The countdown is on. You’re mere weeks away from heading off on an adventure and you check in with your bank account to see how it’s feeling. It’s not looking good. Sure, you’ve paid for your trip and flights, but some extra spending money wouldn’t go astray.
The good news is it’s not too late to earn some extra travel cash! Here’s some great ideas to pump up your earnings last minute.
Sell everything
We mean everything (except organs, do not sell those). You can make a pretty penny by selling your preloved clothes, old electronics (cameras and speakers etc.), books or bigger items like furniture. For online sales try eBay, niche or local buy, swap and sell Facebook sites, Gumtree or Craigslist. Make sure you take good, well lit photos to increase your chances of someone buying. If you’re ready to sell, sell, sell in real life, team up with some friends and have a garage sale, or try a stall at the local markets.
Get creative
Do you have a talent with writing, coding, editing photos or art? You can sell those skills! Sites like Freelancer, Upwork or Fiverr are a great place to find freelance work that you can do in a week or two (or even less!). Set up a profile, figure out what jobs you can do, negotiate and get cracking. If you’re extra artistic or great at craft, make things to sell on sites like Etsy. No one can say no to beautiful cursive posters or knitted scarves. You might be shaking your head saying you don’t have a creative bone in your body, but fear not! If you can cook, you can try your hand at making jams and pickling vegetables (it’s all the rage right now) and selling them to friends and family, or at markets. You might also have great taste in music and be able to hire yourself out as a DJ for parties! Think outside the box and your passion might just lead you to a pay check.
Go old school
Remember when you were a kid and your parents would bribe you into doing housework in exchange for cash? Well, it’s likely they still will. Offer to mow lawns, wash cars or clean in exchange for some cold hard cash. If your parents are very nice they may even recommend you to their friends! You’ll be surprised how much faster chores get done when you’re an adult and not complaining about it too. If you’ve exhausted chores and still need more money, try babysitting the kids of family friends. After all, they need someone so why not someone they know and trust?
Swap your spending
If you’re finding it hard to find the time to hustle on the selling and freelancing, just swap the areas you spend. For example, you need to pay rent right? WRONG. If you can, move your stuff back home and take some house sitting jobs. Or rent out your room and house sit. Some people may even pay you if they have pets as they require more care. When you do the math it can be a great way to effortlessly save more cash. Just ask around or join a local house sitting site. Once one person hears you house sit, they’ll come in droves. You can also walk or ride a bike to work or University to help save a few bucks on transport!
Cash jobs
The golden goose of working is cash in hand jobs. They’re hard to find these days because of the tax man, but if you can find one you’re onto a good thing. Hospitality seems to be the go here and you might be able to pick up some weekend shifts at a local cafe, or do some casual event work serving drinks and food. The best way to find these is again, asking around. Head into your local cafes and just ask if they’re hiring any casual staff, or post a notice in your local towns Facebook group. A word of advice though, don’t go for anywhere that seems suspect. Just because it’s a cash job doesn’t mean the business should not be paying tax or insurance!
