How I made an extra £421.11 in March
Over the last five years I have been sharing details of my additional earnings to demonstrate that it is possible to earn extra money on the side of a 9-5 job and to showcase the methods that actually work, focusing on higher hourly rates. Now that we are in April, here is how I got on in March 2026.
Mystery Shopping: £160.25
Mystery shopping is a great side hustle if you have time and don’t mind travelling around a little bit to do it, I have written a free guide on mystery shopping that you can read here.
March was much quieter than January and February where I ran around the country capturing images of petrol stations to build up two £350+ months back-to-back. However, £160.25 of profit in March is nothing to turn your nose up at and here’s exactly how I did it:
10 x Ice cream checks - £35.00
5 x Home care checks - £23.00
1 x Multi-category check - £20.00
5 x Personal hygiene checks - £15.00
2 x Mystery promo checks - £8.50
1 x Electronics check - £5.00
1 x Health check - £5.00
2 x “£1 1 Photo 1 Question” Checks - £2.00
SmartSpotter(message me for a referral link on Instagram)
3 x Stationery checks - £15.00
2 x Easter checks - £11.00
1 x Flower check - £5.10
1 x Razor check - £5.00
1 x Plant-based check - £5.00
1 x Toy check - £5.00
1 x Food store shopping list task - £20.00
Bank Interest - £157.81
I continue to add funds to savings accounts for a number of large upcoming costs, and as such my bank interest keeps growing each and every month. I am now using Zopa for almost all of my savings (non-ISA) as they are paying pretty generous rates!
The Bank Engine - £42.71
The financial year for The Bank Engine ended on 31 March 2026, as HMRC view 31 March and 5 April as the same for tax year-end purposes. I was pleased to end the year on 12 full months of profit despite taking a step back from posting on Instagram over recent months and continue to be exceptionally grateful for the support you all show me.
Market Research - £40.92
If you are new to market research, I would recommend reading my quick guide on how it works and the sites that I use to earn money from market research.
In March, I made £30.00 from Askable through a combinations of interviews held by AI and surveys. I also earned £10.92 (US$15) from Dscout for a video survey.
Cashback - £13.60
During March I earned £9.97 from EverUp being cashback on groceries and other shops at main UK retailers.
I also earned £3.63 in cashback on direct debits using the Zopa Biscuit account.
Google Rewards - £5.82
Google Rewards is an app that pays you for answering short surveys on a regular basis. These typically are linked to your Google history and therefore I will receive surveys on shops I have been to and asked if I made a purchase, if the store was accessible, etc. or based on Google searches I have made recently.
From the surveys, I made £5.06 in March with an extra £0.76 from receipt photos.
You can also earn from taking photos of receipts, it will try to figure out if you visited a store based on location history and will ask you for a receipt, you will then get paid roughly 10-20p for each receipt.
If you use an Android this can only be redeemed as Google Play credit, but simply set up a subscription to be paid via this (Disney+, Netflix, etc.) or can be paid via PayPal if on iOS but you will obviously earn more if on Android.