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This time of year can be full of joy, yet also filled with a lot of financial pressure. Many of us can’t really afford the extra spending, but want to jump in and buy meaningful gifts for our children, friends and family. I have a post for those who literally can’t spend a dime, but want to give great gifts. Check that out for ideas to make your friends and family feel extra special, and like they got something great. Most of us just need a little extra Christmas cash this time of year, so rather than cutting into savings or racking up the credit cards, here are some ways to make some quick cash to spend on all those holiday gifts. These are FAST ways to make cash. Not the sign up and get paid 30 days later. These are the ideas that will get you paid on the spot for your work, rather than some company who pays down the road.
Offer Holiday Decor and Light Services:
Are you great with putting up trees and lights? If your hubby or the man of the house can help, you both can offer a hand to friends and neighbors to put lights up and help decorate. I am thinking of this because we actually need this right now. We don’t have the time or energy to buy our Christmas lights and decorate. If I could pay someone to help me I would. You can offer a flat fee for specific services and get paid via Paypal or Venmo is popular now. If you aren’t handy like me, you can still help decorate homes on the inside. Maybe you know how to make wreaths and can decorate a home for an elderly couple or family that’s too busy to decorate. Take advantage of the season and offer help.
Design and Sell on Zazzle:
Little did I know until a couple months ago that you can design your own items on Zazzle like mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, hats…basically anything. You create your own shop and upload your designs. It is super, super simple to do. You can design anything in Canva, then upload that design to your Zazzle shop to put on clothes, mugs or cell phone cases and sell online. Just post your products all over, and people shopping on Zazzle could find them too! Depending on how quickly you can get your designs up, and how quickly you market, you could sell and get cash fast, and have yourself a little side hustle! The great part is Zazzle does all the creating, packaging and shipping, and you just do the designing. They also help you set your prices, so you can see how much they will make and how much you will make at each price point. What’s even better is you can offer to make custom gifts for people! Maybe friends and family could use your help making a photo book, holiday cards or more. Now you have a way to offer your services to the as well!
Get Paid To Be Social:
I’m signed up with Izea, where they send you opportunities to get paid just to share posts and product information! It’s a simple way to make some quick money if you have a lot of followers, Facebook friends or Instagram followers.
Offer Pet Sitting:
This is a great way to earn some cash fast because a lot of families go out of town for the holiday season. Pets need care while they are gone, and many are willing to pay for you to house sit too. Tell friends and family to spread the word that you are available to watch pets and help care for them, and you could land a few jobs before you know it!
Holiday Meal Prep:
Many busy families are willing to pay for catering to take the weight of cooking off, but if they had the opportunity to pay a friend they know can cook to help prepare their food, they would love too! Working, managing a family, working from home and more makes preparing a Holiday meal seem overwhelming to me. I would love to pay someone I know to help me prep a meal and make sure it tastes good!
Drive for Uber:
I love this idea because every time I’ve ridden with Uber, I’ve met some great drivers. The concept of just driving and getting paid sound fabulous to me as a busy mom. Uber pays about $14 an hour, so if you drive an extra 10 hours a week you are looking at an extra $400 this month for all your Holiday gear. Can’t say no to that one!
We’ve actually made great money renting our homes on Airbnb. We’ve had great experiences with guests, and if you don’t mind an extra person in a bedroom, or you happen to have an area of your house that doesn’t interfere too much with your living space, offer it up on Airbnb! When you sign up and create your listing, you can do it all from the app, and Airbnb suggests prices and details for you to make it super fast! Guests also come with reviews and ratings from previous trips, so you won’t get someone sketchy who will trash your place. It really doesn’t take long, and there’s a space specifically for “house rules,” where you can set boundaries for interactions, curfews and more to ensure you are comfortable with your guest in your home. You get paid 24 hours after a guest checks in, so the money comes quick and easy!
Join Postmates and Deliver:
Postmates is super fun because all you have to do is deliver, and you can make up to $25 an hour by joining the fleet. You can walk, run, bike or skate yourself around and work when you want. Plus you get tips! It’s really not a bad way to earn some extra cash this season!
This is a good one because its so simple to sit on your laptop and watch videos, try products and more while making money. Swagbucks also offers cashback for shopping through them, so obviously you’ll want to buy all your gifts through them to get more money back in your wallet. Depending on how long you can stay on your laptop, this is really a great opportunity to get yourself some extra cash fast. In fact,I can give you $3 for signing up through my link!
This is a great way to get your services and skills out there! TaskRabbit is a new site I stumbled across, which allows you to join, establish your own rates and find various tasks you’d be happy to complete. It could be furniture assembly, running clothes to the dry cleaners, assistant work or handy man services. You can to pick the jobs you want and set your own rates!
Join Fiverr
I’ve actually been wanting to jump on here to hire out some of my blog work like editing. If you are great with anything online, you can start offering services. It can be as simple as editing for typos, handing social media posts, pinning on Pinterest and more. There’s a huge space for all sorts of services, and once you get going with reviews and a few completed projects under your belt you can start making money fast.
Start Affiliate Marketing:
This is one of the last ideas because you won’t get paid fast. You can earn money immediately this month, but the payment will come a month or more later, depending on the market place. You can think of it as getting paid back for your Christmas shopping though. As long as you continue to earn money each month, then the money will start to roll in. If you have a website you can promote the products on, or social media works well too. You can sign up with Amazon to promote every produce on their site, join Sharesale to find some great companies to partner with, and Rakuten is just like Sharesale with more companies to work with including Nordstrom. You apply to work with a company, which once accepted, you have access to special links that track anyone who’s purchased after clicking on your link. You get a commission from the sale. It really is a great way to share products you love and earn a small bit of money in doing so. It’s not s super fast cash option, because the payout takes longer, but it is another option if non of the above sound like something you are interested in.
Lastly, you could always start a blog! It really is possible to make money blogging. I make thousands of dollars a month just writing my mom blog, and I show you exactly how to start a blog like I did in this post. I walk you through, step by step from getting your URL (web address) to signing up for hosting and choosing a beautiful theme!
4 Comments
Oh Katie, what a wonderful post to read! I’m scrounging the web hard lately for money making opportunities this month… It’s a tight December to say the least! You had some really unique ideas which is so refreshing, thanks for great ideas. As usual. ?
Tight months are so stressful, especially during the holidays! My sister is a new blogger over in the PNW, she’s at http://www.colecross.com, you two should connect! She’s working hard on her blog and making extra money as a new sahm!
When I clicked on the link to your sisters blog, it took me to a different site. Can you post an updated link for her blog?
Shoot, I will need to fix that ASAP! Her blog is: http://colescross.com/