Mommy's Favorite Things: How I Make an Extra $700 a Month Working Weekends



Tuesday, December 29, 2015

How I Make an Extra $700 a Month Working Weekends



This is NOT a Sponsored Post


Recently my family has tried to find supplemental income so we can pay down debt and live life more comfortably. We found it. My husband and I both, but primarily me. 

What is the way I make extra money every month? Uber of course!!!! Let me tell you a bit about my experiences with Uber. 


I started driving for Uber on September 18th, the day I was approved, and so far I have not had a SINGLE complaint about the company or the business. I have never felt uncomfortable whilst driving. 
So my first month I went hard core and would do about 20 hours in a weekend. Of course this was the way to make more money, and it did, but I got burnt out quickly. So I quickly shifted to doing about 5 hours on Friday evening and about 8 hours on Saturday and it made a difference, I love what I'm doing while making a nice supplemental income and helping to pay the bills. 

HOW IT WORKS
On the DRIVING end here's how it works:
You sign up on the Website (using code AECBJUE), upload a copy of a valid driver's license, registration and proof of insurance. You MAY have to get a copy of your driving record for $8 from the DMV. Then they look everything over, run a background check and approve you. For my husband and I it took about 3 weeks, but I've heard it being as fast as a week. It all depends on their external background check company. 

Once you're approved you can start driving right away. They will send you a link to download the app.

Start Driving, you open the app, sign in and click "go online" this will open up a map with your car at it's current location. Then you WAIT! As soon as someone within a near radius needs a ride, the app will ding at you and pull up a circle, it will give you an address and you need to accept the ride. (You can be in other apps while it's running in background. It will ding at you and the notification bar pops up, click it then it takes you to the Uber app). To accept you just press the circle in the middle. From there it tells you there location and you can click navigate and it will give you turn by turn directions to their location. Once they get in the car you confirm their name with what the app says and slide the bar to "start trip". It will then pull up their address, confirm with the rider and then drive there! When they get out you slide to "end trip" and then it will tell you their fare. It automatically charges to their credit card on file so there's no need to handle any cash, ever!

When you are signed in, you will see this. Just click GO ONLINE...

Then you'll see something similar to this. 
Something about this really quick. Uber has SURGE areas and surge rates. This is where fares are more. It ranges from 1.1 to 9.9 times the normal rate. They also have yellow-fairly higher demand than normal, orange-moderately higher demand than normal and red is a surge zone and they will show you the current surge for that area.
Lets say I pick someone up in that 2.5x zone there and their NORMAL trip is $12.80, it's now going to be $32!!!!
However, I don't ever chase these surge zones as they go away usually fairly quickly as it's about supply/demand! But I'm thankful when I get a surge rate!

How it looks when you get a request



Here's my only 2 experiences... After driving for over a month with 0 issues and even driving until 2 or 3am, 2 days in a row I had someone vomit out my windows and get it outside my car. 1 while driving down 1-75, I had to find a 24 hour car wash at this point. However, if you report it to Uber they pay you $50 for anything outside and $200 for anything inside your vehicle. It's for loss of fares and cleaning fees. They are truly a wonderful company to work for. 
After that point my cutoff is midnight or 12:30 at the VERY latest. No issues since then.

Every time I've had an issue (above or toting around XL people and getting paid for an X), they have responded to me within 2 hours. Very fast and prompt email response.

You need to have a 2005 (possibly 2006 now that 16 is upon us) or newer vehicle to drive, and it must be 4 doors. You also must have a fairly clean driving record and background check to drive. 

Here's where it gets INTERESTING!
How much do you make? Right?

Each month since driving for Uber. From 14-20 hours in a weekend, I can bring in $550-$850 every month, NOT including tips (as those are RANDOM, one day I made $58, 4 days in a row I made $0). I know that if I set my mind to it, I can easily make $200 in a weekend.
I drive the busiest hours (Friday and Saturday nights) and I average around $15.50 an hour most the time. I have averaged $10 and I have averaged $30, so it depends. 

-Uber takes 20% of each ride and 28% if you do an UberXL ride (means you can hold more than 5 passengers but make almost double, but you can still accept regular Uber riders as well). Overall this isn't bad, unless someone has a $6 trip, then you don't make much.

These are TRULY my payments with Uber. Nothing faked here. You can see I've made anywhere from $62 to $311 in a WEEK! The $62 was the weekend after Thanksgiving and I only drove 5 hours on Saturday.

And then December has been slow with Christmas shopping, Christmas, a birthday, etc. My December 30/31 payment is $89




Also, you get to write off ALL miles driven on taxes, so it pretty much washes out your income. which is really nice!

Some other info
COSTS
People want to know this too. What are my costs?
So I was filling my tank about once every 3-4 weeks since I hardly drove anywhere. Currently that's about $30 every 3 weeks we'll say. With Uber I usually fill up once a week (with a van that gets 17/22 mpg) so now I'm spending roughly $120 a month on gas. Compared to $30-$40 this is minor really.

Since I started on September 18th I have driven about 5,000 miles. So that's about 1 oil change. So around $50 in 3 months. Again miniscule compared to what I'm earning. So far I've had no other vehicle issues or maintenance, but you can also write a portion of maintenance off on your taxes as well. 90% of my driving these 3 months has been uber, so I could write off 90% of my oil change. 

TIPS
Some tips? 
-Keep charging cables in your car for your readers. I bought a Car USB Charger and then an android and apple charging cable. I leave these in my back seat (I'm fortunate to have an outlet in the back of my car, otherwise get LONG cables to reach from front to back). 

-Keep your car CLEAN! I get a car wash once a week and vacuum out my car every 1-2 weeks so it's clean. This makes an impression. 

-Don't eat in your car so it doesn't stink up, don't smoke (given right?) and keep your appearance clean as well. Dress nice, do your hair and makeup (women, men keep your hair cut and facial hair trimmed) and look approachable. 

-Know that you don't always have to accept a ride. You have 15 seconds to click that circle, and if you DO accept the ride but ever feel uncomfortable you can click cancel on the screen at any given time. If you arrive somewhere and the person is extremely rude or drunk, you can drive off and cancel the ride. 
If you arrive and the person isn't there, you can message or call them (through Ubers phone number so they never have your personal info), after 5 minutes and a contact you can hit cancel and Uber will pay you $5 for wasting gas and time.

-You get to make all your own hours. You can drive 2 hours or 70 hours a week. You can drive 1 week and not drive again for 4 months. Totally up to you!

So don't forget to sign up on the Website (using code AECBJUE) and start driving for Uber TODAY!!
Once you complete 25 trips we'll BOTH get a cash bonus!



3 comments:


Amber Ludwig said...

Sounds great!! Im a little bummed that you must have a newer vehicle though!! My 03 infiniti is an amazing vehicle and runs awesome but wouldn't qualify due to the year... total bummer!


WorkingMomMagic said...

This is so interesting! I would def consider this if I ever left my job since I live in South Florida where it is so busy!


Liz Parker said...

I use Uber (and Lyft) frequently, but this was an interesting read to see the driver's perspective. I've only had maybe 1-2 bad rides (we had an Uber driver in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale once who I think was a bit racist) but otherwise I'm very happy with the service.

For tips, Uber doesn't have a tipping option yet right? Do people tip you in cash? I never know what to do with that. With Lyft, I usually tip $1-2 per ride, depending on the price.