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 financial and personal situation for the previous month
Welcome to August, did
everyone have a good July?
This past month, we spent
a lot of time meeting with friends and family.
It has been very nice catching up and bonding over great food.
When eating out, we
prefer to go to fast-casual restaurants where tipping is not customary. When ordering alcohol at a restaurant, we limit
it to less than 2 drinks - anymore is just a fantastic waste of money. It’s one thing to pay for food that someone
else has prepared for you - it’s a waste to pay to have someone pour you a
drink right out of a bottle. Since we
eat out so infrequently, going to any sit down restaurant is a rare luxury to
be savored. I know plenty of people who
eat out for one or two meals a day. For
them, there’s nothing special about eating out - it’s just a routine part of
the day.
We’ve also had people
over to our house for home cooked meals.
It is so comfortable and relaxing gathering together at home. The food is healthier and there are fewer
expenses as well. Clean up is a breeze –
just pop the dishes into the dishwasher.
Eating at home also saves time finding parking, waiting for waiters to
come take your order and waiting for the bill to arrive.
Since our son turned 2,
there have been some huge changes.
Physically, he is less clumsy and more sure-footed. Developmentally, he is starting to learn many
new words, talking more and putting together short sentences. We are proud to share that he knows his
entire alphabet, can count from 1 to 20, knows all his primary colors, and much
more. The biggest challenge we now have
is managing our son’s terrible twos. His
new favorite word is “NO” and he gets frustrated extremely easily.
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| Here's a picture of our son playing with his train set. |
Our son has already had
several temper tantrums. This happens
when he gets frustrated that he can’t accomplish a certain task he wants to do
on his own (like stacking blocks). If he
fails at stacking blocks a few times, he will end up screaming and throwing all
the blocks around. There are other times
where our son wants to tell us something, yet does not have the language
development to properly communicate. He
will get so flustered that he will scream and cry. Any parents who have a toddler will know what
it’s like dealing with these tantrums and meltdowns. Things have gotten especially crazy (and
embarrassing) when our son decides to throw a tantrum in public. We are trying to balance out giving our child
some independence and keeping him structured at the same time.
Our son loves going on long
walks and exploring the different plants and flowers in our neighborhood. Being in nature really calms him down.
This month we took our
son in for his second eye examination.
It didn’t go so well as there was plenty of hitting, kicking and
screaming. The good news is that his
optometrist was able to determine that he doesn’t need glasses and that his
eyes are healthy.
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| Our son's vision is 20/20! |
We also took our son in
for his first dental appointment and are happy to share that he has no
cavities! Whew.
And here is a random picture of Abby
being lazy.
Here’s our monthly summary of side income that
we have generated in the previous month of July.
Cash back
On
7.4, I received a $1.50 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.
Side Job
On 7.10, I received a
check for $162.50 for teaching at
the local university.
Rental Income
On 7.7, we received a net
profit of $465 from our rental
property. Our tenants had some issues
getting rent paid on time and so they paid $35
in late fees. While this is extra money
for us, I’d rather have our tenants continue to pay rent on time.
Miscellaneous Income
On 7.31, I received $750 in referral bonus income for
referring a new colleague to our medical group.
I have already referred 2
colleagues to join our practice. This is
why networking and keeping connections is so important. In many industries, businesses look first
towards internal referrals prior to putting out advertisements. While knowing the right people doesn’t
guarantee you will get a job, it can get you access to the front of the line.
Monthly Totals:
We earned $1.50 cash
back
I earned $162.50 from my side job teaching at the local university
I earned $162.50 from my side job teaching at the local university
We earned $465
from rental income
I earned $750 from miscellaneous income
I earned $750 from miscellaneous income
All of this totals $1,379
from our side hustles for the month of July.
With our second baby
due in December, we have been continuing to save up. Side hustle income is the cherry on top.
