Increase Your Travel Fund With These 9 Proven Side Hustles

Featured / Keith Seymour / Leave a comment
Photo by Garrhet Sampson on Unsplash

We’ve all been there- wanting to do something that we just can’t quite afford yet. We want to take that road trip, book that plane ticket, and make those memories with the family before they are launched out into the world. Should you rack up the credit card for that family vacation? We will address that in another blog post but the short answer is, no. This is why we highly recommend using the motivation for a trip to earn some extra money on the side. 

First, it may be important to establish what a “side hustle” is. According to an expert, “a side hustle is simply anything you do to earn money outside of a traditional job.”  Since we were teenagers (we are high school sweethearts), we always had some kind of side hustle to fund different goals. Some have paid well for the time put in and some haven’t. All have been a learning experience that we can share with you now! 

Second, this is not an exhaustive tutorial on each but rather a quick summary and explanation of them. Here’s a list of 9 battle proven side hustles we have used over the years to earn extra income to go toward our debt snowball or family adventure goals: 

ONE- Sell unwanted items on Facebook yard sale groups or Craigslist.org.

Take a look around your house. Do you have toys your kids won’t miss? Do you have clothes you don’t wear anymore? What about bicycles or coolers? Jewelry or purses? Do these suggestions sound random to you? Guess what?! We’ve sold all these items and more on craigslist or facebook yard sale groups. Don’t know where to start? Search your town and yard sale on facebook and see what groups pop up. Be sure to follow all the guidelines in the group and be wise about meeting up to sell the item (meet in a public place that is well lit, etc.).

TWO: Retail Arbitrage

Never heard of it? Neither had we until we stumbled across an article about a success story of turning retail arbitrage as a side hustle into multi-million dollar business.  What is it? In a nutshell, a retail store (such as Walmart, Target, etc.) sells a product (either online or in-store) for a certain price. You purchase that product and sell it for a higher price yourself to a different market (typically using eBay or Amazon FBA) and pocket the profit. Want to get paid to shop? This one’s for you! 

THREE: Sell “Free” items. 

No, we’re not talking about stealing stuff and selling it! If you didn’t know yet, there is a “free” section of Craigslist.org. People post items for free. You pick them up and sell them. Simple, right? Yes, there are often reasons why the items are free but if you check it frequently enough, you’ll see some people don’t want to put the effort into selling a valuable item but also don’t want to throw it away. Here’s an article that goes more in depth with it. 

FOUR: “Flip” items from garage sales/Craigslist/Flea markets 

This is similar to number 3 but you buy items for cheap (as opposed to getting them for free) and then sell them for higher. Our best flip? A high end road bike frame we paid $10 for sold on eBay for $250! Believe it or not, this has been one of the most profitable side hustles on the list over the years. Mainly because of our experience with and knowledge of bicycles. 

FIVE: Make items to sell on Ebay.com or Etsy.com

Can you make bracelets, jewelry, scarves, paintings or anything else cool that others may want to buy? Welcome to a world where you can sell online with no money to start! Set up an Etsy account or eBay account to start selling today. Although eBay usually takes a 10% fee, it’s often worth it to broaden your customer base worldwide. Keith has sold many of his vintage motorbikes and parts (seymourcycleworks.com) through eBay and has had great experiences on each sale. 

SIX: Grow Instagram theme page accounts. 

This takes a bit more patience and skill but in a nutshell, you start and grow an Instagram account in a certain niche (i.e. miniature schnauzers). Next, you grow it by sharing other people’s pictures (giving them credit) and in essence become a “content curator.” From here, you can set up a drop shipping website, sell the account to someone else, and/or sell “shoutouts” (advertisements) to companies/individuals in that niche. Why Instagram? It’s the highest engaging social media platform currently! For example, Keith has been able to take his hobby business of building early 1900s motorbikes to the next level by growing the Instagram account within a specific niche.

SEVEN: Provide a service to local people. 

Mowing grass, raking leaves, organizing and cleaning a house, removing snow, and helping someone move are all examples of ways you can make some side money from folks that live near you. What is a special skill that someone would pay you for? We have even made money by selling things for other people!

EIGHT: Buy a “bulk lot” on eBay and sell individually.

There are tons of niches for this from baseball cards to legos to pocket knives. What can you buy in bulk and sell individually? This can also work from garage sale finds as well and it’s what Frank Fritz from American Pickers calls “Bundling” or in some cases, “Mega Bundling.” 

NINE: Sell a service like writing, web design, graphic design, etc. on Fiverr.com.  

We hesitated to add this one to the list because we haven’t personally made money from this site but we have hired many people on this site for small tasks. The premise of the site is that you can usually buy a service for $5 (or a “fiver”). Don’t worry, not everything costs $5 but prices vary based on skill and reviews. There are some people who have been able to turn this gig full time. Hey, we even used fiverr.com for our Seymour Family Adventures logo on our Social Media channels! 

There you have it– 9 side hustles we’ve benefited from. We could spend a blog post on each of them telling about the experiences, deals, and people we’ve encountered as a result. Overwhelmed by so many to choose from? We recommend picking the one that you will start right away! After all, you can’t steer a ship that’s not moving! 

We’d love to hear from you in the comments! Which would you benefit from learning more about in a future post? Are there any that didn’t make our list but should have? 

Why we don’t want you to read this blog.

/ Keith Seymour / Leave a comment

There we were on our on our first 6,000 mile road trip with our two sons (5 & 3 years old at the time) near the scenic views of Glacier National Park. We had moved their car seats to the back row of the mini van the day before to allow some family that lived nearby to ride with us through the park. Due to the closer proximity to each other, the boys started to get into a small tiff that quickly led to an all out war that could be heard from the front seat. I was driving, but by a quick glance to my left, I could tell that my petite and typically soft-spoken wife was starting to turn into her own version of the Incredible Hulk. We tried to calm the boys down verbally from the front seat all the way to the back row with no success. My wife then unbuckled her seat belt (we know, never a good idea – but desperate times), leaned over her seat, and yelled to all of our surprise, “Mommy is VERY DANGEROUS RIGHT NOW!”

What she meant to say is that the boys’ behavior was putting mommy in a dangerous situation by unbuckling her seatbelt to address the tiff. Needless to say, the boys straightened up in fear and we all were able to laugh it off afterwards.

This is my point in sharing this with you: this was not a picture perfect part of our trip and neither are a lot of other parts of our family vacations. We are always able to look back and laugh or share a “can you believe that happened” after we have calmed down a bit, but family adventures have their ups and downs. No one ever posts family pictures of blow out diapers or vomit stains on your shirt. You rarely see on social media the moments of frustration, temper tantrums, and tears that can come along with traveling with young children. Trust me, we can share a plethora of stories of gross experiences, frustrations, and short-comings as parents just like anyone else. Often our smiles in scenic places typically happened shortly after or before some moment of craziness that we remember but rarely anyone else sees.

When Caroline and I were talking about starting a family travel blog, we immediately agreed that we don’t want it to be about some “picture perfect” family that we know doesn’t exist. We get it- it’s easy to look at pictures of others on social media and want what they have or think they have it more together than us. We are the first to tell you that we are in process and learning day-by-day just like the next family.

Now, don’t get me wrong. We have been to some amazing places and have had some awesome experiences that we will love sharing with you. Just please don’t read this blog seeking some unrealistic picturesque family to idolize or compare yours to. By the way, in case you are a bit concerned, we don’t have plans to post pictures of vomit or blow out diapers. It’s just that we’re committed to being authentic and genuine with you all so you know we’re still human.

Here’s what you can expect from our blog:

  • Practical tips on traveling with young kids.
  • Our favorite places and travel routes we recommend.
  • Ways to prepare your family for travel months before you leave.
  • Side hustles to earn money for travel.
  • Tips on saving money and being wise financially while traveling.

So, there you have it. We are committed to being us and sharing the good, bad, and the ugly that’s associated with it. We would love to hear from YOU in the comments which topics you want covered in the future.