I was doing manual labour starting at 4 am on the weekends to make ends meet during my PhD fellowship. I'd invent creative reasons for one off consulting type

I was doing manual labour starting at 4 am on the weekends to make ends meet during my PhD fellowship. I'd invent creative reasons for one off consulting type projects to random faculty in the department to try and get a couple hours of casual pay because that would make the difference in bills. Seems ridiculous in hindsight now that I'm making every level pay and I'm not in a particularly lucrative field.