I hope that you enjoyed the Late May Bank Holiday weekend. For once, the weather in Four Oaks was pretty much perfect and I spent most of the weekend outside. I’m aware that I’m repeating myself, but I can’t believe how quickly the year is going and that it’s June today. Now that I’ve started following the Couch to 5k again, I really hope that parkrun is able to return later this month.

If you read the three personal challenge posts I published at the beginning of the year, you’ll be aware that I set myself some money-saving challenges for 2021.

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If you haven’t read these posts, please do check them out Challenge 1 | Challenge 2 | Challenge 3.

Challenge 1: Will I be able to get through the year without buying any new clothes and shoes?

It took until the middle of May for me to fail this particular challenge. Last month, I mentioned how I’d managed to replace all of the ‘everyday’ clothes I’d taken to a clothes recycling bin. I rather naively didn’t try any of the so-called replacement clothes I got out of the loft on and assumed that they would fit. Unfortunately, everything was far too small. The same weekend I took more tops to the clothes recycling bin and was left with a dilemma. Should I buy more tops? Should I make do with the few ‘everyday’ tops I could squeeze into? I decided to buy a few more tops and this Disney sweatshirt in the TK Maxx clearance sale.

While I’m disappointed to have failed one of my personal challenges so early on in the year, I didn’t expect so many of my ‘everyday’ clothes to become unwearable quite so soon. So, although I think it’s fair to say that I’ve failed this particular personal challenge, I’ve decided that I’ll continue to share monthly updates. My theory is that this will hold me accountable throughout the rest of 2021.

Challenge 2: Can this shopaholic get through the year without entering any races and without buying any more running clothes?

Although I started running again in May, and had another wakeup call when I realised I can no longer fit into the majority of my running clothes, I continued to find this challenge quite easy. I tend to wear the same three ‘running outfits’ so I didn’t feel the need to buy any running clothes.

I think it’s fair to say that I experienced some race #FOMO during May. Although I didn’t enter any races, volunteering at the Birmingham Running Festival definitely increased my race #FOMO. I’ve got everything crossed that parkrun events are allowed to return later this month.

Challenge 3: Can I make £2021 in 2021 through a selection of side hustles and other sources of income such as cashback websites?

And finally, how much money did I manage to make through my various side hustles and other sources of income during May? As in previous months, in an attempt to keep things simple, I’ve listed each side-hustle and source of income separately.

Selected side hustles

• Prolific Academic surveys – £41.33
• eBay sales – £21.36
• Facebook Marketplace sales – £72.73
• Sponsored blog posts – £0.00

Other sources of income

• Overtime at work – £0.00
• Share dividends – £94.90
• Interest from bank accounts – £44.92
• TopCashback cashback – £23.84
• Vouchers from points and gift cards – £0.00
• Competition wins – £0.00
• Freebies – £17.00
• Roadkill finds – £0.21
• Random – £1.90

May total: £318.19

Rolling 2021 total: £1378.93

All things considered, May was an epic month, and I remain well on course to reach my £2021 target by the end of December.

Prolific Academic continued to be prolific, and I managed to cash out £41.33 and ended May with a balance of £2.00 (pending balance of £4.83). I finally got around to listing some of my unwanted running gear on Facebook. Although not everything I listed sold on Facebook, I managed to sell my Cathedral to Castle race entry, two pairs of running shorts, a running vest, a pair of calf sleeves and a pair of arm warmers. These Facebook sales added £72.73 towards my May total. After successfully listing and selling some running insoles on eBay, I’ve decided to list a few more bits and pieces on eBay next month. Much as I find listing and selling on eBay quite tedious, I need somewhere to list my unwanted statistics textbooks, Orla Kiely pillowcases and the Hoka One One trainers I’ve never worn.

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As for my other sources of income, as in previous months, without my share dividends I doubt that I would have got anywhere near my monthly target. Having said that, thanks to my regular saver bank account maturing in the middle of the month, the interest from my bank accounts contributed a decent amount to my May total. In addition, a TopCashback pay out added £23.84 to my monthly total. I was sent a month’s supply of a new joint supplement to try out and review, so I added the value of the supplements to the ‘freebies’ category. As for the ‘random’ category, I don’t have a car, so I decided to continue with my weekly Ocado deliveries. This meant that I was able to return £1.90 worth of carrier bags. Let’s just ignore the pile of carrier bags that went ‘missing’ and how much I spent on Ocado last month.

I don’t want to sound overly negative, but I’m not sure that June will match April and May. It feels like April and May were so successful they have set the standard for future months. I hope that Prolific Academic continues to treat me well, however, I suspect that the number of studies will decrease now that a lot of university students have finished for the academic year. I hope that some of the items I’m planning on listing on Facebook and on eBay sell but this is completely out of my control. I can’t go into too much detail at the moment, but June will hopefully turn out to be my most successful month as a running blogger.

And finally, I hope that you enjoyed reading this quick(ish) update as much as I enjoyed writing it 🙂