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MONEY COMMENT
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In common with thousands of other Fools, I spend a lot of time trawling our discussion boards. During one of my recent searches, I came across this thread, written last year by a chap who decided to live in his car after a family break-up. I'm all for Living Below Your Means, but this was a truly radical way to cut his expenses! As well as reducing your outgoings, you could also give your finances a boost by raising your income. For example, many people with problem debts take second jobs in order to Get Out of Debt more quickly. Here are some quirky examples I've come across: 1. Join a police identity parade According to this post, you can earn £10 to £15 by attending a police line-up. Irradi8 describes it as, "Seriously good work, and you always feel safe"! 2. Help compile the electoral register This post explains that, prior to local and national elections, councils seek volunteers to make door-to-door visits to help update the electoral register. Kormachameleon says the pay works out at around £15-20 per hour. 3. Take part in market research interviews I used to make £25 to £75 per meeting (plus travel expenses) by attending group or individual interviews conducted by market research companies. These firms are interested in hearing our views on their clients' products: the subjects varied from buying books online to how we invest our money, which I consider to be money for old rope for gasbags like me. In theory, candidates should be selected randomly but, in practice, many recruiters keep a record of reliable people who can turn up on time, join in the discussion and provide useful input. 4. Do wacky odd jobs Instead of advertising your services as a cleaner, why not offer more specialised services, such as cleaning grubby ovens for a tenner a time? Rather than a simple housesit, you could combine housesitting with spring-cleaning while someone's away on holiday. In place of being someone's cook, you could make batches of homemade meals in freezer portions to sell in bulk to busy workers (which would be a far cheaper and healthier alternative to supermarket convenience meals). Instead of bar work, apply to be a steward at your local sports ground (of course, it helps if you are a fan of the game). All you need is a little imagination and some free time, and you can turn your skills into ready cash. 5. Earn interest from someone else's money There are around fifty different credit cards offering 0% interest on balance transfers for introductory periods, typically six months. It's possible to benefit from these offers even if you don't have any existing card debt. Simply open a new account and then arrange for a balance transfer to a card with a nil balance. Once the transfer has gone through, call up your existing card issuer and ask it to send the credit balance to you by BACS or cheque (if it objects, threaten to close your account, after which the money will be sent to you anyway). You can deposit this sum in a high-interest account until you need to pay off your card balance before you start being charged interest. Say you earn nine months' interest on £3,000 in a tax-free cash mini-ISA account paying 4% a year; you'd make £90 for an hour's work or so. Warning: This tip isn't for those in debt or the financially ill disciplined! More: Visit our Credit Card centre | Living Below Your Means | Get Out of Debt.