The final month of the 2017 year for the Dividend Diplomat Side Hustle Report! This marks our 7th post on the topic and all have been very consistent with what we write about. The two of us haven’t had a nice “Board” meeting, where we strategize upcoming themes and articles for the new year, quite yet. Yes, these board meetings incorporate lots of coffee and pizza, with endless dividend stock discussion. Our meetup hasn’t occurred due to both of us going through a heft busy season, where the limited “free” time is usually transferred to sleeping. However, not to go down a never ending hole about the struggles of busy season, let’s crab a fresh cup of coffee and read our FINAL 2017 Dividend Diplomat side hustle report!
The side hustles
Ebates – We’re pretty sure most people are familiar with Ebates, the website that offers cash back and coupon codes for nearly all major online retailers and travel sites. With Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and holiday shopping in full swing right now, the Ebates cash back bonuses have been great! In addition, each new user also can receive a free $10 gift card upon sign up (yes an affiliate plug), which is an added bonus. The two of us always visit Ebates prior to making an online purchase to see if we can earn cash back by visiting the website through Ebates or using one of the listed coupon codes. It is EASY money for a simple additional step in the online shopping experience that maybe adds 10 seconds to your transaction. Here is our November summary for cash back earned from Ebates:
Lanny – $21.40 – This area has come roaring back pretty heavily, cannot complain at all. I wasn’t able to screen shot my “profile” on 1/1, but here it is as of 1/21, which we recall – November’s end month was at $376.64. Most of my activity was from hotels and rentals cars (small benefit of traveling for work). In total, I have received over $400, with the $21.40 posted last month and activity this month. See below’s snip from their website:
Bert – $7.38 – Why not purchase your wife’s Christmas present online and receive cash back from Ebates? Now here is the controversial part in the eyes of some. I purchased the gift on Groupon and Ebates had some killer cash back promotions for all Groupon purchases. Some people may think it is cheesy buying a gift on Groupon, but hey, when my wife’s favorite salon is offering a great deal on a massage/facial package, how can I turn that opportunity down? That’s about as close of a slam dunk gift as you are going to get! So I only made one purchase this month and was able to receive a ton of cash back from the purchase. 
Swagbucks – One of our longest tenured side hustles. For those of you that are not familiar with Swagbucks, it is a website the provides gift card or cash rewards for performing activities on the website. The activities include using their search engine, answering surveys, answering polls, watching videos, printing off coupons, shopping (similar to Ebates above), signing up for different offers, etc. Bottom line is that there are a ton of different ways for people to earn! Here is our referral link if you would like to give it a try as well! Here is how much each of us earned from Swagbucks:
Lanny – > 3,942 Swagbucks or $39.42 – I was excited to know I kept the trend of over $30 per month alive through this side hustle. This marks my 6th month in a row over $30, finishing at $39.42. I was only able to do one cash out during the month, but have already been fairly busy in January. The way I was able to monitor the total amount earned was take my end of previous month lifetime amount and subtract out my lifetime amount at end of month (found in the activity section of your account). This number is slightly less, as I forgot to capture the last day’s lifetime total, but was only a few days that I didn’t have updated, that will be reflected in January’s.
Bert – 4,438 Swagbucks or $44.38- Much like my dividend income totals in December, this was a RECORD setting month in terms of Swagbucks received. I was able to cash out and receive on $25 Paypal credit in the middle of the month and was on the doorstep of receiving a second $25 credit. I should easily hit that mark soon in January! Why was I so successful this month? Well, each day I focused on hitting my daily Swagbuck goal. Then, on top of it, I was fortunate enough to have a large variety of opportunities to earn rewards. There were a ton of great videos and high dollar surveys available for me to complete in December. One thing led to another and BOOM, you have a Swagbuck record!
Ibotta – Ibotta is one of our favorite apps because it is so easy to use. It is so easy to earn money that they even give you $5.00 just to sign up! The app allows you to earn cash back from nearly every grocery store and an expanding list of online retailers (such as Jet.com, Target.com, and so on). Before shopping, you scan the available rebates on thee app and see which items you are planning on buying. Some example of rebates that may be available any given week are $0.25 for different fruits/vegetables, $1-$2 off of a certain body wash or shampoo, $1.00 for purchasing a certain type of coffee, $2-$3 back for purchasing beer or wine, or our favorite, $5 off of a plant-based protein shake powder!
One of our favorite things about Ibotta is that the discounts don’t just apply to goods that are impossible to find or are very expensive. There are always a few name brands to choose from! Ibotta makes it easy to redeem cash as well and the process takes less than a minute after you complete your purchase. You simply scan the receipt, select the rebates that were purchased during that shopping trip, and then receive the credit within 24 hours. If you would like to try the app, we included a referral link in the banner below our monthly summary and at the beginning of the paragraph.
Lanny – $2.75 – Sadly I am starting to realize, which may be a good thing, with travel for work – this reduces my iBotta (hopefully this means my groceries are reduces as well though!). In total, I’ve earned over $188.00 in cash back from the app. However, I highly URGE you to sign up. Yes, sadly we do get a referral kick back, but this is by far the EASIEST way to get cash back. Further, the beer, wine categories make it fairly simply to rack up (usually $1.00 – $3.00 for a 6-pack and/or bottle of wine, eh, I’m Italian and Irish). Additionally – supplements like vitamins are a bigger cash back piece as well.
Bert – $24.50 – After a slow November (where I only received $.50 Ibotta), I came roaring back in December. Unfortunately, if you have a high Ibotta reward total, that means that you spent some of your hard earned dollars at the store. But with the holidays and what felt like a party or gathering with friends every other day, spending on food, wine, and beer was inevitable. So if I was going to spend money regardless, I might as well try to earn some cash back on some delicious craft brews, right? Ibotta featured beers such as Fat Tire Amber Ale, Peronis, and the classic, Bud Light. All of which I purchased at some point in the month of December. Plus, my wife was pretty successful at maximizing her Ibotta cash back while doing our regular weekly grocery shopping. Heck, grocery shopping hasn’t been the same since Lanny introduced me to this cash back app!
Selling Household Items
Lanny – $0.00 – After a roaring November, I was weak in this category and never even listed anything. That’s okay, as the year of 2018 has me building out the list of eBay items and I’m excited for it. Further, one should see 5 benefits of getting rid of “stuff”, I know I own too much crap in my life that is consuming space, time and resources. In the end, the idea is that the items sold or donated will add value to someone else’s life, as that’s the purpose of owning something, to add value.
Bert – $36.00 – This was a fun month. First, I sold two items for $.99 each on Ebay. After the fees and shipping, I netted, wait for it, $1.00 from the two sales. The amount is trivial and I was hoping that the buyers would leave me feedback so I can boost my sellers profile; however, that never happened. So in the end, it probably wasn’t worth my time for $1. But the sales did not stop there! My wife and I were cleaning out the attic in December trying to donate everything we could since we were itemizing our deductions in 2017. We found a few pieces of artwork that we listed on Facebook Marketplace. Within 2 hours, we sold both pieces for a combined $35! We have more items listed on Marketplace and a few sales pending, so hopefully this number will be consistently higher for the next several months.
Total Side Hustle Income in November:
Lanny: $63.57, total of $590.58 since tracking on the blog!
Bert: $112.56, total of $421.89 since tracking on the blog!
Diplomats Side Hustle Total: $176.13, Cumulative Total of $1,012.47 since tracking on the blog!