Best Ways to Spend $75

It doesn’t take much to spend $75 these days. But can you easily turn $75 into $100 or more? Here are some ideas to take $75 and turn it into more cash in your pocket with just a little time.

• Flip a Product

Go to flea markets or rummage sales and find items that you can sell online for more. Did you know that vintage Zippo lighters can sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars? Buy some used books on the cheap and then sell them for a markup on half.com. Garage sales are full of items that you can buy inexpensively and then sell for more on sites like ebay classifieds, craigslist, or ebay.

• Buy Gift Cards

Some stores, such as Sam’s Club, sell gift cards for under their retail value. You can purchase these cards and then sell them online at a gift-card selling site like cardpool.com.

• Refinish furniture

People often throw out old furniture with scratches or small broken parts. Get some sandpaper and some stain to refinish old furniture to make it look new again. Then you can sell it for a profit using online classified ads.

• Get a Camera and Sell Your Photos

With a digital camera and an eye for detail, you can sell photos online at stock photography sites like istockphoto or shutterstock. If you’re not a good photographer, get some books from the library and then go practice your skills.

• Hone Your Writing Skills

Go to the library or purchase some writing manuals, then sit at the computer and start typing. Write a book and sell it at the kindle store at amazon.com. Write some articles and start a hub at hubpages.com. Start a blog of your own. Sites like Yahoo Contributor Network, Textbroker.com, and iWriter.com pay you to write articles, product descriptions, or more.

• Invest it

Go to the library to read up on the basics of trading stocks and bonds. You don’t have to be rich to start investing in the stock market. Open an account at sharebuilder.com and invest your $75. Buying a stock on their automatic investment plan only costs $4.00 plus the price of the stock, and you can turn off automatic investing at any time. Don’t sell your stock until you’ve made a profit.

• Make Videos

It is possible to get an inexpensive digital video camera for $75, although higher-end models cost over $100. You can make videos and post them on YouTube where you can “monetize” them, or earn money by letting Google display ads with your video.

• Buy Gas

If you have a truck or van, gas up, drive around and pick up old appliances. You can either fix them up and re-sell them or take them to the scrap yard for some extra cash. If you only have a car, but you have a chainsaw and can use it, drive around looking for fallen trees or branches. Contact the homeowner and tell them you’ll cut up their refuse for a small fee. You can then use or sell the firewood you collect. Stick your lawnmower in the trunk and look for unkempt yards. Tell the homeowner you can more their grass for a fee. Alternatively, you can spend an afternoon picking up aluminum cans to take the recycling center.

• Try Network Marketing

Network marketing companies allow you to invest a small amount of money and then make money selling products or getting other people to sign up to sell it, too. Network marketing companies have been around for a long time and have helped some people successfully venture into the business world. Solavei is a telecommunications company that offers unlimited calling, text, and data phone plans for $49 a month. If you get your friends to sign up for the plan, as well, you make a little extra money. There are too many companies to mention, but do your research to find one that’s right for you.

• Sign Up for Cash-Back Reward Cards

Some debit and credit card companies offer cash back on the purchases you make. A Perkstreet card earns you 1% cash back if your balance is below $5000 or 2% cash back if you carry a balance of $5000 or more in your bank account. American Express’ Blue Cash Preferred Card offers 6% back on groceries and 3% back on gas purchases. The trick with the credit card offers, however, is to pay it off every month and never carry a balance over into the next month. This doesn’t make you a lot of money, but if you’re going to spend the money anyway, why not get a percentage of it back?