Share with the forum your fundraising schemes. What do you do when you need extra cash in a hurry?

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Answers

Things I've done:
garage sales
pawn shop loans
cashing in the penny jars
eBay sales
check-kiting (but that was in my old poverty-stricken days)

Things I've considered but haven't yet been desperate/gutsy enough to try:
selling plasma
bake sale
hosting my own raffle
getting a job (ha!)
out-and-out begging

How about y'all, huh?

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Cash in the change jar.

Call up daddy and beg for money.

Give blow jobs for $15 ... $20 if he wants me to swallow.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Wait a minute...just $15 or $20?
How much work do you put into them? I would charge at *least* $150, and definitely more for swallowing.
How much do phone sex operators get paid?
Leave it to me to have some innocent thread turn tawdry. Feh.


-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Paging Saskatchewan! Paging Saskatchewan! She told us Wednesday night about her friend who phone-sexed for a living.

So... um... do y'all think people would buy raffle tickets from me online?

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

I've sold plasma. And I don't recommend it.

I was thinking about being a phone psychic. How hard can that be? How do you get started, though?

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

During the summer, when I was around 9 or 10, my friends and I put on our leotards and put on makeup, got out our batons and pots and pans and whistles and walked around the entire neighborhood to "put on our parade".

Then we knocked on every door, and if we were lucky enough to have someone answer, we would do a cartwheel or fancy baton twirling, and then ask them for money.

After two weeks, most of them stopped answering the door, but we made about $14.

I guess it was creative begging.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

Ok, last one, I promise.

Gwen, it depends on what you were raffling. I'd most likely participate if it was something I had interest in (like, some Barbies you don't want anymore...)

Oh, here's a good one: You should buy the cheap $6 Barbies and make outfits for them and stuff and raffle those. I'd definitely be in for that.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

I've borrowed (and have still to pay back) money from my mom. Which is a bad idea. My best friend has funded my legal entanglements, I still owe him too. Grad. school can push one over the edge and I "interviewed" at a topless dance club. For some reason, they didn't think I was quite the type ("you're not do'n this 'cause of some sexual fantasy are you?" "Why no.") After having a kid, that particular sexual fantasy is outta here, but I always thought I'd be great at phone sex. I've considered a sugar daddy, but now that I don't have quite the same sexual pathology, I think the price would be too high. I've always admired people who can sew and do crafts, but I just don't have the freaking patience. My change is reduced to quarters in my car ash tray which is usually enough for a California "In and Out" burger (animal style), if I'm starving. My best idea right now is to move back to the Midwest with its more rational cost of living. Haven't found a job yet though.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

I actually quit a job in college (scanning IDs at the cafeteria) to donate plasma twice a week because I actually made MORE....especially in Lafayette, La which is a huge college town. The plasma centers compete for donors and I was making about $45 a week.

Sell your crappy CDs. You don't make a lot off of it but cash is cash is cash, right?

Spare change. They have those machines in grocery stores now that count it out and dispense a voucher for the cashier. So much more convenient than rolling it.

Plastic. Credit cards. But I really don't recommend that one.

Sell your hair. I was once offered $500 if I would let my hair grow to my knees then let 'em chop it off at the ears. Needless to say, I didn't do it but I have good hair (red, thick, curly) for wigs, or so I was told.

Um, I've never tried the psychic thing but it can't be THAT hard.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

I did the phone psychic thing for a while. It was humiliating but dead easy, all I had to do was ask for their star sign and then "predict" their fortune, which is a fancy way of saying that I read from a script. The pay was pretty good, but I didn't do it for long because I just felt it was dishonest. Oh, and I got the job by answering an ad. No qualifications necessary. Pity I left, my bosses were this darling middle-aged gay couple and I adored them, but I just couldn't continue.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

That sucks that they made you read from a script, lilipili. Someone I know did the psychic hotline here, and the volume of calls she took from women abused by their husbands is what made her quit eventually.

Last month I paid one of my credit cards down thru a combination of gift cheques I'd been saving for a rainy day and rolled-up change. Needless to say, I felt super-swanky in the bank line-up.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

Cate, I don't want to laugh, but... heh.

Dude, I am totally gonna sell off all my stuff on eBay. Y'all watch for the big announcement, once I get everything photographed and posted, all right? I need cash real bad.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2000

I would like to pimp my mother as an online mothering service. She'll read your journal and then email you with motherly advice, like 'get your eyes tested!', or 'are you eating enough vegetables?', or 'stop drinking so much!'.

My mother's pretty cool, and I know a lot of people have disfunctional weirdo mothers, so I reckon it could be a winner. Maybe on a fixed subscription basis?

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

I've had two garage sales in my life. I could have sold a lot more stuff but I grow tired of all the cheap bastards.

I had one a few weeks ago with my neighbor. We were selling kids clothes at $1 dollar apiece that were in very good condition. This lady came and proceeded to tell me that she's had many garage sales and that we wouldn't get that much for them because people don't want to pay more than 50 cents. I thought she was going to try to haggle me down to that price, but she ended up buying some stuff at the $1 price. Go figure.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

I know, I *hate* it when people wanna haggle over prices like that. "Oh, twenty-five cents is too much for this. Will you take a dime?" I'm like, "Why don't y'all just dig in my trashcan?"

That's why I can barely deal with garage sales anymore. Oh, and people steal stuff, too.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

Yeah, and I'm sure I ended up giving stuff away. The first guy came around 8am and I was barely awake and was only buying furniture and he offered me a price and I took and I'm sure I could have gotten more, but then I figured if I didn't sell it, it's gonna sit in my garage for another 10 years. Another lady drove up in a Lexus and only bought a pair of shorts for 50 cents. I didn't get that one. But the best was a lady you was jogging and wanted to buy a kids slide and wagon and she promised to come back because she didn't have any money, but she never did. Bitch.

I only made like $85, but I had to give 12 of it back to my youngest. I had to borrow it because I forgot to get change for the sale. When I only gave him $10 back, he demanded to know where the other two dollars were.

I'm sure Cate can give us expert advice on her site...that is if she ever updates it. (hint hint)

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

I have sold every CD I can bear to part with already. I'm thinking I might have to sell some books, which upsets me no end.

Jackie, my friend and I have always thought a Rent-A-Mother service would be good. So when you get sick, and your mother is busy, someone else's mother can come over and make you chicken soup and tuck you in. And then when your mother is bored, and would ordinarily be bothering you, she could go tend to someone else's child instead.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

I'm getting ready to attempt a garage sale because I'm dead broke (you know, where you not only have that uneasy "can I pay the bills this month?" feeling, but you actually add up the bills, and all the possible income, and find out that no. You cannot pay the bills this month.).

But eBay sounds promising. I bought a few things there I like -- but do people buy *your* stuff? Success stories, anyone? Or, for that matter, garage sale advice?

(I also think of selling plasma. Made two appointments over the course of a year, chickened out both times.)

Other than that, what I do usually is get a semi-crappy job, intending to quit as soon as I'm less broke, and then I get all wrapped up in Work Ethic and keep it longer than I ever meant to and then quit and wait until I'm absolutely impoverished to get another crappy job because the last one, due to staying at it too long, made the whole thing seem too horrible for words.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2000

Poor Eva.

Here's my eBay advice for you. After you post something for sale, go do a search on similar items that have *already been sold*. Get the email addresses of the people who bid on the similar items but didn't win. Then send them a mass email with a link to your auction.

It sounds spam-y and rude, but I've found that most serious shoppers appreciate the heads-up.

Garage sale: Don't sell anything tiny that it would upset you to see stolen. Don't even screw with price labels -- just quote the prices off the top of your head. If someone starts trying to haggle you down and you don't want to sell for less, just smile and say nicely "No... I think I could get $10 [or whatever] for it. But you can come back at the end of the day and if I haven't sold it for 10, I'll think about lowering the price." See, that makes them itchy to get it before someone else does, coz they know 10's a good price.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2000

I want to have a garage sale so bad, but I don't have a garage...I have sooo much stuff I could get rid of.

I donated plasma in college. It's a quick way to get money, but I always felt crappy afterwards. And there were always so many weirdos at the donation place.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2000

Amber, have a Yard Sale then! Barely anyone in my area has an actual garage (lots of car ports or nothing at all), and every weekend I see tons of signs for yard sales, since they can't technically have garage sales. I've always wanted to go up to someone having a yard sale and ask them how big their yard is and if they will sell me their yard by the square foot or by the acre, and if they will deliver it to my home.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2000

Or a sidewalk sale, if you don't have a yard..

-- Anonymous, July 14, 2000

Re: garage sales... I've checked out some sites about how to have a successful garage/yard/sidewalk sale, and they all suggest having everything nicely displayed on tables. I have, like, one table. And it's hard to lift.

Do you think cardboard boxes covered with sheets (we just moved, so we have lots of big boxes) would do? When you all go to garage sales, does it make any difference to you whether things are on tables, for heaven's sake?

Sorry, I realize I'm quasi-derailing this thread into a garage sale thread...

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2000

Eva, I drove past a yard sale this weekend, and the people had everything on blankets on the ground. You could do that if you have a yard. I wouldn't suggest that for a sidewalk sale.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2000

Thanks for the suggestions, but I should have specified...I don't have a yard either. Nothing...I live in an apartment complex. Sucks!

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2000

Gwen and Nicole, thanks for the advice! I'm going in with a friend on the ad, and barring calamity, the sale should be this weekend... (And the bill thing resolved itself when the deposit on our old apartment, so long overdue we'd given up on it, arrived in the mail. Hooray!!)

Amber - maybe you could get your apartment manager's permission and do a sale in the parking lot? If you had some time, in fact, you could organize one for everyone in the complex who wanted to participate -- which would bring tons of people to your sale (I know people like to go to sales that say "3 FAMILY SALE" or whatever cos there's more stuff to see there), and then everyone would make more money.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2000

I knew a guy who advertised for a garage sale then slept in on the day he was supposed to have it. He woke up to find that his garage had been broken into and all the goods had been taken.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000

Ooh, good one, Eva! And I don't care if stuff isn't on tables.

Jill, I shouldn't laugh, but... hee hee!

Speaking of raising money, what do y'all think of what's going on over at Beth's site? See, she put a "donation" button on her main page, so people could send her a few cents with their credit cards on Pay Pal, if they felt like it. Then she asked on her forum what people thought of that. And a lot of people thought it was wrong, for various reasons.

Tell me what y'all think. I admit that as soon as I read about it, I was like "Dude, I am so totally gonna put a button on my site!", but now I don't know. Do *y'all* think it's tacky? I think there are a lot of interesting points being raised over there.

On the one hand, it's sort of like a guy playing guitar on the street and letting people throw coins in his guitar case. On the other hand, some might contrue (is that how you spell it?) more like a dollar dance at a wedding.

I'm really interested in y'all's thoughts on this, and not just coz I'm a money-hungry bitch, either.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000

It's okay to laugh, Gwen, I did. He was askin' fer it!

As for your question, I say go for it if you want to put up a clicky pay button or whatever. I don't think it's tacky if it's voluntary. Sadly, though, as much as I adore and enjoy your site, I'd probably never contribute. My credit cards are bloated enough as it is. I think you should make stuff and sell it on your site. You're a crafty person, right? Sew some more cute purses like the one you made and exhibited before. Crochet some doilies or some cute little tampon girl hats. I'd totally buy something like that. It could be just a little token for each donation, maybe kind of like what you get when you pledge to public radio. Just a little thank you gift.

One bad thing about a pay button is that it would make me feel guilty. I am an NPR junkie and I almost never pledge. But I'm such so hooked that I listen to the pledge drives anyway and just sit there and feel bad for being such a tightwad. It doesn't stop me from listening, though. Give it a try and see what happens.

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2000

I never read Beth's site, but I did read through the donation discussion and I think Beth is getting way to defensive. It sounds like she's feeling kind of guilty for asking to me. And before anyone jumps on my case, that's just how her posts came across to me.

I have mixed feelings about the donation button. Would I donate? Probably not. I have a hard time with people asking me for money. It's like me asking for donations because I have extremely high electric bill payments during the summer.

Gwen, my post is in no way directed towards you cuz you know I love you and would support any decision you make.

Plus, I would rather just send you some seeds and then you can post the pictures of them once they bloom and then I can pretend they're in my garden.

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2000

I think making stuff is better, because then everyone gets something (but sheesh, what *you* get is more work).

The donate button would make me feel guilty because I wouldn't be able to do it (am paying *down* the credit cards and thusly must not *use* them, something which is surprisingly hard to adhere to). But that shouldn't stop you, or Beth, or anyone.

People who are telling her it's really wrong for her to put a PayPal button on her site are probably reacting to their *own* guilt over feeling too poor/too whatever to push the button and send money. I bet they aren't sure what their role should be in that situation -- should they give? If so, how much? Will she be made if they don't? Will she quit writing if they don't? What if they do, and she quits writing? How does this change the relationship?

If I were programming her site or if I were her best friend, I'd probably advise her to take ad space instead (but that's hard to do, isn't it? Hard to get the ads, I mean, and not worth much money?), just because people might react strangely. But if she wanted to do it, people should just be mature enough to accept that. Nothing is really free. When she writes the site, she "spends" her time (time she could be spending writing for someone who pays, I might add). She's not restricting the site to paying readers only, but asking those who wouldn't miss a little dough to send some her way.

A lot of public museums work this way -- free entrance, but you're asked to leave a donation if you can. No pressure, just the invitation to help maintain the exhibits if you have the means. Isn't a web journal a kind of museum, the exhibits of which are dedicated to the thoughts and insights of a single person?

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2000

Gah! No edit button! I meant "mad," not "made." And I also meant to add in the first paragraph that in fact, we already do get something. You write us stuff and we get to read it.

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2000

Considering I don't like Beth I doubt I'm going to visit her forums, so I'm not sure of the amount of money she is asking for. If she is just asking for donations of a quarter or 50 cents, I don't see the problem - it's less than a can of soda or a candy bar from a vending machine. I'd donate if you had the button on your site, Gwen. It takes a lot of time to run a good web site, and time is money.

Now, if I am correct in thinking that the donations would only be spare change, I don't understand is how some people wouldn't donate that, but would donate more if you sent them a small gift. If y'all don't have any room on your credit card to put 50 cents on it, how would you have room for $10?

Like I said, I don't know how much money is being asked for, so I could be totally off. But I would still donate to you, Gwen.

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2000

Aw, thanks, y'all.

I think she suggested only a penny. And I do think people are responding out of guilt, a bit. Now that I think of it, I always feel guilty when I'm watching a really good PBS show during a pledge drive. And I wish I could pledge, but I don't. But I don't stop watching. But then eventually I say "screw it" and then Paul and I prank call the phone crew so we can see their faces on screen when they get our calls. (Ha, ha. Just kidding. Ahem.)

Last night Mike posted an idea (but I don't know if it's still there). He said Beth should just have a bunch of pens or something made up that say "Bad Hair Days", and then she could mark up the price 50% and people could just buy those. Then no one would feel awkward.

Jill: I always think about doing stuff like that. Usually, though, sewing and needlework isn't worth selling. Anything I make could be made in Taiwan and sold for one tenth of what I'd be paid if I worked for minimum wage. However, I am currently working on a comic book to sell on my site. And let me just tell y'all right now that I swear to God I won't be upset if you don't buy it. I just think it would be fun to make and sell one.

Don't worry... I'm not totally desperate for money (at the moment).

-- Anonymous, July 21, 2000

Gwen, I think a comic book is a great idea. Regarding other crafties, even if your work was the same quality as but pricier than something crankied out in Taiwan the difference would be that it was created by you. We'd be paying for the cachet of having somehing "Gwenmade." Does that make any sense?

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2000

Here we go... my latest get-rich-quick scheme... all the craftiness, none of the work:

http://www.cafepress.com/gwentown/
and
http://www.cafepress.com/gwentown2/

T-shirts by me! Profits for me! Work done by Cafe Press!

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2000

Damn Gwen! If I wasn't yo husband, I'd be all over that collector merchandise set at fabulous prices anyway! But hell, since I am your husband, I'm gonna show my support by outfitting the kids with those fabulous chickens and witnesses, and enjoy sippin my java from those cool mugs (while I read your diary entries to find out what I did the day before.) "Good luck!" (set in the tone of Gals' Panic console game.)

-- Anonymous, July 30, 2000

out of all of the eBay look like the way to go!!!

-- Anonymous, February 23, 2001