I’ve talked before about how I side hustle to help to cover the cost of all the travel I do. For 2026, I wanted to be more transparent about this, so at end of each quarter I’ll do a roundup of what I’ve earnt, how I did it and what it’s going to be spent on.
I’ll also be keeping track of everything I spend on travel in 2026, as my everything a travel blogger spent on travel in 2025 post was so well received, so that post will go live in January 2027.
In this post, if there’s a signup cost or a big time commitment I’ll make that clear. So, lets get into how I did in January, February and March 2026.
January
Halfway through January, I picked up matched betting again after a few months break. The initial cost for this was £39.99 for the month’s membership for the site I use, Outplayed. I made a total of £110.99 through the month, which was a total profit of £71.00, and I spent about twenty minutes most days on this.
I made £3.24 on Curious Cat, an app that does short surveys. I looked at this for about ten minutes on some days, forgetting to do it a lot of the time, and if there were surveys for more than 20p I did them. Anything smaller I don’t bother with due to time.
Finally, I made just under £5.00 on Prolific. Prolific is another survey site that links up with universities to host studies for students. You know in advance how long something will take and how much it will pay, and you’re very rarely screened out. I find the studies really interesting. I didn’t look at Prolific much in January due to a major focus on this blog, so I could have made more if I’d kept it open in the background
Total profit for January; £78.24. Not terrible, a respectable amount for a low effort month.
February
In February I made £102.84 matched betting. However, I spent £39.99 on February’s Outplayed membership and £250 on an annual membership when there was a sale, because this worked out at £20.83 per month rather than £39.99. This will help me to make more profit through the rest of the year but did spend all of Februarys!
From Curious Cat, I made £2.00. Again, I didn’t reach for the app often enough in February.
I made £11.62 on Prolific, looking at it a little bit more frequently throughout February.
Finally, this month I listed one thing on Vinted, out of a large pile I need to get through, and sold it for £2 profit.
Overall, I made £118.46 but spent £289.99, making a loss for February of £171.53 and a loss for the year so far of £93.29.
March
In March, as I knew I would, I went back into profit. Bearing in mind I’ll now have no expenses for matched betting until February 2027, being in profit in March is fantastic.
I made £172.36 matched betting throughout the month. This was helped by Cheltenham Festival and lots of Champions League football, both of which help to make higher profits matched betting.
I made £9.04 on Curious Cat, which was a better month for the app.
I made £31.49 from Prolific, a much better month for the site, although there’s more potential there.
This month I also made a profit from a paid post on this blog, of £71.92, and I then made £36 at work doing some overtime. I also made £10 from a Monzo referral, again via this blog.
March was therefore earnings of £330.81, a profit of £236.89 so far for the year.
I’m really happy with this amount of profit. I’ll put it into my travel pot and use it towards a future 2026 trip.
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