Budgeting

11 People Share Their Most Successful Get-Cash-Fast Side Hustles

By | Monday, April 11, 2016

city

While flipping through Reddit (in so much as one can “flip through” internet pages), I came across a thread of suggestions on how to make “last-minute money.” The person who originally posted discussed the fact that (s)he was moving this month and had also had to deal with several unexpected expenses that impacted his/her savings. While the user has people who can help them out in the short-term, they want to be able to make their savings back (and pay back any help received) as soon as possible. Therefore, they were on a mission to find Reddit’s best get-cash-fast side hustles. About eight people responded with fairly originally ideas, and I also asked a few people I know who are extremely good side hustlers what their instant-money side hustles are to round out this list. A lot of side hustles require building relationships, and I think it’s extremely worthwhile to build up your hustle arsenal and have a wide net of side job connections. However, if you’re looking to get money quickly, I understand that you want to find something that will yield more immediate results. Here are 11 get-cash-fast side hustles that are worth considering:

1. “Donate plasma 2x a week. Around my area you can make ~240 a month doing that.” — RoidMonkey123

I know very little about donating plasma for money, but it is fairly popular in the U.S., and you can get paid for it. The serious caveat is that there is debate (in the medical world and beyond) as to the safety of donating plasma. In fact, Redditor reginaphallangy responded to RoidMonkey123’s comment, saying, “Did this in college. I made 280 to 320 a month. I have a scar from doing it for so long, but it was worth it.” There are clearly people who swear by it, but there are others who say it hurts quite a bit and is not as worth it. I would recommend researching whether it’s the right choice for you, and maybe consulting a physician. You can find more information here and here.

2. “My boyfriend and I needed money ASAP, so we decided to Airbnb our apartment for the weekends. We did it for a month straight. We are lucky that his parents live an hour away, so we were able to go there for a couple weekends. We also stayed with friends for two weekends. We rented our two-bedroom in LA out for $150/night. We made about 1,000 extra dollars in one month. It was so easy and fast. We cleaned, took photos, posted the listing, and were making money a week later.” — Kylene

3. “Being an Uber driver pays weekly.” — octupie

We recently featured an article on TFD that gave an honest breakdown on how much Uber/Lyft drivers make hourly. For more information, you can find the piece here.

4. “Craigslist ‘gigs’ section. Filter out the ‘work at home’ and adult jobs (depending on you).” — PM_ME_UR_INDEXFUNDS

5. “I highly endorse picking up two restaurant/alcohol industry-related shifts a week. I wait tables two nights a week, and it makes me about an extra $250 a week. (It’s worth noting that I had serving experience before I landed my full-time job.) I’m trying to build my savings right now, and pay off debt, and my salaried job just doesn’t pay very much. So I decided to apply to a bunch of restaurant jobs for greeter positions, serving positions, and bartending positions. I landed something two weeks later. Not only is it a job where you can start making money quickly, it’s also just a fun way to meet new people in a new city.” — Jen

6. “A second job? Night shift at the gas station/fast food or supermarket?” — T-Bills

7. “It’s the time of year when everyone needs their yards mowed. Charge $25 a yard, you’ll undercut everyone else in town, and still be able to profit at least $20 of that $25. Don’t have a mower? Borrow one, or hit a local pawn shop ($50 should net you a decent “1 season” mower).

Find 5 people who need yards mowed, and you’ve got $125 a week in extra income. Need more money, find more yards. Yards usually need mowing at least once a week.

Edit: Also r/jobs is a sub that can be of great use on this sort of quest.” — alek_hiddel

8. “My girlfriend knows a guy with a snow plow for his truck. When the blizzard hit the DC area this year, the guy made around $2500 per DAY driving around plowing out driveways for $50 apiece. Similarly, when I lived in Virginia, I knew some good ole boys from work with a big truck and a tow line. They knew that AAA would take forever to get tow trucks out because there was such a high demand and shitty road conditions. They just drove around offering to pull people out of ditches for $50, and made about $900 in a day.” — AyeMyHippie

9. “I pull in $400 a week babysitting right now. The family pays me $8/hour per child, and they have three kids, which means I’m making about $24/hour. If I work about 15 hours a week for them (which is three nights a week), they tend to round up when they pay me, and it comes out to about $400.” — Taylor

10. “Depending on where you live and your health history, there may be some quick clinical trials for healthy subjects that pay $.” — takeandbake

Quick side note: I actually have experience with this. I went to college in Ithaca, NY, and after I graduated, I was always looking for more ways to make money. One of my friends recommended I participate in studies happening at Cornell, so I could get paid to be part of their clinical trials. I got an MRI for the study (it was not pleasant and it took about two hours, but it was a free scan of my brain), and they handed me a $50 bill on the way out. As a result of this, I got onto the email list for this department at Cornell, and they would email me about other studies I could participate in. If you have a university near you, I definitely recommend looking into this ASAP.

11. “If you have a good network locally, offer to house-sit, pet-sit, dog-walk. I pay someone to do this, and would much rather pay a friend or relative, even on a short-term basis.” — mattymax

Image via Unsplash

You might also like

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.