17 Ideas to Make Extra Money during the Holidays

With the holiday season rapidly approaching, I've come to the understanding people are looking for simple ways to add a little bit of an extra income to pay for those great gifts that are being planned.

Or you could be like me and have a lot of debt because you made the decision to go to an expensive college and now you're desperate to move out of your parents house before the next five years are up (No offense Mom and Dad, I love you both and am incredibly thankful for being allowed to focus on paying off loans rather than things like rent and food and all those pesky necessities, but I am a 24 year old woman. I don't want to live at home anymore).

Now, I did math (I know a shocker) and assuming I'm correct in my calculations, if I continue making what I'm making at work (where I work full time) and I put 100% of it towards my loans while not including any extra hours or bonuses, it will take me 4.4623 years to pay off my loans.

That's 100% of my income.

And as mentioned before, I am a 24 year old woman. Although my dad dos most of the grocery shopping there are a few things I refuse to ask him to buy for me.

Plus, every so often I do enjoy to at least pretend I have a life outside of work and writing. And if just pretending can be so expensive, I don't even want to know how expensive it would be if, you know, I actually had a life.

Then throw in the fact that the gift giving season IS rapidly approaching. And although I have a few gifts already, I still have plenty more to get.

So I have combined a list of different ideas that I have thrown around both in my brain and to differing people.

• Phone Apps
• AppTrailers: This is an app for the phone. It is the only of the apps that I have been able to work up enough points to be able to redeem anything, so I can say that you can indeed earn money through this. Basically, you just watch videos and ads and stuff and you can earn anywhere from 1-10 points per video. Starting at 500 points, you can redeem those points for $0.50 or you can let it build up and redeem larger chunks of cash. I would not recommend going too far over $0.75 before redeeming because the only times I have had any issues redeeming was when I tried redeeming $1.21 in one go. It says that it will be sent to your Paypal within a minute, but I normally have to wait 1-3 days. It won't make you rich, but when you're trying to pay things off, every cent counts.
• If you do get this app, please use me as your reference, we both will get points: snhild
• Slidejoy: This is another app for the phone. It puts an ad on my lock screen and each time I unlock my phone it gives me points. I have been earning about 100 points a day just by using my phone as I normally would. But I haven't been able to earn enough to cash out yet so I don't know how legitimate this app is. When I can, I'll update this post.
• Ibotta: This gives you cashback on things you buy consistently (like milk and eggs and bread). All you have to do is scan your receipt. Super easy if you do lots of shopping. I rarly buy my own groceries (thanks Dad!) so I've only earned $0.50 from it so far.
• Online Surveys: (Just as a note, I got most of these survey sites, if not all of them from here .
• Swagbucks.com: This is a website where you can do surveys and watch videos and search for things and all that wonderfulness to earn points. You can redeem those points for Gift Cards and Paypal money. I have yet to earn enough points to redeem because I rarely qualify for any of the surveys and the videos like to freeze on my computer. So, I'll get back to you on whether this is legit or not. I have heard good things from people, so fingers crossed!
• Cashcrate.com: This one is similar to Swagbucks, but it actually deals with cash. AND you can see how much you've earned. The downside is you can only cash out once you've reached $20. And these surveys also don't seem particularly interested in a 24 year old white girl who lives with her parents and has a full time job's opinion. Granted after two days, I have earned $7 so that is nice. Only $13 more to go before I can discover if it is actually real money or just some scam. 
• American Consumer Opinion: Apparently some people can make between $100-300 per month. I am not one of them because I've only been qualified for a single survey. 
• MintVine.com: This is one that I'm still working on figuring out. You earn points by doing various things on their website and doing surveys. And apparently referring people to it can get you a percentage of the amount of points they earn. Again, I'm rarely qualified for the surveys so it is taking me some time to figure it out.
• Real World/ Actual Work:
• Ask parents: No, don't ask them for money (although if they offer it, you don't have to say no), but offer to do something around the house. This may possibly only work for people who do indeed still live with their parents. My mom offered me extra money each month just by cleaning the house. (And after the first scary experience with one of my brothers' sinks, hopefully I'll be able to keep the disgustingness to a minimum. 
• Ask neighbors: Is one of your neighbors in need of a babysitter? A tutor? A pet sitter? Someone to mow the lawn? Paint the bedrooms? Anything? 
• Speaking of this, it there is anyone who needs a babysitter or pet sitter or tutor (probably for english related things or like elementary math) in my area, I am able! 
• Uber: You can drive for Uber! My big sister came up with this idea after she visited me at work on her way to Galveston for a cruise with her boyfriend. My dad shot it down right away if I wanted to keep my car and continue living under his roof.
• Sell extra stuff: If you find yourself surrounded by clutter, look through what you have. Is there anything of value that you don't use that isn't water damaged or falling apart? Sell it. If I had lots of extra stuff, I'd totally do this.
• Sell Plasma: Apparently when you donate plasma to some places they actually give you money for it? I've not done too much looking into this. But I plan to as soon as I get over this cold that I'm in the process of coming down with. Since you can donate every two or so weeks, then this might be a viable option. 
• Blog: To be able to make money through a blog, apparently you have to have ads. To get ads on a blog like mine, you have to use AdSense. To be approved to get AdSense, your blog has to consistently get a certain amount of views. If you've noticed, my blog now has ads. THANK YOU for hlping me get enough consistent views. I don't know how the ad thing works, but I think I read that people have to actually click on the ads? If that is it, then from now on I am clicking every ad I come across when I am on blogs. 
• Write short stories for Amazon Kindle: If I weren't already working on two novels, I would definitely take up this route. In fact, I plan to work on short stories as soon as the second draft of the Elemi is done and the first draft of the Dragon's Thief is done. From what I've read is it is best to place the short stories on Kindle Unlimited because you get paid if people get a certain percentage of the way through it. 
• Get a second (or third) job: This one I thought about, but I barely have time for writing and a life as it is, this wasn't really an option since I'd be tired all the time and then my work would suffer and I'd NEVER get out of my parent's house.
• Set up a GoFundMe page: Although I would never use this to get out of debt, it is an option. Personally, I feel like it should be used for people who desperately need it, such as my sister who has been going through a lot of medical issues the past few years. They may have figured out what is wrong with her (finally) so if you feel it in your heart, this is her GoFundMe page. 
• Become an online transcriber: This one I'm actually considering. Technically, I guess it could be considered a second job, but it would be able to go with my schedule. From what I've read is you need to be able to type well and type fast. Also, be able to follow directions and rules. All of those describe me, so... if it sounds like you too, here is a specific website to a freelance transcriber page and here is a blog post with different companies hiring. 

Hopefully some of these ideas are helpful. If you have other ideas on how to make some extra cash, please feel free to lave them in the comments!

Until next time,

Shelby Hild

Progress Report #6

Well, today's post should have marked the halfway point of the year. Due to my temporary hiatus, it has put it in this post which should have been in June here at the beginning of November.

But there's good news, I've got plenty of ideas for posts for the rest of the year.

The 50th Annual CMAs are tonight. So far I have correctly guessed each winner, let's hope that continues.

Anywho, belated Happy Halloween. I didn't do much, but I went to a haunted house with one of my good college friends. It was a lot of fun. So, that makes the number of haunted houses I've been to double. Since I went to my first one when I was in Austin a couple of weekends ago and then this one, my total haunted house attendance level is at two.

I've finally hit a major goal in the health improvement of my life. I am under 140 lbs. Not by a lot right now, I'm at 139.8 lbs, and it will probably jump back up a couple of times before it stays down, but I'm so excited. I've not weighted under 140 lbs since entering college.

Also, I've decided what I'm going to o for NaNoWriMo. I am going to work on both a new project and my second draft. So at the end of this month hopefully I'll have written 100k rather than just the 50k. Two days in and I'm currently right on track. Friday, I'm going to try and get ahead a bit because I know I'm going to come home from work some day and not want to write any.

So for my progress report, here it goes.

1) Weight: 139.8
2) Word Count for the 2nd Draft: 56480
3) Word Count for New Project: 3294
4) Number of ideas in my "Story Ideas" document: 39

Those are the only pertinent things I can think of at this moment.

Overall, I'd say life is going pretty well. Although I can't wait until I'm done paying off my student loans. Life just feels... stagnant. Which is really weird seeing as I've  done more the past month and a half than I have since graduation.

Perhaps that is why I've felt it so dramatically recently. But all I do is work and do random things around my house. I've been informed that that is adulthood, but there's so much more out there to do. I don't accept that. But I really can't deny it until after I'm no longer so deep in the hole of debt.

I did the math. If I keep up giving most of my check to loans, then I'll be done paying them in 4.5 years. That isn't including any bonus checks or tax refunds. So I'll be almost 30. Ew. Hopefully I can manage something else.

Maybe if I get far enough ahead on my writings, I'll work on short stories again and perhaps sell some of those. Or a novella and put that on Amazon. But that's just so... Idk far from now?

Each time I really start playing with that idea, nerves just absolutely take over. I freeze. That alone makes me wonder if it is truly what I should work for. At least when I start letting things sit for a bit again.

I don't know.

Life is scary.

Speaking of adulthood, one of my favorite things I've written in recent times is:

It was one of those phrases that just jumped onto the paper. And it has stuck with me since then. Maybe it is my brain trying to tell me something, but if that's the case, I'm thoroughly concerned. 

Until Next Time,

Happy NaNo-ing,

Shelby Hild