20 ways to make money in your spare time
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by Liam Tarry
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The new austerity measures from the coalition government mean many people will have to tighten their belts over the coming months. While sticking to a budget and finding ways to cut back are advisable, with a little imagination and effort you could find there are ways you can actually make money.
Moneywise has come up with 20 ways to make money during the credit crunch - some are easier than others but all of them could see you make some extra cash.
1. Track down old accounts
According to the British Bankers’ Association, there is more than £15 billion sitting forgotten in bank and savings accounts in the UK, with the average balance estimated to be £600.
The good news is that tracing lost funds has become easier with Mylostaccount.org.uk – a free online service that covers all UK bank and building society accounts. All you need to do is to go to the website and type in your details.
How to track down money in lost accounts
2. Claim tax credits
It’s always worth checking that you are receiving all the tax credits you are eligible for. Research by entitledto.co.uk found that people across the UK are collectively missing out on benefits and tax credits worth more than £8 billion a year. So while you’re tracing lost funds, why not visit the entitledto.co.uk website too and work out how much you could claim.
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3. Sort your savings
Another easy way to make money is to make sure your savings are working as hard as they can.
If you’ve had the same savings account for a while it might be worth shopping around because new customers tend to get the most competitive rates. Good rates come and go, but if you've had a savings account for more than a year the chances are the interest you are earning is not the best out there.
If you have a lump sum that you are prepared to lock away for 12 months or longer, then a fixed-rate account might be best. This type of deal will also protect you from interest rate cuts.
If you want to start a savings habit then a regular savings account is a good way to ensure you put a set amount of money away each month. But if you want to make deposits as and when, an instant access deal could be the one for you.
However, if you haven't yet used your ISA allowance for the current tax year then this sort of account should be the first home for any savings. You can save up to £5,100 each tax year as cash in an ISA and this will not be taxed.
Check out this week's best cash ISA rates
4. Mystery shopper
If you're longing for some retail therapy but can’t afford to hit the shops, why not earn a few pounds as a mystery shopper? Websites such as Retaileyes.co.uk employ mystery shoppers to drop in unannounced in shops and restaurants and rate their experience.
After you send in your feedback, you’ll be paid for your time and reimbursed for any purchases you made. You could make up to £20 a day, and get a meal or a night in a nice hotel thrown in for good measure.
5. Use cashback credit cards
If you pay off your credit bill in full each month, a cashback credit card could be the way to go. These offer you moneyback on purchases in certain shops or on goods such as petrol.
“Cashback credit cards are a great way to reward savvy spenders,” says Andrew Hagger, from Moneynet.co.uk, a price comparison website. “You can earn extra cash without even having to change your shopping habits.”
Use Compare Credit Cards to browse all cash-back cards currently available.
6. Cashback sites
You can earn even more money from shopping online. Cashback websites will automatically pay you every time you buy a product or a service from selected retailers, from your weekly groceries to switching your utility provider.
Websites include topcashback.co.uk, quidco.com and quidsinuk.co.uk which offer 100% commission cashback.
The top five cashback websites
7. Take in a lodger
While most of us pay a fortune for our homes, it’s possible to make your home make money for you.
According to Santander, you could make as much as £289 a month from renting out a spare room. Under the government’s ‘rent a room’ scheme, you don’t need to pay tax on the first £4,250 you receive either, which means you could charge up to £354.16 a month without being lumbered with a tax bill.
8. Rent out a parking space
If you live close to a city centre, train station or football stadium and don’t use your parking space or garage, you’re sitting on a proverbial goldmine. Renting an empty parking place to a commuter or football fan could see you rake in the pounds.
Parkatmyhouse.com is a website where you can advertise your space free of charge and let frustrated drivers get in touch. A parking space in the West End of London, for example, can fetch £500 a month, while in a leafy suburb of Leeds a space could net you £100.
9. Auctions
We’re all guilty of hoarding items that "could come in handy one day". But one man’s rubbish could be another man’s treasure, which is why online auction website eBay.co.uk is so successful. In fact, eBay estimates the average British house has about £450 worth of unwanted items that could be sold on the site.
For more valuable items, it could be worth going to an auction. Jonty Hearnden, antiques expert and presenter of BBC 1's Cash in the Attic and Sun, Sea and Bargain Spotting, says you should contact a local auctioneer if you think an item could be valuable.
"You could be asked to email across a digital photo, which the auctioneer will assess for free, or the auctioneer might visit you at no extra cost to take a closer look - especially if it is a large item," he explains.
10. Car boot sales
If you’d prefer money in your palm instantly, a car boot sale is the place to go. Thousands of people flock to car boot sales every weekend, with pitches costing about £10 a day. To find out where to flog your booty, check out Carbootjunction.com.
Make money from car boot sales
11. Recycle your old mobile
Many of us have an old mobile phone gathering dust in a drawer somewhere, but you could easily turn it into cash, even if it is slightly damaged. Websites such as Mopay.co.uk, Fonebank.com and Envirofone.com will tell you how much your phone is worth. An iPhone 3G, for example, could fetch around £130.
12. Sell your skills
We all have skills and talents so why not use these to make a few extra quid.
“If you spent years of your life being marched to piano lessons, put the experience to good use in adulthood by advertising your services in the local newspaper as a music teacher, says Laura Howard in her book, CashQuestions.com's 100 Ways to Beat the Credit Crunch.
"Just three hour-long lessons a week could see you up to £60 better off, not to mention the sense of satisfaction you will get. The same applies for languages."
13. Be a Film extra
If you fancy seeing yourself on screen, film and TV companies are always on the hunt for extras. You could make up to £150 a day and get the chance to meet some famous actors. You’ll need to join an agency first, details of one near you can be found at Nasaa.org.uk.
14. Rent your home to film makers
Hollywood can come to your home too, provided you have the right location. If you live in an interesting property, you could bag upwards of £1,000 a day renting your home to film and TV companies. Ideal locations must have large rooms, good parking facilities and understanding neighbours. Ordinary homes are wanted too.
Five ways to cash in on your home
15. Model your child
While every parent thinks their child is a star, model agencies could think so too. If you think your little one has what it takes, the first step is to contact an agency to ask about their requirements. You will be asked to send in a head and shoulders photo of your child, either by post or email.
If your child stands out, you’ll both be invited for an interview, to assess if your child is right for TV, photo or film. Depending on the child’s age, shoots pay upwards £50 an hour, but bear in mind that agencies can charge up to 25% commission.
16. Surveys that pay
The web also offers a wealth of balance-boosting opportunities. Survey websites such as Yougov.com, Panelbase.net and Toluna.com will all reward you for your opinions, either through cash or reward vouchers.
Once you’ve registered on the website, you’ll be sent surveys tailored to your personal profile, ranging from 10p to £2 per survey.
17. Earn from web research
Any Question Answered (Issuebits.com), are often on the lookout for internet researchers. Once a customer asks a question through their mobile phone, it’s the researcher’s job to hunt out the answer and reply online.
You can choose your own hours and the questions you answer, and can earn around 30p for every question you answer correctly.
18. Review music
Budding Simon Cowells amongst us should check out soundout.com, a music website that pays users to review unsigned bands. The idea is simple: you sign up, listen to a track, rate it and write an honest review. You’ll get 5p per review, but the more reviews you make the more you can charge – experienced reviewers can command 25p per song.
“If you’re a dedicated reviewer, you can earn some decent pocket money, some users have earned in excess of £1,000,” says David Courtier-Dutton, the founder of soundout.com.
19. Medical experiments
Volunteering for clinical trials doesn’t just have to involve taking untested and risky drugs. Some clinical trials are perfectly safe, such as sleep studies, psychological tests and taste testers. Fit and healthy volunteers living in London willing to donate their blood for clinical research, for example, could be paid £60 a time.
But remember, never sign up for anything you are not happy with – risking your health for a few extra pounds is just not worth it. Go to Gpgp.net for trials in your area.
20. Join the TA
If you’re brave and committed enough to sign up, the Territorial Army is always looking for recruits. You would need to give up one weekend a month, attend an annual two-week camp for basic training and be ready to be called to active service.
Basic pay starts at £34.41 a day, but can rise to £112.51. When you meet the minimum yearly training requirement (27 days if you’re in a Regional Territorial unit, 19 days if you’re in a National unit) you receive an extra payment known as a bounty. This increases as you spend more time as a Territorial, so within five years of joining, you could receive an extra £1600 a year. Go to Armyjobs.mod.uk for details.
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hi i think these tips are a great help.I have normally just found a load of junk which doesnt help and is a con but seeing you ideas you make me more trusing and glad that there is people like you who care about what there doing and actually want to help us save and make money.Thanks alot and i will let you know when and how i earned some cash with your ideas.I have heard alot of sites saying they will pay you to do surveys but when you join up you dont get paid much at all.Some are just points and you could be on line hours just to make a £1 and other times after doing half of the survey you get told "sorry this surveys ended" what did they need all that info for.If you ever find a survey site that offers real incentives ie more than £5/10 then let me know,thanks also what are the sites called if you know where you can wright blogs for them or write items for sale on ebay and things like that?if you or anyone knows and not one of them con sites saying "join up and we will give you a list of big companys who want you to work for them for your feedback/review" Is there really companys who want us normal folk and pay us good cash to type a few words for them? id love to know .
All the ideas seem good in principle but I have tried many survey sites and there are not many that pay very much. Most let you start a survey then tell you that you aren't in the correct category of person they are looking for. You then seem to get a lot of spam mail from other companies.
As for mystery shopping you dont get many jobs from the likes of Retaileyes and when you do they are for airports when you need to be actually going on holiday, waste of time unless you holiday every week of the year. I would like to hear from anyone that makes £20 a day, you're better off putting a tenner on a 2/1 shot at the bookies, lol. Sorry to disappoint all those who are hoping to earn extra with these ideas but I'm afraid the truth hurts.
Not happy about assuming a few piano lessons when you're younger qualifies you to teach people and charge for the privilege. Indicative of the underestimation of teaching - and if it was that easy, lots more would be doing it....I wouldn't part with my money to be taught by someone on that little training.
Just because someone was dragged to piano lessons as a child does not make them a qualified or even skilful piano teacher, and would certainly not entitle you to charge £20 per lesson!
How would you feel if your child was being taught by some unskilled, unsupervised, and probably not Enhanced CRB checked "piano teacher"?
I signed up to WH Smith surveys but found it a complete waste of time as most of them I was not suitable for. They should target them better. Our local paper allows you sell items up to £50 free. Probably other papers are the same.
The scathing truth about Retail Eyes.
The main advantage of Retail Eyes and most other mystery shopping sites is that you get paid to do the job and in addition reimbursed for your purchase. Normally though, you must buy a specific product, so you don't get choice, and chances are you don't actually want the item. Jobs often include buying 2 selected drinks in a specified pub chain, and you'll be reimbursed if you buy the drinks asked of you and paid a visit fee. Or maybe you'll get a £10 reimbursement twoards a spend of your own choice at a place like Dreams (beds). But in this situation you'll really struggle to find something that YOU actually want to buy for £10 or less so you'll end up chipping in your own money twoards buying something that you might not have been inclined to buy if you didn't take the assignment. Fast food is a more realistic option for many, mainly Subway at the moment. The overwhelming majority the assignments tend not to be very interesting or glamorous.
In my 3 years as a Retail Eyes mystery shopper, he best experiences I've had were a few visits to Pret-a-Manger which I love, so right up my street. But it's been well over a year since I've seen such a job. I also got paid and reimbursed for a small bottle of perfume from an assignment at the Body Shop. And that's where the good bit ends.
Retail Eyes assignments are usually pretty involved, Checking facilities/toilets, describing staff, checking waiting times, no.s of customers, range of products and promotional activities for a start! The questions are incredibly specific. The jobs are poorly paid and involve a lot of organisation, committment and resources. Sometimes you have to print out a colour award certificate, always upload images and receipts from a mobile or digital camera, have ready access to quickly complete a very long-winded and convoluted web questionaire (about an hour long) all on top of the actual visit described above, all to earn maybe £4 (and reimbursement). Rarely do jobs pay more than £5.
When new jobs come onto the site, you have to fully read the assignment spec and then answer a set of related questions correctly to pass the test, before you are allowed to even apply for the job. The better jobs disappear almost immediately. It's frustratingly common to have read up on he details of a job and find it's has been taken before you get a chance to apply. On a very rare occasion you might be lucky enough to get say 3-4 assignments on the one day within achievable traveling distance of each other. That's the potential payment of £20 (+ reimbursements). But you'll be paying for travel and working all day, and will then have to come home and face about 4 hours of report writing!!!!
If you get anything wrong (and it's easily done) you will have to do the assignment again for free or hand the job back and then not get paid at all, regardless of your expenditure! Mistakes, and not fulfilling jobs may effect your personal 'score' and entitlement to jobs in the future.
Time restrictions for completing a job and uploading reports are also tight . You can't guarantee that there will be work on any given day. You will rarely be in a position to get more than two or three jobs in a week. The narrower your radius of travel the less jobs there are. But if your broaden the area you can cover, your travel expenses obviously will shoot up accordingly. There's just no way round it.
All in all a depressing situation if you hope to rely on topping up money in this way.
Still interested?
I looked into renting out a parking space at my home as I live close to a regional airport. I thought I had better check out any liability that I would be letting myself in for, and put the idea to my building insurers and mortgage lenders. They went through the roof and put so much red tape in the way I gave up
I've found de-cluttering a great way of making a few extra quid. The stuff that is less expensive or heavy to post, sell that at a boot fair - save your stuff up for say 6 months and do it in one big sale. You can always take whatever's left to a charity shop :)
Then stuff that may be more valuable or light to post you can sell in your local paper (often for free as someone else pointed out) or use an online auction site like eBay. There's even some localised Facebook pages springing up where people are selling stuff for nothing. In my experience on average people who respond to you from this route are less reliable, less likely to turn up when arranged etc, but it's a lot less hassle than creating a new ebay listing and doesn't cost anything except your time :)
How about filling in surveys online in your spare time - I have been doing the odd one in occasional lunch hours and have just under £50 this month. For more info see:
ways-to-make-money.co.uk/uk_paid_surveys_63.html
it will be true that a home addition is a great way to liven up an old structure, add more family room or even increase the value of your home
These are some really outstanding tips for earn money when you are free. Frankly I have tried some survey sites but I have never got paid. I do have cash back credit cards but not earn much from those either.
Nick
I think the biggest benefit comes for people who are in a lot of debt. If you haven't done it yet, visit any of the debt calculators online and check how much you'll save in interest if you add 50 to your current monthly payment. If you have over ten thousand in debt, this small addition can save you thousands in interest! How's that for a part time gig income! That's exactly why I love these income ideas. I used to have so much debt. I managed to settle some of it but I still had to repay the rest and getting extra income did wonders for me.
Most of the above are great ideas! I only don't approve the medical experiments one. I have a friend who got an insane rash that kept coming back after one of these. Selling your health for a little bit of money could increase your medical expenses eventually. Not a good deal!
Nice post. Find out More Money Making Ways here
I have tried some of these solutions, I like especially first one "track down old accounts" because i did that even several times and all of them are still empty. But a great way of earning money is using pay per click programs and for a few minutes of clicking on the internet you can earn by the end of the month a little fortune.
Thanks for sharing, some very useful tips have been highlighted. I have benefited from de-cluttering on ebay, very handy and clears up space.
Another great way of earning by selling your skills or doing errands in your free time, can be found at mytaskangel.co.uk. Doing surveys is also good but can be tedious sometimes.
Another tip before buying anything online check cashback sites like Quidco, I earned £70 cashback this month for upgrading my Sky and £100 for a new three iphone contract (now £150). I was thrilled when they paid this into my account (It took about 2 months in total).