So lots of GREAT entries into our book giveaway last week!!!
Y’all made some good money on the weekends!!
Wanted to share a handful of my favorites today ‘cuz so many of them were so interesting and hopefully might spark some ideas over there for ya… Even though you might have to wait a while until the evil C passes to be able to do some of these, womp womp…
Zodiac Hustles only for now! Lol…
Before I forget though, let me announce our three lucky winners of Chris’ new book that he was so kind to offer up for us last week: The Money Tree: A Story About Finding the Fortune in Your Own Backyard
- Sara
- Kenya
- Nathan aka Millionaire Dojo
Congrats, guys!! I want an email after you make your first $1,000 off it! ;)
Now onto some of the cool things y’all have done for money over the years…
The “movie extra” and “yacht” ones sound dope!
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Music Gigs!
Just a few weeks before the virus forced us into a world-wide quarantine, I had my best weekend pull. Between tips, CD sales (yeah we still push those discs) and my standard gig rate I made $1,100. About 10 total performance hours Friday through Sunday which comes out to $110.00/hour.
Music’s been my weekend gig for the past 10 years. Normal weekend would bring in $150 to $300 dollars. A $450 weekend is usually considered ‘great’ in my world!
– Robert Feliciano, AminSafari.com
Here’s one of his music videos – La Rumba…Was waiting for Antonio Banderas to step in! ;)
And then here’s a side hustle we’ve featured before on the blog that goes a little more into what it’s like playing in a band (and making money from it): Side Hustle #48: Playing in a Band
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Sodding Neighbor’s Yard
I made $1,800 sodding a neighbors yard a few years back. My back hurt for the whole week but it helped get us out of a financial whole. Well worth the pain and all it took was asking neighbors if they had any work they needed done!
– JB, UpwardsofTwenty.com
That last line is key: “asking neighbors if they had any work they needed done!” Any of us could literally walk out our doors right now and do this if we wanted :) Standing 6 feet away, of course…
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Renting out your backyard!
the most I ever made was $3,000. We rented out the backyard for parking during the State Fair held a few blocks away. We undercut the Fair parking price and were only a block further away! Literally I found a fortune in my back yard!
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Flea Market Flipping!
The most I ever made over a weekend was $1,800.00. This was approximately 4 years ago when I started selling on the Amazon and eBay platforms.
I was at a flea market and found a weird looking video game made for a PC. I looked up the comps on Amazon and saw that it sold for $70.00. It only cost $8.00, so I asked if the gentleman had any more of these types of games. He said he had 26 more of the exact same one and he would sell them all for $5.00 each! Great score and they all sold within 3 months.
Here’s a great site around this if anyone wants to up their game: FleaMarketFlipper.com. Rob’s been a professional flipper since 1996 (!!), and now’s got his whole family involved :) Super great guy and shares all his secrets/tips through his blog and courses…
And then here are similar hustles we’ve covered over the years as well, but more *product* specific
- Side Hustle #79: Flipping Guitars! ($10,000/year)
- Side Hustle #34: Flipping Video Games (3x profit on avg. per game)
- Side Hustle #33: Flipping Collectible Sneakers ($50-$300/shoe)
- Side Hustle #31: Flipping Collectible Watches ($2,000-$7,000/watch)
- Side Hustle #54: Flipping Junk Mail! ($14+/coupon)
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Corporate Workshops
I made $10,000 for a one day workshop on using Mind Maps for organizational brainstorming and communications. Mind Maps are used to gather, organize and communicate information visually which helps to retain it more. I never had and not since made that kind of money at one time.
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High-end Waitressing
Serving food definitely led to the most money Iβve ever made in a weekend. Working at high end restaurants in Miami led to around $500 a night. It was fast-paced work, but man, did it ever pay.
One could choose to work at the clubs rather than the restaurants and easily bring in $7k in one night in tips, but that required wearing lingerie and putting up with misogynistic jerks for about 12 hours a night and I just couldnβt go there.
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eBay selling
The most I ever made in a weekend was about $750. I was at a garage sale and these people said I could have this box of stuff if I wanted it. They were going to throw it away, so I threw it in my car not thinking much about it.
When I got home and started looking up the contents of the box, I found that I had several pieces of rare, vintage cb radio equipment. I put it all up for auction on eBay and couldnβt believe how many people started bidding.
I hadnβt thought much about selling on eBay at that point, but after that experience I decided to start doing it as a side hustle and made about $10k last year.
– Nathan, MillionaireDojo.com
$10,000 a year since paying more attention to it – nice!
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Movie Set “Extra!”
The most I ever made in a weekend was about ~$1,500 as an extra on the set of the movie “Collateral” (starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx).
I was in college at the time and it was over Thanksgiving weekend and I had not planned on going home. My friend had heard about this “open-call” for extras and we went to check it out! Well, as things sometimes go, they needed females, not males. So I suddenly found myself in a weird fake “club” scene that was built in a cold warehouse.
We filmed shot after shot after shot, which equaled to over 12 hours of work some days! Some major highlights were:
1) The hourly rate was like… $15, but doubled at 8 hours to double-time, then triple time by hour 14? I hope that math comes out right. :)
2) I got to see Tom Cruise and meet Jamie Foxx! Jamie Foxx was much more sociable and came out to hang out with extras before and between shots. Tom Cruise did not, his body double would stand for hours and then he’d come in right before the shot.
Either way, super cool and more money than I had ever made in a weekend to date!
So cool :) And another hustle we’ve featured here on the blog recently – Side Hustle #78: Being a TV/Film “Extra”. I’d jump on this in a heartbeat if I didn’t have to keep some kids alive, haha… Super fun sounding, and from what I hear you can still do a lot of stuff on the down times while on set. Perfect for stacking hustles!
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Making/Selling Jewelry
The most money I ever made over a weekend was $800. I make jewelry as a side hustle and sold that much at a local festival one weekend.
– Amy J.
Another hustle we’ve covered before, only this guy focuses on COIN jewelry :) Side Hustle #70: Making Rings and Jewelry From Coins!
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Working on chartered yachts!
In my early 20βs I worked on charter yachts. My biggest weekend was a 3 day hire, base pay $500. Per day. Then came the tip- my portion was $2,100.00! Which of course I didnβt know any better and probably bought lots of drinks with!
– Caroline
(I asked if it was like that reality show, Below Deck, and apparently it is ;) “In ways, yes. A very small world of people who work in yachting – Who was sleeping with who – Which guests were horrible, etc. It was definitely a glimpse into a whole different world!”)
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And then perhaps the entry that made me smile most :)
The most I have made on the weekends are: Long kayak trips, many family dinners, walks in the woods, wine parties with friends, and time spent with my aging parents. All priceless!
In the last 10 years, I have not made any money on the weekends. I believe in striving for Work/Life Balance and after joining the FIRE movement, I have conditioned myself to work hard on weekdays and have been able to work two jobs (one career and one side hustle) without having to work weekends.
I read somewhere once that no one requests to have this put on their gravestone, “I wish I worked more!”. I happen to agree.
– Suzy, OTWcoaching.com
There’s def. a time for hustling, but also a time to soak up what all that hustling was done for: LIFE. And if you can manage to squeeze it in all during the *work week* regardless of your phase – even better!! Mad grinding, then mad relaxing! Can’t hate on that!
Here were a few other comments I enjoyed reading as well before we go:
- “The most I ever made was $10k when I was in real estate⦔ (As a former realtor of all of 3 months, I can attest to how big those payouts are! But would be a lot more fun if you weren’t at someone’s beck and call 24/7!)
- “The most I ever made was $450 after taxes when I was in the National Guard” (Here’s a post around being a Reservist if anyone was ever curious about that: Side Hustle #27: Air Force Reservist)
- “The most I ever made wasΒ $250 judging high school theatre competitions.” (That sounds fun :))
- “The most I ever made was $800 from two modeling gigs!”
- “I made $300 playing blackjack in Las Vegas. Partially made up for many less successful Vegas trips.”
Thanks to everyone who participated! Really enjoyed reading all your comments!
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What fun stories! I used to make pretty great money working the bar at weekend parties over long weekends. I was a collage student at the time and did part time waitressing during the week and these gigs were big money earners at the time. We would start super early in the day, set up the bar, work our butts off serving drinks, then shut the bar down and clean And I had so much fun! I could listen to the DJs and have a dance whilst I worked and I loved the teamwork and the sense of satisfaction at the end of the day. Those days are long gone now. Like 20 years gone and, literally, the other side of the planet gone! Now I identify with Suzy. I work hard during the week in my paid job, and my non paid community service work, and love my weekends with my husband and dog exploring the parks and cooking or going out for a meal with friends.
Love it :) And one of my top 3 jobs I wanna try one day once my kids get older! Bartending!! Sounds SO FUN and you get to meet a ton of people too!
I’ve got one I’m fairly proud of, although it’s over the course of a year rather than a weekend – when I was a freshman in high school (which was 2003), I started playing a text-based online game called Hyperiums (it’s still active, http://www.hyperiums.com), and played actively up until 2011 or so (once I began working full time I wasn’t able to commit the required activity to really succeed).
The game was technically free to play, but if you wanted full accessability, you had to purchase in-game credits at a rate of ~$4/credit (the price fluctuated some over the years), which gave you 3 months of full access play. However, you could also buy extra credits and sell them for in-game cash, if you were so inclined, to give yourself a leg up (to then buy more resources, fleets, etc.).
Well, at my peak during college I was ranked in the top 50-100 of maybe 1000 active players, and I had the resources to do the opposite; I bought the credits folk were selling for in-game cash, and sold them via paypal for less than $4 (sometimes as low as $2, sometimes as high as $3.50), sometimes dozens at a time (My in-game cash was also needed to maintain my level, so I wasn’t able to constantly buy and sell)…my best earning year was my sophomore year in college (2007-2008), when I pulled in ~$2400 in a 12 month period…on the whole I’d probably say I made $4000-$5000 before I quit (at that time, I couldn’t put in enough hours to be any good, which meant no more being able to buy credits…the game also declined in popularity shortly thereafter).
Super interesting!!
Reminds me of our post the other week when I discovered people spend real life money on digital money in video games :) Had no idea how prevalent that was!
https://budgetsaresexy.com/have-you-ever-spent-money-inside-a-video-game/