How I Side Hustled Over £45,000 in 12 Months

I’ve had a few requests for a break down of my side hustle income so here’s everything you need to know about how I side hustled over £45,000 this year. Before I get started I’ll give some context to my working situation; I work part-time for the NHS (3 days a week), this isn’t included in this income report.

For the rest of the week I run beemoneysavvy.com – this is where I earn the majority of my blogging income. I’ve been blogging for over 5 years now and this year I won Best Money Saving Blog (UK) at the MarTech Awards. Here’s a quick breakdown of where the £45,000 came from:

Due to the nature of my blog I’m constantly on the look out for new ways to make money, that could be from side hustles, referral offers, savings accounts, or investments – and I’ll give almost any side hustle a try as it means I can write about my experiences.

Blogging – £30,163

2022 has been my highest earning year as a blogger, I averaged £2,500 a month. Earning money as a blogger doesn’t happen overnight, but with a few years of dedication you can begin to earn money from blogging.

I earn money as blogger in 3 different ways:

  • Sponsored work £27,166
  • Affiliate income (e.g. Awin, Impact) £2997
  • Advertising income (Google Adsense) £730

These aren’t the only ways to earn money from a blog but they’re the ways that work for me. The majority of my income comes from sponsored work; this usually involves a brand paying me to write about them on my blog. This year I integrated Adsense (advertising) on my blog – which now earns between £50-£100 a month. I’ve written about how you can earn money as a blogger in more depth before.

Referral Programmes – £8,738

Anyone can earn money from referral programmes, my advantage is that I have a significant audience of people who are looking for money making offers.

Here’s a breakdown of my 2022 referral income:

  • Zilch £4,800 (still active)
  • Shares £1,000
  • Cash app £565
  • Ziglu £520
  • Chase £400
  • Monese £390
  • Sprive £285
  • TikTok £170
  • The Credit Thing £160
  • Vanquis £150
  • Monzo £145
  • Cheddar £103
  • Tide £50 

You can find all the referral programmes that I promote on my free money page, once you’re signed up you can refer your friends and family, giving you the opportunity to earn referral income too.

Do you want to start earning money with referral programmes? I have a forum where you can post your referral links and codes.

Rental Income – £3,300

I became an accidental landlord earlier this year after moving in with my partner. It certainly hasn’t been as easy as I’d expected, the initial costs meant that it took 3 months before I made any profit.

I charge £600 a month for a one bed flat, which is a 20 minute walk away from the city centre of Sheffield. There are a lot of costs and responsibilities that come with letting my flat including:

  • Ground rent (£300)
  • Service charge (£800)
  • Building insurance (£360)
  • Landlord insurance (£120)
  • A fee to the freeholder to let (£150)
  • Electrical Safety Certificate (£120)
  • Gas Safety Certificate
  • Energy Performance Certificate

I also pride myself on taking care of any maintenance issues within 48 hours – although it does help that my brother is a joiner.

Surveys – £1,447.39

Online surveys get a bad reputation as they can often be low paying and boring. Despite my many side hustles I still find time to do surveys as they don’t require much effort and can be done on your daily commute or while watching TV.

Here’s a breakdown of what I earned from my 3 favourite survey sites:

Good survey sites can be hard to find, I’ve listed all the survey sites I use to earn money here.

Cash Prize Wins – £1,330

If you’re a regular follower of Bee Money Savvy you’ll know that I like to enter lots of competitions and I’ve been pretty successful at winning my fair share. This year I managed to win £1,330 in cash prizes:

  • £1,000 via Twitter (BetVictor)
  • £200 via Instagram (Twig)
  • £100 via Twitter (Beyond NRG)
  • £20 via Twitter (Sky Vegas)
  • £10 via Instagram (MyWealthBook)

I also won a holiday to the Maldives, £400 in gift credit, Galaxy Watch 5 & Buds 2 Pro, a Portable Grill Gas BBQ, a bottle of Wicked Wolf Gin, and £295 Tissot watch. You can view all my competition wins here.

Cashback – £896.62

I absolutely love cashback, it’s one of the most effortless ways to save money every time you buy something. For the past year I’ve been earning at least 1% cashback on every purchase I make.

Here are my favourite cashback tools and how much I’ve made from them in 2022:

  • TopCashback £325
  • Amex card £250
  • JamDoughnut £140
  • Airtime Rewards £80
  • Chase card £21.62

There are some brilliant cashback websites, apps and cards that you can use to boost your income – read my guide to cashback to get started.

Interest on Savings – £232.22

Put simply, a savings account is an account where you can put money and earn interest. Right now you can earn anything between 2-5% interest on your savings. If you’re a lower tax payer you can earn up to £1,000 tax free interest from savings accounts.

Here’s are my top picks for easy access savings accounts:

Best Easy Access Savings Accounts

I also have a cash ISA with Virgin Money which offers tax free interest at a rate of 4.7%.

2022 was a breakthrough year for my finances, I went from working full-time, earning under £30,000 to working part-time hours for my employer and earning over £45,000 just from side hustles! I can’t wait to update these figures next year, follow me on instagram @beemoneysavvy to see updates.

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