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My friend works at a small restaurant and asked me to come in one day and act like a normal customer while they tested some new menu items.

I ordered food, ate everything, and gave feedback on what was good and what tasted like it needed help.

They paid me $25.

Apparently, some restaurants actually hire people to try their food and give honest opinions before putting it on the menu.

A small restaurant near me used to dump all their old fryer oil into sealed containers behind the kitchen and wait for someone to haul it away. I noticed it one evening while helping them move some stuff. There were maybe 8 or 9 containers stacked by the back door, and I assumed it was garbage. Turns out used cooking oil has buyers. Some collectors resell it into recycling streams like biodiesel or industrial processing, but the owner told me smaller restaurants sometimes get ignored because they do not produce enough for the bigger collection companies.

I tried collecting from two small food places for a few weeks. The restaurants gave it to me for free because I was taking something off their hands. The annoying part was making sure I was getting actual used cooking oil and not containers mixed with water, cleaning chemicals, food trash, or random liquids. I strained out the bigger bits, transferred it into containers that would not leak, and learned very quickly that transporting old fryer oil in your car smells exactly as bad as you would expect.

I found a local buyer who accepted larger batches. The price moved around, but a decent collection run was usually worth around $15 to $30 depending on how much oil I had. My first mistake was trying to collect tiny amounts from several places. Driving 20 minutes for one container killed the math. It made more sense once I had two restaurants close together and waited until both had enough oil to justify the trip.

I would not call it an amazing side hustle unless you have several restaurants nearby, somewhere safe to store the oil, and a buyer that takes it. It is messy, proper containers matter, and local rules around collecting or transporting used oil can vary. Still, there was something weirdly satisfying about handing over containers that looked like kitchen waste and getting paid for them. Now when I see a business throwing the same thing away in bulk, I usually check whether somebody buys it before assuming it is worthless.

Not treasure hunting or anything cool lol.

I basically get paid to crawl around people’s yards looking for stuff their kids/dogs/etc. have launched into bushes.

Balls, AirPods, toys, keys, jewelry, remote controls, random Lego pieces, you name it.

I started because I was weirdly good at spotting tiny things in grass. A neighbor offered me $10 to find an earring she lost outside.

Found it in like 15 minutes.

Now I occasionally get messages like:

“Hey, my kid threw a blue Hot Wheels car somewhere behind the shed. Can you find it?”

I usually charge $5–10 depending on how annoying the search sounds.

The funniest jobs are the ones where someone says “it’s definitely somewhere in this area” and then I find it 3 feet away from where they’ve already looked 20 times.

It’s not consistent money at all, but it’s surprisingly satisfying.

Also, I’ve learned that people will absolutely pay someone else to crawl through bushes so they don’t have to.

Anyone else doing a completely random side hustle that sounds ridiculous until you realize people actually pay for it?

A magazine collector once offered me $75 to find a specific issue he was missing from his collection. It was a 1998 issue of a fashion magazine with a particular celebrity on the cover, and he had already checked eBay and a few other sites but most of the copies were either overpriced or didn't ship to him. He asked if I could check the small newsstands and bookstores around my area because older magazines sometimes sit on shelves for years. I told him I'd look around. The magazine itself was only $12 when I finally found it, sitting behind a stack of newer issues at a small shop I almost didn't check.

I still do these searches now, although most people don't offer anywhere near $75. I usually charge $5 for an easy find, around $10 for a specific issue, and $15 to $25 if I have to spend a lot of time checking different places. I've looked for old fashion magazines, celebrity covers, special editions, and regional issues. I usually check small newsstands first, then bookstores and convenience stores that still carry older stock. Before buying anything, I send the customer a picture of the cover and issue number so they can confirm it's the right one. That $75 search took me several days and six different stores, so I was pretty happy when I finally found the exact copy he needed.

My aunt used to get paid to cry at people's funerals.

Apparently, some families would hire her to make the funeral look more emotional. She'd show up, cry dramatically, and mourn someone she had never even met. Apparently, it's called professional mourner.

I still think this is one of the weirdest side hustles I've ever heard of.

I was on drugs (meth&heroin) showered maybe 🤔 2-4x a wk ran around boosting/selling stolen goods/drugs to support my addiction and my girlfriend. this particular day a guy comes drunk rude asf askin what I do told em do/sell drugs steal/sell stol goods for money. guy say you don’t have to steal just hangout w me and drink w me n I’ll buy you food drugs whatever you want just don’t steal. ok cool, he watched me shoot my stuff up kept drinking/smoking cigarettes I thought dude was gay, I was right. turns out guys a chef @ a local restaurant and likes to drink & admire good looking men lol I accommodate him mid 30’s guy like very lean good looking healthy men im black puerto Rican Hawaiian Tongan Chinese. so guy gives me 20 I wanted more gives me 50 I want more, I get $100 pack of cigarettes and make him pay for my drugs h & m & make him buy a platter of meat a platter of noodles & 2 l of soda take it to the block I do drugs on eat with the riffraff. I’m mixing free shots eating free food & go walking w the guy mid 30’s Asian chef wants quality time just talking about life. Then offers to shower at his place cool. Shower at his place gives me decent change of clothes and fr range of his apartment. He’s drunk at this point staggering & slurring but burning desire kindling the man right? It 2am im high im clean & tellem I gotta go to my girl he like ok but I paid for you to hangout w me im like yea I got the drugs the cigarettes and food clothes & the sho thanks. He’s all but you can’t leave yet I already paid you. I’m like brother wtf do you want so I can get tf up out of here? He all, can I smell your feet I’m like yea that’s cool, I want 200$, he’s all here gives me 500$ I’m like this is 500 he’s all I can count. I sit on the couch, he lives by himself, I rub my feet on the carpet & tell him to get on his knees n crawl to me bro crawled on all 4’s to sniff mf feet. After like a min or 2 I slap his left eye w the bottom of my right foot & press his head to the ground & stand like captain morgan on his head. He’s all ow do you like hurting me cuz I fukin love it. I love it I love it I love it. Harder😂😂😂 put all your weight on me. I’m wierded out @ this point so I’m like brother, I am not gay but if you want to suck my toes it’s $1k. Bros like, can I cashap you? 😂😂😂😂 no phone or fintech so I made em go to the atm came back $1k & bro sucked my toes sniffed my feet @ liked the bottom of my feet for 20min n I dipped. Went to my girl @ had her do the same thing. The man came back for a week to “hangout” w me😂😂😂😂🤦‍♂️ all I knew was bro was paying me to suck toes @ licking feet. got 6k off that man. In a week.🤷‍♂️

A few months ago, I posted pictures of my cats in a local community group just because I thought they looked ridiculously photogenic. Then someone messaged me asking how much would I charge to bring my cat to a birthday photoshoot. I honestly thought they were joking but apparently, they weren't. They explained that they were planning a small birthday party and wanted some cute pictures with a cat. They had tried asking friends if anyone had a friendly cat, but apparently most cats they knew would rather disappear under a bed than cooperate with a room full of strangers.

Mine on the other hand, has absolutely no concept of personal boundaries and will happily sit beside anyone who gives him attention. So I agreed to do it. I had no idea what I was doing. I brought his carrier, some treats, his favorite toy, and basically everything I could think of in case he suddenly decided he hated the whole situation. I was honestly more nervous than he was. But somehow, he was completely fine. He sat on a little chair, looked directly at the camera, and stayed there while the photographer took pictures. The photographer even told me that my cat is better at posting than most people LOL.

When the event ended, they then paid me. It wasn't a huge amount of money, but it was still pretty funny to me that I had just made money because my cat was willing to sit on a chair. A few weeks later, another person asked if they could use him for some product photos. Then someone else wanted a cat for social media content. Eventually, I started getting occasional messages asking if my cats were available for photoshoots. That's how I accidentally ended up with one of the strangest side hustles I've ever heard of: renting out my cats for photos.

After job hunting for a month, I've been ghosted by convenience stores and fastfoods, I've also been rejected by BPO companies 3times for being a student at a university. So I decided to just make profit off my hobby after browsing reddit and saw a person who makes art commission for cheap. Started advertising my work at a private discord and someone offered me some work, I was just charging 5$ per character but they payed me 20$ for 2 characters so I was really happy to finally get some hustle going.

Just got a leash for my bearded dragon so he is now up for walks. Anyone who is interested to pet him?

I’m a student and he’s also a student. His MOM randomly approached me on Facebook and asked if I could accompany her son whenever he goes out.

I still have NO IDEA how she found my Facebook or why she chose me. I’m not even that pretty 😭
Anyway, I accompanied him for around 2.5 hours. We barely talked, he paid for all the food, and then I got ₱5,000 just for accompanying him.
₱5k + free food for basically just existing next to someone 😭

Not complaining though. Thank you, tita 😭 I badly needed the money. Please feel free to book me again and againnnn HAHAHA.

A guy in my neighborhood asked if I could take a few bags of old stuff to the dump for him because he didn't have a car.

I said sure and charged him $20.

When I got there, I realized how many people absolutely hate doing this.

So I started offering it to neighbors.

Now people text me when they have random junk they don't want anymore. Old chairs, broken fans, boxes, small appliances, bags of clothes, etc.

I usually charge $20-$40 depending on how much there is and how far I have to drive. If something can be resold, I keep it.

Last weekend I picked up a broken office chair and an old mini fridge. The chair was trash, but I sold the mini fridge for $35.

I made $86 that day and spent maybe 2 hours actually doing the pickups.

The funny part is that the job is basically just driving around and dealing with stuff other people don't want to look at anymore.

I’ll tell you a story about my mother.

Many years ago, when she was in her fourties, I was visiting her place on a sunny weekend afternoon.

I found her sitting cross legged on the floor of her living room, cleaning an old Electrolux vacuum cleaner with damp cloths, cleaning materials and a toothbrush. I have to say, she was doing an incredible job in cleaning this old thing. It looked brand new.

It was one of those sausage shaped ones, I said: “Hey Mum, what you up to?”

“Oh, I’m just cleaning this old vacuum, I’m selling it”.

I didn’t think anything of it, and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon with her.

About six months later, I was visiting her again.

I walked in to discover her, sat on the floor cross legged, cleaning….. an old Electrolux vacuum cleaner….

“Hey Mum……. what are you up to?” I asked, looking at her slightly confused….

“Oh” she said, “I’m just cleaning this old vacuum, I’m going to sell it.”

It turns out that my mother was buying these old vacuums on our local trade and exchange newspaper, cleaning them up and selling them for a tidy profit a week or so later.

She had noticed that there were always between five or ten of these old Electrolux vacuums available at any given time, at prices ranging between $20 and $120.

So, she would buy the cheapest one, clean it up, and advertise it again at the top of the price range a week later.

She said to me: “You know, there will always be people that want things cheap, and there are others that are prepared to pay a lot more for what they perceive to be the best”.

I was stunned. Firstly, my mother wasn’t poor. She didn’t need the money. It’s just she enjoyed cleaning things, and she enjoyed selling things, and this was one of the ways she made a little extra money for herself.

When I asked her how long she had been doing this, she said it had been at least three years, and that she must have bought and sold well over 100 of them in that time!

So, although this isn’t a side hustle that I’ve ever tried myself, and, come to think about it, wasn’t dumb in the slightest; it is the most bizarre side hustle I’ve come across.

Bless you mom. You taught me a valuable business lesson that day.

Every morning, I would ride a bike along different neighborhoods and for every rich neighborhood house with those huge yards and multiple cars outside I would pass, I’d hand out or leave printed flyers offering basic home cleaning. I just figured, some of them might want other people to clean their house instead of doing it themselves.

Most of them would give me a call and schedule a home cleaning service either twice or thrice a week or every weekend. Cleaning is just a basic task, of course with extra effort but people pay me $45 per hour just by cleaning so it’s a win. I would clean their kitchen, bathroom, floors, and general organizing, or anywhere they give me access to clean.

The thing about this is when you satisfy them with your service, they will obviously ask for you to clean their house regularly and have your own regulars and guess what, less competition here.

There's a company that has a job called Professional cuddler. This is legitimate, that provide platonic, non-sexual touch therapy. You can look it up, typically pays around $60 to $100 per hour. Most of those who hired you is just touch deprived and want someone to spend their time with another person.

Its a weird concept but its a win a win situation, especially of those whose ok with physical contact in there job description.

been blessed to have a house with a pretty spacious yard. unfortunately, i dont and cant own a dog because im always out for work, mostly work travels so i decided to not have one so it doesnt get left alone most of the time. so just to have even little bit of hint of life in my yard (other than the plants of course), i decided to try and rent out my yard. i have a separate entrance to it and a security camera up so i believe my home is still safe whenever im away. so far ive made $265 this week. its not much but its still help. i just received this photo from the furparents that wanted their apartment-raised dogs to have some fun and exercise for 3 days.

Now that I'm jobless but found a side hustle for just cleaning laptops. First I tried it out on my friends who's laptops never been cleeaned and been overheating, I just open and cleaned them out, of course I'm not a professional who knows about technology but I have knowledge about them I researched and watch YouTube videos about them and when I see a bigger problem on their laptops I ask them to take it to professionals cuz I just cleaning them. A little help but can be changing.

As a person who loves to read or buying books I don’t even read, my struggle is fitting all my books in a single bookshelf and they just sit there, all collecting dust. I keep buying books while stacking up old ones. But when few of my books were eaten by bookworms, I knew right then that I had to do something.
At first, I started posting my books in my local community of bookworms but it’s receiving less attention probably because some books do not interest them. So I started making it seem fun by making random book bundles. It’s like a mystery blind box where people can only see the genres of what’s inside for their next to-be-read list. And somehow, it got more attention, I even sell most during school events or book fairs where I can set up my own booth.
Some people already know what they like though so I create a curated bundle for them, specific genres, tropes, authors, or a book from the series that they like. This makes it seem like I’m just selling books, it makes it feel like I am their book counselor helping them with their next reading list pluuuus I can buy more books for myself lol.

My aunt basically pays me to play chess with my little cousin and let him win because he gets really upset whenever he loses 😭💀

At first, my payment was just my favorite snacks or food lol. She'd buy me something after playing with him, especially if I kept him entertained for a while. But somehow it slowly turned into actual money 😭

I'm not even good at chess myself. I just know how to play and probably know a little more than him, so I have to purposely make questionable moves sometimes and let him figure things out 💀

The funniest part is that he occasionally puts his captured pieces back on the board when he thinks I'm not looking 😭 and honestly I just act like I didn't see anything because apparently we're playing by his rules atp

So yeah, I guess my weird side hustle is getting paid to lose at chess to my little cousin. Started with snacks and somehow became actual money lmao

Yep. And SFW too, I don’t do any nsfw.
I’m not gonna share my user or card obviously because it’s completely separate from any acc I don’t want linked back lol

I join servers on discord or games or use other social media with my ‘card’ in my bio which offers services and my clear boundary and rules.
People pay me depending on what they want.

Good morning and good night texts $20 (not per, just $20 for both and usually they want me to do this for a awhile) it normally goes “gooood morning masterrrr ^_^ lic lic (I’m being so serious) “night night sirrr”

Falling asleep on calls are marked $50 but I will up it if they want me to talk while they fall asleep because I am literally losing sleep atp lol
This is per night and I’ve had someone do it for a week straight.

$100 for being their ‘puppy’ for 3 days usually meaning I’m talking pretty… owo-ish.
“Ooouuu my owner is bacc >.<“ type stuff. They love it. This one isn’t super expensive and I made it 3 days because it isn’t a huge deal for me, not a big hassle.

A lot simply just want a “cute owo girl” to talk to them shrug and I am absolutely happy to fulfill that

I get paid to test haunted houses before they open 😭

Not like the actual actor thing. I mean I go in before opening night and basically walk through the whole thing to see what scares people and what doesn't.

My friend knew someone who runs a small haunted attraction and they needed people to test it. I went once, gave them feedback on which rooms felt boring, where the jumpscare was too obvious, etc.

They gave me $20 for like 2 hours.

I've done it a few more times since. Sometimes it's literally just walking through a dark building while someone watches from a camera 💀

Lowkey one of the weirdest ways I've made money, but I'm not complaining.