Eight ways to earn extra with smart sharing

Even if money is not the most important thing in life, many probably wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to fill their pockets with a few extra euros every month. Especially if this income does not require long overtime in the office. Additional income potential lies in most of the things we have but don’t always use and even in our hobbies. After rationally evaluating the possibilities of sharing them, we can add a tangible sum to our finances or at least reduce our expenses.

Sharing economy ideas have become particularly popular around the world since the last financial crisis, when people started looking for cheaper ways to spend on housing, clothes, holidays and leisure. An even greater stimulus for collective consumption has been the proliferation of social networks, where members can communicate, view each other’s profiles and discover mutual friends. Email, which unites supporters of collective consumption, works on the same principle. sites on the Internet – registered people can post their offers and communicate directly with potential «customers». These communities are growing rapidly, and it seems that ideas of collective consumption will become increasingly entrenched in our daily lives. Here are some tips you can use to successfully replenish your portfolio.

Rent empty houses

If you have at least one guest room at home, you can also offer it to tourists coming to the city, obviously for a fee. Guests looking to swap a hotel stay for a cozy home can easily be found by registering on one of the most popular home-sharing platforms, Airbnb. Residents of more than 190 countries offer their homes for short-term rent here, and those who want to visit Lithuania can choose accommodation from more than 800 offers. In most cases, the price of accommodation, from a small room in the city center to a country house, will be lower than that of a hotel in various corners of the world. However, if you feel shy about opening the door of your house to a stranger, inform your friends of the possibility of temporarily staying in your house or farmhouse for a small fee. Maybe they are just looking for the right place to celebrate a relative’s anniversary in the summer and would be happy to take advantage of your offer?

«Recruit» the corners of the house that you don’t use

If regular house guests aren’t your thing, consider «occupying» an uninhabited or otherwise unused area of ​​your property. Maybe the neighbors are complaining that they don’t have enough space to safely store the children’s bicycles and that the storage room you have in the condominium is currently not being used? Do you live in the city center and have private parking, but don’t drive yourself? After evaluating your property, you will probably be surprised that part of it remains completely unused. However, you will probably easily find among your acquaintances people who currently do not have space for a car, sports equipment or other items. Although at the moment in Lithuania there are no websites created specifically for those who want to share the area of ​​​​private properties, it is possible to create a community of like-minded people on the Facebook social page or tell this idea to your friends.

Share the garden’s bounty

Organically grown fruits and vegetables are becoming increasingly valuable in cities, but they are not always available in grocery stores. Additionally, products marked with the «Eko» label are generally more expensive than other products. If you grow fruits and vegetables in your backyard or community garden, but don’t consume everything yourself, consider sharing the harvest with friends or neighbors. Feel free to agree on a symbolic payment that would at least partially compensate for your work in cultivating these goods. In Lithuania we don’t have a social network for gardeners yet, but you can also use traditional communication methods: hang an announcement on the stairwell of an apartment building or write an SMS message to your friends.

Get rid of your boring clothes

With the start of the new season we are in a hurry to update our wardrobe. But what to do if there is no more space in the wardrobe for new purchases and you no longer like the jacket you bought last year, even if you haven’t worn it much? The solution is simple: pay attention Go through your wardrobe, select clothes you haven’t worn in over a year and sell them. That’s how you get it back at least a small part of the money, which you can later use for new purchases or save. You can sell unworn clothes in so-called blue shops or use websites like vintagespecialized in the sale of clothes no longer worn. Interestingly, in a survey of users of this page, as many as 40 percent admitted to wearing a fifth or less of all their clothes and only 10 percent. she said she wore everything in her closet.

Lending things – for a reward

Selling old clothes has already become a common thing in Lithuania, especially among young people and mothers with small children, but not everyone decides to rent small items. However, if you have a rarely used musical instrument, camera, bicycle, dinghy, or other valuable item, why not «put it to use»? The rented object for you will «earn» at least a few tens of euros, and for your customer the rental operation can save money, since you will not have to buy a rarely used object. Furthermore, in this way you will help promote the idea of ​​responsible consumption. For this purpose it is possible to use the Dalinusi.lt item rental platform created by Lithuanians, which brings together more than 8 thousand of them. members. To use the sharing platform, users must register and verify their identity to ensure the security of the rental transaction. If you still feel insecure about leaving things in the hands of strangers, first try renting something yourself sometime – this way you will gain trust in the community and feel safer.

Use car seats

You will probably agree that a passenger in a five-seater car is expensive. So, if you use your vehicle every day to go to work or university, find passengers who travel the same route every day. And, of course, share the travel costs. By convincing a friend or neighbor to use their car less often and travel together, you will also help reduce traffic jams and pollution in the city. Don’t forget to fill the free space in the car when you go on long trips. You can easily find travelers going in the same direction in various Facebook groups.

Use your hobbies

We all have hobbies that we enjoy after work or on weekends. This could be cooking, knitting, making Christmas cards or decorations, repairing cars or learning languages. After evaluating how your skill can benefit those around you, try to find ways to profit from it. Maybe you can teach English to your relatives’ children? Or when your neighbor’s computer breaks, can you easily fix it? Don’t be afraid of your unique ability to post among friends or on social networks and you may discover an additional source of small income.

Share the cost of dinner

According to research, Lithuanians spend most of their income on food. However, the food category is also the most flexible and has the most room for cost optimization. To save money, try to swap dinner with friends at a restaurant for home as often as possible. Cooking dinner together will not only have a lot of fun, but it will also save you more than half the amount you were planning to spend at a restaurant. And if you regularly prepare dinners for friends, from now on offer them not only to cook together, but also to share the cost of food. After all, you also pay the restaurant bill together! Having a bigger food budget will also allow you and your friends to improvise more and try dishes whose ingredients have until now been too expensive for you. Sharing of food expenses is also offered by emails created by Lithuanians. Plate Culture is a platform that allows you to find and book paid dinners with local people in different countries.