2018 Side Hustle Income Report Month 5

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

Happy summer!

We’re five months into this project and it’s my favorite series because it’s super helpful for me.

I’m selfish.

This summer we’re renovating an RV to resell. Instead of including everything here I’m going to a post once we’re done that rounds it up. This is not a normal side hustle and I feel like all the expenses need more explanation than I can give them in this.

Here are the first four months for reference:

• January’s Side Hustle Income Report
• February’s Side Hustle Income Report
• March’s Side Hustle Income Report
• April’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, May’s Side Hustle Report.

Airbnb: $961.15

May was one of those “take the good with the bad” sort of months.

We rented out the room for 10 days while we were on vacation and had a friend get our mail and check on the house every day. When we came back the house was a total wreck and they left stains on our couch and duvet.

Thankfully they were super easy to work with in getting $190 in damages but it was not what I wanted to come home to. The guests after them were so cool though! They stayed for 9 days, unloaded our dishwasher, and we loved hanging out with them.

Even with this hiccup I still love Airbnb and highly recommend it as a way to monetize unused space. If you want to get started, sign up through this link and you’ll help us earn a little extra too!

T-Shirts: $1194.18

I made $1166.70 from Merch by Amazon and $27.48 from Etsy.

No update on April’s copyright threat but I’m aware changes can happen so I’m beefing up my shop.

I hired a designer to make me 100 designs. I’m going to see if those sell and if so will continue. If not, at least I tried and I’ll put more effort into Etsy.

Books: $1274.50

These are my book earnings from March. I sold 337 copies of The No-Spend Challenge Guide and 156 copies of Meal Planning on a Budget. I should’ve done a breakdown of net royalties from these sales but now KDP won’t go back to March 1st for me to run it.

While MPoaB wasn’t the hit that NSCG is, I’m glad I wrote it. It paid for itself and thats 156 book sales I wouldn’t have made if I didn’t have a second book. And since I mention NSCG in it, I’m sure it’s spurred a few sales of that one.

Mystery Shopping: $37

We were paid for four mystery shops this month. $35 and $33.95 reimbursements, a $45.39 payment of which $27 is profit, and a $49.99 payment of which $10 is profit.

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

Blog: $212.08

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

• $13.61 from Amazon Associates
• $159.35 from affiliates
• $39.12 from Ads

Total: $3678.91

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

T-Shirt Designer: $123.30

This is for the designer on Upwork who’s designing my shirts.

Stock Photography: $25

A quarterly charge that I honestly only have because I keep forgetting to cancel it. *face palm*

Etsy Seller Fees: $6.73

It’s 20 cents to list and 70 cents when you sell.

Total: $155.03

Set aside for taxes: $775

May Grand Total: $2748.88

2018 Running Total: $12,912

(This is the money we’re using for our RV renovation project)

Goals for Q2 of 2018:

1. Test ads for my Kindle books. I’m going to put down $20 worth of ads to test the waters with Amazon. Still haven’t but now that I’m giving a talk at FinCon on self-publishing, I REALLY need to get on this.

2. Get 5 iTunes reviews per week for Frugal Friends. I’ve lowered my goal. I was a little optimistic. As of writing this, we have 26 reviews and my new goal is to have 100 FinCon. Having reviews helps people “on the fence” figure out if our podcast is right for them. And the more people who listen, the more we get to spread the message of frugality!

I don’t think I know that many people so if you’re reading this would you visit the podcast’s iTunes page and leave a review?

3. I’m going to hire a designer for T-Shirts. I did this!!