15 Unconventional Ways to Pay Rent When The Bank Account is Low, Low, Low
Disclosure: We’re letting you know that this post contains sponsored links which The Smart Wallet receives compensation for, which may impact their order of appearance. This site doesn’t include all available offers.
When your funds are limited, what can you do?
Whether you have an agreement with your landlord on relaxing the rent rules a bit or not, it’s still the important payment to make. Take matters into your hands and worry less about rent when you can make some extra side cash.
We’ve rounded up some unconventional ways to help because the rent protection from the CARES act only lasts until July 25. Everyone can use a bit more money, and it’s better to have some fun while making it too!
1. Get Free Money Back on All Your Shopping Hauls
Check your pockets; check your purse. And keep receipts for your iPhone.
Just grab all your recent receipts from your coffee runs, grocery trips, restaurants, and gas station fill-ups, scan them into Fetch Rewards on iOS, and earn points for free money! Connect your email account, as well, to count DIGITAL receipts from Amazon, Instacart, and more.
Basically, snap a pic of your receipt from anywhere, and that’s it; you’ve got points for money. There’s no minimum spend, no need to select items manually, scan in any receipt from any store or gas station, and it’ll automatically reward you.
It’s free and easy to use and is a must-have iOS app for anyone who buys stuff!
2. Save Time (And Money) By Unsubbing From Marketing Emails
When the “unread” number in your email inbox is growing by the day, it’s time to wrangle it in.
There’s no doubt that our inboxes get slammed with a lot of marketing emails. And now, every corporation that we’ve ever given our emails to is expressing how they’re handling COVID-19.
Instead of wasting time unsubscribing one by one, just use Unroll.me, a free service designed to help clean your inbox by displaying all the email subscriptions you have in less than a minute.
You then have the following options to: Keep in Inbox, Unsubscribe, or Add to Rollup.
“Add to Rollup” is like a summary of the emails you might want to look at but don’t immediately have time for. Think of it as a daily, weekly, or monthly digest (you choose) of all the subscriptions you picked to be contained in one convenient, scrollable email (like a newsfeed).
It ignores all your personal emails and only looks at the commercial emails so save time and money (don’t be tempted by sales!) by getting rid of marketing emails.
3. Free Rewards Program Gives Out 7,000 Gift Cards Daily
There are a lot of survey programs out there, but none are as popular as Swagbucks, a free rewards program where you can earn free cash for your time and opinion. They’ve paid out over $885 million to their members already and they’ve been in business for 15 years.
Earn points for doing surveys, online shopping, uploading receipts, and playing fun games then redeem the points for free gift cards to Amazon and Walmart or choose PayPal cash.
New members can get a free $10 just for signing up, so join the other 10 million members already part of Swagbucks and start earning free rewards!
4. Work From Home: Earn $20 Per Hour to Start Teaching English To Kids Online
The past few months have been rough on Americans and their livelihoods. If you’ve been considering a side gig to supplement your primary income or need a job working from home, teach English online to kids ages 5-13!
EF Online (Education First) is a teaching platform helping to connect students in China and native English speakers for 20+ years with their global network of 600+ schools. You’ll experience a flexible schedule where you can work from home, earn up to $20/hr to start, with all lesson materials are provided. While teaching experience is preferred, it’s not required. Earn extra rewards the more you teach!
Here are the requirements:
- Must be a native English speaker living in the U.S.A with a Bachelor’s degree in any field
- By the start of your teacher’s contract term, you must earn and submit documentation of a 40 Hour TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification (or higher)
- Agree to an online background check (no cost to you)
- Be available to work during a set range of hours
- Have a solid wifi connection and headset
- And lastly, be passionate!
Classes are 25 minutes each and since EF Online encourages repeat classes, you might be teaching the same students regularly. In addition, parents can book you up to 6 months in advance leading to a more stable income.
If you enjoy interacting with kids, this is definitely a rewarding and flexible gig from home!
Note: The following U.S. states are excluded from this gig – CA, IN, MA, NH, NJ, NY, and IL.
Some of the sponsored links that appear on this page are from companies that offer investment advisory services. They compensate us; for details on our compensation arrangements, please click here.
