Funding the Unicorn

unicornrider

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So I have been on here a few days and already made more than I thought, I can see myself getting bored with surveys but it is money so I have keep that in mind. I have been turned down by Lionbridge booooo but ho hum their loss and I will apply again. I am looking loads at match betting and I can see the positives but I am holding back until payday as I want to start with a decent amount. Here I am going to record my progress in all forms of online money.
I can be like a dog with a bone so by aware I might post a fair amount or nothing.
My full time job gets busy in the summer so I might have to take a break from the surveys but that is why I think match betting then might keep me going.
I work in racing in Newmarket so I have to be careful I don't get carried away. I am rubbish at betting anyway so hopefully match betting I can get back some of my hard earned dollar that I have wasted with them before!
My first aim is to pay off my stupid overdraft, I do get a good rate on it but I'd rather have it as emergency back up than use it all the time and then fund my dressage horse, each competition costs around £170 and an area or nationals much more. If I could support him away from my normal wage then that would be good, he has his own blog and if I can make this work then I might incorporate the two, I have had a little bit of sponsorship for him via my blogging online already but not enough to fund all his costs.

Since I joined up to Moneyshed only a few days ago:
Clickworker Euro11.85
YouGov £5.50
Prolific £7.69
Curious Cat £3.67
OnePoll £5.75
QuidCo £60 (pending until October!)
 
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Andrew

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You only need £50 to start matched betting. Just ease into it slowly :)
 
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unicornrider

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You only need £50 to start matched betting. Just ease into it slowly :)
LOL I don't have £50 spare until pay day because of competing! I am offering to groom for a friend which pays £70 and that pays for the horsebox hire, horses are super expensive. Ironically I could only afford it all before because I lived in tied accomodation so no bills/rent but it's tied for a reason and it totally bashed my credit rating and attitude to money. It's been a big step to go to renting and seeing pretty much most of my wages going in bills and rent and not the fun stuff I used to do. But on the plus side, my house is not tied to my job and I can work from home as I don't physically handle horses any more so can organise their handling via the phone and internet outside of work. I was cash rich/time poor now I am time rich/cash poor. However I plan to make that work to my advantage in the same way I did the other system. I just wish that in my youth I had not just spunked my whole months wages on stuff and had saved a bit but hey ho, I had fun
 

Cas

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wow interesting . Good luck with your competition

sounds like a good plan , if you can start match betting with as much as you can spare.
 
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Andrew

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LOL I don't have £50 spare until pay day because of competing! I am offering to groom for a friend which pays £70 and that pays for the horsebox hire, horses are super expensive. Ironically I could only afford it all before because I lived in tied accomodation so no bills/rent but it's tied for a reason and it totally bashed my credit rating and attitude to money. It's been a big step to go to renting and seeing pretty much most of my wages going in bills and rent and not the fun stuff I used to do. But on the plus side, my house is not tied to my job and I can work from home as I don't physically handle horses any more so can organise their handling via the phone and internet outside of work. I was cash rich/time poor now I am time rich/cash poor. However I plan to make that work to my advantage in the same way I did the other system. I just wish that in my youth I had not just spunked my whole months wages on stuff and had saved a bit but hey ho, I had fun

I always say having fun is the most important part of life - especially when you're young :) YOLO etc. And @katykicker is spot on - matched betting can lead you down a dark path if you're not careful. I ended up losing a lot of money gambling before I stopped!
 

unicornrider

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Be careful with the matched betting if you've had control issues with gambling before, it's ready access to 100s of websites.
I totally understand what you are saying, I haven't had issues with controlling it, just very bad at picking winners. I put £10 in my William Hill account last year and haven't topped it up since, just have the odd bet here and there on races that interest me.
 
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katykicker

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I totally understand what you are saying, I haven't had issues with controlling it, just very bad at picking winners. I put £10 in my William Hill account last year and haven't topped it up since, just have the odd bet here and there on races that interest me.
Ahh sorry thought you meant something else! x
 
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homie

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Wait, did you say you are racing unicorns? or has it been a long week and I didn't read your message properly?

Ok. Probably the latter.

For sure you will get sick of the surveys. They are a good starting point but most people give up on all but the best paying ones after a while as there are more engaging ways to make money. Have you looked at the website testing companies, they pay from £5 for a 10 to 20min test. You just follow the instructions and talk through everything you are doing as you do it. They are mainly to test from an average users point of view so you don't have to be too techy to complete them. I normally get 2 or 3 a week which adds up over a year.

don't have the addresses off the top of my head but google: What users do, usertesting, usertest and testbirds
 

unicornrider

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Wait, did you say you are racing unicorns? or has it been a long week and I didn't read your message properly?

Ok. Probably the latter.

For sure you will get sick of the surveys. They are a good starting point but most people give up on all but the best paying ones after a while as there are more engaging ways to make money. Have you looked at the website testing companies, they pay from £5 for a 10 to 20min test. You just follow the instructions and talk through everything you are doing as you do it. They are mainly to test from an average users point of view so you don't have to be too techy to complete them. I normally get 2 or 3 a week which adds up over a year.

don't have the addresses off the top of my head but google: What users do, usertesting, usertest and testbirds

LOL, nearly right, my friends call my horse 'the unicorn' he looks a bit like one and we did buy him a horn as a laugh but he refuses to wear it and I do work in racing. I don't ride them any more, I work in an office which is far safer. We do watch a lot of racing at work and some of my colleagues do bet big, I wouldn't, one was in with chance of winning £5k in an accumulator but then her horse came 2nd in the 4th race so she got nothing. That is enough to put anyone off straight betting.

I bought a head set for my laptop from Jon's suggestions in the working from home tool kit so I will be doing the website testing as soon as I get that. I have passed a few writing tests so hoping to get better paid work like that too.

And I will be having a dabble in match betting after my next lot of payments from selling stuff on ebay, reinvesting the money as it were.

In a week I am up to over just under £40 on survey type sites alone. My phone data renews tomorrow and I have to go into town to post some ebay stuff so will be seeing what is going on roamler, bemyeye, streetspotr, field agent or vypr.
 
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unicornrider

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So after Lionbridge binned me off at the applications stage, I have got into Leapforce yay, now am a little confused about how I go about qualifying for my first project but at least I am in.
In other news, the surveys have dried up a bit the last 3 days but still do whatever comes my way. I have missed a few opportunities on Roamler but am working on that one. Also was gutted that I was a bit skint and couldn't justify doing the buy a vodka and red bull task from one of the mystery shopping tasks, it was in my local too. However I am going away for a few days so saving the pennies for that. Hopefully once I get going with this then things like that won't matter.
 

Andrew

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So after Lionbridge binned me off at the applications stage, I have got into Leapforce yay, now am a little confused about how I go about qualifying for my first project but at least I am in.
In other news, the surveys have dried up a bit the last 3 days but still do whatever comes my way. I have missed a few opportunities on Roamler but am working on that one. Also was gutted that I was a bit skint and couldn't justify doing the buy a vodka and red bull task from one of the mystery shopping tasks, it was in my local too. However I am going away for a few days so saving the pennies for that. Hopefully once I get going with this then things like that won't matter.

You might find it stays available for a while anyway. They're never as popular as they should be.
 
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unicornrider

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I will have a look when I get back as I am off for four days but at home before I have to go back to work so can do lots of 'other work'. Am currently chasing up Ebay debts, I have made a fair wedge of there recently but had a bad run of non/slow payers. Am currently owed nearly £100 off there which is my starter fund for the Matched Betting if I get that before pay day.
 
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Jon

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I will have a look when I get back as I am off for four days but at home before I have to go back to work so can do lots of 'other work'. Am currently chasing up Ebay debts, I have made a fair wedge of there recently but had a bad run of non/slow payers. Am currently owed nearly £100 off there which is my starter fund for the Matched Betting if I get that before pay day.
God see this one of the many reasons I can;t be bothered with eBay. Late paying is bad enough in the blogging world let alone having to deal with it on ebay lol
 

unicornrider

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Ebay has been a bit more fruitful this week, someone actually paid! I don't include it in my earnings though as I don't intend to sell much more, that was more of a clear out thing and netted £500+ in the process which went on boring stuff like damage to my car from a pot hole which I am trying to claim back,

Anyway BIG NEWS - I did my first paid test on WhatUsersDo and for someone who likes to talk I do find it weird and have put off doing it but having done the first one and OMG that was so easy for £5, I will be doing as many as I can. My head set is meant to be here and this is why I am not a fan of buying on Ebay, the seller used a courier and even though it was posted last Monday, I only got a message today to say it had arrived at my workplace. Thankfully I could use my laptop's internal microphone and that worked well enough to hear on the tests.

I had today off as a booked holiday and didn't have much on so did loads of boring surveys etc and my balance is now up to a healthy £67 and I am hoping I can cash some of that out at the end of the month toward my Matchbetting fund. I have allocated a spare little used bank account for that and reactivated the internet banking for it so I can manage it effectively, that leaves me with my Bills account that my wages go into and my 'allowance' account that I use for day to day stuff and going out so it is all separate.

I ventured into town but there was nothing on my apps apart from one instore in Vypr. Everything else was a car journey away and with things being tight I didn't want to get in the car.
 

Jon

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I'm going to sign up for whatusersdo. I'm glad you found it easy, as it's given me the confidence to get on with it and stop prevaricating.
Used to love doing WhatUsersdo

Was very easy money for just a few minutes work!
 
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unicornrider

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Three weeks into this mission I have achieved

€16.89 (£14.70) Click worker (will cash out as soon as possible)
£7.00 YouGov (only another £43 to go before I can cash out so probably 4 months!)
£15.10 Prolific (I stupidly cashed out £5 and had to pay the fees so waiting until I get to £20 next time)
£11.60 OnePoll (£18.40 left to earn to cash out so two months maybe)
£3.50 Roamler (£16.50 left to earn to cash out but I have no idea how long this will take)
£7.94 Curious Cat (all cashed out as the level is £1 so I cash out every Sunday just in case the app goes)
£1.63 Vypr (£8.37 left until I cash out, again it can be feast and famine with this app so just plodding along as it is super easy)
£2.60 Viewsbank (£9.60 left until I cash out, this has dropped way off for me and there is one survey that is hanging about that I was screened out of but it is always there and probably blocking others coming in)
£7.20 BeMyEye (Cashed out, I like this app)
£5 WhatUsersDo (Again a good one, I just need to not miss the tests! I think I missed out cashing out this week but I think it does it for you?)
£3.81 InboxPounds (£16.19 to go until I cash out, I think that will take 2 months or so)
£0.30 Testableminds (total rubbish, I think I am going to bin this one)

80.39/75 - 50
So smashed £50, am going to start match betting next month so will have to consider carefully what my next target is, I really do want to start earning more and being able to cash out more.

I am going to bin Testable Minds and Field Agent. Concentrate on the things that work for me. I would like to get LeapForce/LionBridge work but nothing so far.
I have made a few mistakes in my first month but determined now to get the cash out amounts on the ones I have started.
 

unicornrider

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So it's the end of the first week in May, and here we are

YouGov 50p (like seriously how?!)
BeMyEye £5
Prolific £4.52
OnePoll £2.50
Curious Cat £2.30
Vypr £0.09
InboxPounds £0.40
StreetBees £1
Viewbank £0.15 (I am having mega trouble with this one)
Grooming £80
Match betting £46.07 (my first week!)

£142.53/250

I am a bit annoyed that BeMy Eye are now not letting me withdraw my fiver but hey how, WhatUsersDo has been very quiet this week, I haven't got to use my funky new headset yet!
Grooming (that is going to a show, getting the horse ready for it's rider, assisting the rider and calling the dressage test, a very specialist skill) is an obvious mega earner but takes a lot of time so I can't do it all the time as I want to compete myself. Today I left the house at 10.45, got fed at the show on top of the £80 (probably worth another £10) and was back by 7pm. I have another booking later in the month so thats another £80 in the bag.
I dipped my toes in MB, I made two mistakes and it really annoyed me but I have learnt to concentrate fully on the task in hand and not have anything else going on - I am fairly impress nearly £50 in a week for minimal effort and a £50 starting fund @Jon thanks for being there when I was panicking.
I think I will smash my target again, which is good as June will be lean, I bought Ed Sheeran tickets and that is super expensive!
 
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skint

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It sounds like you are off to a great start. I love ' what users do' but as I've got busier I catch less and less tests.
 
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