50 (Legal) Ways to Boost Your Bank Account This Week
May 7, 2022
If you needed extra money, like, yesterday, you’ve come to the right spot.
The Penny Hoarder Staff has compiled a list of creative ways you can fatten your bank account this month. Certainly, there’s something here that fits your needs. I am Darrell Griffin, the President of PureAudacity.com. I love this site and I have saved hundreds of dollars from it.
1. Get Paid Up to $140/Month Just for Sharing Your Honest Opinion
If you’re turning blue in the face waiting for a raise at work, it might be time to quit holding your breath and start speaking your mind to someone who wants to listen.
Brands want to hear your opinion to help inform their business decisions on everything from products and services to logos and ads — and they’re willing to pay you up to $140 a month for it.
A free site called Branded Surveys will pay you up to $5 per survey for sharing your thoughts with their brand partners. Taking three quick surveys a day could earn up to $140 each month.
It takes just a minute to create a free account and start getting paid to speak your mind. Most surveys take five to 15 minutes, and you can check how long they’ll take ahead of time.
And you don’t need to build up tons of money to cash out, either — once you earn $5, you can cash out via PayPal, your bank account, a gift card or Amazon. You’ll get paid within 48 hours of your payout being processed, just for sharing your opinions.
They’ve already paid users more than $20 million since 2012, and the most active users can earn a few hundred dollars a month. Plus, they’ve got an “excellent” rating on Trustpilot.
It takes just a minute to set up your account and start getting paid to take surveys. Plus, right now, you’ll get a free 100-point welcome bonus just for becoming part of the community.
2. Get Paid $225/Month While Watching Movie Previews
If we told you that you could get paid to watch videos on your computer, you’d probably laugh.
It’s too good to be true, right?
But we’re serious. A website called InboxDollars will pay you to watch short video clips online. One minute you might watch someone bake brownies and the next you might get the latest updates on Kardashian drama.
All you have to do is choose which videos you want to watch and answer a few quick questions about them afterward.
No, InboxDollars won’t replace your full-time job, but it’s something easy you can do while you’re already on the couch tonight wasting time on your phone.
Unlike other sites, InboxDollars pays you in cash — no points or gift cards. It’s already paid its users more than $56 million.
It takes about one minute to sign up, and you’ll immediately get a $5 bonus to get you started.
3. Get up to $250,000 From This Company
Need a little extra cash to pay off credit card debt, remodel your house or to buy a big purchase?
We found a company willing to help.
Here’s how it works: If your credit score is at least 620, Fiona can help you borrow up to $250,000 (no collateral needed) with fixed rates starting at 5.99% and terms from 6 to 144 months.
Fiona won’t make you stand in line or call a bank. And if you’re worried you won’t qualify, it’s free to check online. It takes just two minutes, and it could save you thousands of dollars.
Totally worth it.
4. Cancel Your Car Insurance
When was the last time you compared car insurance rates? Chances are you’re seriously overpaying with your current policy.
If it’s been more than six months since your last car insurance quote, you should look again.
And if you look through a website called CheapRatesOnline, you could save yourself up to $500 a year*.
It takes just two minutes to answer some questions, and CheapRatesOnline’s smart matching technology will show you the insurance providers that are the best fit for you. And don’t worry — CheapRatesOnline uses advanced data security and encryption technology, so all your details are safe.
The website is free to use and can even save you up to an additional 20% if you add another vehicle to your policy. You could be paying as little as $19 a month* for car insurance.
CheapRatesOnline has already helped millions of people find affordable car insurance. See how much money you could save with a new policy.
5. Stop Overpaying These Companies
Wouldn’t it be nice if you got an alert when you’re shopping online at Target and are about to overpay?
That’s exactly what Capital One Shopping does.
Just add it to your browser for free, and before you check out, it’ll check other websites, including Walmart, eBay and others to see if your item is available for cheaper. Plus, you can get coupon codes, set up price-drop alerts and even see the item’s price history.
Let’s say you’re shopping for a new TV, and you assume you’ve found the best price. Here’s when you’ll get a pop up letting you know if that exact TV is available elsewhere for cheaper. If there are any available coupon codes, they’ll also automatically be applied to your order.
In the last year, this has saved people $160 million.
You can get started in just a few clicks to see if you’re overpaying online.
6. Add $100 to Your Wallet for Trying Out Apps
Our smartphones are the world’s greatest time-killers. You can browse Facebook; watch a video; download a new app.
You’re doing all this anyway — why not get paid for it? With a website called KashKick, you could get paid for things like answering survey questions or downloading an app — up to $100 per app.
You can also earn money by playing games, watching videos and reading emails, but surveys are the main way to make money.
Once you earn $10 in your account, you can immediately get paid via Paypal. This is an easy way to make a little extra money while you’re killing time on your couch. All you need is your phone or computer.
It takes just a minute to sign up, and you’ll immediately earn $1 just for completing your profile on the site. You’ll be that much closer to cashing out.
What’s best? When you download the app and fund your account (it takes no more than a few minutes), Robinhood drops a share of free stock into your account. It’s random, though, so that stock could be worth anywhere from $2.50 to $200 — a nice boost to help you build your investments.
7. Earn $300+/Month in Passive Income with Your Extra Space
If you’re like us, your garage probably isn’t doing much of anything at the moment. Maybe you have some tools in there, or maybe it’s home to your boxes of odds and ends, collecting dust.
But with a website called Neighbor, your extra space — whether it’s a spare room, an empty garage or a parking space — could be earning you an extra $300 a month in totally passive income.
Neighbor works by connecting people who need storage space with hosts who have the room to spare. The average host makes about $300 a month, but some people have earned up to $50,000 a year just by letting people park on their property.
It takes less than 10 minutes to get started. Just answer a few questions about your space, take some pictures and set your asking price. Neighbor will recommend a dollar amount based on your location and type of rental, but the final listing is up to you.
Neighbor is an easy source of passive income, and it’s easier than most side hustles. It’s free to list your space. Sign up here and see how much you could earn.
8. This Company Will Pay You up to $526.44 to Skip Going to the Store
Running errands is the worst. Seriously. After a long day of work, the last thing you want to do is go to the store and deal with the traffic and the crowds.
We get it. That’s why we like a free site called Rakuten — they’ll pay you to skip going to the store and shop online instead.
No, really. They work with just about every online store you probably shop at, and they can make sure you get some cash back every time you buy — up to 15% cash back.
We talked to Denver resident Colleen Rice, who’s earned more than $526.44 in cash back since she started using Rakuten. For doing nothing. She just uses Rakuten for things she already has to buy, like rental cars and flights. It takes less than a minute to open a Rakuten account and start shopping like you normally would. You just need an email address.
9. Earn up to $69/Hour Working From Home
We get it. There are kids to drop off at school, errands to run and dinner to cook, so the idea of getting a full-time job without any flexibility just doesn’t work for a lot of people.
Truth be told, life would be a lot easier if you could just make money without leaving the house. But that’s not something most employers offer. But have you considered bookkeeping? It’s the No. 1 most profitable business, according to an article in Inc Magazine.
And you could earn up to $69 an hour by starting your own bookkeeping business, according to Intuit, the creator of QuickBooks.
You don’t have to be an accountant or good at calculus to be successful at bookkeeping. As long as you’re motivated, a company called Bookkeepers.com will teach you everything you need to know. It’s one of the leading training courses in the field, and it even gives you the first three classes for free.
It’s helped thousands of people launch their own businesses, including Daniel Honan, a military veteran and former painter. He never considered starting his own company, but he signed up for Bookkeepers.com, and now he’s making $50,000 a year.
It only took him three months to get started, taking one class a week. Oh, and he makes his own schedule, earns up to $69 an hour and is able to spend more time with his wife than ever.
If you’re just a little curious, you just have to submit your email address here to take the first free class. If you stick with it, you could be running your own business in just a few months.
10. Get Paid up to $40/Month — Just for Sharing Your Opinion
Taking surveys might not sound like the best way to make money, but if you’re just vegging out on the couch — or pretending to be interested in your partner’s new favorite show — why not click a couple buttons? It could earn you up to $40 a month. Seriously.
There are a bunch of paid survey sites out there, but one of the best we’ve found is Survey Junkie.
They’ll ask you questions about things like, what kind of laundry detergent you use, or if you prefer Pepsi or Coke. You get points for answering, and many people accumulate enough points to request a check within a few hours. Completing just three surveys a day can earn you as much as $40 a month.
More than 20 million people already use Survey Junkie, and it has 4.5/5 stars on TrustPilot. Give it a try by visiting Survey Junkie and clicking the “Join Now” button. It’s free.
11. Become a Mystery Shopper
Got an eye for great service? <strong>You could make money — and get the occasional free meal — as a mystery shopper.
Companies want to know the employees serving their customers are putting a good face on the brand. Because a CEO of a huge chain can’t pull an “Undercover Boss” every week, many companies send mystery shoppers into the field to rate the customer experience.
This can be a simple way to make extra money — if you’re efficient. Here’s what to do — and what not to do — if you want to be a successful mystery shopper.
12. Get Paid for Your Opinion
Swagbucks is definitely a reader favorite, probably because of the wide variety of ways to make money beyond taking surveys. It’s also famous for handing out free rewards points (called SBs) at random just for being a member.
You’ll get SBs for each survey you qualify for and complete that you can redeem for cash via Paypal or gift cards to a number of popular retailers, including Amazon.
Even better? You’ll earn a 500 SB (or $5) bonus when you sign up and earn 2,500 SB within your first 60 days.
13. Get Paid to Drink Beer
The craft beer industry is hoppin’, so take advantage of it by, well, getting paid to visit breweries.
When you sign up as a mystery shopper, it’s your job to go to a grocery store, gas station, restaurant or, in this case, a breweries, and provide anonymous feedback.
Now, you can get paid to mystery shop — and drink — at breweries in your area through Secret Hopper. (Clever, right?)
The company is looking for detail-oriented beer-drinkers to hop around to different breweries and objectively rate and review their experiences. One Penny Hoarder gave the gig a try. He paid $16 on his visit to a local brewery. Secret Hopper paid him $20 via PayPal within a few days.
So, no, you’re not going to get rich, but you will get free beer, and that makes us hoppy.
All you have to do is sign up, then it’ll contact you when you’re needed.
14. Become an Affiliate Marketer
Affiliate marketing is simple in theory: Link to products, and when people use your coded link to visit and buy something, you make a commission.
People can make hundreds of dollars monthly from affiliate sales. Search “affiliate program” or “associates” plus the name of a product to locate something specific to promote, or sell just about anything as an Amazon Associate.
15. Sell Someone Else’s Stuff
Selling Craigslist freebies is a great way to make a profit quickly, because you get the items for free. You could even have cash in hand today.
Go to the free section on Craigslist and look for things that are close to you and easy to sell immediately. They could be scraps from a job site or metal items you can sell, for example.
For a quick turnaround, avoid items like furniture or electronics. These can be good to sell, but they’ll take longer.
Cash in your treasures by reselling on Craigslist, including them in a rummage sale or selling to specialty buyers, like a pawn shop or a local business.
16. Earn up to $25/Hour Delivering Food
Cities around the country are filled with two things: incredible restaurants and busy people.
You can help connect them by delivering food through DoorDash.
As a “Dasher,” you’ll work as an independent contractor, setting your own hours and working as much or little as you want, meaning how much you can make is up to you.
You’ll earn a $6 fee for each delivery, plus keep 100% of your tips. Depending on the day, you could earn up to $25 an hour. If you drive full time, that’s $1,000 a week!
For a real-life case, Jose Neri, a former Dasher in California, reports earning $500 to $600 a week working just lunches and dinners. They could take about two-and-a-half deliveries an hour, and users would tip between 10% and 15%.
All you need to get started is an insured vehicle or a bicycle and a smartphone. You should be at least 18 years old and have a minimum two years’ driving experience.
If you’re interested in becoming a Dasher, you can learn more here.
17. Get Paid for Taking Polls
What did you think of the new Spiderman movie? Is a hot dog a sandwich? Who’s your favorite Real Housewife?
The research company, MyPoints, has paid people over $236 million to answer poll questions like that over the past 23 years.
And they’re currently recruiting new panelists. You can do it right on your phone, and you’ll even earn a $5 bonus when you sign up and complete your first five polls.
Any extra money you can put toward your credit cards is good in our book — but in this editor’s opinion, no, a hot dog is not a sandwich.
18. Be a Mock Juror
A mock or surrogate juror reviews evidence and renders a decision to help lawyers prepare for real cases. Participation usually requires a full day cooped up in a hotel conference room.
Fortunately, there are online surrogate juror options, too: eJury and OnlineVerdict. Those opportunities pay $5 to $60, but they can take less than an hour.
To qualify as an online juror, applicants must be:
- A U.S. citizen
- 18 years or older
- Free of any past felony convictions
Creating an account for either site above is free but will require a questionnaire that will ask very personal questions about your age, marital status, criminal history, income, political opinions and more.
19. Turn Your Junk Mail Into Cash
You know all those flyers and advertisements you get in the mail each day? The ones you never wanted but have no idea how to opt out of?
Well, you can turn them into cash.
The Small Business Knowledge (SBK) Center is a market research company that wants to get a peep insight your mailbox. Join its consumer panel, and start shoveling that junk mail into a postage-paid envelope and, at the end of each week, send it over to the SBK Center.
No, you won’t be rolling in extra cash, but you can earn up to $20 every six to 10 weeks.
20. Get Paid to Drop a Few Pounds
Bottom line: HealthyWage will literally pay you for losing weight.
Not only are you getting more healthy, you’re also making some money. How’s that for motivation?
Here’s how it works:
- Read more about HealthyWage, and sign up.
- Define a goal weight and the amount of time you’ll give yourself to achieve it.
- Place a bet on yourself ranging from $20 to $500 a month.
Depending on how much you have to lose, how long you give yourself to do it and how much money you put on the table, you could win up to $10,000!
Wondering if it can really work? We talked to one woman, Christina Castro, who lost 84 pounds — and made $1,191.
21. Make Your Own Schedule as a Data-Entry Clerk
Data entry isn’t the best-paying online job, but it is one you can do with few skills or previous experience — all you need is a solid internet connection and a computer, and you must be at least 18 years old.
Pay ranges on a per-hour or per-project basis. Typically, you can pick up jobs as frequently as you’d like through freelance broker sites like Smart Crowd and Clickworker.
22. Clean up Search Engine Mistakes
Search engines use complicated algorithms to determine the results you see — and they don’t always get it right.
They’re vulnerable to errors, so they need real humans to look at the results and judge them for quality, relevance and usefulness. And those humans can get paid around $12 an hour for the work.
If you want to get paid to clean up Google’s mess (or Bing’s or Yahoo!’s), look for a job as a search engine evaluator.
Tech company Lionbridge is typically hiring for these jobs, and it pays $12 to $15 an hour.
23. Get Free Stock
Here’s the thing about investing: The sooner you start, the better. And we found a company that will give you free stock to get started.
An investing app called Robinhood will give you free stock worth between $2.50 and $200 just for downloading its free app and funding your account.
Yeah, you’ve probably heard of Robinhood. Both investing beginners and pros love it because it doesn’t charge commission fees, and you can buy and sell stocks for free — no limits. Plus, it’s super easy to use.
Whether you’ve got $5, $100 or $800 to spare, it takes just a couple of minutes to sign up, fund your account and get your free stock — a nice boost to help you build your investments.
24. Sell Thrift Store Finds on eBay
Selling your possessions on the auction site eBay is one way to pocket some cash quickly.
You can also make money by buying designer clothes for cheap, then selling them on the site to the highest bidder. If you have an eye for fashion — or at least the most popular labels — you can track down inventory at local thrift stores.
Create listings for your items, making sure to include well-written item descriptions and quality photographs to give your listings a professional polish (and get top dollar). Check out similar items to get a sense of where to set your starting bid, and be sure to incorporate the costs of shipping and eBay’s seller fees into your price.
Penny Hoarder Kat Tretina resold designer jeans by starting with a minimal investment — packaging tape and a scale to weigh packages for shipping — and ended up more than tripling her money.
How much money can you make? Your profitability depends upon what you’re selling, but for working 10 to 15 hours a month, Tretina made $500 to $800.
25. Work from Someone Else’s House
Working from home is wonderful, but sometimes it’s nice just to experience a new space — perhaps in a new town or a new country.
Consider house sitting. People will pay you big bucks to look after their house (and maybe a pet or two) while they’re away.
If you’re not sure where to find these types of gigs, there are tons of websites out there that’ll help, including House Sitters America and Mind My House.
26. Create a Blog and (Potentially) Earn Millions
Want to start your own website? Turn it into some money?
It’ll take quite a bit of dedication, but it can really pay off.
Take, for example, Helene Sula, a professional travel blogger who visited more than 85 cities last year and earned $200,000, in part through her blog, “Helene in Between.”
We recommend you start by building up your high-quality content. Then you can look into advertising platforms like Google AdSense, a tool that automatically serves your readers display ads. The price advertisers pay varies, so there’s no way to say how much you can make using Google AdSense, but you’ll get paid when a reader interacts with the ad.
If you want all the details, check out our guide to starting a blog, gaining page views and monetizing it.
27. Mask Up This Weekend
Have you heard of a luchador?
It’s a masked Mexican wrestler, and San Diego resident Motros Jungle (whose real name remains a secret per the tradition of luchadores) makes extra money hopping into the ring each weekend.
“You go from being just a regular, average Joe to becoming a superhero as soon as you put the mask on,” he says.
Motros Jungle says he makes anywhere fro $200 to $500 for three matches during the weekend. That doesn’t include merch — T-shirts, stickers, buttons and masks.
Learn more about what it takes to become a luchador.
28. Stream on Twitch
Your mom was wrong. Playing video games might not be a waste of your time after all.
Cory Michael started streaming his gaming sessions and over four years attracted 29 million people to watch him tackle Destiny and other multiplayer online games. As a result, Twitch accepted his partnership application and agreed to pay him to play.
How much money can you make? Michael explained to The Penny Hoarder that there are three ways to make money streaming on Twitch: tipping, ad revenue and subscriptions. Top Twitch streamers can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars per month.
29. Rent out Your Ping-Pong Table
Got a Ping-Pong table you don’t use? Someone might need it for a party, so why not rent it out? You can make money with almost anything in your home now thanks to websites like Zilok that make it easy to rent out your stuff.
Zilok is free for individual members to create listings, but rental businesses have to pay fees. To list your item on Zilok, you’ll have to create a post with a description, photos and a price per day. Once a renter finds your product, Zilok takes a commission depending on the listing price. For everything under $10, the commission fee is $1. Fees range between 5% and 9% for all other price categories.
30. Sell Your Friendship
Get paid to be someone’s buddy! We’re not kidding.
You can register to become a friend at RentAFriend.com, where paying users can contact you to attend concerts, sporting events, family functions, VIP events and more.
You can charge up to $50 an hour and set your own schedule.
Friends working full time (five days a week) earn up to $2,000 a week, plus free dinners and access to those events I mentioned.
What could you do as a friend for 40 hours a week?
First of all, the site clarifies that it is “solely a platonic friendship website” — beyond that, options are endless.
If you have a special skill, like cooking or speaking a foreign language, you could teach them. Some people traveling or new to an area hire a friend to show them the town.
Some people just want someone to talk to.
31. Let NASA Pay You to Stay in Bed All Day
Unfortunately, we haven’t found a way to get paid as a professional napper, but this opportunity is pretty darn close: NASA will pay volunteers to take part in bed rest studies.
Yup — you turn yourself into a test subject and spend 60 days in bed, all in the name of science.
It might be tougher than you think, though. You’ve got to shower, dress, exercise and eat… all from your bed.
The good news is the gig pays. One of the more recent calls for volunteers offered $19,000 for 60 days.
32. Do Online Transcription
Those listening skills you honed by eavesdropping on your roommates’ conversations could finally pay off with a job in online transcription.
Transcription jobs usually require an assessment test to gauge your typing speed and accuracy. Depending on the service, you could be listening to a car commercial or court hearings, so find out what you’re getting into before you apply.
Cherry wishes she had known that tip before she signed up for her first transcription gig, which brought in $85.15 over six months for a job that required extensive testing and a lot of studying to follow a strict style guide.
“For that first transcription job, oh my gosh, I spent hours on that, and I got paid so little,” Cherry said. “I wish I would have just, in the beginning, told myself, ‘Hey, this just isn’t going to be worth it. Find something else.’”
Cherry had better luck after discovering the transcription service Rev, which offered a user-friendly platform and more lucrative projects.
How much money can you make? Making 40 cents to 75 cents per minute of transcription at Rev, Cherry earned $87.45 in one month for less than four hours of work.
33. Answer the Phone
Have you ever considered doing customer service from the comfort of your home? An increasing number of companies are hiring work-from-home customer service reps, instead of running call centers.
These jobs can be full– or part-time and offer a variety of schedules, including daytime, evening and weekend shifts with a range of pay depending on the position and location.
Your job is usually to answer customer questions over the phone or via online chat. You may find sales positions that include higher pay and performance incentives; or technical support positions, which are best if you’re tech-savvy and have an interest in helping people understand technology.
You should enjoy helping people, though! You know how a bad customer service call can totally ruin your day? You don’t want to be the bad rep on the other end of that call.
34. Create and Sell Courses
Are you a self-taught coder with a knack for simplifying instructions? You could create an online course about it. Maybe you’re an expert at finger-picking techniques on acoustic guitar; you could make a course about that, too.
If you’re good at explaining whatever it is you specialize in, people out there are eager to learn, and with Udemy, you can create and host online courses — no master’s degree required.
35. Get Crafty (But Not Too Crafty, If You Don’t Want)
If you’re a creative, consider selling your art on Etsy. Although there are some fees, including the 5% transaction charge, the marketplace connects with more than 33 million buyers globally.
Those are a lot of potential customers.
If you aren’t necessarily the artsy type, you could still make money on Etsy by selling craft supplies. For example, Penny Hoarder contributor Janet Berry-Johnson made about $200 a month selling needlecraft kits and patterns.
36. Publish a Kindle Book
If you’re a subject-matter expert or have an intriguing life experience, you could write a book. But there’s no need to send it off to all the major publishing houses in New York City.
You can publish ebooks through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform. Penny Hoarder contributor Steve Gillman wrote a book in a week. Note: Ebooks don’t have be hundreds of pages long. Gillman found many books as short as 6,000 words.
After publishing on Amazon, he started making $350 a month. The best part? He continued to make money, even months and years later. He outlines exactly how he did it and the best tips and tricks for you.
37. Swap Books for Amazon Gift Cards
Have old college textbooks taking up valuable shelf space? You could host a garage sale or sell them on Craigslist, but one of the easiest ways to get rid of them is through Amazon.
With Amazon Trade-In, you can trade in your used textbooks, plus other items, like electronics, in exchange for an Amazon gift card.
Enter the item’s information on Amazon’s Trade-In page to see how much you could pocket. Shipping is free.
