55 weird ways students make money

Student Loan not going far enough? A creative streak and a strong stomach can take your wallet a long way. As the students in our surveys prove: where there's a will, there's a wage!

Every year, the National Student Money Survey uncovers the bare truths about student finances across the UK – and we always enjoy hearing about unconventional ways to make money.

We've compiled a list of some of the most inventive, weird and unusual ways to make money that students have shared with us over the years...

Unusual ways students make money

Here are 56 weird ways to make money:

1. "Owl handling (it's a thing)."
2. "Videographer for pimple popping videos."
3. "Clinical trial – I got paid to give them my poo!"
4. "Had to wander around a music festival dressed as a cleaner and occasionally play the violin in the Portaloos."
5. "Submitted a video of my dog skateboarding for a free fiver."
6. "Drinking out-of-date milk for a dare for £25."
7. "I helped someone on the train connect his Bluetooth headphones to his phone, and he gave me £20 to 'get a coffee'. I wasn't expecting anything in return, but he was very sweet."
8. "Food quality testing. Made about £7 for around two hours of eating food and filling out paid surveys."
9. "Selling pictures of my underwear on the floor."
10. "Babysitting a pet snake."
11. "Performing on the streets."
12. "On TikTok people sometimes send me £10 voluntarily."
13. "I had an app from Ipsos which tracked my app and internet usage on my phone and tablet. Although not for everyone, I didn't find it too strange at first. But then I realised the app placed a parental lock on my browsers, which I couldn't get rid of, and I couldn't look up anything remotely 'adult' themed."
14. "Vaccinating fish."
15. "Selling toilet roll tubes on eBay."
16. "Stood in line for someone from 3am – 8am to get a limited edition Pokémon card deck for £30."
17. "I used to be on a site where someone could rent you to be their friend for a day. It was a very weird experience, but I got better pay than I expected!"
18. "I sold my hair."
19. "Took part in a study about daydreaming at uni."
20. "Having to transport a full-size plastic horse on top of my car."
21. "I hired my dog out as a stud. He's only had one job so far, might put him up on Gumtree?"
22. "Pull up challenge. £5 for each pull-up."
23. "Volunteering for a medical survey that involved cutting a small muscle from my thigh."
24. "Sucked my friend's toe for £100."
25. "Selling a table which was left outside."
26. "My friend once bet me five pounds I wouldn't bite into a lemon segment and hold it in my mouth for a minute."
27. "Spending time sitting in a fridge in a patient's gown as part of a clinical trial."
28. "Got paid £20 to pretend that I was smoking some guy's cigarette because he was meant to have quit smoking and his friends were about to come over and see him."
29. "Copying stock market traders."
30. "Picking slugs out of watercress."
31. "Confidence coaching (basically fake dates to help shy people)."
32. "Being an extra for a commercial."
33. "I poo pick a horse's field… the pay is good!"
34. "Walking around a warehouse for 60 minutes in a circuit to train motion-sensor equipment."
35. "Buying a coursebook on eBay and selling back to the uni shop for a profit."
36. "Sperm donor."
37. "I had to be a 'burp' for an online kids' TV programme and got paid £10."
38. "Wearing a billboard on my high street."
39. "Was paid around £20 to be a 'patient', with students repeatedly putting me in an arm sling."
40. "Was paid to take part in a study about anxiety (which made my anxiety worse)."
41. "Delivering takeaways at weekends with Deliveroo."
42. "Taking the blame for someone's flatulence at a party."
43. "Focus groups (complaining about the uni)."
44. "Owning an item someone wore on TV... so I sold it."
45. "Selling homemade jam for an insane amount of money. People still bought it."
46. "Being an elf at a Christmas grotto."
47. "Got a 'fill a bag for £1' of books from the library, scanning them with WeBuyBooks and selling them."
48. "I sold a homemade cardboard Tardis on Etsy."
49. "Buying 600 shoe horns for 10p each in IKEA and selling them on eBay."
50. "By reading out loud different sentences for a new device to understand and learn a Scottish accent."
51. "Drawing for a family member."
52. "Stood in a field looking for bats."
53. "I let people on the internet choose my outfit for a night out, as embarrassing as they liked."
54. "Reviewed dog food."
55. "Sitting on sofas talking to lecturers as nobody turned up in the afternoon on an open day."

(All direct quotes from Save the Student surveys)

Fancy making money from your own business? We've got plenty of business ideas you can set up from your uni room.