15 Best Side Hustles

Side hustles. Sidelines. Gigs. Ways to make a little extra money on the side outside of your main 9 to 5 job. Whatever you call them, side hustles are booming.

You love using coupon codes to save extra cash? 

Try a side hustle. It's a great way to make a little extra cash, and can 

 Your side hustle can be testing or proving ground for a new business idea. A creative outlet. A mom side hustle can be a flexible way to earn while the kids are at school, and help build an online community. The possibilities are endless.

How Much Money Can I Make with a Side Hustle?

You can reasonably make anywhere from $200 to $1,200 a month with your side hustle. It depends on what the side hustle is, and how much time you put into it. More involved side hustles - that involve leaving your couch and putting on pants - will pay more than ones you can do in your pajamas. And if you've got any special skills, you can still find more lucrative ones.

15 Best Side Hustles

#1 Pick Up Groceries for Your Neighbors

If you already go to the supermarket to fetch your groceries, why not pick up a load for your neighbors and get paid for it? Shop with Shipt or Instacart. On average, you can make $15 to $22 per hour. Work when it's convenient for you and pick up only the runs or deliveries you want.

#2 Cash in on Your Opinions

You've got valuable opinions (regardless of what your siblings think). Market research companies will pay you for them. Survey apps like InboxDollars will connect you with market research companies who need you to complete short, online surveys about a variety of consumer topics. Make $50 to $250 a month, or more, answering surveys with InboxDollars. You can answer surveys from your phone while bingeing Netflix, and you get a free $5 bonus just for signing up. Join InboxDollars.

#3 Get Paid for Purchasing Toilet Paper

Yes, you can get paid for purchasing toilet paper. Soap. Toothpaste. Fresh produce. And hundreds of other home and grocery goods. Tada will pay you for your grocery purchases on 100's of featured categories and items. Just add items to your list in the app, and then scan your receipt. It's as easy as 2 taps. Tap to snap a picture. Then tap to send. You can even get paid for purchasing fuel at gas stations. Join Tada.

#4 Claim Cash Back on All Your Purchases

You can claim cash back on all of your purchases with shopping apps like Swagbucks, Rakuten, Honey, or MyPoints. Earn 1% to 20% cash back, or more, for your online purchase at thousands of featured cash back merchants including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Kohl's, Macy's, Best Buy, Lowe's, and Home Depot.

Retailers want more traffic. They'll pay shopping apps like Swagbucks a commission for sending traffic. And Swagbucks, in turn, shares a portion of their earnings with you in the form of a cash back rebate.

By claiming cash back on all the online purchases you're already making, that's an extra $300 to $1,200 a year. Or more. 

You earn cash back in the form of SB. It's 100 SB to $1.00 USD. Cash out with an Amazon gift card once you reach at least $1.00 in earnings. Other reward options include PayPal cash, free gift cards, or even cryptocurrency rewards. In Early 2022, Swagbucks is introducing free cryptocurrency for taking surveys, cash back shopping, and other site activities. 

Start getting cash back on your online purchases. It's free to join Swagbucks. Try Swagbucks now.

#5 Clean Out Your Closet

Clean out your closet already. It's filled with plenty of things you're not wearing. Items worn only once or twice, or not at all. Brand new items that looked so good on the clearance racks in the store. Clear out that clutter. You can sell your garments on resale apps like eBay, Poshmark, ThredUP, or Mercari. If you don't want to have to ship, you can sell garments in local Buy Sell Trade groups on Facebook.

#6 Flip Thrift Store Treasures

Do you love bargain hunting and uncovering thrift store treasures? You can flip your finds on eBay, Etsy, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and other sites. It's best to pick your niche so you can narrow down your search. Popular things to look for: American Girls clothing and accessories, Fiestaware, vintage toys, large frames in good shape, or designer-label clothing and shoes. Coveted brands include lululemon, Nike, Pendleton, Athleta, and Birkenstock. 

#7 Get Paid to Eat Cookies

You can get paid to eat cookies - and thousands of other flavors and food items. Be a taste tester! You can find on-site gigs or try new foods from your home. There are even mess-free opportunities to just take surveys about food online. Share your opinion about flavors and package, no crumbs. Explore tasty food gigs now.

#8 Start a Blog

There's big money to be made in blogging. Blog about a topic you're knowledgeable in, like gardening or stamp collecting. Or even if you're more passionate than knowledgeable, that's ok. Share what you love. Write content. Build a community. You can place referral links for products and services you really like and monetize with Google AdSense (an easy way to place banner ads). Over time, you can make money by working with brands as an affiliate partner where you recommend products or share their specific links and get paid.

#9 Get Paid to Stamp Things

It's not hard to become a Notary Public. You can make a few thousand dollars a year, or more. As a notary, you'd apply your official stamp or seal on formal documents. This can include titles, decrees, birth certificates, death certificates, and more.

#10 Tutor Online

Whether it's speaking English or painting landscapes, you can get paid for teaching someone else how to do it online. Tutors are needed for every subject matter you can think of, not just traditional K-12 subjects. You can find online tutoring work on Care.com, VarsityTutors.com, Preply.com, Tutors.com, Coursera, or Udemy.

#11 Deliver Food for DoorDash or UberEats

Deliver food for others in your neighborhood with DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, or other meal delivery services. Work when you have spare time, and you can cash out up to 3 to 5 times a day. You choose which orders you want to pick up and will be given an estimate of how much money you can take from the delivery trip offered if you use it.

Some rewards sites, like Swagbucks, will give you a cash bonus of $100 or more when you sign up with the food delivery service on their site and make your first order.

In fact, one Minnesota mom made $200 just for signing up for UberEats through Swagbucks and delivering one bowl of pasta fewer than 2 miles away.

#12 Pick Up Freelance Writing Gigs

Pick up freelance writing work. Businesses, small and large, always need more writers. They need lots of content: email newsletters, landing pages, website content, blog articles, and more. You can find gigs on Fiverr, Indeed, Freelancer.com, and Upwork. You can also reach out directly to businesses and ask friends, family, and business contacts too.

#13 Walk Dogs

If you like dogs, why not get paid to take a cute furry friend for a walk? You're getting paid to frolic with an adorable critter, get some exercise, and soak in the sun. It's hard to go wrong. Find dog walking gigs on Care.com, Rover.com, DogCityWalkers.com, or Craigslist.

#14 Social Media Manager

Are you a maven of social media? Do you have a knack for posting pics that stop people scrolling their tracks? Consider picking up freelance work as a social media manager. A lot of businesses have no social media presence (except maybe an old Facebook page). They don't know how to do live posts or videos. They're vaguely aware Instagram is a "thing". You can help. Reach out and offer your services.

Doing social media work for an hourly wage or monthly stipend is a good possibility, or this is also ripe to be a work-for-trade situation. Maybe you do their social media work in exchange for free goods, free meals, or free services. This could mean teeth cleanings, auto detailings, facials, massages, and more.

#15 Graphic Designer

As with writing gigs, businesses large and small always need designers. If you've got an artistic eye and know how to use Adobe Photoshop or a similar creative suite program, this is the gig for you. You can find freelance graphic design work on 99Designs, Fiverr, Freelancer, and several other online job boards.