When jobs disappeared and banks failed in the early 1930s, millions of Americans had to figure out how to earn money with almost no safety net. Traditional employment dried up. Businesses closed. Entire industries collapsed.
But families still needed food. Rent still had to be paid.
So people improvised.
They turned skills into income, grew food to sell, bartered services, repaired what others threw away, and created small home-based businesses long before the phrase “side hustle” existed.
The ways people earned money during the Great Depression weren’t glamorous. They were practical, resourceful, and local. And many of those strategies still work today during economic uncertainty.
In this article, you’ll discover 25 real ways Americans made money during the Great Depression, along with the survival principles behind them and how they can inspire income ideas in tough times.
Updated February, 2026.
In this article
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What Was the Great Depression?
The Great Depression was the longest and most severe economic downturn in modern U.S. history. It began after the stock market crash of 1929 and lasted through much of the 1930s. Banks failed, businesses closed, and unemployment soared, forcing millions of families to find creative ways to survive and earn income outside traditional jobs.
It impacted that generation for the rest of their lives, not just in their frugal habits but also how they viewed the world.
Why Jobs Disappeared So Quickly
When the stock market crashed in 1929, it triggered a chain reaction across the economy. Banks that had invested heavily in stocks failed, businesses lost access to credit, factories cut production, and consumer spending collapsed. As companies earned less, they laid off workers — and rising unemployment reduced spending even further, accelerating the downturn.
One thing that struck me was the ingenuity of the Americans who lived through those tough times. Hard times as in almost 25% of the total labor force was unemployed. That’s about 12,830,000 people! Yet many continued to find ways to earn money, even when their own circumstances were dire.
Economic downturns rarely announce themselves in advance. Even today, industries can contract quickly due to automation, the tsunami of AI, global events, or financial instability. When systems shift, families often have little time to adapt. which is why the survival strategies of the 1930s still deserve attention.
How Families Were Forced to Adapt
As steady employment and the weekly paycheck disappeared, families had to rethink almost everything about how they lived and earned money. Even mealtimes became a challenge, and moms were forced to create their own “Great Depression recipes.”
Many households shifted from relying on a single paycheck to combining multiple small income sources. Skills that once felt optional, like sewing, repairing, gardening, cooking from scratch. suddenly became economic assets. Children contributed. Neighbors cooperated. Bartering replaced cash in many communities.
The book, We Had Everything But Money details in first-person accounts how families found creative ways to survive.
Adaptation wasn’t glamorous. It was practical. Families focused on reducing expenses, producing what they could at home, and turning everyday abilities into income wherever possible. Those who survived the hardest years often did so by staying flexible and willing to try unfamiliar work.
If you’ve ever had to severely tighten your own financial belt, you know that at some point, there’s nothing more you can cut. Every extra expense has been eliminated — now what? That’s when you take a look at additional ways to earn money.
The income strategies that emerged during the Great Depression generally fell into a few clear categories: service-based work, food production, handmade goods, barter, and small-scale entrepreneurship.
How Families Earned Money During the Great Depression
These income strategies generally fell into a few clear categories: service-based work, food production, handmade goods, bartering, and small-scale entrepreneurship. In many cases, they were income-producers nearly everyone in the family could help with.
Service-Based Income
When incomes fell to nearly nothing, many families set up businesses to provide services. These jobs require little startup costs — often just the skills themselves and trust within the community.
Housecleaning and Laundry
Women often took in laundry or cleaned homes for families who still had income. Even during these years there were some households that continued to have financial stability and relied on others for domestic help.
Childcare
As parents searched for work, sometimes out of town, informal childcare arrangements became a source of small but steady income. Watching neighborhood children required no equipment, only trust and reliability.
Hair Cutting and Grooming
Professional barbershops were sometimes too expensive, so individuals cut hair at home for a reduced fee. Personal services shifted from formal businesses to informal, neighborhood-based work.
Repair Work
Shoe repair, clothing mending, and tool fixing became valuable trades. When families couldn’t afford to replace items, repair skills created opportunity. A person who could extend the life of a coat or pair of boots could almost always earn money with those skills.
Odd Jobs and Day Labor
Thousands of men frequently took on short-term manual labor, like hauling, painting, chopping wood, or farm work. These jobs were unpredictable but could provide immediate cash.
Key Point: Low Overhead + Everyday Demand
Service-based work succeeded during the Great Depression because it required minimal investment and addressed ongoing needs. Even when money was tight, certain services remained necessary. Skills became currency, and reliability became a competitive advantage.
Food Production and Agriculture
For families with access to land, even small backyard plots, food production became both a survival strategy and an income source. Growing food reduced their own grocery costs, and any surplus could be sold or traded. In rural communities especially, agriculture often provided one of the few reliable ways to generate cash during the worst years of the Depression.
Selling Eggs and Dairy
Families who kept chickens or cows often sold eggs, milk, butter, or cream to neighbors. These small, steady sales created modest but dependable income streams. Even households with limited cash still needed basic staples.
Selling Produce
Home gardens expanded significantly during the 1930s. Surplus vegetables and fruit were sold at roadside stands, in town markets, or directly to neighbors. For some families, gardening shifted from a supplement to a primary food and income source.
Collecting and Selling Anything Edible
You didn’t have to have a farm or even a backyard garden to earn money. People living near lakes, rivers, or the ocean caught and sold fish, clams, and crabs. Clever foragers could pick and sell berries, wild asparagus, and even medicinal herbs. Sprouting seeds or growing microgreens is one way to earn money in modern-times.
Baking and Preserving for Sale
Skilled home cooks sometimes baked bread, pies, or canned goods to sell locally. Homemade fudge was a big hit — a little comfort food for a few pennies.
Butchering and Meat Sales
Those with livestock occasionally sold portions of meat or offered butchering services to others. In agricultural areas, these skills were valuable and in demand.
Farm Labor and Sharecropping
In rural areas, families worked on larger farms in exchange for wages or a share of the harvest. Not everyone knows how to manage livestock and those with that knowledge, could earn money or at least room and board.
Key Point: Food Created Dual Value
Food production during the Great Depression served two purposes: it provided much-needed food for the family and could also generate an income. This made agriculture, or gardening on a smaller scale, one of the most resilient strategies for that era as well as modern economic downturns.
Handmade Goods and Home Businesses
When factory jobs disappeared and fewer people had money to spend, families turned to handmade goods as an income source. They found ways to turn practical skills into small home-based businesses. These ventures required minimal capital and allowed people to work from home while taking care of their children and household needs.
Sewing and Alterations
Clothing was expensive and rarely replaced during the Depression. One shirt or dress had to last for years, and skilled seamstresses earned money by altering, repairing, or sewing garments for others. As children grew, hand-me-down clothing was a fact of life, and a local seamstress who could shorten, lengthen, take-in and let-out a piece of clothing had a skill most everyone in the community needed.
Quilting, Knitting, and Crocheting
Handmade blankets, garments, and household textiles were created for both family use and sale. Yarn and fabric were sometimes repurposed from worn-out clothing as a way to reduce costs.
Soap Making and Household Supplies
Homemade soap, candles, and even cleaning products were occasionally sold or traded. These everyday necessities remained in demand even when families cut back on other spending. This was also the era of the Fuller Brush Man, the door-to-door salesman who earned money selling brushes and other household goods.
Woodworking and Small Crafts
Men and women with woodworking skills built simple furniture, repaired tools, or created small household items. This wasn’t an era to add purely decorative pieces to a home but rather, make or buy functional, long-lasting furnishings.
Taking in Boarders
Some families opened spare rooms to lodgers in exchange for rent and/or household/farm help. This created a steady income stream when other options were limited.
Key Point: Low Capital, High Skill
Home-based income worked during the Great Depression because it relied more on skill than startup investment. When credit vanished and banks failed, businesses that required little overhead were the most adaptable. Talent, resourcefulness, and reputation often mattered more than formal credentials.
Bartering and Informal Exchange
When cash became scarce, people often relied on bartering labor and what they could produce for what they needed. This didn’t eliminate hardship, but it reduced dependence on currency and allowed families to survive when there was little help from the government, savings had been used up, and employment was hard to find.
Trading Labor
As long as a man, woman, or child had a strong body and enough energy, they could work in exchange for what they needed. One neighbor might repair a fence in exchange for help harvesting crops. Others traded carpentry, sewing, childcare, or mechanical skills.
Swapping Goods
Families traded surplus food, handmade goods, or household items for what they lacked. Eggs might be exchanged for flour, or preserved vegetables for firewood.
Community Skill Sharing
In many towns, skills were pooled informally. A person known for shoe repair might serve the entire neighborhood, while someone else became the trusted mechanic or seamstress. This is where a good reputation and reliability helped create opportunity. When money was scarce, people chose to work with those they trusted.
Credit at Local Stores
Some small-town merchants extended informal credit to trusted customers, allowing families to purchase essentials with the promise of later repayment. This depended heavily on relationships and community stability.
Key Point: Community as Economic Safety Net
Bartering and informal exchange succeeded during the Great Depression years because people in close communities could rely on trust and proximity. Families who maintained strong community ties often had more options than those who were isolated.
Small-Scale Entrepreneurship and Resale
Not everyone waited for work to appear. Many people created their own opportunities by buying, selling, or providing small-scale services. Even in a depressed economy, certain goods and services retained value, especially those that solved immediate problems.
Just a few companies founded during these years:
- Krispy Kreme Donuts — The founder began by selling these to grocery stores.
- Dairy Queen — Even during hard times, people wanted small indulgences, like a soft-serve ice cream cone.
- Revlon cosmetics — Women still wanted frugal ways to look their best
- Penguin Books — Inexpensive paperbacks were in demand
- Church’s Chicken — This chain began by offering frugal fried chicken meals.
Economic hardships didn’t eliminate opportunity for those looking for it.
Collecting and Selling Scrap
Scrap metal, rags, bottles, and other reusable materials were gathered and sold. While the profit margins were small, this required very little investment and could generate immediate cash.
Reselling Used Goods
For the creative entrepreneur, secondhand clothing, tools, and household items were bought cheaply and resold for a modest profit. Repairing items before resale could increase earnings.
Newspaper Delivery and Errand Services
Young people frequently delivered newspapers or ran errands for families who needed assistance. These small jobs provided supplemental income when adult employment was inconsistent. Everyone in the family could help, even in a small way like running an errand for a few cents.
Kids earned a little extra if they were promoted to “Corner Captain”, a sort of Great Depression multi-level marketing program where a kid brought in other kids to sell papers and earned a bit extra himself.
Street Vending and Roadside Sales
Some people sold produce, baked goods, or small handmade items directly from roadside stands or in town centers. Anywhere a crowd might gather, you’d find people selling everything from fans to stay cool to apples and home-baked muffins.
Boarding Houses and Room Rentals
Families with extra space rented rooms to travelers or displaced workers. Though it required flexibility and trust, renting space and offering homemade meals created one of the more stable income streams.
Key Point: Initiative and Flexibility
Small-scale entrepreneurship worked during the Great Depression because individuals could identify immediate needs and find ways to quickly fill them. The ability to pivot quickly — to buy, sell, repair, or serve based on local demand — could make the difference between one family thriving while another one went hungry.
Ingenuity is something that can never be stolen by thieves, confiscated by a government, or lost to flood or fire.
What These Great Depression Income Ideas Teach Us Today
The ways families earned money during the Great Depression were not random. They followed consistent patterns and key points that still apply in modern times as we experience our own ups and downs.
While today’s economy looks different, the underlying principles of resilience remain surprisingly similar.
Skills Often Matter More Than Credentials
During the 1930s, practical abilities and knowledge created opportunity. A person who could repair shoes, sew clothing, forage for wild berries, or fix tools often found demand regardless of formal education. Tangible skills retain value because they solve immediate problems.
Low Overhead Increases Stability
Many Depression-era income ideas required little capital. No storefront or large bank loans. No complicated infrastructure. The lower the startup cost, the lower the risk. That principle still applies in any uncertain economy. If you can create a start-up using a bit of technology, know-how, and determination, you could find yourself with a successful business in spite of what the stock market is doing.
Small Income Streams Add Up
Families rarely relied on a single source of income. Instead, they layered small earnings — selling eggs, taking in laundry, repairing items, or renting space. Individually modest, together these streams created stability. Multiple income streams during any economy is a wise strategy.
Local Demand Is Powerful
When national corporations and large businesses struggled to stay afloat, local needs remained constant. People still needed food, repairs, childcare, and basic services and supplies. Income ideas rooted in everyday necessities proved more durable than those dependent on luxury spending.
Community Relationships Have Economic Value
Bartering, informal credit, and word-of-mouth referrals sustained many families, and they still function in the same way toay. Trust functioned as a form of currency. Social capital, things like reputation, reliability, and community ties often opened doors, not only for income sources but also as a way to strengthen the community overall.
What This Really Means for Us
Looking back at the Great Depression isn’t about predicting disaster or assuming history will repeat itself exactly. It’s about recognizing how ordinary families adjusted when the ground unexpectedly shifted beneath them.
They didn’t wait for perfect conditions. They worked with what they had. They leaned on practical skills, community relationships, and a willingness to adapt.
Our economy today is very different, but change still happens. Industries rise and fall. Robotics and AI are poised to reshape entire fields. What remains steady is the value of resourcefulness, flexibility, and the ability to turn everyday skills into opportunity for anyone watching for it.
Could These Strategies Work in a Modern Recession?
The economy today is far more digital and global than it was in the 1930s, but the underlying principles of earning money during hard times haven’t changed as much as you might think.
In a modern recession, certain industries may quickly suffer, especially those tied to discretionary spending. But basic needs don’t disappear. People still need food, repairs, childcare, transportation, and practical services.
Many Depression-era income strategies translate surprisingly well today:
- Repair skills still save people money when replacing items feels expensive. Appliance repair, for example, is still in high demand.
- Food production, even small backyard gardens, can offset grocery costs. Some entrepreneurial suburban moms are setting up their own “porch bakeries” where they sell homemade loaves of sourdough. Backyard chickens provide eggs to sell to neighbors, and one mom I know set up a few shelves near her windows to sprout seeds for selling at a farmer’s market.
- Service-based work remains accessible with low startup investment. College kids earn money by washing windows and setting up a basic pool cleaning service.
- Reselling and refurbishing used goods has expanded through online marketplaces.
- Flexible, skill-based work adapts more easily than highly specialized roles tied to one employer.
That doesn’t mean the 1930s are coming back. It means that even in tumultuous economic times, those changes often reward adaptability. Individuals who can pivot, reduce overhead, and meet local needs tend to navigate downturns with more options.
The goal isn’t to prepare for collapse by hoarding food and supplies. Rather, it’s to understand how income can be diversified and made more resilient when conditions change.
Where These Ideas Still Work Best Today
Depression-era income strategies tend to work best in communities with a demand for local goods and services are a priority and where people are connected with each other.
They are especially effective in:
- Small towns and rural communities
- Areas with strong farmers markets and local trade networks
- Households seeking supplemental income rather than full replacement wages
- Families focused on lowering expenses as much as increasing income
- Communities where word-of-mouth trust carries weight
In highly urban, fast-paced economies, some strategies may look different, but the underlying principle remains the same: adaptable skills and low overhead create options.
One of the main reasons for studying how people survive, whether economically or physically, is to find lessons we can apply to our own lives and circumstances. How do people manage to survive when the money situation is dire?
Now is the time to consider how you will earn money, whether or not you are currently out of work. Lessons from how others earned money during the Great Depression is an inspiration!
Frequently Asked Questions
Formal jobs became scarce so many people created small income streams instead. Common work included yard labor, domestic help, childcare, sewing, selling homegrown food, resale of goods, and repair services. Government programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) also provided employment for millions.
Most families relied on multiple small income sources rather than one steady paycheck. They grew food, bartered services, repaired instead of replacing items, rented out rooms, and took on part-time or seasonal work.
Yes, and very often they were the ones who came up with the most creative ideas, such as collecting and selling clams and foraging for berries. Many older children contributed to family income through part-time jobs such as delivering newspapers, babysitting, farm labor, or helping in family businesses. In rural areas especially, children’s labor played a significant role in household survival.
Bartering was widespread, particularly in rural communities. When cash was limited, families exchanged goods and services directly, such as food for repairs, labor for produce, sewing for childcare.
Unemployment peaked around 25% in 1933 and remained high throughout much of the 1930s. While conditions improved later in the decade, full economic recovery did not occur until the early 1940s.
These income strategies will ALWAYS work in both good times and bad. Small, home-based businesses, practical skills, reselling, repair work and food production continue to bring in additional income. Today’s economy may be very different, but people’s needs remain similar to those during the Great Depression.
Final Thoughts
When we read about the Great Depression, it’s easy to focus on the hardship. The bank failures. The job losses. The long lines, soup kitchens, gaunt faces, and empty pockets.
But there’s another part of the story.
Ordinary families found ways to adjust. They stretched what they had. They learned new skills. They supported one another. They found small streams of income when large ones disappeared.
Most of them didn’t think of themselves as resilient. They were simply doing what needed to be done for their families.
That’s the real takeaway.
Economic seasons change. Industries evolve. Robotics and AI are poised to reshape how we work and earn money. But resourcefulness, adaptability, and a willingness to start small still matter.
Self-Assessment: Get Ready to Earn Money in a Recession/Depression
What skills do you have that might offer a service during a severe economic downturn?
What knowledge do you have that would be helpful, even vital, to others?
Which products can you produce?
What skills can you teach?
Ingenuity is something that can never be stolen by thieves, confiscated by a government, or lost to flood or fire. It is possible to survive during a Great Depression and there is plenty to learn from those who lived through the last one.
Related Great Depression Content
- 65 Pieces of Survival Wisdom from the Great Depression
- Could You Stomach Any of These Great Depression Meals?
- How People Stayed Healthy During the Great Depression
- Do You Have the Skills to Survive a Great Depression
If You Want to Go Deeper Into Depression-Era Resilience
Much of what we know about how families earned money, stretched food, and adapted during the 1930s comes from diaries, oral histories, and firsthand accounts. These books offer a deeper look into that world.
- Clara’s Kitchen: Wisdom, Memories, and Recipes from the Great Depression by Clara Cannucciari and Christopher Cannucciari — How one family cooked and thrived in spite of tough economic hardships.
- The Great Depression: A Diary by Benjamin Roth
- The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan — A powerful look at Dust Bowl families who survived both economic collapse and environmental disaster.
- We Had Everything But Money — Short and easy-to-read personal anecdotes.
YOU REALIZE that thanks to the U.S. government, most of those things on the list are illegal to do now! EPA, FISH & GAME will not let you go get your own fish, collect wood or even rainwater or make anything they can’t regulate!
and forget making food at home, the county department of health would shut you down in a hot minute. people don’t like door to door salesmen and with the risks of murderers and pedophiles out there in large numbers, this is not safe anyway!
so thanks to the government, being poor is now a crime if you try to help yourself out of poverty!
These weren’t illegal back in the 30s, otherwise there would likely have been far more deaths due to starvation and exposure. 🙁
If we experience a second ‘great depression’ and people are hungry, nobody will care about what the government says.
A lot of people today would starve before eating ‘beans’. Remember the beggars who throw away food that others give them? My ‘food stamp’ relatives eat the most expensive meats, etc. They make fun of me for eating beans.
In some states making food at home is not illegal. Maine has a law that permits “cottage industries”, which means I could make and sell home-made preserves from my kitchen.
It’s also not illegal to sell firewood here in Maine. In fact, because of concerns regarding invasive insect species and the proliferation of tourists who come to Maine for camping, a whole industry around selling firewood has bloomed, especially in my town. The State and local communities would rather allow folks to sell firewood on the side of the road than to have people from out-of-state import their, potentially, contaminated wood.
Check the local laws, but there’s probably a lot less that’s illegal than we think.
Aaacccctuuualy, here in western canada .. the whole list is illegal..
That’s why we in the USA who value FREEDOM so often see Canada as far too Socialist/Communist leaning to wish to ever live there. We were Sooooo very happy to see so many of our Lefist children take off for Canada during the Viet Nam War and thus not stay here to infect any more badly with the stupidity of Communism then those who stayed have already managed. Thanks, you Canadians, for taking all those intellectual losers. Now maybe we know why Canada is so strict about who it lets in from SOUTH of it’s border !
So you’re saying that mending clothes and renting out a room in your house is illegal in Canada? Yikes.
It is unfortunate that there are a number of commentators spreading misinformation and paranoia.
I see in some areas of Canada they are, indeed, very restrictive about food safety, but I know of two ways around this. I’ve known people to rent or borrow a restaurant kitchen or school kitchen during off-peak hours to make their jams or other products, and this seems to satisfy those particular health regulations. Also in some areas there are now “Kitchen Incubators,” which are basically professional kitchens (funded as a non-profit) set up for individuals and budding entrepreneurs to use. There are two in my area. This is a relatively new thing, so it may not be in your area yet. There are also in almost every area, non-profit organizations that assist small and new local businesses to understand the regulations, apply for funding, create a business plan, some offer free design services, etc. They will be a wealth of local information on how to do a start up, and they are free.
It can also depend on the state. Texas laws about making and selling food items are much less restrictive than in Arizona, where I used to live. Also, note that this article is about earning money during the Great Depression, and if such desperate times ever occur again, it’s likely most people will ignore regulations and do whatever they need to in order to earn money and survive.
I agree they can ship in baby food, and pet food from China that poisons both, but forbid a homemaker from selling anything out of the home, it’s so corrupt.
You know very well that fishing and gaming is regulated so that we don’t fish and hunt wildlife into extinction, which we nearly have done many times in our history of America. Regulation has helped the numbers of buffalo, bison, fish, deer, beaver, elk, salmon, swans, American Bald Eagle, threatened plants, etc. to come back, as well as has cleaned up our rivers and lakes from poisons such as mercury. Without it, we likely would have nothing to hunt, but yes, that nothing would be free. There would be no catching… but it would be free. You can still fish without a license on private land, for free… assuming you have the permission of the owner or own the land yourself. The government, for which you have so much venom, also runs huge fish stocking operations, to restock fish we can eat into such places as The Great Lakes, so that people like you and I can fish more, and also to bring income into our states in the form of tourism. To learn more about how and why conservation works, and what opportunities you have for hunting, fishing, and restocking a pond, I suggest you look up your state’s Department of Natural Resources.
My parents were kids during the Depression and the war years, so they weren’t trying to make a living. However, they both talked of selling soda bottles to earn enough money for movie tickets. There are very few places where you could do that now, although I have sold some jewelry to make a little extra money.
One thing I noticed from my research is that even kids felt responsible for earning a bit of money to help out their families.
They were returning the bottles for the deposit. We used to have a nickel deposit on bottles of soda and got a nickel for each one returned. I’ve done this to get extra change but they sell soda in plastic bottles with no deposit on them today. There went that source of spare change.
But you can recycle cans!
This reminds me of a teen couple that stopped here when I was gardening, asking for my redemption bottles (but not offering to work for them). Maybe I should have given them over, but would they have just bought drugs with the profit? Another day, as I mowed, schoolgirls tried to sell me restaurant coupons, but why didn’t they offer to do yardwork to support their team? Sadly, it’s a different world now. But mama taught
me frugality. I used my saved bottles for grocery money, mowed my own yard (a no-gas pusher), and got lettuce from my garden (saving $2 a head). Yep, I’m the proud daughter of a Great Depression survivor.
We have purchased a set or two of those restaurant coupons and got very little use out of them! Yes, help with chores would be a great money maker, but I’ll bet in this day and age, it wouldn’t be safe.
In the 1930’s, the government didn’t demand money before “allowing” people to grow & sell, or bake & sell goods. The current federal govt does all it can to quash individual self-help efforts. You need to be very careful nowadays.
Don’t forget- prospecting for local gold will be back in action as gold goes for $10,000+ per ounce… get your Minelab detector now eh
Not so quick! California, the Golden State, is forming legislation to regulate individual gold dredging with a $900 permit required and limits on how long you can be at any one place in a stream. We have lots of amateur gold panners and dredgers here in the Gold Country (western Sierra), who will be directly impacted by this. The gravel disturbed by these one-man dredging operations is, of course, immediately redeposited in the stream bed, and no Northern California legislator would touch this bill. A southern state legislator was recruited to propose it (where it has no impact). Regulate, regulate, and remove individual freedom to support yourself (or have fun getting cold, wet and dirty for profit)!
My father had 13 jobs by the time he was 13. He had a paper route, a shoe shine box and shares of other shoe shine boxes that he financed to do business outside of military facilities in Rhode Island. He also was known for knowing the neighborhoods and the people in it. Servicemen
would get a shoe shine and ask where the Ladies of the Night lived. They would tip him for the information and then the Ladies would tip him for the referral. So on and so on.
During the depression my grandfather kept bees they would sell the honey for extra money. When rationing started on sugar during the war they were in a good position to sell honey at a premium. My grandfather taught my dad how to be a beekeeper and my dad taught us three kids. It’s a skill you never forget.
That is a great addition to my list!
My mother in law was a little girl during the depression living in Nova Scotia. She said back then lobster and crab and other shell fish were not luxury items. It was what the poor ate. So I doubt many people would have bought them. They would have used them for themselves. She would often head down to the shore and catch a couple and cook them right there on the beach. She would bring extras back to the family to eat. It is like how all the bottom feeder fish that no one ate ever have suddenly become the in thing to eat not necessarily because they are better but because we have over fished the oceans and the good fish are gone.
I’m sorry, but I think your friend is living in a dream world if she thinks she would still be doing well by offering beauty services in a despression type situation. I have been living in a depression type situation for the past 6 yrs. My husband lost his 6 figure job and has struggled to find anything since. Fortunately he has a skill -being a handyman- that helps us eat, but the last few years we’ve lived off 12K a year. We’ve lost our house, our belongings, our savings, our retirement, and have scaled back tremendously on expenses that aren’t necessary.
The first expense to go? Anything beauty related. I went from having my hair cut and colored every 8 weeks, to not having a haircut in SIX years! Manicures, pedicures are a long forgotten memory. There is no way when you have 35 bucks for food that you would tell your family you spent all or most of it on your hair cause Mama likes to feel pretty. Come on! Get real!
I went from having beautiful undies and bras to having cotton ones from a box store and the only reason I have those is because I was down to 3 pairs of undies so my friend bought me some more. Believe me, it ALL changes when you are desperate. ALL OF IT.
I’d have to agree with you. When I was making less than 20K and trying to pay of debt (I did it BTW!!) I didn’t get haircuts or buy very many beauty products. I think in two years I bought 1 tube of mascara, and I added OO to that to make it stretch out longer than it should have. I worked at a really cheap paying office. They expected everyone to look good, but didn’t want to pay us so that we could. Anyways, if I had to go back to that lifestyle I wouldn’t get haircuts and I’ve never been a manicure, pedicure type of girl, but I wouldn’t get those either. Its about whats important to you. I suppose if you were a “lady of the night” it might be important enough to have a few beauty products though. *shrugs*
If it happens again which people are predicting. i will cut hair, do colors, shave or anything to do with hair. I have a license to do hair and teach kids school or so on to make ends meat.
HEY gals, diy. I started cutting my own hair decades ago. Then youtube showed me some tricks. Get good scissors and a big mirror and go for it. (But keep a nice hat handy in case something goes wrong). Saved me at least $180 a year. I also groom my dog myself; he loves the attention. I find first aid scissors are best for pets.
Those are both great ways to save money AND, if you needed a second income, could develop into a side business.
I agree
These I do to save $
Married to a disabled man
I cut my own hair
I use cheap wash clothes as TP then bleach the crud out of them
I wear zero makeup except chapstick, face lotion as needed, sunscreen, bug spray, and oils moisturize older lady skin.
Coffee at home is hard cause I love Starbucks
Water in milk to stretch it
Feed a bit old food to pets to save pet food $
Motorcycle instead of car
Sleep in clothes (don’t need PJ’s)
Buy no sweaters just a good coat
No socks
No underwear except for period x’s
Cheap comfy bra’s with insertable pads
No mail polish
Do own callous on feet removing
Buy bulk foods only. Huge rice, huge beans
Drink only water a lot
In a book I read about the potato famine caskets (sad but true…homemade out of wood) sold really well.
Keep tools on hand. Shovel, saws, hammer, nails, & plant a garden with a greenhouse for winter growing of foods.
Chickens are an easy protein providing food. They weed gardens and eat Peary bugs. You can eat their eggs and them. They take up little space and reproduce.
Knowing how to cook over a campfire is vital but most of our kids don’t know how. I grew up cooking our food on an old 1800’s wood cookstove but this also takes some know how. Cookies come out chewy. Foods in oven need turned every once in awhile to be cooked evenly. Lard works great to cook in cast iron pans.
There’s so much our kids don’t know how to do in a Great Depression type situation!!! It scares me for them!!! How to make butter, soap, glass, bread from scratch, to bathe outside in a lake or river….. to build an outhouse. We need to be teaching these skills. How to darn a sock. How to knit mittens or a scarf.
All of those are excellent suggestions, and right now with the high inflation we’re experiencing, all of us need to find ways to pinch every penny we can.
If things get as bad as the Great Depression it will become a matter of arranging for neighbors to protect one another from the government’s injustices.
Remember the #1 way that people survived? Illegally distilling alcohol, and it was the local police, OFTEN TIMES, who protected those entrepreneurs… because the entrepreneurs were smart enough to make it worth their time to do so.
That’s why any enforcement that WAS pursued came from the Federal government. The locals were “in it together.”
NOT endorsing breaking laws. Just pointing out that survival is a pretty basic need, and unjust laws tend to go by the wayside when the choices are few and STARK.
The people now-a-days don’t want to be bothered. Think about how many of your neighbors you actually know. I know my neighbors, because I made an effort! Some of them I know as acquaintances only, and if times got tough, I really think they would let us starve. But, bringing community back to an area is going to be the first hurdle to get over with people. Everyone is in their own little world and doesn’t care much about anyone else. Just look at how people act when you go out to eat, or to the movies, like you’re bothering them just by being there. There was a time that people knew that their neighbors were their friends and a part of each others safety net. No longer. And I don’t think the police are going to want to help people anymore after all this crap about them bullying people…
I agree
Now days we have just cars and no horses. It’d be a seriously hard time if we no longer can buy gas for whatever reason. America is so spread out that without cars that alone would make a Great Depression type event happening again in America rediculously harder than it was for the previous generations. Horses are far and few between and reproduce very slowly. Just a thought. You think?
That’s a good point. And there have been times very recently when the price of gas has skyrocketed. I remember once years ago, we had to cancel a long road trip because our money was so tight and the cost of gas, along with all the other traveling costs, just put that trip out of reach.
I’m almost 60…. My mom and dad were older when they got me (I was adopted). They were depression-era children, Dad was in WWII, and Mom stayed home and worked at People’s Drug Store and kept their little apartment going in Fredericksburg, VA. She was one of 9 children and they would all remark that they didn’t know they were poor. Thankfully, their daddy never did lose his job….and they gardened. Her momma made all of their clothes, too. My favorite (of many) stories was hearing how her mom would hear of a neighbor in need, and would go down to her cellar and box up home canned goods and send them. They also “Fed the neighborhood” as my mom put it….as in there were always extra people around their table. They were NOT rich by any means….but, they were not truly poor. I wonder if the giving heart had something to do with that………..
Not to add to those ministers who’s bread is buttered by the seed and harvest message and little else of the true Gospel. But the truth is, whether in this life or the next, we do tend to reap what we sow.
How about raising red worms for everything from fishing to fertilizer to chicken treats. They are inexpensive, prolific, and their food, like decayed leaves etc. is free.
I believe I may possess the only flock of chickens that will not eat earthworms. Caterpillars? Yum!! Grubs? Yum! Earthworms? Yuck!
My grandfather had a job loading trucks during the depression. Some times, oops, a crate of vegetables fell and broke. He’d take it home, shared with the neighbors and the rest for his family. Man next door was good at carpentry, lots of trading of work for goods . Those two two neighbors became my grandparents.
What everyone forgets is that not every person was broke during the Depression. The bankers closed the banks and kept cash for themselves. Government officials still got paid-otherwise they put you in jail for not paying your taxes or they took your house and property. Also, many safe deposit boxes were rifled (read confiscated) by government officials and the gold, jewelry, etc was used to sustain their families. So, many profitted and survived by very nefarious means. Those ladies got their hair done, the families ate at fine eateries, etc. So, in the coming Depression/Collapse I expect my local IRS agent to be doing pretty well!
Another point is the type of job you had. Doctors, nurses,Dentists, and hospitals still had business. They might get paid in food or other items, but they at least got something. I worked with a lady in the ’70s who started at AT&T in 1932. She was an operator, who made the royal sum of 35 cents a week to start! She kept her parents and brother until 1938 when her dad and brother got jobs as coal diggers.
The most important thing is to be able, willing, and happy to do what it takes for your family to survive. Because AFDC, EBT cards, and welfare payments will be over once we have another collapse. If the choice is between paying a Senator or sending somebody a welfare check, I already know who wins. So be prepared to take what you can find.
Local-local-local; and keep on prepping!
So when this collapse takes place and you and husband live in an apartment and can no longer pay rent? Guess I better buy a tent now? And remember, not all folks are living in houses. I worked all my life, lived in houses for most of the time except now since I remarried my first husband, we are living in an apartment now looking for a house so I can grow vegetables and do those everyday practical things our grandparents did. Everything is instant and convenient and not many families have passed those skills down to our generation or the newest generation. So then you’re stuck and have to teach yourself quickly from books? The way I see it, if everything collapses, how do you pay your rent? or your mortgage. If government confiscates everything? And don’t forget the internment camps located in ALL 50 states either. The New World Order is what they are trying to bring to pass. Sometimes all of this gets me so depressed, I just wish I would die now and get it over with before ISIS beheads more Americans or some idiot in the White House just decides to kill us all with our food and water contaminated with something. I grew up in the ’50s when we did “duck and cover” in school. Tell me, how in the world would a wooden desk protect any child from an attack? Come quickly Lord Jesus, this planet is in a mess! All the talk about prepping and right now, I just lost one part time job and the other ends in December. Any jobs out here? Let me know where….
People need to pay their homes off for sure!! But even then they will need to pay taxes. So…. My question is…. In the Great Depression what was the best way to live? Rent or own a home? Live in an RV? Live in a car and camp? You can set up a huge self succulent farm only to have the towns around you up and leave or become ghost towns and therefore making you also having to abandon all your hard work. Buy or rent? I get tempted sometimes to sell our wheelchair accessible house in a neighborhood to rent in the country to grow a garden, have chickens etc….. or to move into our wheelchair accessible pull behind camper to save tons of money & get out of debt…. Which would you do?
That’s a really tough question. You have to think about physical safety and the impact of the elements. Homelessness is highly stressful, and most homeless people, including those living in cars, are much more likely to be attacked and otherwise victimized. If you have kids, that would make it far worse. I’d say hold on to your home in any way you can. Take in renters, go door to door and offer housecleaning, yard work, cooking, anything at all to bring in money to make mortgage and tax payments.
You asked about living in your camper for a while. Can you do that and rent out your house? That might be ideal. It would give you time to see how you like living in a camper fulltime (I know some people love that lifestyle). You would still have living expenses but they would likely be far less than the rent your house could bring.
Add to your list, the man in our alley who sold strawberries off his horse and buggy! I still hear him hollering ‘STRAW BERR IES”
My dad told me that the only thing that can’t be taken away from you is knowledge. He encouraged us to always be learning. I used to think it was discussing that my dad got better grades than I did on his tests. He was always taking corispondence courses to better himself as a master mechanic. There wasn’t much he couldn’t fix on a car or a truck. Or anything else as far as that was concerned.
I tried to buy fire brick and could not get any when I tried to order it they said they could not get any. Then I bought a kiln to make my own. Getting good clay for it is a problem here where I live. Making your own heat or hot water/ cooking heat/ electricity would greatly improve chances of survival during economic collapse. Having a job that won’t go away is important so I work at a county event center where the rich folks go to have fun. It also has tons of wood left over from events. They give it away to get rid of it.
Home Depot has fire brick. It’s seasonal but they carry it.
I just love your help so thank you. My grandparents used to tell us stories. Many of them are still happening today.
i’m down in TN…
We have cottage industries everything from pies to sandwiches to wood. The food is usually sold to shift workers. One create flyer stating what they off and for how much etc… Shift workers on weekends flock to these folks… and the Pie lady she lived in the slums when she started well now she has had to hire other seniors to work with her n making 7 figures… Her pies are awesome.
My parents and grandparents were on a farm n my Granddad bartered for almost everything. The local Dr. loved cream well Granddad loved free medical care they worked a deal n viola! The Dr also used my Grandmere’s herbs many times along with her chicken soup He did that with many things.
They had pigs, cows ( meat n milk), poultry, rabbits, quails, worms, mushrooms, smokehouse, venison, turkeys, –
Gave away food at church every Sunday to others. had a road-side food stand, sold everything… If one couldn’t pay well he always needed something done on the farm.
The people helped each other always…
my Daddy n Uncle sold wood , my Aunts made quilts and crocheted n knitted pieces which were always raffled off. Get creative and find good old recipes. Start home business now even if only part time. We grandchildren would listen for hours to the stories.
Thank goodness i am able to use that old knowledge today.
Also I had need of a Food Pantry one time – well when I didn’t need them anymore I went to the Director and offered to conduct classes on putting food up n freezing and stuff.
The class was free and we got some equipment and seeds and plants too, donated n it was 4 days worth on evenings n weekends to get to as many as possible. It was awesome the response and being able to share my knowledge of something I dearly love – oh wow!
Thanks for letting me share.
Another good thing to know how to do is make soap. Or even how to make wood ash lye. I do k ow how to make lye soap. It is one thing I like doing.
That would be a class I know I would be very interested I learning ! Maybe with COVID you could video the class and sell people rights to download it.
So please tell us how to make wood ash lye….and soap from it?
We have never posted a how-to article on this topic and maybe we should! In the meantime, I did a quick search on YouTube and there are a number of helpful videos. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=soap+from+wood+ash
Well if we do have an economic crash then chances are the government will close a lot of jobs that are going to be considered frivolous or unnecessary, Possibly, a lot of businesses will go under. A lot of property will be foreclosed. A lot of people might also be living in tent. I think if people could get around prohibition then people can get around other obstacles to make money. Heck, they do it now.
It’s often I find those taking issues with other people of experience telling about government & the legal restrictions imposed on us in regards to life in the depression & then comparing today’s restrictions as freedom. If u believe u r free to do what’s practical & makes u money then try it on a street corner & you’ll find laws find u quite quickly.
When & if it serves to make us more dependent on city, state & federal governments demanding more taxes then you’ll find the “long arm of the law” will reach u soon enough. What appears legal today wherever you live, don’t be fooled if it allows freedom & independence from taxes & government regulation it will soon be challenged! If your under a certain age chances are u have your parents to recall memories & grandparents. But, be not fooled the laws being passed without vote or consideration are designed to regulate incomes made from a girl selling lemonade on the side walk will surely reach the farm where real survival of America’s heart land made us a great nation. The days of freedom to provide without government restriction is going to be tested with our lives blood. Yes, indeed it already has. And yes, my dad recalls when government officials in the 30’s dressed in black came to the farm & made my grandad plow under 7 acres of cotton & destroy several head of cattle burning them & ordered not to salvage any parts. If u don’t understand please don’t show your ignorance by saying how free u think u r! Wake up! Millennials love to be provided for with convenience. And because of this we are the last generation to know freedom to the degree we do. Socialism will give u what they think u need while they take from u what they demand to feed the machine that rules over it’s people not for the people & by it’s people. Learn to grow what u eat & fix what u drive or be slaves to it’s master.
I agree!
It’s a full time job to have to ask for just food from people in todays world on a street corner. We’re talking fast food. This isn’t asking others for cash but literally for 1 meal. You can’t live on food from food banks either and I’ve asked others for small jobs to do in exchange for money only to have them be so full of distrust that they won’t hire you. Having experienced this season of having to ask for help has changed me drastically on how I view our nation and all its people. We hit a hard season and while attending church. Our church did not help us while we were plummeting into trials so we stopped going to church altogether and became bitter at the church until….. I had to ask on streets for food….. it was the church who was there to help gladly and the unbelievers who threw fries and nasty requests or comments. I pray I will never have to do that again!!!! But so have returned for the most part to attending church again and am changed for the good for that experience!!! Gods people truly are the salt and light of the world!!! A treasury of top notch human beings!!!! Thank you for feeding the poor!!!
One benefit of spending time and some money prepping is that you not only have a margin for yourself if times get rough, but you have a little to spare for people in need.
In the midst of this Covid 19 crisis, our family has seen the benefit of several bags and boxes of groceries and supplies brought to our home from unexpected sources.
God is good. We can still depend on him, but we must do with what we’ve got.
Blessings,
Laura of Harvest Lane Cottage
I love that comment! Good for you, on so much! It is great you went back and helped… I wish more people would… Your comment reminded me.. Food stamps, EBT, etc can be used to buy plants, tomato, peppers, etc… And I think seeds for food crops as well…many stores do not remember this, but it us true in most places…many rural mom and pop stores that have been around a few decades remember.
And check out the info in regrowing fruits and veggies from scraps and or some clever preplanning if you are buying things from any old grocery store you can use so much to provide food again and again, but you only need to pay once! Regrow your lettuce and celery, buy veggies at the ethnic markets for usually less money and I have always had more luck using seeds from tomatoes and peppers from the Latino markets than buying from Walmart! I hope everybody looks into that…
And learn about what’s plentiful around you too. Acorns with the tannin removed can be used like flour, used for amazing pancakes, made into a warm mush type oatmeal type “cereal” and awesome brittle.. White oak is better… Check out for walnuts and other old trees..many older fruit trees are wasted because the fruit is not very pretty or gets gritty…but it makes great preserves.
Berry bushes and trees are all around us.. Many people do not want the mulberry litter or crab apple litter but have the trees… Knock on a door, worst you can get us a no… Crawdads and mudbugs live spring boxes and those old big concrete covers on wells… Violets make amazing syrup..and small spring leaves have loads of vitamin c, add your dandelions and you have spring salad.. Learn about what’s around you..even in a city you will find loads of purslane, chicory and dandelions… And so called decorative trees that make edible fruits! Heck, kudzu and cattails are in most places and can be used for so much too! The are the Walmarts of the plant world! Wild grapes are in many places and wild dog roses make little rose hips that have so much vitamin c, dry, freeze, and or make jelly… And those dogroses are are in rural places and forgotten corners of cities too.. They look similar to a briar…hence one common name is briar rose.. Redbuds are in the legume family, the flowers taste like peanuts to most people..and those Asian dogwoods, “kuza” very decorative with large knobby berries, those can be eaten in moderation… Like mulberries, do not eat until ripe… Mulberries and such are slightly hallucinogenic before ripe! Learn about poke sallet and Jo Pye, usually considered nonedibles… But when young, and things like multiple changes of cooking water make them very edible, and some become very good when canned or pickled… Try our making probiotic Rich kimchi, not just with bokchoy… Its great with cukes, zucchini, and many other crisp veggies… If you can piçjle it, it might be great kimchi… Or at least you can pour the left over kimchi “juice” on it an make a refrigerator version..let sit at least 24 hours in your fridge.. With cukes the ice box version goes quick in my house! Slightly sprouted onions garlic and potatoes from the back of the pantry can become pounds of goods by fall… There us so much around all of us.. Tulip flowers and bulbs are edible…and were eaten during times of famine… Keep your eyes open, check out good foraging book and find a class… A book’s great but misidentification poses too much of a risk later when doctors or money become sparse. Truly knowledge is the most valuable thing! I have always said its the only thing no man can steal… Only time can steal away something as important and valuable! Learn something new everyday and your mind will stay sharp well into your golden years!
But I don’t get any money for that in Henrico Virginia
I worked in a retirement community for many years (Beauty Salon). One of my customers shared how she would wait outside the restaurants til they were closing and take the food they were throwing out home to her family so she could feed her children. She was an educated lady (school teacher) and I could tell this was very difficult for her to share but, I was thankful to her for making what happened during the depression real to me. My grandparents on my Dad’s side owned a farm and often fed people. My grandparents on my Mom’s side owned a gas station and my grandmother made and sold clothes (wedding dresses).
We may read the experiences of people during the Great Depression but we don’t fully understand, do we? Thanks for sharing, Pamela.
Here in Wisconsin we have the ability to sell home baked goods and canned goods from our house to customers. I believe they are the cottage law and I think the pickle law. I could be mistaken on the names.
Wow. I was today years old when I learned about cottage laws. I just checked, and we have them in Washington State. You must have a permit, and they are 8-10 weeks out in processing applications because of the high volume of applicants. Great tie-in, Barbara. Thanks for sharing!