How to earn some extra spending money in NYC?

January 24, 2014 5:04 PM

I'm a young, able-bodied, well-educated guy in NYC with a reliable 9-5 office job. I'd like to use my abundance of free time (evenings and weekends) to earn some extra cash. I've thought of tutoring and babysitting (I live in Brooklyn, so there are a lot of kids around.) Any other ideas, short of donating precious bodily fluids?
posted by soonertbone to Work & Money (9 answers total)

If you have access to a car, look into becoming a Lyft driver.
posted by Sara C. at 5:07 PM on January 24, 2014 [3 favorites]

You can also look at Task Rabbit, a service where you get hired to do errands and various tasks.
posted by quince at 5:19 PM on January 24, 2014 [3 favorites]

My friend Eric uses his spare hours to bake bread for a restaurant. Of course, he likes getting up at four a.m. and working until seven before he goes to his 9 to 5. And he's not a heap of fun after 7:00 pm, but he saves a lot of money and impresses all his crew at work with fresh baked bread.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 5:23 PM on January 24, 2014

SAT tutoring. Excellent money, super demand. You could do 1-to-1 or a weekend class. Ultra competitive parents converge with college obsessed students.
posted by Kruger5 at 5:37 PM on January 24, 2014

Look for gigs on CraigsList.
You will sometimes find some manual labor for events, sometimes computer moves.
Etc.
posted by SLC Mom at 5:39 PM on January 24, 2014

There is high demand for male babysitters and tutors and it can pay well, depending on the family. Although your work schedule will probably preclude you from being an after school nanny, you should be able to find gigs, especially if you have some experience working with kids and/or references from other families. If you are particularly good at certain sports, definitely highlight that. People are often looking for babysitters who can play/supervise sports practice or exercise.
posted by pourtant at 5:54 PM on January 24, 2014

how do you feel about ghostwriting school application essays and term papers?
posted by bruce at 6:26 PM on January 24, 2014

Mystery Shopping. Visit stores, restaurants, mail packages, pretend to shop for insurance.... get paid for your time, get your spending reimbursed. Check it out:

http://mysteryshop.org/member-companies

You do not need to pay for a MSPA Certification to do 90% of the jobs.
posted by Mrs_Eep at 7:29 PM on January 24, 2014 [3 favorites]

How about catering gigs? You can do bartending or waiting at big parties. I had friends who did it and it was a great, occasional gig for them, plus, they got to go to some chi-chi parties.

Banquet staffing at hotels too.

What's nice is that you do a lot of work when you feel like it and you can turn down jobs when you don't.

You can also moonlight at a department store. I did this for years. I worked with a great group of folks that I'm still friends with 25 years later, and I got a store discount on everything I bought! (I like to shop, so this was a natural fit for me.)

What do you enjoy? See if you can turn that into a second gig.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 7:54 AM on January 25, 2014 [1 favorite]