Rent’s due.
Cue anxious scrambling.
You riffle through old birthday cards; maybe there’s a stray $10 bill in one?
You offer to pet-sit any and every critter in your neighborhood (even the squirrels). You see what you can do for $5 on Craigslist. You stare into your closet and wonder what your local consignment store will give you for that pilly sweater. You contemplate calling Mom or Dad… anything but that.
You even Google “sell plasma.” You know, just to see what that’s all about.
It’s a sad reality; many of us struggle to make rent.
Creative Ways to Make Your Rent Payment on Time
For a quick fix, we’ve got a few ways to make extra money this month — so your landlord doesn’t come a-knockin’.
1. Find Unclaimed Money
Rather than shuffling through your neighborhood’s streets and looking for a tumbleweed of unclaimed money (we wish, right?), find your unclaimed money.
Did you know state treasuries throughout the U.S. have more than $43 billion in unclaimed funds? Just sitting around! And you’re here trying to pay the darn rent.
In 2017, one South Carolina man hit the jackpot. He got a phone call from his state treasurer letting him know he was entitled to $763,000 in unclaimed money. That’s, like, 63 years of rent.
We advise you to be careful of calls like this; chances are, it’s a scam. But you can take matters into your own hands and see if you have any unclaimed money floating around.
Start by checking with the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators. Click your state on the map, and it’ll redirect you to your state’s appropriate search site. You can also check with Missing Money.
If you’re not as lucky as that South Carolina man, keep reading.
2. Sign up for a Flexible Side Gig
Need a fun, flexible way to earn money while also meeting lots of new people?
Try driving with Lyft.
Demand for ridesharing has been growing like crazy, and it shows no signs of slowing down. To be eligible, you’ll need to be at least 21 years old with a year of driving experience, pass a background check and own a car made in 2007 or later.
We talked to Paul Pruce, who’s been driving full-time with Lyft for over a year. He earns $750 a week as a driver.
Best of all, he does it on his own time. You can work days, nights or weekends — it’s up to you!
Because it’s simple to switch between apps, many Lyft drivers also sign up as a driver partner with Uber.
As a driver partner with Uber, you are an independent contractor. You create your own schedule and work as much or as little as you want.
If you want to give it a try here are a few of the things to keep in mind: You must be at least 21 years old, have at least one year of licensed driving experience in the U.S. (three years if you are under 23 years old), have a valid US driver’s license and pass a background check.
Also, your car must be a four-door, seat at least four passengers (excluding the driver), be registered in-state and be covered by in-state insurance.
Here’s a link to sign up to use the Uber app.
3. Find a Work-From-Home Gig
If you’re not in the mood to leave your sweet abode (we get it; you’re paying a lot for that space), start looking for a work-from-home job.
You can find anything and everything out there — virtual assistant gigs, data-entry clerk positions, or even proofreading and transcribing jobs.
One we want to mention is an online tutoring website called VIPKID. It offers a flexible way to make money on the side.
With VIPKID, you’ll become an English tutor for children in China between ages 4 and 12. Base pay ranges from $14 to $22 an hour, and teachers get paid between the 10th and 15th of each month.
Learn more about the work-from-home gig on the VIPKID website.
4. Declutter Your Space
Living that #Minimalist lifestyle is all the rage right now, so why not use this mentality to your advantage when you need a couple of extra bucks?
Start taking a good hard look at your belongings. What do you actually need?
Technology: Begin with your overcrowded entertainment center, likely full of outdated music and movies. Consider selling these items to Decluttr. It’ll buy your old CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, video games and even cell phones and tablets. Shipping is free, and Decluttr pays you within 24 hours of retrieval.
Books: Bookshelf collecting dust? We love books as much as the next person, but see if your treasures are worth anything by simply searching their ISBNs at Bookscouter. The platform searches dozens of buyback sites to see where you could get the most money.
Clothes: If you have clothes you haven’t worn in the last year, why do you hang onto them? Try selling them to folks in your area through an online marketplace like letgo. It takes about five minute to list an item.
Gift cards: While you’re digging out those stiff winter coats, check the pockets. You might come across a gift card or two in there. If you do, sell it for rent money through a gift-card exchange site like Raise.
5. List Your Expensive Space on Airbnb
Have a spare room? Might as well use Airbnb to make some money by renting it out.
If you’re a good host with a desirable space, you could add hundreds — even thousands — of dollars to your savings account with Airbnb.
And there’s no reason you can’t be creative. We even found a guy who earns $1,380 a month renting out a backyard tent on Airbnb.
Taking a few simple steps can make the difference between a great experience and a less-than-satisfactory one.
Here are a few tips:
- Make your space available during high-demand times in your area. Think: concerts, conventions and sporting events.
- Be a good host, and make sure your place is stocked with the toiletries you’d expect at a hotel — toilet paper, soap and towels.
- Be personable. A lot of travelers turn to Airbnb for the personal touch they won’t find at commercial properties.
Here’s the link to sign up as an Airbnb host.
(Hosting laws vary from city to city. Please understand the rules and regulations applicable to your city and listing.)
6. Try Mystery Shopping (and Eat Pizza)
Mystery shopping, the act of posing as a regular customer but secretly reviewing services and products, is one way our CEO Kyle Taylor got by when he struggled to make rent. He was able to bank between $400 and $500 a month as a mystery shopper.
Some of the most popular types of mystery shops are for pizza companies. So you can actually get paid to eat pizza. Both Papa John’s Pizza and Pizza Hut regularly conduct mystery shops.
As part of the assignment, you’re required to time delivery service and review the quality of pizza. It’s pretty easy to do, and you can do it several times a year.
If you’re interested in giving it a try, here’s a list of mystery-shopping companies.
7. Get Ahead of It: Set up an Emergency Fund
Nothing is more motivating than a nice dose of panic, right?
While you’re fretting, put your nervous energy to good use and start an emergency fund to help prevent this rent panic from happening again.
Tons of apps make this process painless nowadays, including Digit. It saves only money you can afford to spare.
Simply link it to your checking account, and the app’s algorithms will determine small (and safe!) amounts of money to withdraw into a separate FDIC-insured savings account.
Using the set-it-and-forget-it strategy, one of our editors was able to save more than $4,300 in just over two years. He was able to use the funds when he needed — like when he picked up and moved from Tampa to New York City, where rent is, well, expensive.
Digit is free for the first 100 days, then $2.99 per month thereafter — less than Netflix.
8. Ask for Help
If you feel as though you’ve exhausted all your options, call a local resource line for help.
Start with 2-1-1, a confidential service offered through United Way that’ll help you find the resources you need to find affordable housing, make rent or pay utilities.
To use the service, head to 211.org and enter your location. It’ll show you services in your community and give you a number to call.
You can also look into applying for a grant. Take, for example, Modest Needs grants.
This nonprofit organization supports low-income workers, mainly through its Self-Sufficiency Grants. These are designed for workers just above the poverty line, who are ineligible for most conventional methods of social assistance but are still at risk for the types of financial disasters that result in homelessness.
If you’re working and in need, reach out and see if Modest Needs can help you.
9. Avoid the Endless Loop of Bank Fees
Calling it close with rent is a scary feeling. You might feel as though you’re playing chicken with your bank account, dodging various fees: late fees, overdraft fees, minimum-balance fees… you name it.
Rather than cowering in fear, you can switch to a bank account that won’t punish you for close calls.
We like the Aspiration Summit Checking account for that reason. It has no monthly fees and no minimum deposits, and it even reimburses you any ATM fees you might pay. Account holders also earn up to 1% in annual interest, which is a nice little form of passive income that might come in handy down the road.
(And maybe next month, finally start a budget?)
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
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