Did you know that flower prices are marked up as much as 300% on the days and weeks leading up to February 14th? In spite of this, many men feel a social obligation to go ahead and pay the premium to make sure their women don’t feel left out. A few years ago, I decided that instead of giving into the social pressure– I was going to use all of this money being spent to my advantage. Instead of purchasing flowers for my wife, I decided to figure out how to get a job delivering them on Valentine’s Day.
Before you start feeling sorry for Mrs. See Debt Run, realize that she was totally with me on this decision. At the time, we were just getting started on a massive debt payoff journey, and she told me that she found it much more romantic to know that I was willing to do whatever it takes to meet our financial goals. I think that I ended up giving her a nice massage and cooking her a nice meal that year, which were budget-friendly ways to be romantic.
The simple truth is that a TON of flowers are going to get delivered to homes and businesses on and around Valentine’s day each year. It just doesn’t make business sense for the florists in the area to have a legion of delivery drivers who are sitting around 364 days per year, waiting for February 14th. As such, they will likely need to hire a seasonal service to find some drivers.
One great place to look for seasonal openings of this kind is to reach out to the florists themselves to see how they handle their deliveries. Another great approach is to scan the local classified ads and postings on Craigslist. In my area, found 3 separate ads placed by local courier services, all looking for part-time delivery drivers to deliver flowers around the area on Valentine’s Day. As with any gigs on Craigslist, you should contact them and find out who the service is delivering flowers for (it should be a florist), and it’s a good idea to verify their info before agreeing to anything.
The company that I worked for paid about $4.50 per delivery with an additional fuel reimbursement based on your mileage driven. I ended up working two full days from about 6am – 4pm (20 hours total), and when all was said and done– I took home $450. This comes out to $22.50 p/hour, which isn’t too shabby at all. I *do* have a full-time job and ended up taking a few days of PTO in order to deliver flowers, so I actually got paid for both jobs those days. This money can be used to help pay off debt (if you have it), to save up for a vacation, or maybe just to buy your honey something really nice this year.
About a week before the deliveries are supposed to start, I was asked to come to an orientation. They showed me where to pick up the orders, what to do when people aren’t home, and how to fill out the paperwork correctly to make sure that I get paid. The training definitely helped, and I didn’t have any problem getting into a rhythm once I got started. The hardest part of the whole process (besides getting up early) is mapping out your route. The company that I worked for made this easier by grouping your deliveries into a single zip code. I left the office with about fifteen deliveries, and then pulled over somewhere to map out a reasonable route that minimized backtracking. Once all fifteen had been delivered, I headed back to the florist warehouse to get another car load of orders.
My favorite parts where when I had deliveries for large businesses. I could typically just pull into the cargo dock, bring in my orders, and then they would take care of things from there. I remember once instance when I had 8 deliveries for a single office building, and had all of the deliveries unloaded in about 10 minutes. Since I was still paid $4.50 per order in this scenario, that was a very profitable stop!
I should note that some of the deliveries can be a bit heavy, but nothing an able bodied adult couldn’t handle. Also, nearly all of the deliveries involve breakable materials, so you have to use some care in both packing your vehicle, and when carrying the orders to the customers. You also need to make sure that the orders don’t tip over when you are driving around, because they all contain water and could make quite a mess if you aren’t careful.
After having some fun and making a little money a few years ago, I decided that delivering flowers on Valentine’s Day was something I should consider doing every year! Last year, the timing just didn’t work out for me– But this year, I ended up signing up again. We are no longer in debt, but I am *always* on the lookout for new side hustles to help my family.
In addition to the money, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I was looking forward to the change of pace. Working an IT office job day after day is certainly a decent way to make a living, but I am really looking forward to getting out into the world for a few days. In addition, I have already started to stockpile a few days worth of podcasts to listen to for those days!
If you are looking for a way to make some extra money this year, I highly recommend looking into delivering flowers!
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