“It’s An Easy $500”: 30 People Reveal Side Hustles That Help Them Get By

I currently work a full-time job. when my kids were
younger I would occasionally babysit for neighbors. I’ve lived in the same neighborhood for nearly 20 years so I know many people.

Once a month, on a Friday night, I host a Parents night out and babysit overnight. I still have a swing set, a tree swing and such so kids come to my home. I charge charge around $50 a child and I serve dinner and have a dessert, we play outside until dusk, come in and get cleaned up/put pjs on and then watch a movie. Depending on weather and age of kids we may use our blowup movie screen and projector and watch the movie outside along with popcorn and juice boxes. Afterwards it’s brushing teeth and getting settled down in sleeping bags. We set up camp in the family room
and kids fall asleep quickly. I’m up by 8 making breakfast to feed the little people and parents pickup a round 9:15. I usually watch 8-10 kids and it’s an easy $500. Kids LOVE the night and I have more demand then space available.

Back in college I put together furniture, 80% of the time for older folks who ordered flat pack furniture and couldn’t put it together themselves. I enjoy the puzzle of putting together IKEA furniture, and I usually had an interesting conversation or two with the older generation.

I had a plumbing backup and needed someone with a snake to clear the line. I looked on Craigslist and everyone was charging $99 for the snaking. This one guy advertised for $69. I called him, he came and had my line clear in 20 minutes. We got to talking. He and his family had just come in from Ohio a couple of weeks before because their 8 year old daughter needed medical treatment that was only available in Tampa, but before he left Ohio he had bought a used electrical plumbing snake for $400. Upon arrival he was instantly busy with snake jobs because his price was the lowest on all of Craigslist. According to him he was making about $400 per day, and he was working it 7 days a week. Good money in it once the initial investment is made, but of course it is not a glamorous job.

I have a flea market booth. The most lucrative part about it is freeze dried candy I buy from a local business. I buy in bulk and have 100% mark up and still sell a c**p load of candy! It helps that the local mall has pretty much the same stuff for 3x the price. People want to try it but don't want to pay those prices, so they get excited when they see mine and buy 3 for the price of 1 mall candy. It's silly, but I'm happy with it.

I pet sit. For people in my building. Mostly doctors. Three doctors and some elderly couples. I offered during the pandemic for free but they tipped me? I told them even i was a little offended .. its GREAT for my dogs to play and have dogs over lol….

I even take them to the park and on walks. Now if they go out of town they ask me to pet sit. I know some people charge 80 a night thats my pet sitter charges me.. they give me 40. Plus they bring me a little knickknack from wherever they travel to.

Rev! You transcribe the audio that you hear, and it can be anything from police body cam to talks about blueberry fields. You can make decent money if you grind it. You DO get graded. If you get too many bad marks, you get 'demoted' to a base level. Premium folks get the pick of the litter when it comes to files. I easily make a couple hundred bucks a month doing it. You do need good, noise-canceling headphones. You have to follow their guidelines for transcribing--labeling speakers correctly, etc.

I met a dude once who sold cockroaches to Petco, Petsmart, etc. He was making like 200k off his garage.

I worked as a victim for a military training drill. It was $100 per day, paid in cash. If you did all three days of this exercise you got an extra $25. They are coming back to my area in two months.

I sell plant cuttings and seedlings! Spring time I just sell my extra peppers and tomatoes, and then have some well loved houseplants that need a haircut every so often - i just root the cuttings in water and eventually pot and sell. Its not a ton of cash or anything, but it's a nice way for my hobby to pay for itself over time. Also been growing pomegranates from seed because where I live they are an uncommon houseplant. The local garden center sold small trees for 129+! I had no problem growing the little guys for a few months and selling for 20$ whereas the seed packs were 5 dollars for a bunch.

I sell photos of my feet.

I dog/house sat for years. I do it now for a select few people but at some point I was making an extra $1000 a month. There are lots of pros and cons but generally it was a good gig. I stayed at peoples houses with their animals, which paid more. People will pay really good money if you’re trustworthy and will stay in their home.

Every once in a while I'll go be a tester for food/drinks at P&K Research. Yeah it's weird, but $25 is $25.

In college, I was a “line waiter.”

Every time there was a new video game, console, or phone release, I would go to the store and offer to wait in line for someone.

I could make $100 in a night, and I would bring a book or some homework to keep me busy.

I “teach English “ online, basically just chat with ppl. One of them is a kid where we do a 50/50 reading and watching Pokémon or Godzilla. So I get paid minimum wage to watch pokemon and old Godzilla movies.

Not super odd but I sharpen knives and tools to supplement my income. Startup costs are pretty low and if you go to a farmers market in a wealthier part of town, you can usually get a decent amount of business.

Kitchen and pocket knives are usually the standard but if you can sharpen tools like lawn mower blades, shears, chisels, etc. You can get a decent amount of consistent return business.

Anywhere from a couple hundred to about 1k a month depending on how much I am working at it.

Not that weird but I model for art classes. I have a FT job but I usually do classes a month and get paid in cash which is nice.

I do clinical studies. I was on an antibody one where the total pay is like $6k.

I got $300-700 a month for the first few months for a blood draw and 1 infusion. And once I complete it next month I get a $1,500 “bonus” for completing the whole thing.

Rubbish dumbs salvage sellable items for their tip shops, they sell things dirt cheap, buy clean and resell. I tend to pick up a lot of golf clubs for $1-$5 and resell for $40-$100. It’s amazing what people throw away.

I'm an artist, I draw commissions for any adult who wants nsfw 18+ content drawn. It's helped me earn enough money to make my car payment the past two months, which is great. I don't advertise my services, but I'm asked about it frequently on social media so the clients just come naturally to me.

I do dog training for both puppies and behavioral issues. Mainly work with the local shelter to help dogs get a handle on their own issues so they can get adopted. I always teach the black dogs a fun trick like spin or "fight me!" (They get on hind legs and flail their front paws like a boxing match) since Black Dog Syndrome means they're in the shelter longer.