With no job, there's no budget!

[Jaxom22]

I couldn't agree more. While unemployment here is high, it seems to be heading in the right direction. I hit CL daily looking at the jobs section as well as the gigs area. Even gone so far as offering my labor in trade for affew things we need in the barter section.

Right now, this week concentrating on temp jobs.

 

[Redblue]

While you search for a temp job, it wouldn't hurt to try to offer some gigs on Fiverr. I have done before. Creativity is the key there.

 

[Jaxom22]

Honestly, I'm on a half dozen job search engines. Never heard if Fiverr. Will google asap! Love all the tips I've been getting.

 

[Support]

Walking dogs seem to be an easy job that can give you easy money. You can give out flyers for your dog-walking services so that potential clients can contact you.

 

[BillSchi]

Everyone of us has been gifted with talents. Some of us don't even know what our talents are until we try new things.
Truly, if a person has internet, they can make money. Look on Craigslist how others are filling their pockets. I had a guy come over and picked up my beat up riding lawn mower and wood chipper and an old grill. None of them worked. He will use the parts for other stuff he collected to get something running and sell that item. The stuff he absolutely can't use will be turned in for scrap.
Last year I didn't know how to weld. In the last twelve months I welded up a machine that turns wood into engine grade fuel for a few hundred dollars.
People are taking wood and through pyrolysis, making biochar and selling it for good money on ebay and other sites. Look at all the uses for real charcoal. Everyone can sew. Anything for a baby or pets sell for good money. The people in the US are consumers. This means most people buy everything rather than making it themselves. With some of those people realizing what we purchase off the shelf may have chemicals they don't want for their body, they seek our organic options. My daughter is having her first baby and doesn't want these chemicals for her child. So next week her and I are going to make our own cleaners, soaps, laundry detergents, dish soaps, etc. All the info is on the internet on how to make everything from all natural ingredients that our bodies don't need to detoxify. People want this stuff but don't want to make it themselves. Canned homegrown foods, baked goods, etc.
I have owned a plumbing company for 22 years and currently have 14 employees. I want to quit just so I can have time to explore all these options out there. Knowing I can spend a couple of bucks on seeds and sell fresh veggies for hundreds times that sounds fun to me. I want to can spaghetti sauce and other items and sit at a flea market and peddle these items off. Meeting all kinds of people.
If we don't put ourselves out there, we get stuck in a rut. Once we are in the rut, it's hard to see our way out. Some people like the rut because they get some attention from others. I on the other hand see everything as an opportunity, good and bad.

 

[hqueen13]

Selling veggies for hundreds of times what you paid for seeds sounds good until you realize that "hundreds of times" is still only $20.00, LOL. I'm not knocking it, believe me, its what I do, I'm just making sure that the reality of that statement is there. As for reality, we planted 54 lbs of garlic seed (i.e. each "seed" is one clove...) last year and only harvested 60 lbs. That would be considered a total crop failure. Each seed should have turned into a head of garlic that weighed a quarter of a lb or so, depending. So 54 lbs should have turned into over 200 lbs of garlic. We do have garlic... its just not what we were expecting. A long cold wet winter caused a crop failure. THANKFULLY we didn't pay for most of that seed, it came from our garlic heads that were grown the year before. We'll move the field and try again next year.

As for making money quick, you might want to check out a website called care.com which is geared towards odd jobs like running errands and pet sitting. I didn't have much luck in this area, but a cousin of mine had good luck with it in GA. I have started farm sitting for friends, but pet sitting is also really popular. Dog walking, etc. If you're going that route, you might want to try to hook up with a rescue and volunteer a little bit (networking, building trust) and ask to post flyers or something in the area. Stop at your local farmer's market and ask any of them if they need help. It might be a drive, but it could mean food and/or money in exchange for work.

Putting yourself out there is the key to getting odd jobs. Its tough, and not fun, but it is doable.
If you've got a reliable source of internet, then amazon's mturk.com is a good way to earn money for taking surveys. It doesn't pay well, but it all adds up over time. You and your wife could do that, and having the money available in your amazon account is really helpful for some of those online purchases that you don't want to pay by the credit card.

Best of luck!

 

[Plantress]

My brother has a neighbor in NYC who cover all of her costs with can recycling

 

[xoxocammyxoxo]

Day jobs where you stand on the corner and get work are typically found on the corners of big retail hardware stores. Our local pick up place is Home Depot. It's kinda annoying but it's there. Also look up temp agencies that offer day to day work. Ours here is called Labor Ready. Don't know if they have them where you are but if you look it up online you can get a better description of what it is and many find one in your area. Posting an add in the general section of the community ads on Craigslist is free. I've used it a couple times to pick up a few day jobs. Make sure they are legit. I'm a girl and get weird requests.... people are freaks. Any job is better than no job, I got this job at Walmart (which I really hate) but I keep it because I want this better job that pays me twice as much and it shows I can keep a job. Believe it or not most red flags on resumes aren't such a big deal if you can explain WHY they happened. I have plenty of red flags but because I have legitimate reasons why I had to quit a job or move they didn't think to much of it.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Once my DH was between jobs and we decided to start our own grass cutting and lawn care business. We got business cards and began advertising in the newspaper and also put huge magnet stickers on the sides of our vehicles and obtained lawnmowers, spray pumps, weedeaters and a trailer and then one day we got our first call and I happened to be the one who answered and I was all professional and told the lady that my husband would have to take a look at her needs, and come up with an idea of how long it will take him to do her yard and we will call her with a price and so he began his little side line business.
He really wasn't cut out for self-employment, but it was a good little venture and I'd say at least our equipment was pretty much paid for. Maybe not entirely, but we still had them for our own use and I still have the trailer.
Someone with a business mind or at least a people person would do better than DH though.
Also, when I was very young and hadn't yet had children I would go to the shrimp shed when I was desperate for money. It was grueling work that drug on forever, but I would distance myself from what was actually happening and it would give me a deep desire to look for more profitable work, plus it gave me a check, although a very tiny one.
Now this is going to sound really wild, but once I was working for a really crazy doctor, who really hated this other doctor. I knew she was nuts. Well, eventually her insanity caused problems with me, which was no big surprise. She figured several ways to torment me after firing me and then she figured the worst thing she could possibly do to me and that was attempt to have my license revoked. Thats when I saw blood. I went to the first person I could think of that would help me keep my license and get back at her.....the doctor she hated. And he talked to me and helped me immensely. Why am I telling you this??? Well, it seems I gather that you have been black balled. Perhaps your former employers have competitors and perhaps you can come up with a resume and schedule an interview and if you can be completely relaxed and tell your story straight, without vomiting up your guts to them, you could possibly be an asset to them.