How Much I Make with Instacart

I have been working for Instacart now for about 7 months. It is one of my favorite side hustles. However, as a stay at home mama, I don’t have a big window of opportunity to work a whole lot. My hubby doesn’t get home until 5:30-6:15ish every night so that doesn’t leave me much time in the evenings. And my hubby doesn’t want me tied down on the weekends…I guess he kind of loves me and wants to spend time with me. Haha.

So, with all that said, my numbers will probably look way smaller than most because my availability is almost non existent. Every little bit counts though! So if you are like me, $20 here and $10 there may not seem like alot but trust me, it helps!

Let’s get to the numbers, shall we? Here is my total earning log so far…

My total earnings so far this year is $571.61.

As you read in part 1, just because you are on the clock doesn’t mean you are getting paid. This is a big misconception most people have about Instacart. You see lots of advertisements online about how you can make $15-$20 per hour. This is only somewhat true. You can make up to that much with your active hours (hours you are actually shopping) but the inactive hours, you are not paid at all.

So here is the breakdown of my earnings per hour on the clock vs. how much I am paid by the “active hours.”

Untitled presentation (5)

So you can see, I have averaged about $21 per hour when I was actually working and $8 per hour including the hours I was at home. Not bad for a side hustle!

Now with all this being said, Instacart doesn’t take out taxes. You are considered a contract employee so you will have to file a 1099. So make sure you save about 20% (which is is high but better to be safe than sorry). You can use mileage and I think part of your cell phone bill as a tax deduction but don’t quote me on that. I am not a tax professional so I would  ask.

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