My attempt to find some easy ways to make some extra money in 2013. These are all ways to boost your income on top of your wages from your day job, and while you won’t ‘get rich quick’ the extra cash can make all the difference to a financially squeezed household. The amount of money mentioned here is what’s left after paying fees and tax, where appropriate.
January
Selling goods £0.00
Website extras (Skimlinks etc) £22.34
Cashback and bonuses £2.16
Surveys and market research £10.77
Monthly total: £35.27
February
Selling goods
Website extras (Skimlinks etc) £12.60
Cashback and bonuses £3.49
Surveys and market research
Monthly total:
Year to date:
March
Selling goods
Website extras (Skimlinks etc)
Cashback and bonuses
Surveys and market research
Monthly total
Year to date
****************
Extra, Extra 2012 Archive (what I earned on the side last year after tax)
Inflation is eroding our spending power and the cuts are still biting, but wages aren’t rising remotely fast enough to keep up. For most of us, better paid jobs and promotions are difficult to find – so I went looking for a few ways to earn a little extra cash on top of the wages from the day job throughout 2012.
Anything that was earned here up over the course of 2012 was used to make up the shortfall in basic living standards, rather than for treats. That’s because most estimates of household financial shortfall in 2012 were around £1000, for an average home. It went towards energy bills and groceries, and preventing the erosion of the spending power of any savings (low interest rates plus rising inflation equals reduced spending power) and pensions/investments.
The summary of earnings was updated at the end of every month, with a running total. They’re shown minus expenses and capital gains tax where this applies, and only included cash, bank transfers, cheques, PayPal credit and Amazon online vouchers. If it hadn’t cleared or the balance hadn’t reached the payout threshold by the end of the month then it couldn’t be spent so it wasn’t counted.
I figured that if I could do it, so could just about anybody else. Then I set out to beat the squeeze. Here are the figures for 2012.
- January
Selling goods
£137.43
Website extras (Skimlinks etc)
£12.63
Cashback and bonuses
£17.36
Market research and surveys
£0.00
Monthly total: £167.42
- February
Selling goods
£51.42
Website extras (Skimlinks etc)
£27.87
Cashback and bonuses
£13.17
Market research and surveys
£41.00
Monthly total: £133.46
Year to date: £300.88
- March
Selling goods
£39.49
Website extras (Skimlinks etc)
£0.00
Cashback and bonuses
£1.45
Market research and surveys
£19.00
Monthly total: £59.94
Year to date: £360.82
- April
Selling goods
£0.00
Website extras (Skimlinks etc)
£22.78
Cashback and bonuses
£12.12
Market research and surveys
£3.00
Monthly total: £37.90
Year to date: £398.72
- May
Selling goods
£0.00
Website extras (Skimlinks etc)
£9.56
Cashback and bonuses
£14.60
Market research and surveys
£10.00
Monthly total: £34.16
Year to date: £432.88
- June
Selling goods
£6.74
Website extras (Skimlinks etc)
£13.44
Cashback and bonuses
£2.59
Market research and surveys
£58.00
Monthly total: £80.77
Year to date: £513.65
- July
Selling goods
£0.00
Website extras (Skimlinks etc)
£14.42
Cashback and bonuses
£61.58
Market research and surveys
£0.00
Monthly total: £76.00
Year to date: £589.65
- August
Selling goods
£0.00
Website extras (Skimlinks etc)
£10.61
Cashback and bonuses
£1.64
Market research and surveys
£0.00
Monthly total: £12.25
Year to date: £601.90
- September
Selling goods
£0.00
Website extras (Skimlinks etc)
£8.25
Cashback and bonuses
£3.62
Market research and surveys
£0.00
Monthly total: £11.87
Year to date: £613.77
- October
Selling goods
£0.00
Website extras (Skimlinks etc)
£50.00
Cashback and bonuses
£11.88
Market research and surveys
£10.00
Monthly total: £61.88
Year to date: £675.65
- November
Selling goods
£0.00
Website extras (Skimlinks etc)
£50.00
Cashback and bonuses
£1.72
Market research and surveys
£10.00
Monthly total: £61.72
Year to date: £737.37
- December
Selling goods
£2.87
Website extras (Skimlinks etc)
£68.53
Cashback and bonuses
£21.59
Market research and surveys
£10.00
Monthly total: £102.99
TOTAL FOR THE YEAR: £840.36
So I made £840.36 in total, after tax and fees were taken out. After a lot of decluttering in January, I had plenty to sell on eBay and via MusicMagpie, and I made a point of getting everything listed and sent off as quickly as possible, grouped together in batches to save time. This meant that I made a fair return on the time spent over all on these activities, so there’s definitely something to be said for getting organised with it. I’d definitely do it again.
The surveys were not very well paid at all for the time spent on them, but I did them mostly in the evenings after dinner while the telly was on so it didn’t really put a dent in my schedule. The money slowly adds up over the course of the year, but if you are out most evenings or busy with kids etc then I’m not sure it’s for everyone. They mostly paid in Amazon vouchers and PayPal credit, which I put towards research materials and our household Christmas fund. I did get a nice cash payment for doing some user testing as part of a market research activity, and this paid much better. I’d love to do more of that next year.
The best thing I did was to move every little bit of money earned into an instant access savings account as soon as each payment had cleared in the current account, until I had enough for our whole Christmas fund. I was very strict about doing that, even if it was only a few pence at a time. That stopped me frittering it away and made me carry on with proper everyday budgeting.
In short, £840.36 is not to be sniffed at! There were a couple of months where I was relatively lazy and perhaps I could have done better, but I’m very happy with how things worked out throughout 2012, and will be doing something similar for 2013.
Have you been earning extra cash like this? What’s your best earner? Let me know via penny (at) pennygolightly.com !