Ways To Make Extra Money

[kittensaver]

Here you go - - for hopefloats and anyone else who is interested.

www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/money-tips/28-ways-real-people-make-extra-income/ss-BBjs96F#image=1

How many of these have anyone here done?

Did it/they work for you?

Did you do them to make a money for some specific purpose (and then stop), or have you done any of them long-term?

[dannylion]

I've had a part-time job doing medical transcription at home for about 12 years. It started out as a favor to a friend to help her get caught up on some work and turned into a fairly painless way to add to my investments, so I just kept doing it.  Now that I'm retired, it gives me some structure to my day and probably keeps my brain from atrophying.   

I haven't tried any of the jobs in the article for pay.  I do tutor friends' kids in foreign languages if they ask, but I don't charge them for it. 

[The Captain]

When I first got out of college I used to babysit on weekends and Friday night. 

DH and I have both done some of the surveys but we're kinda out of that now.  The ROI on those is stupid low and our time is more valuable to us than $6-7 an hour.

Don't know what the babysitter demand is like in the new area.  Guess we'll find out soon.

[Angel!]

Some of those I've looked into in the past. Reselling items, I've never thought of legos, but always considered buying items in bulk & reselling individually. I've played around with apps, but frankly don't have the know-how to make my own.  I did at one point sign up to do drop-shipping, but didn't like the wholesaler & never really moved beyond that point.

Basically, I do a ton of research, play around a bit, & then quit when I realize I need to step up & make an actual financial investment to get going.  I am too chicken shit to potentially end up throwing money away because I took a risk that didn't pay off.  It is kind of funny that I look for ways to make money because I am broke, but then don't follow through because I am broke.

I have always thought it would be much smarter to become the wholesaler.  Have other people do all the work of selling the product & pay them a fee, then all you have to do is mail it out. I wonder how big drop-shipping is nowadays, I was looking at it back before the days of Amazon.

[Deleted]

I never got paid to have foreign exchange students...

[Deleted]

Oh man, I'd love to live somewhere that I could do dog-walking.  I'm always walking for exercise and it's 10X more fun with a dog...well...I guess that depends on the dog.

[Artemis Windsong]

I have a cake decorating story.  I took a community college class.  One night some woman came up to me and said I would be baking the wedding cakes for her such and such wedding. 

I was dumbfounded because this was a class through the local college for maybe 2 nights.

About 6 weeks later the woman calls me.  How she got my phone number I don't know.  She asked if her cakes were ready.  WHAT?  I had no phone number nor name for her.  No idea what she really wanted.  So the answer was no.  When I asked her name, she hung up.

That was early 1970s.  Scams are not a new thing.

[dannylion]

Jul 16, 2015 14:55:42 GMT -5 Artemis Windsong said:

I have a cake decorating story.  I took a community college class.  One night some woman came up to me and said I would be baking the wedding cakes for her such and such wedding. 

I was dumbfounded because this was a class through the local college for maybe 2 nights.

About 6 weeks later the woman calls me.  How she got my phone number I don't know.  She asked if her cakes were ready.  WHAT?  I had no phone number nor name for her.  No idea what she really wanted.  So the answer was no.  When I asked her name, she hung up.

That was early 1970s.  Scams are not a new thing.

Wow, that's weird. But it sounds more bat-crap crazy than scam. Of course, I guess it could have been both.

[Artemis Windsong]

I suspect this is where it came from.  I have an x-fiance from the 1960s that torments me.  He used to sign me up for events like body building and races then my name would be at the bottom as DNF.  Tried to get me fired from my jobs. 

In golf league I had a handicap then he took it one step further.  I was handicapped so he'd take women in wheel chairs or physcially disabled to functions and tell his friends it was me.  You name it, he's done it.  Theft, forgery, lie upon lie.  Stalking.  True to his name, Con.

[973beachbum]

The only one i have done from that list is babysitting.  DD has a few people she has baby sat since the kids were babies.  She still got texts from people when she was away at college asking if she knew anyone still home that could babysit on such and such date.  She was just telling me because she felt bad that no one was home to do it and I said I would.   Heck her kids couldn't do anything mine hadn't ever done. 

I went over.  Mom left.  I fed the kids the pizza that was already there.  I put them to bed and then watched tv and surfed the internet for the next couple of hours.   It wasn't exactly a steady income stream but it was about the easiest $30 bucks I have ever made.  I can't remember the last time I got two whole hours to myself to just watch tv or read.  I left feeling like maybe I should have paid her.

I have posted about getting my second job.  I started it as a short term way to make a specific amount of money.  It was supposed to be summer only.  I figured I could make $6K just working last summer.  I probably overestimated how much I could work and they definitely over estimated that too.  I also didn't really take taxes into consideration.  But all told I did end up really close to making that $6K.  They just didn't lay me off like I expected.

[dannylion]

Jul 16, 2015 15:10:25 GMT -5 Artemis Windsong said:

I suspect this is where it came from.  I have an x-fiance from the 1960s that torments me.  He used to sign me up for events like body building and races then my name would be at the bottom as DNF.  Tried to get me fired from my jobs. 

In golf league I had a handicap then he took it one step further.  I was handicapped so he'd take women in wheel chairs or physcially disabled to functions and tell his friends it was me.  You name it, he's done it.  Theft, forgery, lie upon lie.  Stalking.  True to his name, Con.

Oh, golly. That's crazy and evil. Sorry you have to deal with that.

[Deleted]

At college my DD definitely did the dumpster dive thing, but at college apartments the kids are nice enough to leave the working/good stuff outside of the dumpster. Putting it out there is just notice that it is free for taking. She would get the items she wanted & could store, clean them up & repair them, make sure they were working and then sell them on craigslist. Chairs, desks, tables, lamps, mirrors, vacuums, book cases, dressers. She made a couple hundred per term while she was doing it. I heavily suspect that money was spent on lattes   

College kids in the surrounding neighborhoods would also leave things out on the sidewalks for free on move out days (last week of the month) so in the summer we'd ride around a bit and see what was out. Got some great things for the other DD. A dresser that she refinished and still uses today & a laundry basket & maybe some pots/pans. 

[giramomma]

I teach.
I've also done swag bucks to take the edge off Christmas.

There's a research study that I might do at my university. If I complete it, it's $700. I've had the kids partake in studies on how kids learn language. Not for the $10 or the t-shirt, but because I think it's important research work.

I also found a piece work job editing for a tutoring company. I did that long enough to pay for DD1's summer activities. Then I burned out.

I find, though, at least while my kids still need daycare/afterschool care/summer care, the best way to find extra money is to minimize care costs. Not putting my kids in full time summer care is like getting a 10% raise. The schedule just complete sucks..but I get that extra time and save money.

[Deleted]

I do some remote server maintenance.  That job kind of fell in my lap and I was just really fortunate to get it.  Not sure it's going to last much longer or not. 

Rewards cards are easy money.  I just got a $490 deposit from Chase yesterday...$400 was just a sign up bonus and I get it every couple years.  I think total I'm well over $1000 for the year.

I also try to keep our grocery bill down by growing/raising whatever I can.  I might be able to make some good money on eggs if the shortage effects the prices as bad as they're predicting.

[Bonny]

I've painted curbs

Taken surveys

Babysat

Tutored

A couple I didn't see that I've done;

Collected recyclables at the beaches for cash

House cleaning

[Artemis Windsong]

I used to recycle aluminum cans when the price was up and we drank a lot of canned drinks.  The price per pounds went way down so it wasn't worth the effort.

Now we have curb side recycling that the city charges for.  

My DH and I recycled a lot of iron from some property, which paid our expenses to clean up the mess.  There is still a lot to be done, but we live out of state.