When you’re working to pay off debt, you’ll cut out most superfluous expenses in order to reach your goals. But the problem with cutting out spending is that there is only so much you can cut.
What if you want to reach your financial goals faster? If you’re already working a full time job, and have cut all excess spending from your budget, then you’re probably thinking that it’s still going to take you a long time to reach your money goals. But the reality is that you can still earn extra money on the side to reach those goals faster.
Here are four ways to make extra money to pay off debt faster.
Babysitting
Babysitting is a great option because it pays in cash, and the hours are mostly weekends and evenings. Not only is babysitting relatively painless and lucrative (depending on where you live, $20 an hour is pretty reasonable), you’ll also curry favor with your friends who have kids. Not only that, but you can put that cash straight toward paying down debt, which is one of the best ways to dig out faster.
Selling Items
It may not always be obvious during your day-to-day, but a lot of us have too much stuff. It’s pretty likely you’ve got something lurking in the dark corners of one of your closets that’s both collecting dust and likely has a decent price tag associated with it. Got a fondu set? How many times have you used it in the last year?
Garage sales, online auctions, or Craigslist are a great way to both declutter your life and pad your bank account, helping to put money toward debt and push you toward a much more minimalist lifestyle.
Mystery Shopping
The beauty of mystery shopping is that you can choose when to perform “shops,” which essentially means you go to a store and act as a customer, while later grading the store on service and submitting a report to the company. You can often earn between $8-$20 a shop, but you also get a lot of great perks, such as free coffee, free groceries, meal reimbursements, etc.
When you’re on a tight budget, having a meal paid for by someone else is a great perk.
Focus Groups
Signing up for focus group companies can be both fun and easy (or tedious and frustrating, depending on the industry). Either way, you’re getting paid to voice your honest opinion (or frustrations), and that can be its own reward. Essentially, you’re paid to give a company your opinion for two hours and you easily earn about $100 per focus group (or $50 an hour). Not bad at all for just speaking your mind! Search for focus groups in your area through Google or look on Craigslist.
If you’re looking for ways to pay down debt faster and you’ve already cut out extra expenses, consider looking for more income opportunities.