How I made an extra £610.45 in September 2025
Over the past 5-ish years I have been on a mission to increase my income whilst working a 9-5 and this has been an interesting experience, with me dipping my toes into various side hustles and trying to increase my income-earning potential across the board. As such, I have been keen to share my experience with you all to show exactly how I am doing and to prove that it can be possible to earn extra money in 2025!
So, without further ado, here is how I made an extra £610.45 in September 2025.
The Bank Engine: £335.79
September saw a good level of income for The Bank Engine, which is my financial education platform. You can find out exactly how this website makes money by clicking here. This was largely propped up by a flurry of Monzo referrals, a handful of Zopa referrals and the usual free share offers from Robinhood and Trading 212.
Income levels were lower than they are typically from the Trading 212 free share offer, as search traffic fell towards the end of the month due to the reintroduction of the general free share promotion for all Trading 212 users. This is to be expected as the number of available promotional codes see a rise but I am still grateful to have earned well during a particularly quiet month.
Edit: the final profit figure for September 2025 is actually £364.17.
Dividend Income: £127.90
I have now been investing for nearly six years, starting back when I was 19 and it has been a very interesting learning curve over the years with the impact of Covid-19, Trump tariffs, and many other market shocks but it has given me the opportunity to see large returns on my investments over recent years.
I do not primarily invest to earn an income, and instead invest to see capital growth over the long-term but I did recently reduce my risk exposure on my Lifetime ISA as I enter the phase of my life where I plan to use this cash to put a deposit on my first home.
As such, this has been moved into more income-generating assets and this meant that I received a whopping £127.90 of dividend income in September alone, which thankfully is tax-free as a result of being within an ISA.
Want to be investing, but not sure where to start? Check out my free guide here.
Bank Interest: £88.07
I also hold a Cash Lifetime ISA which holds the other part of my first home deposit and this generates a decent amount of bank interest, alongside other short-term savings accounts this meant that I earned £88.07 of bank interest during September which will also be tax-free due to being held within ISAs with any excess being covered by the Personal Savings Allowance.
Mystery Shopping: £21.00
Mystery shopping is one of my favourite side hustles, but there simply wasn’t enough time in the day for me to get out there and earn during September. However, this is how I made £21.00:
Shepper - 1 x TV Mystery Shop at Currys - £11.00 (30 minutes)
Roamler - 1 x Pet Food Display Check at Sainsbury’s - £10.00 (5 minutes)
You can check out my free mystery shopping guide here.
Market Research: £17.88
During September, I was also invited to a market research survey which I completed early one morning at 2am when I couldn’t sleep (early bird catches the worm..? More pure dumb luck than anything!) This is what it entailed:
Dscout - Video survey where I spoke about online communities around TV shows & Movies - Paid £17.88 (US$25) for about 15 minutes of work!
Market research is a great way to earn from home and here is a good free guide to get you started!
Cashback: £15.03
I always save money on our grocery shops as I ALWAYS use gift card apps and websites when doing our grocery shopping, and if you aren’t then you should be too!
My favourite app is EverUp which earned me £7.40 back in September. This app pays you cashback (normally around 5%) when you buy a gift card through the app, you pay with the gift card at the till and can then use earned cashback towards your next gift card! In 2025 so far, as a household of 2 we have earned £110+ from EverUp alone. Check it out here.
I also took advantage of two very short promotional offers on TopCashback, which is the UK’s largest cashback website.
In September I earned £7.63 from this website and this was from purchasing supermarket gift cards too but I earned a measly ~2% on these purchases but received bonuses which is why I did it!
1 x £5 bonus for a £20 gift card spend
1 x £2 bonus for a £5 gift card spend
Google Rewards: £4.78
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!