I Saved 63% Of My Income – 2022 Financial Review

2022 has been a wildride. I graduated, read 115 books, wrote a 10 thousand word dissertation, went to 2 weddings, ate countless bags of crisps, spent 48 hours on a train, saw my first west end show, slept in an airport, started housesitting for strangers off the internet, spent 7 weeks in the US, experienced an ice storm and so so much more… hands down the best year of my life to date!!

But it’s all over and you know what that means! It’s time to review every penny I earned and spent over the year.

Why are you sharing this?

You’re probably thinking it’s weird to share all of this on the internet but I believe in producing the type of content you want to see. And I am obsessed with seeing how people earn and spend their money. Plus the best way to break the money taboo is to talk about it.

So without further ado, let’s start with how much I was paid in 2022!

INCOME

In 2022 I was paid nearly 300 times from 20 different “sources”. How crazy is that!! This means that I received some form of income nearly every day of the year 😱

I mean yeah sometimes it was only a penny in interest but you know what they say, pennies make pounds and holy moly did they add up this year.

Before we get into the numbers, let me just add a little bit of context to my working situation in 2022. For the first half of 2022 I was still in uni full time but had two part time jobs on the side. Once all my deadlines had passed, I started picking up more hours at my hospitality job. My tenancy ended a few weeks after graduation in mid-August so I worked my last shifts at both jobs and headed back to my parents. From September onwards I was, as I like to call it, “professionally unemployed” and began travelling full-time. So technically I only worked full time hours 11 weeks of the year 😂.

With that in mind, I was so shocked when I tallied up my total income.

#1 Hospitality Job = £8,965.74

I worked 30 weeks at this job in 2022 and only 11 of those were over 30 hours. So this is pretty good going. I should also add that over £800 of this came from tips.

#2 Student Loan = £6,011.91

Had my final two student loan drops in 2022 and oh how I will miss those termly cash drops.

#3 Student Ambassador Job = £3,631.95

This was my on the side when I felt like it job so pretty happy with these earnings. Plus this has been my easiest, most chilled job ever and it never felt like I was actually working.

#4 Referrals = £1,020.21

Wow!!! Just wow!! I track all earnings that come from my blog/insta based on the tax year not the calendar year so until I did the calculations for this post I had no idea just how much I’d made from referrals in 2022. Over one thousand pounds, that’s insane!! Incredibly grateful to every single person who used one of my links <3

#5 Freelancing = £645

Towards the end of October, an old boss reached out asking if I’d like to do some remote freelance work for her. For a couple of hours a week this was an absolute no brainer to say yes to. Especially because I do could it from anywhere. These earnings are for about 5 weeks of work for her, plus I still need to invoice for my December hours.

#6 Refunds = £595.40

For the first time ever I got a pretty decent tax refund (thank you 2021 Jess for working crazy hours!!) at just over £400. The rest was from a few returns over the year.

#7 Bursary = £500

I automatically qualified for a bursary every year of my undergrad due to my parents income. This was paid in two instalments each academic year (Nov and Feb). It always came as a nice surprise when the money dropped into my account.

#8 Market Research = £390

Finally got accepted into a couple of market research projects in the final quarter of the year! These are an incredible way to make extra income and I really hope I get chosen to do a tonne more next year.

#9 Gifts = £380

My family were very generous for my 21st and gifted me cash to go towards my travel fund. I was also gifted cash when I graduated.

#10 P2P Lending = £250.32

I lent my sister some money back in 2020 and she paid the final few instalments back at the start of the year. I class the full payments as income as I tracked the money I lent her as spending back in 2020.

#11 Sign Up Offers = £190.86

This total is from offers I have personally completed and received bonuses for. Actually so impressed with how much I made form these as they literally take minutes! Want to earn some money yourself from sign up offers – check out this full list!

#12 Surveys = £130.73

Surveys were a big money earner for me back in 2020 when I first found the world of online side hustles. I pushed them to the sidelines in 2021 when things got busy but I kinda got back into them in 2022. Planning to do way more next year.

#13 Coaching = £100

Worked with a couple of amazing money coaching clients this year.

#14 Housesitting = £100

I housesat for my wonderful godmother towards the start of my gap year and she very generously sent me some money afterwards as a thank you.

#15 Cashback = £62.26

Cashback is one of those things that sounds like a scam but is such an easy way to get a discount. Especially when it comes from apps that are automatically linked to your card – complete passive income folks.

#16 Bank Interest = £60.41

Another passive stream that I love! It won’t be paying the bills anytime soon but it’s always a nice little bonus when it drops into your account.

#17 Affiliates = £39.89

I have a few affiliate links on my blog which make me a couple of pennies each time people use them. Very grateful to anyone who follows one of these links.

#18 Compensation = £30

One of my banking apps glitched when I was transferring money and the money got “trapped” for a week or so. On a phone call to their customer service team to get it sorted, they offered me £30 cash in compensation.

#19 Reselling = £20

Forgot all about these comedy show tickets I bought at the start of 2020. The show was pushed back a couple of times and we couldn’t make the new dates so sold them on facebook marketplace. Not bad for a purchase I’d completely forgotten I’d made.

#20 Online Games = £20

Sites like Swagbucks were another hustle I’d put on the back burner but picked up a few times towards the end of the year. Essentially you can earn points for downloading apps and reaching a certain level. I made £20 off a dice game 😂

TOTAL = £23,144.68

Next up, let’s look at what I spent in 2022!

SPENDING

#1 Rent = £2660

I lived in a student house for the first 8 months of the year, where we each paid £95 per week. This included all bills.

#2 Transportation = £1,503.65

This is both all my normal transportation plus all my travel costs from the first four months of my gap year. So considering this includes 3 flights, a £300 train ticket and temporary car insurance plus tonnes of bus and train tickets, I’m very happy with this total.

#3 Eating Out = £803.08

I’m both surprised and not that my eating out total was double my grocery total this year. But I’ve eaten out more than usual in the past four months whilst travelling full time.

#4 Gifts = £566.40

This was much lower than normal because I boycotted Christmas this year as I was nearly 5000 miles from all my loved ones.

#5 Groceries = £412.69

This averages out to £7.62 per week which is incredible if I say so myself! Especially considering I’ve been in the US for the last 7 weeks of the year where the groceries prices are insane!!

#6 Entertainment = £408.60

I saw two West End shows, Bastille in concert, bought numerous books and went to the cinema countless times this year. All in all £400 for all this isn’t bad at all.

#7 Shopping = £394.41

I haven’t really bought myself clothes in about three years so this total hurts to see but it was needed. Must add that this does include my graduation gown hire and the various outfit options I bought.

#8 Drinks = £394.26

This includes all alcoholic drinks I’ve bought this year as well as all the times I went to cafes. Which has been a lot this past four months 😅

#9 Hotels = £350.99

About a hundred of this was my share for hotels on various city trips at the start of the year and then the rest was the cost of hostels on my gap year so far.

#10 Personal = £247.27

This includes all things skincare, eye care, period bits etc etc.

#11 Camp = £224

I’m headed to camp next summer to work as a counsellor which is a paid position but due to the nature of the role I’ve had to hire an agency to help with the visa stuff. They charge a fee and then I need to pay for various other things on top, like a police check. So far I’ve paid £224 and I reckon I’ll have to pay the same again in the new year.

#12 Insurance = £171.90

Travel insurance to the US is spenny! Plus I upgraded my Trusted Housesitters account so I would get cancellation insurance. This put my mind at rest that if any of my housesits were cancelled whilst I was in the US I could claim $150 per night to find alternative accommodation.

#13 Takeaways = £164.58

This is about right as I never ordered a takeaway unless I had a discount code. Meaning that most of the time my out of pocket cost would only be a few quid.

#14 Subscriptions = £147.89

This accounts for Spotify, book club fees and iCloud storage for most of the year. I have since cut this down to £0 per month!

#15 Snacks = £110.61

I LOVE crisps! Like obsessed. So reckon at least 75% of this was just me going to the corner shop to get crisps.

#16 Charity = £35

I’m actually embarrassed by how low this is. Setting myself a goal to donate more next year.

#17 Work = £25.51

Surprised how low this is considering this is total for all meals I bought whilst on shift.

#18 Household = £23.14

Any cleaning products, toilet roll and random house bits come under this category. It’s pretty low as I lived in a house of 6 who would take turns in picking bits up. Plus I bought 47 rolls of toilet paper at the end of 2021 and then someone else bought another one when that ran out.

#19 Visa = £19.74

This was the fee for my ESTA to enter the US.

TOTAL = £8663.72

Actually so shocked how low my total spend is!! Obviously I had a rough idea but I tend to focus on my monthly data so these yearly totals really have taken me by surprised. The fact that I have been able to save 63% of my income, only work 30 weeks of the year and spend 4 months travelling full-time is just incredible!!

Finally, let’s look at how this year has affected my net worth!

NET WORTH

Start of 2022 = £24,272.68

End of 2022 = £33,758.95

I’m up £9486.27 since the end of 2021. Now you may be thinking, “Jess, you saved over £14k this year but only increased your net worth by £9k. What happened to the rest?”

Well the market has not kind to someone who pretty much invests all her savings! I’m down all of last years gains and more! But I’m in it for the long haul so these are unrealised losses. I have faith that they will bounce back.

There we go, 2022 done and dusted!

Hope you all had a wonderful 2022 and are looking forward to the year ahead!