We're Every Further Mile!

We get commissions from the purchases made through the links in this post. See our full disclosure for more details.

Many of us have tried a side hustle or two to try it out, to make extra money or to see if it’s something you might enjoy long term as a business. Are you struggling to pay bills or are you looking to have a bit more spending money? Then I would try out a side hustle to help you out.

What is a Side Hustle?

Side hustling is when you do some work in addition to your regular job to make some extra income. There are so very many choices out there both online and not that you can try to see if they work for you.

Related Posts:

9 Ways to Make Extra Income and Include Your Children

3 Best Side Hustle Videos That Make You Extra Income 

5 Creative Jobs You Can Do From Anywhere & Never Heard Of  

Why Side Hustle?

It is a very helpful way to make ends meet and to try new things or to make a few bucks from your hobby. Who doesn’t love the idea of turning something that you truly enjoy into a side business?

How do you choose what side hustle to do?

Do you love crafting? Perhaps you want to use this skill to bring in a couple hundred dollars a month for spending cash. Are you great with graphic design? There are so many websites you can try out to find some extra work created logos or images for websites and businesses.

Write down any special skills you have and see what you can do that you would enjoy to make extra income as a side hustle. If you are in a tight spot, then you might not have the luxury to choose something that you love, but can still find something that you can do that will help you pay that bill.

If you aren’t sure what you want to try, take a look through the 20 of the side hustles that I’ve tried to give you the inside scoop on how they work and if they worked for us.

 

Side Hustle #1: Thrift Store

Thrifting is a fun past-time for myself and a skill that many have honed to create full businesses with. There are many different styles within thrifting that you can explore (I’ve tried #1 and #2):

1. Find new or nearly new items that you can resell at a higher price on local classifieds (because some thrift stores don’t realize how much it can cost new or because you found it on a 50% off day and it made even cheaper than normal).
2. You can also look for used furniture items, spruce them up and then resell them
3. Search for great kids items to resell at flea markets. There’s one that I frequent that has tubs of little toys (dinky cars, action figures, lego figures, etc) that they sell per piece. They buy toys in bulk bags at thrift stores and then sell them by piece at the flea market. It works on us every time because it’s an inexpensive way to get something for our littles while we keep on searching through all the grown-up stuff.
4. Find good clothing and materials to recreate upcycled wears, accessories or purses.

 

Side Hustle #2: Face Painting

Are you good with a paintbrush? There are many youtube channels and websites that can help you learn how to translate that to face painting. All you need is a starter kit and about 5-10 designs to get started. With a bit of practice, you can take this to the farmer’s/flea market or festival and events to make some money or you can book birthday parties for $40/hr. Do a couple parties or a few festivals/markets and you will be earning a few hundred dollars a month extra for those bills or your next adventure. I’ve done this in the past for some extra money and really enjoy it. It’s a great form of art to try out.

 

Side Hustle #3: Cleaning

In the past I’ve taken to cleaning other people’s homes for some extra money. You are often able to ask for $20-$25/hr (at least in my area) and it can take about 3 hrs per home to clean. It’s not the funnest side hustle, in fact I really didn’t like it. But it was something I needed to do at the time, which I’m thankful to be past now. The upside is that it’s often easy to find clients and it doesn’t take any expertise. To make it a little better, bring an ipod or your phone and listen to music or a podcast.

 

Side Hustle #4: Hair Styling

Out of high school, I went to hairstyling school and so this is a skill I can fall back on if I need it. I’ve used it in the past to do some haircuts in my home or in others or to do updos for weddings and proms. As an artistic type, this is something I enjoy doing from time to time. It doesn’t pay crazy amounts as a full-time job, but as a way to bring in some extra income, it’s a good choice. You get to hang out and chat with others and use your artistic side. You may not have this skill or training, but perhaps you have your own unique training you can use for your side hustle.

 

Side Hustle #5: Painting (homes)

This is much like cleaning. It’s not a lot of fun, but it doesn’t take a whole lot of skill. You should be able to do a good job of it, but it’s usually pretty easy and easy to find people to paint for. Ask your family and friends or post on a classifieds site (FB or other).

 

Side Hustle #6: Renovations

My hubs did this one. I’m not much of a reno type, but he has picked up odd jobs helping others with some renovations in their home. Again, this is something that can be done by asking friends and family. Just get the word out that you are looking to pick up form extra work and you are likely to find something.

 

Side Hustle #7: Tutoring

When we lived in Kuwait, we picked up some extra cash by tutoring students from our school. We would get about 10KWD an hour (translating to $40CDN/hour) It would cover our eating out habits and leave the rest of our income for vacations and savings.

 

Side Hustle #8: Deliveries

We have family that owns their own business and from time to time need product delivered in the area. We’ve been hired to deliver items for him which is a pretty easy job that we have been happy to pick up.

 

Side Hustle #9: Events

This is less of a side hustle right now and has turned into a full-time business, but it didn’t start as a side hustle. Nathan and I had an idea for a fundraiser that exploded in popularity far beyond what we could have ever imagined. This made us create a business around it to properly bring it to fruition and help it grow each year. This is something that could happen for you. Perhaps you start a side hustle that grows into a full-time job that you love.

 

Side Hustle #10: Accounting/Bookkeeping

We have picked up our own bookkeeping side hustle to help out others who don’t have the money to pay someone full-time but need their receipts and bills accounted for in Quickbooks. It’s an easy job that we can do in our spare time and it’s not too bad. Not the most fun, but not bad either.

 

Side Hustle #11: Gardening/Landscaping

Yet another example of something fairly easy to find jobs in. Why? Because most people don’t like to garden. Which means that unless you enjoy gardening, this won’t be too much fun. We found out that this is not the right side hustle for us. I’m less of a labor-intensive worker and more creative and organized worker.

 

Side Hustle #12: Public Speaking/Sermons/Funeral Services

Sometime after hairstyling and before our trip to Kuwait, we went to school to get a BA in theological studies and were pastors. Because of this we also have the training to help substitute for sermons when a pastor wants a vacation, to step in as part-time youth pastors or to help at funerals. In each of these cases, we are given a donation or small amount towards the work we put into them. (Why aren’t we full-time pastors, well, that’s a whole other thing)

 

Side Hustle #13: Moving

We had a friend that owned a moving company and were asked to help when he didn’t have the employees he needed for the move. We did this a few times, but my back is thankful I don’t do it anymore. If you’re strong and happy to do some labor style work, then let people know. Pop into your local employment center and give them a card or at least your name and number, they may get people coming to ask if they know of someone looking for some quick money to help them move.

 

Side Hustle #14: Web Development/Design

Over the years I’ve become self-taught in web design and development and have used this to bring in hundreds to thousands of dollars for a single site. If you have this skill, then it’s a great way to make up some great money fairly quickly (although creating a website can take weeks to properly finish).

 

Side Hustle #15: Daycare

When I was home with my oldest son I decided to open up a small daycare. I took care of 3 children, helping them to grow and learn through interactive play and crafts. If you are good with kids and especially if you’re already staying home with your own child(ren) then daycare may be an often for you.

 

Side Hustle #16: Vending at Farmers Markets

We’ve worked farmer’s markets together selling goods and face painting. It was fun, but I’m not certain that doing something every Saturday morning is something I want to do long term.

 

Side Hustle #17: Yard Sales

Of course, most of us have had a yard sale or two in our lifetime. We’ve moved a few times and have used this opportunity to downsize our stuff. Make a few quick bucks by selling some of your things as a yard sale. The problem is yard sales don’t always get you the most money for your stuff. Instead, consider…

 

Side Hustle #18: Selling Items on Classifieds

I prefer to sell our bigger items on online classifieds. People are more inclined to buy things at a higher price when coming from a classifieds than a yard sale.

 

Side Hustle #19: Airbnb

We’ve rented our home out on Airbnb to see what it would be like. You can make a good bit of money doing this and we plan to do more of it in the future. We’re currently doing some upgrading to help increase the price. If you have an extra room to rent out or perhaps you planning a long trip that you can prepare your home for Airbnb, then consider renting it out to bring in some extra money.

 

Side Hustle #20: Farmers Market Manager

Farmers markets need some managing: finding vendors, making sure it’s set up well each market day, set up some events to bring more people, keep up social media pages, etc. Because of this, farmers market managers often get paid for the season. Nathan was able to do this for a summer in a nearby town. He didn’t get paid until the end of the season, but it was worth it in the end. He was paid a few thousand dollars and it was like a savings plan having to wait until the end of the season to receive the money.

Bonus Side Hustle:

If you’re reading this blog, then my guess is that you are on the search for financial and lifestyle freedom. For me, financial and lifestyle freedom means having an income where I get to be my own boss, travel the world more and provide a better education for my kids. To do this I have realized that I need to think of most of these side hustles as a temporary fix for a bigger plan. My bigger plan is to build up this website to be a useful place for other’s to learn about travel and income to travel. In turn, using this blog for my own family travel and financial freedom.

What is your long-term side hustle plan to create financial and lifestyle freedom?

If you’re considering a blog then I have a couple resources for you:

1. How to Start A Blog
Learn how to start your own blog! Begin your own journey to financial and lifestyle freedom today. It’s quick, easy and inexpensive ($3.95/month)

2. Sign Up for My Free Email Blogging Course
With a blog started, you need to know the steps to get it ready for your readers. This course will take you through from concept to ready for readership. Learn how to blog, how to reach your audience and where to promote to get more readers to your blog.

3. Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
This course helped me to better understand how to fully utilize affiliate marketing on my blog to make more money and to do it in such a way that it doesn’t detract from the quality of my blog and posts. It’s one of the best ways and first ways that you can start to make money with your blog.
If you would like to learn more tips about affiliate marketing, I wrote a post about it here.

4. Pinning Perfect
With a largely female audience, I took to Pinterest to reach my audience. I understood the basics of Pinterest, but this course really helps cut through the crap online and understand how to best optimize your business Pinterest account.
If you want to learn more about using Pinterest to grow your traffic, I’ve written a post here. 

This is my list of the many different side hustles we’ve tried over the years to make ends meet. Some we enjoyed and some we never want to do again if we can help it, but all of them were helpful at the time. Are you in need of making some extra income?

 

What are some ways you’ve made extra money? I’d love to know! Comment below…