Whether your budget was a little ambitious, you’ve decided to go away for a touch longer, or you just wish for a bit more financial security; there are a number of ways to boost your coffers prior to your break.

Work more
There is a slight irony in working to the end of your fingernails, to earn some extra money before your break. But by taking on some overtime, getting a evening or weekend job a few months before your break is probably the best means to earn some quick currency. What’s more while you’re working, there’s less chance for you to be spending some of your hard earned cash!

From speaking to a number of career breaker’s, many have worked in bars and restaurants before their trip and found the work quite sociable and generally not too demanding on them. One woman even noted that the experience she gained in a local bar enabled her to get a number of bar jobs while travelling round Oz. While a good friend of mine, Olly who planned to see Eastern Europe from behind the wheel of a VW van; managed to earn over £600 in a couple of months from completing market research questionnaire’s, in the evening after finishing his usual 9-5. If you can afford to spend a few hours a week, doing a bit extra work, then you should be able to build up a good deal of cash, for instance, if you were to work 3 evenings a week in a bar you could be earning another £100 on top of your usual income.

Fundraising
While some in your office may be slightly sceptical at pledging £10 towards your sponsored silence, to fuel your trip to Copacabana beach. If you are able to demonstrate to them the money is going to a worthy cause; i.e. if you’re taking part in a volunteer project for example, then they may be more willing to dust of their wallets. In addition to this some companies like Northern Rock will match the money you’ve raise for a charity so it’s worth asking at your company if they operate a similar policy.

If your ‘charity begins at home’, but you feel people may be a little apprehensive about sponsoring you there’s a good chance that if you attempt something absurd or challenging people will sponsor you anyway: it costs nothing to ask. Prior to going to Peru a few years ago, I got my siblings to sponsor my inoculations – I’ve personally never seen them so keen to hand over money, my sister even gave me £5 towards my malarial tablets if she could watch the rabies jab!

If you do intend to fundraise part of your career break its worth setting a target amount to aim at, as for those sponsoring you, it won’t seem like their throwing money into a black hole. In addition to this, if you’ve been sponsored significantly, it’s a nice idea to send a letter of thanks on your return along with a photo showing them where their money went.

As the name suggests fundraising can be fun, depending on how you go about it, (half-marathon’s maybe an exception here) but provided you have a good cause and an interesting means to reach it, then there’s no reason why you can’t improve financial situation, with a little creativity and generosity.

Sell, Sell, Sell!
While I personally detest programs like ‘bargain hunt’ and ‘cash in the attic’, the activities that they focus on represent a good means to plump up your bank account. Depending on what you’re selling, there are a variety of medium’s to choose from to get the most from your ‘stuff’.

Under the Hammer – putting something up for auction can be a daunting but also exciting experience, while it can represent an excellent way to get a good price on some of your more valued possessions. If you want to sell at auction, you’ll need to take your items to be valued by an expert to give you an idea of the price; this service is usually free. When you take your ‘stuff’ along, try and have as much information and history on the items as possible or the provenance as it’s know in the auctioneering world. As this will help the expert give you the best guide price, if you can try and get a number of opinions on your items as possible. Once you’ve decided to sell, you may wish to place a reserve price on your items to make sure that they go for a certain price, as there’s no point selling important items for pittance. Lastly depending on how unique and special your items are, it may be advisable to wait for a certain auction so that there is a large body of keen buyers likely to be interested in your goods, as this should mean you make the most profit. But remember when you do sell, the auction house will take between 10-15% from the hammer price and also add on a number of additional costs such as insurance, so factor in these costs when working out what your selling price is.

Fairs and Car Boots – while auctions are good at selling a small number of noteworthy items, car boots and fairs, are a great way to sell en mass. It’s likely for both events that you’ll have to pay small admission charge but this only going to be £5 or so. Try and price your goods before you head down to the events so that you’re not caught by surprise and sell your old racer for £6 rather than £60. The experience of bartering at home should serve as good practice before you reach the markets in Marrakech as well. There are a number of things to remember before going to these events, you should pack carefully anything that may break in transit, while its possible that you’ll be standing around all day so bring some chairs and refreshments. But probably the most important thing to do is to arrive early to catch the early birds, and bring plenty of change.

eBay – Are you an eBay addict? It seems that most of us now are, since the site opened 10 years ago, the thrill of placing that winning bid and awaiting the delivery from the postman entices many of us now to become part of this online community. While for some it is a novel way to pass a couple of hours at work, seeing the weird and wonderful items up for grabs, but many are now using it as a viable way to make a significant sum of money by setting up eBay stalls. Malcolm an old Uni mate of mine spent a number of years collecting World War II memorabilia at local events. However, it was only when he need some extra money to fun his London to Cape Town trip, that a mate suggested selling his items on eBay. He subsequently setup a stall on the site, and managed to sell many of his items at profit, boosting his career break reserves. If you do chose to sell via eBay, it worth checking on the buyer’s feedback to ensure that the sell goes to plan.

To conclude this part there are a number of means for you to quickly improve your financial situation if your prepared to do a little extra work and be imaginative. While if all else fails; you can always move back home for a couple of months!

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