- Single mum, Cheyenne Harris, 31, had to get creative to pay her bills
- When a video of her feet went viral online, Cheyenne quickly realised they were a money maker
- Now Cheyenne is paying for her mortgage, grocery bills and petrol with her smelly socks
Here Cheyenne tells her story in her own words.
Rolling balls of cookie dough between the soles of my feet, I placed them on the baking tray and stamped my big toe in the middle.
‘Perfect!’ I smiled, placing them in the oven to bake.
It was December 2021 and I’d just completed another customer order.
I sell all sorts of feet related stuff to strangers online – including cookies made with my tootsies.
In fact, a bloke had just bought a batch for $42!
‘How long are your toes?’
The side hustle had fallen into my lap after I posted a video of my partner *Sam, then 35, massaging my feet at a footy game that June.
Having 10,000 followers on TikTok @realcheybutt at the time, the video quickly went viral!
Before I knew it, my followers had boomed to 200,000 and the requests for me making things with my feet started rolling in.
How long are your toes? one message read.
Can you video your feet as you drive barefoot? another asked.
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Scrolling through the requests, I spotted a strange one from a gentleman offering a pretty sum.
$215 for a foot taco, he’d typed.
I’d never heard of the concept, but he explained it involved me giving myself a pedicure with the aid of pantry staples.
Why would anyone want this? I wondered.
Searching online, I learned that it wasn’t always sexual – some people just had a desire to buy worn items of clothing from people they admired, and even bits of waste like toenail clippings.
‘Why not give it a go?’
After taking a few days to think about it, I jumped at the chance to earn some extra money.
A single mum to two children, *Tilly, then 10, and *Jacob, three, I’d recently had to close my youth athletics facility due to Covid.
With no steady income, and struggling to pay for every day things such as groceries and the kids’ school fees, I relied on the love and support of family to keep us afloat during the difficult weeks.
Why not give it a go? I thought, desperate to earn money for my family.
Sitting on my kitchen floor, I placed my foot inside a hard taco shell, and gently trimmed and filed my nails.
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Packaging the remnants in a sandwich bag along with the taco shell, I posted it off to the man, along with a video of the process.
That was way too easy, I thought when the payment arrived in my account.
Hoping to reach a bigger audience in a niche market, I joined an adult platform.
Advertising my smelly socks and shoes online for $286 a pop, the requests started rolling in.
And as I started to get even more unique requests, I quickly realised literally anything that touched my feet could be sold!
‘That was way too easy.’
So when I received a request to bake a batch of cookies with my feet, I couldn’t say no.
And while it felt a little unnatural at first, I’ve managed to get the process down to a fine art.
One customer wanted to pay me to wear my crew length cotton socks to the gym and complete a full body workout before posting them off.
Another requested was that I squish a slimy green pickle, black olives and bubble gum between my toes while wearing a pair of socks.
Every additional request netted between $50-$100, on top of my regular sock sales, which generated around $3000 a week for seven pairs.
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Caring for my feet between orders, I treated them to a good scrub, a foot bath and a layer of moisturiser, before putting on a new pair of socks.
At first I kept my unique side hustle a secret, but when I did tell my family, they were supportive.
‘I knew you would put those smelly feet of yours to good use one day,’ Mum chuckled.
‘Who would want to sniff your socks?’ my brothers teased. And I often wondered the same!
Ripping a pair of smelly socks off my feet after a day of housework, I lifted them to my nose and took a whiff.
It smells like salt and vinegar chips, I thought, screwing up my nose.
But who was I to judge what others wanted to spend their money on? And if it meant being able to buy my kids what they needed, I was all in!
In time, I realised wearing one pair of socks per day was limiting and, with a long waitlist of customers desperate to get their hands on my product, I needed a way to double my output.
So I started wearing thin nylon socks under my regular cotton pair to sell too!
As predicted, the extra socks were a hit.
On my best month, I was reeling in a cool $11,500.
I couldn’t believe it!
Having been a teen mum, I’d never had the opportunity to study at uni or work full time while raising the kids.
And while I had plenty of support from my family and friends, I always felt like balancing work and kids was a struggle.
Now I was happier than ever!
Using the money to pay for school fees, petrol, the weekly shop and bills, I’d never been more financially comfortable.
Who’d have thought I’d be swapping filthy socks and toenail clippings for groceries and fuel?
Three years ago, I also used my sock savings to open a mechanic shop in town, learning the ropes from a friend in the industry.
While I run the business side of things, I have a team of mechanics that see to the shop.
Over the last six years, my feet have earned me $172,000!
Hoping to give back to my community in my own unique way, each season I hand out 150 pairs of clean socks to people sleeping rough or at local shelters, hoping socks can change their life too.
My smelly feet saved me financially, and maybe yours could too!
