How I made an extra £989.32 in May 2025
I have been sharing my mission to making more money since late 2020 and don’t plan on stopping soon; it is completely possible to make extra income online and I want to show you exactly how this can be done with little or no experience.
So without further ado, here is how I got on in May 2025.
The Bank Engine: £379.12
May was a particularly quiet month for new offers which meant that I was expecting a less profitable result for The Bank Engine. Whilst this was true, it was better than expected by the time I reached the end of the month with almost all of the profit for last month coming from the free share offers available with Robinhood, Trading 212 and Webull. You can check these out here.
Whilst I don’t push these offers particularly hard on socials, the search-engine-optimisation coupled with other driving factors such as Trading 212’s first TV ads have resulted in a steady and consistent flow of sign-ups via my referral links, for which I am exceptionally grateful.
Lifetime ISA Bonus: £375.00
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 am currently in the process of drawing down on my first ever Stocks & Shares ISA and paying this into my Stocks & Shares Lifetime ISA but because of timing differences am trying to ensure there is a slight overlap in the funds being invested in both ISAs.
As such, I am drawing this cash out in smaller amounts and was able to pay in £1,500 into my Lifetime ISA during May with the final £1,500 available for investment into this account being paid in during the month of June.
Bank Interest: £78.47
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.
Market Research: £61.97
HappyPanel - £40 (website)
I had never heard of this site before and it is likely because most of their studies are in Dutch but I was invited to take part in a research call for a subscription-based service that I use.
The video call was about 45 minutes discussing my thoughts on the service and for this I will receive £40.
THX - £10 Voucher
I have been using this app for quite a long time now and whilst it won't make you a fortune it seems to earn me £10 every other month for answering short surveys (10-20 seconds each) every so often.
You can withdraw when you get to £5 to a gift card but there are more choices of stores when you get to £10 and I withdraw to Sainsbury's whenever I can.
Dscout - 1 Study for £7.14 / $10 (website)
During May, I was only accepted for one study which was:
Switch & Track: £7.14 ($10) - Video Survey talking about switching energy providers
Google Rewards - £4.83 (website)
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.
Mystery Shopping: £52.75
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!
SmartSpotter - I do have some referral links (referrer-only benefit) if you would like to help me out!
3 x Teeth Care Checks: £15.00 (visit store, check for promo unit, take one photo)
2 x Ready Meal Checks: £10.00 (visit store, locate ready meals, pull stock forward, take photos and purchase ready meals - reimbursed)
2 x Spirits Checks: £7.00 (visit store, check for promo material, take photos)
1 x Stationery Check: £4.50 (visit store, count number of products, take photos)
1 x Banana Check: £4.50 (visit store, answer questions, take photos)
Roamler - I do have some referral links (referrer-only benefit) if you would like to help me out!
1 x Hair Care Check: £7.00 (visit store, take photos and answer questions)
1 x Pet Food Check: £3.00 (visit store, locate promo unit, take one photo)
1 x Oral Care Check: £3.00 (visit store, take photos and answer questions)
1 x Rate & Review Task: £1.00 (visit store, take photo of products, purchase and review at home)
I also incurred mileage costs of £2.25 during the month, coupling most of these tasks with grocery shopping trips to improve efficiency.
Matched Betting: £15.60
like to take quite a laid-back approach to matched betting which you can check out my FREE guide here.
I think it's always useful to know how people really achieve their figures and this is how I reached £15.60 in May:
Bet365 Bet £20 Get £20 FB: £12.12
Betfred Free Spins: £2.43 (pop up maybe once or twice a week)
Bet365 Price Boost: £1.05
Cashback: £14.42
EverUp - Cashback on groceries
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 SumUp card to purchase the gift cards through the app, this can often get an extra 0.5% which is well worth the minimal effort it takes to purchase a gift card through the app before shopping!
Free Money Offer: £10
I was excited to share this offer with you but it went as soon as it came around, although I will test the app out over the next few weeks and as soon as the referral scheme comes back or any other offer for it I will let you know!
Dividends: £1.99
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.