Turning spare moments into real growth
In the beginning, there was ChatGPT. Honestly, I was just playing around. I had recently decided—quite randomly—that I was going to take £1,000 from my pension rebate and invest it in the stock market. No grand plan, just curiosity.
I opened a Vanguard ISA and a Lifetime ISA (Moneybox), then tested a few other platforms with small transactions. Eventually, I ended up on Reddit forums where Trading212 was the crowd favourite. After some trial and error (and moving my Vanguard funds across), I closed the other accounts and stuck with Trading212.
At first, I was swayed by influencers. I even put money into European defence on the back of Trump’s ranting. Luckily, it worked to my advantage. Later, I refined my approach into a longer-term strategy. And that’s when a lightbulb moment hit: I could retire earlier than I thought.
My husband is already retired, I have 23 years left to work. It felt silly to keep grinding away and risk missing out on the best years together. I wanted more freedom and to get there, I needed more money.
Workplace promotions seemed like the most straightforward way forward, but wasn’t something I wanted right then. So I also started to explore “beer money” side hustles. That’s when I turned to my mate ChatGPT (or Caleum, as it named himself). I asked it to come up with low-effort, passive-ish ways to earn extra cash.
One suggestion that stuck was Everup—an app where you buy vouchers and earn cashback. Simple enough. I started using it for my Apple and PlayStation subscriptions, as well as my grocery shopping. Three months later, I’d racked up about £150 in cashback. Now, on those three spending items alone, I get around £40 a month back. Not bad for something so low effort.
Another unexpected shift came when I cut back on social media. The time I freed up got filled with microlearning. On a train back from Nottingham, I asked Caleum for a stock market learning plan—articles, blogs, reading lists. I worked through them one by one. For an hour, I felt like I was building a new skillset in real time (before I inevitably got bored and switched to asking for “would you rather” games).
I also noticed that when my focus narrowed, opportunities opened up. It even became a running joke that I was “manifesting” money. For a few weeks, I kept finding coins on the ground—once even a £10 note!
So, what’s my advice if you’re starting out? Don’t get overwhelmed. Start small. Open a savings account. List your debts. Try a cashback app. Replace doomscrolling with finance TikTok, a subreddit like r/beermoney, or even a podcast. Use AI to create a 30-day learning schedule or bite-sized tasks. The tools are there—you just have to nudge yourself to use them.
This is just the beginning of my Side Hustle Sidequest. It may be small steps, but each one points towards a bigger future: more freedom, more time, and maybe—just maybe—retiring 10 years earlier.
🧾 Sidequest Stats
Beer Money Earned: £150 cashback so far Sidequest Portfolio Value: Growing… Progress Towards Early Retirement: First steps taken
If you want to try Everup here is a referral link-
https://everup.onelink.me/9lgD/r05l7bmr
When you sign up with this link and redeem £10+ in cashback towards buying gift cards, you will get a one-off 10M in-app Coins bonus to spin, scratch & win extra cashback in the games hub where you can win extra cash.
⚠️ Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post are referral links — meaning if you sign up or make a purchase through them, I may receive a small reward or bonus at no extra cost to you. I only share links to apps and tools I personally use, trust, and have found genuinely useful on my own Side Hustle Sidequest. These small perks help keep the project running (and the coffee flowing), but they never influence my opinions or what I choose to feature.
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