Extra income streams

[itsybitsy]

Over the past months I've been looking at ways to open up new revenue streams to bring in few extra pennies. While my job is relatively safe (as safe as can be expected), my salary (along with everyone else's) is being squeezed like never before.

I only really have three items that could be classed as 'luxuries':

Sky HD and a few of those £1.00 packages
Lovefilm subscription
Savings account for a holiday

I've gone through my monthly outgoings and there's really nothing else I can strip back on. I work a full-time job, I don't go out on the razz every weekend, therefore I refuse to sit in my house watching tripe on the free channels, and I want a holiday each year - even if it's just a few days on the Costa Plonka. I believe that everybody needs a little something to look forward to in order to keep 'em going, and my holiday is mine.

So, seeing as I can't spend less, I need to earn more. I do a bit of writing for a website, which brings in a little and I also generate a couple of blog entries for a guy I know, who pays me per entry. I have also joined a few survey sites - only ones that reward you in cash, I'm not interested in vouchers or prize draw entries! So far I've cashed out well over £100 from surveys, so they do actually pay!

What are you doing to generate extra income?

[TwoDo]

How about a babysitting service? Not daytime childminding but the evening, one-off, mom-and-dad need a night out, kind of babysitting. Extremely low barriers to entry and hardly any startup costs. Just ask around, figure out the going rate and then start putting the word out via friends and acquaintances.

Just a thought.

[itsybitsy]

How about a babysitting service? Not daytime childminding but the evening, one-off, mom-and-dad need a night out, kind of babysitting. Extremely low barriers to entry and hardly any startup costs. Just ask around, figure out the going rate and then start putting the word out via friends and acquaintances.

Just a thought.

Oh dear me, no - my babysitting days are well and truly over. Started at 16 and stopped when I started working full-time. Plus, I can't stand most kids!

[daylen]

Obviously people are spending less and less money so rather than ways of getting extra pennies, can you look at ways of getting what you'd normally buy with the pennies?

For instance, by day I'm a web developer and I've recently done a couple of small sites in my spare time for goods rather than money. People who just want something small but can't afford £100s in cold hard cash but are willing to trade other goods or services. So the local green grocer probably doesn't want to spend money on a new website but is more than happy to get one for a big basket of fruit and veg.

Or if you're any good in the kitchen, how about making chutney and selling it in local fairs? There's a load of these coming up in the run up to Christmas - almost every school will have one and people love buying chutney and such like for Christmas presents if it's nicely presented. If you make things from stuff you've foraged or grown yourself (crabapple jelly is lovely) and target the right market then you can make a good deal from this. We do this each year and make a couple of hundred pounds profit in the run up to Christmas.

If you like writing, then how about creating a simple blog with a small amount (so it still looks like a good site) of Google Adsense on it. I have a very small site (that I haven't updated in many years because I don't have the time) with a couple of ads on it. It doesn't bring in much, but every 4-5 months I get paid around £60 from Google... for doing nothing!

Or if you can access eBay regularly, keep an eye out for bargins to resell at a profit. The search tools allow you to search for items with no bids - I search for items with no bids and ending within an hour or two. You can also use the search tool to search for similar items that have sold and see what the going rate is. Bear in mind that if you sell items on eBay then you'll have eBay and PayPal charges to pay but it's worth keeping your eye open.

I hope something in there is helpful!

[Arzosah]

What you *could* do, and some people have scruples about it, are play the bingo sites to win, not to play, and do matched betting - not betting, but using the free bets that betting companies offer as an inducement. As you may guess, I learned all I know from the moneysavingexpert forum I'll hunt out the threads if you want me to. Bear in mind that anything like that is low risk, not no risk - but if you read through the explanations that people offer, and do some dummy runs, you should be fine. Over a couple of years, I made a couple of thousand pounds from these things, no joke - and its all from your computer.

Otherwise - how are you at knitting? Making birthday cards? Thinking up clever t shirts and getting them printed? You *could* do local craft fairs, or you could sell online ...

[diamond lil]

People won't pay for hand knits, yarn is so expensive for a start - plus your time.

[preppermark]

If you want to do EBAY this site will help find all the things closest to you http://www.lobay.co.uk/ also i get lots of free bits from the groups on FACE BOOK and i collect scrap metal.

[itsybitsy]

Guys, I'm asking what YOU are doing to raise extra cash!

[daylen]

Guys, I'm asking what YOU are doing to raise extra cash!

Yup, I'm doing all the things I mentioned!

[Arzosah]

Guys, I'm asking what YOU are doing to raise extra cash!

As for not paying for hand knits ... it has to be the right market. There *is* money around - check these guys out - http://www.reiss.com/womens/ they're just a chain of shops, a couple of dozen in England, three in Scotland. Their jumpers and cardigans start at £80 and more like £120. And those people pay more for unique hand knit.

As to what *I'm* doing .. not knitting, not with these fingers! I'm working at a spreadbetting system. I have proof from a few days ago that I know what I'm doing, honest, I'm testing the time frame right now: this attachment shows the start of a trade, I took a screen print at the time of the entry point:

2012-10-9_ARL_51148.jpg (189.48 KiB) Viewed 2433 times

And the second attachment shows the situation an hour later, with a 50 point profit.

2012-10-9_ARL_51148-11.jpg (184.03 KiB) Viewed 2433 times