≡ Menu

Work at Labor Ready for Travel Funds

Question: How do you make money to travel the world? Answer: By any means possible. I am not joking. There is scarcely such thing as not being able to find a job in countries like the USA. When I hear people say this, I really hear: “I can not find a job that I want [...]

Support VBJ’s writing on this blog:

Question: How do you make money to travel the world?

Answer: By any means possible.

I am not joking. There is scarcely such thing as not being able to find a job in countries like the USA. When I hear people say this, I really hear: “I can not find a job that I want to do.”

To make money to travel the world, sometimes you have to shovel shit.

This was my plan as I walked through the doors of the Bangor, Maine branch of Labor Ready. I want to leave the USA as soon after Number Three is born as possible. To do this I need to make money. To make money, I have to shovel shit.

For some odd reason I was wearing a slick Turkish suit as I walked into the Labor Ready. A crossed eyed man in dirty Carhartts and a grease stained sweatshirt looked at me cross eyed. I laughed at my shallow attempt at pomp, even though I knew that I was dressed up just for kicks.

I walked up to a desk that ran along the back wall of the Labor Ready office and I was met by a young man, who promptly asked me what I wanted.

“Work,” I answered a bit confused. Why else would I be standing in a Labor Ready office?

The guy nodded his head, took down my name, and told me to come in at 1 PM the next day with two forms of identification. I was then dismissed.

Other workers were standing around the desk waiting for their day’s pay. They did not seem too worn out from a day of working, and one of them kept trying to talk to me.

Not knowing what to do with so brisk of an introduction to Labor Ready, I refused my dismissal and asked the guy behind the counter what sort of work I was in for.

“Do you know what kind of work I will be doing?” I asked naively.

He just shrugged his shoulders. The dude that kept trying to talk to me jumped in.

“Naw, it changes every day. Today they had me shaving Alpacas!”

“What!?!” I replied with a touch of surprise, newly interested in what this dude had to say to me.

“Well, actually,” the dude admitted, “I was just holding them down, the other guy was shaving them.”

Going to shave Alpacas.

Going to make up my travel funds the hard way.
————-

I returned to the Labor Ready the next day in more appropriate attire. I wore a flannel shirt and torn up jeans. I handed my passport to the guy behind the counter that I had made my appointment with the day before.

“You travel a lot,” he said, noticing that the two extra sets of pages in my passport has made it the size of a small sandwich.

I nodded my head.

“What do you travel for?”

How could I answer this?

“For fun, school, work.”

This seemed to be the best answer.

I was then prompted to do a 60 question test in which I had to punch in the letter notated answers on a little keypad.

The test was technically 60 questions, although it only asked me four things in different ways.

1. When and how often do you do drugs?
2. In what circumstances and how often do you get into fights at the workplace
3. When and how often do you steal from your employer?
4. How many times a week do you show up for work drunk?

I think I scored an A on this test. I could not believe that anybody coud do otherwise.

“Does anyone ever fail this test?” I asked the counter guy.

He just rolled his eyes at me as he replied, “All the time.”

I then was given a worker safety test and a stack of papers to fill out.

I did so.

I was then ordained an official Labor Ready day laborer. I took this title with the instructions that I can show up at the office whenever I want to work at 6 AM, Monday through Saturday, and they will try to “put me on doing something.”

I said I would be there.

Going to shave Alpacas.

Going to make up my travel funds the hard way.


Labor Ready in Bangor, Maine

There are over 600 Labor Ready centers around the USA. If you are ever stuck for travel funds, go to one. The pay is low — $7-$8 an hour — but they follow a “work today get paid today” policy, so you can always be assured a small pocketful of cash upon leaving.

Go to Labor Ready.com

Vagabond Journey How to Make Money to Travel Project

  • How to make Money to Travel
  • Gardening in Maine – part I
  • Gardening in Maine – part II
  • Gardening in Maine – part III

Work for Travel Money at Labor Ready

Filed under: Maine, Make Money for Travel, North America, Start Traveling, USA

About the Author:

I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. has written 3699 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

Support VBJ’s writing on this blog:

VBJ is currently in: New York City

4 comments… add one

Leave a Comment

Cancel reply

  • Byron J. Gaudette July 3, 2009, 12:00 am

    Labor Ready!! I totally forgot about this option…thank you for reminding me. I am trying to scrap together some money right now as well. Hope things are going well for you on that side of the country. You know, you can make a LOT of money if you come out to Northern California around September…

    Link Reply
  • Wade Vagabond Journey.com July 5, 2009, 11:28 pm

    Haha, good advice, Byron. I may do that haha.

    It is good to hear that you had a good go at traveling in Mexico and C.A. It is also good to know that there is someone else in this country whittling their fingers down to the bone for their travel funds haha.

    Have fun shoveling shit, I will be,

    Wade

    Link Reply
  • akku October 21, 2009, 4:37 am

    Work one day and travel the other day. Its a fun game. Looks like you don't have to take much cash with you while leaving for travel.

    Link Reply
  • dirtysquatter June 4, 2010, 10:49 pm

    i have been doing this for the past couple of years. sometimes interesting, sometimes not. they do try to make a fast buck off of your sweat, but 2 or 3 days isn’t going to kill you if it lets you travel longer. 🙂

    Link Reply