The Hustle vs. Pin Money | brokeGIRLrich
When I was little, my grandmother would always talk about pin money. It was what she called the few financial odds and ends she managed to pick up throughout the year. She’d clip coupons to cut down on her grocery budget and pocket the rest of the money from my grandpa. She’d collect coins in a big bucket and when it was full, she’d sit and roll them and bring them to the bank. She might do an alteration for a friend for a few dollars.
I used to think of hustling and pin money as synonyms, but as my financial journey progresses, I actually think they represent two different ways of bringing in money.
The hustle is a much bigger commitment. It’s a part time job on top of your other job. It can bring in a substantial amount of extra money, but it also requires a substantial amount of extra effort. brokeGIRLrich is my side hustle. It takes as many hours a week as a part-time job and usually brings in a part-time job’s worth of income each month.
Pin money is a different story. Pin money is more of a careful windfall. Pin money might even be someone else’s hustle, but my commitment level just isn’t the same and it can’t be relied on.
User Testing is pin money to me. $10 per 15 minute website review isn’t bad, but I don’t think to do it often and it isn’t always available. When I’m particularly cash strapped, I’m more likely to remember to run it in the background.
Mystery shopping is definitely pin money for me. I used to do it more when I lived in New York City and it would just take me 5 minutes out of my way to walk to a store to review. Now I just try to remember to do it if I’m flying somewhere, since airport shops are worth more anyway.
Even freelance writing is pin money for me, since I don’t have any steady gigs doing it. Once in a while, the opportunity pops up and I’m excited to make some extra cash; however, it’s not a stream of income I can rely on right now. On the flip side, it also doesn’t take up a big chunk of my time, like it would if it were a hustle.
That being said, I also think pin money is a great baby step into hustling – and a lot of times it’s what people wind up doing when they’re looking for a hustle. It allows you flexibility to get used to spending your time on new things that make money and a lot of pin money type hustles either have pretty fast payoffs (UserTesting) or they are those once a month little paychecks that you forget about and then bam you’ve got $20 extra dollars (mystery shopping).
The first time I made some extra money was when I invigilated an exam.. It was a 6 hour exam and I got paid $300. Easiest paycheck I had ever made. They only do it twice a year so I tried to get on the invigilators list, but the lady that is in charge always “forgets” to call me.
Sylvia @Professional Girl on the Go recently posted…Net Worth Update – December 2016
That sucks that she forgets to call you, but yeah, that’s a pretty awesome rate!
I’d never heard the term pin money, but that makes a lot of sense. It’s not really a side hustle. I have a little pin money I earn using apps like Receipt Pal and Receipt Hog. I just take a quick picture of my receipts and then eventually, it adds up to a bit of pin money.
I also sometimes use apps like GigWalk, EasyShift, and Field Agent. These are basically apps where you take pictures in a store and get paid to do it. It’s not a ton of money – only a few bucks – but they don’t take long and I can earn it while I’m walking around shopping.
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