Extra Income Report – December 2016

December 2016 Extra Income Report - Homely Economics

We’ve been tracking our income and expenses for three years now, but 2016 was the first year I shared any of it publicly – it’s been a very interesting experience! I hope you’ve enjoyed following along. Read on to find out what made us a bit extra over the last month…

Extra Income Report for December 2016 - Homely Economics
Mostly passive income with a dash of work thrown in!

  • Interest  – £168.55
  • Cashback – £35.28
  • Online Earnings – £9
  • Vehicle Tax Refund – £122.50
  • Sales – £24.30
  • Refunds – £4
  • Writing – £0.28
Total: £363.91Best one of the year!

Refunds

I don’t normally include refunds for retail goods in my extra income – it could be misleading. For example, I had a problem with an Argos collection code I’d ordered from Zeek with another promo code, and to their credit, the moment I complained, they refunded me my £1 payment, along with the promo credit and an extra £3 credit. So I wouldn’t include my £1 refund as ‘income’, but I could include the £3 credit. However, I haven’t, as it works more like a coupon or discount, and can’t be withdrawn as cash.

However, I did get a cheque from British Gas for £4 for what was owed to me for a dual fuel discount for the brief period I was their customer before switching to OVO. Hey, every little helps!

And… this is the second time this year we got a vehicle tax refund. That’s thanks to bangernomics – we were offered a better car for a whole £1. The first time, I debated whether or not to include it in the calculation, but went for YES – but this time, I really did work to max it out. I had to time my SORN declaration perfectly, doing it on the last day of November so as not to have to pay the tax for December. Remember, you don’t get refunds for part of a month.

eBay

eBay finally paid off for me! I made £62.44 on coins and notes, and after deducting the value of the money sold, eBay fees and the postage, I came away with £24.30. That profit seems ridiculously low… but it’s actually pretty good, and I’m planning to carry on now.

Cashback

Cashback breakdown –
  • TSB Plus cashback – £4.61
  • TSB credit card cashback – £5
  • Nationwide Select credit card cashback – £20.67
  • Amazon top-up bonus – £5

Lord Balders’ Nationwide Select credit card pays 0.5% cashback on purchases annually in December. Not our biggest earner, but we were using it for a 0% stoozing offer all year as well, so it’s a very welcome bonus!

So ok, the Amazon bonus isn’t strictly cashback, but it worked in exactly the same way – I received an offer to get £5 in my gift card account if I topped the account up by £100. That’s 5% cashback.

Writing

And OH YES – I made a whole 28p from ebooks! Ok, don’t laugh. It’s still something!

It’s been a pretty good year for saving money, even though we’ve been spending on renovating our house. Next year we’re planning to spend more, and stooze less, but our thrifty ways aren’t finished at all! Please keep reading for next year’s progress (and an annual update).

Over to you – what do you think of this month’s work? How have your side hustles and savings gone this month, or this year?

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