Side Hustle Total - January to April 2022

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I don't have a huge number of side hustles, especially compared to others in the FIRE world. I tend to fall in and out of them as my attention waxes and wanes. And some of them (such as YouGov) have a high total to reach before payout so there are quite a few that are slow burners.

Despite that, this year I decided to finally start tracking my side hustles and the amount I'm earning from them. When it's a slow drip of £2 here and £5 there it can feel like you're not getting much out of it. But totalling it all up makes you more aware of how much you've actually earned over 12 months and can help with motivation. 

Total for January to April 2022

For the first quarter of 2022 I have earned a grand total of £104.67!

Again, this isn't a huge amount compared to other people. But comparison is the thief of joy and I'm actually quite chuffed that I broke the £100 mark. That's definitely more than I thought it was.

I'm not very good at adding things up in my head so I can't just glance at some numbers and make an accurate estimate and only be a few pence out.

The sources

You're probably looking at this and wondering where it all came from. As I said I have several sources but I've grouped everything into key categories.

Cashback

Along with the two key sources of Quidco and TopCashBack, this also covers the little bits I claim back from apps like Shopmium and GreenJinn.

Surveys

Along with the aforementioned YouGov, I'm also on Prolific (which I prefer as there can be quite a big choice of surveys, you don't get screened out after answering 10+ questions, and you can cashout without a fee once you hit £5.

I signed up for StreetBees a few months ago but I don't seem to get nearly the same number of opportunities that people on Instagram seem to.

Talks

I'm an approved speaker with my local Federation of Women's Institutes (I did an audition a few years ago) and this is probably one of my best side hustle sources. I charge £25 for a talk (you can see your own fee) and I also request mileage for places more than a few miles away.

WI committee members tend to be members of other groups and they share their Speakers Book, so I've also been booked by other groups that aren't WIs. This means I have a broader audience than just the Women's Institutes. It's amazing how many small groups there are that are looking for talks.

Source totals

When reviewing my source totals it became clear that my talks were the biggest source. This isn't surprising, even though it's taking time for WI bookings to ramp back up (just before the pandemic I had 15 booked for one year) it's still a semi-regular source of money.

Individual source totals are:

• Cashback - £6.75
• Surveys - £17.92
• Talks - £80.00

Most of this has been funnelled into my emergency fund since my recent car purchase drained it. But normally I split different side hustles into various accounts including my lifetime ISA and overpaying the mortgage.

I'm keeping my side hustles updated in a Google Sheet this year, so keep an eye for more posts about this in the future!