Money Archives - Paper Heart of Mine

6 Side Hustles to Try NOW!

June 2, 2020

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It’s no secret that my husband and I are working our butts off to pay off these student loans early. Student loans are crippling; sometimes I feel like I am being crushed from the weight of all of them. I’d had enough, and decided to push it into overdrive by paying off our student loans early. This brings me to this list of side hustles I’ve used to generate extra income to throw at our student loans. If you’re looking for some ideas to pay off your debt early, or maybe just need some extra cash, then read on!

VIPKid – by my favorite side hustle. VIPKid is a company that connects elementary aged students in China to teachers in America and Canada to learn English. Essentially, you go through the presentation (that VIPKid uploads) with the student, correct their pronunciation, and encourage them with high energy. Then you write your feedback for the lesson. I’ve been teaching with VIPKid since May of 2019, making between $700 – $1100 extra dollars a month, depending on how much I choose to work. You can read more about VIPKid in this post here, and you can read about their hiring process here. It’s a lot of fun, and if playing with kids comes naturally to you, you will be great at this job! Check out VIPKid at this link.

Essay Grader – I recently picked up another side hustle that also ranks highly on my favorites list! I am working as an essay grader to a company that sort of works like an online community college. The classes are online, so there is no instructor. For this job, the requirements are a master’s degree and experience teaching college. It pays $7.50 per essay, and sometimes offers bonuses up to $9.50 – which is awesome! I love the flexibility this side hustle provides me – I log on after the baby goes to bed or before she wakes up, and make some extra money! You could search online for ‘Grader’ positions if this is something that interests you.

Summer Camps – My husband and I both have taken advantage of our summer time availability to teach a summer camp or two. I’ve done all sorts of camps – Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Day Camps, etc, and they have all been a blast. Basically, you pick what you’re interested in, design a curriculum around it, and hang out with kids for the week…it’s awesome! They are usually a week commitment and pay anywhere from $500 – $800 a week for 3 hours of work a day. This is ideal if you are a teacher, but could work if you have the ability to take PTO or vacation time. It’s a great way to make extra money on top of your existing paycheck or full time job 🙂

Survey Junkie – I know it’s absurd, but I love taking surveys. Absolutely love them. Anytime I get an email asking to take a customer satisfaction survey, I’m in. When the gym emailed asking about the new classes, and what I’d like to see in the future? I took it. I take surveys for free. I take surveys for fun. And now, I take surveys and get paid. This is not a primary side hustle for me; it’s more of a way to make a couple extra dollars of spending money. I usually do this while I’m relaxing in front of the TV (currently re-watching House, any other Hugh Laurie fans?), watching Netflix, and drinking a cup of yummy tea. Delightful.The surveys relax me and let me unwind from the day. I also like to take them while I’m waiting in the doctor’s office – I did this a lot while I was pregnant. Rather than scrolling through Instagram, why not make a dollar or two while you wait to be seen? It’s a perfect way to make a couple extra dollars of spending money on a given day. Click the link below to check it out!

Etsy Shop – an Etsy shop is a great way to generate some income if you have a product to sell! In the past, I’ve sold planner stickers and planner kits to decorate and pretty-fy your planner. (Check this blog post here to see what I mean). Right now, I’m selling a few printables focusing on helping others with their debt free journey. One of my goals is to grow this shop and offer more printables to help people! Take a look at my little Etsy Shop Here.

Teachers Pay Teachers – this is another place I’m hoping to grow and offer more resources to help teachers. I love shopping at TpT because I know the money I spend is going directly to another teacher. Being a teacher is not easy! The ratio between the amount of time you put into your job versus your actual salary is ridiculously warped, so I love that I am supporting another teacher financially. I’ve been working really diligently this school year to create beautiful worksheets that I can sell on TpT. Here’s my little TpT Store!

Whelp there you have it! These are the 6 side hustles we use to make extra income to pay off our student loans. What are your favorite side hustles?

Make Extra Income with VIPKid!

May 29, 2020

As an Amazon affiliate, I make a small commission based on qualifying purchases. Please read full disclaimer here.

In our debt payoff journey, one of the side hustles I have found to be the most lucrative and straight forward is working with VIPKid. Now that I’ve just signed my third contract – (has it really been a year??) I feel like I can make a pretty comprehensive list of pros and cons about what working for them looks like.

What is VIPKid?

What is VIPKid, you may ask? VIPKid is a company that connects elementary aged students in China to teachers in America and Canada to learn English. For the actual lesson, VIPKid uploads the PowerPoint presentation for the student’s current lesson. Essentially, you go through the presentation with the student, correct their pronunciation, and encourage them with high energy. Then you write your feedback for the lesson. Everything is set up for you. It’s a lot of fun, and if playing with kids comes naturally to you, you will be great at this job.

What experience do I need?

You don’t need any formal teaching experience, just a bachelor’s degree and experience working with children in some capacity. Remember that summer you volunteered at Vacation Bible School? That counts. Babysit a lot as a teenager? That counts too. They just want to see that you have experience with children.

What do I need to invest in?

Technically nothing, but there are a few things that will make your life a bit easier.

Headphones: I’d suggest using a pair of headphones with a microphone for clarity purposes. I use this pair here and they have served me well over the past 12 months. A pair of iPhone headphones should also do the trick, but they hurt my ears after a while. The Logitech ones are cushy, and when I’m teaching 4 hours of back to back classes, my ears (and extra ear piercings!) are thankful.

Lighting: VIPKid requires that your face be well lit, with no shadows at all times. I have a lamp set up in front of me while I am teaching, but this little light right here really does the trick. It has a clip that affixes to my desk, I plug it into my USB port, and BOOM. I am illuminated.

A background – VIPKid requires that you have a professional background, but what that looks like is up to you. I’ve seen people who use bookshelves, a plain wall with a map poster, shelves of toys and props, bulletin boards, etc. My background is a piece of driftwood fabric from Hobby Lobby, my reward system and a globe sign with my name on it from the Target Dollar Spot. Your set up does not need to be anything too wild or elaborate, unless you want it to be! The main point is to have an area in your home that you can dedicate to VIPKid where you wont be interrupted by any other family member in your house. You can check out my Pinterest board with tons of background ideas and reward systems for more inspiration.

High Speed Internet – You need to have a reliable internet connection that doesn’t freeze or experience any lagging issues so that you can teach the students in real time.

Webcam – Some sort of Webcam set up so that you can teach the students is required by VIPKid – you won’t be able to do your job without it.

PROS of Teaching with VIPKid

You cannot beat the commute! Working from home is amazing. I wake up 15 minutes before class, wash my face, throw on an orange t-shirt, shuffle down to my basement and VOILA I am at work.
Flexibility – You can set your own schedule with whenever you’d like to work. If you’re going away on vacation, you can take your set up with you and teach while you’re on vacation! Or, you could just not. You don’t need to “take time off.” If you don’t feel like teaching for a week, you don’t have to teach. It’s totally up to you.
The Money – You can make anywhere from $16-$22 an hour teaching with VIPKid depending on your experience and your credentials. Personally, I make $20. I usually squeeze in an hour before my teaching job during the school year – that’s $100 extra dollars a week, or $400 extra dollars a month, or $4800 a year just for doing an hour of playing with kids before I go to my full time job. Worth it.
It’s fun. I actually enjoy my time with the kids, and as you build relationships with them it only becomes more enjoyable. One student draws me a picture every lesson. Another kid likes to do ‘cheers’ with our water cups at the end of class. One little girl draws hearts on the goodbye screen for me everyday, and another likes to reward me for doing a good job as a teacher. They are literally the cutest thing ever. Sure you get kids that act a fool, but they are the exception and not the majority.
Sidehustlin’ – no matter what your reason for sidehustlin’ is, you can do this. Maybe you’re saving for a house, or looking to add a little to your vacation fund. Maybe, like me, you are looking to accelerate the process of paying off your student loan debts. Whatever the reason, VIPKid is a great option, and has served me and my family well as we work to pay off our student loans.

CONS of Teaching with VIPKid

Time Difference – you may be waking up at absurd hours of the night to teach classes, based on your time zone. On the east coast, we are exactly 12 hours behind them, so when it’s 5pm in China, it’s 5am here. Some mornings, I wake up at 4am to teach classes. It is what it is though, and the extra money and convenience of being at home are worth it to me.
It’s a slow start – it does take about a month to get consistent bookings, or at least it did for me. Stay patient and consistent, and the bookings will come.
Little control over which students book you- I want to preface this with 99% of the kids are awesome. This is actually mathematically correct, as I’ve taught 202 kids, and only 2 of them have been awful – 1%. But those two kids, man oh man, they gave me a run for my money. VIPKid doesn’t have a way to block students who are behavior issues. Basically, as long as they are not in physical danger or displaying any sort of nudity, we are expected to keep teaching them (it’s never come to that in my classes). I say this not to put you off, but to make sure you are informed. Like I said, most of the children are AH-MAY-ZING, but I have had behavior problems, and there’s really no way to handle it other than to deal with it.

If you are thinking about pursuing VIPKid, I say, do it. I tell my husband all the time: I wish we had done this sooner. Doing this gives me an extra $700-$1000 dollars a month depending on how much I work, which goes right to paying off our student loans. I feel like we’re making progress, and I feel empowered, like I finally have control of our money. You can feel this way too!

If you’re interested, you can read this post about the interview and hiring process. This is my referral link for VIPKid – if you decide to apply and use my code, shoot me an email and I will gladly help support you throughout the process. This has changed my life, and I hope that you can see a change in yours if that’s where you are in your journey.

10 ways to cut costs while you are paying off debt

May 20, 2020

Affiliate disclaimer here.

I want to pay off my student loans so badly I can feel it in my bones. Seriously. After being on this debt free journey for about 6 months now, I’ve become a bit more experienced on ways to cut costs while one the journey. So I thought I’d share some of the basics with you guys today! Here are 10 ways I cut costs in my own life.

Begin on a budget – It all starts and ends with a budget. I know, I know. Insert the eye roll for reading this the millionth time [here]. But it is so true, and so critical to your success that it is impossible to not mention budgeting. 6 months ago, my husband and I put ourselves on a budget for the first time. We were so frustrated trying to figure out everything and with the baby’s child care expenses, it was turning into a nightmare. When we added our paychecks together, we were making $X amount of dollars, but for the life of us we couldn’t figure out where that money was going. Enter: THE BUDGET – ahhhhhhh! and stick to it! This will save you so much money in the long run, because you will avoid overspending, mindless shopping, and impulse purchasing which can save you thousands. I will never go back to not budgeting. Ever.

Slash your budget. Did you do your budget? Ok, Awesome! Now, look at everything, and cut out 3 things. No seriously. Slash it. Cut back just the basics – electric, groceries, housing, and water. What can you live without? Get rid of that cable bill. We cut subscription boxes, got rid of our storage locker, cut cable entirely and got YouTube TV instead, then we cut YouTube TV because we wanted to save even more money. We set a grocery budget, but now I play a game where I try and spend less than the budget, and put the money back into our student loans.

Ditch the gym membership – this cut me the deepest. I HATED getting rid of our gym membership, and it’s the membership we held on to the longest. I actually go to the gym 4ish times a week, including when I was 9 months pregnant. I used the pool every day in the summer (hello, teacherlife!) I had watched all the other mommas take their babies to the little teeny baby play area for years, and for years I could not wait to go to the pool with my baby girl. It hurt me. It hurt me bad. It cut me real deep. But that money had to go to the student loans. The sooner we pay these student loans off the sooner we get to enjoy things like this again. Instead, I purchased the Beachbody App for my smart tv and there are a million home workouts to do that are all super challenging and have kept me active. I plan on buying a $20 baby pool for my sweet girl this summer. This will have to do! She’s not going to remember it anyway….

Meal Prep – having a plan always saves you money. I repeat, having a plan always saves you money. Now, I’ve always been a weekly grocery shopper, I’ve always been a meal prepper, and I’ve always been a healthy eater. Because of #QuarantineLyfe, my husband and I have been limiting our exposure by only going to the grocery store once a month. That means we sit down at the good ol’ kitchen room table, search through pinterest for healthy meals, and plan them out for a month. I have never tried a month of meal prep before, but holy hell, does it save time, energy and money. We look for recipes, we add the ingredients to our shopping list. If there’s anything strange on the list that we don’t have handy, then we find another recipe that will use that ingredient, we add it to the meal prep calendar. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

Cash Back Apps – I would be remiss if I did not address Ebates and Ibotta (referral code is IMUPSCY). I’ve received over $500 cash back from just using these two apps alone. You can really get some killer savings with these apps when you combine your cash back savings with shopping in the clearance section, using coupons, and purchasing with gift cards. I will not buy a damn thing unless I can save money using at least two ways, no matter how big or how small the purchase.

Groceries – do you need designer groceries? While you may think this question sounds ridiculous, that is exactly what you are doing when you buy a name or commercialized brand of groceries. Let me introduce to you: Aldi. Another store that has changed my life. It is a no frills grocery store. I’m talking you bag your own groceries, and they only stock one brand (their own, which is delicious btw) of groceries. But do you really need to deliberate between 3 different types of Caesar Dressing? I don’t. Time and money. When they have a sale, too? All bets are off. Last time I went grocery shopping, their honey wheat bread was on sale for 50 cents a loaf. 50. Cents. I bought four, and froze 3 of them. Boom.

Download reward apps – and actually use them! Dunkin’ and Starbucks both have amazing reward apps. My husband and I, both being teachers, get HELLA gift cards at Christmas and the end of the year from our kiddos, and I immediately load them into the app. Once you’ve earned X amount of points or bought X amount of drinks you get free coffee. Free coffee! I’m obsessed with free stuff. Whatever your ‘thing’ is, see if you can find a reward app for it.

Credit Card Rewards – tread carefully with this one. If credit card usage is too tempting for you, you may want to avoid this entirely. My husband and I make a purchase that we budget for, and then we immediately pay it off, like when I get in the car after the grocery store, or after pumping gas. Day care gets auto paid to our credit card, and then we immediately pay it off. We don’t wait until the end of the month. We don’t carry a balance ever. BUT – for every purchase on our card we get cashback – score! We take that cashback, and transfer it into our student loans. Every little bit helps!

Groupon – I’ve been a groupon customer for 8 years. Whenever I’m looking for gifts, experiences or something to do, I always start on Groupon. They sell all kinds of gifts (Christmas, Birthday, Etc) on here, as well as deeply discounted experiences. For example, last year for my Mom’s birthday, I wanted for all of us to go to an escape room together. I searched on groupon – BAM – fifty percent off. Oh, also? You can layer on Ebates on top of your already discounted Groupon purchases. DOUBLE BAM. BAM BAM. Winning. My referral code for Groupon is here if you are interested in its awesomeness.

Just Say No – The hardest thing to do when you are trying to cut costs is to just say no. The amount of times I have been unable to join friends for dinner, or say no to happy hour after work, or pass on a morning coffee craving for Dunkin, or pack a lunch instead of going out with coworkers on a half day is endless. The list goes on and on.

My goal is to pay off my student loans, and I feel that goal so deeply, to the core of my being. There is nothing at this moment I want more than to pay these loans off so that I can give our family the life I want for us. Read more about that here. To me, that’s worth the price of a couple of dinners and my gym membership. My friends and family understand. This moment of sacrifice is temporary and worth the price we have to pay to be debt free and get rid of those student loans.

What about you? How have you cut costs to better your life? Feel free to comment below on ways you’ve cut costs in your own life – I’d love to hear from you – this journey is all about support, right?