Just realized my side hustle hit $5k in a single month last week and I had no clue

I was going through my invoicing for taxes and noticed October brought in $5,230 just from my weekend lawn mowing and leaf cleanup gigs. I had no idea I was that busy. I live in a small town in Ohio where most people just pay cash and I never add it up. It made me wonder how much money the rest of us are leaving on the table by not tracking small jobs. Has anyone else found a hidden number in their random work?

3 comments

3 Comments

dixon.spencer24d ago

Wait, you really had no clue you were pulling in over five grand a month? That's wild to me. I track every single dollar from my side work in a spreadsheet. Even the cash ones. You must have been grinding hard without even noticing. That kind of money adds up fast over a year. It makes you wonder how many people are sitting on a pile of cash they never counted.

the_sandra24d ago

@dixon.spencer I think you hit on something important there. People get so used to the small amounts coming in that they don't stop to add it all up. A friend of mine did Uber for about a year and never bothered to look at his total until tax time came around. He was shocked to find out he had made over $30,000 just driving people around on weekends. That extra money could have paid off his car loan or gone into savings, but instead it just dribbled away on takeout and gas station snacks.

grant_allen8524d ago

That $60k a year disappearing into a black hole is basically a whole extra salary just floating around unclaimed. I bet half the people doing gig work or selling stuff on Facebook Marketplace are accidentally funding their own secret vacation funds and don't even know it.