How to Get Easy Money in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Trying to buy that special weapon, win a lady/man with an Amulet of Mara, or maybe just trying to get by and get a house, but just don't have enough money? Here's a small guide containing numerous ways to get some coin.

Method 1

Method 1 of 19:

Alchemy

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1
Use alchemy. It is by far the best way to make money in Skyrim. From level 1, start collecting Blue Mountain Flowers and Blue Butterfly Wings. Mixing these two ingredients makes a potion that sells for 80-250 gold depending on your alchemy and speech levels.
- You can make well over 5,000 gold before even killing the first dragon.
- You can find these potion ingredients mainly in mountainous/forest areas.

Method 2

Method 2 of 19:

Jarl

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Seriously! If you get in good with the Jarl and complete all his/her quests and become the Thane, you can take almost anything to sell. Some things like jewelry cannot be taken without stealing. [ex. When you kill the dragon in Whiterun, you can not only buy a house, but take almost everything in his castle other than the things in the wizard's room.]

Method 3

Method 3 of 19:

Thievery

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Stealing is one of the easier ways to get money in Skyrim. Wear things that increase your sneak so you can pickpocket with more luck.
2
Sell stolen items. In order to sell stolen items, you're going to need to find a "fence" - a vendor that will buy stolen goods. The most common way to do so is by doing the initial part of the Thieves Guild quest, and then selling your items to Tonilia at the Ragged Flagon.
- If you haven't found a vendor yet, you can still steal gold coins. They won't be marked as stolen items in your inventory.
- If you steal crafting items (such as ingots) and make other items with them, the final item won't be marked as stolen.
If you don't think you can take them on by yourself, find a follower (to get followers for free, just do their quest(s), and you can hire them with no charge, though with some you have to pay).
The thieves will buy anything, including your stolen things.
When you search riftweald manor, he has a stash at the end.
6
Kill then loot. Kill someone and loot their house. Run out of their house and out of that town and into another town. Sell the loot you picked up to a salesperson and get the money.
- If you don't want to make your go experience go down, don't do this part, as you must go into the town where that person's is house again. Go back to the town that the person's house is in and draw your weapon, then sheath it. A guard will come up to you and say "It's time to pay for your crimes. What say you in your defense?" and select "I submit, take me to jail". Sleep in the bedroll in the jail cell and you will get to keep your money.

Method 4

Method 4 of 19:

Interacting with Others

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1
Join the Dark Brotherhood. Every time you report to the Dark Brotherhood after a murder, you get around 100-200 coin.
- Complete the dark brotherhood; it gives you 20,000 gold.
Joining factions means doing quests, and quests usually are fair pay (depending on the person and quest).
Interact with them and they will usually bet you about 100 coins for a brawl. If you have the gloves that give you an extra 10 damage per strike you can down them in a couple of blows. Or if you are a Khajiit, punches are powerful because of your claws.

Method 5

Method 5 of 19:

Natural resources

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You can chop wood, and sell it for about 5-6 gold at most pubs and mills. Though it doesn't pay a lot, you get 2 wood every time you chop one log, so each cycle, you chop 3 logs, so you get 6 firewood each time.
2
Hunt. Sometimes, animals will carry a small amount of coin from their last kill, or you can sell the pelts and meat for about 10-30 coin depending on what kind of pelt it is (for example, wolf pelts are usually more than, say, fox pelts, because wolf pelts are larger).
- Do not fast travel. Instead, walk everywhere. You will run into tons of animals whose pelts you can take.
- Make sure to craft your pelts. Use the tanning racks to turn the pelts into leather; craft the leather into leather helmets at the forge; improve the leather helmets at the crafting table. You will get tons of money and level up really fast.
If you bought a house, save them in your chest every time you kill a dragon (run between 190 to 390). They tend to add up or just save expensive armor and go out and look for more sell what you want to collect coins.

Method 6

Method 6 of 19:

Activities

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Usually the jobs you get from the local people in any town pay well.
2
Smith extra weapons/armor. Easy, when you smith things, smith some extras and sell them.
- If you smith weapons or armor, make sure you improve the quality (make armour/weapons fine, superior, flawless, etc). This much improves the value of said item, or otherwise simply makes it a more practical piece.
Whenever you kill a dragon, loot it. It usually contains quite a bit of gold. The amount the dragon drops is dependent on the type of dragon it is. An ancient dragon drops more gold than a blood dragon, for instance.

Method 7

Method 7 of 19:

Places

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You're thinking this one is too hard cause of draugrs and crap like that, right? Well it really depends on what gear you have.
There is a secret chest in Winterhold if you climb up some rocks directly to the left of the jarl's longhouse. It generally has over 10000 gold and can be re-looted from time to time. Occasionally finding this chest will spawn a mission called "Secrets of the Empire"worth it! Usually, Draugrs will drop from 1-30 coin, and when you finish the boss battle, you can either disenchant the weapon you get, or you can sell it for usually about 100-3000 coin.

Method 8

Method 8 of 19:

Sales

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1
Sell a lot. You're probably thinking, well we know that! But listen, look at the value of random things before you pick them up such as ingots, clothing, weapons, potions, books, etc. if it has a high value rating, then it's worth selling.
- Try not to sell things you want like spell tomes, lock picks, or anything of that sort.
- If you don't want dragon armour, sell the dragon scales/bones. They usually sell for a lot. (Scales are worth 250, bones are worth 500.)
- If you've got some weapons or armor with no enchantment that's worth a good amount of money, that you don't need, enchant it and then sell it, it then sells for a higher price.
- If you pick up extra/other armour that you don't need, sell it to one of many blacksmiths in Skyrim.
With the funds, buy all ebony ingots and daedra hearts. Store securely.

Method 9

Method 9 of 19:

Have a wedding

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This will work with any follower that you are able to marry.

1
Get married. Sleep. Wait 24 hours.
2
Expect your spouse to set up shop. Go to your spouse, then collect your share of the shop's profit.
- Every 24 hours gives you 100 gold; it's not much but at least you don't have to do any work.

Method 10

Method 10 of 19:

Grab everything in sight

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Whenever you go exploring, don't be afraid to max out your carry weight.

1
Pick up everything of value that you can, even if it's only worth a few septims
2
Once you max out your carry weight, drop things of lower value to make room for things of higher value.
3
Stop and talk to people. Sell to anybody willing to buy your stuff.
4
Start a stockpile. If you own a house or have a secure location to keep your valuables, make a stash of items of significant value that you would be willing to sell. That way if you need money fast, you can grab some of those items and sell them to get money quickly.
5
Try not to keep too much money in your pocket. If you have money in your pocket, you are more likely to spend it than if it is resting comfortably in a chest in your house.

Method 11

Method 11 of 19:

Sell the Oghma Infinium

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1
Get the Oghma Infinium. Go to your house.
2
Go to a bookshelf and put the Oghma Infinium in it.
3
Go off the menu. Wait for the book to spawn, then go back on it.
4
Take the book. Then quickly exit the menu and read the book (you must be looking at the book).
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Choose not to read the book and take it.
6
Go to anyone who buys books. Sell it; it is usually worth about 1001 gold. (You can also do this for leveling up skills if you haven't updated the game but make sure you always put one in a chest or something similar, or it will also be destroyed).

Method 12

Method 12 of 19:

Picking ore

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1
Find a good mine. Choose one that will never destroy, such as the small one behind of the guard house in Morthal. The more valuable the ore, the better.
2
Empty your inventory into a safe case or chest.
3
Equip two pickaxes (that you have already enchanted with some enchants). This helps you fight faster with extra stamina, such as with two daggers (enchant them with stamina receiving enchant).
4
Strike the mine like an enemy. You will see that many mine ores will be added.
5
Before you become heavy from their weight, leave the mine and travel to different merchant's place to sell them your ores. Their money is limited and you can't sell all of them. Just wait 24-30 hours in game, then start selling your ores.

Method 13

Method 13 of 19:

Korvanjund

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1
Join the legion.
2
Make the first quest and travel to Korvanjund, since stormcloak equipment isn't expensive.
3
After you enter the dungeon, find a nice spot to sneak, grab a bow. Legate Rikke have a loop on programming that will say: You 2 stay here, right? But if you kill enough legionnaires before that, they will infinite spawn on entrance. The difference from other maps is that here the bodies won't disappear. So you will get a lot of corpses and a load of equipment. Wish you had those teleport scrolls from Morrowind, right?

Method 14

Method 14 of 19:

Daggers

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1
Notice that all around Skyrim, while doing quests, battling, etc. you will often come across daggers. Normally they don't sell for much; however, once you learn enchantments, (they don't even necessarily have to be super strong), you can enchant the daggers and they sell for 300+ gold. Just be sure to max the damage, and not the amount of times they can be used.
2
Load up on daggers, store them at home (if you have one). Save them up.
3
Get soul gems. These are needed in order to enchant the daggers (or any other item, really). If you happen to have a way to trap souls, then you can just stock up on empty soul gems. Or, you may prefer to just come across them, some empty, some not. Save these too, until you're ready to enchant the daggers.
4
Spell it up. Enchant the daggers, and any shop or person who buys weapons will be glad to take them off your hands (so long as they have the proper gold, of course).

Method 15

Method 15 of 19:

After the perk "Permanently increase a shopkeeper's money by 500"

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1
Ask to donate 500 gold.
2
The shopkeeper should say: "Put it in the drawer over there."
3
Instead of giving him the money, pickpocket him. He should have 500.
4
Repeat this a couple of times.

Method 16

Method 16 of 19:

Becoming a mage

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1
Make a mage. Although mage equipment is expensive, you get loads of things to sell by picking up armour (which is not needed if you already have robes for your mage).
2
Carry a lot. You will have lots of free carry weight because mage robes are almost weightless therefore you can carry loads of dropped equipment.
3
Now you can sell your gathered loot.

Method 17

Method 17 of 19:

Follower's trades

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1
Get an unpaid follower.
2
Ask the follower to trade things with you. This includes their money, keys, jewels or anything else they might be carrying.
3
Do not remove their weapons. If you do that, they'll be useless followers.

Method 18

Method 18 of 19:

Transmute gold

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1
Buy iron ore from one of the merchants or blacksmiths. Alternatively you can mine it from the various mines in skyrim.
2
Cast the transmute spell. Each cast converts first any silver ore present to gold ore and then any iron ore present to silver ore. Repeated castings of this will give you lots of gold ore which you can either smelt into ingots and sell or sell the ore itself.
3
Alternatively, you can also smith jewelry out of the gold ingot (preferably gold rings) which you get two of from each gold ingot. Further enchanting these rings will give you an even more expensive ring to sell. At the same time you are leveling up your smithing, enchanting and speech abilities.

Method 19

Method 19 of 19:

Cheats

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1
Press tilde (~) key in-game.
2
Type in: player.additem f 999

Community Q&A

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Question
Where is the chest underneath the Skyforge?
Community Answer
When you enter Whiterun through the gate, turn right. There should be a barrel in a small boxed area that you can jump onto. Then, sprint and jump towards the largest gap (which may take a few tries). Once you've gotten through the gap, you'll be outside the map, so turn around and keep as close as you can to the wall heading in the direction of the Skyforge. Once you get near the Skyforge, there should be a gap so you can see through the map. Walk across the gap towards the wall, go straight through it, and you should the chest.
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Question
Where can I find blue mountain flowers and blue butterflies?
Shayley Hawn
Community Answer
They're all over the open world. You have to catch the butterflies (although it isn't too hard), and mountain flowers can appear almost anywhere. Look on the path you walk on from Helgen to Riverwood at the beginning of the game and you should find some.
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Where exactly is the chest in Winterhold? Which set of rocks is it at?
Community Answer
The only chest in Winterhold is a chest you have to glitch a wall to get to. Its in the Hall of Attainment in the college.
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Tips

Histcarp + Salmon Roe + Silverside Perch. This potion has 4 effects and has a base value of 1,149 (4,044 with perks and fortification effects).
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When adopting a kid, if she/he always wants to play a game, play a game with her for once. Give him/her a gift like a dagger or a tunic to make him/her happy.
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If you have extra spell tomes that you have the spell for and can't use, or a staff which you have multiples of, or just don't want sell them to a court wizard(eg. Farengar Secret Fire of Whiterun, Calcelmo of Markarth, etc.) so you can get more out of it, or sell it at a general store or other merchant if you have the necessary perks.
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Dwemer ruins contain solid metal plates worth money when smelted or sold. Bring a follower to carry more. Craft and improve Dwarven equipment to sell for high profits.
Restore the Thieves Guild to unlock 4 lucrative fences. Sell to one, then wait 2 days for their gold to replenish when they're tapped out. Repeat.
At high Conjuration, craft Daedric armor at the Atronach Forge. Provides good defense and fetches a high sale price. Stock up on components first.
Persuade city guards after minor crimes to avoid punishment. Each persuasion raises Speech skill. Higher Speech means better merchant prices.
Early on, steal a pickaxe and mine ebony ore in Gloombound Mine. Sell to the orc smith just outside for an easy 60 gold each. Resets monthly.
Loot enemies in Meridia's temple quest for extra gold. Valuable gear drops too. Come prepared — the final fight is quite challenging!

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Warnings

If you decide to steal, it is your own fault if you get caught and killed.
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If you decide to go to a bandit camp, it is your fault if you get killed.
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