2018 Side Hustle Income Report Month 3

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It’s that time of the month again. The time where I take inventory of what we’re making outside our 9-5 income to get us closer to our goals.

After we became debt free we didn’t know what to do with our money. We’d developed frugal habits, worked well as a team, and built some income streams we didn’t necessarily want to stop just because we could.

So we channeled those assets to the goal of financial independence. We have the Choose FI podcast and community to thank for that. It showed me ways we could optimize our life to get the lifestyle we really want.

And since we’re still side hustlin, I wanted to an easy way to keep track of it all. So this is as much for me as it is for you.

• January’s Side Hustle Income Report
• February’s Side Hustle Income Report

As always, 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, March’s Side Hustle Report.

Airbnb: $1164

March was really busy for us! And we made Superhost! Hopefully this will bring even more people into our home and money in our pockets — and by pockets I mean Mortgage.

People always have a lot of questions about sharing a home with strangers. Travis an I have lived with strangers before so I guess it wasn’t weird to us but I do have our listing set to not let people stay more than 14 days… because variety.

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: $933.90

$922.43 of that came from Merch by Amazon and $11.47 came from Etsy. I actually thought my Etsy margins were way higher than that but as it turns out I priced my 3XL and 2XL only slightly higher thinking I’d get the same margins as smaller shirts and I’m not.

Most of my Etsy sales are larger sizes so I’m taking inventory and adjusting my offerings this month.

Book: $1420.97

These are my January earnings from The No-Spend Challenge Guide. I just found out that NSCG was selected for an Amazon beta program called Great on Kindle. Not sure what it’ll do for the book but I’m just excited I got an email from a real person at Amazon.

Next month I’ll start to see earnings from Meal Planning on a Budget. January is a huge month for personal finance books so even though I’m adding another book I anticipate my earnings going down. But who knows? We’ll see.

Mystery Shopping: $0

An improvement from last month’s -$4! We did a lot of mystery shopping this month but it gets paid out 4-6 weeks later so this should be higher in the coming months.

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

Blog: $82.44

#MakeMoneyBlogging. The blog income broke down like this for March:

• $16.59 from Amazon Associates
• $65.85 from Ads

Travis’s Side Job: $161.15

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.

Total: $3762.46

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

Etsy Expenses: $7.85

I purchased mockups for Etsy listings for $7.85. I’ll have listing fees starting next month.

I use Printful to print the shirts and it charges me for each shirt that’s sold but I’m not including it in expenses I’m just taking it out of the profit.

Total: $7.85

Set aside for taxes: $774

March Grand Total: $2980.61

2018 Running Total: $7298.69

Goals for the rest of the quarter:

Jill and I are launching the Frugal Friends Podcast on April 27th! I’ll definitely announce the launch more in the coming weeks once I get the website set up and the trailer on iTunes!

I’m working on 7 news shirts that I want to get up before Mother’s Day.

I updated my Budget Coaching page. I’m offering budget 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’m still wanting to try 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.