THRIFTY Brighton mother Zoë Morrison has set herself a new challenge: to earn £10,000 in a year without getting a job.
The 35-year-old mother of two young sons has given herself the target five months after completing her first self-imposed challenge when she saved her family £11,000 after giving up her comfortable job as an NHS auditor to become an eco money-saving blogger and stay-at-home mum.
It has meant she hasn’t needed to work for the last two years but says lately cash has been a little tighter than normal.
“I love my current lifestyle and don’t want anything to change too much,” said Zoë. “So I’m planning to make some extra money by being an active participant in the sharing economy, where people 'share' things they own for a fee. Sharing is a really eco-friendly thing to do. The theory is that if you rent out your room, your car, your garage or your stuff while you aren't using it, then you make the best use of what already exists.
“You reduce the need for new stuff, new cars, new hotels and new storage units to be created, built and maintained to rent out to people.” In order to make £10,000, Zoë has created a list of ideas to test to find out how much she can earn and how well they fit into the family’s life. So far, her schedule for the year looks like this: January – renting to students. “I’ve already started, and we have a student staying in our home for eight weeks, paying us £129 a week.”
February – aim to rent out my car. March – aim to rent out more of my garage. April – aim to rent out my home for a week via Airbnb.
May – look into renting out some of my barely used stuff. June – get another bed for my student room and rent to two students at a time.
July – do a declutter and a car boot sale. August – aim to rent out my home for two weeks via Airbnb. September – aim to do some car sharing. October – look into renting out my home as a film location. November – look into peer-to-peer lending. December – sell unwanted stuff online before Christmas.
She will report her progress on her blog at ecothriftyliving.com.
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