Earn Extra Money for the Holidays

With the holidays fast approaching, you will need extra money to cover your holiday expenses - and avoid huge credit-card bills.

Here are some ways to earn some extra cash for the holidays.

Find some extra work

To earn extra money for the holidays, you may want to look for extra work. The last couple of months leading up to the holidays are the best times to have an extra job. These are the times when shops and stores are in need of some additional hands to support the rush of holiday shoppers.

To find additional work, visit shops and stores where you're planning to do your holiday shopping and ask if they need seasonal workers.

Aside from shops, there are also other businesses that are affected by the holiday rush. These businesses include caterers, restaurants, shipping companies, event planners and online stores.

Finding an extra job for the holidays is also a good opportunity to try doing a job that you may want to keep. To find more part-time jobs for the holidays and more, check out listings on Monster.com.

If you already have a job, working overtime at your own office is a good way to earn extra cash. Working during the holidays usually pays double, sometimes even triple.

Let your money work

Never underestimate the power of saving. Even $25 a week means you'll have $100 at the end of a month. If you make it $50, that means $200 dollars by the month's end.

Imagine how much more money you'll have if your savings earn interest. There are several money-market funds and online banks that offer rates of about 4 percent per year, plus easy access to your money. Do some research on savings accounts at Bankrate.com, and money-market funds at iMoneyNet.

Get extra money from your credit card

There are several credit cards that offer cash backs or rebates. These rebates add up months after your last big purchase. When shopping for a credit card, look for one that has a low annual fee.

A couple of techniques to earn rebates:

Make sure that your purchases qualify for cash backs.

Pay your bill in full before it's due. The reason behind this is that credit cards usually charge high interest rates (even if you've only carried your balance for couple of months) that eat up the rebates you've accumulated.

Adjust your tax withholding

Taxes are certainly not the best topics to be discussed with the holidays coming up. But actually, it could be a good source of extra cash. That is if you actually give the government extra money every payday and the government is not paying you interest. By adjusting your tax withholding, you can get huge tax refunds every year.

To adjust your tax withholding, fill out a new W-4 form and submit it to your employer. To help you figure out your adjustments, check out the withholding calculator designed by Kiplinger's Personal Finance.

Save money on shopping

Prepare your holiday shopping list early so you can prepare your budget. Having a fixed list of your shopping needs eliminates impulse spending and allows your budget to go as far as it can possibly go.

Prepare for next year

It's never too early to prepare for next year's holiday shopping. To have the cash for next year's shopping, experts recommend allotting about $50-$100 of your pay raise every month.

Have your savings deposited directly to an interest-bearing account or money-market fund so you won't get used to having extra cash and spend it on anything else. By the end of the year, you'll have over $1000 for gifts.