June 2019 Side Hustle Report – $4,129.76

It’s a new month, which means it’s time to fire up another Financial Panther side hustle report! In today’s post, I’ll be looking back at exactly what I made from side hustling in June 2019. 

As a quick recap, each month, I document exactly what I earned from side hustling using different sharing economy and gig economy apps. These are apps that, for the most part, anyone can do. And even better, they’re so flexible that most people can figure out ways to incorporate these apps into their day-to-day lives.

In most months, I earn income from 10 or more different sources. Sometimes it’s large amounts. Other times I bring in small amounts. What’s important is that it all adds up – even small amounts, over time, can yield something pretty significant. You just need to be consistent. 

With that said, let’s take a look at what I made side hustling in June 2019.

 

Side Hustle Income for June 2019

• Airbnb: $1,589.83
• Rover: $657.90
• Postmates/DoorDash/Uber Eats/Amazon Flex/Grubhub: $786.13
• Wag: $198
• Bird/Lime: $636.07
• Selling Trash Finds/Flipping: $50
• Job Spotter: $24.42
• Gigwalk/EasyShift/Field Agent/Observa/Merchandiser: $15 
• WeGoLook: $74
• Roadie: $12
• ProductTube: $25
• Google Opinion Rewards/1Q/Surveys On The Go: $5.41
• Receipt Pal/Receipt Hog/Fetch: $40
• Secret Shopping: $16

Total Side Hustle Income for June 2019 = $4,129.76

June was another big income month, resulting in over $4,000 of income from 14 different income sources. My income sources were also pretty well-diversified, with 38% of it coming from Airbnb, 19% from deliveries, 15% from Rover, and 15% from charging Lime scooters, with the remainder coming from all of the other things I do.

What I find remarkable is that I’m able to make almost as much from my different gigs as I made during my regular 9-5 day job. Since I worked for a non-profit, I didn’t make a ton of money – my monthly pre-tax income was about $4,750.

When you include my blog income, I’m actually now making more than I did at my day job – and with the added benefit that my blog can continue to grow with the added time that I’m able to dedicate to it. My quality of life and overall happiness is also much higher than it was before. 

 

Airbnb Income: $1,589.83 

June was a profitable Airbnb month with over $1,500 of revenue from a combination of renting out a room in my house and renting out my entire house on Airbnb.

I ended the month with 21 nights booked. 19 of those nights were for the spare room that we list up on Airbnb. 2 of those nights were for our entire house, which we rented out to a family that was in town to pick up their son from college.

The month was pretty easy, although I think I burned myself out simply by hosting too many people and not giving myself enough time to have the house to myself. Going forward, my goal is probably going to be to aim for 14 or so nights booked each month and block off more days so that I don’t have to worry about hosting.

Blocking off nights is sometimes hard to do though. There’s a kind of addictive thing to getting a new booking. I also find Airbnb hosting in your own house to be a fairly passive form of income, especially if you’re the type of person that tries to keep their house clean anyway.

• If you have extra space and want to earn extra income from your home, you can 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 with my link and you’ll get $40 off your first stay.

 

Rover Income: $657.90

As you can probably tell, June was a super busy month for me on Rover. I ended up watching 5 different dogs in June and was basically booked for the entire month.

That might sound like a lot of work, but it’s important to remember that dog sitting is much more of a passive activity compared to the other gig apps I do. I already own a dog, so I’m already on the hook to do a lot of dog care tasks anyway. That’s exactly what makes Rover work for me – since I already have to take care of my own dog, taking care of another dog, even for long periods of time, really doesn’t change my life very much.

The new pup that I watched this past month was a Pomeranian that was a delight! I’ve had bad luck with some Pomeranians in the past, so it was nice to get this good pup to watch. 

I think of dog sitting as something that’s similar to doing Airbnb. It’s an easy way to start an entrepreneurial venture simply by making use of the resources you already have. People who already have a dog can easily incorporate this into their lives.

If this sounds like something you’d like to try, sign up to be a dog sitter on Rover using my referral link. 

 

Postmates/DoorDash/Uber Eats/Amazon Flex/Grubhub Income: $786.13

With the nice weather, deliveries become so much easier to do. It’s made even easier by the fact that I now have an office downtown. I can make a pretty decent chunk of change over the lunch hour doing deliveries to office workers.

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

• Postmates: $61.76
• DoorDash: $353.45
• Uber Eats: $100.80
• Amazon Flex: $91
• Grubhub: $179.12

DoorDash is typically the busiest app in my market, hence why I made the most money on it this past month. For the most part, though, I don’t really care which app I use since I generally turn on all of my delivery apps, then try to pick and choose the right deliveries so that they’re all going in the same direction. By batching deliveries like this, I’m able to make a lot more per hour – I’ve found that I rarely make less than $20 per hour when I do this (at peak times, I’m sometimes able to make $30 to $40 per hour).

And don’t forget, I’m doing all of these deliveries on my bike, which means that I was literally paid hundreds of dollars this month to bike around and exercise – it’s no surprise that I think of bike deliveries as the ultimate mustachian side hustle. 

One big bummer is that Amazon shut down its food delivery business last month, which means that I’ll no longer be able to do food deliveries for Amazon. This isn’t actually that big of a deal since Amazon has never been too busy in my market. I can also still do alcohol deliveries for Amazon, although that can be a hit or miss depending on how big the order is (Amazon doesn’t show me what the order is for an alcohol delivery, which means it’s possible that I show up and it’s a giant case of beer, which is something that I can’t really hold on a bike very well).  

I think bike deliveries are something that more people should look into doing. You’re literally getting paid to exercise and make extra money!

 

Wag Income: $198

Wag was fairly standard in June. I’ve actually found myself cutting back on Wag walks simply because, with my current self-employed schedule, I find it more lucrative for me to do deliveries, rather than walking dogs during the day.

Back when I had a regular desk job, Wag walks made a lot more sense because they were something I could do in my work clothes without sweating too much. These days, I don’t really wear much in the way of work clothes, so I usually just opt to bike around during the lunch hour, rather than walk dogs.

I still have some regular pups that I tend to walk a few times a week and I also like to pick up walks when deliveries are slow – typically during the mid-afternoon. I think I’m targeting about $100 to $200 per month from Wag – about $25 to $50 per week – which seems pretty reasonable. 

For more info, check out my in-depth post about Wag. I think that post gives a good background of how Wag works and how I’ve incorporated it into my day. 

 

Bird/Lime Scooter Income: $636.07 

I made a ton of money charging Lime scooters this past month. One of the things that has worked out well for me is that I live in a neighborhood with a ton of scooters, which makes it very easy for me to snag a couple of scooters each day, charge them up, then drop them off either during the night or in the morning when I wake up. You have to drop off Lime scooters at designated hubs, and thankfully, there are several hubs right next to my house, including one that’s literally a block away. 

What I particularly like about charging scooters is how it reminds you that small amounts add up when you give it time. $600 per month charging scooters might seem like it takes a lot of work, but when you do the math, you only need to make $20 per day to make $600 in a month. That requires me to charge 4 or 5 scooters per day – something that I can easily do given where I live. 

Here’s a screenshot of my Lime earnings if you want to see what it takes to make this kind of money charging Lime scooters: 

I’ve written in the past about charging scooters and you can check out that post here. I’m probably going to try to write an updated post specifically about charging Lime scooters in the near future, especially since that’s the only scooter company I can charge for now that Bird wasn’t able to get their permits to return to the Twin Cities.

 

Trash/Flipping Income: $50

I didn’t flip anything in June, so this category for the month consists only of trash finds that I sold. My big trash find was this TV stand that I found in an alley by my house. It was in perfect condition and I ended up selling it within 24 hours for $40. Definitely not a bad return on my time. 

 

Job Spotter Income: $24.42

Nothing new to report with Job Spotter. For the past few months, I’ve averaged between $20 and $35 per month with Job Spotter. This is very minimal work and it fits in perfectly with the stuff I’m already doing. You can read my in-depth review on Job Spotter if you’re looking for more info about how the app works and why you should use it.

 

Gigwalk/EasyShift/Field Agent/Observa/Merchandiser Income: $15

Not a ton to report on the picture taking apps. As a quick recap, these apps require me to go to certain stores and take a few pictures, which are then uploaded via the respective apps. 

Below is a breakdown of my earnings on each of these apps this past month:

• Gigwalk: $0
• EasyShift: $3
• Field Agent: $12
• Observa: $0
• Merchandiser: $0

I made $12 on Field Agent doing two gigs. One involved reviewing coffee at a Starbucks. I got paid $6 to complete that gig, plus I was reimbursed for my coffee purchase. The other Field Agent gig involved taking pictures of the menu at a Burger King. Both were very easy to complete. 

I made $3 on EasyShift by taking pictures of a Gatorade display at the Target by my house. Some EasyShift gigs aren’t worth doing, but this one only took me a few minutes to complete and I did it while I was already in the store.

 

WeGoLook Income: $74

I made some decent money from WeGoLook this past month. As a reminder, WeGoLook is an app where you take pictures of things for insurance companies. Essentially, insurance companies contract with WeGoLook, which then sends out independent contractors to take photos for them. 

I had an interesting mix of WeGoLook gigs this past month. One of them involved taking photos of a car that was involved in an accident. Another was a scene inspection where I had to take photos of an intersection where a car and a bike had crashed into each other. I also had an interesting gig where I had to go to a police station downtown and get copies of police reports.

 

Roadie Income: $12

Roadie is an app that I only do when it’s convenient, so you won’t always see it on my side hustle reports. It’s basically a delivery app where you can deliver anything. No one really uses it in Minneapolis, but it has a partnership with Delta Airlines to deliver lost bags to people from the airport. Every once in a while, I’ll swing by the airport and deliver a bag to someone if it makes sense for me to do. I don’t have a car, so any Roadie delivery I do needs to be something I can use public transit to complete.

In June, I was on my way to the Mall of America and saw that there was a delivery gig going back to downtown Minneapolis. Since I was already going that way, I decided to grab the bag and drop it off at a hotel downtown. It was an easy 12 bucks for something I was already doing. 

 

ProductTube Income: $25

ProductTube stayed consistent this month. I made $25 reviewing a grocery delivery website. Unlike other ProductTube gigs where I have to go to the store, this one was good because I could do it at home. All I had to do was record my screen using a screen recorder extension and then upload it through the ProductTube app. It took me about 10 minutes to complete this review, which made this a very worthwhile gig to do.

 

Google Opinion Rewards/Surveys On The Go/1Q Income: $5.41

My survey apps were slightly down this month, primarily because I didn’t earn anything from Surveys On The Go. Here’s a breakdown of what I earned with each app in June. 

• Google Opinion Rewards: $4.66
• Surveys On The Go: $0
• 1Q: $0.75  

This will pick up next month because I’ve already earned $10 from Surveys On The Go in July. What’s important is that these apps are so easy to do. Even though they aren’t a lot of money, they are worth it from a time perspective.

 

Receipt Pal/Receipt Hog/Fetch Income: $40

For the past four years, I’ve been taking pictures of all of my receipts using these three apps – Receipt Pal, Receipt Hog, and Fetch. What differentiates these apps from apps like Ibotta is that they don’t require you to buy specific things. Rather, these apps pay you simply for the receipt. I much prefer that to being forced to buy specific things, since couponing is not something I am interested in doing.

I don’t make a lot from these apps, typically about $50 each year. That’s obviously not a lot of money, but at this point, taking pictures of my receipts has basically become second nature, so I continue to do it. In any event, it only takes me a few seconds to take a picture of my receipt and then toss it.

In June, I finally earned enough from Receipt Hog to cash out for $40. My last $40 cashout on that app was way back October 2017, so it’s been a long time coming! 

Secret Shopping Income: $16

I’ve been doing a ton of restaurant secret shopping over the past two months, which has allowed me to go out to eat while reducing my food costs. I wrote a post a little while back about ways to eat for free, but I’m going to write a more in-depth post soon about how I’ve been eating for free by doing secret shopping. Keep an eye out for it.

Most of the time, my payment covers my meal costs, but every once in a while, I make a little extra simply because my meal doesn’t cost that much. In this case, I managed to make $16 from secret shopping (and also ate hundreds of dollars of free food as well).

 

And that concludes the June 2019 Side Hustle Report!

In June, I brought in over $4,000 from doing my various gig and sharing economy apps. That’s pretty incredible. When combined with my blog income, I’m basically making the same amount that I made when I was working full-time at my last job. It helps that I’ve been taking so many pay cuts over the years since that means it doesn’t take me very much income to replace my salary with my side hustles. 

Right now, I’m feeling pretty good about what I’m doing. And I feel like these gigs provide me with a nice floor while I continue to work on my online projects and see where that can take me. 

If you’re looking for more info, be sure to check out my side hustle report page to see what I’ve made in past months. Those reports should also give you some ideas that you might be able to incorporate into your own life.