Here’s the problem: you need to increase your income, but you can’t just up and get a second job. What do you need? A side hustle. This can be easier said than done, so I’m going to start by sharing a few things you can do to earn some extra cash that have little-to-no start-up costs that you can do right now, in no particular order:
- Gather your change/empty your piggy bank.
If you’re a member of a credit union, they probably have a coin counter in a branch you can use for free (up to a certain amount). At one of my local credit unions, you can cash in up to $250 in change without being charged a fee. Not a member of a credit union? See if there is a Coinstar machine at your local grocery or big box store. Coinstar (www.coinstar.com) allows you to turn your change into cash, gift cards, or gifts to charity. If you choose the cash option, you will be charged a modest fee, but if you choose to get a gift card, there’s no fee at all. Gift card options will typically require at least $5 to redeem, but be sure to check first.
If you use cash normally, you probably have even more change lying around or in containers around the house. Get it and cash it in!
And if you don’t already, what are you waiting for? Start saving your change!
- Mturk (www.mturk.com)
An Amazon company, you earn a few cents (literally pennies, up to a couple of dollars (this is rare)) for completing small tasks at your computer. These can vary from answering survey questions to typing all items on a receipt. For every task you successfully complete, you will earn the allotted amount. For the smallest, most plentiful tasks, this may be $.01 – $.05 per task. Tasks that pay more require more work. You won’t get rich doing this by any means, but it is definitely a way to pass the time while earning some change. I’ve been doing this since 2015.
- Ebates/Ibotta
Ebates and Ibotta are cash back reward programs that give you cash back for buying items either in-store or online. I’m a late adopter because I thought it would be too much work (even Kroger’s coupons can be too time-consuming for me, depending on my mood). Of the two, I prefer Ebates. This is because Ebates is partnered with more stores, and is more passive; I don’t have to think about it much to use it. Ebates generally offers a flat percentage of your online purchase in cash back. If you’re shopping online anyway, you may as well get money back for it. Certain stores have restrictions on categories they don’t allow you to earn, but I’ve found it to be a nice little bump for things I was going to do anyway. Note: Ebates issues checks quarterly.
Ibotta works by uploading receipts to the app, which will then give you cash back for qualifying purchases. There are also challenges you can complete for extra cash, or you can team up with friends to earn even more. If I shopped more (y’all know how I feel about grocery shopping), I would probably get more out of it. However, they did offer cash back at Joann’s last year, and y’all know I was all over that. If you’ve never used Ibotta and want a referral code, feel free to use mine: VUEQG.
- E-rewards & other online surveys
E-rewards and other online surveys will give you credit (typically in the form of “XYZ” currency, which corresponds to a dollar amount that can be used for either cash or gifts) for completing surveys. With e-rewards, you know approximately how long each survey is and how much the survey is worth before you click on it. This is invaluable in determining whether a survey is worth your time to complete. Over the years I have redeemed my e-rewards credit for magazine subscriptions and gift cards. There are several other options, but these are my go-tos.
- Plasma donation
Here are some general donation requirements. Call or research the specific site you visit before you go.
If you are in relatively good health, at least 18, weigh at least 110 pounds, and have not gotten pierced or tattooed in the last 12 months, you can probably donate plasma. You will need to have valid ID and 1-2 hours free to complete the process. If you have small or deep veins, don’t like needles, or faint at the sight of blood, this may not be the best option for you to earn some cash.
- Transcriptionist/transcribing services
You can find these jobs on a small scale on Mturk, but if you have a good ear, stable Internet connection, and a decent typing speed, you may want to try work as a transcriptionist. Sites such as rev.com or transcribeme.com will generally pay per minute transcribed. You should understand though, that not all of the videos needing to be transcribed will be of tv/movie quality; some of the videos are low quality, or have poor audio. For these reasons and others, it can take hours to transcribe a half-hour of video. If you keep at it, your speed will improve, but just understand it is a slow process starting out. It gets even worse if there are multiple speakers in the video; you generally must account for all speech, even those ums and ahs.
These are just a few ways to earn a little bit of money that don’t cost anything. Stay tuned for the second part where I discuss a few other ways to earn that have a minimal cost, but a greater payoff.
Every. Bit. Helps.