Crowther, 54, had received a letter saying that the cost of her gas and electricity would be heading skyward, but she hadn’t seen it. When the money came out of her account, she was stunned.
“I’m a single person, my children aren’t at home and I don’t have the heating on all the time,” said Crowther, a secondary school teacher from North Yorkshire.
“But the bill wiped me out, cleared out my finances completely. It really made me think that I didn’t have a back up and if something big happened, I wouldn’t have the funds to cover it.”
Like most people, Crowther was feeling the pinch in the cost of living crisis. She began shopping at Aldi to reduce the amount she was spending on food for her and her three dogs, but her food bill has still doubled. Holidays have been knocked on the head.
Crowther said: “I got talking to other teachers and we were all in the same boat. Everybody was struggling to make ends meet.”
It was around this time that Crowther remembered a YouTube video she had seen about a girl who had quit her job and used a website called Fiverr, an online platform for freelancers, to make money.
She created her profile at the start of this year, offering her services as a writer, blogger and academic course writer.
“I was very sceptical at first, I didn’t think I would get any work,” said Crowther. “But It just seemed to snowball. There is usually a fairly tight deadline so I tend to just work until I’ve finished that project – I don’t have set hours, but I decided that I still want to live so I am strict with myself.”
Crowther charges between £75 and £290 per course, depending on the size and scale of the course. How much she works depends on the workload and the type of work she has taken on, but sometimes it can be as much as eight hours each weekend day and some weeknights, too.
She estimates that on average, she earns around £1,000 a month from the work.
“I enjoy teaching and teaching is still my ‘main thing’, but course-writing is a passion and it’s something I’m good at so I’m very happy to sit and do the work.
“In terms of course writing, it could be anything from a life-coaching course to an academic syllabus. I write the whole syllabus out with a course book that they can give to students, a workbook, and video scripts if required.”
“I haven’t even really given anything up. I still prioritise my life. I do yoga in the morning, go on long dog walks and go out dancing. The extra money is an absolute lifesaver – it covers my mortgage,” she said.
Crowther is far from alone in turning to a second job, or “side hustle”, to bolster her finances in the cost of living crisis.
A poll of UK workers by Fiverr found that 45 per cent of UK workers were looking into making extra money on the side, while Taskrabbit, another platform, saw its sign ups spike by 36 per cent in 2022.
It is no surprise. High inflation has chipped away at households’ spending power, making everyone feel poorer.
On average, something that cost £100 in 2020 now costs £121.40. Some items, such as food, have increased in price more drastically, and the impact on energy and mortgage costs has been brutal.
Platforms you can use
There are an array of different platforms you can use to start your “side hustle”, and the right one for you will depend on the type of job you want to do.
Fiverr is good if you want to provide digital services as a freelancer, so jobs such as website design, voice overs, writing or digital marketing.
You could also look at Upwork or Toptal for these kinds of roles, although Toptal is designed more specifically for freelance software developers, designers, finance experts and project managers.
If you are hoping to do more hands-on roles such as furniture building or as a delivery driver, Taskrabbit is more for you. Other platforms that are ideal for odd jobs include Thumbtack, Handy or Angi.
‘I have tripled my hourly rate of work’
Greg said he is making more money from Taskrabbit than he is in acting (photo: Sam McKay
Although Greg Snowdon’s bills have jumped from £35 to £100 a month, his council tax has increased from £174 to £204 a month and his childcare costs are between £1,200 and £1,500 a month, he doesn’t feel hugely affected by the cost of living crisis – partly because he has nearly tripled his hourly rate of work.
Snowdon, a 38-year-old actor from south-east London, used to work unsociable hours in a cocktail bar for £12 an hour to supplement his income as an actor. Now, he works as a handyman through Taskrabbit and can earn as much as £35 an hour to build furniture.
“I find it crazy that I used to work 12 to 15-hour shifts in a busy bar from 3pm to 5am, but now I can go to someone’s house and have a cup of tea while I work,” said Snowdon.
“On Taskrabbit, I have selected the ‘assembling furniture’, ‘wall mounting’ and ‘heavy lifting’ categories. I was already fairly competent at building furniture, but wall mounting is a whole other game.”
Snowdon said that he can now earn about £1,000 a week working Monday to Friday, leaving the house at 8am and being back around 6pm, although the hours vary around his acting work – which he says is “nowhere near” as well paid as the work he can get through TaskRabbit.
How to join the “side hustle”
Your side hustle can, in theory, be anything you want it to be. While some people take professional skills they have – such as writing or graphic design – and offer their time as freelance workers, others will offer to do tasks such as housework, putting together furniture or delivering food.
Choose an online platform, such as Fiverr, TaskRabbit or Airtasker. Create an account with your email and contact information as well as where you want to work and your schedule. You may also need to upload a photograph of yourself.
You need to be at least 18 years old for most sites, and some have limited areas. Sometimes the customer pays an extra fee to the platform, so you will get 100 per cent of the rate you set, but other platforms will take a commission, typically up to 20 per cent.
Once you’re up and running, keep a record of how much you earn. Whatever your chosen side hustle, any money you make will count as self-employed income and will need to be declared to HMRC.
You can earn up to £1,000 under the “trading allowance”, but anything above this is likely to be taxed as income, so you will need to declare it and file a self-assessment tax return to the taxman.
How costs have added up
Energy prices have also played a huge role in increased costs. From January to March, the average dual fuel bill is predicted to be £1,928 a year. While this is down from the £4,279 last January (households were helped by the government’s Energy Price Guarantee, however, so didn’t feel all of this cost), it is up from £1,042 in October 2020.
As interest rates have risen to combat high inflation, the rates households pay on their mortgage have followed. The average two-year fix is now 6.04 per cent, according to Moneyfacts, up from around 2.3 per cent near the end of 2021. A £200,000 mortgage at 2.3 per cent would cost £877 a month, while today’s rate would cost more like £1,300.
