By: Kyle Taylor
When I left home for college a few years ago, I left with a small savings account for emergencies. I had built the fund up with years of birthday money, graduation presents and extra money from my high school job. However, after six short months in college, I soon realized just how frequent “emergencies” can happen. During that time, my car’s transmission died, a roommate skipped out on an electric bill and I was charged for a doctor’s visit after coming down with pneumonia.
Thankfully, I was able to handle those expenses, but afterward, my emergency fund needed a serious boost. If you find yourself in the same position, here are six weird ways you might not have thought of to boost your emergency fund:
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1. Audit a Liquor Store
Liquor stores are constantly looking for adults, under the age of 30, to go undercover and audit their stores. The job requires that you attempt to buy beer and note whether the cashier asks you for your ID.
Liquor stores do not hire directly for this position, but instead go through auditing companies like TrendSource and Corporate Research. You can sign up as independent contractor and then choose the locations that you want to audit. Once you’ve finished, you are required to submit a receipt and a short report on your interaction with the cashier.
Potential Boost: $50 to $250 for auditing five locations.
2. Sell Your Moving Boxes
After moving into and unpacking my first apartment, my living room looked like a cardboard box graveyard. Most folks throw away their moving boxes, but you should save them because you can sell them to other movers on sites like BoxQuest.com and BoxCycle.com.
Potential Boost: $15 to $60 for 30 boxes.
3. Attend a Movie Premiere
I’ve always enjoyed going to the movies so the first time I got hired to attend one, my face lit up with glee. Often times advertisers will want to verify that previews or commercials they’ve paid for are being shown on premiere night. The verification is done by independent contractors hired to attend movie premieres and make a note of the previews shown.
You can score a job as a preview watcher with companies like Certified Field Associates, that will pay for your ticket and pay you for completing a short report on what you observed.
Potential Boost: $50 to $100 for attending five showtimes.
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4. Go Used Book Hunting
If you like going to garage sales and flea markets, you should give used book hunting a try. Book hunting involves looking through the sales bin for cheap books and then reselling them to online book buy-back companies. There is a great iPhone App called “Book Scouter” that allows you to scan the book while you’re at the garage sale and get an instant quote from more than 20 online book buyers.
For example, last weekend I was at a library sale and bought an Ina Garten cookbook for $1. A few days later, I resold it to Moola4Books.com for nearly $8. Woot!
Potential Boost: $100 or more per day.
5. Sell Your Trash
Americans throw away more than 266 million tons of trash every year. Even more startling is the fact that a lot of this trash can be resold for extra cash – things like used golf balls, cooking oil, ink cartridges and wine bottles can be resold on sites like eBay and Craigslist for a profit. To get some ideas of the kinds of trash you can sell, check out my list of “7 Wacky Things in Your Trash Worth Cash.”
Potential Boost: Depends on how much trash you have, but $20 to $50 per month is not out of the ordinary.
6. Open a 2nd Checking Account
Keep your eye out for bank bonuses that will reward you with cash for opening a checking account at their branch. It only takes a few minutes to open the account and once you’ve received your bonus, it is up to you whether to keep the account open or continue to use it. Personally I like having an account at a separate institution for my savings and travel fund, because I’m less likely to spend it.
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Potential Boost: $50 to $100.
Kyle Taylor is a personal finance blogger that blogs about weird ways to make money at The Penny Hoarder. Join the TPH newsletter and get his “5 Wackiest Ways to Make Extra Money.”
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