You know how you go to Target for one or two things and somehow you reason with yourself while you're there that you need 8-10 other things? Well, I don't just do that at Target...I do that at Starbucks with drinks for friends. I do it at Michaels with craft supplies. I do it online with Amazon (2-day shipping kills my bank account). I'm an over-spender — always have been, always will be (assuming therapy doesn't work).

So when I realized after this semester that I had experienced a new level of over-spending, I panicked just a bit. I'm not in debt or anything, just not setting enough monetary boundaries...and I need quite a few.

I knew I needed a plan to make up for my discrepancies, but I was running into speed bump after speed bump. My part-time job through my university doesn't offer many hours during the winter break seeing as most students aren't on campus. So making additional money that way wasn't an option. I considered finding a seasonal job but my parents moved halfway through the break to Oahu and asked me to join them for the remainder, plans I had agreed to months prior to now, so that option was out too.

I sat and thought to myself, what could I do a few hours a week, on my own time, that would help me to make just enough money to cover my losses? Uber crossed my mind but I just couldn't stomach the idea of strangers vomiting in my car. Someone suggested I drive for Postmates, and I grew fond of the idea.

For anyone unfamiliar, Postmates is an app where you can search for restaurants or convenience stores near you, order a driver to pick up specific items, and have it delivered at your convenience. Most people order food during rush hour when they can't be bothered to leave their houses or when they return home after a night of drinking and they really just need those McNuggets. You can even order groceries through the app!

You have the option to schedule shifts on your own time but they're mostly just for priority delivery (orders will come to those drivers first over others who didn't schedule) but drivers are under no obligation to work during time slots they sign up for. This seemed like a great arrangement for me, and I figured even if I only needed the service here and there, it was perfect.

So I signed up online, waited for my welcome bag to arrive in the mail with my prepaid card & heated lunch box, and I began!

The best thing about Postmates is that you can take someone with you, unlike Uber or other ride-sharing platforms. Seeing as you're just dropping food off, it's unlikely a person will care if one or two people complete their delivery, and a second person can oftentimes help cut down on time, keep you safe or just entertain you along the way. So grab a friend, significant other or sibling and start taking orders!

I'll give you the rundown on my first night. Around 3:30 PM, I left my apartment in Phoenix and drove to Tempe about 20 minutes away, where the majority of the hotspots are because of the ASU campus and surrounding residential areas.

I waited over an hour in a CVS parking lot before I got my first order at a Five Guys just down the street. I accepted the call, ordered the food at FG & used my prepaid card to pay. Once you receive the receipt for the order, you're instructed to take a photo of it, upload it and type in the total amount, which then charges the user's card and provides a way for the amount to be fact-checked. Then I hopped back in my car and drove about six miles away to deliver it. It was about a 45-minute process in total because of traffic, but I made $8 off of the delivery before I subtracted gas and parking costs (I had to pay $1.50 to park in front of Five Guys...thanks Tempe). I immediately received another call and progressed from Oreganos to Gordon Biersch to a bakery specializing in middle eastern treats.

Overall, I worked just short of 5 hours, and after tips and delivery fees were accumulated, I made $40. Now, some people might say..."um, $8/hour isn't even minimum wage in most states..." and most of the time I'd complain. But the work wasn't grueling by ANY means. The majority of time was spent driving, which isn't a particularly stressful task, and you have very little interaction with customers, another plus if you've ever worked in customer service and have experienced the horror that is the average consumer. My car has great gas mileage so even after those deductions I wasn't too bad off after one night.

For me, this is a great side gig to help me earn extra cash when I need it and make up for losses I didn't anticipate. The service is easy to use both as a driver and a user and I highly recommend it to anyone who could use a little change in their pocket but doesn't have the time commitment available for another job. Go forth!