Budgeting for a Side Hustle

What is your side hustle?

• Think about the things that you enjoy doing and could make some money off of. A good book to read for this subject is Make a Nerdy Living, which I’ve reviewed in one of my blog posts *wink, wink*.
• Once you’ve decided on your side hustle, write down what it is and the materials that you need. If you make awesome Star Wars fan art, then you would list all the art supplies that you need and so on. And don’t forget to list your packaging if you’re selling it online.
• Figure out if your side hustle is temporary or if you plan on someday making it your main source of income.
• If you have decided to take steps toward making your side hustle your main source of income, then write down what those steps are and what they require.

Also note that there may be multiple ways to capitalize on your skills. Hannah Lee Kidder, an author and youtuber, broke down her multiple streams of income in one of her videos. She not only makes money by selling her books, she also critiques manuscripts, does professional development, writes articles, etc. I’ll leave a link to her video for you guys to watch.

Work out your day to day expenses FIRST

Before you buy ANYTHING, you must, and I repeat MUST work out your day to day expenses. You still need power, shelter and food. You can also see what you can cut out of your spending to make room for your side hustle expenses. List the following…

• Bills. Unless you want to work in the dark with no wifi, you must pay your bills.
• Subscriptions. Take a long hard look at your subscriptions. Do you really need Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon prime? Decide which ones you can live without.
• Debt. Do you have any credit card debt? How about student loans? How much are you paying back and how much do you still owe? These things are important to think about BEFORE spending money on any of your projects. You are not going to make a lot of money in the beginning of your side hustle. You may actually end up spending a lot in the beginning. Start up costs are no joke, and neither is debt. Pay off as much as you can before starting any major projects for your side hustle.

List your side hustle expenses

While we’re on the topic of expenses, do you know how much money that you need for your side hustle? To help you figure that out, List the following…

• One-time purchases: Things that you only need to buy once, or only need to replace every few years. These things include but are not limited to computers/laptops, printers, tools etc. If you take good care of these things, then you don’t have to keep replacing them.

Also do your research on these one-time purchases. It’s better to spend the extra money on quality once than it is having to buy the cheap version multiple times.

• Recurring expenses: Things that you need to buy multiple times. These things include but are not limited to ink, computer paper, pens and pencils, computer software, etc.

Shop around. Find the best brands and deals. Choose the quality over the quantity. For example, I’ve stopped buying pens from the dollar store because they’ve always dried out on me. I’d much rather buy them from Target, Walmart or even Costco.

Budget

Now that you have listed your expenses, compared prices and quality, you’re ready to create your budget. This is where you see how much you’re willing and able to spend on your side hustle. You also should set up a system to help you track your spending and income. You can do this by creating a spreadsheet. As time goes on and you get into the groove of your side hustle, you can revise your budget.

Hannah Lee Kidder’s video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQA7vzFdPWg

Make a Nerdy Living Book Review: https://writersblockmrc.com/2020/08/17/make-a-nerdy-living-book-review/