In our How I Make My Money series we intend to discover how individuals in the UK are making their money and earning a living. This week we talk to Becca Winkler, 27, who resides in London with her partner, Toby, 26. Becca is a video material developer by day and makes additional money working as a cat caretaker by means of Cat in a Flat.
Monthly spending plan
My regular monthly earnings: My earnings can differ, as a few of my earnings streams are from freelance work. I take home £2,600 a month from my full-time job with VEED after a recent pay increase. My cat sitting work can generate anything from £60 to £320 a month. I likewise do some freelance social networks material work, generating about £25 per post or video.
Our primary regular monthly outgoings: Rent for the 2 people is £1,300; groceries, £250; energy costs and council tax, £390. Separately, I likewise put £200 into my Lifetime Isa every month. I likewise put £120 into a personal pension each month. I likewise include £150 to a rainy-day cost savings pot every month and £150 to a vacation fund pot each month.
I work as a video material developer at video production company, VEED. Following a recent pay increase, I take home £2,600 a month. Before this, my take-home pay had to do with £1,900 monthly. I work from home, which I definitely like! I’m rather shy, so the possibility of operating in a loud, hectic workplace, or an uncomfortable quiet one, isn’t appealing. The business has a “work from anywhere” policy, so I even invested 2 weeks working from Spain in 2015.
My days are invested investigating keywords to focus our videos on, scripting, shooting and modifying videos, in addition to doing what I like to call YouTube admin, which is developing thumbnails for the videos, drawing up SEO based descriptions, including subtitles to make videos more available and responding to remarks that we receive.
I registered to Cat in a Flat in 2017 while I was away at university, due to the fact that I missed my cat at home. I began getting more constant jobs from the website from 2021 and now get repeat reservations.
As a cat caretaker, I set my own costs. When I initially began, I set my cost at £9 for one check out and £13 for 2 check outs a day. Cat in a Flat takes a cost of 19 percent for any reservation.
Once I ended up being a recognized cat caretaker with numerous first-class evaluations, I upped my costs to £13 for one check out and £20 for 2 check outs a day.
I go to the cat owner’s home to look at the cat and, as I don’t have a car, like to ensure the reservations are within walking range. I don’t prepare to increase my costs whenever quickly as my cat owners enjoy to pay the rates I charge now. Some cat caretakers charge more, state around £30, as they provide an over night service and remain the night at the cat owner’s home while they are away. This can be convenient if a cat has particular medical requirements or needs a bit more attention.
Like lots of others, I charge more for my cat sitting services throughout peak times, like school vacations, Easter and Christmas.
In June, I made £70 from my cat sitting work, however this month I’m on track to make £280.
The most I have actually made from one cat sitting job is £192 for one week, with 2 check outs a day throughout peak season.
Sometimes I take care of numerous cats at the very same time. Over Easter this year, I was taking care of 4 cats while their owners were away and made over £300 prior to costs. To date, I’ve made well over £2,000 from all my cat sitting work.
I normally drop in the cat for about 20 to 40 minutes per check out, however this differs depending upon their character and requirements. Some of the cats are outside cats, and I hardly ever see them when I go to. But one I see frequently requires unique medication and I need to remain and ensure he’s not ill after taking the tablet, implying the check out can last an hour.
To date, I’ve taken care of 28 cats, consisting of 4 kittens, and have actually finished 35 reservations, with 5 turning up in the next couple of weeks. Over 20 of the reservations I’ve had are from repeat clients, which is a good indication!
The additional money I make by means of Cat in a Flat has actually been actually beneficial, especially throughout the cost-of-living crisis. Since getting a pay increase from my full-time job, I now tend to utilize the money from cat sitting for travel. I just recently went to Dubrovnik in Croatia, and the majority of the journey was moneyed by cat sitting.
I like my full-time job and the business I work for, and because my recent pay increase, I have no genuine requirement to make more. The cat sitting work does supply a charming bonus offer earnings though.
In future, I’d love to be a full-time freelance influencer, working for myself and creating content, whether as something akin to a “cat influencer” or as myself!
Toby and I are also looking to buy our first home. I’m not keen on the idea of buying a flat, due to all the potential extra costs involved, like ground rent and service charges. I imagine we’ll end up having to buy somewhere outside of London, so it will need good train links into the capital.
I’ve saved up about £16,000 for a deposit so far. We’ve both been putting money into a Lifetime Isa for a while and want to wait to find a home that suits both of us.
In the interim, I want to use my extra earnings to travel. I’ve been able to save up enough from cat sitting to help fund a trip to New York next year, and it’ll be the very first time I’ve ever been to America!
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