A little side hustle?
January 14, 2020 11:03 AM Subscribe
How can I make a little extra money?
I have a full time career job but after some recent life changes I suddenly have a lot of alone time and a lot of debts. What options am I not thinking of for a 10-20 hour a week second job to occupy my time and speed up getting out of debt?
I have a full time career job but after some recent life changes I suddenly have a lot of alone time and a lot of debts. What options am I not thinking of for a 10-20 hour a week second job to occupy my time and speed up getting out of debt?
Response by poster: I should add this is in Canada.
posted by Cosine at 11:09 AM on January 14, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Cosine at 11:09 AM on January 14, 2020 [3 favorites]
I think it depends a lot on your skills and what you like to do. An extra part-time job on top of a full-time job can be a real strain, unless you're doing work that you are good at and/or like, so outside of finding the highest-paid thing you can, that comes into consideration.
For me, if I were to get a side gig, I'd look for something to do with theater, since I like to be at the theater most of the time in my hobbyist life. In fact, I occasionally will get a few bucks for directing or stage managing at local theaters, which is a nice "hobby plus pay" bonus that I like.
posted by xingcat at 11:10 AM on January 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
For me, if I were to get a side gig, I'd look for something to do with theater, since I like to be at the theater most of the time in my hobbyist life. In fact, I occasionally will get a few bucks for directing or stage managing at local theaters, which is a nice "hobby plus pay" bonus that I like.
posted by xingcat at 11:10 AM on January 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
I just started a part-time job as a standardized patient, and thus far it's really fun. We usually learn specific cases for medical students to practice dealing with, or sometimes it's just them learning how to do various non-invasive physical exams. The hours are dependent upon their educational needs but it pays well.
posted by teremala at 11:14 AM on January 14, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by teremala at 11:14 AM on January 14, 2020 [7 favorites]
Are you looking for nights and weekends only? If so, some obvious options would be things like retail or food service, or gig economy stuff if you're willing to go that far. Babysitting might work too, if you like kids well enough.
posted by slenderloris at 11:15 AM on January 14, 2020
posted by slenderloris at 11:15 AM on January 14, 2020
If your handle indicates an affinity to or background in math: math tutoring. Really any tutoring you’re qualified for, but math has generally highest demand.
posted by SaltySalticid at 11:27 AM on January 14, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by SaltySalticid at 11:27 AM on January 14, 2020 [6 favorites]
There's also the often overlooked, regular part time work like retail, food service, bars, etc....
posted by advicepig at 11:33 AM on January 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by advicepig at 11:33 AM on January 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
These are the gigs that I've done:
Figure modeling (nude, for groups of art students) pays pretty well but is physically and emotionally exhausting and requires IRL availability at specific, often inconvenient hours. My experience was that it was more of a skilled job than I expected — choosing poses people will find interesting, knowing how long you can hold those poses for, and having the stamina to pull them off are all nontrivial. It stopped being worth the money for me almost immediately, but I had other options.
Editing also pays pretty well. It is boring and mentally taxing, but you can work your own hours and set your own rules. The hard part is that you have to really hustle — you're not part of any larger organization that will funnel clients to you, so you have to find your own. (The thing that worked best for me was approaching Craigslist randos in a college town who posted looking for someone to edit a paper for them. Probably ask for half the money up front if you do that. If it goes well, you can get word-of-mouth referrals to other people in their program.)
At least in the US, tax prep offices often hire part-time temporary tax preparers during tax season. At least in the US, these preparers don't need to be certified accountants or anything, and the job is mostly asking questions and entering the answers into a computer. It's an ethically questionable job — the companies doing it often make most of their money by selling predatory loan products to people who want to get their refund sooner — but you get predictable shifts, it's physically easy, and bringing in customers is someone else's problem.
If you took any standardized test recently and did well, you can apply for a job at a test prep place. It's part-time teaching, usually in the evenings, following a depressingly standardized curriculum, for decent money. The sort of privileged students who end up at places like that are sometimes jerks, but they're often fine.
My wife's a part-time figure skating coach. Lots of rinks have their own little learn-to-skate program that isn't overseen by any larger governing body, and they'll hire anyone who's good at skating and good with little kids. It's tiring, the scheduling is often inconvenient, and the kids and parents are often annoying.
posted by nebulawindphone at 11:35 AM on January 14, 2020 [6 favorites]
Figure modeling (nude, for groups of art students) pays pretty well but is physically and emotionally exhausting and requires IRL availability at specific, often inconvenient hours. My experience was that it was more of a skilled job than I expected — choosing poses people will find interesting, knowing how long you can hold those poses for, and having the stamina to pull them off are all nontrivial. It stopped being worth the money for me almost immediately, but I had other options.
Editing also pays pretty well. It is boring and mentally taxing, but you can work your own hours and set your own rules. The hard part is that you have to really hustle — you're not part of any larger organization that will funnel clients to you, so you have to find your own. (The thing that worked best for me was approaching Craigslist randos in a college town who posted looking for someone to edit a paper for them. Probably ask for half the money up front if you do that. If it goes well, you can get word-of-mouth referrals to other people in their program.)
At least in the US, tax prep offices often hire part-time temporary tax preparers during tax season. At least in the US, these preparers don't need to be certified accountants or anything, and the job is mostly asking questions and entering the answers into a computer. It's an ethically questionable job — the companies doing it often make most of their money by selling predatory loan products to people who want to get their refund sooner — but you get predictable shifts, it's physically easy, and bringing in customers is someone else's problem.
If you took any standardized test recently and did well, you can apply for a job at a test prep place. It's part-time teaching, usually in the evenings, following a depressingly standardized curriculum, for decent money. The sort of privileged students who end up at places like that are sometimes jerks, but they're often fine.
My wife's a part-time figure skating coach. Lots of rinks have their own little learn-to-skate program that isn't overseen by any larger governing body, and they'll hire anyone who's good at skating and good with little kids. It's tiring, the scheduling is often inconvenient, and the kids and parents are often annoying.
posted by nebulawindphone at 11:35 AM on January 14, 2020 [6 favorites]
Lionbridge has some work-from-home jobs that pay pretty well (e.g. internet assessor), but I'm not sure how good the pay is for all their jobs, or how pay in Canada might differ from pay in the US. It's probably worth checking out their current opportunities in Canada. You can't beat the flexibility.
posted by Redstart at 11:46 AM on January 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Redstart at 11:46 AM on January 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
There's a little tab at the top of the page saying Metafilter is hiring...
posted by zadcat at 11:49 AM on January 14, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by zadcat at 11:49 AM on January 14, 2020 [4 favorites]
Donate at your local plasma center. I'm sure you have to meet certain critera. The one nearest to me has an ad running saying you can earn up to $400.
posted by IndigoOnTheGo at 12:29 PM on January 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by IndigoOnTheGo at 12:29 PM on January 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
Canadian TaskRabbit? (Also, some debt-consolidation ideas.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:27 PM on January 14, 2020
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:27 PM on January 14, 2020
In Canada, you can only (truely) donate blood/ plasma - no compensation other than a lolipop or a small orange juice.
What kind of work are you willing to do?
For a while, I had considered early morning stocker (supermarket, pharmacies like London Drugs or Shoppers) since they offered a 4-8am shift that I could put in and still make it into my full time job at 9.
posted by porpoise at 1:40 PM on January 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
What kind of work are you willing to do?
For a while, I had considered early morning stocker (supermarket, pharmacies like London Drugs or Shoppers) since they offered a 4-8am shift that I could put in and still make it into my full time job at 9.
posted by porpoise at 1:40 PM on January 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
Babysitting. It pays well. Getting an infant/child CPR certification is a nice thing to have.
posted by DarlingBri at 1:51 PM on January 14, 2020
posted by DarlingBri at 1:51 PM on January 14, 2020
I have friends who pet sit via Rover, bartend/waitress, drive on apps like Lyft, or do freelance writing. It really depends on your skill set and your willingness to do these things.
posted by AppleTurnover at 2:34 PM on January 14, 2020
posted by AppleTurnover at 2:34 PM on January 14, 2020
I clean horse stalls on the side. Been doing it for 7 years.
posted by Sassyfras at 3:38 PM on January 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Sassyfras at 3:38 PM on January 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
This may not be your cup of tea, but you could be a delivery driver for Skip the Dishes.
Or, become a shopper for Instacart.
Note that I cannot speak to the pay/quality of these companies as an employer.
posted by Juniper Toast at 3:55 PM on January 14, 2020
Or, become a shopper for Instacart.
Note that I cannot speak to the pay/quality of these companies as an employer.
posted by Juniper Toast at 3:55 PM on January 14, 2020
Selling pictures of your feet is something I was just reading about.
posted by bleep at 5:07 PM on January 14, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by bleep at 5:07 PM on January 14, 2020 [4 favorites]
A friend of mine started delivering for a service similar to Instacart and apparently it was easy to get started and not a bad way to make extra money. There’s less interaction with people than driving Uber or Lyft and if you enjoy grocery/drug store/etc shopping kind of fun maybe? She usually chooses jobs that she can fit in on her commute home.
posted by MadamM at 6:37 PM on January 14, 2020
posted by MadamM at 6:37 PM on January 14, 2020
I know some people who do retail merchandising. They are usually tasked with going into stores to install or reset displays. Take inventory.
You interact mostly with the store staff, and to tell customers that you don't work at the store. It seems good for someone who is self motivating and likes working independently.
posted by wrnealis at 9:30 AM on January 16, 2020
You interact mostly with the store staff, and to tell customers that you don't work at the store. It seems good for someone who is self motivating and likes working independently.
posted by wrnealis at 9:30 AM on January 16, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by girlmightlive at 11:08 AM on January 14, 2020 [3 favorites]