We look at some slightly more unusual ways you could earn some extra money!
Our website gives you many ways to earn extra money through side hustles such as mystery shopping, receipt apps, surveys etc., but there are more options out there that may not be relevant to everyone but might be perfect for you!
Fruit Picking
Well, firstly, the roles are seasonal; most of the roles are for the Summer only, with some lasting into early Winter, but they aren't a year-round work opportunity (although that said, some farms do still need staff year-round, but these are rarer), and as such it's a side hustle for a few months.
Seasonal work on farms is suitable for people with all levels of experience. You do not need to have done this kind of work before as the farm will provide training.
The work:
can be indoors or outdoors depending on the crop
is physical, involving frequent lifting and carrying of items or operating machinery
You’ll need to:
be able to make a time commitment to the farm - most farms are looking for full-time workers
Consider travel arrangements as the farm may be in a rural area or live on the farm in employer-provided accommodation for a charge.
You may be asked to sow produce, harvest produce, transport produce, or pack produce. There are many roles on a farm, and the rate of pay will vary from role to role, and starts at the national wage minimum of £8.72 per hour, up to around £15.00 per hour. Each farm will have its pay structure.
Looking for a job on a farm is relatively easy. Online is the easiest way. The Gov.UK website has a job search facility, and by using the search term fruit or vegetable picking, you can find a large number of vacancies.
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Rent Out Your Driveway Or Parking Space
With the rising parking costs in the UK, more and more people are making money by renting out their driveways! You can earn money by allowing people to use your driveway to park their vehicle when you aren't making use of it. This could be during the day, when you are at work, at the weekend, overnight, while you are away on holiday etc. Perhaps you don't have a car at all but have a driveway going to waste that could be used to earn you some cash or have a driveway for two vehicles, but just have the one?
Companies such as Just Park make it simple by listing your driveway/space on its website, so people looking for a parking space can find your drive and book it online. When it comes to what people will pay to use your facilities, it will depend on your location and availability. If you happen to be located within a close locality to a railway station, city centre, stadium, etc., then you are probably going to be more in demand and will be able to get more money for your space than if you are based in the middle of nowhere.
It's all about supply and demand, of course! You can set your own pricing if you would like to, the website shows you what the people/parking facilities close to you are charging to help you to offer competitive pricing, or Just Park will suggest a price for you, based on your location and the average pricing in your area for you.
It's pretty clever; their system knows if something is happening locally, that can bump up your price and automatically change the pricing. For example, I'm located within a 5-minute walk of a football stadium, and my pricing automatically increases when there is a big match on, so I can profit from the extra demand for parking spaces during this event, which is really helpful and somewhat clever!
Rent Out Your Home
Not always at home, or perhaps you have a larger property with space for taking on guests, look at listing your property on Airbnb. You can rent out your whole house, or just a room using the popular rental company and can earn up to £7,500 a year, tax-free if you rent out just a room, but be aware that if you rent out your whole house, you will need to pay tax on your earnings. You need to consider that you will have additional expenses such as insurance, cleaning costs, provision of parking, food making facilities for the guests, so you need to look into it properly. Still, thousands of people earn decent money from renting out their homes, so it's worth considering.
Rent Out Your Garden
If you have a big garden (0.5 acres is generally a good minimum space, but could be smaller), additional land, or maybe a field, you could look at renting spaces for campers to pitch up and spend the night! Companies such as Pitchup allow you to list your space on its website to accept bookings from prospective campers.
You need to consider insurance, toilet and washing facilities (which can be rented), which may put a spanner in the works, but you could earn decent money if your area is large enough! You may need planning consent if you are going to convert your space pernamamenty into a camping area, but it can operate for 56 days a year without any planning implications.
You also don't need planning to rent out a mobile caravan in your garden.
You don't need to be in a touristy location for this to be an option; you will likely get more 'business' if you are in a popular area, still, people make money from renting out their garden space to people in city centres, as well as the more scenic locations, pitching a tent in central London, for example, maybe a much cheaper for a tourist, unable to afford a London hotel, and you could even rent out the tents as well!
Take On A Lodger
You may have a spare room that you can monetise by renting it out. Companies such as Spareroom.co.uk offer you the opportunity to advertise your extra room to prospective lodgers, who may need a temporary room, perhaps for work reasons or for a longer-term lodger.
You need to remember that this will mean sharing your home with a stranger, and they will need cooking and cleaning facilities, but if you are all good with that, you could earn hundreds of pounds a month from a room you aren't using! You can earn up to £7,500 a year tax-free as a room renter.
Rent Office Space
Does your house or business have extra room that someone might like to use as an office? Companies such as Office Riders allow you to list your space so that people needing a meeting or workspace can pay to use your facilities!
You don't need to have an actual office to rent out; a small room, outhouse, or even just a kitchen table may be exactly what someone needs to have somewhere to work for the day or longer.
The more facilities you have, the more you can charge. Suppose you have a large room with a big table, tea and coffee making facilities and perhaps a printer, ad most certainly decent wifi. In that case, you can easily expect to earn £100+ a day, especially in cities, even just usage of your kitchen table could be worth £30+ a day, so well worth investigating.
Rent Out Your Camper Van
If you have a camper van or caravan, you could look to rent this out to holidaymakers and earn extra money. Companies such as Goboony allow you to list your motorhome/camper on its website and accept bookings for people to hire and use your vehicle.
They charge you £15 a day for each day your vehicle has been hired and is in use, which includes all insurance, and the rest of the daily charge is yours to keep, which will help offset what it costs you to own the vehicle, and could earn turn you a profit!
Rent Out Your Home As A Movie Set/Photo Shoot Location
If you have a home that you feel might be of interest to film productions, you can look to rent out your property as a film set or photoshoot set. In my home town of Aldershot, Hampshire, and the surrounding area, we get a large number of film productions being filmed, and I've seen many private homes and other properties such as large homes, unusual buildings, plots of land and even offices being used for filming. Even derelict buildings, gardens, garages and warehouses get used, as both film location and photoshoot scouts are always looking for unusual shooting locations.
Companies such as Gigster help you list your property and put it in front of the right people. Still, you need to be aware that renting your property is likely to lead to a fair bit of disruption, and you may not be able to stay in your property if it is a longer production, so you will have to factor that into your plans. However, you could earn hundreds of pounds per day, even thousands for larger productions, so it's very much worthwhile. If you rent, you will need permission!
Use Your Talent/Skills To Earn Money
Do you have a particular skill that someone might pay you to use? Perhaps you are a great graphic designer, have particular knowledge in a specialist subject such as website design, language translation, writing, a musical talent, programming, or have a great voice that would be ideal for voice-over work, then companies such as Fiverr have vast numbers of people who advertise their skills on the companies site and get paid for making use of their talents, from their website users worldwide.
You will be charged a fee by Fiverr for using their services, but it's an excellent way to showcase your talents and services and can lead to some really useful new customers that may well come back for more. You can take on as much of this type of work as you like, which you can do from home (depending on your talent), and in return earn some extra money!
Use Your Talent/Skills To Earn Money
Another talent-based service is an option for anyone suitable to side hustle as a tutor. Sites such as Tutor Fair allow you to offer your tutoring service to prospective clients worldwide, where you can provide such tutoring services such as language lessons, education tutoring such as maths, English, with this online TEFL course, science and also musical tutoring, so if you are a whizz on the piano, there will be someone looking for your expertise, and you could earn up to £40 an hour for your time
Become A Virtual Assistant
If you are organised, have a good telephone manner, and have a friendly, outgoing personality, with good all-around office skills, then you could consider becoming a virtual assistant. The Society Of Virtual Assistants offers lots of helpful information on how you could work as a VA and earn money working from home, answering calls and replying to emails for businesses worldwide.
Do You Have a Creative Talent?
Are you the kind of person who has a creative talent? Perhaps you are great at drawing caricatures, making jewellery, making homemade candles, or maybe you make figurines from driftwood, then you could look at selling your talent products online.
eBay is a popular choice for newbies, but you also have other online marketplace options such as Etsy, Notonthehighstreet.com and Amazon. All are decent online retailers whose vast numbers of customers can turn your hobby into a small business. Just bear in mind that all these online marketplace services will charge you a commission fee for selling with them, but it's still a great way to get into eCommerce without all the hassle of setting up your own online store.
Start A Blog
If you have something to say, then maybe start a blog? You can monetise your blog with the inclusion of paid adverts, guest posts and advertising features, but believe me, it's not a quick money maker, it takes months, if not years of hard work to get seen by a large enough audience to not only cover your costs, but to make a profit, but it's a fun journey and certainly a learning curve. If you have a deep knowledge of a specialist subject, you may find that your blog becomes more popular faster; it's all about finding a niche that separates you from other blogs... something I'm still working on!
Gig Economy Roles
There are plenty of other gig economy roles you could consider participating in to earn some extra cash. All have their points to consider, such as insurance and fuel costs, but you could always look at:
Setting up a dog walking service
Works as a delivery driver for Amazon via its Amazon Flex programme
Become an Uber Driver
Work for Beelivery as a delivery driver
If you think we've missed something, please do leave a comment to let us know!