Need ways to make extra cash, and fast? These are my favorite, tried-and-true ways to make extra money at home ($100-$300 per month).
What would an extra $100, $250, or even $500/month do for you right now?
Would it help you:
- Catch up on a bill
- Get a little breathing room in your checking account
- Stop the “we're barely making it” feeling next month
Here's the thing: there are tons of legit ways out there to make money online.
In fact, there are too many.
And the good opportunities that:
- Fit into your schedule
- Don't have you picking up a seasonal job during the holidays
- Can be completed from home
…can get lost in a sea of the not-so-good opportunities.
I've been earning cash online for over 17 years now.
So instead of going down a rabbit hole of random cash-earning ideas, read my REAL results from opportunities below and find the ones that are worth your time.
Bonus Tip: The best time to start an extra income stream? Before you need it. Set one or two of these up NOW and see how they can earn for you so that you're not scrambling to find an extra $250 next month.
If you just spend one hour EVERY week taking action on this huge list of ideas I’ve given you, then you'll be ahead of like 90% of people who will skim over everything and not start. I don't want that for you, so make sure you spend at least 1 hour this week earning extra income using the resources below.
Ways to Make Money – Start Here
Feeling overwhelmed by trying to come up with an extra few hundred each month?
Here's how to use this article:
- Need money this week? Go to the Fast Cash section towards the end
- Need to earn consistent money each month ($100-$300)? Check out the next section.
Ways to Make Money Consistently
Can you earn an extra $100-$300? Yes, but not in one sitting (which is why it's critical you get started on these today).
This won’t replace your income, but it can cover groceries, gas, or a bill.
And that's really something!
1. Earn Cash for Testing & Playing Video Games
About four months ago, I would've told you that you can't make money by playing and testing video games.
But then I played an embarrassingly silly number of them on FreeCash.com and pulled in an extra $188.76 doing just that!
Just look at my account:
Here’s how it works:
You pick games you’re interested in, download them, and earn rewards when you hit certain milestones, like:
- reaching a specific level
- playing for a set amount of time
- completing in-game challenges
And honestly? It’s pretty fun.
2. Change Your Search Engine to One that PAYS You
I remember the first time I started making money searching the internet through Swagbucks. I was like, “You’re kidding me, right? You’re going to PAY ME for doing the natural searches I would be doing, anyway?”
Over the last 10 days, it's been one of my favorite ways to earn extra money online.
I’ve earned a total of 372,296 Swag Bucks, which has translated into $3,700 in cash to my PayPal account!
That’s roughly getting paid $370/year of income from home, which in my world, equals the cost of a cheap weekend getaway with my family.
Note: I’ve earned a decent chunk of that through referring others (and if you click my link, you’ll help me earn more!). You can also earn Swag Bucks more quickly by using your unique referral code and getting friends and family to sign up.
Ease of Earning: Really easy. You simply need to create your account, and then use this search engine to search the web instead of Google’s. Earnings will start showing up!
3. Get a Check from Your Escrow Account (for Homeowners)
This one is barely ever talked about, but I'm about to open your eyes to the possibility.
Do you pay homeowner's insurance and property taxes into an escrow account (meaning, they are extra monthly costs added to your “mortgage” payment that go into an account, where your property taxes and homeowner's insurance annual costs are then paid out of automatically)?
If you shop around for homeowner's insurance and get a decent reduction in costs, then you will get a CHECK in the mail not long afterward for the overpayment you've made. This seriously works, and it's awesome – we switched our homeowner's insurance one year for a ridiculous $1,600 savings from what we were paying before, and within a month had a check in the mail for around $1,600 because we had overpaid throughout the year (given our new rate).
You can start shopping around on your own to get cheaper insurance rates. One place that will do lots of quotes for you at once is PolicyGenius, so they're a good place to start (they also do not get paid on commissions, but on salary.
Psst: you'll want to learn about these money types of arbitrage with examples
4. Get Rebates on the Purchases You’re Already Making
To date, I've used Rakuten to earn $148.33. And I'm expecting a check (yes, they send real checks in the mail) for $27.92.
Even better – you get $50 (payable through PayPal) from Rakuten just for signing up (that's a lot of free money!).
This is a shopping portal: you just do your normal online shopping (or even in-store shopping, through a linked card in their system), and you automatically get rebate percentages on your purchases.
Payments/rebates are sent out quarterly.
Pro Tip: Install their free Chrome extension, which will automatically tally your rebates FOR you as you shop. Not only that, but it alerts you if you can find the product CHEAPER somewhere else, plus any coupons you can apply at checkout. SCORE.
Here's an app that pays you to grocery shop – for real!
Just look at my results:
You just download the app and then scan your grocery store receipts.
You get points depending on the types of groceries that you buy, and then you can “fetch” rewards from those points.
Rewards are gift cards (and some of them are Visa and MasterCard gift cards, so you can use them like cash, anywhere).
Psst: if you go through my link and use the code “APREWARDS”, you'll get 3,000 points just for signing up. Also, you can input the same receipt into different cashback apps. Here's how I do this.
Something nice with this shopping portal that gives you rebates? There's no minimum for payout (via PayPal, Venmo, or ACH Bank Transfer). So, you can get paid as quickly as you'd like!
And just look, I've earned $111.84 so far with this site!
Hint: You can earn $10 for each person you refer to this site. That could be a nice side hustle, without you even needing a blog!
5. Get Paid to Take Healthy Actions in Your Life
Did you know you can use a company like HealthyWage to bet on your own weight loss, and possibly win up to $10,000!
You heard me right. You can join up as an individual or as a team. Here are several women’s success stories you can check out.
The amount you win depends on your current weight as well as your goal weight to lose. Your profit % can be as high as around 300% (tripling your money) or as low as 11% (if you are already at a healthy weight). Playing with the calculator is part of the fun.
Increase your income by using your FitBit or other approved steps-counting app to earn money for the steps you take. Plus, you can earn income from home just by going to the gym through apps like SweatCoin and GymPact.
SweatCoin lets you earn 0.95 SweatCoins for every 1,000 outdoor steps you take (it won't work on a treadmill – it’s measured by GPS), and on days when they have a PayPal cash out, you can get a cash payout.
6. Get Paid for Your Opinions – Survey Sites and More
Respondent Market Research (Online, Phone, In-Person)
How to start? You sign up for your account, verify your email, and then start to take surveys online to see if you qualify for research projects. After you fill out a qualification survey, you’ll be notified by text or email if you qualify.
Immediately upon signing up, I took two surveys to see if I qualified for the following:
- Landowner Survey for a study that would pay $75/30 minutes
- Oral Care Survey for a study that would pay $100/90 minutes (from webcam, at home)
Bonus way to earn cash online: What do I really love about this one? You can find research interviews that you think your friends/family/colleagues would qualify for, then send them your personal referral link to see if they do. You get $20/successful referral! Could be a great extra money-maker for you.
Complete Online surveys
I personally was able to earn $27 towards our honeymoon savings goal by making money with surveys. One of the sites I used was Survey Junkie, and I mainly completed the online surveys while we were sitting around watching television, anyway. Much better use of my spare time!
You can expect either to cash out with PayPal or to cash out with gift cards.
In-person Focus Groups
Did you know that there are legitimate companies out there looking to talk to YOU about your experiences in life? I’ve been part of several in-person focus groups over the years.
Notable ones include earning:
- $125 for a one-hour focus group on haircare products
- $175 for an in-store survey about shopping for a car seat (this was perfect, as I was literally in the market for a convertible car seat since our baby was going to be too big for his infant one in the coming months)
Interested in doing mobile video surveys with your cell phone about products? Then this could be a perfect match for you to make some extra cash.
You sign up and fill out some information about yourself (including uploading a video so that they can see if your video works and everything). Then, upon acceptance, you can start applying for video surveys. Each video survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete, and you get paid $50/survey via PayPal.
Sign up for this site, fill out information about yourself, and get contacted by email to apply for various studies. There is not one fee you’ll be paid, but rather various ones.
Active projects they currently show include:
- $75/1-hour online interview
- $80/45-minute online interview on general shopping habits
- $150/1.5-hour in-home interview about laundry habits
You might also want to follow this Reddit group that’s continually updated with nationwide studies for focus groups. I recently went in and found a $25 (for 25 minutes) study, and am in the screening process for a $175 digital ads study.
7. Take Part in a Clinical Study
My friend spent a weekend in her 20s taking part in a sleep study and walked out with a $300 check.
Here's a listing of over 300,000 clinical studies across the U.S., with updates daily. If you have a specific health condition, go to this page and scroll down to do a search of research studies by health condition, or CenterWatch.com.
8. Scrap Metal for Extra Dollars
Did you know you can make extra cash and even an actual income by taking scrap metal to scrap metal yards? I've dabbled in this myself, and my brother-in-law used to do it as a side job.
I've created an ultimate field guide for how to scrap metal for extra cash.
Ways to Make Extra Cash Fast
Sometimes, you need cash fast.
When that’s the case, your options narrow quickly. You’re usually looking at:
- Selling something you already own
- Or getting paid for a quick service/gig
These are the methods that can put money in your hands the fastest.
But don’t stop here.
The real goal is to build a few extra income streams before you need them…so that you don’t end up in this same stressful spot again.
9. Sell Something
- Sell Your Blood Plasma: They say “donate plasma”, but you do get paid for it. Go here to find a plasma donation center near you, and get compensated between $20-$50 for your plasma. Easy money (well…if you're not scared of needles).
- Sell Stuff on Facebook Buy Groups: Find a local buy group near you, join it, and then start posting things to sell from your home. You'd be surprised how much money you can rake in today, tomorrow, and this weekend by people picking up your stuff and handing you cash. Sell it!
- Get Rid of Your Old Appliances: You can sell used washers for cash (who buys non-working appliances near me?)
- Sell that Car Sitting on Your Lawn: You can sell your old beater car through Peddle.com. More info below.
Boy do I have a cool resource for you. Peddle.com offers a convenient way to get a quote for your used or beater car (I received a quote of between $1,190 and $3,100 for my last beater car). You can also call this number: (833) 841-1104.
10. Sell Your Electronics
If you’re like us – an IT professional and a blogger – then you have a stash of used electronics sitting somewhere in your house.
The longer they sit, the less money you can make back on them. That’s because they lose relevance as the tech and digital world create new and better products at a dizzying pace.
Use these companies below to score money back on your old electronics.
Cash in Your Used Cell Phones
Go to each site, plug in your phone’s information, and see who offers the best price.
Trying to cash in your old cell phone? You’ll want to read up on my tips for how to cash in your used and broken cell phones.
Cash in Your Used Electronics
- BuyBackWorld: This place buys a whole bunch of different types of electronics. Such as digital cameras, tablets, gaming consoles, iPods, smart watches, Apple accessories, GPS, calculators, video cameras, camera lenses…and lots more. Take a look around, and clean out that electronics closet of yours!
- Amazon.com: Amazon has a used electronics trade-in program where you can get a free Amazon gift card. Shipping is free for you.
- GameStop Trade-in Program: These guys will give you cash or credit for electronics like gaming systems, gaming system accessories, tablets, etc.
- ItsWorthMore: These guys will buy laptops, Apple watches, and tablets in addition to smartphones.
11. Get Paid to Teach English Online
Have you ever heard of VIPKid?
It's a platform that hires teachers (you must have a bachelor's degree, though it can be in a non-teaching subject) to teach English as a Second Language to kids in China.
You'll earn between $15-$28/hour doing this, from the comfort of your home.
And, you can choose to get paid weekly to get your earnings faster.
Very cool program – I interviewed 4 actual teachers in my VIPKid review article so that you can read about firsthand experiences earning money this way.
You don't need 10 extra side hustles right now (who does?). What you do need is to know you can earn cash when you NEED to, and to build a side income stream to get that breathing room between paychecks. Before you know it, you'll have enough wiggle room in your budget that you'll start working on getting one month ahead with your bills. Now, isn't that worth working towards?
Amanda L. Grossman is a writer and Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI®), Plutus Foundation Grant Recipient, and founder of Frugal Confessions. Over the last 17 years, her money work has helped people with how to save money and how to manage money.
She's been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger, Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, Business Insider, LifeHacker, Real Simple Magazine, Woman's World, Woman's Day, ABC 13 Houston, Keybank, and more. Read more here or on LinkedIn.
