I Need Money! 23 Ways to Get Money Today

So you need money fast, right? As in, like today? There are many reasons why you might need money right away.

Car repairs, house repairs, unexpected bills and opportunities to go on a spontaneous trip to Bora Bora happen every day. Luckily, there are lots of ways to get money fast – and to even get money today!

Check out these 23 ways to get money really fast, and then go about collecting your fortune for whatever you need.

Sell Your Stuff

Not only will selling your stuff bring you some cash, but decluttering can be amazing for the psyche. There’s something about getting rid of clutter that clears the mind and soul as well. Here’s a list of some of the most popular places to sell your stuff fast.

1. Craigslist

You can sell just about anything on Craigslist. Sporting equipment, furniture, electronics, clothing – you name it. And the best part is that it’s free to list on Craigslist and there are no selling fees either.

What are some keys to selling fast on Craigslist? Here are a few.

• Clean up your stuff so it looks decent
• Take good photos that are clear and in good lighting
• Write a compelling description – not dishonest, but tell people why they need your stuff
• Be honest about flaws – people will find out about them sooner or later
• Price it right – use other similar listings as your guide

I’d recommend only taking cash as well. And meet in a public place if possible, like at a police station or in a Walmart parking lot.

2. Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace works kind of like an online garage sale. Like Craigslist, it’s free to list and sell there. One good thing about selling on Facebook Marketplace is that people are constantly on Facebook.

Whereas most people only go on Craigslist if they’re specifically looking for something to buy, people are always on Facebook.

So, someone who might not be looking to buy that side table you’re selling might see it anyway. And they might just decide to buy it because they like it, even though they weren’t looking for one.

Some other ideas for selling your stuff?

3. Decluttr

Decluttr is a website that will buy your stuff on the spot. They won’t buy just anything, but they will buy the following items:

• CDs and DVDs
• Video games and Video game playing components
• Electronic items such as smartphones, Fitbits or tablets
• Legos (Seriously – they’ll buy them by the pound)
• Used textbooks

Here’s how it works. You go to the Decluttr website and enter the information about the items you want to sell. Decluttr gives you an instant quote for the items you’ve entered.

Once you accept their quote you can print out the free shipping label they send you. You pack up your stuff, ship it out and they send your money via PayPal. Yes, it really is that easy.

4. eBay

eBay can be great for selling your stuff simply because you’re reaching a bigger audience. Keep listing and selling fees, as well as shipping fees, in mind when you’re selling your stuff on eBay.

5. Have a Garage Sale

Having a garage sale is another quick way to make some serious cash. It’s not uncommon to make hundreds of dollars by holding a garage sale, depending on what you have to sell. Here are some tips for holding a successful garage sale.

• Thursday, Friday and Saturday are the most popular days for garage sales
• Pricing attractively will help your stuff go faster
• Organization is important – be sure people can clearly see what you have to offer
• Be willing to negotiate on prices
• Be helpful and friendly – people like buying stuff that they need from nice people.

The great thing about holding a garage sale is that you get your money on the spot. This can be an easy way to make a decent amount of cash in one day.

Go for a Drive

If you don’t have anything to sell, how about making money by driving your car? There are a couple of ways you can use your car to make some fast cash.

6. Drive for Uber or Lyft

Uber and Lyft are ridesharing services that bring people from one place to another. People like riding with these types of services for two reasons:

• Their prices are usually lower than traditional taxi services
• The service is more personalized

Bonus: Lyft and Uber drivers not only get a per-ride wage, they often get cash tips from riders. Spend a day or two driving people around and you could end up with a nice-sized bundle of cash.

Follow the links above to learn more about rideshare driving. Note: there are parameters for most rideshare drivers. You’ll need a valid driver’s license, auto insurance and a car that’s in decent shape to work for these companies.

7. Be an Instacart Driver

Instacart is a service that provides grocery store delivery to customers. As an Instacart driver, you’d go to the store, shop for the clients (based on the list you received) and bring them their groceries.

Along with a per-job wage, many Instacart drivers also get tips from clients. That means daily money in your pocket!

Help People

If you want money today, you could get it by helping others. Helping others can consist of many different options, but all of them can result in fast money for you. Here are some ideas for how you can make money helping others.

8. Task Rabbit

Task Rabbit is a company that provides services to clients who need a certain task done. Tasks for Task Rabbit “Taskers” will vary. Some clients might ask you to help them assemble a bookshelf or other piece of furniture.

Another client might ask you to run an errand for them. Still other clients may ask you to help them rearrange furniture or do a small repair job such as fixing a leaky faucet.

Here’s how it works: you sign up to be a Tasker on Task Rabbit. After you download the Task Rabbit app, you get notifications of available tasks in your area.

You get to choose which tasks you do, and you get to decide on the rate of pay you’ll offer to potential clients. After negotiations are done and the task is completed, you submit your invoice and get paid.

Bonus: many clients give tips to Taskers which means immediate, extra cash in your pocket.

9. Do Tasks for Family and Friends

Another way to get cash fast could be to send an email or Facebook notice out to family and friends. Tell them that you’re interested in earning some extra cash quickly and ask if they have tasks they need help with.

Let them know what you’re willing to do. Some ideas for helping out family and friends are:

• Helping them clean and/or organize part or all of their house or garage
• Coming over and cleaning and detailing their car
• Doing lawn work or landscaping work in their yard
• Painting a room
• Running a carful of stuff to the thrift store or junkyard

Or any other tasks they might need done. Nearly everyone is in need of some type of work being done in their lives. Why not offer to help them out for a few bucks?

10. Find Gigs on Craigslist

If you go onto Craigslist, you’ll find a section entitled “Gigs” in the lower right-hand corner. The “gigs” section consists of quick jobs for earning fast cash.

For instance, in the “gigs” section you might find an advertisement for someone who needs help packing or moving. Or, you may see a need for a job as a sign holder at an event.

The list of possibilities are endless, but most involve needing some type of help for a one or two-day event, such as a concert or festival.

Take advantage of these short-term, often immediate opportunities and earn some extra cash quickly.

Get Money Online

There are also lots of websites you could go to if you want to make money online. You’re likely not going to make as much money with these types of sites as you will with the other options listed here.

However, you do have the opportunity to earn some money. Here are some websites that will pay you immediately for doing tasks.

11. Survey Junkie

Survey Junkie will pay you for completing surveys. They use the information they gather to help companies make better products. For each survey you complete with Survey Junkie, you get rewarded points.

Accumulated points can be transferred into PayPal money for you. Or, you can get a gift card from their list of retail partners as well. Bonus: Survey Junkie will reward you with points for referring others who sign up as well. See more survey sites that pay well here.

12. Freelance on Upwork or Fiverr

Upwork is a site that offers a variety of jobs for those who do freelance work. Some of the types of jobs that advertise for include writing, editing, graphic design or artwork. The jobs are often short-term jobs and pay right away.

Payment is usually made into your PayPal account. Fiverr is another option for quick cash online. Fiverr gigs are super short-term; so short that they usually only pay $5 each. Note that there are other higher-paying gigs on Fiverr too.

13. Swagbucks

Swagbucks will pay you for doing a variety of tasks on your phone. You can get paid points for playing games, watching videos, completing surveys, searching the Net and more.

For each task you complete you get rewarded points. Your points can be transferred into a payment into your PayPal account.

14. Inbox Dollars

Inbox Dollars works kind of like Swagbucks. You get paid points for taking surveys, watching videos, etc. After you accumulate a certain amount of points, you can request a cash payment.

Rent Your Stuff

Another way to earn quick cash is to rent out your stuff. If you have an extra room in your house you can rent that out, or you can rent out your car as well. Here are some options:

15. Airbnb

Airbnb provides rental options for people visiting other cities or towns for work, concerts or other events. As an Airbnb host you would provide a room or two for those guests. Or, you could leave your house for a weekend and get paid for a whole house rental.

Just sign up to be an Airbnb host and wait for the reservations to come in. Although it does take some time to get set up as a rental provider, you get paid right away when you have a renter.

16. VRBO

VRBO (Vacation Rental by Owner) works similarly to Airbnb. You offer a room or home to rent out, and people pay you to stay at your place.

The cool thing about both Airbnb and VRBO is that renters are screened so as to offer maximum safety to homeowners.

17. Rent Your Car out on Turo

Turo is a site that offers car rentals for people in need of them in your city. When you rent your car out on Turo, you get cash. It doesn’t cost anything to list your car for rent on Turo; instead, you get a percentage of the rental fee.

When you rent your car out on Turo it’s covered via Turo’s insurance policy. This protects both your car and the people who drive it. And you get to choose the times and days your car is available to rent.

The newer and nicer your car is, the higher the rental fee for it.

Go on an Extreme Budget Cut

Another way to make some cash right away is to go on an extreme budget cut. By choosing to slash your expenses in a big way, you’ll immediately have more money in your pocket.

Here are some ideas for doing some extreme cutting of your upcoming expenses so you’ve got that extra cash you need.

18. Go on a Grocery Shopping Ban

How about committing to not buying groceries for a week or two. Instead, live off of what’s in your cupboard and freezer. Admittedly, it might not be fun, but you’ll easily save the equivalent of what you normally spend on groceries each week.

Another option is to do what one couple did when money was tight. They bought a giant box of noodles and a giant block of cheese and ate macaroni and cheese for two weeks straight.

You could do this with any food: rice, ramen, beans. Just choose something cheap, buy it in a large quantity and eat it for a week straight to save money.

19. Cut Unnecessary Expenses

Another way to earn money by extreme budget cutting is to slash those monthly reoccurring bills. Some ideas for expenses to cut include:

• Your monthly cable or satellite TV bill
• Monthly salon visits
• Magazine or newspaper subscriptions
• Monthly service providers such as landscapers or house cleaners
• Eating out at work or any other time (brown bag it to work instead)
• Entertainment costs such as going to the movies
• Gym or personal trainer memberships

The list goes on and on. Go through each monthly expense you have and see which items you can cut. You may want to cut them for just one month to save a few hundred dollars. Or, you might get used to having the extra cash and want to cut them out permanently.

20. Cut Transportation Costs

Is it possible for you to put some quick extra cash in your pocket by cutting transportation costs? For instance, could you walk or bike to work instead of driving your car? Or could you carpool with a co-worker that lives close to you?

Would it be cheaper for you to take public transportation to work instead of driving yourself? How about selling your car and buying something reliable but cheaper?

Or, when was the last time you shopped around for insurance rates? Maybe you could find cheaper car insurance. Think of all of the ways you could cut transportation costs to put immediate cash in your pocket.

21. Go on an All-Out Spending Ban

Some people who want extra cash fast will go on a bona fide spending ban. That means you spend nothing unless you absolutely have to. “Have to” includes things like your rent or house payment or your necessary utilities.

All other spending stops. How much money could you keep in your bank account if you chose not to spend anything for a couple of weeks.

22. Get a Job as a Waitress or Waiter

Restaurants everywhere are looking for waiters and waitresses to serve customers. Many restaurants are willing to hire on the spot if you’re responsible and eager to work.

There are many great things about working as a waitperson – especially if you work at a nicer restaurant. However, one of the best things about working a server job is that you leave every shift with cash in hand. That cash comes in the form of tips; many clients will give tips to good servers.

Think about the potential income here. Let’s say an average bill for two people for dinner is $60. If you get a tip of 15% (or you could really “wow” your client and earn more) that’s $9.00 in your pocket. Per table!

If you wait on 20 tables during a four-hour shift, that’s $180 in your pocket, minus what you share with busboys, etc. And you could potentially bring home that kind of cash each and every shift!

I always say that if I ever gave up freelance writing (also a potentially very lucrative job) I’d consider being a server. I did it for a while in college and would easily consider working in the field again.

Aside from the fact that it’s fun interacting with people out having a good time, you get daily cash in hand. Check with local restaurants near you who might be looking for waitstaff if you want quick cash.

23. Consider a Freelancing Career

Along with waitstaffing at local restaurants, I’d encourage you to consider a long-term career in freelancing. Opportunities for freelancing as a career are expansive.

Write down a list of your skills and see which of them is conducive to a freelancing career. Some of the most popular freelancing career opportunities include:

• Writing articles for blogs, magazines and websites
• Editing books and online articles
• Virtual assistant careers
• Blog management careers
• Graphic design careers
• Website design careers
• Resume’ writing careers

And of course, there are more options. Just make a list of things you’re good at and that you like to do and decide from there which ones you’ll earn income with.

Of course, a freelancing career that makes a substantial income won’t happen overnight. However, with diligence and hard work you can build a business our of something you’re good at.

Bonus: you get to choose which clients you’ll work with and which you don’t.

When you need money fast, there are many, many ways to go about getting it. While you can’t always be in control of all of your expenses, you can control your income.

There are so many opportunities out there for getting money and getting it fast. You may not enjoy all of those opportunities, but it’s nice knowing they’re available.

When you’re in a bind and need money quickly, it can be a comfort knowing you have options for earning.

Have you ever tried using any of the above suggestions to get money fast? If so, which worked for you? Which were more difficult? Leave us a comment and tell us about your experiences.