Christmas can be very expensive between the presents you have to buy, the food and any travelling to see family. If you want to pad your bank account for the holiday season, there is still time to do this. All you need to do is know the ways that you can make a bit of extra cash for Christmas.
1. Get Some Seasonal Work
Seasonal work is a great way to make a bit of money for Christmas. There are a lot of companies that hire seasonal workers to cope with the increase in custom over the holiday season. Seasonal customer service rep jobs are among the easiest to get and the pay will not be too bad. You could do this as a work from home job, but there are not that many of those types available.
2. Earn With Swagbucks
I am a fan of Swagbucks because it is fairly easy to earn with them. You will not earn cash, but SB which can be redeemed for gift cards, products or cash through PayPal. There are a lot of different ways that you can earn with Swagbucks from watching videos to taking surveys to shopping through the website.
3. Use Your Car
Do you have a car? If you do, you will have a great way of making some money for Christmas. There are a few ways that you can do this and you need to choose the right one. A lot of shoppers are going to be out and about for Christmas who will not want to drive around or try to find parking. Becoming an Uber or Lyft driver is a great way to take advantage of this. You could also place marketing on your car which may not make you that much, but it will be something to your Christmas fund.
4. Deliver Groceries
You might not realize that you can deliver groceries to make some extra cash for Christmas. To be honest, this is more than just a Christmas money earner and you can make money doing this throughout the year. There are a lot of companies that hire you to deliver groceries. The only problem is that not all of these companies are in every country or every city.
5. Deliver Food
Groceries are not the only thing that you will be able to deliver to make some money for Christmas. There are a lot of companies that hire you to deliver take away to people. You can do these deliveries by car or by bicycle. These options are very flexible which is ideal for extra cash.
6. Declutter Your Home
If you need to get some cash fast, you try to sell things that you don’t need any more. Decluttering your home is also good for you and makes your home look bigger. There are a lot of ways that you can sell the items you don’t need including eBay, Facebook Groups and apps like Shpock.
7. Try Some Crowdsourcing Websites
Crowdsourcing websites have micro-tasks that you can do to get some extra money. The amount you make will depend on the time you spend and the tasks you do. Only a few minutes each day can make you a bit of extra cash. The tasks that you can do vary from writing a short article or liking a Facebook page or typing what you see on a shopping receipt.
8. Use A Cashback Website
When you think about making money, you will not think about cashback websites like TopCashback or Ebates. All you have to do is shop like you normally would. You can earn cashback on your Christmas shopping and your normal shopping. The savings you make from the cashback can go back into your Christmas pot.
9. Use A Savings App
Saving money is one of the best ways to ensure that you have enough for Christmas and there are apps that can help you with this. There are some apps that will take a bit of money from your bank account and hold it in a savings account for you. There are other apps that are more well-rounded and will help you manage your money whole saving. These apps allow you to set rules that you should follow and if you go over, you can have them deposit an amount of money in savings as punishment. You can also have the money you didn’t spend during the money deposited into savings so you always increase your money. This is a more long-term type of income, but you should still be able to save something for Christmas.
10. Snap Your Receipts
There are a lot of apps that will pay you for taking pictures or scanning in your receipts. This includes Nielsen and some cashback apps. All you have to do is take a picture of your receipts (any receipts) and upload them. As you can imagine, this will not be a gold mine, but it can add up so why not try it?
11. Sell Some Used Books
If you are like me, you will have paperbacks that you have not read in ages lying around the house. While you can sell this as part of your decluttering, you can actually make a part-time gig out of this. You could become an Amazon seller and list used books that you find for a good price. It is generally better to become an Amazon FBA seller because they will hold the books until they sell. If you have old textbooks, you can also sell them on a specialist website that only deals in these types of books.
12. Trade-In Your Unwanted Items
Another way you can use Amazon to make some money for Christmas is to trade-in your unwanted items. Not all items are accepted by Amazon, but you could trade in books, electronics, video games and DVDs. You will not actually get cash for the items, but an Amazon gift card which can be just as good for Christmas. After all, you are probably going to do some shopping on Amazon for Christmas.
13. Save Your Change
Cents are a nightmare and they just take up space in your wallet. They are also very hard to use in daily life, but they can be very helpful when it comes to Christmas. You may be surprised by how much you will save by just holding onto your change. Closer to Christmas, you can go to the bank and deposit the change or have it converted into larger bills. There are also stores that have a Coin Exchange and they will give you a voucher for the amount off your next shop with them which can make Christmas lunch a cheaper.
14. Be A Mystery Shopper
Mystery shopping is a great way to make some extra money and there are many people who do this for a living. There are a lot of mystery shopping companies out there and you can easily join them. You may have to go through some training before you can do certain mystery shops. The one point to note with mystery shopping is that there are many fake companies out there and you need to ensure you work with a legitimate one.
15. Test Websites
Website testing is not something that you have to have an IT degree to do. There are a lot of companies that are looking for opinions from average users and not developers or web designers. These are the companies that you are looking for and the pay can be fairly decent. There are some opportunities like UserCrowd that offer short tests that pay on average $0.20 but there are other companies like User Testing that offer longer tests and can pay up to $10 per test. You will need a microphone for those tests and they are all first come first serve.
16. Write Articles
Do you like to write? Do you have specialist knowledge that you are willing to share with the general public? If the answer is yes, you could make some money for Christmas doing this. There are a lot of websites and publications that pay guest authors for their articles. You will need to pitch the idea to the publication first and if it is accepted you need to write the article and send it in. If the article is published, you will be paid. There are some publications that pay $150 per article that is published which can really help in the holiday season.
17. Use Your Skills
Freelancing is something that anyone can get into at any time. If you do not feel comfortable offering online services, you can easily freelance offline as well. We live in a world of gig jobs which are ideal for freelancers. There are also a lot of websites and apps that can help you find gigs in your area that suit the skills you have. Do you like putting together IKEA furniture? You can easily do this for people and get paid.
18. Lose Weight
Most people think about losing weight at some point and why not do it before you hit the food rich holiday meals. There are apps that will pay you to lose weight. These apps make losing weight into a game and a competition which is the push some people need.
19. Trim Your Bills
You might not realize that you are still paying for things that you do not actually use. Recurring subscriptions can cost you a lot over time and if you are not actively using the product or service, you are wasting money. Take some time to look at your bank and credit card statements to see what you are paying and if you actually need to keep the subscription. If you do not want to bother, there is an app you can use instead. This is Trim which looks for these subscriptions, cancels them and will even negotiate a lower phone or cable bill for you.
20. Use An App
As you might have noticed, there are a lot of apps that can help you make some money from mystery shopping to scanning receipts. There are also some apps that pay you just for using them or using other apps. These apps give you virtual currency which can be exchanged for gift cards or PayPal cash when you reach a set amount. The amount you could make varies depending on how dedicated you are to using them.
21. Be A Pet Sitter
Do you like animals, even when they are not yours? If you do, you can make money as a pet sitter. People travel a lot during the holidays and they cannot always take their pets with them. If you feel that pet sitting will be too much work, you could always make some extra cash as a dog walker. You can spare their owners the walk in the old, give the dog some attention and get a walk in as well.
22. Do Surveys
Surveys are easy to do and they do not generally take up a lot of time, but you are not going to make that much unless you are in the right demographics. That does not mean you cannot make some extra cash for Christmas. A lot of survey companies will also pay you in gift cards which are great for buying presents. I like to do surveys in otherwise dead time like on the train or while watching TV.
23. Get Into Matched Betting
If you are in the UK or Europe, you can look at matched betting to make some extra money. I’m not sure if this is something that you can do in the United States, but if you can you should try. Despite the name, this is not actually gambling as you are covering yourself and you can make a lot of money. The people over at Profit Accumulator have a great setup that you can follow and you will make up the subscription fee with your first few bets.
24. Cut Out A Bad Habit
Bad habits cost a lot and you do not realize how much until you cut them out of your life. Your bad habit could be smoking or something smaller like crisps. For me, this was Pringles and cutting them out of my life has saved me a fair amount each month. Not only will you save money for Christmas with this, but you will also be getting rid of a bad habit.
25. Sell Your Digital Products
You do not have to sell only physical products to make some money this holiday season. Digital products can also be sold and it could be anything. You can write an ebook about a subject you love or are knowledgeable about and sell it on Amazon or any other marketplace. If you have an eye for graphics, you could sell images or make logos for people. You could also make ebook covers for people or create a website if you know how to code.
26. Enter Competitions
So there is no guarantee that you are going to make some money for Christmas with competitions, but there is no harm in entering some. You will need to be consistent in entering the competitions and ensure that you use correct information so you can actually win. You can easily find competitions with a simple Google search.
27. Be A Personal Shopper
Do you love to shop? If the answer is yes, you can turn this into a money maker for Christmas because a lot of shopping happens at this time. You can advertise your services online and charge either by trip or by the hour. This is a little money maker that you can continue throughout the year because there are always people who do not have the time or inclination to go shopping.
28. Be In A Focus Group
Market research is more than just surveys and focus groups will pay more. You can look at online sites to fin focus groups or you can look at classifieds for adverts. The one thing with focus groups is that you generally have to go to the company location, but there are some companies that conduct online focus groups.
29. Get A Reward Card
So you should generally avoid financing your Christmas on a credit card, but there are times when this is unavoidable. If you know that you will be able to pay off everything the next month, you should look at a rewards credit card. These cards will give you anything from cashback to air miles, depending on the program they run. Just remember to be careful with this because you will pay interest on anything that you cannot pay back the next month.
30. Proofread And Edit
Do your friends get annoyed with you correcting their grammar or do you have an English degree? Both of these will stand you in good stead for becoming a proofreader and editor. You can make around $20 per hour doing this from the comfort of your own home. There are a lot of professionals who need things looked over and there are even students who will pay to have their assignments looked over to ensure they get good marks.
31. Teach English
If you are reading this and have a good grasp of English, you will be able to make some money teaching English. There are a lot of websites that offer these jobs, but many of them will want a degree. There are some companies that only need you to be a native English speaker and to pass a test before you can work on their platform. The amount you make will vary based on the company and your experience, but you can make some money in your spare time for Christmas speaking your own language.
32. Cash In Your Old Gift Cards
Do you still have some gift cards sitting around from last Christmas or from your birthday? You can either use them to buy some presents or you could cash them in turning the plastic into money. There are a number of apps and websites that you can use to do this. This time of year is great for this because a lot of people buy gift cards as presents.
33. Be Santa
Do you have a beard and like children? You can combine this by being Santa. There are a couple of ways that you can do this and the easiest will be to look for adverts for this. You should consider asking around your local area about any Santa gigs going, but some of them might be volunteer only which won’t make you any money for Christmas.
34. Become A Brand Ambassador
Have you ever been to an event and seen people who hand out branded items or the latest sports drink? They will often have matching t-shirts and smiles. These are brand ambassadors and it can be a very lucrative job, if you get into it correctly. With the product releases around this time of year, you should be able to make some extra cash doing this. You can often find these gigs on Facebook by searching for ‘Brand Ambassador [Your City]’.
35. Rent Your Spare Space
If you are lucky enough to have a garage, parking space or driveway that you are not really using, you could turn it into a money maker. You do not have to live in the city centre or close to any attractions to do this. Renting out the space for other people to park or store their extra items is easy and there are a number of websites that can help with this.
If you are looking for more ideas on how to dump the normal 9 to 5 job or just make some extra money on the side, check out our ever-growing master lists for online and offline work.