I need money now!
If you need money desperately searching for a quick way to get cash right this second, you are not alone.
According to searchvolume.io, the phrase ‘I need money’ receives an average of 18,100 searches per month in the U.S alone while ‘need money now’ gets 14,800 searches monthly.
It can be frustrating when certain events seem to crop up at the worst time possible.
From a broken down car to an unexpected house repair to an emergency vet bills and payday is still a few weeks away.
Perhaps you need money fast for other reasons, perhaps you’re short on rent cash or utility bill payment or you simply need money now to pay for online purchases.
We’ve all been there. In fact, a study finds money worries as the leading cause of stress among many of us.
The good news is, there are plenty of legit ways to help you earn money fast online and offline.
In today’s post, I am going to show you 31+ ways to get quick cash today or within a few days.
For each money making methods, I’ll try to share the followings:
- Ballpark number of potential earnings
- Requirements before you can start making money
- The time it takes before you get your first payment.
Ready? Let’s dive right in!
This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure page for more information.
I Need Money Fast
If you find yourself saying, I need money now’, ‘I need money urgently’ or ‘I need money now for free and fast’, you need to start thinking in terms of what items or services you can sell for instant cash.
There’s no such thing as totally free money. To get money fast you either need to trade your time, skills or sell stuff that you already own.
Ok, borrowing from friends and family is another option but taking a personal loan is the last thing you should do after exhausting all other options.
If you decide to borrow, just follow these borrowing money from family and friends guidelines.
To answer your ‘I need money now’ question, below you can find several great making money ideas to try that will help earn you quick cash.
A Few Word About the Gig Economy Jobs
Some of the jobs listed below belong to the so-called gig economy.
Gig economy refers to a general workforce where short-term contracts or freelance work is common as opposed to permanent jobs.
If you need money today but are unemployed, there’s no preventing you from taking a job from gig platforms like
- Uber – get paid to drive
- Fiverr – various online freelance work
- Rover – get paid to walk dogs
- TaskRabbit – run errands and complete small tasks
The trend toward a gig economy has begun. A study by Intuit predicted that by 2020, 43% of American workers would be independent contractors.
If you’re just getting started with a gig job, it may take a day or two to get approved before you can start making money. So it’s not a job that pays you now – like today.
Although once approved, you’ll have the option to earn money on demand. It’s a great way to supplement your income and it’s flexible in terms of work schedule.
Take Online Surveys
Taking online surveys is one of the fastest ways to make money online.
Companies conduct online surveys to collect data and learn more about their target audience to improve their products and services.
You as the consumer are paid for your time by cash, gift cards and other types of rewards.
Since not all sites will have matching surveys available for you to participate each week/month, consider joining as many survey sites as you can.
In that way, you can take paid surveys every day, thus increasing your earning potential.
Truth be told, you won’t get rich taking surveys, but it’s a good trade-off for your free time and offers an easy way to make money online.
Survey Junkie
Like most online surveys, you do have to share some personal information such as your shopping habits, household income, gender, personal interest, gadgets you own and so on.
The reason being, once they get to know you better, they can match you with relevant surveys that pay.
With Survey Junkie, you earn points by answering surveys where 100 points are worth $1. To earn extra points, you can even refer friends to participate too.
Depending on how long it takes, you can earn between $0.50 to $50 per survey. Most surveys take between 1 to 2 minutes to complete.
You can redeem your points via PayPal or gift cards once you’ve reached 1,000 points ($10).
Swagbucks (Get free $5 for signing up)
Swagbucks mobile lets you earn SB points in multiple ways for watching videos, taking surveys, playing games, searching the Internet or shopping online and more.
You can redeem your SB anytime for $5 – $25 gift cards for Amazon, Starbucks, Walmart, Target and more. Alternatively, you can exchange them for cash deposited directly into your PayPal account.
Swagbucks has eight different apps for iPhone and two for Android along with opportunities to earn from their website directly and via a browser toolbar.
So you can easily optimize your online activities to earn the most points.
InboxDollars (Get a free $5 signup bonus)
InboxDollars rewards you in cash only so there’s no need to worry about converting points to cash or gift cards.
It will pay you mostly for reading emails and answering simple surveys questions. In addition, you can increase your earning potential by playing online games, watch fun videos, searching the web and more.
If you are going to use your Android phone or iPhone anyway (even browsing on your PC), this app will pay you for it.
Sell/Trade-In Old CDs, Electronics & Unused Stuff
Rather than throwing away stuff you no longer use or let them take up space in your home, why not turn them into cash?
The following sites may be helpful with your money needs.
Decluttr
You might be broke but chances are, you have extra electronics lying around like CDs and DVDs, Blu-rays, books, old phones and game consoles.
Why not sell them for cold hard cash through DeCluttr?
The best thing about Decluttr is how it can give you an instant cash price for the item you want to sell just by scanning its barcode.
No auctions with strangers and no listing fees to worry about.
Alternatively, you can use the search box on their website, enter the item’s barcode to get an instant offer price.
You don’t even have to pay for shipping. Just print out the shipping label they sent after you agree to sell your items, wrap your items using a prepaid box and send away.
You get paid 24 hours after Decluttr receive your items. You won’t make tons of money from this but it involves very little work to sell and you get to clean up the junk in your house.
If you run out of your own pre-loved items to sell, go to your local second-hand shops, garage sales and thrift stores to find more stuff to sell online.
Click here to find out how much you can earn from Decluttr today.
LetGo
LetGo is market for secondhand items where you can buy and sell anything from electronics, cars, collectables, clothing, furniture to home decor, all locally.
It allows person-to-person interaction quickly between buyers and sellers and doesn’t charge a listing fee.
LetGo makes most of their money from advertising revenue so their strategy is to attract millions of users and then sell advertising space to support their business.
It’s a great way to get rid of stuff you don’t need and help out others who are in need of the items being sold.
Flip Free Stuff on Craigslist
Craigslist
Do you know there are free stuff sections on Craigslist listing items which people give away for free?
Many of these items are still in good working condition while some may have minor issues that require some fixing, cleaning or a paint job.
What you can do is pick these items, refurbish and fix them as necessary and then sell for a quick profit. This process is known as flipping.
The items can be anything from:
- Electronics
- Furniture
- Books
- Appliances
- Toys
- Construction supplies
- Mobile phones
- And more
To find these free stuff, you can google “craigslist free stuff + your city” or head over to Craigslist and do your search from there.
The sell section of your local Craigslist can also be a good place to find cheap items to resell.
If you don’t like dealing with people, then using DeCluttr may be a better option.
FreeCycle
Alternatively, to find more free stuff, you can give FreeCycle a try. It’s like Craigslist but only for free stuff.
FreeCycle is a nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns and neighborhoods. They want to encourage reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills.
The amount of money you can make from flipping will depend on the item. If you can work fast finding good items, cleaning, fixing and listing them for sale, you can make good money from this.
If done correctly, flipping items on craigslist can be quite profitable. There are people who make a living from doing this.
Sell Your Clothes Online and In-Store
Do you have a bunch of clothes, shoes and accessories you no longer use?
Why not take them to your local consignment shop and sell them for instant cash? The following companies have local shops in many cities across the US.
You can also google “consignment store near me” or “sell used clothing” to find shops that give you cash on the spot for used clothes.
If you don’t have a consignment shop nearby or you prefer selling online, you can try the following apps.
Postmark
For used clothing and accessories, you can try the smartphone app Poshmark. It’s very similar to eBay or Craigslist but they put emphasis on social media and being mobile-friendly.
Postmark charges a flat fee of $2.95 for items that cost $15 or lower. For more expensive items, Postmark takes a 20% commission fee.
When it comes to shipping your item, Postmark provides a prepaid shipping label that you can print with your printer and ship the item directly to the buyer.
thredUp
thredUp is one of the largest online consignment and thrift stores. Certain brands of clothes for women, kids and even maternity wear can do well here.
Before sending any item to them, use their Payout Estimator to get an estimate of how much your stuff is worth.
For items valued lower than $15, you’ll get 5% of the sale price. You’ll earn anywhere between 10% to 80% for items valued at $15 or higher.
Now you won’t make tons of money selling used clothes, but it’s instant cash you are getting while also getting rid of clothes that you don’t use anyway.
For the largest audience, you can always try selling clothes at eBay too.
Run Errands, Small Tasks & Odd Jobs
Craigslist Labor Gigs
On Craigslist, you can find labor gigs and one day only jobs that pay on the same day and in cash.
This is not the usual temp staffing jobs but anything that you can do from helping to move furniture, be part of a house renovation crew, yard work and so on.
For example, scanning the local Labor Gigs, I found this gig: “I need someone to take multiple pictures of a property for me. All you need is a cell phone you must take at least 30 clear pictures of the property. Pay is $40“
You can find these jobs under “Gigs”, ‘part-time”, “Labor Gigs” etc. The competition can fierce though as these same-day jobs are very popular.
TaskRabbit
TaskRabbit lets you help other people get things done around their home.
These things may include cleaning someone’s room, assemble furniture, move boxes via truck, or mount a mirror and other odd jobs.
Many Taskers have made a living going full-time using this platform.
According to TaskRabbit, 10% to 15% of their contractors who fully commit to the platform can earn $6,000 to $7,000 per month.
Gigwalk
Gigwalk allows you to make a few extra bucks or more by doing quick in-store jobs, known as Gigs, in your area.
The Gigs, often posted by companies and retailers, can take anywhere from 5 minutes to a few hours and pay between $3 to $100 or more depending on the work and location.
A gig may require you to visit a store to verify products are available on the shelf, take pictures of their products, testing apps or check that marketing events are done on-time.
As you can see, the tasks don’t require any special skills to do. If you are always on the go, have a phone and a few minutes to spare, then this could be for you.
Rent Out a Room on Airbnb
Airbnb
If you have a spare room, apartment, house, loft, even a camping area in their backyard, you can make money by listing it on Airbnb.
Airbnb attracts traffic to their website so you don’t have to spend money marketing your listing. Of course, your listing has to be of good quality with nice pictures to draw the crowd.
For your peace of mind, Airbnb offers up to $1 million insurance policy to cover property damage, security and other risks.
You can also charge a cleaning fee and a security deposit to your renters to cover any minor damage that may happen.
Your income can vary based on your location and on the amenities you offer. Earning $100 or more per day just by renting out a room on Airbnb is not unusual.
Rent Out Your Car
Turo
Do you have a car just parked outside or in the garage that you’re not using a lot? If you do, you may want to consider listing it for rent on Turo and make money from it.
Turo is a car-sharing company that allows private car owners to rent out their vehicles via an online and mobile interface. It’s like the Airbnb for cars.
Once registered, you’ll need to describe your vehicle and upload images. Turo has guidelines for pricing, but it’s really up to you to set your own rates. You’ll want to keep your calendar up to date and be responsive to any requests.
Turo also covers your car with $1 million in liability insurance and 24/7 roadside assistance throughout the trip.
You could make $500 per month on average by renting out your car.
There are people out there who own multiple cars and just rent them out on Turo turning it into a full-time side hustle business for them.
Getaround
Alternatively, you can list your car, truck, van, Tesla, SUV, snow car at Getaround.
Rent Out Your Garage or Driveway
If you can rent out your room, your car why not your garage? Well, actually you can.
You can make money renting out your unused parking space, garage, driveway and lot rather than leaving it to stays empty for hours or days.
The amount of money you’ll make largely depends on your location, whether or not your spot is covered and the type of spot it is as well as the number of hours your spot is available.
Large city garage spaces may rent for $150 per month and up, whereas suburban spots may rent for $50–100 per month.
Some services allow owners to rent out spots for other vehicle types besides cars such as bicycles, campers and boats.
Here are a few websites to get started:
Do Micro Tasks at Amazon’s MTurk
Amazon’s Mechanical Turk
If you’re the introvert type and would rather not deal with strangers in person or prefer completing tasks online instead, then this next gig may be for you.
Amazon Mechanical Turk or MTurk is a website from Amazon where businesses, researchers, and consumer product groups can posts tasks for online workers.
These tasks can be anything from completing surveys, article writing, data entry, transcribing audio/video, excel spreadsheet work, YouTube video rating to doing basic research.
Most gigs don’t pay much though but they can be completed rather quickly. While some higher paying tasks may require you to complete a number of smaller tasks before you can apply for them.
As for the earning potential, some people earn up to $100-$300 per week from MTurk.
So it is still a nice idea for a side hustle with flexible working hours and the opportunity to work from home.
You can read and ask other people about their experience side hustling with MTurk at this subreddit.
Sell Your Plasma
If you need money urgently, selling your blood plasma could be an option to consider while doing something good.
Unlike donating blood where people do it for free, you can get paid for donating plasma.
What is plasma you ask? Plasma is the clear liquid in your blood other than the red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.
Plasma is used to create products that help people with blood clotting disorders and other diseases.
Donating plasma is safe and your body won’t run out of plasma because it replaces the plasma rather quickly.
There are measures to ensure donor safety such as only letting you give plasma no more than once or twice per week.
The amount of plasma you can donate will be based on your body weight. Once they extract the plasma, the blood is returned to the body.
As for the earning potential, you can expect to earn anywhere from $20 to $50 per donation.
To find blood plasma centers near you, you can check the following sites:
Alternatively, you can google ‘plasma centers near me’ and call to see if there’s an opening to come in.
Plasma centers are actually private businesses and not regular hospitals who then sell it to hospitals and other companies.
During your first visit, they will do a health screening, in-depth questionnaire and medical history questions to ensure you are qualified. This may take up to 2 hours.
Get Paid to Deliver Food or Shop Groceries
DoorDash Driver
DoorDash is another on-demand food delivery service that allows people like you to make deliveries on behalf of local restaurants. Best thing about DoorDash is that you don’t need a car! DoorDash allows their dashers to take deliveries in any kind of transportation. You can deliver orders on scooters, bikes, or even on foot in some areas. The amount you’ll make depend on the city in which you are based. DoorDash says $15 to $25 hour rate is reasonable to expect. For insight from a Dasher who make around $700 a week, and to learn more about how DoorDash works watch the video below.
UberEats
With Uber Eats, you get paid for delivering food from a local restaurant to people’s home.
Depending on the rules in your city, you may be able to deliver with your car, bicycle or scooter. It has a more lenient vehicle requirement than the regular Uber ridesharing service.
Even if you have an older car and don’t qualify for the regular Uber, you can still drive for UberEats (though the car must be 1998 or newer).
You can work whenever you want, day or night and for as long you’d like without a fixed schedule.
As an Uber Eats driver, you can earn around $8 to $12 per hour after deducting the vehicle expenses.
You are paid a pickup fee, a drop off fee and for mileage from the pickup to the customer. Customers have the option to tip right from the app too.
Uber themselves take a 25% cut.
Instacart
Instacart is an on-demand grocery delivery service. You get paid for shopping and delivering groceries to people’s home.
It’s used by busy people that don’t have the time to shop or simply don’t want to or can’t do their own shopping.
Once you’re approved, you’ll get a notification via a mobile app when a delivery opportunity is available and you can choose whether or not to take the job.
Your earning will depend on various factors such as the size of the order and the miles driven for delivery.
On average you can make between $15 to 25 per hour. That’s excluding tips which some people reported can get as much as $50 to $100 in a week.
If you like shopping, and have a vehicle and live near a grocery store, Instacart could be a great way to earn quick cash.
Get Paid to Drive
Uber
Uber is a ride-sharing app that pays you for driving people around. It’s one of the biggest and most well known Gig economy jobs in the world.
Before you can start earning, you do have to get your vehicle approved and meet special standards. So this is not something that will give you instant cash if you need money now.
However, once approved, you can start making decent money as a side gig from Uber. You’ll have to sign in to the app, accept or reject any ride requests and work anytime you want.
You don’t have to deal with payments directly as Uber will collect the money for you through the app.
How much you make will depend on your location, whether your drive during peak hours and the number of hours you put in.
If you provide a great service, the better your chance of getting a tip from the riders. This tip goes directly into your pocket when the ride is over.
Next time you ride an Uber, why not and ask the drivers themselves about their experience driving in your location?
Uber drivers in New York, for example, earn around $20 an hour.
Lyft
Besides Uber, you can also sign up for Lyft and compare your earnings with each ride-sharing platforms.
Both Lyft and Uber pay once a week, so they are not the fastest if you need money now.
But once you start driving, any tips you received from the passengers will go directly into your pocket.
Get Paid to Walk Dogs / Pet Sitter
Rover
Perhaps you have always been good with animals. You can give Rover a try.
Rover pays you for walking dogs, doggy daycare, drop-in visits and house sitting. Rover has earned the nickname “DogBnb”.
The typical rates charged on the site range from $25 to $100 a night. A drop-in visit for 30 minutes walks can range from $10-30 and Rover takes 20% from your client’s payments.
While it can be competitive with other sitters, once you get a few jobs and have a good client base, you can start earning extra income on the side doing what you enjoy.
Wag
Wag is another pet care startup that pays you to walk dogs or be a pet sitter. It is often referred to as “Uber for dogs”.
To qualify as a dog walker with Wag, you’ll need to have prior experience with dogs and at least three personal recommendations.
You’ll also need to pass a variety of tests, including a harness/collar test and a situational test. Additionally, you’ll have to pass a background check.
The amount of money you make per walk varies based on location and walk length. On average, a walker will make $12 + tip for a 30-minute walk.
Teach English Online
QKids
Whether you’re a teacher, have a Bachelor’s degree, or just someone who has a good command of English, teaching English online is one of the money-making ideas you can consider.
If you have a few hours a week to spare, you could teach English as a second language to students online.
Each platform has different requirements and some require a couple of hours per week commitment like QKids.
VIPKid
VIPKid hires home-based ESL or English as Secondary Language teachers for Chinese children.
They accept applicants from anywhere around the world as long as you have a stable Internet connection. You can also set your own schedule with no hourly requirements per week.
Teaching online is not limited to English, you can be an online tutor in any other language that you’re well-versed enough.
In addition, you can tutor in your favorite subjects like Math, Science and others with Cheqq Tutors and Tutor.com.
According to ZipRecruiter, online English teachers can earn between $9.86 to $28.37 with an average of $19 per hour, the same as the national average hourly salary.
Become an Online Freelancer
Fiverr
Fiverr is an online freelance services marketplace that you can deliver online.
It’s like the “Amazon for digital services” and one of the major players in the ever-growing gig economy.
A service offered on Fiverr is called a Gig. You can sign up as a Seller (freelancer) and market your gigs to buyers.
The price of a gig starts out at $5 but you can offer different packages at different price points. If you choose to price your gig at $5, you can earn more by offering extra services. From these extras, some Fiverr sellers are generating six figures in income per year.
You can sell just about anything you can think of from graphic design, writing and translation, video, digital marketing, song lyrics writing, funny videos and more – as long as it’s not an illegal side hustle!
If you have any particular skills set such as writing or graphic design, you can start offering those types of services.
No skills? No problem, if you consider yourself funny, you can do funny video and sell those services.
You can sell funny video sketches, sing happy birthday while wearing a funny costume, write a message in beach sand at sunrise or anything else that you might find enjoyable.
Keep in mind that if you need money now, Fiverr may not be the fastest way to get it because you’ll have to wait 14 days after the order is marked as completed before you can withdraw.
I’ve been a buyer at Fiverr since 2012. In April 2018, I decided to become a seller.
I didn’t make a killing from it but getting $406.40 for 4 hours of work per month in my spare time is better than nothing.
Update: As for October 2020, I have made the following amount on Fiverr!
Sign up free with Fiverr today and see what you can offer.
Fiverr has released a FREE video course that teaches aspiring freelancers who want to be a successful Fiverr seller.
You can watch the video course here.
Upwork
Upwork is another popular freelancing sites where individuals and companies look for freelancers when they need some short-term, or one-time work done.
If you are good at writing, graphic design, programming, video editing or virtual assistant tasks, give them a try.
The amount you make for each job will vary on the type of work.
Compare to Fiverr where clients will find you, on Upwork you have to constantly search for new clients.
That means you need to know how to pitch to potential clients and compete with other service providers by bidding on projects to attract business.
Fiverr works great for low-cost jobs that you can deliver fast. On the other hand, for larger projects that take time and more resources, Upwork is the better choice.
With Upwork, you can also charge an hourly rate.
Both Fiverr and Upwork charge 20% fee but Upwork charges reduced to 10% when you earn more than $500.
Sell Your Photos
Nowadays more and more businesses, website owners and bloggers use images for their websites and marketing materials.
If you have a good camera and a decent photography skill, you can sell your photos on dozens of stock photography websites that will pay you cash.
Whether you take beautiful landscapes, portraits of people, everyday tools, food, animals or travel shots, this is another method to consider if you need money but not very urgently.
The reason is that selling photos online is a number game. You need to have a sizeable portfolio of images before you can start generating good money.
You need to upload new images regularly to compete with other contributors and get noticed. Also, not every image you submit will be accepted for publication.
Once you get past the initial hurdle and understand the process, you should be able to make more money from your photos even passively with little to no maintenance on your part.
The amount paid for each photo varies depending on the platform, the type of license and several other factors.
On average, you could get anywhere from $0.25 to $100 for a single photo.
Here are sites where you can make money selling your photos:
Participate in Paid Clinical Trials
Clinical trials are part of the clinical research conducted by universities and medical institutions with the goal to determine if a new test or treatment works and is safe.
These institutions often offer money to encourage more participation. So if you need money now, this is something that you can consider doing.
The amount you make from a clinical trial depends on the length of time required as well as the procedures performed.
On average, clinical trials pay between $50-$300 per day/visit with overnight stays typically pay more money than those involving repeat visits.
Participants in a medical trial receive regular medical attention and are closely observed for safety concerns.
You can learn more about medical trial and the available studies near you below:
- ClinicalTrials.gov – this is a database of privately and publicly funded clinical studies conducted around the world.
- CenterWatch – a website for clinical trials information and their location
Donate Your Sperm
For the guys, if you need money now, consider donating sperm as a way to make some extra cash.
Sperm donors are helping women who want children and men that can’t provide them.
While this may look like an easy job for most men, these donation centers are very particular on who they pick.
They consider your look and physical appearance, whether you have a tertiary education as well as your muscular build and height. You must also not do drugs and must fulfill other requirements.
Once you’ve satisfied the requirements and are approved then you can expect to make up to $1,000 a month donating your sperm.
Here are some places to consider
Alternatively, you can also google “donate sperm near me” or “get paid to donate sperm” + your city.
Conclusion
If you find yourself saying ‘I need money now’, you need to start thinking about an item or service you can sell fast.
Also, one of the fastest ways to get money now is to cut down unnecessary expenses. That way you’ll free up money to spend on things that actually matter.
You can try several of these money-making ideas to make even more money so that you can achieve even exceed your money goal faster.
Now it’s your turn.
Do you have any experience with any of these money-making methods? Which gig are you interested in doing to earn that quick cash?
Feel free to let us know in the comments below!
