How to Make Money on the Weekends Without Wasting Your Time

How to make more money on the weekends? Should you spend every second at work, or should you keep your work-life balance? Is it worth it?

Many of us want to achieve more financially. Because you can only earn so much on a job. How can you make more when you’re already hard, Monday-thru-Friday?

Often by the time you’re back from work, you already feel too tired to do anything. That’s why the weekend could be the solution to your financial stress.

Whether you’re looking for extra cash or a life-changing income, this guide will show you how to do it. No more surveys and delivery jobs, but real opportunities that are worth your time.

Why Make Money on the Weekends?

As for what to do exactly, it will depend on what you want to achieve. Are you looking to replace your job, diversify, or just make extra cash?

The first mistake people make is never asking this question. That’s why they read about countless income ideas but give up on them without even trying. You have to decide which goal matters to you the most.

The second mistake is focusing on time quantity, not quality. It’s trying to add more hours, rather than making the hours count. It’s working on weekends while underperforming on workweeks.

Make sure your workdays are already great before increasing your load. Then, work on whatever goal you choose:

A. Supplement Your Income

The easiest way to make money on weekends is using sources of extra cash. It’s faster than passive income and often pays better than active income.

These sources are profitable yet inconsistent. It’s not something you can do every day. But for weekend hustlers, it fits them like a glove.

Focus groups, app testing, and arbitrage would be in this category. For a few hours and no skills, you could bring a few extra $100 bills.

B. Create Multiple Sources of Income

What if that’s not enough for you? Some people make great money on their day jobs, but they live in constant stress. They want more income streams so that they don’t rely on a single one.

For others, it’s an opportunity to work less. Maybe you don’t want to work on weekends forever. You want to build passive income streams so that you have to work that much later.

You can achieve this either with the right job (more on this later) or most business models.

C. Replace Your Main Income Stream

Unfortunately, you may work on a job you hate to pay the bills. Or you do get paid well, but it’s not going anywhere. You wish you could have more time for yourself, work on meaningful projects, and retire early.

Right now, that may mean working seven days a week. But for how long? It depends on how well you work.

You can even do it today if you already have an emergency fund. You can do it either by starting a free business, working on your passion, or finding a better job.

3 Ways to Boost Your Income on the Weekends

Just because you have two days and not five, that doesn’t mean that time isn’t valuable. You can reach high dollars per hour if you use it wisely. Rather than grinding cheap surveys/VA tasks, get as many opportunities as possible.

If you believe that “there’s nothing better out there,” consider working less and searching more. Here are three examples:

#1 Consumer ‘Jobs’

Consumer jobs are those tasks that sellers are willing to pay their customers to do. And while it may feel like free money, companies are paying you for market data. Data that helps improve their product research and make more sales.

Tasks such as:

Of course, you need to belong to their relevant audience, whether it’s a location or owning branded products. There are groups with no requirements too, but the pay may not be worth it.

If you tried doing these every day, you wouldn’t see much success. Look at them as money rewards, not real income streams. Companies aren’t going to pay you a salary just for sharing your thoughts.

So how often should you do these? Guessed it: every weekend. That’s enough time to find new tasks.

#2 Intrinsic-Value Jobs

You can spend your weekends on low-paying jobs. Or you can something that contributes to your career.

People pay for college expecting to help their future. But what if instead, you got paid for learning? Not only do you get your paycheck, but also the practical knowledge of the business.

Some skills pay off forever because they have increasing market demand. So when you choose to switch jobs or start a business, you’re already prepared to do it. Those skills are:

The next time you find a job offer, don’t just look at the rates. If it makes you a more valuable worker, consider applying. They’re called intrinsic jobs because once you get those skills, they pay off forever.

You may wonder: If I’m learning, why would people hire me? Aren’t they looking for experts? Yes, but:

1. There’s a client for every skill level

2. You can build any skill by learning online for free

3. Once you get the first testimonials, more clients will start trusting you

#3 Swing Trading

While it sounds out of context, swing trading can effectively leverage the money you already have. Why make more money when you have thousands of dollars stored for no use?

Not every dollar has to come from hard work. Research some stocks or cryptocurrencies, make a test purchase and come back next weekend.

But wait, you can lose your money if done wrong. Here’s how to manage the risk:

Throughout the week, you can read some news about those assets. Next weekend, you choose whether to buy or sell. To avoid manipulation, you’ll need to learn how to spot fake news.

If you research well, the worse that can happen is:

1. Your portfolio devalues by ~50% tomorrow
2. Then it grows well past 100% after X months/years
3. You withdraw your profits

3 Income Streams to Work on the Weekends

What if you want to make more money? Then you’ll have to look for real income streams, both active and passive.

Many of these are easy to start and can make you money as soon as this week. You can use it to increase your income, or at least protect it if you lose your main job somehow.

#1 Remote-Jobs

There are two types of remote jobs:

Whether it’s freelancing or a real job, you just need to open your computer and work. If it’s the first type, you can earn more by working faster. If it’s the second one, you could multitask.

Why remote jobs? Because the Internet is one of the few ways to be at many places at the same time. We’re talking about jobs that don’t require much thinking:

Sure, none of these may be worth it individually. But how many forums can you moderate at the same time? How many people can you work for bookkeeping, customer service, or VA? Just keep applying until you have 5-10.

If these jobs look boring to you, it may be a fun challenge to see how many you can multitask, or how fast you can get it done.

You can even pay someone to do it, which is known as online arbitrage.

#2 Online Arbitrage

Money has more to do with finding market opportunities than actually working. If you can buy low and sell high, you can keep doing it for months until it stops working. And this is a passive business, so you can potentially flip hundreds of things.

Anything you can buy has arbitrage potential: garage sale items, freelancers, investment assets. It couldn’t be simpler:

1. Find where to source for cheaper
2. Find where to sell at average-high prices
3. Sell from your source and profit the difference.

To show you how it works, here’s an example for each asset class:

a. Product arbitrage/dropshipping

You browse on eBay and find a product selling for $6 ($12 on Amazon). Maybe you instead find it on a deals platform like Jumpsend, maybe a garage sale.

So you list it on Amazon for $10, and someone accepts the offer. Now that you have the customer’s address, you buy the $6 product from eBay and ship it to your client. Profit!

b. Service arbitrage/drop servicing

Let’s say you’re a top-notch freelancer. You know about work quality and get lots of clients. But you’ve found a guy on Fiverr doing the same gig for $10. 

Later, you get a client for $20, $50, $100 instead. You pass the briefing to the $10 freelancer and review his work once completed. You pay him $10, deliver the work to your client, and they pay you $20-$100.

For example, you can sell $100+ per book audition on ACX by hiring on Fiverr for $20.

c. Arbitrage trading

Assuming you’ve done your research, you’ve found investments that are “guaranteed” to profit after five years. This means that if you “lose” money in the short term, the long-term gains will cover your risk.

Meanwhile, you can buy-sell every week based on updates/news and hoping for a quick profit. Prices tend to lower on weekends, which is an opportunity to buy assets.

After a year, you could sell them for 20-100% above your initial investment.

#3 Semi-Passive Jobs

Who said low-income jobs are for losers? With a bit of creativity, you can get value for your time while getting paid for the job.

It’s easy to call them boring because you’re doing nothing most of the time. The question is, can you do what you’re told while using your time for something else?

Think of jobs such as dog walking, meal delivery, or housekeeping. Get some headphones, and you can now listen to podcasts, audio tutorials, learn languages, anything.

As a driver, for example, you can do the same. And while waiting for customers, you can work on side hustles from your phone/computer.

If it’s a passive job, it’s even easier:

None of these jobs require your attention most of the time. So you can use it for something else:

How Working on Weekends Could Replace Your Job

Maybe you don’t want to work on this job forever. You’d rather retire early or work on something else. At least, you want to stop relying on it financially.

The following ideas may need more time and money. But if you can execute them until successful, they’re more than enough to replace your job for life. Or if you prefer, you can keep working while these streams earn in the background.

#1 Promoting yourself

Let’s use some common sense: Why are you looking to work on weekends?

Is it because you lack the time? Have you maxed out your income on workdays? If so, we could say you’re proficient at your job.

That’s a sign that you should step up your game. You have two choices to increase your income:

a. The linear strategy: work more hours

b. The exponential strategy: raise your hourly rates

Time is more valuable than money. So if you don’t have enough time to work, it must be that you’re undercharging. Besides work quantity, your Results and Availability (supply & demand) dictate your price.

Of course, this logic only works on skill-driven, pay-for-work jobs. The point is: when your income plateaus, you should spend more time looking for new clients.

You’re already skilled. So it’s not that hard to find a better-paying job to replace your current one. Even introverts can make more money online.

#2 Ecommerce Businesses

With everything that happened in 2020, e-commerce has become more popular than ever before. More people buy online, which encourages sellers to launch more products, which attracts even more customers. You want to make sure people can find you on the Internet, whether you sell physical goods or digital products.

If you can create a successful online store, it can generate passive income for years. You could also grow and sell it later for even more money.

With platforms like Amazon or Shopify, it’s easier for beginners to gather clients. After you build enough history, you could then establish the brand with a website.

Some people have turned them into physical locations. Others keep them as side hustles. Either way, Internet businesses effective not just to make money, but more time.

#3 Working on your passion

It’s not easy to make money when you’re already giving it everything on a job. But if you start a side hustle around your passion, you’re more likely to stick to it.

However, passion can be the reason for both success and failure, depending on how you look at it. It leads to failure if you ignore the market and just do what you want. It leads to success when you find a balance between what others want and what you want.

It’s easier to understand a market you’re interested in. And while passion can motivate you to work long-term, all business ideas should be based on rigorous market research. In other words: what’s the most important feature for a client?

How Much Can You Earn on Weekends?

Almost automatically, you may assume you’ll earn less money on weekends than on workdays. It makes sense if you have fewer days and lower demand. But it’s only true if you keep doing the same.

What if instead of adding a few $100s per week, you wanted to double your income? Would it really make a difference to add two extra days? Or should you instead rework your strategy?

Here are three ways to do it.

#1 Increase your focus

Focus is the answer to a busy lifestyle. It ensures that you get more value for your time, rather than adding hours to your schedule. This allows you to double your income, work less, and have more time for the things you love.

Suppose you do 90% of your work in the first three hours of the day. Why work more five more hours for fewer results? You could instead start a side hustle or find better clients.

Even if you get paid per hour, the boss only cares about results at the end of the day. As soon as you finish your workload, you should work on something else. Don’t spend more time than necessary, especially on weekends.

#2 Long Term Thinking

If you want more sources of income or replace your job, you can’t keep thinking small. You can’t change your life when looking to get an extra $200 per week. You need to stop chasing money rewards and focus on lasting income streams.

You might choose to work for no reward at first, so you can later make money while you sleep. Or you could spend more time searching and applying for better jobs, rather than relying on just one.

When it comes to life-changing goals, only long-term projects ever pay off. It’s okay to look for a quick buck as long as you invest it into something bigger.

#3 Improve Your Skills

You can only do so much on weekends. To avoid getting stuck, you’ll have to increase the value of your time. That means upgrading your skills and charge what you believe your time is worth.

$10, $30, $100 per hour? Only you know. It’s better to stay coherent with your rates and have less work than grinding hours for pennies.

But how exactly do you earn more from skill improvement?

That’s perhaps the greatest benefit: as your skills improve, work is easier to complete. You reach a point where it no longer feels like work, but you’re getting paid more than before.

Don’t make the mistake of postponing work for the excuse of “skill training.” Learn from doing (working with others) rather than consuming content.

Don’t Underestimate Your Workdays!

When you look at where you are financial, your workdays probably have more to do with it than what you do on weekends. It’s not hard to earn more when using the right approach. You certainly don’t need to work 60h-80h a week, not even on weekends.

So if you’re going to work harder, do it the right way:

And more importantly:

Get more value from your time

Try new sources of income with more potential. But if you choose to do more of your main job, do this first:

a. Raise productivity on workdays

b. Negotiate higher rates

c. Find better clients

It’s easy to burn out if you do it wrong. But what if you do it right? You could have more income streams, more free time, and potentially quit the job you hate.