MONEY MAKING
25 side hustles you could pick up in 2025 to make thousands extra without leaving your sofa
One side hustle could see you earn £500,000
FANCY earning some extra cash in 2025? You could really boost your wallet with one of these easy side hustles.
Whether you are saving for that dream holiday, building up a deposit for your first home or simply looking to boost your monthly income, these side hustles can help you pocket some serious cash.
1
From opening your own bakery to doing your neighbour’s ironing we’ve found 25 side hustles to earn £1,000s in 2025 – many without leaving the comfort of your own home.
Rent out a room - £4,680 a year
With an 89% rise in lodgers between 2021 and 2024, renting out a room could net you £90 a week.
If you have a spare bedroom, consider renting it out to a lodger through platforms like SpareRoom or OpenRent.
Under the government’s Rent a Room Scheme, you can earn up to £7,500 a year tax-free as long as it's in your own home.
Read more on Money
Make sure the space is furnished and comfortable to attract long-term tenants.
Rent out your car - £7,800 a year
Car-sharing apps like Hiyacar, Turo or Getaround let you rent out your car when you don’t need it.
Hiyacar even installs a free keyless entry box, simplifying the rental process.
By listing your car and setting availability, you could earn up to £650 a month.
Most read in Business
Rent out your driveway - £320 a year
If you live near an airport, train station or stadium, you could make a healthy income from renting out your driveway or parking space.
JustPark, ParkLet, Your Parking Space and Park On My Drive will all list your parking space or driveway so other drivers can pay to park there.
How much you can charge will depend on where you live and what is nearby that could increase demand for parking.
But you could earn up to £4,000 a year, according to JustPark – although the average is £320 a year.
Open your home to international students - £13,000 a year
Foreign students studying in the UK are always looking for places to stay.
You can provide it if you have a spare room with a bed, wardrobe and desk and are prepared to provide meals.
Many language schools pay host families up to £250 a week, according to English UK, the national association of English language centres.
This income also falls under the Rent a Room Scheme, offering tax-free earnings up to £7,500 a year.
Pet sitting - £3,120 a year
Animal lovers can make a healthy income from looking after other people’s pets when they are away.
How much you will make will depend on where you are in the country and whether you take pets into your home or look after them in your own home, but you can expect to earn around £20 to £30 a day, according to Yoopies.co.uk.
So, looking after a pet a couple of days a week could net you £3,120 a year.
Dog walking - £3,650 a year
An hour’s walk a day is not only good for your health, but it could also be good for your wallet too.
Take someone else’s dog with you and you could earn thousands of pounds a year.
The average hourly pay for a dog walker is just short of £10, according to Indeed.com.
Childcare – up to £28,000 a year
There’s a childcare shortage in the UK, step in to help and earn some extra cash at the same time.
Childminders earn an average £28,000 a year, but you’ll need to register with Ofsted or a childminder agency if the children will be under 8 and you’ll look after them for more than two hours a day.
Alternatively, you can earn around £10 an hour as a babysitter and, if you only look after children between 6pm and 2am you don’t have to register.
Cleaning - £4,500 a year
If you get satisfaction from cleaning up, you could set up a money-spinning cleaning side hustle.
Cleaners get paid between £10 and £20 an hour, according to checkatrade.com.
Simply place a card in your local shop, or post on your local Facebook group to find clients.
Two mornings a week could net you over £4,000 a year.
Set up an ironing business – £2,340 a year
Happy to sort out your neighbour’s creases? You can typically charge £12 - £18 an hour to iron clothes for people.
A few hours a week could net you thousands of pounds over a year.
You could expand your business, and your earnings, and offer a full laundry service too.
Open an at-home bakery – £12,000 a year
Love to bake? Consider selling what you make to earn some extra cash.
You’ll need to get a food hygiene certificate and possibly take an online food hygiene course.
Bakers can earn £1,000 a month selling their cakes, breads and treats, according to Materials Market.
Sell your crafts – £35,000 a year
If you have a talent for making things you could turn it into a valuable side hustle selling your products on sites such as Etsy.
Jewellery, furniture and personalised gifts are the most popular products.
The average Etsy business makes £35,000 a year, according to Sale Samurai.
Become a virtual assistant - £5,000 a year
More and more businesses and sole traders are employing virtual assistants.
You can work from anywhere and help them with all sorts from admin to travel bookings and diary management and phone calls.
The average hourly salary for a virtual assistant is £12.44, according to Indeed.com.
Working 16 hours a week you could earn over £5,000 a year.
Create an e-course – £500,000
Online learning is incredibly popular, and you can profit from it by teaching an online course.
Simply make a video teaching a skill from how to play a guitar to coding.
You can then load your video onto a site such as Udemy or Skillshare. Udemy’s most successful teachers have earned up to £500,000.
Tutoring - £80 an hour
If you have a particular skill, you could earn money teaching it to others, whether that’s over video calls or in your own home.
If could be anything from piano lessons to maths.
Complete a DBS check to reassure prospective clients and start advertising.
Depending on your qualifications – teachers can charge more than mere mortals – Engage Education estimate you could earn up to £80 an hour.
Sell your produce - £600 a month
Got a green thumb? You could turn it into a side hustle by selling your produce.
Whether it’s fruit and veg or plant cuttings there is money to be made.
Lovethegarden.com estimate you could make as much as £600 a month from February to October from selling plants.
Become a gardener - £60 an hour
Take your love of gardening further and you could earn around £60 an hour by taking on basic gardening tasks for your neighbour.
Taking surveys - £200 a year
One way to earn hundreds of pounds without leaving the comfort of your own home is by filling out online surveys.
You can make around £200 a year in cash and vouchers from online sites such as iSay, Swagbucks, YouGov and Y Live.
Review websites and apps – up to £20 per job
Get paid to test websites and apps through sites such as UserTesting or TestingTime.
You can earn £8 to £20 for testing a site, which usually takes under half an hour.
Mystery shopping – up to £40 a job
Indulge your inner critic and make money at the same time by becoming a mystery shopper.
Companies will pay you to visit cafes, restaurants and shops then report back on your customer experience.
You may not even need to leave your home as some mystery shoppers are tasked with calling stores to assess their customer service. Simply sign up to sites such as Clickworker, iShopFor Ipsos or Serve Legal.
Serve Legal pays up to £40 a visit plus free drinks and travel costs for young people who will test if pubs and restaurants are serving alcohol to minors.
Get paid to watch videos – Anything from 40p to £20
Sites such as Swagbucks, InBoxPounds and Slicethepie will pay you to watch videos, listen to music and answer survey questions.
The payments are small, but it can add up if you dedicate some time to it.
You may also get access to some great films and TV too.
For example, InboxPounds has previously offered to pay you £1.50 to sign up for a free trial for Paramount+ and Prime Video.
Sell return pallets - £30 - £1,000 per pallet
We’ve all returned something to a shop at some time or another.
But did you realise that if it can’t be resold online stores will pile it onto a pallet with other returned stock and sell off the whole pallet.
You could make money from buying the pallet then selling off everything on it.
Sites such as William George, BStock and Marthill sell returns from big retailers including John Lewis and Amazon.
How much you’ll make will depend on what you pay for the pallet and the value of the goods you find on it.
One Sun reader bought a bundle for £200 and received goods worth over £800.
Sell your photos – up to £200 per pic
Taking photos and selling them to picture agencies like Alamy, Picfair or EyeEm can be a lucrative side hustle.
Once you’ve uploaded an image, it could be sold over and over again, earning you money each and every time with no further effort from you.
Alamy sells images for between £15 and £400, giving 50% to the photographer, or 20% if you sell them through their Stockimo app.
Profit from abandoned buildings – up to £10,000 per property
Report empty homes to YouSpotProperty and you could earn 1% of the sale price up to a maximum £10,000.
You’ll initially receive a £20 voucher, but if the company then manages to buy and sell the property, you get a much bigger payday.
To be eligible, the property must be privately owned, not up for sale and not have any recent planning applications.
Signs a property is abandoned include overgrown gardens, broken windows and doors and rubbish piling up.
Report potential store locations – up to £22,500
You can also make money from reporting potential store locations to retailers including Aldi and Lidl.
Check their websites for details of cities where they want to open stores, then, if you see a suitable location, let them know.
Lidl and Aldi pay a finder’s fee of either 1.5% of the total freehold purchase price or 10% of the first year’s rent for leaseholds.
On a £1.5million site purchase, that would be £22,500.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Become a football ref – up to £55 a game
Get some fresh air and earn a few quid by becoming a referee for the Football Association.
Anyone over 14 can sign up. You need to complete a short training course and then you can earn up to £55 a game.
Do I need to pay tax on my side hustle income?
MANY people feeling strapped for cash are boosting their bank balance with a side hustle.
The good news is, there are plenty of simple ways to earn some additional income - but you need to know the rules.
When you're employed the company you work for takes the tax from your earnings and pays HMRC so you don't have to.
But anyone earning extra cash, for example from selling things online or dog walking, may have to do it themselves.
Stephen Moor, head of employment at law firm Ashfords, said: "Caution should be taken if you're earning an additional income, as this is likely to be taxable.
"The side hustle could be treated as taxable trading income, which can include providing services or selling products."
You can make a gross income of up to £1,000 a year tax-free via the trading allowance, but over this and you’ll usually need to pay tax.
Stephen added: "You need to register for a self-assessment at HMRC to ensure you are paying the correct amount of tax.
"The applicable tax bands and the amount of tax you need to pay will depend on your income."
If you fail to file a tax return you could end up with a surprise bill from HMRC later on asking you to pay the tax you owe - plus extra fees on top.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
Plus, you can join our Facebook group to share your tips and stories
Topics