Money Matters
bmo88
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
What are your "side hustles" that make you extra money?
I was writing a post for my blog today about my side hustle of product testing and it got my curious about what others do.
Here's a list of my side hustles:
- Product Testing: I have made over $7,000 in the past 9 years from testing products like cosmetics and hygiene products. I also recently started using UserTesting.com (have made $20 so far) to test websites and apps
- Renting a Room to my Brother In Law: He moved in this past August and we charge $300 a month. So far, we have made $1,200
- Personal Assistant for a Consultant: I started doing small tasks like payroll, running errands and creating powerpoints for a consultant. She pays me $15 an hour and in the past year and a half I made about $2,000.
- Article Transcription: only did this once and didn't care for it. I transcribe a handwritten article to a typed and formatted paper for a professor once. I made $70 and it wasn't hard, but it was a pain trying to read his handwriting.
Re: What are your "side hustles" that make you extra money?
We made over $6K this year renting our guest bed and bath.
We occasionally try to sell clothes to Plato's closet to make a few dollars.
Once we spent a day as movie extras - crowd scene people. It was a super long and boring day but with the OT pay it wasn't a bad paycheck (close to $90 I think) for doing nothing. And we got to see what it was like being on a movie set. We didn't make it into the movie.
For many years I did childcare at a church. It paid well, but the church transitioned out of using paid staff two years ago. Now I sub from time to time.
I've been playing around with answering surveys online lately, but it's questionable whether the time is worth the money.
I use to dog sit before getting married & getting 3 dogs in the package. I would stay overnight at client's homes, it's too hard to do that now.
The thing I currently do is work for a service that provides servers for special events in peoples homes. We don't do any cooking, we just show up, help serve and do all the clean up.
I own a duplex and rent out the other side. I actually don't consider this a "side hustle" because I am in my starting steps of building my rental investment business. But, since other people included rental income, I will too
. I currently make $1100/month gross. Soon I'll have my other duplex rented and that will add another $2,000/month gross.
I also take pics of hotel event boards. I am an IC for a company on this and have a set (but flexible) schedule and route. I make an extra $440/week gross.
I also mystery shop (MS) on a fairly regular basis. I've been an MS shopper for almost 15 years now. At times in my life, I've done it very actively. But when I'm working f/t and don't especially have a need for extra money, I cut way back. Right now, I'm cut way back and probably only earn $150-$300/month in fees (not including reimbursements).
I also very occasionally participate in focus groups and mock juries. It's a bit random, but I average a few hundred extra dollars/year on this.
In the past, I've also made extra income running demos (sampling) and merchandising. Merchandising generally pays really crappy for the time, so I haven't done it much or recently. I'd like to do a few sampling gigs with the holiday season, but unfortunately I'm just too busy to be bothered with it this year.
It's kind of interesting! I think they are sometimes conducted in preparation for a large civil case going to trial. Basically, you sit in a room with a lot of other mock jurors and the attorneys for both sides present their cases. Throughout the "trial", there will be breaks where everyone is given forms to fill out to get their opinion on what they just heard.
Toward the end of the day, the mock jurors break out into groups and decide "as a jury" if the plaintiff wins any money and, if so, how much.
It essentially gives the legal teams on both sides a look into which of their arguments are most compelling, which ones need work, what concepts do/don't people understand, etc.
Mock juries are typically a set fee for the day, but they usually break down to be around $15/hour. Plus you are provided breakfast/lunch/snacks/drinks.
The very first one I did was a monster. It was 3 days and we were given handheld devices that, as the attorneys were talking or video testimony was being provided, you had to keep pushing a button for either "positive, neutral, or negative", based on how you felt about what you were hearing. I was paid $375 for that one. I was actually unemployed at the time, so it was very welcome money to be earning.
I've been in two other mock juries. One was a half day Saturday. That was $75. And I took a vacation day from work to participate in the other one. It was all day and paid $150. I had tons of vacation time anyway, so it was a great way to get paid at my f/t job and make some extra cash.
Snarky comment and what I've learned. Your case better be really sympathetic to jurors. I was shocked in all cases at how much my fellow mock jurors argued/voted based on their emotions instead of the law. And two of the cases weren't even anything to get emotional about. They were Big Ole Business vs. Big Ole Insurance company.
Now to be a total nerd. Most people found the whole thing boring, but I found much of it fascinating. It was interesting to start with an opinion of "this" and then often have it change multiple times (at least somewhat) as each layer of evidence/argument is presented.
@hoffse, that's interesting to hear mock juries are also used for training and/or to gauge associates. I could definitely see where that would be useful for a firm.
The three I participated in were for real cases.
Though, I've actually never been on a real jury, lol.
TTC since 1/13 DX:PCOS 5/13 (long, anovulatory cycles)
Clomid 50mg 9/13 = BFP! EDD 6/7/14 M/C 5w6d Found 11/4/13
1/14 PCOS / Gluten Free Diet to hopefully regulate my system.
Chemical Pregnancy 03/14
Surprise BFP 6/14, Beta #1: 126 Beta #2: 340 Stick baby, stick! EDD 2/17/15
Riley Elaine born 2/16/15
TTC 2.0 6/15
Chemical Pregnancy 9/15
Chemical Pregnancy 6/16
BFP 9/16 EDD 6/3/17
Beta #1: 145 Beta #2: 376 Beta #3: 2,225 Beta #4: 4,548
www.5yearstonever.blogspot.com
TTC since 1/13 DX:PCOS 5/13 (long, anovulatory cycles)
Clomid 50mg 9/13 = BFP! EDD 6/7/14 M/C 5w6d Found 11/4/13
1/14 PCOS / Gluten Free Diet to hopefully regulate my system.
Chemical Pregnancy 03/14
Surprise BFP 6/14, Beta #1: 126 Beta #2: 340 Stick baby, stick! EDD 2/17/15
Riley Elaine born 2/16/15
TTC 2.0 6/15
Chemical Pregnancy 9/15
Chemical Pregnancy 6/16
BFP 9/16 EDD 6/3/17
Beta #1: 145 Beta #2: 376 Beta #3: 2,225 Beta #4: 4,548
www.5yearstonever.blogspot.com
I have a good friend who used to do in-home "sexy" parties. She sold a line of marital aids and toys, that kind of thing. She is a fairly shy, right wing person and isn't a salesperson type either. But was very successful with it. I hate to say it, but I was shocked she did so well. She did 2-3 parties/week and usually profited at least $100 with each one.
Unfortunately, she hooked up with this loser guy and married him. Despite the fact that he couldn't earn enough money to rub two dimes together, he forced her to quit her business because the subject matter made him "uncomfortable" (rolling eyes).
If I'd still lived in So. CA at the time, I would have swooped in and taken it over.