Consumer Watch: Top tips to make some cash

Allison Doody is her own boss so she doesn't mind the long hours and hard work. Photo / Doug Sherring

Turn your spare time and talents to lucrative use.

$Stick some ads on your car
Since CarAds launched at the beginning of the year, it has paid about 50 drivers to display business signs on their cars. Owner John McLaughlan said there was strong interest and small businesses and real estate agents have been keen to advertise. He said the amount drivers were paid varied but it was about $100 a week. "It pays for petrol."

$Flog your junk on Trade Me
Clean out your cupboards and sell things you don't need on Trade Me ... or start up a Trade Me business. Whether you're importing something and selling it, or buying from a local manufacturer, this is a cheap way to find customers. Trade Me says about 2000 of its top sellers list only on Trade Me. "

$Answer lots of questions
Market research companies pay participants for focus groups and face-to-face interviews. Ngaire Reid, of Reid Research, said it doesn't pay a lot and it varies depending on how specific a participant was needed and what they did. A typical session might pay $40 but you often get to try a new product, too. One focus group of smokers, who had to come back three times and try different products in between, were paid $100. Online surveys would sometimes pay or offer loyalty points. "It's not a way of earning a living but a bit of a bonus every now and then."

$Rent out a room in your home
If you have a spare room in your house, renting it out to a boarder brings in a significant amount of money. If you rent your spare bedroom for $150 a week, and put that into repayments on a $400,000 mortgage, it will cut the loan by five years and save you almost $95,000 in interest.

$Give up your evenings
If you have spare time you could babysit, mind pets or offer classes in something you're skilled at. Babysitters earn about $15 an hour and you could charge about $20 to give children a half-hour piano lesson. "You might be able to make meals, frozen or crockpot, and sell them around your neighbourhood," says financial adviser Lisa Dudson.

$Sell your homemade jewels
If you make beautiful jewellery, are a talented artist or a dab hand with the sewing machine, someone out there wants to buy your creations. Lucy Arnold started website Felt.co.nz when she couldn't find anywhere here to sell her handmade merino arm warmers. "I was selling online on a US site but I wanted to sell the same product in New Zealand and couldn't find the right way to do it." Trade Me wasn't quite right for hand-crafted items. Felt.co.nz works on the same sort of basis as Trade Me - listings cost 50c and last for four months. When an item sells, the site takes a 5 per cent commission. There were about 1500 active sellers at any one time. "A large part of our seller base is work-at-home mothers." Collectively, Felt sellers have sold $2.5 million worth of their handcrafted products since the site launched in 2007.

$Put your money where your mouth is
Turn your opinion into cash via iPredict. It's like an online stock exchange, but stocks are linked to events. They pay out $1 if an event happens, or nothing if it doesn't. Recently, stock in David Parker being Finance Minister after the election was selling for 24c. Traders could buy the stock and expect to cash in if Labour wins the election. If the polls turned in Labour's favour and the stock rose to more than 24c, they could sell at a higher price. Market analyst Robert Quigley-McBride said there were 8000 registered traders on iPredict and more than half made money. The site will allow $2500 to be deposited into a trading account every six months, and $10,000 maximum. He said, of the top 100 traders, even the 100th had reported a 254 per cent increase on their initial investment. "People who make money on our site are the ones who stay around for a reasonable amount of time." Some lost heart when they did not make money on their first investment and did not come back.

$Become a carrot farmer
Turn your lawn in to a vegetable patch and sell the produce. The problem with many home gardens is seasonal gluts, but you can sell excess stock if you have an outlet. A casual space at suburban Sunday markets is $20, or $30 to rent a table.

$Rent your city carpark
If you have a CBD carpark you don't need, think about renting it out. An inner-city carpark is worth about $40 a week. Websites such as sharedspace.co.nz list carparks in Auckland and Wellington. Also consider renting your driveway for one-off events if you live near venues.

$Do your best to break websites
Website developers sometimes need members of the public to test them for bugs. Volunteer through sites such as usertesting.com. It's US-based but pays international testers via PayPal. You can earn US$10 for each completed test and US$15 when you test on a mobile device. A test includes a 20-minute recording of you using the site, then follow-up questions.

Trade Me work a joy

It took a year for Allison Doody to build up her Trade Me business enough to allow her to quit her call centre job.

She now sells vintage, retro and antique furniture and collectibles, going to about 10 auctions a week and selling the items online.

She sometimes works from 7.30am until midnight but says the hard work pays off. "It's dirty and physically demanding but I wouldn't change it."

People who wanted a decent income would need to put in a lot of hours, she said.

"I don't have regular income but I have better potential for earning.

"When you're in a call centre job like I was in, it's $20 an hour, then you go home. When you do what I do, you could find a piece of art for $2.50 and sell it for $2000.

"The potential is there, if you put the effort in."