Up Your Wealth Wednesday is a new personal finance series I am bringing over to Futures every Wednesday. I love writing about personal finance – about making money, saving money and everything in between. I hope you enjoy this series. The series was given its name by my fabulous partner in crime, Sarah.
I thought I would share five things I’ve done to make extra money over the past few years. I’ve tried a few side hustles in my time and found some really worked and others didn’t. What would be on your list?
1. Online Surveys
This is probably one thing that most personal finance bloggers advise against. Online surveys can see you spending a lot of time for little reward. However these were great for when I was bored and on maternity leave – I could spend all day doing them and making some extra cash. Now that my time is a little more limited, I have cut down online surveys to certain websites that take a shorter amount of time for a better reward. Want a list of my favourites? Let me know!
2. Bar Work
I had never really considered bar work until I found out one of my friends was buying our local pub. I was looking for extra money and to get out of menial shop job where I was treated like rubbish and he was looking for staff. I was on a gap year when I started but I never went to university in the end – I had no interest in my course anymore and I much preferred making my money through these jobs and doing some freelance writing on the side. I finally stopped working there in October 2010 after almost three years but I did do the odd shift there until 2014 when it sadly closed down.
3. Babysitting
This is one that I haven’t done for quite some time (10+ years probably!) but it did bring in a lot of cash when I was doing it. I only ever really babysat for my neighbours children but I was paid handsomely for the privilege -I could watch what I wanted on the TV, eat what I wanted from the kitchen and if any problems arose, I could call them (or grab my parents from next door if needed). I never stepped out of line though – I barely ate from the kitchen or anything like that even though they had given me permission to do so – as I wanted to keep the job. I used to get £40+ per babysitting shift which isn’t far off what my (qualified childcare professional) friends were earning. I know this isn’t necessarily the going rate but I certainly enjoyed working for that rate!
4. Leaflet delivering
I have only done this a couple of times as it can be quite tiring and was a one-off idea by my former boss, however it was good money (when I finally got it!). The pub I had just started work in had just been taken over by my friend and he wanted to promote that it was under new ownership so had some leaflets printed up which I then delivered with some help from my friends (who I paid from my cut). Unfortunately, my friend left it up to someone else to pay me and I ended up having to go to my friend anyway to get the money I was owed.
5. Proofreading
I now include this as part of my freelance services but once upon a time I used to help friends and family proofread their work and CVs. I never charged them for it but they would often give me a little something which definitely helped when cash-strapped. They now come to me and hire me which is great!
Something else to consider is perhaps selling your car – many families have two or three cars when they realistically only need one. Selling one of them would definitely bring in some extra cash – find out if there are any junkyards near you and see what prices they can offer you.
What things have you done to make extra money?