May side hustles 2015

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.  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.

Big changes happening

Welcome to June, the start of a fresh new month.  There are a lot of big changes happening soon that will really change our daily routine. 

My wife is due to give birth any day now, so she’s home resting.  We are feeling very excited and anxious.  My wife is now off work for the next 6 months.  I’ll be off work for the next month and a half.  Hopefully we can support each other as we take care of our son. 

From a financial standpoint, we definitely expect having a child to reduce our savings rate.  In order to continue to save 50% of our income, we’re going to have to bring in more income and save more of it as well.  I’m not sure if we can continue to sustain this savings rate, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t going to try.  I also expect the amount of free time that we have to diminish as well.  This means less time for side hustles, less time to relax, less time with our dog Abby, and less vacation time. 

I don’t think I could imagine life for us without children.  I’m sure our son will help give meaning to our lives.   

Towards the end of May, our last two housemates graduated from school and moved out.  The timing worked out perfectly since we are expecting very soon.  I don’t think anyone wants to rent a room in a home with a crying newborn!  For the first time since 2009 (when I first purchased our home), we will not have any housemates.  Opening our home to students and renters has helped to generate a steady income stream of $550 to $1,150 a month.  This side hustle money has made it much easier to cover our mortgage expenses and increase our savings rate.  

While we won’t be getting any rental income from housemates in the near future, it helps that we found good tenants for our rental property.  We have cash on hand to consider purchasing another rental property if a good opportunity comes up (rare in our area).   

 

Abby is our Velcro dog

We’re still working on training our puppy, Abby.  She is currently very needy and always wants to be close to us.  Dogs that behave like this are called “Velcro dogs” because they’ll never leave your side / lap.  Our big concern is that once our baby arrives, Abby will get less attention.  Many of our friends who have had dogs before having a child all report that they have pretty much neglected or given away their dogs once a baby came into the picture.  Priorities change for many people.

This doesn’t mean that we will ignore Abby completely; she is family. We will still walk her multiple times daily, which should help us stay active.  Doggy play dates with neighborhood dogs will also keep Abby busy and happy. 

We are concerned that her barking may wake up a sleeping baby / mommy.  Hopefully Abby will adapt to these new changes quickly. 

On to the side hustles

You’ve made it this far reading our personal updates.  Here’s our monthly summary of side income that we have generated in the previous month of May.

Cash Back

On 5.9, I received $10 statement credit from AMEX Offers on my AMEX Blue Cash card (Spend $75 at AT&T Wireless and get $10 back)

On 5.20, my wife received a $25 statement credit from AMEX Offers on her SPG card (Spend $50 at Smart & Final and get $25 back)

On 5.23, I received a $20 Staples gift card from Staples from a Visa gift card promotion (buy $300 or more worth of Visa gift cards, get a $20 Staples gift card)

On 5.24, I received a $10 statement credit from AMEX Offers on my AMEX Blue Cash card (Spend $10 at iTunes and get $10 back). 
On 5.24, my wife received a $25 statement credit from AMEX Offers on her SPG card (Spend $50 at Smart & Final and get $25 back)

On 5.24, I received a $0.44 statement credit from AMEX on my Simplycash Business card (didn’t really use the card much so the monthly rebate is small)

On 5.26, my wife received a $25 statement credit from AMEX Offers on her SPG card (Spend $50 at Smart & Final and get $25 back)

On 5.29, I received a $25 statement credit from AMEX Offers on my AMEX Simplycash Business card (Spend $50 at Smart & Final and get $25 back)

Search and Win

Swagbucks

On 5.4, I received a $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks

On 5.26, I received a $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks
On 5.26, my wife received a $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks

Bing

On 5.15, I received a $5 Amazon gift card from Bing
On 5.22, my wife received a $5 Amazon gift card from Bing

Swagbucks and Bing continue to provide us with regular Amazon gift cards.  We use the credits towards purchasing toiletries and other necessities online.

Paid surveys

PineCone Research

On 5.5, I received a $6 PayPal deposit from PineCone Research

On 5.20, I received a $6 PayPal deposit from PineCone Research

E-Rewards Medical
On 5.19, I received a $15 check for a survey from E-Rewards Medical

Rental Income

On 5.1, we received a $550 check from one of our housemates

On 5.2, we received a net profit of $430 from the new tenants at our rental property (after all expenses such as property taxes, HOA, insurance, and mortgage payment).

Misc. Income
On 5.6, I made $180.38 profit off selling an item on eBay (discounting cost of purchasing item, eBay fees, PayPal fees, and shipping expenses).  It’s really hard to make a good profit selling on eBay, considering eBay will take a 10% cut off your total selling price (including shipping).  PayPal will also take a 2.9% cut off your total selling price.  Then you have to factor in shipping costs.  One thing I just learned is that you can pay for a shipping label directly through eBay instead of USPS / UPS.  There is an shipping discount from eBay when you do it this way – this will help you increase your profit and minimize your sales expenses. 

Monthly Totals:

May was a nice productive side hustle month.

We earned $140.44 in cash back.  AMEX Offers have been very generous lately!

We earned $25 worth of Amazon gift certificates from Search and Win sites

We earned $27 in cash from paid surveys

We earned $980 from rental income

We earned $180.38 of miscellaneous income from an eBay sale

All of this totals $1,352.82 from our side hustles for the month of May.  June is going to be an extremely busy month for us, and I expect our side hustle income is going to drop.