Financial Panther

A Lawyer Side Hustling Towards Financial Independence

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Hi, I'm Kevin and I'm an attorney, sharing economy expert, and the blogger behind Financial Panther. I paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer. I started this blog to share all I know about personal finance, travel hacking, and making more money by side hustling. Click here to learn more about me.
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May 2017 Side Hustle Report – $1,625.11

Last Updated on 27 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links.

Welcome to another edition of the side hustle report!  As a quick background, for about a year now, I’ve been tracking all of the side hustle income I make from sharing economy apps and posting those numbers in these posts.

We live in a pretty amazing time where anyone can make extra money just by using the stuff they already have or doing the things that they’re already doing.  Even just a few years ago, making money like this wasn’t really possible. My hope is that people reading these posts can see exactly what’s possible out there.  There’s money to be made if you know where to look.  And it can be pretty fun too.

When it comes to side hustling, I have four main sources of income:

  • Renting out a spare guest room on Airbnb
  • Dogsitting using DogVacay and Rover (*DogVacay recently shut down, so it looks like it’ll only be Rover in the future)
  • Making deliveries using Postmates, Doordash, Uber Eats, and Tapingo
  • Selling trash finds using Craigslist and OfferUp

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out my post on How I Made $14k In One Year Using The Sharing Economy. In that post, I go into detail about what I made in 2016 from side hustling through the sharing economy.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s what my side hustle income looked like for May 2017.

Side Hustle Income for May 2017

  • Airbnb:  $1,196
  • DogVacay/Rover: $106.25
  • Postmates/DoorDash/Uber Eats/Tapingo: $229.94
  • Selling Trash Finds: $75
  • Jobspotter: $13.92
  • GigWalk: $4

Total Side Hustle Income for May 2017 = $1,625.11

Not a bad month at all.  I made pretty much nothing in April because my wife and I were busy with wedding stuff, so it’s nice to see our side hustle income get back up to solid levels.  An extra $1,600 is pretty significant for most people.

Airbnb was definitely the big moneymaker for me this month.  The summer months typically mean more people coming into town for conferences, which means that I can increase our rates during the summer, and thus, earn more money from the Airbnb.

Uber Eats was another interesting moneymaker for the month.  My wife and I have done the referral bonus scheme in the past with Postmates, and we did the same thing this month for Uber Eats.  All it required us to do was to have me refer her, do 10 deliveries, and then collect our bonus!  It didn’t take much time at all and we ended up making $300 total between the two of us just to do 10 deliveries (I’ve only included the referral bonus I received in this report).

Here’s a detailed breakdown of my May 2017 side hustle income:

Airbnb Income: $1,196

For May, we brought in $1,196 renting out our guest room on Airbnb.  This represents 22 nights booked or an average rate of $54 per night.  That’s really good when you consider that the market rent for a room in our neighborhood would be somewhere in the range of $500 to $600 per month.  Our earnings were pretty much double what we’d get from a traditional roommate.

With summer starting, I now have to consider whether to install a window A/C unit in the room.  We pretty much avoided putting it in last summer because we were afraid that guests would just run the A/C all day, but I think this summer I’ll put the A/C unit in and just ask guests not to run it when they’re not home.

Airbnb income continues to be where I want it to be for the year.  I’m aiming for at least $7,200 of Airbnb earnings for the year and I expect that we’ll hit that number this year.  For now, the Airbnb income is serving as our house maintenance fund – essentially a secondary emergency fund for us.

Quick pricing tip for you all.  If you’re serious about hosting, you should definitely be using something to automate your pricing.  Just like with a hotel, your pricing should change every day based on supply and demand.  There are way too many people in my neighborhood underpricing themselves.

I’ve been using Beyond Pricing now for close to a year and it’s been doing the trick for me.  They charge a 1% fee of whatever it is you booked for the month (i.e. if you have $1,000 worth of bookings in a month, they’ll charge a $10 fee).  I think that’s totally fair because I definitely make more than what they charge.  Plus, if you use my referral link, you’ll get your first month free.  If you’re a host and have never tried an automated pricing service, using the free trial of Beyond Pricing is a great way to get started.

And, if for some reason you’ve never used Airbnb before, definitely sign up to be a guest here and you’ll get $40 off your first stay.

Even better, if you sign up to be a host using this link, you’ll get a bonus $50 from Airbnb once you host your first guest.  The only requirement is that in order to earn the $50 bonus, your qualifying booking has to be done within 150 days and the stay has to cost a total of $100 or more.  Most people can do that pretty easily.  The best part is, if you’re not sure about hosting long term on Airbnb, take advantage of the Masters Rule and host for 14 days or less in order to get tax-free Airbnb income!

Rover Income: $106.25

We hosted two pups this month – an extremely cute Cavapoo puppy and a Welsh Terrier that is a regular guest of ours.  The thing that’s great about dog sitting is just getting the opportunity to watch new types of pups that we don’t often encounter.  Just take a look at this Cavapoo puppy!  We were in love!

The big news on the dog sitting front is that it looks like DogVacay will officially shut down on June 12th.  If you didn’t know, a few months back, Rover bought out DogVacay.  It wasn’t quite clear what would happen with the DogVacay brand at the time, but I guess Rover has now made the decision to merge it all into one brand, leaving Rover as the sole dog sitting platform out there.  I’ve been concerned about the impact that this merger will have on my dog sitting business – I’ve typically had way more success on DogVacay – but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

I still think that there’s an opportunity for people who like dogs or already own a dog to make extra money on the side doing this.  Even bringing in $1,000 or so in a year watching dogs on the side wouldn’t be a bad deal.

If you’re interested in making money watching dogs, make sure to sign up to be a Rover sitter using my link.

Postmates/DoorDash/Uber Eats/Tapingo Income: $229.94

Admittedly, I’ve been getting really lazy when it comes to doing deliveries.  One issue is that deliveries are time intensive.  I can earn money with Airbnb and Rover fairly passively, but doing something like Postmates requires me to be actively out there biking around.  It’s definitely fun for me – I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t think it was fun – but every hour I’m out doing deliveries is an hour I can’t be working on something else.  I still need the exercise, so I make it a goal to get a decent number of deliveries in each month, but it’s becoming a bit of a challenge to make the time for it after work between everything else that I have going on.

Here’s the breakdown of what my earnings looked like for each delivery platform this month:

  • Postmates: $22.94
  • Doordash: $0
  • Uber Eats: $200
  • Tapingo: $7

The big earner this month was definitely Uber Eats.  Way back in January, I referred my wife to be an Uber Eats delivery courier so that we could earn the referral and signup bonuses.  We did a similar referral scheme last year with Postmates, in which we made a combined $800 in a weekend just by me referring my wife and having her do a bunch of deliveries.  In terms of ways to earn extra money, spending time biking around town with your significant other isn’t so bad.

The nice thing about the Uber Eats referral bonus was that it only required completing 10 deliveries in order for us to earn a total of $300 in bonuses.  My wife signed up for it way back in January and we finally got around to getting those 10 deliveries done in May.  After it was all said and done, she snagged a $100 signup bonus and I received a $200 referral bonus.  Pretty easy money.

Whether Uber Eats is a worthwhile platform long term is still up for debate, but I definitely think it’s worthwhile to do it just to earn the signup bonus.  10 deliveries isn’t a hard thing to do – you could do it in a day probably if you’re in a busy market.  And, if you happen to have a spouse, you can refer them and snag an extra bonus too.

The referral bonus landscape is always changing, but I know that Uber Eats seems to offer at least a minimum $100 signup bonus.  Definitely worth doing if you want to make a little extra money quickly.  Make sure to sign up for Uber Eats using my referral link in order to qualify for a signup bonus.

Trash Income: $75

I’ve learned that trash fortunes can change quickly.  I thought this was going to end up being a $0 month just because I’d been busy and hadn’t listed up much stuff online.  Then suddenly, in the last few days of the month, a guy messaged me about a cabinet I found in the trash last year.  Take a look:

I’d had this thing listed up for months but didn’t get any offers.  It’s a nice cabinet and sells for $250 new, so I figured that putting it up for $100 would be fair.  Crickets.

I then lowered it down to $50 and still got no interest.  It then randomly sold for $50 right at the end of May. Remember, it only takes one buyer to get something sold.

Another interesting sale was this glass coffee table that Mrs. FP found while she was walking home one day.

I always love selling coffee tables because they’re easy to carry.  Mrs. FP carried this thing home while playing Pokemon Go at the same time.  Coffee tables also almost always sell immediately.  For some reason, people are always looking for coffee tables!  I sold this coffee table within a day for a solid $20.

We’re now up to $495 worth of trash sold for 2017.  Pretty amazing when you think about it.  It’s literally stuff I’m finding on the street.

Related: Making Over $1000 Selling Trash Finds Found In One Dumpster

Jobspotter Income: $13.92

Not a ton to elaborate on here.  I’ve been continuing to snag pictures of hiring signs while I’m out biking or walking. They’re seriously all over the place once you start looking for them.  It only takes me a few seconds to snap the pictures, so definitely worth the time, in my opinion.

Related: Jobspotter App Review: Earn Extra Money By Taking Pictures of Hiring Signs.

GigWalk Income: $4

I’m trying to do a better job of tracking the random income I get from these picture taking apps.  These are basically apps where you take pictures of stuff in stores so that companies can audit it.  I earned this $4 by taking pictures of the jelly aisle of a convenience store that was on my way home from work.  Took me about 5 minutes to take the pictures.

And that concludes this month’s side hustle report.

May was a pretty good month, especially because of what we were able to pull in with Airbnb and the fact that I snagged that referral bonus from my wife through Uber Eats.

It’s pretty nuts to think that I can make this much extra money per month while working a regular day job. Seriously, an extra $1,000 or more per month can go a long way for a lot of people.  It’s also pretty comforting to know that, if I absolutely needed to, I could probably figure out a way to survive using just these apps.

Related: How I Made $14k In One Year With The Sharing Economy

Be sure to check out my side hustle report page if you’re interested in seeing what I’ve made in other months.  You can also check out my most recent side hustle reports below.

April 2017 Side Hustle Report- $399.04

March 2017 Side Hustle Report – $1,251.91

February 2017 Side Hustle Report – $800.33

January 2017 Side Hustle Report – $806.84

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Impressive side hustling as usual, nicely done. I just got my sister signed up on Rover because she loves dogsitting and I actually discovered Rover from one of your older side hustle blog posts! She has already had 2 owners reach out to her in her first week since setting up an account, so it looks like it could be a promising side hustle. Thanks for always sharing how you make extra cash 🙂

    Reply

  2. Congrats on a successful month of side hustle income. I was intrigued by your Airbnb portion of the report. Sounds like you’re doing a great job hosting guests. I think it will be better in the summer given an increase in traveling. =)

    Reply

  4. Excellent job FP! This is the first report of yours that I have read and I’m impressed. I totally didn’t know the DogVacay shut down! Why?! I like the trash hahaha. Me and my hubby does the same thing, we just never thought to record it for the entertainment of the Internet until now…

    Reply

    • Thanks Lily! Yeah, Rover bought out DogVacay and are just merging the platforms together under the Rover brand.

      That’s awesome that you guys do the same thing with the trash. It’s like a fun little treasure hunt.

      Reply

  5. The thing that is awesome about your side hustles, is that most people could seriously look into leaving work for a year or two or retiring early if they had a track record of being able to earn some side income.

    I’m looking into renting our house out next summer. We would rent the whole thing and go camping in our pop-up camper at the lake. 😉 If we can side hustle 10k a year for the next 6 years, I’ll have a solid million net worth and $3500- $4500 passive income by 40. All while being able to be home and travel with our kids while they are young. It’s a great way to bridge the gap.

    Reply

  6. That’s a great haul!!! I’m intrigued by the AirBnB income. Is your guest room part of your main house? Is there a lack of privacy issue, or does it just feel like an ever-changing roommate/Bed and Breakfast situation?

    Reply

    • The guest room is just a guest room right in our house. Same floor as our bedroom and everything. In terms of privacy, I mean, I don’t think it’s weird, but I’ve always been of the opinion that weirdness is what you make of it. If you think it’s weird, then yep, it’ll be weird. To me, Airbnb guests feel much more like a friend that’s just happening to stay in my house – so just think what it’s like if you have a buddy staying with you for a few days and I think that’s a pretty similar feeling.

      Reply

    • It’s worth trying out, especially if you’re in an area that won’t bring in a lot of weirdos. Since I’m next to a huge university, I get basically only grad students, so it really helps me out in avoiding the weirdos.

      If anything, try it out for 14 days or less and then reassess from there if Airbnb is for you. If you rent out your place for 14 days or less, it’s completely tax-free income! 14 days is nothing over the course of a year. Anyone can handle some weirdness for 2 weeks.

      Reply

  8. So, I downloaded the JobSpotter app after reading about it in your posts. And, like you said, ‘Hiring’ signs seriously pop up everywhere when you start paying attention. My only problem is that I only see those signs when I’m on the bus to and from work, which made me realize that I seeeriously don’t go out and about enough to make any pocket change off this app, haha. I work on a college campus, which is *constantly* teeming with ‘Hiring’ signs, so I’ll just have to make a point to take a walk during my lunch break and snap some pics. Get my steps in and some money for it? There are worse things 🙂

    Reply

    • If you’re on a college campus, then there’s definitely going be a ton of hiring signs everywhere. Definitely worth getting your steps in during your lunch break and taking some pictures while you do it.

      Reply

  9. I used the jobspotter app this weekend and racked up $5 in Amazon gift cards already. I think your point about being in a college town was a good one (I was in Westwood, home of UCLA).

    I had signed up on Dog Vacay but I’m not sure if any of my data transferred over to Rover. I’m bummed that I’ll have to ask for testimonials again.

    Reply

    • That’s an easy 5 bucks! Yeah you won’t get rich with it, but it’s some money. I’d get in touch with Rover and see if they can transfer your testimonials. Doesn’t hurt to see if you can save yourself the hassle.

      Reply

  10. Just downloaded the Job Spotter app. I saw 2 help wanted signs this weekend and I was thinking…what was that app FP wrote about??! If the signs are still up and I pass by I will definitely give it a try!

    Reply

  11. Regarding your Airbnb, you wrote “This represents 22 nights booked or an average rate of $54 per night. That’s really good when you consider that the market rent for a room in our neighborhood would be somewhere in the range of $500 to $600 per month.” However, later you wrote “There are way too many people in my neighborhood underpricing themselves.”

    You appear to be saying you are using Airbnb to get the equivalent of approximately $1,500 per month when the market rate is $500 to $600. Why are people renting from you at $54 per night when “there are way too many people in my neighborhood underpricing themselves.” (i.e. pricing themselves less than $54/night average)? In other words, how can you be getting above market rents when too many people are underpricing their rooms?

    22 nights of Airbnb in one month sounds like too much hassle to me. 2 out of every 3 nights. Are there legal limits imposed by your local or state authorities as to how many nights (consecutive or per month or per year) you can rent out your room on Airbnb? In some locales, if you rent out your room too often, you are considered a hotel and subject to additional business licences and increased taxes.

    Reply

    • So the interesting thing to remember about Airbnb is that once a property is booked, it’s gone from the inventory. After all, only 1 set of guests can stay in any particular Airbnb. Thus, if a place is underpriced, it’ll get booked up sooner. Once all the underpriced places are booked up, the only one remaining is mine. (The other way someone will choose my Airbnb over a cheaper one is because I have nicer pictures, more reviews, etc).

      A lot of Airbnb hosts make the mistake of wanting their entire place to be booked right away, months in advance. This is a mistake, in my opinion. Ideally, you don’t want to be booked up months in advance because that signals to me that your place is too cheap – people are booking fast because they want the bargain. Of course, I can also be a little more risky because I actually don’t really care all that much if my place is booked or not, since it’s technically all extra money to me anyway.

      As an example, there’s one person in my neighborhood who, in my opinion, severely underprices her listing. But since she’s so underpriced, she’s booked up for the entire summer basically immediately. Once her place is booked, it’s like it doesn’t exist anymore – she’s no longer my competition since she basically doesn’t exist anymore. Unless Airbnb supply outstrips demand, my place can still stay booked, even at a higher price point, because once the cheaper places are booked up, I’m left as the only option.

      Whether it’s a hassle or not is really a personal thing. I find that most Airbnb guests only come home to sleep – remember, my Airbnb guests are not tourists, they’re students essentially in town for business. I barely notice them, and when they do come home, they usually just go straight to their room. It’s really about your comfort level with meeting new people. I get along with pretty much anyone for the most part.

      As for legal limits, my city doesn’t have any particular limits for Airbnb hosts. Importantly, I live there, so even if limits did apply, most city regulations like that don’t apply to live-in hosts.

      Reply

  12. What a stellar month for the Airbnb income! I haven’t heard of Beyond Pricing before. How is it different from the Airbnb suggested pricing? We’ve been setting our prices high for big weekends (graduation, football, basketball, parents day, etc) and keeping a consistent $100/night rate. We lower the rates a week or two in advance if we don’t have many bookings or haven’t made our mortgage payment yet. It’s working okay for us but I wonder if we could be making more now.

    As always, thanks for the great information! I feel like every time I come to your blog I find a new way to make extra money, or to be more efficient at side hustling.

    Reply

    • Thanks for the kind words Jax! Really appreciate it.

      So, the Airbnb smart pricing is pretty crappy – I wouldn’t recommend it. Main thing with Beyond Pricing is that it actually seems to set prices that make sense. The Airbnb smart pricing always seems to drastically underprice things. The reason I like Beyond Pricing is that it takes into account a whole bunch of stuff in your area – booking rates in your neighborhood, hotel demand, etc. I’ve also heard that Airbnb likes it when you’re constantly changing your prices because it signals that you’re an active host.

      I think it’s worth trying out to see if it’s worthwhile for you. If not, just turn it off is what I’d say.

      Reply

  13. That’s a solid side income! I started renting out my spare apartment on Airbnb, and it’s been pretty good so far. My place is in a really busy suburb, so it’s constantly being rented out.

    Reply

    • That’s awesome! Are you mainly getting tourists or is it folks coming for business. My own Airbnb is primarily students and conference attendees, given my location near a large state university.

      Reply

  14. It’s my dream to have all the dogs come to me in my own home and I get paid to take care of them and play with them.

    Congrats on a solid month of extra income!

    Reply

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