How I made an extra £497.55 in August

Written By Tom Sexon

August was, and the start of September continues to be, incredibly busy due to moving home and the purchase of my first house meaning my Lifetime ISA that has been dutifully filled over the last 8 years is now empty! In relation to the purchase of this house there are additional incentives received into considerably large figures but I have not included them here as I think it is a bit extreme to do so!

Due to it being a busier month, the results are not particularly groundbreaking but I believe that it is important to share them nonetheless.

Bank Interest: £313.47

As mentioned, my LISA was withdrawn during August and so final interest was calculated and paid out to the solicitor on withdrawal of funds which has bumped the total interest income in August up to £313.47 and I do not anticipate reaching that level of monthly interest income again for a long time!

Mystery Shopping: £106.83

I sought out mystery shopping tasks in and around journeys that I was already completing during August to ensure that I was not wasting unnecessary time but was also able to complete a good number of tasks, mostly from SmartSpotter

  • 11 x Stationery Checks: £55.00 (SmartSpotter)

  • 4 x Protein Checks including free products: £22.53 (SmartSpotter)

  • 2 x Mystery Promo Check: £20.00 (Roamler)

  • 1 x Cider Check: £5.00 (SmartSpotter)

  • 1 x Egg Check: £4.50 (SmartSpotter)

  • 1 x Free Pint Check: £2.00 (Roamler)

I also incurred £2.20 of mileage costs to get to these tasks where I travelled marginally off-track.

Cashback: £27.60

I earned cashback from three platforms in August:

  • Quidco: £0.09 cashback on an online order + £20 bonus for spending with one of their retailers (promotion received via email)

  • Everup: £6.51 cashback when paying with gift cards for groceries

  • Zopa: £1.00 cashback on direct debits

The Bank Engine: £23.19

I very much took a step away from posting and having any interaction with the business during August and you can certainly tell by the level of profits. However, a profit is still a profit and I am grateful that people continue to be interested in what I do despite me taking significant and regular breaks over recent months.

Market Research: £22.18

I completed a few studies during August but most notably was finally able to cash out £10 from THX which has been 13 months (!!) in the making, a far cry from the every other month withdrawals that I used to be able to do when the app was more reliable. Here are the other studies I completed:

  • Dscout - £7.18 for a usability survey for a bank

  • Askable - £5.00 for a usability survey for an insurance firm

Google Rewards: £2.47

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 £1.73 in August with an extra £0.74 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.

Dividends: £1.81

Dividends are a share of profits that companies can choose to share with investors and as a result of the shares I hold in my investment portfolio I received a small amount of income from this source during August. I primarily invest for capital growth rather than income returns so the amount of dividends I receive over the year is typically minimal.

Tom Sexon
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How I made an extra £559.20 in July