Thursday, January 1, 2015

December side hustles 2014 and year end summary

Happy New Year!


The great thing about doing side hustles to generate extra income is that you can hustle on your own terms.  The more hard work, time, and creative effort you put in, the more extra money you can make.  You can hustle as little or as much as you want, whenever you want.  It’s your extra money, and you can choose how you want to spend it.  Not all of the following side hustles may be applicable to you.  Instead of focusing on what ideas don’t apply to you, try focusing on different side hustle ideas that you can implement to work for your situation.

Here’s our monthly summary of side income that we’ve generated in the month of December.

Award Travel
On 21.1, we redeemed 21,618 Chase Ultimate Rewards points and $11.20 for 2 one-way tickets from Orange County to Portland to visit my wife’s family for Christmas.  2 tickets paid with cash would have cost $378.  After paying $11.20 in fees, we saved $366.80 on these tickets.

On 12.2, we redeemed 14,521 Chase points for 1 one-way ticket from Portland back to Orange County.  The cash price for each ticket was $246.  After paying $5.60 in fees, we saved $240.40 on this ticket.  We didn’t have enough points at the time of booking to pay for both of our tickets.     

Cash Back
On 12.1, I received $18.77 PayPal deposit from Mr. Rebates shopping portal
On 12.2, I received $25 cash back from my Barclaycard Arrival Plus credit card
On 12.4, I received $3.42 cash back from PayPal cash back
On 12.4, I received $240 cash back from American Express Small Business Saturday. 
On 12.8, I received $20 cash back from American Express Offers ($20 off $100 purchase at Staples)
On 12.9, my wife received $20 cash back from American Express Offers ($20 off $100 purchase at Staples)

Website income
On 12.22, I received a $51.25 direct deposit into my checking account from website income

Search and Win
On 12.16, I received a $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks
On 12.5, I received a $5 Amazon gift card from Bing
On 12.15, I received a $5 Amazon gift card from Bing
On 12.19, my wife received a $5 Amazon gift card from Bing
MyPoints
On 12.11, I received a $11 Amazon gift card from MyPoints

Paid surveys
On 12.1, I received a $9 PayPal deposit from PineCone Research
On 12.3, I received a $3 PayPal deposit from Pineone Research
On 12.9, I received a $3 PayPal deposit from Pineone Research
On 12.18, I received a $6 PayPal deposit from Pineone Research

E-rewards Medical
On 12.28, I received a check for $5 for doing an online survey

Side Job
On 12.13, I received a check for $275 for teaching at the local university. 

Rental Income
On 12.1, I received $600 rental income from a new temporary housemate.

Misc. Income
On 12.18, I received a $100 Home Depot gift card from Third Federal Savings & Loan for opening a HELOC (more on this later)

Monthly Totals:
December was yet another pretty productive side hustle month.
We saved $607.20 (after fees) on travel by using our Chase Ultimate Rewards points on free airfare.
We earned $327.19 from credit card cash back
We earned $51.25 from website income
We earned $31 worth of Amazon gift certificates from Search and Win sites
We earned $21 in cash from paid surveys
I earned $275 from my side job teaching students
We earned $600 from rental income from our two housemates
We earned a $100 Home Depot gift card as a promotion

All of this totals $2,012.64 from our side hustles for the month of December.  Not a bad way to end the year

2014 side hustles total
I have now documented one complete year of side hustles, starting with my first post here.  How did we do?  Adding up all of our monthly side hustle income, we earned a total of $28,663.42 on the side for the 2014 year!  This was made up of cash, Amazon gift cards (good as cash), and conservatively estimated savings on travel expenses (Our first class flight costs were not included since we would never buy a first class ticket with cash). 


Despite living frugally, side hustle money continues to help us live a rich life.  With a baby on the way, we’re going to try to get more creative with our side hustles in the year 2015.  Are you content with just getting paid every 2 weeks?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments? Questions?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...