How I made an extra £668.49 in January

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 January 2023.

The Bank Engine - £384.71 (20 hours)

I upped my game a bit last month, following a relatively slow last few months to 2022 and began investing back into this website and our community. With our new cashback that we are able to pay out, it became easier to generate a considerable amount of extra cash to re-invest as we head into February.

At this current point in time, it is also important to keep building cash reserves within the business as we are expecting more higher-paying cashback offers to come soon to the site and we will need to be able to pay these out.

If you are interested in keeping an eye on these offers, be sure to join our mailing list here.

Lifetime ISA Bonus - £100 (Passive income)

I am also in the process of saving for my first home, and am taking advantage of the Lifetime ISA scheme which has been in place for a number of years now. A Lifetime ISA allows you to save (or invest) up to £4,000 every tax year (6 April to 5 April) and you will receive a 25% top-up from the Government on this amount, resulting in a £1,000 bonus every year.

The catch with this account, is that you can only withdraw the funds to purchase your first home or when you reach retirement age. If you were to withdraw any funds before these dates (or without the help of a solicitor) you would pay a 25% penalty charge.

In January, I had a bit of extra cash so I put £400 into my Nutmeg Lifetime ISA which I have been using for the past two tax years, and is a great Stocks & Shares Lifetime ISA. For more info on these accounts head here.

Mystery Shopping - £68.34 (3 hours)

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.

During January, I used both Roamler and Shepper, and did a mixture of mystery shopping and smaller micro-tasks such as reviewing new foods etc.

Bank Interest - £47.63 (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.

Matched Betting - £25.20 (1 hour)

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.

I have written a free guide on matched betting, which has made my just shy of £2,900 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 - £16.43 (Passive Income)

I am always keen to receive as much back as possible when I’m spending, and I receive a nice amount of cashback each month from my Crypto.com card which reimburses me for my Spotify every month, and then I also earn a nice amount of cashback on various bank accounts which offer perks.

Dividends - £14.82 (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.

YouGov - £11.35 (45 minutes)

If you were subscribed to our mailing list for the January email you may have also earned some cash from these guys. YouGov is a huge data company that offers payment for surveys but has also launched a site called YouGov.Finance which pays you £5 per bank account that you connect for 90 days.

As I have a lot of bank accounts and trust YouGov’s large reputation, I connected as many as possible during December, but needed to get myself to the £50 minimum withdrawal threshold so started completing paid surveys wherever I could. This doesn’t meet my usual requirement of £20 per hour for a side hustle, but it did end up paying slightly better than expected (although I was picky with which ones I did).

Conclusion

I didn’t put in too much time in January, and I am particularly pleased with the results from all of these different areas. As we head into February, it is looking like another strong month and I am excited to see what the future holds for all of these income streams.

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