Side hustles August 2017

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.

Once a month (usually on the 1^st), I like to post a short summary of our financial and personal situation for the previous month

Welcome to September, did everyone have a good August? 

It’s been a great month for our family.  As usual, we spend all of our free time between playing with our son, friends, and family.  We had a couple of family dinners.  Since we rarely eat out, it's such a treat to be able to go to a restaurant. 

Watching our son grow physically and mentally has been giving us the greatest joy this month.  He’s starting to talk more every day.  He loves going outdoors.  We go out for walks almost every day and really enjoy the exercise.

Our son loves to run along the walking paths in our neighborhood.  He gets excited pointing at all the birds and squirrels that we see.  

He loves touching all the different flowers we see along the way.  

Our son has so much energy and he just loves running everywhere we go.  Here he is running around the clothing racks at the local Goodwill thrift store.  

I’m so glad that our son lets my wife cut his hair every few weeks.  Our son has only gone to get a professional one time for his first haircut.  He didn’t enjoy that experience at all.  And we didn’t enjoy spending $26 on that haircut either.  

Our son getting ready for his haircut in our kitchen

It’s been pretty hot in Southern California over the last few weeks.  This past week we’ve had heat over 100 degrees for the last few days.  Our friend was nice enough to host a pool party for the kids.  Our son loved splashing around in the water.

Since we have 2 year passes to the Discovery Cube, we try to visit as a family once every month or two.  We really like the fact that exhibits here get revamped every few weeks.  Each time we visit our son gets to explore more and more of the center. 

Things are not all sunshine with our son.  While he gives us the most joy, he also gives us the greatest stress, especially when he is throwing a tantrum.  We’ve already had to deal with a few meltdowns.  Any parent of a toddler knows that dealing with a tantrum can really test your patience.  Still, we wouldn’t have things any other way. 

Having a family gives us a huge amount of motivation to strive towards financial freedom.  With a daughter on the way, we know our expenses will be going up soon.  We continue to strive to work at living a financially smarter lifestyle.  Our side hustle income gives our income a boost. 

Anyways, now that you've made it past tons of our family photos, here’s our monthly summary of side income that we have generated in the previous month of August.

Cash back

On 8.21, I received a $25 statement from Citibank on my Dividend card.  This is my oldest credit card that I have owned since 2000.  They recently ran a promotion offering 5% cash back on grocery store and gas station purchases (up to $25).  This was an easy promotion to take advantage of.  I can never say no to free money!  

On 8.26, I received a $1.00 deposit into my Discover Cashback Checking account.  I keep this online checking account open since you can earn 10 cents (up to 100 transactions per month) on debit card purchases, bills paid through Discover’s online bill pay service, or checks cleared.     

Survey Income

On 8.7, I received a check for $20 from E-Rewards Medical

Side Job

On 8.7, I received a check for $162.50 for teaching at the local university.

On 8.28, I received a check for $325 for teaching at the local university.
I love this side job.  It gives me a chance to share my knowledge with students who appreciate learning.  Teaching on the side is very fulfilling for me and also very low stress. 

Rental Income

On 8.5, we received a net profit of $430 from our rental property.

Website Income

On 8.24, I received a $100 direct deposit in our checking account for income generated by the website.  This payment came from Bankrate.  We don't make a lot of income from this website because I only promote and advertise companies or services that we personally use.  Thank you all for your continued support.     

Miscellaneous Income

On 8.5, I won a $500 travel grant as a raffle prize at a continuing education seminar.  Raffle tickets cost me $20 and the proceeds went to a charity, so I would have been happy just counting that $20 as a donation.  This credit has come at a great time since we will be traveling to Las Vegas, Nevada next month for an annual business conference of mine. 

On 8.19, I received total of $10 Amazon credit.  On 8.18, Amazon was selling free Echo Dots for a short while due to a promotional error.  A friend told me about the deal and I immediately ordered one.  The next day, my order was canceled but my friend did receive his free Echo Dot.  As a courtesy, Amazon gave me a $5 promotional credit.  I chatted a rep to complain and they gave me another $5 promotional credit.  

Monthly Totals:

We earned $26 cash back

I earned $20 from a paid survey
I earned $487.50 from my side job teaching at the local university

We earned $430 from rental income

We earned $100 from income from this website
I earned $510 from miscellaneous income

All of this totals $1,573.50 from our side hustles for the month of August.  Not a bad month of cash flow to add to our stash!