Making Money While WWOOFing
By Leighann on Dec 10, 2009 in Abundance, Life, Saving Money, Travel and WWOOFing
You might need a little extra if you WWOOF long-term.
This is more of an issue for long-term WWOOFers. In most WWOOFing situations, you will have free rent and utitilities, and at least some free food. Some hosts will even have Internet access, a swimming pool, a vehicle to use, or other extras. But at most places you’ll just get the basics.
So when staying or traveling for a long time how does one take care of little things like soap and toothpaste, not to mention the bigger things like car payments (if you have one), insurance, medical expenses, entertainment, travel and sight-seeing?
In our travels, we’ve been lucky to have a few things going for us: good public transportation, long-term stays with good people, nearby second-hand stores (sometimes free stores!), great amenities like free TV, local sources of free wild food, and a husband who is good at fixing things and making stuff work.
We also are used to living a independent life and not buying a lot of stuff. We buy our clothes used, we cook from scratch, and we borrow books, music and movies. We’re also pretty healthy, and don’t often need to go to the doctor.
If you can manage to reduce the amount of money you need in this way, there are lots of ways to find a supplemental income while WWOOFing and make the whole thing work. Here are a few that have worked for us or people we’ve met along the way:
-Having an low-maintenance online business that can be run from anywhere- You will need to make sure you only stay where you can get Internet access, but that’s not usually too much of a problem. Ideas would include crafts you can sell online, blogging, e-books, real books (lulu.com has a great program if you’re a writer and want to get self-published), design work, and selling things on eBay.
-Doing odd jobs for neighbors in your spare time – pruning, raking leaves, cleaning house, babysitting, mowing the lawn – all of these can give you a little extra money. Not much for someone who needs to pay rent and utilities, but fine for someone who just needs some pocket money. Your host may be able to recommend you to the neighbors. If you have quite a light work-load, you could even get a part time traditional job in the evenings or on weekends.
-Doing extra work for your host – you can’t assume that this to the case, but your host may occasionally ask you to do some work outside the hours you’ve agreed upon, or work unrelated to the farm (like setting up a website for them, or house-sitting). I’ve met a lot of WWOOFers who have specialized skills like landscaping, painting, web design, or accounting that go beyond WWOOFing. Since they’re already in a close relationship with their host, it makes sense for the host to ask them first. A lot of WWOOF hosts go to farmer’s markets or have an on-site store. Some will pay you to run one of these or to deliver orders to customers.
- Communicate with your host – I always say that communication is key. If you’ve been an excellent WWOOFer, your host is going to be concerned if you need to move on for lack of funds. Let them know, because you’re never sure if they can do something. I’m not saying to flat out ask for a loan! But they likely know people in the community who need help and can give you some work of some kind, or they’ll come up with something of their own. If you don’t talk about it, you’ll never know. I’ve met a few people who started out as WWOOFers, but ended up as paid employees of the farm because they were so good at what they did. Some hosts use WWOOFing as a trial run to find good full-time employees.
If you plan to keep WWOOFing, keep in mind that your WWOOFing duties need to come before your money-making efforts. WWOOFing is what pays for your rent. Never take advantage of the situation. WWOOFing is not designed as a way to make money. If it is not working for you, you should either move on to a different situation, or perhaps go back to a traditional living/working situation. Also keep in mind that if you are WWOOFing in a foreign country, any paid jobs may put you in need of a work visa, depending on your status.
Have you WWOOFed before, or been a host? How did it work for you? Was it longterm, and if so, how did you take care of the non-covered stuff? Any other ideas of how to make some side income? You can leave comments below, or if you want to tell your whole story as a featured guest post, click on contact above.
photo by darrenhester on morguefile
I have never wwoofed, but am very interested. I wanted to thank you for this info, very useful. So…Thank You!!
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Crystos
| Oct 1, 2010 | Reply
We just completed our first summer as hosts. I really enjoyed it. I had some trouble with a wwoofer wanting to stay up all night and sleep all day. What do you say to them? I didn’t want to be mean and I’m not his mother. What do you think about meals? Do you mind when you fix your own breakfast or lunch? Dinners were always provided by me, but not all wwoofers wanted to help take their turn to clean. I would appreciate from a wwoofer how to ask properly without sounding like their parents to help clean, etc when it’s their turn. It really was only one wwoofer (who was long term) that didn’t want to do his share which was hard for morale on the other wwoofers.
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Becky
| Sep 13, 2011 | Reply
Becky, I just answered your other comment . And I have to say again, what a loser. And he really did lose out, because if he wasn’t eating your food and contributing to the farm with the group he really missed out on a wonderful experience.
Nice people like us can really get cheated. Sometimes you have to be a little mean, a little tough, to get what you need and want. It is your farm, your house, your food budget. I’m not sure if your farm is your moneymaker or if you’re just hobbyists. But WWOOFers, like any guest, should understand that you’re the boss and you set the boundaries. For most WWOOF hosts, the farm is not just a home but also a place of business. Like in the traditional business world, workers are expected to be on time and do the work requested. In the real world, if you don’t do your job, or if you show up late too many times, you get fired. Some people think that since WWOOFing is unpaid and more casual, they don’t have to follow the rules. But rules and boundaries keep problems from happening.
To prevent problems in the future I would suggest a couple things:
-decide now what things are critical to your success as a farm and family and make these essential rules. If you have communal meals or share things like the kitchen and bathroom, you should definitely have boundaries as to when and how these things can be used. Consider your water and electric bills as well as food costs. Figure out how much leeway you can afford people with the schedule. For example, if you raise animals, they must be fed and watered at a certain time each day, eggs need to be gathered before they’re stepped on and cracked, etc. If your WWOOFers are working on independent projects like weeding or painting the barn you could be less strict about timing (as long as it gets done).
-explain these rules from the beginning. You may not need or want to put everything in the WWOOF listing, but in response to the initial contact email is a great time. Just a message with, “We’re really excited to hear from you, and you seem like you could be a great match for our farm. These are the daily expectations we have for all our WWOOFers” would be fine. The party animal who likes to drink and dance til 3 and get up at noon isn’t likely to pursue a farm that wants everyone up at 6 to feed the chickens with lights out at 9 to save electricity.
-When things begin to be a problem, you have to say something. If you allow a WWOOFer to abuse your bigheartedness you imply that this is ok with you. The longer it goes on, the more uncomfortable it will be. Explain why you have this rule (ex: we all have to get done with breakfast and out of the house by 10 so I can do the housework and have some personal space) and that you’re not picking on them, you expect everyone (including yourself!!) to follow the rules so everyone can have a pleasant time.
It’s ok to request that WWOOFers clean up after themselves and to expect people to help with things like washing the dishes and setting the table. You could even have a rotating “chore” sheet so that a different person is in charge of clearing the table, washing the dishes or cooking each night.
You know, I think this is going to be a whole new blog post, lol.
Well, I need to be writing something on here anyway.
Let me answer your question about meals… I never mind to fix my own breakfast or lunch, and sometimes I even prefer it. At most WWOOF farms I helped on we prepared some or all of our meals, often with a communal dinner to bring everyone together. Different hosts handle it different ways.. with one we were alloted a certain amount of basics per week (bread, eggs, milk, pasta, all the rice, lentils, whole wheat flour and oatmeal we wanted from the shared pantry, butter, peanut butter, etc plus all the apples and garden veggies we could eat), with one I had free range of the kitchen and its 3 freezers (filled up with delicious things like smoked salmon and wild blackberries), and on one we provided all of our own food (in France, and what delicious food there was to be had). It all depends on what you can afford and what you are able to provide from the farm. You can’t give away all of your cash crop, but it’s nice to give WWOOFers a taste of what they’re producing. Of course if you have plenty of it and it’s basically a “free” resource then you could give more. On the apple farm for instance, there’s no way even the hungriest WWOOFer could eat all the apples, so for most varieties we were allowed to eat and bake with all the apples we wanted. Certain varieties were off-limits, destined for market, but we always got at least a taste. This is another great topic for an article so I’m going to stop there.
Oh one more thing, keep in mind that some WWOOFers, especially young ones don’t know how to cook! I wouldn’t go buy convenience food for them, but have simple things like leftovers that can be heated up in the microwave (if you use one), toast or cereal/granola for breakfast, etc. And teach them how to cook for themselves! That’s an essential skill everyone should have.
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Leighann
| Sep 14, 2011 | Reply