My moneymaking journey...

Queen Jess

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Instead of just lurking around, I thought I would bite the bullet and start a diary to keep myself accountable. I really want to earn extra cash to pay down my mortgage, go part time and maybe even retire early when I get that far!

I've spent most of the last few months selling stuff on eBay as I had a major declutter, but this is coming to an end now and I need new income streams. I did do a little bit of matched betting, but just didn't have the time and didn't enjoy it that much. I am sure I'll get back to it at some point.

I have dabbled on and off with surveys for a year or so before realising that I really need to get smart about the ones which are worth doing and not worth doing. In the past 5-6 months I have cashed out on the ones which aren't worth it and closed my accounts. I currently am doing the following survey sites (no pinecone as I never seem to be able to get on there):
  • Prolific
  • One Poll - not entirely sure if this one is worth it (not calculated, but have over £10, so will keep it for now)
  • Newvista - been on this for ages, but don't get invites very often. Not sure it's worth it, but am halfway to cashout so will wait until then to ditch it
  • YouGov - I quite enjoy these surveys
  • Populus - quite a new one for me
  • Panelbase
  • Valued Opinions - this one can be annoying for lots of screen outs, but I also got invited to an online panel over the summer and made an easy £100+
  • Mintvine - literally signed up this week and trying to get to grips with it
  • Answerpoints - just joined, but not done anything with it yet
  • Curious cat app - saw this listed on TMS and signed up this week
  • People.io app.... hmmm.... will see if I ever get to cash out there given the lack of a marketplace
  • Citizenme app
  • Vypr app - I keep having screen problems and have to delete and reload. Not sure whether this one is worth it, but halfway to cashout so will keep going for now.
  • OnePulse app
Over the past week I have been working on understanding how to get the best out of Swagbucks and cashed out about £10 in that time. I think I am about there with it and can now concentrate on understanding other new streams.

I'm now working on Mintvine and have downloaded a bunch of mystery shopping/task apps (Task360, Field Agent, Streetbees, Job spotter, Spare5, AppJobber and BeMyEye) which I will slowly work my way through to understand what works for me. I started researching Leapforce etc and am having a think about whether I have the time.

I am already using cashback sites for purchases and need to get back to my Shoppix app. I use Whatusersdo which I rarely get anything for, but I enjoy the work so will keep it. I think that's enough for now! Should be an interesting journey to hopefully some sort of financial freedom.
 

mabozza

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Welcome Jess.. well you sound well on top of all this.. keep doing what you are. Task apps are (for me) my biggest income stream by miles..but they do involve a lot of running about. Matched betting isnt for all but i would urge to have another go.. if you are unsure of anything the MBers here in the shed will help.
 

Queen Jess

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Thanks Mabozza. I will probably have another go at some point - I usually end up trying too many things at once and get overwhelmed, so am trying to do less and work up slowly. Do you go it alone or pay for one of the sites? I could never decide whether to fully commit and so didn't pay, although I did use the free trial to understand it better.
 
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Jon

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Thanks Mabozza. I will probably have another go at some point - I usually end up trying too many things at once and get overwhelmed, so am trying to do less and work up slowly. Do you go it alone or pay for one of the sites? I could never decide whether to fully commit and so didn't pay, although I did use the free trial to understand it better.
Honestly, don't go it alone

Even two year+ later I still pay a monthly fee for PA because without the multitude of tools / offer advice / forums etc you just aren't going to make anywhere near much money and are just going to spend your time manually searching for offers and then figuring out the best way to do that

£15 a month or whatever is nothing if you are make an extra £300-£400 a month from all the additional resources you have access to

The likes of horse refunds, accas, extra place horse offers can't be done without having access to the tools that a matched betting company give you access to
 
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Queen Jess

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At the risk of boring everyone by posting again... I feel like I have been floundering around a bit today by flitting from one thing to the next. I definitely need some sort of list/process/system to be more organised and make sure I spend my spare time more fruitfully.. Going to have a think about the best way to organise myself in the day. Definitely not organised enough for MB yet!

It wasn't a complete waste.. I made about £4 on survey sites, but I am sure I could have done it more efficiently! Very excited that I never realised that YouGov has an app.. I love a good app as it gives me more options than just a laptop... downloaded that and liking the way it works so far.
 
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Queen Jess

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Ok - decided to organise myself a bit better today and also listed out a load of earnings per hour based on 5 mins, 10 mins, 20 mins etc etc so I have a good comparison for surveys. It was a bit of an eye opener for some of the Valued Opinion surveys... they seem to pay no more than £3.75 an hour. Got up today, set up Swagbucks to run for me checked prolific and onepoll a few times and then left it all to go.

I did a £1 Streetbees mission from home. Not sure what I think about this app yet. Noticed that BeMyEye had something for a shop I was going to anyway and so I did that one. Apart from feeling a bit stupid in the store (although amazing how many people ignore that you are using a phone walking around..), I am not utterly convinced I did an amazing job on it. The number of things I had to take photos of meant I basically had to take photos of the whole store which took a while. I guess we'll see if it gets accepted. I did go back through after to tidy it up. It also totally drained my phone battery!

Curious cat I keep getting screened out from all the time and it's getting pretty annoying. Will leave it for a bit and see if it picks up.. if not, that one will be deleted.
 

Cas

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Ok - decided to organise myself a bit better today and also listed out a load of earnings per hour based on 5 mins, 10 mins, 20 mins etc etc so I have a good comparison for surveys. It was a bit of an eye opener for some of the Valued Opinion surveys... they seem to pay no more than £3.75 an hour. Got up today, set up Swagbucks to run for me checked prolific and onepoll a few times and then left it all to go.

I did a £1 Streetbees mission from home. Not sure what I think about this app yet. Noticed that BeMyEye had something for a shop I was going to anyway and so I did that one. Apart from feeling a bit stupid in the store (although amazing how many people ignore that you are using a phone walking around..), I am not utterly convinced I did an amazing job on it. The number of things I had to take photos of meant I basically had to take photos of the whole store which took a while. I guess we'll see if it gets accepted. I did go back through after to tidy it up. It also totally drained my phone battery!

Curious cat I keep getting screened out from all the time and it's getting pretty annoying. Will leave it for a bit and see if it picks up.. if not, that one will be deleted.

I think you started with the wrong task with bemyeye .

Not a great one there , what other task apps are you using ?
 

Queen Jess

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I think you started with the wrong task with bemyeye .

Not a great one there , what other task apps are you using ?

None really... these are the very first ones I have done. I have downloaded Task 360 (no tasks on there right now) and Field Agent, but not used either yet.

I'm hoping your comment means that they are usually easier?!
 

Cas

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ye they are alot easier .

I would recommend Roamler , but maybe try a couple tasks on task360 . if you like those tasks on there .

Then download romaler , dont want to overload you with too much to do
 

Queen Jess

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Had a pretty good day in all.. I estimate I "earned" (i.e. not cashed out) about £6.50 from survey sites. Not counting the tasks as not convinced I will get anything from those. I also signed up to a couple of free daily comps I found on TMS and maxed out my daily Swagbucks goal without doing anything except run videos. Now doing a bit of lurking on TMS with a spare bit of time to see if there's anything else I could work on/try out!

Writing down daily the amount I reckon I have earned from surveys is helping as it keeps me on track. It isn't very motivating when you are far away from all the survey cash outs otherwise!
 

Queen Jess

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Wahoo... a new month! After doing a lot of thinking and realising that I have more time this month and next than I will have for the rest of the year, I am dipping my toe into the MB waters again. Going slowly this time and building a spreadsheet to capture everything I need as I go (I prefer to build my own as I can highlight what I want to track in the way I want and helps me to learn).

I did one bet this morning and now sorting out my spreadsheet to track what I need before I go any further. Starting from -£17.99 after rejoining PA.
 
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Queen Jess

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Good job I did some MB today as surveys were extremely thin on the ground.. Probably only did about £1.50 worth - it was so small I didn't even bother adding it up! Looks like my Streetbees £1 task is going to pay out from yesterday. Didn't get a chance to do Task360 today as just ran out of time. I did download Streetspotr and Clic and Walk as well.
 

Queen Jess

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After a bit of a flurry with matched betting, I made £32.61, which more than covers the £17.99 PA fee for the month already. I think I have myself and my spreadsheets much better organised now, although it still seems to take me ages to do each bet. I should have a few more pounds later as I have one free bet on. Otherwise I am having a day off today and catching up on some other life admin. I am getting very behind on Xmas presents and other things!
 

my side hustle

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I'm sure you'll speed up with each bet. Can I ask why you stopped matched betting in the first place?
 

Queen Jess

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I'm sure you'll speed up with each bet. Can I ask why you stopped matched betting in the first place?

Two reasons really:
1) Sounds a bit silly, but I hate signing up to lots of stuff. I like to be pretty minimalist when it comes to all that stuff, including getting as few emails as possible.

2) I didn't quite have enough time last time (I was trying to list a ton of stuff on eBay before Xmas) and was also unwell and so quickly lost track of what funds were going out/coming back in my bank. It took me ages to work it out.
 

Queen Jess

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Did a bit more MB today, but taking it slowly... had to ring the bank as they put a stop on my card due to the "unusual activity"! I am surprised and pleased to see my task on BeMyEye actually paid out... happy days! I downloaded some more task apps now and going to try and do some more this week.

Not done much today so need to catch up on surveys this evening and xmas admin..
 

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