Rent’s gone up, and eggs are $8 a carton. You need to make more money this weekend, but it isn’t time to shift careers. How can you make some fast cash? Let’s go over 48 ways to make money within the next 48 hours.
Make Money by Selling Your Stuff
- Create Facebook Marketplace listings. This lets you sell directly to your local community.
- Hold a garage sale. A garage sale allows you to spring clean and sell items.
- Contact an estate sales company. Estate sales companies can sell all your stuff fast, often at more than you could get.
- Use a service like Poshmark. Poshmark lets you sell old clothes fast online to others who will love them.
- Load things up on eBay. If you select the “Buy It Now” option, you might be able to sell them very quickly.
- Go to a store to sell niche/hobby items. If you have collectibles, sell them at a store. A music store, for instance, may purchase albums.
- Talk to your friends and family. Your friends and family may want to buy something you don’t use, like a guitar you haven’t touched.
- Sell old gift cards. If you have a $50 gift card for something you’ll never use, consider selling it for $25. That’s still cash in your pocket.
- Go to a pawn shop. Pawn shops aren’t great if you want your items back, but they can be great if you’re willing to part with them.
- Go to a jewelry store. If you have old, broken jewelry made from silver or gold, you can still get melt value for them.
- Consider arbitrage. That’s when you buy cheap things and sell them for their actual price. Look for discounts at big box stores and sell them on eBay.
Make Money by Doing Some Gigs
- Walk some dogs. Dog walking and pet watching is a relaxing way to make extra money.
- House sit for a neighbor. Your neighbors could need someone to check on their house and water their plants.
- Do some basic lawn maintenance. Going door-to-door for people who need basic lawn maintenance isn’t just money-making; it’s a service.
- Work for a meal delivery service. There are tons of restaurant delivery services are always looking for drivers.
- Sign up for a driving service. Similarly, Lyft and Uber need drivers, and it’s pretty fast to sign up.
- Get a short-term warehouse job. There are a lot of short-term warehouse or cleaning jobs available, sometimes for just a day.
- Sign up for a service like Fiverr. Fiverr lets you sell things like design services; if you can design logos, Fiverr is great.
- Get a job as a grocery delivery person. Big grocery stores look for people to deliver groceries; you just need a car.
- Wash some windows. Window washing is something people frequently don’t think about until they need it.
- Wash some cars. You can also offer to wash cars if you need some extra cash — you might already have everything for your own car.
- Do some click work. Mechanical Turk, for instance, lets you do very small tasks for a small amount of money.
- Transcribe audio. Audio transcription sites need people to listen to and transcribe audio, for a few dollars a minute.
Make Money by Spending Smarter
- Cancel some streaming services. You probably don’t use all of them!
- Consolidate or negotiate your debts. Consolidating 28% credit cards under 8% personal loans is a great way to reduce your spend.
- Reduce your phone bill. Most phone bills are more expensive than you really need; consider a prepaid service.
- Check your credit card/bank statements. Often, you’ll find there are charges that you don’t remember that you need to cancel or dispute.
- Ask for refunds on fees/penalties. Most companies will refund you any first-time fees, like a first-time NSF fee.
- Save on your utilities. Call your utility companies and ask about refunds and discounts; sometimes they have programs available for energy efficiency.
- Get quotes for your insurance policies. Every year, you should get quotes for insurance to see if you can save money.
- Reduce your unnecessary insurance. If you have a $50,000 cap on auto insurance. for instance, consider whether it could be $25,000.
- Transfer your credit card balances. Transferring balances from one account to another can save you some time.
- Find a higher-interest savings account. Savings accounts change interest rates all the time. You could be making money passively.
- Get a lower-interest credit card. Call and ask your card company if they can lower your interest rate. Often they can!
- Look into refinancing your mortgage. Many companies now let you do an automated refinance that’s mostly online.
Make Money by Asking For It
- Borrow from your 401(k). If you desperately need money, you can borrow against a retirement plan. But you will need to pay it back.
- Get a line of credit on your home. A HELOC is frequently easier to get than a personal loan; your home is collateral.
- Use GoFundMe. GoFundMe lets you crowdsource for bills like medical bills.
- Leverage CareCredit. Speaking of that, if you have medical or vet bills, you can sometimes use CareCredit.
- Crowdfund on PayPal. PayPal also has a crowdfunding solution for those in dire need.
- Set up a Patreon or Ko-fi. Patreon and Ko-fi let people donate to you for works of art.
- Take out a personal loan. A personal loan can help you avoid things like insufficient payment fees.
- Look into assistance programs. Many are surprised to find out that they can get assistance for utilities, rentals, and more.
- Visit your local “free” group. A lot of people are giving things away for free that you could use or sell.
- Offer to do odd jobs on NextDoor. You might not have found any gigs, but your neighbors might have some ideas.
- Take out a cash advance. Some of your credit cards may let you take out cash through an ATM.
- Get an advance on your paycheck. Today, lots of checking accounts from online banks let you get paid early.
OK, those are the 48 ways you can make money in the next 48 hours. But there are also a lot of other things you can do to increase your earning potential long-term. Consider certifications, bootcamps, and just plain whipping up a new resume.
