7 Ways to Make Extra Money

Is your bank account balance nearing $0 and you’re still days away from payday? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. In fact, for people in the U.S. thirty-five years of age or younger, the average bank account balance is around $1,200. It doesn’t take much of an emergency to swallow that money up.

If you’re looking for a legitimate way to start earning extra money with a side-hustle, you’ve landed in the right place.

Here are 7 ways you can start making extra money today without the need to beg or borrow.

Let’s dive in.

1. Start Pet Sitting

If you’re an animal lover, this one is a no-brainer. Neighbors, friends and family members with pets are always looking for someone to watch their animals when they’re out of town. Offer them your services!

Dog owners also have the daily struggle of making sure Fido gets at least one walk while they’re at work. What better way to earn a quick $20 per day than by becoming a dog walker? You’ll get some extra exercise while you’re at it, too.

2. Sell Plasma

This isn’t glamorous and you might want to avoid it if you have an issue with needles. But selling plasma to a reputable local plasma donation center is a super easy way to earn to earn anywhere from $40 – $100 extra per week.

It’s not something you can do every day, but most centers allow 2 – 3 donations per week. You can expect to spend about 2 hours during each donation.

3. Sell Your Unused Diabetic Strips and Supplies

Many companies offer cash for unused diabetic strips that are more than a month away from expiring.

You can even do it all by mail. If you have a PayPal account you can get fast payments once the unused strips and sent in and verified.

It’s a great way to make a few extra bucks when your bank account gets low.

4. Sell Your Old Silver and Gold

If you absolutely need money before the day is over, dig into your closets and jewelry boxes to find old pieces of genuine silver and gold jewelry that you can exchange for quick cash.

It’s best to find a local jewelry store that will give you cash on the spot for your precious metals instead of mailing them to some company you’ve seen advertising on TV or the Internet. Most of the time, local jewelers will give you a better price and will pay you right away for the pieces they want.

5. Sell Your Used College Textbooks

BookScouter is a great place to find out how much your old college textbooks are worth in today’s market. Once you know how much they are worth, start listing them on OfferUp, LetGo, Craigslist and eBay.

Once listed, you could easily get paid for them in cash by the end of the day.

6. Flip Freebies

Have you ever looked around on Craigslist to see what people are giving away for free? Sometimes you can find a few hidden gems that are worth some money.

Pick them up, clean them up and re-list them in a relevant Craigslist category. You’ll be surprised how many items people give away just because they don’t want to deal with the selling process.

7. Use Your Skills To Pick up a Side Gig

Do you know to do WordPress web design? Do you have one of those golden voiceover voices? Can you do virtual assistant work?

If so, freelance sites like Fiverr and TaskRabbit are great places to connect with people who need the skills you possess.

Set up a profile and a few gigs and see what happens. Almost 50% of the U.S. workforce make a living freelancing. Why not join them?

Extra Money Isn’t Hard to Find

Now that you know where to look, you’ll see that earning extra money isn’t as difficult as you may have thought. Try any of these 7 ideas and let us know how they work out for you.

We look forward to hearing your success stories!

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Adam Richards

About Adam Richards

Adam Richards is a semi-retired business professional originally from Bangor, Maine. He spent the majority of his career in sales and marketing where he rose to the marketing lead of a Fortune 1000 company. He then moved on to helping people as a career counselor that specifically helped bring families to self-sufficiency through finding them rewarding careers. He has now returned to Bangor for his retirement and spends his free time writing. This blog will be about everything he learned throughout his career. He'll write on career, workplace, education and technology issues as well as on trends, changes, and advice for the Maine job market and its employers.