When I was a teenager my grandpa took me with him on his many adventures to teach me how to make extra money. He was retired and couldn't survive on that income alone. Even though he was older he was quite a go getter, very active and determined to survive. He always had a pocket full of cash. He was my hero. He was a horse trader most of his life and had over 20 head of horses at that time along with many other animals. He got up around 5:00 am every morning to take care of them.

Part of taking care of his own animals was one of the ways he ended up making some extra cash. We would go to the local grain mills and ask if we could clean up around their silos and places where they processed the grains. There was lots of spilled grains to be cleaned up and sold. We would fill up the pickup truck with all the grain screenings and take them around to smaller farmers and other horse owners and grandpa would either sell them the whole truck load of grain for around $40 or he would also sell the grain screenings by the bag. We had nothing into the load except for a little sweat. We went to around 15 grain mills in the area over the course of the week and could sell 2 to 3 loads of grain screenings per day at harvest time.

This of course was seasonal work, but there was other things we could do in the off seasons to take up the slack when there was no crops being processed. We cut a lot of wood, again this was something that my grandpa needed in the winter to heat his own home, but he had lots of older friends that needed the wood as well. We would go cut the wood, load it up and sell it load by load to my grandpas friends.

In the fall we had a source for potatoes, a potato farm would sell us crates of potatoes for around $20 a crate, it was a lot of potatoes and grandpa would go around selling the potatoes to his friends and family by the bag or by the crate. Another great opportunity for everyone.

Our biggest adventure was scrap metals. My grandpa was the only person I ever met who could drive down the road while looking off into the fields for dumps we could go through. After he saw one that looked profitable, we would stop by the farm and ask if they had a dump with metals on it that we could go through or purchase. Grandpa would offer them a small donation to go through their junk pile if he thought it was worth it. Some of the farms we visited were goldmines. Most of these farms dumped all of their old appliances on these dumps along with old tractor or farm equipment parts and pieces. We would find stuff like cast iron bathtubs, brass, copper and tin. Back then this stuff could bring a pretty penny. It's even more profitable today, but harder to find.

We would find automobiles, refrigerators, washers and dryers, and lots of old junk electrical motors on these dumps. My grandpa would take what he could to the junkyard, mostly the tin first, and stuff like electrical motors or anything with lots of wiring in it, he would take home, clean and separate the copper wire from them and then burn off the plastic coating and sell the raw copper, brass or aluminum at a premium price. We made lots of money "junking" as grandpa called it.

All of these ideas are just examples of different ways to make some extra cash. All I want to do on this blog is get and give some good ideas to anyone who might be hurting for some extra cash, but can't think of anyway to make a little extra money. There are lots of opportunities out there if you know where to look. When you see someone picking up aluminum cans, there is a reason that they do this. It is scrap metal or it has a deposit on the can or bottle and that pays a refund. It might not be much, but it's money.

I came across an add in the paper the other day for a paper/cardboard recycle center that was paying for cardboard by the ton. It wasn't a lot of money, and I don't know how much cardboard it takes to make a ton. But there are a lot of opportunities out there to make some extra cash and I want to hear about all of them and share them with everyone we can. Please feel free to post any of your ideas or experiences with your money making ideas to this blog. Please keep it real, clean and legal. Knowledge is the best tool you can have in your quest for independense.

I have many more up to date ideas that I am using today to make extra income that I will be posting in the days to come. Thank you for checking out my blog. I look forward to any and all comments.