My first post of 2019 is a look back at 2018… just as this time last year, I was wrapping up what we’d done in December 2017. After a sneaky look back, I realised that we made £518.53 that month! Well, there won’t be any such heights this time around: my foot has well and truly come off the pedal, and that’s ok.
Sometimes you need to step back and reflect on what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, and I’ve stepped back and jumped into things that have made me very happy. So whilst I ruminate on the future of the income report on this blog, on with last month’s shenanigans.
Here’s a breakdown of our passive and side hustle income for December.
- Cashback – £17.81
- Coupons – £13.55
- Referrals – £15
- Interest – £19.73
- Blogs – £12
- Online Earnings – £3
Total: £81.09
My rules for calculating our extra income.
What do we include?
Cashback, bank interest and incentives, dividends, bonuses, competition wins, discounts earned through loyalty points, voucher codes or special activity, found money (substantial amounts), gifts, tax refunds that would otherwise be unclaimed, earnings from online or offline sales, as well as earnings from surveys, apps and freelance writing work.
What doesn’t qualify?
Our salaries, regular sale refunds (such as buying something and then returning it), discounts on items in store or online that are available to all, general estimates of what we could have spent but didn’t – such as reducing a bill and calculating what the difference would have been.
Here’s our income in detail:
Interest
We made a respectable amount in interest, I think; it is a bit of a shame to see the average amount drop over the years but the good old days of the highest rates on currents accounts are gone. Still, it’s pretty close to £20 for next to nothing, and I know I’d rather gain it than lose it!
Read about Lee's extra income in December 2018! Click To TweetCashback
Part of our cashback this month came from TopCashback, in the form of a virtual prepaid Mastercard holding £6.80.
We got this option after transferring our cashback into our Reward Wallet… you might have picked up on me mentioning this before but if it sounds complicated, don’t worry, it isn’t. It’s just an incentive to encourage you to choose a gift card or voucher payment for a slightly higher amount than just getting it transferred to your bank as cash.
The larger part of our cashback came from a Nationwide Select credit card. This card builds up cashback every month at 0.5% and pays out once a year, in December. We don’t use it for much (I even forgot about it entirely this year!) but it does get some use every month, and we got £11.01 refunded just for using it as we normally would. Not bad, eh?
Blogs
I turned down a lot of work last month that just wasn’t suitable, and having the option to say no to work is definitely a good position to be in. Some affiliate marketing payments are coming my way in January instead, so whilst it’s a low showing for December, it’ll be put right later.
Coupons
Last month we did a fair amount of shopping, and fortunately we had a hoard of loyalty points to fall back on! Those Nectar points and store-specific points came in really handy just at the right time.
Online Earnings
The most boooring entry – reliable Pinecone yet again!
Referrals
Not so boring, because I know that everyone who used my code to take out a Curve card got £5 themselves! It’s a good feeling to know that you’re being rewarded and actually adding value (such a 2018 blogger thing to say) to someone’s life.
That’s all for this month…
Will this be the last? Erm… all I can say is (again), maybe! Or at least in its current incarnation. I’m all about changing things up when I think they can bring improvements.
However, I will be doing a recap of 2018’s side hustle results and comparing them to the year before, so stay tuned for that!
Over to you.
How has the past month been for you and your side hustle/savings project? On track? Off track? No direction at all? I hope the next month brings you even better results!
Read last month’s extra income.
How did this year compare to last year?
