Not too long ago, I published a blog post called 7 Ways to Make $500 to $1000 Extra Per Month. It was a list of ideas I knew for sure could help someone make extra cash.
I never imagined it would be as popular as it has been! Funny thing is I have a notebook full of about 300 ideas for making extra money, some simple job ideas and other full-blown business ideas all written out – yes, they’re in an actual notebook! Hopefully my house never burns down. 🙂
I’m on a mission to put as many of these ideas as possible on the blog because I love to hear about others taking my ideas and making them a reality! I especially love it when another mom comes to me and tells me she took one of my ideas and turned it into a legitimate source of extra income for her family. It’s why I do what I do!
Sometimes all it takes is someone mentioning something you’ve never thought of before, and then all the pieces start to fall in place. My hope is for this series to be that resource for you.
Why $800 – $1000 Extra?
I think it’s important to set realistic goals at first, then build on achieving your first goal by setting another incremental goal.
I think earning $800 to $1,000 extra each month is a respectable and reasonable goal that anyone can achieve with hard work.
Does $1,000 sound like too much for now? Then start smaller. There’s nothing wrong with starting with a goal of making $100 per month. If that’s what you can envision yourself earning, then go for it.
The point here is that yous should set a goal. Any goal. Even if your realistic goal is $100 but your pie-in-the-sky goal is $1,000. That’s how I built up my blogging business from a $100 per month venture to a real home business that earns over $6,000 $9,000 a month as of January.
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Blogging Update!
I wrote this post when I was researching ways I could personally make up to $1,000 per month as a stay-at-home-mom. I am happy to say that with this blogging venture of mine has earned $9,997 in January! (you can see my latest income reports here)! I no longer publish these but you can see historical income reports at that link.
Blogging is something I love to do and would recommend to just about anyone as a way to make extra money. It’s low cost (you can start a blog for less than $5 a month in web hosting) and the main thing you have to lose is the time invested in giving it a go. I’ve been blogging for 11 years now, and started taking it seriously when my youngest was almost 3 years old and I had more time.
If you like to write and/or teach others just about anything under the sun, have a willingness to learn a fairly simple to use blogging platform, I say give it a shot. I am officially moving blogging up to the premier spot on this list and will begin providing more income reports in future months to inspire others to start their blogging journey! Learn how to start a blog in this post ==> How to Start a Blog
Other Blog Startup Resources:
- How to Know if You’ll Be a Good Blogger
- How to Choose a Blog Name You Won’t Regret
- What to Do if the Blog Name You Want is Taken
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7 Ideas to Help You Make $800 to $1000 Extra per Month
1. Flamingo Yards – You know like when someone turns 40 and you want to embarrass them and order a yard full off flamingos? Someone owns those flamingos and rents them out! I found a couple of businesses doing this – the going rate to provide 20-30 flamingos is approximately $120. A 4-piece set costs $14.50 on Oriental Trading. This means for a cost of approximately $120, you could purchase a set of flamingos necessary to “flamingo” a single yard. If you charge $120 per yard, it would only take ONE yard to pay for the inventory! If you can advertise cheaply or for free at first, this is a very easy business to get into with no-brainer start-up costs that basically pay for themselves right away. To make $800 per month, you would only need to book 2 clients per week which is completely reasonable.
2. Repair Mailboxes – My neighborhood homeowner’s association has these ridiculous rules that states everyone must have matching mailboxes and we must pay a fee each year toward mailbox maintenance. What this means is any time our mailbox needs repairs (broken door or flag, etc), we must submit a request to the homeowner’s association. And every few years they send someone by our house to repaint them all black. What this says to me is that there are people out there that specialize in mailbox repair! Who would have ever thought this was a thing?!
3. Detail Cars – I have paid to have my car detailed a few times. And not the Auto Bell version where you get a quick vacuum, wash, and someone’s attention for 20 minutes. I mean the kind where someone spends 1 to 2 hours on your car, getting into every crack and hard-to-reach spot with a small vacuum attachment and rags. I paid $75 the first time (10 years ago) and $125 the second time (last year). Assuming you could charge $100-$125, you’re looking at an hourly rate of $50+! If you line up 2 clients per weekend, you could easily earn $800 per month. Considering this is a task that could easily be taught and scaled, you could really turn this into much more than $800 per month by hiring help OR you could simply take on additional clients as you need extra cash.
4. Uber Driver – Driving for Uber used to be something you only saw in very large cities, but I’ve noticed it becoming increasingly popular in smaller cities as well. A good friend of mine, who recently returned to school to pursue his accounting degree, drives for Uber on nights and weekends and loves it! There is still a bit of mystery around exactly how much Uber drivers earn, but according to Uber, itself, in a recent report, drivers can make somewhere between minimum wage to $300 per night (LOL – so unclear!). All I know is it has to be worth it or so many people wouldn’t be doing it. Soooo, I’m going to venture a guess that you could earn $800 per month with Uber IF you drove on weekends (peak times) and worked 2-3 nights per week. If someone has actual data on this, please share in the comments below!
5. Deliver Groceries – Once or twice a week I order groceries from my local grocery store. I pay $5 per shopping trip for this service. I am able to pick up my groceries from the store’s drive thru parking spot. When my kids were little, I was tempted to take that a step further and have them deliver the groceries to my front door for an additional $20 fee. I was that desperate when I had a preschooler, toddler, and newborn baby at home by myself!! The only thing that stopped me was the fact that the store required a 48 hour lead time in order to coordinate the delivery. Sometimes I order food in the morning that we needed that same evening, so that wouldn’t work for me. If someone had offered a service where I could have my groceries delivered to me in a more timely manner (say, that same day or even the next morning), I would have totally paid $20 for that. I’m positive I’m not the only mom with a newborn who feels that way! Get a handful of clients willing to pay you $20 for an hour’s worth of work, combine them together in one trip to the store, and you will have yourself a nice little side business while working only a few hours here and there.
6. Themed Kids Parties – If you live in an area like I do where young couples are everywhere, odds are kids birthday parties are big business. Just about every place around here that caters to children offers birthday party packages. And they stay booked up! Bounce houses, gymnastics centers, bowling alleys, arcades, cupcake bakeries, playground retailers, even the Wine & Design places offer birthday parties for kids. A new trend I’m seeing – since those types of parties are a bit played out – is for in-home parties operated by third party vendors. My favorite one recently was Hello Kitty Spa Day for a 10 year old. All the mom had to do was set out food, and the birthday party vendor showed up with tablecloths & decorations in a Hello Kitty/pink & black theme, white robes, manicure and pedicure stations, and two assistants. Then they proceeded to corral the girls in attendance, explain what they were about to do, then ushered them from station to station while the mom just chatted with other moms. It was so much fun and super cute! I found out that the lady who runs this business offers several packaged themes, and she holds 2-4 parties per weekend at roughly $250 each. She pays her assistants $10 per hour to help her, so she spends approximately $60 (3 hours x 2 assistants) per party on that. After she pays for her initial decorations and supplies, it’s easy to see how profitable this side business could be at just a few parties per weekend.
7. Seal Driveways – My brother seals driveways in the fall when his mowing business is slow. He says it is difficult to keep up with demand! If you live in a harsh weather environment (lots or rain or snow annually or super high temps), homeowners need their asphalt driveways sealed every other year, perhaps every third year. That’s a lot of driveways with recurring business! You can charge $100-$200 per driveway. Who doesn’t want to go collect $200 from a bunch of people every few years?
So there you have it, 7 more ideas for making extra money! These could all be full-fledged businesses if you wanted, but if you just want $800 to $1,000 per month, they’re great for that too.
If you do use one of these ideas, please come back one day and let me know in the comments below or even on Facebook!
Good luck!
More Money Making Ideas
- How I Make $3000+ per Month Blogging
- Huge List of 100+ Ways to Make Money from Home
- Amazing Survey Websites You Can Try Out Today
- 7 Ways to Make $5000+ per Month for Your Family
Michelle James says
Thanks for these tips. I am always trying to make extra $$ these days. We are trying to save for our son’s wedding in Jamaica in February. Yay!
Kelly says
Thanks for these ideas! We’re trying to come up with an idea for a business for my husband when we get back to the US, and the car washing/detailing idea is a great one!
Lena Gott says
I think this is a good one that would be very profitable with very little startup costs! Good luck!
Maria says
I am a mother and grandmother with R.A. and Lupus and also get Chemo and want to work at home to make money doing something to help my 4 kids and grandkids and also support myself with my extra monthly expenses of medicines and etc. I really need to do something easy to make money. Any ideas, let me know.
Lena Gott says
Hi Maria – I have lots of ideas on the blog…if you click on my “Making Extra Money” tab at the top, you’ll find a lot of blog posts on the topic! Best of luck to you!
Moriya says
Hello! Love your blog! I am currently a stay at home wife hopefully soon to become stay at home mom in the next 2 years. I do drive uber and drive some Fridays a month. If we are strapped for cash I drive more. Usually I set our a goal for myself wither a certain hour minimum or dollar amount. Sometimes I’ll get a ride that is 25.00. Others I’ll get one for 3. It is kind of all over the place. I’m in portland oregon and drove in Los Angeles for a year. I averaged about 17 an hour in LA but, for example, on Halloween weekend I averaged 50. It depends on the desired trip for the customer, the demand (sometimes they can charge 1 to 3 times the regular rate set by the area). Tonight I drove and it was super slow the first 2 hours (like one ride) but when I changed areas and the night grew on I received back to back rides and after uber’s cut made about 60 bucks. My goal was 50 so that was great. You can drive as much as you want (my dad is full time) or as needed like me. But it sure is nice to be able to gas up my car and go get some money knowing I’ll get it directly in my bank account the next week. Knowing your city is most important to maximize earnings of where the greatest demand is at various times of the day and week. Uber usually will help you get an idea with emails and the whole surge prices thing.
Hope that helps!
Lena Gott says
Nice to meet you, Moriya!
Kelly says
Re: Uber – my husband is working through Uber, but here in Lima, Peru. He makes about $50/day here – based on exchange rates, I’d expect to make triple that on average in the US, depending on your location. If you’re in a really small town, there might not be that much work. So I would say, that if you’re in a location with decent demand, it would be pretty easy to make $800/month!
Lena Gott says
Wow, that’s pretty good for a side job!
Melissa Silva says
I’ve tried the surveys but I’m not making any money
Lena Gott says
Which survey websites did you sign up for? Also how long have you been trying it? I’ll look into!
Terry says
I like the Uber idea, because I have 3 young adult kids who use the service whenever the go out to bars, but what does it do to your car insutance rates when you use your vehicle for hire? Also, how much extra wear and tear (maintenance) cost)?
Lena Gott says
Those are really good questions, Terry. I know this would put wear and tear on your car…you’d have to figure in how much it costs to maintain your car versus miles driven and also figure in gas costs. It will really vary by car. I wonder, if for this reason, it’s best to have a economy/value car if you want to drive for Uber. Hopefully someone reading this who already drives for Uber can chime in regarding insurance rates, but I will put this on my list of research items and respond first chance I get! 🙂
Tanya says
Hi Lena,
Just wondering if you could elaborate a little bit more on the kids themed birthday parties. Did this company just offer Spa parties with character themes or did they offer other types of parties? Thanks.
Lena Gott says
They offer all kinds! I found the website so you can see for yourself! 🙂 http://www.cutiepiepampering.com/party-photos1.html
Mike says
Hi Lena,
I really liked your Flamingo Yard idea! I’ll have to try that one.
I work for Uber part time here in the twin cities of Minnesota. The Uber business is booming around here as you can imagine. I usually make about $15-18 per hour on average working 3-6 hour shifts a few nights per week. I don’t like dealing with drunk passengers so I typically work no later than 11pm at night. I hope that helps to shine some light on the Uber earnings mystery for your followers.
Lena Gott says
Wow, that’s a really good hourly rate! Does that include tips you receive? I’m always confused whether or not I’m supposed to tip an Uber driver?
Beverly Brooks says
I recently started driving for Uber and for Lyft. When ones is slow, I change apps and signs and ride for the other. I’m a widow and needed the additional income to meet bills. I drive at night and on weekends and I’ve done well enough to go get a new (used) car. ?. Your income varies by different variables. If you are picking up in an area that is peak, or surging, the number of hours you stay at it, and you can make referral bonuses as well. Also, your car expenses are tax deductible, along with cell phone expenses, a percentage of the interest you pay on a new car, ect….
Lena Gott says
I’ve never heard of doubling up on companies like that, but it’s genius! How do you get paid for referrals?
Raynee says
Great tips!! I have never heard of the flamingo’s!!
I just started blogging because I love helping other as well. If you love what you do, it is true……it is not work:)
If you ever check out new blogs I would love your feedback as I really enjoy your posts.
http://www.thefrugalbranch.com
Lena Gott says
Hi Raynee! I check out your blog….I was just about to post my own Summer Movie Schedule for my area! LOL I like your writing style. If you want to get some traffic on any non-local posts, the one thing I would suggest is creating tall pinnable images. Pinterest is an excellent source of traffic these days. 🙂
Rachyl @ On My Fridays Off says
These are some really creative ideas. The flamingo one is a hoot! Imagine owning all those flamingos! 🙂
Detailing cars and delivering groceries are great ideas. I’m sure there is a lot of money to be made. People don’t have time to do all of that stuff anymore!
It’s great to see such a unique list and not just the standard mow lawns, walk dogs, etc.
Lena Gott says
lol I know – I have no clue where you’d actually store those flamingos! 🙂
Thanks! I’m so glad you liked my list.
Denise says
Do you know if I would be able to use my Amazon Fire tablet for the online jobs? I do not have a laptop or desktop computer.
Lena Gott says
I am not sure – does it have an internet browser? If so, then maybe. I know people who work online from tablets, although it’s more difficult to navigate websites.
Nisan says
Love this blog and topic! I just started my own blog recently and am trying to find the way! Thanks for sharing!
arava says
cool article, recently i started to use sites like koocam,
to work remotely, im new to it, its not that easy to build this kind if income.
but it is worth it.
i will definitely will apply some of your tips.
thank u.
Lena Gott says
Glad you found this list helpful, Arava!
Traci says
This site is misleading and false. You always say guaranteed $100.00 taking surveys and when you get to the survey it says up to $100.00. The survey may pay $1.00 or .75.
Lena Gott says
Hi Traci – No, survey sites do not pay $100 per survey (as far as I know!) The lower amounts are normally. You just have to take a lot of them to really add up.
Jennifer says
There are some really great ideas in this post that I have never even considered before!
Flamingo yards seem really silly LOL
Lena Gott says
hahaha yes they are but it’s for real! 😀
Jacob Miller says
Hi Lena,
Thanks for the wonderful tips.
You are right one should start by setting small goals and once they achieve them they should set higher goals. I have seen many people setting unrealistic goals and then failed.
I am planning to earn some extra cash and I think driving for Uber is best fit for me. Lets see how it goes.
Thanks again