£10k Side Hustle Challenge Update – Month 4

Four months down and I’m still super motivated to smash my big goal for 2024. When I first starting thinking about setting myself this challenge, I kept it to myself for a while whilst I ran the numbers to make sure I wasn’t overreaching. Well, like with everything if you put your mind to it, there isn’t much you can’t achieve. So I’m ignoring that little part of my brain that doubts me and am pushing on to smash my 10k side hustle challenge.

Right before I breakdown all incoming payments in April, let’s me explain exactly what my 10k side hustle challenge entails…

The Rules

This year I will have two main sources of income, my summer job and my winter job. And as this is a side hustle challenge I won’t be counting any earnings from these two sources towards my total. But everything else is up for grabs! Including any freelance income outside of these two jobs and my passive income streams like bank interest.

I went back and forth but have decided to count both cash income and voucher income towards the total. I only counted cash in my £5k hustle challenge as the goal was to match my gap year spending pot. But the goal for this challenge is to push myself and test the earning capacity of various side hustles. So I will be counting both cash and vouchers when I have received them.

The minute they hit my bank account/inbox they will be counted towards my total. Before then they exist in limbo and my daily hustle tracker.

Ok, so now we’re clear on what the challenge is and the rules, let’s get into where the money came from in month 4…

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Cashback ~ £0.60

I redeemed 60p in cashback from the Chase app in April. I’ve been using this card when I’m abroad as it doesn’t charge any foreign transaction fees and you can get cashback on most purchases.

Playing Games ~ £1

I randomly got paid a £1 bonus as an incentive to start using Tester Buddy again. Still waiting for my £87 cash out to hit my account but this came through within minutes. Starting to think I should just give up on this app.

Sharing Data ~ £2

Got my usual £2 voucher from Amazon Shopper Panel for passively sharing my ad data with them.

Watching Ads ~ £2.64

Cashed out from the app WeAre8 twice in April netting me £2.64. I like this app because it takes less than a minute to check and watch the daily ads and the pennies add up in the background.

Referrals ~ £5

Thanks to someone using my Testing Time referral link and completing a study, I got a £5 bonus.

Sign Up Offers ~ £5

I completed the Guava sign up offer in April which paid out £5 for setting up an account.

Surveys ~ £42.66

All survey income came from Prolific this month. I landed a £30 ongoing study which really boosted my income and reduce the time I spent on the site this month.

Affiliates ~ £49.37

Affiliate income typically takes 60-90 days to go from pending to paid out so whilst £49.37 hit my account in April this income was made back in February.

Mystery Shopping ~ £68

I got paid for the three mystery shops I completed in April. Payments take around a week from submitting the shop survey to hitting your account so not bad at all.

Online Tasks ~ £79.24

Finally cashed out from Cashback.co.uk! Super happy with the total I was able to make from this site as I’d already completed a bunch of the tasks on there.

Freelance VA ~ £240

As always, I got paid for the freelance hours I did the month before.

Market Research ~ £265

The market research gods have been very good to me so far in 2024. The projects just keep coming. £265 hit my account (a mix of cash and vouchers) this month from a couple I did in March and some from April.

Interest ~ £1008.96

Big month for interest as I added a good chunk of money to my LISA to make the most of the 25% bonus. And I got my typical easy access interest as well which is a nice passive income boost.

Month 4 Total = £1769.47

Challenge Total = £3721.45/£10,000

I feel like this month was the ultimate snowball month of everything I’ve been doing since January starting to pay off. In April I’ve jumped from 19.5% to 37.2% without any added extra effort. I’m even more confident now that I can smash this challenge!!

Now like I explained in the intro, I’m only counting income that has physically hit my bank account towards my challenge total. Which means I have a bunch of income either pending or in balances which I can’t cash out yet. If you want an idea of how much I actually made in April (not necessarily paid) then check out this side hustle update next.

Are you doing a money challenge in 2024? I’d love to hear all about it!