By the time the clock hits happy hour on a Friday afternoon, most of America is scurrying off to a restaurant, bar, movie, event or home to their couch to let off some steam and forget about the week. But not you! You are stealthy and wealthy. For those of us who would rather put our free time toward our future this weekend, I’ve compiled a list of ways that you can make extra money fast this weekend. These are all ideas that you could start on a Friday and have some money to show for it by the end of the weekend.
Because this list is focused on making money on the side fast, I didn’t include some of my favorite side gigs like driving Uber, delivering for Amazon or Postmates, or refinancing your mortgage, since those will all take longer than the next few days. Below are things that you could start right away and pocket some extra cash without having to start a new career, go through a length application process or change your career. Take on a couple of these this weekend and let me know in the comments how you did! I’m planning to personally complete at least three or four of these tomorrow. The best ways to make extra money fast this weekend:
15 ways to make extra money fast this weekend
- Dog walking – If you don’t already have a network of pet lovers looking for someone to take Sparky out for a jaunt, check out apps like Wag. Wag is essentially Uber for pets, where you can find people in your area who are looking for a dog walker and get paid to take their pet out.
- Sell unwanted items on Craigslist: You can literally sell anything on this site and you would probably be surprised at how much you can rack up over a weekend after cleaning out your garage, closet or storage room.
- Take online surveys for money – Through sites like Pinecone Research, Swagbucks, iPoll and more, you can complete surveys from your phone or computer and make money fast this weekend. The best thing about it is that these don’t take any additional training or enrollment process beyond signing up and starting.
- Hold a garage sale: Like Craigslist, you can turn the things that you are not using in your house into cash. Post signs around the neighborhood and get some things out of your house while you make extra money.
- Use second hand clothing websites or shops: Most cities have consignment shops, or stores that will purchase your clothes off of you when you take them in, many of them for pretty decent prices. Throw together a couple of bags or boxes of old clothes and take them to your local second hand clothing store, or list them on sites like eBay, ThredUp, Poshmark or The Attic.
- Sell at Pawn Shops: most pawn shops will buy all kinds of items (not just temporarily). Be sure to think about electronics, CDs, DVDs, collectibles, tools and sporting goods in addition to the other items that you are selling this weekend.
- Complete tasks on Amazon Mechanical Turk: There are thousands of tasks that you can complete including filling out surveys, transcribing audio, receipts or video, writing content, testing websites, you name it. There is a short registration process, but you’ll be able to earn money very quickly on Mturk.
- Make money $5 at a time using Fiverr. Any task that you can think of, you can list on Fiverr and perform it for a flat rate of $5, $10 or $20. People have done everything from hand drawing logos to psychic readings to creating ukulele jingles. Think of something creative and post it.
- Rent your car on Turo or GetAround. If you have a car, you can post it on these sites and rent it to other people who need a vehicle for the weekend. It is fast, easy to list, fully insured and you could make $25-$100 per day.
- Become a photographer: All of those food and pet photos that you have sitting on your phone might be worth a few bucks to you. With the Foap app, you can upload your own photos and get a little bit of cash each time someone wants to use one of them as a stock photo. Just keep in mind that these photos could end up anywhere, so only use photos that you don’t mind sharing with the world.
- Start a blog – I may be a bit partial to this one. But what other method of making money is there where you can do it from home at any hour and talk about your favorite things in the world? As you build up your blog, you can make money through affiliate marketing, Google Adsense, partnerships with brands and other monetization techniques. It may not be the easiest way to make extra money fast this weekend, but it will be the most fun and will likely pay off over time if you stick with it.
- Teach a course – Admit it. You are an expert in SOMETHING. Many of us feel that we are not qualified enough to teach others the things that we know. We are wrong. Beyond creating a blog or website, you can share your knowledge of just about any topic through sites like Udemy, which will allow you to create a course with video or Powerpoint and charge people to take your course. It’s definitely a time investment, but a great way to spend a weekend creating something that will give you passive income for months or years to come.
- Reselling items – If you are already a proper minimalist and have cleared out the junk from your house, you can go find more items to sell. eBay, garage sales, Craigslist, discount stores and other locations all have items that you can pick up for very cheap, then sell online. Take a phone with you while you browse, then find items that are ripe for arbitrage. Just be careful not to overestimate your profit margins and consider the fees that sites will take when you sell as well as shipping fees if they apply.
- Pick up gigs on Craigslist – The “gigs” section of Craigslist has a large number of opportunities to make quick money on the weekends. You can find everything from manual labor to hauling to resume writing to online marketing. Browsing these listings will be one of the best ways to find a short term gig where you can make extra money fast this weekend.
- Deliver Food with Postmates – With just a short training session and easy application process, you can start making $15-25 per hour delivering food for Postmates. If you have a car and some spare time, you can open up the Postmates driver app and start accepting orders. From there, you simply pick up food from local restaurants and deliver it to the person who ordered. You will receive a fee for your mileage and time as well as tips from the orderer.
Well, there you go. Skip the happy hour, carve out some time, pick a method and go make money fast this weekend. If you have other suggestions or want to share your success stories, feel free to comment below.