Anyone Out There Make Extra Money During the Holidays?

This piece from Consumer Reports on how to get a holiday job got me to thinking:

Does anyone out there take a part-time holiday job in order to earn a few extra bucks? Or maybe you don't work for someone else but have your own mini-business where you sell something or perform some service that brings in a bit more cash.

I don't do anything different during the holiday season, though I have been trying to get my wife to make and sell her homemade heating bags. We've given them as gifts and people love them -- but she doesn't want to be "bothered" with it. ;-)

My son will likely make some extra this year as he's now old enough to shovel driveways. It's pretty good money for a 12-year-old.

How about you? Do you make any extra money during the holidays?

Comments

[Jacob M]

I valet at a hotel every holiday season starting in October and work through January 2nd. I don't think you could find a better part time job. First off I stare at a computer screen all day at my regular job, so being able to be outside, moving around, meeting interesting people, and driving nice cars doesn't even seem like work. It is fun and a change of pace. Secondly, I usually work 6 to 8 hour shifts and usually leave with well over a hundred dollars (sometimes over 200) per shift in tips. Not to mention 4 dollars an hour regular pay. But I don't know any other job as stress free where you can do 30 seconds of work for someone and they give you 20 bucks. During the Oct. to Jan. time frame it is the best due to weddings, company christmas parties, football seaon for the local colleges, and people tipping better being in the holiday spirit and all. We have one woman who always comes in on Chrsitmas Eve and asks how many valets are working, and she will give each one a hundred dollar bill. Bartenders and waitresses may make good tips as well, but I would not want to go through the stress and working til 2 in the morning to make them.

[JEM]

During the holidays is when my little side job really picks up. I live a few miles from a very high end south florida neighborhood. I have a few families who use me as a babysitter a couple nights a month. They pay 15 bucks an hour and truly I enjoy the work. During the holidays there are so many parties and get togethers, so I am working non-stop!

[guinness416]

My husband works a shift a week bartending, he normally works three or four nights a week in the run up to xmas - christmas parties. It's tiring, but very good money.

[fivecentnickel.com]

What's a homemade heating bag?

[Emily C]

I know plenty of ladies around here who work as gift wrappers at various establishments to bring in a little extra money for holiday gifts.

[BillBill]

My wife is a photographer and loves Christmas since she can contact all her clients from the year and offer custom Christmas cards with pictures on them. As for me, my 8-5 (yeah right!) keeps me swamped as we try to get everything out by the end of the year. The bonus keeps me happy

[ARP]

I always thin out clothes and toys, etc and sell them on eBay... you might be suprised how much you can make AND you make open space for the new items that will come into your home as presents.

[Christopher]

I start to pick up extra cash after the holidays. All the little kids get guitars for christmas, then, of course, they need lessons!

[Miss M]

Last year my other half made great money setting up the christmas displays at local malls. He has been calling trying to get on the crew again this year but no luck. Malls must be cutting back and lots of people in need of the work.

[Tarah]

It's Medicare's "open season" for the drug plans and our drug plan is the cheapest one on the market right now. I can't sign people up for it until November 15th, but people are knocking down my door already to sign up ahead of time. The way I'm earning extra money is by working the extra business.

[FMF]

Nickel --

It's a corn-filled (non-popping corn) "pillow" that you can put in the microwave and heat up. It's good for sore backs or simply to put in bed on a cold night.

[Ben C]

I was lucky this year and was able to extend a former full-time contracting gig into a part-time job at night. I got a new full-time job at another company but left on good terms with management at the old company. I had casually mentioned to my previous manager that if they needed more work done, I could help. She emailed me a week after I left and asked if I could help out reducing their bug count (it's a software dev company). So now I'm working 10-15 hours a week at night at the same hourly rate. This translates to an extra $1000-$3000 a month depending on how much I choose to work. And my she even decided to extend my contract until February of next year, so I'll definitely be socking away some dough into the ole emergency fund/fun fund.

I'm hoping I can do something like this every year, although it's funny now that I'm out of debt I'm pulling in even more money. I wish I had this part-time contracting job last year when I was eliminating my CC debt. Oh well, now is the season of plenty so it's time to get all ant-like and store up some reserves.

[Shannon]

I work at a local costume store (not one of the creepy fly-by-night places) right as the Halloween rush starts, and I usually stay through Christmas.

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[Ladam8518]

I do taxes fo H&R Block, so I don't make extra money during the holidays, I make it when the bills come due in the following months. The downside is spending most of my Oct, Nov, and Dec in unpaid training (more training = better commission %). So my part time job lasts for about 6 months, January is a down month. Last year was my first, and it raised me after taxes the equivalent of a 5% raise to my full time job. This year I moved up two certification levels and can handle much more complex returns than I did last year.

I could probably make more working on my own, but working for a franchised company means I don't have to worry about paying for any training, setting up a customer base, or what happens when a client lies and the IRS comes after the preparer.