The Holiday Hustle: 5 Ways to Earn Extra Cash for the Holiday Season

For single parents, it can be hard to juggle work, school, and finding time to buy gifts for children during the holiday season. It’s not only time consuming, but gifts can be expensive. When you are already on a tight budget, it can be stressful to find the extra money to buy gifts for your children. 

We have put together a list of ways to make some extra cash this holiday season so that you can comfortably buy presents for your children and give them a Christmas to remember.

1. Turn Your Hobby into a Business

Do you like to paint furniture? Are you gifted at cookie or cake decorating? If you have a hidden talent, it might be an opportunity to make some extra money. Some possible side hustles include photography, pet sitting, freelance writing, craft making (candles, soap, etc.), and more. 

Some tips to get started include:

• Develop your product and come up with a plan to help you meet your goals.
• Create a catchy business name and logo.
• Figure out your target audience. Find out who your market is and come up with creative ways to reach those people.
• Market your business. This can be as simple as word of mouth and posting on social media. You can also attend free community events to help get the word out about your business. As you make more money from your side business, you can even venture into paid ads on social media. 

2. Gift Wrapping

Gift wrapping can be a lucrative side business. People are usually very busy, especially during the holidays. Take advantage of this by offering gift wrapping services. Other than needing some supplies, you don’t need a lot of things to get started. Invest in some nice, thick wrapping paper, pretty ribbon, tape, and scissors, and you should have enough to start.

Most people who offer gift wrapping will start after Thanksgiving. You can either charge hourly or by the present. Offer flexibility to your clients by either going to their home or business to wrap their presents, or give them the option of dropping them off to you. 

You can sometimes find an open position at your local mall wrapping gifts. Most malls will have a station located somewhere on the property where people can pay to have their gifts wrapped. These positions typically work after normal business hours and are part time, which is perfect for a single parent in school.

3. Declutter Your House

Most people have tons of stuff lying around their house that they don’t use. Take an afternoon and go through your house. You will likely find a number of items that you can live without that you can sell. 

There are plenty of ways in which you can sell some of your belongings. One of the easiest ways is to have a yard sale, although you typically won’t get quite as much money for each item as some of the other methods. 

You can also sell online through eBay, Facebook marketplace, Poshmark, and more. If you choose one of the avenues, know that it is a little bit more work. You will have to take pictures of each item and list them, usually separately. However, you can usually make more money by selling online. You will also have to arrange for the buyer to pick up the item, or you can ship it to them.

4. Driving and Delivering

If you have a reliable car and good driving record, you can make money by driving around. While some ways involve a decent bit of driving around, you don’t always have to add miles and miles on your car in order to make money. 

Car Advertising

Carvertise and Wrapify both pay people to wrap their cars in removable decals, advertising for different businesses. You are usually paid per mile, and you have to meet a minimum number of miles driven in a specific amount of time. 

Ridesharing Apps

You can also drive for a ridesharing app, such as Uber or Lyft. There are other companies that offer ridesharing services, but these are the main two. You have to be at least 21 years old with a relatively clean driving record. 

Deliver Food and Other Goods

There are a number of apps that allow you to deliver things to people. Some of the more popular ones are food and grocery delivery services. Some companies that provide food delivery are UberEats, GrubHub, DoorDash, and Bite Squad. You can deliver other goods, such as groceries and other non restaurant options, through companies like Shipt, Postmates, and Instacart. 

5. Start a Blog

Starting a blog and making money off of it can take some time, but it usually well worth it. To start off, begin by creating useful content and posting it on your blog forum. Pick a specific niche or type of content that you will post, whether it’s a fashion, cooking, or mommy blog. Figure out who your target audience is and reach out to them, building engagement as you go. 

After you have grown your blog’s following, you can start trying to make money off of your blog. You can do this through a number of ways, such as affiliate links, sponsorships, sponsored posts, and more.

The important thing is doing something that you like. Finding a side business that you actually enjoy doing will make it much more enjoyable and make it feel less like work. With a little bit of dedication and hard work, you can turn a hobby into something that makes you money, helping to buy Christmas gifts for your kids or even helping you to pay off debt or put money into savings by doing something you love.