9 Ways to Make Money (On Your Schedule)

Need to make money? Here’s how I made money with Honeygain, receipt apps, Freecash games, and simple side hustle ideas at home (no influencer status required).

This is a blog about living frugally and saving money…so why am I talking about how to make extra money today?

Because after being in the personal finance money business for two decades – and managing my own money for a lot longer than that – I’ve figured out that sometimes, you just need more of it.

Not a whole-new-job kind of more.

More like…a little extra on the side.

To do things like pay that extra bill, get your child to that summer camp you’ve been eyeing up, and buy you a little breathing room at the end of the month.

That’s where this money-making article comes in.

Make Money Offers (No Influencer Status Required)

I started making extra money on the side of my full-time blogging all the way back with my Honeymoon Savings Experiment – where I set out to earn an extra $2,500 outside of our normal paycheck money to help pay for our 11-day trip to Austria.

Just 8 months later, we came in at $2,334.78 using some of these same offers I’m about to introduce you to below.

Since then, I’ve earned an extra few hundred each month by doing things like:

• Playing games (seriously – $188.75 earned through Freecash.com playing a stupid amount of Animals & Coins and Royal Match for two months)
• Making videos on Amazon about products I’ve used for years ($29.99 so far, and I started on December 9^th of last year)
• Scanning my grocery receipts (the same receipt into three different apps: Receipt Pal, Fetch, and Ibotta)
• Getting paid for our unused internet bandwidth through Honeygain

And the great news for you?

You don’t need to be an influencer or a blogger (like me) to make money with any of these offers or the rest that I’m about to share with you!

1. Install Honeygain (Runs in the Background)

This is my new favorite way to earn money on the side (without the hustle).

Most households have extra internet bandwidth that they’re not using (but are paying for).

This company offers one of the coolest ways to earn extra cash automatically – just download the app, and keep it running whenever your computer is on.

It gathers your unused internet bandwidth (the part you’re not actively using) and shares it with Honeygain’s network.

I’ve been running it for months, and have noticed no change to our internet quality.

Earnings are not huge – I’m at $5.83 – but it’s totally recouped money I’m paying out anyway for our internet.

It’s a completely set-it-and-forget-it method of earning extra money.

You can ask for a payout once you reach $20.

2. Install the Capital One Shopping Extension (Runs in the Background)

I have a confession to make: I stopped using shopping extensions like 6-8 years ago.

It’s just something I always forgot to do…so I stopped doing it altogether.

Sure, the occasional Rakuten rebate offer around Black Friday would catch my attention, but it wasn’t until Capital One’s Shopping extension came across my radar that I realized how many hundreds and thousands of dollars I’ve left unearned over all these years. 

You install the extension, and then you just let it do its work.

It automatically populates deals as you do your normal online shopping.

AND, here’s my big tip: periodically check out their homepage. I’ve seen (and taken advantage of) almost unheard of cashback offers this way, like:

• $25 off a $50 order from Walmart.com
• $250 in free concert tickets of my choice from specific sites (like Vivid Seats)
• $25 just for installing their extension on my smartphone!

In my mind, Capital One Shopping is a very generous program you should definitely get in on.

Hint: One thing you should know – you earn rewards to buy gift cards, not to redeem for cash. The gift card choices are robust, and you’ll definitely find them for stores you use.

3. Use Swagbucks

I stopped leaving money on the table when it comes to internet searches like a decade ago.

When you use Swagbucks as your main search engine, you earn SB points. You can then redeem them for cold, hard cash on PayPal.

And when I was using it as my sole search engine? I earned over $200 in PayPal gift cards (10,030 SB points = $100 PayPal gift card, but you can cash out as low as $5 or 530 SB ).

4. Use Freecash

I have this embarrassing confession to make: last December, I got totally wrapped up in playing games on my phone.

It started out innocently enough – after all, part of my job is to experiment with ways to earn and save money and then to write about it.

But I got into SUCH a habit with it.

In fact, I earned $188.75 by doing this (FYI: I also spent about $70 on in-app purchases to help earn more).

It looked a bit like this:

• Day 1: $6.28
• After 7 days: $15+ (no in-app purchases)
• After 1 month: $92.99

I can honestly say that you can earn money with this app, because I experienced it.

You choose the games you want to play, download them, and then earn money as you hit specific goals, like when you:

• Reach level 10
• Play for a certain amount of time
• Complete in-game challenges

I mean, it’s pretty fun, too. As long as you don’t get sucked into it like I did (happy to report I’ve put the phone down after going phoneless over a lovely weekend silent retreat early this year).

5. Board a Dog in Your Home

You can use the Rover App to schedule dog sitting and dog boarding opportunities that you’ll be paid for (and they say if you dog board in your home, you’ll get paid the most!).

Pssst: I haven’t personally tried this one yet, so let me know if you do and how it goes!

6. Make Videos on Amazon

I’ve been an Amazon affiliate on my blog for over a decade now.

But there’s another way you can earn affiliate commissions through Amazon without needing your own blog: through their Amazon Influencer Program.

Here’s my Amazon storefront with each of my videos.

While it’s good to have your own traffic that can see your recommendations and make purchases, you don’t need to have it.

That’s because you make very quick videos (think: 60 seconds or less), and they get posted either at the top or the bottom of the product listing.

If someone watches your video before buying the product, and then buys the product, you earn a small commission.

So far, I’ve made 57 videos of products I’ve personally purchased on Amazon over the years. And in the last three months, I’ve earned an extra $36.44.

It’s not life-changing money. BUT, once the videos are made, they’ll continue earning money for you for months and even years down the road.

7. Do Other People’s Laundry

I can’t tell you the number of women I see on Instagram who take in other people’s dirty clothes, wash them while they’re home, and earn a decent side income from it.

What a great idea!

For example, Natalie (Mom Making Ends Meet) uses both a laundry app and other ways to find private clients. She drives to pick up the clothes and drops them back off.

One week, she took in 4 orders and made $498. When she subtracts out her utility costs, supply costs, and gas costs, her total profit is: $473.52. Her hourly rate came out to $47.35/hour (it took her 10 hours to do this).

She drives to pick up the clothes and drops them back off, too.

If you want to get started, you can look into any of these laundry apps: Poplin, hampr, and Clotheslyner.

8. Complete Observa Opps

I signed up for this app, claimed an “Opp”, and did it all in the same day – earning me $12 (my submission was even validated within an hour, and I was paid the next day!).

Here’s how it works: the company partners with brands that want their in-store displays checked and maintained. You might talk with a store manager, snap a few photos, answer questions, and sometimes do light merchandising.

For my first Opp, I was a little surprised – it was more hands-on than I expected. I helped tidy up a clothing display (refolding shirts, organizing sizes from Small to XXL), asked about restocking, and made sure nearby items were filled in.

It was quite interesting!

From start to finish (including travel), it took me about an hour. Since it was my first time, I expect future tasks to go even faster.

I can totally see picking up some extra cash with this app during my Monday errand-running, which I do naturally.

FYI: They pay by PayPal, upon approval of your submissions.

I’ll definitely be using this app again to earn some extra cash.

9. Find Paid Consumer Studies

I found this awesome Reddit group that’s continually updated with nationwide studies for paid focus groups.

I recently went in and found a $25 (for 25 minutes) study, and I'm in the screening process for a $175 digital ads study.

In fact, I just earned $50 for completing a survey I found through there!

Sometimes, it’s not about being more frugal. Instead, it’s about bringing in extra income through side hustle ideas at home that will make all the difference to your household budget. Just start with one of these ideas, test it out, and once you get into a rhythm with it, layer it with another. A few months from now, you could easily be bringing in an extra few hundred dollars each month, and feeling a whole lot more breathing room because of it.