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I can’t believe we are already heading in to the final months of 2023! I’m in my last full month of maternity leave and soaking up all the time with our little family. This month had revenue from more side hustles than any other month so far this year, including a few new ones that I am excited about. I am still working on building back up my revenue to replace my OT client that unfortunately passed earlier this year. Let’s take a look at what September’s side hustle report looks like.
The Earnings
- Mperks: $30.00
- Baby Lab: $39.65
- Etsy Shop: $15.16
- Enfamil Rebate: $30.00
- Infant Care Study: $5.00
- Chase Ultimate Rewards: $51.77
- Survey Junkie: $10.76
- Branded Survey: $14.78
- Lake Michigan Credit Union: $33.62
Total: $230.74
The Breakdown
Mperks
For anyone located in the midwest or if you have a Meijer grocery store in your area, mperks is their rewards program. We do most of our shopping there and they re-vamped their program earlier this year. I notice more savings and more cash back on our groceries! If you shop at Meijer and don’t use mperks you are missing out on saving on your everyday purchases.
Baby Lab
The university where I obtained my OT degree holds “baby labs” for their therapy programs. This helps the students learn developmental milestones for their pediatric coursework from real babies! Technically this is my son’s “side hustle” but I’m counting it in here. He gets paid for a minimum of 3 hours for every lab he completes but only is with the students for ~20 minutes based on his age. I’ve opened a Custodial Roth IRA for him where this money goes! Note in order to open this investment account for your kids they have to have some sort of W2 income.
Etsy
This month I launched my first Etsy product – my Net Worth Tracker! This is what I use to track our net worth and keep track of our assets/liabilities. It’s been fun to figure out Etsy, how to promote your page, all the things. And honestly I am still learning! If you are interested in an easy and automatic way to track your net worth you can visit my shop here. My goal is to add more helpful spreadsheets. On deck is a monthly budget tracker!
Enfamil Rebate
Recently I weaned from breastfeeding for multiple different reasons. This means we are buying formula on a regular basis and that stuff is not cheap. I joined Enfamil’s rewards program and saw that they were offering $30 back in rebates when you spent a certain amount within a specific timeframe. On their app you can also submit receipts and accumulate points that you can redeem for digital cash back.
Infant Care Study
I randomly received an email about completing a short infant care study. I’m not sure if it’s from one of the apps I used during my pregnancy but it asked pretty simple questions about what our little guy was eating, when, etc. I’m always a little skeptical and only engage in side hustles that I find trustworthy. When the survey was complete they sent me a gift card for Amazon which is almost as good as cash in my opinion. Lesson learned from this is to look at every email I get because often I’ll go on a quick deleting binge with the amount of marketing emails I get!
Chase Ultimate Rewards
I am a big fan of Chase’s credit card rewards system. I utilize both their Sapphire Reserve and Freedom cards. The Freedom card has no annual fee but you don’t get quite as many rewards as with the Reserve card. If you have multiple cards with Chase you can combine your ultimate rewards points. Usually I transfer all my points over to my Reserve card to get the most bang for my buck. Currently with the Pay Yourself Back feature your points are worth 25% more when you use them, which is what I did this month! You can sign up for the Sapphire Reserve card using this link or the Freedom card by clicking here.
Survey Junkie
Survey Junkie is a market research platform that pays users for their opinions. I love using this app because I can make money from my couch. While I don’t make a significant amount every month, an extra $10-$20 is better than nothing. You could definitely make more every month but with a full-time job, newborn, and pup that requires a lot of attention I don’t always have time. However, I make it a goal every month to meet the minimum cash out balance (500 points or $5.00). I did a full review of Survey Junkie here if you are curious about the details. You can sign up using this link – it’s free to join!
Branded Survey
This is another market research platform that pays you for your opinions! They offer daily surveys for guaranteed points and tiers based on how many surveys you complete in a given time frame. The more you take, the more points you can earn. Similar to Survey Junkie, I aim to hit the minimum payout (500 points or $5.00) every month, which is not difficult to do. If you are interested in getting paid for your opinion you can sign up here for free!
Lake Michigan Credit Union
LMCU is where we have our joint checking account. We utilize their max checking because you can earn up to $450 per year for doing a few simple things (checking your account regularly, signing up for e-statements, etc). This particular account is regularly ranked as one of the best checking accounts in the country to give you the most bang for your buck. If you Google “checking accounts with the best rewards” or something similar it will show you which accounts offer the most APY.
That wraps up Q3 and the month of September! With having our baby and losing one of my main side hustles in April I may not meet my annual goal this year which is ok. I’m hoping to look in to more that I can do remotely. If you have any that you enjoy doing or any that you would like me to try let me know in the comments below!