The Exact Ways I Make Extra Money Alongside My Full-Time Job
For a long time, I felt like my salary just… wasn’t enough.
Not in a dramatic way. Just in a “we can pay the bills but not really get ahead” kind of way.
We wanted to travel. We wanted to save. We wanted to pay off debt and feel more secure.
But every month felt like a bit of a cycle.
We had tried cutting back.
We had cancelled the things we didn’t really use.
But it still didn’t free up enough money for us to actually make a dent in our goals.
That’s when I started looking at ways to make money outside of my job, and this has completely changed my financial life.
How I got started (and what I thought it would be like)
If I’m honest, I didn’t think side hustling would really work for me.
I thought:
I’d spend loads of time making pennies
It would be complicated
I didn’t have enough time
It would basically feel like getting a second job
And I didn’t want that.
I just wanted a bit of extra breathing room.
But what I’ve found is that there are actually so many ways to make extra money that don’t feel overwhelming — you just need to know where to start.
The exact ways I make extra money
I’m not doing anything fancy or complicated.
These are the main ways I’m currently making money alongside my full-time job:
💳 Bank switching
This is one of the easiest ways to make a chunk of money quickly.
Banks will literally pay you to switch to them — usually between £150–£200 per switch.
My husband and I both do these, which means we can double the amount we earn.
This has been a huge help for:
building our emergency fund
paying off debt
boosting savings quickly
giving us a cash injection when we need it
Some recent examples include:
£150 each to switch to RBS
£200 each to switch to Barclays
It’s honestly one of the best “low effort, high reward” things you can do.
As I write this there are 5 bank switch offers available totalling £1100!! This would be an amazing emergency fund, or a big chunk off your debt.
Lots of people still think that you have to move all of your bills to get these offers - you don't! I've written a guide to bank switching without needing to touch your main bank account. You can access it inside my Side Hustle Hub here.
🎁 Cashback & “free money” offers
This is where things start to feel a bit like a game.
Instead of just buying something… you get paid to buy it.
For example, I recently bought a sideboard for our living room.
It was £129.
But I used a cashback app called Rakuten, which meant I got £25 back.
Then I referred someone and got another £25.
So that £129 sideboard ended up costing me £79.
That’s the kind of thing I mean when I talk about “free money” — it’s money you would have missed if you didn’t know it was there.
I regularly use:
Rakuten (free £25 when you spend £60, you can then refer your family and friends and you'll get £25 every time!)
TopCashback (free £20 when you earn your first £10, so £30 in total!). This is where I go when I am switching providers for any of my bills, or looking for insurance policies. I've made hundreds of pounds simply by going to these sites via TopCashback.
EverUp (I use this when I do my weekly food shopping and am on track to make over £100 just from that this year)
And I check them before I buy anything now.
🧪 Market research & surveys
This is something I’ve been doing more of recently, and it’s been surprisingly good.
Market research interviews can pay really well.
I’ve had:
£30 for 30 minutes
£50 for an hour
£90 for a 1 week diary study (filling in a spreadsheet for less than 10mins per day)
I tend to do these in the evenings or when I’ve got a bit of spare time.
It’s flexible, easy to fit around work, and one of my favourite ways to make extra money right now.
I have a detailed guide to market research inside my Side Hustle Hub - I break down exactly how to get chosen, which sites are the best to use, and exactly what happens on a market research call too.
📦 Selling things (Vinted, etc.)
This is probably the simplest place to start.
We all have things in our house we don’t use.
I’ve been selling items on Vinted and have made £192.80 so far just from decluttering.
It’s not life-changing money on its own — but it adds up, and it’s a great way to get started.
💰 Matched betting (more advanced)
This is where I’ve made the most money overall (over £5000 — but it does take a bit more time to learn.
So I won’t go into loads of detail here.
👉 If you want to read more about this, I’ve written a full blog post here
How much I actually make
Right now, I’m averaging around:
👉 £300–£400 per month
That’s alongside my full-time job.
Some months are higher, some lower — but that’s a realistic average for me at the moment. I could make more (and I have in the past), but I'm pacing myself at the moment.
And the best part is, it’s not coming from just one thing.
It’s a mix of:
bank switches
cashback
market research
selling things
Which makes it feel a lot more manageable.
What this has changed for me
This isn’t about becoming a millionaire.
It’s about having more options.
More breathing room.
More flexibility.
More control.
Because of this extra income:
we’re paying off our debt faster
we’re actually able to fund sinking funds each month
we’ve stopped relying on credit
And that alone has made such a difference to how I feel about money.
If you want to get started
You don’t need to do everything at once.
In fact, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Start with one thing:
Try a bank switch
Use cashback on something you were already going to buy
Sign up for a market research platform
Build from there.
That’s exactly what I did.
Want a simple starting point?
If you want help figuring out where to start, I’ve put together a simple guide:
👉 Grab my Side Hustle Roadmap here
I also share what I’m doing each week (including links and opportunities) in my emails, which you will receive if you sign up to the roadmap.
*please note that some of the links in this email are affiliate links, which means I might make a little bit of money if you use my link to sign up for something. It doesn't cost you extra. Let's make more money together!
