Want to make easy caps?
Tired of shoveling brahmin shit?
The brahmin traders of California exploit the shovelers they hire: they only pay the ridiculous amount of 5 caps for each piece of excrement cleaned, except in Shady Sands and the Hub, were the effort of the Union of NCR Shovelers was able to have their pay increased to 10 caps, which is still very low. It is also important to remember that most employeers don't offer their workers any kind of real security. This is true even in heavily guarded NCR towns where the law enforcers are still not able to stop thieves and anti-NCR suicide bombers.
Shoveling is also a work in which you will sometimes have to compete with fellow shovelers for those pieces of excrement. Are you really willing to keep harming your dignity like that?
Instead of wasting your time working for one of those greedy people of the brahmin business, we tell you it's a lot better to do like us: scavenge!
It is still possible to find useful objects in Old World cities, and you can get a nice amount of caps, as well as basic armor, weapons and ammunition, from traders with them!
When you are a scavenger, you are your own boss: you decide where to scavenge, and where to sell what you have found. Scavengers rarely have to compete against other scavengers over a piece of pre War junk, because there is always more than enough for everyone, not like when you shovel shit!
So don't wait anymore, leave that shovel behind and start scavenging today!
Getting Junk from random city ruins map (like in the Boneyard, around Vault 15, around San Francisco or south of the Gecko mine, for example) and crafting basic items from it, to then sell them to NPC merchants is a good way for new players to get their first gear and money, instead of shoveling shit or lifting boxes which are the activities recommended in the Wiki.
Probably the best option is to craft BB's with the Junk you gather. NPC merchants who deal in Small Guns will pay 4 caps for each single BB. With only 4 pieces of Junk, you can craft 50 BB's (200 caps) and even get 40xp for it.
If you scavenge in the Boneyard, you can trade with Jargo (in Adytum) for armor, small guns and ammo, or with the Gunrunners for small/big guns, energy weapons and armor. So in that area you will be able to get basic gear quick. This will help you get your tent a bit more easily (Brahmins can be found south of the Hub as well) and you won't have to worry so much if you are killed: you can always scavenge again and buy new gear.
Another option is to look for Xander Roots and Broc Flowers. They are a lot lighter than Junk and can be found all around. If you gather a considerable amount of them, like 500 each (it should be the same amount of roots and flowers, since both are needed to craft Stimpaks and Super Stimpaks) you might be able to get good money from them if you do an
auction.
Another thing you can do with roots and flowers is crafting Weak Healing Powder, which only demands 40% or more in your First Aid skill. Each unit crafted will only give you 8xp, but since the materials can be found very easily and in great amounts, that is not really a problem. NPCs who deal in Drugs will pay you 40 caps for each Powder.
Special thanks to Cryofluid, who allowed me to use a picture from Caravan to Hub for this post.Thanks to Wind_Drift, who mentioned Weak Healing Powder as an alternative to BB's. 
