Making Money on the Side

Money is tight at your house. You need a way to bring in some more money. There are all sorts of work available, depending on your situation.

1.       Substitute Teaching – Always a good way to coordinate your schedule with your school age child schedule. The pay ranges from $70-$100 a day, depending on your district. Expect to attend a class and pay for your own background check.

2.       Tutoring - This is a great option for retired educators. The going rate for tutoring is $11-15 an hour. You can sometimes leave flyers at schools, community bulletin boards or even run an ad. What parents are really looking for is raising ACT/SAT scores.

3.       Lawn Care - This old standby of children looking for extra money can work for adults too.

4.       Snow shoveling - This works especially well if you have a snow blade on your truck. One man in my neighborhood cleaned up during an especially snowy winter by scraping people’s driveways before they went to work. It took him about five minutes with his truck.

5.       Pizza Delivery - It just isn’t for kids anymore.

6.       Ebay - A friend combs yard sales looking for good quality children’s clothes and collectibles to sell online.

7.       Childcare – If you are already staying at home with your child, another child shouldn’t make that much difference.

8.       Paper Delivery - This usually happens in the wee hours of the morning, allowing you time to get to your main job.

9.       Pet sitter - Most people prefer to have the pet “sat” as opposed to going to a kennel. A typical price is $25 for the first visit, $15 for the next visit and $10 for the third visit in the day.  Anything from walking the pet to getting the mail will make you the more desirable pet sitter.

10.   Give lessons - Is there something you are expert in from singing, piano, art, dancing, even bee keeping? If it’s music, you might want to leave flyers in an appropriate place or even become associated with a music store.

11.   Web Design - Many people have websites or want properly designed ones. You can become a web designer. Offer to do a few sample sites to have something to show prospective customers.

12.   Editing and proof Reading - Another pair of eyes does help catch mistakes. Be certain you have the background and genre-specific experience to take this one on. Starting price is a $1 a page on editing.

13.   House Painting - Most people would prefer not to paint. Most painters get business with local advertisements and word of mouth. Check out to see what the others are charging.

14.   House cleaning - You might want to start your business with friends, relatives, and neighbors. Later on, you’ll need to be bonded to assure new customers that you won’t steal from them while cleaning.

15.   Dog Walker - This is more popular in the cities, but plenty of people have dogs they do not have time to walk.

16.   Dinner delivery - You cook meals in your home and deliver to those who do not like to cook. It is nice to have a menu for them to choose from. Scout out the ingredients first to have a realistic idea what to charge.

17.   Party planner - Do you give great theme parties? Mothers with children would especially appreciate this.

18.   College Student Care - Live close to a college and offer to bring homemade goodies or care packages to students. The best way to advertise this is to get your flyer into the student registration package.

19.   Night shift jobs - Most people do not want to work the night shift. Even if you have no experience you can often pick up might work as a cleaner, delivery person, or waitress.

20.   Bartering services - This won’t result in actual money, but by not paying for a service that you do need, which would have taken actual money.