I Need Money Now! 25 Ways to Make Money Today

Sometimes you just need money fast – as in TODAY.

Perhaps you need money now and you don’t know where to turn or what to do.

Fortunately, there are several legit ways to get money and get it fast.  The ideas listed below may help you get money as quickly as today or as soon as a week or two.

Sometimes a loan seems like the best option, but I encourage you to look through the list, figure out which of these ideas are best for your lifestyle, before you look into getting a loan.

In This Article

Ways to Get Money When You Need it Now

Although there are many ways to get extra cash fast, I’ve picked ways that make financial sense for most people. So, you won’t find things on this list such as payday loans or cash advances.

These are real, legit ways people get money every day.

1. Play on Your Phone With Swagbucks

Sites like Swagbucks pay you for doing things you probably do already anyway.

You can earn points for doing things such as:

• Playing games
• Watching video
• Shopping
• Searching
• Taking surveys

After you earn enough points, Swagbucks will allow you to convert those points into gift cards from your favorite retailers, or into cash deposited in your PayPal account.

You won’t earn a ton of money with Swagbucks, but it will help you to earn a few bucks here and there and pay you for things you are likely already doing without getting paid.

Right now get a $10 bonus just for signing up!

2. Take Surveys

You can also make some fast cash by filling out surveys on your phone through Survey Junkie.

They have a 4.5/5 Trustpilot rating and you can get paid cash via Paypal.

Survey Junkie pays people for sharing their opinions about products and services. If you go this route, you can complete surveys whenever you want, whether its the middle of the day or night time.

When you complete surveys on their site, you get rewarded with points, which can then be converted into gift cards at your favorite stores or cash which is transferred to your PayPal account.

You won’t get rich by completing surveys, but you can start earning points right now and get cash quickly.

If you’re thirteen years of age or older and like the idea of making money just for answering questions on your phone, check out Survey Junkie.

You can make money with Survey Junkie even when you’re sitting around watching TV or sitting in the waiting room for your dentist appointment.

3. Deliver Food to People

Have you heard of Postmates. As a Postmate, you’ll be able to deliver a restaurant meal, grocery order or liquor order.

This company is an on-demand delivery service looking for delivery partners with a great attitude. Their website says that their drivers can earn up to $25 per hour!

As with other delivery app jobs, you can sign in as available for delivery shifts at your convenience.

They let you know when there is a delivery opportunity available and you can choose whether or not to take the job.

Your rate of pay as a grocery shopper will vary based on a number of factors such as the size of the grocery order and the miles driven for delivery.

A typical reported average pay for doing grocery delivery is $15 an hour. Remember that as with other delivery services, you can get tips along with what you get paid directly from the delivery company.

Depending on which company you sign on with, you might be shopping and delivering the groceries that clients order, or you may just be delivering.

Tips for Making More with Instacart

As with most service jobs, there are things you can do to increase your ability to earn tips as a personal grocery shopper. Here are some suggestions.

• Shop carefully and thoroughly, and make sure to get everything on the client’s list and to pick quality produce items
• Deliver quickly and with a smile
• Set the items in your car carefully, so they’re not able to tumble around as you drive
• Keep your vehicle clean and free of garbage or unpleasant smells

Delivering for Instacart could be an excellent way for you to earn cash quickly if you like driving and live near a grocery store. It may not be the best long term solution but it does offer a great supplement to your current income.

4. Sell Your Stuff

Do you have a bunch of DVDs and CDs sitting around your house that you never, ever watch or listen to?

Why not sell them to make some quick money?

Decluttr is an website and app where you can sell your dvds and cds to get money really fast.

Here’s how it works:

First, you go to the Decluttr site and enter in the bar-codes of things you want to sell.

Decluttr primarily buys:

• CDs and DVDs
• Books
• Games
• Cell phones
• LEGOs

Yep, apparently, there’s a big market for reselling LEGO sets. Anyway, as you enter the barcodes for the items you want to sell, Decluttr automatically tells you how much they’ll pay you for each item.

Obviously, the more popular the item (i.e., the better it’ll do as they re-sell it) the more money you’ll get paid for selling it to Decluttr.

After you approve your “sell” list and agree to the prices they offer, they will send you a FREE shipping label. Yep, it’s absolutely free.

When the label arrives, you box up your stuff, put the label on the box and bring it to the nearest authorized shipping store, such as UPS.

Decluttr promises to pay you the day after they receive your stuff, and they don’t charge you any additional auction or seller fees.

Although you won’t make as much selling on Decluttr as you would selling your stuff outright, you have to do little to no work to sell, and that makes up for the potentially lower offering prices.

Using Decluttr is an easy way to sell your stuff fast. Just make sure your items are clean and ready to go.

See how much you can get for your stuff on Decluttr today.

5. Cash in Your Coins

Are you one of those with a jug of coins sitting in a corner in your room? If so, why not turn them in for cash? Bring them into a local bank and put them into the coin counting machine.

When they’re done being processed, bring the receipt to a teller window and collect your bounty. Know that many banks charge money to count your coins. However, if you use your own bank you’ll probably pay less.

6. Drive People Around

Driving people around companies like Uber or Lyft is great because you can pick your hours to work without any notice at all. These apps provide rides for people who need to get places.

People like choosing a service like Lyft over a traditional taxi service because the service they get with these types of rideshare companies is more personalized and often more affordable as well.

After you get approved to drive with Lyft, you’ll download an app that lets you sign in or sign out whenever you want or need to – in other words, you can work at your convenience.

As you pick up riders and bring them to their destinations, Lyft collects the money for the ride, and riders often give tips directly to the drivers who provide great service.

If the rider tips you in cash on the spot, you get some money right away, and then the money you get for providing the ride itself is paid by the rideshare company on a weekly basis.

And you don’t have to worry about your safety as a Lyft driver. Both companies take safety very seriously and work hard to keep both client and driver lists free of undesirable people.

If you choose to start making cash as a Lyft driver, there are things you can do to maximize your income and potentially increase your tips as well.

If you’re interested in learning more about driving with a rideshare company.

7. Sell Your Clothes

Chances are you have at least a few unwanted clothing items in your closet. If you need money now you may be able to sell those clothes and get some quick cash.

Luckily, there are several ways to sell your old clothes. If you have a LOT of clothes, you could hold a garage sale, but people typically don’t have enough clothes alone to do that.

Here are some other ways people make money quickly by selling their clothes.

eBay

Selling clothes on eBay is very popular – especially when you have a lot of name brand clothing. To get the best price, check out what similar items are going for and price your items a bit lower.

Don’t forget to account for seller fees and shipping charges as you price. Some people find more success when they add shipping charges to the price and offer free shipping, too.

Consignment Shops

If you have consignment shops in your area, you may be able to bring your clothing there to sell. However, remember that you’ll have a much smaller audience if you sell your clothing that way, so the clothing may not sell as quickly as it might on eBay.

ThredUp

There are online companies such as ThredUp that buy specific brands of clothing from people and then resell them.

Although it is a great way to sell your clothing really fast, you should know that sites like ThredUp don’t pay a lot for clothing and they do have a limited number of brands that they accept.

Selling your clothing could make you quick cash and help you declutter your house at the same time. Make sure your clothes are clean and free of flaws.

8. Become a Tasker

Have you heard of TaskRabbit? TaskRabbit is a site people visit if they need a small (or large) task done.

If you sign up to work with TaskRabbit, you might find yourself putting together furniture, running an errand or helping someone with a small home repair such as fixing a leaky faucet.

TaskRabbit clients also request tasks such as virtual assistant work, delivery work or cleaning jobs. For instance, they may request to have their home deep cleaned before they host a holiday party.

Here’s how it works: first, you sign up to be a tasker on the Task Rabbit site. After being approved, you’re notified by the company of available tasks in your area via their free app.

You get to choose the tasks you want to take, and after you finish the job you submit your invoice directly to TaskRabbit, and they collect the payment from the client.

As with Lyft, taskers for TaskRabbit often get tipped by clients, which could mean extra money in your pocket extra fast.

Your regular paycheck for the work you do for TaskRabbit comes to you weekly.  And because you can pick and choose which tasks you want to do, you get to decide when you are available for work with TaskRabbit.

9. Do Freelance Gigs

Are you good at particular skills such as writing short articles, creating resumes, web development, virtual assistant tasks or graphic design?

If so, you could make some money quickly by finding a few freelancing gigs on sites like Upwork. Individuals and companies look for freelancers on Upwork when they need some work done but don’t have enough work to hire an official employee.

Freelancing jobs on Upwork are often finished in a day or two, and you can often work any hours during the day that fit your schedule.

Rates of pay vary on the type of work you’re asked to do.

You can input your checking account and whenever a company pays you, it goes right into your bank account. Got to love the 21st century.

10. Babysit or Pet Sit

One popular way of making quick cash these days is through pet sitting or childcare. The great thing about these types of jobs is that you are usually paid on the spot the same day you do the work or finish the job.

Check with local friends and family members to see if they need a pet sitter or babysitter, or if they’d like an evening out. A reasonable average pay rate for babysitting services is $10 per hour – and more if you are watching several children.

If you can’t find friends, family members or neighbors that need help watching their little ones, you could always sign up with a website like Care.com to find babysitting gigs in your area.

11. Recycle Scrap Metal

Need cash? Another way to make money fast is to recycle things. Nearly everything from aluminum cans to scrap metal may be able to be recycled in your area.

Check your local yellow pages or search Google to find businesses in your area that pay for recycled products.

Aluminum cans are probably the easiest product to find for recycling, so gather up your own cans and then check with family, friends, and neighbors to see if you can have theirs and search local parks for discarded cans to recycle.

12. Do Tasks for Others

If your family and friends are like everyone else, they probably have a slew of tasks they’d like to get done but just can’t find the time to do.

To make money fast, send out an email, text or a note on social media letting loved ones know that you’re looking to make some cash quickly and if they have any tasks they’d like to hire you to do.

Some ideas for quick tasks could include:

• Cleaning their house
• Organizing an area, room or house
• Washing their car
• Cleaning up doggy doo from their yard
• Mowing their lawn
• Washing windows
• Raking leaves

Or similar types of tasks. Work with the homeowner to decide a fair price and then get to work. You could find enough work to earn a couple of hundred dollars in one weekend if you look hard enough.

13. Find Gigs on Craigslist

Craigslist has a “gigs” section where people are looking for help doing what usually amounts to quick tasks.

In the “gigs” section you might find somebody asking for help moving, cleaning their home or doing a car repair job.

The gigs section has different types of jobs too, from labor jobs to writing jobs to computer-related jobs. Note that you may find some weird stuff on there also, so search the listings carefully.

14. Get a Job as a Waitperson

The great things about wait staff jobs is that you can usually get hired quickly and start working right away.

And although you likely won’t get a paycheck for a couple of weeks, you will earn tips immediately if you do your job right.

Check with local chain restaurants to look for quick work as a wait staff person.

15. Run a Mobile Car Wash

A mobile car wash service is a great way to earn some money fast. Put together some simple supplies: a bucket, some rags, some towels for drying, some dish soap, window cleaner, some paper towels and a portable, rechargeable vacuum.

Head out into the neighborhood (weekends are usually best – evenings can work too) and go door-to-door offering your mobile car wash service.

It is a task that people know they need done but often just don’t have the time to do. All you need from them is their car and access to their outside water and water hose.

Base your rate on how long you think it will take you and on how messy the car is. Do a terrific job, and you might earn some tips as well.

16. Flip Freebies from Craigslist

Another popular side hustle to earn money fast is to pick up valuable stuff from the free stuff section on Craigslist and then resell it on the same site.

People regularly give away valuable stuff on Craigslist because they don’t want to deal with the selling process.

As I was researching for this article, I found a nice baby crib in the “free” section. Something like this could easily sell for $50 or $100.

17. Find Gigs on Fiverr

Fiverr works kind of like Upwork where you are paid to do a short-term job or task. The difference is that many of the jobs on Fiverr are fast and only pay $5.

For instance, somebody might want you to write a poem for their loved one or draw a quick picture of their pet.

Just search through the jobs on Fiverr and apply for the ones you can do quickly, or create your profile there and offer your services.

18. Take Back Stuff You Bought

If you like to shop and spend a lot of your money on clothes and other stuff, you might be able to come up with some really fast cash by returning items you bought but haven’t used yet.

Search your house and closet for stuff like that DVD movie you just had to have or that sweater you haven’t worn yet.

Take your pile of stuff and the accompanying receipts and bring it back to the store for some quick cash. Chances are you don’t really need it anyway, right?

19. Mow Lawns

Lawn work is one of those tasks that many people would gladly pay to have taken off their hands. If you want quick cash, you can offer a variety of lawn care services.

You could mow lawns, rake leaves, shovel snow in the winter or do basic trimming and landscaping. Other ideas include weeding gardens or clearing out vegetable or flower gardens for the winter.

Prices are generally negotiated per job and are paid for as soon as the job is finished. If you play your cards right, you could be hired on as a regular by some clients and have fast money every week.

20. Hold a Garage Sale

If you have a lot of stuff hanging around your house that you don’t want or need, holding a garage sale could be a great way to get money fast.

Thursdays, Fridays and weekends are usually the best sale days for getting rid of your stuff. Go through your house, gather your stuff up and price it competitively (10% of the retail price is reasonable).

Display your stuff attractively and organize it well to make it easy for people to shop. Gain more traffic by posting your garage sale on Craigslist and hanging up signs around the neighborhood.

Be willing to bargain too. Getting something for an item is better than getting nothing.

Want to make your sale extra attractive? Offer snacks or lemonade for free or cheap.

21. Do Gigs on Gigwalk

Gigwalk is a different type of task site. Gigwalk is a company that helps consumer brands identify and fix potential marketing issues.

When you sign up to be a gigwalker, you’ll have the chance to do a variety of tasks that help the company get feedback for their retail clients.

Gigwalker tasks take anywhere from five minutes to a few hours, and you get to see the task and the pay before you decide whether or not you’ll take it.

You find out which jobs are available on Gigwalk by downloading their app onto your phone. The range for a Gigwalk task might be anywhere from $3 to $100, depending on the task.

A gigwalker might be asked to take a picture of a menu at a restaurant or give feedback about a product display at a store.

Payments are made directly through PayPal.

22. Get a Personal Loan

As a last resort, consider getting a personal loan to get you through until things turn-around. Personal loans can be a slippery slope. If you get a loan during a tough time, it is likely you will not be able to pay it back.

And if you do, you likely will have to pay back a high interest rate which no one wants to do. However, a personal loan can be a great alternative to using a credit card as the interest rates are typically a lot lower.

For instance, lets say you have a credit card but the interest is 20%. If you could get a loan at only 7% interest, then in essence you are saving 13%. The catch is that you will need to have a good credit score in order to qualify for a low rate. So if you have a bad credit score, they do run credit checks in the approval process, so this might not be a good option for you.

A great way to get an online loan with the best rate is through a site called Credible. They will compare multiple lenders so that you can compare personal loans that make the most sense for your financial situation.

23. Sell Old Electronics Or Cell Phones

Do you have old electronics laying around that you could turn into cash? Some of these items can help you come up with hundreds if not thousands of dollars when you are in a bind.

Electronics You Could Sell:

You could sell these at Pawn shops, just know that they wont pay top dollar for them.

You can also consider buying old electronics and flipping them for a profit. For instance, I have gone to a yard sale and purchased a router for $5 and then sold it for $50.

That was a $45 profit. However, this option only works if you have a little cash to start with.

If you want the most from your electronics, you should consider selling on Offerup or Craigslist so that you can get cash the same business day.

However, if you want to get the most money for your cell phone, a good idea might be to sell it to a company that specializes in buying cell phones from people who want to sell.

Some of the best places to sell your old cell phone to get money include:

Just go to each site using the link above, type in your phone’s information, and get your quote. They’ll send you free shipping labels to print out and give you cash as soon as you send in your phone.

24. Redeem Credit Card Points

Have you checked your credit card statements lately? Lots of people have credit card points sitting around waiting to be redeemed. You could have hundreds of dollars in cash waiting on your credit card account.

Check on credit card points by signing into your credit card’s online activity center. Search their rules for redeeming your points and get cash fast.

25. Rent Out a Room on Airbnb

Do you have a spare bedroom – or even a spare couch – in your house? If so, you can rent it out to travelers on Airbnb.

Airbnb is a site that offers rooms, couches or whole houses for rent to travelers who are looking to avoid the expense and lack of personal feel that often comes with traditional hotel rentals.

Some Airbnb travelers are traveling for work-related reasons, some are in town for a special event such as a concert, and others are looking for a short-term place to stay as they travel to a further destination.

When you list your available room on Airbnb, you’ll need to fill out an online application, and then you’re advertising to hundreds of millions of travelers who use Airbnb to find their travel stay destinations.

How much money can you expect to earn if someone rents your room through Airbnb? Well, it depends on where you live; each city has a different average rate, and it can vary based on the amenities you offer as well.

In the major metropolitan area where I live, the average weekly rental rate for a single room is $297. That’s a lot of cash for just letting someone crash at your place for a few days.

If you think renting out a room in your house or apartment might be a great way for you to get money fast, check out Airbnb today to learn more about becoming a host.

The cool thing about this is that they will deposit your earnings right into your bank account each month. No more paper checks.

Need Money Now? FAQs

Here are some commonly asked questions when you need money now:

What is the best way to cover my emergency expenses?

The best way to do this is by having an emergency fund. Most financial experts like Dave Ramsey recommend you have at least 3-6 months of expenses in an emergency fund. This way you don’t need to borrow money when emergencies happen.

Are short-term loans a good idea?

These type of loans can seem like a good idea on the surface, but really should be avoided. They can have high interest rates, late payment fees and origination fees that make these options not attractive.

Should I take out a home equity loan?

While it can be tempting to tap into the equity of your home, it can be risky as well. Home equity rates adjust, so even though you may get a low interest rate now, it could go higher over time. You should check with a financial professional in your area to see if this makes sense for your financial situation.

Summary

As you can see, there are many, many opportunities for making money really quickly. To maximize your income – especially where service types of jobs are concerned – be sure to do your best work.

Developing a good reputation as you do the different jobs you find means people are more likely to call on you when they need help in the future.

Have you ever done any of these get money quickly? What are your favorite ways to get money when you need it fast? Let us know in the comments below.

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