Being on a tight budget requires one to be resourceful. Should you find yourself looking around the apartment for sellable objects of value, take pause to look at the apartment itself. Some New Yorkers have turned their space – that ever-lacking resource – into a moneymaker.

1. Renting out your room and sleeping on the couch

Having an extra bedroom in the city is a rare luxury, virtually unheard of, so those who want to take in “boarders” (a word that makes me think of top hats and the year 1878) might be forced to give up their bedroom and turn the living room couch into their new personal space. Conversely, you could offer the couch itself for rent. In New York, odds are there’s someone desperate enough for a living space to take up such an offer.  In fact, a recent piece in the Daily News profiled some very unlikely roommates whose financial straits have led them to do something they never thought they’d have to.

I knew a pair who had such an arrangement.  A girl and a guy in their early 20’s. Exes, in fact, as if the situation wasn’t awkward enough. He slept on the couch and housed his few possessions in the living room and she took the bed. According to both, the situation, if not ideal, worked fine, considering the rent each paid was basically halved. At the time of writing, Craigslist is showing five different couches available for rent, for between $30 a night in Harlem to $800 a month (for a couch?) in Chelsea. “ISO of female to rent couch, $100” says a sketchy-sounding Bronx guy named Scott. “Couch for rent, good-looking gay guy preferred,” says another listing. Okaaay…..

2. Renting out workspace

The city is full of entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, artisans, and other self-employed individuals whose work (or devoted hobby, as the case may be) requires extra space (a workshop, studio, etc.) beyond what they have at home. Depending on the location, size, and usage, workspace rentals can draw in hundreds of dollars a month. A few years ago, artists Aurora Robson and Marshall Coles leased a disused two-story industrial space on a quiet block in Bushwick and have since turned it into a gallery/working studio/arts center, funded in part by renting studio space to photographers and other visual artists. If you have the room, it might be advisable to capitalize on the ever-present need for space for others to work in.

3. Throwing parties

The best parties are the semi-legal (or basically just illegal) underground soirees staged in private loft spaces. A lot of these apartments doubling as venues have sprung up in recent years around Brooklyn for example, the Market Hotel in Bushwick (located in a former Dominican speakeasy) and Shangri-La in Greenpoint. Both locations frequently host shows and parties that, depending on the event, can draw hundreds of people at $15 or $20 a head. You could make your rent in a single party. The draw-backs, however, are many; most parties are operated without proper permits, are frequently shut down by police, are ticketed heavily for noise, alcohol, and other violations, and can be a huge liability. But the demand for such events is always there.

4. Opening your home to tourists

Frugality is sometimes symbiotic, as it is when the needs of tourists looking for inexpensive lodging and New Yorkers in need of money intersect. Airbnb.com lets apartment dwellers rent out their couch or spare room to out-of-towners. Several hundred New Yorkers have listed their space already, for $40 a night to over $200. Roomorama.com and vrbo.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner) are other viable options if the prospect of easy cash outweighs the awkwardness (and potential liability) of having a complete stranger crash at your place.

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2. 4 Fail-Proof Ways to make and Save Thousands of Dollars a Year on Craigslist
3. Furnish Your Apartment for Less Than Your Rent
4. 5 Ways to Spend the Holidays that Don’t Involve Lighted Trees and Carols