How Side Hustle Garden works
The whole app in two minutes.
The big picture
Your bills are plants. Your side hustle income is water. Every payment you log waters the
garden, and the plants grow as your bills get covered.
It answers the question that's hard to hold in your head: how much of your actual life does
this side hustle pay for? Covering your phone bill is a real milestone, and this shows you the
month you crossed it.
Step one: plant your bills
In Bills, add the things you pay every month: a name, a monthly amount, and a plant
type (that's just how it looks). Turn on fixed monthly for anything that's the same every
month; leave it off for the ones that move around and set those per month.
Step two: water with what you earned
In Water, put in where the money came from, how much, and the date. The app spreads it
across that month's bills, smallest first, and shows you the order before you commit.
Smallest first is deliberate. You get a whole plant fully grown early, which is what keeps you
going, instead of spreading it so thin that nothing visibly changes.
The six growth stages
SeedBarely watered this month.
Sprout5% covered.
Leafing25% covered.
Budding50% covered.
Blooming75% covered.
Full bloomThat bill is fully paid for this month.
Coverage is per month, so a new month is fresh soil and the plants start again. The history
stays in Growth.
What each tab is for
- Garden is the picture: every bill as a plant, plus your coverage.
- Water is where you log income.
- Bills is where you plant and edit them.
- Growth is how coverage has moved month over month.
- Forecast projects the next 6 months. That one's Pro.
Just starting?
- Plant three bills, starting with your smallest. That's the first plant you'll see bloom.
- Log one payment you've already had this month.
- Look at the coverage bar. That number is the whole point of the app.
Free and Pro
Free is the whole garden with no cap on bills or payments. Pro adds the 6-month cash flow
forecast and CSV export. One Pro pass covers all five apps in the App Hub.
Want the long version with pictures?
Read the full guide. It opens in a new tab
so you don't lose your place here.