How I made an extra £1,326.40 in June
I have been sharing my mission to making more money since late 2020 and don’t plan on stopping soon; it is completely possible to make extra income online and I want to show you exactly how this can be done with little or no experience.
I believe in full transparency and, therefore, you can see my full Profit & Loss report for The Bank Engine broken down in my upcoming Instagram post!
The Bank Engine: £566.74
Despite me not posting on Instagram for almost the entirety of June, it was an incredibly profitable month and this was driven by two key income streams:
Weekly emails; my free weekly emails that land in the inbox of nearly 1,000 people has been the best decision I have ever made for The Bank Engine as I have complete freedom over what I want to include and am not restricted by the confines of an Instagram post. It also allows me to showcase the easiest ways for you to make money, and most of these are win-win offers meaning that you will earn extra cash and so will I. Thank you for everyone who is constantly supporting this page by using my referral links.
Search-engine optimised results; over the years, I have slowly been able to climb higher on Google’s search engine results pages. This means that when people are searching for particular deals (Trading 212 and Robinhood free shares, notably) that my referral link ends up being used pretty consistently.
Lifetime ISA Bonus: £375
I am currently saving for the deposit on my first home and use a Lifetime ISA - a Government backed scheme that allows you to save £4,000 per tax year and receive a 25% bonus on however much you save into the account.
I am currently in the process of drawing down on my first ever Stocks & Shares ISA and paying this into my Stocks & Shares Lifetime ISA but because of timing differences am trying to ensure there is a slight overlap in the funds being invested in both ISAs.
As such, I am drawing this cash out in smaller amounts and was able to pay in £1,500 into my Lifetime ISA during June which will mean my Lifetime ISA has been maxed out.
I also now anticipate that we will be buying our first home in the next 12 months and given the current political environment have reduced my risk exposure within this ISA so that any potential large movements in the market don’t impact the ability to buy a home.
Nationwide Bonus: £100
In June, Nationwide paid out their Fairer Share payment to millions of customers. This is a share of their profits which they distribute between customers who met certain criteria.
Noting that they had done this for a few years already, I looked at the criteria for the last two years and ensured that I met the same ones in anticipation of them setting the same requirements this year. I also shared EXACTLY how to meet these criteria in my email earlier in 2025 so that others could copy this and bag £100 too!
Luckily, it was the same and so I received the £100 bonus.
Bank Interest: £82.90
I LOVE passive income, and bank interest is the best form of passive income as its your money working for you. The bulk of this comes from the proportion of my house deposit in a Cash Lifetime ISA (yes, you can have both a Cash and a Stocks & Shares Lifetime ISA).
Mystery Shopping: £71.25
Check out my FREE mystery shopping guide here, where I share exactly how I make £1,000s from this!
Since writing this guide I have discovered SmartSpotter (see below) which is fast becoming my favourite app and is perfect if you don't like the idea of having to interact with staff as most jobs don't require you to!
Roamler - I do have some referral links (referrer-only benefit) if you would like to help me out!
1 x Crackers Check & Fix: £19.00 (visit store, sign in, take photos of displays and add stock to shelves where needed)
1 x Medicine Check: £15.00 (visit store, take photos and answer questions)
1 x Beer Unit Check: £10.00 (visit store, sign in, locate delivered unit - note not present)
1 x Beer Unit Check: £8.00 (visit store, sign in, locate delivered unit - note not present)
1 x Snack Check: £6.00 (visit store, take photos, sign in and move snack strips to a pre-determined aisle)
1 x Salad Check: £6.00 (visit store, take photos, sign in and check stock levels with staff)
1 x Fabric Care Check: £5.00 (visit store, take photos and answer questions)
5 x Rate & Review Tasks: £5.00 (visit store, take photo of products, purchase and review at home)
I was particularly efficient with these this month as I picked up all of the tasks with a requirement to speak with staff for 3 stores and completed them later in the evening so the store was quiet and I could complete multiple at once. Often what will slow you down on the interaction tasks is waiting for staff to be available to help you so if you can do several at once, it makes it a lot quicker!
SmartSpotter - I do have some referral links (referrer-only benefit) if you would like to help me out!
1 x Milkshake Check: £4.00 (visit store, take photos of milkshakes and answer questions)
Costs incurred during the month were as follows:
Mileage for mystery shopping (@ 45p per mile): £6.75
Market Research: £88.80
Dscout - 4 Studies for £71.22 / US$90 (website)
I was accepted for 4 separate studies with Dscout (my favourite market research app) during June and they always tend to vary, this is what it looked like:
1 x Digital Security Research Call - 1:1 Video Call with a researcher for 1 hour (£42.71 / $50)
1 x Digital Technology Usability Survey - Self-recorded video survey for 15 minutes (£14.40 / $20)
1 x Holidays App Usability Survey - Self-recorded video survey for 15 minutes (£10.58 / $15)
1 x Language Website Feedback Survey - Self-recorded video survey for 10 minutes (£3.53 / $5)
Askable - 1 Study for £10 (website)
Askable is another great market research site that pays REALLY well, but the studies are more infrequent. During June, I was accepted for one study:
1 x Accountancy Software Survey - Survey questions which took less than 5 minutes (£10)
Google Rewards - £7.58 (website)
I was recommended this app last year, and since then have been answering the super short surveys every time they pop up.
They are generally about shops I have visited and whether I made a purchase, but recently have started getting questions about Google searches too!
In the last few months, they have also introduced receipt scanning where they will ask you to upload receipts for stores you have visited (completely random, and some I haven't been in) paying £0.01 if you don't have a receipt/ didn't visit or up to £0.30 if you upload one.
The earnings can only be redeemed for Google Play credit on Android but still worthwhile!
Dividends: £22.82
Dividends are largely like bank interest, but you receive them for investing in the stock market. They reflect a share of the profits of companies that you have invested in and are paid semi-regularly depending on how you invest.
If you are new to investing, or just want to learn more, you can check out my free investing guide here.
The largest chunk of this figure comes from my investments in the Octopus Titan and Apollo VCTs which are high-risk, tax-efficient vehicles that I used to reduce my tax liabilities whilst investing in the 2023/24 tax year.
Cashback: £18.89
EverUp - Cashback on groceries (click for more info)
I have now been using EverUp primarily for grocery shopping as they seem to have the consistently highest rates at the supermarkets I shop at averaging at around 4% or so. Combined with loyalty cards, and using my SumUp card to purchase the gift cards through the app, this can often get it above 5% which is well worth the few minutes it takes to purchase a gift card through the app before shopping!