Gettin' More MONEY [Archive] - Simple Living Forums

fidgiegirl

4-6-12, 10:47pm

Inspired by Joyous_5's recent inquiry about debt, and the ideas that came out of it for increasing income, I thought it would be fun to think of all the ways we could get more money. Nothing is too small, or too wild, for this list. It doesn't matter if it takes a lot of time or a little. Throw it out there! Let's see how many we can think of. I'll start with a few:

1. Petsitting
2. Mid-day dog walks
3. eBay extra crap laying around the house
4. Babysit someone's kid while they go to the movies
5. Rip the old insulation out of someone's attic (I did this. Yuck. But I got money for it and it wasn't hard.)
6. Start a blog
7. Deliver newspapers
8. Make and sell a craft on Etsy
9. Make and sell cake pops for neighborhood birthday parties
10. If you have an appropriate space at your disposal, host baby or wedding showers. The guests would pay you to do all the set up and clean up! They can just come and fête!
11. Rent out a spare room (air bnb (http://www.airbnb.com/)?)
12. Rent out your garage
13. Rent out your little-used tools or canoes or bikes or whatever on some of those person-to-person rental sites (Zilok (http://us.zilok.com/), SnapGoods (http://snapgoods.com/), or Rentalic (http://www.rentalic.com/first-visit))
What else? Like, how many variations on petsitting can we think of, or babysitting? How many mutations of online sales? How many opportunities to sell writing or other non-tangible knowledge?

Unleash the creativity, people!!!!!

P.S. Keep the numbering going so we know how many ideas we think up.
P.P.S. Let's avoid getting into analyzing the feasibility of the ideas. Let them flow!!!

fidgiegirl

4-6-12, 11:23pm

I can't stop!

14. Grow hops and sell them to microbrewers

Rogar

4-6-12, 11:33pm

I have a friend who used to dumpster dive and then sell the items in garage sales. He had four or so sales a year. I helped with one and he cleared over a thousand dollars. He also would take metal scrap to be recycled. Not cans but things like aluminum screen frames and old wiring. He definitely had it down to a science and knew the good neighborhoods. It eventually became too messy. My guess is that it didn't pay much more than dog walking per hour, but a decent thing for the environment.

I have always thought that there would be a market for someone willing to invest a little in a decent camera, a few props, and cheap lighting equipment to do a travelling pet portrait business.

fidgiegirl

4-6-12, 11:41pm

So! Adding Rogar's ideas:

15. Garage sales from dumpster finds
16. Scrap metal recycling from around town
17. Traveling pet portrait studio

ApatheticNoMore

4-7-12, 12:31am

5. Rip the old insulation out of someone's attic (I did this. Yuck. But I got money for it and it wasn't hard).

well make sure it isn't abestos (and isn't a lot of old insulation?), you really need a hazmat suit to safely remove that. Really.

Recycle glass, plastic, and cans for which you get money back (CRV in CA). Nah, don't dumpster dive for it, there's already enough people in that market that most dumpsters are probably pertty bare (they come weekly before the trash trucks).

iris lily

4-7-12, 12:44am

19? nude modeling (for university art classes--get your mind our of the gutter!)--my neighbor did this
20 pull weeds and trim bushes and do yard maintenance
21 mow grass
22 grow perennial plants for sale
23 haul stuff away for people
23 drive seniors to their appointments and grocery shopping
24 give cooking classes in your home
25 sell your old jewelry and unused sterling
26 if you can paint or draw, do portraits of people's houses

Zoebird

4-7-12, 1:37am

#19 -- figure modeling is what it is called, which you can do nude or not. i enjoy this, and have earned about $200 since being in NZ. It's a nice way to spend a saturday -- naked, reading, people draw you. :D I hold still well. LOL

27. in home child care

28. play ground monitoring -- i pick a day/time to take a group of similar-aged kids to the park. parents pack a snack. it's $15 per kid and 3 hrs long (enough time to see a movie). this is proving to be very popular. it requires two adults (one to manage potty and one to watch the kids. i manage potty, because people get worked up about men doing that.).

29. meal prep, baking, etc for neighbors -- i did this for a while. I would make a menu and send it out to a group of people, and they would say "I want thursday!" or "I want Wednesday" and they would pay for the meal. I just was making MORE of what I normally made -- and I sent out the email on Thursday, response had to be in by Saturday, and I would do shopping on Sunday. Then on that day, I would make the meal in the afternoon, then they would come and pick it up. Usually, you just said how much you needed, and so on. It worked great. One of my friends who is a Personal Trainer does this for her clients.

30. make and sell compost

31. gardening services

32. handy-man services

33. pet sitting -- did we say that one already?

34. plant sitting/house sitting/security while a person is away.

lhamo

4-7-12, 2:59am

35. Do people's laundry/dishes for them -- I am always amazed by how many people dread doing the laundry/dishes. I find it easy, and kind of relaxing. This could be combined with dog walking/child care for an extra added charge.

36. Holiday drop off child care. Offer this service on the weekends leading up to Christmas. Parents get a weekend afternoon to go out and shop while you watch/entertain kids.

37. Personal grocery shopper. They send you their list and you do their shopping for them, for a reasonable fee (say $10?). Good if you have an older child who can push a second cart around the store with you so you keep their stuff separate from yours.

38. Language tutoring - great extra income if you are fluent in a second language

39. Music lessons -- need a certain level of talent with music and teaching skills

40. Organization/decluttering assistance -- great service to offer those who are dealing with downsizing/aging parents who need help with this

41. Tax preparation -- another thing I am always stunned that people find so difficult. We have VERY complicated taxes due to our expat status, but I've always managed to do them myself. I would seriously consider this as a side income (or maybe a full income, should we ever decide to return to the US permanently

42. Editing services for resumes, cover letters, etc.

43. Garage/estate sale management services -- you run the sale for someone else, and get a flat rate or a cut of the profits

44. Pet washing

45. Car washing

46. Fill in care for the growing number of urban backyard farms (rabbits, chickens, goats, bees, etc.)

47. Raise animals for profit (selling raw milk, eggs, honey, meat, composted waste, etc)

48. Turn your yard into an urban farm and sell the produce you don't eat yourself

49. Glean fruits from urban sources and make things to sell (jams, jellies, pies, etc.)

I'd better stop there -- this list is seriously making me want to quit my day job!

lhamo

flowerseverywhere

4-7-12, 9:02am

50. mending. You would be surprised at how many people can't sew a button on or do a hem
51. separate your perennial plants and sell them, at our annual yard sale a lot of people do this.
52. sewing/quilting lessons
53. baking and decorating cakes (check your state laws first)
54. find places to work during their busy times. It is not easy to work two jobs but for a few months most can bite the bullet. Delivering flowers during holidays, at an apple orchard in the fall, strawberry fields in the spring, malls from November to December, tax prep in the spring.
55. clean offices at night.
56. wallpaper for someone.
57. A service where you sit in someone's house and wait for delivery or repair people so they don't have to take a whole morning or day off.
58. taking in ironing
59. hook up with a busy realtor to sit at open houses
60. hook up with a builder to clean new houses when they are finished building them to get them ready for showing or sale

for some of these ideas I would get insurance and bonding for my own protection.

fidgiegirl

4-7-12, 10:15am

Already up to 60! Keep 'em comin'! I have seen some on the list that I never would have thought of.

AmeliaJane

4-7-12, 10:17am

When I was tight on money, I would

61. Do online surveys
62. Do online tasks through the Mechanical Turk service at Amazon.

Both of these are very low "per-hour" but easy to squeeze in for a few minutes here or there and pile up.

Also, I heard of one incredibly clever woman, a musician, who combined a lot of these ideas into one--"Helper for a Day." I think she charged $100 and you got her services for one 8-hour day for pretty much anything the two of you agreed on. Her professional background was PR and graphic/web design, so she would do projects like that if you had a small business or for your non-profit, but she would also walk dogs, wait for repair people, clean houses, etc etc. She had done a million different things and combined them into this job. This wasn't intended to be full-time, but something flexible to earn cash between musical gigs.

63. General "helper."

Lainey

4-7-12, 10:36am

64. swim lessons
65. sell makeup - Mary Kay, etc.

razz

4-7-12, 10:44am

It is really important to accept that it is the nickels and dimes that make a difference when added up together.
Will these meet the criteria?
66. Offer landscaping assistance for a day rate - I would love to have a helper just for a day to get the yard ready in spring and fall
67. Painting exterior or interior of homes
68. Doing paintings or artistic renditions of a family's pets or home

fidgiegirl

4-7-12, 11:56am

Will these meet the criteria?

They sure will! No idea is too big or small or silly or hard or whatever! :)

fidgiegirl

4-7-12, 11:59am

69. Poop scooping

Life_is_Simple

4-7-12, 12:19pm

Apparently I need LHAMO to come over and do these:

35. Do people's laundry/dishes for them
37. Personal grocery shopper
40. Organization/decluttering assistance
41. Tax preparation
45. Car washing

And from FLOWERSEVERYWHERE, I occasionally need the following

50. mending. You would be surprised at how many people can't sew a button on or do a hem
51. separate your perennial plants and sell them, at our annual yard sale a lot of people do this.
57. A service where you sit in someone's house and wait for delivery or repair people so they don't have to take a whole morning or day off.

Let me know when you guys can come over :laff::thankyou:

fidgiegirl

4-7-12, 12:36pm

LOL, Life_Is_Simple! :)

Ok, here's some more:

70. Petsitting, but focused on exotics like snakes or lizards or parrots (someone - I think Tradd? - suggested this in a previous thread on the boards)
71. Renting out a milk glass collection, or other vintage glassware, for weddings - for the centerpieces, arrangements, candy dishes, etc. A person would need the storage space on hand, but I love this one because once the collection is assembled, it's pretty much just a matter of keeping the word out there and setting up times to drop off/pick up the goods, and collecting the money!
72. A come-to-you dog grooming service, even if it's just bathing the person's dog in their home (wouldn't have to be a "mobile salon" which I think are awesome . . . )
73. Candy bar box in the break room at work. Obviously only at some workplaces! But you could set it up in a box or drawer, have a money box and the honor system, and stock with candy acquired at a price that would let you make a profit.
74. Make t-shirt/memory quilts

loosechickens

4-7-12, 3:38pm

ApatheticNoMore

4-7-12, 3:57pm

61. Sign up to Amazon's MTurk. The little tasks only pay pennies each but are fun to do and keep your mind active. I like to do the university research ones especially. Those pennies add up.

Yea being a research subject (not just through MTurk) is probably a good one.

The thing about most sugestions is I do a lot of them for barter and so on anyway. 40 hours a week is already more than enough time spent for formal legal tender money grubbing (except for a few more serious self employment ideas I've pondered).

pinkytoe

4-7-12, 4:08pm

I sometimes peruse the domestic and part-time section of craigslist for ideas. Someone was looking specifically for a garden sitter while they went on vacation - water, fertilize, pick produce, etc. When you put that much work in to your garden, it would be good to find someone to take care of it who when you have to leave for a while.

pinkytoe

4-7-12, 4:10pm

Oh I just remembered one - signing up for university research studies. Sometimes as simple as answering a survey or the one I just did where I got $200 for a dairy nutritional study. Even got free medical tests with that one.

loosechickens

4-7-12, 4:57pm

funny.....I sent in my Amazon MTurk #61 one right after I read #60, but I sent it in from my iPhone, and it must have taken forever to arrive, since a whole bunch came in, bringing the totals up, and even others mentioning MTurk before mine managed to make it through cyberspace.....I didn't realize it could take so long for a post to get through, since I usually do them on my laptop and they show up immediately.....interesting. (on laptop now)

fidgiegirl

4-7-12, 5:11pm

To summarize:

75. Be a garden-sitter while someone is away
76. Be a university research subject

Joyous_5

4-7-12, 5:17pm

62. Create "Grief Kits," which people could give instead of food to grieving individuals
63. Create "50 Things to do in your Neighborhood"--brochures, reviews of local places, info about lesser known or off the beaten path places, etc.
64. Comfort Jars--put slips of paper with inspiring quotes, nice compliments etc., fill with dried rose buds or lilacs (nice smell) and could include little treats. Make great gifts (Hoping to sell 62 and 64 in my Etsy shop!)
65. Create pet and/or people memorials in collage or paint--nice to have and nice to give to people who've lost someone they love
66. Set up cut flower/fresh herb/baked goods table near the road to sell to neighbors
67. Handmade/Recycled stationary/cards and/or postcards. Could even offer to mail these to people with nice messages or poetry for extra fee
68. Handmade journals/altered books (could be on a specific theme someone is interested in)
69. Recycled toys for kids--earth friendly and fun!
70. Host "green" baby showers--take care of the (recycled) registry for the new mom, organize the event and throw it with real plates/cutlery, plants, etc., all with a green theme
71. Art garden parties--someone with a gorgeous garden hosts a group of artists who strategically place their wares throughout the gardens/grounds--all for sale of course

Ok, I have to stop--I could do this all day! Thanks for the idea, FidgieGirl, this is fun!

ApatheticNoMore

4-7-12, 5:35pm

Donate blood plasma maybe? (blood donation tends to work best when it's donated for free - but some of the more involved stuff like plasma ...)

flowerseverywhere

4-7-12, 6:11pm

72. donate blood at the red cross, they have tons of give away promotions. I get coffee in January. This month it was a $5 gift certificate to the Friehofers outlet. I get things like t-shirts on a regular basis.
73. be a holiday helper. This is great for a single person, if your spouse works holidays, or you don't celebrate. You hire to work for a person by helping in the kitchen, serving the meal and cleaning up while everyone eats. You could clear the table and serve coffee after the meal and even serve dessert. The hostess would enjoy the meal too. You could clean the house the day before, and even shop for a meal and cook it in the persons home. I bet a lot of two working families would love this service.
74. learn to deal cards and offer your services at private parties. Show up dressed like an old western dealer and rustle up poker games. If you had a partner you could have the female dress up like a wild west lady and circulate, pick up empty glasses, serve hors d'ouvres. Wouldn't that be fun?
75. Swagbucks, one of those rewards sites where you earn gift cards. Someone introduced me to it here, you don't make much but it is something.

Lainey

4-7-12, 6:18pm

we went from #76 to #62 somehow?

jennipurrr

4-7-12, 6:26pm

Donate blood plasma maybe? (blood donation tends to work best when it's donated for free - but some of the more involved stuff like plasma ...)

Everything I had thought of was early on the list except this one, oh well! Everyone beat me to it.

Here you can sell plasma twice a week and I believe you get $30 per time. That is $240/mo. I sold my plasma a few times in college bc I had a friend who was strapped financially so I went along. It takes about 30-45 minutes depending on your body weight. They pull the blood out of you, spin out the plasma, then put the remainder of the blood back in. I always just brought a book along to study.

Also, I saw ebay stuff around the house...but you can scope out stuff at thrift/salvage stores specifically to resell. If I don't know what something is worth I will call my husband to look it up on the computer, or if you have a smart phone you can look it up right there in the store.

fidgiegirl

4-7-12, 6:51pm

Ok, by and adding jennipurrr's and ANM's suggestions as numbers, our little oopsie will be fixed. Must just be a function of the delay in cyberspace speeds, like Iris Lily said earlier in the thread).

91. eBay thrifted stuff
92. sell plasma

and another of my own (well, DH's idea :) )
93. Custom routed signs, you know, made with the router . . .

fidgiegirl

4-7-12, 6:57pm

Ok! Inspired by a post that came through my FB feed from Birchwood Café, who is buying rhubarb for $3 a pound:

94. Grow and sell rhubarb to area restaurants/bakeries.

fidgiegirl

4-7-12, 7:18pm

Another!

95. Along the lines of the candy bar sales at work - sell K Cups if your office uses a K Cup machine.

Zoebird

4-8-12, 6:37am

96. cook for others

my friend just started doing this. a lot of the ladies in her neighborhood have school-aged children, and they had to go back to work to make ends meet. The toughest thing for them is cooking and keeping their homes clean.

her friend was complaining that they never get to eat healthy food anymore, and that they blow a lot of their budget getting fast food, while groceries go to waste. She wishes that, like my firend, she could cook again.

my friend did her budget, and she realized that she could cook for this other family. She just had to double her normal recipe. And, she went to her friend and said "this is my menu for next week, would you be interested in having me just double it, and you pay me for food and a bit for labor? I promise it will cost less than fast food!" And her friend said yes, and then also traded some recipes, etc.

then word started to get out, and now she cooks for 10 families. She says she makes about $1300 per week doing this, and she's literally just cooking more of what she was already doing. And, she can buy in bulk, so it saves her money per person!

her business is small enough that she doesn't require a commercial kitchen.

she provides breakfasts (mini quiches, pancakes, waffles, yogurt/granola); lunches; and dinners. She also provides snacks and everyone gets a bowl of fruit for the week as well. She'll do "personal shopping" for a special fee (plus the cost of groceries).

everyone has to have hteir own monogrammed tupperware, which she sells. LOL

People are thrilled with this. They pay about $175 per week for a family of 4, which comes to $3 per meal -- and they get "snacks" as well (home made cookies, home made granola, home made crackers, home-made yogurt, etc).

She has also started doing some modest party planning -- providing food for small family-focused kids parties and the like.

It's really working well for her.

jennipurrr

4-10-12, 12:19pm

Ok here is one that is similar to rent a spare room, but different! If you live in an area that has major events you can rent out your house (or a room) for the event. If you rent your primary residence for less than 14 days a year, the IRS considers the income nontaxable. My neighbors did this for a big football game and got $2500 for one weekend. I have a friend who rents his house out for as many football weekends as possible (we have 7/year) and just stays in a cheap hotel 30 miles away and pockets the difference. I have heard of folks in other area's doing this also...I have friends who live in Augusta and have done this for the Masters...someone here considered it for the Kentucky Derby I believe...a friend of mine is thinking about doing it and she lives downtown in a major city.

In the past, a lot of people have been taken by companies who will arrange to find someone for a fee. I would suggest using craigslist, airbnb, or a website like VRBO.com

97. Rent out your house short term for a major event

fidgiegirl

4-10-12, 6:13pm

For anyone who is a licensed teacher (or I bet in some cases a bachelors degree alone would suffice)

98. Home bound tutor. I just saw a posting for 40 hours total, 5 a week, at $25.00 an hour. You'd have to watch job boards or get your resume out there to schools. Our district has trouble finding people to do tutoring and homebound services, and it pays well.

fidgiegirl

5-3-12, 11:54pm

Going over this thread again ... So fun! Can we think of 100?! We're super close ... C'mon .... 100 ...

rosarugosa

5-4-12, 6:00am

I can't remember if this one was mentioned already, but free money credit card offers. We'll be getting $175.00 this month from using a dormant card that we already have and using a new card for the first time. And the new card is a cash back rewards card with no annual fee, so we could end up using that one for most of our purchases. I know a lot of folks get a significant amount of money with these cash reward cards.

fidgiegirl

5-4-12, 10:20am

It wasn't!

99. Free $$ from credit card offers!!

Who's gonna get 100?!?!?!

Sissy

5-4-12, 5:21pm

64. Comfort Jars--put slips of paper with inspiring quotes, nice compliments etc., fill with dried rose buds or lilacs (nice smell) and could include little treats. Make great gifts (Hoping to sell 62 and 64 in my Etsy shop!)
!

Joyous would you please post you Etsy site?

Mrs-M

5-5-12, 7:09pm

General bicycle repair.

fidgiegirl

5-5-12, 7:50pm

http://planetsmilies.net/party-smiley-551.gif (http://planetsmilies.net)

MRS. M!!!!!! MRS. M WINS IT!!!!!

100. GENERAL BICYCLE REPAIR!!!!!!!!!

http://planetsmilies.net/party-smiley-551.gif (http://planetsmilies.net)

Mrs-M

5-6-12, 12:44am

I love it, Fidgiegirl!

As kids, it seemed someone or another's bicycle was always due for a fixin'. Lucky for us, there was a good neighbour who was always quick to assist.

Mrs-M

5-6-12, 2:07pm

What an inspiring this thread is for any kid/student looking for income-ideas! Brings a smile to my face just thinking about the associated résumé related to!

Maxamillion

5-6-12, 11:04pm

101: making jewelry to sell.
102: selling used books online, for instance, like on half.com
103: machine embroidery. It's costly to get started though (hundreds of dollars or more, depending on your setup) but I know someone who got into it and has done pretty good making money with it. She encouraged me to try it and I ended up buying a used embroidery machine off of ebay and do a bit of embroidery here and there to sell. I found some free digitizing software online (it also usually runs in the hundreds of dollars) and learned how to digitize so that I can make my own designs.
104: sell old toys online
105: set up and maintain aquariums in local businesses/doctor offices/therapists offices/etc.
106: computer maintenance (hard drive clean-up, defragging, virus scanning and removal, general troubleshooting, etc.--though I'm not sure what certificates or credentials you would need for that)