Fast, Easy ways to make extra money



Posted: Wednesday, July 15, 2009

by Maxine Headd

My husband and I make money working from home. We don't make a great deal of money, not thousands of dollars, but we do average about $150.00 to $200. a week. We find that working outside of the home is fun, profitable, and extremely easy to do and provides us with money to eat out or buy the "extra" things we need above our limited income.

The first way that we make money is by recycling metals. Every two to three weeks, we load up our little two wheeled trailer, and head to the junk yard. Yes, I did say junk yard. With the war in Iraq, the price of heavy metals has increased and junk yards will pay you money for metals like Aluminum, Cast Iron, Copper, Brass, and many others. To date, we have recycled old stoves, lawn chairs, refrigerators, and dryers, old microwaves, and we have been able to bring in almost a hundred dollars a load.

There was one weekend that we actually made two hundred dollars. If I was working at minimum wage

8 hours a day I would make about $57.00 dollars a day. Where do we get the junk that we sell to recyclers? Well, many people just leave their junk out for the junk man. If the Junk man is resourceful, he will go through and find the recyclable items and sell them to metal recyclers. Copper is paying about $3.00 a pound in our area now. Aluminum cans are 65 cents a can.

My husband is a pack rat, and fills up our garage with things we really don't need, but when we get a good price for some of them at the junk yard I don't mind. You can also check your garage and yard for recyclable materials. We've all seen old cars abandoned, well these cars are worth $180.00 a piece in an "as is" condition. You do now need a title to sell these abandoned cars to the junkyard. They will even come and get them from you without charging a fee, they pay you for the privilege. Junk Dealers have paid as much as $75.00 to $200. for an old car, but sometimes they pay $250.00. The price of the car depends on the overall tonnage weight of the car. This is just one way people are making money in recycling. Sometimes, people buy a working car for $200.00 and then take the car apart and sell the different items. You can make a lot of money doing this if you have a list of people ready to buy these items from you.

Here is another way to make extra money for your home. Everyone's favorite way to make extra money is to have a yard sale. To have a yard sale go through your home, find all the things that are just taking up space and have a yard sale. This will not only get you extra money but you will have fun during the yard sale meeting People, haggling over prices, and even seeing old friends. I have had yard sales that make over $200.00 a weekend, or even in one day. You can gather up all the things you are tired of keeping around the house and sell them at the yard sale. After the sale you could even go shopping for more stuff with the money you made from working at home. Yard sale signs go up on street corners, newspapers, and in front yards. Yard sale signs are everywhere in the cities during the early spring to late October. You can go to one, or have your very own and make some extra money, enjoy yourself, and visit with old friends or make new ones.

Flea markets are also a good way to make money, but here, you have to choose carefully the products you want to sell. Handcrafted items are popular in flea markets, but many are too pricey. A good way to find out where the flea markets are, is to do some research on where flea markets are.

You can easily research this by going on line using your computer and finding some flea markets that are close to your home. You can go to these flea markets then, observe the items that are selling, which item sells best, the current prices of the item, location, and ongoing foot traffic.

Also, some flea markets and trade shows charge entry fees so watch out for that!

Another way to make extra income is to make something by hand, or find something you don't need, or want anymore. You can list that item for sale on eBay. A lot of money is being made by eBay on-line. eBay is one of the best auction sites online. Listing and selling your items on eBay is made simple by eBay's tools which make the online site easy to use. The prompts are there to guide you through everything you need to do in order to list your item for sale. Thousands of people have even made eBay their own source of income and do very well. Selling and listing fees on eBay are reasonable. eBay has built-in guarantees by the company to lower any risk of losing your money to fraudulent buyers. Finding a product to sell on eBay may be your biggest problem. Excitement can get very high on eBay. This weekend I watched an IBM Computer being auctioned for .01 cents. It was a 24 hour plus listing. At the end of the auction, when I stopped watching, the item had reached a bid of $!

88.00 and still had a few hours to go. I believe the final cost for the computer was $188.00.

That is still a good price for the laptop computer.

Maxine Headd is a writer who lives in Marion, Illinois. She loves to write about her family history and other titles. She has written 42 stories so far. There are more stories on Helium.com.

Maxine has four children and has supplied them with many Ghost stories for many years. She loves to watch animals and tell of their adventures. Also, some of the stories are made up, but many of them tell her family history.

Maxine attended John A. Logan College and Southern Illinois University in the beautiful Southern Illinois Hills.
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