With rent prices going up almost every year, coupled with a rising cost of living sometimes making ends meet and paying the bills becomes a constant struggle. To try to help you afford living in the city you desire and in a place you’d like to call home, we’ve come up with ideas that will either help you save money, or make a little extra money without having to make any major changes in your lifestyle or career choices.
Moonlight
Even if you are on a promising career path that will reward you handsomely in a few years, you might still need to survive those first few years when money is a little tighter. So if you’re already living frugally and there’s no room to cut expenses further, then your best bet is to boost your income. One way is to moonlight, and no, you don’t need to sign up for a second career. There are plenty of jobs / tasks that you can do to increase your top line. The beauty about these jobs is that you can set your own schedule and work when you are actually available from your real job. One of these jobs is driving for Uber, Lyft or any other of the ride-sharing companies (if you own a car). Once you get certified and qualified as a driver (that can take a couple of months), you can set your own schedule and drive around in your free time to earn some needed extra cash. You could also consider driving people during your own commute to work and then again back home. Another option to consider if you are handy with your hands, or just don’t mind waiting in lines you can sign up for Taskrabbit where you could be getting various gigs. The tasks vary and could include helping someone put together furniture, mount a TV on a wall, help with moving or perform miscellaneous personal assistant jobs. For example, standing in line to get tickets for Shakespeare in the park, can fetch about $50 or more for two to three hours of standing in line on the weekend.
Share your space
If you live in a city or a neighborhood that is frequented by a lot of tourists or business travelers (New York, LA, SF, Miami, Boston, DC, Chicago) you can consider renting your apartment or room on Airbnb. When you or your roommate are gone on weekends or on a vacation, then you have an opportunity to rent your place to someone who will be willing to pay you nicely to get that “local” type of stay and save on paying outrageous hotel prices. Airbnb is not for everyone and does take some prep work (cleaning up, moving and hiding any personal stuff and valuables), but if you are away often, you might find it worth the effort. Check your local laws and your own lease if this is something you should consider or allowed to do. For example, in NYC the laws and enforcement around Airbnb are not so clear, and even though technically it’s not allowed many people rely on it to make extra cash to pay the bills. If you do decide to take the risk, doing it in moderation is probably the best way to fly under the radar and stay out of trouble.
Rent your stuff
If you’re not comfortable in sharing your place, maybe you will be more comfortable with sharing some of your stuff to make some extra cash. If you own a bicycle, snowboard, skies, or even a surfboard you can easily rent them out on Spinlister instead of having them sitting collecting dust. Spinlister can help you make up to $500 a month by sharing some of your toys with others who might be traveling or just enthusiast. Bikes can go for anywhere from $10 to over $100 per day for the fancier bikes, snowboards go for about $30 per day and surfboards and SUPs (we checked this in LA) seem to go for an average of $25 per day. If you own a car, you can take it a step further and rent your car when it is unused on Turo. The money you can make depends on the car you have and how many days you can afford to make it available for rent. For example, we checked how much you can earn renting a $25,000 worth car for 5 days a month and Turo advised that it would be in the range of $3000 per year, or $250 a month. If you have a more expensive car, then that amount becomes much bigger.
Getting rid of stuff
Even if you’re not a professional hoarder, we all have stuff we keep and that we don’t need or rarely use. This can include old furniture, cloths, jewelry or collectibles. One way to turn that into extra cash is to sell it. There are plenty of sites for these items such as OfferUp, AptDeco for furniture, Ebay and of course good old Craigslist. If you don’t want to deal with people coming over and inspecting your stuff, then consider donating it. In addition to earning good Karma, you can turn those donations in to tax deductions which translate into cash for your bottom line when it’s tax season. There are also plenty of donations that will come pickup large items or boxes from your doorstep, so you don’t have to worry about hauling boxes to the closest donation spot. Some donations you should consider are the Salvation Army, Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, Veterans of America and Angel Street Thrift Shop (In NYC).
Save on utilities
Based on our recent partner, PowerSetter, many folks are overpaying their utility company by not taking advantage of switching their electricity and gas supplier. Most of the utility companies use a variable rate each month to calculate your bill. By signing fixed contracts with another supplier, you can lock in a lower rate than the average variable rate that your utility company is charging you. And the best part is that you don’t have to switch your utility company who is still providing the delivery of that power and gas, as well as the billing. Switching is easy and seamless, and one of those “I should’ve done this sooner” saves.
We hope that you find these tips helpful; If you also need help with finding roommate and housing, check us out www.diggz.co
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