10 Ways to Make Money From Home This Holiday Season

How to make money at home this Christmas holiday season as a stay at home mom in legit and real ways! If you want extra money to spend this time of year, then you need to check out all of these extra ways to earn more at home without leaving the house or getting a full-time job.

Nothing like the holiday season to make you feel constantly broke. Even if you were already living close to paycheck-to-paycheck, the extra spending can get to be a lot!

Which is why you need to know this HUGE secret… you can make money working from home around the holidays!

Yes, in totally legit ways that aren’t scammy, gross, or involve selling to your friends or selling body parts.

I figured that any “make money from home” gig would be a giant pyramid scheme, an MLM, would require me to BUY something, or would just be an outright lie. I was really wrong! There are actually a LOT of ways to make money either from home or without doing anything differently than what you do now.

There are so many ways to make money from home that a bunch of my friends go together for what is called the Work at Home School Summit – a FREE video school all about how to make money from home in a ton of different ways. You can’t miss this free summit if you are looking for ways to make money from home. Check it out here for free!

Back to the point… here’s what I do (yes – still do! Money is money, y’all!) to make extra money without having to GO to work around the holidays…

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is a really fun way to earn money from home during the holidays but also all year long. You earn points, or SBs, for doing little things:

visiting sites (not weird ones, I swear)
watching movie trailers
watching YouTube videos
answering quick surveys
clicking around on websites
and other really easy tasks. 🙂

Swagbucks was my first side hustle and it was the way that I saved enough to buy all of the supplies for cloth diapers for my kids. You get paid out in the form of gift cards and even in Paypal money! It’s a very real company and I’ve been using them for years to buy Christmas gifts and birthday presents on Amazon.

Try out Swagbucks here!

Grocery apps

So technically this is saving money, but getting cash back each time you shop is basically the best! I do this, for the most part, using 3 apps (which are all totally free!) and now that we’re in the BIG season for shopping, you’re not going to want to forget to get all 3 of them RIGHT NOW:

Ibotta gives me cash rebates almost everywhere that I shop.

We’re talking all of the grocery stores in the area, Target, Walmart, Amazon, etc. And since I always find myself looking for random food to pick up at Walmart for extra food shopping around the holidays, this is a great way to make some of the money that you spent on food BACK in the form of cashback!

Mostly though you use it at the grocery store; think of it like couponing without doing any work! You don’t even have to do anything for Ibotta to work for you. You select the items that you purchased (a lot of the rebates can be used for any brand too), and when you scan your receipt at the end of your shopping trip they give you money back! It’s really amazing!

Plus they give you a $5 bonus just for signing up!

Rakuten is great especially when you make online purchases all during the holiday season.

They give you a percentage cashback or a flat rate cashback for almost every website you visit. They have a plugin for your internet browser that will make a little popup any time you are on a site that qualifies for cashback. It’s effortless on your part and you can make some great cashback!

Plus, they’ll hook you up with a sweet $10 bonus just for signing up!

Babysitting

Now, I know if you’re already a mom you’re probably thinking “why on earth would I want to take on more kids in this house!?” Maybe I’m the crazy woman who thinks “what’s one more kid,” but for me watching other people’s kids is so much fun and it’s a really great and easy way to earn some money.

Since I already spend my time at home for the most part anyway it’s a lot of fun to be able to basically have playdates for my kids where I get paid. You don’t need to be a nanny for this. Even just watching kids in the evenings can pay well. I still pay my sitter $15/hour when my kids are in bed asleep and she gets to watch Netflix and hang out with my dog! Not a bad gig!

Even if I don’t get paid, we do a babysitting swap. That is where I watch a friend’s kids for an evening so that she can her husband can go out, and in exchange, she and her husband will watch my kids so that my husband and I can go out. This option might not necessarily be making money, but it is saving me a lot of money trying to find a good babysitter when I need it!

Sell your stuff online

You know that junk drawer that you have sitting around your house? We all know you have it. I have one too! And you know what? I cleaned mine out and I ended up making more than $100. Yes, I’m serious.

My friends over at Flea Market Flipper make their living from doing just that – flipping things they find at flea markets and making huge profits on eBay!
All of that jewelry that I got from Claire’s in high school (yes, I still had it!), the hair accessories that I never use, and a lot of other miscellaneous stuff that I just had collecting dust and taking up space wound up making me some money.
Do you have any textbook lying around from college? Maybe you’re cleaning off your bookshelf and are trying to get rid of books or DVDs you’re not into anymore. Or you just got a new phone leaving your old one obsolete. Amazon had a really great trade-in program to help you make money off of your old stuff.
I especially love their textbook buybacks. I had a few books from college and they paid more than double what the stupid college bookstore wanted to pay for them! Plus, Amazon pays for shipping. If they don’t want them, they’ll send them back to you for free.
Craigslist is another really great place to sell things from home. If you are trying to sell large items, this is where you want to go. Obviously, make sure that you are using appropriate safety precautions and always bring a buddy! But if you can do getting rid of stuff in your house as well as making money, I consider it a win-win!
Can you crochet? Or make earrings? Maybe you make greeting cards! If you make anything by hand, look into opening an Etsy shop. It’s a great way to earn money off of something that you love to make!

User Testing

I started using UserTesting just to see what it was about. You get to review websites or apps before they hit the market. If you can click around on a website and use a microphone on your computer, you can use UserTesting. They pay you $10 per survey you take (or more depending on the type of survey!) and it takes usually less than 10 minutes (11 is the longest I’ve ever gone, but it’s usually around 5-7 minutes).

I found that each week I can make between $20 and $50 just doing the website testing from this site. Obviously, this is not enough to get you a full-time income. But it is a really great way to supplements either a date night or even a grocery budget for the week.

Proofread, Transcribe or be a Bookkeeper!

If you have a keen eye, love numbers or can type super fast, there are options for you to make money from home around the holidays with all of those awesome skills! Side note though… these aren’t for everyone! But if you fit the bill for any of them, there are ways to make money from it.

Proofreading

If you have an eagle eye for spelling and grammar mistakes, then you can make money this holiday season as a proofreader. My friend Caitlyn makes a full-time income as a proofreader working from home and she can share with you how to work for yourself around the holidays as a proofreader working on your own schedule.

She even has a free video training to help you get started here!

You can also grab a free intro course for proofreading to help you even more here.

Transcribing

If you are the fastest typist that your friends have ever seen and can hear someone say something and remember it perfectly, then you might be perfect for working from home as a transcriptionist this holiday season. My friend Janet is a master transcriptionist and helps others learn how to work from home themselves.

You can learn all about transcribing in a free course that Janet offers here!

Bookkeeping

If you are the one who has always been a number nerd and loves balancing a budget, then you can make money from home as a bookkeeper! Believe it or not, this is a super in-demand career that can be as part-time or full-time as you want it to be. That’s the beauty of working from home!

My friend Ben turned his love of numbers into a full-time career as a bookkeeper. He’s now helping others who share his love of numbers to make their own careers from home. This is perfect for the holiday season since it’s the end of the year and so many people and businesses are looking for help managing their books before the year closes out!

You can find out more about bookkeeping and even get a free class on how to start here!

Start a blog (or help someone who has a blog)!

Of course what kind of blogger would I be if I didn’t say that a great way to start earning a living from home is to start blogging! If you are finding that you are bored a lot during the day and are making poor spending decisions because of your boredom, blogging might be the right thing for you.

I found that in the evening when I had finished all my chores and the kids were in bed and I had nothing better to do I would veg out watching Netflix while on Amazon looking for things that I shouldn’t be buying.

Plus, starting a blog is one of the cheapest ways to start making money from home as a mom. I started my blog for $2.95/month and then didn’t need to spend anything more on it for almost a year!

I’m not going to tell you that you will make money right now. In fact, it takes a lot of time working for free as a blogger before you see any money coming in at all.

BUT, I can tell you for a fact that there are skills that you have that you can use that will help a blogger AND will make you money from the very beginning (AKA no more working for free). That’s being a virtual assistant, aka – a VA.

You can grab the FREE list of service that you can offer as a paid VA right here.

Some things that you do EVERY DAY that you could be paid for as a VA are:

Managing email
Repinning things on Pinterest
Responding to questions on Facebook groups and pages
Editing posts and emails
Managing a calendar
Talking to clients (aka – real people 😉 )
Creating branding (graphics, colors, fonts, etc.)
Managing social media
Regular typing (yes, really!)
Customer service (making people happy!)

You don’t need any training for being a VA and it’s a great way to start earning money basically right away. 🙂 If you feel like you need some extra training, my friend Kayla has a course that you can take (and use the code CAROLINE50 to get $50 off!!). But remember – you don’t NEED training since you already have the skills you need!

If you’re looking to start your own blog, then NOW is the time to start.

Not because there’s some crazy sale going on (although you can still start your blog for $2.95/month here!), but because the sooner you start, the better. It takes some getting used to with all of the tech stuff as well as realizing that it isn’t JUST writing. You’ve heard the expression “there’s no better time than the present”? That’s the truest statement about blogging that I’ve ever heard.

Why not you, why not now!

I can honestly say that the best thing I’ve ever done to help make sure that I can start to make money off of my blog was joining the Elite Blog Academy. I wish that I had joined right after I started blogging! There are lots of blogging freebies that you can get by signing up for the Elite Blog Academy and they offer an amazing (not free, but worth every penny) class starting up again in the fall. Definitely worth the sign-up!

Get on the EBA waitlist and get all of the freebies sent to your email when you sign up!

Again though, blogging isn’t easy. It’s the opposite of a get rich quick scheme, but it is a lot of fun and I have enjoyed every minute of it! Plus, now less than 2 years since I went “full-time,” I’m making more than $12,000/month! (Repeat, because no one told ME this when I started – it will not happen overnight. BUT you will see your work paying off! 🙂 )

If you are at home for any reason. Don’t ever think that it’s impossible to earn income! Even if it’s small, every little bit helps!

Just in case you missed them, here are all of the blogging freebies that I LOVE. You can get all of them if you’d like! There’s no limit! 🙂

2018 Blogging Trends eBook – Want to be ahead of the blogging trends this year? This is exactly what you need to have the hottest posts!
Secret Blueprint for Blogging Success – Ever wish you had a roadmap to blogging success? The Secret Blueprint shows you the exact steps you need to take to grow your blog fast and monetize successfully. It’s a game changer, and right now, for a limited time, you can get it absolutely free!
New Blogger’s Guide to Guest Posting – Packed with practical tips you can implement right away, this super helpful guide will help you grow your audience with guest posting and make sure your content is a hit every time. It’s a game changer, and right now, for a limited time, you can get it absolutely free!
120 Amazing Blog Post Ideas – Struggling to come up with new content for your blog? The 120 awesome blog post ideas will help you beat writer’s block and bring killer content that builds your business every time. It’s a game changer, and right now, for a limited time, you can get it absolutely free!
8 Bad Blogging Habits and How to Break Them – Are your bad habits holding back? Packed with practical tips you can implement right away, this super helpful mini ebook will help you identify and destroy destructive behavior so that you can grow your blog more quickly than ever. It’s a game changer, and right now, for a limited time, you can get it absolutely free!
10 Steps to Take When a Post Goes Viral – Want to know how to maximize a popular post? This super helpful guide shares the exact steps you need to take to make the most of a traffic surge and build momentum that will last. It’s a game changer, and right now, for a limited time, you can get it absolutely free!
Blog Structure Blueprint – This freebie will help you to create an organized blog.
Boost Blog Income Ebook – This free ebook gives great tips on how to increase your blogging income.
Goal Setting Workbook – Do you want to learn how to work smarter, not harder? This Goal Setting Workbook for Bloggers is the perfect tool to help you take back your time by allowing you to clarify your purpose and prioritize what’s really important.

Other freebies that AREN’T for blogging:

No matter what time of year it is, you can always make money working from home.

This is true especially around the holidays when more companies are looking to make sure that customers are happy with their shopping experience. Working from home doesn’t have to be a scam or a dirty word. In fact, more and more people are working from home than ever before. And it’s an incredible thing to see!

So why not you too? Why not make some extra money around the holidays that could turn into a full time job? Why not make extra money from home?

You can do it!