Early money making strategies

Question

So I have read all the answers to this question here about how to grind money. This however seems to be an end-game money grind as they all mention Le Wow and the one indepth answer says two level 100 pokemon with this that and the other along with a 100,000 buy in.

What I want are good locations and/or strategies to use to get money along the way until the end game. I may have a pokemon catching addiction but 90% of my money goes into pokeballs and even with a good capture rate I am having a hard time keeping enough Poke Balls in my stock to catch new pokemon as I run into them.

I have played up to meeting Professor Sycamore so far and pretty much all of my money has come from trainer battles. What other options do I have?

Answer 1

Other than the Battle Chateau, there are a few things you can do to gain money quicker in XY:

• Find the Amulet Coin in Parfum Palace. Leave it on your lead Pokemon whilst battling trainers & gyms. It will double the Prize Money earned.
• Unlock the Prize Money O-Power in Cyllage City (the 2nd Gym town) from Mr. Bonding in the Hotel, and use it before battling trainers & Gyms. Each level increases the output of Prize Money for 3 minutes:
  • Level 1: 1.5x
  • Level 2: 2x
  • Level 3: 3x

There are also ways you can save yourself money in the field:

• Walk/Rollerskate/Ride back to town to heal up instead of using items, or take advantage of 'healer trainers' in certain longer Routes & Caves.
  • This means usually the only use you'll have for the Pokemart for a while will be Pokeballs.
  • It also means that any items you pick up along the way will be there for the important battles, when you really need them.
• As an alternative to the above, get stuck into Berry farming for a while. There's usually a Berry equivalent for every item you can buy in the mart. For example:
  • PLZ Heal : Cheri Berry
  • BRN Heal : Rawst Berry
  • Antidote : Pecha Berry
  • Awakening : Chesto Berry
  • Full Heal : Lum Berry
  • Potion : 2x Oran Berry
• Don't sell items like Nuggets, Stardust & Mushrooms (until you actually need the money for something). This might seem counter-intuitive, but think about it for a second.
  • When you lose a battle, you give up a percentage of your current in-wallet money. The lower your current money, the less you give out. Use these items as a 'safe' of sorts to store your real worth in.
• Hold off on big purchases like TMs until you've unlocked the Bargain O-Power (Hotel Richissime in Lumiose).
  • Don't buy the other Mega Stones until you've maxed out your style. You can get them for as low as $10,000.

Answer 2

The Battle Chateau is a good way to get early cash and help prepare for late-game money grinding. You gain access to the Chateau after defeating the first gym and heading to Route 7. If you start battling here early, you can cut out some of the monotony involved in trying to grind to Grand Duke/Duchess later in the game because the trainers will be right around your level (~15).

Answer 3

1.) One of the best ways to get money in X/Y is working at Hotel Richissime. You can do three jobs a day and earn 1,000 for each job. At first it might not seem like much, but the more you work, the more money you'll earn until eventually, you get 50k per job.

2.) Another way to earn money early on is working at the berry fields. After you harvest the berries, you can put 3 of them in the compacter to make 3 bags of Mulch, each worth 100. It may seem boring and tedious, but it really works.

Answer 4

1. As soon as you're able to reach it ingame, head to Hotel Richissime and speak to Mr. Bonding. He'll give you the Bargain O-Power. Use it for a 10%, then 25%, and finally, 50% off any Poke Mart purchases. Level it up by usage.
2. Trade with other players to obtain Happy Hour Smeargle. It doubles prize money when Smeargle uses the move in battle, and it stacks with the Amulet Coin for quadrupling the money.