on items that you purchase at places like Target, Walmart, grocery stores, CVS, Costco and more! If you buy groceries or household items, this option is worth checking into too!
- Ibotta
- Fetch Rewards
- – This one is the absolute easiest to use…you just scan your receipt and that’s it.
- Rakuten (sign up and get $10 when you make your first purchase of $25 or more!)
– This one is exclusively for online purchases. It’s so simple to do and I earn an average of 5% cash back on almost all of my online shopping! It’s awesome!
No matter how you look at it…side hustles are awesome for earning extra money!
Nicole
I’m a solo parent and started a photo booth business almost two years ago now. I just hit a huge milestone of 100k in revenue! I know many other owners who do it as a weekend side hustle and completely doubled their income. It’s a great option for stay at home moms to do on the weekends!
Lydia Beiler
That’s awesome, Nicole! What a unique idea.
Amber
Blogging is definitely a side hustle that’s worth the work you put in. These are all great side hustle ideas. Thanks for sharing!
Lydia Beiler
It definitely can be, Amber!
Dipak
Blogging and content writing is my type, and I’m doing my best.
Lydia Beiler
That’s awesome, Dipak!
Jon
Teaching English as a second language is a great one. There are people with kids (and money!) all over the world who want their kids to learn English. You don’t even need a teaching degree to do it. I know there are some companies that make it easy, and you could do it yourself with Skype or something similar, too.
Lydia Beiler
Yes, I know several people that have done this and it was a great experience. I think the biggest issue with doing it yourself is finding the students. But if someone is able to work that bit out, they definitly could do it without a degree!
Weekend Growth
I just started knitting and one of my goals is to be able to be good enough that I can sell the pieces online to earn a little on the side
Lydia Beiler
I love that idea!
Jae
100% the best side hustle article I’ve read. So many of these types of articles include ‘get rich quick’ ideas, false promises (e.g. “you can make $100,000 blogging from just your second week!”) or require and unfeasible amount of time. Thank you so much for the ideas!
Lydia Beiler
Jae, those are such kind words and meant a lot to me! Thank you!