Who’s behind this, and why should you care?
Honestly? I’m nobody special. I’m 57, I live in the UK, I have two cats and a long-suffering husband, and I’ve been doing side hustles since before anyone called them that. My first one was leaflet delivery as a kid. I didn’t get rich then, and I haven’t got rich since — but that’s never really been the point.
Over the years I’ve mystery shopped my way around the country, entered competitions from supermarket barrel draws to online prize draws, flogged stuff on eBay and Vinted, designed things on Redbubble, filled in surveys of wildly varying quality, and tried more apps, platforms and schemes than I care to count. Some have been genuinely worth it. Some have been a complete waste of time. A few have been unexpectedly brilliant — and I’ve had some cracking freebies along the way.
I tend to give up on boring things pretty quickly, which I’d argue makes me a useful filter. If something’s tedious, I’ll tell you. If it’s actually fun, interesting, or gets you doing something you wouldn’t normally do, I’ll tell you that too.
Why side hustles specifically?
A few reasons. The money helps — every bit does, and I won’t pretend otherwise. But there’s more to it than that. I have Ménière’s disease and vestibular migraines, which means my life doesn’t always run on a predictable schedule. Some days I can’t leave the house. Some days even moving is pretty grim. Side hustles suit me because they’re flexible — I do them when I can, and I don’t when I can’t. No boss, no shift, no problem.
That flexibility has made them genuinely important to me, not just a bit of fun on the side. And the variety helps too — there’s always something different to try, something new to research, something to report back on.
Is this a one-woman operation?
Mostly, yes. Though my husband does occasionally get roped in — he never quite knows what I’m going to suggest next, but to his credit, he usually goes along with it and often ends up enjoying it more than he expected. I also have a brilliant circle of friends, both in real life and online, who are just as into this stuff as I am. We share tips, compare notes, commiserate over the dud platforms and celebrate the wins. Some of the best parts of side hustling are honestly just the conversations it starts.
So what is this site, exactly?
It’s what the tagline says: no gimmicks, no influencer fluff. Just an honest account of what actually works — and what really doesn’t — when you’re trying to earn a bit extra on the side in the UK. I’m not going to tell you something’s great if it isn’t. I’m not going to hype platforms I’ve never used or pretend the payouts are better than they are. I’ve been doing this long enough to have a decent nose for the genuine stuff versus the time-wasters.
If you’re in a similar boat — looking for real, flexible ways to make a bit extra without the commitment of a second job — then hopefully this is useful. And if you’ve tried something I haven’t written about yet, I’m always up for a tip.
A note on the cats
I should also mention Stickle and Furrikar, who have made their own contribution to this site. They’ve road-tested cat food products, which technically makes them side hustlers in their own right. They bring limited analytical skills to the role but considerable enthusiasm, and their feedback — while mostly non-verbal — is pretty unambiguous. If they eat it, it’s good. If they walk away, it isn’t. It’s a simpler rating system than most review sites use, and probably more honest.