As a mom I’m always looking for ways to make some extra money, especially during the holiday season. These are just a few of the ways that I earn supplementary income each month and cut down on unnecessary bills. You can easily make hundreds of dollars each month with these ideas.
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Selling Items
- Poshmark– I’ve been using Poshmark for years and it’s a great way to sell clothes, shoes and jewelry that you no longer wear. All you do is create a listing with your item, take a couple pictures, post a price and description and voila! If your item sells they email you a shipping label and all you have to do is drop it in the mail or schedule a pick up from your local post office.
Once the buyer receives your item you get a credit that you can use towards purchases or you can directly deposit the money into your bank account. There’s no minimum! Sign up here with the code CAITLINCO89 to get $10 off your first order.
2. Mercari – This is another app that you can sell pretty much anything on. I’ve earned $734 on there just selling random things! I’ve sold things like clothes, makeup, snowboarding gear and an old camera on there. It’s super simple and similar to Poshmark in the way that it works.
Simply take some pictures of the item and create a posting. When your item sells they send you a prepaid shipping label. All you have to do is drop it off at the post office! Sign up here to get $10 off your first order AND $20 when you make your first $100 selling on Mercari.
3. Garage Sale/Facebook Marketplace – Another great way to earn some extra cash for the holidays is to have a garage sale! This is the fastest way to sell any unused items that you may have lying around. If you are not able to have a garage sale then selling your items on Facebook Marketplace is another option.
4. Start a Small Business – Now-a-days you can easily start a small business right from your home! If you are creative and somewhat tech savvy you can make good money selling things like digital printables on Etsy. There are lots of great free programs, like Canva, that you can use to create them.
Printables are in high demand right now especially when it comes to budgeting and educational printables.
If you are crafty you could hand-make things like jewelry, Christmas ornaments, scarves, wall signs, paintings and so much more! Candles are also a big seller on Etsy – check out my post on how to make your own soy candles at home.
5. Start a Blog – Starting your own blog is not as intimidating as it sounds. With a few simple steps you can easily monetize your blog quickly. This is a great way to earn a side income. It can potentially become a full-time income once you have grown your blog enough. Check out my blog post about starting your own blog here.
Side Jobs
There are tons of options for online work right now. Many companies are hiring for seasonal online work, particularly this year due to Covid.
6. Remote Work – browse job boards like Indeed.com and Glassdoor.com for remote work. Simply search for job openings using the keyword “remote”. You will see tons of data entry, sales and customer service jobs that require very little experience. This is a great option for earning some extra money during the holidays.
Here is a list of big-name companies like Amazon and Williams-Sonoma that are currently hiring remotely for the holiday season.
7. Food Delivery – Delivering food or groceries when you have spare time is another good way to earn extra money around the holidays. Companies like DoorDash and Postmates are usually hiring for delivery drivers. You can pick and choose your hours and the only requirements are that you have a vehicle, a valid driver’s license and can pass a background check.
Apps
8. Rakuten (Formerly Ebates)- If you do a lot of online shopping this is a great app. You simply go to the website you want to shop at through their app and you get paid a percentage back of what you purchase. They then mail you a check with your balance every few months. I’ve earned $115.12 using it so far!
Rakuten is great for Christmas shopping and there are SO many online stores that offer it. I’ve seen as high as 15% cash back from certain online retailers. It includes places like Amazon, Target, Sephora, Old Navy, Macy’s and thousands more. Sign up here to get $40 off.
9. 1Q– This is an app that sends you surveys to your phone. They are usually only 1-5 questions long and you generally earn about 25 cents to $1.25 for each one taken. The best part is that they instantly send you the money through PayPal when you complete one, which is unlike most survey apps.
It’s not a huge money maker, but it can earn you a few dollars here and there for just a few seconds of your time. Sign up here.
10. Robinhood – This is an app where you can invest in stocks easily and quickly, even if you know nothing about the stock market. You can invest as little as $1 and there is no charge to move money in and out of Robinhood. They are one of the only brokers that offers free trades. Sign up for Robinhood using this link to get a free stock in a company like Apple, Ford or even Facebook!
Cut Down on Bills
Cutting down on your bills overall is a great way to put more money in your pockets during the holidays.
Cancel Unused Subscriptions – Many of us have those gym memberships that go to waste. Or what about that music-streaming service that you rarely use? Cutting those can save you hundreds of dollars a year. If you have both Netflix and Hulu maybe eliminate the one that you use least. Truebill is a great app that will show you all of your subscriptions and help you to cancel the ones you are not using.
Eliminate Cable – We eliminated our satellite service as it was costing us upwards of $175 a month. If you are paying for cable or satellite there are also so many options now that are much cheaper.
With SlingTV for example, you can still stream live television but at a much lower price tag (It starts at only $20 a month). This includes channels like ESPN, AMC, HGTV, TNT, TBS and more. There are also others like YouTube TV, Hulu TV and DirecTV Now. These generally start at about $35 a month.
Reduce your Grocery Bill – As a family of four I was spending over $200 a week on groceries ($10,400 a year!). When I became a stay at home mom I decided that we needed to do something to cut down on our grocery bills.
Between meal planning and using an online grocery delivery service, I am now spending less than $100 a week. Read my blog post here on how to save thousands on your groceries each year!
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