How One Woman Made $1,824 in 17 Days from 8 Side Hustles: What Paid Off the Most

A content creator who set herself a target of $5,000 (£3,731) in July from eight side hustles has earned $1,824 (£1,361) in the first 17 days of the month. Digital products and coaching calls were her biggest earner.

Natalie Folino, who documents her income on a YouTube channel about a mother 'making ends meet', set out the figures in a video update. She said she had spent the day feeling bad about her progress, a reaction she called 'almost comical' given the running total.

The target worked out at $625 (£467) for each of the eight streams: laundry, dog walking and pet sitting, social media content, Amazon commissions, digital products and coaching, Facebook Marketplace sales, TikTok Shop, and brand deals. By 17 July she was about $3,176 (£2,370) short of the goal. Reaching the full amount would mean averaging about $227 (£169) a day for the rest of July, against roughly $124 (£93) a day over her latest update. 'Why am I feeling bad about the fact that I have earned nearly $2,000 in 17 days?' she said.

Which of the Eight Side Hustles Paid Best

Folino's most detailed update covered three days, 15, 16, and 17 July, which together brought in $372 (£278). Digital products and coaching calls led that stretch at $181 (£135), a category she said had 'been good to me' through the month. Facebook Marketplace, where she lists household items daily, added $80 (£60). TikTok Shop contributed $55 (£41), while Amazon, through affiliate links and product review videos, returned $41 (£31).

Content earned the least of the streams that paid at all. Folino is monetised on Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok, but only Facebook paid out over the three days, about $15 (£11). 'Views on my content have just been atrocious,' she said.

Three streams recorded nothing. Laundry, which she takes in from other households, and pet sitting both logged zero, though Folino said active orders in each were due to pay on delivery. Brand deals also returned nothing, even as a completed $7,900 (£5,896) partnership, more than four times her 17-day total, sat unpaid, with payment expected the following Monday. A further deal worth about $1,100 (£821) was still under negotiation.

Folino said she had suffered 'a complete TikTok Shop meltdown' and was ready to stop. 'This may be my last month doing TikTok Shop,' she said, adding, 'I don't want to do it anymore.'

How Her Haul Compares With Typical Side Hustle Pay

Bankrate figures put the average American side hustle at about $885 (£660) a month, with a median of just $200 (£149). The gap reflects a small number of high earners who lift the average. More than half earn $500 (£373) or less a month, a 2026 Omnisend survey found. Across the US, side hustles collectively bring in about $84.1B (£62.8B) a month, the same survey estimates. Folino's $1,824 over 17 days already exceeds the average monthly figure.

Many take on the work out of necessity. About 49% of Americans have started side gigs to make ends meet, according to LendingTree, and four in five began for financial reasons rather than as a hobby, a 2026 Omnisend survey found.

A separate 2026 survey by The Penny Hoarder showed that 53% of side hustlers would struggle to cover essential costs without them, with three in four saying rising prices had deepened their reliance on the income and 57% running two or more side hustles at once. Americans average about 19.5 hours a month on side work, according to QuickBooks, and a 2025 SideHustles survey put burnout among them at about 67%.

Despite falling short of her July target so far, Folino said she needed to reset how she measured the month. 'I really need to reframe how I'm thinking about this,' she said.