How'd you do with side hustles/misc income in 2015?

[samburger]

I earned $934 this year from credit card rewards and a little bit of reselling. Nothing too wild, but it was enough to cover a trip to somewhere warm and sunny this winter. I'm a happy camper.

What were your side hustles in 2015, and how much did you make?

[cats]

I used to design knitting patterns for sale, and although I'm no longer actively putting out new patterns, I did gross about $700 in 2015.  I need to tot up all the expenses (paypal fees and a couple of other things), and of course pay taxes on it, so I expect it's going to wind up being a pretty minimal source of income.  But, the only associated work is adding up the numbers for taxes, so I can't complain too much.

I did resell some gifts that I wasn't going to use ever and got about $100 for those.

In 2016 I'd definitely like to explore better diversification of my income streams!

[FrugalWad]

I made about $500 last year, between cash-back rewards, some random online work, and blogging. I'll take it. I'm already set to pass that in the next couple of months instead of the next year.

[JAYSLOL]

Maybe a grand or so from resale, hard to calculate it exactly as some things i sold were purchased in 2014, some stuff i bought I haven't sold yet and some of the money i made was from selling my own stuff which i "lost" money on (but i'm glad to be rid of).  Also got a couple free tanks of gas from credit card points that i usually use to get gift cards for the gas station near me.  Also a couple hundred from doing odd jobs.  Hopefully 2016 will be epic.

[Tyson]

I make about $600 extra per month with a side music/technology business.

[Her]

I made about $800 per month in app sales. I also finally finished converting my Android app to iOS in December, so hopefully that'll grow in 2016.

[Friar]

I made about $800 per month in app sales. I also finally finished converting my Android app to iOS in December, so hopefully that'll grow in 2016.

Could you expand on this if you get some time please as I'm always interested in app revenue!

[Her]

I made about $800 per month in app sales. I also finally finished converting my Android app to iOS in December, so hopefully that'll grow in 2016.

Could you expand on this if you get some time please as I'm always interested in app revenue!

I'm afraid it's nothing terribly interesting. I made an Android app version of an online game I released a few years ago. It's sold for $0.99 (no ads because they would interfere with the UI and the game it targeted at kids). I was helped by making the free online version since the game already had a lot of fans when I released the app. Revenue grew from an average of $400-500 a month last year to about $800 this year. I think it's about peaked though, so any future growth will come from iOS sales.

I made the original game just for fun without any expectation of returns, so it's really nice it turned into something that makes me a little money.

[kudy]

If you count the approximate value of credit card rewards (miles, points, etc.) then I earned ~11,000 extra last year. If you leave out credit  card bonuses, then ~4,500 before expenses, taxes, etc. I do a bit of web development on the side, open checking accounts for the bonuses, and a few other things (I am nearly done writing a blog post that summarizes it all up).

I think 2016 is likely to be a bit lower, but thinking of and executing side hustle schemes is one of my hobbies, so who knows! I have an idea for a pretty simple ebook to try on Amazon, but I've been procrastinating actually writing anything for 6 months.

[Kris]

I made about $11,000 in passive income in 2015 from ebooks (only published one new thing last year, so about half of that was my back catalog).

[Paul | pdgessler]

About $10,000 here. $3,500 from selling stuff I didn't use often enough (camera lenses—photography is a damn expensive hobby...) and $6,500 from technical illustration work I did for a publisher. Hoping to do a bit more marketing and grow that business here in 2016.

[TomTX]

Around $1,000 in credit card rewards/bonuses. MrsTX side hustled about $700 beyond that.

Oh, and we have another $500 in CC bonuses to start off 2016. Chase Sapphire Preferred bonus by paying property tax with it for the signup bonus.

[francophile]

I started doing Amazon Mturk in February 2015 and made an extra $2600 (before taxes). Love Mturk as a little spare time, low impact side hustle.

I also did a bit of freelance work for one client which earned me another 2-3k.

And I discovered the wonder of trading in old clothes and accessories on Thredup.com, which I got a little shy of $1300 for several bags of trade ins. They donate everything they don't buy so it's a win-win for cashflow and decluttering.

Finally, I did some selling on ebay of items I no longer use, and made around $1500 total over the year.

[Making Cents]

Extra stuff at work beyond normal base salary - $10,600 gross

Craigslist sales + yard sale - $2617
Credit card rewards cash back/gift cards - $1510

Frequent flyer miles earned/used for trips worth approx. $4k (132,500 miles)
Frequent flyer miles earned/banked for later - 132,000

[tofuchampion]

I made about $1100-$1200 combined from selling old stuff on ebay/cl/etc., donating plasma, mystery shopping, swagbucks, and mturk. Need to start actually keeping track...

[bmiles62]

My wife and I had a pretty good year....... for us anyway.

$18000 (Cleared $9000) housing two international exchange students.
$2400 Manage rental properties.
$1900 Administering SAT and ACT test.
$900 Credit Card Churning

[aperture]

100K in SW Airline miles, and a few hundred dollars from garage sale, craig's list and ebay.  I just listed some lenses and photography equipment this weekend, so starting the year off right. 

-Ap.

[samburger]

I made about $11,000 in passive income in 2015 from ebooks (only published one new thing last year, so about half of that was my back catalog).

Color me impressed! Would you share more about your ebooks? What's the subject? How many ebooks do you have? How do you get eyes on them?

[AM43]

Made about $5000 in 2015 reselling stuff.
Another $4500 renting out parking spots on my lot.
All and all very happy.

[engineermom21]

Just finished going through all of our numbers for last year, so I can actually answer this one:

Mystery shopping ~ $3400
Online marketing ~ $480
Selling stuff on craigslist ~ $1700 (not sure if this counts, since it's stuff we had paid for previously, but our house has less clutter and it's more money in the bank, so still good!)

Total for 2015 = $5580

Not sure this year I'll be able to do as much, since we have Baby #2 on the way.

[DaveSch]

I made a little over 2000 bucks with Google Adsense ads placed on my websites. That pays the hosting and domain names, and after self-employment tax, federal income tax, state income tax, there is still some left for me.

[TravelJunkyQC]

Made about $1,900 USD from October through December when I started copywriting on the side. And another $500 CAD from random photography contracts. Paid for my frugal vacation to Costa Rica as well as my week I'll be taking in March to visit some friends in Colorado. Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with it!

[meghan88]

Not bad for a Canadian:

Eco-bonus for biking to work - $600
Air Miles cash - $50
Credit card travel rewards - $700
Price match voucher - $52
PC points - $50
HBC points - $80
Shoppers Optimum points - $220
Surveys - $90

I have a couple of things I bought on eBay when the Canadian $ was at parity (couldn't resist because they were real bargains and would hold their value), and should get rid of, now that the US$ is so much higher.  So this year just might be the year to do that.

[mastrr]

Total of $2750

$2200 from rental cash flow
$550 on Ebay

Looking to sell a decent amount of items on craigslist this year to minimize number of items and earn some cash.

[Jojje]

Made roughly $5000 on Craigslist/Ebay, feels really good do get rid of all that stuff!

[Rosy]

Approx. $1K plus total - cash rewards, bonus and selling my photo/art on line as well as a couple of mystery shops. Planning on improving that number in 2016.

[TheFirstMan]

2500 from Airbnb
1030 from miles used for train tickets
660 writing
500 from a Chase banking promotion
400 from a farming experiment

$5090 + all the eggs and pork we could eat! : )

[Squirrel away]

I wasn't tracking it but probably only about Ł500. I think I will make an effort to record what I make in 2016.:)

[misshathaway]

2500 from Airbnb

Have you ever had a bad experience with Airbnb guests? That sounds like a great idea for extra income without taking on a fulltime roommate.

[justajane]

I haven't gotten my 1099 yet, but I'm guessing I made about 7K editing and writing on the side. This is very part-time. I'll go weeks, sometimes months, without taking projects.

[YoungRetire]

Very good over $900 bucks !  Not to brag but I usually do about $20,000 a year of free cash, hotel points, airline points, etc.  But hey I used to be where you at. Just keep on doing it and check out a site thats called millionmilesecrets.com. I find a lot of sign up bonuses there. Good Luck !

[Matumba]

Youngretire,  do you travel for work?

How much approx do you need to spend to make 20k in bonuses?

[onehair]

I just began with my online side hustles and they are a combination of rebates earned plus actual online task work.  I have earned $40 in rebates from Ibotta, $196 from Amazon Mechanical Turk, $15 from Slidejoy, $15 from Receipt Hog, $16 from Walmart Savings Catcher, $15 from Ipoll, $45 from Pinecone Research, $8 from Checkout 51 $30 from Mintvine.  $340 total which has come in handy to shore up my checking account and take some money off my Paypal purchases.

Some of the other ones are in points only such as Swagbucks and Earning Station.  I have not earned enough points in either one to use for giftcards or cash at present.

[2Birds1Stone]

I earned the following from side hustles.

Coaching - $3,600
CC Travel Hacking - $2,500
Misc Side Gigs - $1,200

Total - $7,300

This helped get me to a 75% after tax savings rate and proved to me that I could easily FIRE @ 4% SWR and not have to stress about pulling in some $$ on the side.

[onlykelsey]

Can I count renting out my second bedroom?  If so, got about $10,000 in 2015.

[FIPurpose]

I did about $1400 through Wyzant. I teach programming and have been able to get gigs at about $40/hr. Though most of my time was with students who helped me get off the ground in the first place which are at lower rates.

[Mr.Bubbles]

I make about 9-10k pre taxes a year from coaching aquatics at high schools. I do three different sports through out the year (boys water polo, Girls water polo, and swimming) at about 3.3k each season, after taxes its like 2.2k or something take home. Its not a bad gig because I am very competitive and get a rush from trying to win.

Its actually only 9 months of work (school year) but theres no way i can do another during the 3 months off so thats to max i can coach a year.

[Programming 'til FIRE]

Conference USA Replay Tech.  $350 a game for 6 games.  Marshall didn't host the championship this year :(   

Total $2,100

BTW, every person on the field/press-box makes cash.  If you are interested in it, ask around.  One of the guys in our replay booth makes the same per game, but he also works in two other divisions as a Ref and Line Judge.  Couple of weekends, he worked a game in each division.  Sweet opportunity to make some serious cash.

[arebelspy]

A little over 18 grand from the side gigs of:

• Writing (wife) ~4k
• Extra teaching gigs (summer jobs, for example) ~6k
• Travel hacking ~2k
• Managing some of our properties (others are managed by a property manager, and the ones we do manage will soon be turned over to a PM) ~6k

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

[Cassie]

This was our best year ever. Between teaching an online class and some p.t. consulting I made $45,000.

[TheFirstMan]

2500 from Airbnb

Have you ever had a bad experience with Airbnb guests? That sounds like a great idea for extra income without taking on a fulltime roommate.

I felt a little uneasy at the start, but we hosted three times to earn $2500. (We rent out the whole house.) You can see how people have been rated as guests.

Could something crazy happen? Yes.

What are the chances something crazy could happen? Very low.

After getting set up with sets of sheets/pillows and knowing what we do to prep (e.g. gift basket, welcome card, instructions...), it's really easy money.

[tj]

2015 was rather good. Off the top of my head:

$500 - CapitalOne Spark Bonus
$500 - Southwest Visa Bonus
$200 - BankAmericard Travel Rewards Bonus
$300 - new chase checking account Bonus
$504 - Consumers Credit Union Rewards Checking
$250 - BBVA Compass Build My Savings Match (did this for 3 years...no longer available)
$180 - Santander extra20

[Nickels Dimes Quarters]

This is an inspiring thread!

I didn't earn much in the side-hustle for 2015, but I did spend most of the year writing a book of tips to help people find money to invest. I published it in January 2016. But I did continue to accumulate rewards points on my one credit card and have the equivalent of $1000 to use at some point. That's a win!

NDQ

[kpd905]

Sofi referrals: $2800
Checking bonuses: $1000
Credit card statement credits/selling miles: $4173
Swagbucks: $480
Others: $647

Total: $9100

[andystkilda]

Don't track exact numbers but would be ~$20k total from:
- dog training
- dog boarding
- credit card churning
- freelancing
- betting arbitrage
- few others that I'm probably forgetting

[big_slacker]

$4k for 4 days of network security work (Woohoo!)
$250 or so from CC rewards
1 trip's worth of airline points from CC
$500 from selling items around the house.

[Begonia]

-about $9000 from tutoring high school students in writing
-150,000 miles/points from cc sign-up bonuses
-1 international RT flight using miles
-1 hotel stay using pts

[elcheapo]

I earned $934 this year from credit card rewards and a little bit of reselling. Nothing too wild, but it was enough to cover a trip to somewhere warm and sunny this winter. I'm a happy camper.

What were your side hustles in 2015, and how much did you make?

Between points for hotels , airlines , and free cash selling points I make about $20,000 a year.

[thef0x]

Subletting my apartment while living in Colombia:  $800
Travel Hacking + CC bonuses:  $1950
Amazon eBook Sales: $100

Modest but useful. 

[FrugalFan]

We bought a duplex in August and are netting close to $400 a month from that (but there was a huge start-up cost of course that will take a couple of years to even out). We sold a few things. I'd like to do more of this in the future and am inspired by some of the ideas here.