As our blog name implies, we do two things as often and as much as we can. We homestead, and we travel. Both of those can come at quite a steep cost. The best way we have found to offset those costs as a family is the introduction of side gigs or part time work.
We have tried…a LOT. An embarrassingly large amount, I think. Some ideas we have lost money on. Some have made us a little bit, and some have helped us travel abroad multiple times. I’m going to break down the best and worst ideas we have attempted.
1. Monetize A Skill
This one is going to cover basically anything you know how to do that most people don’t but would pay for. For my family, I am a photographer and my husband is a DJ. I haven’t picked up my camera in a couple of years because of babies, but before I took a hiatus, I could bring in anywhere from $150 to $500 on a weekend doing portrait sessions or events. My husband can bring in many times that. Though it’s nice when it’s available, but it’s very inconsistent. If we really really wanted to make it more of a consistent income, we would have to put more time and money into advertising and marketing. Because of that, I’d say this can be a nice option if your skill isn’t something that already has a saturated market.
Some other great options might be tutoring or teaching a class online!
2. Sell It All
I suppose this could also go under a skill, but I have made a decent amount of extra income selling things like eggs and sourdough. Eggs are such a small profit margin that it really is negligible, but in the spring and summer when we are overrun with more eggs than we couple possibly eat, it’s a nice little addition for something we wouldn’t be able to use otherwise.
The sourdough market is so unbelievably saturated in Oklahoma that if I really tried hard, I might be able to make $100 per week selling it, but it’s certainly not going to be something that will pay off in a huge way anymore. If this was something you broke into early on in the trend, it’s definitely a thing you could make a real income with. If this is the sort of thing you’re leaning towards, I suggest be prepared to market your products really well with beautiful pictures and packaging and pay close attention to trends to try and stay on the forefront of them
Another thing you can do is declutter your home and sell things you don’t need or want anymore but are still in good shape. Poshmark and Ebay can be great options, and Facebook Marketplace has made us a little bit!
3. Use Those Apps
I haven’t signed up for apps like Fetch, but I do know people who have made a bit of pocket money taking pictures of their receipts. This is great if you are already planning on buying things, but certainly don’t buy things to try and make a few pennies at a time!
One app my husband and I do use religiously is Upside. If you have it in your area, I strongly recommend downloading it and using it every single time you get gas. We have made several hundred dollars over the past year using it because we both drive quite a bit. This one I can highly recommend!
4. Delivery Driving
This is one that won’t be for everyone but has been the clear winner in our house for extra income. I signed up for Instant Cart, Uber Eats, Spark, and Lyft. Lyft and Uber Eats were quickly deleted for me. I tried giving people rides, and rideshare just wasn’t for me. Instant Cart was pretty good. I enjoyed grocery shopping, but in my market, it just was pretty slow.
Spark (Walmart) has been, by far, the best delivery app I’ve used. I will often take one of my older 3 kids to ride along with me and use that time to bond and chat. I can pretty easliy make $300-$600 per week working a few hours a few days a week, and this one will be taking us all the way back to Europe this fall!
It is important to note that the success rate for these apps are really dependent on your area. Some areas are overrun with people already doing it, but if you’re lucky enough to get in before that happens, I highly recommend it!
5. Random “Work From Home” Gigs
I’m going to go ahead and bunch all of these together because, honestly, I have yet to find any that make any kind of meaningful income. Things like filling out surveys and data entry are advertised to me so often, but I have yet to try one that pays more than a few cents per minute. It’s simply too much work for the amount you can make for me. If you have one that has actually worked, I’d love to hear about it!
6. Become An Influencer
This one is funny to me because being an influencer isn’t something Ive ever been interested in, but I have tried to cultivate an online presence. I took a blogging course promising I could make thousands and thousands of dollars in my first year, and though someone who has far more time than I do to devote to that could find that kind of success, this blog remains to be more of a creative outlet/recipe book for my children.
Youtube is another option, and I have had mild success there. I do have a monetized channel (feel free to subscribe!) but again, the amount of work it takes without seeing much of a return is frustrating and keeps the vast majority of people from being successful. It’s paid a few bills for us here and there, but again, finding the time to be consistent where I can stay relevant to the algorithm is impossible for us right now.
Unless or until it is actually banned, TikTok can be a descent source of income, again, as long as you can actually put in the time and effort!
7. Buy/Sell Cars
I’m putting this one separately from the selling things category simply because it’s a lot more involved than simply listing an old book or sweater on Facebook.
We signed up for an online auction site to buy cars, and after our first experience investing in and profiting from this idea, we are hooked! We were able to make a really nice profit, but more than that, honestly, it was great to be able to sell a really good car at a reasonable price to someone who needed it.
This won’t be something we did full time- though I think you could- it will be something we utilize to travel and pay off debt. It did take more of an upfront investment, but the payoff was relatively quick (3 weeks from purchase to sale), and the profit margin was very well worth it.
In all, the majority of our income still comes from my husband’s hard work at his job, but it’s really nice to know we have some options for other opportunities, no matter how big or small, to help in places whenever we need it!
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