Easy Side Hustles: Start Earning Money Today

One of the best ways to make extra money is to side hustle. If you need money fast, there are flexible side hustle options you can try instead of racking up credit card debt or taking out a loan. Want to save more for a big expense or a nice vacation? Easy side hustles can help you round up the money to meet your goal in no time.

If you’ve been a long time reader on this blog, you know I’ve shared dozens of stories on how I have side hustled over the years.

Sometimes I forget how easy it is to side hustle! I’ll get caught up in work or meet up with friends and forget I am missing out on so many opportunities where I could be side hustling each week.

I love making easy money when it’s convenient for me, and there’s no reason why most of us can’t work a flexible side hustle into our schedules!

Today I thought I would share a refresher on some of the best easy side hustles that you can do daily or even once a week to bring in extra cash.

These are just a few super easy side hustles that I do myself. Wanna join me?

Related reading:

• 37+ Legit Ways You Can Side Hustle Right Now
• How I Made Over $4,500 From Side Hustles
• How to Make Money Pouring Alcohol
• The 5 Best Money Making Tips
• 25 Ways To Side Hustle Success

8 easy side hustles To Try

Use your cell phone to make money

There are a few different apps I use on my cell phone to earn money when I’m running errands or have returned from shopping.

If you like the idea of using coupons, but never do (I’m one of those people), the Ibotta app is the best money saving app when buying groceries, going to the drugstore, going out to eat, and more.

The rebates can range anywhere from $0.25 to $5.00, depending on what you have purchased. The best part of this app is that you can get rebates on generic items.

For example, let’s say there is a rebate on milk. It doesn’t matter what brand of milk you have purchased – you will still earn a rebate!

Another great perk is that if you redeemed a coupon for milk at the store, you can still get the rebate with Ibotta. That’s some amazing double or triple coupon skills for some of the elite couponers out there! 

Here’s how Ibotta works: Sign up for Ibotta here

When you finish shopping, take out your receipt. Then log-in to Ibotta. Select which store you just shopped at.

 

Next scroll through the rebates to see what you qualify for. If you want to save time, you do have the option to link some of your reward cards with your Ibotta account. This way, the rebates come up automatically! Here’s an example of selecting a generic brand of pretzels.

 

Again, it doesn’t matter what kind of pretzels you have purchased as every brand will qualify for a rebate! Select unlock. Then you can scan your receipt with your phone and you scan the barcode on the pretzels.

 

Once you are done verifying your purchase, it can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours for your purchase to be verified. Then, the cash is loaded into your Ibotta account and can be withdrawn to your PayPal account.

If you want to get started with Ibotta, click here to sign up so you can receive an extra $10 in your PayPal account.

Mystery shop

Mystery shopping is still one of the best ways to make money. I get so, so excited writing about this! I still think it’s crazy that so many people don’t take advantage of mystery shopping more. Some people think mystery shopping is a scam, and there definitely are some bad companies out there. Luckily, I’ve been able to weed out the bad ones and only work with companies I really like.

I have made over a few thousand dollars from mystery shopping.

• Why You Can Mystery Shop From Anywhere
• How I Made Over $2,000 From Mystery Shopping and More

Here’s a couple of my favorite mystery shopping companies I like to work with:

• Secret Shopper® – This is one of the top mystery shopping companies that has an A+ rating with the BBB and has been around for 25+ years. You don’t really need any experience to become a mystery shopper but this company will require you to take a basic certification test before getting on board. The purpose of the course is to ensure that you are well versed in the basic requirements of mystery shopping and to acquaint you with the policies and procedures of Secret Shopper®. Learn more and sign up here.
• A Closer Look is one of my favorite companies to score high-end mystery shops with restaurants and valet parking, bars and hotels. Yes – hotels! This company generally only reimburses you, but I have seen cash bonuses offered when a mystery shop is still available but approaching the deadline. Special note – if you are a freelancer, this company is hiring for editors and schedulers. You can learn more here.

 

Create and sell products on Zazzle

Zazzle lets you create and design all your own products, and then sell them on your website or Zazzle’s website! The best part about this website is that everything is online. You don’t have to have real inventory or worry about buying supplies.

Here’s how Zazzle works: Sign up for an account here

Once you have created your account, click on create. Here you will be shown a ton of different products that you can design and create.

Select your product. When you select your product, you can further define the product. For example, let’s say you select Women’s Apparel. From there you can select tote bags.

Once you have selected tote bags, you can pick the exact size tote bag you would like to use.

Once you select the tote bag you want, now you can design it!

After you design your product, you can sell it! You just have to enter all the product’s information.

Here is the last part – and the most important. Here is where you insert the royalty fee percentage. This is how you make money! Add your royalty price to the product – that is your profit. Once your product has launched, viewers will be able to find it when doing a search, so make sure you write a great description of your product.

 

Earn Cash Back For every day Online Shopping With Rakuten

Rakuten is my absolute favorite company to use when I’m shopping online because it’s basically like receiving free money!

Every time I shop online, I always start at Rakuten. They have a list of all the places you normally shop at and you just click on the store you want to visit online.

After you make a purchase, you earn a percentage of the sale! They literally give you cash back on every purchase you make. The cash back ranges from 1% to 14%. The money is then deposited into your PayPal account or can be sent to you via check quarterly. Rakuten often offers double cash back, allowing you to earn a lot more.

I’ve made over $700 from shopping online and earning cash back making it one of my top easy side hustle ideas. Join Rakuten here!

Take surveys

I have made thousands of dollars over the past few years from taking surveys online!

There are a handful of companies that I love to use and earn cash back into my PayPal account, as well as reward points that I can use at places like Target, Walmart and Macy’s. Survey sites may not pay a ton per survey, but the money really adds up when you set aside a few minutes per day to consistently take surveys.

I’d also recommend signing up for multiple sites in order to truly make more bang for your buck. Some popular survey sites include Pinecone Research, Harris Poll, and Opinion Outpost. My favorite survey apps are Survey Junkie and My Soap Box, but there are so many other great survey apps as well!

Be sure to avoid some of the scam survey sites out there. If a company asks you to pay money to sign up or won’t compensate you for taking a survey, that should be a huge red flag. Some sites will offer to enter you into a ‘sweepstakes’ where you could win money or prizes after taking surveys, but you want to work with the companies that will pay out in cash or retail gift cards.

Here is a list of the best survey companies to make money.

Start a blog

Blogging is the ultimate side hustle in my opinion.

It a lot of hard work and some time to get things off the ground but blogging can be a great way to make some passive income on the side or even full time.

I went from making $40/month to over $4,000/month in the span of six months with blogging. That’s crazy!

Here is a tutorial that walks you through how to start a blog.

Blogging has totally changed my life. I even share my online income reports so other people can see how I got started and how I am growing.

Learn how 25 bloggers made their first dollar here.

{Related}: Make money with an online skill like setting up Facebook ads for other businesses.

{Resource: 10 Ways Your Blog and Business Can Benefit from Pinterest}

Rent out your space on Airbnb

Over the past couple of years, I have stayed at a handful of Airbnb’s and saved a ton of money. I’ve been able to rent an entire house, condo and apartment instead of a room at a hotel. Have you ever thought about renting out your home for a weekend?

Even if you have a spare bedroom, you can still make a killing renting out space in your home via Airbnb. Airbnb can also be a pretty passive side hustle too. You’ll need to do some initial work to fix up your home or the room you wish to rent out and this may require a small investment.

Once you create your listing on Airbnb, you can allow people to book your space automatically and even charge guests a small cleaning fee then hire a cleaner to come in and turn the space around for the next guest. Some Airbnb hosts actually travel often and set up a lockbox or other systems to allow guests to check-in and check out on their own.

You can learn more about how to use Airbnb here.

Related posts to help you side hustle and make more money:

• These are the best surveys to earn money from home
• Should you get a seasonal job? 
• Epic List of Side Hustle Ideas
• How to Find the Right Side Hustle For You

Pro Tip: Start Saving Your Side Hustle Income

Once you start earning some side hustle income, start saving even if it’s only a few dollars a week. Think back to why you decided you wanted to start side hustling in the first place.

Whether you want to start an emergency fund or a vacation fund, you have to start setting some money aside. If you’re like most people and struggle with saving, you should consider using Digit or Qapital.

Qapital is a totally free app that lets you decide how much money you want to save every time you make a purchase. You can pick from $1 all the way up to $5.

So let’s say I spend $24.05 at the grocery store. Qapital will then transfer $1 to my savings account.

You can link as many debit cards or credit cards as you want to Qapital. So even if you use a credit card to make a purchase, you can pick one bank account to transfer the $1 to your Qapital saving account. Click here to learn more about Qapital.

Digit lets you save money each week from your checking account. What I really like about Digit is that it analyzes my bank account and determines how much I can really save per week.

Some weeks it might be $5 and other times it might be $20. You don’t have to worry about overdraft and can contribute less or more if you need to. The great thing about Digit is that it helps you save automatically and most of the time you don’t even miss the money or realize that it’s gone. You can learn more about Digit here.

The only downside to Digit is they charge $2.99 per month to use their service. I don’t mind the fee though since it’s helping me save money every week. If you really struggle with being committed to saving, Digit could be worth the small fee. If the fee stressed you out, use Qapital!

Additional information on easy side hustles & Ideas

If you want to learn more about how to side hustle without getting a part-time job, make sure you sign up for Side Hustle to Success.

You’ll learn about tons of different ideas about how to make extra income, whether it’s sitting on your couch to dining out. If you are really interested in mystery shopping or taking surveys, as well as side hustles such as pet sitting, Side Hustle to Success will help you start making money from day one. There are over 40+ direct links to sign up with different companies and start side hustling.

Do you like to side hustle? What Easy side hustles do you do to make extra money?