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Last Updated on September 17, 2022 by Daniella
With 14 different religious holidays and even more events happening JUST in the month of December, you might be looking for creative ways to make extra money for the holidays.
Family gatherings and holiday parties aren’t cheap, especially if you’re expected to get gifts for several folks. Add grocery shopping, liquor shopping, decorations, and maybe additional travel to see relatives and you might have quite the hefty bill to start planning for.
If you have children, you probably want to make sure they have the best memories of that holiday and gifts might be involved in that memory you want to craft for them.
However, trying to save for this occasion can be tough. With the help of side hustles and options to increase your income this holiday season, you should be able to be prepared.
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6 Ways to Make Extra Money For The Holidays
We didn’t talk about options like making money with a blog, selling digital products, or paid research studies in this article. Even though those are all great options, they aren’t going to be able to get you the amount of money you need in time.
That still shouldn’t deter you from exploring other income options that you want to build well past the holidays.
Let’s dive in to these 6 quickest ways to make money for this holiday season.
1. Care for Pets
If you have a love of pets, you can use an app like Rover to make extra money.
The demand for dog walkers and pet sitters sky rockets in the months of November and December with the amount of people traveling to visit family for those holiday months.
With more people traveling, the more pets that are left behind and need care during that time. Also, for the folks that aren’t leaving town but there is more demand of their time to be with family or throw events, will need folks to help them out with their furbabies. They might need walking or several drop in visits which are also services you can do through the app.
If pets aren’t really your style or you don’t have the time to be running from house to house to care for pets, you can also do strictly housesitting on the app.
Check out our review of Rover to learn more.
2. Make Extra Money With Gig Apps
If you have the extra hours each week to work a couple of gigs for extra cash, try out gig apps for a temporary holiday side hustle.
A couple of gig apps to download and try:
- Instacart: Sign up to deliver groceries or be a shopper if you don’t have a car.
- Shovler: Get paid to snow plow or shovel snow for others.
- DoorDash: Sign up to deliver restaurant orders to people.
- Hyrecar: Rent out your car using this app.
- Handy: Find gigs in areas like carpentry, furniture assembly, cleaning, etc.
- TaskRabbit: Do tasks for others such as cleaning, decorating, hanging holiday lights, repairs, painting, and more.
Related: 15 Side Hustle Apps to Make Extra Money
3. Freelance Out a Skill of Yours
Think of a skill that you have like writing, graphic design, or web development. There are actually ways you can monetize those skills by reaching out to small businesses and online creators that may need your skillset (especially during peak season which happens to be the holiday season).
Here are some places you can start looking for those freelance jobs:
- Search Facebook groups using keywords like “freelance + [skill]” like “freelance writing” and find groups like the Binders Full of Writing Jobs FB group
- Twitter: Use the Twitter search to find freelance gigs. A popular hashtag I follow are #callforpitches.
- Linkedin: For all types of freelancers and consultants. Opt to be a Linkedin Service Provider so your ideal clients can find you on Linkedin services page and in Linkedin search.
- Problogger: For writing, ghostwriting, content, editing, proofreading, and more.
- FlexJobs: For remote jobs like consulting, proofreading, virtual assisting.
- VirtualVocations: More remote freelance options.
- Guru: For web developers, writers, marketers, designers, and more.
- Fiverr: For all types of freelancers and consultants.
- Behance: For graphics designers and creatives.
- Dribbble: For graphics designers and creatives.
Check out this full guide on how to get started as a freelance writer.
Pro tip: Another option is to work as a freelance proofreader and proofread books, articles, courses, and even social media posts for others. You can get started with this free training.
4. Sell Items Online
You can also sell items online to make extra cash. These items can be things you already have or items that you seek out to resell like from a thrift store or flea market.
The absolute easiest platform to sell items fast (in my experience) is Facebook Marketplace. You can either sell the items locally and arrange pick up or sell to anyone regardless of location and ship the items to them through the app. The app also has secure payment tool integration with tools like PayPal that make payment pretty instant.
Other platforms to explore when selling or reselling items online:
- eBay: Best for electronics and collectibles.
- Etsy: You are only allowed to resell in their vintage and craft supply categories if it is not a handmade item.
- Poshmark: Best for designer brands and accessories.
- Mercari: Best for home and kitchen items as well as children’s toys.
Check out these 9 different selling apps to sell items online.
5. Become a Part Time Remote Virtual Assistant
If you are savvy with social media, love organizing for others, or love doing anything technical, you can work as a virtual assistant during some of your free weekend hours as you try to save up for the holidays. You can find work by reaching out to small businesses on social media or looking on Facebook Groups where folks post virtual assistant jobs.
Places that are hiring VA’s include:
- Fancy Hands (use for starting out but doesn’t pay enough to continue work on – use it for starter experience)
- Talent.Hubstaff.com
- Delegated
Related: 11 Best Side Hustles for Introverts That Pay Well
6. Look for Part Time Seasonal Work
If you rather have a more stable source of extra income this holiday season, I recommend you look into part time seasonal work in your area.
This could be:
- Seasonal customer service jobs
- Seasonal retail jobs
- Snow removal
- Holiday decorating
- Holiday events like light displays, Santa meetups, parades, and more
Companies that hire for seasonal jobs:
- Target
- Grocery stores
- Malls
- Godiva
- Nordstrom
- Wayfair
Related: How to Get a Remote Job in 2021 and Work From Anywhere
Bonus Cash Opportunities
With all the different ways to take on extra work for an extra income source this holiday season, there are other ways to earn cash.
These simple hacks can help add a couple of extra bucks to take the stress off:
- Download Ibotta and get cash back on your holiday grocery shopping
- Get $30 when signing up for Rakuten and get cash back when shopping for gifts
- Get cash back with Dosh and SwagBucks
- Make money with your data by downloading Nielsen on your devices
- Get paid for your opinion with Pinecone Research
- Negotiate your bills with Trim
- Earn free gift cards with this guide
- Look for missing money and unclaimed money
They may not be able to get you much but they do add up.
Happy Holidays ❄
As you are looking through this list and thinking of all the possibilities, don’t get caught for too long comparing between the different options. Pick the one that best resonates with you and give it a go.
Which one are you going to give a try? Let us know in the comments.
Happy dabbling and happy holidays!
Related posts:
- How to Save $1,000 for Christmas
- 15 People Share Their Sanity Saving Holiday Hacks
- 26 Creative Money Gift Ideas (+ Save More on Gift-Giving)
- How to Make Money Fast: 12 Ways to Make a Quick $500 Without a Job
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Daniella is the creator and author of iliketodabble.com. When their wife Alexandra and them aren’t globetrotting or playing with their 7+ animals, they are dabbling and working towards a future of financial freedom.