Side hustles February 2018

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 personal and financial situation for the previous month.  Here I’ll share some of what’s been going on with our lives and our side hustles. 

Welcome to March, did everyone have a good February?  It’s been a short but great month for us.  We continue to work hard to save and invest for our future.  With the recent stock market volatility, all our extra income has been going towards our index fund investments.  At one point, we were buying stocks at a 10% discount!    

Did you celebrate Valentine’s Day this past month?  With a newborn at home, things can get pretty busy.  

I only was reminded about Valentine’s Day when a coworker came up to me and said “So, are you ready for the big day tomorrow?  What are you going to do for your wife?!”  I guess for most non-frugal people, Valentine’s Day is a legit holiday where money must be spent to show how much you love your significant other.   Oh, and you absolutely must go to a fancy restaurant - because, that’s just what normal people do. 

Valentine’s Day is just another normal day for us at home.  We don’t need a special day to remind us to love each other.  We find joy in the little things, many of which just so happen to be free. 

February has been another month full of walks around our neighborhood.  It’s great exercise chasing after our son.  He has so much energy and always keeps us on our toes.  He just discovered sand and just loves to play with it and get himself covered in it as well! 

Our son also flew a kite for the first time.

In other news, our son has developed an obsession for sea creatures – I think his father’s obsession has rubbed off on him!  I’ve been checking out books at the library and our son just loves flipping through the pages to learn all about different types of sea creatures.  

He also loves when I draw him different sea creatures.  Lately, he’d rather play with his pictures than his toys!

Here’s our monthly summary of side income that we have generated in the previous month of February.

Award Travel

On 2.13, I redeemed 48,650 Chase Ultimate Rewards points with my Chase Sapphire Reserve account towards a free hotel stay worth $729.76. 

We are traveling as a 4-person family to Seattle for a mini vacation and to attend a wedding.  Since our daughter will only be 6 months old during this trip, we wanted to stay in a suite with an extra room, so that our toddler can sleep in his crib without getting too disturbed by a crying baby.  After doing a ton of research on Tripadvisor and Google, I found the La Quinta Inn & Suites Seattle Bellevue / Kirkland hotel to be a great fit for our family.  

Their 2 room suite with king bed and living room is equipped with amenities like free WiFi, free breakfast, microwave and mini fridge, coffee maker and free parking.  I found the cost per night to be very reasonable.  Thanks to our abundance of Ultimate Rewards points, we don’t need to worry about a $700+ hotel stay busting our vacation budget.

Survey Income

On 2.1, my wife received a $10 Amazon gift card for completing a short Amazon.com survey

On 2.5, I received a $40 check from E Rewards Medical

On 2.5, I received a $10 check from M3 Global Research 

On 2.5, I received a $50 check from M3 Global Research

On 2.9, my wife received a $10 Amazon gift card for completing a Chase survey she received in her email

Rental Income

On 2.5, we received a net profit of $455 from our rental property.  Our tenants paid rent a day late again.  To encourage our tenants to pay on time, our new lease agreement has an increased late fee.

Teaching Income
On 2.5, I received a check for $162.50 for teaching at the local university. 

Miscellaneous Income
On 2.1, I noticed a bank charge that was incorrect on my new Chase Business checking account.  The bank charged me a $12 fee that was a mistake.  Somehow the bank charged me an “insufficient minimal funds” fee that I wasn’t supposed to get.  I called in and the representative on the phone quickly reversed the fee.  Thanks to Mint and Personal Capital, I was able to see the charge and then it was easy to get another credit on my account.

On 2.20, I received a check for $16.95 from Equifax due to a previous class action settlement.  I get all of my class action updates from Doctor of Credit.

Website Income
On 2.21, I received a direct deposit of $100.25 from Commission Junction for income generated by the website.  Thank you for your support. 

Expenses Reduced
On 2.5, I noticed that our insurance for our rental property increased by $14.25.  I contacted our agent to see what we could do about reducing the cost of the insurance.  I was able to increase the deductible to $2,500 and reduce our insurance premium by $39.64.  All it took was a simple email.  The less expenses we spend on our rental property, the more rental income we get to keep. 

Monthly Totals:

We saved $729.76 on award travel

We earned $120 from paid surveys

We earned $455 from rental income

I earned $162.50 from teaching
We earned $28.95 from miscellaneous income

We earned $100.25 income generated by this website

We saved $39.64 on our rental property insurance

All of this totals $1,636.10 from our side hustles for the month of February.  Are you hustling for income on the side?  I'm working on a few other side hustles that should pay off this next month.