5 Side Hustles for the Go Getters
- Kimberly Moscuzza
- Feb 21, 2023
- 8 min read
As we are planning out our budget, and our timeline for our debt snowball, we discovered that the current course of action is just not efficient enough. The tracker is telling us we will have it knocked out in 3.5 years, and that just isn't working for us. So with that in mind, we have been drafting together different plans on how to accelerate our debt snowball.
One way that we have found to speed up our own debt snowball, is to be intentional. Yes, this means with your money, but it also means with your time as well. We have tried all sorts of side hustles over the years, so I wanted to share our favorite with you so you can start to be intentional with your family’s future too!
There are a lot of different options no matter your personality, so I’ve broken them down into the following categories. There is literally something for everyone:
Everyday Shoppers- Click Here to See How you Can Shop Your Way Out of Debt
The next group of side hustles are great for those who like to get out of the house and bring the term “Side Hustle” to life. Each of these are side hustles that my husband and I have succeeded in, however, some of them just didn’t fit our lifestyle, so we moved onto another idea that was more suited for our personalities. I think we now have it figured out, but you never know what might pop up next!
#1 Flipping: of any kind. This includes anything where you purchase something at a lower price, and resell it for a higher value. Yes, we have done this, and yes, you do make money!
I know you have seen them, the guys on TikTok, Instagram and Youtube, that purchase items at a Ross, Goodwill, Marshalls, etc… and list the items on Amazon and make a large profit. We gave it a shot. We started an Amazon Seller account, which was super insane- we even had a video chat with one of their representatives to make sure all of our information was legit. After jumping through a few hoops, we were set up to sell! We hit all of the stores, searched for items that would sell and sell for a profit. And when we found them, we got them. Two of our most profitable items were a Nutribullet (We bought 2) and a F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Themed Make Up Bag. We purchased the Nutribullet for about $15 after tax, sold it for about $35 and made a little over $10 for each one after Amazon fees. The makeup bag we purchased for $4, and sold for over $30 really close to Christmas. I think someone was in a bind for a last minute gift! But we made about $17 off of that one.
Selling on Amazon is a great way to make cash, there is no doubt, we saw it first hand. The only issue is, we are not huge shoppers, so spending our free time in stores searching for items to sell just wasn’t fun for us. When we dreaded doing it, the profit went downhill fast. So, the moral of this story, find a side hustle you love or at least like, or it just simply won’t work.
Other forms of flipping are in shoe sales! My husband loved this opportunity. But, there was a huge learning curve. He had to watch tons of youtube videos, a lot of live feeds, and read a lot of articles on how to be successful in this industry. We would wait on the major drops, hello Travis Scott x Nike, Kanye x Adidas (before he actually got dropped), and so on. We would read about the upcoming drops for the month, set reminders in the apps, enter raffles and sign ups to get the shoes. We looked like crazy people at our son’s soccer game one morning with a large Nike shoe drop at 9am. We were talking some weird shoe lingo, “Did you get the Pandas in 10?” “Not yet, I just entered for the Retros in 12” We were wild. We knew what sizes/colors would sell for the most profit, and which selling platform would bring the most profit per shoe, and we did our thing. This was profitable as well, however, the issue we found with this, is it took time to get your profile built up so that you would be selected to receive the shoes. It wasn’t as simple as beating every one else on the app, there were legit raffles that would open for about 10 minutes and then out of everyone that entered, they would select who got the shoes. We did good for about 3-4 months, and then one month we got declined for every shoe we entered for, and we called it quits. We realized we were way in over our head with this industry, but I will say if it is something you love and something you will take the time to succeed in, there is definitely good money in this side hustle!
#2 Sell Your Stuff!: Okay, I know this is a very simple idea, but hear me out. For starters, if you have anything that you do not use anymore, sell it! Video games, remote control cars, furniture. Sell. It. Nothing is too small and nothing is too big, you will be surprised as to who will want to buy your stuff. Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, have a yardsale, whatever it takes, sell it and make money. That’s the idea.
If you have kids that are constantly outgrowing their clothes, save them and take them to a consignment shop for the next season. At the end of each season (for example Spring/Summer), I go through my son’s clothes and separate the clothes he will not be able to wear next year, and the ones that he most likely will. I keep a consignment bin and a hold on to next year bin. Then when the Spring Consignment season rolls around the next year (typically February), I reach out to my consignment store, set up a time to drop my stuff off, and wait for the items to sell. Then I do the same thing going into the Fall, and keep the cycle going. I will typically bring in about $80-$90 twice a year. And we really don’t have expensive name brand clothes, so if you do, you can expect your profits to be higher than that. Easy money.
Did you know you can also sell gift cards? Yes, those giftcards you get from Aunt Claire at Christmas to a place you have never been and never plan to go to in your life. Those gift cards. On Raise, you can sell these unwanted giftcards. You will list them with Raise, and Raise will put them in their database to be sold. You might have to list your gift cards at a discount to be competitive with the other listings, so your cards will be listed at the top. However, it’s probably best to make $20 from Aunt Claire than hold on to a gift card you will never use. That’s up to you.
On the flip side, you can also purchase giftcards for a discount on Raise. They have giftcards to thousands of stores, that you can purchase for less than the actual gift card value. This is an easy way to save money. Going to shop at Walmart for school supplies? Better check Raise to see if you can get a discounted gift card first!
#3 Find a Valuable Service and Offer It: I’m talking cleaning houses, cutting grass, helping a friend out with their business, anything you can do in your free time to generate an income. Are you handy? Ask around and see if anyone needs work done around their house. Good with social media, ask a friend if they need help marketing their business. Extremely organized to a fault, ask around to see if anyone wants their closet, kitchen, business organized. Anything that you have a skill in or a talent for, figure out how to use that to your advantage. Get creative!
Yardwork, babysitting, personal shopping, there are many things that people are willing to pay you to do, so that they don't have to.
We have cleaned offices, helped friends’ businesses grow their online presence, and even dog sat. Anything we could offer, we did.
#4 Become a Notary: I work in an office, and my previous position required me to become a notary. When you become a notary, you can charge for your services. Typically, it is $5 or lower per signature. There are free lance notaries that go around and meet people to notarize their paperwork, sometimes this paperwork includes multiple places that need to be notarized. If you get a document that requires 4 notary signatures, at $5 per signature, that is $20 for putting a stamp on a piece of paper. (I mean, there’s also the legal stuff that goes into it, but you get it.) Some of my friends need things notarized, and I don’t mind doing it, I never even charge. I just do it because I want to be a help, however, most of the time they will force me to take some form of payment. Gift card, cash, anything, even when I do not ask for it and most of the time turn down their offer at first. They insist. So although, I have not ran a side hustle as a notary, I can tell you it isn’t a bad idea!
#5 Door Dash: Here it is, the one that is mentioned on almost every list of how to make extra money. Door Dash, Grub Hub, Uber Eats, Insta Cart, the options are endless. I don’t know the difference, or which one is better. I just know we have been extremely successful with Door Dash, so I can imagine the others are viable options as well. With Door Dash, we each set up our own account and began delivering food. It is so easy, you won’t believe it until you just do it. You schedule yourself to dash whenever you want to, in whatever area you want to. There are different promos that they offer as well. For example, currently, the base delivery is between $2.25-$3.00, when they offer promos you can expect that amount to be higher. You make that amount per order, as well as a customer tip. If an order pops up on your screen that you don’t think is worth it, you can decline it. Some people expect you to deliver 20 minutes out of your way for a $2 tip, those will get declined in a heartbeat. Once you accept a delivery, you go to the restaurant, pick up the order, and deliver it. Done. You get paid weekly, so you are not waiting to hit a certain amount before you can cash out your earnings, none of that. You will need to keep up with your gas mileage, any additional charges you come across that are associated with Door Dash (oil changes, phone bill, etc…) for tax purposes. We have been very successful with this side hustle, we are on track to make $450 this month, yes $450. Set your goal and figure out how much you can make in a year!
Use these links to make the most of your DoorDash Side Hustle:
Long story short: Find what you are good at or find something that is fun and make it work for you! Be intentional about your time and accelerate your debt snowball.
It's up to you to change your future, so set goals and get to it!
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