As you walk through your financial journey with me, there will be times when you’re discouraged and need a little boost of encouragement. While I hope I’m able to give you that each week, when you’re in the thick of it, that needed boost may come from a little extra cash. 

We all need something once in a while to relieve some of the pressure, make ends meet, or allow us to feel like someone is on our side. For me, as I was working through our debt pay off strategy, a little windfall or bit of “found” money here and there really helped keep me going. 

You know that feeling when you find $10 in some old jeans or a gift card in the junk drawer? Yeah, that one. 

Any little “win” throughout this journey deserves a happy dance, and sometimes more. Depending on how things work out or what little success you just experienced, it may be just enough to make you step back from the edge and face another day of attempting to get on your feet financially. 

That’s what I want for you. I want you to appreciate the struggle, because boy, do I know you’ll struggle through this. But I also want you to be able to approach each day with true gratitude. 

Harnessing the ability you have to make money to pay off your creditors and “make it right” is a beautiful thing and I want you to be able to celebrate when you experience a little blessing, find a creative way to solve a timing or cash flow issue, and definitely when you pay off one of those things on your list!

Celebrate the little wins.

That may just give you enough of a boost to work toward the next milestone. 

So, no, this won’t be another one of those “10 ways to make extra money” posts where you click on it and it just lists a bunch of things that require a bigger vision (like launch your own business!) or that take up a TON of time (like online surveys). If you want to do those things, here are a few of those articles by other bloggers I love:

https://artsandbudgets.com/stay-at-home-mom-jobs/

https://thesoccermomblog.com/5-real-ways-to-make-money-at-home-as-a-sahm/

https://thefrugalgirls.com/2018/12/stay-at-home-mom-side-job-ideas.html

How This One is Different

What I want to walk you through are legit things I did when we were strapped for cash. I’m sharing with you actual ways I made ends meet or had grocery money or could afford to take the kids to Burger King that weekend. 

I’m not going to lie, some of these things take a little effort, but they are possible and don’t require you to own your own website or have a large network to execute. Here are some practical, actual solutions to stop the bleeding, gain some “found” cash, and accelerate your progress. 

The most obvious ways to “find” cash are to earn some. The standard advice out there is “Get a side hustle!” And while I considered this probably a million times, it just didn’t make sense for us because we already felt like we never saw our kids. 

The last thing I wanted was to suffer more through this whole debt thing by signing up for another J-O-B that would require hours on the nights and weekends, annoying managers, and more time that I couldn’t be with my kids …all because of this dang debt!

No, thank you. 

This left me with limited options, but I was still able to make it work. I looked to thing like babysitting, providing a service and helping neighbors, decluttering my home and selling those items, and becoming friends with the consignment shop lady. 

Sell Things

First up on my list and maybe one of the easiest to execute is to sell things.

For lots of people, a garage sale comes to mind. Depending on what you need to sell, this may be the best way to do it. However, I’ve found that garage sales are kind of a race to the bottom as far as pricing. If I’m going to go through all the effort it takes to clean out things, clean them, press them, and price them, I want to make sure I can sell them for their full worth. 

I opted for online selling instead. This provided me more flexibility and a bigger network. No joke, you can use the app you like – I think I used Craigslist and 5 Miles the most (here’s a list of more) – but I got busy and cleaned out anything we didn’t need or didn’t use and sold them ALL. 

Best sellers were baby clothes for sure. Lucky win for me because my kids were tiny, which also meant they needed a completely new wardrobe in the next size up every 3 months. I’d sell garbage bags of baby and toddler clothes, sorted by size, and washed and folded neatly, of course, for $50 a pop. 

When you have like NO money because you’ve allocated it all toward the bills and your actual NEEDS, $50 feels like hundreds. That $50 could buy us groceries on a tight week or allow us to go out to eat using coupons for an entire month (we only go out once a weekend)! 

I became borderline addicted to the thrill of decluttering, selling, and earning cash. Score #2 because we had clutter everywhere, which was primarily the baby toys the kids were growing out of each month. 

I cleaned out closets, sold furniture that no one ever sat on, shoes the kids grew out of, home decor that was no longer my style, items out of the garage (with hubs blessing, of course) that we’d used once and probably wouldn’t use again. 

The kitchen cabinets got emptied of anything we didn’t’ use. I sold small appliances that we’d received from Christmas or held on for years too long since we never used them anyway. 

I mean I went through EVERYTHING. 

I combed every room in the house looking for things we didn’t need. I wrote more about decluttering here about a year ago. I was Marie Kondo-ing my place before that was even a thing!

How Much $ is Hiding in Your Closet?

At one point, I knew I was completely done forever with all of my maternity clothes. My tubes were tied after my second kiddo, per our request, so there would never be a need for those stretchy band pants and baby-doll style tops with allllll the extra fabric. 

So, I got a clothing bar rack, washed and pressed each item, took pictures and set up a little boutique style shop in my living room. 

Pregnant ladies from all around came “shopping” at my little second hand maternity store and wow did I rake in the cash. If memory serves correctly, I made about $400 that day. Now, we aren’t going to talk about how much I probably blew buying all those cute clothes new from the store- that’s a lesson about shopping addiction and  “I just gotta have it” mentality for another time. 

Since then, I’ve managed to continue the trend and sell of 2 more bags of regular sized, gently used women’s clothing. It astonishes me how much I can pull from my closet and not even miss. I bet you can do the same thing!

Declutter Your Home = Boost Your Finances

The point is you CAN sell anything. I’d encourage you to keep the things you and your family members use daily, since you don’t want to regret when something goes out the door. 

However, if you’ve got a whole guest room set up that you really want to make into an office and no one ever comes to visit anyway…sell it. Sell it all. Get the cash from that guest bed, side table, practically new dresser, and whatever else, and use it to pay down your debt since that’s the immediate goal. 

Imagine how free you’ll be to furnish that office in the most beautiful way when you’re debt free! Everything right now is about meeting the immediate goal, whether that be setting up your emergency fund or paying off debt. 

I ventured into the attic and found a couple things we were NEVER going to use that we were just keeping for no reason. I wrestled them down the janky attic ladder, cleaned them up, and sold them. 

Boom. Found money! 

There were a few smaller computer monitors and a bunch of other computer junk in the closet now that I’d upgraded screens. They were still flat screens, just older and smaller – $20 a pop out the door! 

I also cleaned out a “junk” closet and found tons of cash (ie. Items I could sell) in there. 

Like, why do we keep this closet full of crap if no-one ever uses anything in here and this closet is scary-off-limits for fear of an avalanche? 

How ridiculous! (Please tell me I’m not the only one with a closet this embarrassing!) So one day I opened it and just threw everything on the floor on purpose just so I could see what the heck we were really hiding from ourselves in there. 

I think I made $200 off of selling bags and sports gear and some home decor items I found in there. Crazy, right? I had money sitting in that closet and didn’t even know it! 

I’m encouraging you to log this in the back of your mind and take a tour around your home. We all keep extra things around the house without realizing it. 

Sometimes things worth a lot of money are hiding in closets, cabinets, in drawers, in the attic or garage, and even under the beds. And a Saturday of selling things won’t take you away from your family near as much as any side gig. 

Returns and Resale Shops

In the process of cleaning out your closets, you may find several things with tags on them like I did. Oh the guilt! I’d spent how much on this thing and then never wore it and it’s been in the back of my closet this whole time?!?!

Depending on how old the item is and which way you’ll get more value, I suggest looking into returning it to the store OR selling it on one of those apps as a “tags still on, never worn” item. People really go for those items and they typically bring in top dollar as far as “found” cash goes.

One more option if you have a few things that are a bit too nice to sell on a neighborhood app, may be consignment. These shops take a percentage off of your sale, but if you need to sell something fairly nice and you need the cash, that’s still cash you didn’t have before. 

Look into more specialty-type resale stores – like Kid to Kid, where they specifically resale toddler and kids’ clothes and shoes. Head to a sports resale shop like Play It Again Sports to resell cleats and balls and lacrosse sticks. I managed to find resale shops in my area that I had no idea existed and they paid great prices for my “junk”. 

In-Home Side Gigs

One lucrative way I found to help my fellow mamas out AND earn extra cash at the same time, was to babysit. I know, I can hear you sighing right now. You’re already tired and the kids already drive us crazy enough without adding more into the house! But stick with me for a sec. 

First of all, don’t baby sit kids you don’t like, ages you don’t know what to do with, or at times that are inconvenient for you. Be specific about your clients – who will you accept? Are you only comfortable watching a baby in the 18 month range? Or are you only willing to keep kids the same age as yours so it will seem like they have a friend over? 

My kiddos are little, so I hopped on care.com and facebook.com and I threw it out there that I’d watch kids for no more than 3 hours, ages 12 months to 4 years old, at my home, and laid out the specific nights I was available. I fielded some emails and messages and slotted them in my calendar. 

I even had a mom looking for a more consistent care option, like every Wednesday night for two months, come interview me and meet my family and see my home, which was totally fine. I’d do the same thing if I was sending my baby to someone’s house. 

It all worked out well. I never kept more than two additional kids at a time, and I only watched kids when I wanted to. My kids thought they were having a playdate. 

Babysitting was fun and hard, but it paid cash and I know how valuable a good, responsible sitter is to a mother, so I was happy to do it. 

There are lots of services you can provide for cash in or around your home and care.com‘s job listings are a great place to get ideas. Consider dog walking, house sitting, or feeding someone’s cats while they are on vacation. 

You may have to interview with the person who’s planning to trust you with their home, but if you can find gigs like this in your neighborhood that won’t take much time and pay well, I’d consider that found money!

Celebrations & Occasions

Holidays and other celebrations, like birthday parties, can be potential windfalls if you can find the right angle with which to approach them. Instead of asking for that new, shiny object for Christmas, try just being honest with everyone and tell them you’re trying to get out of debt. 

Ask for cash instead of gift cards or things. You may get some weird looks, some people may ask you more about what’s going on, and others may think you’re weird and give you that ugly sweater anyway. 

But overall, expressing your wishes and goals clearly might land you a “profitable” party, with which you can pay off another bill, afford new shoes for the kids, or make ends meet at the grocery store. 

There’s often this weird stigma about gifting cash. Some people think it’s a cop-out present that required no thought and no effort to actually show love toward the recipient. I feel just the opposite! 

I’m ecstatic to receive cash and do what I WANT with it. No one will ever know that you actually want to be gifted cash if you don’t say anything. 

No Shame

People have given us things over the years – nice things. Maybe used, or very gently used, things that I loved and saw the value in keeping for some time. But at the point when we were desperate for cash, I very happily sold these items for quite a bit of cash. 

Nice purses, a good recliner, kids clothes/ shoes, and some jewelry spring to mind immediately. Selling them wasn’t an act of ungratefulness that they’d given me some junk, it was actually quite the opposite. I was so thankful that I had such wonderful people in my life that had given me the opportunity to have something valuable to sell.

Aside from people giving us things directly, I’m not gonna lie, we live in a nice neighborhood. In fact, I’ve often thought we are probably the poorest people in the neighborhood. 

My neighbors get rid of some really nice things! They just put them out on the curb for pick up, and guess what? I scoop them up, give them a good cleaning or a coat of paint, and I sell them for cash! 

It’s a great little side hobby that doesn’t take that much time and seems to be pretty lucrative. If you don’t’ live in a nice ‘hood to do this, consider driving through one occasionally on your way home. It helps if you have a truck or a van since larger items like furniture are sometimes the hot picks. 

We’ve picked up everything – from tables to book shelves, a decorative bird cage, picture frames, a vacuum (yes, really, and it worked too!), lamps, treadmills, luggage, and more. I can’t even believe how much cash we’ve earned from stuff that we legitimately found on the curb.

We went a little extreme on this because we were so desperate (Remember? 80K in debt, a newborn and a two-year old, and only $20?), but we did what worked for us. So, as with everything we’ve talked about in any of these steps, it’s up to you how hard you want to go at this and how crazy you want to be. 

Hey, I’m not here to judge your crazy. There’s no shame in this game. You do what you gotta do to change your family’s future. 

No one will think you’re crazy 5 years from now when you’re debt free and have fat savings…they’ll be praising you and asking how you did it! Who’s crazy then? You, or the person who’s finances look just the same as they do now & made no progress?

Consider Some Changes at Work

If you really need to make big progress and are considering much bolder moves, you can consider asking for a raise or promotion at work. Chances are as you dove deep on this commitment of paying off debt and getting your finances on track, some other things have fallen into place as well. 

Hopefully your manager has noticed your extra drive lately as every penny is now that much more important to you. You’re especially in control of your take-home value if there’s any level of commission to your paycheck. 

If you’re paid on commission, I’m sure I don’t even have to say this, but ask for more work or another project, or better yet, get out there and round up your own contact. That will definitely get the boss’ attention. 

When I worked at a consulting firm previously, if you brought in the contract, you received a much larger percentage of the profit at the end of the project. If you don’t know the terms of your commission, I strongly suggest you look into that and then bust your buns toward that extra income. 

If you’re a salaried employee, the advice is similar – ask for more responsibility, complete projects with flying colors, show up at 100%, and make a strong positive impression. Research your current salary as compared to others in the field with similar experience so you know what range to shoot for; glassdoor.com and salary.com are both great places to start. Then, go for it. 

Ask for that raise, promotion, bonus, or all three. 

Speaking of paychecks and all, check your w-4 and make sure you’re taking the correct allowances and deductions. If you are getting a big refund at tax time each year, that means you have some room for adjustment. 

In most scenarios, it’s smarter for your paycheck be slightly larger each pay period than loan the government money on 0% interest for a year. 

Don’t be afraid to print the forms off and go over them old-school style. Get help understanding how to complete them if needed. If you fill these out correctly, you’ll get a bigger paycheck but little to no refund, which is great because you can use that extra cash each pay period toward your debt.

Extra Space

Housing is very likely your largest expense. So, what if you could trim that down a little by using some of your extra space to your advantage? This is a bigger, riskier move, but can you get a roommate / housemate?

Do you have any extra rooms in the house you aren’t using? Can that exercise equipment you never use anyway be moved to the den and that room be rented out? Depending on the layout of the house, your location, and attractions in the area, you may find that renting a room out could create a pretty nice check each month. 

If you’re considering this option, take special care to think about how this new roommate will enter and exit the home, if your kids will be near this person at all, what this person’s potential schedule and habits could be, and more. 

It’s completely your prerogative to be extremely specific as to who you will and won’t rent to, and it may be tough to find the perfect match. If and when you do, though, it will be magical. 

I will say, we’ve had seasons of roommates in our lives, before kids and with kids. There were great times and there were tough times. It’s just like anything else, there’s a season for it. If you think it’s a good option for you, in your current situation, it could be really lucrative. 

Cheers to Boosting Your Income!

I hope this gave you some great ideas toward ways you can “find” money and make your ball roll a little faster. For me, the extra cash was always about giving me extra wiggle room.

Getting a couple hundred from a great Craigslist sale meant I didn’t have to take cash out for groceries for 2-3 weeks, which meant ALL the cash currently in the bank could be paid toward something. 

I often found that if my next debt item was a few hundred bucks and I was *this* close to paying it off, I could muster up SOME way to find that extra cash. It turned into a game, and the challenge kept me going. I loved the feeling of creativity that popped up when I really wanted to make that next payoff. 

I look forward to hearing back about your progress at this point. I’d love to hear about other creative ways you made some extra cash and which step it helped you achieve.

If you have other ideas that earned you some dough, send me those too!. This is step 5 of 11 of the Mama’s Abundant Money Series! You’ve come SUCH a long way and I’m SO proud of you!