Saving can be challenging when income is tight. These 4 quick and easy ways to make extra income can help boost those savings or put a little extra in your pocket to ease the pressure. I have used these money-making ideas to raise money for projects that I have decided not to fund from my main income. So even if money is not very tight for you, these can help you make extra money for a new project, gadget, clothing, or trip. You name it!
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Freetrade
Freetrade is a share dealing app that makes buying and selling shares easy. I use the Freetrade app for my single-stock purchases. Share purchases made on the Freetrade app are commission-free except for stamp duty on UK stocks. The impact of costs on your investment can be high especially if investing a small capital.
To demonstrate this, I also have an investment account with Hargreaves and Landsdown which is perfect for buying funds. Recently, I bought a company’s share through the Hargreaves Landsdown platform. The brokerage fee for buying the shares was £11.95. This means that the share price needs to appreciate by £23.90 (£11.95*2-buying and selling costs) to break even. This is close to a 50% increase on a £50 investment. So to make a decent gain, I need a return of over 50%. This could mean investing in shares with above-average risks.
A commission-free share dealing platform is the most efficient way of investing part of your portfolio in single shares, especially if investing small amounts. To get started with freetrade, use my referral link and we will both get a free share valued between £3-£200. The link takes you to a unique page where you can download the freetrade app.
It is important to complete the W-8BEN form when prompted. You will need to have completed this to purchase US shares (It is a declaration that you are not a US tax resident). Then fund your account with your initial investment. This can be as little as £10 or more. When you have funded your account, you will receive your free shares after a few days. Then you can sell your free share for extra income or keep it.
When your freetrade account is fully set up, you will get your own referral link which you can pass on to get more free shares. You can either use it to create your own investment portfolio if you are happy with the shares given or sell the shares. Here is a freetrade review by Motley Fool to help you understand the app better.
Note: The above does not constitute investment advice, kindly read our disclaimer for more information. Investments can go up or down and capital is at risk so take absolute care when investing you hard earned income.
20 Cogs
20 COGS is a website where you can earn some money in your spare time for completing 20 offers also known as COGS. The COGS include a mixture of surveys, competitions, product offers, and so on. You can cash out your earnings through a PayPal account or a bank account. It is really that easy.
I cashed out a total of £119. My earnings were much lower than the average payout of £200. I made much less because I went through the Cogs really fast and very passively, mostly opting for things like free trials of Amazon channels. Also, the highest payouts were related to gambling offers, and I was very careful with those.
Because a lot of the offers on 20COGS include free product trials, it is important to keep a record and set reminders to cancel at the end of the free offer period. I set reminders on my phone but still forgot to cancel a couple of them. Thankfully, I only tried products I really wanted so I was okay enjoying them more.
If you want to make some easy money via 20 cogs, here is my referral link. You will get a welcome offer of £5, but this can vary from month to month. It was such a great feeling cashing out my earnings, given that I completed most of the cogs while watching TV or relaxing in my bed.
Surveys
Surveys are one of the quick and easy ways to make extra income. It’s meant to be easy because you can complete surveys in your spare time and even multitask while doing them. The problem with surveys is that you have to do so many of them to get to a decent earnings threshold. Several lengthy surveys over several days got me enough to withdraw £5 from a particular survey. I have since abandoned it as there was no joy or motivation to go through that trouble for the small reward.
However, if you have a lot of free time and in need of extra income, every survey might count. There are few surveys with a high payout and one of those is Prolific. Prolific is like the best-kept secret of surveys if you haven’t heard of it yet. So before you give up on surveys, try prolific ones.
I like completing prolific surveys because they are mostly academic research by university researchers. Something about that gives me comfort as researchers need to follow ethics. The range of surveys you get is varied and interesting. Recently, I completed one where you are given $1000 to trade some stocks for 1 week with an opportunity to monitor and change your investment. Unlike 20 cogs that end after all the cogs are complete, you can earn continuously on prolific. One other great thing about prolific is that you can cash out as soon as you have £5.
The only challenge I have with prolific is that surveys get taken up really quickly. If you work full-time like me, you will miss out on a few. It is advisable to download the desktop extension in order to get notifications of available surveys. Most surveys are required to be completed on a desktop. I usually don’t have my personal laptop switched on during work hours, so I miss out on a lot of surveys.
However, if you have completed your details on the about me page, you will get personal invites to surveys directed at specific people. Also, it is worldwide so there will be surveys in the evenings from researchers in different time zones. Despite my time challenges, I made £38.14 in April and already made £20.85 so far in May all still sitting in my balance waiting to be cashed out. Definitely worth the try.
Cashback sites
This is one of the quick and easy ways to make extra income that can sometimes be overlooked. I have had cashback accounts in the past which I lost sight of. I think for some people, that extra step to do when shopping online can be onerous or easy to forget. It is tempting not to go an extra mile for pennies, unless you are spending large amounts,
However, if you were planning to make purchases anyway, it is still good to remember to route them through cashback sites. The pennies and pounds can add up pretty nicely to some decent income. If going through cashback sites is not worth the trouble for all your purchases, remember to use it for your large and main purchases like black Friday, Christmas shopping, celebrations. Also, big events like moving house when you are likely going to do a fair bit of shopping online and when switching utility providers.
There are also free cashback offers that are worth checking out that do not require making any purchases. The 2 main sites I am registered with are TopCashback and Quidco. You get a £25 welcome bonus if you use my Quidco link to join. I have registered with the 2 popular cashback sites because retailers like Argos are on Quidco and not on TopCashBack and it’s good to cover all bases.
Conclusion
These quick and easy ways to make extra income has helped me to obtain the funds needed to run this blog. This enables me to focus on making content objectively and keep the site ad-free for now. So whether you need to supplement your income or to make some money to treat yourself, try these income-making ideas. Which one of them have you tried and what are your experiences? Let me know in the comments below.