Are you struggling to pay all your bills? Is the new energy crisis starting to hit your pockets hard? Then you are not alone! I have been watching my bills go up at a faster rate than ever before and my friends and colleagues have started to become really worried about their personal finances. How can we find ways to make ends meet?

Although I am no money saving expert, I have worked multiple jobs at once and have experienced several different side hustles which have made a massive difference to my life by enabling me to keep on top of my bills. I am not talking ‘get rich quick’ schemes; just simple ways to gain extra income with a little honest work involved. So if you are ready for multiple hustles, definitely read on!

Why are bills going up?

Last year we really began to see massive price rises as Covid ended but fuel shortages first began to hit our pockets hard. Then we saw a shortage of lorry drivers which put an extra squeeze on our finances by making everyday shopping items more even expensive. This was simply due to a lack of drivers – fewer people seem to want to drive lorries and work long hours doing so (with the after effects of Brexit making it worse still).

Now our over-reliance on oil and gas has been highlighted as Russia is the third largest producer of oil in the world. This horrible conflict in the Ukraine has led to sanctions (rightly so) which have impacted on our supplies of gas and diesel. Prices are predictably soaring.

Side hustles for 2022

Here are some small ways that you can add a little income stream to help with bill paying. With each one, either I have tried it myself or a close friend has:

1) Take in a lodger

University students are ideal for this as they are usually self-contained and make good tenants. They only want to stay during term times and will pay a fair rent for a room and access to a kitchen and en-suite.

You can charge a competitive rate of between £120 and £180 a week for this and because students are just individual tenants (not a couple or family), they are easy to accommodate. The home insurance with lodgers who are renting a room does have certain stipulations though, so make sure you check these out, as they may involve an initial outlay of cash (for instance fire regulation requirements). Also search ‘contents insurance for lodgers’ and related articles to make sure you are fully clued up on the subject.

Alternatively, offer a room out using Air B’n’B. This one I cannot comment on but is clearly popular. Having a spare room empty during these times is a shame as it could be helping to ease your financial worries.

2) Work some care shifts

I found working flexible hours in care homes was the most satisfying side job I ever had. The industry is desperate for carers who are flexible and willing to work at night time. Up until recently I would do evening shifts and my friend took over the mantle, working whenever her partner was at home to look after her kids in the evenings.

Nothing beats the feeling of helping someone to get on with their life. This is a side hustle because it slots alongside a full or part time job and can help fund necessities. Unsociable hours pay twice as much, too.

For me, it was a summer job between contracts and I ended up doing it happily for three years, mainly at weekends. I used this extra income to pay off a credit card successfully.

The good thing about this is that you can say yes or no to shifts and don’t have to feel obliged. Simply use your spare time to make a contribution and enjoy doing so, whilst knowing that you are steadily increasing your income.

3) Offer a service which is in demand

For me, tutoring has been an incredible way to make extra money on the side. I have always had people asking me if I could tutor their sons or daughters to help them with Maths or English and this has really helped me out over the years.

Since Covid made working at home easier, I have taken on clients using Zoom. This reduced the cost of driving to tutor them and significantly cut my costs as well as saving me time.

Local websites and Facebook pages are good places to advertise your skills. People are always looking for gardeners, cleaners, artists, dog walkers, bakers and content creators. Why not tap into one of those markets and gain a little extra income at the same time?

Alternatively, why not look into becoming a virtual assistant for others? I found this great article offering training for a Virtual Assistant Job.

4) Create a website or blog

It would be odd if I didn’t mention making money from blogging, as this is something I am currently exploring. Just like any business website, a blog provides information and entertainment. This means it deserves to be recognised as a quality source of content. So why not monetise it?

Setting up a blog about things that grab your interest can lead to a fun and satisfying adventure. You do have to be prepared to put the work in though, especially if you want to place adverts alongside your articles. Blogging is a skill which comes with practise and one which has changed my life. I get tonnes of pleasure out of producing content about books, entertainment and the environment.

Whatever your niche, make sure you are interested in what you write about because blogging is a long term thing. It takes time to build up a site and improve characteristics such as speed and SEO. I recently wrote a post about How To Blog, which discusses some of the ways to grow a blog and start to make an income.

I recently found a link (which I have added to this blog post as an update) which is all about Blogging as a Side Hustle and it is really relevant and hugely helpful regarding starting a blog and using it to make side hustle passive income.

5) Make a KDP book

This is the very first thing I did with my own writing. I put together a book of short stories and self-published it using KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). Amazon makes it really easy to publish straight onto their platform and charge an appropriate price for your work. Just make sure you are thorough when setting up the book with a particular Amazon KDP niche or multiple niches, as being too limited can affect your book’s visibility.

Although I write fiction, a lot of people make a reasonable income from non-fiction books. For instance, those which explain how to do something useful. Books include cooking tips, car maintenance, mental health advice and a whole range of relevant modern topics.

All you need to do is create a Word document of whatever you want to talk about and then upload it to the KDP page. It will then help you to create a front page and blurb and you can decide if you want to sell the book as an ebook or paperback or both. If your material is good, then soon a bunch of sales will come along and some people will use their Kindle Unlimited membership to read your book, while you get paid for each individual page they read.

Summary

Thank you for taking the time to read my suggestions for side hustles to help pay those growing bills. Another brilliant blogger that I recently discovered wrote a really good post about How To Get Your Family Finances In Order which is well worth a read as well.

My suggestions are all side hustles anyone can do. This is a tough year with inflation and a general cost of living increase which is forcing all of us to dig deeper into our pockets. Soon the UK national insurance contributions will also be increased so we have to find cool ways to bolster our incomes. Hopefully my side hustles list has helped and you can add your own ideas at the end of this blog post.

A friend suggested that I write this side hustle post and I am grateful for the idea. Hopefully some of what I suggested will be helpful to you or someone you know. If you want to read more of my content, which is about everything from books to current affairs, please follow my blog for future articles.