Earn money with academic writing

Students are constantly looking for help with their studies, we've already talked about how you can earn money tutoring. In this post we will talk about how you can earn money through freelance academic writing.  

How does academic writing work?
I am a freelance writer with Academic Knowledge for their law students department. There is a mixture of different writing tasks that are available including essays, skeleton arguments, revision notes, and problem questions. They require you to have at least a 2:1 undergraduate degree in the subject you wish to write for, if you choose to undertake postgraduate studies, you will be able to take on higher level briefs (which are paid more).  There are other academic writing companies, however, what drew me to apply to academic knowledge was that they are a large, well established company. This means that there is a good steady supply of briefs which is essential to the flexibility of freelance work. 

Is it not plagiarism?
It might feel at first that you are simply doing other people's work for them (and therefore allowing cheating). However, that is not what the work you produce is for. The work you submit is intended to be used as guidance by the client to help them to produce their own work whilst being able to achieve the grade they are aiming for. Ultimately the license of the work remains with you, the writer and as such the client should not hand it in as their own work. 

How much could I earn?
How much you earn per brief depends on both the word length and the duration you have to complete the brief. As an example a 1000 word essay with 10 days to complete would pay approx £50. The plus with academic writing is that it pays well, provided you are able to turn out work quickly (i.e you get paid the same no matter how long you spend on it). The downside is, due to the work being freelance, there is limited consistency in income. However, academic knowledge do have a guide on their site to help you guesstimate how much you could earn depending on how much work you do. 
As a freelance writer you are responsible for declaring your own income for tax purposes. Though remember the government have now introduced a £1000 allowance for online earnings that you don't have to declare, but if you plan on earning more than that per tax year (and you easily could) it is important to declare you earnings even if you don't have to pay any tax.

How do I start academic writing?
I choose to work through academic knowledge, and would highly recommend them. Their application process is super simple, you just need to fill out some basic details and upload copies of your transcript/degree certificate. They will then, if you are successful phone you to have a brief chat with you and explain how the practice brief works. You are then given a list of questions to choose from for which you complete a short brief (approximately 1750 words) which you will be paid for (about £75). To see if they are currently hiring for your subject click here. 


This article is not sponsored or endorsed by academic knowledge. 


I’m taking part in the Money Making Madness Linky hosted by Charlotte Burns from Lotty Earns, Emma Bradley from Mum’s Savvy Savings, Emma Drew from EmmaDrew.Info and Lynn from Mrs Mummy Penny.

20 ways to earn money online in 2017

Looking to earn some extra money this year? Finding the time to pick up a part-time job doesn't alway work for the busy schedules of millennials and university students. But do not fear, that doesn't have to mean you hopes of increasing your income have to be put on the sideline. There are increasing number of legitimate ways to earn money online (often more easily than traditional earning methods). 

• Enter sweepstakes / competitions. In the past couple of years we have won close to £6,000 in prizes so it really can be a great way to earn online. We normally just enter competitions whist we are watching T.V in the evening. Our favourites search site to use is competition database because there are no spammy competitions on there allowing you to make better use of your time. Best of all the prizes are tax free. 
• Share your university experience with prospective students with UniBuddy and earn approximately £35 per applicant you help, plus be entered into their regular prizes for writing posts and articles. 
• Teaching English to Chinese children is a super flexible way to utilities your language skills. Got a bachelors?  try this company instead for better pay.
• Write mock essays, exam notes or mark papers.  [requires a bachelors degree] Academic knowledge hire graduates to work as freelance writers. The pay depends on the length of the project and the time to be completed in and you are paid either by BACS or Paypal. 
• Start a blog and earn through affiliate marketing, sponsored posts and advertisements. Whilst blogging is not a get rich quick scheme there are plenty of bloggers our there who earn impressive salaries online. 
• Use Swagbucks to earn £100s in gift cards by doing simple surveys, browsing the internet and shopping online. The easiest way to earn is to install their search engine browser and earn Swagbucks simply by searching the internet like normal. 
• Play the bookies at their own game and take advantage of betting offers with matched betting (and not its not gambling) to earn up to £1000 a month !!! Check out of post on how you can make your first matched betting earning of £45 in 60 minutes. Plus matched betting is entirely tax free !! 
• Get paid to read your emails with Inbox Pounds. They send you emails. you click that you've read the email at the bottom of the email text and earn money. It really is that simple. You can cash out every time your earnings total £20. 
• Create an Etsy store.  Selling digital downloads is probably the most passive way of earning an income through Etsy, but it can also be used to sell physical items too. We sell a single item on our etsy store (cash envelope printables) and we get a nice little side-income that is almost entirely passive. 
• Get cashback on your shopping with Quidco (use this link to get £10 free with Quidco), TopCashback or Swagbucks. Over the year you'll see the savings add up for next to no effort. 
• Sell your photos to photo stock companies. Blogs and websites are in high demand of stock photos. If you have high quality photos you can sell them through companies such as Crewstock Don't have a fancy camera? You can sell photos taken on your smart phone through Clashot. 
• Publish an e-book on amazon and keep 70% of the profits from the book. If your not sure where to start Disease called Debt have an brilliant guide to publishing an E-Book  perfect for the first time e-book publisher. 
• Become an Audio Typist. If you've got access to good speed internet, can type at 65 wpm accurately and have at least a C grade in GCSE English (though its probably helpful to be a bit more proficient) then working as a transcriptionist for TakeNote could be a great option. 
• 20 Cogs is an tasks and offers rewards site. Whilst you won't get rich from completing 20 Cogs offers you could also easily earn a couple of hundred pounds as you can see from their earnings leaderboard. 
• Write online reviews with Dooyoo. They are probably the best known review site in the U.K. The site is easy to use, you can write reviews on tons of products and you can be paid in cash or amazon vouchers. 
• Fiverr is somewhat similar to Etsy. It is an online marketplace where you offer freelance services such as graphic design or translations work for $5. If you have a creative freelance skill this can be a great platform to find work online. 
• Sell your used toilet roll holders as craft supplies on online auction sites such as eBay. Whilst you won't earn thousands this way, its a simple way to earn a little extra cash for something you are going to buy and use up. For more information check out SkintDad's post on selling used toilet roll holders.
• Reselling on gumtree or eBay. Picking up bargains and reselling them for a higher price. Often the safest option when starting is to pick up free items (or super low price) from gumtree or charity shops, this means your unlikely to make a loss. You might also find using sites such as LatestDeals or Extreme Coupling and Deals UK useful to pick up bargains and then sell them on for a profit online. 
• Create a course. Have you got a skill or knowledge you could share with others? Then why not create a course to teach that skill. Maybe your awesome at coding or an ace at exams. Through Udemy you can create and sell your very own course. 
• Earn money losing weight with DietBet. DietBet is a social dieting site which runs challenges where you receive rewards for losing weight. There is a 30 day challenge to lose 4% of your body weight or  a 6 month challenge to lose 10% of your body weight. Those in your group who achieve the goal, the pot of money is divided up and equally distributed to the winners. 

With so many ways to earn extra money online your sure to be able to find something to meet your talents, needs and schedule.  

*This post contains affiliate links, all opinions are our own*

I’m taking part in the Money Making Madness Linky hosted by Charlotte Burns from Lotty Earns, Emma Bradley from Mum’s Savvy Savings, Emma Drew from EmmaDrew.Info and Lynn from Mrs Mummy Penny.

Earn money sharing your uni experience

What if we told you that your could earn money simply by sharing your university experience with prospective students. At UniBuddy it is as simple as that.

UniBuddy is a website that pays current university students to talk to prospective students about their university experience. This could involve any aspect of your experience from applying, housing, academics or student life.

Start by competing your profile about who you are and your eduction (where you study and what you are studying)
Then add posts to your profile (these could be on any topic about your university experience). These help penitential students get an idea of who you are and whether they are interested in talking to you.

When students start messaging you this is when you get paid. Currently UniBuddy pays up to £35 per applicant you help. Plus for the posts you add to your profile there is a regular competition to win £40 for the best post. Whilst Beckie managed to win at the end of December (so the giveaway is completely legitimate).

Pros
Flexible, easy work for home, or on the go making it a great option for the busy student. 
Requires very little skill.  Essentially by sharing your experience of univeristy and applications you can help mentor potential applicants. The better quality your writing is the more likely your posts will drive traffic but you don't need to be an a literary genius, just good at conveying your experience in a friendly tone. 

Cons
Sporadic and definitely not a consistent income source. Rather it is a good way of earning some supplemental cash.
It is entirely reliant on applicants choosing to talk to you so there is no guarantee of ever earning anything. We also wonder if your odds are better at getting people to talk to you if you are studying a popular subject (law, medicine, engineering etc.) at a popular university (i.e. Russel group or oxbridge). Though we have no evidence of this other than observation of users of UniBuddy.

Have you had any success earning with UniBuddy? 

Disclaimer- SavingScotts has no affiliation with UniBuddy and all opinions are our own. 

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If you are new to our blog, we are all about finding new ways for students and millennials to make and save money. Here are some of our favourite sites and products to help you out:

• Start a blog. Blogging is our side-hustle just over a year ago we didn't think I would bring us any income . You can create your own blog here with my easy-to-use tutorial. You can start your blog for as low as $3.49 per month plus you get a free domain if you sign-up through my tutorial.
• Save money with gift cards Whether its for buying clothes, your weekly shop or dining out use Zeek to buy discounted gift cards to get more bang for your buck (and get £5 free with this link). 
• Use Swagbucks for your online searches. Swagbucks is a passive way to earn gift cards. Over the course of a year you could earn $500.  Swagbucks is just like using Google to do your online searches, except you get rewarded “points called SB” for the things you do through their website. Then, when you have enough Swagbucks, you can redeem them for cash, gift cards, and more. Receive $5 for signing up today.
• Try matched betting. Matched betting is a great way to may easy money online. Despite the name it is not gambling and could see you earn £500-£1000 a month for only a couple of hours work a day see here and here. For your free trial head to profit accumulator or join the Facebook 'getting started' group.  
• Sign up for a cashback site like Quidco. where you can earn CASH BACK for just spending like how you normally would online. The service is free too! Plus, when you sign up through my link, you also receive a free £10 bonus!

*This post contains affiliate links, all opinions are our own*

Earn Money At University Nannying

With the cost of childcare skyrocketing and students with an ever increasing need to have a income capable of sustaining them whilst studying (aka not national minimum wage). Students have for years turned to babysitting and au paring as a great way to gain supplemental income whilst still being flexible to allow your studies.

But it can sometimes be tricky to find nannying jobs as a student with no formal childcare qualifications. Whilst local listed advertisements can be great, especially if you university has a site, and online sites such as childcare.co.uk can help with the search of finding nannying jobs neither are specifically aimed at students.

We recently came across a site called student nannies. It aims to put parents in need of flexible child care in contact with univeristy students looking for work around their studies. They aim to help students find regular work and intern a regular income rather than struggling with zero-hours contracts and the uncertainty they bring.

However, the perks to students extend beyond the new paycheque but also the opportunity to intern and gain CV enhancing opportunities. One user described how she was able to obtain and internship through her networking with her nannying family opening up opportunities that would by have other wise been afforded to her.

The amount you can earn depends on the family and location (London jobs pay more, and there are more London listings on the site), but remember you are entitled to the national minimum wage (if your employer counts you as a worker). The only downside to the site is that it is not shown initially on a listing how much the family are willing to pay. 

Student Nannies advises parents to pay a rate that reflects babysitting in their areas. Outside of London this is about £8/£10 an hour and inside of London £10/£12 an hour. If there is additional tutoring involved in the role then the hourly wage can quickly increase to £25/£30 per hour. This can be a great way to tap into the earning potential of a talent be it playing the piano or maths.

What are you experiences of nannying / babysitting as an income stream. 

Looking for more student friendly jobs check out this list of online jobs 

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If you are new to our blog, we are all about finding new ways for students and millennials to make and save money. Here are some of our favourite sites and products to help you out:

• Start a blog. Blogging is our side-hustle just over a year ago we didn't think I would bring us any income . You can create your own blog here with my easy-to-use tutorial. You can start your blog for as low as $3.49 per month plus you get a free domain if you sign-up through my tutorial.
• Save money with gift cards Whether its for buying clothes, your weekly shop or dining out use Zeek to buy discounted gift cards to get more bang for your buck. 
• Use Swagbucks for your online searches. Swagbucks is a passive way to earn gift cards. Over the course of a year you could earn $500.  Swagbucks is just like using Google to do your online searches, except you get rewarded “points called SB” for the things you do through their website. Then, when you have enough Swagbucks, you can redeem them for cash, gift cards, and more. Receive $5 for signing up today.
• Try matched betting. Matched betting is a great way to may easy money online. Despite the name it is not gambling and could see you earn £500-£1000 a month for only a couple of hours work a day see here and here. For your free trial head to profit accumulator or join the Facebook 'getting started' group.  
• Sign up for a cashback site like Quidco. where you can earn CASH BACK for just spending like how you normally would online. The service is free too! Plus, when you sign up through my link, you also receive a free £10 bonus!

*This post contains affiliate links, all opinions are our own*

Make money decluttering with Ziffit

It's human nature to hoard and collect; we've all done it at some point. But having a good clear out can be good for both the mind and the bank balance. When Chris and I got married in January, the best man made a 'prenup' for us, and one of the clauses was about Chris not bringing his mass of DVDs and Games to our small city apartment.

Despite this far more than I would have liked found their way into our new home. After months of asking, I finally convinced him to part ways with at least of few of his older games (that haven't been used in years). Rather than throwing them away we hoped to sell them and make some extra money.

In the past, we have used other selling methods including auction sites, Facebook pages and trade-in apps but have never been fully happy with the process with many reasons and so with nothing to lose decided to give Ziffit a try and we were pleasantly surprise with the experience.

Their selling system was easy to use and only took a couple of steps (and minutes).  Firstly, we downloaded the app on my phone. We then made an account and scanned in the barcodes of the games we were selling. You then choose your payment method from bank transfer, cheque or Paypal (we chose Paypal for the added level of security it always adds).

Ziffit will then email (or post you) a package label for you to attach to the box your are putting your DVDs, games or books in. All you have to do is pack up the items you are selling and take them to your nearest free collection point (ours was less than a mile from our home). You can drop the parcel off at any Collect+ point, you can find these all over the country from post offices, supermarkets to petrol stations. The app will advise you where your nearest collection point, however you can see on Collect+ site  there are so many locations that you could drop them off on the way to work or picking up the kids. Once Ziffit receive your goods you then get paid by your nominated method.

Apart from being a way to declutter and make cash from items lying around the home. Ziffit it much quicker and more efficient than selling on buying pages and on auction sites, you don't get messed around by buyers or stung with selling fees. You see how much you will actually get straight away and the only 'costs' you need to factor in for is the box to pack up what your selling and your trip to the Collect+ point. We were also pleasantly surprised how much our stuff sold for having expected to make much less.

Overall our experience was really positive, and it is definitely an app we would use again and recommend to others as a great way to quickly make money decluttering.

Exclusively for our readers Ziffit is offering a special 15% extra cash on all trade ins so that you can make even more money decluttering your home. Simply use the promo code SCOTTS15.

How do you make money decluttering? Have you used Ziffit, let us know your thoughts. 

Although this post is sponsored all opinions are our own. Sponsored posts help to keep SavingScotts running so we can continue to share financial freedom enabling advice. 

Earn $2,500+ a month talking to international students

Love to chat. What if I said you could earn a tidy sum just by talking to strangers.

Don't worry this is no cold calling job, no targets, no sales involved, just simply talking.

Native talk pays good money for you to speak English to international students (primarily Chinese) in order to help them practice their spoken English.

If you love to talk and have the heart of a teacher then this could be the perfect job for you. The flexibility of the work makes it perfect for college students looking to boost their income.

How it works

To sign up to NativeTalk as a tutor, you need to be a student or alumni from their specified list of colleges (in UK and US). Though if your university is not listed don't panic, drop them an email as they are willing to consider student/alumni from elsewhere.

You will need to have proof of your student/alumni status (I.E. a ID card), and create a profile and audio proficiency example. You are able to specify your availability, so you determine how much or little you want to work. The only restriction is you need to have a wifi access.

The level of competency of the students have vary massively, but many will have elementary proficiency, so you need to be patient and expect conversations to be basic in this instances.

How much could I earn

NativeTalk pays $12 an hour. So if you worked a normal 7 hour working day 30 days a month you could bring in over $2,500.

But you may not have that much time and be looking to fit in extra work around full time employment, if you worked 2 hours, 5 days a week you could bring in $480 a month, that is a tidy sum and a good amount of money.

Regardless of how many hours you work, it has the potential to be a great income stream and particularly targeted at college students looking to supplement their income


Isn't it just like NiceTalk?

The concepts are incredibly similar, but there are two main reasons why NativeTalk provides a better option.

Firstly, the NativeTalk site is in English, where as NiceTalk's is in Chinese, this is not great for the English speaking tutor. 

Secondly, NativeTalk pays $12 p/h vs NiceTalk paying $10, though not huge, does make a difference, especially if you are looking to make this a more full time role. 

If you end up giving NaiveTalk a try, feel free to comment in the comment section down below on how your experience was or if you have any questions!

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If you are new to our blog, we are all about finding new ways for students and millennials to make and save money. Here are some of our favourite sites and products to help you out:

• Start a blog. Blogging is our side-hustle just over a year ago we didn't think I would bring us any income . You can create your own blog here with my easy-to-use tutorial. You can start your blog for as low as $3.49 per month plus you get a free domain if you sign-up through my tutorial.
• Save money with gift cards Whether its for buying clothes, your weekly shop or dining out use Zeek to buy discounted gift cards to get more bang for your buck. 
• Use Swagbucks for your online searches. Swagbucks is a passive way to earn gift cards. Over the course of a year you could earn $500.  Swagbucks is just like using Google to do your online searches, except you get rewarded “points called SB” for the things you do through their website. Then, when you have enough Swagbucks, you can redeem them for cash, gift cards, and more. Receive $5 for signing up today.
• Try matched betting. Matched betting is a great way to may easy money online. Despite the name it is not gambling and could see you earn £500-£1000 a month for only a couple of hours work a day see here and here. For your free trial head to profit accumulator or join the Facebook 'getting started' group.  
• Sign up for a cashback site like Quidco. where you can earn CASH BACK for just spending like how you normally would online. The service is free too! Plus, when you sign up through my link, you also receive a free £10 bonus!

Online jobs for college students

We are all looking for that little bit of extra money to help us through our studies. But with all the time commitments studying brings it can be challenging adding work into the balance.

Working from home can be a great option for college students as it can often provide you with the scheduling flexibility that you need to work alongside college. Also working online can mean that work can go with you when you travel, so trips home to visit family don't mean losing out on valuable earning time.

Matched Betting.
With matched betting money is made of taking advantage from free offers bookies offer. You place a qualifying bet to trigger the free bet and then use the free bet to make a profit. It takes very little time commitments, is risk free and is not gambling. In 1-2hrs a day you could bring in over £100 a month, making it one of the highest paying per hour online jobs out there. It can at first appear technically complicated but once your get the idea behind it you'll wonder why you went doing it before. I have a whole post dedicated to matched betting, and Profit Accumulator have some great beginner tutorial videos to get you started. 

Talking to international students 
Apps such as native talk pay university students to talk to non-native english students allowing them to practice their English. This work is very flexible and usually just requires a smart phone and will typically pay £9+ an hour. 

Transcribing

Transcribers take audio recordings and transcribed them into text. For this job you need to be able to type quickly and efficiently with few errors. Many places look for at least 60 words per minute and as close to 100% accuracy as possible. TranscribeMe who pay $20 per audio hour they also pay more for medical or legal transcribers. QuickTate, Tigerish, Appenscribe, Scribe and Rev all accept newbie transcribers.

Call centre
Companies such as Enterprise hire homeworkers to answer reservation enquiries. The perks these kind of jobs is that you have guaranteed hours of a set wage (and the ability to earn bonuses). Often you need very little to get started (often just an internet connection and a phone connection). If you are strong in your sales ability and love to talk to people then this could be a great option.

Amazon mTurk
This is where you get paid to do odd jobs from data entry to writing that a requestor needs doing. Different Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) have different attributed values so it is hard to say how much you will earn per hour as it is not fixed but it is generally quite low in comparison to other online work.
You can get paid either by bank transfer or by amazon gift card. Though the exact list of countries you can work for mTurk is not listed it works for those in the USA or India (let us know if any other countries are able to use the scheme).

Open an Etsy Shop
Are your photoshops skills top notch,  made some stunning printables or created cute jewellery? Then maybe creating an Etsy store is the best option for you. You are not just limited to selling physical items, there is the option to sell digital items, which can be much less time consuming.
Allow your creative talents to earn you money. Owning an Etsy store develops your entrepreneurial skills which are great to include in your CV.

Online re-selling
Picking up low cost items and flipping them for a profit is the key here. It is a good idea to choose items that you know the value of and have a good idea how much they will re-sell for.
A great option for college students is 'flipping' textbooks as you may be able to sell them to students in person avoiding the sellers fees associated with websites such as eBay. Scouring free-sell sites where you can pick up items for free and sell them on making an instant profit is a great option. Sites such as Gumtree and Freecycle work great for finding free items.

Did you do any online work during your studies?

If you are new to my blog, I am all about finding ways for students and millennials to make and save more money. Here are some of my favorite sites and products that may help you out:

• Start a blog. Blogging is my side-hustle just a few years ago I never thought it would be possible. You can create your own blog here with my easy-to-use tutorial. You can start your blog for as low as $3.49 per month plus you get a free domain if you sign-up through my tutorial.
• Use Swagbucks for your online searches. Swagbucks is a passive way to earn gift cards. Over the course of a year you could earn $500.  Swagbucks is just like using Google to do your online searches, except you get rewarded “points called SB” for the things you do through their website. Then, when you have enough Swagbucks, you can redeem them for cash, gift cards, and more. Receive $5 for signing up today.
• Try matched betting. Matched betting is a great way to may easy money online. Despite the name it is not gambling and could see you earn £500-£1000 a month for only a couple of hours work a day see here and here. For your free trial head to profit accumulator or join the Facebook 'getting started' group.  
• Sign up for a cashback site like Quidco. where you can earn CASH BACK for just spending like how you normally would online. The service is free too! Plus, when you sign up through my link, you also receive a free £10 bonus!

How to earn £100s in free gift cards

Ever wished you could earn gift vouchers for doing activities you do on a daily basis. Well there is a site out there that allows you to do just that. Swagbacks allows you earn money from browsing the web and doing your online shopping as well as in many other ways.

Through collecting Swagbucks (SB) you can exchange them for gift vouchers from hundreds of different stores or paypal cash. We love using our SB for our amazon purchases but there are so many options. You could even use it as a way to save for birthdays, christmas and vacations. 

How to earn?

There are several different way to earn with Swagbucks some more passive than others. 

Search and Earn - Install the search bar and use it just as you would use bing or google. As you search the internet you'll accumulate SB. This is the most passive way to earn SB as you are doing a task you would already normally do. You are randomly awarded SB once or twice a day of approx 5-10 SB.

Daily polls - Complete a quick (less than 1 minute) daily poll each day to earn 1 SB

Surveys- These are exactly how they sound, simple surveys to be completed. Depending on the length of survey they could earn you from around 25-200 SB a time. There are often surveys for 60SB that take less than 5 minutes to complete.   

Swagcodes- Can often been found on the FB page they provide bonus points they have random values which change day to do. 

Shopping online- Swagbucks offers a cashback-esque option which buy clicking through their site the vendors site you receive SB based on the value of your purchase. These amount vary depending on the vendor and often there will be promotions offering extra SB so keep an eye out. But remember don't go making purchases just for the SB its never cost efficient. 

Discover- Get SB for exploring special offers. 

Coupons (though this feature is not available in the UK). Be sure to check this area if your a big coupon fan. Every coupon you print is worth 10 SB

Playing games and watching videos- These are perhaps the least lucrative and most time consuming options for gaining SB and probably the least worthwhile. But the TV can be great for background watching whilst doing other things such as chores. We don't actively use either for earning SB.

Top Tip 

Download the Swagbucks Toolbar and never miss a SB deal again. It doubles as a search engine bar and a reminder for when your on a site that there is Shop & Earn opportunity. Making earning SB even easier. 

How much could you earn?

Lets take a average year, excluding any SB from shopping you could earn (so this is no where near the maximum you could earn in a year)

1 SB a day from daily polls - 365 SB

60 a day SB Daily Survey  - 21900 SB

250 SB a week for other surveys - 13,000 SB

10 SB from daily searches - 3650 SB

10 SB from Swagbucks TV a day- 3650SB

4 SB from games - 1460SB

Total - 44,025 SB 

Doing this alone would earn you earn over £300 a year for very little effort. Remember this doesn't take into account any Spend and Earn points you may gain or daily swagcodes so there is potential to earn a lot more than £300. There is an awesome FB group were people save for whole trips to Walt Disney World with SwagBucks!!

Ready to start earning free gift cards?

If your ready to start earning free gift cards click on the link here to sign up and enjoy all the benefits of swagbucks.

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• If you are new to our blog, we are all about finding new ways for students and millennials to make and save money. Here are some of our favourite sites and products to help you out:
• Start a blog. Blogging is our side-hustle just over a year ago we didn't think I would bring us any income . You can create your own blog here with my easy-to-use tutorial. You can start your blog for as low as $3.49 per month plus you get a free domain if you sign-up through my tutorial.
• Save money with gift cards Whether its for buying clothes, your weekly shop or dining out use Zeek to buy discounted gift cards to get more bang for your buck. 
• Use Swagbucks for your online searches. Swagbucks is a passive way to earn gift cards. Over the course of a year you could earn $500.  Swagbucks is just like using Google to do your online searches, except you get rewarded “points called SB” for the things you do through their website. Then, when you have enough Swagbucks, you can redeem them for cash, gift cards, and more. Receive $5 for signing up today.
• Try matched betting. Matched betting is a great way to may easy money online. Despite the name it is not gambling and could see you earn £500-£1000 a month for only a couple of hours work a day see here and here. For your free trial head to profit accumulator or join the Facebook 'getting started' group.  
• Sign up for a cashback site like Quidco. where you can earn CASH BACK for just spending like how you normally would online. The service is free too! Plus, when you sign up through my link, you also receive a free £10 bonus!

*This post contains affiliate links, all opinions are our own*

Earn money by renting out a room

So many people complain about the costs of their home (be it mortgage or rent). If you have a spare room or two in your house you are essentially allowing the value of the property to go to waste so it might be a good idea to consider getting a lodger. It is a relatively easy and very tax efficient option to raise some extra funds. With websites like easyroomate it has never been easier to get a lodger and earn some extra cash. 

The UK government currently has a "rent a room" scheme which means you can earn up to £4250 a year from rent tax free. * This is now £7,500 tax free earning from renting a room*. 
All you need to do is to opt into the scheme when you fill out your tax return. This means you have the chance to have a tax free side hustle. Though for this scheme to apply you must provide a furnished room. It is important to note that you must inform you mortgage provider (though they are usually fine with you having a lodger) and if your a tenant (private and local authority) check your contract and notify your landlord. 

What to consider when taking on a lodger:

Who the lodger is.
It is often best to pick someone who you already know, no matter how slightly (it could be just a friend of a friend). This is because a lodger is generally going to act better is there is something else to loose beyond just annoying the landlord. If you don't know anyone in need consider opting for an organisation to chose the lodger for example I know many university students who have used easyroomate with much success. However, regardless of how you find your lodger all ways meet up with them before you allow them to move in and if possible talk to former landlords or housemates.

- Will you provide meals / cleaning services. 
You may wish to include (and charge for these services), though be aware that this may make a lot more work for you. With regards to meals be sure that the lodger is willing to work with your meal times. The advantage as a landlord is that it prevents your lodger gaining a tenancy and reduces the legal rights that they have.

How much rent will you charge
It can be hard to know what is a fair market price, I would recommend looking at sites such as easyroomate to give you an idea of how much rooms are being listed for in your area. By doing this you are able to stay competitive in your pricing. Remember to review you pricing every year or so to ensure you are still charging market rent. 

Will rent be inclusive of bills.
This can be a tricky one as its hard to know what a lodgers consumption is which means you could be left short if you include bills. However, the advantage of bill included is you don't have to go chasing the lodger when bills are due especially if they are annual/bi-annual and the lodger has moved out by that time. 

Set out some house rules. 
At the end of the day it is still your home and your rules apply. Try not to be dictatorial, but some rules are okay. 
Think about things such as:
- energy saving (i.e. turn lights off when not in room)
- reasonable curfew (i.e not coming back at 4am and waking everyone up) 
- Is the lodger allowed friends over if so how often and until what time

Draft up a list of house rules when the lodger moves in and discuss them with the lodger on the move in day, giving them the opportunity for discussion. A two way conversation will lead to a much better dynamic between you and your lodger. 

If you are looking for a lodger easyroomate.co.uk is a great website and is the UK's number one roommate site. Best of all it is FREE to advertise your room meaning more money for you. 

Have you ever taken on a lodger? What was your experience like?

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This post contains affiliate links.

If you are new to our blog, we are all about finding new ways for students and millennials to make and save money. Here are some of our favourite sites and products to help you out:

• Start a blog. Blogging is our side-hustle just over a year ago we didn't think I would bring us any income . You can create your own blog here with my easy-to-use tutorial. You can start your blog for as low as $3.49 per month plus you get a free domain if you sign-up through my tutorial.
• Save money with gift cards Whether its for buying clothes, your weekly shop or dining out use Zeek to buy discounted gift cards to get more bang for your buck. 
• Use Swagbucks for your online searches. Swagbucks is a passive way to earn gift cards. Over the course of a year you could earn $500.  Swagbucks is just like using Google to do your online searches, except you get rewarded “points called SB” for the things you do through their website. Then, when you have enough Swagbucks, you can redeem them for cash, gift cards, and more. Receive $5 for signing up today.
• Try matched betting. Matched betting is a great way to may easy money online. Despite the name it is not gambling and could see you earn £500-£1000 a month for only a couple of hours work a day see here and here. For your free trial head to profit accumulator or join the Facebook 'getting started' group.  
• Sign up for a cashback site like Quidco. where you can earn CASH BACK for just spending like how you normally would online. The service is free too! Plus, when you sign up through my link, you also receive a free £10 bonus!

*This post contains affiliate links, all opinions are our own*

Earn Money Entering Giveaways

I've always been quite lucky and I remember winning my fare share of competitions as a child. When I went to college, I found myself becoming addicted to entering competitions. It was only recently that I realised I've actually been side-hustling all that time. I don't enter massively now due to time constraints but in that 2 year period I have won the following which amounts to almost £5000 in value.

Entering competitions takes very little effort and absolutely no start up costs making it a good side-hustle option. In addition, you can enter as many or as few as you want, just your odds of winning increase the more you enter meaning it can be as time consuming as your want. It can be quite a time consuming process in particular when you are converting your prizes into cash. However, using online competition sites can help make it less time consuming. 

How to make money through giveaways?

Making money through giveaways is relatively simple. Enter (and enter lots), Win, either keep the prize or convert to cash by selling. I would recommend creating social media accounts which you use for your competition entering only to ensure it doesnt get too messy (or you don't annoy your FB friends). When determining whether to sell, I look at whether I will use the prize, has it appreciated or depreciated already and, it is worth more I if use it? I primarily use Amazon and eBay primarily to sell on prizes and they are the quickest way and usually get the highest value. Though if you can sell to friends or family especially with gift cards you can often get the full RRP. 

Some of the prizes we have won include:

• Amazon Gift Voucher- I won this through a Channel4 competition and initially thought I had won £100, but had in fact won £1000. My parents were looking to buy some big home goods at the time and so we agreed to swap the Gift voucher for cash.
• Art prints- I've won a couple of art works in my time. But in 2014 I won £3300 worth of Art from Eleanor Leone Bennett. As she is an up and coming photographer so I decided to keep the art work to allow it to appreciate in value. 
• Annual Taste card- This prize gave us 2for1 meals out for a whole year at a variety of restaurants and was well worth more than the £75 cash value and had the potential to save us £100s over the year. 

Where to find giveaways?

There a few really great sites that compile competitions listings and allow you to easily track them. I initially used ThePrizeFinder exclusively. However, now I use it in conjunction with MSE Competitions Forum. I find that ThePrizeFinder is easier to navigate but MSE has more listings. It a good idea to only enter for prizes you would want, so use the search functions on both of these sites to help you be more efficient in your entries. For those of you who are reading from the USA YoungAdultMoney regularly compiles a list of competitions. Another great option is to keep your eye out for local competitions in shops and newspapers. These generally have far fewer entries than national competitions thus increasing your chances of winning. 

Di Coke is a master comper and has written extensively about how to be strategic in how to find and enter competitions to have the best odds of winning. She goes into this and more in her book SuperLucky Secrets which we would highly recommend if you are interested in starting this awesome hobby. 

Overall, entering competitions is a great side-hustle that can fit around your schedule. However, it provides not fixed or predictable income and therefore may be best kept as a hobby for many.