With the rising cost of what seems like everything, this holiday season is seeming a lot pricier than usual. Even with coming out of the tail end of Black Friday and Cyber week deals.
If you weren’t able to check everything off of your gift and to-do lists affordably with recent sales, there’s still time to get everything done and all the cash you need to do it.
Since the holiday season demands so much output from several businesses and communities, opportunities for extra work open up. And with that, so do side hustles.
You can scrounge up some extra cash with any of the open windows in your free time using holiday side gigs.
Use These 5 Holiday Side Gigs to Make Extra Cash
Some are going to require certain things like a car if it is a delivery app, wifi or data if you need a phone or laptop to list items for sale, or a clear background check for apps like Rover and Instacart.
Let’s dive into each of these options a little deeper, discuss income potential, and more.
Pet Sit or House Sit on Rover
Did you know that you can get paid to watch someone’s pet, their house, or both? Since so many people and families are required to travel during the holidays, they need folks to watch their pets (or their house) while they are away. This is where Rover comes in.
Rover actually allows you to sign up as a pet sitter or a house sitter on the app and work as an independent contractor. Those aren’t the only services you can do through the app though.
Other services you can offer on the app include:
- Pet walking
- Pet boarding in your house
- Doggy day care
- Pet sitting in the owner’s house
- Drop in visits (usually around 30 minutes)
- House sitting
- Pet grooming
As you can see, there is a wide variety of services you can do through an app like Rover for a side gig. You will have to first pass a background check to be able to work through the app but after that, you can set your own availability and rates.
The average rate for a pet sitter is about $25 an hour which fluctuates with what you offer on the app and Rover takes 20% of your earnings for a service fee.
Become an Instacart Shopper
Shopping for Instacart is another holiday side gig that can bring in a lot of cash quickly with large amounts of holiday shopping orders that need to be fulfilled.
As an Instacart Shopper, you will be expected to complete a background check and either do a full in-store shopping trip with delivery, or only in-store shopping with handing the order off to a delivery driver. You will need a car if you choose the full-service shopper role.
If you don’t have a car, you can choose to only do in-store shopping.
According to The Rideshare Guy, you can make up to $45 an hour shopping and delivering for Instacart. The average pay reported is more around $20 an hour, including tips.
Please keep in mind the wear and tear you are putting on your vehicle, maintenance costs, car payments, insurance, and more. You will have to account for those costs as an independent contractor for Instacart.
Get started with Instacart here.
Shovel Snow on Shovler
Shovler is a gig app that allows people to register on the app as snow shovelers and make money shoveling snow.
All you need to get started is a smartphone and a shovel. Gigs range from shoveling out parking spots, driveways, walkways, sidewalks, to even small parking lots. The average rates shovelers make are $40 for a car parked on a city street and $30 to $75 for up to a two-car driveway and walkway. The larger the driveway or area, the larger the payout.
The app claims that shovelers who work on the app can make up to $200 per shoveling gig and up to thousands of dollars for snowstorms.
This is the perfect holiday side gig especially for folks that live in areas where it often snows.
Get started with Shovler here.
Work at Christmas Events or Light Displays Near You
If you live in an area that has several holiday-themed events and attractions that hire seasonal workers, you can try that for a holiday side gig.
You can do holiday jobs like:
- Christmas light installation
- Christmas decorator
- Set design for holiday plays
- Hot chocolate server
- Security
- Holiday party planner/event coordinator
- and more
To look for these jobs you can browse locally on Facebook in the jobs section by searching for keywords like “Holiday event seasonal workers” or something similar. You can also try any websites your community has or Google “Holiday jobs near me”, “seasonal jobs near me”, or something similar.
Sell Old Gifts You Never Used
If you need to declutter, do so while making some money at the same time.
Is there a closet somewhere that you stuff all your old presents in that you never use or don’t know what to do with?
Clean out that closet and start posting some of the items to any of the below reselling apps:
- Facebook Marketplace: great for collectibles, decor, furniture, and almost anything
- Poshmark: perfect for designer brands and accessories
- Mercari: perfect for kitchen and home items
- Depop: great for unique and vintage fashion and accessories
- SidelineSwap: especially for sporting goods
- Reverb: great for music gear
- eBay: great for collectibles, instruments, records
Facebook Marketplace is the quickest out of all of the apps above. If there is something you want to sell, start there first and share your listings in local selling Facebook groups which you can find by searching on Facebook.
Things to Keep In Mind While Side Hustling
As you get started with any of these holiday side gigs, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.
If you take on a gig through any gig app like the ones above such as Rover and Instacart, you work as an independent contractor for those companies and not as an actual employee. Because you are an independent contractor, you will be responsible for those self-employment taxes that an employer would usually pay.
To avoid any surprises come tax time, I recommend consulting with an accountant to review any extra income you have and consult you on what you should be setting aside.
Related Podcast Episode: Your Side Hustle is a Crucial Path to Success with Jason Butler
Summary
The holidays can be a financial stressor for anyone. These holiday side gigs can help you lessen that stress and even have a little fun at the same time.
If you try something out that you end up not liking or is starting to be too much with other things on your plate, quit and move on to something else. Nothing has to be permanent – which can be the joy of a seasonal job with no strings attached.
Happy holidays!
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