I’m pretty sure this isn’t exactly a “weird” side hustle, and there might be others doing this too. But I want to share my experience.

I’ve been running this microhustle for about six months now, and it’s honestly the perfect mix of digital archeology, treasure hunting, and internet culture arbitrage.

Every Saturday morning, I hit up local estate sales and thrift stores looking for one specific thing: dead, outdated media. I’m talking about early 2000s digital cameras, chunky MP3 players, floppy disks, and those proprietary memory sticks from Sony or Olympus that look like tiny sticks of gum. Most people see them as electronic waste. The sellers usually let them go for pennies, sometimes a dollar or two just to get rid of them.

The secret sauce to making this work is my collection of rare adapter cables. Over time, I’ve hunted down every obscure, outdated 30-pin, Mini-B, and SmartMedia card reader you can think of.
Once I get home, the real work begins. I plug the tech in, bypass any old errors, and extract the forgotten files. It is an incredible feeling, like opening a digital time capsule.

PS, I purposely did not show photos I extracted that are dated from 2001 and up to respect the privacy of the previous owner. Some of these pictures are a bunch of old photos I collected from thrift stores and garage sales. I like to collect photos from different decades.

I honestly didn't know this was a thing until a few months ago. From what I know, there are a lot of vending machines that are just sitting around in old laundromats, apartment buildings, repair shops, and other places where nobody really pays attention to them anymore.

What I do is basically check if those machines are still being maintained or not. Someone sends me a list of locations and I go there, take pictures, see if anything changed, check if the machine is still plugged in, and report back what I found.

Some people might think it sounds boring, but it is actually interesting because you find some weird stuff. One machine I checked was behind an old car wash and it looked like nobody touched it for years. There were weeds around it and the drinks inside looked really old. I honestly could not tell if it was still active or if everyone just forgot it was there.

From what I know, the owners need the information because sometimes it is hard to know if a machine is still being serviced or completely abandoned. My part is just collecting the information and sending it over.

Last weekend I checked 17 machines and made about $146. I never thought driving around looking at vending machines would make me money, but somehow it does. :PP

It is definitely one of the weirdest side hustles I have ever heard of, and now it is one of the ways I make extra cash.

What started as a total joke after helping my cousin prep her maid of honor speech has turned into an actual side business. She mentioned I was the only person who gave her real, honest feedback instead of just saying "looks good!" so I decided to test the waters and post a quick listing on a local community board.

​The setup is simple: people book 30 minutes at a local Starbucks or library, read me their speech out loud, and I give them real notes. I tell them if their pacing is off, if their jokes fall flat, or if their "how they met" story makes them sound selfish. Most people have only ever read their draft to their dog or in the bathroom mirror, so hearing it out loud to a human makes a huge difference.

​Rates-wise, I charge $25 for a half-hour session, or $40 if they want a second run-through after making edits. Depending on the week, I’ll get anywhere from 1 to 6 clients, though peak wedding season is absolute madness. (And no, coffee isn't included, you buy your own!)

​The unexpected downside? After listening to roughly 60 of these, I can spot the tropes instantly. The "Webster’s dictionary defines love as..." intro, the dramatic pause before "I knew they were the one," or the questionable joke about an ex that always gets cut last minute. I can practically pinpoint the exact second their voice will break! Totally amusing.

​It’s gotten so bad that I went to a friend's wedding last month and caught myself mouthing the best man's speech word-for-word. An aunt sitting next to me thought I was having a medical episode 😂

pls dont judge but yes, pagpag business might sound like an entire different dimension of business but money is money. and it is thriving. People always look at me sideways when I tell them how I make my daily living out here in the slums, but out of all the raw survival hustles you can pick up on the streets aside from selling scraps? this is the one that keeps food on your plates. it's like having a business that u dont have to worry about not making a sale because a lot of people needs it in the community.

Here is how I actually pull it off every day to make at least 10 USD. Right after the fast-food places close, I gather up the discarded chicken bones, half-eaten burger patties, and leftover fried scraps that get thrown out into the bags. Once I bring them back home, I wash away everything, scrape off the bad parts, and boil the meat heavily with vinegar and spices to kill the germs. I cook it down into a stew, pack it into small plastic bags, and sell it right outside our alley. By the end of the day, it adds up to around 10 USD. Tiring? Yes. but atleast it comes from a clean money :)

A few weeks ago, I saw a stray cat limping across the street, so I decided to take it to a local animal shelter since they also had a vet. They were more than happy to take it in and even gave me $3 for bringing it there.

Turns out the cat had been beaten, and the reason it was limping was that its leg was fractured. Apparently, some of the kids around here occasionally harass strays for fun, but recently they've resorted to physically abusing them for "fun".

The shelter offered to pay me for each stray I bring to them but to be honest, at this point, I'm not even doing it for the money. I just can't wrap my head around the fact that kids these days think hurting animals for fun is acceptable.

I'm barely 20 and even when I was a shit head teenager hurting animals for fun never crossed my mind. These animals are already struggling to survive out on the streets, and now they have to deal with people making their lives even worse.

One of the struggles of out-of-town fans in those local areas are the big concert tours happening only in major cities. Some solo fans would immediately back down due to the unfamiliarity of navigating the area.

So when a girl posted on a group if a local would be willing to host her, drive her to the stadium, and be able to ensure her safety, I already know the best fit would be me. I’ve always thought of this side hustle idea since I have an empty room in my apartment but I never thought it would actually happen.

I quickly connected with her and made sure neither of us was sketchy. The deal was simple: she would pay me for the room she’d be staying in, drive her to the stadium, SHE EVEN PAID FOR MY CONCERT TIX, and then drive her back home. The main purpose was to have her first concert experience stress-free and safe and she won’t have to pay too much for commodities and safety. For a 2-day stay, I earned $300 just for hanging out.

I grew up seeing my dad fix broken umbrellas, and I never really thought much of it until I realized people actually pay him to do it. Whenever he has free time, he'll take in broken umbrellas from people around our area and repair them for a small fee. Where we live, it rains pretty often and the wind can get really strong, so umbrellas break all the time, even the expensive ones that are supposed to be durable. So, instead of buying a new one, some people bring their umbrellas to my dad to see if he can fix them. Sometimes it's a bent metal frame, a broken rib, or a problem with the mechanism that opens and closes the umbrella. I've seen him spend time working on umbrellas, from long ones to foldables. He doesn't make a lot of money from it, only just a few pesos here and there, but it's a nice way for him to earn something extra during his spare time. It's quite normal here in our place (I'm from the PH btw lol), I'm just curious if some other places do this?

honestly the weirdest way I've made money is by creating very bad caricatures of almost any random person that walked into our office. Let me explain.

It started with me doodling random things as I was an extremely bored receptionist at my last job. Whoever came in, I just drew them mindlessly on a piece of paper and then threw it away. One day, some co-workers caught me doing it to one of our HO people, and they absolutely LOVED it 😭 One of them actually paid me like 2$ to actually draw his manager badly and he kept that proudly in his phone case😭😭

Things started getting out of hand when people started liking my art style though, and within a week, I was looking at almost 10 commissions from random people in the office I didn't even know the names of 😭😭

exhibit (a) of my infamous caricatures btw. contact me if y'all want anyone badly drawn, I'll be down 😭😭😭

I was looking for an easy way to make some extra money when I found a university research study looking for people who were willing to exercise and provide sweat samples. The researchers were studying how the body responds to exercise and what they could learn from sweat. Before I could join, I had to go through a screening checklist to make sure I met the requirements. Once I passed, they scheduled me for a session at the university gym.

When I arrived, there were a few other participants there for the same study. We were each given sweat collection patches, which were placed on our skin before the exercise started. Then we exercised on treadmills for a set amount of time while the researchers monitored us. The patches collected sweat while we exercised, and when the session was over, the researchers removed them and collected the samples. I was paid $80 for completing the session. After that first study, I started looking for other university research studies that needed people for exercise and sweat collection. I found a few more that I qualified for and signed up whenever the schedule worked for me. The pay was different depending on the study, but the process was pretty simple. I’d pass the screening, show up, do the exercise, provide the samples, and get paid.

It was never something I expected to make money from, but it became a pretty easy way to earn extra cash. Whenever someone asks what I do for extra money, I just say, “I get paid to sweat.”

started doing this after attending a local finals watch party at a community center where the stream audio was echoing so badly nobody could hear the shoutcasters over the room noise. the organizer was super stressed trying to manage food and tech at the same time.

​I brought my laptop and a cheap audio interface to their next event, set up proper sound ducking so the stream volume automatically lowers when the host talks on the mic, and kept the feed synced across two projectors.

​now three different local organizers call me whenever there's a major tournament weekend. I show up an hour early, set up the audio/visual routing, monitor the feed for lag spikes, and fix any stream drops instantly. takes almost no effort once the match starts and I get paid to watch the games live with free food.

I’m looking for something to try out, but I want to stay far away from the usual course sellers no survey apps that pay $0.20 an hour, and no generic dropshipping stuff.

If you’ve pulled off a genuinely weird or niche online hustle that actually paid out decent money, what was it? How long did it take to see a dollar, and what did you make?

I’m planning to start a Substack where I test out and review the best/strangest ideas I get from here.

A lawyer needed two people with no connection to the couple, so I sat there while they signed, signed a couple of pages myself, and that was it. Took maybe half an hour.

I'm 19yrs old currently on my summer break and I play games all day. Some times these hobbies of mine lead me to various discord servers. At first I was there to play games with other people and make friends but then a friend of mine offered me to use their account on Marvel Rivals and help them grind their characters. He made me a deal of 5$ for an hour of playing such characters, I got time on my hands so why not? Eventually this leads me to another discord server that is requesting other people to grind their accounts for them. Either they request you to climb a higher rank which of course could cost a lot and some to grind the characters to lord status which are the low rate ones.

Some times these people requests to do other games and they let you borrow their steam account, roblox, epic games, riot games, etc. Some times you won't get lucky with the payment being low but despite all that I enjoy doing my hobby meanwhile I get paid.

By the end of the month, I've earned up to 360$ by playing games other people bought and its insane some people would go through lengths to pay you so they can achieve "platinum" in their games.

ok so Ive had this side hustle for some time now, at first, it was only a favor for a friend but she kept on asking me so to do it because I do it so well, one time I got so busy that I cannot do it anymore so she insisted me to do it and she'll pay me, so I did! now every now and then, about once a week or two I would go to her condo and declutter her clothes, bags and everything she bought that week, you see she has a hoarding problem, and I help her declutter her stuff. one of her friends has the same problem and now I've been helping them and get paid at the same time, it's lucrative too so I'm thinking about adding some clients like them.

is this side hustle weird? or maybe I can go full time?

Since it’s October already, I’m gonna share with you my annual side hustle for this month right before All Souls’ Day and during that day where I bring along a pail, scrub, paint cans, and markers. It’s a busy period for most public cemeteries since families visit graves for their late loved ones, that’s how I can offer my cleaning services to them such as removing overgrown weeds and moss from tombstones, repainting the faded white tombs, and tracing the faded names with my black paint or markers.

I only struggle with the heat in the middle of the day, but it’s strangely calm working in peace. I get the creeps sometimes so I talk to the grave to pay respect and tell them abt my service, idk if that’s weird but it’s like asking permission to touch their graves lol. Usual cost ranges between $20-$30 for each grave, oftentimes other families would give me cold drinks and lunch packages. By the time November first rolls around, I'm sure to make some decent money in a short time.

What should i innovate?nextt i think this idea is weird but for some reason it's working

Umm like doggy day care it's dog gone "I don't care"!

I started making extra money from used pallets almost by accident.

I was doing small hauling jobs with my pickup and trailer when a local brewery called me about a huge pile of pallets behind their loading dock. They needed them gone before a new shipment came in and paid me $500 to haul everything away. There were about 120 pallets, mostly the standard 48x40 ones. I was planning to take them to the dump, but before leaving I called a warehouse about 10 minutes away and asked if they bought used pallets. They said they paid $8 each for clean ones. I went back through the pile, pulled out the broken ones, and ended up with 100 usable pallets. A few trips later, the warehouse paid me $800 for them.

So that one job brought in $1,300 between the hauling fee and the pallet resale. I spent about $70 on gas, but I still couldn't get over the fact that I had been paid to remove something, then found someone else willing to pay me for the exact same thing. Now whenever I do a hauling job, I ask if there are pallets I can take too. I've picked them up from breweries, warehouses, grocery distributors, and construction sites, and if they're in decent shape, I usually try to sell them instead of dumping them.

3 years ago, I was trying to find a job that pays alright where I can also practice my skills for video editing, I did find one but it turned out that I will be doing more than the job description. The photography studio is quite small but the team managed to get their job done. I get to move a little inside the studio while I'm recording videos for me to edit later on, and for some time, the photographer will have another idea for new themes and since they are understaffed, I was tasked multiple times to find props that will fit her ideas. I didn't mind it at all and I learned a lot from that job but I need to find another job because it doesn't pay much. The studio mainly shoot newborns but they cater other types of photoshoot as well.

hello f20 lf sidehustle rn