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 1st), I like to post a
short summary of our personal and financial situation for the previous month. While I don’t often post articles, I am
committed to documenting all of my side hustle income. Here I’ll share some of what’s been going on
with our lives and our side hustles.
Welcome
to February! Did you have a good January and start to 2020? We continue to fill
our free time with family activities and adventures. It gets tiring at times, especially because
the kids have so much energy. But I love
seeing the excitement and joy in our kids’ eyes. I enjoy looking back at all the photos we
capture of our experiences.
The
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles is our new
favorite museum to visit. From dinosaurs
to gemstones, there is just so much to explore here. My son loves seeing all the real dinosaur
fossils; our daughter loves the Gem and Mineral Hall.
The Children’s
Museum at La Habra continues to be a regular spot to visit over the
weekend. Our kids love shopping in the
play supermarket (our son loves the handling the cash register), seeing all the
dinosaurs, and digging through the sand for fossils. There’s always a new activity in the arts and
crafts room. This place is like our
second home.
As usual, no month is complete without a visit
to the Aquarium of the Pacific
in Long Beach. Each creature exhibit is
unique and fascinating. The gift shop
doubles as a reading library for our kids.
On Saturday, January 25th, we went
to visit the Cayton Children’s Museum
in Santa Monica. This was a special day
where this museum (as well as 40 other Southern California museums) offered
free admission. Our kids enjoyed
exploring the various exhibits including a life sized helicopter and fire
truck. There was also a pretend pet
hospital, bounce ball pit and elevated obstacle course.
With temperatures heating up, the weather has
been perfect to go on family walks around our neighborhood. The local playground is not far from our
home.
We just got back from spending two days at Legoland California and two
nights (with free breakfast) at the Grand Pacific Palisades
hotel. It was great to visit on a
Thursday and Friday because of how empty the park was. We got to go on many rides back-to-back with
little to no wait times. I can’t imagine
waiting in line for hours on hot days – especially with restless kids. Since our son is over 42” tall, he’s been
interested in trying some of the rollercoasters at Legoland! These rides are perfect for young kids
getting exposure to faster rides.
Here’s
our monthly summary of side income that we have generated in the previous month
of January.
Cash Back
On 1.15, I received a $211.10 statement credit on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card for a
hotel reservation I made for our family’s hotel stay in Carlsbad. This was part of the annual $300 travel
credit this card provides.
On 1.31, I received a $35.21 statement credit on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card for a
restaurant delivery from DoorDash. This
is a new benefit of the CSR card which includes free DashPass for 2 years
(normally $9.99/month) and $60 statement credit through end of the this year
and $60 statement credit through end of next year. DoorDash made dinner easy for us while on
vacation since we had food delivered to our hotel lobby.
On 1.31, I received a $19.80 statement credit on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card for a
restaurant delivery from DoorDash.
Rental Income
On 1.5, we received a net profit of $450 from our rental property.
Survey Income
On 1.21, I received a $5 Amazon gift card from The Vision Council for completing a
medical survey.
Miscellaneous Income
On 1.3,
my wife received a $15 Amazon gift
card for completing a survey from Amazon Preview.
On 1.6, my wife sold a baby-changing mat for $5.
On 1.22, I redeemed 6,667 Pampers Rewards
points for a $30 Amazon gift card.
On 1.22, I redeemed 2,223 Pampers Rewards
points for a $10 Amazon gift card.
Monthly Totals:
We earned $266.11
from cash back
We earned $450 from rental income
I earned $5
for completing online surveys
We earned $60 of miscellaneous
income.
All of this totals $781.11 from our
side hustles for the month of January! Not a bad way to start this year of side hustles. With the recent stock market pull back, extra
side hustle income will help us contribute more towards our investments.
I’ve been doing more reading lately and I’m
looking forward to sharing some insights I’ve gained.