Right now I’m working on building my emergency fund to a number that feels more comfortable me. I’m 28% to my goal currently and want to hit it in the beginning of 2015. I know to do so will take some diligent savings combined with finding extra income.

Extra Income Ideas

I definitely plan to dog sit again and also want to start doing other small things to earn extra income. There are tons of way to do this and the following list shows you a few ways to earn extra income. I definitely plan to do quite a few of these to get my emergency fund funded by the end of the year!

1. Find a part time job for your free time. You can do something like bartending or teaching fitness classes in the evenings with minimal additional education.
2. Start a successful blog and make money blogging. Here are some helpful blogging resources to get you started. This blog has been great at providing me a bit of extra income every year since I’ve started.
3. Become an Amazon Associate and share the link any time you recommend something on Amazon to friends and people online.
4. Set up niche online store. Some good examples are Amazon.com aStore and eBay Niche Store.
5. Earn money and gift cards while you search by using Swagbucks.
6. Earn money when buying online through Ebates.
7. Rent out a room in your house to someone you know who needs a place to stay for a few months.
8. Add a room or your whole place to airbnb for people to rent out for vacations or special events in your town.
9. Sign up for Lyft or Uber and give rides to people in your city while earning money.
10. Use cash back rewards credit cards responsibly and pay them off on time.
11. Sell stuff in your house that you don’t use or need. Old clothes can go on Poshmark and furniture and other items to Craigslist. Have a garage sale if you have a lot of stuff to sell.
12. Freelance your skills using Elance, Freelancer, Guru, and other sites for freelance jobs.
13. Run a class teaching people something you know everything about. You can do this locally in person or online.
14. Consult based on your skills. Turn what you know into extra income by taking on consulting gigs on the side.
15. Tutor children or college students in a subject you know a lot about. You can earn a good amount by simply charging less than the bigger services.
16. Moderate a message board you participate in or want to use regularly (some of these are paid jobs, some aren’t).
17. Write articles for bloggers or content websites.
18. Ghostwrite. This involves being anonymous and writing for someone who doesn’t have the skill or time to do so. You can ghostwrite blogs, articles, e-books and more.
19. Write e-books and self publish to Amazon and other e-book sites. Choose a popular genre like romance to ensure sales.
20. Baby sit, dog sit, or house sit for friends, family, and your neighborhood. Offer up these odd jobs to everyone.
21. Help the elderly. Offer to do their shopping, take them to appointments, or just sit with them for a small fee.
22. Make your hobby pay buy creating a product to sell on Etsy.
23. Resell cheap or free items from Craigslist and garage sales for a profit.
24. Take on micro jobs on sites like Fiverr, Gigwalk, and Mechanical  Turk.
25. Sign up to be a mystery shopper and take local assignments.
26. Use rewards programs at stores to rack up points and deals you can redeem.
27. Earn a higher interest on your savings account with a bank that offers a higher yield. The pennies add up!
28. Invest in dividend paying stocks or funds. You’ll earn money regularly and can reinvest for more!
29. Collect cans and bottles for recycling and cash them in.
30. Sell blood or plasma for cash.
31. Participate in paid focus group studies for various products.
32. Ask for a raise at your regular job. All they can do is say no, but if they say yes then you could get a good amount of extra income each month!

These are just a few of the ideas I’ve come across or used myself. In addition to all these extra income ideas you can do a lot of different things to generate more income. Everything will require some additional effort but in the end it’s worth it to earn the money and see your bank account grow!

My Extra Income Weekend Example

This past weekend I decided to have a no-spend weekend in addition to earning some extra income. My friend had asked me if I wanted to watch her dog while she was out of town so I agreed. I love dogs and my own dog loves to have puppy visitors so it sounded like a great time.

Originally I thought I’d be dog sitting just as a favor for a friend, but she told me she’d pay me what she pays her sister. Since she pays family to watch her dog I felt fine accepting whatever she would pay. Ultimately it was a lot cheaper for her to pay me to do it than board her dog or pay a “professional” dog sitting service for the same thing, but it was all extra income for me.

For dog sitting I was paid $25 per day and then $15 to pick up and drop off the dog. That ended up being $90 of extra income for the weekend just for letting a dog come play with my dog!

Honestly, dog sitting is my favorite way to earn extra income and I plan to pursue more dog sitting opportunities as well as dog sitting my friend’s dog again. It’s easy, fun, and benefits my dog as well since she gets extra play time with doggy friends.