Tag Archives: green

How to Make Extra Money Recycling Scrap Metal

how to make extra money recycling scrap metalRecycling scrap metal is our latest money-making weekend excursion. We live on a property where people used to dump trash. It’s unfortunate, but it happened. Instead of being bummed about our situation, we’re being opportunistic and profiting from recycling the old metal that was left on our property. You don’t have to live at a dump (ha!) to profit from recycling. My sister and I saved a thousand dollars a piece as kids from recycling aluminum cans.

Locate your source
This is the most important part of scrapping. Here’s a couple of ways to locate a scrap source if you aren’t lucky enough to live on a dump. 🙂 Ask family and friends if you can haul off their old appliances. Ask your neighbors if you can go through their recycling and pick out the aluminum cans— that’s what I did as a kid. Notice that your workplace doesn’t recycle? Offer to take the recycling to the dump and profit from the aluminum cans (and in some states, the glass bottles!). Post an ad on Craigslist to haul off old junk for free.

Locate your local scrap metal yard
Different scrap metal yards will be take different kinds of metal. Look up your local scrap metal yard and check to see what kind of metal and objects they accept. Some metal yards are wide-ranging and they’ll accept anything from coat hangers to Christmas lights. Others may just accept aluminum or old car parts.

Check the pricing
The price of metals can change on a daily basis. Certain metals will be more profitable than others. Copper, for example, fetches a high price. Aluminum is much easier to locate, but will fetch a lower price.

Check the weather and consider time of year
Scrapping in the rain is no fun. Also scrapping in 90 degree heat may give you heat stroke. Use common sense, people. If you are scrapping metal in the woods or outdoors, the early spring is prime time to scrap. The poison ivy isn’t out yet and neither are the snaaaaakes.

Wear appropriate clothing
No one should spend their scrap metal profits on tetanus shots. Wear thick gloves. If you are going out into the woods, like we did, wear long pants and long sleeves to protect yourself from poison ivy, brambles and the rogue sharp object.

Keep weight in mind
If you come across a large source of metal, you’ll want to keep weight in mind. When we moved scrap from the woods, we picked out the largest, heaviest objects because we knew that they would bring more cash. We avoided the flimsy, small and “roached out” pieces of metal.

Invite your strongest friends
If you plan to scrap appliances or large barrels, like we did, you might need to split your profits with a strong friend. I could carry out a few of the barrels, but George did the majority of the heavy lifting. We found a couple of stoves and a bed frame back there and there is no way my spaghetti-noodle arms could have carried that stuff out alone.

Borrow a truck
Scrapping can get dirty. We borrowed my father-in-law’s truck to haul our junk to the scrap yard. My car didn’t get dirty and we were able to put much more scrap into the bed of a truck than in the bed of my Honda!

Scrapping metal can be a profitable little side gig and a great workout. George and I joke that we should invite people over to our house for “country crossfit” and make city people do all of our chores— chopping wood, pulling scrap metal out of the woods and tilling the garden.

Have you ever tried to trade in your scrap metal for cash? Let me know in the comments!

love,
melanie

Try a Green Slimer Smoothie for a Healthier Halloween!

slimerI’ve reached a new level of crazy. I’m blending up smoothies and Photoshopping Slimer into them. If you are not familiar with my green friend, Slimer is a ghost made up of Ectoplasm. He successfully made his debut in the 1984 Ghostbusters film.

But I must give credit where credit is due. George was the one who said my smoothie looked like Slimer. And I must admit, I was totally offended. I don’t want to hear that my food looks like a disgusting, fictional ghost that leaves a trail of boogers behind him wherever he goes. But George was more excited about the smoothie than any grown man should be. And if he is excited to drink veggies, I know a kid would be. 

And, I mean, what a better way to get a kid to eat drink their greens than tell them it is slime?! And it’s pretty much perfect for Halloween, right?! AND IT GETS BETTER… BUT DON’T TELL THE KIDS… it has no refined sugar! WHA-BAM! I’ve lost it.

Slimer Green Smoothie:

Ingredients
1 frozen banana
1/2 cup of pineapple
2 large hand fulls of spinach
1/4 cup of greek yogurt
1/4 cup of almond milk

Put ingredients in your favorite blender and blend that sucker up! Tell your kids husband it is Slimer. He’s going to be super excited. Use it as an excuse to throw a Halloween party.

What do you think? Have I lost my mind or will you be blending along with me?!

love,
melanie

 

Clay Beads Necklace

DSC_1002

Monday was my mom’s birthday. Happy birthday again, Mama! Since she was coming into town to visit us, I wanted to give her something extra special. My mom loves jewelry, so I decided to make a necklace for her birthday gift.

This was by far the most intense and time-consuming craft I’ve done so far. I usually stick with projects that take 5 minutes so I don’t get frustrated and give up. But since this was for my mom, I wanted to try something a little more difficult.

Supplies needed:

  1. Rolling Pin
  2. Polymer clay
  3. Parchment paper
  4. Chain
  5. Clasp
  6. Split-rings
  7. Pliers
  8. Paintbrush or a tool to make a small hole in the clay. (I thought the small screwdriver (pictured) would work. It did not.)
  9. Small cookie cutters or a tool to make a shape. (I used an empty beer bottle.)
  10. Exacto knife
  11. Optional: clear spray paint

DSC_0994Step 1: Roll out your clay. Try to make it approximately 1/8 of an inch thick.

DSC_0995Step 2: Punch out the shape of your beads. This is easiest to achieve with small cookie cutters or a tool, like the top of a beer bottle, but you could cut your shape out with an Exacto knife if you are good at free-handing shapes.

DSC_0996Step 3: Touch up the edges of your newly-made beads by cutting away stray bits of clay with an Exacto knife.

DSC_0998Step 4: Carefully punch out small holes in your beads using a tool, such as a thin paintbrush end. I cracked several of my beads during this process. Be patient and make more beads than you think you will need for a necklace.

Step 5: Bake your beads on a piece of parchment paper according to the clay manufacturer’s directions.

Step 6: (Optional) After beads are done baking and cool, spray with clear spray paint. This will give your beads a glossy look.

DSC_1012Step 7: Pry open the split-rings and slip through the holes in the beads.

Step 8: Determine where on the chain you want the beads to be placed. I skipped this step at first and started placing the beads on randomly. The necklace didn’t look very pretty with random beads everywhere. I would have saved myself a lot of time if I had put the chain on and determined exactly where on the chain I wanted the beads to be placed. I would have also saved more time if I had made sure I was placing each bead on face-down, so when the necklace was worn, the beads would lay flat and face-up.

DSC_1015Step 9: Slip the split-ring through the links in the chain and using the pliers, carefully close the split-rings.

Step 10: Using the pliers, attach the clasp onto the end of the necklace.

And voila! You have a beautiful, stylish, one-of-a-kind necklace to keep or give as a gift!

love,
melanie