I remember once, in my younger years, going down to sell my blood and while filling out the paper work i re-thought my reasons for being there and changed my mind. The $15 i was going to receive, wasn't going to take care of my reasons for being there. Donating blood because you want to help is one thing, but selling off body parts or becoming a human guinea pig is not for me!

This is what came to mind when I saw konane's "How to Achieve Wealth from the Inside Out" ;-)

People can get very creative when they need money. Many years ago I moved to Fort Wayne with very little money and no job. I rented a furnished apartment and took most of my meals at the homes of various friends, but sometimes I had to get my supper at St. Mary's soup kitchen (aside from the humiliation of standing in line, it really wasn't that bad). I soon stumbled across what I thought was a pretty good scam just about the time my rent was due. It wasn't exactly dishonest, but it did take advantage of people's laziness. I'd buy a copy of the Peddler's Post (a "free ad" paper) on Thursday morning, when the new edition came out. I'd go through the "Wanted" section and circle the ads that interested me. I looked for things like working TV sets or other household items that people might need, especially used baby furniture (high chairs, cribs, walkers, etc.). When I found a few, I'd go through the sections that offered those items for sale, and I'd circle the cheapest ones. Then, I'd call the folks who were selling the item. I'd make an appointment to come and see it, and make the best deal I could make, usually ten or twenty dollars less than what the seller was asking. Then, I'd call the guy who ran the "Wanted" ad for a TV, for example. Sometimes, all I had to do was to clean it up a little; other times I might have to replace a cord or a fuse to get it working again. I'd add ten or twenty bucks to the price I had paid, and then I'd sell it to the guy who ran the "Wanted" ad. If he wouldn't meet my price, I had to take less, but I always made a profit, even if it was only five bucks (there are only 24 hours in a day, so I quickly learned to make the sale to the first guy I called).

     Anyway, the whole thing worked because both of those people were sitting at home waiting for their phones to ring; they don't bother checking the corresponding ads for the item one person wants to sell, or for the item the other person wants to buy. On an average day I could make thirty or forty dollars for an afternoon's work, but even higher profits were not uncommon; people go NUTS for used baby furniture and bunk beds.

     Here's another trick I learned, although I don't know if they still do this: I'd go to the local Salvation Army store and volunteer to sort clothes. They didn't pay us, but we could take any ten items of clothing we wanted to compensate for our time (two or three hours). I always selected military uniforms in good condition, and I'd take them to GI Joe's, a military surplus store. They'd buy the uniforms for five bucks each, but Navy pea coats would bring a healthy thirty-five dollars. Officer's uniforms or covers with insignia were worth more as well.

      That was a time in my life that I would never choose to revisit but, looking back, I have to give myself a pat on the back, because it would have been much easier to turn to crime to raise money. I lived in a pretty rough neighborhood where drugs were sold openly. It wasn't as bad as Baltimore, as depicted in HBO's "The Wire," but it was scary enough for a young man living alone in the Big City. Oddly, the dealers never bothered or even threatened me, even though I had to walk through their respective territories every day to get to "work." I didn't have a phone (or a car), so I had to walk about a mile to a friend's house to make my phone calls.

     I sold plasma, too. Back then, it was worth $10/ pint, and that paid my monthly utilities, because you could donate twice per week.

     These methods may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it sure beats the heck out of selling a kidney or acquiring unknown side effects from an experimental drug.

      Jim

Jim695 - I admire people who can "hussle" without breaking the law.

Jim - very creative.

I admire you Jim bcuz 4 most desperate times certainly do cause 4 desperate measures. I 2 often surprise my self w/honest things that I have done to come up w/money. Once I had a rummage sale of all of my own things and I made $450.00 for the weekend and also I had some left over baby milk which I was going to give away but I noticed at the local corner store just how expensive it was and they bought it from me a $150.00 which I'm not 4 sure if that was illegal or not but me being the person who just loves to give everything away it stunned every1 on the profit I made. Which brings me to the phrase God bless the child who got his own. I've never been the one to want to donate things that I just might need and couldn't easily receive and I'm to skitzo to just have my offsprings running all over the place. But I do commend those who do. I think I did it the harder way I adopted. Which was no peaches and cherries.

Thanks for the kudos, everyone, but don't admire me too much; the fact is, I was afraid to get involved with the drug dealers because I believed I would either be killed or I'd go to jail. Neither option appealed to me, and since I don't know any people who use drugs, I thought it would just be a matter of time before I found myself in the custody of an undercover cop.

     There are always alternative methods of making money, and I found a few that worked for me when I needed them. However, as I mentioned, I would NOT choose to re-live that part of my life, because it was a very difficult adjustment period. There's no question that I learned a great deal from it; that year-long exercise taught me the value of a dollar and how to manage what little money I kept in my pocket after paying my bills.

     Things became much easier after I landed a job working as a stocker in a liquor store in the same neighborhood. A regular paycheck is much easier to manage, and I was able to build a savings account to which I contributed every week. After another year went by, I was promoted to manager of the store. This brought a healthy raise in the form of a guaranteed salary, and I worked nights as a bartender at the tavern next door. Before long I was running that, too. I don't drink, so I never came up short on inventory, and the money was very good, so the cash drawers always balanced out the way they're supposed to (I don't steal, either).

     The truth is, we never know what we can accomplish until we're faced with hardship. How we respond to that hardship will eventually define our characters, or will at least give an indication of our values, principles and priorities.

     I hope we see more creative ideas out there, because that's how businesses get started. Even Microsoft began with nothing more than the seed of an idea, and it became the largest corporation in the world in about twenty years. I realize that some people aren't fans of Bill Gates or of the company he built, but the example clearly illustrates what people can accomplish when they exploit their own interests.

     Jim