By Linda D.
I’m able to sock away an average of $700 a month by sitting around. I wish I could say that I was bright enough to have come up with the way to sit and earn money, but the reality is that it kind of fell into my lap. This is what happened.
A friend was going away on short notice for a funeral and told me how she really didn’t want to put her two dogs in the kennel, but had no other choice. When she mentioned the cost for the two dogs was going to be $60 a day, I said more as a joke than seriously that I would stay at her house with the dogs for that. Her response was completely serious when she said that she would be thrilled to pay me if I would.
Her reasoning was simple. The dogs were familiar with the house and there would be no stress of being left alone in a strange environment for a long period of time. Their daily routine wouldn’t be interrupted and she knew that they would get their familiar food and daily walk. In addition, she would have someone living in the house while gone to pick up mail and newspapers so that it wasn’t a target for thieves. She would get all this for the same price she would have had to pay anyway.
The gig worked out well and she told a number of her dog owner friends about me. Over time the number of requests has built enough that I now have to turn away business.
I’m in a fortunate situation that allows me to house and pet sit for others. My main job is as a sales rep where I do most of my work home. As long as the house has an Internet connection which I can use, I can do all of my work there just as easily as I could from my own apartment. This allows me to earn an extra $50 – $75 a day doing exactly what I would be doing at my own apartment — sitting down and working.
I understand that not everyone will have the flexibility in their schedule that I do to earn extra money, but I think that if you look for opportunities beyond your current main source of income that can compliment what you are already doing, you have a great opportunity to earn extra income. My retirement fund has gone from $0 to nearly $10,000 in the little more than a year and has been entirely funded by sitting around other people’s houses.
Do you have a story about saving money or earning money that you’d like to share? We’d love to hear about it.
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