The name of this post is totally ridiculous. But it’s true.

The last few months, I’ve been working on a couple of big jobs simultaneously that are like… trying to kill me. My bank account is happy, but I’m not.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the opportunities and am totally saving this extra income for the rainy day currently known as grad school, but dang.

At the end of each month, I do an accountability update that includes how much I made and where it went.

The last few months I’ve laughed a little bit when I’ve done them because the list of income streams is getting kind of long, even though some of them are really just tiny trickles.

The nice thing about the tiny trickles? They are usually pretty fun or easy ways to make a little extra money.

I look at the big numbers (and although thank goodness they are there), I feel the stress radiating off of them.

Those little numbers feel like happy little boosts.

Oh, $50 of UserTesting this month while I was babysitting murder mysteries online? Score.

Some brokeGIRLrich income that I did during breaks at my regular job, which always feels like a super score.

A Rakuten or Honey cashback payout.

A few items sold on eBay that more decluttered the house than made much money, but it does usually equal a coffee or two.

Mystery shopping on the way home from somewhere or the rare well paying mystery shop that I go out of my way to do but is really an easy $100-200.

Picking up the odd substituting day here and there.

The positively ridiculous radio voiceover work once in a blue moon that always leave me laughing.

Even the murder mysteries fall in this category now because I sub in to cover shows when I want to.

All of these things are super, super flexible but a really nice little boost sometimes.

I think a key to building your side hustle smorgasbord is a willingness to try things out. When I first started this blog, I put a lot of effort into finding different side hustles so I could write about them (and totally to make extra money too – things were a lot tighter eight years ago).

There were some things I tried that were a hard no.

Other things were more like… I’d rather not, but could if I had to.

And others were like super easy or a lot of fun.

Some of these things were easy to start with – mystery shopping, UserTesting, I just signed up. Other came out of doing a good job at a main job and offering to sub or help out if needed in the future.

I randomly stage managed a little side gig this past month that paid really well and I was called in at the last minute because I worked with the organizer of the event on an entirely different show for a year and a half.

I read a book at the beginning of my personal finance journey called Multiple Streams of Income and learned that the average millionaire has seven streams of income.

This seemed hilarious to me and my little cruise ship salary back in the day, but I’ve slowly been working towards that goal for some time now and each time I can add any income stream, it does seem to help.

Just matching some of the smaller hustles to various wants instead of taking it out my regular paycheck has freed up some money to go towards other goals or investing (that later one being a pretty common income stream for those millionaires in that book).

Even now at a higher income level, it’s a lot easier for me justify some extra splurges when they match the random extra income.

What sort of side hustles are on your pick and choose menu? If you don’t have any yet, which ones sound interesting to you?