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Hard times often bring out the best in people — their most creative ways to earn money is one example. During the Great Depression years, families had no choice but to seek out new ways to earn a living. You’ll be impressed with this list of how they did that.
In a previous career, I was a history teacher, and I’ve always loved learning about the past and gleaning whatever wisdom I can from the words and actions of others. This includes learning all I can about how people survived and earned money during the Great Depression.
A couple of years ago I found an excellent book with dozens of first-person accounts from the Depression-era years, We Had Everything But Money.I’ve spent hours reading through anecdotes, touching, humorous, and poignant.
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 circ*mstances were dire.
I believe we still possess that ingenuity and fighting spirit today. Take a look at the list I put together from my research. File it away for a time you or someone you know might need it. Or maybe it will inspire you to take on a side hustle to bolster your financial preparedness right now.
Some of the Ways People Earned Money During the Great Depression
- Caught and sold fish, clams, and crabs
- Made homemade fudge and sold it
- Sold newspapers on the corner. 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.
- Started a lunch truck/wagon
- Grew, picked, and sold berries
- Road work
- Shoveled snow on roads
- Multiple part-time jobs, including housecleaning
- Chopped wood or harvested driftwood
- Made and sold handwoven baskets
- Mowed lawns and other kinds of yard work
- Door to door sales of things like shoes or sewing notions
- Made deliveries for stores
- Made and sold quilts
- Sold homemade baked goods, like bread or pies
- Sold eggs for 25 cents a dozen
- Childcare
- Rented out rooms
- Mended or altered clothes
- Washed windows
- Purchased produce and re-sell door-to-door
- Sold apples
- Loaded coal
- Piecework sewing
- Sold homegrown produce
Ingenuity is something that can never be stolen by thieves, confiscated by a government, or lost to flood or fire. Click To Tweet
In every case, it was a simple matter of looking around to see what people needed, what they wanted, what made them feel good about themselves, and about life.
For example, I’m reminded of a hairdresser friend of mine who once said, “Lisa, even if the economy collapsed tomorrow, women still want to look pretty. I would do business out of my home and probably continue to earn pretty good money.”
Because of this, people who have lived through economic collapses say that beauty products, such as lipstick, eye shadow, and lotions, are good items for barter. In fact, this led to something called the “lipstick effect“.
In some of the most difficult economic times, from the Great Depression through 9/11 and the recession of 2007-2009, cosmetic sales and lipstick sales in particular, experience a boom. Researchers attribute this to the fact that women will always want to look and feel pretty and an inexpensive lipstick gives them a frugal and emotional boost.
Hmmm…sounds like there might be more than one side gigs there…
Practical Skills Possessed By Depression-era People
In addition to these creative entrepreneurial efforts, don’t forget that many people found work in the various Depression-era works programs as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Keep in mind these people had practical skills that folks today just don’t have. Perhaps some of these might be good additions to your own skill bank:
- Rendering lard
- Caring for livestock of all kinds
- Making quilts from old clothing and other second-hand fabric
- Smoking meat, poultry, and fish
- Butchering all types of animals from squirrels to hogs, cattle, and other “varmints”
- Foraging
- Sewing by hand or with a non-electric sewing machine
- Raising flourishing gardens
- Preserving food by canning
- Tinkering — Knowing how to fix all kinds of things.
As you can see, many of these skills go hand in hand with the money-making ventures of our Great Depression-era grandparents and great-grandparents.
Today, so few of us have any of these skills. We are generations removed from farm life and homesteading, but it’s not too late to consider if some of these skills might enhance your own earning ability in good times or bad.
How could YOU make money in the next Great Depresion?
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 circ*mstances. How do people manage to survive when the money situation is dire?
For many years, some economists have been predicting an economic collapse here in America. Right now our buying power is shrinking rapidly, and many are wondering if hyperinflation is on the horizon.
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!
In the days of the Great Depression, it was common for grocers and landlords to provide credit to their customers. Today? That would be a rare occurrence.
From the Depression days, there is an abundance of stories of neighbors and church families showing up at the door, laden with bags and boxes of food for a needy family. When one desperate mom was asked by her daughter, “Mama, what’s for dinner tonight?”, the response was, “Whatever the neighbors decide to bring us!”
I wish I could imagine that happening today. Sadly, our communities and families have become so fractured over the past few decades that it would be a rare event.
So, 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. Itis possible to survive during a Great Depression and there is plenty to learn from those who lived through the last one.
Want to learn more about Great Depression survival?
- Clara’s Kitchen: Wisdom, Memories, and Recipes from the Great Depression by Clara Cannucciari and Christopher Cannucciari
- Could You Stomach These Great Depression Meals?
- How People Stayed Healthy During the Great Depression
- Stories and Recipes of the Great Depression by Janet Van Amber Paske
- The Forgotten Man by Amity Shales
- The Great Depression: A Diary by Benjamin Roth
- The Great Depression: A History Just For Kids by KidsCap
- The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
- We Had Everything But Money
What stories do you remember hearing about how people earned money during the Great Depression?
