10k Side Hustle Challenge: Month 8 Update

I spent the first half of August working at a summer camp and the second half travelling around the USA visiting various friends. Incredible month personally but not so good for my side hustles. But that’s ok, it’s exactly what I was prepping for when I made over £2k back in May.

Even though my time was super limited, I did still manage to do a few things and payments from months prior cleared which boosted my total.

Right before I breakdown all incoming payments in August, 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. If you want to see how much money I actually made from side hustles in August, check out this post next.

The Progress

I’ve been publishing updates every month since the beginning of this side hustle challenge. You can read them here…

January – £264.22

February – £750.22

March – £937.54

April – £1,769.47

50% Point Update

May – £2,071.05

June – £1,259.87

July – £524.30

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 8…

Sharing Data = £2

Like every month, I got paid a £2 Amazon voucher from Amazon Shopper Panel for sharing my ad data. This is a super easy app to install and start benefitting from. Obviously £2 a month isn’t a crazy amount but I love that my Amazon balance is growing without me noticing. I’ve just checked and I have £20 in my gift card balance that has snowballed without my notice. Just think how many 99p kindle books I can buy with that!!

LISA Bonus = £3.50

Small LISA bonus payout this month as I hardly added anything to do it last month. Still chipping away at hitting the maximum yearly deposit. I have about £600 to go.

Interest = £15.94

I love earning passive income from money I’ve stashed in various easy access savings accounts. I have bunch of accounts and pots as I like to split my money up. Each of these is earning around 4% in interest.

Referral = £20

I got paid from a Zing referral I made in June. This offer is still live and has just been boosted to £30 if you fancy making £25 in free cash! Here’s the link.

Affiliate = £24.37

One affiliate payment cleared in August from a purchase in June. Affiliate income can take anywhere from 30 to 180 days to go from pending to your bank account. It’s one of three ways I currently make money from my blog and instagram.

Cashback = £25.33

About £10 of this came from spending on my Chase card. I earn 1% back on most purchases which is fab! The rest came from the Rakuten sign up bonus which I completed a few months ago. This took a while to clear but was a nice bonus!

Get a £15 sign up bonus when you join Rakuten!

Sign Up Bonus = £50

I did a sign up offer with Wealthify three months ago and the bonus finally cleared. £50 for opening a new S&S ISA and keeping £250 in the account for 3 months. Now, that’s an interest rate to love!

This offer is still live! Get £50 for opening an account with Wealthify and funding it with £250 for a minimum of 3 months 💸

Freelancing = £72

I inadvertently took two weeks off from one client and didn’t send an invoice to another so my paid out freelancing earnings are super low for August. But every penny counts right, especially as I get closer to completing this challenge.

Month 8 Total = £213.14

Challenge Total = £7789.81/£10,000

My worst month so far in this challenge but that’s to be totally expected. I didn’t set up a lot of income to come through from July and hardly had any time to side hustle in August.

The fact that a couple hundred pounds in extra income is a slow month to me now is INSANE! I remember my first couple of months side hustling back in 2020 where earning £200 would have been mind blowing. Oh how far we’ve come!

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