Unlike many of my fellow financial bloggers, I got street cred (credentials) when it comes to being poor. When we first arrived in San Jose, CA, in the early 1980s, my family lived with another family until my parents were able to save money to rent an apartment. The house we lived in was a typical three-bedroom, two-bath house, situated along McLaughlin Avenue. My parents were friends with the adults who rented this house. They met in Chihuahua, Mexico.

Things didn’t get any easier once my parents were able to rent an apartment. All they could afford even though they both worked full time was a one-bedroom apartment in Sunny Court. My sister and I slept in the living room. The food was not always abundant. I remember many times there wasn’t much to eat and school was where I had my only regular meals. Clothes were bought as needed at the thrift store. The shoes came from friends or, if money had been saved, from Payless Shoes.

Living month to month in those days was stressful, even for a child. There is nothing worse than your parents visibly trying to make ends meet and you cannot help. Back in Mexico, he would have gone out and sold gum or shining shoes to bring cash. But in the United States, there are laws … child labor laws. You also need to be able to speak the language in most cases. At that time, he had just started learning English.

I’m not ashamed to admit that as a kid I dived into the garbage, shoplifted from supermarkets, and worked adult cleaning jobs in the neighborhood. Anything to help my family. I am not proud of the acts that were illegal, seeing them now as avoidable with adult eyes, but as necessary for me in those days. Life without regrets is not life at all.

From my experience, I can offer you ways to raise money today that may be widely known to poor people, but not so widely known to middle-class people. Okay, maybe my middle class brothers know the following ways they can raise money too, but they can see it as something “below” them.

Most people perform these actions because they need money to pay their bills, eat, and survive. I have done this simply because I wanted to invest in cash and was not willing to use leverage (debt).

1) Save aluminum cans and glass bottles instead of putting them in my recycling bin. After four months, I take them to the recycling plant in Oceanside, CA and sell them, making between $ 15 and $ 25. Not much I know, but multiply it by 3 and you’ll have an extra $ 45-75 for anus. Poor people don’t recycle; They look for cans, plastic and glass bottles and sell them!

2) Sell something of value at the pawn shop for quick cash. I have sold watches that I did not use (gifts they gave me for birthdays / Christmas) and electronics. Save a lot of time.

3) Sell things on Craigslist. Don’t you use your bike anymore? Make a Craigslist ad and sell it to a private party. Find things around the house that you no longer need and are valuable to sell on Craigslist. If you have a lot of things but not great value, do # 4.

4) Garage or garage sale. Jessica and I have a yard sale at least twice a year. We collect from our sold scrap around $ 100 each time.

5) Sell a gift card for cash. What !? Yes … have you ever received a cash value gift card and knew you were not going to use it? Sell ​​it to a friend or go to the spot and put it on your scalp. Have the person hand over the card and get a balance check if they don’t trust you.

6) Sell blood (I’ve never done this … too much chicken). Find your local blood bank and sell that plasma!

7) Sell your hair on eBay. Yes, you can sell your hair online. I’ve never done it because nobody wants my hair, but if I had Fabio’s locks …

8) Do you have any coins? Look under your sofa cushions, your bed, dusty utility drawers, under your car mat, wherever. If you’ve been saving spare coins, then it’s time to go to the supermarket and find the nearest Coin Star machine. It’s easy to use. Simply unload all of your change and the machine will count every penny, print you a receipt which you can then take to the line and cash out, just like in a casino!

9) Start using coupons and take a break from going organic. Poor people have no other choice when it comes to buying preservatives and junk-free foods at the grocery store. For them, price is the selling point. But for us, we can go for healthier foods from Trader Joe’s, for example. Don’t tell him to eat below his means, but if you want to save a little more for a few months, this may be an option.

10) Take the bus or commute to work. This is an option that we have that the poor may not have. A bus pass will cost you between $ 30 and $ 45, depending on the city you live in. You will probably spend twice this amount, even with falling gas prices, driving yourself to and from work every day. Like # 8 above, this would also be a temporary strategy. Don’t you want to sit among the poor? Convince a co-worker to join your savings plan. Or if you didn’t sell your bike, take it to work for a month.

11) Buy cheap wine. I used to buy Cabernet Sauvignon for $ 11-15. I would drink about two bottles a month. So I found Sutter Home Moscato and Cab’s selling for $ 3.99! Back on the hood, I used to drink malt liquor and nasty beer. Now I like tasty cheap wines and micro / craft beers. However, I have sometimes downscaled on the latter when I was on a savings investment “program.” You could make your own!

Being poor has once given me an idea that most people at my wealth level don’t have. I can do several of the above options without feeling uncomfortable or embarrassed. I’m confident enough with my circumstances that, for me, the above scenarios are optional ways to raise money for investment purposes only. But what about the people who have to depend on these money-raising strategies to survive? I can imagine it. If this is your life, I can give you some great advice: Stop blaming others and feeling sorry for yourself! This will not help you at all. Instead, start by creating a list of ways you can improve. Improve what? Here are some of the lists you need to make and brainstorm on:

1) Free ways in which I can improve myself (what I know and can do).
2) Ways I can improve my decision making.
3) Ways I can improve how I spend money.
4) Free ways I can improve those I know (the emphasis is on finding smart money, “better placed” people to have as part of your network). You can count on me as part of your network!