Cash in a hurry

Sometimes life throws us a curveball and we need to earn an extra $100 a week to meet our financial obligations.

Outside of reducing your spending what are some other ways you can make a quick buck? I’ve listed a few ideas below:

1. Understand your entitlements from work. After working in payroll for over 15 years the most obvious one to suggest is to make sure you’re being paid correctly. Understand what your expected hourly rate should be and what allowances and reimbursements you can claim through work.

   
   
   
   
   
   

2. Enter competitions. They cost you nothing but time and you have a chance to win some great prizes. And if you don’t want the prize you can always sell it and get cash instead.
   

3. Use cash back apps, these are great especially if you stick to online shopping and just click and collect. There are hundreds of businesses registered with these companies and Woolworths and coles has now partnered with cash back apps. So you can now get money back for shopping through grocery shopping online. Costs you nothing more than your usual shop and more in your pocket!

   
   
   
   

4. Snap your receipt. There are some apps that you snap a picture of your receipt and earn cash back through.

   
   
   
   
   
   

5. Safe driver rewards. There are apps that will track your driving and if you're a safe driver you earn cash back.

   
   
   
   

6. Join a cleaning crew. Starting up a cleaning business can cost money in the initial set up so maybe look at starting with a cleaning company first, they have established clients, products and insurance.
   

7. Sell items on marketplace.

   
   
   
   

8. Host a garage sale.

   
   
   
   

9. Nightfill for shops, a lot of them have a range of working hours available.
   

10. Driver for fresh produce (Box Divvy).
    

11. Uber or door dash.
    

12. Babysitting.
    

13. Ironing.
    

14. Pet sitting.
    

15. Dog/pet walking in your community.

    
    
    
    

16. Dog grooming.

    
    
    
    

17. Letterbox drops.
    

18. Doing surveys.
    

19. Hospitality jobs.
    

20. Depending on your skills you can do freelance work such as VA or join an agency.
    

21. If you have an academic background you can create resources for teachers and sell them through teachers pay teachers.
    

22. Work on Fiverr or Upwork.
    

23. Airtasker.
    

24. Hire out things you own.
    

25. Rent out a spare room.
    

26. Host a foreign exchange student (government incentives).
    

27. Tutoring uni students

    
    
    
    

28. If you know how to play an instrument consider teaching music lessons.

29. Remote work such as rostering, payroll processing, etc. When job searching try using keywords of remote work or work from home. I work for a 100% remote payroll outsourced company.
    

30. If you’re a creative list your art on stock platforms, any downloads result in you receiving commission.

    
    
    
    

31. Host a hobby workshop, if you’re passionate about something host a fun workshop around it. Think cake decorating, paint and sip, macrame, scrapbooking, etc.

    
    
    
    
    
    

32. If you’re a good cook you can make meals and sell them. Time poor people will pay for the convenience of having fresh meals.
    

33. Likewise if you’re good at baking you can sell cupcakes or cakes.
    

34. If you’re qualified in a specific field or have extensive knowledge about a subject you can put together a video tutorial series and sell them through knowledge sharing platforms such as Udemy and skillshare.
    

35. Affiliate marketing or referrals, if you believe in a product and have family and friends you can share it with you can sign up to affiliate marketing/referral platforms. ING often has get a friend to open an account with them and you both receive money (the latest offer was received $100 each). Referrals can also be through surveys, investing platforms. Affiliates can be through companies you buy through. Make sure to read their t&c’s before committing to anything.
    

36. Upgrade your shopping if you can. If you can afford to, sign up to the everyday extra with Woolies or Coles Plus Saver. This can give you supercharged points collection throughout the year on stuff you normally buy anyway, there’s a few freebies you can collect as an extra perk and you get 10% off one shop a month amongst other benefits.
    

37. Seasonal work such as enrolling to work at the elections, assist during NAPLAN, work in agriculture during harvesting season etc. Even signing up to be Santa or his helper during Christmas.
    

38. Resume writing, working on selection criteria for job applications, uni applications, scholarship applications. There are people that struggle to write these and are willing to pay good money for the assistance.
    

39. Search for unclaimed money. All monies that are owed to people but they are unable to be contacted or the funds unable to be deposited into their bank are sent to the department of treasury. There is approximately $1.5 billion sitting with the treasury departments across Australia. For some people it could be $0.05 whilst for others it may be in the thousands. Have a look in your state for any unclaimed funds that may be owed to you.
    

40. Sell unused gift cards. There are times when life happens and the gift card you received you may no longer be able to be used. Instead of letting them expire list it on marketplace and see if you’re able to get some money for it so you can buy something you need or can use.
    

41. Test websites and apps. If you’re tech savvy and time rich you may want to put that to good use and spend time testing websites or apps.
    

42. Clean the house. Seems a bit simple but sometimes if you’re really skint it may be worth deep cleaning the house, you may find a cheeky $20 that’s been left in some clothes or scrounge some change that’s been left around the house.
    

43. Got a green thumb? If you’re pretty good at growing plants, from fruit trees to succulents, you can try growing plants to sell.
    

44. Do market research. Similar to doing surveys but this is usually either doing online interviews or face to face interviews about products. Much better incentives too than standard surveys.
    

45. Become a driving advertisement. If you’ve got a car you could earn money from having advertising put on your car and doing your regular driving. This could give you over $500 per month depending on how much you drive.
    

46. Mystery shopper. Sign up to mystery shopping platforms and when doing your regular shopping check if there are any offers going. Don’t look at spending when you wouldn’t normally but if there is an offer available through your regular shops this is a great way to make some extra money.
    

47. Flexi car share. If you don’t use your car much you may be able to rent your car out. Ensuring you’re covered by insurance is imperative but outside of that it’s a great way for your car to earn you some extra money on the side without taking much of your time.

    
    
    
    
    
    

48. Good at organising or decluttering? You can help people that struggle with that.

    
    
    
    

49. Bit of a handy person around the house? Look at handy person work around. Usually advertised through Airtasker, marketplace or gumtree.

    
    
    
    
    
    

50. Odd jobs. Sometimes on these platforms there’s also assistance jobs posted, like someone needs something picked up and moved.

    
    
    
    
    
    

51. Are you a flat pack hero? You can help people build their flat pack furniture. Just be mindful of your skill level and their expectations.

    
    
    
    
    
    

52. Love animals? You can sign up to companies to be a pet sitter. Some people will let you live in their house while they’re on holiday to look after their pets. So not necessarily paid as such but it’s free accommodation.

    
    
    
    
    
    

53. Got space? You can open a pet daycare. Great for those anxious animals that struggle being alone while their humans are at work.

    
    
    
    
    
    

54. Love kids? You can look into opening a family daycare. Some childcare centres are almost $200 a day and family daycares are more sought after.

    
    
    
    
    
    

55. Make seasonal gifts. You can make seasonal gifts for occasions such as Easter, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween etc and sell them. Think resin art, clay work, knitting, pottery, whatever you want.

    
    
    
    
    
    

56. Hampers in a hurry. Some people struggle to think of gift ideas for those special but hard to buy for people in their lives or just the typical last minute gift buyers. Get savvy and create ready to go hampers for sale.

    
    
    
    
    
    

57. Use your side hustle money wisely, find good investment opportunities that allow easy access to your money but provide good returns (high interest saving account or investment platforms). It equates to free money! Win win