1) Sell your hobby
Selling a knitted hat for over £30. Create a brand, add a story behind it, make it in the UK, make it by hand and people are willing to pay!
If you knit setup an Etsy store and sell items, £24 for a UK Handmade knitted hat doesn’t seem that bad. Make sure you build a brand around it. Some of my family knit and sell it direct to London stores, £20 in wool and sells for £120!
Love baking in your spare time? Find a local cafe that would sell your products or setup a stall at a car boot sale or similar. (Make sure you register your food business first before you start selling)
Enjoy ironing? Setup a small business doing it, 20 items could net you £10 + you can do it in your own time and even whilst watching TV
Enjoy design or web design etc? Then sell your spare time to the highest bidder + get £20 free credit to buy other people’s time.
Love Gardening? Prepare hanging baskets for neighbours / local markets and sell for a profit
Enjoy sewing? Offer a local repair service for clothes
Enjoy comedy, magic or performing? Go to Amateur and open mic nights, some will pay expenses / appearance fees if you’re any good.
Enjoy correcting people on the internet? Head to Freelancer and check out the Editor positions
2) Rent out your unused Attic / Garage etc
Some of us are lucky enough to have excess space, this space is often dead space and it could be earning you serious cash, one lady is earning £2,500 a year from her 25FT basement.
3) Rent out your spare room, an airbed or even your garden to campers!
£7,500 is the new threshold before you have to pay tax for yearly income generated by renting out spare rooms in your home
The Rent a Room (Government) Scheme lets you earn up to a threshold of £7,500 per year tax-free from letting out furnished accommodation in your home.
EasyRoommate | SpareRoom | AirBnb
4) Sell your holiday / everyday photographs & video
Websites / News Companies etc all want images. You don’t need to be a professional photographer with expensive equipment to compete these days, it’s all about being in the right place at the right time or having an image of something that others are interested in.
Photos: 123RF | Dreamstime | iStock | Shutterstock
Video: Sell your viral video | 123RF | iStock
5) Teach your hobby to others
If you enjoy something, most likely others will as well and if you can document it, make it interesting and people will pay (either in the form of cash or view counts on videos/blogs etc). From Gaming on Twitch for money to making money from Instagram and Playing Piano for money to any hobby that you can start from just £25 there will always be someone interested.
Create an eBook / Online Course get it published, build a social media following and push people towards the book or make a website and do similar.
You may consider adding referral or affiliate links on the articles to generate income (a method we use on here sometimes).
6) Invest in the financial markets
Of course, with this one you will need money to begin with so it’s only applicable to some of us.
Get your money working for you! Not a simple process and an obvious risk of losing your money but if done correctly & with a spread of risk you should be able to beat a standard savings account.
For reference, we made a 25% gain in our stocks and shares ISA in 2016.
Buy the Comprehensive guide to Financial Markets, Investing & Trading
7) Pet / House / Baby Sitting
Warning: There is a risk with all three of these that if you’re not able to cope in an Emergency and prove you acted properly you could be at risk of legal action against you.
You could be earning £20-£80 a day to look after someone’s house and their pets, often you will effectively live there whilst someone is on holiday / away for the weekend and do the odd bit of house keeping.
You should be able to secure £8/hr babysitting but don’t expect this straightaway, you will need experience and a reputation.
Often this would be workable around another job or college/university studies etc.
Ensure you know the ground rules and what is expected from you, this checklist may help:
- How many hours it is acceptable to leave the house (most will expect no more than 1 hour after dark)
- Who can visit you
- Detailing agreed duties (e.g. some people may want certain plants watered more/less than others)
- Days for the bins
- The pet routines
- What happens in various emergencies (Gas Leak / Water Leak / Fire / Break in / Animal or Child unwell etc)
- Emergency contact numbers for the home owners / neighbours / local family members etc.
- Whether food / living costs will be covered.
- Travel costs (e.g. taxi costs after midnight etc)
You may consider going through an agency but of course you will then not be making as much profit but you might have more time, they will also often be more restrictive.
Baby / Pet Sitting Extra Notes:
Ensure you’re well educated in the risks and what to do in an emergency, ensure you have contact numbers for multiple members of the family including more than just the parents.
A good place to learn the basics of babysitting is this article.
8) Recycle other people’s rubbish
Bare with us this doesn’t have to involve much work, if you can get friends/family/neighbours/colleagues to save items such as clothing, ink cartridges etc from the bin and get them to give them to you instead you can make a fairly easy profit.
Ink (up to £2 per old cartridge)
Companies such as CashForCartridges, Infotone recycle & Tesco Recycle will pay you in cash or points for each cartridge.
Clothing
Companies such as Genie Recycling & 123 Cash 4 Clothes pay 50p per kilogram of clothing (including shoes, belts and handbags) of course collecting other people’s clothing doesn’t sound like the best idea for a secondary income but if you can persuade them to pack it all up for you and only pack items as per the requirements you might be able to make some easy money.
Scrap Metal
This one is more difficult and often won’t be worth the time spent but it could be rewarding.
eBay items
If you’re good with computers you could sell local items on eBay / Gumtree / Facebook etc for people, you take a % for the work done.
9) Get paid for shopping AKA Mystery Shopping
If you enjoy shopping and often go shopping in your spare time anyway this side job is an easy way to earn a few quid each trip.
Companies that need market research or store research tasks completed often will rely on local agents, so instead of sending 1 person across the whole country from their Headquarters they send 500 people out to complete a task that is local to them. The company saves money as they don’t have to pay for fuel, hotels, travel time getting between locations and they pass some of the money saved on to people like you and I that live locally to the tasks.
Example Job: We were asked to go to a local pub (3 miles away) and make a note of the beer brands that were available on the bar pumps, we were paid £5 for the task. You can pick the jobs and don’t have to accept any. If you’re driving nowhere near that location then don’t bother but for us it was worth it.
Expect £2-£10 per job, You’re competing against others for jobs and won’t get lucky every time, so don’t get too excited. But it’s well worth signing up in case they do come up.
Learn more about Mystery Shopping
10) Listen to music or watch videos and get paid…
SliceThePie pays money you to listen to music if you write up your thoughts on it.
Swagbucks pays you (in FREE gift cards) for watching videos and completing surveys.
What about paying tax on this income?
Important: All income you make in addition to your wages needs to be declared to HMRC. It’s quick and fairly easy to do on here.
