15 Cash Hacks you Must Try to Pay Down Debt Faster

436 Shares

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more information.

If you can make $2,500 it might be like winning a mini-lottery! You can use it to pay down debt, or take a vacation or invest it in something so you can make more money.

You just need to set the goal for yourself and get started. Today!

If you are trying to get $2,500 fast, try one or more of these 14 cash hacks and quickly make the extra money you need.

15 Ways to Make $2,500 in a Month or Less

Choose your own adventure in money-making side hustles.

1. Sell your stuff

Selling your extra stuff is a great way to make money

Estimated cash generated: $150

Some of us have junk drawers and well, some of us have junk rooms.

But almost everyone has extra “stuff” sitting in closets, storage rooms, and the garage that never gets used.

If you are serious about raising $2,500 in one month or less, look around at the stuff you have and see what you can sell.

Unless your items are family heirlooms, you probably won’t miss it when it is gone. You can host a yard sale, take your stuff to a consignment store, or post it online and offer it up basically to the world.

You probably know about eBay, OfferUp, and Craigslist. But Facebook marketplace is a great new place for selling. Also try Everything but the House which is another auction style site. And Poshmark is great for selling clothes!

Once your stuff sells, put the money to the side so you can quickly build up your $2,500 fund. Depending on what items you have to sell, you can earn hundreds of dollars in less than a week!

Bonus tip: If you are doing well selling items online, try searching local estate sells or Goodwill for items you can pick up cheap and resell to generate even more extra cash!

2. Start your own adventures in babysitting

Babysitting is still a great side-hustle to make extra cash — Start a babysitting side hustle to generate extra cash

Estimated cash generated: $125

Remember when you used to make money as a teenager by babysitting? Turns out this is still a great way to quickly generate extra cash.

Offer to watch your neighbor’s kids while they have date night. Take the extra money and use it to pay down debt. Before you know it you will be making progress on those stubborn credit card balances.

This is also a great side-hustle for stay-at-home moms. You already are home watching your kid, why not make money for it?

If kids stress you out, you can babysit fur-babies too! Set yourself up on Rover.com or advertise your services on next door or Craigslist. You can keep your neighbor’s pets while they are out of town and easily make extra cash to pay down debt faster. Plus, who doesn’t love some dog therapy time?

3. Take a part-time, extra job

Estimated cash generated: $600

If you really want to make money fast, take an extra part-time job on the side. Working a couple shifts at a local restaurant as a host or hostess or a server can generate a lot of extra cash quickly.

Plus, it can be a great way to meet new people! Trying something new in your life can be fun. Why not take a job at a restaurant or boutique that lets you socialize and make money at the same time!

The fastest way to make an extra $2,500 in one month is to take a part-time job. If you are drowning in debt, this is a good option to help you get out of it.

Another easy way to make extra cash is by driving with Uber or Lyft. You can make your own schedule and work at any time. The great thing is once you’ve signed up, all you have to do is click a button on your phone and start driving for dollars at any time you want!

You can pick up a ride share on your way to the grocery and make the money you need for your food for the week on your way there! I drove for Lyft for a while to help make money for a down payment on a home.

And when I bought that home guess what happened? I started making even more money. It is now exclusively a rental property that makes passive income for me!

While having an extra job might not be fun, it can really pay off in the end. And, there are actually even Amazon remote jobs you can try to help make an extra $2,500 a month!

4. Generate online income

There are many ways to generate extra cash online — Make $2,500 of extra money quickly with an online business

Estimated cash generated: $200-unkown!

Get your online side hustle on! If an extra part-time job is not an option to help reduce your debt, look for work online to earn extra money for yourself.

You can sell arts and crafts or vintage items on Etsy. Sign up for paid survey sites, complete transcription work, or even create a blog you can monetize. The list of options on making money online is endless!

Here are just a few ways to make extra cash online:

Sell your own products

It is easier than ever to generate income from your own eCommerce channel. From photography prints, to home décor, to vintage items sourced from estate sells, there are many options for selling.

Pick a product, and pick a place to sell it!

Etsy is a great site to sell products on. They only charges 20 cents to list an item for sale and then take a small commission once an item sells.

You can source local estate sales for vintage items and sell those. If you are a photography buff, you can sell your prints online.

You can even have your prints placed on popular products like coffee mugs, notebooks or even laptop covers giving you multiple ways to make money from one photograph. An easy way to do this is with a site like CafePress where you can create almost any product you want from your own design.

Upload a high-resolution scan of your photo, artwork, or graphic design and order anything from a shirt, to a coffee mug or even a pillow. You have to use high-resolution, high quality images however or the quality won’t be good enough for a product.

Another great way to sell things online is to set up your own online shop on Shopify. With marketing, payment processing, and hosting all-in-one, it is an easy platform to help you set up a store with little-to-no fuss.

Last, but not least, is Amazon fulfillment which is another great way to start your own retail business. Learn more about it here.

Participate in research studies

Did you know that a lot of companies out there will pay you money just for your opinion? They want to know everything from why you purchase certain products, to what your favorite products are, or even questions related to your profession.

You can make money for this by participating in a research study or focus group. All you have to do is sign up and there are a couple of legitimate websites that will connect you with these companies.

Best of all, the money for these surveys is really good! You can make You can make as much as $150 an hour.

Respondent is an easy site to use to find these lucrative studies. They have a lot of available studies and you can sign up for as many as 10 within a 24 hour period. I have one scheduled for next week that I will make $100 for just one hour of answering questions!

Respondent is my top choice website for getting paid for research studies because they will pay you in actual cash to your PayPal account and not just in gift cards. Plus, they have a lot of available studies and new ones everyday.

Another site that will connect you with companies who will pay to talk to you is User Interviews. They connect researchers and participants.

The pay for most studies on User Interviews is $75 a half hour. But, they sometimes have hour long studies that pay as much as $450! That is a lot of extra money to make for one hour of work and an easy way to make $2,500 fast.

There are some big companies like Wayfair and Pinterest that are sourcing from User Interviews so it is a legit way to earn extra money. The only down-side is they tend to pay you in gift cards instead of cash.

But, there are ways to turn your gift cards into cash. Just sign up on their website and get started generating revenue!

Take paid surveys

Basically you can sit at home and make money to answer questions! This is an easy way to make extra money and work towards your $2,500 goal. Survey Junkie is a great site to sign up with and quickly make extra cash for answering easy surveys.

Paid Viewpoint offers quick, easy surveys that usually only take 2-3 minutes. They will actually pay you money just for registering on their site! And unlike some of the other surey sites out there, you earn actual dollar amounts from the get-go, rather than points you can turn in for gift cards.

Swagbucks is another well respected survey site that offers multiple ways to make money in the form of gift cards.

You can take surveys, watch videos, answer quick polls or even shop online and generate points you can turn in for cash! They will even reward you just for searching the web!

Start a blog

This one will take more time to generate revenue but if you are someone that enjoys being creative, it might just be a hobby you love that ends up helping you pay down debt.

Learn tactics that will build traffic, and ways to monetize your blog. Plus, starting a blog takes less than 10 minutes, learn the steps here.

The sky is the limit when it comes to the avenues of income you can earn from the comfort of your own home. And starting your own virtual business requires little overhead.

Just make sure you are paying taxes on any extra income!

5. Ask for money gifts

Ask your family for cash gifts so you can make $2,500 — Ask your family for money gifts instead of items

Estimated cash generated: $250

Tell your friends and family to forget the fruitcake, and give you some cold, hard dough instead!

If there is a holiday coming up like your birthday or Christmas, ditch the gifts and ask for cash. This is a great way to quickly get together a few hundred dollars and it literally takes no effort!

While not getting gifts for yourself isn’t fun, receiving money will pay off in the long run and reduce your stress levels for many years to come. It is the gift that keeps on giving!

Plus, once you are debt-free, you’ll be able to buy yourself gifts!

If you are nervous about explaining why you would prefer money instead of an actual gift, don’t be; debt happens to everyone at some point and your friends and family will probably applaud your efforts and be happy to help.

Not to mention it can be stressful for them trying to figure out a gift to get you that you actually want. This makes things easy on everyone.

6. Start Ridesharing

Estimated cash generated: $1000

Another easy way to make extra money on the side is by driving with Uber or Lyft. It is an easy gig to work in addition to your regular job. You can work your own hours and do it any time.

All you have to do is click a button on the app on your phone once you’ve signed up and you can start making money.

Of course you can make more or less depending on how much time you drive for and also on the bonuses they give which you can take advantage of. So if you really want to get $2,500, you can just drive until you make it!

7. Deliver Food

Estimated cash generated: $750

Another side hustle that can help you make $2,500 is delivering food. You can deliver restaurant food to people who order out or even groceries.

Here are companies you can start food delivery with:

8. Cancel subscriptions and services

Cancel subscription fees and use the extra cash to make your $2,500 — Cancel subscriptions to save more money

Estimated cash generated: $25

Beauty product subscriptions, magazine subscriptions, and home care services can cost a lot of money over the course of a year.

Money you could use for something else. Especially considering they are often used once and then forgotten about. Just buy them occasionally!

Take an inventory of the subscriptions and services you have and make some cuts where you can. Cutting extra fees like this out of your budget can help you raise $2,500.

Look for sneaky subscriptions hitting your monthly income that may have started once a free trail ended. It is easy to sign up for two months of something for free and forget to cancel before the trial period is over.

Most home care services like lawn care and house cleaning can be done by your family (put your kids to work!) on the weekend. Just think of it as making $40 per hour instead of the person you normally pay.

You can save up to $25 per month or more.

9. Rent out space in your home

Estimated cash generated: $500

One of the fastest ways to make $2,500 is to rent out living space in your home. This one may not work if you already have roommates, but if you have an extra room or office space put it to work for you. Renting it out can generate a lot of cash quickly.

Getting yourself a roomie could bring in an extra $500 a month or more. This may be one of the quickest ways to meet your money-making goal and best of all, it requires the least amount of work.

Renting your home out on sites like Airbnb is another great way to make money off your home.

Learn how I make $8,500 per month with my AirBnb side hustle. I used the money I made off Airbnb to save for a down payment to buy a second home! Register with this link and make your first $25 on Airbnb!

Plus, it doesn’t have to be forever. Renting out a part of your home for 6 months might mean you can pay off an entire credit card or start your own business.

If you don’t want to rent your house, but are interested in other real estate side hustles, try these.

10. Flip Items

Estimated cash generated: $500

Reselling items is an excellent way to make $2,500 fast. You can pick up things super-cheap at garage and estate sales, and even your local Goodwill.

You can actually even find things free on Facebook or on Next Door.

You can sell what you find for a profit on sites like Etsy, Ebay, or Facebook Marketplace. Antique and vintage items as well as furniture are easy-to-sell. If you have some painting skills, you can even refinish furniture before you sell it.

11. Work as a Freelancer

Estimated cash generated: $2,500

You can make $2,500 as a freelancer pretty quickly. Whatever your skills are, set yourself up as a freelance worker.

You can work in graphic design, as a virtual assistant or a photographer. You can get paid to write emails or even help with marketing and social media.

Because of the internet there are a lot of entrepreneurs and companies out there who will pay an hourly fee for extra help. Freelance writers and proofreaders make good money.

You can advertise your services on sites like Upwork or Fiverr.

12. Review reoccurring bills

Review and reduce your reoccurring bills to generate extra cash — Find extra cash each month by reducing bills

Estimated cash generated: $50

Log on to each of your monthly repeating bill accounts and see how much you are actually paying for services.

Take the time to look at your cellphone plan, water bill, cable bill, trash, insurance bills, and others. There can be lots of ways to reduce bills and free up extra cash for debt pay down.

Is there a less expensive phone plan to switch to, or premium channels you could remove from your cable bill?

As mentioned in number 4, there are some sneaky ways companies sign you up for promos that once expired they begin charging for. Locating items like this can add up.

Another great way to save big is to switch providers. Call a different cable or cell phone company and ask what promotional offers they can give you to switch companies. Many will offer a year-long promotion that saves as much as $50 a month, plus some also offer Visa gift cards just for signing up.

Heating and electricity bills are one of the biggest money wasters you will find in your reoccurring bills.

Take some time each day to look for ways to reduce the energy you use in your home. Turn the thermostat down when you aren’t home, turn off lights when you are not in a room, or even invest in LED lighting that will cost more upfront, but pay off in the long term.

Finding ways to reduce multiple monthly bills can add up quickly.

13. Go on a spending fast

Go on a spending fast to help make extra money — The best way to make extra money is to not spend it!

Estimated cash generated: $150

While food fasting is a tradition that is practiced in many religions, have you ever tried completing a spending fast in an effort to save money? You just might be able to get $2,500 together just by having a spending freeze.

Pick a day, weekend, or even an entire month and see if you can prevent yourself from spending any extra money.

Eat food that is already at your home, use up supplies that have been laying around, and complete projects that are on your to-do list, but you haven’t found the time to do.

One of the best ways to keep yourself from spending on items you don’t need is to just not shop. Temptation can be hard to resist so stay away from your favorite online stores or local boutiques.

Taking a spending fast takes discipline, but can yield valuable extra money.

14. Use coupons

Estimated cash generated: $25

You may remember your grandmother “clipping coupons” out of the Sunday paper. You could be leaving a lot of extra money on the table by not finding and using coupons.

While using coupons will only save you a couple of dollars here and there, this money adds up over time when you use coupons every time you go shopping.

Get into the habit of searching for coupons for items you are going to buy anyway. If you can’t find the coupons you need, do a simple google search for coupons on the item you want. Use an app like iBotta to source coupons and cash-back offers on your grocery trips to save even more.

Many grocery stores now like Kroger offer online digital coupons you can click to easily add to your rewards card. The next time you shop and use your rewards card, the coupons will automatically process when you check out. In addition, they offer fuel points every time you shop that can add up to some great savings on gas.

Once you start using coupons, put away the money you save until you have enough to make $2,500.

15. Look for freebies

Estimated cash generated: $50

Before heading off to the store to purchase clothes, office supplies, home improvement items, housewares, and all other stuff you need, do some research and see if you can get any of these items for free.

Many communities have neighborhood swap events or websites where people can offer up and receive free items. For an extra bonus, take these free items and resell then on Ebay or Etsy.

Sign up for the next door app in your neighborhood or your local Facebook community group keep an eye out for free items. You can also contact manufacturers and get free samples of products you want to try.

Take it a step further and sell these free items to get even closer to making $2,500.