I am often asked about how to increase income or create extra money when there is no  opportunity of changing jobs, getting a pay increase, taking on overtime or getting an extra job. There are two ways of doing this, one is reducing your outgoings, the other is to find ways of bringing in extra money.

I am going to be writing up a mini series about several different ways you can bring in some extra cash.

This first one is all about surveys.

The thing I like about surveys is they can be as long or as short as you like and they can be done anywhere, you can even do some of them on your phone! I have completed surveys while waiting to pick my husband up from work in the car. They are a great way of bringing in some extra cash because they fit in around you and your day. Just be aware that they aren’t always the most exciting thing in the world.

The thing I would say with surveys is that you need to sign up to a few sites to make it worth your while and I would also recommend setting up a surveys email address purely for your surveys so that your email account doesn’t get overwhelmed. Some of them also take a while to build up to pay out so surveys are not a ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme but definitely worth it for an easy extra few quid and are a great way to boost your earnings.

Here are 5 of the sites I like and use…

swagbucks

With this site you earn ‘Swagbucks’ which are then swapped for gift cards or cash. As well as answering surveys and polls, you can also earn Swagbucks by shopping online, watching videos, searching the web and playing games. Swagbucks also has an app so you can do all of this on the go. Sign up here.

yougov

With this site you earn points and you can start earning them straight away. You need to earn 5000 points to get to the £50 cashout total but with regular surveys and polls it doesn’t take too long to get to this amount. You will often see YouGov mentioned in the press as they use these polls for statistics. I also like that surveys can be completed via the app on my phone. Sign up here.

Valued opinions

With this site you share your opinions by answering surveys, giving feedback on advertising campaigns and testing out new products. You can earn up to £5 per survey which you can cash out in gift vouchers for places like Amazon UK, John Lewis, M&S, Boots and many more! Sign up here.

Pinecone research

This site is really popular because it pays really well for its surveys- £3 each for approximately 10-15 minutes per survey. The difference with this one compared to the others is that you have to apply to be a part of the panel. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t get accepted straight away, keep trying as I know people who got accepted later down the line. Sign up here.

prolific academic

This site has a low payout threshold making it very popular. The threshold is just £5 which you can get paid via PayPal. These surveys are created by a range of people, not just companies, and they cover lots of topics as some are created by universities looking for data for their work. Sign up here.

For more information and to learn from someone who has tried and tested most of the survey sites out there, check out this post from Emma Drew about her 10 favourite survey sites.

I am taking part in the Monday Money linky with Lynn from Mrs Mummy Penny, Faith from Much More With Less and Emma from EmmaDrew.Info

(*Disclaimer: some of the links may take you to my referral link where I earn a small commission from your sign up. This does not cost you anything or affect your sign up. If you’d prefer not to, then just go directly to the website.)