2018 Side Hustle Income Report Month 2

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more information.

Doing these has proven to be good for me. I’m sufficiently organized but I’m realizing with all the different things I do I can allow stuff to fall through the cracks.

That’s a lesson worth learning, organized people should be constantly looking to do things that make organizing easier.

You can see January’s Side Hustle Income Report here.

Also, I only include income that’s deposited into my account so sometimes it’s from stuff I did a while ago but none of it is speculative. If you want more ideas on making money at home you can grab the list of work-from-home jobs I started with by entering your deets below.

 

 

 

So without further adieu, the February Side Hustle Report.

Airbnb: $933.14

February was actually a pretty slow month for us! We’re still really pleased with how it’s going. I plan to take a few new pictures of the room to post next month but I won’t change much.

People always have a lot of question about hosting people in our home. Airbnb has a lot of features to make sure we’re 100% comfortable with bookings and they offer a $1 million host guarantee that covers theft, property damage, and other accidents that could occur with a guest. If you have questions feel free to drop them in the comments and I’d love to answer them.

If you want to rent out one of your rooms then sign up through this link and you’ll help us earn a little extra too!

T-Shirts: $878.79

This represents my shirt sales on Amazon for the month of January. I’m super excited to get back into shirts this month and expand my business to Etsy. I have 11 shirts live so far — reusing my best sellers from Amazon — and I’ve already made one sale!

Etsy pays quicker than Amazon so I should have some extra earnings to report as soon as next month!

Book: $1291.86

These are my earnings off The No-Spend Challenge Guide in December. This is what led me to start writing Meal Planning on a Budget and launch it so quickly.

In hindsight, I had too much going on in my life to properly launch that book like I did NSCG but it’s still adding revenue and I’m happy I went for it without thinking too much into it.

Mystery Shopping: $-4

This is the risk you take when mystery shopping. We did a dinner shop that reimbursed up to $35 and we spent $39. You have to be careful when you’re doing shops because the temptation to spend past the limit is real. Do it too many times and you’re not taking full advantage of the opportunity.

I take into consideration the fact that I have to write the report after the shop. If I’m paying $20 over the reimbursement limit then It would’ve been better for me to have gone to Chipotle and skip all that work.

If you want to learn more about mystery shopping you can read my post about it.

Blog: $209.80

No ad network payment this month. The blog income broke down like this for February:

• $101.10 from Amazon Associates,
• $85 from Ebates,
• $23.70 from Grocery Budget Makeover

Travis’s Side Job: $113.60

Travis fills out aircraft paperwork for a private jet owner who has the hangar next to his day job. Sometimes they need him a lot, sometimes not so much.

Acupuncture Side Job: $75

I did an acupuncture session at a rehab center.

Mystery Check: $29

This throws back to that whole organizing thing. I deposited a $29 check this month and I have no clue where it came from. I can’t find it in any of my mystery shopping pay histories and since it was a mobile deposit I can’t see the check image.

Usually, I record my deposits in EveryDollar but I got lazy last month and it came back to haunt me. Lesson learned.

Total: $3498.19

 

Expenses: I’m a frugalprenuer so I keep my expenses low but there are some that are unavoidable.

Book Expenses: $26.88

I purchased the paperback proof for $5.89, marketing graphic for $11, and $9.99 for a copy of The Financial Diet to the winner of my launch team contest.

Mailerlite: $84

I finally had to spring for the paid version of MailerLite, my mailing list and newsletter service. I like MailerLite’s drag and drop and I signed up while MailChimp didn’t have landing pages.

Also, much cheaper than ConvertKit.

Canva: $115.59

I purchased an annual subscription to Canva. I’d always planned to cancel which is why I was month to month but I use the pro features too often so paying for the year will now save me money.

Next year I’ll revisit this and see if there’s any more affordable options.

Acupuncture License Renewal: $280

Every two years I renew my license and my time was up again. Usually, my employer covers this but since I’m leaving I’m on my own.

Total: $506.47

Set aside for taxes: $700

February Grand Total: $2291.72

2018 Running Total: $4318.08

 

Goals for the rest of the quarter:

Jill and I have recorded the first two episodes of the Frugal Friends Podcast and we want to get a few more under our belts before we launch.

Instead of getting 130 shirts on Amazon I opted to set up my Etsy shop. So I’m hoping to still accomplish that goal by the end of March but won’t be sad if I don’t.

I updated my Budget Coaching page. I’m offering coaching for anyone who’s serious about getting on a budget and reaching their financial goals. I would really like to push that service more. It’s something I like doing! So check it out and see if it’s for you!

I also want to try out Amazon Ads for Meal Planning on a Budget. I think it could be a best seller and I want to do everything I can to get it there.