Friday 28 August 2009

Extra Revenue Streams – Why We Should All Have Some

This month our spending was higher than normal, but yet less than this time last year. Why? We decided to be one of the millions that decided to take a Staycation, ie: not go abroad this year and stay instead in the UK.

This saved us around £800 compared to a beach holiday in Europe, so it may set a trend for years to come! We still had great food, relaxing atmosphere and lovely adventures, so it seems that the ‘extra’ £800 for say Greece, would then seem to account for the ‘sunshine’ element, which is quite a lot really. I am impressed we stuck to it and will definitely try another staycation for those kinds of savings. Needless to say, the staycation means more money has remained in our savings accounts, which is very unusual at this time of year!

In August after we returned from Staycation, I still diligently logged all my spending at www.spendingdiary.com and am pleased to say I am on target to reach the end of the month with my £100 ATM money (see articles in the ‘Money Saving’ section of the right hand menu for some inspiration on this small but effective money saving technique). In September I will try to reduce this to say £90 and see how I get on. It means I should have some ‘extra’ in the bank account at the end of September to transfer to savings.

Apart from that, I am focusing on Extra Revenue Streams. This means that apart from my normal income, I try to find other ways to bring in cash. One of the main ways is through Cashback Sites (see righthand menu). In August I received around £21, and this all goes into savings. To me this is free money, so I either spend or invest it, to make sure it doesn’t disappear on silly things that I struggle to remember later on.

We should all try to have these as it helps you have some extra cash, in case your main income changes or stops altogether.

For another Extra Revenue stream, I am also learning about Google Adwords, which are now on this Blog. I hope you don’t mind but even if you only click one link that is of interest on the Google ads, this helps me out immensely and shows readers are enjoying what I write and what appears on the blog.

Amazon is another stream, which in August earned me £6.80 for some books I sold, this has also gone into savings.

Even if you can only add small amounts, set yourself up a spreadsheet that inspires you – log every extra bit of money you can earn there and make sure it gets saved, or at least spent on something that can bring you future savings (say special offers on food, maybe some hair clippers, or special offers on clothing you know are worthwhile).

Your comments would be so welcome on sharing what ways you create extra revenue for yourself – how can we all do more and motivate eachother?

8 comments:

WickedThrifty said...

i am thinking about taking an evening job at a coffee shop one or two nights a week... my etsy shop helped with a little bit of income for a while, but really i spent more on supplies than i ever made. oh well! is it hard to get set up on amazon to sell books? i have sooo many...

Alan said...

I think I'm a snob of the first order because I hate ebay!! I can't get past the idea that everyone wants something for nothing! Having said that i have tried to sell some small boxes for packaging / posting items but the didn't sell.

I have shed loads of "junk" that should be good to someone but i can't get motivated to sell it. Maybe reading your bits on here will inspire me.

I use quidco for the cash back and have earned £171 in there this year but trying not to touch that as i'd like to use that for a few days away sometime next year... in the UK of course.

Sophie Gist said...

Thrifty Stylist - Amazon is super easy to list on. Just go to your account then lower right handside it says Seller account.
OR - you can go to the book you want to list, then it says something like 'sell yours here'. It takes literally 3 clicks - find the item, enter the condition (new, nearly new, Good etc) and a description then how much you want for it.
Amazon make a charge but you can still make a reasonable amount, considering normally you would give the book away and make nothing!
I have found books in charity shops for £0.50p and then sold them for a profit, even after Amazon comission and the postage charge.
Good luck!

Sophie Gist said...

Alan thanks for dropping by! Ebay is an amazing tool to generate money from items you no longer need or want.
Honestly - one man's junk is another man's treasure and ebay is proof of this.
Spend a quiet afternoon listing one or two items, and see how excited you get when a bid is made and as the finishing time comes nearer and perhaps even with several people bidding!
It takes experimenting but just be detailed about what it is, do a nice write up that gets the potential buyer excited and list it at a good starting price to incentivise bids.
Good luck and well done fo rnot touching the Quidco cash - you will be happy you didn't when you enjoy that holiday!

WickedThrifty said...

good to know- i will definitely see if i can unload some of my extras on Amazon; the buy-back programs at my local used shops never include hardcover fiction, so i'm stuck with tons of great-quality chick lit!

Cass@TheDiaryofaFrugalFamily said...

Have you considered mystery shopping. Companies like Grass Roots and Retail Eyes will pay you to visit a location and write a brief report about your experience.

I have done this in the past and there are a lot of jobs available.

Worth a look

Magic Mummy
www.frugalfamily.co.uk

Sophie Gist said...

Hi Magic Mummy and welcome - yes I did a mystery shop yesterday in fact with GrassRoots to a Vodafone store, should be worth £10 for 20 mins work - that's £60 an hour so not bad at all. I keep a log of all mystery shops, free cinema vouchers, high street vouchers from clicking and also free cashback, helps see where my time is spent and what it was all worth during the year!

Good luck Thrifty Stylist with your books - it can be very quick and easy and also helps clear some space at home (unless you are a book addict like me, in which case you will spend the Amazon cash on more books!) x

TMS said...

I agree at finding Extra Revenue streams is very important when you are looking at making your money go further. Having spent a lot of time looking into ways of making extra money there is something which is worth taking into consideration.

Whilst making extra money through cashback sites is a good place to start it does require continual effort for small returns, although they do build up over time. Alternatively, and this doesn’t suit everyone, but you could invest some of that time in creating a niche website with a look too future earnings. The earnings you can make through having your own website either through Adsense, affiliate links or even private advertising can be a lot larger in the long term and a lot more satisfying than clicking banners.

As I said it’s not for everyone and takes commitment to make it worth while doing but for those who have a long term plan to making extra money, it is worth considering.