4.28.2008

Making Money - The Entrepenuer in Me.




























There is always a lot of talk about saving money. However, even after you have squeezed every last cent out of the budget there are things that have to be paid for - rates, electricity, petrol (!!)

As most of my readers know, I work completely in cash. Each week I withdraw the exact amount I need in the correct denominations. I put it away into categories for times when I need it. Whether the kids need new clothes or we are going on holidays or hiring a DVD - we always have the money there for it. If we don't have the money we don't do it! It is truly wonderful to know that it is only April and your 'Christmas' bag has lots of $20 notes in it already. It brings peace.

My question today, however, is what do you do currently or have you done in the past to bring money into your home. I don't mean your day job if you have one, I mean those extra entrepreneurial things that we often think up. I will start......

1. Tutoring kids
2. Teaching piano
3. Restoring photographs
4. babysitting
5. Teaching Scrapbooking
6. Writing people's life stories.
7. Selling on Ebay
8. Garage sales
9. Selling at 2nd hand stores
10. Markets

I love how in days gone by people made their own money. Lots of people worked for themselves. Small towns and villages had the local butcher baker and candlestick maker. Today we tend to think that we either have a job or we don't. Or that if we're only making a few dollars then it's not 'worth it'.

When you generate your own money - even if it's only $20, you have the satisfaction of knowing that therein lies a few cartons of milk, some fruit and veg and eggs!

So...... the question is over to you: How have you generated income yourself, or what would you love to do if you knew you couldn't fail or you had all the time you needed ?
Post your reply in the comments section or send me an email and I will put together a list for everyone to enjoy. If you would like to tag some friends to participate simply paste the link to this post into their comments section and ask them to post here.

To get started I am tagging:

9 comments:

Minni Mum said...

This is a good one Busy Woman. It's amazing how all those small amounts - $20 here and $15 there - all add up over a year, and they can make a substantial difference. I'm not doing much at the moment due to time constraints, but I sell regularly on eBay because it's so easy, and the money goes towards school fees.

In the past I've also tutored, had garage sales and sold at markets. I've done baskets of ironing and some cleaning, and I'm hoping to work up my domestic and gardening skills to start doing things like clothing alterations and selling heirloom vegetable seeds, if I can't get part time work doing computer drafting, which I have done in the past. When my garden is operating really well some time in the future I would also like to start offering classes in backyard organic/ permaculture fruit and veg production perhaps?

Cheers, Julie

lightening said...

I used to sell Tri Nature products for a few extra dollars. I've also done the babysitting thing.

I've never sold anything for $$ although I do believe in a kind of karma so give our stuff away and we get blessed in many ways.

I earn a few dollars online here and there with paid surveys and the like. It's not much but it gives me a few dollars from time to time to spend on myself.

One day I'd like to teach piano for money. At the moment I'm teaching our DD so it's technically saving us money not earning it (but given we'd budgetted for her to have music lessons I'm kind of earning it).

I still find though that my time is best served in saving money - vegie gardening, cooking from scratch, watching our finances. It all makes quite a big difference to our bottom line (so we've discovered when I can't do what I normally do).

I'm just starting to earn a few dollars blogging too (not that I've been paid anything). It's only about $20 a month at the moment but still a nice little amount of pocket money for me. :)

Cindi said...

I sew and embroider for others. When I first started eight years ago it was every now and again. There seems to be a big demand for it though and I stay pretty busy most weeks.

Robbyn said...

In the past I've taken in ironing, I babysat fulltime for years, worked weekends as a floral designer and aid to a wedding consultant doing special occasions, did a stint at home assembly items, freelance writing, teaching and teacher's assitance at a private school, kept study halls and acted as a proctor for testing, graded papers and etc and teacher's aide paperwork, baked goods, cleaned houses, house-sat, pet-sat while owners out of town, had those parties where some salesperson sells things, set up a booth in an antique mall, answered phones for small private company from home, helped project manage construction, and did market research. Most loved jobs? teaching and keeping children. Most hated? market research and ironing...and Tupperware..lol! :)

Kathy said...

I sell some of our stuff on Ebay, especially the kids toys which they have outgrown, also am an agent for a cloth nappy company. But right now I'm happily selling Avon, so far its not making much money cause I buy goods with all my profits but i figure that its stuff I'd have bought anyway in the supermarket or chemist, I'm very conscience of not buying 'wants' just sticking to 'needs'.

Anonymous said...

I have sold on ebay (and probably should try listing a few things soon). I sold handmade dolls clothes when I was at high school and a few years ago with a couple of friends, we sold craft through a party plan program. I have also sold jams and pickles at markets. Over the last couple of years, I have been registered with AC Neilsen for online surveys and have received about $80 worth of vouchers to Coles or Woolworths. These ventures have never made alot of money but mostly, they were fun because I was doing something that I enjoyed.

If I knew I wouldn't fail, I think that I would like to do something with plants in particular herbs. what I don't know.

Thanks, Tracy

Hard up Hester said...

Hi
I babysit, dog sit, take in lodgers, knit, sew, work on a chat line, sell on Amazon & Ebay, I also work full time.
Hester

Country Girl said...

This Spring we bought both laying chicks & broilers and sold what we did not want to keep and made enough to get our birds for free and pay for some of there feed. Last fall, last minute the kids and I put out a stand selling corn stalks, pumpkins, and squash we did better then expected. So this year we have decided to have an official farm stand selling fresh vegetables and farm fresh eggs. Right now the kids are selling crawlers for bait for fishing, they have sold 15 dozen in the last 2 weeks. We are always looking for ways to make a few extra bucks aside from our nursing jobs.

Roopa said...
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