Someone Asked People The Weirdest Ways They’ve Ever Made Money, And These 40 Answers Are Wild

Going to community college. My state passed a bill my senior year of HS that first-time college students can go to any of the community colleges for free. There was stipulations of course, you need to be a resident of the state for a few years, you need to attend classes full-time, and you needed to maintain a 3.5GPA or above. Easy peasy.

A few weeks into my first semester, I get a check in the mail. It was my FAFSA being returned to me. The whole thing. I thought it was a mistake, there's no way this was meant to go to me, right? I called the 1-800 number for FAFSA, nobody there could give me a straight answer as this bill was only a thing in my state, and it is brand new. I called everyone I could think of in my college, the bursar's office, the financial services office, student accounts, the registrar, nobody knew why I had that check.

During winter break, I get an email from the bursar's office. They told me the money was mine, but it's intended for education related purposes, and they suggest I use the check towards tools as I was an automotive major.

I got a check the next semester, then the following, then the last. All in all, I was paid about $8,000 just for getting my degree, plus three certificates. Weirdest, but easiest way I've made a good chunk of change.

I bought a used car from a dealership once for $2000. Shortly after I bought it hail got me and I got $1000 cash to fix it. Never fixed it because who cares. Drove it for 5 years and sold it to some Australian guys who were working in the US for $2000 cash. They never did a title transfer.

I got a notice in the mail shortly after I “sold” it that it was previously totalled and it wasn’t disclosed when I bought the car. Got a $5000 check for the settlement.

Australian guys drove it to California and left it in a used car dealership parking lot then flew back to Australia. Dealership called me and chewed me out, but I explained that I sold it to other guys who left it there. We chatted for a bit and they offer me $1000 for the car WITH the title. Took it in a heart beat.

So my $2000 car made me $1000 from insurance. $5000 from settlement. $2000 from selling it. And another $1000 for selling it again. Not bad.

On voting day, some years ago, a 600 pound pig that had escaped from a nearby farm was running around outside the polling location causing mayhem. I captured a video of a pig chasing a cop, which is automatically funny.

That made me almost $3,000 in royalties over the next 10 years. I still get a deposit once in a while.

I have a neighbour who occasionally calls me to do small jobs on his property. It's usually tree work.

He doesn't know we're neighbours. He thinks I'm a professional contractor of some kind. He is always extremely impressed with how quickly I show up and get started when he calls. He would be less impressed if he knew that I live a few doors down and work from home.

We initially met when I was cutting down one of my own trees. I think he assumes that I was hired to do that, not that it was my house.

Counting birds.

I did a "bird survey" on a beach every day at dawn for some university project. I wasn't a student, but was a friend of a friend who was (and who had originally agreed to do it but got a better offer.)

I was unemployed, had a car to get there, and was paid in cash. Nice way to spend a summer.

Back around 2003, through an old business contact, an older gentlemen wanted his business to “be online”.
I thought he wanted a website, email, the basic things to get an online business presence.

We setup a meeting so I can get requirements. I get to his office and I start asking questions.
Turns out, he just wanted his 2 computers to be able to access the internet.

Went to Best Buy, bought a router, hooked up his 2 machines to it and was done. I told him not to worry about any money, as it wasn’t a big deal.
He insisted on payment.

He paid me $500 for 30 minutes work. I felt bad about it, but hey, I tried to do it for free….

In high school I had 3 gay friends. They all paid me good money to go meet their parents as their girlfriend.

I happened to be the exact height and weight as the defendant in a r**e case. A laywer hired a firm to make up 3d scans of me playing the defendant in the car seat with a dummy. 45 minutes of me sitting in a car on top of a dummy got me $800. It was soooo awkward amd weird.

I work for a pharmaceutical company. The company has a program where they would pay you for blood (small amount, only 100mL) that they would then use for research. Sounds sketchy, but it was legit. So I would be paid for my blood. Pretty decent money, at the time.

Went to a club with my friends, hooked up with an older woman (I was 19, she was 37).

Woke up next morning to an empty motel bed, bill had been settled by the woman, she left me two hundred on the nightstand and her business card with the message: I loved doing this, whenever you feel like doing it again I'm up, here's a bit of cash to get you home.

I stood on street corners dressed as a giant Twinkie and waved at cars.

While studying abroad in Japan, I held up a sign saying you could touch my hair for 100 yen. A few people did it in an hour. I bought old Pokemon games with the money and sold them for over 10 times the price in tbe US.

Cleaned male horse’s sheaths. Performance horses are in rings and dust/dirt accumulates in there. Particularly geldings. (Neutered male horses). Makes the horse very uncomfortable and can lead to infection. No one wanted to do thiers and I needed money.

Best part was another person came along and offered to do it for half the price. A few people took him up on that. Not sure what he did but those horses seemed to be limping the next day. I got my customers back.

College student 'medical' trial for workout supplements. Do a leg workout, they draw blood, two days later they draw more blood. Take some unknown powder for a week, do a leg workout, blood draw, two days later blood draw. $400.
I don't know what the f**k they gave me, and by definition neither did they.

When I was in high school (Early 2000's) I found this site called furbid where you could get commissions for drawing furry p**n. I made so much money, but some of the requests I got made me really uncomfortable.

I assembled a racing sim seat set up for a parent last year at Christmas 2023.

I made $400 for assembly and delivery.

$5 found inside a bible in a hotel room. Now I always check.

Probably working illegally in Australia (as a 25 yr old American) making cash under the table setting up exhibits at trade shows. I made $200 AUS to $300 AUS per day doing trade shows.

Or, reading Tarot cards at street festivals in Australia (there's literally one every weekend). I would clear $500 AUS per day at $15 AUS per reading (undercutting the competition charging $20 lol).

I went to Australia in 1996 to visit an online girlfriend, who's best friend committed s*****e while I was in the air - and she left a note blaming her, in part, as the cause of her s*****e. Online girlfriend was understandably upset, so I couldn't stay with her, so I was stuck in Australia with only $300 to my name. I made the best of the situation and staying in hostels all over Queensland. Stayed almost 4 months, had the experience of a lifetime.

I saw her on the way out as she was my ride to the airport. Truly sad situation for her but I am forever grateful for the experience.

When I was younger I played a lot of Laser Tag (specifically a chain called Laser Quest). Captained a team to other countries for tourneys, played for close to 10 years.

My city has something called "corporate challenge" where a bunch of corporations (split into groups based on number of employees) recruited internal teams and take part in dozens of activities. Everything from bowling, laser tag, dodgeball, all sorts of things. You would compete against other teams from other corps, scoring points based on your ranking within that activity.

I got a call from the area manager that the corp challenge finals were happening and someone was "sick" and they needed a filler. The alt had conveniently not shown up. I was paid for my time and we easily won gold, so now I have a gold medal in my bucket of LQ related goodies somewhere.

I was clearly a ringer and brought in just to win the finals. Don't even remember the corp I played for, but found it hilarious that they would pay to win something that exists to be fun and team building. Really speaks to how larger corps work.

I'm a retired RF engineer. I once earned $800 for one hour of consulting time that led to the resolution of a years long chronic problem that the vendor couldn't figure out.