Melanie Osborne has worked in finance for over 20 years, but outside of work, her real passion is gardening – something she never believed would earn her a decent income.
But when she started working remotely in the pandemic, she spent more time honing her gardening skills. While she has now gone back to the office, sometimes she works in a hybrid set-up, which has given her more time and energy to keep up her hobby.
For a while, 51-year-old Melanie, a mum-of-two from near Oval in London, was looking after her elderly mother and her children. But sadly her mum passed away in 2023 and her children have grown up, meaning she has more free time.
Last year, Melanie, decided to turn her passion into a proper side hustle and work on other people’s gardens instead. She signed up to Airtasker, a platform where users outsource everyday tasks, and was immediately inundated with requests.
She now earns roughly £3,000 per month gardening for her neighbours, roughly the same as her regular monthly salary, which she says now pays for her family to go on nice holidays and has boosted her savings pot.
“I’ve always loved gardening – I used to do it for myself and my mum, as I love the outdoors – but I never thought it could turn into a career,” Melanie said.
“At 50, I was thinking, what else can I do with my spare time? What do I really enjoy doing? And obviously it was gardening.
“I signed up to Airtasker and listed myself as a gardener and I really quickly started getting enquiries. It changed my life by showing me there are other ways to work and that you can earn money doing something you actually love.”
Melanie Osborne is still working in finance – but supplementing her income by working as a gardenerMelanie now completes three or four gardening tasks each week, travelling up to an hour around London and fitting the work around her regular working hours. She has now roped her partner and children into helping out, allowing her to take on bigger jobs.
“The extra income has helped my family enjoy more holidays, I save more and it’s provided a bigger blanket to cover the extra expenses that may arise.
“But I also take real pride in my work and knowing people trust me and ask me back makes me feel incredibly proud – it’s not just about the extra money, it’s also really fulfilling,” she said.
The rise of side hustles
Melanie is one of millions of Brits turning their passions into side hustles to boost their income. Roughly one in five people now have a side hustle to earn extra cash, recent research by Scottish Widows found.
These numbers are even more prevalent amongst younger generations, with 61 per cent of Gen Zs and 55 per cent of millennials taking on extra gigs outside work, according to a study by Live Career.
While earning extra cash through odd jobs is nothing new, research suggests the amount people are earning through them has increased significantly over the past few years – and it’s not just those on lower incomes looking to boost their earnings.
Recent research by Monzo found that in 2026, side hustles typically earn an average of £470 a month, or £5,640 a year, while those aged 25 to 34 earn the highest extra income at £507.87 per month.
Eugen Neagu, a financial planner at N2 Asset Management, said he thinks it’s positive to see more people engaging in the economy and taking control of their finances through side hustles.
“I have seen an increase in clients taking on side hustles. We have clients who buy and sell clothes on Vinted, for example, and make around £500 to £1,000 per month profit from this. I think it’s encouraging to see,” he said.
But Katrina Young, chief technology officer, a business consultant, said she thinks this is less a sign of entrepreneurial optimism and more a sign that regular incomes are not high enough to reliably cover the cost of a comfortable life.
Recent research by charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found a single person needed to earn £30,500 a year to reach a minimum acceptable standard of living in the UK in 2025, while a couple with two children needed to earn £74k between them – but many households are not reaching this.
“When people are running Vinted resale operations, freelance work or digital services alongside full time jobs, the underlying story is wage pressure meeting rising living costs, not simply a cultural shift toward enterprise,” Ms Young said.
“The deeper risk is structural. A workforce increasingly dependent on secondary income is absorbing economic pressure that employers and policymakers have not resolved. It also challenges lending, affordability and retirement models still built around one stable income.”
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