How I made an extra £990.23 in March 2023

If you have been following my journey for a while, you will know that I am keen to increase my income so that I can achieve my goal of financial freedom as soon as possible. In 2022, I managed to make £8,000 from my additional earnings, and whilst I don’t have a specific goal in mind for 2023, I felt it was still important to share how this is going.

So without further ado, here is a breakdown of my earnings from March 2023.

Lifetime ISA Bonus - £258.33 (Passive income)

There were a few months in the 22/23 tax year where I didn’t make Lifetime ISA contributions for other reasons. So as the tax year draws to a close, I paid £1,033.35 into my Lifetime ISA to maximise the £4,000 contribution allowance and claim the remaining amount of my bonus available.

For first-time buyers, Lifetime ISAs are a great way to boost your savings pot. Discover more on these accounts here.

The Bank Engine - £256.41 (20 hours)

A lot of work was done in February to build our income for March which was exceptional falling just shy of £600. Of course, we always want to ensure that we are thankful for how much help you are all giving us so we paid £172.50 of this directly back to you in the form of cashback.

To see the full Profit & Loss report for The Bank Engine for March, head to our Instagram page.

If you are interested in being one of those receiving cashback from us, be sure to join our mailing list here.

Bank Switching - £125 (15 minutes)

In March I completed another bank switch, this time moving my Starling Bank current account to the Co-Operative bank due to their lucrative £125 refer-a-friend offer. Whilst there is a short-term impact on your credit score, bank switching continues to be my favourite way of earning some extra income.

This, for example, only took 10 minutes to fill out the forms and then I was £125 richer for so little work it’s unbelievable.

Check out the current bank switching offers here.

Mystery Shopping - £116 (5 hours 10 minutes)

This is a side hustle that I started towards the end of 2022, and have fallen in love with due to how flexible the jobs are and how good the hourly rate can be if done properly. I am working on a free guide that explains how this works properly, but if you have any questions on this in the meantime please do not hesitate to contact me on Instagram. I plan to release this guide by the end of April.

During March, I used both Roamler and Shepper, and did a mixture of mystery shopping and smaller micro-tasks such. These included things such as;

• £7 mystery shops in phone stores (10 mins)

• £5 for taking photos of National Lottery stands (2 mins)

• £16 for placing a promotional display in a Superdrug store (15 mins)

• £5 + 2 free pints for checking Wetherspoons uses the right glasses!

Matched Betting - £75.39 (5 hours)

Starting in 2021, Matched Betting quickly became my first proper side hustle that I did exclusively to make some extra money. This uses promotional offers from betting sites and takes advantage of them using varying calculations, which sounds complicated, but it really is a phenomenal side hustle if you just want something you can do every now and then from the comfort of your sofa.

March saw an influx of offers due to Cheltenham races, which I took advantage as much as I was able to during the festival. This resulted in me spending a little longer than normal carrying out these offers but allowed me to earn a hefty amount of extra cash during the course of the month.

I have written a free guide on matched betting, which has made my just shy of £3,000 since starting I around 2 years ago and whilst I don’t do so much now, you can see it is still worth doing with little time! Please be cautious of gambling sites. This isn’t gambling but the websites can be addictive and draw you in.

Cashback - £60.93 (Passive Income)

This was a big month for cashback, mostly propped up by the eventual payment of the Wealthify offer which saw me invest £50 for 12 months via MoneySavingExpert’s offer. Now that 12 months have passed I have received the £50 cashback bonus available, and my initial balance has only fallen by £2 in that time.

I also received my usual cashback from Crypto.com which reimburses my Spotify Premium every month, and a nice chunk of cashback from Nationwide and Cheddar which I used for the occasional grocery shops.

Check out Cheddar for automatic and quick cashback from a large number of UK retailers. Use referral code “DCZPAMO” to support us!

Bank Interest - £45.45 (Passive Income)

I am exceptionally lucky to have been able to save as much cash as I have so far, and as a result I also have a large amount for a house deposit in my Cash Lifetime ISA with Moneybox which I used before Nutmeg.

As a result of the ever-increasing interest rates set by the Bank of England, I have seen the interest paid on my savings grow quite substantially over the past few months.

YouGov Finance - £35.00

After initially discovering this one just before Christmas, YouGov Finance is part of the YouGov survey company that analyses data across millions of participants across the world. Whilst many may see the new Finance part as an invasion of privacy, giving YouGov Finance read-only access to your bank transactions is a no-brainer to me as it’s only going to be used for data analysis.

They pay £5 per connected bank or credit card (up to a maximum of 10) which can be renewed every 90 days, getting paid every renewal. I re-connected 7 of mine and will re-connect the other 3 as soon as possible meaning I bagged an extra £35 from this super quick earner.

Dividends - £17.72 (Passive Income)

Over time my investment portfolio has grown quite nicely to a size where I’m now making a healthy amount in dividend income every month. Dividends are a share of a company’s profits that they pay out to shareholders, and many companies pay these out several times a year.

My investment portfolio isn’t heavily invested into dividend stocks (those that specifically pay out high dividends) but I am still earning a nice amount and am of course, re-investing the dividends each and every month.

If you are interested in learning more about investing and how all of this works, feel free to check out my free investing guide here.

Conclusion

March was a fantastic month for my extra earnings and I am exceptionally pleased with the final month of the 2022/23 tax year. I will be sharing my overall earnings for 22/23 later this week on our Instagram page so keep your eyes peeled!

I have some big ambitions to up this extra income for the new tax year and hope that you will come along on this journey with me. See you there!

If you have any questions on any of these kind of things, please do not hesitate to contact me via email or social media.