Making Money on the Side

[Weedygarden]

Do any of you have ways that you make money on the side? I saw that someone here makes and sells crafts at craft fairs.

I wonder what any of you do as a side or for extra income?

I have been making money on the side for most of my adult life, besides a regular job: working retail, house sitting, dog sitting, tutoring, selling used books online, etc. I belonged to a fiber art guild and we had a few tables at local craft fairs and I made great money selling pine cone wreaths.

How about this? I have been seeing these at craft fairs for years. Now someone is selling them online. There are many varieties of flavors. What I like about these is that what you don't sell, you can give as a gift, or take home and put in your pantry and make when you need cookies or something. I'd bet this person has it going on though and just keeps making and selling these, but maybe not. This time of year is a great time for something like this. I have received a few as gifts myself. I just didn't expect to see them being sold on Amazon, but more of an Etsy item. Yes, people sell them on Etsy, for much less than the Amazon price. I also think this is a bit high in price, compared to what you could buy a mix for in the store. It does not necessarily take much skill to make these, but the trickier part is setting up the account, listing it for sale, and then shipping it so that it does not get broken on the way.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BFWWO2S/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Amish Heart]

I have sold and given away a number of those jar foods. The cookie, pancake, oatmeal and dried fruit mixes go well. So do the hot cocoa mixes in a jar with dehydrated marshmallows.
I have been surprised this last year how well home canned foods have sold. Jalapeno jelly, pear sauce, apple sauce, peach sauce, sauerkraut have sold well. I decorate the top with a material circle tied with raffia.
Another surprise that sells well are salves. Lotions sell ok, but essential oil salves are easy and cheap to make and sell well. Especially if you do a blend. Like a sleep blend, or a breathe blend.
I've not sold on Etsy, though. Just local stuff. Just sold 6 jelly and sauces to a repeat customer.

 

[Patchouli]

Weedy, Amish, we know a couple that started a home-based business slow and small. They are now basically "filthy" rich. They will not have to worry about their financial situation ever again.
I have a friend who sells online but what I mostly see happening there is her collection of stuff to resell grows bigger while she's not making much money, at all.
Be careful of your cottage food laws too. Some states are relaxed, some not.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Here DH does mowing and whipper snippering jobs which brings in a fair amount of extra cash for us. We both also dry home grown herbs/lavender and sell them online and also save garden seeds which both sell really well. I also design homewares and believe it or not a lot of curtain tiebacks sell along with my own design of 5 layer cotton eye masks are also a good seller. Recently we have also been selling vintage antique items we salvage from varying places too. We also sell fresh vegetables from our home gardens to a few friends too.

 

[Weedygarden]

Weedy, Amish, we know a couple that started a home-based business slow and small. They are now basically "filthy" rich. They will not have to worry about their financial situation ever again.
I have a friend who sells online but what I mostly see happening there is her collection of stuff to resell grows bigger while she's not making much money, at all.
Be careful of your cottage food laws too. Some states are relaxed, some not.

I would consider having a collection of stuff, inventory, except if you are not making much money, it is junk.

There is always a learning curve.

I started selling used books online because I had boxes of stuff that I wanted to get rid of. I tried to see if some of it would sell online. The books were the easiest and quickest for me to sell. I have now looked through and gone through 10o's of boxes of books. Usually one or two per box are worth listing. Sometimes I hit the jackpot with a box of books, other times they are all duds. The rest I donate. But I do have to keep going through boxes of books to find something of value to sell, and getting rid of the boxes of duds.

I have a friend who has a basement full of boxes of books. She decided she would like to sell them. She brought a box and with my help, started to go through them. When you have invested in something, you would like there to be a value for your investment. It doesn't work that way with most books these days. Most books have the most value as fire tinder these days, especially fiction paperbacks. She is a reader and probably bought herself several new books a month for more than 50 years of her adult life, that she probably read. But they are worthless now. List them for free on Craigslist, give your address to the first interested person, and let them haul the worthless books away. It is all part of learning.

 

[Terri9630]

Do any of you have ways that you make money on the side? I saw that someone here makes and sells crafts at craft fairs.

I wonder what any of you do as a side or for extra income?

I have been making money on the side for most of my adult life, besides a regular job: working retail, house sitting, dog sitting, tutoring, selling used books online, etc. I belonged to a fiber art guild and we had a few tables at local craft fairs and I made great money selling pine cone wreaths.

How about this? I have been seeing these at craft fairs for years. Now someone is selling them online. There are many varieties of flavors. What I like about these is that what you don't sell, you can give as a gift, or take home and put in your pantry and make when you need cookies or something. I'd bet this person has it going on though and just keeps making and selling these, but maybe not. This time of year is a great time for something like this. I have received a few as gifts myself. I just didn't expect to see them being sold on Amazon, but more of an Etsy item. Yes, people sell them on Etsy, for much less than the Amazon price. I also think this is a bit high in price, compared to what you could buy a mix for in the store. It does not necessarily take much skill to make these, but the trickier part is setting up the account, listing it for sale, and then shipping it so that it does not get broken on the way.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BFWWO2S/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Our Wal-Mart sells them for $6.

 

[Weedygarden]

Our Wal-Mart sells them for $6.

The Mason jar cookie mixes? That is closer to what it should cost. I have worked with people who made a mix for all of their students and I have worked with teachers who had their students make these mixes for family gifts. I would think you could make them up for $3 to 4, maybe less.

 

[Bacpacker]

For a few years I did custom bush hogging and built, planted, and harvested a small garden for a private individual mainly to teach her kids where their food came from. The money was decent, but I was spending more time making money instead of growing more of our own food. I gave that up and went back to my own garden.

 

[angie_nrs]

Sometimes DH and I do firewood (but realized after getting ripped off a few times) it was much more lucrative to just do our regular jobs. He can put in as much OT as he wants, but we are getting burned out, so are starting to put the brakes on the work and enjoying life more. Still, I like thinning out some of the dead wood on our property and taking it to freinds. Typically we don't sell it, but we certainly could, and sometimes (albeit rarely) we do. We both have strong backs and working chainsaws......the 'motivation' now is the hold up. LOL! Maybe once we're both retired, we'll work harder at it......or not.

Hubs likes to tinker with old engines and is on the road a lot so he sees things during his travels that he knows he can flip and make money on. He still does that sometimes, but he's getting pretty picky about what he'll buy now b/c we are starting to get lazy. We don't truly NEED the money (since we aren't missing any meals) so we just do deals that are really worth the effort. I also buy some things on garage sales that I know I can flip and make money on. My problem with that usually is that I don't typically sell stuff. I'll just keep it around b/c I know it has value. I'm a bit of a pack rat.

 

[Patchouli]

But it would be better to sell while still operational and useful or it will become obsolete.

 

[Weedygarden]

Weedy, Amish, we know a couple that started a home-based business slow and small. They are now basically "filthy" rich. They will not have to worry about their financial situation ever again.
I have a friend who sells online but what I mostly see happening there is her collection of stuff to resell grows bigger while she's not making much money, at all.
Be careful of your cottage food laws too. Some states are relaxed, some not.

I think there is the potential for starting your own business in many interests. There are many things that people haven't yet thought of. I think starting small is more stable and manageable than when people want to borrow money and go big in a hurry.

 

[Weedygarden]

Weedy, Amish, we know a couple that started a home-based business slow and small. They are now basically "filthy" rich. They will not have to worry about their financial situation ever again.
I have a friend who sells online but what I mostly see happening there is her collection of stuff to resell grows bigger while she's not making much money, at all.
Be careful of your cottage food laws too. Some states are relaxed, some not.

I went to a preparedness event a few years ago. There were all kinds of vendors and demonstrations going on. There was one business whose name I have forgotten. It is a business that is all kinds of mixes including dehydrated soups, muffins, etc. It seems it started as a home business and grew. The thing is to have a good business plan and to be unique, or to work a niche that no one else has.

 

[hiwall]

For a couple years I designed and made custom sights for rifles and pistols. I enjoyed designing and then building the different ones that I sold online. Everything I made sold well and I made a fair amount of money. Then I grew tired of it and quit.
Next I wrote short stories and published them. Did that for a few years. Now I am quitting doing that (though I will continue to get the book royalties for who knows how long).
This last summer I made many hunting knives but I have never sold any though I have given several away. I know the knives will never be a money maker but it was something to keep me busy.
I do have a fairly complete machine shop and I am somewhat competent at making and fixing things. I also am quite good at thinking-outside-the-box so I might come up with a gadget that I can make and sell or I could always go back to making sights again. Or I can do nothing but that would be the biggest problem because I am a do-er.

 

[Patchouli]

I went to a preparedness event a few years ago. There were all kinds of vendors and demonstrations going on. There was one business whose name I have forgotten. It is a business that is all kinds of mixes including dehydrated soups, muffins, etc. It seems it started as a home business and grew. The thing is to have a good business plan and to be unique, or to work a niche that no one else has.

Lol. Yep. That's probably their company. They pay somebody else to do it all now.

 

[Woody]

Back when my body would let me do the work…

I was a craftsman with lots of tools and a flatbed pickup. Carpentry, plumbing, firewood, stone, brick… I was an in-demand kind of guy. When I wasn’t working on my place, there were always a couple offers of projects to do, mostly for barter but I also accepted cash.

Fast forward to today… (and it sure went faster than I ever thought!!)…

The old body prevents me from doing all that anymore. I still have the knowledge, but no tools or truck anymore. I tried ‘renting’ myself out as a ‘husband’s helper’. If people had home projects I would stop by and get them started with supplies, suggestions, extra set of hands… Basically using my experience to guide them through projects.

It ended up pretty frustrating for me. Many folks think they have more skills than they really do and take on too large/difficult of a project. Of course they do not like to hear anyone tell them that. I would tell them it is more of a project than they are capable of doing, they try anyway then blame me for not being ‘good enough’ to give them the proper help. On others I ended up doing all the work and took days to recover, not what I could handle. I threw in the towel.

Tried getting part-time work at Lowes and such. No dice. For whatever reason they hire morons instead of folks who could actually help people with questions about projects. We all know what a majority of folks who work there are like, I am not being conceited on that. Yes, some are great, but a majority are just taking up space and trying to avoid customers. I would have thought they would seek out folks who could help customers. Someone comes in with a small piece of home plumbing… I can find out what they are trying to do and find all the supplies they would need to complete the job kind of thing. Not “What is that? A drain? Plumbing aisle 42 & 43.” But rather “Drain? Looks like a kitchen trap, what is the issue? Let’s walk down to isle 42 and get a start on it…”

I have taken to helping in food establishments. Easy work and great bennies.

Recently I talked two women into creating a job for me that they didn’t know they needed. I come in on delivery days, put stock away, do some maintenance (sharpen knives, sanitize storage shelves, rotate stock…) and do the little jobs they never had time for. They were amazed at the difference just having someone come in a few hours three times a week makes in their operation. Stock room is always in order, no boxes of product stacked randomly around, knives always sharp… And I always have lots of time to do the ‘crap’ work that no one else likes. Need two cases of sweet taters peeled and diced? I’m your man. Big orders need getting ready for the weekend? Give Woody a call and have him come in for a couple hours to do prep work. Dishwasher called in sick? I am there to fill in whenever needed, they love that.

For bennies, I get access to bulk restaurant supplies. Outdated cans/supplies from the store also. Anything that is past expiry they have to toss, I take it as most are still good. If you have never been in a wholesale restaurant supply warehouse, it is a thing to behold. I have been to one in Philadelphia three times and have not seen all of it. Imagine a place that stocks enough to supply restaurants and grocery stores in any given area, that is a LOT of fruits, veggies, meats and all. I also get free meals and more than enough to take home, cuts way back on my food budget.

I am finding it is also an in-demand skill to have. They have talked me up enough to where I have had others offer me temp employment at their establishments. It is easy work (for an old man like me anyway) and just requires minimal skills with sharp objects and the ability to count. I do not think I will have any problems finding employment when I move back to NC. From what I have seen, everyone wants to be ‘head chef’ or king of the kitchen! They always need folks who are willing to do the prep work. I think the key would be to not get involved in too large of an operation. No huge restaurant or chain with tons of employees. A smaller establishment where I can ‘float’ around more and fill in as needed.

 

[txcatlady]

I am retired and work 29 hours a week. I also clean selective houses for $20.00 and hour. There is a market but most people don't want to pay that much. One house every week, one every other week and one is seasonal.

 

[angie_nrs]

But it would be better to sell while still operational and useful or it will become obsolete.

Nah, dontcha know everything old has become new again? I rarely buy clothes or electronics or things that don't have staying power. A couple of things I bought last year was an old kitchen mechanical scale for $5 and a small crank style grinder of some sort for $5. I'm still not 100% sure what it's for, but I know it's an antique. For those prices, I just couldn't pass them up. I've also bought some nice used dishware and such for when the kids get a camper or permanent home and need those types of things. I remember when we first got our camper, it was pretty pricy to stock it with all those things. It's almost like having a second home, so those expenses add up pretty quickly.

Woody - your story was so cool! I love it when people realize their worth and have success in showing others what they are capable of. Extra hands in those areas (especially food) are soooooo valuable! There's a tavern within walking distance of my house and one of these days I want to do the same thing you are doing. Right now, I just don't care for the owners. I'm hoping someone buys them out soon. I have lots of fresh ideas for that place, but I'm not going to waste my time or energy selling it to the current owners. They are always looking for help......but I'm not going there until it changes hands. I would just approach them with....."hey, I have an idea I would like to try on Weds night, will you let me run an ad in the paper for a week or two, and let me give it a shot?" If it doesn't work out, they really haven't lost anything. Currently, they don't run specials and they don't really have a specialty that many others in the community do. Their kitchen is underutilized. I really do think I could make magic happen there.

 

[Patchouli]

I'm just speaking from experience and what I've seen. So many people want everything new and right now. Not me. I'm heading into vintage myself. Lol

 

[angie_nrs]

I'm just speaking from experience and what I've seen. So many people want everything new and right now. Not me. I'm heading into vintage myself. Lol

I'm in the same boat as you. I like my vintage stuff a lot! I still have the games and toys of my childhood which helped give me such a vibrant imagination. Things just seemed like so much fun back then. I could play for hours by myself in my room with marbles, fisher price people, barbies, coloring books, comic books, music, etc. I wouldn't trade it for the world and sometimes feel sad for the youngsters now that don't get that kind of exposure. Of coarse, I didn't have as much free time as most kids these days do b/c I had chores to do. Also, if I wanted to buy a new comic book or candy or whatever.....I had to save for it first before I could get it. It's sad that kids these days don't have to do that. It taught me very early on to delay gratification and earn my own way..........which made whatever I wanted to buy even better!

It seems that there are a lot more opportunities these days to make money on the side. Back in the day folks wouldn't even think about paying someone else to mow their lawns, wash their cars, or cut their wood. Now-a-days, it's pretty easy to find folks willing to pay for those services. One of my kids had a lawn mowing business when he was a teen that he had to let go b/c he didn't have the time to do it all. Word of mouth spreads like wildfire around here.

 

[Weedygarden]

Woody, I love your story.

I am retired and work 29 hours a week. I also clean selective houses for $20.00 and hour. There is a market but most people don't want to pay that much. One house every week, one every other week and one is seasonal.

Housekeeping is something that more and more people want done for them these days. Some people work long hours, want a clean house, but also want a life. Housekeeping is just not my thing. I would like to have someone clean my house periodically, but don't want to spend the money.

 

[Patchouli]

We had a bunch of old "albums." They weren't LP, they weren't 33. Was it 45? Before my time. I priced them but it wasnt going to net much. I ended up giving them away.

 

[SheepDog]

Albums of really old vintage were 78s. Mom had a number of them with classical music on them. Not classical jazz - the true classical with Bach, Mozart, Beethoven etc. I liked listening to them when Elvis was all the rage. I never was an Elvis fan.

 

[Weedygarden]

Albums of really old vintage were 78s. Mom had a number of them with classical music on them. Not classical jazz - the true classical with Bach, Mozart, Beethoven etc. I liked listening to them when Elvis was all the rage. I never was an Elvis fan.

I was never an Elvis fan either. When I was a child, I remember being invited to go to the movies with a bunch of other girls of various ages from my neighborhood. It was an Elvis movie and some of the girls were almost hysterical. Hysteria makes me go flat. I watched the movie and really didn't get it.

 

[Terri9630]

The Mason jar cookie mixes? That is closer to what it should cost. I have worked with people who made a mix for all of their students and I have worked with teachers who had their students make these mixes for family gifts. I would think you could make them up for $3 to 4, maybe less.

I've seen chocolate chip cookie mixes and hot cocoa mix.

 

[Terri9630]

small crank style grinder of some sort for $5. I'm still not 100% sure what it's for, but I know it's an antique.

Post a picture and maybe we can tell you what its for.

 

[Patchouli]

Don't hurt me: # no elvis. I thought it was weird and kinda creepy. But I was kinda young for hysteria or care. Lol

Yes, @SheepDog they were 78s, confirmed by NH.

 

[Weedygarden]

Post a picture and maybe we can tell you what its for.

I agree.

 

[angie_nrs]

Housekeeping is something that more and more people want done for them these days. Some people work long hours, want a clean house, but also want a life. Housekeeping is just not my thing. I would like to have someone clean my house periodically, but don't want to spend the money.

I tried that once years ago, but I got weirded out by someone being else being in my house when I wasn't there. It was like an invasion of privacy. In addition, I would find myself cleaning things up so it wouldn't be messy when the housekeeper got here.

Post a picture and maybe we can tell you what its for.

I have a flip phone so I'll have to get my camera and get the item out of my storage area. It might take me awhile with the busy weekend, but I'll see what I can do. What a great suggestion! Thanks for mentioning it.

 

[backlash]

When I worked in a hospital I was always being asked to do repairs for people that didn't know how.
One nurse had a drip in a faucet. She called a plumber and he quoted her almost $200 for the job.
I did the repair and didn't charger her anything. Not even the $1 for the washer.
It was a 1 time deal and my wife accompanied me to the job.
The faucet was in her master bathroom and there was no way I would go there alone.
Not that she had any ulterior motives, but working in a place that was 85% females a guy just could never be too careful.
Several nurses and X-Ray techs suggested I start a Rent a Husband company.
I could have stayed as busy as I wanted.
My wife seemed to have an issue with that rent a husband idea.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Doing mending,sewing,cleaning houses.