It’s been a busy summer and unfortunately, it meant I fell massively behind on the monthly side hustle reports. That’s to be expected when you have two young children. I’m still committed to keeping these reports going, so here’s a combined Summer 2023 side hustle report detailing my earnings from June, July, August, and September 2023.
Below is what I earned for each month.
June 2023
- Rental Income: $2,400 (not included in total)
- Rover: $526
- DoorDash/Uber Eats/Grubhub: $170.88
- Shipt/Instacart: $0
- Wag: $0
- Bird/Lime: $0
- Selling Trash Finds/Flipping: $40
- WeGoLook: $0
- Roadie: $0
- TaskRabbit: $0
- ProductTube: $130
- Gigwalk/EasyShift/Field Agent/Merchandiser/Observa/Pickl: $0
- IVueIt/ProxyPics: $7
- Google Opinion Rewards/Surveys On The Go/1Q/Facebook Viewpoints: $14.31
- Secret Shopping: $97.50
- ProductLab: $27.50
- ReceiptPal/Receipt Hog/Fetch/Coinout/Amazon Shopper Panel: $10.25
- Medium: $0
Total Side Hustle Income for June 2023: $1,023.44
July 2023
- Rental Income: $2,400 (not included in total)
- Rover: $330.80
- DoorDash/Uber Eats/Grubhub: $109.23
- Shipt/Instacart: $0
- Wag: $0
- Bird/Lime: $0
- Selling Trash Finds/Flipping: $0
- WeGoLook: $21
- Roadie: $0
- TaskRabbit: $0
- ProductTube: $45
- Gigwalk/EasyShift/Field Agent/Merchandiser/Observa/Pickl: $0
- IVueIt/ProxyPics: $0
- Google Opinion Rewards/Surveys On The Go/1Q/Facebook Viewpoints: $8.35
- Secret Shopping: $126.50
- ProductLab: $0
- ReceiptPal/Receipt Hog/Fetch/Coinout/Amazon Shopper Panel: $11
- Medium: $0.24
Total Side Hustle Income for July 2023: $652.12
August 2023
- Rental Income: $1095.17 (not included in total)
- Rover: $703.80
- DoorDash/Uber Eats/Grubhub: $160.49
- Shipt/Instacart: $0
- Wag: $0
- Bird/Lime: $0
- Selling Trash Finds/Flipping: $5
- WeGoLook: $0
- Roadie: $0
- TaskRabbit: $0
- ProductTube: $65
- Gigwalk/EasyShift/Field Agent/Merchandiser/Observa/Pickl: $0
- IVueIt/ProxyPics: $5
- Google Opinion Rewards/Surveys On The Go/1Q/Facebook Viewpoints: $6.66
- Secret Shopping: $118
- ProductLab: $0
- ReceiptPal/Receipt Hog/Fetch/Coinout/Amazon Shopper Panel: $12
- Medium: $0.02
Total Side Hustle Income for August 2023: $1,075.97
September 2023
- Rental Income: $2,400 (not included in total)
- Rover: $132
- DoorDash/Uber Eats/Grubhub: $179.26
- Shipt/Instacart: $0
- Wag: $0
- Bird/Lime: $0
- Selling Trash Finds/Flipping: $86.50
- WeGoLook: $0
- Roadie: $0
- TaskRabbit: $0
- ProductTube: $20
- Gigwalk/EasyShift/Field Agent/Merchandiser/Observa/Pickl: $7
- IVueIt/ProxyPics: $0
- Google Opinion Rewards/Surveys On The Go/1Q/Facebook Viewpoints: $22.58
- Secret Shopping: $119
- ProductLab: $0
- ReceiptPal/Receipt Hog/Fetch/Coinout/Amazon Shopper Panel: $10
- Medium: $0
Total Side Hustle Income for September 2023: $576.34
Over the course of this summer, I made a little over $3,300 from my various side hustles. That comes out to an average of about $825 per month. That’s a fairly large dip from prior years, where the summer was where I usually made most of my side hustle income – typically averaging around $1,500 and $2,000 per month.
Here’s a more detailed look at my earnings in each category for this past summer:
Rental Income: $8,295.17
My original tenants moved out in the middle of August after two years of renting. Getting two years from them was nice since my rental is in a college neighborhood and high turnover is to be expected. I ended up finding a new group of four college kids that started their lease in September. So over the four-month span, I collected the full rent for June, July, and September, and then half the rent in August since the original tenants moved out in the middle of August.
Having a two-week gap between when the original tenants moved out and the new tenants moved in was helpful so I could take care of some maintenance tasks. For example, I needed to patch and paint some ceilings and walls where there was some damage. The patching and painting weren’t too expensive since I did it myself, but it was fairly time-intensive.
The big money cost during the turnover was replacing the water heater. It was 19 years old, so I had the dilemma of deciding whether to preemptively replace it or whether I should just let it run until it died. I decided to preemptively replace it just to avoid having to deal with the hassle of dealing with replacing it later when it inevitably fails.
It did cost me money, but I think in the future, I’m going to continue leaving this gap between tenants to take care of maintenance things. It’s also helpful that spending money on my rental property isn’t difficult for me since I don’t use my rental income and instead put it all back into the house.
As for the new tenants, they officially moved into the house in September. So far things are going well. I’m hoping I get another year of good tenants and no major issues with the house.
Rover Income: $1692.60
Rover did well this summer, averaging a little over $400 per month for me. August was my best month, as I had a 3-week stay with a repeat client. That single stay resulted in a lot of money. The rest of my Rover gigs this summer were standard – I watched some dogs at my house and did some cat drop-in visits for a few neighbors.
Of all my side hustles, Rover is the one that fits best with my lifestyle right now, since, other than real estate, it’s probably the most “passive” side hustle I have. Nothing is ever truly passive, but Rover is the one that doesn’t require me to dedicate specific time to it the way food delivery or other gig economy apps do.
So far this year, I’ve made about $4,300 from Rover. Assuming things continue staying busy, I’ll probably make over $5,000 from it. That is not bad at all to me,
For more information about Rover and how it works, check out this post: Rover Pet Sitting – How To Make Money Dog Sitting With Rover.
DoorDash/Uber Eats/Grubhub Income: $619.86
Here’s a breakdown of my earnings with each delivery app this summer:
In the food delivery game, things have fallen quite a bit for me since the golden age of food delivery in 2020 and 2021. During the pandemic, I was easily making $40 or $50 an hour delivering for DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub on my ebike. I also had a lot more free time since I only had 1 kid.
In 2023, things are noticeably slower, but I do notice that there can still be money to be made so long as you work during peak times and multi-app. I can have lunch rushes that are lucrative, with $30 or more in an hour, but I can also have some days where I basically make nothing. I also simply don’t do as many deliveries as I used to because I’m busy with other things – mainly house projects and taking care of my kids.
For the summer, I averaged about $150 per month from food delivery, which isn’t very much. But you can see how an investment in an ebike can pay off pretty quickly if you’re going to do food delivery with it. A $1,000 or $2,000 ebike can be paid off in a short amount of time if you’re able to put in the work.
Going forward, I’m guessing that food delivery will continue to hover around this range – somewhere in the $150 to $200 per month range. If I can free up some more time, I’ll try to get those numbers back up, but for now, it is what it is.
Trash Finds/Flipping Income: $131.50
I had a few random trash finds that I was able to sell over the summer. We also participated in a neighborhood-wide garage sale in September, which helped us clear out some old stuff that we no longer needed. For trash finds, I stick to small items now that I know I can sell quickly – things like dog kennels, Ikea end tables or coffee tables, and plastic storage drawers that people always seem to need.
ProductTube Income: $260
ProductTube is always a nice source of extra income for me. The good thing about ProductTube is how easy the gigs are to complete – all I have to do is film a video of myself answering a few questions at a store (usually Target, Walgreens, or CVS). Usually, I’ll check ProductTube after I drop my kids off at daycare since I’m right next to a Target. It’s a nice way to start my morning with some money in my pocket.
Gigwalk/EasyShift/Field Agent/Merchandiser/Observa/Pickl Income: $7
I don’t use these apps very often anymore because there aren’t usually many assignments that are convenient for me and, more importantly, it takes me too much time and mental energy to look at these apps. I did happen to do a few shelf audit assignments that were available at the Target by my kid’s daycare. It’s not much money, but it was easy.
IVueIt/ProxyPics Income: $12
IVueIt is the same as the photo apps above, where I used to do more of it, but I’m not checking the app as often due to lack of time and mental bandwidth. I did complete two IVueIt assignments over the summer that were convenient to whatever I was doing. For the most part, though, IVueIt is one of those apps that I now really only use if I happen to remember to open the app.
Google Opinion Rewards/Surveys On The Go/1Q Income/Facebook Viewpoints: $51.90
Here’s what I made from each short survey app over the summer:
- Google Opinion Rewards: $24.63
- Surveys On The Go: $11.02
- 1Q: $16.25
- Facebook Viewpoints: $0
Google Opinion Rewards and 1Q did their usual thing over the summer months. I also finally earned enough from Surveys On The Go to cash out. You need a $10 minimum balance to cash out and theoretically, I could reach this mark more often, but their app is so slow and crappy that I don’t open it too often.
Of these survey apps, definitely get Google Opinion Rewards and 1Q. Surveys On The Go you can ignore if you don’t want to waste your time with it. Facebook Viewpoints is fine, but you won’t get a lot
Secret Shopping Income: $461 (plus a lot of free food)
Secret shopping used to be a nice way for me to get free food, but these days, it’s also a significant source of my side hustle income. Almost all of my income from secret shopping these days comes from Marketforce. The number of assignments on Marketforce is plentiful, the assignments are easy to complete, and they all generally pay well. There are secret shopping companies that have better shops, but most of them don’t offer pay on top of the reimbursement. But with Marketforce, I can get myself some free food and make some decent money too.
For the summer, I ended up averaging about $115 per month from my secret shops. That’s pretty good when you consider that I averaged around $150 per month from delivering food. When you consider that I also got free food on top of those earnings, I probably ended up making more from secret shopping than I did from delivering food.
For more information about secret shopping and how it works, check out these posts:
- Restaurant Secret Shopper Jobs – A Strategy To Eat For Free And Hack Your Food Expenses
- 6 Best Secret Shopper Apps To Eat For Free In 2023
ReceiptPal/Receipt Hog/Fetch/CoinOut/Amazon Shopper Panel Income: $43.25
Not much to report with the receipt apps. I still take photos of all my receipts before I toss them, so over the course of the year, I make a few hundred dollars. Over the summer, I made all of my receipt income from Amazon Shopper Panel, which is the best receipt app of all the receipt apps out there. If you get this app, you’ll make a minimum of $10 per month without any issues.
Medium Income: $0.26
Medium still makes me a few cents, but this will go down to zero soon as it’s been nearly 2 years since I last posted an article on Medium. For me, Medium isn’t worth my time since I have my own platform that I can earn money from writing. The only people I’d recommend using Medium as a form of income are people who are able to write a lot (like 1 article every single day for years and don’t want to write anything SEO-related. If I were a new blogger and had that sort of discipline, I’d probably use Medium, but at this stage in my blogging career, Medium isn’t a good fit.
And that concludes the Summer 2023 Side Hustle Report!
This summer was a busy one for me when it comes to my personal life. It’s now been over 4 years since I left my job as an attorney to try to make it on my own blogging and doing side hustles. I’m happy to have that flexibility in my life right now because I don’t understand how I would balance my previous professional career with kids – it’d be impossible.
I hope you enjoyed this brief look into my side hustles and the income I made from them. My plan is to get back on track with these and get them out at the beginning of the month like I used to, but we’ll see what happens.
If you want to see me doing some of my gig economy stuff, be sure to check out my YouTube channel, where I film myself doing deliveries, as well as film ebike and scooter reviews. If you’re looking for more side hustle ideas, you can check out my post, The Ultimate List Of Gig Economy Apps.
These are my favorite posts since they help me keep myself motivated. Thanks for posting them.
Nice, didn’t know Rover was so lucrative, especially in the warmer and balmy summer months in MN. Are you working FT too now?
I agree with you on the tenants and needing more time to prepare for a new move-in. Makes it much easier to not stress for repairs and updates.