Throughout December, I’m going to be posting about New Year’s Resolutions. Each post will have tips and tricks to help you navigate through your resolutions to become more successful at all of your frugal endeavors!

For a lot of us, one of our New Year’s Resolutions is to make more money.  And unless you plan on winning the lottery, that can be hard.

Here are a few ways that you can make some extra money in 2016.  I have done all of these and they have worked for me to one extent or another, however, YMMV.

• Why wait until spring to clear out the clutter?  Have a Garage Sale and earn some extra money!  Whatever doesn’t sell, consider donating it to a charity and taking the tax deduction.
• Sell items on your local Craigslist. Always remember to meet in a public place!
• Check out resale groups on Facebook. Just go to Facebook and search Your city + resale.  There are a ton in San Diego!
• If you have unwanted silver, gold, or platinum most malls have kiosks or stores that will buy the metal from you on the spot and give you cash. Some jewelers also buy metal and jewelry.
• Have a skill? Can you babysit, mow a lawn, bake a cake?  Are you handy with a sewing machine? Let your friends and neighbors know. Make up a flyer or post on your Facebook.
• Before you head out to go shopping, check to see if anything you are going to buy has a rebate.  Doing rebates is easy!  To learn more about how rebating works, check out the article I wrote here. It also includes a link to my favorite rebate website!  I get about $250 back each year just through rebates. Most of the time you can use coupon on an item that you are submitting a rebate for- talk about win-win!
• Want to get paid for your opinions?  Why not try a focus group or a research study?  Learn more about them here. I participate in about once per month and earn approximately extra $50-$100 in cash each time.
• Mogl– This site is a little different.  Sign up and register your credit/debit cards.  When you eat out at participating restaurants, you’ll receive 10% cash back!  You can use this in addition to any other cash back offers your credit or debit card offers.  I’ve earned $25 in the past year and we don’t eat out very often! I also like at Mogl donates money to local food based charities every time you use one of your registered cards.
• I’m a HUGE fan of Small Business Knowledge Center.   Do you get lots of junk mail?  Is your inbox full of spam? Insurance, credit card offers, banking, credit cards, investing, telecom, mortgage or other loan type junk mail and spam?The Small Business Knowledge Center (SBKC) studies marketing techniques and practices.  They securely dispose of your junk mail after they are done with it- no need to worry! You can also put stickies on paperwork that you would like back and they will return it to you! SBKC mails you postage paid envelopes, you stuff your junk mail into it and drop it into the mail.  You will receive points for your junk mail, and once you receive 2000 points, you will receive a $20 Visa Gift Card. You can also forward emails to them as well.  They occasionally have special projects where they are looking for special items like welcome packets for credit cards.  Special projects offer additional/bonus points.I’ve done SBKC for 4 years and I consistently earn one  $20.00 gift card per quarter, that’s $80.00 in gift cards per year! That’s free money that I did no work for.  Just forward some emails before I hit “delete” and toss my junk mail into an envelope as it comes into the house and mail an envelope once a week.Unlike many other programs, you can sign everyone in your home who is over the age of 18!If you are interested in signing up, here is the link. In the box next to: How did you here about the SBKC Consumer Panel? Please type my name: Abby Hewes. I get points for each referral and that brings me closer to my next reward!

If you are looking to make money online, here are a few of my favorites:

• Earn Cash with Paid View Point. Surveys are short (less than 5 minutes).  Earn cash with each Survey.   You get $1.00 when you sign up! The pay out is $15.00, and it takes about a month to earn $15.00. I earned about $60.00 in 2013.
• Earn Gift cards with Mypoints. I take surveys, click links in emails, and do all of my online shopping through Mypoints. I’ve earned $80 in gift cards in 2013!
• I also use Swagbucks. I use their search engine toolbar, take a daily poll, watch a video and click a few links each day! In 2013 I earned about $120 worth of Swagbucks rewards. Swagbucks has tons of rewards, you can receive cash via paypal too!

And updated for 2017: Here are a few more ways to earn money- My Hustle: How I make Part Time Income as a SAHM

Whether you want to earn extra money for a vacation, holiday gifts, or just to have some extra play money, with a few minutes each day, you can earn some serious money.

This page contains affiliate links.  Please see my Affiliate Disclosure here.