Eight Side Hustle Ideas You Can Start This Month for Under $100
Most “start a side hustle” lists skip the part where you spend $600 on a camera, a course and a logo before anyone pays you a cent. The eight below don’t. Each one can be running inside a month with less than $100 out of pocket, and most of that budget goes on things you’d keep anyway. What they cost you instead is hours, so each idea says roughly how many and who it doesn’t suit.
Fees are the US figures on each platform’s own pages as of October 2026. They change, so check them again before you price anything.
Selling things you already have or can find cheap
Clothing resale on Vinted
Vinted charges sellers nothing in the US or the UK. The buyer pays a fee on top of the price, so a $25 jacket puts $25 in your account. That makes it the cheapest place to learn what sells: start with your own wardrobe, then add thrift-store finds once you know which brands move.
Startup cost is close to zero. A roll of poly mailers is about the only spend. The catch is time. Photographing, listing and answering “is this still available?” eats evenings, and the margin on a $6 thrift buy is thin until you get fast at it.
Books, games and small electronics on eBay
eBay gives you 250 free listings a month. When something sells it takes 13.6% of the total in most categories, plus 30 or 40 cents per order. On a $40 sale that’s about $5.84. Secondhand books, boxed video games and working older electronics are the classic starter stock, because they’re easy to ship and easy to price from sold listings.
If books are your thing, we’ve covered the secondhand book angle in more detail. Budget $50 for a first box from a library sale or estate sale and see what turns.
Prints or digital downloads on Etsy
An Etsy listing costs $0.20 and lasts four months. When it sells, Etsy takes 6.5% of the price plus shipping, and the payment processing fee is 3% plus $0.25. A $15 printable planner nets you a bit over $13.
Digital files are the under-$100 version, since there’s no stock and no postage. Physical prints work too if you already shoot or draw; posters.org is worth a look for what sells as wall art, and our Etsy guide walks through the shop setup. Expect slow months at first. Etsy search favors shops with sales history.
Selling time and a skill
Pet sitting and dog walking
Rover keeps 20% of each booking and you keep 80% (California’s fees differ). There’s nothing to buy beyond a decent leash, poop bags and treats. If you work from home or have flexible mornings, a couple of regular midday walks a week is one of the steadiest small earners around.
It doesn’t suit you if you can’t take a booking on short notice. Repeat clients come from being reliable on the boring days.
Online tutoring
Tutoring needs a laptop and a headset you probably own. The platforms take a real cut, so know it before you set a rate. Wyzant keeps 25% of what you bill, but nothing on students you bring yourself. Preply keeps your whole trial lesson with each new student, then takes 33% at first, dropping to 18% as your hours build up.
A common path is to start on a platform for the first few students and reviews, then move regulars to direct bookings where the platform rules allow it.
Tech help for neighbours and small offices
Setting up a printer, moving photos off an old phone, sorting out home Wi-Fi. Plenty of people will pay $40 an hour for someone patient. Print a hundred flyers for a local café board, post in your neighbourhood group, and you’re open. Total cost: maybe $20.
Platforms exist for this too, and we’ve looked at how Geeker works and at tech support as a side income. Local word of mouth tends to pay better per hour.
Building something small online
A one-page service site
A .com domain is about $10 to $12 for the first year at a no-markup registrar like Porkbun or Cloudflare. Pair it with a free static host and you have a page that says what you do, what it costs and how to book. That page is what turns a neighbourhood flyer into repeat work, and it’s a skill other small businesses will pay you to repeat for them.
If you can code a little, the app ideas on appcoding.com go further than a brochure page.
Templates on Gumroad
Spreadsheet budgets, wedding planners, invoice templates. You already made one for yourself, so polish it and sell it. Gumroad takes 10% plus $0.50 on sales through your own link, and 30% on sales it finds you through its Discover marketplace. That second number sounds steep, but a sale you’d never have found yourself is still found money.
The tax part, briefly
In the US, payment platforms only have to send you a 1099-K once you pass $20,000 and more than 200 transactions in a year. That threshold was restored by law in 2025. It doesn’t mean smaller amounts are tax-free. Side income is taxable whether or not a form shows up, so keep a simple log of sales and costs from day one. Our side hustle tax post covers the basics for US sellers.
Pick one idea, give it four weekends, and count the money and the hours. If the hourly number is ugly, switch. That’s the advantage of starting under $100: you can afford to be wrong twice.