Oh my god, it’s already June! May was a bit of a wacky month for us, but not necessarily in a bad way. We’ve learned a lot and earned a lot, so it’s time for us to get back to the drawing board with our newfound insights.
Good things that happened this month
- Had meetings with a new prospect, but no interview is planned yet. (It’s harder than you might think to convince people to do an interview.)
- Made a lot (to our standards) of money through side hustles and other projects.
- Took some time for ourselves to collect our thoughts and ideas, and relax.
- Found a new hobby (Padel and Squash) to sweat it out.
The end of our challenge
May marks the end of our special edition two-month challenge. We tested different side hustles and made some decent money. Here’s a recap of what we tried and how much we earned:
Garage Sales & Facebook Marketplace
The first thing we did for this challenge was look up some upcoming garage sales. We found two events in town one in April and on in May, which was lucky. However, the first sale had bad weather, roadworks blocking potential buyers, and we were the only ones participating on our street. For the first few hours, almost no one showed up. We ended up watching Netflix, having only sold a few small items and earning a measly €12.
Just as we were packing up, we managed to sell two of our old e-bikes and earned an additional €400.
At our second garage sale, we sold another e-bike and some other stuff, earning a whopping €277.
We also sold some items on Facebook Marketplace, including a punching bag, a trailer, and two subwoofers, totaling €250.
Total Earnings: €927
Expenses: €5 for the first garage sale participation fee.
Total Profit: €922
Flipping Furniture
In the meantime, we were also working on a dresser we picked up for free. Let us tell you, it was a lot more work than we expected. We thought we would be working on it for 3 days, but ended up spending several weeks trying to restore it. We were sanding all of the time to get the old paint off, which took us ages! It seemed like they put on 50 layers of paint!
When it was finally time to start painting, we miscalculated as well. We did everything by hand and had to wait 12 hours between each layer of paint. We also bought the wrong paint first, which cost us a day as well. We quickly learned that in renovation projects, nothing goes as planned and a small mistake can have major consequences.
It did turn out beautiful in the end, so we were very happy with the result. We took pictures, listed it online for €199, and waited. We got our first offer within a day – but that was just Roddy’s mom trying to be helpful… We waited again until finally a nice lady came to pick it up for €199! So it’s safe to say that we were over the moon with how our first renovation project went.
We really underestimated the time and effort it would take, but still enjoyed it a lot. That’s why we’ve already picked up two coffee tables and another dresser for free!
Total Expenses: €90 on supplies and paint.
Total Earnings: €199
Total Profit: €109
Selling Photos Online
We also started selling some photos online. No, not that kind of photos, we’re talking about stock photos. We chose to use Alamy, but you can choose whatever platform you prefer. We took some nice pictures and uploaded them to the website. We really underestimated this as well, because you need to pass a very strict QC (quality check) before they are up for sale. And if you send in a batch, and even just one picture fails, then the entire batch fails.
But we passed the first security checks and were ready to start selling. So far, we haven’t earned any money yet, so I guess it’s a very slow process. But we’ll keep on uploading them just because it’s so easy and passive.
Total profit: €0
Unexpected Side Hustle: Gardening
During our challenge, some of our family members asked us if we wanted to help them out with some gardening work and offered to pay us to do so. We repeatedly told them we would do it for free to help them, but they kept on insisting. After some debates about the money, we finally started working in their garden. And the best part? We loved it! It felt so good to have a break from being inside all the time and do some work outside. We got a nice tan, burned some calories, and saw amazing results in their yard.
After some smaller chores, they even ended up asking us to redesign and landscape their front yard. This was an exciting project for us, as we were able to use our creativity, spend time outside, and earn money while doing it.
We spent sooooo much time in their garden, that we kept postponing other things. This made us think about making money in other ways than just online because we had the most fun while working outside.
Total profit: €1000+
The Daily Duo Shifts
Now for some bigger news. These past months we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about jobs, self-employment, and even studying. Roddy has already applied for some part-time jobs, but no luck yet. We really want to have a steady income, but finding a job that we actually like is very hard. We enjoy working together, and like working on our own terms, so we’re still figuring out how it all fits together.
Because of all of this, we’ve also decided to shift how we work on The Daily Duo. From now on, we’ll post and film only when we have something significant to share. We were too focused on frequency and lost sight of our passion. You’ll still hear from us, but less frequently. We’ll still be doing hikes, so expect some videos or stories about those.
No new challenge for June. We want to focus on ourselves and potential jobs. We might start doing challenges again in the future, but for now, it’ll just be occasional videos or blogs.