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Having an extra $1,000 would be nice right? You could take a weekend vacation, pay off a credit card, or make the move to a better apartment.
Or maybe you would just put the money in a savings account, so you can feel like you’re getting ahead. Sadly, CNBC reports that most Americans have savings of only a few hundred dollars, or nothing at all.
Of course $1,000 isn’t a lot of money any longer, but it’s still a worthy target. After all, if you can find a way to make an extra grand once, you can probably do it again… and again.
So how can you accomplish this modest goal? Here are a couple dozen suggestions to get you started. Some of these strategies could take a year to complete, others only a few days or weeks.
Of course if you’re really ambitious you can simultaneously work on several of the following ways to make $1,000.
Table of Contents
1. Work Extra Shifts
Don’t worry, we’ll get to more interesting strategies, but why not start with what you have? If your employer offers you the chance to work extra shifts it can be one of the fastest ways to put together some extra money.
For example, if you make $12 per hour an extra shift can bring home around $80 after taxes, or $120 if it’s on overtime or days when you get paid time-and-a-half. Do some of each and you might average $100 per shift.
Work one extra per week for $100 and you’ll have your $1,000 in less than three months.
2. Sell Your Stuff
We all have things we don’t use or need any longer, and selling off some of those extras is one of the fastest ways to raise cash. Here are some options:
- Craigslist – Bicycles, boats, yard tools, and just about anything else can be sold on Craigslist, often within a day or two.
- Decluttr – Sell your CDs, DVDs, games and even books here; just enter the barcode number and get a quote.
- Pawn Shops – Not the best place for getting top dollar, but you get cash right now.
- Rummage Sales – It takes some organizing, but rummage sale proceeds are tax-free.
If you’re really determined to raise cash, you might even sell stuff you do need, and just replace it with something cheaper. For example, we once sold a bookcase for $120 and bought two cheap ones for $18 each.
Selling off your stuff is one of the fastest ways to raise money, so you might hit your goal within a week or less.
3. Become a Busker
Buskers, also known as street performers, can make up to $50 per hour or $5,000 per month, according to a profile in the New Yorker.
How much you make depends on your skill, the hours you work, and the location. Here are some performance possibilities:
- Sing
- Play guitar
- Juggle
- Do Magic Tricks
- Perform Acrobatics
Even if you have no skills you can dress up in an outlandish costume and get tips for letting people take photos of themselves with you.
If you can make $20 per hour and schedule 12 hours of busking around your regular job each week, you’ll make $1,000 in about a month.
4. Teach Continuing Education Classes
If you Google “continuing education,” “adult education,” or something similar, plus the name of your town, you’ll find schools or organizations in your area that offer non-academic classes.
These evening classes cover subjects ranging from foreign languages to how to cook vegan meals, to how to build a blog, and so on.
Typically you do not need a teaching certificate or even a degree to teach many of these classes. All you need is some experience in the subject matter and a minimum number of students to sign up.
The pay varies, but for example, when we lived in Florida my wife made $20 per hour teaching retirees how to use social media, and later teaching “Survival Spanish.”
If you do a few two-hour classes weekly at that rate you’ll hit your goal in a couple months.
5. Become an Uber Driver
Money magazine reports that Uber and Lyft drivers average between $15 and $17 per hour (with Lyft drivers at the higher end). Since you get to choose when to work, this is a great side gig if you have a regular full-time job.
If you average $15 per hour, and you can fit in 15 hours weekly, it will take you about 5 weeks to make $1,000.
6. Babysit
When do people need babysitters the most? Evenings and weekends, which works out pretty well if you have a Monday-through-Friday day job. For some income-boosting tips see my post on how to make $17 per-hour babysitting.
At that rate, working 10 hours weekly, it will take you about 6 weeks to make $1,000.
7. Donate Your Sperm
This one is just for the guys, and just for some guys, since sperm buyers are apparently pretty picky (good health, good genes, and even a college degree may be required — and that’s just for starters).
You can find the nearest depository using an online sperm bank directory. At least one one sperm bank says you can make $1,000 per month, so you might be just four short weeks from your goal.
8. Donate Your Eggs
This one is just for the woman. Here’s the pitch from one egg bank: “Change lives of infertile couples worldwide and be reimbursed $3,000 – $6,000 USD per donation cycle.”
This process is much more intrusive than sperm donation, so you might want to read up on other egg donors’ experiences before you decide this is for you.
The good news is that you should surpass by far the $1,000 goal on your first donation cycle.
9. Get a Roommate
If you have an extra bedroom and find the right roommate, this is perhaps one of the easiest ways to make extra money. See my guide to renting out rooms for tips on everything from how to determine what to charge to choosing the right tenants.
At one point I was making almost $1,000 per month renting out rooms in a mobile home. If you rent out just one room at $100 per week you’ll hit the goal in under three months.
10. Become a TaskRabbit
Someone needs something done and you need extra income; TaskRabbit brings the two of you together. Tasks can be just about anything, including running errands, doing yard work, cleaning a garage, and on and on.
Money magazine says “Taskers” can make up to $2,000 per week, but even picking up an extra $150 per week would get you to that $1,000 in under two months.
11. Test Websites
I enjoyed testing websites when I did it. You typically get paid $10 for less than fifteen minutes looking at a site and recording your review. Here are some of the places where you can sign up for these gigs:
In my experience the opportunities are not frequent enough with any one company, so sign up for more than one and watch that email.
You need to do about 100 tests to get to $1,000, and you may not get to do more than a couple each week, so plan on a year for this one.
12. Write Articles
If you can put a decent paragraph together, freelance writing can be a great way to bring in some extra cash. If you have experience already, stick with websites that pay $50 or more per article.
If you need experience, try working for “content mills.” The pay is pretty poor, but writer Heather Seggel says they’re a great way to learn skills like how to write fast and write on any topic.
If you can sell two $50 articles every week you’ll hit the goal in under three months.
13. Increase Your Tip Income
If you’re a restaurant server, bartender, caddy, parking lot attendant, or in any other position where you recieve tips, one way to make an extra $1,000 is to collect more in tips. >My post on how to increase your tip income has 20 ways to do exactly that.
If you can add $3 per hour to what you’re making now, and you work full-time, you’ll be an extra $1,000 ahead in about nine weeks.
14. Flip Stuff on Craigslist
Ryan Finlay, a regular Craigslist flipper, says he’s made as much as $700 in one day. He does things like buying a clothes dryer on Craigslist for $25 and then selling it on Craigslist for $200.
Sometimes you’ll have to repair or improve what you flip, while other times you just need to move fast to get the underpriced goods.
You can also flip free stuff found on Craigslist. In the “for sale” section, click the “free” link for things being given away. These items are more likely to need minor repairs and/or cleaning if you want to sell for top dollar.
If you make a modest $50 profit weekly flipping your Craigslist discoveries you’ll hit $1,000 in about 5 months.
15. Collect Bank Bonuses
I’ve written before about how I make thousands of dollars annually from bank bonuses. You open an account, meet a few requirements, collect your bonus, and close the account.
I didn’t do so well in 2017, but my net profit was still $1,062 from account-opening bonuses (after deducting minor expenses). To hit that mark you’ll need to earn about five $200 bonuses.
Check an updated list of the best bank bonuses to find ones for which you qualify. The offers come and go, but you should be able to round up $1,000 in bank bonuses in less than a year.
16. Collect Credit Card Sign-Up Bonuses
In 2017 I made over $1,700 from credit card sign-up bonuses, which was my worst year in a while. One of the bonuses was $500, but most fell in the $150-$200 range.
To earn a sign-up bonus you need to spend a certain amount on the credit card within a specified time. If you can’t do that through normal spending there are other ways to meet the minimum, like buying Visa or Walmart gift cards that you can later spend.
You can find lists of the best current credit card sign-up offers online, but you’ll need decent a credit score to qualify for many of them.
If your average bonus is $200 you’ll have to get five new credit cards to hit the $1,000 mark, which you should be able to do within a year.
17. Collect Credit Card Rewards
In addition to sign-up bonuses, you can collect cash-back and other cash-equivalent rewards from your credit cards. For example, I use one card to earn 5% cash-back on gas, and another to get 3% cash-back on groceries.
My tally from rewards last year was $1,038 (net after expenses), but it’s tough to do that much. In fact, you’ll probably have to learn about and apply manufactured spending strategies to make it work at that level.
As my experience shows, if you really work at it, you can hit $1,000 profit from credit card rewards in less than a year.
18. Turn Your Hobby Into a Business
You might think that only certain pastimes can be made into a business. But, as I explained in my article on how to make money from your hobby, there are ways to make almost any interest or passion profitable.
Here’s the short version of the steps suggested in the article:
- Sell a Related Product or Service
- Teach What You Know
- Create a Website or Blog About Your Hobby
- Write Articles Based on Your Hobby
- Write a Book Based on Your Hobby
Some of these are clearly long-term projects, but others, like writing articles or selling a product based on your hobby, might bring in $1,000 in a matter of a few months or less.
19. Go Dumpster Diving
It’s fun to find stuff in the garbage and sell it, as I’ve done a number of times over the years. I’ve never committed to doing it regularly, but you can see examples of what’s possible in my post on how to make money dumpster diving.
One guy makes thousands of dollars per month, and he says he could do six-figures annually from dumpsters in he did it full-time.
If you find a more-modest $50 in salable items in the garbage each week, in about a half-year you’ll have that extra $1,000.
20. Sell Your Crafts on Etsy
Selling crafts used to involve locating and driving to shows, paying big rental fees, and spending days setting up your displays. Fortunately, now you can set up a “store” on Etsy and sell your creations from home.
The cost is reasonable. For example, if you sell a $12 pendant, Etsy will take $1.23 in fees for the listing, transaction, and processing. That leaves you $10.77.
If your cost of production is half of that $10.77, you’ll have to sell about two items daily to make a $1,000 profit in three months.
21. Sing in a Choir
You might think church choirs would be staffed with volunteers, and they sometimes are. But churches also pay for singers.
For example, Harris Sockel, who sings in churches for money, says he gets $100 for a regular Sunday, and up to $200 for special days like Christmas.
If you have a good voice and can find a church that needs you, you might make your $1,000 in about 10 weeks.
22. Charge Coworkers for Rides
When I worked at a casino that was forty minutes from my home I used to pick up coworkers on the way to work. I charged them $2 for the ride, each way.
Sometimes I had three riders, in which case I made $8 to $12 (they sometimes found a free ride home) for the day. If you can make $20 per week offering rides to coworkers, you’ll hit $1,000 in about a year.
23. Collect Returnable Cans
If you live in one of the states that require a deposit on beverage containers you might be able to make more money than you think collecting empty cans and bottles.
I topped $1,200 one year taking home and returning the empty cans from my employer break room.
That was in Michigan, where the deposit is 10 cents (many states have a 5-cent deposit). It also was in a breakroom with a soda machine, in a casino where we got a fifteen-minute break every hour (enough time for some coworkers to drink a lot of soda).
Even if you live in a state with a lower deposit amount, you might hit $1,000 in refunds in a year if you ask for the empties from the garages and basements of friends and family, and collect more wherever else you can find them.
24. Get a Raise
We’ve already covered working extra shifts, but why not also try to get paid more for the hours you’re already putting in at work? Need some tips? Forbes has a nice article on how to get a raise even when your employer isn’t handing them out.
If you can get a bump of a dollar-per-hour, and you work full-time (and you set aside the additional pay), you’ll have that $1,000 in about six months.
25. Get a Second Job
Can’t get a raise or work extra shifts? Then get a second job! Don’t worry, if all you need is that extra grand, you can quit once you reach your goal. See my post on the best second jobs for a few ideas.
A dozen hours weekly at a second job that pays $12 per hour will get you to $1,000 in a couple months.
26. Start a Business
How quickly you can stack up the profits depends on the type of business, your ambition, and some luck. Fortunately there are many small businesses you can start for nothing (or close to it), and which will start producing profits quickly.
With the right side-business you should be able to make $1,000 in profits within a few months.
27. Sell Your Blood Plasma
According to the Atlantic, “There is no money to be made selling blood anymore.” Blood plasma is what’s valuable (it’s a component of blood).
BloodBanker.com will point you to the places where you can sell it, and PlasmaDonating.net says you can expect to make about $40 per donation, although payment varies by location. Generally you’re allowed to donate twice per week.
At $80 per week you’ll make $1,000 in a little over three months.
28. Rent Out Your House
According to the IRS, “There’s a special rule if you use a dwelling unit as a residence and rent it for fewer than 15 days. In this case, don’t report any of the rental income and don’t deduct any expenses as rental expenses.”
In other words, you can rent out your house tax-free for up to two weeks each year. You might do it while you’re vacationing, or just go stay at your parent’s house while you rake in some extra cash.
If you live in an area with strong seasonal demand, you can easily hit that $1,000 mark in two weeks.
29. Rent Out Your RV
Got an RV you’re not using at the moment? List it for rent on RVshare. They screen the renters, handle the payment processing, and provide insurance.
RVshare estimates rental rates at $120 to $365 per day, so you might make that grand by next week if you get the RV rented quickly.
30. Save it to Make It
Spending less is effectively like making money, especially if you’re still meeting your needs.
For example, if you find a way to buy your groceries for $20 less per week, you have $20 extra each week to use how you like, the same as if you made it working more hours (even better, since you would owe taxes on an extra $20 in the paycheck).
Look at everything you regularly spend money on, from utilities to car insurance, and find ways to reduce as many of these expenses as possible.
If you spend $100 less per week and put aside the savings, you’ll be $1,000 further ahead in ten weeks.
If you know a way to make an extra $1,000, please tell us about it below… and keep on frugaling!
