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BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – As of Thursday (June 9), the average price of gas in the capital area is $4.46 per gallon and considering the near daily bumper-to-bumper traffic jams on Baton Rouge’s roads, a number of locals are feeling the financial sting of the price spike.

So, what can a person who already works 40 hours a week do to earn extra money for gas? 

Some of the side hustles listed below may help locals meet their gas budget’s newly expanded needs. 

  • Join Upwork or Fiverr as a freelance artist

If you enjoy writing, graphic design, or have a nice speaking voice that can lend itself to voice over work, then join a site like Upwork or Fiverr. These sites are designed to easily direct people and companies who need voice artists for commercials, writers and/or editors for blogs, and graphic designers for various work with the very artists who can fulfill these roles for a reasonable fee.  

  • Help set up special events on nights, weekends

Louisiana has a number of large events like concerts, football games, and conventions that occur every week. Each event needs people to work behind the scenes and help set everything up. You can sign up to be one of those workers on weekends or evenings. You can find work through sites like Taskrabbit and through companies like Rhino Staging. 

  • Housesit or petsit for friends and neighbors

Get the word out to trustworthy friends and neighbors that you’re willing to house sit or pet sit and most will take you up on your offer the next time they take a vacation. Sites like Rover also come in handy if you don’t mind pet-sitting for a stranger.  

  • Sign up to become a background actor

Movies and television shows are filming all over Louisiana this summer. You can apply to be an extra or background actor in such productions. The only catch is that many shoots occur during the week and are typically 10-12 hours of work per day. So, if you already have a Monday-Friday full-time job, fitting in work as a background extra may only be doable on holidays and the rare weekend production. Click here for more on how to become an extra. 

  • Review books for a few extra bucks

If you enjoy reading, you can sign up to become a book reviewer. It won’t earn you thousands of dollars, but a few extra bucks here and there, such as $5-$60 per book. Click here for more information. 

As the U.S. reels from inflation, an increasing number of citizens are tapping into their creativity and leveraging side gigs like the ones listed above. 

According to one statistic, 400,000 new businesses were created this year and nearly 300,000 are likely side gigs, which means there are nearly 3.6 million new side hustles across the U.S. 

Click here for a longer list of possible side gigs.