£5k Hustle Challenge – How I did it in 7 1/2 months!

I am currently on a gap year after graduating uni back in July 2022. My intentions for this year were to slow down a little bit, do some travelling and decide what my next move is going to be. I’d set aside a pot of money (£5k to be exact) to cover all costs associated with the year. But I soon found out I’m not the type of person who can just sit idly all day. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love a sofa day but I need to be doing something. Enter the £5k hustle challenge!

Disclaimer – This post contains some affiliate/referral links which means that I might make a commission if you click through them. This comes at no extra cost to you <3

I wasn’t expecting to earn anything from my gap year and had come to terms with this and the fact my net worth would take a hit. But my income for the first two months of my gap year was surprisingly high. Then towards the end of month two, I got a text from an old boss asking if I would be up for a couple of hours of freelance work. Obviously I said yes.

This then got me thinking, could I potentially make £5k to match my £5k budget. This way my net worth would in theory stay the same and I would still be travelling full time. Absolute winner! The freelance thing would potentially earn me £1k and then I would be earning £2k from camp, I’d already earned £1.2k – could I make £800 in 6 months? Easy!

Well I absolutely smashed my original plan and not only did I finish the £5k hustle challenge in only 7 and 1/2 months rather than 12, it also didn’t include any payment from camp 😃

So how did I complete the £5k hustle challenge in 7 1/2 months? Let’s break it down…

BREAKDOWN

FREELANCING = £2302.50

I landed a freelance gig back in November and I was very lucky to have dropped onto this opportunity because I wasn’t looking for it. I can fully attribute starting this challenge to gaining this opportunity. Originally it was just one job which was going to earn me around £1k but it soon bloomed into multiple jobs and so far I have earned £2302.50 from this gig.

I do a range of different things for one client but most of it is graphic design/social media based.

SIGN UP BONUS’ = £666.50

This is literally easy money that you are leaving on the table if you are not already taking advantage of these types of offers. Essentially from time to time companies will often an incentive for new customers to sign up and often this is a cash reward.

I have been taking advantage of these offers since I turned 18 and the past seven months I’ve completed all the offers I’ve been eligible for! Making a total of £666.50 from a range of companies including…

Royal Bank of Scotland ~ £200

Halifax ~ £175

First Direct ~ £175

Tide ~ £75

Kroo ~ £10

Plum ~ £5

Skedaddle ~ £1.50

Others ~ £25

HOLIDAY PAY = £561.44

I received two completely unexpected holiday pay payments when I left my job back in September. These were unexpected because I didn’t fully understand how the holiday pay scheme worked at that job and I’d accrued about 90 hours of holiday pay. Reminder to always check the policies at a new job – don’t just assume like I did! But it was a nice little unexpected boost 🙂

MARKET RESEARCH = £390

I’d been applying to market research projects for months before I landed my first one. One turned into four and within a couple of months, I did four projects that that paid me £390 in total. The luck did not continue and although I still apply for projects, I haven’t been chosen since.

SURVEYS = £247.48

Surveys were my introduction into the world of online side hustles back in March 2020 – take a wild guess of why I was looking for one 😂 I took a little break after landing two jobs back in my second year of uni but soon got back into them after graduation. Prolific is my number one site and 98% of my survey earnings came from this site alone. The other 2% came from one cash out on Branded Surveys.

FREE SHARES = £192.65

Similarly to sign up bonus’, a lot of investment apps have sign up schemes where new customers can get free shares just for signing up!! I’ve collated a full list of current offers to save you the trouble 😘 I make the most of all of these schemes and often they will have refer-a-friend schemes as well which I often benefit from because I share my links online!

Here are the apps I got free shares from…

Trading212 ~ £176.84

Lightyear ~ £8.96

Stake ~ £6.85

REFERRALS = £138

Like the free share schemes, tonnes of platforms have refer-a-friend schemes where you are rewarded when you’re friend signs up. Anyone can make use of these programs and I did just take.

Over the past 7 1/2 months, I have earned £138 in cash rewards from referrals…

Kroo ~ £70

TikTok ~ £43

Shares ~ £20

CashApp ~ £5

COACHING = £100

Did you know I offer 1-to-1 money coaching sessions? Check out the bundles on offer and drop me a message if you want to find out more!

DEPOSIT REFUND = £100

Included this as I was genuinely surprised that we got the entire amount back and had written this cost off. Our last student house was not the nicest and considering I literally broke their coffee table I was shocked to receive this back.

ODD JOBS = £100

I housesat for my wonderful godmother back in September and did a few odd jobs for her whilst she was away. She was far too generous in giving me £100 for doing these.

CASHBACK = £63.94

If you aren’t making the most of cashback deals you are literally leaving money on the table! I will never be one of these people who makes thousands from cashback because you have to actually spend money to get cashback.

But I did make some in the past 7 1/2 months from these providers…

TopCashback ~ £47.38

Jam Doughnut ~ £13.76

Shopmium ~ £2.80 (this was technically a referral credit paid out as cashback)

CLINICAL TRIAL = £40

I was targeted by instagram ads for a company called FluCamp who were offering up to £4k in compensation for taking part in clinical trials. So of course I applied!! I got through the first round and was invited for a blood test to see if my blood had what it takes. They paid me £40 to simply attend the appointment 🤯

My blood passed the test but unfortunately I was unable to commit to the study they offered me because I’m spending the summer at camp so this has been put on the back burner. Hopefully I will be able to take part in one later this year because I could really do with an extra £4k 😂

ONLINE TASKS = £38.63

After surveys, online tasks were one of my first introductions into the world of online side hustles. Back then 20Cogs was the best site to complete them through (I’ve heard Cashback.co.uk is a good alternative) but there are other sites that offer similar deals or other forms of online tasks. For instance, Swagbucks will pay you to get to a certain level on games and UserTesting pays you to test out websites.

From online tasks I made a total of £38.63…

Swagbucks ~ £20

OhMyDosh ~ £10

UserTesting ~ £8.63

SELLING BITS = £31.35

A family friend had a tonne of old dvds and cds to get rid of so I offered to scan them all on apps like Ziffit and Music Magpie to see if she could get some money from them. After scanning 400 items, they accepted around 175 for pennies. She kindly let me keep this money as a thank you for getting rid of them and I have promise to sell the rest on ebay when I get back. In the market for cds and dvds? You know where to find me!

INTEREST = £29.37

Interest is one of my favourite ways to make money!! Mostly passive – it would be completely but I have an EverUp account so actually have to play little daily games to earn interest.

TOTAL = £5001.86

MY REFLECTIONS…

I am sooooo glad I set the £5k hustle challenge as it kept me motivated whilst travelling to not just veg on the couch. I’ve discovered I’m not the type of person who can just do nothing so it was nice to have something to focus on. When I originally set the challenge I was counting on my almost £2k camp pay check to reach the finish line so I am beyond happy that I have completed it 2 months before even leaving for camp 😎

How do you feel about money challenges? Do you have one on the go at the moment? Would you ever do a £5k hustle challenge?