Wow! What a year 2023 has been. I set myself the goal of side hustling £6,000 on the 15th of January for a family holiday to Walt Disney World Florida. Originally I anticipated it would take around 2.5 years to get the funds I needed. Well, 10.5 months later and I have side hustled the full £6,000! I honestly cannot believe it!
I’ve been documenting my side hustle journey over on Instagram (@thefunmoneyclub) and have been posting daily side hustle diaries on my Instagram stories as well as monthly round ups on my grid.
It’s been the most incredible year and I’ve loved every second of my side hustling and discovering all the new websites and apps that you can make money online with. In this blog post I will share with you every app and website I have used to make the £6,000 as well as give a breakdown of the side hustles that made me the most money.
Is there something that you want to side hustle for? It could be a holiday, a wedding, home improvements, a new car. Then come and join the £5 a Day Side Hustle Challenge. We currently have thousands of members all making £100’s extra each month to help them fund the fun things in life. If you need some motivation or inspiration to get started with side hustling then this is the group for you!
What is a Side Hustle?
A side hustle is any form of income you make alongside your ’employed’ job position. My job role is a full-time Blogger/Content Creator so any funds made from anything associated with my job were not counted for this challenge.
Side Hustle Income Breakdown
I did a number of different side hustles that helped accumulate to the total £6,000. Here is a breakdown of the side hustle category and how much that category generated me:
- Acting Work – £1,445.09
- Selling Second Hand Items – £956.81
- Surveys – £840.82
- Market Research Studies – £791.37
- Playing Mobile Phone Games – £438.06
- Bank Switch Incentives – £425
- Interest & Dividends – £302.16
- Cash Wins – £262.64
- Website Testing – £228.37
- Free Cashback Offers – £158.65
- Free Money Offers – £153.23
- Matched Betting – £24.90
- Etsy – £11.38
- Watching Adverts – £8.19
That’s a total of £6,046.67 in just 10.5 months!
I used numerous different apps and websites for each of the side hustle categories to make the sums of money I made. For side hustling the more avenues you try and make the money via the easier it can be as more opportunities become available to you. Side Hustles like playing mobile phone games for cash and website testing were new to me this year and really helped bump up my total.
Acting Work – £1,445.09
I’ve only done 13 days of acting work in the entire of 2023, yet it’s been my top earning side hustle!
I mainly do 2 different types of acting work and they are:
- Extra Work for Film and TV – I am a background artist and do days on TV and film sets as a background actor
- Medical Roleplays – I pretend to be a patient so that Junior Doctors can be assessed on their knowledge as part of their OSCE exams
I got into Acting as a child when I went to Theatre/Stage School. In 2016 I stopped doing the acting work but decided to get back into it this year as part of this challenge and I’m so glad I did.
The agencies I have got Extra work through this year have been Creative Casting and Entertainment Partners.
This is a great side hustle if your schedule is pretty flexible and you don’t actually need any acting experience to be a background artist. If you would like more information about this side hustle I have an Instagram Post all about it here – ‘How to Become a TV Extra‘
Selling Second Hand Items – £956.81
I had A LOT to sell this year. We had a number of large baby items still in our attic which we finally made the decision to part with. I also had an excessive number of clothes which I was ruthless with and sold items I hadn’t worn in a year. My husband even let me sell some of his clothes to put some funds back into his pocket.
I’ve mainly used 2 different platforms for selling and those were:
- Facebook Marketplace
- Vinted
I used Facebook Marketplace to shift the larger furniture and baby items we had to get rid of. Clothing and small items were sold via Vinted.
I absolutely LOVE Vinted as a selling platform. It is so easy to list items on there and actually get a decent amount for them. I’ve got a whole blog post about how to sell on Vinted that you can read here: ‘How to Make Money Selling on Vinted‘
If you are struggling to find the motivation for a clear out come and join the £5 a Day Side Hustle Challenge Facebook group. We regularly run Vinted Sales Challenges to give you that guidance and information to be successful with selling on Vinted.
Heading into 2024 I really don’t have a lot of second-hand items left to sell so I’m going to dip my toe into the world of reselling.
Surveys – £840.82
I actually cannot believe surveys are my 3rd highest side hustle! This is a side hustle a lot of people turn their noses up at as they think the pennies won’t add up. But I think this just goes to show that they really do!
Not all survey websites work equally and I quickly filtered out a number of them that just weren’t working for me. Here are the survey apps/websites that I made money with in 2023. Tap the name of the app/website to join any you like the look of. I’ve also added some bonus promo codes where relevant:
- Prolific – £345.27
- YouGov – £250
- AttaPoll (Enter promo code ‘nkrgi‘ for a 40p bonus) – £168.88
- Survey Spin (Enter promo code ‘XJSL3T‘ for an 80p bonus) – £34.43
- OhMyDosh – £16.50
- Eureka (Enter promo code ‘68LWHN‘ for an 80p bonus) – £12.77
- Survey Pop (Enter promo code ‘UF9CT1‘ for an 80p bonus) – £4.46
- Qmee – £3.80
- FlavorWiki – £2
- Bulbshare – £1.50
- Curios Cat – £1.06
- Streetbees (Enter referral code ‘75409S‘ to join) – 15p
I’ve always enjoyed doing surveys online. I started doing them online when I was 18/19 to get vouchers to spend at TopShop. It’s still an amazing side hustle today and one that absolutely anyone can do.
Market Research Studies – £791.37
I absolutely LOVE doing market research studies. I’ve been lucky enough to do 18 market research studies for cash this year for all sorts of different brands and companies. Some studies have paid in vouchers so for this breakdown I’ve only included the cash studies.
If you’ve never heard of market research studies before I’ve got a blog post that explains a bit more about them here: ‘How I made $150 on UserInterviews in one week‘
Here are the market research study apps/websites that I made money with in 2023. Tap the name of the app/website to join any you like the look of:
- UserTesting – £208.48
- Research Opinions – £130
- Researchi – £125
- Zest Fieldwork – £80
- User Interviews – £70
- Testing Time – £70
- Askable – £60
- Angelfish Opinions – £40
- Dscout – £7.89
Market Research Studies are one of my favourite side hustles because:
- I don’t have to leave the house (Majority of the time)
- They generally pay around £50 for an hour of your time
This is a great side hustle that you can fit in around a full-time job or for stay at home mum’s/those on maternity leave.
Playing Mobile Phone Games – £438.06
I only started this side hustle on the 17th of June. I’d tried apps like MistPlay previously but hadn’t really got on with them. In June I discovered games on Swagbucks and decided to test it out. My first month I cashed out £100.43! I’ve played a total of 13 games since then and have cashed out a total of £438.05 straight to my PayPal account.
Here are the mobile gaming apps/websites that I made money with in 2023. Tap the name of the app/website to join any you like the look of:
Some games have definitely taken up a lot more time than others. I’ve written games guides for some of the games I have played so far which you can access for FREE in the members area here. The game guides will give you tips and tricks on how to complete the game in the shortest amount of time possible.
Again this is a great side hustle for anyone that has sporadic spare time that they can side hustle in. I’d also recommend it for any mum’s with newborns who need help staying awake on the night feeds.
Bank Switch Incentives – £425
The Bank Switch Incentives have been very active this year! It’s not something I’d previously done as I was worried about something going wrong. But this year I opened an online bank account that I didn’t intend on keeping to use to gain a bank switch incentive by immediately switching to another bank.
Here are the switches I’ve done this year and the cash bonuses I received:
- First Direct – £175
- Natwest – £200
- The Co-operative – £50
My switch with The Co-operative went disastrously wrong and I ended up having to make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman. I was awarded £50 as compensation but I should have received £125 had the switch been done correctly.
It’s a very easy side hustle to do and for little to no effort you can get quite a big cash reward.
Interest & Dividends – £302.16
I’ve been counting any interest I’ve had from my savings as well as dividend pay outs for stocks I hold in this side hustle total. It’s amazing to see how much my money has made this year and always motivates me to save more.
We aren’t going to Disney World until 2025 so the £6,000 I’ve saved is in a high interest account and should make me an extra £500 in interest by the time we go.
I would highly recommend putting your funds into a high interest savings account to get your money working harder. I prefer to keep my funds in an instant/easy access account. These are the rates currently available for all the accounts I use. Tap the name of the bank to sign up for a free account:
- Monzo – 4.51% AER plus get £5 free when you make a card payment for the first time
- Kroo – 4.35% AER plus get £10 free when you make a card payment for the first time
- Chip – 4.84% AER
*Interest rates accurate at the time of posting
The majority of my funds are currently in a Wombat account as they offer the highest interest rate for a digital bank.
More information on the savings accounts I use
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Click here to sign up to MonzoMonzo offer both an instant and easy access savings account.
Instant access accounts require no minimum deposit and funds can be withdrawn instantly with an interest rate of 4.1% AER.
Easy access accounts require a £10 minimum deposit and funds can be withdraw the next working day with an interest rate of 4.51% AER.
New to Monzo? You can get £5 free when you open a new account and spend on your Monzo card for the first time.
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Click here to open a free Chip accountChip are currently the market leader for instant access savings account offering 4.84% AER (variable) on funds. Interest is paid monthly.
It's free to open a Chip instant access savings account and you can deposit from as little as £1 up to £250,000.
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Click here to sign up to KrooKroo are a current account that reward you interest on your balance up to £85,000 at 4.35% AER.
It's free to open a Kroo current account. If you open one via TopCashback and deposit a minimum of £50 into your new account you will receive £16 in cashback.
Cash Wins – £262.64
I’ve won quite a bit of money this year and the majority of it has come from one app! And that app is… EverUp!
EverUp is an app that awards you in virtual coins when you buy gift cards through the app. You can then use these virtual coins to play mini games to win cash and product based prizes. They also run a weekly Million Lotto with the top prize being £1,000,000 as well as free daily draws to win cash, vouchers or products like TV’s, Spa Getaways, VR Headsets e.t.c
The app has been changed recently and you used to be able to earn virtual coins for saving money but this element of the app is being removed in January. With these changes I probably won’t be making the same sum of money from this app next year.
I am keeping the app for one main reason though and that is to buy Aldi Gift Cards.
For every £1 you load on to an Alidi Gift Card you will get 66.7k virtual coins. So if you top up by £100 that’s 6.7M virtual coins which would get you 12 spins on their Sydney wheel game. The lowest cash prize per spin is 5p and the highest cash prize is £75. I’ve won £10 numerous times on this game.
We do our main food shop is Aldi so I’m hoping by buying gift cards via EverUp I can win some money back on spending I was having to do anyway.
You can get 5 Million bonus virtual coins when you join EverUp and enter promo code ‘REF-NEESHA-C‘
Your bonus 5 Million coins will be credited to your account when you have redeemed your first £10 in cashback.
Website Testing – £228.37
Website Testing was another new side hustle to me this year that I started in mid July. Whilst this side hustle hasn’t earned me a huge sum this year it has been one of my favourites to do.
Website Testing is often unmoderated so you don’t have to speak to anyone like you do on a market research study. You do however need to speak your thoughts and feelings out loud as you navigate a website and give feedback to the brand/company.
This again is a great side hustle that you can just dip in and out of as and when you have the time available. For me this has been a super flexible side hustle that I’ve often done before the school run, on my lunch break or when my son is in bed.
I’ve only used one website for web testing this year and the site I used is User Testing.
The only downside to User Testing is that you have to wait 14 days to be paid out for any web tests you have completed. The time frame was increased on the 5th of December from 7 days to 14 days for pay out. Payments are made in dollars to your selected PayPal account but can be withdraw in GBP to your bank account.
Free Cashback Offers – £158.65
I’ve done a few free cashback offers this year that have resulted in a profit after signing up for something. These don’t come up very often but can be a great way to get a free product and make a bit of cash when they do pop up.
Offers I have made a profit on this year have been:
- Bonus Kings – £35.55
- Free Hello Fresh Box plus £45.76 profit
- Free Tails Dog Food plus £27.34 profit
- Free Overseas Currency account plus £10 profit
- First Direct Bank Switch – £40 cashback
For some of the offers I received cashback from multiple apps which made my profit for the offers even higher. For example, for the Hello Fresh offer I received cashback from Quidco, Cheddar and Airtime Rewards and I had a totally free box of food for the week.
My favourite cashback apps
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EXCLUSIVE £3 BONUSClick here to join JamDoughnut Read about JamDoughnut hereEarn Instant Cashback with JamDoughnut!
- Sign up and enter promo code 'E3ES' for 300 points (£3) when you use the app for the first time
- Buy a gift card for the store you are about to shop at
- Earn cashback on that gift card instantly
- Withdraw your cashback to your bank account once you reach £10
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Click here to join QuidcoQuidco is a cashback app that works in the same way as TopCashback
- Select the brand you want to shop with via the Quidco app
- Click through and shop on the brand website as normal
- Your purchase will be tracked and you will be awarded cashback at the rate shown on Quidco
Sign up to Quidco via the button below and get a £15 new customer welcome bonus when you earn your first £5 of cashback
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Click here to join Airtime Rewards Read about Airtime Rewards hereAirtime Rewards is a cashback app that automates your cashback. No need to remember to click a link.
The cashback you earn is paid directly to your mobile phone provider to reduce your monthly phone bill.
- Download the Airtime Rewards app to your mobile phone
- Enter the promo code 'YBBNDX4K' to receive an up to £1.50 new customer bonus
- Link your chosen bank cards to the app to earn automatic cashback on your purchases
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Click here to join TopCashbackTopCashback has been crowed 'Cashback Website of the Year' 6 times in the last 7 years!
Since I've been a member of TopCashback I have saved just over £3,200!
Sign up to TopCashback today and get a £10 bonus when you earn your first £10 of payable cashback.
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EXCLUSIVE £2 BONUSClick here to join CheddarEarn Instant & Automated Cashback with Cheddar!
- Sign up and enter promo code 'FUNCLUB'
- Buy a gift card of any value within 15 days of downloading the app
- Get a £2 bonus added to your wallet
- Withdraw your cashback to your bank account once you reach £5
Free Money Offers – £153.23
Free money offers are exactly what they say on the tin. You get free money for signing up to something, more often than not a bank or financial related app.
Here are the free money offers I did this year:
- Kroo – £60 (I signed myself and my husband up and then referred my brother, brother-in law and friend to the app to get this total)
- Tide Business Bank – £75
- WeBull – £17.23
The only offer that is still running is Kroo where you can get £10 free when you sign up to Kroo bank and spend on your new card for the first time.
There haven’t been as many good free money offers this year compared to last year. But when they do pop up they are absolutely worth doing as they don’t normally take long and it’s some quick and easy cash to add to your side hustle fund.
Matched Betting – £24.90
I did a small bit of Matched Betting at the beginning of the year but fell off the bandwagon with it again. I’ve just been so focussed on other side hustles that I haven’t given this one much time this year. It’s definitely one I need to restart properly in 2024 as it’s been a very lucrative side hustle over the years pocketing me over £50,000!
You can find more information about Matched Betting here: ‘How I make £800 a month from home with Matched Betting‘
Etsy – £11.38
I started an Etsy shop at the end of 2022 and didn’t really put a lot of effort into it. I did somehow get 2 Etsy sales this year though. I’m not sure if it’s a side hustle I’ll pursue in 2024 as the passion just isn’t there. It takes A LOT of work to run a successful online business like that and I feel like I’m spinning a lot of plates already.
Watching Adverts – £8.19
Yes, you can get paid to watch adverts! The app I use for this is called WeAre8. I’ve not really used it a lot this year as you only get paid a few pence per advert you watch but it’s still one worth having for those quiet moments.
Summary
So that’s how I side hustled £6,000 in under a year for a holiday to Walt Disney World Florida. This year really has flown by and I’m still in awe of how much money I managed to make, most of the time without even leaving the house. I’ve learnt so many new things this year and tried a number of different and new side hustles which I’ve really enjoyed doing.
If I can side hustle this much in under a year, so can you! It’s just about knowing where to find the opportunities. So if you are inspired and feeling motivated to hit the ground running in 2024 come and join the £5 A Day Side Hustle Challenge! It’s open to anyone and everyone and is totally FREE to join!
2024 Side Hustle Goals
I’ve set myself a HUGE goal for 2024 and that is to side hustle £6,000 to go towards mortgage overpayments. I’d love to side hustle this amount every year for the next 10 years to make us MORTGAGE FREE! This would save us over £75,000 in interest, which is crazy.
Commonly Asked Questions
I did a Q&A on Instagram Stories about side hustling and this challenge and these were the questions I was asked the most.
Do you have to pay tax on side hustle income?
Yes I will have to pay tax on these earnings. The only exceptions will be selling my second-hand items and Matched Betting. I have set my goal to more than I actually need to account for tax.
How do you get taxed on side hustle income?
You have a tax free allowance of £1,000 per year. Anything above this amount you will need to pay tax on (depending on your earnings). Once you earn any money outside of your PAYE roll you will need to register for a self assesment on the Gov website. It’s really not a daunting as it sounds and is absolute worth it for the extra income you can make.
How do you manage your time?
The honest answer is – not very well. I’ve definitely burnt myself out this year with this challenge and need to look at how I manage my time more next year.
How is the holiday only costing £6,000?
The holiday is likely to cost around £10,000 with everything included. Myself and my husband split everything 50/50 so this is my half of the holiday total.
Where do I start? I find side hustling overwhelming
Have a look through the FREE Members Area and see which side hustles sound interesting to you. At the start there is quite a bit of trial and error. What works for one person won’t work for another as everyone’s free-time and life schedule is different. You’ll soon discover the side hustles that work best for you.
What side hustle offers the best return on time investment?
Matched Betting by far! In my first month I made a whopping £1839.36! Once you’ve learnt the ropes it doesn’t take long at all and you can easily make £20 in 10 minutes with it. I’d highly recommend watching the videos here to get an idea of how it all works.
Ask a Question
Got a question that’s not been answered? Ask in the comments below or pop me a DM on Instagram @thefunmoneyclub