More Ways to Bring In Cash
I've blogged about ways to earn extra cash before- here's some ideas.
Pick your own fruit somewhere, package it in appropriate amounts for a quick/yummy dessert, attach copies of the recipe and peddle them in the neighborhood. A friend tells me her kids have done that rather successfully, and she suggests you go about 5:30-6 pm for best results
Blitz everybody you know with an email/flyer offering to wash their windows for a set price/window. If a husband/wife or mom/older child can work together on this, it is "fun" and doesn't take too long. Take into account storm windows, need for ladder, etc., but a good set of extension pole, squeegie (sp?), bucket, etc. could be a small investment for a big payback. Of course, this is harder in these days when everybody is strapped for cash.
Look for a freecycle program in your area- This is really an organization to keep stuff out of landfills and help out the community, but it can be a way to bring in cash if you have repair skills. We inherited three broken riding lawn mowers,old ones that were badly broken. It would cost us more to fix them than we wanted to spend and we have no skills in that area. We put them up on Freecycle, and three different people took them, and were able to repair them. It would have been fine with me if they repaired them and then sold them on Craig's List. People get rid of all kinds of things on Freecycle just to have somebody else come carry it away. Maybe you could use Freecycle as a way to find goods or supplies you can spruce up and resell, or maybe you could save your monthly storage rental fees by giving away all that stuff.
I've mentioned e-bates. You get five dollars for signing up. You also get bonuses for referring people. I just got fifty dollars from my membership.
Swagbucks remains my favorite source of free Amazon gift cards.
Friends of mine tell me that they used to have a big bake sale once a year in front a store owned by a friend. All they sold were pies, whole pies. They made three different kinds, baked them up in assembly line style, and made enough each year to buy all their homeschooling supplies for the year. Now, it depends on your area and how friendly (or not) they are about this sort of thing, but it's something to think about if you live in the right place.
When I lived in New Mexico, one of my neighbors would make tamales every once in a while. She would walk door to door collecting orders, and then she would make the tamales and bring them back while they were still hot. We paid on delivery. It seems to me that every area seems to have its own niche food item. Where we are now, its pumpkin rolls. People sell pumpkin rolls out of their kitchens around Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's not precisely legal, so I have never sold them (I do buy, however), but for these, the inspector either looks the other way or can't be everywhere at once.
When my mother worked full time and was in her fifties, she paid the stay at home mom next door to cook dinner for her. She bought the ingredients, and then her neighbor (who had two small children) would cook one larger meal, feed her family from part of it, and send over a dinner for two for my parents. The neighbor's payment was mostly in groceries. It was worth it to my mother, who hated to cook, to have somebody else handle meal prep, cooking, and clean up, and it was worth it to the woman next door to have somebody else pay for her groceries.
If you have access to an old farm house or a garden that has been around a while, you can dig up plants (lilac bushes, for example), pot them up in free five gallon buckets or heavy duty garbage bags (the buckets from a bakery), and take them to the local farmer's market to sell.
All these things are only going to get harder as finances become tighter. Independent enterprise is frowned on in regulatory circles.
There are some ideas here that are more or less useful- depending on where you live. For instance, I will never find a soul interested in renting my driveway for parking, but I have known people who live in a town near a major event who do.
Other sources of info you might find helpful:
Money Saving Moms
Common Sense with Money
Freesnatcher.com
Google Advisor- compares and finds the best interest rates for checking accounts, savings accounts, mortgages, and CDs.
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4 Responses to “More Ways to Bring In Cash”
July 15th, 2011 at 6:58 am
If you live in an area that has medical studies you can get into one of those ‘studies’ and make some good money for your time. You also get free medical check ups.
My youngest son did one of these. He used vacation time (it required some over night stays and some walk in check up) and made more than $2000.00.
July 15th, 2011 at 10:35 am
Similar to Roxie’s suggestion, if you live near a university or college with a psychology department, grad students are often looking for people to participate in various kinds of studies. Sometimes you get paid cash, sometimes it’s gift cards or coupons.
There’s also an art studio near us that pays drawing-class models by the hour (clothed).
July 17th, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Thanks so much for these suggestions! Every little bit helps. My husband and I have rental properties. This year we have seen many of our tenants with some type of gardens. Never before have we seen so many do this. I guess it is a real sign of the times. I’m going to start looking at the medical studies ads more closely!
July 17th, 2011 at 9:15 pm
I’m getting a little boost from referrals I’ve sent to eBates, Orange savings at ING, and our local electricity utility for getting friends to sign up for variable pricing.
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