First of all, I must apologise for going a bit quiet. As usual — and probably quite rightly — my main employment has become very busy. When that happens, the side hustling inevitably slows down. That said, February still produced some interesting observations.
The first one actually came from January’s task: market research.
Ironically, my first payment was for a study about financial awareness and responsibility. The key learning here is that you need to apply for a lot of opportunities to get a return. Making it a routine helps. Spend 30 minutes here and there checking for new submissions. This approach is what seems to make the difference. The payment itself came through in March and was only £10, but it was for a five-minute task. Compared to long survey questionnaires, that’s actually a far better return on time.
February’s main side quest — print-on-demand — unfortunately produced a nil return.
However, I did learn quite a bit about how marketing drives traffic to a shopfront. The weeks where I had social media content scheduled and ready clearly performed better than the week I ran out. That was also the same week university deadlines and work both landed heavily at the same time. Lesson learned: having templates and a monthly content plan helps keep things consistent when life inevitably gets busy.
Honesty was always something I wanted to bring to this blog. Side hustles sound great in theory, but in reality they sit alongside full-time work, further education, and life in general. Some weeks I feel motivated and productive. Other weeks I’m simply tired. One weekend recently, I realised I needed to slow down a little. I had to remind myself that this is a marathon, not a sprint. If you don’t look after yourself first, you won’t sustain anything long term.
That said, the end-of-month numbers were a pleasant surprise.
Cashback was a particularly strong area this month. Unexpectedly, Pokémon cards are still taking over my life. The February totals looked like this:
Cashback: £124.65
Interest: £25.74
Dividends: £5.97
Reselling profit: £393.11
Total side hustle income: £549.47
Alongside that, my investment pie saw £490 added in contributions, with a £18.82 return (7.1%) so far. Gold is currently carrying the portfolio. It has shown around 33% growth since the pie began. This probably says something about broader market confidence right now.
Some of my profit has also gone back into Pokémon. Like it or not, Pokémon investing is a real thing. The franchise just turned 30 and historically sealed products have tended to grow in value over time. Scalping is unfortunately a huge barrier in the hobby, with people buying stock purely to resell immediately. On one release day, my ever-patient husband and I went from shop to shop. We were with other fans trying to find stock at retail price.
We succeeded, and even opened a few packs for fun.
Which brings me to a reminder I’ve rediscovered recently: hobbies shouldn’t lose their joy just because they become profitable. We looked back at some of our old playing decks. We realized several cards inside were worth between £50 and £100 each. One particularly rare card, if it had been in mint condition, might have graded close to £1000.
Sadly ours has been thoroughly enjoyed over the years. It will never grade highly. That’s also kind of the point.
The decks were played with, shared, and enjoyed. That’s what they were made for.
Looking ahead, I’m beginning to question whether attempting twelve different side hustles in a year is the most sustainable approach. It’s probably reflective of my slightly chaotic tendency to take on too much at once.
March’s task is microtasks and data labelling. It doesn’t sound particularly like “my thing”, but I’ll give it a proper try and report back.
In the meantime, enjoy the arrival of spring and a bit of fresh growth. In a world that often feels quite heavy, remember to give yourself space for the things you enjoy.
And if you see Pokémon cards at retail price — buy them.
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