What is your money maker?

I don't know about your area, but here there is a tremendous need for unlicensed healthcare personnel (nurse assistants, home health aids, etc). These jobs require very little training and many employers will cover the cost of training if you agree to work for them for a period of time. All you need to get started is a HS diploma or GED and a clean background check (some misdemeanors are OK). Pay is generally $10-$15/hr. Check hospitals, nursing homes, and home healthcare agencies.

When DH and I had a small place in WA, he just got out of the Navy after doing 20 years.. and was getting bounced around in contract jobs.

At that time I was raising breeding stock sheep, heritage chickens and rare Dutch Hook bill ducks. Had a small Orchard producing well, and a small kitchen and herb garden.
Was selling lambs, showing and selling the fleece, chickens, ducks and eggs...
while it won't pay the mortgage, I made enough to cover all the other bills and make sure we had food on the table.
There was a group of us in that area, that would do odd jobs for each other and we would pay with what extra food we had. Always worked out well.

Now... all I have is my Art and its a lot of work, many hours for little pay. It sure won't cover any bills at this point.

I feel for you being out of a job. It is very tough.
The last time DH was out of work... was the start of 08, 15 months he was out of work.. looking 8/9 hours a day every day, sending in resumes left and right.... them telling him, he was either too old or out of his pay grade.
This time around, I didn't have sheep or any stock to sell.
Ended up moving 3,000 miles to find a fair wage job. Wasn't easy at all.
But he now has a job he loves and we are all together again.

I am hoping the best for you and your family and that you will find a good fair wage job soon!

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Shari

Wow, that had to have been rough. We have heard the age and pay excuse before, or more loudly, not heard it.
I am sure we will get this figured out. Especially with all these suggestions.

My husband is a mobile welder and I run a catering company based on local home-grown food. I advertise my cooking to be farm-fresh and it sells well here because I basically live in Australia's Portland. My husband makes more money but he also spends more and basically ruins all my money saving plans by needing fifteen thousand dollar MIG welders for his business. I may make half what he does, but at least my jars and seeds are cheap!!

I also have a quaint road-side stall. I live in 3 acre blocks with gigantic city-like houses on them [nobody has cattle, just horses, 'cause they're prettttyyyyy] inside of 100 acre blocks running cattle so I actually roadside very well. I have the extra added bonus of having the school bus stop on the corner of my property... which SOUNDS worse than it is - because the kids are totally respectful and awesome and give me some foot traffic beside my stall. Nothing like giving your kids a few dollars to walk to the bus and pick up some homemade biscuits, bits of pound cake, etc on the way to school. And they grab the eggs/pumpkin/relishes/chutneys on their way back for dinner!! Everyone wins. This works for when my catering is slow.

I have other farmers in cahoots with me so I don't have to grow everything on site. I've picked up my business based on that new local slow food movement that's been popular lately. All I know is I grow dollar veggies for a cent and then turn them into ten dollar meals. It's called adding value to what you have!

I also agree with whoever said saving money is easier than making it.

eBay: I specialize in selling items no one else does or in a way no one else is doing.

Ebay used to work, but since they've gone to being associated with PayPal, it's just not been working for us. Which is a pity since it was working before. But, it does work well for lots of folks, so perhaps you could sell something there.

Detailing cars might bring in some extra $$$. People are willing to pay way too much money to have their cars cleaned, polished & waxed. Inside & outside and fuss over all the small details. Armor all the dashboard, the tires, etc. etc.

I make extra money around here by raising angora rabbits for breeding stock and fiber. The yarn made from the rabbit fiber is sold at a local farmer's market since it has to be handled to command the prices they are asking - and getting. Etsy seems to have a lot of lower prices which don't match the farmer's market prices even after I have to give away the 35% sales commission to the farmer's market seller. I also spin sheep's wool and other fibers, but they don't get anywhere near the same price per ounce that the angora does.

Most of the sheep's wool yarn gets sold to local knitters who knit stuff for craft fairs. The farmer's market seller has her own sheep so she really doesn't want any competing sheep's wool yarn.

Someone in town just opened a "mini-mall" where folks can rent a small portion of space in her store and sell their stuff. She gets rent for the area as well as takes ten percent for the sales since she manages the store. Five of us have gone in together to rent a space and we are selling things we find at yard sales. Kinda nice to have a retail outlet where we don't have to sit there. I'm gonna try selling the sheep's wool yarn there, too, since it should be inexpensive enough for most folks to buy it without having a sales person there.

Right now, honey, plus selling children's clothing and books on ebay.

If that. I can't hardly give any of them away.

mamajohnson.... I hope things have looked up for you in the last few months!

Did you decide on what you were going to try to sell/do?

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You are confined only by the walls you build yourself.

We had a sign out the front...."Chickens for sale".
We had 80 chickens between 2 and 3 mths old. They were all good stock (light sussex or Australorps and we sold the lot in 9 days @ $25 each.

Cheers.......Skul

We've done well buying and reselling at flea markets.

If you have auctions in your area, and also a place to sell the junk, it should work well for you if you don't mind the work.

If you are totally new to the reselling game, focus on $2 box lots that are found at almost any auction. Lots of junk, but you'd be surprised how well this stuff sells.

If you are on a well traveled road to a lake or river, set up a baitstand. Shiners can be bought for a nickel each...sold for a dime. Crickets are 2.7 cents each, and sold for 5 to 6 cents each. And there is always cold worms and mealworms.
Doesn't take a huge investment, and profits come from volume. You won't get rich, but it would help pay the bills, plus, you can do it from home.

Just watch your inventory so your not stuck with a lot of bait when the prime season is over.

Good luck, and God bless.

B

Hubby works full time & We also raise bottle calves off our extra milk. I also raise chickens & rabbits to sell.

How do you make a living farming full time on 6 acres? I'd really like to hear more about what you do.

Well, we don't have things totally figured out yet. But we may get there. I have an etsy store now, and have set up an account with Lilla Rose hair clips, so I can sell them.
We are entertaining the possibilities of flea markets and such.
Right now DH is working with his brother to redo their late mother's house. He is getting gas money to go up there every week (it's 3 hours away) and stays for the week. But that is about it as far as pay. Once all is done they are hoping the house can be sold, and then the money will be divided between the siblings. (crossing fingers!)
I'm just ready for him to get done, as it seems we are on hold, with only what I can do here. That includes planting and raised bed building.

Also I have a possibility of designing websites for a new company. But, they don't have any customers yet. We shall see. I think I have 6 more weeks of unemployment, and that is the last extension I have.
Only had one interview for a job in the last 2 months.

So far we are trying everything we can think of.

This is when I will learn to trust God more than ever.

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Please visit my blog! All new and squeeky clean...for now anyway.
http://mamasnature.com

We make and sell brooms and homemade beeswax candles, and do some care taking and gardening services for a few clients. Our homesteading endeavors cost more than they bring in, but we get a lot of satisfaction from it. Our farm fresh eggs from free range chickens must cost plenty, but they sure do taste good! We spend more on the garden... but it's worth it to go out with a basket and find something for dinner! Our apple trees are really starting to pay off, though. They don't cost us a penny & we've been eating apple sauce all winter.

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"There is pleasure in a good, handmade broom."

www.skagitbroomworks.com

Our Etsy Shop

I tried the swagbucks thing, deleted my account after a few days.
They want far too much info, and you waste hours collecting points. To collect the big points payouts you have to fillout applications for 3rd party vendors like credit card offers.

I can make more walking the highway picking up pop cans.

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The internet is tracking your online habits. The government is monitoring your keystrokes. Beware!!
Tor is your friend.

The money in swagbucks is mostly from the surveys. Though, since I ALREADY played games and searched on-line, I started using swagbucks for it.

I average about $25 a month doing that and watching a few of their ads. Some people earn far more, but, that is all that I am willing to do.

If you have fiber goats, put a listing on local harvest (www.localharvest.org) It is free and I sell all of my raw angora fiber there. Just put $150.00 worth of fiber in the mail this week to a customer in Florida.
Another idea for goats is to rent your goats out to folks that want their property cleared in an environmentally safe way. I used to do it when I ran a big herd of boer goats. The cost to the customers was depend upon how much set up I had to do. If there property was already fenced, it was cheaper. If I had to set up temporary fence, I charged for that. The added benefit is that your goats are eating for free.
My best money-makers are my dairy goats. I make goat's milk soap which I sell at farmer's markets, online, and am starting to get into some retail stores. Left over milk goes into bottle calves which I sell once I wean them. I can buy the little holstein bull calves from a dairy farm a few minutes from my place cheap. They are work, but fun too.

I do swagbucks also, just for searches and videos that I can "watch" while working in other applications. I made enough last year to buy several gifts, including a kindle for my dads birthday/retirement gift

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I am a great believer in luck. The harder I work, the more of it I seem to have.