January 2019 Side Hustle Report – $1,381.71

Welcome to another month of the Financial Panther Side Hustle Report. These posts detail all of the income I earned from side hustling using sharing economy and gig economy apps. 

It’s been a busy few weeks at work lately, which hasn’t helped me on the blogging and side hustle front, but I’m still making an effort to share all of the income I earned from side hustling in January. 

Let’s see how I did. 

 

Side Hustle Income for January 2019

• Airbnb:  $575.24
• Rover: $277.95
• Postmates/DoorDash/Uber Eats/Amazon Flex: $174.79
• Wag: $135.20
• Selling Trash Finds/Flipping: $61.05
• Job Spotter: $9.19
• Gigwalk/EasyShift/Field Agent/Merchandiser: $11
• WeGoLook: $114
• ProductTube: $10
• Google Opinion Rewards/Dabbl/1Q: $3.29
• Qualtrics: $10

Total Side Hustle Income for January 2019 = $1,381.71

The beginning of the year is always slower for me on the side hustle front simply because of the nature of most of my side hustles – a lot of my side hustles rely on people traveling, which tends to decrease in the early part of the year (it’s cold, people are just getting back to work after the holidays, etc).

Despite the fact that January was pretty slow, I still managed to bring in over $1,300 from side hustling during the month. That’s not bad at all, and it brings some comfort to know that, no matter what happens, I probably can figure out ways to be scrappy and bring in some cash.

In terms of the things I did this month, there aren’t a ton of changes from my usual side hustles. Airbnb was pretty standard for January in Minnesota. Rover was actually a bigger month than usual for some reason – a result of a few new clients plus repeat clients. I’m also pretty surprised at how much I brought in from doing food deliveries since I do all of my deliveries on a bike and January is usually pretty cold. I think January was a milder month than usual, which explains that result. 

With all that said, below is a more detailed breakdown of my side hustle income for the month. 

 

Airbnb Income: $575.24

We had a pretty easy Airbnb month in January, with my wife and I hosting a ton of students that were in town for interviews. Most of the stays were for 1 or 2 nights, which is what my wife and I usually prefer. A lot of people think that doing turnover for guests is a lot of work, but when you’re renting out a room in your house as I do, the short stays are actually really easy. All I really have to do is just sweep up the room, change the sheets, and clean up the bathroom – none of which takes very much time (it’ll take even less time once I finally buy that Roomba I’ve been eyeing).

For the month, we ended up with 15 nights booked, which comes out to an average nightly rate of about $38. During most of the year, our Airbnb rates are closer to $50 per night, but when it’s the offseason, you sort of have to lower rates in order to bring people to your listing. Even with the reduced rates, it’s still double what I’d get on a nightly basis from a traditional roommate. And I get the added benefit of less wear and tear since most of my Airbnb guests are in the house for such a short amount of time. 

As I pointed out in my recent Airbnb house hacking article, there’s a lot of benefit with making use of your extra space, especially if you already have a guest room set up that’s just collecting dust. You don’t have to go into your house with the plan to house hack, but when the opportunity is there, it’s worth trying out just to see if it’s worth it for you. 

• If you have extra space and want to earn extra income from your home, sign up to be an Airbnb host using my referral link.
• Airbnb is also one of the most affordable ways to travel. If you’ve never used Airbnb, sign up for Airbnb and you’ll get $40 off your first stay.

 

Rover Income: $277.95

I did really well on Rover in January, bringing in almost $300 for the month from my dog sitting business. Our guest pups for the month were almost all repeat pups, which ended up making this month really easy for me. 

Here’s a screenshot of my bookings and earnings for the month: 

Rover just seems to get so much easier as you’ve done it longer since after a few years, you just end up having so many repeat pups that you know fit into your life well. Honestly, none of these dogs are really any extra work at all – I basically do exactly the same things as I’d normally do with just my own dog. 

We did watch one new pup this month – a one-eyed Papillon named Lucky. This pup was great and would definitely be a great dog to keep watching. 

I think Rover is definitely something that is worth doing for any dog lover. What makes dogsitting work out so well is that you can do it at pretty much any life stage, whether you’re single, married, or have kids. It does take time to get your dogsitting business up and running, but once you’ve been doing it for a while like I have, it really gets easy. In any event, if dogsitting make sense for you, you can sign up to be a dogsitter on Rover using my referral link. 

 

Postmates/DoorDash/Uber Eats/Amazon Flex Income: $174.79

Delivery income was pretty good for January – actually higher than it normally is at this time of the year. Regular readers of this blog know that I do all of my deliveries on a bicycle, which means that winter deliveries can be more difficult just due to weather conditions.

Here’s a breakdown of my earnings on each delivery platform in January:

• Postmates: $51.24
• DoorDash: $60.33
• Uber Eats: $30.47
• Amazon Flex: $32.75

It was a pretty even split for me on all of the delivery platforms, which I find a little surprising. A lot of the time, I just turn on all of my delivery apps at once and just do whichever ones ping first or seem easiest.

 

Wag Income: $135.20

I continue to do regular walks with pretty much the same Wag clients located around my office. Like with Rover, once you’ve been around for a while on Wag, it gets a lot easier. The first time you walk a dog, there’s always a bit of a learning curve. But once you’ve walked the same dog a bunch of times, it gets really easy. 

The only negative thing that happened to me on Wag this month was a three-star review I received from a Wag client. It was a dog I’d never walked before and when I arrived, the dog barked at me the entire time. It took me a good 10 minutes or so to calm the dog down before he let me walk him, at which point the walk was pretty easy. This owner had a camera in her house, however, and gave me a three-star review (and no tip) because I guess it took me to long to calm the dog down. It’s a bit annoying and doesn’t seem like a fair review, but I’ll just brush it off. It just means this dog is now on my do-not-walk list, not because of the dog, but because of the owner. 

I still have a lot of fun with Wag and I think it’s a really good side hustle for anyone that likes dogs and lives in a city. Depending on where you live, you can make a good amount of money just on the dogs around your neighborhood. Read my post about Wag here if you’re looking for more info. And before we move on, I’ll leave you with a picture of my favorite Wag client: 

 

Trash/Flipping Income: $61.05

I haven’t really been flipping a lot of trash finds lately, but one thing I have started trying out is just flipping things I buy from Goodwill. There’s a ton of stuff out there that you can buy for cheap and resell for more, and my wife and I have been testing these waters out. 

In January, I got my first start with flipping stuff by buying this Bobby Jones biography I found at Goodwill. I thought it looked cool and it only cost me $2 to buy it. 

I ended up selling this book for $22 with shipping costs. Shipping cost $6.55 because the buyer wanted it to be shipped to them faster. Ebay and Paypal fees come out to about 13%, so after my costs to buy the book, plus shipping costs, plus fees, I made a little over $10 on this book. That’s not too bad for my first foray into this world. 

I recently found the Millionaire Dojo’s blog and he seems to consistently make a few hundred bucks each month just flipping things on eBay. Definitely check out his “What Sells on eBay” series if you’re interested in this whole flipping world. The important takeaway from this isn’t necessarily that you’ll get rich flipping stuff. It’s just a good example of how many different ways there are to make money in this world. You just need to be willing to think a little bit outside the box. 

If you’re wondering about the other income, I’m starting to get into a little bit of spring cleaning action and am trying to clear out stuff I don’t use anymore. We sold $50 worth of old stuff from our house this past month, which I’m just counting as income since it’s basically money we otherwise wouldn’t have had. 

 

Job Spotter Income: $9.19

Nothing new to report with Job Spotter. This continues to be an easy $10 to $25 each month for basically no work. I’ve been using Job Spotter for two years now, and it’s pretty second nature for me to see hiring signs whenever I’m walking around. Read my in-depth review on Job Spotter if you’re looking for more info about how the app works and why you should have it. 

 

Gigwalk/EasyShift/Field Agent/Merchandiser Income: $11

I made a few easy bucks from EasyShift and Field Agent in January. The EasyShift gigs just involved taking a few pictures of some aisles at a Walgreens and a grocery store. They didn’t pay much – just a few bucks – but they also took me basically no time (and I was in these stores already). The Field Agent gig was also very easy – I had to take one picture of the recycling area behind a Walmart. It took me less than 5 minutes to do this. 

I also got reimbursed for $24.89 worth of free food with GigWalk. For the past few months now, they’ve sporadically had these DoorDash audits where they reimburse you up to $25 for free food. I don’t get paid, but I still enjoy getting some free food. 

Merchandiser was quiet in January – I don’t do any of the gigs that require me to talk to someone, so it can be hit or miss with whether I think a Merchandiser gig is worth doing. I basically only do the ones where I just secretly take pictures of things.

 

WeGoLook Income: $114

There’s definitely money to be made with WeGoLook, an app I’ve been using where I get contracted to take pictures of vehicles and buildings for insurance and underwriting. I don’t go out of my way to do this, but whenever I get a gig near me, they are definitely worth the time. 

The $114 I made in January includes $76 I made in December where I biked around taking pictures of the exterior of a bunch of commercial buildings. This gig was easy to do and pretty fun since I just biked around to each building.

I earned the remaining WeGoLook income from doing a scene inspection and a car inspection. Basically, these gigs involved taking pictures of intersections where accidents happened or taking pictures of cars that were in accidents. 

 

ProductTube Income: $10

I’ve been using the ProductTube app for a little while now and it seems to be a big money maker when used correctly. The app can be a little awkward to do – the way it works is you get paid to film yourself answering a bunch of questions at the store. The video generally doesn’t take more than 5 minutes, and it pays anywhere from $5 to $25, which makes it really worth it from an hourly wage perspective. 

In January, I earned $10 from ProductTube by taking pictures of my bathroom in my house. I have no idea what they do with that information, but for $10, I’m not going to complain. 

I’d definitely recommend that people download this app because it seems to offer some pretty good return on your time. 

 

Google Opinion Rewards/Dabbl/1Q Income: $3.29

Same story as usual from these short survey apps. Unlike other survey apps, which I find take way too long to do, these apps only take a few seconds and I think are worth keeping on your phone. It’s obviously not a lot of money, but it’s a few bucks for basically a few seconds of work. 

In January, I ended up making $2.04 from Google Opinion Rewards and $1.25 from 1Q. 

 

Qualtrics Income: $10

This isn’t a regular thing, but every once in a while, I get these surveys that pay me pretty well. This one was some short survey I did that I received via email and paid me $10. It took me about 5 minutes to complete. I did this survey while I was walking back to my office after grabbing some lunch.

 

And that concludes the January 2019 Side Hustle Report!

2019 is starting out strong and I have some big plans that I’ll announce at some point, once I know exactly what I’m up to. My hope is that, by April, I’m going to be really posting a lot more regularly. Ideally, it’ll be three times a week, along with trying to do guest posts. I’m really looking to get myself out there more this coming year. This blog is a labor of love and it takes a lot more work than you’d think, but I really think there’s something here. 

Anyway, I hope this post was helpful to you and gives you some ideas on how you can make extra income. An extra $500 or $1,000 per month is not that hard to do – you just have to be willing to try things out. Hopefully, these posts give you some ideas.

If you want to look over my other side hustle reports, check out my side hustle report page, where I keep all of my side hustle reports I’ve written since 2016. I also maintain a list of all of the side hustle apps I use on my Side Hustle List page. Thanks for stopping by.