20 Real Ways To Make An Extra $250 A Week

I don’t need to convince you that it would be great to earn more money, so let’s get straight to the meat. Here are my top 5 fastest, top 5 easiest, top 5 most passive and top 5 working from home ways to make an extra $250 per week.

There are three ways to create regular, repeating, consistent income and I’ll tap into all three in this article.

I’ve got twenty ideas on this list, and if that’s not enough for you, here’s a list of fifty more ideas to increase your personal cash flow.

So let’s get to it.

Top 5 Fastest Ways

The fastest ways to create income are by reducing your expenses or to start working this week. Here are my top five ideas to get that cash coming in as fast as possible!

1. Pay off or refinance debt

No question, paying off debt should hold the number one spot in every category for creating income.

Not only does it have an immediate impact, but it’s easy (if you have the money) and it is 100% guaranteed money month after month with zero effort from you.

Now there is one small problem. If you don’t have the money to pay off your debt, then this is not an option for you.

The other option is to refinance your existing debt.

If you talk to a local bank, you can often consolidate multiple loans to get better interest rates or longer terms and ultimately save hundreds or thousands every month.

2. Lawn mowing or yard work

Lawn mowing companies in my area charge around $50 per lawn, if you can find 5-10 customers you should be able to clear $250 per week during the warmer months.

I recommend talking to neighbors or friends. They may be interested in getting their grass cut or they may know someone who does.

You could be up and running in a matter of days.

3. Rideshare

It takes about a week to become a driver with Uber, and about the same to set up with Lyft.

It’s definitely doable to make an extra $250 a week, but how many hours it will take is dependent on the rates in your city.

4. Babysitting or nannying

Most families with kids will need babysitting services at some point in time. There are several sites that help match families with caregivers.

Kate and I have had great luck using Care.com to find babysitting and cleaning services.

It may take a bit of good fortune, but you could definitely find a job in a week or less.

5. Cut your expenses

One of the best ways to make extra money is to spend less money. If you’re not tracking your spending to some extent, you’re almost certainly overspending.

Use a free online budgeting application like You Need A Budget or Mint.com.

It may be tough to cut $1,000 per month, but you’ll make a dent and you can start today.

Top 5 Easiest Ways

These ideas will have high success rates, but it may take while to start earning a good amount of money.

1. Tutoring or teaching

Earn money training others to do something you already know how to do.

If you are an adept musician, you can find a local shop that offers lessons, or you may be able to find students online as well. If you can teach, reach out to schools in your area. Care.com also matches families with tutors.

I’ve also seen a lot of blogs advertising VIPKID, where you can teach english online for good pay.

2. Officiating/Refereeing

My first job was as a soccer referee. It’s a great part time job because you get paid very well for your time, and you don’t have to work a specific schedule.

$250 per week is very doable.

The only hurdle is that most leagues require their officials to be certified, which will take some time, study, and typically a bit of money up front for the test.

3. Cleaning

Keeping up with the mess of a house takes a lot of time. And when you have kids, you never have enough time and the mess piles up faster.

It may take some time to find families willing to pay you regularly, but if you can find a few you’ll make good money.

And you could make a killing if you decide to specialize in cleaning Airbnb homes and other short term rentals in your area. Smaller cities rarely have a company that does this.

4. Part time job

Sometimes to bring in the extra cash you just have to start applying to the local service based businesses.

• Restaurants
• Grocery
• Clothing
• Gas stations

Businesses that are open during non-businesses hours will often need people to work the early, late and overnight shifts.

5. Job search or raise

It’s rarely a bad idea to ask your boss what it would take to earn a pay increase. They should at least give you an answer. And make sure you hold them to what they said.

If you don’t like their answer, it’s time to aim for bigger and better things.

Some of my biggest jumps in pay have come from finding a new job. It may take more time than some of these other suggestions, but you can set your sights on a great job, start taking steps to become qualified, and make it happen.

Like most things in life, it’s not a question of IF you can get a higher paying job. It’s a question of HOW, and whether you can execute a plan to get there.

Top 5 Most Passive Ways

These ideas will help you get that extra cash while doing almost nothing.

1. Pay off or refinance debt

It bears repeating that manipulating your debt is quite possibly the best way to make an extra $250 a week.

Seriously look at your debt payments and email or call the institutions that hold your debt or look online at a place like LendingClub. You can lower your payments and often get a month without payment as well!

2. Rent out a room

Our second investment was to begin renting out our basement on Airbnb. We made over $1,000 in our first month and now we’ve been doing it for years.

If you own your home, then the only thing you’ll have to watch out for is a Home Owner’s Association. Many will not allow rentals of any kind.

If you rent your home, you may still be able sublease part of your house, get a roommate to help cover the rent, or even leverage short term rental sites. Always ask your property manager/landlord what the rules are before taking action though.

3. Rent your car

You can actually rent your car out as well. Turo and HyreCar are the two top companies that do this.

Both claim that their renters earn an average of close to $1,000 per month.

I don’t know much about renting out your car, but Kate and I have talked quite a bit about doing this with our cars once we’re ready to upgrade. All you have to do is deliver the car to your renter and pick it up when they’re done.

4. Pet or house sitting

Who wouldn’t want to make some money while hanging out with furry friends? Or just hang out and watch TV?

You can find pet sitting gigs on Care.com and Petsitter.com.

And find house sitting jobs on Housesitter.com and Trustedhousesitters.com.

5. Invest

Investing can make you far more than an extra $250 per week, but the thing about investing is it’s a long game. Most investments require money up front and grow slowly in a snowball effect. It can take years, or even decades to create meaningful income from your investments.

Purchasing real estate, websites, dividend paying stocks or business can all create relatively passive income, but require money up front. But over time your investments can overtake the income made from working your job.

If that seems impossible to you right now, think hard about how you could get to a point where it wouldn’t be impossible. Investing is the game played by the wealthy, so figure out how to start playing!

Top 5 Ways Working From Home

Here are some ways you can increase your income without ever leaving your home.

1. Copywriting

There are a lot of people making full time wages writing for websites and blogs.

If you’re not practiced already, you should probably start with a freelance website like Upwork.

Once you have some sample pieces under your belt you can look at a job listing site like ProBlogger or BloggingPro.

2. Freelance

The world of freelance is huge. Sites like Fiverr, Upwork and Freelancer.com have jobs available in a vast number of areas.

Find something you’re competent at and match up with people who need that skill. Anyone with access to a computer should be able to find some value they can provide.

3. Build a website or blog

If you can stick with something for a year with very little reward, then you may be cut out to build a blog or website. Honestly the hardest part is sticking with it long enough to start making waves online.

If you are the kind of person who can persevere, then the world of online business may be right up your alley.

4. Transcribing

During research for this article I came across Rev.com, which is a website that pays people to transcribe audio recordings.

They pay $1.25 per recorded minute for English translations, and $3-7 per recorded minute for other languages. If you are a non-English speaker then you could make an extra $250 per week transcribing an hour of audio each week!

5. Proofreading

Proofreading is another sector of the web with opportunities for you and me. Many of the freelance sites like Upwork and Fiverr list jobs to get started in this industry.

If you enjoy reading and have expert knowledge of grammar, then this could be your ticket to making that extra income.

Conclusion

When it comes down to it, there are two ways to make that extra $250 per week.

You can spend your time working for it with a part time job or some form of freelance work. Or you can invest in your debt or in some cash flowing asset like real estate or dividend stocks.

Whichever path you choose, I hope you find your way back to investing at some point. And perhaps you’ll even use my personal investment philosophy to help you get there.

Happy investing.

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