9 Ways to Make Money Selling Your Stuff in an Emergency
Welcome back!
Image courtesy of west846
During times of need, the first thing you need to do is evaluate your belongings and determine what you can live without and what will make you money. Selling things you don’t need is by far the easiest way to make money quickly.
The philosophy of this blog is to manage your materialism so that you don’t acquire too much stuff to begin with. But most people have more crap than they need and chances are, there is someone out there willing to pay money for it.
Cataloging Your Stuff
The first step you should take is to catalog everything you own. This can take awhile, but it’s important to be aware of all of your belongings. If you know what you have, you can also keep a good idea of what you have it worth. Having a good database also makes it easy to list things online.
Most people have a computer these days and that’s the best way to keep track of what you have. There are simple solutions and more elegant solutions to do this.
The simplest way to create a database of what you own is to throw it all in an Excel Spreadsheet or Access Database. Be sure to set up fields for the items, description, price paid, UPC or ISBN Number and item location. The UPC or ISBN number is the most important aspect, having this on the computer will make it easier to list things online.
I’m lucky that I have a newer iMac. I use a program called Delicious Library. It’s a great program that helps you build a library of what you have. If you’re Mac has a built in Webcam (or any webcam), it can act as a barcode reader and will scan your entire collection. I was able to put in my entire book and DVD collection in the database in one night.
There are similar solutions for Windows that will do the same thing.
For things that don’t have UPC or ISBN numbers, a simple excel spreadsheet will do. Once you have this created, you’ll have a searchable database of all you’re stuff, so you’ll know what you have and where exactly it is.
Selling Stuff Amazon.com
This is by far the best way to sell books, DVD’s, Music and other stuff online. The process is simple and straightforward and your earnings can be directly deposited into your bank account.
I’ve made several thousand dollars selling things on Amazon. It’s helped get us through tough times.
Amazon’s fees can be a little high, but the perk is they take their commission when the purchase is made, so you’ll never have a bill to pay like with eBay.
Also, shoppers pay for the shipping and most of the time the shipping credit is more than it actually costs to ship an item. So you can make a couple more bucks on shipping. For example, users get charged $3.99 to ship a DVD. It only costs a $1.50 or so via Media Mail to ship. That’s how some people sell things for a penny on Amazon. They’re making cash on the back-end.
To sell on Amazon, all you need is an account and access to a checking account. All you have to do to sell something is search for it, go to the product page and click the ’sell yours’ button on the far right. Fill in all the information, set your price and submit. That’s it.
Amazon also has some great features for managing your inventory and customer communications. You’re also protected if an item gets lost in the mail or a buyer tries to screw you.
Selling on eBay/Half.com
eBay is the established place to buy and sell goods. You can sell anything you could possibly imagine.
I only recommend it for higher value items though, like stuff that you can’t easily sell on Amazon.com. It’s not really worth the time to individually books and DVD’s on eBay, especially with their high fees.
For books, DVD’s and Music, there’s eBay’s sister site called Half.com. It’s works on pretty much the same principle that Amazon Marketplace. You list your stuff and they deposit the earnings into your checking account.
Listing on eBay is simple. Just get an account and start listing items. Once you’re a little established, you’ll be able to use Buy it Now, which is the best way to sell things on eBay. Your eBay account will work on Half.com and vice versa.
I highly recommend getting a PayPal account and only accepting that payment format. There are fraud protections built in and you won’t have to wait for a money order to come in the mail. You get the money right away and if you get a PayPal debit card you can use the money right away too.
Selling on Craigslist
Craigslist is perfect for all the crap you can’t sell on eBay or or Amazon.com. Craigslist has pretty much supplanted Newspaper Classified ads in every regard (jobs, stuff for sale, homes, etc).
The basis of Craigslist is personal interaction. You will have to meet the person you are selling to, so keep in mind that you should only sell things locally on Craigslist. Be careful of people e-mailing you and telling you they’ll send a money order or someone to pick up the item. This is almost always a scam. Accept cash and cash alone. That’s your only protection.
The best part of Craigslist is that it’s free. To sell on Craigslist, you don’t even need an account, just list the item and you’re good. Be careful not to give away your personal information in the ad, or you will get spammed.
What kinds of things can you sell on Craigslist?
Anything at all. Here’s some examples. Craigslist helped us get through some tough financial times. We were able to sell some furniture we didn’t need for a couple hundred bucks. We also sold some expensive electronics pretty quickly for cash. It’s a great place.
Just be very careful.
Selling at a Garage Sale
This is pretty much the old fashion way to get rid of stuff. Fill your garage with stuff, set some prices and watch the people roll in.
There’s a subset of society that loves Garage Sales, so be sure to put up signs, put a free ad in the local paper and post an ad on Craigslist. Keep in mind that some things sell better than others at Garage Sales.
Children’s clothes are notoriously hard to get rid of. Your furniture will be gone by lunchtime.
The only problem is that running a garage sale is time consuming and weather dependent. You have to spend all day standing outside and haggling with bargain seekers. Sometimes it can be fun. Other times it’s going to feel like low-paid work.
Selling to a Pawn Shop
Pawn Shops are an excellent way to get cash quickly, but not the best to make a lot of cash.
The concept of a Pawn Shop is simple, you give them your stuff as collateral for a loan. If you don’t come back and pay the loan, they keep your stuff.
While this is a great concept, it’s usually the Pawn Shop making out on the deal. They will severely undervalue your goods. There are also strict laws in most states on how they operate.
They’re probably not the best place to take jewelry and expensive items such as that. But it can be a good place to get cash for smaller stuff that the Pawn Shop knows they can make a profit on.
Selling to a Used Book/DVD/Music Store
If you’re town has a used book, dvd or music store then you’re in luck. They are usually happy to see someone carrying in a big box of stuff to sell.
They’ll usually give you a fair price. But keep in mind, they are going to give you a price based on the margin they can sell something for. Usually this can be 50% or less. Also, they won’t take some things if they can’t sell them. They already have 50 copies of Battlefield Earth so they won’t take yours.
If you have some rare books, used books stores are perfects places to get cash. Avoid paperback exchanges or places that will only give you store credit for your books. You want cold hard cash. So call ahead before you lug all your books there. If you have a Half Price Books near you, they are great places to get cash in a pinch.
If you have a childhood comic book collection you can part with, most towns have a comic store that’s eager to buy old comic books. Keep in mind, though, they aren’t worth as much as you think they are.
If you aren’t willing to let a store give you less for an item than it’s worth, then selling on Amazon is your best best. But selling to a store it the quickest way to get cash.
Resale Shops
Most resale shops don’t pay for stuff and rely on donations. But some towns will have a resale shop that will pay cash for clothes, especially designer clothes they can make a good profit on.
Keep in mind that resale shops operate seasonally and will only take certain types of clothes during it’s requisite season.
Consignment Shops / Antique Malls
These places are similar to resale shops, except the store merely provides a place for you to sell stuff and they take a cut on the final price. This can be good if you have old, expensive antiques that will take a while to sell, but need to be in a place that’s well trafficked to get interest.
Antique Malls operate in a similar way and most towns have at least one of these types of establishments.
You won’t make money quickly though. The whole idea behind it is that it sits until someone comes across it. Not a very efficient way to sell.
Selling at a Flea Market
Many towns and communities have local flea markets where you can sell your wares. They attract the same crowd that garage sales do, people looking for a deal.
They also attract people looking for specific collectables that they can usually only find at flea markets.
The problem with flea markets, is that eBay has given them a run for the money and most sellers now know the true value of their goods. So, it’s getting increasingly harder to find good deals at Flea Markets.
Doesn’t matter for you though, know know much your stuff is worth. Rent a booth and spend some time selling your goods. The financials rewards won’t be huge, but you’ll get some cash and get to socialize with some interesting people.
Conclusion
When my wife and I went through some really tough times earlier this summer, we had to get rid of a lot of stuff to get by. Even though we were sad to see some belongings so, we realized that it could all be replaced one day. But better than that, we realized how much we DIDN’T need a lot of the stuff we had.
Not having so much stuff was great when we moved last month. Not nearly as much stuff to move and because of that, we were able to move across state lines and be unpacked in a day.
Having less can be a very liberating experience.
Important Links
How to Cut Advertising Out of Your Life
They’re not on your side.
Day after day, we are bombarded with thousands of advertisements a day; all encouraging us to spend money in some way. Some manipulate us. Some make us aspire to a life we don’t have. Some make us feel like shit for not having something or make you feel too fat or too skinny.
I could write a book on the wrongs advertising inflicts upon us. But that’s not what this post about. This post is about how to cut advertising out of your life, as much as possible.
It’s possible and I’m going to show you how to block advertising today!
Ad Blocking Software
If you use the computer a lot, you know that you are bombarded with ads to pretty much any website you go to (including this one…). Not only can they be annoying but they can be a major violation of privacy as cookies track your movements from site to site and target ads towards you based on your history.
For example, pretty much every website I go to has advertisements for the latest deals on flights to London. It’s no coincidence that I love England and would give my left foot to go there again. So, the ad networks track me when I price out dream vacations. They know what I want, sometimes more than I do.
So, how do block the ads out?
If you use Safari on the Mac, I recommend SafariBlock. If you use a PC, the Firebox browser has extensions such as Adblock.
There is not a simple solution to block ads in Internet Explorer. You’re better off switching to FireFox anyway, it’s much more secure and works a lot better anyway.
TIVO – DVR’s – Digital Video Recorders
While the TIVO may seem like an unnecessary gadget to have, especially with it’s ongoing cost (monthly fee), it’s a great thing to keep around. There is a TIVO remote hack that allows you to set the TIVO to have 30 second skip. This way you can skip all commercials.
If you don’t have a TIVO or want to invest in one, most cable companies offer a DVR now and charge a small monthly fee for it. While they aren’t as elegant as TIVO, you can still fast forward through commercials and skip them entirely.
Another solution if you want to go even further is to download your favorite TV shows over the internet. The commercials are usually removed and you can get almost any popular show for free via Bittorrent. Though, the legality of this is in dispute. You can also buy most TV shows from online stores like the iTunes Music Store and Amazon UnBox.
Life is so much better without loud and obnoxious TV Commercials.
RSS Feeds
If you are a regular reader of a website and just read the content, the RSS Feeds are your new friend. All you need is a RSS Feedreader like Newsgator or NetNewsWire, or even Google Reader and you can read the content on most sites without ads. Some feeds are starting to have ads, but they are not nearly as obtrusive as content on websites surrounded by ads.
Heck, though I’m shooting myself in the foot, you can even subscribe to the feed on this site and avoid my ads all together (but please don’t!).
Sunday Paper
The Sunday Paper can usually be a useful source for coupons and deals for the week. However, it’s best to just toss the sale paper section. It’s solely designed to get you to WANT. To get you to go out and spend money.
If you want the coupons, of which there are usually only a few and they aren’t worth the trouble of clipping, just take out the coupon ads and throw the rest away into the recycling bin. Your wallet will thank you.
Personally, I hate nothing more than being tempted with a new flat screen TV every time I read the sale papers. So, just toss ‘em. You’ll want for less and be all the better off for it.
Magazines
Pretty much avoid all magazines like the plague, especially more ‘popular’ ones. They perpetuate our society’s materialism. The ads and usually most of the content it written to manipulate you into wanting ’stuff.’
There are some quality magazines out there that have unobtrusive ads and are renowned for their quality content. I recommend The Economist, The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker.
If you want to avoid ads even in those magazines, they have websites where ads can be blocked. Most of them also have RSS Feeds.
Junk Mail
Junk Mail keeps the Postal Service alive so it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. There are, however, ways you can reduce your junk mail.
The Direct Marketing Association has a website where you can sign up to opt-out of getting most consumer catalogs. At one point I was getting 3 or 4 of the same Victoria’s Secret Catalogs every couple of weeks. We signed up for this and haven’t gotten one since.
Also, there’s a system to opt out of all those credit card offers you get in the mail. I hated nothing more than getting offers for scam credit cards. I don’t get them anymore.
For all other junk mail that keeps coming, just toss it in the recycling bin without reading it.
E-mail SPAM
The best way to battle e-mail Spam is to get a Gmail account. Their spam filters work the best out of any of the e-mail services I’ve tried. Gmail is free and secure and you can set it up with your usual e-mail reader (i.e. Outlook or Apple Mail) to avoid their targeted ads.
If you want to avoid Spam, avoid a Hotmail account all together.
Telemarketing
Thankfully, telemarketers are pretty much a thing of the past thanks to the National Do Not Call Registry. You can sign up online here. This is, by far, one of the easiest ways get rid of a common annoyance.
Branded Clothing
Is Nike or the Gap paying you to wear their corporate logos? No! In fact you’re overpaying them for the privilege. It is pretty easy to buy clothes without labels on it. I’m a t-shirt and jeans guy and nothing I wear has a corporate logo on it. Even the business casual clothes I wear to work lack ‘labels.’
If you have any tips on cutting advertising out your life, please post them in the comments!
Thought on the Six Truths of Personal Finance
I picked this up off the Consumerist today. They featured an article from The Street, which featured the 6 Unpleasant Truths about Personal Finance.
From the Article in summary they are:
1. You can’t have everything you want.
2. Financial institutions are not your friends.
3. Nobody is going to teach you personal finance.
4. You are your own worst enemy.
5. You need to stop watching TV.
6. Personal finance is easy.
These are some very insightful comments and many of them are some of the main philosophies behind this blog.
My wife and I have learned many of these together, probably the harshest reality of them all is discovering financial institutions are not your friend. It was difficult to wrap logic around the idea that they can treat their customers, the very people they rely on to exist, like such garbage.
I am definitely my own worst enemy and have succumbed to many materialistic sins in my day. After all, I own expensive Apple products and drive a newer car (worst mistake I ever made). But, after hitting ‘financial rock bottom‘ this past year, I realized what really mattered in life and how to take financial control of it. We are probably a month away from having the ship completely righted.
I would, perhaps add a couple items to the list of ‘harsh financial realities.’
7. You can live without it
8. Only worry about it if it will matter in 20 years
9. Credit Cards are, by nature, Evil.
10. Never by a brand new car. Ever.
11. You need a second job or second source of income
12. Don’t attempt to have kids unless you have maternity insurance and money put away.
Do you guys have any you ideas of what you think should be on the list of harsh financial truths?
Just Say No to Credit Cards
According to a recent story in US News, Americans are starting to turn their back on credit cards. Many are forsaking the plastic god that has been sustaining them and are beginning to draw down the rampant consumerism that has created the situation we’re in now.
It’s a shame that the credit crunch was needed at all to teach us that our habits were going to destroy us. Millions have had to suffer unnecessarily.
We’re pretty much against credit cards here at Austerity blog. Though, we aren’t opposed to all forms of debt. We have long believed, and have experienced for ourselves, that the credit card companies are not your friend.
They want you to spend as much money as possible and the minute you slip up, they have your balls in a vice. They laugh all the way to bank as you write that check that seems to get bigger and bigger every month.
While this contraction in spending and reduction in credit usage will, and is, harming the economy, I think that in the long run, the economy will be stronger. This entire society is based on debt and that is unsustainable as an economic system. The recent problems are proving that.
So, what’s the hapless consumer to do? Be responsible and always be prepared for an economic downturn. If you apply the principles of austerity during times of plenty, you’ll be prepared for the downtimes and the downtimes won’t seem so bad, because you are already used to living austerely.
Just Say No to Credit Cards.
That’s our official advice to everyone. I don’t care if you are one of those people that think they are using them responsibly and taking advantage of the credit card companies by their rewards systems. They are taking advantage of you. And when you slip up, they won’t hesitate to punish you.
Like most vices in life, credit cards should generally be avoided.
Austere Back to School Tips
This can be a very expensive time for families as kids go back to school and they need all the accoutrements that go with that.
A major problem that parents face is that often kids don’t know the difference between needs and wants. They don’t think anything of thinking they need the newest clothes and most expensive school supplies.
It’s the job of the parent to reign them in and teach them the values of austerity and to clarify needs and wants. This can be extraordinarily difficult with children, whom generally don’t respond well to reason. This is why one must be the parent in the relationship.
I won’t pretend to be an expert in parenting. My wife and I are waiting to have kids until we can afford it. Which is what many people in this country don’t do. They have kids left and right and don’t think it through. We have decided to buck the trend and put money away first, before they come along.
One of the main philosophical tenants of this blog is to deny yourself until you’ve earned it. And we have not earned children yet. To save and plan for something you really want makes it all the more rewarding when you stop denying yourself.
I bring this subject up because there have been many articles in various news outlets about parents becoming more frugal this fall because of the tough economy. Essentially, hand-me-downs are back in as is shopping at thrift stores. Parents are also seeking ways to get their school supplies cheaper.
Keep in mind, if you’re shopping for your kids, that there is always somewhere where you can buy something cheaper. Walmart generally has the cheapest of everything but they’re not the only place for a deal. While some people hate Walmart, it’s not a bad place for a deal and in the future we’ll be talking about the virtues of Walmart.
Times are tough and the retailers know this. They are tripping over themselves to provide you the best back to school deals. It’s your job as an austere consumer and responsible parent to take them up on it.
Austere Yet Fashionable – Yes, it’s possible
Editor’s Note: This is a new, ongoing column written by my wife Jackie.
When my husband met me, he thought I was rich by the way I dressed. The joke was on him, I was and still am a resale shop junkie. I wear designer clothing and the latest fashions, I just refuse to pay full price.
There really is no need to pay outrageous prices for clothing because when you really think about it, it’s really only clothing. So here are some of my best tricks for being truly fashionable on a budget and, yes, it can be done!
First of all, get to know your local resale shops. I live in the Chicagoland area and I really like the Unique chain for resale shops. Don’t be afraid to go in, there are always treasures to be found in there. The local Goodwill or Salvation army are good places to find deals but they can tend to be on the more pricey so. So, wait for their usual discount days. Also, consignments are usually not a good place to find deals.
The cardinal rule of thrifty clothes shopping is to assess what you really need BEFORE you get to the store. If you need a new blouse, go directly to that section of the store. If you need pants, only look at pants. While in the section of clothing that you’re looking for, look at the labels in the collar, you may be surprised what you find. But one thing I must stress is to look for a good fit as well as quality.
When picking an item out of a resale shop, make sure to check the garment thoroughly for stains, tears, or anything that would make the item unwearable. However, if there is a small tear or it’s missing a button don’t pass it up because that can be easily mended. In most cases it costs less to buy a garment at a resale shop and have alterations done than it would cost to buy new from the mall.
Now, there are certain items that I do not go to the resale shop for. I never buy undergarments or hats at the resale shop. I do on occasion, go to the mall or non-resale shops for those things. When I go to other stores besides the resale shop, this is an opppturnity to study the latest fashions, that can be recreated at a fraction of the cost.
When I do go to the mall, I have one word in mind, SALE. When I walk into a store, I go straight for the sale racks. Don’t be embarrassed that you’re looking for a deal and for your dollar to stretch further. The standard practice in retail is to put the clearance at the back of the store, forcing you to walk through all the pricier items. Resist the urge to browse the new racks, eventually you’ll develop tunnel vision.
The trick is to buy summer clothes in the fall (or end of summer) and winter clothes in the spring (before the summer fashions come out). Last week I made a trip to the mall and did wonderfully with just $20.00. Last but not least, make sure to check your receipt and make sure you got the sales price no matter where you shop. Don’t be afraid to confront cashiers over price discrepancies.
Don’t worry though, it’s all right to occasionally splurge on a pricier item if it’s it a really special and a good value (i.e. a pair of shoes you’ll wear often). Keep these tips in mind and you’ll be able to stay fashionable on a budget.
Check out below for some examples of recent deals I found.
 |
 |
 |
|
$7 New York and Company
|
$7 New York and Company
|
$11 Sears Entire Outfit
|
 |
 |
 |
|
$2.50 From Resale Shop
|
Tag on Resale Shop Pants
|
The Full Package
|
You Don’t Need a New HDTV to Get Digital TV
I won’t deny it, HDTV sure looks nice when properly presented. However, I’m in no rush to invest in a new television. We’ve had the same TV for almost ten years and it’s showing no signs of death, even though the power button broke off.
The desire for a fancy flat screen HDTV is very strong for both of us. But it’s something that we are refusing to invest in for the foreseeable future. We have TV now, why pay more to watch it when what we have works fine? This is a question more of us need to be asking ourselves before we make large purchases.
A big misconception about HDTV is that you will need a new HDTV to get through the HD transition or get HDTV at all. This could not be farther from the truth.
If you have cable TV, you do not need to worry about the digital transition. Your cable company already does it for you. As do satellite providers.
The government is also giving us two $40 coupons to buy Digital TV converter boxes that will convert the over-the-air HD signal to fit on older TV’s. Walmart has these digital converter boxes for $50. Minus the $40 coupon, HDTV costs you only $10 plus tax. Not a bad deal, though you’ll need an antenna. Go here to send away for your government digital tv coupon.
What about all those fancy HD only channels that aren’t over the air? A little secret is that most cable receivers can decode the HD channels and convert them to fit into a regular TV. Sure, the picture isn’t as great but the content is still there and still looks pretty darn good. I know for a fact that most Comcast DVR’s do this.
We’ll probably upgrade our TV when our current one dies and cannot be repaired. By that point, fancy flat screen TV’s will cost much less and we won’t have to pay the ‘first adopter tax.’
SmartyPig Evil – Updated
When I first heard about SmartyPig, I was intrigued. It is a new way to have goal based saving. I’m a big proponent of setting goals and achieving them and especially tracking them.
The neat thing about SmartyPig is that is allows you to open your goal to the public and allow them to contribute to your goal. This sounds like a nice idea, if you see the world through rose colored glasses and think grass is made of sugar.
You won’t find many people out there who want friends or family to know what they are up to financially, especially if you have the type of family you need to keep that kind of information away from.
But these aren’t the true drawbacks of SmartyPig. The ultimate problem with SmartyPig is that it all it does is to promote consumerism; which is something we need to get away from.
Sure they let you save money, easily and with a high interest rate. But read the fine print. You cannot withdraw your money electronically. They give you a debit card that can be used at ATM’s and for purchases. They offer coupons for discounts at retailers when it’s time to make your purchase. That’s the only way you can access your money. ATM’s have limits. You can’t get at all your money at once. It’s not suited for an emergency fund.
I’m all for encouraging people to actually pay cash and save for the things they want. But the goal of this blog is to teach the world that you can go without. We should be saving to save money. Not to spend it.
People need to save to have a cushion for emergencies, to save for a house, to save to have kids, to save for the future. Not for a flat screen TV or the latest gadget from Apple.
So, in my opinion, SmartyPig is evil in that it encourages consumption that our society can no longer maintain.
As for saving money, I recommend ING Direct and HSBC Direct. Both are pretty good. ING Direct is by far the best.
Avoid SmartyPig in my opinion.
Updated 8-6: One of the founders of SmartyPig chimed in to let us know that SmartyPig now allows you to transfer your money out via ACH, the same way it goes in. So, you can easily get it to your bank account when the goal is finished. My wife and I want to build an emergency fund, maybe we’ll give it a try.
10 Things Around the House That Can Make You Money
When times are hard, we need to get resourceful for ways to make money. Most people think that all they need to do is work a 9-5 job but realistically, this only fills a third of your waking life. You have plenty of time and ample opportunity to make extra money. It may not be pleasant or even that easy but if you need to make the bills, working extra jobs will not kill you.
My wife and I have chosen to work two jobs while we work out of our little hole. We may even continue once things get better, it’ll be great to have money to put away for a rainy day or a future vacation. We highly recommend doing extra work with your spouse, you work together and spend time together that you would otherwise just spend on the couch, watching TV.
You don’t just need to do these things if you’re hard up. If you have a trip planned or have set a goal for something you want to buy, working odd jobs can help you achieve your goal faster. Goal fulfillment is always sweeter when you know you’ve worked hard for it.
A lot of these jobs are not formal business, just something you can do to make extra cash with minimal investment. Feel free to add your tips to make extra in the comments below.
So, without further ado, here are 10 things around your house that can make you money.
1. Lawnmower + Weedwacker = Lawn Care Business
This one is pretty simple. Grass needs to cut and there will always be people too lazy to do it themselves who’d rather pay someone else to do it. How do you find those people? Ask within your own personal network. From there you can make connections to other people who need lawn care. If all else fails, ask your neighbors, or hell if you really are hard up, just go door to door and ask people if they want their lawn done for say $20 cash. It doesn’t take long to cut grass. Easy Money. Especially if you live near a more affluent area.
2. Computer = Document and IT Business
Most people don’t think that they can use their computer to make money. We’re going to avoid talking about get-rich-quick web ideas (like blogging, review writing, etc) and focus on more practical things. If you’re a good typist, you could easily make extra cash doing word processing work. Make MS Word pay it’s fair share. This can be especially lucrative if you live near a college town. All you need to do is post flyers on the local campus and you can build a steady income typing papers or dissertations. You can also make excellent money doing research and giving writing help.
You can also use your computer to sell things (book, dvd’s, etc). We will have a blog entry in the future talking about the best ways to sell things online.
Here’s a sampling of the things you can do with your computer for extra cash:
- Resume writing
- Rent it out for use
- Document Printing
- Computer Maintenace/Repair
3. Car = Delivery and Taxi Service
When I think of my car, I’m reminded of an analogy an uncle told me once. You’re stuck eating hamburgers, but that car — it eats steak, every night. Cars are a black hole of costs, especially now with rising fuel prices.
Well, it’s time to make that care earn it’s keep. The quickest and probably easiest way to make money with your car is to get a paper route. If you can handle getting up early, you can make good money delivering papers in the morning.
Some other car usage ideas:
- Chauffeur for People who Can’t Drive
- Rent it out when you aren’t using it
- Local deliveries for companies
4. Cabinet of Cleaners = Cleaning Business
While I was growing up, my father ran a cleaning business (which he still does). One nugget of knowledge he taught me was that if you know how to professionally clean, you can always make money. He was right (our night job is janitorial work).
If you have a decent attention to detail, a cabinet full of cleaners and time, you can easily start a cleaning business. Use the same strategy you would in a lawn car business, inquire within your own network then post advertisements locally as well as going door to door. Charge a reasonable rate and you can easily get a steady income cleaning people’s houses, cleaning offices or public areas.
5. Washer and Dryer = Laundry Cleaning Service
Most washer and dryers spend most of their time lying around, doing nothing. Put ‘em to work. There are lots of people out there who don’t have washing equipment at home who have to go to the laundromat. People usually hate going to the laundromat. Put ads in the local paper or post flyers at the local colleges, there are plenty of students out there who don’t have time or are too lazy to do their laundry. Charge by the pound, like the cleaners do. Wash, fold and maybe even deliver and people will love the service. The trick is to undercut the local cleaners.
6. Ladder = Handyman Services
Even though it’s a tough economy, gutters still need to be cleaned, houses still need to be painted and roofs still need to be repaired. Anyone with basically carpentry knowledge and willing to get their hands dirty can make money doing odds jobs for people around the neighborhood. If you don’t know how to do something, there are excellent resources on the internet available to show you how. Youtube is a wonderful resource. Tap it.
7. Empty Yard = Organic Farm
If you have a huge yard, then you probably have the space to start a garden. I’m not suggesting plow up the whole yard, just a small portion. It’s time for the return of the Victory Garden. Except you won’t be growing the food for yourself (though you can). Most towns now have local farmer’s markets where people can get fresh produce. For the cost of a bunch of seeds and a backhoe, you can plant a mini-farm in your back yard. Grow things in season and price them reasonably, you should have no problem selling them at a local market. You could also grow organic produce and sell it to people you know.
If you’re city or town allows it, get a couple chickens (they are very cheap) and start offering organic and free range eggs. People love farm fresh eggs and will pay for it. Chickens are relatively low maintenance and they are fun as heck to be around.
8. Stove/Oven = Bakery
This is a similar strategy to planting a garden. Do you have a dish or type of pie that people are always begging you for? Well, monetize it. You’re market already exists. Put your stove and oven to work making baked goods that you can turn around and sell at local farmer’s markets.
9. Empty Bedroom = Rental Property
This is a pretty radical way to make money that most people would rather avoid. If you have an empty bedroom (especially one with an en-suite bathroom), you could rent it out to a lodger. This was a pretty common practice in the early twentieth century, especially during wartime.
Just make sure it’s someone you know or can verify the character of the person. You don’t want a stranger in your home. Charge them a flat monthly rent along with a percentage of the utility bills. A bonus is you’ll also have an extra set of hands around the house in case you need help with anything.
10. Hose = Car Detailing Business
If you have a hose, soap, vacuum and a brush you have a car detailing business. People invest a lot in their cars (see above) and like to keep them nicely maintained. It only takes a couple hours to detail a car and doesn’t take much work to make one look nice, as long as you know what you’re doing.
If you don’t fancy washing a ton of cars, you can always run it through the local gas station car wash (for $5-$6) and then detail the inside and outside yourself (just don’t tell them that you did that). Again, tap your local network of friends and family.
Feel free to leave your tips to make money with what you have around the house in the comments below!
