Taken to scrabbling down the sofa for a few extra pennies? Thankfully help is on hand. We've found you the top ways to make money - without getting an office job...
It’s a new spin on “housework”: if you need extra cash, earn a side income from the comfort of your home. We asked money-saving blogger Miss Thrifty to take us through some of her favourite ways to make money - without having to get dressed in the morning...
Register your house as a filming location "Whether you live in a stately home or a more of a boxroom sized, ahem, box, your abode may be just the ticket for filmmakers. Plus, if your property is selected for a shoot, you could earn from £500 per day. It's free to register your property on film location databases, and takes just a few minutes. JJ Locations is countrywide, but is picky about what it takes on. Shoot Factory is good for London locations. My home is registered with Creative England, which specialises in locations outside Greater London and supported more than 1,000 productions last year."
Become a chatroom moderator "A number of online bingo sites employ the services of online chatroom moderators, who welcome players, run chats and ensure that everything runs smoothly. It tends to be shift work with flexible hours, and involves working from home for an hourly rate (generally a little above the minimum wage). For some sites, full training is provided. Others seek experienced “mods” or provide the equivalent of unpaid work experience for those who wish to build their skills. Vacancies are advertised at Which CM."
Write an ebook "Fiction or non-fiction: you choose. If you have a compelling story or an area of expertise, however, that would be a good place to start. You have nothing to lose but your time, although if your digital and design skills are rusty, you may wish to commission others to create a cover and transform your Word document into a format suitable for upload to the Amazon Kindle Store. (See Upwork, below.) There are plenty of free, online guides out there to help with the technical tasks, and to give you some ideas for marketing your literary creations. My tip: sign up to the Kindle Select scheme, for a higher royalty rate."
Sell your expertise online "If you have office skills or any digital skills to speak of - design, marketing, the lot - then have you considered putting them to work from home? WebSites like Pph and Upwork act as online freelancer agencies, enabling companies and individuals to select and commission skilled workers by the job or by the hour. The registration process can be time-consuming, for certain skillsets you should upload examples of previous work, and you can expect a slow start. But your time and effort will pay off when you're doing the job you love, while wearing your pyjamas."
Charge for your Instagram account "Publishers purchase images from stock-selling websites. If you are a keen photographer, you can submit your best images to these sites and earn handsome rates of commission whenever one of your images is purchased and downloaded. Predictably, most of the better-known image stock libraries will only accept high-quality submissions. In other words, your favourite picture of Aunt Susan, taken on holiday with a smartphone camera, probably isn’t going to cut it. However there are smaller sites such as RedBubble, which have been described as “Instagram-friendly.” The best UK guide I have found to all the stock library sites and their rates of commission can be found here."
Become a survey queen "Quidco is a popular cashback site, but it’s also worth checking out a lesser-known area of the website: Quidco Opinions. Sign up for free. The site will then match your profile with suitable consumer surveys – and email you whenever a new one lands. Quidco Opinions claims to pay up to £5 per completed survey. The rate per survey has tended to be lower than this, in my experience, but it’s a simple way to make some cash. Another popular site is Swagbucks, which pays you for polls, games and more in the form of giftcards."
Get paid to surf the net "Download a free add-on called Qmee to your web browser. Whenever you are searching online on Google, Bing, Amazon UK or eBay, a Qmee bar will appear on the side of your screen with additional results. You'll earn a few pennies every time you click on one. You won't become a millionaire by installing an add-on like this, but it's a quick and easy way to generate a little extra cash. Unlike many earn-online sites, Qmee lets you cash out (to PayPal) with no minimum earnings threshold."
Register as an airbnb host "Everybody has heard of airbnb, but if you have a spare room, have you considered registering as an airbnb host? It’s free to list your property, you can set your own room rate and, when a reservation is confirmed, the website takes a modest 3% fee.If you are considering doing this, however, I recommend that you go on the site to check out your local “competition” before going to the trouble of photographing and listing your property. I thought this would be a guaranteed money-spinner until I saw that another lady in our small town was offering up sumptuous cooked breakfasts and beautiful rooms in her palatial house for around £30 a night."
Work on your blog "Well, I would say that, wouldn’t I? I have left this one until last on purpose: of all the ideas on this page, it’s the most time-consuming and is likely to be a long haul. That said, if you stick with it then it can be rewarding: my blog generates thousands of pounds every year, even though I don’t post as regularly as I used to – and if I can do it, so can you.The trick is to treat your blog not as an online diary, but as a specialist online publication. Choose your specialist area. Food? Fashion? Lifestyle? Personal finance? Whatever you do, keep going. Make sure you have a contact form, so that advertisers, marketers and editors can contact you with paid opportunities. It’s no small feat to build a profitable blog, and you shouldn’t expect a new site to show a profit in the first months. A book called Get Rich Blogging by Zoe Griffin is a sound guide for newcomers."
Miss Thrifty blogs at www.miss-thrifty.co.uk.