An easy way to make some extra money is to sell your extra stuff online. The best know place to do this is eBay. I’ve also had good luck selling books at Half.com. I buy all of my textbooks there that I can and then sell them at the end of the semester. I’ve occasionally had them sell for more than I originally paid. On the flip side sometimes I’m not able to sell them at all. You can also sell stuff through Craigslist but I’ve never tried that myself.
If you look around your house there is probably plenty of stuff that you are not using that you could sell. If you don’t have anything around the house you can still find stuff to sell. I’ve sold several items this year that I received free in the mail or retrieved from the trash. I didn’t make a lot of money off of them but given my meager income I considered it worth my time.
You can also buy stuff for the specific purpose of selling it online. You can find items at garage sales or even your local department stores. If you do this then you are basically running a business and you’ll need to report your income. That is more involved than I want to get but it might work for you. Next time you need some extra money just look around and see what you could sell.