What will you do for money?

Don't worry this isn't going to be a post about whether or not you'd sell your body for money or anything like that, but I am wanting to hear what jobs people are prepared to do to get some extra money.

As everyone knows economic times are tough here in the UK and there are plenty of people who have recently been made redundant. It is hard to find a new job, especially if you want to work in a specific sector or on certain days of the week to fit in with childcare. I realise that things will differ widely across the country and that here in Hertfordshire we're fortunate to live in a fairly affluent place which hasn't overall been hit too badly by unemployment, but I'm still noticing a surprising amount of work out there for people if they're just prepared to do certain things.

One of the reasons why this blog has been so quiet for the last couple of weeks is that I've been using my one day when Little Miss C goes to nursery to do a bit of work. It's not a job that I went out looking for, but a friend needed some basic gardening work done and despite asking around for a local teenager who wanted some extra money none came forward. Wanting to both help out a friend and help pay December's credit card bill I happily dug out my gardening gloves and woolly hat and spent a couple of afternoons getting slightly grubby whilst clearing leaves, weeding and chopping things down. It's been really invigorating being out in the fresh air and as I've driven home I've had a real sense of achievement at doing something productive with my time.

Talking to the friend in question and other local people it seems like there is a need for people locally to do gardening jobs like this, or cleaning jobs, yet those people that do the jobs already seem to be so busy that they can't fit in new customers. The going rate of pay is pretty good – admittedly not if you were paying childcare for multiple children, but if kids were already at school or could stay with a relative that wouldn't be a problem – so why don't more people offer themselves up for this kind of thing? Surely if people really need the money then a job is a job and you shouldn't be fussy about what you do? Or are there some people who just won't clean a toilet no matter what? I realise that people who have degrees under their belt might not have planned a job like this when they were sat doing their university finals, but needs must and all that. 

So here's my question – assuming you're physically fit enough – would you be prepared to get your hands dirty in order to earn some money? Or, have I just got the wrong impression about what people are, and are not, prepared to do to make ends meet? Are there variations around the country meaning that in some places people are already filling all these roles? You her some news stories of 600 applicants for one bar job and others in which peole can't fill some roles at all – I'm intrigued to know what it's really like.

Whilst being paid cash for this particular bit of gardening work I should state that I am registered as self-employed so I will be paying tax on this income at the end of the financial year. I'm also not on any kind of Governement benefits that would be affected by this income. Just in case the tax man is reading…