Quick cash

March 25, 2009 6:13 PM

How can my friend make some extra cash if she only has about a month to do so? What employment opportunities are available if you're only available for a short period?

I'm asking this question for a friend.

My friend will be completing her courses around mid-June and will then be leaving for Zambia (to work/study abroad) July 18th. She's wondering if she could find some way to make some extra cash as she's a bit strapped at the moment (the trip will be quite expensive).

So any ideas, suggestions you guys have as to how she can earn some money during that short amount of time would be greatly appreciated!

posted by blithely to work & money (10 comments total)

I should probably emphasize that she seeks LEGAL ways to make money, so no prostitution, drug dealing, that sort of thing :)
posted by blithely at 6:35 PM on March 25

Catering for special events.
posted by sweetkid at 6:48 PM on March 25

Babysitting/nannying. I would recommend getting CPR trained first, because people with that training seem to get more work/a lot of parents won't hire people without it. This is a $40-$60 investment, but it would pay off from one day-long job, most likely.
posted by fructose at 7:19 PM on March 25

A temp agency, maybe? It's something to look into, certainly.
posted by InsanePenguin at 7:19 PM on March 25

If there are any festivals or fairs in the area during that time period, she could make some money working there.
posted by zinfandel at 7:32 PM on March 25

I've done medical testing (human guinea pig) and made quite a bit of cash in just a few weeks.
posted by ephemerista at 8:16 PM on March 25

Seconding ephemerista - if your friend is in an University town (or better, multiple university town), email the department secretary of the psychiatry, physiology, kinesiology, neuroscience, neurology, &c&c&c departments (or hang out around those buildings and in common areas looking for posters/flyers) and ask about studies asking for human subjects.

An hour here, and hour there; for $50/hour in an MRi machine (I got $100 and pictures of my brain for an hour of MRi and 3 days of wearing accelerometers on my wrist just before xmas) or $20 to answer a questionaire or whatever.

There are also consumer interests groups; google around for them around your city. Go try and rate different products (or provide round-table suggestions as for products). A couple of $20's for an hour or two of work.

Your rates will vary depending on city and kind of 'work.'

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Tutoring? She sounds like she is in school. If it's a post-undergrad program, tutor undergrads. If she's still in undergrad, she can tutor highschool. Either way, if she has proficiency in any other language than English - advertise/answer advertisements for English tutoring.

It's about time for HS students to write SAT/whatevers, right? She could advertise to tutor that, too.

If in the US, there's the possibility of 'donating' plasma/blood for money. I think I ran across some paid bone marrow 'donation' when I was in the US (but for certain minorities with rare-ish HLAs).

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Double check craigslist in your area; search for disability or disabled or autism or help or things like that. People who are recognized as disabled by the government for whatever-/whichever variety- of reasons are given money to pay for aid. I have a friend who works on and off with people with this kind of money (and my mom did a similar thing post-retirement with autistic kids who's families had gov money to hire people to hang out with the autistic kid) and it's usually 3x+ minimum wage for a few hours here and there during the week.
posted by porpoise at 9:10 PM on March 25

Round these parts they setup tents to sell fireworks during the end of June through the 4th. They usually need someone to be onsite 24x7. Buddy of mine wanted to do it a few years back, but he had military obligations. I remember the money being pretty good for the short amount of time you had to be there. Might be able to find something about it in last years newspapers.
posted by wrnealis at 9:57 PM on March 25

I had a friend who would take days off of work just to go join a crew that cleaned nice houses. She made about twice as much money doing that than she would have in a day's work at the office. She eventually left and went to do it full-time and, from what I hear, is raking in the money. There's very little training required, flexible schedules and you can leave the job at any time.
posted by bristolcat at 8:54 AM on March 26

Lots of great suggestions here! My friend will be pleased. Thanks everyone!
posted by blithely at 6:59 PM on March 26