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Bells

The currency in every Animal Crossing game is bells. There are a variety of ways to get bells, such as: selling fruit, furniture, and old items you no longer need, or trading with the other villagers. However, there are many different ways you can do this, some fast and some slow. Below we are going to show you how to make bells fast.

Top Four Ways to Make Bells Quickly

If you want to make money efficiently, these are the top three big money makers.

Picking Fruit

The native fruit in your town pays 100 bells at Nook’s; however, foreign fruit pays 500 bells. If you plant many of these trees, you can make quite a bit of money. In one trip to Nook’s, if you fill your item slots with fruit, you can make 7500 bells. See our fruit page.

Catching Fish and Insects

Catching fish and insects is also profitable. Insects are more seasonal than fish. See our fish and insects pages for strategies. Fishing pays well! In the rain, you can catch a single fish for 10,000 bells. If you could fill your pockets with coelacanths, you could make 150,000 bells!

Selling Fossils

After you have filled the museum, it is tempting to leave the fossils in the ground or throw them away. Before you do this, take them to Nook. He pays thousands for fossils after they have been identified. See our fossils page.  Many fossils are worth 4,500b.

BEST METHOD: The Stalk Market

Turnips are the MOST profitable way to make bells.  However, there is also a great deal of risk involved.  If you know what you are doing, you could stand to make millions!  Joan visits your town on Sundays from 6am-12pm.

RED TURNIPS
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Occasionally, Joan will offer red turnip seeds.  When she does offer them, she brings only one bag of seed to your town.  Red turnips cost 1,000 bells and can be sold at Nook's for up to 16,000 bells depending upon the day you sell them.  You can store red turnip seed for as long as you please; however, they require daily care and watering once planted.  You should sell them on day 6.  Unlike flowers, you cannot pick them up, you have to dig them up.  Joan will not likely bring red turnips to your town if you have been time-traveling (the game can detect a discrepancy between your Wii time and your Animal Crossing game time).  Red turnips are like IRAs in the real world: less risk=less chance of profit.

WHITE TURNIPS
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You can buy white turnips in increments of ten. If you know how to sell them, as we will discuss below, you ought to buy as many as you can afford--as many as 10 or 20 pocketfuls.  If you are not rich yet, don't worry, you will use your profits this week to buy even more next week.  You should check Nook's prices twice a day--once before noon and once after.  What you really want is to buy turnips for around 100 bells, and to sell them for over 500 bells, which is not likely to happen in your town.  So, for the next week, visit a forum about Animal Crossing to see if anyone has good prices in their town.  The gamespot forums are good, as well as our forum, which you can visit here.  Usually people will allow you to sell turnips in their town for an entrance fee of 50-100k per trip (don't pay more than that).  This is not a bad deal, if you have bought enough turnips to make millions.  Be aware that it takes about an hour or more from the time you post to the time that you finish selling!

If you have good turnip prices in your town--
Good turnip prices are about 300+ bells per turnip.  You stand to make millions on this, even if you don't have any turnips yourself!  Here's what to do:

1. Clean up the gate area and the route to Nook's.
2. Make a path to Nook's with patterns.
3. Clear out your pockets so you can accept payments.
4. Post your prices on a forum. Specify these rules: no wandering--go straight to nook's, and enter and leave as quickly as possible.  Charge an entrance fee of 50k-99k per trip.
5. Get a piece of paper and keep track of the people who want to sell.
6. Add the first three people--you only want three added at a time so that the traffic in and out of your town is not crazy.
7. Watch people.
8. Don't require money first, people will have full pockets and would have to drop turnips on the ground to pull out a bell bag.  If you make them do this, they will fear that you or a visitor will steal it.  Require money as people leave.
9. Don't chat much--people are on a mission and you want to make as much money as possible by getting people in and out quickly.

If you are going to a town for turnip selling--

This is unfinished: we will be turning this into a complete turnip article eventually.

Other Ways to Make Bells

Planting money trees – Money trees are not just a myth. When you have the golden shovel, bury some money in a hole. If the tree has the right conditions (see the trees page), it will grow. Some of these trees will become money trees, yielding bags of up to 30,000 bells.

Hitting rocks – Hit rocks with your shovel. Every day, one rock will have bell bags come out of it. The trick is to hit it as many times as possible. The first few times you hit it, you will get 100 bells, but that will increase to 1000, or even 10,000. A good strategy for hitting rocks fast is to wedge yourself next to the rock, by surrounding yourself with holes. Stand near the rock and dig holes behind you and next to you.  Also, the upgraded shovels (see tools page) will get you more money.

Achieving Feng Shui – Feng shui can bring money, as well. To learn about this, check out our furniture page.

Visiting Katrina – She may give you a fortune that includes money.

Selling furniture – When you are done with old household items, do not throw them away. Sell them to Tom Nook!

Trading with villagers – Sometimes you can make a lot of money in your dealings with villagers. Most villagers will pay you more money for Sea Bass and gyroids than Nook will.

Collecting shells – You can sell seashells to Tom Nook. Shells are, for the most part, both easier to collect and better-paying than the native fruit in your town.  A pocket of shells can easily bring 2,000b.

Shaking trees – When you shake trees, you can find all kinds of things. Most of the time, you will find 100 bell bags. Some other things you can find in trees are furniture and, of course, bees!

Selling gyroids – Nook pays 828 bells for gyroids, but the villagers will often pay more than that.

Selling found items – If you are really hard up for money, you can sell things from the lost and found at the town gate. To do this you have to claim items that are not yours. I thought this was wrong at first, until I realized that no one ever claims them. You can also sell items that have been dropped in the dump. If a friend who lives in your town has left their stuff all over for a long time, you may have to threaten to sell it, too.

Buying “stock” in the turnip market – When Sow Joan comes to town on Sunday mornings you can buy shares of turnips from her. During the week, you can sell them back to Nook for either more or less than you paid, depending on the day. Sow Joan sells white turnips, which are already grown and only last a week, and red turnip seed, which you must plant and take excellent care of.  You can keep the seed for as long as you please before planting it.  Turnips will spoil if you do not sell them within the week. When you leave them outside, they attract ants and flies.

Auctioning items – You can auction off your stuff to your friends. Talk to Lloid at the auction house in the city.

Managing Your Bells

ABD Machine

You can deposit and withdraw bells from the ABD machine in the town hall or the ABD machine in the city.  If you store 10,000 bells in the ABD, the bank will send you a Box of Tissues.  For 1,000,000 (1 million) bells, they will send you a Piggy Bank.  If you somehow manage to save 999,999,999 bells (that's one less than a billion) in the ABD machine, the bank will give you your very own ABD machine that really works for you to use in your house.

Shopping Cards

After you deposit your first chunk of money, you will receive an ABD card from the Bank of Nintendo in the mail.  You do not need to have it in your pockets to use the ABD machine.  You cannot use the shopping card at the following businesses: Tom Nook's store, the Able sisters' shop, Redd's shop, the Marquee, Shampoodle's, or Kick's shoeshinery.  The only location at which you may use the shopping card is GracieGrace.  If you visit the store without enough bells, Labelle--the sales associate--will ask if you wish to use your shopping card.

Town Fund

You should try to donate to your town fund, as well.  When the town fund reaches 200,000b, a new bridge will be built.  When it reaches 500,000b, a fountain will be built.  When the fund reaches 1,000,000b, you can choose whether you would like to receive a windmill or a lighthouse in your town.  Everyone who lives in your town can work on the fund collectively, but friends from neighboring towns cannot donate to your fund.

Going Broke

If you have zero bells, try going to all the stores to buy stuff.  Everyone will say, "Oh, I'm so sorry..." or "I don't know how to put this, but..."  Even Kapp'n on the bus will laugh at you--goin' to town without any cash!