Making Extra Money for Christmas
Low on money for Christmas? Want new ideas on how to make a little money for the holidays? If you are creative, the possibilities are almost endless.
If you have a table jigsaw, you can make inexpensive wooden ornaments. If you have a little money to buy supplies, anyone can do it. First of all, if you do not have a table jigsaw, you can buy one at your local home improvement store for about $99-$120. After that, you can use it year after year so it pays for itself in no time. Then you can use scrap wood discarded around your home, a local, business, or even from people who give wood away for firewood. You do need it to be somewhat thin.
You can purchase one wooden ornament (or one of several different kinds) at a local craft store. After that, just trace it onto the wood, drill a small hole at the top, and carve it out with the jigsaw. Then you can buy paint for as little as 0.50 per color to paint it. Remember to drill the small hole at the top first-if you miss the correct area, you can work around it with the carving.
If carving and painting is not your thing, then maybe you could embroider a cute design on a set of pillowcases. Local ‘dollar stores’ sometimes have pillowcases as low as $3 a set. Then you can buy an iron on template from either online craft sites or at a local craft store for about $1-1.50. Iron on the design and with colored thread (cross stitch floss works best-usually costs about 0.20 each color) sew over the print. This takes quite a lot of time to achieve the end result but is very nice once finished.
Okay, so you don’t like to carve, paint, or sew. No problem. What about putting your computer and printer to good use? All you need is lots of paper and ink for the printer (both black and color). Try making ‘Santa letters’. Send letters from Santa to kids anxiously awaiting his annual trip. You could even add something special from Santa like a candy cane or an ornament (can be bought very cheap).
Just use your imagination for this one. If you have ‘Microsoft Word’ or ‘Notepad’, just think up a letter you think Santa would say. Something like, ‘Rudolph did something funny today’ or ‘the elves are working so hard’. It doesn’t need to be very long-remember you are speaking to small children. Don’t use many ‘big’ words.
After that you can make your own stationary and stickers. For the stickers use some sort of sticker paper-even address labels will work. Download some pictures from the internet to use.
All these ideas could make you some money or just give as gifts. These things could sell on several different websites like Ebay, Etsy, Craigslist, or various others. Just look around. You could probably sell them at a garage sale by your house. Just do your homework so you know how much to charge for them-prices will vary depending on where you live.