First let's explore why we believe that what we do defines us. Sure, the whole world is telling us constantly that this is true. You may even have lost a potential friend or lover because of some superficial lacking - car, money, job. But deeper than that is the real issue - you believe this crap. There are people without the car, money, job who seem to still get the girl/ boy/ friends. What they have that you may lack is confidence in their choices. But it's admittedly hard to be confident when you are terrified that you'll be living out of a cardboard box eating day old McD's hamburgers you luckily got out of the dumpster just before it was being taken by the dump truck. And there are legitimate concerns for anyone wanting to mate with you if you do go down that path. But as with most things, these dichotomies aren't true. There is not a neat division between being safely employed and being a homeless bum. Life can be defined on your terms and I intend to give you some skills here to begin doing just that.
As with anything, when you first begin to think about making some choice that is not aligned with the status quo, the new information can be overwhelming and, although it's exciting to think of so many opportunities, it's important to let yourself digest what you are learning and experiment in a fashion that stays close to your comfort zones - at least in the beginning. Look over this blog and see which ideas seem to resonate with you and write them down on a notebook. Then pick the one that seems most like something you would normally do - it will be your safest choice. Try that first. The reason I'm giving you this advice is that your successes will build upon themselves. And your early successes with the safer choices, will act as a cushion and a fallback for your more risky adventures. Far too many people, when they taste the first bit of freedom, jump in head first only to forget that the pool wasn't full yet. Go slowly, take your time figuring things out, review often, and once you feel like you've got one thing running smoothly, begin to experiment with another. This way you will have a manageable but still exciting adventure into working for yourself in a sustainable and low-stress way. Trust me on this. I did it wrong the first time and freaked myself out. You don't have to. But sure, get excited about the possibilities as you read through - just stop before they make your head explode.
Ok - first, do not fall for anything that seems too good to be true. Not in person and not online - especially not online. There are a lot of scams out there - surveys that say they will pay you for filling out a form - sure - a dollar for a half hour of your time - and maybe you get the money if you do enough of them. Or pay you to click email - know anyone who wants to sit inside clicking on emails all day? And these sites actually rarely pay out - they limit how many you can click on a day, pay pennies on them and require you to reach thirty dollars before a payout. Not worth it. But here I'm going to explore a few things that are worth it. They require real work, but not slavery to a job. And that's good enough for us. Since my son and I are traveling together, we have twice the manpower to offer and so we hire ourselves out at whatever the going rate seems to be per person on places like craigslist in our temporary homes. Craigslist is actually a pretty decent place to look for gigs. They even have a "gigs" section. They also have a "services" section where you can post an advertisement telling what skills you have, but I have to say that I've had a lot better luck contacting people who've placed gigs ads than posting my own. However, since there is no cost, there is no reason not to post one anyway. Experiment, experiment, experiment.
It's always a good first step to ask everyone you know (through facebook or an email blast) if they know any people who lives where you are headed and wouldn't mind making an introduction. If you are a person who always does more than is asked and leaves places better than you found them, your friends will love to introduce you to those they know and you will soon have an excellent network of friends and acquaintances all over the world, and those new people know more people and also will love to introduce you. This is your best resource for everything. People who want to work are always valued and if you're also willing to work cheaper than most people, you're valued even more. And why not? You have so little overhead! Often, when you work this way, you stumble across all sorts of opportunities. It's going to be hard, at first, to think in terms of opportunities - for those of us who have worked very limited jobs until now, this entrepreneurial, serendipity tour thinking is alien. But it will come to you. Barter with people with whom you share mutual respect almost always comes out with a better deal for both parties. Commerce thinking tends to undervalue whatever the other is offering, whereas barter seems to level the playing field to "you have what I want and I have what you want", hence, the rare sense of equal trade of goods and services. I would caution against bartering with people who have limited their bartering to a strict sense of the external money value of goods and services - and gravitate towards those who value hours for hours or need for need regardless of what is offered. Finding a Dentist who thinks that his hour is worth the same as yours cleaning his office is a blessing that should never be overlooked. These people and these situations do exist. But you have to promote yourself and what you offer to find them.
Tell your friends that you will be pulling into X town and to let you know if they have any friends who live there who might need a hand around the house or yard, weeding, organizing, cleaning, babysitting, or more skilled needs if you have them to offer. These situations often end up with free giveaways in addition to money. People assume poverty if you're living in an RV and who are you to talk them out of their assumptions? I caution against instilling this idea, but you don't have to give more information than you're asked.
Be friendly, show up on time, do a little more than you are asked and stay a couple minutes later than agreed upon. This will make a great impression for a temp worker and your temp employer will likely think of you again the next time he or she needs some help. You can get their email address and promise to keep them posted when you come back into town - add their name to your X town contact list and you won't have to hit up your original friends for jobs the next time you're in town.
Below are some proven methods for making money without being tied to a job. Many of these work equally well while stationary, so you can test some out in the comfort of your own home state before hitting the road. Not all of them will suit you or your needs, but each has the potential for sparking your imagination to think in terms of opportunity and to detach you from thinking of what you you do and being an indicator of who you are.
1. Buy and Sell on Ebay.
There are always things that are common in one area and premium in another. Keep your ears open, ask questions of people to get a bead on what those objects are, and experiment to see what sells and where. You can find amazing deals at garage sales, or even on the side of the road on trash night - I've found many antiques this way that just needed a little TLC or cleaning and sold for fifty dollars or more on ebay. Thrift stores have extensive book collections and if you know what you're looking for, you can get some rare finds and sell them on Amazon or sites dedicated to rare book sales - or on ebay too.
When you attend a yard sale or garage sale, remember that these people want this stuff gone. They will take less, a lot less. They may sell everything they have left if they've been doing it a few days. It's tiring sitting out there all day watching people look disapprovingly at your life. If you see something that you think may sell on ebay (which you find out from just looking at what is selling there), make a very low offer that would not really be much of a loss if your instincts aren't correct. Experiment.
2. Buy or Gather Local Items for Personal Use or to Sell in Other Areas.
Oranges in Arizona or almonds in California - check on craigslist for people giving them away or knock on doors - people with abundance usually freely give away, especially if that abundance turns into a cleanup job in a few weeks. Drive along alleys and pick from the overhang onto public property.
Consider things that are deals in one venue but highly sought after elsewhere and try to match your buying and selling with your trip. Let's say, you are at a flea market and find a dozen perfect house paint brushes for a dollar takes all. That's a bargain, but what will you do with that deal? If you take it across town to the local paint-shop and ask how much he'll buy them for, you could turn a nice profit for just a few minutes of work. If you get in the mindset of doing this with every deal you run across, while keeping your layout low to absorb any mistakes, you'll likely make a lot of contacts who will keep you apprised of what they are seeking and soon you are not taking any risks as you can call them and ask them what they'll pay and know exactly what your profit will be. This is a fun way to play on the road and there are lot of these opportunities you'll notice when you begin to look.
3. Sell to Fellow RVers.
We've sprouted and sold baby herb and lettuce plants to other RVers and random people on roadside or flea market booths for a few extra dollars. A lot of plants can grow from one seed packet - you just sprout them inside, re-pot them an set them outside while you're out exploring during the day - just be sure to take them back in before you take off again. You'll have to work out a good shelving system if you do this in your kitchen area or be satisfied with just a few dollars in addition to the savings by growing your own. But every little thing you do for yourself can be made into a little profit maker. And that's the way to think about this.Saving money is better than making money. There are no taxes on saved money, there are no special uniform requirements, or gas and other overhead to save money (usually). It's a general rule of financial success, that your penny saved is worth more than your penny earned. Sharpen knives and scissors - a dollar a piece, or offer to wash another rver's rig for ten dollars when you stop at a campground and thereby cut your park fee in half.
4. Sell at a Local Fair or Flea Market
You can sell balloons - kids love them, helium and balloons are cheap and parents routinely give their kids five dollars to buy a little uninterrupted time to bargain hunt. Make it creative in some way, and they'll line up. If you have a talent, or can fake one, you can go to the same places and put out a hat - juggle, play an instrument, sketch portraits or caricatures, do a clown act or a moving statue act, paint kids faces or adult's nails. You can shine shoes and do other mundane tasks or make them more entertaining - a clown shoeshine would attract a lot more attention than the normal variety. You can check with the local city or town hall to see if you'll need a permit, but you often can skirt around this need until someone brings it to your attention, claim ignorance and then go get the necessary permitting. If you have no real expectations - why not experiment? Check to make sure there are no fines, but beyond that, don't be afraid to make mistakes.
5. Ask For Work Where You Camp.
If you aren't boondocking, ask at the front desk of the campsite if they ever have any temp work and let them know you'd be interested in making a few dollars while you're there. You don't know unless you ask. You can ask for free camping from campgrounds in exchange for work camping - and perhaps also make a little spending cash. You make a short seasonal commitment and the owners are sometimes flexible if something comes up and you are a good worker. And if they are not, you're quitting what is essentially an unpaid position. This won't go on any permanent record, so it's not really worth sweating. You'll also learn the inner workings of owning a camp site - if this is something you may one day think of doing, it will pay to know people who already own - either to tap for information, or perhaps to be on their call list for when they want to sell.
Thinking like this - in terms of opportunity, is what is exciting about this sort of life. It's a frontier life. Speaking of frontier lives...
6. Panning for Gold
There are people who make a larger seasonal salary panning for gold in the spring in America every year than most people make at a normal level corporate job and then have the rest of their time free to wander. Check this out:
http://www.goldpanningsite.com/where-to-pan-for-gold.php
http://www.infowest.com/life/goldpan.htm
7. Temp Freelancing
Try randomly entering businesses, explaining that you are traveling in an RV and wanting to do some temp work - give them your card and make a good impression. Tell them you'd be happy to provide some references - use your friends first, then the last people who did temp work for. You don't want to overload any one reference with too many phone calls. But a little known fact is that most business people do not check many references. They may check your first or your last one. They more likely will go with their gut - if you are a good person who is not out to con them and you make that impression to them, they will either hire you on the spot to do some random organization task or moving/ cleaning task that no one else wants to do or they will put your card somewhere and call you later.
Get emails and phone numbers whenever possible so you can add them to your "I"m back in town" email blasts. Soon you may have more work than you can handle this way. These jobs often end up with more perques - either an invitation for dinner with the family, a tour around town, tickets to some show or sporting event or some other extention of hospitality. Most people are very nice, and most people are extremely nice to travelers as long as you come across as trustworthy - if a little odd for doing what you've chosen to do.
8. Temp Agencies
If you're planning on staying in town for a couple months, head to the temp agencies and sign on to them. Of course you'll have a cell phone and they won't bat an eye at the out of state number since it's so commonplace these days. You can get an "address" from places like Mail Boxes Etc. - instead of using their "box number", call it an "apartment number" on your applications. Any correspondence will still get to you.. Don't tell them you are living in an RV - let them think you have just moved to this location. when you get a job through them, you can choose whether or not it would be beneficial to tell your boss. This is a gut decision. Some bosses with heart might extend hospitality to you and let you park your RV near the work site - making you feel safer with your belongings near, and perhaps even them feel safer with you watching the place at night. The best time to reveal this is after you feel they've gained some trust in you and you've made a good impression. Until then, find a nice safe grocery store nearby to park your rig and either drive your car/ bike/ etc. or take public transportation to the site.
You also need to let your employer lead - don't ask for favors - tell them your situation - don't whine - make it sound interesting and exciting and explain that this is why you are working temp. That's acutally one of the better reasons for wanting to do temp work and many employers will understand this. If the boss doesn't care, just let it be and go about your normal business and work to the end of the job, take your money and move on. Some people are judgmental but a lot more will be interested in your odd choice, or may even be excited to hear of your adventures. The key is to not become attached to whatever might happen.
Whatever you do, do not park outside the jobsite without it being offered - you'll lose the job and any possible later benefit or work. You can easily establish yourself in a good light with a temp employer since they are so used to people who really don't want to be there. If you take on responsibility, show up early and leave a little late, are self-motivated and get all the work done, they will be exstatic and your biggest problem may be that they offer you a lot of money to stay on. Your call. When you leave, be sure to give enough notice, a little parting gift - something small - a card, some flowers for a female boss, or stop to get a cup of coffee you know they like on your way to work on your last day - get their contact info and ask if they'd mind if you let them know when you were back in town to see if they had any work at that time for you. You're building a network that will help you far into the future and not just for temporary work situations. A lot of people love the adventurous spirit of what you are doing and will want to help support it by hooking you up with people they know in other cities as well.
You may ask at the temp agencies if there are ;specifically any jobs in food service - this will provide for free meals as well as income, and often pays well in tips. Banquets are great for this, but be open to anything.
9. More Buying and Selling Opportunities
You can buy and sell roses, or other flowers, at local bars - ask the bar owners during the day if it would be ok to do at night - they will likely want a cut of your take. Pick that sweet spot between eight and eleven when men are often trying to catch a woman's attention or win her over - double the price for the individual roses and add whatever portion the bar owner wants. You can often talk the florists down on the price of flowers later at night as they know precisely when they will start to wilt. Check out supermarket prices and perhaps do this gig when they are on sale only. Dress nicely, or in some costume that is appropriate (if you do such things) but don't outshine the women that are the eventual recipients of these flowers.
While you are there selling flowers, you can hand out cards with your phone number on them offering "unique" taxi service home. Figure out your gas mileage, double that times the miles from bar to location - this is easy to find with googlemaps now and you ask for the home address and bar address when they call. Tell them that you'll offer them a discount or free ride if they can find you four others to take advantage of the service. Often they can. Buy some popcorn and bottled water and set them out on your RV table. Sure it will be odd when you walk them to an RV but they will soon warm to the idea of the added comfort - you can even play a funny movie for them while you're driving. There are, of course, risks associated with this opportunity - I'd caution against single women doing this one alone, and you'll have to plan ahead for the possibility of a quick cleanup if one has had too much to drink.
Storage units will sell the belongings of the people who store there if the rent is not paid. You can ask at the front desk how they deal with that - could be an auction or another kind of sale, and if they like you and are a small independent, it could just be that you happened in at the right time and if you can parse it out, you can have it. It pays to have a trailer for such an occasion, but you can rent one, and if you've made a lot of friends, you might know one who can help you store the stuff till you sell it. Or, you could just re-rent the unit in arrears and go through it there if you think it will still earn you a profit. Be open to the opportunities wherever you find them.
10. Yard Work on the Go and More
Drive through residential neighborhoods where all the houses are nice, pick out the lawns that are unkempt. Knock on the doors and tell them that you will weed/ mow/ etc. using their equipment for (name a less than market value price) let's say five dollars an hour. Now you may think this is terrible - why would you want to work for that? But you're not thinking clearly. If you worked a job for ten dollars an hour, you would only actually see five of it anyway after federal and state taxes and clothing to look a certain way, office Christmas presents, etc. and your goal here is to keep ahead - so every bit you make helps that and if you don't like this idea, then don't do it. But when the times come where this is the only one available, you will know that you can. I always think of these jobs as a "workout" that I get paid to do. They are usually physically demanding (meaning you will end up muscular and strong) but mentally they are easy. I spend my time, when doing yard work, plotting my next art project or business venture, or figuring out sticky philosophical problems. If you're creative, you might find that you love the mental freedom that the low responsibility menial job offers.
Another job no one wants to do that people will pay for is dog waste pickup in their yards. It's harder to find these jobs but if you can, they can pay well - especially if you get serveral all in the same area and can spend just a few minutes in each yard and walk away with ten dollars for five minutes times fifty houses.I've seen people making between eight and twelve dollars per house for five minutes of work doing this. You do the math as to how much you could make if you lined up a whole bunch of them in one complex.
11. More Resources for Jobs
You can always stop at a church and tell them you are on the road and have run out of money - ask if they know of someone who needs something done that can help you to earn some. They very well could have some work there and may help you find other resources as well. It's good to approach people who are used to helping out and then offer to work, instead of asking for a handout. You're not begging, you're offering your services.
Here's a fun newsletter that will update you with fun and unusual ways that people make money to keep you interested throughout your travels:
http://www.unusualwaystomakemoney.com/
12. Treasure
In researching for this blog, I've run across a lot of new interesting ways that people make a little money. There are people, for instance, in some northern cities who have found that when they peruse areas in the spring where all the snow trucks have been stacking snow during the long winters, there are treasures to be found - all the things that have collected over the winter have been brought to that one area and when the snow melts, they are sitting under the snow - money, jewelry and more. It's funny to think about, but it makes sense and if you find yourself in such a place at the right time, it's a good idea to poke around a little to see what you can find.
At auctions, look in the lot boxes, all the way to the bottom, to see what sort of treasures may be hiding. No one can look in them all, and you could run across something hidden that no one else has seen and walk away with a treasure of value for a song. Look inside of purses, the lining of books and the lining of jackets and blankets. Our grandmothers used to hide money and other valuables in these places and often forgot where they were. I once picked up an ugly quilt off the side of the road and brought it home to use as a grungy throw or dog bed. I had it at the bottom of my bed one very cold night and my dog began pawing at it, tearing the fabric and revealing an antique quilt that had been sewn inside the new ugly one. These things happen. And if you're observant, you might catch them happening in front of you.
13. Sell Your Family Secrets
Recipes that is. People are always looking for recipes and if you can write the ad copy well enough to entice, you can put an ad in a local paper, magazine, or on bulletin boards at supermarkets across the country and wait for the money and self addressed stamped envelopes to pour in. easy enough to print out a recipe and send it off for a couple dollars in profit.
14. Low Cost Crafting
You can find natural things - rocks, sticks, dead cacti etc. and make well made crafts like walking sticks and sculptures from them. If you're artistically inclined, this could be a good income - even if not, you'll likely make something. Again, people like supporting others who are doing something - even if they aren't particularly fond of what is being made. You can also do the same with recyclable items - go along neighborhoods on recyclable day and get cans and such out of blue bins - you can either sell the cans for their refund at many grocery stores these days or recycle centers, or you can convert them into crafts.
I once met a man who made tiny furniture for doll houses with tin cans and a pair of tin snips - sat in a pub all day sculpting tiny furniture and setting them up along the bar an ended up selling to specialty shops for quite a nice penny. And I knew another woman who would go around to all the fancy restaurants and collect their old used candle nubs, melt them down and add her own pigments, leaves and other things and resell them at craft shows. Oddly enough, thinking small sometimes brings big money. Miniature items cost a lot more than you'd think - whether it's for doll house enthusiasts or model train nuts. Another interesting thing to sell are small pieces of fabric for quilters. You'd think they would want large pieces but really they are looking for small pieces of unique patterns . If you find some interesting or attractive fabric for free or very cheap - cut it up into one foot squares and fold them into smaller squares - perhaps around a piece of recycled cardboard and charge a dollar - any quilter or crafter coming upon a table filled with lots of little squares of different unique prints of fabric will be hard pressed to resist buying any. This is an easy way to make money in the right locations - try flea markets or craft shows that specialize in quilting and other fabric crafts. Often you can sell interesting supplies like this and make more than the crafters at craft shows - they turn all their profits over to you.
If you run across a good amount of grapevine in your travels, you can sell it there too - perhaps you find some growing along a fence - many a farmer will let you take it for free and may even pay you to take it. If you see a fallen barn, go ask if you can take some of the wood for crafting - if it's old enough (and if it's fallen, it likely is) you could make a good deal of money from selling that to crafters too - cut it to manageable lengths and sell at craft shows or through crafters newspapers and magazines.
15. Seasonal Jobs
If you're living the RV life, you may be following the seasons anyway - pumpkins in October and Christmas trees in December - you can offer to help clean up either lots and get all sorts of bounty and pay. There are also festivals like Renaissance Fair where you can sell specialty items, craft shows of course - check out SAC and (research other sources) for comprehensive listings of shows and price/ demographics. You can also get temp jobs at ski lodges as instructors, photographers or nannies.
16, A Picture May Be Worth a Thousand Dollars
Speaking of photography - taking photos even if you are not very good at it can be sold if nothing else as stock photography - pick up a copy of Photographers Market at the library or if you want to buy it - help us out by clicking on the Amazon button to the right of this article. This book will walk even the beginner through opportunities to make money with your camera.
17. Blog It
You can also do what we're doing and blog about your experiences and set up a little affiliate marketing. There are many resources out there to help you pull together your ideas and market the information you have to share. I can't tell you that this works all the time, and we certainly haven't figured out how to make it work for us yet, but the consensus seems to be that if you offer good information, people will find you and follow you and if you create value, you can at least make a little money through advertising. But to do it for that reason doesn't work. You have to love sharing information and ideas because this is a lot of work and there are no guarantees. I've begun thinking of this blog as a way to remember information I've come across so that I can remind myself when I inevitably forget how to do something that needs to be done on the road. I'm sharing it because I know there are others who desire this freedom as well. If it makes money, that's great, if not, I'll still have a fantastic record of our journey and all we've learned. I think that's a good attitude to start with.
18. Sell Advertising or Content
I've known people who sell advertising for camper newspapers as they travel around. They find RV dealers and suppliers and other related businesses and sell them ads in papers that they either work for, or have created and publish themselves and then hand out for free to other campers along their travels. You'll have to offer some content to do this. But if you're a writer, this is your market. You can also become a travel writer - start by writing about your travels, perhaps in a blog like this, or just in a journal. Next you can submit to magazines that deal with the type of travel you're engaged in - you can find these in a book called the "Writer's Market".
19. Freelancing
You can offer up skills you have - web design, painting, murals, faux finishing. If you can carry the tools and you have the skills, advertise through your network, on bulletin boards, craigslist, etc.This is harder to do without local references, so this is a good thing to market through your growing network. Just keep people aware of what skills you have to offer by sending an occasional blast (asking first if this is ok) or perhaps doing a little of what you do gratis for a friend of a friend.
20. When On the Road Isn't Free Enough
Consider a break from the RV working on a cruise ship or yacht. If you're experienced at sailing (and sometimes if you are not), you might find some temporary work on the open sea.
21, Make Money From Your Old Electronics
In addition to making you money, selling your old, unused electronic components will help you to streamline your life and make traveling a possibility. This can be done before you leave or while you're on your journey and discover that you have things you are not using with you.
This list is, in no way, exhaustive. There are countless ideas of how to make money without a job and on the road, and I can only share a few. You'll find that the more you work outside the normal grind, the more opportunities you will see, and the more creatively you will think about how a person "makes a living" and what that really means. Ideally, you will take from this article a feeling that this can be done, and that you will never have to be a slave again - you may choose to have a normal job, but knowing that you can make a living without one creates a sense of freedom that can't be taken away once it's established. Don't try to do everything at once. Choose one thing that seems close to what you normally do and slowly begin the journey to self-sufficiency. And the next time someone asks you "What do you do?", tell them that you're an Explorer.
