19 Ways to Make Extra Money Without Leaving Your House
Whether you’ve got a special skill, reselling savvy, or want to earn back on the purchases you’ve already made, we’ve figured out some great options for making some extra money….
Let us know what you think!
1. Sell Your Unlimited Data Plan
Grandfathered into an amazing unlimited data plan for your phone or tablet?
You can sell that.
If you’re not making use of all those GBs, put it up on eBay — unlimited data plans are selling for between $300 and $2,000 each.
It’s a little more complicated than it sounds — after all, these plans weren’t meant to be resold. But if you’re down with a little loophole dance, this could net you big.
2. Sell Your Food Packaging
Instead of tossing your food packages in the trash or the recycling bin, why not sell them on Ebay?
Not every piece of trash is created equally, but the “Reward Points/Incentive Program” category is a popular place to sell food packages that can be redeemed in different loyalty programs.
For example, General Mill’s Boxtops for Education sell for around 10 cents each on Ebay and Coca-Cola caps sell for around 25 cents. Even Campbell’s soup labels can be sold for extra money.
Read more about how to sell food packaging here.
3. Sell Your Smartphone Photos
If you have a smartphone and a photographic eye, making money may have just gotten a lot easier. Oh – you’ll also need access to marketable scenery.
An app called Foap lets you turn your smartphone photos into cash.
Here’s how it works:
- Download the free app and create an account.
- Take a quality photo and upload it to Foap’s marketplace.
- Someone buys the license to your photo for $10. You make $5.
If your photo sells 20 times, you make $5 each time and end up with $100 in your pocket — all for about five minutes of work. Pretty cool, right?
4. Take Online Surveys
The Swagbucks mobile app is one of the best, legitimate paid survey apps out there.
The questions are pretty simple. Which do you like more: Coke or Cherry Coke? How many times have you been to the movies in the past 12 months? You get the idea.
The average payout for answering a series of questions is 75 SBs, which is equivalent to 75 cents. You won’t qualify for every panel, but you can usually earn about $5 for 30 minutes of work.
Sign up here, and get a $5 bonus when you earn 2,500 SB within your first 60 days.
5. Sell Board Game Pieces
Ever seen a board game in the thrift store but noticed with great sadness that it was missing half the pieces?
You might want to put the game in your shopping cart anyway. One Penny Hoarder made $250 in six months selling spare board game pieces online. You can even sell “mystery bags” of pieces for $12 a pop!
It may take some time for your listings to sell, but if you follow Laura’s guide, you can probably make $100 in about three months.
6. Test Websites
Like most of us, you’ve probably commented on how some websites are confusing and others excellent.
Rather than complaining to your spouse or friend, how would you like to make those comments to the owners of the sites and get paid for playing critic?
In fact, you can make $30 per hour as a website tester.
The company is called User Testing. Here’s what the process looks like: you’ll download some software and then when tasks are available, look over a website while your mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes and spoken comments are all recorded as a video.
Afterward, there might be a few questions to answer. But the whole process often takes 15 minutes or less. Cool, right?
How about earning $100 for three hours of website-testing time? Sounds pretty comfortable.
7. Drive With Uber
If you find solace on the road and enjoy finding the best route across town, driving with Uber is a great way to do it.
As an Uber driver partner, you’re an independent contractor. That means you create your own schedule and drive as much or as little as you want.
Your earnings will be calculated by adding a base fare, plus time and distance traveled after your pickup, and Uber charges a service fee.
If you want to give it a try here are a few of the things to keep in mind: You must be at least 21 years old, have at least one year of licensed driving experience in the U.S. (three years if you are under 23 years old), have a valid US driver’s license and pass a background check.
Also, your car must be a four-door, seat at least four passengers (excluding the driver), be registered in-state and be covered by in-state insurance.
Here’s a link to apply with Uber.
8. Watch and Earn With Perk
Download the Perk Pop Quiz app and pick from one of the many trivia categories — The 90’s & The 2000s, Music & Movie Quotes and Famous Slogans are just a few.
The more correct answers you rack up, the more points you get. You can redeem those points for gift cards to Amazon, Starbucks, Nike, GameStop, Target and other stores.
You’re not going to get rich doing this, but it’s a fun way to make an extra $15 to $20 a month for the shows you already enjoy watching.
You’re not going to get rich doing this, but it’s a fun way to make an extra $15-$20/month. And it could add up to $100 in about six months if you’re keeping up with all your favorite shows.
9. Braid Horse Manes
Ever wonder how much it costs to maintain a horse’s locks? More than you might think!
Contributor Kat Tretina started braiding the manes and tails of show horses after she learned the task could earn her $100 per horse.
The job requires dexterity and a bit of horse appreciation, but if you live in horse country, it could pay off.
10. Use Swagbucks Search
Use Swagbucks as your default search engine (powered by Yahoo!), and earn SBs — which can be cashed in for Paypal or gift cards.
It’s free to sign up and you’ll get a $5 bonus when you make your first search.
One SB is equal to about one cent, so every 100 SBs is about $1. By using Swagbucks Search, you’ll earn about 25-50 cents per day.
And keep an eye out for bonuses to earn you extra SBs and their Rewards page, which sometimes lets you get larger gift cards for fewer SBs.
If you work from home and spend a lot of time online, your 50 cents per day could turn into $100 in about six months.
11. Resell Thrift Store Clothes
Always finding the best brands at thrift stores?
Always feeling disheartened when the awesome bargain isn’t your size? Take it home anyway, and flip it on eBay.
One contributor took a $5 pair of thrift store jeans and sold them online for $50. Can you imagine making $100 just for reselling two pairs of designer jeans?
12. Test Drive a Car
Car dealerships often offer incentives to customers to come in and take a look at their cars.
They’ll give you cash or a gift card just to take a new car for a spin.
For example, Kia dealerships were recently giving $25 to anyone who came in and test drove a new car. How easy is that?
I’ve often seen these incentives go up to $100, which is pretty great considering this takes less than an hour of your time. A great way to find promotions is to check your local newspaper’s classified section.
Pay attention to advertisements on TV as well for national advertising campaigns by major automobile companies.
13. Sell Craft Supplies
Not thrilled about trying to recoup the money you spent on crafty projects by selling them?
Maybe you can earn more — without the time investment — by selling supplies. Contributor Janet Berry-Johnson bought cross-stitch patterns at thrift stores and resold them on Etsy, earning $600 in her online shop’s first five months.
To pick up supplies on the cheap, check thrift stores, Craigslist, Facebook yard sale groups or even craft stores when they’re having major clearance sales.
14. Deliver Groceries
While you’re at the store, earn extra money picking up someone else’s groceries.
Connect with clients through TaskRabbit or Instacart. Pick up and deliver groceries to people in your area who don’t have the time or interest for grocery shopping.
Use these apps to work whenever you want to make some extra money. You might as well pick up a job anytime you’re headed to the store yourself.
Instacart is an app designed solely for grocery pickup and delivery in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
After brief training, you can log on to Instacart when you want to work and accept job assignments. Shoppers can earn up to $25 an hour during peak hours, plus occasional tips.
Make $100 in four trips to the store? It’s almost too easy.
Meanwhile, TaskRabbit is a general gig site available in 18 U.S. cities and London. You can pick up tasks from housecleaning to bartending at a private party — or shopping and delivery.
15. Share Stories About Your Kids on Scary Mommy
If you’ve got kids, you’ve got automatic story generators.
From pregnancy fashion choices to dealing with finding your tween daughter’s dating profile, there’s lots to say about parenthood. And on Scary Mommy, it’s “real talk” only — no sanitized, TV-commercial family frolicking in a white-picket-fenced yard.
As long as you have a way with words, you can generate some cash off those face-palm parenting snafus.
Here are eight parenting magazines and blogs that pay contributors, averaging about $100 per submission.
16. Sell Baked Goods
One enterprising woman told us how she makes $500 to $600 each month selling baked goods at farmers’ markets and to her neighbors.
Setting up a baking business is different in every state, but the startup costs are low — you probably already have the supplies and just need to stock up on ingredients.
Just testing the waters? Go into it with a bake-sale mentality and sell small items to friends, family and neighbors. Charge a few bucks for a slice of your best dessert and earning $100 could be a piece of cake.
17. Feed a Cat
Want to make $20 a day just for checking up on Fluffy or Fido?
Sign up for a site like DogVacay and pick up pet-sitting gigs when you’re itching for a few extra bucks. The more care required, the more you tend to get paid.
Walking dogs pays more than feeding cats. Staying overnight with a pet pays more than either of the first two options, and so on.
But hey, when the weather’s nice, those dog walks can be great exercise.
18. Get Paid to Earn Straight A’s
Got big goals for your grades this semester?
Earn cash for studying by signing up for Ultrinsic. Choose an incentive by course, or set a goal for the whole semester to find out what you can get paid for making the grade.
19. Make Money Writing Slogans
Can you sum up a product in a sentence? Think of something funny — and not another joke about too many candles — to put on a birthday card? Make a point in few concise words?
If so, you might be able to make money writing slogans.
Companies sometimes need new corporate taglines, advertising slogans and jingles. Bumper sticker and greeting card makers want cute, endearing or funny thoughts to put on their products.
When these businesses need help, they sometimes collect submissions from freelance writers or run contests anyone can enter — including you.
Try one or more of these platforms to get started:
- Slogan Slingers helps companies create slogan contests, in which their registered writers compete. It’s free to sign up as a writer, and the company claims you can make up to $999 per contest (minus its small admin fee).
- Get a Slogan is a crowdsourcing platform that brings in custom, creative and catchy slogans from a variety of sloganeers. Companies come to them for help, and writers submit their ideas. It’s free to sign up, but you initially have only “qualifying” status. Once you’re upgraded to “qualified,” you’ll receive $50 for each of your winning slogans.
Freelancer.com has a section devoted to slogan-writing projects, which are sometimes run as contests. For example, at the moment, a personal-injury law firm is offering $150 for the best “unique and memorable tagline/slogan.”
