May was a quiet month.
Not in a “nothing happened” way, but more in a “I did not really push anything that hard” way. And honestly, that is kind of the interesting part.
Enjoying this report?
One email per experiment. Full numbers, no fluff.
I still made €344.75.
Not life-changing money. Not Lamborghini-in-the-driveway money. But for a month where I was not very active, I will take it. This is exactly the part of side hustles that I like testing the most: what keeps moving when I am not constantly pushing it?
Because anyone can make money if they work non-stop. The better question is: what still brings in something when you are busy, tired, lazy, distracted, or working on something else?
May gave me a pretty good answer.
Total Money Made in May: €344.75
This month’s total came from a few different sources:
- Upwork: €136
- 3D printing: €121.92
- Respondent: €80
- Amazon Kindle: €4.62
- Clipping: -€4.79
- Website expense: -€41
Total: €344.75
A bit messy, but real numbers usually are.
MVP of the Month: Upwork — €136
The best performer this month was Upwork, with €136 profit.
And the funny part? It came from just two simple recurring jobs.
Nothing glamorous. No big client. No massive project. Just small, boring, repeatable tasks.
But that is the thing with side hustles. Sometimes boring is good. Actually, boring is often better. If something pays and does not eat your brain alive, that is already a decent deal.
I did not spend a crazy amount of time here, and that is why I rate this month’s Upwork result pretty positively.
Would I call Upwork my dream side hustle? No. Definitely not. I have applied to plenty of jobs there before with zero results, so I know it can be painful. But these small recurring jobs are working for me right now.
So for May, Upwork gets the crown.
3D Printing — €121.92
Second place goes to 3D printing, which made €121.92 this month.
This is still my main side hustle overall, even though May was not a huge month for it.
I did not receive any printers this month. Usually, that is one of the better parts of the 3D printing reward platforms for me, but this time, no printers.
I did receive free filament though, and I sold that locally.
Not bad.
The best thing about this income is that it mostly comes from work I already did earlier. Models are uploaded, people download them, rewards come in, and sometimes I can turn those rewards into real money by selling items locally.
That is the nice bit. Past work still doing a little job in the background.
Could it be better? Of course. But for a month where I was not very active, €121.92 from 3D printing is still solid.
Respondent — €80
Respondent brought in €80 this month.
It was one interview, around one hour long, and the profit was €80.
Sounds great, right?
Well… yes and no.
On paper, €80 for one hour is very nice. I mean, I am not going to pretend that is bad money. It is good money.
But Respondent is not something I fully trust as a long-term side hustle for me. The opportunities are rare, especially because I am from Lithuania and I am not a programmer, founder, or some very specific target user that these studies often want.
I already wrote a full post about this experience here:
So this month Respondent was nice, but I still do not see it as something reliable.
Good when it happens. Annoying when it does not.
Amazon Kindle — €4.62
Amazon Kindle made €4.62.
Tiny money, yes. Basically coffee money.
But I published a few books around half a year ago, and they still keep making a little bit here and there.
That is what makes Kindle interesting to me. I am not actively working on it right now, but it still sends small payments. Nothing crazy, but steady enough to notice.
Would I call Kindle a success? Not yet.
Would I call it dead? Also no.
It is just sitting there, slowly dripping pocket money. Like a tiny, slightly confused ATM.
Clipping — Minus €4.79
Clipping was a loss this month: -€4.79.
This is a new side hustle I am testing, and the minus came from a CapCut subscription.
So far, this one is still in the experiment phase. I do not want to judge it too early because I have not properly tested it yet.
I will create a separate post about this one after I have more results.
For now, it is just a small cost and a question mark.
Website — Minus €41
This month I also spent €41 on another website: kirimasio.com.
It is going to be about electrical engineering and automation.
The €41 covers hosting for 3 years, so it is not really a monthly expense, but I am counting it in this review because the money left my pocket in May.
This is not directly income yet. It is an investment into another project.
Will it work? I don’t know. Could be useful, could be another website collecting digital dust in the corner. We will see.
But since electrical engineering and automation are closer to my actual profession, I think this project has potential.
What May Showed Me
The main lesson from May is simple:
Some side hustles are starting to work even when I am not very active.
That is the whole point I am chasing.
Not every hustle needs to be fully passive. I think “passive income” is often sold in a very fake way online. Most of the time, there is work somewhere. Usually a lot of work in the beginning.
But semi-passive? That feels real.
3D printing is semi-passive for me now because I already uploaded models. Kindle is semi-passive because the books are already published. Upwork is not passive, but recurring jobs make it easier than constantly hunting for new work.
That is the direction I like.
Do the hard work once, or at least front-load most of it, and then see if the thing can keep producing something later.
Final Thoughts
May was not a high-effort month, but it still brought in €344.75.
For me, that is a good sign.
The biggest winners were Upwork and 3D printing. Respondent was a nice one-time boost. Kindle kept dripping small money. Clipping is still too early to judge. And kirimasio.com is a new experiment that might become useful later.
My rating for May?
Not amazing. But not bad at all.
A quiet month that still made money.
I will take that.
Not financial advice. This is just my personal side hustle review and real monthly results from my own experiments.