Hey guys, it's me again with another post.
For those who don't know, I played the game without an online subscription for about three weeks before buying one to play with friends, so I really struggled and churned through all the tasks quite organically before getting help from other players. While my friends were really impressed that I had so much time to tidy up my island, I was more impressed with the fact that they were already cataloguing a lot of stuff and had loads of furniture I never knew existed, and seemed to constantly change into new outfits.
Like a stainless steel commercial kitchen bench with tap and gas being 130,000 bells... wow, that was so much money back in those days!
Yes, that's right, they all had invested their time into selling turnips, making full use of their online subscription.
I was extremely frugal - by this I kept and sold every fish and insect I could, and hoarded them (whenever possible) for CJ and Flick to come. I did a lot of hard work to earn my bells. I felt like I was really behind and was struggling to pay off my house. But my game changed forever because of this online subscription.
Turnips are not for everyone. Some people have children in the household and don't want them because it seems like a gamble. Some people need to time travel constantly and turnips are not suitable for this reason. But there are so many ways to make bells in this game, and bells are probably the easiest item to gain in this game (believe it or not).
I see a lot of posts from players on social media along the lines of "hey I'm struggling with bells, can someone hit me up" and a lot of players flood in saying they'll donate or give bells. This is my own personal opinion, but don't give away your bells for free. At least make them water your flowers or do something to earn the bells. It's easy to earn bells, and give them away because it makes you feel good, but are you really helping someone? Probably not. If they are lazy to earn their bells, they're not really playing the game, and they won't appreciate your bells either - they will just post again when their bell balance is low.
There are so many ways to earn bells, and here is a list of them:
Redeeming Bell Vouchers with Nook Miles
This is soooo old school, Bell Vouchers are a no brainer and seriously overlooked. If you do not have an online subscription, struggled with bells to have a decent amount of capital for your initial turnip run, look no further than Bell Vouchers. These are redeemable at the ATM at Residential Services.
When I first did my turnip runs, I bought measly amounts like... 400 turnips... but what you need to aim for is at least 3900 turnips (yes, with one empty slot in your pocket assuming you have the full 40 slots) to maximise your turnip run potential. If you can, do two runs (so double = 7800), which conveniently fits in your basement or your attic if you have one. If you leave your turnips outside, remember to fence them because you don't want anyone taking them.
I know this is not for everyone, but this is assuming that you do not have an online subscription or have time to trade with anyone else - so Bell Vouchers are a quick and easy way to get bells... and invest them into turnips. You only need about 2 or 3 weeks and your financial position will go from house not paid, to full paid house and maybe a million in the bank.
This method is pretty much the same with a dream voucher, though those are only about 5000 bells each...
Fishing, Catching bugs, Swimming
Self explanatory. Wait for CJ and Flick and sell your goods to them. A pocketful of sea creatures will yield a decent amount of bells and requires no tools to craft.
I used to visit mystery islands to farm tarantulas. I think it's something you need to do to tick off your time playing this game, but I wouldn't do it again... I had to pass my Switch and let my husband play for me, and it is a bit time consuming. But it does make good bells!
Selling Fruit, Shells and Plucked Hybrid Flowers
Turn your island into an orchard (temporarily) of non-native fruit. Each tree will yield 3, totalling 1500 bells per tree. Take your native fruit (worth 100 bells a piece) to a friend's island whose native fruit is different and voila, sell them at 5x the price (500 bells a piece) - this tip I didn't get until a looooong time afterwards, but if you want to maximise your potential, do this!
Shells are also free and spawn forever, so if you're not selling them, you're missing out on a quick bell.
And a pocketful of plucked blue roses sells for almost half a million bells. Say what?!
Use these flowers and craft them into a wreath or crown and sell for more! There are soooo many ways to get bells!
Crafting and selling the hot item(s) of the day
Don't forget there's this you can do too. You can see what items they are by looking at the sign to the right of the Nook's Cranny entrance, and decide if you want to craft and sell. Hot items sell for double their usual price, so that's a pretty hot deal!
Popping lots of balloons
Did you know, usually yellow balloons have a good chance of having bells inside? The minimum being 5000, and the maximum being 30,000. One night I got 2 balloons with 30,000 inside each. It was a good night. Popping balloons also has a good chance of dropping furniture you have never seen before, so you can take it to Nook's Cranny and sell it! Or keep it for a catalogue event or to trade with another player if you don't need it.
Hitting your rocks daily and planting in your glowing money hole
One of the rocks on your island is a money rock and if you get the full amount of 8 bits of bells, the maximum bag is worth 8000 bells alone. I'm very conservative with my money and I bury 10,000 bells daily so I get a return of 30,000 bells back (20,000 profit), which is not bad for 10 seconds of work.
Trading with other players
There are some hot items you can sell with other players that will easily get you bells:
- Crafted DIY furniture
- DIY cards that you have extra or spare
- Nook Mile Tickets
- Villagers you have in boxes
- Entry fees/ tips when you host your island for players to sell turnips or visit to get a DIY card, see Celeste, see shooting stars, buy art from Redd or another NPC
- Rarer items like Mum's items, Gulliver's items, Gullivarrr's items
- Materials, such as fish bait, normal wood, stone, clay, iron nuggets, seasonal materials like mushrooms, petals, acorns, rusted parts
- Posters you have
- Spare art you have
- Seasonal furniture, Nook Mile furniture
- Host a garage sale or an event like a mystery bag grab or game
Don't be shy to ask for an entry fee to your island. I had a series of unfortunate events, because not all players are nice - but you're working to provide a service, I think it's not unreasonable to ask for an in-game tip for your time.
I made a lot of bells on Nookazon selling the strangest things - mostly crafted items. I know people are worried about being scammed and whatnot, but there are ways to prevent this. You can also sell on Facebook or social media. It's not limited to where you sell.
Play the Turnip Market
There are many threads, apps and websites where you can queue up for a high turnip selling price. I would aim to sell anywhere over 500 bells, but if you're desperate, over 400 is okay too. Be prepared to wait, and choose someone trustworthy and preferably with a reasonable entry fee. I would not pay over 1NMT or 99K bells per run - anything asking for more is probably not worth it unless you really have no choice. Again, don't forget, bells are the easiest item in the game to make.
If you go with a selling price of 500 or more, you can return with about 2million bells per run. Make that 2 runs a week, that's 4million bells per week.
Remember basic principles
Don't forget though, earning money does have other rules:
- Don't forget to save your money, it's little but you do get about 9999 bells maximum interest from the Nook Bank for having money in your account
- Don't rush to pay off your house, especially your final loan because there are absolutely no time limits, but when you do have time, it's best to pay it off as now there is extended storage after the final loan is paid off
- Calculate your space wisely if you need to move any buildings or build stairs/ bridges as these are expensive investments. There was one particular set of stairs I had to take down and rebuild a whopping three times, and although I had plenty of bells, it does make an impact (who doesn't want a spare royal crown instead?)
- If you don't need it, consider cataloguing it instead
- Sell whatever you don't need, and remember to sell it to other players first for a better price if you have the luxury of time
- Never use the drop off box unless you really need to (just leave your stuff outside Nooks and sell it in the morning when they are open), as you make 20% less
- Remember to give back, within reasonable limits
How did I end up?
Well if you ask me, you need about 7 million to fully pay off your house, and another 7 to comfortably build your inclines, bridges, move buildings, buy furniture and clothing that you might need. So if we're talk about 15-20million bells, you'll get there easily in about a month or so, depending on how much turnip runs you do a week. The most I ever did was 4 runs, and usually I averaged 3. I was really lucky though and met some people who really changed my game for good.
I eventually stopped doing turnips when my bank balance hit about 70million bells, as that was more than enough. I am still on the fence buying the 1million bell crown (I did buy a royal crown though, my most expensive purchase to date), so I catalogued it off a friend instead. After that, I was able to do very casual turnip selling if a friend had a high price, so I would time travel and constantly sell for an hour or so. This repeated for a few times and my bank account eventually reached over 100million bells.
My bank account is now maxed out. I admit, apart from cataloguing and finishing my critterpedia and ticking off some Nook Mile Achievements and earning villager photos, I don't really have a lot to do, but the good thing about not cataloguing too much is that I still have bells I have so I can buy items I haven't seen before. It gives me a little extra something I need to work for.
How are you now with bells? Too easy to earn? Or too hard? I think although it is a game, it really depends on how well you can manage your money, and it does teach you some good habits for life. And if you have any bad habits, it might show in-game - the good thing is, there is no such thing as credit card debt in Animal Crossing, so you don't need to worry. For myself, I stopped buying a lot of stuff in real life - I mean, COVID played a part, but I was buying things I liked in the game, which eliminated my impulse buying in real life. I also have a friend who used to do like 7 turnip runs per week at least... and somehow she could spent it all within that week...
Yours,
