Earn More Challenge - Aluminum Cans

Planning for Everything (reached via Won't Go Down Without a Fight to Money Funk) is suggesting an Earn More Challenge for September. Since there is a finite amount that I can cut spending, earning more sounds like a good idea.

I'm kind of doing a test run on this; I have listed some books on Half and a couple of video games on Amazon. (I considered listing books on Amazon, but their cut means that my books would sell at a loss after I pay shipping.) I have also cleaned out my closet and I am helping my Mom clean out hers. After we are done, I plan to go through and see what is consignment-worthy and see if I can get anything for it.

One thing I haven't seen other bloggers suggest much is aluminum can collection. I haven't done it in years, but in my youth, I picked up cans for spending money, and my Girl Scout troop always had at least one annual aluminum pick-up fundraiser. I realize that the price of aluminum is not what it was, but I am curious to see if it is a viable option at all now. I already take walks, but I usually drive into town and walk in a more pedestrian area; this morning I took my walk down the highway in front of my house. After about 40 minutes of can collection, I had accumulated this bagful.


My scale says it weighs 5.2 lbs, but some of that is dirt, I am sure.

This was "white shoe" can collection. It is very muddy over here, and I was wearing my new shoes (bought at the Reebok Outlet with a 40% off coupon), which I did not want to get dirty. Had I been willing to go down into muddy ditches and pull out wet cans, I could probably have collected twice as much in only a few minutes more time. As you can see, though, my shoes (and I) stayed mud-free.


The web seems to suggest that the price of scrap aluminum is ~85 cents /lb, which would mean that I would net ~$4 for my little haul. Sure, $4 is not a lot of money. But $4 x 30 days in September = $120. I live in a rural area with enough roads around that I think I could do 30 different areas without too much driving. And I try to walk every day anyway, so I am just looking at changing my routine a little.

I am planning to check pricing tomorrow by selling this bag at the local scrap metal place. I'll let you know whether this is a viable option for earning a bit of cash or not.