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Woman challenged herself to earn an extra $100 at the end of every workday - and she’s sharing her results

One of her methods included re-selling a co-worker’s old Beanie Babies

Brittany Miller
New York
Thursday 05 October 2023 19:27 BST
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Related: Junior doctor has side-hustle as professional mermaid

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In the era of side hustles, one woman has decided to challenge herself to earn an extra $100 at the end of her workday for 100 days.

Since 12 September, Jackie Mitchell has been documenting her progress on TikTok as she tries different methods of both remote and online work, reporting how much money she earned at the end of each day.

One method Mitchell used to make some extra cash was the website DataAnnotation.tech, where she earned $20 per hour performing data annotation tasks. Data annotation is the process of labelling data with relevant tags to make it easier for computers to understand and interpret.

Another example of her side hustle included playing games on Swagbucks, which allows a user to earn points for each game they play and redeem those points for various gift cards, as well as participating in studies on the website Prolific and making money from her TikTok account.

At one point, some of the TikToker’s tasks expanded beyond her usual methods. In one video, she explained that her co-worker had gifted her a bunch of their old Beanie Babies to resell. Mitchell found her husband sorting through them, as she said: “This situation is just very funny to me. Some of them were worth a little bit, but overall they were all worth like $5."

Although she does perform some labour, her side gigs are often done with a heated blanket on her lap and in the comfort of her own home. However, commenters still questioned how she has the mental capacity to work full-time, only to come home and keep working. “Girl the way that you are doing this and I got home from teaching and watched YouTube for four hours,” one comment read.

Because many of her money-making websites require a waitlist, she has also given out recommendations for people who are looking for reliable side gigs.

Other commenters questioned how Mitchell is able to file her taxes due to the amount of freelance work that she does. “Genuinely curious - are there tax implications to your side hustles? Would love to do this but want to make sure I’m not getting myself into trouble,” one person asked.

Mitchell replied: “It is pre-tax! So I set aside 20 per cent of my income to be safe, and pay estimated tax payments quarterly.”

In an interview with BuzzFeed, Mitchell revealed that she and her husband are saving up for a down payment on a house, which is why she took on so many side gigs in the first place. “My husband and I are saving for a house, and we kept talking about a last push before our lease ended,” she explained. “I’m really competitive, especially with myself, so I sometimes turn my goals into daily or weekly challenges. I think it helps me stay motivated - when you know there’s a specific number to beat for the day or that you have to beat yesterday’s stats. It’s a lot more motivating than just setting that kind of ethereal goal of: ‘I want to buy a house’.”

As a result, Mitchell decided to post her progress on TikTok in order to hold herself accountable.

The Independent has reached out to Mitchell for comment.

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