Hustling for Money, 2022: Side Hustle Ideas without a Schedule

We may earn money from the companies mentioned in this post.

Low wages got you down? Tired of delivering food and getting no tip? All done with cleaning other folks’ toilets AFTER your regular 9-5 job? You need to take your hustling online, my friend. Here are 10 hustling-for-money ideas 2022 EDITION to get you thinking.

Originally published 4/2019, updated for 2022.

It’s hard to find legit ideas when you’re hustling for money online–ask me how I know. Everywhere you turn, some blogger mom wants to sell you a useless transcription “course” or that “master blogging” e-book. You won’t find a shortage of folks trying to take advantage of your need for money and desire to gain the skills necessary to obtain said money. 99% of the time, these types of articles lead to people trying to sell you stuff you don’t need so that they can make a commission. They’re called affiliate marketers–and yes, that’s a valid (though all-too-often sketchy) way to make money. And moms are just as guilty of it as other stereotypes that won’t be mentioned.

Lucky for you, you found…this gal. And even better…. this article.

Full disclosure: I’m an affiliate marketer too! But I don’t believe in selling shady e-courses. I’m not a crappy person. Plus I’ve bought and been burned by two blogging e-courses. I’m an affiliate for real services (not pointless “courses”) like Robinhood Investing, Pinecone Research, and Survey Savvy–legit companies an average Joe can earn actual money from.

Who’s hustling for money? As my son would say, “Your mom.”

Everyone has a side hustle lately. Actually, my mom doesn’t have a side hustle, but my 63-year-old dad has two: reselling and swing trading. My husband has an ebay side hustle. My 11-year-old’s hustling for money on Kidzeyes and is a wanna-be Youtuber under the name, “I’m Game.” Coming soon for him: lawn-mowing. A brother-in-law refurbishes and resells vintage Nikes on eBay. Have you seen Etsy? Lots of women sell downloadable prints. They make a design and sell it as a download! No overhead, no hassle–just their creativity making them money.

And this gal has multiple side hustles. You’re reading one of them–a blog. The rest of them? Read on, my tired friend.

Who’s NOT hustling for money in 2022, amirite?

Why I got into hustling for money, aka my origin story

For anyone interested, and for the required 3,000 word count to get Google’s attention, here’s how I came about finding all these side hustle ideas. Feel free to scroll down a bit for the real reason you’re here-my awesome list of ways you can get started hustling for money without paying for anything.

NOT so long ago, Approximately a lifetime ago, in the spring of ’09, I knew I wanted to be a stay-home-mama. Financially, it was a no-brainer. We couldn’t afford the massive cost of daycare, yet barely made too much to qualify for any financial assistance! Sound familiar? Also, I was am a worry wart and the idea of anyone else watching my baby made my heart do flips.

This time period was when the country was going through a recession, and my electrical apprentice husband was underemployed. Way underemployed. Nobody was building anything, and many building projects that had been underway came to a standstill.

I was able to find part-time work as a mental health technician and worked whenever my husband had days off during the week. Caleb found odd jobs mowing lawns and delivering phone books. We joked he should call his mowing service “Broke Down Lawn Care” and our motto could be, “If my truck breaks down in front of your house, your mow job is free.” I’m sure you can infer why. One financial problem after another kept popping up, and we never had the money to cover the surprises. We barely had enough for the mortgage.

Hustling for money wasn’t as prevalent “back then” in 2009, or if they were I was clueless. We did our hustling the old-fashioned way…real life! I sound like a boomer. I swear I’m an (older) millennial.

Then at nine weeks old, baby Josh started to hold his breath and pass out on a weekly basis. My yearning to stay home with him became more of a necessity to me. Whenever he was upset enough, Josh would cry so hard that he couldn’t catch his breath. This would eventually cause him to turn purple and go momentarily unconscious! It was my duty to make sure he didn’t whack his head on anything hard on the way down. As my mom all-too-gleefully loves to point out, I used to do the same thing when I was a baby, and this was simply the universe getting even. FYI, these pass-out sessions are called cyanotic spells, and apparently, they’re all the rage in my family.

Not only did this scare me half to death every time Josh did it–and he did it routinely until he was four–but I was more determined than ever not to leave him in someone else’s care. To make this happen, I needed some to start hustling for money…online.

*Cue Eye of the Tiger montage music.

I’m sure you know the rest from here. I tried searching for transcription training, data entry, and at-home editing without finding much success. Most were scams designed to sell useless courses, even back then, though they’re much more prevalent now. Through prayer and trial and error, I eventually found a few side hustle ideas that brought in decent money. When I put these ideas into action along with an aggressive saving strategy, our bank account did something we never saw it do before…grow!

I was told there’d be “Hustling for Money” Ideas?

I digress. Enough small talk: let’s start side hustling for money.

I currently utilize all of these following flexible side hustle ideas and pull in about $2,000 each month. These are perfect for stay-at-home-moms/dads or anyone wanting extra money because there’s no set schedule to adhere to. If you use these hustling-for-money ideas on the side in conjunction with real ways to save money, you’ll see something in your bank you might not recognize, extra money at the end of the month.

1. Best hustling for money idea: Usertesting for the win @ $1,000 a month

Waaay back in 2011, I stumbled upon a new-at-the-time site called usertesting.com. This site offers $10 for about 10-20 minutes of your time per “test.” Don’t let the test part fool you–it’s not the crap-your-pants tests from high school or college that make your stomach churn because you didn’t study. It’s more of a “tell-us-how-we-can-make-our-website-easier” experience. The user-testing software brings up a website to explore while it records your actions on the screen as well as your spoken thoughts via microphone.

Tests are often from new companies looking for an objective user’s experience and feedback about what needs improvement on their website. Other times, they’re from seasoned companies looking for insight into where customers are having trouble on their site, particularly in the checkout process. Sometimes the tasks are sorting activities where you help a new website organize its menu headings and subcategories. Occasionally, the task is simply taking a survey and no speaking is necessary!

UserTesting.com Panel Application

How much work comes your way?

As you might guess, there is plenty of competition for user tests. You’ll hear a “ding” to notify you when a new test is available. If you don’t immediately tune in to accept a test, it will get nabbed by other testers. The secret to getting more tests is to be ready right when that bell dings. Also, tests are easier to get accepted for earlier in the morning, later in the evening after dinnertime, and on the weekends. Competition among testers isn’t as crowded at these times, so you’re more likely to accept tests before others.

With that said, I still get anywhere from 3-6 tests per weekday, and I average about $1000 each month for about an hour’s worth of “work” most weekdays. Tests are also available on weekends and sometimes easier to nab because less people do them then. It’s easy to see why user testing is one of my favorite ways to make extra money at home.

Proof of Payment

How to sign up for user testing?

Usertesting.com offers tests both on your pc and on your smartphone. You will have to take a short qualification user test before each site gives you paying tests. As per their website: “The qualification test is needed in order to certify that your microphone works properly and that you have the ability to speak your thoughts out loud and provide useful feedback. The qualification test is not a paying test.”

Sites I use for user testing:

• Usertesting.com has the most work available by far.
• Intellizoom.com offers a few surveys a day, depending on demographics. UPDATE 7/19: I complete tests from Intellizoom on a daily basis still, but their payment now fluctuates from $5-$10 $5-$8 per test. It used to be $10 per test until mid-2019. Booo!
• Whatusersdo.com recently merged with and became Intellizoom.
• Userfeel.com offers several tests per month, but these are for the more tech-savvy oriented.
• Userlytics.com pay ranges from $5-$20 per test and only offers a few tests per month.

2. When hustling for money becomes WRITING for money

Writing is probably the hardest thing to get into on my list, at least the type of decent-paying writing most folks like to imagine themselves doing. Y’know, writing articles Carrie-Bradshaw-style for a reputable online publication, whilst gazing out the window of a surprisingly affordable NYC apartment. Feels like a dream.

I understand why it’s something many of us are so drawn to. It’s fulfilling to be able to express yourself creatively in written format, especially if you’re an introvert like me. You have the potential for your ideas to reach and help lots of people, and at the same time earn money. The problem is legit jobs are hard to find without running into scams.

Where to find said writing jobs?

Here are four reputable websites where you can find decent-paying writing gigs. I haven’t tried these sites myself, but I’ve researched the idea to death because I always thought it’d be fun to be writer. When it all came down to it, I decided I want to write for myself, not someone else. If I was going to write, it’d be on my own terms.

• Freelance Writing Jobs
• Problogger Jobs
• Blogging Pro
• Journalism Jobs
• Also check the “Contact” section on your favorite blogs. Bigger blogs often seem to have a huge need for talented writers.

Some people recommend Flexjobs, but I don’t like it when a company tries to sell job information like that. I suspect the people who recommend Flexjobs are affiliate marketers who earn commission for referring others. Even when armed with a reputable list of sites to find work, it’s still hard to break into a new writing job when you have no experience. The sheer amount of competition is mind boggling. Everyone wants to be Carrie Bradshaw! Personally, I always thought of myself as more of a Charlotte.

If you’d rather go directly to writing content, these three writing companies offer better pay than typical word mills like Textbroker:

• Constantcontent.com
• Writeracess.com
• Contentrunner.com

A word about word mills!

Word mills like Textbroker offer even beginners the chance to write articles for a range of pay from seven cents to five cents per word. There are many word mills out there that offer a few dollars per written article, but you often have to jump through hoops to apply, get accepted, and work around their deadlines on articles you may or may not be interested in. All that for low pay! In addition, any income you make is a small one-time payment, and you usually don’t get to keep the rights to your work.

If you’re going through the trouble of writing up articles, wouldn’t it be grand to write about what you’re passionate or at least knowledgeable about and potentially make a passive income from that article…even years later?

An alternative to typical freelance writing: Hubpages

Something I suggest instead: Hubpages. Hubpages is another site I discovered back during the recession. I wrote 21 articles in January 2010. These were random, casual articles about things I either had experience with or was knowledgeable about. One was an Orgreenic pan review. Another was a recipe. Yet another was a how-to article about fixing a problem on a car.

Proof of Payment

Nine years later, the three popular articles continuously make me an average of $50+ per month in ads and affiliate income, or over $600 a year. Every. Single. Month. This is passive income at its finest, folks! You can see from the Paypal screenshot above my Hubpages ad payment for the first three months of 2021.

Update: I now get paid separately by Amazon Affiliates and Hupbages Ad program, whereas I previously received their payments combined. So now I’m averaging about $30 a month from Amazon via Hubpages, and $20 a month through the Hubpages Ad program which is partnered with Google Adsense.

The Hubpages ad program and Amazon pay me an average of $600 a year for THREE articles I hastily wrote almost a decade ago. I worked on their search engine optimization–the use of keywords to rank higher on Google. They continue to make $600 per year mostly through Amazon Affiliate revenue. The income didn’t happen immediately. It was pennies for the first several months! After about four months, google picked them up, and that’s when the Amazon commissions gained ground.

Hubpages tips

A bit of advice if you want to try Hubpages:

• It might be a good idea to write a bunch of articles–I recommend twenty–then see what picks up in traffic and branch out from there. How-to articles linking to an Amazon product seem to perform the best.
• You’ll need to become an Amazon Affiliate (you’ll link an item in your article to a product on Amazon and when someone buys, you’ll earn a commission) in order to see decent income from an article. It’s free to sign up.
• Hubpages walks you through the step-by-step process of creating an article using their easy block format. Pay attention to their suggestions and use their recommended features (like word length, adding reader participation via polls, embedding media, etc).
• You’ll see pennies rolling in likely within the next two days, but to earn any kind of decent income per article, you’ll have to be patient to see if your work gets noticed by google. This can take 2-4 months. In the mean time, read about good SEO, or search engine optimization.
• Ask yourself, “What question do I want my article to answer?” Think about what people would search for on Google for an answer to such-and-such problem.
• You don’t need a lot of traffic to earn a little money. You need targeted traffic; folks looking for an answer to a specific question or problem.

3. From writing to blogging: hustling for money can become your main income!

You might be thinking, “If I want to go through the trouble of writing twenty articles, I might as well start a blog.” And you’d have a point!

Hubpages can lead to a fun passive income, especially if you land on a good money-making topic. But if you put all these articles in a self-hosted blog, all the money you make from advertising is YOURS, without having to split it with the Hubpages platform. With that said, I think Hubpages could still serve a substantial purpose. Many times, people may want to write about something they have experience with that doesn’t fit into their blog category or niche.

Hubpages is ideal for random ideas; blogging is great for a passion or skill you could write endlessly about

For example, a personal finance blogger wants to write a how-to about fixing a broken Power Wheel motor. This topic could be a huge potential money maker on Hub pages through Amazon Affiliate revenue. It may do better on this platform instead of seeming out of place on the blogger’s finance blog. Revenue commission generated via the Amazon Affiliate program by selling Power Wheel parts could produce a substantial passive income!

Diversify that income

Multiple income streams are a good thing. You don’t want to put all your income eggs in one income basket.

Google love and subsequent blog income depend on your quality of posts, your frequency of posting, and your search engine optimization.

If you’re thinking of starting a blog, I highly recommend Bluehost web hosting for beginners. They offer a step-by-step blogging guide, and they offer top-quality hosting for an affordable price.

4. Side hustle ideas: flipping or selling for cash

I make an average of $100 each month just by reselling finds from garage sales, drug stores, thrift stores, store clearances, and around the house. Find deals by following a savings blog or two like slickdeals.net or thekrazycouponlady.com. If an item seems like a crazy deal, try checking Amazon or Ebay to see what it sells for there. I’m constantly surprised at what Ebayers pay for random toys, football jerseys, and name-brand shoes. Here’s a current snapshot of my ebay dashboard:

What to resell for cash?

As an example, you can often buy makeup and certain medications for free or super cheap with Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid sales and coupons. I find these coupon deal matchups on thekrazycouponlady.com and hip2save.com. I like to nab these deals and keep some for the family if needed, then sell the rest on ebay. The funny thing is, ebay customers who buy these items are still often getting a deal versus the regular big-box store prices, plus they’re offered the convenience of buying online.

Toys are also a popular item you can find cheap and resell. Thrift stores and garage sales can be a goldmine for these. For example, my kiddo outgrew his Joker garbage truck a long time ago, so I threw it on ebay. To my surprise, the truck that I’d originally bought for my son for $1 from Savers was going for $20 on ebay! The same goes for a large King Kong action figure my boys had stopped playing with. We originally paid less than $2 on a Walmart clearance for it, and I was able to resell it for $36!

Keep in mind, shipping can be pricey and continues to go up. Plus ebay and Amazon take their cut of fees–around 10%-15% depending on the price of the item when you include the shipping fees as well. For these reasons, I like to go into the transaction with the mindset that I might only make a few bucks in profit ($10 is usually my minimum), and that’s okay. I also prefer to sell lighter items when I can, just to cover my butt if the buyer wants to return it. Generally, the heavier the item is, the more expensive it is to ship.

5. Decluttering + consignment or resale: aka, sell your crap for money

I’m a big advocate of the Decluttr app and decluttering in general. Something about a clean room with simple decor and minimal stuff just warms my heart. I use Decluttr once a year to get rid of any video games, movies, or electronics we’ve accumulated and no longer use.

Although I rarely buy media items myself, we often get them as gifts throughout the year for birthdays and Christmas. So year after year, they tend to pile up in the TV stand. It’s often not worth the hassle of selling used media items on ebay due to immense competition. That is, unless it’s a newer game that your husband bought and changed his mind about *cough* Grand Theft Auto V.

Is Decluttr legit?

The Decluttr app lets you scan the barcode, then gives you a price they’re willing to pay for the item. Go here to go to Decluttr and get an extra 10% back on media items traded in with coupon code COUPONBOOST10. The item needs to be a in good shape with minimal scratches. I’ve never had them refuse anything I’ve sent, but they do have the right to reject your items. I think I received my last check within two weeks after I sent my items. They pay shipping and you print out the label.

Decluttr gives you low offers for most items, like 50 cents or a dollar for older video games or movies. There are exceptions to this–NCAA Football 14 comes to mind. Prices for cell phones and game consoles are usually reasonable. For example, we gave them our old wii and received $27. If you subscribe to their emails, they often send coupons like $5 extra cash back in your birthday week and 10% extra cash back on your trade. I only trade when I get an awesome coupon like this. I tend to make an average of $50 cash each with my yearly trades.

I’ve used Decluttr five times, and only once did they question the condition of my item. They offered a revised price–which was a few dollars less than their original offer–for an older Samsung Galaxy 5 phone. They gave me two weeks to accept or decline the price, and I accepted. Payment is quick via Paypal, paid a few days after they receive your items. You won’t get rich, but it’s an among the easiest ways to make extra money. It’s a nice bonus that you’re decluttering the process.

Use my referral code DTRG5KF4WQ when you sign up. You’ll get $5 extra cash back on your first package you send them!

Clothing resale stores

I also sell clothes to resale clothing stores like Kidz Again and Kid to Kid. Anything the boys haven’t worn in a year, or anything my youngest outgrows that miraculously doesn’t have holes in it goes off to a resale store.

Kidz Again even gave me $17 for a portable Ingenuity baby swing I bought used for $9 for a friend who didn’t need it after all. Once at Christmas time, I cashed in my account total there for a $120 check for the year. They offer more in credit, but sometimes I opt for the cash due to their extremely limited supply of boys’ jeans–something I’m always in need of. Boy mamas know the struggle.

6. You’d better be getting cash back if you’re searching for hustling money online

This probably sounds more like money saved than money earned. BUT, think of it this way: if you didn’t use ibotta, you wouldn’t have the possibility of earning $20-$30 per month from ibotta. A penny saved is a penny earned. You can check out my more in-depth review of ibotta here, but here’s a look at the recent cash back from my account.

Saving and earning with Ibotta takes very little effort: just download the app and incorporate a quick look-through of ibotta items while you’re making up your grocery list.

I always look at the bonuses section to try to have a goal to shoot for. My latest bonus was $15 for purchasing 15 item. These bonuses are on top of individual cashback you’ll get per item! These items included things that were regulars on my grocery list anyway: El Paso salsa, Sunbelt granola bars, Arrowhead sparkling water, Meow Mix cat food, etc.

Proof of payment:

7. Coupon affiliate: who knew this is a thing?

Do you ever get online coupon codes you know you’re not going to use? That’s another thing I make money on. I don’t really “sell” them though, I simply list the coupon code on couponchief.com’s pays-2-share program. This year, I’m on track to make $300+! If you have a promo code or user-specific coupon code that you’re not going to use, consider listing it on couponchief. This site allows you list your coupon code and make a 2% commission off the user’s purchase. You’ll usually make a couple bucks per coupon, but if it’s a reusable one, you’ll easily make up to $25 per month per store (limit is $25 per month per store). It only takes seconds to list, and it definitely can add up.

For example, I get Famous Footwear rewards coupons in my email from when my husband used to shop there. We don’t currently shop there (we buy everything used), but I list the coupons they send me and get around $3 each time. I made $300 in the past year from listing coupons from seven different stores: Yankee Candle, Cabela’s, Columbia, Fun.com, Buy Buy Baby, Famous Footwear, Boxed, and Kohl’s. Over half this commission comes from the months around Christmas.

8. Momentum investing or “swing trading”

I like to have a “set-and-forget” frame of mind with our retirement accounts at Wealthfront. When it comes to momentum trading with my fun-money Robinhood account however, I have a much more exciting riskier mindset. The tactic behind momentum trading is to buy high and sell higher. This seems counter intuitive to the common investment motto of “Buy low, sell high.” But this isn’t really about investing long term–it’s about swing trading, or buying a stock to sell a few days later. Ideally, for a profit!

The strategy is to catch a winning stock immediately after it starts on an upswing, when a large volume of buying activity occurs and the stock price drives upward. Then, in a perfect world, you sell at its peak price for that cycle. Usually when I buy an oversold stock, I sell it two or three days later when it becomes overbought. If you catch a volatile one, you can buy it in the morning and sell it by 2 pm for a profit.

These oversold-overbought cycle patterns can be placed on a chart called a stochastic chart. The chart’s line (or lines) oscillate, or bounce in waves, to show oversold and overbought conditions on a range-bound chart. The chart ranges from 0-100, where the stock is considered oversold when under 20 and overbought when over 80. The trick is to buy it on the bounce back up after an oversold condition, ideally after the line clears the 20 mark, and ride the buying momentum up to the 100 area. In the picture below, you buy immediately after the line leaves the green zone and sell within the red zone.

I follow Joanne Klein’s momentum trading updates here. She provides stochastic charts for stocks that meet a pre-determined set of criteria which she explains on the first page. I stick to the stocks on pages 13-14, but these may change daily. I’m not a fan of leveraged ETFs that can make you lose money at epic speed, I never use margin, and I always have a stop loss in mind. I often also consult the list of popular stocks on the Robinhood app, because popularity means volume, and volume means movement.

Also, I use the Robinhood app for all my trading. It doesn’t charge commission–many brokerages charge $4-$8 per trade! Ouch! The first year I started trading, 2015, I paid over $3,000 in commission to Optionshouse–now Etrade–just to make trades! Robinhood is also super easy to use, especially for beginners–it only takes seconds to buy or sell. Sign up here to get a free surprise share of stock!

Of course, you trade at your own risk. I am an average Joe, not a stock analyst. I’ve lost plenty of money with trades-gone-wrong, mostly in my first year! After I found my stride, I started regularly making $300+ per month with swing trades. I limit the amount I allow myself to trade with in order to limit potential losses. Here’s a screenshot of my first few months of ’21. I’m up an average of over $2k a month:

None of this should be construed as financial advice! As I’m sure you’ve guessed, I’m not a financial expert. I only post about my experiences–dumb luck included.

Trading isn’t for everyone! 2021 is a super volatile year in the stock market–and has turned out to be much more riskier than 2019. Update: 2022 is turning out to be even scarier. Make sure you have a sound strategy and most importantly–know when to cut your losses.

9. Last of the side hustle ideas: surveys

This list wouldn’t be complete without a few surveys thrown in. I hear the sighs out there, but hear me out! Surveys can be an easy, effortless way to make a few bucks each day or week just by answering questions from your couch. I only use legit survey sites that pay IN CASH/PAYPAL/Visa. Below are some of the sites I’ve used in the past and/or still use. See my more detailed survey reviews for a more in-depth look a the best free survey sites that actually pay, plus PROOF.

1. Pinecone pays $3 per survey paid in cash or gift cards. I get about three surveys per month, but sometimes only one. They only send surveys you qualify for, but it can be hard to initially get your foot in the door. They often seem to need 18-24 year old people, men, and people of ethnic minority. There’s no threshold for payment, so you can cash out with your first $3 survey if you like. It takes a couple days for payment to hit your Paypal account.

I made $162 from Pinecone in 2017, and $105 in 2018.

2. Opinion Outpost offers .50-$5 per survey, with a $10 threshold before payment. They have a constant supply of surveys available and pay out at $10 cash or $5 if you choose an Amazon card. The surveys are easy to take, but they’ll often ask the same pre-screen questions over and over. This is a great site use when you want to mindlessly earn money if you have time to kill somewhere.

3. Survey Savvy pays $1-$5 per survey and has a good supply of surveys. You also have the opportunity to download their Savvy Connect extension that pays $5 per device per month if you keep it installed for two months. Go here to see my review of these survey sites, plus proof of payment.

4. Rethink Online Research usually offers $5-$10 per 10-minute survey, and averages two surveys per month to my email. I wish they offered more surveys! They claim to offer cash, but I haven’t figured out how to get it here. Maybe there’s a hidden Visa offer somewhere. I just cash out for the Amazon gift cards, which is as good as cash to me.

5. Swagbucks: I hesitate to put this under the survey sections, because their surveys actually stink. They’re low pay and would always tend to kick me out after lots of screener questions. I include them in this list due to their ever-changing featured offers section.

For example, sign up for a month of Hulu and earn 1000 swagbucks=$10. Or buy four Nestle coffee creamers to earn 1200 swagbucks=$12. Or buy a Proactiv kit and get 3000 sb=$30. I’ve done each of these offers and ended up with free Hulu, free creamer, and free Proactiv!

If you click through Swagbucks to try a featured offer and find yourself close to cashing out, a survey may help get you to the payment threshold. Sometimes (including each of the examples above), their offers give more cash back than what you originally pay. Therefore, you’re making money!

When you go to cash out for a Visa or other gift card, their gift cards are often on sale, so you have the potential to make your money go even further. For example, the $25 Walmart, Amazon, and Visa gift cards are usually on sale for 12-13% off at 2200 Swagbucks instead of 2500 Swagbucks.

Bonus: affiliate marketing. Because money saved is money earned.

I know I spoke ill of this topic earlier, but there’s a way to do it that’s not shady. Be honest. Who’d thunk?

If you’ve had a good experience with a business, and they offer a referral credit or discounts, why not shout out your love for them and get a referral credit? Where do you shout it out? Pinterest.

Make a pin about your experience with Walmart Grocery pickup. Did you know they they give you $10 off a $50 purchase for each person you refer to them, right? Make a pin about Cricket Wireless, who offers $25 credit (up to 10 per year) for each person you refer their way through your referral link. I used to get free groceries from Boxed.com via a pin about their sales–they no longer have referrals though, boo! Love Ibotta as much as I do? Refer others and get $10+ per person who signs up via your link. I have pins of all these referral options on my Pinterest account, and I earn around $20-30 a day in credits (or cash, in the case of Ibotta) to these businesses! This is passive income at its finest!

So many businesses offer these easy referral credits; it’s up to you to get creative and start referring.

Hope you try a few of these hustling-for-money ideas. I like to think my list looks a little different than most articles because of the fact that I’ve personally tried and had success with every item on this list. I’m not peddling these as a salesperson or trying to sell pointless e-courses.

Different folks will find varying degrees of success with each of these strategies, depending on patience levels, perseverance, lifestyle limitations, laziness levels. If one concept doesn’t play out, try another. Remember, when you combine real ways to make extra money as well as save money, that’s when your savings will really take off.

With the right side hustle ideas and the right frame of mind, you could feel the comfort of some extra money in the bank in no time. Heck, you might even be able to splurge on some fancy new clothes.