While politicians bicker over the never-ending budget battle, Americans are resorting to selling hair, breast milk and eggs in order to make ends meet.

Victoria Stilwell of Bloomberg is reporting that according to Nicolas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx Group, since the beginning of 2011, the words “hair”, “eggs” or “kidney” have been the top trending autofill results for the Google search query “I want to sell my . . .”

Even though it’s illegal in the U.S. to purchase a kidney from someone, that isn’t stopping some cash-strapped Americans from considering it as a way to pay bills.

“The fact that people even explore it indicates that there are still a lot of people worried about their financial outlook,” Colas told Bloomberg. “This is very much unlike every other recovery that we’ve had. It’s going to be a slow-grinding, very frustrating recovery.”

With payrolls down 1.9 million employees since 2008, the jobless rate has been above seven percent for more than five years now and the share of unemployed Americans who have been out-of-work for more than 27 weeks is 38 percent. Even those with a job aren’t faring well with 54 percent of Americans reporting that their incomes have “hardly recovered at all” from the recession.

“If you’ve been unemployed for years, if you’re on food stamps and you’ve had trouble getting by, I can totally see you being very economically desperate,” Colas said. “I don’t think a lot of people sell their kidneys. I do think a lot of people in desperation do that search to say, ‘If worse comes to worst what could I do?’”

The sale of kidneys only takes place on the black market, but these organs are estimated to be worth more than $15,000.

A more likely option, especially for young women, is to undergo the grueling process of becoming an egg donor which can pay up to $8,000.

Stilwell’s article highlights the Shady Grove Fertility Center which pays women $7,000 after finishing the first donation cycle, $7,500 for a second donation and $8,000 for any donations after that.

In a phone interview with Ali Williams, marketing assistant supervisor for Shady Grove, Stilwell as told that clinic expects 13,000 women to apply to be an egg donor at any one of their locations in Washington, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. That represents a 13 percent increase from 2012.

According to a survey conducted by the clinic last year, 65 percent of women who applied to donate eggs said there was at least some financial motivation in their decision; but 73 percent said altruism influenced their decision more than the money.

“It is more than cutting your hair and even donating blood,” Williams told Bloomberg. “The process can take a few months. So if you don’t have that altruistic motivation, if you’re just doing it for money, you’re probably not going to get through the process.”

Other women, like 25 year-old Bridie MacDonald from Farmington Hills, Michigan, decided to play it safe and put her bright red hair up for sale after losing her job last month. She posted an ad online on October 1, offering to sell 18 inches of her locks for $1,500. Thus far, she’s had 100 responses.

“I’ve been growing my hair out for maybe a little over two years, and I just decided now was the time since I lost my job,” MacDonald said. “It doesn’t cost anything to grow your hair out and sell it for money. It’s basically profit with very little work. Anything you can do, I’m sure people are willing to do it.”

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