📊 Ariel's April Side Gig Recap 📊
I made more on the side this month than I made working full-time right out of college. 😱
Welcome to Our Info Dump! This space is for sharing successes alongside project updates, side gig financial details, referral codes, website recs, and general life minutiae.
This month, I flew to the Rio Grande Valley twice for work, fell deeper into the /r/churning rabbit hole, and ran around an airport until midnight trying to finish five secret shopping assignments.
First up, reselling profits. 💰
April was another better-than-average month for me with a $1,307.37 profit. I’m not sure if my listings are improving or if this is just the typical spring buyers’ rush before the inevitable “summer slowdown.”
I sometimes wonder why I bother with platforms other than Poshmark. Although every other platform has lower fees for buyers and sellers, Poshmark remains on top in the number of sold listings and overall profit. It’s very silly and proves that almost no one does comparison shopping. My listings are cross-listed everywhere at a lower price! Often with lower shipping!! But 🤷🏻♀️
Other gigs:
🛍️ Secret shopping!
Secret shopping is an old side gig, but I haven’t done any assignments since 2017. I’m working on a longer post about this experience because there was way too much information for a brief summary. For now, here are the numbers.
Number of shops: 9
Spent: $124.83
Payout: $285
Earned: $160.17
That’s roughly $17.80 per shop. One shop assignment’s pay only covered the meal Nina and I ate, but hey, free food! Seven assignments were for restaurants and bars inside an airport, and the last one was at a gas station close to home. I completed one secret shop assignment this month already, and I plan to complete at least seven more at the airport when I fly out for a work conference later this month.
💳 More churning!
I’ve branched out from the /r/churning subreddit and started spending more time on the infamous FlyerTalk Forums. I thought I was good at credit cards, but I was clearly not gaming the system enough to my full potential.
Monthly total: $751
Accounts opened, bonuses earned, and referral links:
Earn $100 by opening a Chime checking account and depositing $200 (referral code; I get $100 if you sign up and make a deposit!)
Earn $400 by opening a Truist checking account and depositing $500.
Earn $101 in fractional stock shares when you open a new Charles Schwab brokerage account and deposit at least $50.
Upgrading my Amex card to an American Express Everyday Preferred earned me a $150 statement credit. However, the upgraded card has a $95 yearly fee, so I will likely downgrade after a year. Check out all of Amex’s new card offers here.
🍅 Seedlings (again)!
I finally sold all my leftover tomato plants. Here are some rough numbers on my Facebook Marketplace listing:
951 clicks
26 saves
18 messages
3 times Facebook took it down for “violating marketplace terms against posting job ads”???
$49 earned in April
💰 Total earnings for April: $2,267.54
I’ve made less than this at previous full-time jobs, so this is awesome.
Other gigs I’m considering:
I signed up for Rover and Turo in February, right before scheduling abdominal surgery. I have a friend who does Rover, and it seems like it could be a nice gig if you can find assignments close enough to home. Now that I’m in a two-car household again, I thought renting out my Crosstrek on Turo could become another stream of income. Newer Subarus earn decent rates in the Texas market. Unfortunately, I’ve read too many horror stories on /r/turo, so I’ll likely deactivate my host account soon.
Is this fun? Are we having fun? I promise I’ll post about other things at some point.
Donate to a bail fund to support the students and faculty recently arrested for protesting the ongoing Palestinian genocide: campusbailfunds.com
Buy a shirt to support the Friends of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees Inc. (my personal fundraiser!): bonfire.com/olive-trees-for-palestine
Find me everywhere on the internet: linktr.ee/arieltypes
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