Ways to find money

[SAVERSgirl]

My husband lost one of his jobs last February and we've been getting by on my salary and his substituting job. He didn't work over the summer, so things got pretty tight. Besides me working some overtime and him finding sporadic graphic design freelance work, we were able to find some money in unconventional ways:

My mother in-law has been paying universal insurance for my husband since he was born (don't get me started about how insuring a child is a waste of money...) and "gave" us the policy so she could stop making payments. Instead we cashed it out and got $1500, which is probably peanuts compared to what she put into it, sigh...

One day I was going through papers and found a 401K account my husband forgot about. He worked at Wal-mart through high school and college and they took out a little from each of his paychecks. We opened an IRA account for him and now have $5000 more for our retirement!

We turned in a mature savings bond and got around $200.

My husband had saved so many points on his credit card he used in college that he was able to turn them in and get $250. A few months later he was also able to get a $15 gift card from Office Depot and a $10 gift card from Amazon.

We tried to sell stuff on craigslist, but alas nobody wanted our stuff...so we donated it to Goodwill and will claim on this years taxes.

Have you found money in an unconventional way?

[try2bfrugal]

I charge everything I can on a cash back charge card, including as many as many monthly bills as I can like the cell phone bill. We have a 1% cash back card now and plan to get a 2% cash back card this year for more money back.

I made a little extra money this year from a signon bonus for opening up a checking account. I look for ones that do not do hard pulls for credit reports.

I recycle my ink cartridges for $2 cash back at office supply stores. I buy off brand ink cartridges that cost $2 each so I basically do not have to pay for printer ink any more.

I have gotten some free after rebate items from Staples. Sometimes I can go to Staples and get a whole cart of stuff for a few dollars, maybe zero dollars out of pocket, between my ink rewards, free after rebate items, coupons and sale items.

There was a guy in the news recently paying most of his college tuition by buying free after rebate stuff, putting the purchases on a cash back card and buying them through a cash back online shopping program and then selling the products on eBay.

It isn't money but I get a couple thousand dollars worth of free stuff for doing product reviews, so it frees up money in the household and food budget for other things.

I sign up for all sorts of newsletters and email lists and have them go to a throw away email account. I get all sorts of coupons that way, sometimes not dollars or percents off but just like $5 - $10 of free merchandise or free items at the grocery store. Today I have coupons for a free chocolate bar, iced tea, and $7 off jewelry but if I only buy something for $7 or less it will be free. I bunch up errands so I'm not spending any extra on gas to get the stuff. One of the thrift shops I go to has lots of day old bakery items from the local stores, including artisan bread, and gives it all away for free.

My husband has done some focus groups, like evaluating a commercial. I think he got a couple of hundred bucks for one.

We recycle our cans and bottles and let our kids take them to the recycling center or pocket money.

I buy bags of books at library book sales at the end of the day for a few dollars a bag and then sell the books I decide I don't want at the book store, so I usually end up making more than I spend that way.

[awakenedsoul]

What's helped me most has been to reduce my expenses. I've slashed a lot of old bills and have started growing as much food as I can. It's a real shift, because I used to buy so much produce. Now I remind myself to shop in the garden. What's helped me the most has been to stop spending. I don't even browse at the thrift stores anymore, because it's too easy to buy something. I've really changed my habits.

[MaryHu]

In the last year I opened a checking account with Chase to get the $125 opening bonus. Once I had completed the minimum period of time and complied with all the rules (like keeping $1500 in account at all times to avoid fees, using the debit card every so often etc.) to get the loot, I closed the account. Same with sterling Savings to get $100. Now I have a saving and checking with US Bank. I had to tie up $1000 for a year and play games with having auto deposits to the savings every month but I got a $50 visa cash card when I opened the account and I'll get another next January (1 year) when I've kept my balance above $1000 for the whole year. Then I'll close both accounts and look for the next opportunity. So that works out to 10%. Since the Chase account was only for 6 months it worked out to about 16.66%. The Sterling was even better: no min balance! I also opened a ING account online to get a $20 bonus with them. I'll keep that account since it offers a place to stash 'ready" cash at a better rate than brick and mortar banks. But it's not so "ready" that I can spend it on a whim. I just love making money off the banks! But seriously with interest rates so low this is the only way I've found to make any real return on my liquid money.

Of course you have to have the capital available and be able to tie it up for the necessary term. I just look at it as a CD. You also have to make sure you understand the requirements and will be able to meet them. In an emergency I could pull the $1000 out of US bank and lose the second visa cash card. Then I'd only have made 5%. Still better than anything else I can find.

[MaryHu]

My husband checks the book bin at the recycling center a few times a week on his walks and has found many books there that the local used book store has purchased. He also usually does pretty well at the last hour buck a bag sale at the Library book sale: finding stuff the used book store will buy.

He also has an eye for things at yard and rummage sales that may be more valuable than the sellers realize. He bought a record at a rummage sale for 50 cents that he sold on ebay for $250. He spotted an item at the local antiques mall for $12 that he sold for $350 on ebay. He found a rare CD for a buck that he sold for $35. But those occurrences are few and far between.

[SteveinMN]

Somewhere (probably in this forum) is a thread Kelli (Fidgiegirl) started on some new different and non-intense ways to make money. Ah, here (http://www.simplelivingforum.net/showthread.php?4560-Gettin-More-MONEY) it is! Kelli also has started a thread (http://www.simplelivingforum.net/showthread.php?4560-Gettin-More-MONEY) called the "Find $100 Challenge". Both of these might have lots of additional ideas.

[MaryHu]

I had a yard sale for charity in July. Friends had donated stuff and all the money goes to the chosen charity. Well there was lots of clothing left over. I took it to the 2 consignment shops here in town and so far I've gotten another $20 bucks or so. This will go to the charity also. After 90 days the consignment period is over and then I'll donate any leftovers to the local thrift store. But if I was hard up for funds I might take some of my own stuff in to sell and keep the $ for myself.

I volunteer at the local food bank and one of the older ladies I work with there asked me if I could do bill paying and keep the checking account of her neighbor balanced for an hourly fee. She recommended me highly to her neighbor since she's known me for many years and knows I do bookkeeping. So there's another small income stream for me. I go over to her house every other week for a couple of hours and she pays me $20 an hour. Some of the older people in town are really well fixed and don't bat an eyelid at paying real money for these services. I'm hoping she'll tell her friends about me and maybe I'll find a few more to help.

[fidgiegirl]

Thanks for the link back, Steve! It's true, I love these topics. Have gotten some good new ideas from this thread, too.