How Do I Earn Extra Cash For My Wedding? Find 12 Totally Flexible Ways
We all know how insanely expensive weddings are, and how tough it can be to keep up especially if we are footing all, or even part of the bill. Not that you have much time on your hands to spare as it is, but if you’re willing to get a little creative and invest a little more of your already precious time, consider some of the newest freelance/flexible/work on your own time opportunities for making a little extra cash on the side.
1. AirBnb: Make money renting out your place. It can be a whole room in your apartment or even a shared space – you set the rules, and hopefully make a decent amount of cash as a host.
2. Taskrabbit: Grocery shopping, dry cleaning, household work, research, proofreading – people are constantly asking for help, and willing to pay for it. Sign up, pass the background check (yes, safety and security is a big deal), and respond to task that seem interesting to you.
3.DogVacay: Love dogs? Become a dog sitting host and open up your place to some furry friends while their owners are away. Set your rates, the type of dogs you work with and start getting offers!
4. Drive other people in your car. On demand, mobile app based ride-sharing is becoming hugely popular. Sign up to be a driver where you drive other people in your car, on your hours and make some extra cash. You do go through a vetting process with training, background checks and driving records and the companies take a 20% cut (more or less) of your fare.
- Uber: Probably the most popular of the bunch, Uber is in the most cities (and countries) and also the most expensive.
- Sidecar: In 6 major cities, Sidecar operates more like a scrappy startup, offering the most driver fexiblity.
- Lyft: Have you ever seen cars driving with big Pink Mustache ornaments? That’s Lyft, which is only in 17 markets (mostly in California) but growing. You are required to provide a set schedule and is not as flexible as Sidecar, but their quirky culture, driver training and $1million excess liability insurance policy are big draws.
5. Watch ads, take surveys and browse the web
- Swagbucks: Earn virtual currency (swagbucks) for watching videos, taking surveys, playing games and doing other various web activities, redeemable for gift cards. A $5 costs about 500 Swagbucks and considering I’ve got 28 Swagbucks in my account after 5 minutes of work, I’ve got a ways to go.
- Jingit: Get paid to watch ads and answer a few questions. I’ll admit it gets a bit boring after awhile, you need to purchase a Jingit debit card to access your money, and there is a weekly earning limits of $15, but cash is cash and every little bit helps right? I made $.40 in about 3 minutes.
- Cash crate:Browse through a number of offers (like sign up for a free trial or complete a survey) and get paid out for completing them. The only negative is, some offers require that you enter your credit card information, so proceed with caution.
- FindFocusGroups: An easy way to find, sign up and participate in focus groups around the area.
- OpinionOutpost: Get paid (about $2) for online surveys, and earn money for referring friends too.
6. Odesk, Elance or Freelancer:Thousands of freelance jobs are posted every day in everything from web development to writing to administrative work. It’s all done virtually, on your own time. You just have to invest in creating a complete, compelling profile, committing to doing great work and building up your reputation.
7. Fiverr: They call themselves the world’s largest marketplace for services starting at $5. Offer your services online and get paid to do little tasks.
8. Sell your old clothes. Yes, Ebay and Craigslist are still great ways to sell your stuff, there are lots of new sites that are making it easy to unload the stuff you never wear any more.
- Poshmark: Sell directly to buyers on your mobile device, they take 20% off of the sale. The great part about this is you can negotiate, bundle multiple items, trade and sell just about anything.
- Twice: Send your gently used, brand name clothes in for free and Twice will buy the pieces they like (for very cheap, usually under $10), photograph them and sell online.
- Tradesy: Upload your photos online of your new or gently used items, they take just 9% when your item sells.
9. Become a virtual assistant with Fancy Hands. If you’re good on the phone and good at internet research, this is a great flexible opportunity for you to earn some extra cash on the side. You’ll get paid anywhere from $2.50-$7.00 per task completed, and the best part? Work from home and on your own hours.
10. Rent your car out:
- Relay Rides. Have an idle car? List your car for other people to rent out – you decide on availability and pricing for daily, weekly or even monthly rentals. Plus you get a $1 million insurance policy.
- Getaround: With a similar million dollar insurance policy, some active users make up to $10,000 per year renting their car out.
11. Rent a Friend: You can get paid up to $50 per hour literally renting your friendship out (platonically, of course). Accompany people to concerts, restaurants, events, play video games, take a class etc. Your hours, your pricing and you keep the cash.
12. EasyShift (app) or Gigwalk (app): Earn cash doing local tasks in your city, like taking pictures of store displays or reviewing promotions.
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