My First Month Trying Out Hustling : Does it really pay to Hustle?

Yes. It does. However for me, I can't claim you can live off of your hustling income quite yet. I mean, I just wanted to see what would happen is all. (Disclaimer: this post contains affiliate links.)

First off, I need to tell you one of the major components of making as much as I did hustling was PRAYER. I kid you not.

My husband and I are basically living paycheck to paycheck right now, and I've been scrimping and scrabbling to save and get some debt paid off. (My student loan is still in it's 'grace' period, so the more I pay off now, the less interest I have to pay later.) We got our emergency fund set up a couple months ago using the tax return, and it has not and will not be touched until an actual emergency occurs.

I pray almost constantly that we will be able to save money. That we will be smart with the money we have. And that opportunities to make some extra money will present themselves and that we will recognize them and take those opportunities. I feel like all of this extra income from April is a direct result of the prayers I've been making about finances.

Mind you, I don't want to get rich quick. I don't want this extra money to go buy a lot of yarn or a puppy or a motorcycle. I want to be able to live providently, get our debts paid off, and be able to live without the worry of finances always looming over our heads.

So; here it is, the Hustling Income Total for April was $200. And that is a lot for us. It's half of our monthly rent, three months of credit card payments, a month of groceries!

How did I do it? One word: fiverr.

Ok, not all of it came from fiverr, but a decent amount of it did. I heard rumors about fiverr and decided I might as well give it a go. See if it's the real deal and what not. So, I signed up, created a gig and didn't give it much thought. Less than 24 hours later I had not one, but two gigs. And they just kept coming. In all, I completed 9 gigs in the three weeks that were left in April. Totaling $88. I got paid to read! Serious dream come true for me.

Besides fiverr, I sold things on Craigslist, eBay, and even on Ravelry. Little items here and there that weren't being used (like extra yarn and a hair straightener), but they all added up.

Finally, I babysat. Just once, but it was enough to make up a good 25% of the months hustling income.

What about swagbucks and eBates ? While I use those regularly (daily in the case of swagbucks), I don't count that money yet because it's not in my bank account. It really bothers me that a lot of bloggers will make posts about how to make extra money, but they don't mention that sites like Swagbucks make you wait until you reach a certain level to cash out. So if you're hard up for money to make rent, and you sign up with one of those sites, wouldn't you be frustrated with the blogger who said you could make cash quick with them? I would be. So I'm not going to be that blogger. I'll count that money when it makes it to my account, thank you very much.

Grand total for April: $200.

Oddly Enough....

So, over a year ago, I was looking for ways to make some extra money online. I found a guy who claimed that you could save your Box Tops for Education, and caps with codes from Coca-Cola, and sell them on Ebay.

I was a bit skeptical, but also a bit desperate. So I decided to give it a try and started to save all the Box Tops for Education I could find. Once I got about 100, I took a deep breath, and posted it on Ebay.

And it sold. Generally they sell for the same amount they would be worth to a school. So, 100 box tops = $10.

Ten bucks back on my regular groceries. By selling a piece of cardboard/paper on Ebay. I'm yet to try the Coke rewards, but am saving up the caps from my bottles to try that one too.

So, if you need a few extra bucks, don't have children or have children who go to a school that doesn't use Box Tops for Education. Start saving them up and get selling!

Quilts or no?

 For those of you who know me, you know that over the past few years I've gone back and forth on running my own business.
I love crafty junk like sewing and knitting, but it can get expensive. And if you don't have people to give this stuff to, it starts to pile up.

Now, I've recently picked up and permanently moved across the country from my parents, so I no longer have the room to store things because I no longer have a Sewing Lair.

I did ship some things to myself however, and now am trying to get some more income generated in my life. Because I'm now a 'starving graduate school student'.
Almost literally.

So here's my question for you all. I have here a quilt front, it's only one of a couple that I have, and I quite enjoyed making it.
But will I be able to sell it if it's not a 'finished' quilt? Or would people buy it as just the quilt front?

Please give me your feedback so I can move forward on getting this business up and running again!