12 Creative Ways to Help You Pay Rent This Month (All Legit!)

We’ve all had times in our lives where we’ve had trouble making the rent. And the pandemic definitely hasn’t made that any easier. But two of the best ways to pay rent are to save some money on things you were going to buy anyway, or to make a little bit of extra cash doing something easy.

Check out the quick list below for 12 different ways you can help yourself make rent this month. There’s something for everyone!

1. Make $100 with This Debit Card

If you’re using a regular debit card for your everyday purchases, you’re leaving money on the table. (Actually, you’re passing on free money.)

A new debit card called Aspiration offers a number of ways to get serious cash, rewards, and benefits every time you swipe.

There’s a lot of stuff to love about the new Aspiration debit card. You’ll get up to 10% cash back on your purchases. You can choose your monthly fee based on how much you value the services Aspiration offers (even if you decide your fee is $0 per month). Aspiration will even pay you a $100 bonus when you spend $1,000 within 60 days of getting the card. How cool is that? An easy hundred bucks just for buying stuff you were going to buy anyway.

As a company, Aspiration does a lot of great things as well. A tree is planted every time you swipe the card. Aspiration doesn’t invest your money in any fossil-fuel or greenhouse gas-emitting projects, choosing environmentally friendly and responsible projects instead. And you’ll get unlimited fee-free, in-network ATM withdrawals. What’s not to love?

It’s pretty clear from their online reviews that Aspiration’s clients love the company as well. Jennifer Murphy wrote on Trustpilot that Aspiration offers “Great, simple straightforward banking. No surprise fees, easy to use mobile app and web site. Just what I was looking for.”

It literally takes about 5 minutes to sign up and start getting cash back to help you pay rent (ka-ching!).

2. Save $825 on Car Insurance

Major expenses can have major effects on your finances. The big cash outlays for things like rent and insurance can drain your bank account suddenly, without  warning. That’s why it’s important to keep these big expenses as, err, not as big as possible.

Car insurance is a frequent culprit in the overpricing category. Not only is it a big expense, but millions of people are paying too much for it. In other words, that big expense can get even bigger than it needs to be if you’re not careful.

A service called Gabi does a great job of helping you keep this expense as low as possible. Gabi aggregates and tells you all your options for car insurance in one easy report you can immediately access online. This site will pull up your current insurance information and automatically compare it with dozens of other insurance providers available in your state. You’ll be able to see if there’s a better deal elsewhere, or if you’re already paying as little as possible.

However, given that the average person saves about $825 using Gabi, we’re willing to bet that there’s a better car insurance deal waiting for you somewhere if you just take a few seconds to look. Click here to see if they can get you a better deal. The money you save can be put towards helping you pay rent.

See Also: 14 Ways to Get Paid to Test Products (from Home)

3. Make Money Watching Videos

It can be tough to monetize your relaxation time. After all, not many people are going to pay you to watch Netflix or browse the Web. And that’s okay with most people who don’t expect to be paid in their downtime anyway. But what if we told you there’s actually a way to get paid for messing around on the internet?

InboxDollars promises to do exactly that. This service offers you cash in exchange for watching short videos. You can watch trending news, cooking clips, sports videos, and more. Each day, there are usually between 24 and 30 new videos to watch in each category. So whether you’re looking for the latest tech content or a movie preview, InboxDollars probably has new content that will be right up your alley.

If you sign up today, you’ll even get a $5 welcome bonus. You can make anywhere from a few dollars a month to over $100 each month if you put the time in. It’s really all up to you. This can be a great way to help you pay rent.

Phyllis Ann, on the review site Trustpilot, said, “Inboxdollars is the #1 Go To Site for earning extra money on the side! Inboxdollars is the easiest using platform that i have ever been signed up with and just in 3 short months i have made almost $350.00!”

Read our full InboxDollars review to learn more.

4. Save $587 by Cutting Expenses on Autopilot

With all the subscriptions and monthly fees available these days, it’s easy to start bleeding money each month without realizing it. All it takes is a few software-as-a-service subscriptions and unnecessary cable packages, and pretty soon, you can be paying thousands of dollars per year in unneeded expenses.

And it can be really tough to keep track of each of your monthly subscriptions and manually cancel them when you don’t need them anymore. A service called Rocket Money will cancel the services you don’t use for you, and can save you hundreds of dollars per year.

Rocket Money will analyze your monthly payments and suggest ways to cut your monthly expenses. And with your permission, it will also contact your utility and monthly service providers (like cell phone and cable companies) and negotiate with them on your behalf. They can save you hundreds of dollars just by finding a discount or two on your phone or TV package.

If, and only if, Rocket Money saves you money, will the company charge you a portion of what you save. So, quite literally, you’re never out any money. At worst, you’ll break even! And Rocket Money is getting top marks for their excellent customer service. Check out what Jenniffer had to say about the company at Trustpilot:

“Just wanted to say thank you for being a great company that shows me exactly where all my subscriptions are, in one place. With your help, our family has saved $587/year on unnecessary subscriptions. To be honest, I really didn’t understand how Rocket Money could help me until we decided to save for a very large home purchase, and wanted to know where we could cut back unnecessarily. Thank you!”

It only takes about a miniature to sign up for Rocket Money. The money you save can be used to help you pay rent.

Read our full Rocket Money review to learn more.

5. Monetize Your Opinion

We  all have opinions. And most of us like sharing them. So why not get paid to do just that? Branded Surveys pays you to fill out consumer and opinion surveys that can take only a few minutes to complete. You just follow their super-simple sign up process and respond to the surveys you’re eligible for based on your demographic profile.

Some people will be eligible for more surveys than others, but almost everyone should be able to find at least a couple of surveys each day that they can fill out. While you won’t get rich doing only this, Branded Surveys can be a fantastic way to make a few extra dollars each day. And those extra dollars can really add up!

Users love Branded Surveys. Tati More reports that, “They pay within 2 days I can make $100 a month if I really try. You can make extra money every 2 weeks if you do 12 surveys.”

If you sign up today, you’ll even get a $1.00 welcome bonus, which is really nice since it’s basically free money.

There’s a ton of competition out there amongst paid survey sites, and you’ll need to be really careful about scams that promise the moon and are gone almost as soon as they appear. That’s why we like Branded Surveys so much. They’ve been around for a long time and always pay what they promise to pay.

Check out our full Branded Surveys review to learn more.

See Also: Branded Surveys Review: A Survey Site to Make Extra Cash

6. Deliver Stuff in Your Spare Time

Some people don’t want to sit in front of their computer to make an extra dollar. If you’re like them, you’d rather get out and about to earn your money to help pay rent. Well, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Postmates is a service that delivers groceries, drinks, and even office supplies to users of its app. And they’re always looking for delivery people to help those items get from Point A to Point B.

In most areas you’ll need a car to cover the distance between the store and the client. But that’s not always the case. In certain densely populated cities like New York, all you’ll need is a bicycle to make it from the grocery store to the client’s home. And if you do it this way, you’ll get some exercise in as well!

You can earn up to $27 per hour making deliveries for Postmates. And, given the current difficulties with the pandemic, you can make contactless deliveries to your clients to reduce the risk to them and you. Sign up for Postmates right here.

Read our full Postmates review to learn more.

7. Scan Grocery Receipts and Get Paid

Getting rewarded for the stuff you were going to buy anyway can be a great way to increase the amount of money you have coming in. After all, why choose to buy things the old-fashioned way when you can get cash back for free?

While there are a ton of apps and services that promise to get you cash back, our favorite is an app called Fetch. Fetch lets you scan and upload your grocery receipts to become eligible for instant electronic gift cards, including ones redeemable at Amazon. It’s basically free money.

You can even use the app with eReceipts, so don’t worry if you don’t have a physical receipt from the store you just shopped at. Fetch gives you points for receipts from several major retailers.

Customers love Fetch. A sample review from the Google Play Store reads, “Super easy and makes shopping a bit more fun!” We couldn’t agree more. Sign up for Fetch now. While it will not make you rich, it will certainly help you pay rent.

8. Get Paid When You Buy Wine or Beer

Okay, so cash back for everyday purchases is one thing. But what if you could get cash back for buying your favorite wine or beer? Well, you can. Ibotta is an app that will reward you with points for buying that latest varietal or craft beer. You can do it online or offline, in a number of different ways.

First, you can pay with the Ibotta mobile app. Second, you can link your store loyalty cards to the app so it can track your purchases at that store. Finally, you can scan and upload your receipt to Ibotta. You can choose whichever of these options is most convenient for you.

Ibotta will even alert you when there’s a cash back opportunity for you nearby by pushing an alert to your phone. There’s also a browser extension you can use to make sure you never miss getting some cash back when you make an online purchase. Or, you can just click on the links provided in the Ibotta app to qualify for free money.

And like we already mentioned, your cash back opportunities include beer and wine purchases! Sign up for Ibotta here. You can also check out our full Ibotta review to learn more.

See Also: 20+ Ways to Get Paid to Drive (Make Up to $25/hr)

9. Save Money When You Shop Online

Disclosure — Capital One Shopping compensates us when you get the Capital One Shopping extension using the links provided.

Saving money while shopping online can be surprisingly difficult. Despite all the great deals available online, it can be tough to actually find them amongst the deluge of alternatives. 

That’s where Capital One Shopping comes in. Capital One Shopping is a browser extension that will automatically search for better prices for the items in your online shopping cart. You can also use the browser extension directly by entering a search for a product right into it. The search will help you find incredible deals for the product you are looking for.

However you decide to use Capital One Shopping, you can be assured that you’ll save serious money on your online purchases. Kristin Sumpter, a user of Capital One Shopping, reports, “I have literally saved hundreds with Capital One Shopping (formerly Wikibuy)! I love this app! It just saved me $51 on a Shein order (for the third time).” Sign up for Capital One Shopping free here.

Read our full Capital One Shopping review to learn more.

10. Sell Your Old Phone for Cash

Who among us doesn’t have a phone graveyard in our closet? You might be surprised to learn that those old phones can earn you a small pile of cash.

Decluttr lets you scan the barcodes of physical media items you want to sell, or you can simply select your product and model number from amongst a list on the site, to see how much the service will pay you for your used electronics gear. The newer and more in-demand your product, the higher the amount they’ll offer.

Decluttr will even take care of the logistics of sending the phone to them. They’ll send you a shipping label and pay for shipping. When they get the item, they’ll check to make sure its condition matches  your description and release the money to you as quickly as possible. Sign up for Decluttr here.

Check out our full Decluttr review to learn more.

11. Deliver Food on Your Own Schedule

If you’re looking for a flexible gig that will allow you to earn extra money and choose your own hours, DoorDash might be the side hustle you’ve been looking for.

Similar to Postmates, but more focused on restaurant delivery, DoorDash lets you make up to $25 per hour delivering people’s takeout orders to their doorsteps. 

As of this writing, the realities of the pandemic have forced delivery drivers to take extra precautions. So the company is now offering contactless deliveries to keep its drivers and customers safe. Sign up for DoorDash now.

Read our full DoorDash review to learn more.

See Also: 30 Easy Ways to Make $1,000 Fast (Legally)

12. Pay Off Your Credit Card Debt Once and For All

Credit card debt can be a financial vampire, draining your ability to pay off debt and build a nest egg. That’s because extremely high interest can cut so deeply  into your budget that you wind up paying thousands of dollars in interest before you can even get started on paying off the principal.

A service called Tally lets you get out of that cycle, permanently. Tally saves the average user $5,300 in lifetime interest payments by consolidating all of your credit card debt into one line of credit. It can even improve your credit score by helping you reduce your credit utilization rate.

And all of the money you save on interest can go towards other necessary expenses, like rent payments. Sign up for Tally here.

Bonus: Lower Your Energy Bill & Save The Planet

Are you looking for ways to save your pocketbook and the planet? Arcadia might be the service for you. It takes only two minutes to set up an account, and sign-up is completely free. There are no fees, no contracts to sign, and you don’t need to change your utility services.

Arcadia works by monitoring the market for good deals on sustainable energy contracts and signs you up for them to save you money (and reduce your carbon footprint). The typical user saves 20% on their supply contracts!

Arcadia’s customers absolutely love it. Reviews are 93% positive on Trustpilot. For example, Ed Rich says, “I signed up a while ago and love the reports. I found that the setup with my electric company was easy.” Sign up for Arcadia now.

Final Thoughts

We’ve put together this list so that lots of people can get something useful from it to help them pay rent. Whether that means monetizing your downtime by watching videos,  taking on a side hustle Postmates, or getting cash back on your groceries, there’s something for everyone on here.

From all of us at The Modest Wallet, here’s hoping that you find one or two (or more) items on this list that make it just a little bit easier to pay rent this month. We’re rooting for you!

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