Odd sources of income.

[Boucher]

I am retired and like it that way, but I am always on the lookout for those obscure ways for SIL to make some pocket money. The thread regarding sharpening ice cutting augers was on my mind today when we took 200 lbs of Pecans and had them cracked. At $ .50/lb the guy made a quick $100. This is very seasonal but with the traffic through there he is doing well. The new machines are so much better than the older ones he has two setting idle.

[winchman]

I used to pretty much pay for my model airplane hobby by building electric winches and accessories for launching model sailplanes. The business dried up with the improvements in batteries and motors that made battery-powered self-launching sailplanes practical. There used to be half a dozen people who built winches part-time. Now there's just one that I know of.

[WhatTheFlux!]

I repair old sewing machines or at least clean/oil/re-belt them for the secondhand store. I started dabbling with the turntables and radios they sometimes get in.

Noticed there is a market for old tubes. I'm going to work with them and see if I can't harvest some from working but unsellable radios and turn them around various ways. (CL, hobby forums).

[boslab]

I tend to buy electrical tools that don't work and recycle them, they are all tested and sold with a 12 month guarantee so it makes some pennies, i used to test appliances and tools in work so i have a tester and so forth, nothing has come back yet!
Surprising how simple some of the repairs are, just a flex on a rotobroach recently, bought for £10, sold £250 so its an avenue to explore on the side
Mark

[toolmaker76]

A friend of mine worked at a car dealership when I took early retirement from a major corporation. He told me that the dealerships sometimes will pay people to move cars from one lot to another (say, 50 miles or so) when a customer is looking for a certain vehicle and it is not on the lot. I wound up with another job and he moved away so never pursued it.

My cousin worked at a bus company almost a thousand miles away, and one of their drivers fell ill and was hospitalized just a few miles away from me. I made a few extra bucks transporting the driver to the airport. I don't know how you could ever get on a list to be available for something like that.

Had a job doing some assembly that lasted a couple of years, picked that one up on Craigslist. There are a few of the part time or gig jobs that show up that have some promise, along with a lot that that are "out there."

I am told that some of the chain stores will pay part-timers to do assembly of bicycles and lawnmowers and such. The fellow that delivered/ installed our refrigerator last year was a contractor and not employed by the store.

[vpt]

I as well am always looking for something to fill in the slow times. I have figured out pretty much anything can be bought from anywhere in need of repair, be fixed, and sold for a few bucks more. Many time I will just type in "needs" for a craigslist search or where ever just to see the items that "need work". Then I sort threw and pick out the ones I know are worth more than they are asking and need some sort of work that is suited to me and the tools I have in the shop. Sometimes it is a tool that needs work and it doesn't leave my shop ever. lol My shear is one of those.

[1-800miner]

While doing a job in a poor residential area I talked to a guy with a beat up flat bed pickup full of grocery carts.
He had contracts with the stores to collect and return the carts.
I asked what the stores paid per cart.
He grinned "I made 130,000$ last year"

I started paying attention. There was a large grocery about five blocks away.
There were fifty/sixty people a day bringing home groceries in carts then leaving them on the sidewalk.Just in my area.
I don't think he was exaggerating.

[dave5605]

My daughter has someone come to the house to groom/bathe her dogs. Lady has a pretty nifty, all self contained van setup.

Another guy comes and washes/details her cars. Again all self contained in his van.

There are people that maintain small fish ponds. People that come take your dogs for walks and feed them. I have a lady come feed my cats when I go on vacation.

Good 'housekeepers' are hard to come by. My daughters housekeeper gets $20/hr for 6 hrs work once a week and is well worth it. Most are quick in, quick out, push dust around and of dubious value.

[John Stevenson]

While doing a job in a poor residential area I talked to a guy with a beat up flat bed pickup full of grocery carts.
He had contracts with the stores to collect and return the carts.
I asked what the stores paid per cart.
He grinned "I made 130,000$ last year"

I started paying attention. There was a large grocery about five blocks away.
There were fifty/sixty people a day bringing home groceries in carts then leaving them on the sidewalk.Just in my area.
I don't think he was exaggerating.

That won't work here.
They either have a £1.00 coin in the slot to release it about $1.50 that you only get back when it's parked and plugged into the next trolley or Adsa [ UK Wallmart ] has sensors at the dge of the car park and if you go outside the bounds of the car park a plastic shield spins down over on of the front wheels and brakes the trolley to a stop.

All the trolley guys have to do is go round the edge of the car park , disable the brake and bring them back in.

You never see any trolleys around town any more now.

But having said that ,



That industrial compound just round the corner from me is actually full of shopping trolleys, hard to see but that's what they are. Must be tens of thousands given that that piles are about 10' - 12' high.

Two guys work there part time repairing them and robbing bits to make others good.
Probably get a decent living considering the rates on a place this size aren't cheap.

[Paul Alciatore]

I sure wish someone would tell my local groceries that the carts can be repaired. They seem to be in a contest to see who can have the worst carts.

[jatt]

Old boy used to get a few jobs that wern't feasible or a bit of an OH&S issue for the joint he previously worked for. Nothing obviously dangerous or toxic to health, but the way things are here... not worth it for them to do. Price included delivery, but they had to produce payment upon drop off.

You have to watch a lot of firms, they will try and stretch you out for payment. "Oh that's not how we pay, or we only do that side of things". This can easily push payment out up to close to 60 days, depending.

Nowdays its more of a case of doing small stuff for retail customers that's not worth bigger places taking on. Doesn't have the big overheads, rent etc...

Hope this helps

[jatt]

My bad, it should have been:

"Oh that's not how we pay, or we only do that side of things at the end of the month".

[mike4]

Its much the same with a lot of multinational companies, "we only pay every second week "

But its like others have said , keep looking and there is always a small job that "isnt worth setting a machine up " or something along those lines.

I have a few long term customers , but the one off jobs are sometimes very welcome .

Michael

[Guido]

We needed the typical portable john for a short two weeks. Was alarmed at the final charges, and challenged the owner operator of the service. He was an older guy and quite easy to talk with. I caved in easily enough, trying to visualize the scenes, respect and his general working conditions. Turned out he had an older truck used for hauling perfume water, efluent, supplies and making deliveries/pickups. His wife worked the phones and invoicing, he did the repairs and field servicing.

Yep, he owned 115 of the units, all homemade from a 55 gallon oil drum and two pieces of 3/4 in. plywood. Charged mob/demob and extra service if required. He could keep over 100 units in service, year around at 55 bucks per month, ie. annual income of at least 75 thou. That was in 1972, Tucson, Az, gasoline was 53 cents per gallon. And my salary had just been raised to 1700/month.