Need a little advice of a different nature

[LonelyDragon]

Well, things are tight all over right now. Especially at this time of year.

I was wondering if anyone here had any suggestions of a way to make a little side cash. Maybe something that can be done on-line? (I figure I'm on this thing all the time anyway I might as well put it to use. LoL) It looks like the car I've been driving has decided to hibernate for the winter and now refuses to start no matter what I try. So I need to come up with some extra money to get something to get me through the winter. Then while I'm driving that I can get my truck running for good.

Anyone have any ideas? Maybe something that I can sell? (Besides my body. I'd probably have to pay someone to haul that off. )

 

[Jeremi]

Yeah, selling something is probably your best bet, but you need some stuff to sell obviously. And you'd have to wait for someone to buy it, so you never know when you get the money. The only thing I can think of besides that is online poker. I seriously wouldn't recommend that, even if you're good at poker. There's probably too much scamming going on, though I always hear people say stupid stuff like "this guy I know makes tooooons of money playing online poker, he don't even have to work!" Never tried it myself, and I never will

Maybe click one of those cool "Maek Munnyz wai doin NUTINNNN!!!!" Spam you get in the mail once in a while? ^^

 

[Unacceptance]

How far are you from a retail outlet? It may suck but all stores hire Holiday help at this time of the year. It's what all the mothers at most jobs I've worked at have done.

 

[LonelyDragon]

They don't even know what a retail outlet is here. the closest is probable Fargo which is an hour from here on good roads. And they won't be good again here until April.

 

[Lexicon Devil]

all my housemate does is play online poker all day, he never works, and he makes a mint. But he has studied his stuff and knows what the best hands are to play.

 

[Caesium]

Learn some programming languages, and do freelance software development from the comfort of your home-office

 

[Brian]

It sounds like you live in a similar area to me...though I don't know much about North (or south, for that matter) Dakota. So if it snows a lot where you are, the following should apply for sure.

In the winter I'm unemployed because you can't cut brush if it's under a bunch of snow. Aside from unemployment insurance, if you get a lot of snow in the winter you can actually make a killing.

The simplest option is to go buy a snow shovel (or a grain scoop shovel) and walk around town saying 'Hey, Ill shovel your driveway/sidewalk for blahblah'. That'll get you a few bucks. But there's a better use for that shovel that will pay you much more if you get enough snow (We're talking a fair bit of snow here, like 1-2 feet minimum), and that's to shovel people's roofs. A roof can only hold so much snow before it collapses...last winter we had several building collapses around the county. I was personally shoveling with my work crew, clearing off school and business roofs for $20 an hour. 10+ hour days if I wanted. We had 40 people working for us at one point starting from 12-15 an hour; guys like yourself looking for spare dough would just show up and we'd give 'em a shovel.

So you could look for a similar crew if you get enough snow...or you could freelance it and solo-shovel residential roofs. Guys doing that typically were making $50-$200 a roof, more for big or 2-story houses.


Those are the cheap options. If you really wanted to you could go buy a junker 1 ton pickup ($2500-$5000) and a snow plow ($2500-$8000) and then you can plow parking lots and driveways. Last year I used my dad's plow truck to plow driveways at $15-$20 a piece (takes about 15 minutes to do a $20 driveway) and this year I've got two parking lots, $80 every inch and another $30 every 3 inches. I just give him a cut of the money, and he plows when I can't. You can actually make bank plowing snow if you can get your route established and have a good winter...and if you suspect a light winter coming you can sign people up on 'contracts' with a one-time price for all winter, and hope you never have to plow more than twice or so




If you don't get enough snow for that stuff though, then I dunno what to tell ya :x

 

[LonelyDragon]

Learn some programming languages, and do freelance software development from the comfort of your home-office

Is that something I can learn on my own? And something I can do for people over the internet? Not much call for it here in a farm town.

It sounds like you live in a similar area to me...though I don't know much about North (or south, for that matter) Dakota. So if it snows a lot where you are, the following should apply for sure.

In the winter I'm unemployed because you can't cut brush if it's under a bunch of snow. Aside from unemployment insurance, if you get a lot of snow in the winter you can actually make a killing.

The simplest option is to go buy a snow shovel (or a grain scoop shovel) and walk around town saying 'Hey, Ill shovel your driveway/sidewalk for blahblah'. That'll get you a few bucks. But there's a better use for that shovel that will pay you much more if you get enough snow (We're talking a fair bit of snow here, like 1-2 feet minimum), and that's to shovel people's roofs. A roof can only hold so much snow before it collapses...last winter we had several building collapses around the county. I was personally shoveling with my work crew, clearing off school and business roofs for $20 an hour. 10+ hour days if I wanted. We had 40 people working for us at one point starting from 12-15 an hour; guys like yourself looking for spare dough would just show up and we'd give 'em a shovel.

So you could look for a similar crew if you get enough snow...or you could freelance it and solo-shovel residential roofs. Guys doing that typically were making $50-$200 a roof, more for big or 2-story houses.


Those are the cheap options. If you really wanted to you could go buy a junker 1 ton pickup ($2500-$5000) and a snow plow ($2500-$8000) and then you can plow parking lots and driveways. Last year I used my dad's plow truck to plow driveways at $15-$20 a piece (takes about 15 minutes to do a $20 driveway) and this year I've got two parking lots, $80 every inch and another $30 every 3 inches. I just give him a cut of the money, and he plows when I can't. You can actually make bank plowing snow if you can get your route established and have a good winter...and if you suspect a light winter coming you can sign people up on 'contracts' with a one-time price for all winter, and hope you never have to plow more than twice or so




If you don't get enough snow for that stuff though, then I dunno what to tell ya :x

Well, we get some snow. Just not a lot at a time. That would be something I would have done 20 years ago. I just don't think my knees and shoulder would hold up to that anymore. The knees are the biggest physical reason I don't work on cars full time anymore.

I do a little of that on the side, but the shop isn't heated so winter work is a little limited. I'm going to try and get a used heater. I will need someone to plow that for me too. (What would it cost to get you to plow it for me? LoL ) But I'd like to find something I can do at home if I can. And something that doesn't mean dealing with the public.

 

[evanescencefan91]

sell all your random knickknacks online, like ebay or something.

do have many CDs if you can't bear the thought of getting rid of them burn copies foryourself and you can sell the orginals, either online or some used CD stores will pay cash for them. All though it probably won't be for a whole lot, you can do the same thing with Dvds. You can sell videogames. And also some clothes either online or maybe at a platos closet or something. You can do the same things with books. If your desperate sell any furniture you don't need.

lol well that will get you mabye 50 easy bucks XD

um well nevermind it's winter thats not going to help i was going to suggest growing your own food.

learn how to knit or make pottery and sell those

follow rich people around wherever they go and wait for them to drop a fifty dollar bill.

can you play any kind of instrument? panhandle my friend


um yes i am sooo full of wonderful advice, cha ya i know.

i'm sorry my friend, i'm also looking for more cash. just pick up all the random change you can find and save it, it will add up after a while

 

[evanescencefan91]

oh ya learn how to count cards really well then head into a casino, but quit when your ahead my friend

 

[LonelyDragon]

oh ya learn how to count cards really well then head into a casino, but quit when your ahead my friend

LoL Yeah. Now I just need the money to get to the casino.

I'd love to be able to go to Vegas. Never been. Someday though.
i know there are casinos nearer here. But Vegas is ...well...Vegas.

 

[Caesium]

Learn some programming languages, and do freelance software development from the comfort of your home-office

Is that something I can learn on my own? And something I can do for people over the internet? Not much call for it here in a farm town.

But I'd like to find something I can do at home if I can. And something that doesn't mean dealing with the public.

Yes, of course you can learn it on your own I learnt most of what I know on my own, via the internet. Just download ebooks and stuff. There are numerous sites online where you can bid on jobs as a freelancer, e.g. scriptlance.com, rentacoder, etc. I made $300 in just one week working on scripts for people after school.

I like some of Evanescence' suggestions.. especially the 'walk behind a rich person and wait for them to drop money' trick xD

 

[Brian]

You know, speaking of loose change, seriously. Pick that stuff up! Take quarters off the ground, hit the buttons on newspaper machines and payphones. It really adds up over time...my change turns in to a $50 savings deposit every 6 months or so.

And one time I hit the button on an empty newspaper machine and $4 in quarters came out. People had been putting coins in not realizing it was empty, LOL That bought me coffee and some lunch stuff for the day.

Some people will say it's 'below them to pick up change', or 'Im not that desperate', or that it's 'not worth their time'.

To that I say, until I will actually lose money by picking up that quarter, I do not have enough money to ignore it

 

[Unacceptance]

Buy a camera, track down aborigines, tribals, bushmen, and/or other primitive people. Take a picture of them. Sell them their souls back with high markup.

 

[Caesium]

Buy a camera, track down aborigines, tribals, bushmen, and/or other primitive people. Take a picture of them. Sell them their souls back with high markup.

That's the funniest thing I've ever heard.

 

[Bluey]

You could be a Santa for christmas lol. I have seen what you look like, you would make a good Santa

HO HO HO!

 

[LonelyDragon]

LoL Gee thanks.

I think that's really the wrong direction for someone who doesn't like to work with people. The places that use them already have them lined up anyway this late. There have been Santas in the local stores since November 28th here.

I already did sell all the CDs I had that were in good enough shape to sell. (I actually didn't burn copies of them but ripped them to my hard drive. Then I can just load them to my mp3 player as I want them.) Same with my old VHS tapes, any that were in good shape are already gone. I don't have any way to copy DVDs since they are copyright protected. Don't have much else. Got rid of a lot of things when I moved.