Woman makes nearly £500 a month renting out the other side of her bed to strangers
In the cost of living crisis, many of us have started a side hustle for a bit of extra cash, but one woman's money-making venture is a little more unusual than most.
Monique Jeremiah, from Australia, turned to 'hot bedding' — where you rent out the unused side of your bed — to earn more cash alongside her regular job.
And it's certainly working, with the 36-year-old pulling in £500 a month.
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While most people would be horrified at the idea of sharing a bed with a complete stranger (I'll stick to sleeping with a teddy bear), the strange practice of hot bedding is actually on the rise in Australia as the cost of living crisis continues to bite.
Usually the people involved have different schedules and sleep in shifts, but Monique is perfectly happy to have a stranger sleep beside her.
The 36-year-old claims it's fine as long as you don't think about it too much.
She said: "Hot bedding is excellent for people who are able to detach emotionally and sleep next to another person in a completely respectful and non-strings-attached manner.
"It is the perfect situation, especially if you are a sapiosexual, like myself, and you prefer companionship over the physical.
"It takes two people who respect each other’s space, values, and boundaries to do hot bedding.
"It is just like sharing a room with two beds; however, you only sleep in the same bed together, so you definitely want a big bed and lots of space in the room to make it worthwhile.
"Being an entrepreneur is already a lonely journey as you build a company, so why sleep alone when you can sleep with a companion, with someone with the same discipline and drive, while making money in your sleep?"
Monique says she found herself single at the start of the pandemic in 2020 and her once 'thriving' international education agency and student accommodation business collapsed as a result of the virus.
On top of this, her teaching career became suddenly 'unfulfilling' when classes moved online to ensure social distancing.
"My life was literally imploding beyond my control," she said.
"I knew my only option was to innovate and think outside the box, and that’s how I decided to do hot bedding.
"In a moment’s thought, I swallowed my pride, contacted my ex-partner, whom I hadn’t spoken to in a year, and said to him, 'Do you want to survive Covid together?' and to my surprise, he said yes.
"I have rented to my previous partner now twice. He will be sleeping with me again soon.
"I will be raising the rate to £127 a week when he returns as the cost of living has gone up significantly in Australia and my room is still a beautiful, comfortable room, the size of a five-star hotel suite."
She says her hot bedding side hustle has allowed her to start her own business.
To each their own, I guess.
Bec Oakes