5 Easy and Fun Ways to Make Money Fast

Last Updated on June 22, 2022 by Alex

Especially in times like these most of us could use a little extra cash. Technology has made it easier than ever to put money into your pocket in fun and interesting ways.

Remember, money is exactly like the fat on our bodies: it’s all about dollars in and dollars out. Or euros, or yen. Just like losing weight is a function of the calories you eat minus what you expend. 

You can grow your wealth or reduce your debt by either spending less (thereby saving more or paying down debt more quickly) or by earning more. Or—best of all—by doing both. 

And just like with our bodies, it’s most likely to be the marginal increases in income and cuts in expenditures that will make the biggest difference over the long term. And it’s the long term we should be shooting for.

That means that even small increases in income are to be welcomed.

That’s where these easy and fun ways to make money come in.

Sell Your Photos

If you have an iPhone and you like to take photos you’re in luck. Foap is an app exclusively on Apple’s App Store that gives you 4 ways to earn money from photos you take.

1. Regular Foap Missions in which you submit photos that brands or other buyers have created, usually requiring you to include a particular product in the photo or video. 

• Pays $100-$500 if you win the exclusive right to fulfill the mission
• Pays $10 per photo, split evenly with Foap, if your photos are bought within the mission

2. Premium Missions. Earn Foap Coins by watching videos and apply those to unlocking premium missions. 

• Up to 60 winners per mission
• Pays a total of up to $2000 in rewards
• Doesn’t require including a specific product

3. Upload photos to your profile and they will go on the Foap market, selling for $10, to be split evenly with Foap.

4. Add photos of other Foap users to your album. For each such photo sold you get $0.25.

Foap doesn’t take loads of time and is fun to use. Enjoy, play the game and earn some easy money.

Mystery shopping

Believe it or not, companies will pay you to shop and eat at restaurants. Your job is to record your experiences and report back.

Businesses need honest feedback about how their operations perform out in the marketplace and will pay you for useful reviews.

The concept is simple. How you do it is by filling out an application and becoming a field agent. 

How much can you earn? Well, here is someone who made $14,000 in a single year. Unless you are willing to put in inordinate amounts of time you probably can’t make that much, but individual assignments will go from about $10 to $100 or more. 

Warning. There are any number of companies out there who you can sign up with, but know that there are also scams. Legitimate mystery shopping companies never charge you to sign up, never ask you to wire or otherwise transfer money to them. Ever. Asking you for money is a dead giveaway that you are dealing with a scam.

Good companies to start with  in the U.S. are The Source , Sinclair Customer Metrics and Bestmark.

In the EU? Try Bare International.

Sell your Textbooks

Did you go to college? Did your kids? Got any textbooks left over?

This is a no-brainer. No one rereads their old college textbooks. Dump that stuff for cash on Bookscouter.

Flip Free Stuff

Free stuff is everywhere. 

It’s there for the taking and you just need a little initiative to get it and sell it for a 100% profit on Ebay, Facebook Marketplace or any other online marketplace that serves your locale. 

Why do people give away valuable stuff when they could make money from it?

While each sale you make might be small, make enough sales and you can earn hundreds of dollars in short order. 

Good places to find free stuff are on Craigslist Free Stuff and Facebook Marketplace Free Stuff. 

As I write this I’m looking at the free stuff available on Craigslist in the Boston area. Among hundreds of items I see two children’s suitcases, a children’s guitar, decent looking couches, an office chair, an Ikea bunkbed….you get the idea. All of it looks to be in good shape.

If you really go for it and have some space to store stuff, wait until you have a good volume and hold a yard/garage sale. 

Keep your eye out for especially valuable items.

Sell Old Tech and Music and More

• Other ways to earn money

Finally, if you have old CDs, DVDs, cell phones or just about anything lying around, there’s an app that will help you sell it. 

Check out decluttr for selling tech, games, music and movies in whatever format. If there is an easier way to make some quick money getting rid of stuff you definitely do not need anymore, I don’t know what it is.

Also check out letgo, offerup and Mercari apps.

Get started on that downsizing project, clean out old drawers and make money while you clear the old crap out of your life. 

Final Thoughts

Ok, there you have it, 5 easy and fun ways to make quick money. 

Get in the habit of figuring out ways to monetize as much of your life as possible. 

If you like to take pictures anyway, why not get paid to do so. Among other things it will push you to become a better photographer. 

You probably like to eat at restaurants. Paying more attention and writing a brief review is going to be fun and will likely enhance the experience. 

As for downsizing and getting rid of stuff that is useless to you but still has value for someone else–what could be more fun, profitable and ultimately rewarding as you see your home and life come greater under control?

Enjoy.