Two Easy Ways to Make Extra Money on the Side

Working on your travel funds? There are all kinds of easy ways to make extra money to put towards vacations. Today, I’m sharing two of my all-time favorite (and easy) ways to make a little extra cash! Neither of these requires a lot of work, and the money you make can add up quickly with minimal effort.

Not only am I sharing the best of my money-making tips, but I’m also sharing how much I made off of each of them with one month of my normal use.

An Easy Way to Make Extra Money by Searching the Internet

Swagbucks – Although there are all kinds of ways to earn Swagbucks, I typically only use it as a search engine. Instead of opening up my normal web browser, I open up Swagbucks and do all my searches from there.

A few times a week, I’ll randomly earn 4 – 20 Swagbucks. Every once in a while I’ll watch a video, complete a survey, or purchase something through a shopping link (but only if the site isn’t on Rakuten).

I tracked my Swagbucks earnings for the month of July and I earned 52 Swagbucks simply by doing my internet searches through it. For the month of June, it was 45. May was 54.

The only thing you need to remember is to open up Swagbucks when you log onto your computer each day and then go to that page for every search you do. You can also download a bar that will automatically remind you to use it. Pretty darn simple.

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Every 100 Swagbucks is the equivalent of about $1. Once you accumulate enough Swagbucks, you can trade them in for gift cards.

I typically use them for Dunkin cards which I then use to purchase coffee to fuel our road trips, but you can also find gift cards for Southwest, Uber, Delta, tons of restaurants, and more. Even Amazon!

What’s especially nice is that they often run sales, so if you are patient you can often get a card for 2% – 20% fewer Swagbucks.

Based on the three months I tracked, I average 600 Swagbucks each year for doing something I’m already doing. However, with the occasional purchases, surveys, and special bonuses that occur, I actually tend to get closer to 4,000. Then I wait for a sale and typically end up with a $25 – $30 gift card.

Insider Tip: I do know of several people who cover all their Christmas shopping through Amazon with Swagbucks – they just devote a lot more time to it than I do! Maybe someday I’ll do an experiment to see how much I can earn with a little extra effort. It might be fun to devote 15 minutes a day to it and see what happens.

👉 Sign up through this Swagbucks link and you’ll earn a bonus of 300 Swagbucks if you earn 300 Swagbucks in your first 30 days. That’s worth at least $6 in the first month!

An Easy Way to Make Extra Money by Making Purchases Through the Internet

The second method I’m sharing is probably my favorite of all my money-making tips. Rakuten.

Rakuten is such an easy way to earn actual cashback on things you already plan on purchasing online. You simply go to Rakuten before you make an online purchase, type in the name of the retailer and purchase through the page Rakuten sends you to.

Rebates change often but range between 1% to 10% of your total purchase.

Stacking tip: Before you make an online purchase, search for Rakuten through Swagbucks and if you are super lucky you’ll earn bonus Swagbucks for going to the Rakuten site!

Every quarter, Rakuten will send you an actual check (or put money in your Paypal account) for the rebate amount that you earned! It’s super simple and a great way to earn a little extra vacation cash.

For example, in 4Q19, I earned $54.70, and in 1Q20 I earned $17.98. I average $100 to $150 a year. CASH! That’s a night in a hotel or a really nice dinner or two.

There are so many stores available on Rakuten – everything from hotels, car rentals, and Orbitz to the Gap. Sometimes Amazon even offers cashback. Nine times out of ten I get a little something back for everything I purchase online thanks to Rakuten.

👉 Sign up through this Rakuten link and you’ll get an extra $10 or more after your first purchase using Rakuten. Pretty sweet, right?

Originally I was going to share all of my money-making tips, but I quickly realized that would make for a VERY long blog post.

So, instead, this will be a new blog series. Expect another post next month with a few more great programs for making extra cash for your next vacation.

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