How I made an extra £985.22 in March 2025
When I was younger, I was always keen to try and earn more money but did not know how to. Whenever I used to search for things like “how to make money online” or “money making ideas” I would always be met with unproven and expensive courses, designing T-shirts, and surveys that pay pennies per hour!
Fast forward to now, and I have dedicated A LOT of time to testing out actual ways to make more money, and I have been sharing my findings and monthly progress online for nearly 5 years documenting proof that it is actually possible to make money online without feeling lost.
So without further ado, here is how I got on in March 2025.
The Bank Engine: £508.41
I anticipated that the results for March would be considerably lower than that of January and February as historically this has always been the case and a number of lucrative offers came to an end in February. However, I am beyond grateful that I am in a position where I can make these levels of profits and it be a “quieter month”.
The majority of this comes from two hot referral offers, which are still going (SumUp and Tembo) but was also boosted by the Cheltenham Festival which is always a busy period for matched betting, and my affiliate income for matched betting software tends to have a good run during this timeframe.
Free share income was also strong boosted by my Search Engine Optimisation.
As always, thank you for supporting The Bank Engine. It has come such a long way in a short space of time and I do really appreciate you taking your time to interact with anything I do.
Matched Betting: £134.45
I like to take quite a laid-back approach to matched betting which you can check out in my FREE matched betting guide here.
March was a productive month for matched betting as Cheltenham Festival always brings a large number of lucrative offers from bookies.
I think it's always useful to know how people really achieve their figures and this is how I reached £134.45 in March:
Cheltenham "Bet & Gets" / "Free Bet Ifs": £73.66
StarSports New Customer Offer (Bet £10, Get £50 Free Bet): £29.09
Cheltenham Price Boosts: £15.92
Betfred Misc Free Spins: £10.82
Betfair Daily Free Game: £1.70
Bet365 Daily Free Game: £1.50
PaddyPower Misc Free Spins: £1.09
Unibet Misc Free Spins: £0.67
The Bet & Gets and Free Bet If offers were across the following bookies during the Cheltenham Festival and I spent about 30-40 mins on each day of the Festival placing bets:
Betfair, Unibet, DAZNBet, Fitzdares, Bet365
There were many other offers available but only on sites where I have already been "gubbed"
Lifetime ISA Bonus: £83.33
I am currently saving for the deposit on my first home, along with my partner, and we both do this in our own Lifetime ISAs - a Government backed scheme that allows you to save £4,000 per tax year and receive a 25% bonus on however much you save into the account.
I pay in £333.33 per month into my Lifetime ISA to reach this maximum £4,000 per year and as such receive a bonus of £83.33 per month from the Government. I currently use Nutmeg for my Lifetime ISA which is a Stocks & Shares Lifetime ISA.
Cashback: £81.64
Charles Stanley Direct - Investing Cashback offer: £70 (now £90 via TopCashback)
I opened a General Investment Account with Charles Stanley Direct via TopCashback back in January when it was paying new customers £70 cashback.
The terms were (and still are) quite loose so it wasn't obvious how much to invest to trigger the cashback and felt £50 was a fair bet and the offer tracked a few days later and paid out in March.
I invested £50 I would have put into my main investment pot into the most similar fund available and my £50 was worth £45 when I withdrew it and re-invested it into my main investment pot.
I have now seen lots of talk that this offer works with £10 as well, so it's a no-brainer if you haven't yet done this one!
EverUp - Cashback on groceries: £11.64
I have now been using EverUp primarily for grocery shopping as they seem to have the consistently highest rates at the supermarkets I shop at averaging at around 4% or so. Combined with loyalty cards, and using my Chase card to purchase the gift cards through the app, this can often get it above 5% which is well worth the few minutes it takes to purchase a gift card through the app before shopping!
Bank Interest: £70.81
I LOVE passive income, and bank interest is the best form of passive income as its your money working for you. Alongside my current Stocks & Shares Lifetime ISA, I have a Cash Lifetime ISA with Tembo which is earning me a large amount of bank interest each month.
I only recently moved to Tembo following Moneybox’s drop in interest rates. Not with Tembo? You can get a £15-£250 bonus using my link! Check it out here.
Mystery Shopping: £62.23
Check out my FREE mystery shopping guide here, where I share exactly how I make £1,000s from this!
Since writing this guide I have discovered SmartSpotter (see below) which is fast becoming my favourite app and is perfect if you don't like the idea of having to interact with staff as most jobs don't require you to!
March was generally another slow month for this income stream as it usually picks up around Spring each year, but still not to be ignored.
Roamler - I do have some referral links (referrer-only benefit) if you would like to help me out!
3 x Personal Hygiene Checks: £13.00 (visit stores, take photos & answer questions)
1 x Milkshake Check: £10.00 (visit store, take photos & answer questions)
1 x Home Care Check: £8.00 (visit store, take photos & answer questions)
3 x Rate & Review Tasks: £3.00 + free products (visit store, find products, purchase & review)
1 x Flower Check: £2.50 (visit store, take photos & answer questions)
SmartSpotter - I do have some referral links (referrer-only benefit) if you would like to help me out!
2 x Cat Food Checks: £8.00 (visit stores, take photos & answer questions)
1 x Laundry Check: £4.50 (visit store, take photos & answer questions)
1 x Beans Check: £3.50 (visit store, take photos & answer questions)
1 x Currys Mystery Shop: £7.00 (visit store, capture images, ask questions & feed back)
1 x Tesco Mobile Mystery Shop: £7.00 (visit store, capture images, ask questions & feed back)
Market Research & Surveys: £33.93
Dscout - 2 x Video Surveys for £23.93/ $32 (Check it out here)
During March, I was successful in my application for two separate video surveys on Dscout, which has quickly become my favourite market research app! Here's what they looked like:
Internet Safety Usability Survey: £22.44 ($30) (self-paced walkthrough of signing up to a dummy version of a internet safety tool and speaking feedback out-loud in a recorded video, 25 mins)
Favourite Musician Survey: £1.49 ($2) (record 1 minute video talking about my favourite musician, 5 mins)
Both of these paid via PayPal within 7 days.
THX: £10.00
I downloaded this app in July last year after reading some positive things about it online and it's actually pretty worthwhile (coming from someone who hates surveys usually).
Most surveys I receive each month are to do with watching online ads and answering 5 or 6 multiple choice questions on it, so took less than a minute each time and seem worth doing in my opinion!
You can cash your points out to vouchers once you reach £5 worth but are limited to Amazon only, whereas once you reach £10 you have a lot more options including supermarkets. I cashed out £10 to Sainsbury's in March.
I tend to be cashing out £10 every other month at the moment.
Dividends Received: £7.35
Dividends are largely like bank interest, but you receive them for investing in the stock market. They reflect a share of the profits of companies that you have invested in and are paid semi-regularly depending on how you invest.
If you are new to investing, or just want to learn more, you can check out my free investing guide here.
Google Rewards: £3.07 (Check it out here)
I was recommended this app in one of my posts last year, and since then have been answering the super short surveys every time they pop up.
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!