Side hustle

Money Wise Talks 6/01/2022

The Money Wise MumLeave a comment

Happy New Year!!

I absolutely love the start of a New Year! The Christmas break for us is usually quiet and although we try and see friends and family (when covid allows), its usually just me on a night time and I love it!

Well, it’s something I’ve gotten use to anyway. I usually spend that time catching up on films and Netflix, doing jigsaws, reading, thinking about what the future holds and planning my next move. If you know me personally, you’ll know I’m ALWAYS planning. I can’t help it and do secretly love it 😊.

This last week I wrapped up 2021 and starting planning 2022.

I have set my goals for 2022 and made them SMART. If you need some help in settings goals, I have a post that may help you – Setting goals.

I’ve have also set my monthly goals for January, which are;

  • No spend month in January
  • No alcohol for January
  • Read/finish reading one book
  • Post six blog posts
  • Post first YouTube Video

I have not set a goal for paying off debt this month only because I am going from weekly pay to monthly pay so don’t want to over pay to much to debt and then leave myself short. I am also not 100 % what money I will get until I have my first pay check either.

I spent a little time over the Christmas break looking at reducing my outgoings and cancelling any subscriptions we don’t use anymore. This week so far I have cancelled;

  • Amazon prime subscription £7.99
  • Swimming lessons £25.00
  • Reduced Sky from £90 to £55 (this was by the removal of Disney plus, HD, Sky Cinema and Box Sets as my contract was up 1/1/2022)

I have saved £815.88 so far this year just by reviewing my subscriptions!

I urge everyone to do this at least every year and every time a contract comes to the end. You can save a fortune just by making a few phone calls and/or cancelling some payments.

I still want to look at broadband so that’s my plan for this next week.

Both the No Spend Month and No Alcohol Month are going GREAT with nothing spent or drank so far this year!! Go check out the trackers that you can download for free and join me!

What I Have Spent This Week

£12.26 Subway

£2.42 Food shopping

£30.01 Petrol

£35.00 Boots Hairdryer

Total £76.69

That’s a much better week compared to the weeks before Christmas. There’s nothing like the start of a New Year to get those motivation levels up!

And yes you’re reading right, my shopping bill was only £2.42 this week because I received £40.00 food vouchers from school. I will do another post about this in more detail, just incase it helps anyone else. But until then, if you have any questions you’d like to ask me, please put a comment below and I’ll be happy to answer them.

I replaced the hairdryer that blew up just before Christmas. I was going to use my points I’d earnt at Boots and a voucher and annoyingly I completely forgot to use them. I didn’t have the face to go back in and return it to buy it again as the voucher was only for £5. I was kicking myself though, £5.00 is £5.00 at the end of the day. The hairdryer was the cheapest in the shop but the diffuser looked as good as all the other ones, even those priced at over £100 and when I tried it out, it didn’t disappoint!

I also had Boxing-day off at my courier job but was back to it on 2 January 2021 with a nice and easy 80 parcels.

80 parcels = £80 (gross)

I’ve had some lovely messages on Instagram from people who have started to deliver for Hermes off the back off my Instagram posts and reading my post about ‘A New Side Hustle – Being A Courier’.

I only work on a Sunday but it’s something I really enjoy. I love the fact I can take my daughter with me so I don’t have to worry about sorting childcare. I download her a film, take some snacks and a colouring book and she is happy as she could be for the couple of hours I deliver for. And I use all the money I earn from this job towards my debt.

Being a courier is just a perfect job for any parents, especially single parents that may have childcare issues outside of school hours.

Let me know what your goals are for this year.

Have a great week!

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A New Side Hustle – Being a Courier

The Money Wise Mum19 Comments

I recently put a post in Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/p/CHVnC2Els-y/ about becoming a courier and as it’s got a little bit of interest I thought I would put a post together so everyone has all the information they need.

My Why?

For me one of the hardest things about finding the right-side hustle is not down to the job itself but childcare. I will literally do any job – I am not too proud. And as all parents out there will agree childcare is the absolute bane of our lives usually costing us a huge fortune. Sometimes finding any employment that allows us to work alongside our children either before school or during is a massive headache.

When I started to look at side hustles, I knew I needed something where I could take my child along so started researching different things I could do. This is the list I came up with;

  • Teach English Online
  • Courier
  • UberEats delivery
  • Amazon delivery
  • Amazon selling
  • Mystery Shopping

After a family meal (pre-covid) I spoke to a cousin of mine who had recently started a new job as a courier with Hermes. She is a parent with four children (baby and three in school) and her husband works full time so I asked her how she manages to do a job with the kids. She said she always takes the youngest one with her and sometimes depending on how big her round is she will take the other kids after school too.

Of course, I then had lots of questions like; Is it safe to take the children? Do they let the children come with you? Is it worth it monetary wise if you use your own car and petrol? And the answers she gave me were yes, yes and yes!

I was definitely interested!! I Googled Hermes and applied online and within a few days I was contacted by the Delivery Manager in my area. She sent me the induction pack by email to read through which told me how to set my phone up for the round. I started that weekend taking my daughter along. When I arrived on site, I was really nervous and excited at the prospect of being able to earn without me worrying about childcare arrangements and after a quick 30-minute induction I was off!!

The first round of 29 parcels took me forever and I was frustrated at using my phone and the app so ended up going around in quite a few circles lol!! By the time I had finished the deliveries and calculated the cost of me driving around in circles with what I got paid I just couldn’t see it being financially viable. However, I plodded on with it a few more times and soon I got the hang of it. I soon realised it’s all about being fast and efficient which ultimately pushes your minimum hourly wage up. For example today I delivered 50 parcels and the rate (although this can change depending on lots of factors; size of parcel etc …) was approx £1.00 (I always work on £1.00 to make it easier to calculate), so 50 x £1 = £50.00 made (no tax has been taken from this). The deliveries today took me 4 hours so 50/4 = a minimum hourly rate of £12.50. I understand this is not completely accurate because I will have tax to pay but I have also not taken into account the running costs of my car, petrol and use of my own phone which I will be able to use to offset a certain amount of tax. This leads me onto my next point – keeping strict records.

Records

I am classed as a self-employed courier which means I am responsible for paying the tax and national insurance on everything I earn as a courier. I do not have to register just yet as I am already registered to pay tax in my main employment. The earnings I am making now will not be taxed until next tax year so all I need to do for now is accurately record the details of my earnings and anything I can offset. For example;

I record the date, time started work, time finished work, number of parcels delivered, starting miles and ending miles.

The records are really important so make sure you keep them and update them every time you work!

Insurance

Lastly insurance, so you can amend your car insurance to include business insurance and in particular insurance as a courier to ensure that the parcels you are carrying are insured but when I asked for a quote from my existing car insurance I found them to be really expensive. Not only that, they were going to charge me the amount for the year and at the time I wasn’t sure if I was going to do it for the year and then I would have to pay for insurance I didn’t need. Luckily Hermes has an option where they insure your car only for the time that you are working and they debit the amount from your pay every week which works out about a few quid every time which I think is totally worth it.

Earned so far

Here is just a little snippet off what I have earnt so far;

78 deliveries £46.10 earnt, average earnings per item £0.59

98 deliveries £78.62 earnt, average earning per item £0.79

Courier adjustments + £12.80

30 deliveries £22.98 earnt, average earnings per item £0.77

43 deliveries £41.05 earnt, average earnings per item £0.95

Courier adjustments + £8.42

Courier adjustments are extra payments given to you for working Sundays, which I now my preferred day.

If your thinking of a side hustle, I would definitely recommend becoming a courier. It’s flexible, you are in control of your earnings and your hours and even more importantly than all that – YOU CAN TAKE YOUR CHILDREN ALONG!! Win Win!!

I pack some snacks, books, colouring and an iPad to keep my daughter entertained and she is absolutely fine 😊

Happy Hustling folks

H x