I’ve been using side hustles to make money online since I was 12. In 2023 I decided to start documenting my side hustling journey on Instagram. The first goal I set myself was to side hustle £6,000 for a holiday to Disney World in 2.5 years. I completely smashed my target and ended up side hustling the £6,000 I needed for the holiday in just 10.5 months.

Read: How I Side Hustled £6,000 for a Holiday to Walt Disney World Florida

A further 6.5 months on and I have now side hustled over £10,000. And I’ve been doing it alongside my full-time job! You don’t need any skills or experience to do the side hustles I’ve been doing. You just need a laptop or mobile phone and an internet connection.

I’ve been a Side Hustler my whole life, but setting a target each year and having that goal to reach towards has really helped me ramp up my side hustle earnings. In this blog post I’ll walk you through my exact earnings and which apps and websites I’ve used to help me make my first £10,000 from side hustles.

In this article:
Side Hustle Breakdown
Acting Work – £1,780.00
Market Research Studies – £1,467.53
Selling Second Hand Items – £1,354.39
Surveys – £1,057.32
Vouchers – £998.16
Interest & Dividends – £824.22
Website Testing – £763.06
Playing Mobile Phone Games – £630.11
Bank Switch Incentives – £425
Cash Wins – £326.68
Free Money Offers – £163.23
Free Cashback Offers – £160.65
Matched Betting – £30.33
Etsy – £16.13
Watching Adverts – £8.25
Side Hustle Round Up

Side Hustle Breakdown

Here are the 15 different types of side hustles I did and how much each side hustle made me over the course of 17 months. Keep reading for a list of the apps and websites I used for each of the mentioned side hustles.

  • Acting Work – £1,780.00
  • Market Research Studies – £1,467.53
  • Selling Second Hand Items – £1,354.39
  • Surveys – £1,057.32
  • Vouchers – £998.16
  • Interest & Dividends – £824.22
  • Website Testing – £763.06
  • Playing Mobile Phone Games – £630.11
  • Bank Switch Incentives – £425
  • Cash Wins – £326.68
  • Free Money Offers – £163.23
  • Free Cashback Offers – £160.65
  • Matched Betting – £30.33
  • Etsy – £16.13
  • Watching Adverts – £8.25

That’s a total of £10,005.06 in 17 months!

If you want more information about how each side hustle works you can download the £5 a Day Side Hustle Challenge App for FREE here.

Acting Work – £1,780.00

I honestly can’t believe this is my top-paying side hustle as I don’t feel like I’ve done much Acting Work at all over the course of these 17 months.

The Acting Work is made up of 2 different types of work:

  1. Extra Work for Film and TV – I am a background artist and do days on TV and film sets as a background actor
  2. Medical Roleplays – I pretend to be a patient so that Junior Doctors can be assessed on their knowledge as part of their OSCE exams

In total over the 17 months I have done 12 days as a background artist and 4 days of Medical Roleplays. This averages out at around £111.25 per acting day which is at the higher end of income for side hustles.

If you’re interested in becoming a TV Extra you can read my post about how to get into this side hustle and what to expect from it here.

Market Research Studies – £1,467.53

I am SHOCKED at how much money I’ve made from doing Market Research Studies. It’s one of my favourite side hustles to do as it’s SO easy. I just get to talk for an hour about a topic with a researcher and get paid for my time. This is a side hustle I recommend to everyone as it really is something anyone can do and can fit into any schedule.

Here are the apps and websites I used in order of which have made the most to least money (Tap any of the company names to sign up to take part in Market Research):

The market research studies I’ve done have all been so varied. I’ve done things like using a carpet cleaner for a month, talking about booking holidays and testing mobile phone games.

In total I have completed 39 Market Research studies which works out an average of £37.62 per study.

Selling Second Hand Items – £1,354.39

I have seriously been decluttering our house and I still feel like I have a load of things to sell. Most of the items I’ve been selling I have listed on Vinted and then a few things I have sold via Facebook Marketplace.

Vinted is such an incredible platform for selling. It takes just a few minutes to photograph and list an item and the whole sales and posting process is super easy.

If you’ve never used Vinted for selling before then give this post a read for all my top tips and tricks for being successful on Vinted.

Read: How to Make Money Selling on Vinted

Surveys – £1,057.32

Don’t sleep on Surveys people! A lot of people turn their nose up at doing Surveys but this is proof it can bring in a great deal of income. Surveys are a great side hustle for absolutely anybody as they can fit around any time schedule you have.

Here are the apps and websites I used in order of which have made the most to least money (Tap any of the company names to sign up and enter the promo codes to earn an extra bonus):

It always shocks me how quickly the pennies add up with surveys. It never looks like it’s going to amount to much but I’m always surprised when I add up my totals to see how well I have done with Surveys.

Vouchers – £998.16

A lot of the money I have made in the past 17 months has been in vouchers. This has been earned for doing all sorts of things like data sharing, walking my dog, cashback app wins and scanning my shopping, just to name a few.

There are so many weird and obscure things you can get paid to do. Here is how much I have made in vouchers and from what type of side hustle:

  • Instagram Competition Win – £250
  • Online Daily Raffle Wins – £180
  • Sharing My Data – £146.74
  • Walking My Dog – £145
  • Cashback App Wins – £74.42
  • Scanning My Shopping – £70
  • Tesco Prize Win – £45
  • PoshMark App Credit (No Longer Exists) – £25
  • Random Free Voucher Offers – £22
  • Testing Female Hygiene Products – £20
  • A random Survey about Smartphones – £10
  • Taste Testing Crisps – £10

Interest & Dividends – £824.22

Throughout my time side hustling I have been putting the money I have made away into a savings account that I don’t touch. I also have a few shares held in a General Investment Account that I receive a small amount of dividends on. I regularly move my savings around from bank to bank to make sure I am getting the highest interest rate possible on my money.

I would highly recommend putting your side hustle 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 my recommended savings accounts. Tap the name of the bank to sign up for a free account:

  • Chip – 4.84% AER
  • Monzo – 4.11% AER plus get £5 free when you make a card payment for the first time
  • Kroo – 3.65% AER

*Interest rates accurate at the time of posting

Website Testing – £763.06

Website Testing is a side hustle I discovered in July of 2023 and it has swiftly become one of my favourite side hustles alongside Market Research. I currently only use one website for this side hustle called UserTesting.

Before signing up for UserTesting I would highly recommend you read the guides on Website Testing within the £5 a Day Side Hustle Challenge App. You will need to take a practice test to use the UserTesting website and if you fail the test too many times you will not be accepted to become a website tester.

Playing Mobile Phone Games – £630.11

I’ve always been a mobile phone game player so to now get paid to do it is a massive winner for me! I’ve played a total of 21 different games over the last 17 months like Bingo Blitz, Monopoly Go and June’s Journey. The bingo games are definitely my favourite to do.

Here are the mobile gaming apps/websites that I use to make money with this side hustle. Tap the name of the app/website to join any you like the look of:

Bank Switch Incentives – £425

In 2023 I did my first ever bank switch offer after putting it off for years thinking it would be too complicated. It was actually really straight forward to do and I ended up doing a total of 4 bank switches in the one year.

Here are the switches I’ve done this and the cash bonuses I received:

  • First Direct – £175
  • Natwest – £200
  • The Co-operative – £50

Within the £5 a Day Side Hustle Challenge App you can find a guide to completing your first bank switch offers as well as information on all the current switches and incentives available.

Cash Wins – £326.68

I’ve won quite a bit of money in the last 17 months and the majority of it has come from an app called everup. everup is a cashback app with a ‘gaming’ element to it. Not only do you receive cashback for buying gift cards but you also receive virtual coins which you can use within the app to win money!

Read: Complete Guide to Cashback: everup

Here is a full breakdown of my cash wins and where the money came from (Tap the company name to sign up to their app/website):

  • everup – £276.18
  • Atlas Carbon Credits (No Longer Exists) – £20
  • Currys Promotion – £10
  • Dibz Football Bingo – £10
  • ASDA Rewards – £5.50
  • Prize Website – £5

Free Money Offers – £163.23

Yes, there are ways in which you can make money for free just by signing up to website or downloading a new app. Every year new free money offers pop up and they are always great to take advantage of as they are often time or budget limited. When an offer does come up I always refer my partner so we can bag the bonus offered 3 times.

Here are the free money offers I have done in the last 17 months:

  • Tide Business Bank – £75
  • Kroo – £60
  • WeBull – £17.23
  • Robinhood – £6
  • MyGuava – £5

Robinhood is the only free money offer that is currently still active.

Free Cashback Offers – £160.65

I’ve done a number of free cashback offers in the last 17 months 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
  • Boohoo Man – £2 profit

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.

Matched Betting – £30.33

I started Matched Betting WAY back in 2016 and it was an amazing side hustle pocketing me over £50,000 in tax-free income in the time I was doing it. Unfortunately I have now been gubbed and stake restricted by most of the big bookmakers so can no longer make big amounts of profit from this side hustle. But I had an amazing run while it lasted. I still made a small amount of money doing this side hustle when some offers popped up with bookmakers I still have accounts with.

Read: How I Make £800 a month Matched Betting

Etsy – £16.13

I was going to give Etsy a proper go back in 2023. I set up an Etsy store and uploaded some digital work to it but I just didn’t have the time to commit to it. It’s a lot of hard work to get a brand new business off the ground and with The Fun Money Club growing I just didn’t have time to juggle the two.

Watching Adverts – £8.25

This is one of the lower paying side hustles but you can use an app called WeAre8 to get paid to watch adverts. Every advert you watch via the app you will earn money plus WeAre8 will also donate to charity on your behalf for every advert watched. It’s not a side hustle I’ve really done a lot of as I’ve focused on more of the higher paying ones but some of our £5 a Day Side Hustle Challenge members have made good amounts doing this side hustle.

Side Hustle Round Up

So that’s exactly how I side hustled £10,000 in 17 months. That time has absolutely flown by and I can’t imagine a day in the future where I’m not utilising side hustles to make extra income alongside my full-time job. It is honestly SO easy to do, it’s just taking the time to learn how all these different apps and websites work. If you really want to boost your income this year then give some of these side hustles a go!

Don’t forget to download the FREE £5 a Day Side Hustle Challenge app where you can find more in-depth information about how all of these side hustles work. Click here to download the app for free.