Anybody have a side gig, an additional part-time job, or a hobby that brings in some additional side money? I've been considering adopting some kind of side gig, so I'm tossing around ideas. Uber/Lyft, random part-time job, other, and I'm curious what others are up to.
22 replies
Login to comment →
glen
6 years, 9 months agoI do some freelance writing and web development, but not much these days.
I have a surprising amount of friends who take stuff they make as a hobby (woodworking, quilting, jewelry) and sell on Etsy. I think they find it more rewarding than lucrative, but it still brings in some money.
Reply
daemon
6 years, 9 months agoI buy, sell and trade, antique car parts, (mostly domestic) find and sell different items on Ebay, (car parts and clothing) collect Indian Rice bags and sell them online to collectors and crafters, detail cars when weather and time permits, drive the occasional truck for my brother when he is shorthanded, edit papers and articles for different friends and referrals who publish, cater small gigs for friends and family, bake and sell goods for special events and holidays, do yard work and landscaping during the season, play piano as an accompanist for music students. If I have free time from my jobs, there is more money to be made in ways that I enjoy. I can always save more for later and that sail boat I want to retire on isn't going to buy itself. :)
Reply
jordan
6 years, 9 months agoI've been hitting a mental roadblock of how to get started doing things, and I'm liking the theme of tapping into friends, family, and referrals.
I had to look up Indian Rice bags and shouldn't have been surprised that it was literally a rice bag. I thought it was something more mystical.
Reply
Chet_Manly
6 years, 9 months agoI make money by not having to spend money... I teach my kids piano lessons and do a lot of educational development with them in lieu of an expensive private lessons or school, the quality of which we couldn't afford. The side benefit of this is that I spend a lot of time with them and it has helped the cohesiveness of our family quite a bit...like my kids are a part of what I enjoy spending my time doing, so I enjoy spending that time with them.
I also help people train lifting. This isn't a paying thing yet though. I will have to wait till I hit some elite level numbers before I can feel comfortable charging for it...but that is what I'm working towards as a side job.
Leveraging my hobbies and skills into a side job or just saving money by doing the work myself has always been a plan in the back of my mind too. I feel like the phase my life is in right now is the saving of money and as my kids get older/more independent, and as I get more free time, there will be a transition into actually making money.
Reply
jordan
6 years, 9 months agoYep, side gigs definitely depend on availability. I'm just now starting to have more free time to pursue something.
I've done a bit of the make-by-not-spending-method by not paying for a gym and working out on my own instead and this last year foregoing a parking pass for work. Getting a little extra walking in has been good.
Reply
Chet_Manly
6 years, 9 months agoIt's not glorious, making by saving, but it helps. I am about to move and plan to do the home gym thing as well. It'll be nice aside from heavy days where encouragement is very helpful when very heavy weights are staring at you. It's part of my longer term plans of having a private club type gym facility. I doubt it'll make money but if it pays for itself, equipment purchases or maybe helps cover the building costs, that'll be a huge win for me. But I'm still a few years out from that type of side gig.
Reply
Razorback
6 years, 9 months agoMy latest hobby is restoring cast iron cookware. I like to find really old, grungy pieces and try to make them like-new again. There’s something about cooking with a pan that is 100 years old (or more). Also, once revived, they are ready for another 100 years of use.
Well, I started accumulating so much stuff that my wife suggested I try selling some of them. We have friends who own a local rustic home décor store and they asked if I would be interested in selling a few pieces there. It won’t make much money but it might be enough to fund my hobby. And I love the idea that I would have my own work on display in a retail environment.
So, if any of you gentleman have some old cast iron laying around, I know a guy who might take it off your hands. Especially if it came from grandma’s kitchen. ;-)
Reply
jordan
6 years, 9 months agoThose looks great, and it's awesome you've turned a hobby into $$. What's the pan with the pie wedges? Or rather, what do you make in the pan with the pie wedges?
Reply
Razorback
6 years, 9 months agoThanks. It was originally designed in the 60s and intended to be a cornbread skillet. They are a pain in the @$$ to restore because of all the corners. Nowadays, people use them for cornbread to individual breakfast servings or even making single slice pizzas of various flavors. Here are some before and after pics.
Reply
jordan
6 years, 9 months agoLooks great! After a close-up, I'm thinking brownies. Or cherry cobbler. Or I'm just hungry.
Reply
Razorback
6 years, 8 months agoThanks! That is one of the nice things about this pan. If you have different things that cook at the same time and temp, you can really create some variety. So, brownies with nuts, brownies without nuts. Different flavors of cobblers in each wedge, perhaps? I don't know how to do it (yet) but I have seen others get pretty creative with these things.
Reply
Chet_Manly
6 years, 9 months agoThat is an awesome hobby, and your work looks excellent.
Reply
Razorback
6 years, 9 months agoThank you, sir.
Reply
glen
6 years, 9 months agoThese are absolutely beautiful. I'm tearing up looking at these.
Reply
Razorback
6 years, 9 months agoThanks, Glen. It is definitely a labor of love. Not hard necessarily but time consuming. I strip every piece down to bare metal then season it three times with Crisco (Just like grandma did).
Almost every piece in the picture will be going up for sale soon. Most are 50-75 years old but a couple are almost 100. I kinda hate to let them go but I only need a few for personal use. I cook with iron every day.
Reply
DuncanDad
6 years, 8 months agoI do freelance graphic design and photography. I don't do weddings, (everyone wants Ivanka Trump's wedding photographer for 500.00 and, all images on disk). The graphic design stuff is mostly logos, webpage layout and print projects.
Reply
Razorback
6 years, 8 months agoI have been in the marketing/PR/communications world for more than 20 years. I have great appreciation for people who do what you do.
Reply
joshhatcher
6 years, 8 months agoYes. I have a ton. None make a lot YET. :)
Reply
Razorback
6 years, 8 months agoI was severed from my company last September. Probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I now enjoy a flexible schedule that allows me to slow down and enjoy life more. To that end, I have made that my "job" and started my own home-based marketing agency to do client projects on the side and create a source of revenue. So technically, what most people consider a job, I now consider a side gig.
Reply
05tacoma
6 years, 8 months agoIf you like to write or have some gear to video blog, you can still make money doing product reviews, niche websites. But blogging for money is a long term commitment and most people quit before anything happens. If I had to do it all over again I would have done video blogging from the start and leveraged the Youtube platform. Don't forget to check out https://www.fiverr.com/ as well.
Reply
Razorback
6 years, 8 months agoI use fiverr and some other sites to outsource work for my clients. You really have to be careful with some of the vendors as scams abound. I tend to use those that have been vetted by the site owners and have earned "pro" status. They tend to have higher hourly rates but I find you get better results.
Reply
dewtattoo
6 years, 8 months agoI do woodwork as a hobby, but I don't really make money from it. I value my free time too much. I will do the occasional projects for friends and family, but I usually only charge them for whatever it cost me in wood and supplies. Those projects, and the stuff my wife is always asking me to make her, usually keep me busy enough without killing the fun.
Last year, after I built my chicken coop and shared its construction on my seldom used blog, I was asked by dozens of people if I would be interested in building a custom coop for them. What started as a cute little chicken coop for my wife, turned into one of my funnest and most rewarding projects to date. After all of the attention that my little coop was receiving, I seriously considered building prefab chicken coops in my shop, but squashed the idea after weighing the cost of supplies, along with not having the storage space for such a large project. Plus I don't want to ruin an enjoyed hobby by turning it into a job with set deadlines and such.
While making side money is a novel idea, I kind of prefer my hobby to stay a hobby ....at least until I retire.
Reply