Weirdest LEGAL thing you did to get cash quick?

[Anonymous]

As kids my siblings and I would check into NIH for clinical studies. They were usually over a weekend, and the ones that paid good money (a few hundred dollars) involved multiple blood draws.

That was how my brother got Nintendo. I can't remember what I used the money for, but I did love playing in their "kids club" while my siblings were in the "hospital".

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's weird, but before we had kids, my husband and I did a lot of secret shopping/eating at restaurants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Churning credit card offers. I'm about to get $500 of travel expenses reimbursed.

At one point I churned bank account offers but with they've made that significantly more difficult to do now that it's not really worth it to me. Plus most banks will give you a 1099 for the income.

They have to if the reward is structured in a way that triggers it. Not their fault

[Anonymous]

Egg donor.

[Anonymous]

My 65+ old parents are both in a study that requires them to wear heart monitors for 3 days. $400 each on conclusion. Easiest cash they've ever made.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it's weird, but before we had kids, my husband and I did a lot of secret shopping/eating at restaurants.

I would love to do this...where did you find opportunities?

[Anonymous]

Phone sex operator. And took some of the customers and cut out the company and they paid me Direct

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Churning credit card offers. I'm about to get $500 of travel expenses reimbursed.

At one point I churned bank account offers but with they've made that significantly more difficult to do now that it's not really worth it to me. Plus most banks will give you a 1099 for the income.

They have to if the reward is structured in a way that triggers it. Not their fault

PP here and I wasn't blaming the banks regarding the 1099 but just noting that it makes churning bank accounts less desirable in addition to the other restrictions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it's weird, but before we had kids, my husband and I did a lot of secret shopping/eating at restaurants.

I would love to do this...where did you find opportunities?

Not PP, but I did this too. I used Coyle Hospitality; they do some higher end restaurants / hotels in DC, but the reports are intense. It used to take me 3 hours to write up a report for a $200 meal. My husband likes fancy food, and I'm cheap, so it worked for us (before kids)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stripped (no extras) when I was in nursing school. Perfectly legal - and they don't call it your moneymaker for nothing, folks

What did you tend to make in a night? I've heard such wildly different things.

150 on a terrible night, up to a grand on my best nights. Average 300-500 a shift, so I was able to dance 2/3 times a week and make out alright. I danced more on breaks and over the summer, which was good because school got really intense and I had to stop the last year - luckily I'd been able to save a good amount.

To your question: so much depends on how much a dancer makes - market, their "hustle," and their quality (it sucks to objectify people that way but that is the business). IME the best compensated dancers are the beautiful women between 30-40 who take care of themselves and treat the job as a job, are not into drugs/drinking/partying, and have an end game - they are banking for another endeavor. MOST men aren't into women just because they're young - they're looking for a whole package and the slightly older women provide that.

[Anonymous]

Working in a clinic that injected cancer into cats and rabbits to attempt to cure them of cancer. We would have to redbag them in end, creepy.

Emptying tampon dispensers in a ladies room.

Working for a fence, did not know at time but found out when we sold the rims back to a guy he bought from the thief night before.

[Anonymous]

I was a secret shopper for a while in college. I didn't make a ton of money, but it was fun and it made me some spending money and got free stuff (the stuff I would buy).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not me, but a friend on FB posted this recently on one of those tell us X number of things that people don't know:

I willingly let five Mosquitos carrying malaria bite my arm for $3000 when I was in college. It was part of a study trying to find a vaccine for malaria - they finally found it 8 years later. Surprise mom. Yea I never told my parents about that one.

For me, the weirdest thing was I used to participate in race-based housing tests. I'm a Asian guy and I would get assignments including background information and I would call to visit rental agencies and sales offices for condos and ask for tours and information to apply to rent/buy. Sometime +/- 3 days of me, a white guy would go to the same place with virtually the same background information. We would both take the tour, talk to the agent, request an application and leave. We would then have a questionnaire and write up about the experience to see if they were appropriately applying the fair housing laws. Out of about 10-12 visits, I think we only found one glaring case of an agent who just didn't like Asians (or non-whites).

I'm a lawyer who coordinated such tests. You really aren't supposed to talk about the methodology behind it - if everyone knows how it works, agents become more cautious, and find sneaky ways to discriminate (ones that cannot be caught during the preliminary visits).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it's weird, but before we had kids, my husband and I did a lot of secret shopping/eating at restaurants.

I would love to do this...where did you find opportunities?

Not PP, but I did this too. I used Coyle Hospitality; they do some higher end restaurants / hotels in DC, but the reports are intense. It used to take me 3 hours to write up a report for a $200 meal. My husband likes fancy food, and I'm cheap, so it worked for us (before kids)

I'm the original quoted person, and that is one of the companies I used, too!

[Anonymous]

I've used return protection from my credit cards to get money back on final sale items. They refund the cost of the item and don't ask for it back. Some of the things I bought didn't work, so I was able to sell/consign them and make money.