This article may contain tips that are no longer active. Check out these additional resources for more ways to pay off debt!
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Becoming a homeowner for the first time is bittersweet. You finally have your own home, but the weight of a mortgage loan can seem overwhelming.
We have some ways to help pay off your mortgage without getting a second job:
1. Make payments twice a month and pay off your loan quicker.
You can save tens of thousands of dollars by making bi-weekly mortgage payments. Essentially, one additional mortgage payment is made if you choose to go this route.
Since you are reducing the amount of the balance quicker, you also reduce the amount of interest charged over the life of the loan. You are avoiding the accrued interest on the principal that you are prepaying. Therefore paying down your principal at an accelerated rate.
Check with your lender to see if this is an option they offer!
2. Install ShopTracker and SavvyConnect to earn money just having the apps on your phone.
There are so many apps out there that pay you monthly just for keeping their app on your phone.
- ShopTracker pays you $3/month to monitor your Amazon account.
- SavvyConnect pays $5/device each month it is installed.
The apps gather data on what times of day you are accessing apps or how long you visit certain sites.
3. Save up to $500 a year when you redeem grocery rebates from Ibotta.
Easily download Ibotta, go shopping as usual, take a photo of your receipt, and start getting money back on qualifying purchases!
Transfer your Ibotta earnings from PayPal to your checking account, and throw some money at your mortgage!
4. Start couponing and save money all year round.
Download the KCL app and let us do all the work for you! We match the best manufacturer and store coupons with sales and other promotions.
Learning how to combine coupons can save you up to $166/week on your grocery bill.
Every time you save money by using coupons, set aside the savings and put it toward a payment.
5. Become a proofreader at ProofreadAnywhere.com and get paid on average $17/hour.
Do you have an eye for spelling and grammatical errors? Get on Proofreadanywhere.com to take a free online class to see if it’s your thing.
It’s possible for anyone to do this job, even if you don’t have a college degree! All you need is a knack for catching errors and the right training (that the website provides).
6. Save 12-15% when you use discounted gift cards from Gift Card Granny on stuff you’re already planning to buy.
Get a gift card for a discounted price, and save cash instantly.
You can find discounted gift cards for clothing, gas, travel, food, and more with huge savings. For example:
- Gap: Value $50, you pay $42.48 (15.04% savings)
- Chili’s: Value $50, you pay $41.45 (17.1% savings)
- Cabela’s: Value $50, you pay $45.00 (10% savings)
Throw the money you saved into your mortgage payoff fund!
8. If you have a blog or are social media savvy, sign up with MyLikes to share sponsored tweets, or get paid per click.
More followers = more clicks = more cash.
Seems simple, right? If you sign up with a site like MyLikes, you browse their library of socially viral content to then add to your personal site. When your followers click on the content, you get paid.
Sometimes you get paid $0.10 per click, and sometimes you can get paid $0.28 per click. From there, the more followers or clicks you get, the more money you can make!
9. Drive for Lyft or Uber on the weekends and earn up to $18/hour.
The more you drive, the more you make.
Lyft drivers make on average $18/hour with additional compensation (cash bonus average is $482, commission sharing is $80, and tips on average around $781).
Uber drivers make on average $15/hour with additional compensation (cash bonus on average $1,811, stock bonus $250, commission sharing $6,239, and tips $870).
10. Make $20-$60/hour for 20-60 minutes of work for Online Verdict.
Attorneys use Online Verdict to get feedback about cases from people like you. You can do this from the comfort of your own home and make good money.
11. Sell household items you no longer need or use on LetGo or OfferUp.
These apps are free and so easy to use. Sell any household items or clothing on either app, and people in your area will be able to search and buy what interests them.
It’s a simple and easy way to get junk out of your house, as well as make some money to put towards a payment!
12. Sign up with TaskRabbit and start getting paid $20-$25/hour for running errands and completing tasks.
Some of the tasks include handyman jobs, cleaning, delivery, moving, furniture assembly, or being a personal assistant. This is something you can easily do on the weekends to make some extra cash.
For example, on average, you can make $20-25/hour grocery shopping and delivering the groceries.
RELATED: 5 Ways to Get Paid to Grocery Shop
13. Sell original photos on Foap and make $5 each time one is downloaded.
Foap lets you upload your original photos to their marketplace. Every time someone buys your pictures, you get $5, and it can be sold an unlimited amount of times.
14. Sell old books or college textbooks with BookScouter and make $1,000 per month.
Find used college textbooks at garage sales or on Craigslist, and sell them to make some extra (super legit) cash. I know a guy who makes $12K per year doing this and it’s legit!
15. Start dog walking or dog sitting with Rover or DogVacay.
Become a part-time dog walker or dog sitter and make on average $1,000/month. The more time you can dedicate and the more dogs you watch, the more money you can save to put toward an extra mortgage payment!
16. Earn money as a Mystery Shopper.
This is a real thing! You act like a typical customer shopping, but you have a certain objective or task you need to do.
Most do this as a part-time gig, and you can expect to make a minimum of $10/assignment or $50 plus for larger assignments.
RELATED: Can You Really Get Paid for Mystery Shopping?
17. Ditch your cable service to save $100/month and go app-based.
There are so many alternatives out there now that you can drop your satellite TV service and save some serious cash.
- Netflix: $7.99/month
- Hulu: $7.99/month
- Sling TV: $20/month
- Amazon Video: Included in your $99/year Amazon Prime Membership, or $8.99/month just for Amazon Video
- HBO Now: $14.99/month
- CBS All Access: $5.99/month
- DirecTV Now: $35/month
18. Share Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix subscriptions with family or friends.
Easily share these accounts with family members or friends and save each month! I promise it’s legal and smart!
19. Spend your tax refund on an extra house payment.
Even if you can’t devote 100% of your tax refund to make a payment, try to at least put 50% toward that loan. Doing this once a year can take a big chunk out of the balance you owe.
20. Let BillCutterz negotiate your bills.
BillCutterz contacts your service providers and negotiates your monthly bills.
If they are able to get a lower rate, you split the savings with them for one year, and after that, the difference is yours to keep.
21. Make up to $200/year when you install a Digital Reflection device.
Get paid for searching the internet. If you don’t mind having a company analyze your internet habits, you can get paid just for doing what you normally do.
You get paid each month you keep the program installed on your phone. Sounds easy enough.
22. Earn $50/month by spending 5-10 minutes listening to aspiring musicians or reviewing fashion items with Slice the Pie.
That’s right! It’s as simple as listening to new songs, watching commercials, or looking at fashion items before they are released to the public. Write some reviews of what you think, and get paid!
23. Deliver packages for Amazon Flex and earn $18-$25/hour.
Deliver Amazon Now packages whenever you have free time. You use your own car and choose which hours you are available.
RELATED: 14 Ways to Earn Money on Amazon
24. Help name a company with NamingForce or SquadHelp and get paid.
Small businesses cannot always afford to hire big name marketing companies to brand for them.
NamingForce or SquadHelp are websites that conduct naming contests to which you can submit your suggestions, and the best name can get paid anywhere from $50-$500.
25. Make an extra $200/month testing website through TryMyUI and other testing companies.
While at home, you can be making some extra money to pay off your mortgage loan.
Check out 6 companies that will pay $200 per month to test websites.
26. Request lower annual fees on your credit cards.
Companies won’t outright offer you a lower rate, but you can ask for them to give you a lower interest rate.
Most of the time, the companies will not want to lose their loyal customers. Research shows that more than half of all customers who request a lower interest rate on a credit card receive it.
If you call and speak to a representative who will not give you a lower rate, politely ask to speak to a supervisor, and mention you are thinking of leaving the company for a competitor that has lower interest rates. Often, this will work.
27. Get cash back with Ebates.
Earn cash back for shopping online with Ebates.
On average, you get 4-10% cash back plus a $10 sign-on bonus gift card when you create a new account.
UP NEXT: 12 Ways to Side-Hustle Yourself Out of the 9-5 Grind
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