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I want to start a bit of a different kind of thread to stimulate some thought... What could you do in a day to scrape up an extra $20 if you had to? I don't want this to get too intense and there is no prize for the winner. The purpose is to stimulate creative thought and perhaps teach others.

Guidelines- 1) You can't do more of what you already do for a living (I.e., working OT at your job). 2). Assume that you have a vehicle full of gas that you can use. 3) assume that there are no chaotic or unsafe conditions you need to be concerned about. 4) unlike the real world, if you make $1,000 or more it is no better than earning $20. 5) I'm not gonna score all the responses, but you get one point for realistically having the potential to earn $20 in a single day. You then get one additional point for each type of income stream. 6) don't make up stuff that's you'd never do (or at least mention that you wouldn't really do it). 7) you can't sell or barter anything you already own 8) you can't get coins from a bank and look for silver or wheaties or coins of value.

I'll start. I think I could find some spare change at a Coinstar machine or in a vending machine or pay phone. Then I could give blood. And then I could do some scrapping from trash bins of local businesses or Craig's List curbside pickups.
Getting $20 gives me 1 point. The three different ways of making money gives me three additional points for a total of 4 points.

Cut your own hair.

Mow your own lawn. (Or shovel your own drive, for those up north.)

Change your own oil.

Only buy food on sale, in bulk.

Sell fire wood
collect and sell hickory nuts and/or walnuts
collect cans and bottles from the roadside
curbside pickup of scrap metal.

Walk through bars on a Friday night with your eyes on the floor - I worked in a bar for 9 years, can't tell you how much money I found on the floor

Sell hugs for $1 outside bingo hall

Challenge drunk people to feats of strength for $

Tomorrow in particular, shovel snow

Slip and fall in the mall, settle out of court for $20

Catch perch and sell

Visit nursing home, claim it is my birthday

Find lonely man, have wife show boobs

These are all things that I could do tomorrow to make $20 that I feel pretty confident would work. Would I do all of these things? I suppose it would depend on how badly I needed $20!

Sell plasma.

coppernickel wrote:Sell plasma.

Took my idea. But does selling plasma/blood break the rule about not selling things you already own?

Drive around to different Goodwills, find valuable items for cheap, and sell them on ebay.

Drive around the morning of trash collection with your truck, load up on anything/everything you can find, then put it all in a yard sale.

brian0918 wrote:

coppernickel wrote:Sell plasma.

Took my idea. But does selling plasma/blood break the rule about not selling things you already own?

I think that selling plasma or giving blood would be ok.

This one is very regional and seasonal but in many places there are wild foods you could collect for good money. As a kid I would find mushrooms for a local guy for 30 bucks a pound. Out here in the SW I can collect pinon nuts and readily sell them. A guy in west virginia I know from gardening forums makes a few k a year collecting various herbs, all legal stuff. Some of these things are rather valuable since they are wild and seasonal.

I know old ginseng roots can bring big bucks.

Thogey wrote:I know old ginseng roots can bring big bucks.

I tried digging some up but the ground's frozen solid!

Recycling.

I can not even start to try and count the times I have just walked into small businesses and ask them if they had any metal junk to get rid of. You can make a ton of money just by doing this. Once I walked into a dog kennel and asked them if they had any junk they would like hauled away. Yes, back in the shed there was some stuff left by the last owner of the property. Showed me two siding brakes with stands and told me they were mine if I wanted to haul them out. Three days later I had them both sold and pocketed over 600 in cash. This is America guys, it's out there just waiting to be found!

In a larger than normal portion of the US today, shovel a driveway.

Good one Silversaddle

Now that shoveling driveways has been mentioned, I may as well add pulling weeds (or spraying them).

If you live in the northeast, fill nylons with salt and sell them to people with ice dams.

Go to golf courses and pick up stray golf balls. Leave behind any that belong to the golf course driving range. Sort through the rest picking out the most popular brands and sell those on eBay.

Find old folks neighborhoods and offer to take them places or do errands for them. Accept old coins for payment!

Recycling part 2

Walking the roads for junk to recycle. With a big bag you look just like a clean up crew member.

When I was a kid we would collect aluminium cans, and not to date myself, but glass Coke bottles for deposit.

coppernickel wrote:
When I was a kid we would collect aluminium cans, and not to date myself, but glass Coke bottles for deposit.

you could still do that in ohio when I was a kid in the 80s. It was sweet as heck, there was a bar right next to a convenience store I was allowed to walk to. Id collect the bottles from their trash that I was able to turn in and could get myself something basically anytime I went. Well if my mom didn't know she hated me doing that.

Recycling bottles was worth 10¢ each, and a two dimes was enough for a candy bar. It was worth it.

coppernickel wrote:Recycling part 2

When I was a kid we would collect aluminium cans, and not to date myself, but glass Coke bottles for deposit.

Same here. We (friends & I) used to collect soda bottles and turn them in for Baseball/Football card money. On Saturday and Sunday mornings around parking lots, we could usually find enough to buy a half box of card packs, until they went up in price to a dime a pack. Then we could only get half as many packs! Good memories!

Go around to construction sites, looking for scrap lumber. Sell the things that you build with the lumber.

A lot of sanding, a little stain, and some patience can make pine look a bit better than it did in a dumpster.

Doctor Steuss wrote:Go around to construction sites, looking for scrap lumber. Sell the things that you build with the lumber.

A lot of sanding, a little stain, and some patience can make pine look a bit better than it did in a dumpster.

Nice!

I asked Mother if she had any ideas, and her off the cuff comment was, "steel it from Dad's wallet."

I know several people who drive downtown everyday to go to work, and each pay $10.00 a day to park. I could offer to drive them to work and drive them home for $5.00 round trip. So, I would take all three of them at the same time, and on the way I would stop at the dollar store and pick up 1 can of brown shoe polish, 1 can of black shoe polish, 1 shoe shine brush, 1 micro fiber cloth, & 1 bottle of shoe dressing. Drop everyone off at work, park my car in the garage for $10.00, and sit out in front of their building all day and charge $1.00 each for shoe shines. I would easily make $20.00