I think most people and even myself doing the opposite. Learn something to get bitcoin, then exchange it into that worthless currency. Still there is not many real shop that accepting bitcoin in my city, not like your city or other places in Europe.
In my city also not shop accepting bitcoin.
I think the best way is to trade, I never done mining, but is always increasing levels of difficulty so that I stop because it was not profitable.
Mining was good in the past but now it has become difficult to mine bitcoins and it also require capital in buying mining equipment so at a moment I think the best way to make bitcoin is by trading altcoins as it will help you in growing your bitcoins in short time.